It was a massive waste of precious water, that’s what it was.


    Of course, when he had to wash his hands every time he touched the poor girl for fear of contracting something, there could be an argument made that it evened out in the long run. Those arguments fell well short when questioned why he had let the water just run rather than turn it off when not needed, but you could still make them.


    Which he did, several times as he regretted letting the shower wash over them for that long.


    Miss Kitty seemed like she needed it though. Once the water was going, he had expected her to fight and scratch and make a fuss. She had utterly surprised him once more when she seemed to go catatonic.


    He really should be used to getting surprised by her at this point, since it seemed to happen every time they interacted but somehow, he never got it through his skull that he was bad at predicting her.


    Still, the semi-mute girl had taken the wildly unexpected path of leaving home while the lights were on.


    He really hoped she hadn’t passed out from fear, that would make things so much more difficult in the future.


    She was still on her feet, so it didn’t seem like she had passed out, she just went all limp and stopped responding. Not great for his current plans.


    He had sat outside the showers working on his translations and map, waiting for the girl to come poke at him again. She might be scared of her own shadow, but she seemed to have enough curiosity to kill a dozen cats. Proven when she had indeed turned up again and in the interest of getting her bathed, he had offered his hand and indicated the ground near him.


    She had seemed quite fond of scritches, so he figured if he offered and distracted her with them, she would let her guard down. When she was good and invested, he stuck one of the wrapped treats in the hand holding her cat toy, pulling it a little to get her to loosen her grip. Once that was done, he slipped the toy out from where she had been clutching it against her chest.


    She started to eat the snack and look down, so he gently stood with her toy and started backing towards the bathroom, making sure she could see he had it. Didn’t want her to think she had lost it in the halls or something as that could ruin the whole plan.


    She did seem quite agitated at first, though he wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t notice him holding the toy or because she felt vulnerable without it. Once she calmed down a bit and started following him, he got her maneuvered into the shower space.


    It was fortunate there were no stalls for the showers, given the size of everything else they may not have both fit. He contemplated giving the toy back at that point but the chance she would bolt the moment he did was too high to risk it.


    Besides, the toy needed a bath as well.


    Which he had intended to give it as a demonstration of how to wash. When the shower started though, all those plans went off the rails. As soon as the water hit her, she froze like a deer in headlights.


    Not a great start, but so long as she wasn’t running off he could work with it.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The real problem started when he got some soap on his hand and started to wash her hair.


    ‘What a great place to start’ he had thought at the time, only to panic a moment later when she went all limp. He was afraid she was going to hit the floor with how quickly it happened.


    Now here he was stuck with an unresponsive cat-girl, attempting to find a solution on how to clean everyone involved without making things awkward after the fact.


    ‘Damn cats and their aversion to baths’


    He sighed and got to work.


    He couldn’t leave the water running long enough to get her to come back to her senses. If he turned it off she may bolt and he wouldn’t see her again.


    So option three it was.


    It had clearly been a long time since she had a proper wash as well, taking nearly three shampooing’s to clean her hair alone. He also had to get far more intimate with the girl than he ever intended too as well. Good for a health check, not so great for his sanity. She spasmed a couple times during his uh, less publicly safe, bits of cleaning, but when he stopped to check each time, it seemed involuntary rather than a conscious reaction, seeing as how she was still very much blanked out.


    When he finished with the girl, he had her lean against him as he cleaned the stuffed cat. She might have been fine just standing there, but he wasn’t going to take the chance she fell over in the shower.


    Despite having his hands in places he probably shouldn’t have, he still didn’t know if she was fully human, so he intended to avoid first aid as long as possible. She very much seemed human on the outside, so the possibility was shrinking, but he didn’t want to take chances he didn’t have to.


    Once he finished the process of thoroughly scrubbing all three bodies, and ringing the extra water out of the toy, he got to the part he was afraid of.


    Well, afraid of at the start, the whole thing wasn’t really working out at this point.


    He figured that the ‘wind drier’ thing that the showers used instead of good ol’ towels was going to scare the crap of the poor girl. They were loud, though he guessed it was mostly just the ambient quite that made them seem that way as the only real noise was the air moving, so he expected her to not like them one bit. Considering there wasn’t really an alternative meant it didn’t matter though; she had to endure it.


    To reduce the shock as much as possible, he turned her sideways and faced her head away from the wind before he turned off the shower. She was still out of it when the water stopped but she tensed up real fast when the wind started.


    To keep her calm, and because it helped her dry faster, he started massaging her scalp, which seemed to send her right back to wherever she had been this whole time. Not particularly helpful seeing as how she wasn’t turned to take advantage of the drying. Once her hair was dry, he ran his hands up and down her core, doing his best to get rid of most of the water. It was fine if she was a bit damp, the only thing that mattered was making sure she wasn’t dripping all over the place anymore.


    ‘This is why you always bring your towel damn it.’


    The thought made him contemplate where his stuff was at the moment. He had packed a towel in his go-bag, though where that or his stuff in deep storage was he had no clue. He had checked the cryo room a couple of times but didn’t find anything helpful.


    ‘So much for everything will be there when you’re woken’


    Despite his distracting thought taking up time and the drier being finished the girls back was still pressed up against him. Peeking at her eyes showed the same glassy stare as before.


    It seemed it had been a hard day of being man-handled for the poor girl. Seeing no other options, he scooped the girl up in a princess carry and brought her back to the boss bunk. He set the stuffed cat near the door so the air flow could continue drying it, he didn’t want it to get moldy after he spent so much energy cleaning the thing.


    He set the girl down in the bed. It was big enough that she could have her own section without him bothering her. He made sure she had a clear path to the door as well, he didn’t want her to panic and be trapped between him and the door.


    Setting the lights to dim, enough for him to read but dark enough someone could still sleep if they tried, he took up the section of the bed close to the wall and started on his paperwork again after getting comfortable.


    ‘I hope I don’t fall asleep before she wakes up, this is the perfect time to get her learning more words.’