"Oh, thank God," Sekhmet mutters as she takes the soap from the locker. "I was worried they wouldn't have any. Can't wait to tell Heeks the soap's historically accurate - is that a fucking strigil?"

I pause, for a moment, before sighing and taking off my underthings too. It is extremely fucking weird to be this naked in front of my roommate.

Even if they're a catte at the moment.

"What's a strigil?" I ask, trying to be nonchalant. 

I'm not sure it's working.

"It's -" they turn and hold it up; it looks like a blunt knife with the blade on the inside curve. "You scrape off dead skin with it. This place is Roman as hell, I should have expected this. But there are towels too. Were these in the cutscenes?"

They're looking at me, but not... staring.

I think I can do this.

"I don't even remember," I say, honestly, dropping my clothes in the waiting laundry basket. "I've had a lot on my mind. Could use one of those at home, though."

Sekhmet laughs. "Same honestly. Bet it does better work than a towel. If this place is basically a goddamn thermae, next room is the Cold Dunk - so be ready to freeze your boobs off."

I think about that for a second.

"You're taking this calmly," I say, neutral as I can manage - and turn just in time to see Sekhmet flip her top off over her head.

Her bust isn't very big.

I look up at her - their - face so I'm not staring at her boobs and inhale through my nose. 

She didn't stare.  I'm returning the courtesy if it kills me.

"What, getting naked in front of you? You've seen tits before and you've probably seen my tits before - which Sekh's are not," they say.  And then they shrug. "Besides, you have your own pair now, and both of us should get used to it."

I blink. 

"You aren't, uh, comfortable in that skin?" you say. Then, very quickly, "There was probably a less serial-killer way to word that."

Sekhmet laughs. 

"I'm barely comfortable in my terrestrial coil, and like." Sekh pauses, and thinks about it.

I concern myself with getting soap, towels and my strigil. 

"I made this character as a gag about how fast and loose this game deals with Egyptology," she finally says.  "Like, her last name is Clanclan, for Chrissake, she's a knifecat meme and always was. I'm not super attached to her."

I shrug and walk towards the room with the promise of a 'cold dunk.' 

"I mean, I thought it suited you, but what the hell do I know apparently?" I ask.

"She's far too girl for my tastes."

I'm doing a lot of shrugging today.  "Makes sense. Though you could have played an Eithyr if having a gender bothered you."

They laugh. "If I wasn't a coward, sure. Besides, most of them end up having boobs anyway, because the venn diagram of people who play Eithyr and people who think Rubellite and Charoite did nothing wrong is a circle."

Not wanting to be dragged into an argument about a cartoon, I look at the cold pool. 

And sigh.

And jump in.

I have a weird sense of deja vu as I immerse myself completely, letting myself stay under the cool water for a full second before emerging. Water streams down my body and tail in rivulets. 

My gasp becomes a whoop.

"Mikvah rules, baby," I say for no reason I can discern, before towelling off.

Sekhmet dunks herself soon after, leaving me to my thoughts.

Seeing the water stream off Sekhmet is more interesting than I'm comfortable with, but...

I offer my arm to help them out of the pool.  

"Hot," I deadpan.

"Oh yeah. The bedraggled kitten look is sexy as hell," they mutter, as they grind their towel into their hair. "God, why did I pick the furriest of the furry kiths?"

"As a knifecat meme. We've established this," I say.

"Right. I have regrets," they say, walking towards the next chamber - the hot bath.

I follow.

I'm not sure how long we spent both soaking, together, in silence, before I leave to soap up and scrape off the dirt. Sekhmet demonstrates how to use the strigil to exfoliate on her arm. 

Then I take the plunge again, sinking deeper, until only my face is above the water, and let myself exhale. This is the closest I've come to the feeling of being home with Jules, together again, as roommates and friends, since we've arrived here. The most comfortable I've ever been in Mundus.

And I need to ruin it. 

But that's not what telling her will do, is it?  Jules is nonbinary, for God's sake. They'll get it, won't they?

Here goes nothing.

"I've been thinking," I say.

They grunt, rolling one shoulder. "What's the occasion?"

"Very funny." I blow out a breath slowly through pursed lips. "You, uh, have a very different relationship to Sekhmet than I do to Deedee."

Jules was going to say something, but apparently thought better of it. Sekh's ear twitches in my direction, and she twirls a hand curled into a double-barreled finger-gun. 

A gesture I've seen on Jules a thousand times in apartment meetings: go on, get to the point.

"I guess I'm lucky," I say. "She... suits me a lot better than your avatar suits you. So, lucky, on the one hand. On the other hand, it's embarrassing that it took this to get me thinking about it."

"If you say 'on the gripping hand' I'm gonna slap Hikaru," Jules says. "He knows what he did."

"I think I prefer being a girl," I say in one breath. In practically one agglutinated word.

There is a long moment of uncomfortable silence where Sekhmet's radar dishes lock directly onto me, when I sink lower into the water to avoid their all seeing-gaze.

Well. All-hearing... What's the auditory equivalent of a gaze?

Sekhmet - Jules - clicks their tongue, and nods.

"That tracks," they say, more to themselves. "That explains a lot. Took you long enough...  but it took me long enough."

My long breath out bubbles up around my face. 

I sit up, shoulders breaching the top of the water, and look up at the ceiling - a mosaic of Meredar slaying some horrible mottled purple and gold kraken-y thing from the deep.

"Hey." They put an arm over my back. I allow gravity to take my head to her shoulder. "Hey, Deeds. Listen. I'm not on the same road but we're heading in the same direction and I got maps, okay? And now we know what's up, we'll get there. You saved my life and now I get to pay you back."

I'm not sure that letting Jules stay with me the month after they dropped out of college literally saved their life, but their embrace is too warm to argue with right now. Also I should probably stop crying, conditions permitting. It's not exactly easy, but still.

I feel them pat my head and hear them say something, and I pull back, blushing.  This is no time to get a crush on Jules.

Again.

"Didn't... didn't catch that."

"Who else did you tell? Don't want to out you," they repeat, patiently.

"No one," I say. "You're the first. But..."  Deep breath. "But I'm pretty sure Hikaru and Ace know."

They put a finger to their lip. "Okay. I'll, uh, liase with them."

"You're a lot less surprised than I expected," I say, almost an accusation.

They laugh. "Bitch, in every game we've been in you have played nothing that didn't have tits, including Ralph's Dungeoncrawlers campaign and the Delirium LARP. Most of our friends are queer. The last time I saw an egg this perfect was at Denny's."

"Fuck you," I say, affectionately, as you rise out of the pool.

"Nah," they reply.