Freya froze, her heart slowing down as if it saved energy for the burst that came in the next second. Her arms wrapped around her chest, and her body hunched.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Kagetsu hid his head between his shoulders. "Just wanted to leave here these towels, the room service just brought them."
He headed to a small cabinet in the corner, putting them inside. He took two and hung them next to the shower.
"Can I help you with something? Like brushing your back?"
Freya shook her head in disbelieve.
"Oh, right. I could hurt you. Sorry, that was dumb of me. Enjoy your shower." He waved her goodbye and left. In the door, he scratched his cheek, pondering about something.
'W-What?' Freya let down her arms. Red in the face, she covered her eyes. 'Right. This is Kagetsu, but still... isn't he a boy?'
She reached for the showerhead, turning on the water.
'But he is trans, so that makes him a girl, right?'
She let her body relax under the stream of water, washing away the stress and dirt.
'That's how he acts, so... even if he has the body of a boy...'
She shook her head, massaging her body with a bubbling sponge, hiding her body behind bubbles and aroma of dark chocolate and coffee.
Before she splashed the bubbles, she massaged shampoo into her hair, giving it the care she skipped most of the time in her old flat. As the bubbles revealed her burned skin, her nose wrinkled.
'And he doesn't look at me with disgust or stare at my scorned body. He isn't like most of the kids I have met.'
Perhaps that was the reason, she couldn't be angry at him. 'But it's still embarrassing. I should explain it to him before he gets burned.'
After drying her body and hair, she left the bathroom. She gestured to the oldest brother, it was free, and Rigaku went there to take a shower too. Given he didn't ask her, it seemed nobody noticed Kagetsu saw her naked.
The flat was big enough, so they each had their own room for doing homework and studying, but they preferred to stay in the living room. Freya quickly found Kagetsu in the kitchen, slurping a tea and browsing something on the internet.
She peeked over his shoulder, freezing for the second time. There were pictures of naked ladies, and only a handful of them had bras or panties.
Kagetsu leaned his head backward, noticing her. "Is something wrong?"
She pointed at his phone.
"I'm researching."
Arching her eyebrow, Freya sat down.
"You covered yourself, and I thought that meant something." He showed her the pictures. "So I went and checked how girl's breasts can look like."
'Well, he saw a porn magazine and didn't have any reaction,' Freya reminded himself.
He cupped her hands, gently pressing them.
"I'm sure I'm missing the tiny but important details, but I can assure you"—his voice gained an uncharacteristically serious tone—"your breasts are fine. There is nothing wrong with them. You don't need to hide or be embarrassed for them."
Freya's left corner of her mouth twitched, and the jerking movement spread father with each second until she hung down her head, surpassing laughter.
"I'm not kidding, I'm really serious."
She shook her head, tossing her hair behind her. Gesturing she would be back in a minute, she returned with a pen and notebook.
"Thank you," she wrote. "But there is something we need to talk about."
He nodded, perking his ears.
"On the outside, you are still a boy, and so other people may see you as a pervert if you look browse naked women."
"But we learned about this in school." He shrugged.
"On a real person?"
He crossed his arms. "We had pictures and a model, but that one was just a guy, and the teacher talked about inner organs, now that I think about it."
"You see, for a girl, her body is very precious. We can be very sensitive, and I appreciate your support. Though it's embarrassing at times."
He scratched on his cheek. "I guess I don't know how to be a proper guy, neither a girl. I'm half-baked."
"No." Freya shook her head. "You just didn't have a guide from a young age. Somebody who would help you to tell the difference between your boy's and girl's side. If you want, I can help you with the 'girly' stuff."
"You would? Won't I be a bother?"
She sighed, tilting her head with a smile. "No."
"Thank you. I think I got that guy part. That's beating jerks, right?"
She gave him thumbs up.
"Okay, lovebirds," Aiyoku in the bathrobe teased them, standing in the door. "Dinner's calling."
"Yahoo!" Kagetsu jumped into the air, dashing into the living room, where plates of cut vegetables, fruit, and sandwiches waited.
'Isn't it a blessing to be an eternal child?'
\\_(''>_<'')_//
Ueno arrived at home but calling it that way was blasphemy. It stopped being a home years ago the moment her father had died. No sun could warm her that time, and nothing could melt her mother's, cold heart.
In front of the media and people, she grieved, cried, and wore black clothes. She even stopped visiting clubs to appear as a proper widow. Everything for the right publicity. All for the fame and strengthening value of her family name.
"Welcome back," the maid with bandaged forehead said as she bowed.
Ueno staggered a bit, stepping over the threshold. "T-Thank you," she whispered, only the maid could hear it.
The young lady hurried into her dimly lit room, red in the face. What strange last days she had lived through. Taking care of a stray cat, somehow bonding with Freya, giving her driver a sandwich, and now she thanked her servant.
Looking out of the window into the lush garden, she saw employees tend bushes, trimming them into various shapes. Another group painted the benches outside, giving them a new skin and shine.
"Young lady," the maid's voice came from behind the door after she knocked. "Would you like to have dinner in your room?"
Ueno perked her ears. She had to have dinner in the dining room only when the mother was home, which wasn't thankfully that often.
"Yes!"
"I understand."
Ueno returned to gazing out of the window for a few glances here and there. Then her mind traveled into the past, where she knew how to smile and not to pretend. She was around eight years old when her father had fallen ill.
She stayed by his bed every free minute she could, but her mother made sure to send her child into Ueno's room to study. Always claiming she was worsening her husband's conditions by constantly talking at him. Reflecting upon it now, Ueno was sure she tried to hide something from her.
Not just once she heard her mother's angry voice once she had left father's room.
'What she was yelling? And why?'