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Every Crystal Academy apartment had an ensuite with a shower and a bathroom. This was nice. It was a nice bathroom and it was a nice shower. The only problem was that from the hours of about six o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock the water pressure wasn't too great, and the temperature meandered between what you wanted it to be and what you really didn't want it to be -- that was the only complaint. But because Hero Adelaide Barrett went jogging at six o'clock each morning and would rather have her throat slit than going back to the bathroom and finding Miriam (they still hadn't worked out bathroom details; their bathroom details were, 'I hate you. Forever') she chose to go to the communal showers.

The communal showers were also nice; there was a segmented shower space with pretty tiling, each was well-stocked with a brand-name shampoo and soap, there was a box of disposable razors and other hygiene items you could raid -- even two different types of cleansers. Crystal Academy was that kind of school. Of course, there were the usual giggles associated with the communal showers, due to the barriers not being that high (ribs at most) and everyone using them getting an eyeful of everyone else: "She loves the communal showers," was Crystal codeword for, "She's as gay as a piece of toast." At six-thirty in the morning people were much more willing to try their ensuites than go to the communals, especially in the dead of winter when crawling out of one's bed took time and effort (only if you were very soft, as the central heating was perfect, but Crystal Academy girls got spoiled quick). So coming back from jogging, pushing herself past the pain barrier due to the past few weeks of being interrupted for zombie antics -- Hero chose the communal showers.

There were only ever one or two other girls in there, at most -- why go back to one's apartment room to be faced with Miriam Jacobs? Hero stripped out of her jogging shorts and her t-shirt, leaving her clothes neatly folded in a partition with her silly Crystal dress uniform sitting on it like an unwelcome pastel-blue tumour -- took one of the laundered towels which smelled bewitchingly of softener, and went to an empty stall. It was completely abandoned.

The hot spray hit all of her bruises, her deep cuts and embarrassing bites that meandered in a clover-leaf pattern down her spine, the fading but obvious marks of somebody else's mouth -- she sighed into the steam, rolling her neck back and stretching out her arms. It would have been a positive morning had it not been for one thing.

Aurelia Thorne and Giselle Petrova had worked out their bathroom details as such: Giselle would take the ensuite shower, early, and Aurelia would take the communal showers, early. Aurelia took the communal showers at six-ten at the latest. Aurelia Thorne was running late today.

And curly-haired, blue-eyed Aurelia Thorne took the partition next to hers -- dear God she had never even seen Aurelia in her underwear, Miss Thorne was -- Aurelia was -- well, she was pale-skinned and lovely, what was there to notice, she had never been of any kind of opinion other than that Sailor Capricorn was a pretty woman blessed with oh God this was terrible.

Hero stared.

Aurelia stared.

Hero stared more.

The silence was so pregnant that it gave birth to quintuplets.

"Miss... Thorne," Hero managed.

Hero knew that Aurelia knew that Hero knew that Aurelia knew; both of them looked each other, crystal-blue eyes to deep-hued scarlet, the spray washing over them both. It was strange to see Aurelia without her usual glasses perched on her nose, making her look as though she were a librarian from the roaring twenties, but -- they were shaking hands, over the divide, warm from the water.

She was acutely aware that there was a trail of mottled red, blood-cells burst, down from her collarbone to hover over a breast. That was most likely responsible for the quaver. She was even more aware of how pale Aurelia was, how dark her hair was slicked down into her neck, how awkward this all was. Compounded by the fact they had never seen each other in less than neck to knee clothing. She wanted to say: I can explain. But what was there to explain? How to begin the explanation? How to even begin?

Aurelia was -- her closest friend, and her ersatz secretary. Aurelia was her teammate. Her soldier. Her cell. She could lie and say it was a youma, but that would just be a youma who'd seen fit to give her lovebites, and it would be humiliating to claim that a monster had gotten that close to her.

This was so awkward.

"I thought your shower schedule was at six."

Did she sound accusatory?

All right, that laid down the rules of engagement. Miss Thorne had taken her first shot at her enemy lines, just as Hero was, too, lathering up her hair; she was scrubbing it in furiously, probably doing a disservice to her scalp. How long this affair lasts. "This affair, Miss Thorne," she said, through gritted teeth, "seems to be going beyond triangulation as far as scheduling is concerned. Mr. Lawson defies scheduling." There. Act as though she was iron-hard, couldn't take a blow. -- Aurelia was more top-heavy than she'd thought; her chest was bigger than the old Barren Pines uniform had demurely revealed, a cardigan buttoned over the whole, she in fact had fairly large -- "I would also like you to not refer to it as the affair. 'Affaire'? As in the French? No." She was pale, English rose, pink and white --

They were both shampooing their hair. Angrily. Not looking at each other, except in sidelong venom. Jude was farmer's tanned, burnt over his shoulders, with wide knuckles. Wide knuckles with little white scars. Boxer's hands. "I still require your services. I will drop your services when I am done with your services." Rinse. Wash. REPEAT. "I'll be blunt. Jude Lawson and I are sexually active."

"That much," said Aurelia, through equally gritted teeth, "was obvious."

"Jude Lawson is under my command, Capricorn." She dropped her voice down a notch. She shook her head free of soap underneath the spray. "He is my soldier. He is my blood and my bone. You should regard him as a brother."

"Should I schedule in," said the brunette, "sexual activity with him myself, in that case."

"AURELIA. FOR GOD'S SAKE."

"Mr. Lawson and I have a future together," she said, with dignity, which made Aurelia spittake all the water she had in her mouth out of the hot spray of the shower. She was soaping herself up at the same time, over her shoulders, where the soap stung her cuts. "So long as he picks a career in the next six months that isn't too unavoidably blue-collar -- if it's blue-collar I'll have to make that my soapbox, and I loathe union issues, I really do -- which I think he has every capability of doing, we might even get ma -- "

"JUDE. LAWSON," said Aurelia, whose voice had raised a notch, who was now looking over at her and breaking the woman equivalent of the three-second rule. They were built differently. Aurelia was built with hips, womanly despite being seventeen, lush: Hero was tall and tightly-muscled and boyish. And tan. They were night and day. "JUDE. LAWSON."

"I know his name, thank you kindly."

"I see," said Aurelia. "First comes teenage marriage. Then you both have fourteen children, and then you go and live in low-estate housing. I'll write that up into your -- "

"WILL YOU HELL." Her temper had flared now, and she had slammed the soap dispenser into the side of the partition. The blue-eyed girl had jumped a little. Her face was flaring: she was furious. "Do you know what I think, Miss Thorne? I think that you. Are."

She had meant to say:

judging him too harshly,

or,

jumping to conclusions,

but

instead she said:

"JEALOUS."

Oh, God.

"I am not accusing you of -- " She'd been accusing her of being stubbornly bros before hoes, actually, not that she'd been. -- Sheltering some. Queer longing towards her. Everyone knew they weren't queer, that was ridiculous. Nobody could ever think either of them were queer. They weren't lesbians. She jabbed her finger back in return. "Well, you should stop acting so injured that I'm simply having a sexual relationship with someone. I'm hardly accusing you of a sapphic yen for me. I am accusing you of being irritated that someone else is taking up my time!"

Nobody could accuse them of lesbianism. There: she was looking directly at Aurelia's cream-skinned, full-breasted body, and felt absolutely nothing. They were both as straight as a ruler. Miriam Jacobs and Larissa Duncan, now they were suspect: she and Aurelia were simply. Simply.

Not gay, definitely.

"You're irritated that I'm doing something sexual! As though it's indulgent!"

Aurelia's flush was spreading out over her cheeks. They were both yelling in hisses now, keeping it down, bitching to each other: "Face it! You were happy when we were both virgins!"

This fight was quickly getting uproariously immature.

Hero reached out and slapped her.

It made the most satisfying sound: it resounded around the bathroom, a THWOK. She was disappointed that it had not been a punch. It was like the time she'd slapped Jude, the first time -- she slammed open her partition and strode straight into Aurelia's, and Aurelia made her move by slapping her back. Aurelia slapped her so incredibly, amazingly, (worthily -- she was a Zodiac) hard that her head rang, and she stumbled back a little into the wall. That was good. That was excellent. It was only correct that her soldier be able to hit her, but she was a little disappointed in her own reaction time -- when Aurelia reached out to slap her again, she grabbed her wrist. All the blue-eyed girl did was reach out with her other hand, which her Captain grabbed --

Aurelia kicked her in the shin.

Hero fell back, Aurelia on top of her, and now they were wrestling in the spray in a way that would definitely not be out of place in GIRLS GONE WILD!. They both had gritted teeth and were clawing into each other as only two girls who had grown up together could, since childhood, since before they were old enough to enter grade school -- Aurelia Thorne and Hero Barrett had known each other since kindergarten. Had been friends longer than either had been alive, in another life, in another world.

Aurelia clawed down her face.

"How dare you!"

Aurelia jabbed both fingers down into her eyes -- her EYES, her be-damned EYES -- and she went for the hair as well. Aurelia's long, thick, curly mane had much more purchase than Hero's short, flame-coloured mop, and she jerked her head back again as she tried to roll her down onto her back. She pinned her shoulders down: all her best friend did was smack her in the face. Hard. Now her lip was split. "You're MY friend! Not GISELLE'S!"

That probably topped 'most immature comebacks, ever'.

"GISELLE IS NOW MY ROOMMATE, BARRETT!" Aurelia kneed her. In the stomach. Closest weapon, closest target.

Hero was bending her fingers back. There was no adequate reply for this: she was absolutely correct. Giselle would have been massaging her temples at this point in time. Giselle was Libra. Aurelia had every right, every. "You just can't bear the fact that I have a lover, THORNE!" (Boyfriend, Hero. You had a boyfriend.) She stamped down on the back of her calf. "How dare you assume I'll break!"

"You're a fool," Aurelia said viciously. "You're even bigger a fool than he is."

"Do you know what?" They were kicking. Snarling. Hair-pulling. This was pretty epic, on the catfight scale. "He's fantastic in bed."

Aurelia BIT. HER.

Serenade usually took to the ensuite bathroom, since she and Elke got along quite fine, with Elke insisting that "we're roomies and best friends, princess!" However, she was up earlier than she should be, while Elke was still sleeping. And she didn't have the heart to wake her roommate up, and for some reason, found it impossible for her to go back to sleep now that she was wide awake. After a few frustrated minutes of tossing and turning in her bed, she sat up and threw the covers off and took her clothes and towel, deciding to take a shower instead.

It was when she had one step into their ensuite bathroom that she considered that the running water would probably wake Elke up and she exited their dorm room (shutting the door as quietly as possible), heading to the communal showers.

The communal showers weren't really that bad by her standards, and well, it seemed like Aries and Capricorn were in there too. Serenade was all too ready to greet the duo when she opened the door...

And any happy greeting she had been getting ready promptly died on her lips.

She had the look of someone that had just stepped into their parents' room while they were having sex, which was something Serenade had never done before, considering that they were usually busy with orchestra business and being overseas. Her pink eyes had widened (oh god, Hero and Aurelia were naked) and she averted them, a palm over her eyes to make sure she wouldn't inadvertently peek. She was also choking pretty hard; they had been yelling at each other, and they were pretty much in what could be described aptly as a catfight. "Oh god." She managed to splutter, not noticing that what she had been holding had spilled to the ground, for that arm was now limply at her side. "I-i'm sorry, I.." Cue more coughing.

Serenade did not know how to handle walking in on two girls fighting. Naked. There was also the fact that they were Zodiacs and she was their Princess. Her face was now almost as pink as her irises; she looked embarrassed to be a witness to this ugly situation.