“What are you thinking?” Bath asked. He and Lisa were sitting at a local bubble tea place, sipping on a pair of milk teas. He thumped his legs against the red booth while he waited for her response.
“I still don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
She quirked a grin. “Why are you bothering? To do this. It seems so...silly.”
Bath was confused and waited for her to elaborate. He was silly?
“Why did you pretend to be a little kid?"
His eyes glinted. “Well, I told you that I wanted to understand humans.”
“If I remember correctly, you also talked about ‘threatening the natural order’ or something.” She frowned.
Bath nodded. “Humans have been ruining the environment of Earth,” he explained.
“It’s not that bad,” Lisa retorted. “Mrs. Graham says the Earth’s temperature is only going to increase by a few degrees within the next few decades.”
His gaze became dark. “I don’t think you understand. Even a few degrees is enough to ruin everything.”
Lisa leaned back in the booth. “Okay, fine, so assuming you’re right. I still don’t get why you became a human. How is that going to help anything?” She paused. “Why are you really here?”
Bath shrugged his shoulders while he took a sip of the milk tea.
“Here’s as good as anywhere else.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Lisa, I told you about myself because I was lonely and didn’t want to hide the truth from you. But I wish we could just—act as we always have."
She smirked. "That’s a tall order, mister."
Bath devilishly grinned back. “Yeah, yeah. But for now, I don’t want to discuss my past, and desire only to live in the present. Please?”
“Fine. So how did your basketball game go?”
“It went well, as usual,” he chortled.
“Wait...do you cheat? With, like, everything?” Her face was red.
“Well, it’s hard to do anything ‘human’ without cheating, but in general I keep myself within the limits of human strength and endurance. There’s a reason why I practice basketball every week instead of just relying on ‘superior’ natural ability.”
“Makes sense, I guess...” she trailed off. “What exactly are your powers, anyways? You didn’t really say, but I guess shapeshifting is one of them."
Powers? I’m not a superhero.
“Lisa...”
“Right, sorry. You'll tell me when you're ready, I guess.”
He put his hand and her arm and smiled. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, no prob.”
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
A week passed.
Lisa hadn’t asked Bath about anything regarding what he had told her. She kept up a perfect front of nonchalance, joking with him, collaborating with him on homework, and hanging out with both him and their other friends.
He knew, however, that she must be insatiably curious.
“Hey,” he said. They were walking home from school together, Lisa just ahead of him on the sidewalk.
“Hmm?”
“You wanted to see my ability again, right?”
She turned around, her eyes wide. She looked as though strangled. “You have to ask!?”
Bath laughed. “I know, I know. Er, you know that movie you really like?”
She gave him a blank look. “Bath, you know I love movies. Which one?”
“The one with the girl and the wolf and stuff. Mono-something.”
Her eyes lit up. “Princess Mononoke! What about it?”
“Well...” Bath wondered if this was a good idea after all. “Let’s walk to the forest preserve first.” Their suburb had a small forested area that bordered the nearest highway. It was a little far, but Lisa had never been one to shy away from a small inconvenience.
She gave him a searching look. “Okay, lead on.”
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Soon they arrived at the forest preserve. Bath led her onto the main path and directed her towards an area thick with trees. The forest was dark with foliage and wisps of fog, granting it a somewhat ominous appearance.
Bath didn’t notice that Lisa seemed a bit nervous.
“Bath, this place is kind of creepy,” she chuckled nervously.
“Creepy? It’s just a forest. Trees, birds, bugs, the works. Nothing here can hurt you. This close to the highway you'd be hard-pressed to find anything bigger than a squirrel.”
“Fine. Remind me, what does this have to do with Princess Mononoke and your ability?”
“Just wait a second,” Bath said. He led her into a tiny clearing in the trees where the two of them could stand without brushing up against branches.
He stopped and looked at her, then down at his clothing. “Er, I don’t really want to make you pick up my clothes...could you just wait here a moment?”
“Okay, whatever you need,” Lisa said patiently.
“Thanks.” He walked a bit further into the forest. Then, in the interest of time, shrank down to the form of an insect, flew a foot away, then shifted back and placed the clothes in his backpack. With his bird’s eyes, he could see Lisa fidgeting in the clearing and heard her heart beat a bit faster than usual. She was nervous.
Bath then shifted into the form of an enormous white wolf. He kept extra muscles in the muzzle, lips, and tongue to allow him to vocalize human sounds. He also kept his human voice box so that he’d sound the same.
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"Lisa," he called out, his voice a bit whistley where the wind blew through his teeth. He also had a bit of a lisp due to the tongue. He fixed the latter problem by shortening and thickening the muscle.
“Bath? You coming?”
At that moment, he trotted into the clearing with his backpack straps snug between his jaws. He gave her his best wolf’s grin.
Lisa looked at him speechless, her mouth in disbelieving rictus. “You—wow.”
“You asked about how this relates to Princess Mononoke. What does Mononoke do with the wolf?”
“She rides it.”
Bath raised an eyebrow, though he didn’t think that Lisa noticed. “Want to hop on?”
“Seriously?” She ran over to him and ran her hands across his fur. “Is wolf fur really this soft?” she asked, peering up at him.
“No,” Bath replied honestly. “This is more like rabbit fur. I thought you might prefer that for riding.”
“Are wolves even meant for riding?” she inquired while she started to hop onto his back.
“Well, no, but I've made necessary adjustments.”
“Ah.” Soon enough she was nestled onto his back, her legs falling gently on either side of his ribs.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked, unable to discern anything conclusive from her elevated heartbeat and nervous scent.
“Uh, yes,” she replied quickly. “What if someone sees us” she hissed softly, eyes searching the forest for prying eyes.
“They won’t. Trust my ability to keep us hidden. Now, princess, shall we go for a walk?”
She tugged on one of his ears. “This is so weird. You've never done anything like this before, huh?”
“No. I've always kept my distance from humans.” Not that he was going to explain why. He didn’t think Lisa would look charitably upon his motivation, namely that humans were worth more trouble than their taste. Now that he knew humans had weapons of mass destruction, he was doubly certain that ignoring them had been the best call. He had no doubts that a big-enough bomb would—
Well, he didn’t actually know what a large bomb would do. He wouldn’t die—if a giant flaming space-rock didn’t kill him, he didn’t know what would—but what if he were vaporized?
“You're going a bit fast,” Lisa’s voice cried out nervously. Was he?
“Sorry, just tug on my ears if it happens again,” he instructed as he adjusted his loping gait to a brusque walk. He felt his muscles shift familiarly over bone. The stability of four limbs combined with their preternatural strength satisfied his desire for speed and precise handling. Even in the rugged forest, he could twist his body by pivoting his legs and feet along with his body to avoid grasping foliage.
He felt a tug at his ear and stopped.
“Sorry, my hair’s stuck—” Lisa grunted; Bath felt her pivot on his back, felt her center of gravity shift as she yanked a strand of hair from a broken branch. “There. Man, this isn’t quite what I expected,” she admitted.
“Hmm?”
“This place has way too many trees. I feel like I'm constantly dodging twigs instead of enjoying the singularly novel experience of wolf-riding.”
Bath cocked his head. “We can go somewhere else, but everything nearby is too conspicuous. When we can drive maybe we can go somewhere without a lot of people and lots of open spaces. When that happens, you'll have more than a challenge staying on. Just wait for me to run,” he cautioned, his wolf’s face turned up in a toothy grin.
“Sounds terrifying,” Lisa spat dryly.
“I know you'll love it,” Bath keened.
"Obviously," Lisa huffed dismissively.
They trotted around the forest for a while longer before looping back around to the clearing just before the main path. Bath crouched down to allow Lisa space to dismount, then grabbed the backpack he had left behind and loped into the brush. He came back a moment later.
“Ready to head out?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
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“What do you do when you aren’t around people?” Lisa asked. The two were studying in Lisa’s living room. Bath was curled up on a couch, a pencil tapping rhythmically against a textbook and sheet of paper. Lisa was at a nearby table tackling a worksheet.
Bath glanced up. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“What do I do when I'm not around people?” Bath thought over the question. “Sleep?”
“Grah!” Lisa exclaimed. “No, no, no. I mean, what do you do,” she said pointedly, emphasizing the ‘do,’ “when you don’t have to keep up appearances?”
“Hmm, usually I'm too lazy to care,” Bath replied honestly. “You know Newton’s Laws,” he joked, referring to Lisa’s current homework: Freshman year physics, a tragedy in the eyes of their fellow high school students.
She raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“An object in motion, stays in motion,” Bath vocalized sagely. “I usually just stay like this. I might make minor changes, but for the most part...” he shrugged. “Sometimes I become a bird,” he said suddenly. “I think you can guess for yourself why.”
“I bet it'd be amazing to fly,” Lisa sighed wistfully.
“Yes; it really is. Jealous?” he teased.
She threw an eraser at his head. As usual, her aim was perfect.
“Ow!” he whined in mock pain. “Didn’t your parents teach you manners?”
“Could you take me flying?”
“What? Flying?”
“Could you?” She looked at him eagerly.
Bath thought about it and reclined against the couch.
“I don’t see why not...” He squirmed in his seat. Taking Lisa on treks through the forest was one thing; flying with her in the air was another thing entirely. “I just don’t know where we'd find a place free from observing eyes.”
“My family owns a beach front property on the ocean. We could go there; it isn’t very crowded since April is relatively chilly.”
“Lisa,” Bath started incredulously, “‘isn’t very crowded’ isn’t quite good enough.”
“I've never seen a person there during April,” Lisa retorted.
“How many times have you even been there in April?” he said, smirking.
"...Twice," Lisa admitted. “But still, I think there’s a good chance we can find a stretch of land free from onlookers.”
“Lisa...”
“Why don’t you just give it a chance? My family was planning to meet down there anyway in a week or two. Since you're my best friend, they wouldn’t think twice if I asked you to tag along.”
“Lisa, must I of all entities be the one to remind you of social norms? You'd effectively be asking a guy to sleep over.”
Lisa waved a hand dismissively. “They know you. Stop coming up with excuses. Don’t you want to go to the beach? Worst comes to worst, instead of flying, I can pull on my wetsuit and hitch a ride on you in the water.”
Bath’s mouth quirked up into a smile. “You've put some thought into this.” He said this as a statement of fact, then looked out the bay windows behind him. “Hah. If you're really dead-set on this, then sure.”
Lisa’s face broke out into her signature closed-eyes grin. “You're the best! And don’t act so reluctant. I bet you love showing off.”
“Why would I bother showing off to you?”
This time the eraser hit his eye.
“Dumbass,” Lisa grumbled mischievously. “I know you. Mister can’t-lose-at-anything.” Lisa broke out into laughter a moment later. “You're doing the thing!” she guffawed.
“What?” Bath hissed.
“When you're uncomfortable. You lean your head back, angling your chin up a bit. And then you look at some random corner of the room.”
Bath groaned. “Why do you always point that out?”
“Because..." Lisa “ocked her head to the side. “It’s just so you.” She put a finger to her chin while she pondered her response. “People don’t usually do that. It’s one of your alien tells,” she snarked.
“Psh, whatever you say.”
“Awe, don’t be angry,” Lisa teased. “It’s cute.”
“I'm not cute,” Bath grumbled indignantly. “I should tell you about some of the things I've done just because I could. Cute my ass...Would you call a ferocious tiger cute?”
“Yep,” she said without missing a beat. “They’re so fuzzy!”
Bath rolled his eyes. “Have you ever seen a tiger dismember its prey?”
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to! We both know where this train of thought is going. Cute has nothing to do with actions and everything to do with external appearances. You could show me a picture of an adorable little five-year-old girl, tell me she’s an ax-murderer, and I'd still have to objectively assert that she’s cute.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Haha, you're just a stick in the mud.”
“Keep calling me cute and I'll only shift into the ugliest creatures I can think of,” Bath threatened.
“No!” Lisa gasped in mock horror. “Not ugly creatures! You know, humans actually find ugly animals incredibly endearing...”
Bath disabled his hearing and dug his head into the textbook.