A few hours later, after having tended to his guests all day, Rae decided he too needed some alone time to relax. Since the moment Rae met the Prince, who fell from the stars, each passing day was becoming both more stressful and more exciting. Rae had yet to decide if this was a good or bad change, but he did know that it was very different from his life before meeting Dasnir, and that life had been terrible. He just felt a bit overwhelmed at the events over the past 3 days. After all, how could so many impossible things happen to someone as unremarkable as him in such a short period of time?

"I still have about 30 minutes before the buses start dropping the brats off," Rae thought. "I need a shower."

He remembered that he actually had not bathed in more than 2 days. So much had happened, and he had been so exhausted, that he had not had time to take care of himself. He grabbed one of his Mother's cookies, which were his favorite comfort food, and slowly slumped up the stairs. His knees felt wobbly and his eyes were heavy.

Rae had always had serious problems with anxiety and depression, because of his circumstances, and often after long periods of stress like this he ended up feeling very tired from the mental strain.

A few moments later and he was alone. Rae and Jamie's room had the only bathroom in the house with both a walk in shower and a bath tub. They had sacrificed a bit of living space to his mother's renovation skills as a trade off for that small bit of comfort. Most of the other kids had to share one of the two bathrooms in the hallway, but since Rae was the oldest he got dibs on his own.

Rae closed the door, undressed, and let the shower start to steam the entire interior of the bathroom. Rae really loved the feeling of warm steam, it was one of the few things that always seemed to relax him. He stepped in and leaned against the wall. Like a wilted plant he absorbed the rhythmic stream of droplets that fell along his back and shoulders. He shivered briefly as the warm water soaked his tail and hair. He sighed as he felt 3 days worth of tension begin to dissipate, even though he knew this feeling was temporary.

Rae normally kept his dirty-blonde mop of hair trimmed in a style with long layers that hung down just barely below his eyes. He thought it looked too weird and girly on him if it grew out any longer, especially with his fluffy ears being hidden in his hood all the time. He blew a short burst of air to knock the dangling strands out of his vision.

"Time for a cut, it's getting too long..." Rae thought, as he closed his eyes, "just one more thing I need to do, great."

Rae started drifting off into his own mind. He slumped his head sideways, and his thin frame slipped down the wet shower wall until he was resting against the floor. His own reflection stared back at him, from the glass door pane on the shower. He could see his face had smudges of dirt, and he wiped at his cheeks beneath his bright hazel eyes.

"How long have I had dirt on my face?" Rae wondered aloud.

"It's been there since you pulled me out of the wreckage."

Rae's eyes went wide with panic as he looked up and saw the glass door to the bath open. He immediately shot back up, and was pushed aside, as a completely nude Prince Dasnir stepped under the shower head beside him.

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!" Rae screamed so loudly, that had anyone been home they would have heard him.

"Where is your cleaning liquid?" the Prince asked, in an inappropriately nonchalant manner.

He barely even acknowledged Rae's presence but when he did he looked him directly in the face. The taller bigger boy's muscular build took up a large portion of the shower, so it was quite awkward when he reached over Rae's head to grab the "cleaning liquid" he was looking for.

"D-Dude, d-dude... w-what t-the..." Rae stammered, he had never felt so embarrassed in his entire life.

He was so shocked he could barely complete a sentence, and Dasnir reaching over him made it worse. It was now impossible for Rae to not look at him up close. Dasnir was several inches taller, so Rae could clearly see the boy's pectorals, abdominals, and really all of his muscles were well developed. Though they were not gargantuan, like Fulbrik's.

Rae had been skinny his entire life. He had a tiny natural outline of muscle with little fat remaining, but nothing more, and he did not think himself attractive. But because of this, the difference between the body mass of the two boys was more than apparent. This fact built a small petty sense of jealousy in Rae's mind, as he was forced to look upon this masculine statuesque shape.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

On top of this feeling of jealousy, Rae's experience with being this close to other guys, while naked, was non-existent. Rae had never been in team sports. He had avoided undressing or showering in physical education, though he was not the only one. But more than that, even if Rae had been used to this sort of close-quarter space sharing, this was not even a public shower and Dasnir clearly didn't understand the difference.

"What is it? Have you never seen another naked Male before?" Dasnir said, flashing a big cocky looking grin.

It was the biggest, most animated expression Rae had seen from the Prince since they first met. So wide and casual, that Rae could see the tips of Dasnir's fangs peeking over his bottom lip. But, as quickly and naturally as the smile came, so too did it leave the Prince's glowing mug. The boy's demeanor quickly dropped back into its normal flat state, almost as if he had caught himself doing something wrong. He fell silent, turned away, and began washing himself with Rae's commandeered body wash.

At this point, Rae had resigned himself to seeing at least Dasnir's upper body on full display, but he refused to stare at it, for it was too distracting. This entire experience felt incredibly odd to him, he had an intense strange feeling going through his head and his pulse had elevated. He shook his head and attempted to compose himself.

"I take it, this must be usual behavior for 'Asgeeri Warriors'," Rae said, in a mocking but playful way. "Because here on this world... You know the world you're currently on? Guys don't just walk into private showers, and start helping themselves to other people's body wash."

He cocked his head, ears standing on end, and his brow raised high to clearly indicate to the dense Prince that this behavior was extremely abnormal and making Rae uncomfortable.

"Nonsense, How can a bathe be private?" Dasnir asked genuinely, as he scrubbed a thick lather beneath his armpits. The Prince seemed confused by Rae's protestations. "Do Males on your world not bathe together? That seems very wasteful of water and energy. It is not as if you are a Female." He peaked back over his shoulder at Rae, and clearly saw that he had made the boy distressed. He sighed deeply, "I apologize, you have so many arbitrary rules of behavior here. It was not my intent to offend you. I can leave, if it is really so wrong."

The Prince turned back towards Rae, and ran his hands through the long side of his hair, which curved around his cheek nearly long enough to touch his left shoulder.

"Leave? And let my little brother come back in time to see a buck-naked stranger leaving my shower?" Rae said, smacking his forehead. He was now more annoyed at the current situation, than he was embarrassed, which was allowing him to focus a bit more. "I can't believe I'm even having this conversation, with you, right here, like this." Rae emphasized each problematic aspect of the current scene using both his voice and his hands. "And also, how the flying fuck did you even get in here!?"

"I scaled the wall and climbed through your window; you left it open. I was originally going to ask where the closest bathe was, but then I saw you were already in one," Dasnir said.

Since he stepped into Rae's shower, he had been acting unusually calm and lacking his typical aggression, especially compared to early in the day. In fact this was the most he had directly spoken to Rae since they met, which added another layer of high-strangeness to this entire situation.

"I did not realize you had siblings. But regardless, I was not seen coming in. You think a Warrior can not hide from mere children?" The Warrior's pride sounded slightly hurt.

"Really Dude?" Rae snapped at him. "I only mentioned them like several dozen times. Wow you don't pay much attention at all do you?"

"Warriors observe their surroundings," Dasnir replied, "They do not hang on tiny details, but eliminate all distractions so as to be prepared for any battle..." He finished washing himself, and dropped the bottle of cleaning liquid in Rae's open hands.

"True Men Discern; Feckless Men Dwell."

This part Dasnir said slower, like he was recalling a lesson from a teacher. He slapped his hand on Rae's shoulder, and showed another much smaller grin. "You talk too much." Appearing satisfied with his clean state, he stepped out of the Shower leaving a very confused Rae staring at a bottle of soap.

Rae looked over through the foggy pane as the Prince dried himself, of course using Rae's towel. "I thought..." Rae hesitated slightly, "You didn't want to be touched?" For some reason, this was the thing Rae had stuck in his head from their awkward and unexpected conversation: the friendly feeling tap on the shoulder that Dasnir had given him.

Dasnir immediately stopped and looked over at Rae. His eyes had that aggressive tension again. Every time was the same, the pupils of his steel colored eyes constricted, and his brow furled like he was experiencing some kind of unseen anguish. It manifested there on his face like the instinct of a cornered animal. He seemed to have not realized he touched Rae, and had been incredibly close to him. It was almost like there was a switch that turned on his anger.

"That was my fault," he said, in a sad cold tone, as he looked away from Rae; his affect returning to it's usual stoically neutral state.

The Prince finished drying off, and slipped back on his trousers, as well as one of the several shirts Rae had bought him. It was a red T-shirt that said: "Rude Dude", in embossed black lettering. Rae had thought it fit his demeanor and look, and it reminded him of punk rock, of which he was a fan.

Dasnir said nothing else, and slipped out.

Rae heard him opening the window, just in time. It seemed his siblings were home and coming up the stairs.