44 with blupjeans
44. Washing their hair for them when they can't.
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"This sucks," Lup said. Barry made a little "mh-hm" of agreement and raised one of his arms to wipe water from his face.
It was warm enough in here that he had begun to sweat, which was probably the opposite of what he wanted to happen in a shower. But Lup wanted him here so he'd be damned if he didn't even try. Technically, he wasn't in the shower. He was standing against the wall, wedged between the shower curtain. Lup was standing directly in front of him as he scrubbed conditioner into her hair.
He probably should have taken off his shirt, at least. That would have been a smart idea.
"Not you, babe," Lup said.
"Of course," Barry said.
"But like- the situation sucks," she said. "I wanna do my hair and not feel weird about it."
"I get it," Barry said.
Stepping into a regrown version of your body was… an experience, to say the least. It came with some new, unwelcome discomforts. When he was on his own, he had been able to power through for the most part. There was a time on his… fourth? Fifth? body that the sensation of brushing his teeth made him so uncomfortable that he didn't brush them until he died again. And not to mention the idea of wearing socks with his third body. Barry was fine with them now but even recalling it shook him up.
They had tried to plan around the random things that Lup might be uncomfortable with for a while, but it was hard to figure out until they truly knew what was going to happen. It didn't help that half the time they couldn't tell if it was a weird new body thing or a "Lup has not had flesh in ten years" thing.
The past few weeks had been full of experiments and tests to figure out accommodations for the weird little things. They bought new blankets because the ones that they had were too suffocating for Lup to use. He managed to find a sponge that didn't give Lup goosebumps if she had to wash the dishes. They were getting very good at keeping Magnus's tiny dog out of Lup's way because the feeling of her nose rubbed Lup wrong in a very bad way.
They were still having a rough patch with the shower stuff. He felt like they had gone through all the hair care companies on Faerûn to find one that felt okay, but they had quickly run out of options. For now, they had to settle with Barry helping her with hair care because the texture of the condition and shampoo on her hands made her feel sick. Thankfully, her hair was okay. Barry wasn't even going to pretend he knew how it worked anymore.
He leaned back, observing Lup's hair. Barry had never really had hair this long (or this curly) but his muscle memory still seemed pretty intact for what he needed to do. That was one thing he got to keep, at least.
Nope. No. Now was not the time for that train of thought.
"Let it soak for a bit," Barry said, shaking his hands off. Lup glanced over her shoulder at him, smiling.
Gods, he loved her.
She turned her body a bit more towards him, tugging on the collar of his shirt to bring him back in. Barry laughed, meeting her halfway for a kiss. His glasses had started to steam up by the time he pulled away.
"Thank you," Lup said.
"For- for the kiss, or the ha-?"
"Both," Lup said.
"Well," Barry said. "Anything for my wife."
Lup managed to smile a little wider. Barry felt a little stupid, in a good way.
"Love you," she said.
"Love you, too," he said. "Can I, uh, can I take off my shirt? I am getting... very damp."
