Gusai washes and eases himself into the hot water again, sighing in relief. The eyepatch slips over his head, set aside and ready to hand. Taking a small towel, he wets it thoroughly, wrings it out, and drapes it over his face, groaning just a bit in pleasure.

This is nice, he thinks.

Sasori had been having a bad day the day before and this one didn't seem promising. The girl decided that instead of training to take a break. She went to see if she could wash away her bad luck. (too bad she didn't) She went into the water as she relax noting her friend the Stag sailor. "Hello again Otomo sama."

Gusai, hearing her address him, sits up and holds the towel over his left eye, letting the rest fall away. He squints a bit, then smiles.

"Bayushi-san!" he says, his happiness evident. Then he marks her expression. "Everything okay?"

The girl sighed. "I don't know. I feel I am drifting. This sea is so vast... I don't even know anything anymore." She lowered herself into the water like a sad kitten.

Gusai reaches out his free hand to her, keeping the towel over his eye. No need to show that off here, really.

"It's a large one," he agrees, "and its currents're hidden. But I think we can sound them out, plot a course."

The girl nodded. "Will the star guide our way, Otomo sama?" She moved closer to Gusai. "Will thy lead us astray?"

"If we sight the right one," Gusai says, "we can follow it far, and trust it, yes. But recognizing which is the right one is the trick."

He shakes his head.

"I think I've found the one I need," he continues, "but another measure'd be good to take."

His hand remains outstretched towards her.

She held his hand and smiled. "Thank you, Otomo sama" She nodded. "I hope the path is worth it then."

"Has been so far," Gusai says, and he squeezes her hand in his.

Laying his head back again, the towel still covering his empty eye, he asks, "Is there anything more you can tell me about, well, you?"

"I ... turn into a cat to escape... You are lucky that I am still here." She lowered her head. "I... use my mask just for that... father told me that the mask is a nemuranai that turns anyone into a cat." It isn't true that the mask is a nemuranai but that is what she believes. "I feel a little pain but it is worth it."

"I am lucky you're here, yes," Gusai agrees. "And I'm sorry that it hurts you. I'm sorry that you feel the need to escape."

"It is not your fault, Otomo sama." She started to giggle. "Oh that face that Doji sama made was so funny." Then a full laugh.

Gusai smiles, though he does not lift his head. "It's good to hear you laugh," he says, "truly. And call me Gusai, please."

Because it is good to hear you laugh, he thinks.

She tilted her head. "Are you okay Gusai sama?" She was puzzled why he wouldn't lift his face to her. " Oh... he probably think I will be scared of his scared eye. She came to the realization of where they were. "You know...you can lift your head to me... You have seen my worse."

Gusai's hand holds the towel to his face as he lifts his head, rolls his neck. The joints pop as he does so, cracking in series. "It's...not a pretty thing," he says. "I've seen people turn away, looking like they're new at sea, on seeing it."

"Gusai sama... I know wounds. I know things that are difficult to heal." She nodded. "I don't think it make much of a difference to this one." She squeeze his hand as reassurance that everything will be alright. "Not that I have my mask handy to turn into a cat and run away." Sasori joked and laughed.

Gusai draws a breath, holds it a moment, sighs it out--and he lets the towel fall away, showing both the pronounced tan-lines where his eyepatch normally rests--there're even indentations in his hair and at his temple where the thong holding it has forced his flesh into adaptation--and the empty socket where his eye used to be, scarring showing where the eyelids once were and no longer are. It stares vacantly at her for a time before he turns his head away, his mouth setting firm.

"Haven't been many to see it since it got...handled," he says. "Hasn't been a lot of cause."

"Ah..." She withdrew a little but she moved closer and shuffled his hair. "I have seen better but... The soul is what counts. Nya." She placed her head on his shoulder. "Cat tend to choose their owners, no matter what they look like."

Gusai wraps an arm around her, rests his head atop hers, sighs in the companionable heat.

After a bit, he does say, quietly "The hot towel does feel good, though."

"Nya!" She giggled. "So does a good pat. Warm towels warm hearts." She started to rub against his chin.