+Thank you,+ Sho repeated, not quite sure what else to say right then.

As Sho climbed up and out of the Relic cocoon, he made sure to scrape the excess slime off of his feet. The thick carpet was soft under his feet, and Sho wiggled his toes to get a better feel of it.

+Mom always had a thing for shag carpet.+

Sho turned slightly, looking at Ryan. The other Guyver was clad in a pale blue bathrobe, and Sho noticed that his hair looked a great deal messier than it had before.

Sho nodded as Ryan walked away, following the directions that the other Guyver had given him. Sho counted the doors, finding his way to the bathroom quickly and opening the door. The showerhead drew his attention first, and for a moment he wondered where the furo was. Ryan hadn’t told him about that, but then again he hadn’t really asked. Something that big would probably be very easy to find, though.

Walking over to what was obviously the shower, Sho was surprised to see that there was a sunken tub in the room—an empty tub, and he wondered who would have though to put a shower inside a tub in the first place. It was a strange design in general, but since he really wanted to take a shower, Sho decided that he would just ignore the differences and take his shower.

Wincing slightly as his bare feet touched the cold porcelain, Sho walked up to the taps and turned on the hot water. As the spray touched him, Sho winced again. He wondered how Ryan could stand taking showers with the water this hot. Ducking out from under the almost scalding spray, Sho adjusted the cold tap until the water was comfortable enough for him to stand under. Looking around, Sho found some bars of soap and a bottle of what looked like shampoo.

Picking up the soap, Sho began to wash up.

XxXxX

Ryan yawned, kicking off his slippers as he lounged on his bed. His entire body felt like freshly tenderized steak, so Ryan knew that he wasn’t going to go anywhere soon. Just as his eyes closed, Ryan heard his door opening.

+No! Geez, no wonder you’re itching; you just washed your hair with my liquid soap!+ Ryan giggled a little. +Go wash your hair again, Sho; you’re going to be itching all day if you don’t. And use one of the bottles on the shelf this time, ya doof.+

+I’ll do that; thank you Ryan.+

+Not a problem,+ Ryan said, turning over and curling up in his bed again. He could faintly hear the sound of water running, since Sho had left his door open and he didn’t have any music on at the moment. When the water turned off, Ryan listened for the sound of his door opening. That would let him know that Sho was back.

XxXxX

As Sho, having just dried his hair for the second time with the towel that Ryan had provided for him, made his way back to Ryan’s room, he noticed that he was starting to get a bit tired himself. It probably had something to do with how long he had spent inside that strange cocoon, or maybe it was from having somehow pulled Ryan into the cocoon with him. Sho could just barely remember his time spent there, but he could recall at least a few things.

One of them was the impression of someone, most likely Ryan himself, being in some kind of danger. Sho had wanted to do something; he could remember at least that much, and then all he could remember was waking up next to Ryan in the Garden of the Gods. When he reached Ryan’s room again, Sho thought Ryan had fallen asleep, so he was surprised to hear the other Guyver’s voice over their link.

Sho gently closed Ryan’s door, pulling it until he heard the latch click. Walking over to the bed where Ryan lay sleeping, he wondered for a moment if he should wake the other Guyver to ask if he could take a nap on his bed, but then, Ryan had been willing to share his house and the things within it, so maybe the red-haired boy wouldn’t mind so much if Sho took a nap next to him.

At least, Sho hoped that was true.

When he came up to the bed, though, he noticed that there was something white sticking out from under Ryan’s bed. Crouching to pick it up, he saw that it was an empty water bottle. Why would Ryan have an empty water bottle under his bed? Kneeling down so he could take a look under the other Guyver’s bed, Sho found that the water bottle wasn’t the only thing that the red-haired boy had under there: there were also a couple books, as well as two more empty water bottles. Sho took all of these out from under the bed. Looking around for something to put them on so that they would be out of Ryan’s way but still easy to find, Sho set them down on the chair that he found by Ryan’s desk. Then, as another wave of tiredness hit him, he lay down on the bed opposite Ryan, pulled up the covers, and fell asleep.