6. Instinct (Patreon)

The instant Aloe’s feet touched the bath – warm and vaguely white water displacing around her ankle – she felt as if all the devils of the world vanished.

“Ah~” Aloe moaned as her body was consumed by the scented waters of the bath. “This is glory...”

“You are so right~” Mirah accompanied her on the pleasure, the adult woman laying her back on the sides of the pool. “It has been a while since I had a bath like this.”

“How’s that?” Aloe asked turning her head toward her, yet instantly repented.

Mirah’s body shape wasn’t a surprise to anyone; Aloe had, for better or worse, delighted with it as she cleaned herself on the cleaning pool. But it was a whole different subject seeing her bountiful assets in the bath.

Like ships in the ocean, Mirah’s bosoms benefitted from buoyancy. Massive vessels of fair color, unexpected for a desert citizen, showing off erect pink figureheads.

Aloe deviated her eyes to the tiles of the walls of the bath out of shame, surprised and confused in equal parts by her naval knowledge.

“Well, I haven’t been able to go to the baths just on my own,” Mirah explained, ignorant of Aloe’s staring, much to the girl’s mental sanity.

Her nape rested on the stone of the edge of the pool, her head pointing to the ceiling with her eyes closed. The rested posture only highlighted more her docked fleet.

“Any time I needed to clean myself, I had to take Aya with me to the baths.” The housewife let out a sigh of exhaustion. “And whilst we are well off, Jafar got promoted not long ago, we can’t just yet afford to have this type of bath on a monthly basis, let alone weekly.”

“Ah, right,” Aloe admitted, understanding well her problem, and also trying to remove the twin galleons from her head. “There should be a discount for children or something for the paid bath courses.”

“There isn’t and there will never be,” Mirah explained, a chuckle coming out of her mouth. “And that’s actually good. I can’t even think what would happen if children roamed these rooms. I love my Aya, but she’s a handful. And she’s one of the most well-behaved children I have ever seen, yet I know for a fact that she would make a mess.”

“So you are saying that the problem isn’t monetary, but just that people don’t want to have children near them when they pay for a relaxing bath?”

“Right on!” Mirah lazily raised her hand in humorous celebration. “I’m a mother, and I can assure you I don’t want children here. Imagine other women.”

“I see...” Aloe didn’t have much love for children, so she easily got behind that argument.

As children had to pay the full price, just like adults, that meant that even if Mirah wanted to take Aya to the normal bath course, it would cost her two fajats. At first, it may seem cheap, but that was asking for ten drupnar for a single bath. A commoner got that much in two days of work if not three. And considering how Jafar was the only one bringing food to the table, it was obvious that they couldn’t justify that kind of expense in bathing, especially when there was a free alternative.

“Say,” Aloe started, not before changing her posture to a more comfortable one, her head barely a finger above the water thanks to her reduced stature. “Do you bring Aya to the public baths or the simple course?”

The sounds of water splashing filled Aloe’s ears and she turned to look at Mirah. Whilst not standing up, her posture was no longer relaxed nor was her back resting on the wall, she looked at Aloe with a tired expression.

“When she was younger, I brought her to the public,” she explained, “but as time went on, I became restless with it. I think Aya did too.”

And then Mirah did something Aloe wouldn’t expected in a thousand years, she grabbed her breasts from below, the great mounds of flesh flowing and escaping out of her hands filtering through the seams of her fingers, and she took them out of the water, the pink areolae fully exposed. Almost shoving them to Aloe’s face.

The girl didn’t know where to look, or how to look for that matter.

“But these bad girls attract too much-unwanted attention.” Mirah said as she juggled her ‘bad girls’, a trace of sadness in her eyes. “No matter how many layers of towels I used, I didn’t feel comfortable with the prying eyes. If I were alone perhaps, I could have coped with it, but with Aya at my side it was impossible. What if something happened to her for my fault?” She expressed with true worry.

In Mirah’s mind, her daughter was far more important than herself.

“So, I told Jafar we would just go to the paid courses. That of course made a slight dent to our income, but we can easily afford a couple of drupnars a week in bathing by going to the simple one.” Her expression turned wry. “Are you listening to me, Aloe?”

“Uh? Y-yes!” Aloe almost recoiled from the question. “Ehm... your ‘bad girls’ just cut line of sight.”

“Ugh!” The housewife groaned. “I know that look, Aloe. And no matter what you think, I can tell you that you are wrong.” Mirah let her breasts fall, causing them to splash around violently and almost blinding Aloe as the scented water splashed into her eyes. “You shouldn’t envy them; they just get in the way.”

“I d-don’t envy them!” The girl’s voice trembled, she couldn’t even believe the words that came out of her mouth.

“Yes, yes, whatever you say.” A hint of a grin appeared on Mirah’s face. Whatever she may say, she was enjoying herself.

“It’s... rather than envy your size... I envy the presence of them.” Aloe admitted, wishing to drown herself in the bath at this right instant out of shame. “It’s one thing to have big breasts, but it’s a whole different one to even have them!”

Mirah’s response was... “Ha.” A laugh. “Hahaha!”

“What are you laughing at?” Aloe’s visage was vivid with rage and shame.

“You worry too much, little plant.” Mirah used Jafar’s favorite moniker to refer to her. “You are still growing.”

“I am going to be an adult next month!” Aloe exclaimed in near rage. “I don’t have much time to grow left!”

“Trust me with this, you are going to grow into a fine woman.” Mirah rested her hand on Aloe’s shoulder. Her fairer skin heavily contrasted against Aloe’s darker one.

“And what’s your source?” Aloe crossed her arms, a mighty frown forming in her temples. “Bountifulness doesn’t exactly run in the family.”

“Woman instinct,” Mirah revealed.

“Woman instinct.” Aloe reiterated, a legendary deadpan on her visage.

“Yes.” The housewife nodded, her ships of war trembling before such a wave.

“I’m not convinced by your instincts, you know,” Aloe explained, trying really hard to land her eyes anywhere but the swirling pink barrage.

“Ah, that’s because you are not a woman yet,” Mirah added with a grin. “Give it a month and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t think it works that way, Mirah.”

“And I think otherwise,” The developed woman countered. “But let’s stop with our boring talk, we came here to have a peaceful and soothing bath.” Mirah led her hands across Aloe’s shoulders as she circled around her and then put her mouth next to her ears, almost prompting a yelp from the girl. “So just relax.”

Aloe wanted to counter Mirah’s appetizing petition by the simple fact that the soft cannonballs pushing against her back did the exact opposite of relaxing her. Aloe gently pushed Mirah away, lest she may feel her quickening pulse.

“T-that will be good. Yes.” The girl replied after she got some personal space.

The magic of the warm waters, the perfumes, and the oils were short of miraculous. Aloe had almost forgotten her pain through her conversation with Mirah, only remembering now the faultiest of echoes as her body drifted on the bath’s surface.

If there were more people in the room, she may have been ashamed of her display, exposing herself and toying with the place instead of behaving like a lady, but as Mirah was the only observer, Aloe let herself relax a bit.

She felt the warm, heavy air enter through her nostrils and fill her lungs. A moment later, that air was expulsed, a shade colder than before. The warm yet soothing streams of the bath calmed Aloe down, the cramps occurring inside of her a shadow of what they were.

For the first time in a very miserable and long day, Aloe felt at peace.

And sleepy.

Not a second after losing concentration, her body fell into the water, unable to keep the delicate equilibrium that kept her floating.

“Oof!” Aloe groaned and coughed the few drops of water that entered her mouth and nose.

“The water doesn’t taste as good as it looks likes, huh.” Mirah joked at her back.

“Yeah...” Aloe cleared her mouth by whipping it with her forearm, which then she cleaned by shaking it inside the pool. “The problem is the perfume; it makes the water too acidic.”

“No, that may be my pee,” Mirah added dismissively, gaining the furious gaze of Aloe. “Jesting! I’m just jesting! You don’t need to look at me like that!” The woman raised up her arms defensively, palms open facing Aloe and arms fully extended.

“You better be.” Aloe frowned, shivers don’t the spine at the idea. “That’s exactly why I don’t go to the public baths. Because that may not be a joke.”

“I’m being serious!” Mirah desperately defended her honor. “I was just joking! Believe me!” The woman pleaded as desperation grew in her expression.