Ablution Written: May 29, 2003 For DutchEowyn, who asked for wet!Elijah. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you’re going to take a bubble bath, you may as well take your time. Showers can be fast. Baths should be slow. Slow and slow, and hot enough to make the air in your lungs thick and liquid with steam. Elijah drags one hand across his brow. His hair is dripping, clinging to his forehead and neck in dark strings. The beads rolling over his forehead and face are half water, half sweat. They trickle down, slowly, over sticky pink skin flushed bright in the heat. He takes a deep breath, feeling the thick air compress his lungs and fog his brain. Drowsy. Drugged with heat and water. Elijah lifts one leg, places it on the lip of the porcelain tub. Balancing on the edge, soapy droplets dripping off toes and calf and knee into the swirling water. Flesh heavy and hot beneath his hand. Fingers lingering on the curve of the kneecap. He squeezes the sponge until the white streams of soapy lather slither down the shin and pool between the toes. Sliding down the knee, curving round where the pale thigh disappears into the foam. His other hand runs the path backwards, up the soft flesh behind the knee and around and down, fingers trailing along the sharp edge of the shinbone and resting on the pulse of the instep. Elijah’s eyes close briefly and he lets his fingers slip between the toes, slick and slow. In and out. He lets the sponge fall and curls both hands around the foot, gel and lather squeezing out and oozing between his fingers and down onto his arms. He begins a slow massage, deliberate, careful, skilled fingertips winding into every curve and crevice, digging hard into the soft skin between the ball and the heel. Toes curl and flex and stretch. A smile moves across Elijah’s lips and disappears. Elijah knows how to take his time. He pays homage to every inch of skin until he is satisfied, working his way back up and around the calf, pressing, rubbing, encircling the kneecap and resting on the top of the thigh. Soap slick and shining on pink-steamed skin. Water dripping from his fingers, from his hair. His breath heavy in the dense humidity. "Is that alright?" Billy flexes his foot, lowers it back into the water. A swirling splash as he lifts his other leg up onto the slippery porcelain and rests it there with a thump. Voice thick and lazy. "Now do the other one." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ back