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"You can't read?" Ben asked curiously before realizing how rude he must've sounded. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound cruel there but I just...didn't know. If you want to learn how to read I could teach you. Or at least try to." Ben said before leaning forward over the counter. "I'm probably not the best teacher because I'm not always the best student." He winked playfully.
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"Well, they gave me speech, but not the ability to read. Must have assumed I wouldn't need it.. That, or it is simply another punishment," Lorabelle explained softly as she pulled her knees to her chest and locked her heels on the edge of the chair. "Is it difficult? Learning to read?"
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"Yes and no." Ben smiled warmly. "It can be fustrating at first but if you stick to it then you'll have no problems." He assured her. "We can start lessons tonight?" He offered her. "After pizza?"
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Lorabelle smiled as she stood from her chair and ran over to Ben's side of the table. Wrapping her arms around him, Lorabelle grinned as she laughed, "Thank you! So, what is this pizza-place that you speak of like?"
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"It can be kind of crowded but there's a booth we normally we get in the corner and the whole place is decorated in gold and red." Ben explained as he returned Lora's hug. "And there's paintings of Italy hanging everywhere. And the smell is enough to keep anyone's mouth watering." He smiled as he thought of the pizza place that was down a few blocks.
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"It sounds wonderful.." Lorabelle said with a grin as she imagined it. Lorabelle soon frowned, however. Lorabelle hadn't bathed since she was a fairy. She didn't even know how to bathe as a human. "Ben, there's a slight problem.. I feel so dirty.. But I've never bathed as a human before... I know know how," Lorabelle admitted with a dark blush.
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"Oh, here." Ben said standing and leading Lora into the bathroom. "The shower." He said, walking over to the large curtain on the other side of the room and pulled it open. "You can control the water here and you will turn it to your left to make it hotter and to the right to make it cooler. And then to control how much water pressure you want you pull the handle up." He explained, demostrating as he did so. "And then when you're done you just push the handle back down. Is that helpful?" He asked as he looked over at Lora.
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Lorabelle's jaw slacked slightly as she looked at the contraption, "No... I'm afraid I still don't understand.. And how does one clean a human body? Back home we just slip into the river and wipe our bodies with a flower petal.. Surely that is not practical with a body this large."
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"No." Ben smiled as he reached into a drawer and got out a towel and washcloth. "You use this." He said as he held out the washcloth. "But first you put soap on it." He said, pointing to the soap bottle. "And for your hair you use the shampoo, be careful not to get anything in your eyes." He warned as he held up the shampoo bottle. "And after you rinse the shampoo out of your hair you canuse conditioner so it doesn't knot up." He said, holding up the conditioner bottle.
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"Okay, I think I understand this part," Lorabelle said with a laugh, "But could you turn this contraption on for me? I don't think I'll be able to do it.."
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"Okay just give me your hand and tell me how warm you'd like your water." Ben asked as he outstretched a hand to put Lora's underneath the water from the shower head. "How's this?" He asked as he put the temperature a few degrees above lukewarm.
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"That's warmer than the water at home.. I like it!" Lorabelle said with a laugh before inspecting where the water came from, getting face-full of water in the process. Sputtering as she jumped back, Lorabelle laughed, "I guess that wasn't such a good idea to look at while the water was running, huh."
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"No, not the brightest of ideas." Ben smiled from her innocence. "If this is alright then here's the washcloth." He said, putting the the small cloth in Lora's hand. "And don't forget to close the curtain when you're in the shower otherwise the water will flood onto the floor."
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"Okay," Lorabelle said with a smile as she stepped into the shower, still fully clothed. Shutting the curtain Lorabelle laughed as she picked her feet up and put them back down, splashing the water that had accumulated in the bottom of the shower. Watching it go down the drain, Lorabelle only giggled more.
"Now, how in blazes do I get these things off and wash this body of mine?" Lorabelle wondered aloud as she put the washcloth down and pulled on her shirt. |
Ben felt his face blush several shades of red as he realized Lora was asking for help in removing her clothes. "You uhm lift the shirt over your head. And uhm, the pants you unbutton and pull them down to ankles. And then step out of them." Ben advised as he started to move to the door, feeling extremely uncomfortable about advising her to take off her clothes.
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Opening the curtain, Lorabelle laughed, "Oh! You frightened me! I thought you had already left!" Still laughing, Lorabelle nodded with a smile, "So I do the opposite of how I put them on, right? I think I can do it." Closing the curtain, Lorabelle did as she was instructed with her clothing. Tossing the clothes on the floor outside the shower, Lorabelle peaked her head out with a grin on her face, "I did it!"
Laughing, Lorabelle closed the curtain once more and picked up the washcloth. Standing under the water, Lorabelle picked up the soap jar and squirted a ton of the contents onto the washcloth. Within moments, she was covered in the contents, beginning the mark of her giggle-filled, horribly done, first shower. |
Ben continued to blush as he disappeared out the door and into the living room, shaking his head from the strangeness. Lora was certainly one of a kind when it came to the girls he knew and while it was refreshing it still left him scratching his head in confusion. Removing such thoughts, Ben went back to his homework and continued to break down the problems as he waited for Lora.
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Finally getting all of the soap off of her body and out of her hair, Lorabelle stepped out of the shower onto the pile of clothes and wrung her hair out. Picking the towel up off of the counter, Lorabelle wrapped it around her self before shutting the shower curtain once more.
Opening the bathroom door, Lorabelle called, "Ben? I'm done, but I don't know what to do with the clothing nor how to turn the shower off." Lorabelle blushed as she admitted her final words, hating the fact that she was so incompetent at everything. |
"The clothes can go in the hamper to the left of the toilet." Ben told her as he looked up from his worksheet. "You just get dressed then I'll show you how to turn off the shower." Ben offered, waiting for her to get dressed.
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After putting the clothes into the basket by the toilet, the one that had other clothing in it, Lorabelle headed into the kitchen, grabbed the pile of clothing, and headed into Ben's room. Drying herself off with the towel, Lorabelle did her best to dress herself. After quite a bit of trouble and falling over, Lorabelle manage to get the clothing on, but couldn't get the jeans buttoned, not to mention her shirt was backwards. Drying her hair with the towel, Lorabelle headed back to the kitchen with a frown. "I think I messed something up... And I can't get these blasted things to work," Lorabelle added as she pointed to the button and zipper of her jeans.
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Ben put down his pencil and walked over to Lora, pulling out the waist of the jeans so his fingers wouldn't touch her hips. "With the zipper you just pull the tab upwards." He explained as he did just that. "Then the button you put through this little hole." He said, demonstrating again with the button this time. "And the shirt is backwards but otherwise you got it right." Ben said as he released the hem of her pants and tugged at the hem of her shirt.
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"Well, I almost got it!" Lorabelle laughed as she slipped her arms out of the t-shirt and turned it around. Slipping her arms back through the shirt and pulling it's hem down into place, Lorabelle smiled as she wrapped her arms around Ben's shoulders. "Thank you for teaching a blundering idiot like myself. I really am sorry you have to teach me so many second-nature things that a human should know.."
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"You're not an idiot, Lora. You just weren't taught and I'm more then happy to help you." Ben assured her as his arms snaked around her waist to return the hug. "Now to shut off the water you just have to press the handle down." Ben explained as he led Lora back into the bathroom and pulled back the curtain before shutting off the shower.
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"Why is a water contraption so complicated to use? And why are there so many nobs and handles? What is the purpose?" Lorabelle inquired with a frown as she glared at the contraption. "I don't like you," Lorabelle said matter-of-factly, as if the shower could understand her. Turning away from the contraption, Lorabelle looked at Ben with the same matter-of-fact expression, "I don't like it. Not one bit. I will never like it like I do the magic box."
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"But it gets you clean." Ben laughed, amused at Lora's display at the shower. "And keeps you from stinking up the apartment." He teased as he walked back out of the bathroom and back to the open pile of books in the kitchen, packing them neatly in his bag.
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