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The kettle had been just over halfway to boiling when Pearl’s text came through, and was whistling steam by the time Rose could calm her laughter over the phone.

She looks halfway freezerburnt in the pic she had sent: Pearl, already layered in the muss of a long day and the sweat of dance practice, red-nosed and miserable and bundled up to her chin with the snow-caked doors of the rec center behind her. A sign in one of them reads “NO WATER -- PIPES BURST”

The caption, though, is the clincher: “My dorm’s plumbing is out, too. I hate to ask, but would it be okay if I showered at yours?”

First of all, that picture was going to be Rose’s new home screen. But the real punchline, here -- which she tried to articulate to Pearl over the phone, through her doubled-over gigglefit -- is that Pearl would think twice about asking to come over. That she would 'hate to ask'! She’s been doing so for months. And with all other possible showers on the opposite end of campus, and Rose’s apartment hardly a couple blocks from the rec center, it just hits her as a uniquely Pearlish blend of pitiful-funny that she would even feel the need to ask permission.

To use her shower, especially. (Well. She left that a bit more implicit, over the phone.)

Rose grins to herself, still, watching the tea steep. She isn’t exactly dolled up -- it’s a healthy piece of late in the evening, and she had just planned to read until bed -- but Pearl has a way of shyly eyeing Rose in even her most kickaround outfits.

(Gold-good things flutter in her chest, there. Sweeten soft.)

Instead of changing, she’s piled a stack of towels and her bathrobe next to the door -- a couple mugs of hot, cheery chamomile on the coffee table, too. So when the door sounds off with a tangle of tender knocks (oh, oh, her knuckles must be numb), Rose is quick to whisk it open with one towel over her shoulder, making little effort to hide the bubble of laughter in her voice: “Poor thing, oh no! Come on, come on -- oof, goodness, it is cold out --”

Hopefully her smile doesn’t look too pleased.

Comments

[justapearl]

Pearl didn't exactly think Rose would say no to her request, but...it's hard, sometimes, asking Rose for things, even entirely reasonable things, even after all the time they've spent together. Rose is just so...! She goes about her life with a kind of sweeping, unstoppable majesty, and Pearl never wants to interrupt.

Still, this is about as much of an emergency as a situation could be without involving actual casualties, so she doesn't have too much time to dwell on it. She's shivering down to the bones as she takes the stairs to Rose's apartment two at a time, muscles trembling from a combination of the biting air and the exertion of her brisk trek from the rec center to the building. When the door swings open, she steps in as quickly as possible, breath leaving her in a sigh of relief.

"It is so cold! ...hi. Um."

Rose is right there, beaming at her, all delight and welcome, and Pearl can't help the way the corners of her lips twitch upwards in response, even as numb as they are. Unable to keep meeting the dazzle of Rose's eyes, she ducks her head to wipe her boots carefully on the welcome mat, suddenly aware of what a mess she must look right now. Tracking dirty snow all over Rose's beautiful apartment would be just a fine way to top it off.