Mermista and Seahawk (part 2)
Mermista slammed the door open with a determination that startled everyone who just finished eating. She grabbed a kelp sandwich and wolfed it down with a drink of grape juice before talking. "Time for a good bath and I don't want to hear a complaint from any of you, got it?", They nodded and Mermista nodded back, "Alright lets go"
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Hordak started to sweat as he felt so many eyes behind him. Trailing behind were the clones under Entraptas' care and they were all whispering or looking at Hordak and were anxious to talk with him. It's not that he doesn't appreciate them looking up to him just that he isn't use to positive attention and he shouldn't be someone to look up to. He's a disaster of a mess and does not want the same fate for his brothers.Entrapta looked up to Hordak, noticing that he was getting anxious, and gently gripped on his hand to take notice of her. He faced her with a worried look and she just smiled up to him, making him feel a bit more calmer.
He smiled back and soon they were stopped by Mermista before they could say anything. In front of them there was a huge door with seats by the side with stacks of towels, little bottles filled with thick liquid and very small bars of soaps. "Okay, everyone take two towels, one clear bottle, a white bottle and soap. Sea hawk is going to bring you in and I want you all to be in good behavior cause I can't come in or else", Mermista glared at everyone. They all gave a sound or nod of agreement and started to get to their own towels.
Entrapta was going to the same until she was pulled back from the nip of her shirt. "You're coming with me, the guys have to be on their own", Mermista explained. Entrapta and Hordak looked at her curiously before Entrapta said, "They have both genitalia and aren't really fully 'guys' " Mermista blushed a bit before stuttering out, "W-what? How do y- You know what I don't want to know, you're still coming with me okay?" Entrapta hummed in confusion before turning to Hordak and squeezed his hand in concern. "Will you be okay?", Entrapta asked.
Hordak hesitated a bit before nodding and motioning where an obvious Kadroh was excitedly talking to his other brothers. "Kadroh will be by my side if anything happens... I will... be alright", Hordak tried to comfort her, but it was to calm himself down as well. Entrapta sighed and nodded before lifting herself up and giving a small peck on the lips before whispering, "I'll be close okay?" Hordak smiled and nodded, walking towards his buddy brother to grab the bottles and towels. Entrapta turned to a now stunned Mermista, but Entrapta didn't notice her confusion before asking, "Where are we going to bathe?'
Mermista shook her head and mumbled, "This might as well happen" She motioned to Entrapta to follow her and started to think of what has happened to have made all this circumstances happen.
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Hordak sighed annoyed, "Kadroh I will be fine, you do not need to hold on to me" Kadroh was holding contact with his brother as they started to remove clothes in what Sea hawk calls a make shift locker room for them. "Well since Entrapta is not here, I will be here if anything happens to you!', Kadroh explained as he took of his shirt and returned to hold on to Hordak as he was taking off his lower garments. "I will not faint in a single second Kadroh. I appreciate your concern, but please let me at least get rid of my clothes properly"
Kadroh hummed and nodded, slowly letting go of Hordak who sighed in relief and finally able to get rid of his clothes. When he finished undressing, he took a moment to look at his brothers and started to feel his confidence in body shrivel inside of him as the clear muscles and able bodies of the others where making him feel self-conscious. He shook his head and took a deep breath in; his body will get better with the help of Entrapta and even if it didn't, Entrapta loved him for who he is not how he looks like.
His thoughts were cut short when Sea hawk called out, "Now that everyone is undress, let us go to the bath my lady Mermista had graciously had prepared for all of us" The brothers talked with the each other, wondering what this bath was. Back under horde primes control, they would enter their pods, soon filled with their cleaning fluids, and in only a few seconds they would be clean and continue with their day fresh and clean. But here that might be different for them as Etheria did not have the same technology as their former leader and might have to change their cleaning habits.
Though when they appeared into the next room that contained their bath they all froze. There stood a large pool and the first thing that they associated it with was when they were in trouble or acting out of turn and were in need of 'repairing'. Hordak felt like he was going to break down and returned the hold onto Kadroh as he felt his legs shake of fear. Fearing that pain again. Fearing that horrible wipe. Fearing of forgetting again. Fearing to forget his Entrapta and how he was able to be him again.
Sea hawk was babbling on about something that none of the clones were listening to and stopped on his tracks when he noticed that the others hadn't followed him. He turned to the clones and were confused why they were frozen stiff and some where actually whimpering. His confusion turned into concern as he walked towards the group gently talking, "What ever is the matter my dear friends?' The clones were mumbling in fear, some where shaking their heads, and others just stayed silent in their fear.
Noticing that his brothers would not be able to speak, Hordak gulped, "Th...The pool... it brings... not pleasant memories for us" Sea hawk raised a brow, "Friends its just water to bathe you all... What ever you have associated with it, I give you captains promise that it will not be the same" That did not reassure a single one of them and Sea hawk frowned, trying to think of how to calm them down. "If I go in first and nothing happens, will you all join me?", Sea hawk asked. They all started to call out. "But its dangerous!" "You do not deserve the pain!" "You should not do it!"
Sea hawk grinned, "My friends I'll be alright, please trust me that you will no longer be in danger when I'm around for I am Sea hawk!" His attitude was affected the clones and slowly they moved forward with him and his grin grew wider and soon dipped in slowly into the pool and let the water embrace him. when nothing happened to Sea hawk, the clones whispered in awe and gather around the edges of the pool. Sea hawk grinned and let out both his hands towards Hordak and Kadroh.
The two hesitated and held on to each other for reassurance before grabbing a hold on one of Sea hawks' hands and slowly dipped in to the pool and let it just engulf them. The water was more on the cooler side, but was not unpleasant and for Hordak, it actually relieved his joints and sighed happily. The other clones looked on curiously and slowly joined the three and all seemed to get more comfortable with the water and finally calmed down enough to swim around the pool in joy or talk with their brothers. Sea hawk grinned before getting the attention of the others.
"Now, the bottle with the clear liquid is your shampoo! Scrub a generous amount on your scalp, scrub it well and then wash it off in the water!", Sea hawk explained and grabbed a surprised Hordak and demonstrated it on him. Hordak tensed up at the mans touch and wanted to get away immediately, but if it was for a demonstration he begrudgingly allowed him to at least touch his head. The others followed along and instead of doing it on themselves, they turned to their buddies and started to take turns to clean the others scalp, gently to not cause discomfort to the other.
Hordak sighed and closed his eyes as he tried to feel some comfort in getting cleaned by another being, but snapped them back open when he felt someone else near him. By his side Kadroh held his own bottle of shampoo and made what he comes to learn as 'puppy' eyes towards Hordak, seemingly pleading for his brother to wash his hair. Hordak sighed annoyed once more, but he could not deny Kadroh as he helped him so much already and this was at least he could do for him. Hordak motioned for Kadroh to come close who let out an excited noise and moved closer to Hordak in an easy position for him to get to his hair.
When finished with Kadroh, the two brothers dunked their heads under and washed out what was in their hair. When coming back up, Sea hawk was explaining how to clean up the clones body with the soap and was about to demonstrate with Hordak again, but he took the soap and growled, "I can do this myself, just explain while I show" Sea hawk grinned, "As you wish, my dear friend Hordak!" When Hordak turned to his brothers he felt a bit flustered again as all eyes laid on him as Sea hawk began to explain how to wash the body.
If he weren't in water right now, he have been covered in sweat from how the eyes made him feel. Hordak tried to focus more on cleaning his body, but the gaze of his brothers made him start to slow down. He didn't like this attention. He didn't like how they watched him. He didn't want to be there any more. He needed to leave. He needed to escaped. He needed to be anywhere else. He needed to be with Entrapta.
Hordak stopped his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked who the hand belonged to and there was Sea hawk who was directing the attention towards him instead.
Sea Hawk had noticed the distressed Hordak and knew that he would have to shift the attention to not cause a scene. He knew that it would upset mermista if something happened while she was in charge, but he also knew that sometimes people needed help and right now, his former enemy needed help. "Now you all try it out!", Sea hawk instructed and soon the clones attention were removed from the two and to their own body.
Hordak let out a breath he didn't know that he had held in and looked at Sea hawk who let go of him and was helping out Kadroh reach parts of his body he couldn't do alone. Hordak sighed and got enough distance between him and the strange loud man to mumble out, "Thank you... for that" Sea Hawk turned a bit surprised at the former feared warlord who was not able to look at him in the eyes and seemed quite flustered. Sea Hawk grinned, "Any time good friend! You may be a former enemy, but that does not mean you do not deserve kindness" Hordak gave a small smiled as he waited for him to continue on his explanation to the clones.
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"Entrapta, everything off", Mermista groaned. Entrapta frowned and sighed as she took off her final bits of accessories before turning towards Mermista who was already in the moderately huge bath tub. "There, now can I go in?", Entrapta asked who had been trying to keep some of her comfort items to go in, but knew that the water could do damage to them. "Yeah, I guess now get in", Mermista groaned out as she moved towards one end of the tub for more distance between the two to get less awkward.
Entrapta huffed, lifted herself up and gently into the water. She sighed happily as the water embraced her and just felt a bit of tension leave her body. Mermista could tell that both of them desperately needed a good bath after every thing that they have been through and she was quite right about it even if she didn't plan it to be today. She let her head go back and let the tub support her neck as she thought of the things that led her to this moment.
Her mother dying. Her father 'retiring'. Inheriting a dying kingdom. The Horde. The rebellion. Horde Prime. Being chipped.
She sighed again and lowered herself more into the water, trying to get rid of those thoughts and just letting the water drown them out. She watched as Entrapta continued to wash off and move her hair in a strange matter that it looked like a spiders web. It was mesmerizing for a bit, but soon she lost interest and looked back up to ceiling to just think.
Well until she felt the wet hair of Entrapta engulf her and moved her towards Entrapta where her back was towards the older woman and facing the side she was at. "Wha- Entrapta what are you doing?", Mermista screeched out, thrashing around her hair and trying to get away. "Well it's obvious you're not washing yourself, so I'm doing it for you", Entrapta grinned as she gently place Mermista back in to tub and raised herself up a bit more to get more comfortable to clean the younger princess up.
"I can do it myself", Mermista protested, but was shushed by Entrapta with her hair. "You look stressed and thoughtful, let me help you with this", Entrapta insisted. Mermista groaned, but was too annoyed to do anything about it and just let Entrapta do her thing. Entraptas' grin grew, "Good, now relax and leave it up to me!" Mermista sighed again and just knew that things couldn't get weirder after seeing her kiss Hordak on the lips. Soon enough Entrapta began washing Mermistas' hair with her hands and cleaning her own hair with, well, her own hair.
Mermista closed her eyes after a while and decided that she might as well enjoy that someone else was taking care of her. Though this reminded her of something. A memory not really there, but enough to know that this felt familiar. Then the memory finally flooded her mind as she remembered. Entrapta had similar hands to her mother who would always washed Mermistas' hair when she was so young. She always wanted to do it on her own, but the comfort of her mothers' hands over ruled her urge of independence.
Her mother would hum a small tune they shared and she would always almost fall asleep in the water from the comfort of both touch and sound. If she could have cried at that moment she would, but she had already let out too many tears for her mother and didn't want to cry in front of Entrapta. Entrapta didn't take notice of mermistas' shakiness as she dragged her finger carefully through Mermistas' hair, untangling knots as she saw her robots do to her while she bathed. It felt strange not having her bots around, but felt comfort on mimicking their actions as a distraction from being away from her comfort items.
They sat in silence and just letting the moment happen. For Entrapta it was a calming a way to distract from her discomfort of being quite exposed and for Mermista was just enjoying the moment of remembering of her mother.
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After drying off, the clones changed into their day clothes and seemed quite refreshed from the bath. Mermista and Entrapta were still bathing so Sea Hawk had to think fast and decided to bring the clones to Hordaks and Kadrohs cell. Hordak gave what seemed to be his tenth annoyed sigh in a minute before asking, "Why to our cell?" Sea Hawk laughed nervously, "I have no idea!"
Hordak would complain more, but he had no opinion on what would be done to his brothers and him. When entering the room, guards had laid out hair brushes for the clones to have. Sea Hawk again had to teach the others how to brush their hair, but was interrupted by a tumbling Entrapta who came threw the window. "Entrapta you know you can take the door now, correct?", Hordak asked, helping her stand up from her small tumble. "Oh where's the fun in that?", Entrapta grinned, dusting herself off and walked towards their shared bed where many clones, and Seahawk, sat brushing their hair in different ways that they never thought to try out."Oh hey! Where's Mermista?", Sea hawk asked. "Oh she's coming soon, she asked the guards to bring the hairbrushes and was finishing changing when I left her", Entrapta explained and gave a thumbs up to Kadroh who showed her a strange style that seemed like a mo-hawk.
"Entrapta do you wish for me to help you brush your hair?" Hordak asked after seeing Entrapta struggle with amount of hair she had and the countless knots she had in her hair. She nodded, "I always have my robots to help, but they aren't exactly here so I would appreciate the help" Entrapta set herself between Hordaks' legs and let him handle half of her hair while she handled the other half.
When they were starting, Mermista walked in with her own hairbrush and was about to say something, but the sight of Hordak and Entrapta had brought another memory into her mind. Her father was sitting on her parents bed, having her mother between his legs as he softly sang an old sailors tune while softly brushing his hair. Mermista herself was on their bed, slowly falling asleep and enjoying the deep singing voice of her father. Slowly the two scenes merged and she felt her shake of that wonderful yet distant memory.
She felt an arm on her and found Sea Hawk, looking worried for her and asked, "My love, is everything alright?" Mermista took a deep breath and nodded as she motioned to go over the couple who was finishing up brushing Entraptas' hair. Entrapta sighed in relief as her hair was finally free and tied them to her usual pigtails before hopping to the side of Hordak and said, "It's your turn!" Hordak nodded happily and handed over his own brush to her to do what she wanted to his hair. "We have to dye your hair back to your old color, it looked great on you", Entrapta sighed sadly.
Hordak blushed, but before he could even utter out a thank you, Kadroh yelled out, "You can customize your features?!" This caught the rest of the clones attention and soon were gathered around Entrapta on Kadrohs' bed, listening so intensely to her talking how hair dye worked and how they could change their hair color. Hordak could only help chuckle as they all talked about different hair colors they could choose from and even getting Entrapta and Sea hawk in the conversation to change their hair that day.
Though he had to look to his side as he felt another close by. Mermista was having struggles with her hair as usual, but it seemed to be tougher; perhaps due to the conditioner that was used in bright moon. What ever it was, she grew more frustrated by the second when her hair would not budge and she was about to just throw her hair brush, but was stopped by Hordak. "Do you wish for me to help you?", He asked. Mermista scoffed at his question, but stopped and considered it a bit.
Get more frustrated and break her hair brush? Or let her former enemy take it and brush it for her? Mermista let out a sigh of annoyance as she wanted an excuse to fight him if he tried anything and it would help her feel less frustrated so she slowly nodded her head in agreement. She slowly turned to the group to make sure that they noticed she was being brushed by a former warlord and to be prepared for anything
What she wasn't prepared for was how Hordak was so gentle with her hair. Hordak took brushing her hair slowly and was careful to not pull to hard as he had experienced pulling to hard after trying to bathe himself for the first few times after landing in Etheria. Mermista sighed and softly said, "You know, you make it really hard to hate you after what you have done"
They sat there in silence before Hordak talked, "You deserve to be angry with me. Angry with all I have done with your planet. I do not even wish for you to forgive me after what I have done to your planet and especially your kingdom. So when you put me in trial, I hope you do not give mercy, no matter what" Mermista sat there, dumbfounded when she heard this and not able to think of anything to say back to him. She sighed and rubbed her face in confusion and said, "You're so strange... no wonder Entrapta likes you"
Hordak smiled at that and said, "Yes I am. I found her strange as well when i first met her and now? I'm glad she is so different and I would never change a single thing about her" Mermista gave a low laugh, "Wow, former warlord going gushy over a princess. What a weird time I'm living in" This gave Hordak a small chuckle which surprise her and now she knew that nothing else could faze her anymore.
He finally finished her hair in silence and gave her back her brush. "Thanks, I guess", Mermista mumbled. Hordak nodded and looked at his brothers before saying, "I believe that they want to start dyeing their hair" Mermista looked up to see Sea Hawk and Entrapta acquiring hair dye from the guards and were looking way too excited for it to be safe for them to handle.
"Well let's go help them out."
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They spent the rest of the day teaching and helping the clones dye their hair and only taking breaks to eat. By the end of the day, the clones were talking excitedly about their new hair and Mermista sent out guards to spread the word to other clones and their princesses about hair dyeing and giving them hair dye to make the clones look different. Hordak sat on his bed, his old hair color back and Kadroh was by his side, happily talking about his hair that was the same shade as Entraptas who was currently looking happily at their new hair.
Sea hawk was by Mermistas side, obviously falling asleep from all the hair dye he had to help out with and slowly swaying side to side. Mermista smiled at the trio, feeling strange when she saw Hordak smile, a similar feeling when she remembered her father. Mermista shook her head before walking towards them and saying, "Rest up, you have Scorpia and Perfuma tomorrow and I heard they're going to wake you up early for something" The trio seemed to yawn at the same time and nodded in agreement as they headed off to their respective bed, well Entrapta now sleeping next to Hordak.
Before turning the lights out, Mermista took one last glance at the two who reminded her of her parents and thought that maybe, just maybe, Hordak did deserve at least a little bit of mercy