Abius grunted in annoyance as they stomped into the gladiator showers and bathrooms, having just finished a Thirteenth Night match and, yet again, they were accidentally covered in blood.
While all the public bathrooms were unisex, with the toilets all having heavy dividers, since one normally had to get naked to have a shower, the wash rooms set aside for gladiators were split male and female, despite also having cubicles. However, this led to an interesting problem, as not every race was divided into male and female. The Ksithans who mostly ran the arenas had obvious gender differences, with males being larger and females having breasts and shorter horns, and Temthans, Torr and Vrekans had similar gender characteristics. As these were the most common races when it came to gladiators, the Ksithans overall had decided that, if one had a penis, they had to use the male showers.
The odd side affect of this was that most of the Athren gladiators, who were ungendered, had to use the female showers and both Skyavok and Rethavok had to use male showers. Even if there were multiple beings that identified as female, most notably the Rethan 798th Legion Captain Kayess-En, and the Skyavok house fighter, Kass. Kayess-En had never minded, but Kass had always found it a tad awkward.
Kass also happened to be around as Abius stomped in. She and Levik had just done another duo battle against two Torr and had run handily, but Levik had gotten oil on his fur from one of the Torr’s mechs and needed to wash himself down.
“What’s up, Abius?” Kass asked.
“Oh, hi, Abius!” Levik beamed, waving excitedly. “How you doing? You seem glum!”
Abius blinked, not sure what they were looking at. Levik was basically a ball of suds.
“Uh… hello…”
“Hi!”
Abius blinked some more. “You are covered in bubbles.”
“I am, yes! Gotta wash the blood and oil off me! Since I’m furry, I lather up really well. You though, you seem glum! And covered in more blood than me.”
“Eh. I have been doing these silly Thirteenth Night matches for a while now and I still forget about the fake blood packs.”
“And you stomped on one and covered yourself in blood?”
Abius nodded as they started taking off their Big Bad armour. “I can feel it dripping down my back. I hate it.”
“Well, don’t worry, friend!” Levik was stupidly perky. “Kass and I will help wash you down! Right, Kass?”
“I mean, if you want to, be my guest. But I want to wash myself down and get out soon as.”
“Why?” Levik was confused now. “Is it because you have to use the male bathrooms or because the male bathrooms are bigger than the female ones and you can’t quite reach the soap dispensers?”
“I just wish they’d set aside a wash room for Skyavok or something. Thraki and Banikans get their own showers because they’re huge, why can’t we have one because we’re small and also all have dicks? Doesn’t it bother you, Abius?”
Abius wasn’t paying attention. Two other Rethans had just entered the showers. Abius recognised one of them but the other, they had no idea who they were.
“Ah, Abius, just the person I was somewhat looking for! Did you enjoy your Thirteenth Night match?” Gathin asked. Gathin was also a captain of the 798th Legion, as they were now the leader of Retha Squad Two. While the previous entirety of Retha Squad Two had hated Abius’s guts, Gathin was a more normal Rethan and had basically made a new, better team after a good year of failing and badly.
“It is routine now, I enjoy them less…” Abius grunted, more focused on the strange Rethan. “Kyr Gathin, who is your friend?”
The strange Rethan, a shorter than average wall of muscle, seemed to wave at Abius. “Hello! Nice to meet you!”
“Abius, this is Arkiir, they are training up to work as a back up fighter for our four Dessaron teams. Arkiir, this is Abius, they are the Rethan House Fighter. Abius, friend, may I ask a favour of you?”
Abius muttered a small “yes?”, their eyes focused on Arkiir. It was clear as day why they had that name, because Arkiir had yellow plating. Yellow-plated Rethans were almost as rare as white-plated Rethans.
“Arkiir here is very good at fighting other Rethans, but they need some experience fighting much larger beings. I was wondering if you could take Arkiir with you on your next large beast training session? It is not quite the same as training against a Thraki or Banikan, but I feel it would help get Arkiir their bearings.”
It took a moment for Abius to respond. “Oh? Uh… Sure… I would need to arrange one though, I have not done a beast training session for a while, since I get most of my practice from live matches as of late.”
“Can you arrange one?” Gathin asked.
“I can, yes.”
“Good!” Gathin seemed pleased, as did Arkiir. “Arkiir, you are dismissed, you may finish up your work and head home. If you all do not mind, I need to wash myself as well.”
Arkiir smiled, then waved some more. “Thank you, Kyr Gathin. Speak soon, Kyr Abius, it was nice meeting you!”
“It was nice meeting you too…”
With one last wave and a little bow, Arkiir headed off, and Gathin headed deeper into the showers to their favourite corner, where they began to doff. Abius found themselves staring at where Arkiir had gone.
“You alright, friend?” Levik snapped Abius back to reality. Abius suddenly realised they just had an entire conversation with a superior while their friend was covered in soap bubbles.
“Um…”
“Hah!” Kass answered in Abius’s place. “Abius has a crush!”
“I do not.”
“You totally do! You don’t look at other Rethans like that!” Kass teased.
“Well… I have not seen a yellow-plated Rethan like that before, and, well, Arkiir did not immediately judge me like most seem to…”
“Then you should arrange that beast training session soon as possible so you can get to know them better!” Kass smiled. “In the mean time, let’s get you washed, then get Levik scrubbed, washed, rinsed and dried and we can go get drinks or something.”
“With Timik?” Levik asked.
“Yep. Good thing he ain’t here anyway, because he would have made a way ruder comment about Abius than I did.”
Abius grunted, then relented, settling down somewhat. “Very well. Let me get all this blood off me, then we can get Levik all clean. Fur is a little harder to maintain, after all…”