*MEE SQUEEEAAAK SQUEEE MEEEEP!!

"If you are going to insist on soaking in my pumpkin soup at dinner each night, then there is no other way around it," Kurumi sighed as she fussed with the pygmy puff on her way to the girls' bathroom. One thing was for sure, Momotaro II was just like Walnut when it came to bathing, only the pygmy puff didn't foam at the mouth. Walnut did, and it frightened her to bits when it had first happened. Hair on end and hissing and foam. Kurumi had thought that the feline had gone rabid at the mere thought of water. “Honestly, this is the third time this week already.” And she had only had the pygmy puff for somewhere around 36 hours. This was going to be a long week.

Entering the girls’ bathroom, Kurumi was pleased to find it empty and immediately headed over towards one of the sinks. She turned the handle on the hot water and plugged the drain, sticking her hand in the basin to test that the water wasn’t too hot an mixing in cold water now and again whenever it felt like it was. “Now, bathing really isn’t all THAT bad,” she said with a heavy sigh, pygmy puff on her shoulder as she reached into her bag for the flea shampoo she used on Walnut. “A bath teaches you to take time, meditate and be mindful of your body.” Because, you know, pygmy puffs needed to be mindful too. Just because they were small balls of fluff did not excuse them from this. Nope.

Once the sink was filled, Kurumi ever so slowly lowered Momotaro II into the warm water.

*MEEP MEEEEEEEE SQUEEE ME ME MEEP*

“Stop stop stop,” Kurumi said as the little guy began splashing water all over the place and, in the process, mixed the shampoo with the water, causing the entire sink to turn into a lavender scented bubble bath. When the flailing stopped, Kurumi’s shoulders relaxed. “There, you see? This isn’t so ba---“ But her hands were holding onto nothing.

O__________o

WHERE DID HE GO?!

Bubbles floating all over the place and the front of her robes soaking wet, Kurumi’s wrinkly hands searched the contents of the sink for the pygmy puff only to find that he really was…gone?!?! FUDGESICLE! Professor Williamson was going to FAIL her.

*MEEP MEEP MEEP MEEP*

The sound was coming skyward and Kurumi wibbled slightly. He was squeaking at her lovingly from the Great Beyond…wait a second… Her head snapped upwards and saw that the pygmy puff had managed to get stuck inside one of the bubbles made from the shampoo and was currently floating around in the air squeaking and looking rather pleased with himself. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Momotaro II,” Kurumi sighed, mentally slapping herself for the horrible pun she had just made, as she poked his bubble and caught the tiny creature in her hands.

Returning to the sink now, Kurumi proceeded to finish shampooing the pygmy puff, taking extra time to massage the solution into his fur and hopefully relieving any tension that his round frame may have, Kurumi turned on the water again and carefully rinsed him off until not more suds came off his fur and then used a Hot Air Charm to dry him.

“Done,” she said in an exhausted tone. “How about tomorrow you decide not to swim in my pumpkin soup, okay?”