Rye's project

As the meeting wound down, most of the discussion tended towards how they could best support Emely. Dustin found himself on the fringes of that talk - he would be doing all the ambassadorial speaking of course, but his comms officer would be the one writing his speeches, liaising with their allies and so on.

Rye met his eyes as Meli started to go over the proper protocols for entering the council system for the third time at the fox girl’s request. Hooking a thumb towards the doorway, the bunny girl mouthed “can I get a minute?” as she stood. Given that the others didn’t appear to notice them leaving, Dustin figured it was safe enough for him to step out for a bit - it wasn’t like he had much to contribute in any case, and if there were any human-specific questions that needed answering, Sammie would still be there.

Once in the hallway, Rye’s shoulders visibly relaxed. “Thank fuck for that. Don’t get me wrong, I love Emmz to pieces, but the idea of doing that much socializing with folk you don’t know? Ugh.” The Rabyth woman shuddered, before starting to walk down the corridor, Dustin in tow. “So I figure, while they’re busy and all, I could show ya what I’ve been working on. It’s not… well, it’s not fully finished yet, but it’s done enough for us to go and look at while they’re all talking about talking.”

Speeding up to keep pace with the Rabyth’s loping strides, Dustin raised an eyebrow. “You mean you’re finally going to let me in on your secret project? Isn’t that whole thing to do with our pairing?” As he spoke, he held up his hand to look at the intricate tattoo now circling his finger - just in time to run into Rye who’d come to a sudden halt.

“Y..yea.” The Rabyth said, then with a little more confidence continued “yea. Well, it’s not just to do with our pairing, but I figured it’d be nice to use it for the last bits… we turn right here.” Dustin followed along, not entirely sure what his engineer had planned but confident that it’d be at the least enjoyable before Rye came to a stop once more, this time outside the door to a storeroom not that far from the ambassadorial chambers.

“So, I looked at the schematics, and I can knock a door through into the shower room eventually so we don’t have to take that walk along public corridors…” Rye began, before giving up and opening the door. Dustin stepped inside, and looked around, blinking in the suddenly too-bright light. Rye winced and reached for the controls, dimming the overhead bulbs down to a more normal ambiance. “Sorry about that… forgot I had them cranked to max while I was working on the plumbing earlier,” the bunny girl said, tweaking the colour balance so that warm ambers and yellows replaced blinding white.

No longer getting flash-banged by his surroundings, Dustin was able to take in what he was looking at. The storeroom was fairly large - it’d been unused until Rye had taken it over, one of a number near the ambassadorial chambers intended to allow members of the inner circle to store their belongings close in the event the ambassador wanted to keep his lovers nearby at all times. Rye had stripped out all the shelving and raised the floor; as he climbed a short ladder from the entrance up to about chest height, Dustin realised why.

The rest of the room was now filled with a series of interlinked giant bowls. The space around the edges of the bowls was neatly tiled - although it was clear Rye hadn’t fully finished as while two of the walls were also covered, the remaining two had neat piles of unused tiles stacked against them ready to go up. There were also smaller indentations dotted around the place that had been filled with dirt; Dustin stared at one of them for a moment before Rye piped up. “So I figured we could plant some ferns and stuff to break the room up a bit. Need to talk that over with Nae-nae really, she might have ideas for some that we can just snack on while we’re in here.”

Dustin turned back to his bunny and gestured to the massive empty bowls in the floor. “So… what is this, Rye?” The woman grinned at him, then walked over to a very jury-rigged looking lever mounted in an exposed section of the far wall. “I’ll make this look nice later on” she said, noticing his gaze on the crude setup as she tugged the handle down. “Slapped a junction box in to pull from the main pipe that goes to the showers, but didn’t have time to get it fully rigged up - especially as I’d need to take the showers entirely out of action for as long as it takes me to work on the plumbing.”

Water began to bubble out of a series of channels in the floor, trickling streams that merged and flowed down into the bowls - which rapidly began to fill with the steaming hot water. “It’s a bath, Dusty. A proper, big bath” the Rabyth grinned, gesturing at where what Dustin had presumed to be a moulding error in the smooth bowls was now obviously a bench seat placed beneath the rising waterline.

The pair stood watching the baths fill up - until the water reached a level a couple of inches below the tops of the bowls and stopped. Dustin glanced at the lever, which was still locked in the on position, and opened his mouth to speak before closing it again. Rye had unbuckled her dungarees and stepped out of them, and was in the process of tugging her top off over her head. “There’s concealed overflow drains in all the bowls. Inflowing water keeps the tubs hot, although there’s also heating and cooling elements mounted around them so each bowl can be adjusted a bit if we want.” She said, her voice muffled by her clothing - and Dustin’s hearing being muffled by the distracting sight of her breasts barely being constrained by her bra as she finished removing the top.

Seeing his dazed expression, the bunny girl sighed. “Dusty, ya’ve seen me naked a whole bunch of times. Hell, you fucked me in a doorway one time… why are you getting so tongue-tied just by me taking my clothes off?”

Dustin crossed the tiles between them as the air began to fill with the steam rising from the bathing pools. Pulling her into a kiss, he smiled at her. “Because you’re stunning, Rye? And also, usually when you take your dungarees off or tie them around your waist you’re not wearing a bra so I’m not as used to this view.” He cupped one of his hands over her chest as he said it, gently squeezing to indicate the additional perkiness the garment provided.

Rye gave a snort and slapped him gently on the chest. “Yea, well… I’m in the middle of getting naked here anyway. It’s high time we give these tubs their first try. I think I’ve got the water temperature set about right for us to enjoy without turning on any of the adjusters.” Stepping back from him, the bunny girl shimmied out of the rest of her clothing before sinking down to sit on the edge of the tub, purring contentedly as the hot water rose up her calves.

A splash a moment later announced the Rabyth woman moving fully into the pool, the bench at a height where only her head and the tops of her shoulders were visible above the waterline. Tilting her head back, she frowned up at him. “Ya not got undressed yet, Dusty? Hurry up and join me, the water’s…” she rolled her shoulders and gave a contented sigh “…really good.”

Not one to keep one of his women waiting, especially when they were naked, Dustin stripped - although he did take a moment to move both his and Rye’s clothes towards one of the driest looking parts of the baths. There didn’t appear to be an automat in the room to get dry clothes afterward, so it seemed sensible to try and avoid getting their outfits wet. He was certain Rye would eventually fit one however, given part of one of the untiled walls had a big red X marked on it with the word ‘dispenser’ scribbled in the bunny’s handwriting.

Slipping into the water next to Rye, Dustin gave a low hiss as the hot water started to work out knots of tension in his back he hadn’t even been aware he was carrying. “Why didn’t you tell me about this place, Rye?” Dustin asked, rolling his shoulders and pulling her in to lean against his side, his hand dipping below the water to drift over her waist. “I’d have helped out - or gotten other people to help out or something.”

Rye snuggled into him and shook her head. “Na. This one’s for me… it’s kinda like the nursery - which by the way you gotta see, that’s almost done too. Most of my work is for the whole crew, but like, that room and this one are just for us ya kno? And I wanted to make it for us. I’m good with engineering, a genius even, but that doesn’t make me very good with like, fancy stuff. Can’t do the social thing the way Emmz can, can’t cook the way you or Nae-nae can, taste more of engine oil than mint unlike Bleu… But I can build. Also…” She blushed, taking a deep breath before continuing “…I kinda wanted the room for the last two parts of our pairing - and ‘cos of that, I decided to build it myself as that way I’d know it was exactly what I imagined.”