You think you made your position rather clear vis-à-vis avoidance behaviour

"Let's just go to the middle baths." You say standing up and stretching. Lucia gives you a hopeful puppy look. "And if we run into someone I'll see if we can get into the upper baths." You relent.

"Noble tits here I come." Lucia says with a grin still blinking to adjust her eyes. You shake your head and start walking though hope you don't run into anyone. At this point the only woman you had a relationship with and hadn't run into this afternoon is ...

You stop walking and look around checking to make sure you hadn't summoned Stephanie into the local area.

"See someone you?" Lucia asked with tried excitement.

A few seconds more checking and you breath out. "Nope no one." You and Lucia walk into the building, even though you and Lucia had been outside for a while there were still a lot of people milling about chatting to their friends. You wondered if there was any sort of rec room on the grounds and these people were just chilling or if the only form of entertainment were, well other people.

As you walk through the foyer you feel a few eyes on you. At this point you figure your face is decently well known. You had been in a very public duel with Asune yesterday. No one came over to talk to you or made any suggestion of summoning you to them so you and Lucia made it out of the foyer and into the entrance to the baths unaccosted by known or unknown people.

Outside the baths were a similar gathering of people but there was a lot more attention on you. Several conversations stopped short and you could see in the gather auras that when they restarted you were the focus. You put it down to yesterdays antics and figured once you left the focus would leave with you. Lucia stepped closer to you and straightened her posture.

You opened the middle class bath door and she follow you inside. You separated and went to your respective changing rooms. There were not a lot of towels in the men's changing room so there must be a least a few guys inside. As you change you remember coming here yesterday with Lucia and the flagrant sexual harassment she saved you from. Hopefully the women have calmed down since then and you can enjoy a simple bath.

Stripping and donning your towel you walk into the baths and are surprise by what you saw. The are indeed other guys here, and all of those guys have several women hanging around them. That isn't the surprising part, the surprising part is how intimate some of those women are being with their male counterparts. You get over it quickly, its not like you have much more than be a little intimate with Vatarie and Cynthia and Auria and in a way Vatarie's friends, little surprised Asune hasn't added herself to that list yet.

You see an empty spot on a bench and sit down. No one comes over since everyone is occupied and Lucia enters and skips over to you. "I'm drained can you wash me?" She asks as she slumps down on the bench letting out a deep sigh.

"Sure." Your seat isn't near one of the divots so you have to stand and walk to the closest group. The guy notices your approach and looks a little embarrassed, possibly because one of the women around him has her hand beneath his towel.

Said woman notices the embarrassment and grins then looks at you. "Hey, you're nice to look at. Want to have a seat?" As she speaks the other women look at you and all seem very eager for you to join.

"Just passing through." You say as you pull your towel off and dip a corner into the divot, soaking up some of the cleansing water. As you pull you towel you regret your so recently comfort of your own nudity as the group of women suddenly pay you more attention than the guy that had been their focus. You hurry away before the sexual harassment can get started.

When you sit down you feel two of the woman walking after you the rest refocusing on the guy in their midst with renew excitement. "If you're offering your services I could use a hand or two." One said looking at Lucia and not you as she spoke asking for permission.

"Sorry ladies I need all the attention. Unless you want to do me instead?" Even exhausted Lucia was still on. You had to give her points for determination.

Both women looked at Lucia then you considering the option. One walks back to rejoin her small group the other lingers for a bit and says, "How much?"

The question shocks you enough to actually be speechless. You look at Lucia who appears to have recovered a bit of her vigor and was regarding the woman with a critical eye. She looks at you with a question in her aura that was far more explicit in her eye. You responded with a very flat glare. "Sorry can't afford him." She says waving off the woman.

The woman looks between the two of you a bit more then a masculine gasp from one of the other groups catches her attention. She chews her lip and looks you up and down then heads over to the new group with the guy no longer wearing a towel.

You sit down next to Lucia and rub your damp towel across her shoulders making sure to leave part of it covering you groin. "If she hadn't asked how much would you have said yes?"

"For tits that small please." Lucia responds sounding more than a little insulted. You laugh and keep wiping her down taking the chance to rub some of the tension out of her muscles. "If I could more I would probably want you to stop fondling me."

"Sorry." You stop the impromptu massage. "**** of habit."

She shrugs. "It's cool, just keep the hands to themselves." You do just that not wanting to make Lucia uncomfortable. Keeping your movement professional you wipe down her back in short order. "If I turn around are you going to try to cop a feel?"

"Promise I won't." You say making Lucia turn around and roll her shoulders back. You look away from her to avoid the accidental showing off.

"Relax, I know you have eyes, I just don't want you falling in love." Lucia says. You look back and see a bemused expression. Your eyes flick down to catch a hint of pink on white and she laughs. "Just get on with it."

You wipe down her front a bit faster than you had her back. "All done."

"Thanks." She stretches and turns to rest her back on the stone. "Too tired for you." She let out in a yawn.

You can feel a few of the ears in the room perk up as Lucia says that and with some attention on you would rather not have you decide to jump into the pool. You swim lazily for a moment then here a few splashes as others enter the pool. Deciding to not risk any pool based sexual harassment you put your hands on the pool's lip to jump out when some feet block your vision.

"Why don't you stay in the water." A woman says. You look up voice owners smooth legs and see a towel dropping to the floor. "I'm sure we could clean each other up a bit." She says crouching down to sit. She slips a leg between you arm so when she sits the hand resting on the lip is very close to her crotch that you kinda have to look at. "See you already know somewhere that could do with a cleaning. Maybe you know some way to, polish." She said spreading her legs slightly.

"Christopher I'm too tried to walk." Lucia says in a loud childish voice. "Carry me."

As she speak you feel the woman in the pool gather. "I'm sure she'll be fine for will I think you'll only need a few minutes." The woman sitting on the pool lip says reaching down to stroke you hair. "For me anyway."

Ok this is getting uncomfortable. You activate your magic to speed up and jump out of the pool, making sure to not move so fast that anyone would be hurt or get hurt by your movement. The woman in the pool let out sudden yelps as the water rushes to fill the absent you had left behind. You look over to make sure they were ok and aside from the surprise, and one of them breathing in a little water, they're fine. The woman on the lip was knocked over however so you have to grab her shoulders to stop her from falling. Deactivating your magic the woman sounds surprised by her lack of balance yet lack of falling. You leave her before she has a chance to suggest anything approaching recompense you walk over to Lucia.

"Need a hand?" You ask.

"Just to get me to the changing room." She says lazily but without sounding like she really needed it.

You pick her up, making sure to avoid any questionable spots and cradle her in your arms to the women's changing room. As you walk she says. "Man if you had tits I would really into this. Think Vatarie would carry me around like this?"

"I can drop you."

"Yeah but you won't." She smirks up at you. You chew your lips but she's right. Reaching the drop off point you set her down. "Thanks. Here." She gives you your towel. "Figure you didn't want to go back into that." She looks past you and into the room with several woman focusing on you. "Because you are weird." She adds with a smirk. "Don't wait for me outside. I'm going to bed but might pass out in the changing room."

"You sure sleeping around all those hormones is safe?" You ask as a joke.

Lucia shrugs. "What you think I'd sleep through someone fondling me. I mean pretend sleep sure but actually sleep." She slurs the words at the end and you are kinda worried she is going to pass out. "I'll be fine Trouble." She waves you off and walks into the changing room.

You can feel a lot of attention refocus on you now that Lucia is going and hurry into the men's changing room. In future going to these baths alone or just with Edin might not be a good idea. Unless you want to get molested that is. Weird thought considering how powerful you were. Drying yourself off and getting dressed you realise you don't have any more easy avoidance. You could go to the royal estate to check in with Anastasia. She's probably found, or rather failed to find, the **** Contract by now so going there might give her more an incentive to come clean so you can come clean in turn. Though that would be you forcing her hand in a **** situation so not entirely an effective litmus test.

You close the cabinet and the thought. You can't keep putting this off and you should know which Clare you are going to chose before going up there. Which presented a problem since you hadn't given them any thought at all. Oh right that's why avoidance behaviour is bad. Maybe going for a walk in the garden outside the academy would give you enough time to come to a decision.