(no subject)

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

After sending his reply owl to Ryuuji, Adam set aside his History of Magic book and practically sprinted down through the castle. He wanted to see Violet again and being outside on such a lovely, sunny day seemed far preferable to reading inside. Heaving open the heavy front doors, Adam was barely out of breath when he reached Ryuuji, standing next to a tub full of water.

"Hullo," he said to announce himself before stepping over to Violet and giving her a scratch on the top of her hard little purple head.

Comments

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"Hey!" Ryuuji was kneeling on the grass already, dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans, ripped at the knees, and an oversized white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the shoulders. He'd worn his oldest clothing on purpose, not sure how Violet would take to being bathed. On a chair next to him rested the shears, towels, shampoo and bottles of lavender nailpolish - if they were going to prettify Violet, might as well go all the way, right?

Glancing up at Adam, struggling to comb out the worst of the tangles, Ryuuji tilted his head to a side and smiled sunnily up at him. "So, how do we do this? Convince her to step into the bath, or use a cup to pour the water over her and shampoo her like that?"

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam laughed.

"You don't know anythin' about sheep, huh? Well, I was raised in the country and I've seen it done lots of times. First, you've gotta stop combin' her. It'll just hurt her now. We can comb out the wool after it's off her if you want to use it in makin' a sweater or somethin'. Her wool will make a nice yarn."

He continued to pet the woolly little sheep.

"And usually you don't give them a bath before, you just wash the wool after. Baths are just for makin' them smell good or if they get dirty by rollin' around in the mud or somethin'. And dips are for if they get fleas or ticks. But it won't hurt to do it now and she might like it."

Adam pointed at the shears.

"Finally, those have to go. You could cut her real easy with them and they don't get the wool off neatly. We need electric ones instead. Like a big version of those electric razors that barbers use when they're cuttin' your hair. Think you can change them or should I?"

He walked over to the bath and put his hand in, testing the temperature of the water. It seemed warm enough, so he went back to Violet and kneeled so that he could talk to her directly.

"Violet. Ryuuji wants to give you a bath. I think you'll enjoy it. You can splash around in some nice warm water and you'll smell real good afterwards. You wanna hop in?"

Violet hopped in. Adam grinned. "She's a good sheep."

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"Like father, like sheep." Ryuuji laughed, not in the least embarrassed by how he had apparently got everything got wrong. He knew absolutely nothing about sheep and taking care of them, and had no problem admitting that to his own ignorance when it came to things like this.

Tilting his head at Adam, Ryuuji put the comb on the ground, then started to splash water over Violet as he spoke, "And you're right, I know zero about sheep. I thought it was logical to wash her now, and then shear her, because whenever I get my hair cut, the barber washes it first. And I thought electric shears would be dangerous around water but if you say they're safer than normal ones, feel free to change them. I'm afraid I've got no idea how the shears actually work, so you'd probably be better at it."

The water had been scented with lavender, to match Violet's light purple coat, and smelled divine as Ryuuji thoroughly wetted the lamb's curly wool. "And does that mean the shampoos are no good as well? I wasn't sure if you usually shampooed the curls or not before drying them to cut, so I brought a few down just in case."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"I guess that makes sense," said Adam, "but when you've got thousands of sheep on a farm, it's much easier to wash the wool in a big batch rather than all the squirmin' sheep separately. They don't listen as well as Violet and they're usually a lot bigger."

Adam closed his eyes and concentrated and suddenly the clippers had become electric shears. He made them battery operated, though he'd never heard of such a thing, because Hogwarts hardly had electrical outlets lying around. It should be good enough for now.

"You can shampoo her, if you like," he said with a smile. "Can't hurt anythin'. Just don't get it in her eyes."

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"It's L'Oreal kids shampoo - I figured it should be sheep-friendly, and scented like lavender so it'll be a nice treat for her." Ryuuji explained as he leaned back to snag a bottle, squeezing it out on her spine. Impish streak surfacing, he used it to dribble out her name, and then finished by underlining it a few times. The bottle was empty by them, so he dunked his hands in the water to get them wet, then started to massage the shampoo into her curls, laughing delightedly at the purple froth.

"Want to help? You can take the other side, and I'll shampoo this one, and that way, we'll get done before the water cools. Though I'm not sure if lambs can catch colds from cold water, better safe then sorry, right Violet?" He rubbed some shampoo on the top of her head as he spoke, and bubbles POOFED up like an pompadour wig, making Ryuuji snicker.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam laughed at the sight of a lamb nearly buried in bubbles and he kneeled on the other side of the tub. Working the soap into her wool was soothing as he caught the scent of lavender and had the warm sun beating on his back. Regardless of all this magic stuff, there was something so satisfying about doing a job that needed to be done and Adam knew that when this was all over, what he'd have to show for his efforts was a clean sheep.

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

It was a good thing Ryuuji kept his fingernails trimmed short. Violet's wool wasn't dirty but it was certainly quite tangled. Working his fingers into them, he pressed his palms against her side and rubbed briskly, enjoying the feel of the soap fluffing up and filling her curls. She smelled awesome, the scent of lavender drifting up to mingle with the just-coming-up grass, and Ryuuji decided this would be a memory he'd think of whenever spring came to mind.

Working his way up down her hooves, he plunged his arms elbow-deep into the warm water, twisting his fingers around her legs and trying to work the shampoo into them as well. Contentedly quiet for a little, he eventually asked the other, "So, how do we clean the shampoo off her now that it's in the water? I could empty out the tub and drag back some water from the lake, unless you think you could do the magical-eye-closing-thingie to get another tub of water here."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"Magical-eye-closing-thingie?" Adam chuckled. "I've never heard it described like that before."

He leaned in close to Violet. "You'll need to get out now, sweetie. We're gonna get some clean water to rinse you off." Violet jumped playfully out of the tub and stood patiently.

Adam did close his eyes then and nudged the tub of water to become clean again. Wanting to please him, reality rotated once more and the water was suddenly sud free. He reached in to grab a pitcher that was floating there and filling it up, he let the still warm water wash over the little lamb, carrying the soap bubbles away.

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"Well, what do you call it? Because the pattern I've seen is that you close your eyes, then stuff happens." Ryuuji pointed out, then gave a startled as Violet splashed him when she jumped out of the tub. T-shirt soaked now, Ryuuji was glad he'd thought to wear an old one, and that it was warm today. Surprisingly warm for spring but then again, that's why he had decided to wash and shear Violet today, after all. Pulling the wet cloth away from his body, he tried to wring it out, then gave up on it. Tempted to pull it off completely, he wasn't sure if it was that warm, so he settled instead for grabbing a towel from the chair and wrapping it around his waist. Snagging another towel, he waited patiently for Adam to finish rinsing off Violet so that he could dry her off.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"I don't call it anythin'," said Adam thoughtfully. "It just is. And there's more to it than just closin' my eyes. I kinda have to know what is real and then everythin' changes to equal what I know. That prob'ly doesn't make much sense, but it's the best explanation I can give."

He finished rinsing all the soap off of Violet and tipped the bath over, letting the rest of the water drain away. With a gentle push, he directed her into Ryuuji's arms to be thoroughly dried.

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"Nah, it's fine. Each to their own? I can transform stuff only if I know what it's like and how it works, which is why I couldn't have made the electric shears - I could have created what it looks like, but not the inside so it would have been like an ornament." Ryuuji stopped talking at that point as Violet baa-ed for attention.

With the towel, he patted her dry as best as he could, then reached for another towel to rub her down more briskly, soaking wool dampening the towels fast. When she was as dry as he could get her, he tilted his head at Adam, still rubbing her lightly for the comforting feel of it. "Right - now what?"

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"That makes sense," nods Adam. "Now it's time for the shears. I think maybe I'd better do it if you never have before. You should tell her what we're doin' first so she won't get scared. Let her know that even if it's noisy it won't hurt her and she'll feel great afterwards havin' all that heavy wool off. Then you'll have to hold her up on her back feet so I can reach her belly and everythin'."

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"Okay, right." Patting Violet on top of her head, Ryuuji looked straight into her eyes and told her gently with no sign of self-consciousness, "Hey, Violet, enjoyed your bath? Adam, your father, is going to give you a nice trim now to stop your wool from getting too heavy and tangled. It might be a little noisy, but it won't hurt in the least because he's very gentle and good at this. So don't worry, okay? I'm here and I'll be holding up your back legs to let him work on your stomach, so you'll know that I haven't abandoned."

He stroked her head again, then shifted to get near her back legs, the purple of her wool brighter than usual thanks to the cleansing bath. "Right. We're ready."

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam smiled.

"Well, actually you'll be holdin' up her front legs so she can stand on her back legs, 'cause sheep hate to be upside down. But everythin' else is right."

He watched Ryuuji adjust his grip as he flicked on the shears. They buzzed noisily and he brought them carefully near Violet trying not to startle her. Working quickly, he ran them down all of her legs first as they were the hardest part and the most likely place to get nicked. Then he shaved her stomach, being especially careful near her nipples. Finally, he was able to shear her back taking off the wool in one large purple piece. Adam left the wool on her head alone. It was safer and cuter and gave Ryuuji something to scratch. Job done, he turned off the shears and set them aside. Violet was naked now, purple skin soaking up the warm sun. He gathered up the wool.

"You should keep this," said Adam. "You can card it, and spin it, and knit it into a sweater or something. Nobody else in the world has naturally purple yarn. Even if you don't wanna do it yourself, I'm sure someone would. And you could have a Violet scarf." He looked at the small quantity of wool from the little lamb. "Eventually," he grinned.

[dice-addict.livejournal.com]

"Or I could just make myself a single earmuff." Ryuuji joked, giving Violet a pitying look. She seemed so naked and bare without her coat of thick purple wool, the poor lamb. Impulsively, he put an arm around her and hugged her, then snickered at how her head was still fuzzy.

Casually, letting go and unwrapping the towel from around his waist, he mentioned with a laugh to Adam, "You know, she looks a little like she has a Mohawk now. Purple wool and a mohawk make her a punk lamb - I'm going to have to change her name to Magenta if she gets anything pierced."

His infectious laugh rang out under the clear spring sky, the sun's rays beating down warmly on the two boys, and Violet frisked happily on the lawn. It had been a good morning; hopefully, it would also be a good spring.