Author's Note: A huge thank you to my friend deviantartsbiglover to whom I dedicate this story, and will ever be grateful for putting up with me and introducing me to this fandom.

Feel free to drop a line if you wish to criticize, spotted an error or fancy as much. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Edit: Punctuation, inserted missing words and added phrases. 13/02/2015

"Hey, Buddy?" This was going to be difficult.

"Yes, Syl?" Wander's soothing banjo plucking continued unfaltering, with no rhyme or reason to its melody.

"We've been travelling together... for how long now? Almost as long as we've known each other, right? " You're jibber-jabbering, Sylvia. Get to the point!

But how could she introduce such a sensitive topic into a casual conversation without forcing the issue? For all his amazing bouts of wisdom and insight into other people's feelings, some simple things surprisingly managed to escape Wander's notice. And when that happened it fell on her to point them out.

Useless Outlaw Manual had never prepared her for this.

"An' all spent in the best of companies." A smile and slight tip of the hat, and he was back to focusing on his note plucking.

The lovable softy certainly wasn't helping her face her internal hardships.

Of course she wasn't afraid he would be offended. In her whole career as Wander's Best Pal it was so rare an occurrence she could only count on one hand the times she'd witnessed it. And only one of those had been caused by Sylvia. But since forever -somehow- he'd always had this natural aversion to it...

Ahead of them the path became increasingly shadowed by the tall trees surrounding the dirt road. The empty spaces between the vegetation grew sparser as they made their way further into the mountain.

The previous week an orange blur had jumped on her excitedly, waving a flapping colourful pamphlet on her face, all happy chatter in her ear. The exceptional thing, the advertisement on paper said, was a meteor shower would grace the night sky the day of the festival and what a wonderful thing it was to see it whooshing up above them, all sparkly and beautiful, the games the stands the sidewalk shows all sounded so interesting and- Sylvia can we go?

Proposition accepted, the pair started planning to tourist the Summer Festival held by the Mountain People.

Now on the current planet, Sylvia trekked through the forest with her friend saddled on, in search of the village where the end of summer celebration was to be. And with less than a day's walking to reach the populace, it was time to put plan into practice.

With half a mind's attention to the conversation, the smaller traveller remained reclined against her long neck. An absent humming, brother to the now blossoming piece of music, sounded behind Sylvia.

There was only one approach to this. The subtle approach. And if that didn't work, she'd fall back and regroup. Muster all the guts she could and go in for the kill. No reason for this mission to go wrong.

"Wander. You need to take a bath."

Talk about softening the blow.

The female zbornak certainly wasn't known for her gentle demeanour, and caring tenderness when pummelling her enemies. 'Beat baddies first, ask pertinent questions later.' was her unspoken motto. So, despite her existing patience and understanding- all qualities she'd nurtured under Wander's unknown guidance and role-modelling- sometimes, her fiercer nature carried on even in everyday peaceful life.

Hopefully, Wander would take it well. Problem would be solved, crisis averted. End of story.

Then she could stop being apprehensive just for pointing out an issue. Well. That was what friends did. Never in all the revolving stone marbles, did she want to hurt the little fuzz peanut. She loved him too much. Even if, at times, it meant dishing out a little tough love when he acted stupid.

Instantly she felt Wander stiffen his spine in attention. The music halted for a hiccupping moment and then resumed. No humming this time.

"Oh." There was a silent pause between them. Sylvia began breathing again. Pulling back all her good sense to the forefront she rallied for the next bit.

"You know I'm no stranger to stake outs and covert operations. And most of those were executed alongside big sweaty dudes. We kept out of sight and in close quarters, for days in those conditions- it's nothing special." A rush of contained excitement shot through just remembering it. She missed those thrilling if often smelly old days.

"I don't mind it. Why should I? We're constantly hopping off and on planets everywhere in the Open Region. A missed shower or two never killed anybody."

"But. Buddy? Aren't you a little long overdue?"

With a slight turn of the head, she tried peeking back at him. But because of their opposing positions there was no way to glimpse at his face and current mood. Unconsciously she stopped walking.

"I'm saying this because soon we'll be entering 'civilization' again, and from what I could gather around about these people... Well, they have very strong feelings about cleanliness; not to mention we are their guests." How could she say this? "I don't want you feeling uncomfortable about something we can easily fix."

Banjo tucked inside his hat, Wander climbed down from the saddle. It was so pitiful a figure he made that it made her sorry for having to say anything at all. His slumped shoulders and face, shadowed by the wide green brim of his hat, made her chest twinge regretfully. "I know."

Phew. That was good to hear. Even if he only seemed a little morose, an embarrassed undertone wasn't completely hidden away from his voice.

That made her throat a little harder to swallow through.

Unexpectedly Wander righted himself and searched in her eyes, distressed. "I'm sorry Sylvia. That was real bad of me. Making you say something like that. Must'ave been incredibly hard."

"I... I just. Really really don't like it..."

Oh grop. It wasn't like Wander was a hazardous disease-carrying furry slipper of doom. She guessed it was probably a cultural or physiological thing because he didn't seem to really need to bathe that often. Whatever his species was like Sylvia had never encountered another quite like him.

Rifling through her memories she took notice of how much care he took with his fur. Sometimes he'd wake up with a funny case of bed hair but by breakfast it would be neat and tidy as usual. What's more Wander's remaining fur laid flat and his skirt had always flared and perked with no visible tangles unless it was shedding time. And by that time he seemed glad enough to take a bath. No fuss involved.

So that ruled out water phobia. She'd seen him swimming before and that had never been a problem.

Knowing how much delight her buddy took from meeting others, sharing stories, living new experiences, she would do anything in her power so that this next one wouldn't be ruined. Seeing as these fine folk where a little... uptight.

Their last stop before reaching this planet had been a heavily industrialized resting point; its constant exhaust fumes still clung, darkening their colours to rusty copper and murky blue. Although their hosts were known for their hospitality, dropping in a cloud of dust and grime from their travel sure could put a dent in any new relations.

Glancing ahead of them she spotted a wooden bridge and what looked to be a running body of water. Thank grop. Twitching every now and then had stopped relieving her of the ugly sensation caused by the small patches of oil on her back. Horking stingy ship captains and their leaking maintenance-needy pieces of flying junk. Without a second thought Sylvia headed towards it. With her smaller companion trailing behind half-heartedly.

"It's fine. No harm done." She grinned warmly to reassure Wander, not quite containing the anticipation of finally getting all the dirt off of her. "By the way, when was the last time?"

"Les' see..." The counting on his furry fingers kept going up. "Uh... Under a standard year ago?" Not sure about his answer the nomad began his calculations anew.

The creek lay a few meters away when the zbornak turned abruptly. "What!"

Not wanting to spook her friend with any more outbursts she composed herself quickly before continuing rationally. "Well, everyone has different needs, but. Wander that can't be too good for you." By the end of the sentence her concern slipped unchecked into her voice.

Once again, his species was a little mysterious. At least to her it seemed. Besides the little bits and pieces that would come up in conversation with Wander, she didn't pry much. But who was she to say what was or wasn't alright? Take zbornaks, for example, and their not-going-to-the-bathroom for 5 months. Of course it would look strange to an outsider. And her reaction might just be that. Culture shock.

"Wander. Are you. Afraid of water?" Perhaps she'd been too hasty discarding it as a phobia.

"You really think so? But..." Wander scrunches up his face looking inwards for the reasons why. Seeming to find an answer he starts hesitantly."Well, it's just such messy business. You're scrubbed down hard, your skin is all raw and tingly, and I can never get my fur to dry properly for ages. Gets all waterlogged an' uncomfortable no matter how many towels I rub on it. I don't mind a lil' dip, tho. But a proper ol' bath? Nah."

And here she thought he might have been traumatized as a child and that was why he was having such a hard time. Because he associated it with negative experiences. "So you just don't bathe more often because you're lazy." She said in her most deadpan voice.

"Maybe?" the cutesy shrug and wacky face only made the situation even more absurd.

Exasperated and not the littlest bit amused she hardened her self and applied her no-nonsense voice."Wander. You will take a bath."

"NO."

And then he continued in a considerably smaller voice. "It took me an awful long time to get my fur the way I like it."

If big babies couldn't be reasoned with what else could she do? Fast like lightning Sylvia picked him up with the intent of dipping him into the creek. However, Wander's constitution took the better of her; slipping down her hands ironically, like a wet bar of soap.

"Syl Syl! Please it's awful!" A bystander dropping on them would sooner think he was closer to begging for his life than dodging out of a bath.

Turning left, jumping right, ducking under her legs, the nomad only missed doing combo moves in his effort to get away, so similar where his movements to one of Lord Hater's video games.

By now the relentless zbornak was working up a sweat, bypassing any previous directives of being gentle and simply wishing to drop him unceremoniously into the water. The following sense of accomplishment and satisfied smirk would be all worth it.

Wander was being impossible! He scuttled every which way just to avoid her grabbing swipes. Even getting low on all fours. The image rendered him a surprisingly fiercer look, fur skirt jutting up like a scorpion's tail.

Soon both were tired enough their movements slowed and chests heaved. The little menace went to grab Sylvia's tail and held on for dear life.

Frowning a little in disbelief because she only had to flex her tail to the front to reach him, she halted. Okay. This had escalated rapidly.

They stared each other down for what couldn't have amounted to more than a handful of seconds. No next moves shined through. Preparing to reel him in, her tail had just started to curve when she heard hissing. Wander was hissing at her feeling cornered and frightened as a cat about to be tossed off the edge of a cliff.

"Oh flarf hangling frump scratcher! That's it. I Give Up." Taking only the time to pinch her nose Sylvia promptly jumped into the creek.

A few bubbles made it to the top of the water before both broke the surface. Despite the loud gasping that resulted, it took a long time before either got their breathing back to normal. Snorting lightly to clear the last of the water, Sylvia peeked through her limp magenta comb in search of her friend.

What a sight the two of them made. She, a big blob of blue with its wick wet and floppy; and he, a skinny orange clump of unmanageable fur all runny from the excess water.

Snickers rose muffled into full blown laughter. There was nothing else funnier than their current appearance, which was more than enough to dispel the horrible tension from before. And nothing else mattered. In fact Wander was laughing so hard he'd fallen back into the water, big bubbles pushing upwards as he sank quickly.

Without a second thought, Sylvia scooped him up and steered them both into dry land. The trip took longer than expected because none had ceased in their mirth. So they padded through the water, zigzagging, drunkenly happy and relieved.

On firm ground, their giggles slowly died down into quiet companionship.

After sunbathing on the grass for a few hours, the twin suns belonging to the local planetary system had reached high enough their reddish yellow glare peeked through the green canopy.

And now that they were both clean enough and back to their respective colourations they would continue on their journey. No shocked whispers or indignant glances would follow them as they crossed the gates opening to the Mountain People's village. And the same could be said for any hard feelings trailing behind after their brief scuffle. Because they trusted each other enough that a bop in the head would be understood when they acted silly.

The peaceful atmosphere stretched on while they rested, enjoying the view provided by the calming drifting blue clouds and the ancient patterned swirls in the bark of trees.

"I was reading on the Mountain People last night, 'cus me sleep shutters came in late, an' did you know they worship this god who helped them reach...-" Once Wander's excitement exploded there was no putting a lid on it.