Skylar sat in Emily’s room, still wearing the pants and extra shirt from John and Emily. While John and Emily were whispering about how to handle everything they stumbled upon Skylar was tracing their fingers along their new skin. Feeling the little hairs, and the pores scattered across this new surface.
“What happens when your skin gets too dry?” Skylar asked. John and Emily both looked over from their spots on Emily’s bed. “Isn’t water and moisture important for your body?”
“Yes. In some ways, we get a lot of our water intake from food. And somehow that helps keep our skin from drying out.” John said. He looked over at Emily who jumped in where he left off.
“When your diet isn’t enough, or when the air is too dry, lotion helps. Because dry skin can crack and bleed which leads to problems.” Emily reached into a small bin on her nightstand, fingers moving across the tubes and bottles before holding a pink one aloft. Most lotions and a lot of body washes have some kind of moisturizer to prevent dry skin problems.”
Skylar rolled the desk chair closer, taking the lotion from Emily. They read the ingredients, though researching them still didn’t fully answer questions.
“Does your skin feel dry?” Emily asked.
“By Qwortarian standards, yes.” Skylar looked up, gently shaking the lotion. “And it certainly feels dry in compared to my mouth and all that spit.” Skylar licked their lips again, a new habit as a human. “But you be the judge.” They held their hand out in front of Emily and John.
He rolled his eyes, but took Emily’s wrist and brought it up to Skylar’s hand. The two of them ran their fingers across the back of Skylar’s hand. They giggled, which lead to John and Emily to chuckle a little too.
“Ticklish huh?” John smirked as he put his hand back in his lap. “But your hand doesn’t feel dry to me.”
“I agree, but feel free to use some lotion.” Emily rubbed her own hands together. “It keeps skin soft and it smells like strawberries.”
Skylar squirt some of the pink liquid into their palm before rubbing their hands together. As they moved to the backs of their hands, they traced their fingertips along their knuckles, frowning for a moment before looking back up at John and Emily. “How come this doesn’t make me giggle, but it did when you two were touching my hand?”
“Some quirk of the brain prevents you from tickling yourself.” John said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Weird.” Skylar muttered before looking down again, marveling how the lotion had been absorbed by the skin.
Word count: 447
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