19 Tiara Discovers Her Femininity

Tiara fumbled and twisted inside the bathroom, yelling at the top of her lungs. After what seemed like one year of getting soaked, her fingers finally grazed the metal of the shower tap. Groaning in pain, she twisted it close.

"Ha...ha...ha…" Her hair stuck all over her face like spiderwebs. Some even got stuck inside her mouth. Gagging, she used her only usable hand and tried to move all the hair out of her face. She looked down and pulled at her shirt which now clung to her curves, accentuating them like crazy. She stared at her unfamiliar looking chest.

"Oh no…" She felt them slowly. "I have boobs…" Tears formed at the corners of her eyes and she bawled her eyes out, wanting to hit her head against the wall. But she felt so stuck, so stuck in herself! So constrained!

She quietened down after a while and lolled her head down, staring at her thighs and her chest again. "I didn't want to grow up...and when I did, I totally missed it." She blinked her eyes and wiped the tears away before realising that it didn't matter.

She was covered in drops of water anyway.

Still her eyes were red and she figured that adults shouldn't cry so she held it in. What could she do now? She can't get 8 years of her life back, So it's probably best that she uses what she has now. Like Doctor Zha said...figure out what exactly your problem is, then come to solve it.

Percy was tinkling in the kitchen and Tiara just lay back against the ceramic of the tub and listened to him work, silently and patiently waiting for him to finish so that he could come and pick her up. By the time 5 minutes passed, she started to shiver.

She used her other arm and rubbed herself warm, but it didn't work. Her teeth started to chatter against each other. And that was when Percy's knife paused midway from the cutting board and he looked up.

"What's that sound-Oh shit...I totally forgot about her!" He dropped the knife onto the counter and rushed to the washroom to check on her. He clasped the edges of the door frame and stared at the crying, shivering girl.

She was a total mess.

Her red eyes looked up at him in a meek smile. "What took you so long…" Percy's face was creased in concern. He shook his head and rushed forward before slipping his hands under her and effortlessly lifting her up. Tiara closed her eyes and tried to calm down her tap-dancing teeth. She let the warmth of his arms spread into her.

Finally, he plopped her onto the bed and searched the cupboards for a towel. And surely, there were two of them folded neatly in one corner. Nurse Hazel really didn't miss out on any detail. Percy grabbed it and brushed it against her head, cursing to himself all the time.

"Why didn't you call me or something?" he said between strokes while she calmly sat and let him do whatever he was doing. "I didn't want you to come and see that the shower was off so that you could turn it on again."

Percy's hands froze and he pulled back to look at her. "Is that really what you think of me?"

She nodded innocently. He sighed and returned to brushing her head, mumbling more profanity to himself. By the time he had made her head the closest thing to a desert and brought a heater in front of her, the pot on the stove had boiled so he rushed to get that.

Tiara looked at him. Inside, she was really confused. "I hate you, Percy. Just wait until we get inside the game...I'll cultivate much better than you." She frowned and realised that she didn't know one thing.

"Percy?"

He turned around from the counter and lifted his head. "Yeah?" He brought out two whit plates and lay it on the table. "What's cultivation?" Tiara asked quietly.

"Ah. You're talking about the game. It's somewhat related to attaining more power. You clear stages of different levels of experience and finally become a God in the system. It's all centred on Qi. Something that-" he turned to look back at her confused face. Her jaw was slightly parted open and her eyes stared at him with an appalled look. "What?" was all she could say.

Percy sighed, putting down his fork and clutching the edge of the table. Hmm. If he was a 12 year old how would he explain this to her?

"See. You know playhouses in parks? Where you climb up a ladder to reach the top and take the amazing slide ride back down? Or even see the whole park from up there?"

Tiara smiled. Finally something she understood. "Yep!"

"Okay so imagine a ladder in that play house."

She lifted her head and closed her eyes like Percy was some magician and she was waiting to do some magic on her. He couldn't find words for a second. Clearing his throat, he started again. "So you climb each rung of the ladder. In cultivation, climbing each rung is the same as achieving one stage. You have to put your energy to climb each rung and also push away any of the other kids who are trying to climb before you."

Tiara gave out a shudder. "i hate it when that happens. Especially if I go on weekends." Percy tried to hold back a laugh. "Now say you have achieved all the stages, this takes a lot of hard work. If you don't know how, you find a Teacher. That's what we're going to do in Zirlock. Now...when you are finally at the top, you can see the entire park in front of you, right?"

Tiara smiled wider, nodding. "It's the…"

"Best feeling in the world," they both said together. Tiara opened her eyes and met his smiling ones. She laughed. "Now I get it. Thanks for telling me Percy."

He shrugged. "No problem." He took their plates and walked over to the bed before placing one plate next to her table. She expected to be fed but when she saw him leave a fork on the table and start eating his own food, she deflated. Hesitantly, she reached out for the fork and dug into the omelette. "You took this much time to make an omelette?" she asked sadly, playing the fork around the edges of the egg.

Percy looked up through his dark eyelashes, chewing on his breakfast. "First try it out." He had come to learn that she loved meat. So when he made that day's breakfast, he couldn't feel anything but guilty if he made just omelette.

She suspiciously, tore a piece of the omelette and put it in her mouth. After chewing around for a while, her eyes sparkled. "Omigosh! You hid meat inside it!"

Percy smirked and raised his fork. "First class bacon."

Tiara grinned and dug in. "Best omelette ever!"

Percy leaned forward and clicked his tongue, placing his fork over hers, blocking her from tearing the omelette off. "You mean best chef ever, right?"

"Tch…" she lifted her fork and pushed his hand away before finishing the omelette in happy silence. After a while of eating, Tiara put her fork down.

"Hmm...I wanted to ask."

Percy nodded, focused on his phone.

"Why did you get so fired up when I degraded males?" she bit the insides of her lip. There was a time when she once feared to ask questions like this. But the countless encounters with Goren and his minions only taught her to believe in her conviction even more.

Boys, are in fact, immature, dumb and annoying. There wasn't changing them. Though, looking at Percy, he was more calm, reserved and sensible like. Out of all the things she had said, why did he get fired up on that fact? It really puzzled her.

Percy on the other hand, turned around and looked away. "No reason."

Tiara pulled a piece of his hari, hard. He yelled and grabbed her hand at the back of his head and pried it away. "What's your problem!"

"Tell me why you got so fired up! I deserve to know, as the victim of your actions!"

Percy frowned. "You sure do know your stand for a twelve year old."

Tiara raised an eyebrow. For the first time, she played the adult card. "I'm 20." Percy broke out laughing. "Right right." When he calmed down, he looked at her.

"Fine, I'll tell you. But you have to give me an answer for something too."

Tiara internally shook her head. 'I knew he would ask this. It's all give-and-take for him.'

"Fine," she lifted her head and extended her hand. "If you don't fulfill your part, I'll torture you when we dive into the game."

The side of Percy's lips tilted up as he shook her small, soft baby-like hands. "Back at you." He wondered what kind of tortures he could use on her…

"It's a deal then," she shook his hand once more.

"Deal."