Masozi is used to washing himself in rivers and really doesn’t care much about the temperature. He steps into the shower and then stands there.

”…Now what?”

He is not going to have to get in the shower with Masozi to demonstrate how bathing works. He refuses.

"You make sure your entire body is wet and then take the soap and rub it all over your body?"

“…Okay?”

Masozi finds the soap, and - does his best to rub it all over his body. This is somewhat nontrivial since, one, it’s SLIPPERY, and two, he keeps getting distracted by looking for mals.

...he's going to have to get in the shower with Masozi to demonstrate how bathing works. Fuck.

Meng Yao is laughing internally.

"...do you mind if I show you?"

- why is that possibly a thing he would mind. 

"No?" 

Lan Xichen strips out of his clothes, neatly folds them, and puts them on the sink.

"a-Yao, do you have guard duty covered?" he says to procrastinate.

"Yes."

Then he's going to-- step into the water. 

Wow. There is really not a lot of space in this shower. He is suddenly acutely conscious of this fact.

Masozi steps out of the shower so he can give Lan Xichen space to demonstrate. 

(He does not seem at all self-conscious about his own nakedness, and is watching with curiosity and no sign of any other feelings.) 

Lan Xichen tries to demonstrate showering without:

(a) dying of embarrassment about the fact that Masozi is looking at him
(b) worrying a lot about whether Masozi thinks he looks cute, the years of mana-building have done wonders for his abs and ass but what do people even look like in Malawi, he has no idea, what if they're one of those countries that has weird beauty standards
(c) thinking about how pretty Masozi is and how gracefully he moves
(d) thinking about how beautiful the contrast would be between his pale skin and Masozi's darker skin
(e) fantasizing about Masozi still not getting it and then Lan Xichen has to demonstrate it in a more thorough and hands-on sort of way
(f) having any sort of embarrassing physical signs of the above thoughts

"See, you want to work up a lather like this," he says. "In the outside world we have special face cleanser but here you just use soap, you can make acne medication by the time you're a junior if you're vain. I-- don't know how hair care works for black people, you should probably keep your head shaved? If not we can ask some of the Anglos. You want to clean under your armpits because those get smelly." And so on and so forth.

Masozi is deeply oblivious to all of this. 

"....Okay. I can do that." And he waits for Lan Xichen to have rinsed off all the soap - still watching this process - so that he can step back into the shower and repeat it for himself. 

Is Lan Xichen going to have to demonstrate cleaning his genitals in front of the cute boy.

...He absolutely is.

Fuck.

The things he does for this enclave. 

At least he's not American, Lan Xichen hears Americans do very weird things to their penises and he has no idea about appropriate care for those.

He is going to die inside while maintaining a calm, cheerful smile on the outside like absolutely nothing unusual is happening. 

Masozi does not think that anything unusual is happening! .

..Well, aside from the part where people here care a weird amount about him putting enough soap on all the parts of his body? That's kind of baffling? It seems weird that his genitals could possibly smell in an offensive way when they're very covered up by clothing most of the time? 

(Masozi's sense of smell is, perhaps, very much adjusted to the environment he's spent most of his life in, which is different from this one.) 

He waits his turn, and then soaps and washes himself, genitals included. While keeping a lookout for mals, because Lan Xichen seems kind of distracted or something. He doesn't see any, though, so that's good. 

And now Masozi is clean and smells much better. 

"Here's the towel to dry yourself off with," Meng Yao says, "Xichen can help you if you have trouble."

Traitor.

Masozi feels like drying himself with the towel should not be complicated! 

...However, he can't seem to figure out how to get his back dry without either doing very awkward contortions or dropping the towel on the wet floor. 

Fine. Okay. Lan Xichen is going to dry his back for him.

...it's a very nice back. 

He is scrupulously careful about not touching any parts that aren't strictly necessary to dry Masozi off.

Masozi appreciates the help! 

He puts his clothes back on promptly, once he's dry. No point in sitting around with more mal-vulnerable uncovered skin for any longer than he has to. 

"Thank you," he says, very politely. "....Do I smell better now?" 

He breathes in and does not think those thoughts. "Yes, you do."

"You should wear new clothes every day. You'll learn a laundry spell soon in lab, until then one of the Shanghai allies does everyone's laundry. Tonight you're going to Nie Huaisang's room to get your clothes tailored so they fit. Jiang Cheng will make sure you know about the next freshman shower trip. --If you stick around with Shanghai, people are going to judge us based on what you look like. It's unfair but it's the way that it is. So we need to make sure you look presentable."

“- No, that makes sense. I talked to the girl with the hat affinity and she explained it all.”

Masozi stops. Frowns. 

“…I don’t have any other clothes than this to wear tomorrow though. Except my old clothes but I was going to make some of them into a bag for the mal grubs so I can give back the container.” 

"I collected all of Song Lan's clothes from the indie who was carrying them in. Luckily for you, his clothes weren't in his pack." He hands Masozi the bag. 

Subtext: we're investing in you, don't fuck this up.

Masozi is not missing that this is a huge resource investment! He’s still very confused about why they’re bothering but he’ll do his best to make it a good decision on their part. 

“Are we going to lunch now?" he asks after a moment. (He did not eat anything at breakfast and he could totally make it through until dinner if he had to, but also there's SO MUCH food here and it's so varied and good and he's looking forward to it.)