The alarm clock buzzed.
Mirio groaned and slapped it with a wet hand—his fingers still pruney from last night's prolonged "bath bonding session." He blinked up at the ceiling, groggy and stiff, and rolled to one side… only to feel his hand sink into something cold and squishy.
"...Lily?"
A soft giggle answered him.
She wasn't lying next to him—she was the bed.
At some point during the night, Lily had melted herself into a mattress-shaped puddle of gel beneath him, curling her slime body just enough to hold him like a waterbed with limbs. Her upper torso had reformed sometime around dawn, and now her smiling face and half-unzipped raincoat were hovering just above his chest. Her soft green slime tentacle-hair dangled lazily on either side of his face like seaweed in a current.
"Morning, Lil—ah, hey—!" he winced as her tentacles wrapped around his arm and pulled him into a cold, squishy hug. His face squelched into her chest again, her cool curves hugging him like cling wrap.
She hummed against his cheek, vibrating with satisfaction. One of her long hair-tentacles curled under the blanket and stroked his side, as if checking to make sure he was still in one piece.
"I'm gonna be late…" he muttered, words muffled by slime boob.
Another tentacle snaked under the covers and wrapped around his thigh.
"Seriously, I've got work—stop that! You're too affectionate in the mornings!"
She didn't listen.
Instead, Lily's feeler tapped the side of his temple, and a sudden flash of thought hit him—her plan. In her mind, she was being helpful: she'd assist him in getting ready. That meant washing him, dressing him, brushing his teeth… and apparently doing all of that while clinging to him like a cold, wet bodysuit.
"Oh no."
By the time he shoved the blanket off, she had already dragged him halfway into the bathroom with her slime tentacles wrapped around his legs like living pants.
She pushed him onto the stool in front of the mirror with a wet squish, her lower body forming a puddle beneath him while her upper half molded behind his back like a clingy girlfriend-shaped backpack.
Her tentacles moved fast.
One of them grabbed his toothbrush. Another opened the faucet. A third somehow unscrewed the cap to the shampoo. She was multitasking with the chaotic energy of a caffeine-fueled octopus.
"Whoa, careful—!" he yelped as cold slime suddenly surrounded his left arm.
She was trying to soap it.
Only, instead of lather, she had absorbed the entire bottle of shampoo, and now it was bubbling up inside her chest. Her right breast bulged outward as the shampoo filled it, tiny fizz bubbles tickling the surface of her translucent skin.
"Lily! You're not supposed to—"
Too late.
The moment she pressed her chest to his back, a geyser of minty bubbles exploded out of her left nipple.
"LILY!" he shouted, drenched in foam.
She paused for a second, as if surprised by her own output, then giggled silently. Her hands slid around his waist and up his chest, lovingly scrubbing his front with the same slippery, bubbly mess. Her tentacle-hair wrapped under his arms and held him still, refusing to let him escape the "cleaning."
He sputtered and choked on foam as one of her slime strands entered his mouth by mistake.
"S-Stop! I'm gonna drown!"
She quickly pulled back—but not before his entire chest and face were soaked. The foam had clung to his hair, ears, eyebrows, and somehow even got under his shirt.
Which was… now missing?
"Wait. Where's my shirt?"
He looked down.
Gone.
The moment she'd started scrubbing, Lily had accidentally absorbed his clothes—again. His work pants were halfway dissolved inside her torso, drifting like laundry in a washing machine. He could see the belt buckle floating just above her belly button.
"Lily!!"
She blinked at him innocently. A second later, she spit out a soggy sock with a sheepish squelch.
"You can't help me get dressed if you keep melting my outfits!" he groaned.
She just pressed her face to his cheek and let out a soft, vibrating hum, like an apology. Her gel-coated body slid over him like a living towel, coating him from neck to knee in squishy warmth.
"I said get ready, not turn into my entire wardrobe!"
Suddenly, he slipped.
With a yelp, he fell backward—right into the tub, which had been filling without him noticing.
Lily squeaked and fell with him.
SPLASH!
In seconds, the water around him turned thick and green as her body expanded again. The shampoo now fully absorbed, her figure ballooned once more—her hips pressing against the tub walls, breasts growing until her raincoat strained with every breath. Her slime-hair curled around the faucet and coiled around his leg.
Mirio tried to rise—but her entire torso was on top of him.
"Not again—Lily, I just bathed last night!"
Her response was to shift her mass forward, letting her breasts settle over his chest like two slow-moving water balloons. His face sank into her cleavage, his cries muffled once again as she gently bobbed up and down, humming.
The bubbles around her sparkled. The bathroom filled with soft splashing sounds, gurgling foam, and one poor man's muffled protests.
"Mmph!"
Eventually, she stopped bouncing, her green eyes locking on his. One long hair-tentacle extended toward the mirror and picked up a tiny tie clip from the shelf—one of the only things she hadn't accidentally absorbed.
She held it up proudly.
"You think that makes up for all this!?" he sputtered when she let him up for air.
Her answer was to press the tie clip into his hand… and then immediately hug him back into her chest.
As her cold body pulsed affectionately around him, and the shampoo continued bubbling out in soft fizz, Mirio gave up.
"...I'm gonna have to start waking up at 4 AM, aren't I?"
Lily just smiled, curled her hair-tentacles tighter around him, and gave his cheek a gentle squeeze with her boob.
This was her version of helping.
And honestly?
It was hard to be mad when your wife smelled like mint and held you like a body pillow made of rain.