"You did a really good and fast job of that..." Nathan stands up. "I'll have to do a really good job next time for you."
"Mmhm." Jordan finishes drying her hands and reenters the room. "You could place the tapes better." Jordan lowers her hand and presses her fingers against one. "They're a bit uncomfortable like this." She reaches over and presses her finger against Nathan's tapes, "study how I taped yours. The bottom two tapes are pointing downward, and the top two wipes are pointing up."
Nathan looks up at her.
"...hey, baby diapers only have two tapes; how'd you know to do that?"
"Oh, uh..." Jordan puts her finger to her chin. "...I think my mom's friends have had conversations about elderly people that I'd been listening to. I dunno, it just was what made sense."
"Well..." Nathan grabs the cup. "Let's get back to it, then."
After the two of them take turns with each cup full, they start passing it back and forth on each glug, until all they can do is sip away at it, until the cup is left sideways on the bedside table, and the two of them are left lying on their backs in random positions on the bed.
"Blehhhhh...." Jordan moans.
"Do you have to pee yet?" Nathan asks.
"Not yet. ...how about you?"
"Me neither. But it won't be long."
After the point that they can at least sit up, they wait out the next several minutes on their knees at the head of the bed; gazing out the window.
"I'd rip away all these branches to get a better view, but we need all the fruit that's growing on them..." Says Nathan. "All I can make out is some stoney paths winding around some grassy hills."
"Yeah and I can see some little streams of water. Oof..." Jordan adds. "The grass looks... recently mowed, doesn't it?"
"I think so..."
"Everything looks really well maintained and trimmed down there."
"You talking about the yard, or yourself?" Nathan looks over at her.
"What? Oh." Jordan laughs, lightly punching his arm. "Anyway, this house has been completely silent, but given that we seem to be on the third floor, an estate this big would require a whole maintenance crew."
"Maybe everybody's off today. Or like, they were just getting the house ready for their kidnapping ceremony." Nathan speculates with her.
Jordan contemplatively taps her fingers on the bars.
"...and maybe it'll start to grow back, if whoever's in charge of it now isn't going to keep maintaining it."
"So you ARE talking about yourself." Nathan nods his head at her.
Jordan flicks him in the ear.
"Point is, we should always be listening carefully to any noises from outside."
"So we shouldn't play any loud music or put on headphones." Nathan jokes.
Jordan slides down onto her butt.
"Boy ...I'm not going to listen to any music for probably a few weeks, until that stack of diapers is taken care of." She says, looking at it. "And that's assuming we can get back home when that happens."
"Yeah..." Nathan looks deeply out the window. ".............fuck."
They explore the room some more, and see that one cabinet has a collection of 20 or so books. Five minutes later, Nathan is laying back in the bed, while Jordan is sitting with her legs crossed on the floor.
"What are you reading?" Nathan asks nonchalantly, flipping a page.
"Some boilerplate Reader's Digest collection; 'Mysteries of the Unexplained'." Jordan answers. "What are you reading?"
"'How We Got Here: The 70's' by David Frum." Nathan replies. "One of those ones where the guy probably really wanted to write a book, so as soon as he came up with an acceptable premise, he put together a bunch of roundabout ways to back up a totally random history interpretation, just so he can make a book about it. It's pretty boring."
"This one is pretty boring too..."
The two of them close their books, get up, and return them to the bookshelf. They look at the selection.
"You know it's interesting how like, these books aren't all that fancy; a lot of them are pretty thrift-store-ish." Nathan observes.
"Yeah that is weird, like whoever lived in this particular room didn't personally care to come off as high-class, but had to maintain outward appearances. Or something."
"That one looks interesting..." Nathan points.
"It looks like the most interesting one on the shelf." Jordan adds.
Looking at each other, Nathan grabs the book and they walk over to the chest at the foot of the bed.
"I'll get a pillow," Nathan says.
"No need." Jordan turns around and pokes the back of her diaper.
"Oh yeah."
They sit down on the chest, open the book, and take turns reading it aloud to each other.
Four pages in, Jordan begins her narration,
"'For all that, the nearest approach to a collective dwelling place among other animals was a long way from the most'... hey, could you do this paragraph? I have to go now."
"Alright..." Nathan positions the book closer to himself, "'the most rudimentary urban community. Rather, it is along a quite different evolutionary line, represented by the social insects, that one finds the closest approach to both 'civilized life', and the city.'" Nathan looks over at her. "Are you done yet?"
"Almost..." Jordan takes a breath. "It's kind of nerve wracking to do this..." Her legs are spread forward stiffly; her hand on her upper-thigh.
Nathan absentmindedly stares at her. Taking a peek over, Jordan notices that he's staring at her breasts, but he doesn't seem to realize it himself.
"Okay I'm finished." She emits to him.
Standing up and collecting the wipes along with another diaper from the package, Nathan asks,
"So I can do it on the carpet?"
"Well," Jordan finds a sheet in a dresser drawer, "your skills aren't quite as up-to-par, so let's give you a safety net." She spreads the sheet--folded twice over--onto the floor, and aligns her bottom down with it.
Jordan's diaper unfolded, Nathan applies the first wipe to the space under her navel, as she had done to him, then takes it on a quick slide down to the bottom. The second wipe he takes into the crevices; starting at the top and pushing it down to the right, then using a fresh spot of the wipe, starting at the same location, and going down.
"Next time, on the second swipe, start at the *bottom* and go up. And use at least two fingers for better traction." Jordan instructs, giggling a little.
"How would you know? You didn't say you had any nieces..." Nathan chuckles, taking another wipe to her bottom.
"Yeah well I wet the bed through all of elementary school." Jordan's darts her eyes around the ceiling.
"I see..." Nathan signals for her to raise her legs, as he begins refreshing the curves around her bottom. "so you've dealt with diapers before too? I mean, after being a baby?"
"The pull-up kinds, yeah." She answers, looking down at Nathan's diaper. "Wait what do you mean 'me too'? You did too?"
"When I was 15, I was immobilized for four months."
"Ouw..."
"Hey hate to leave you hanging," Nathan says as he lets Jordan lower her legs, "but I've actually got to go right now." He spreads out his legs a bit. "And I don't want to waste any time."
"Well alright, lazybutt." Jordan sits up. She stands up... except she can't. Every attempt to rise to her feet leads her plummeting back down directly onto her diaper. She eyes the fresh diaper, and she enjoys the odd sensation of her hand spazzing out every time she reaches for it.
His urination complete, Nathan curves back in and complete's Jordan's change.
"It was a little too tight this time." Jordan sits back up. "The tapes are probably gonna come off if I move around too much, and *you'll* probably have to re-place them."
"I see..." Nathan once again studies the craftswomanship of his own diaper as he washes his hands, until Jordan pushes him in the chest down onto his back.
"Your turn!" Jordan says, sliding the sheet underneath him. As she starts untaping, Nathan asks something of her.
"Could you hand me the City in History?" Nathan looks longingly into her eyes.
"Sure..." She crawls over and hands to him.
"I just want to avoid getting my thing in your way." He opens up a page.
"Oh!" She chuckles, finishing off the tapes. "Alright."
"'The social functions of the beehive, the termitary, and the ant-hill--structures often imposing in size, skillfully wrought--have indeed so many resemblances to those of the city that I shall put off further observations till the city comes into view. Even the division of labor, the differentiation of castes, the practice of war, the institution of royalty, the certain 'and empires' millions of years before they coalesced in the ancient city. But note: there is no question here of biological continuity. Rather, this is an example of parallelism and convergence.'"
"When was this one published?" Jordan asks. "It sounds and looks like something mid-20th century."
"Auuhhh..." Nathan flips back. "1961."
"I'm surprised I've never heard of Lewis Mumford before." Jordan's gaze fixated on the spine facing up at her. "I really like historical shit with personality."
"Exactly! I don't think any of his other books are in here..." Jordan bites his lip. "Okayokayokay, I need to not talk to you or think about you right now." He said jitterishly, getting back to his place.
"H-alright." Jordan finishes on his slightly-risen anatomy.
-
Having yet to regain a nerve to drink more water, Nathan and Jordan have taken to doing a bit of working out. Nathan doing pull-ups on the bathroom doorframe, and Jordan doing sit-ups in the middle of the floor.
"Hoohhh, I really wish I had a bra on for this." Jordan flicks her right boob, and spins her hair back into place as she resumes the exercise.
"I'm glad they took me out of state to trap me naked in a room with an open window." Nathan catches his breath. "It was almost freezing where I was."
"Ujhhh..." Jordan collapses apart into the carpet. "I'm already bored enough to murder the universe."
"Hey you know, I didn't think to look out the bathroom window..." Nathan says, peeking out it. "I can see a white dirt driveway."
"Really?" Jordan comes up behind him. "And like, some potted plants; a hedge; a little more sidewalk. So if we hear a car staring, we know where to look."
-
"What time do you think it is?" Nathan asks, as they're both just pacing around the room.
"Probably 1pm." Jordan looks around the walls. "I just now realized there's no clock anywhere on the wall."
"I'll look for a watch." Nathan stretches his neck and dives into the dresser.
"Me too." Jordan starts looking around the room.
Twenty five minutes had passed, and the two of them had found three wristwatches; finding none of which stopped them until they had turned the contents of the room in their entirety upside-down.
"One says 5:20 and isn't moving, another says 2:15, and another says 12:50." Nathan says out loud.
"Let's go with the last one." Jordan grabs it and clicks it around an arm of the bed.
"Let's throw the broken one away." Nathan goes up to the window. "Let's see what we hear when it lands!"
Jordan and him stick their ears in carefully as he holds the watch out the window and lets go. They hear a slight, sudden noise, but they really can't make it out.
-
35 pages in to The City in History, Jordan hands her half to Nathan and stands up.
"So... I have to poop."
Nathan looks at her diaper, then looks over into the bathroom.
"Just do it on the floor, and dispose of it however you can. That'll be the ultimately cleanest result. And you should be able to do the cleanup yourself."
"Yeah..." Jordan sighs. "I look forward to doing this for several weeks..." She slumps over to the bathroom. She reaches down and untapes the diaper.
"Brilliant, because you aren't planning to *use* the diaper, you have the freedom to take it off. Or something." Nathan speculates.
"Yeah..." Jordan shuts the door.
Nathan skims the next few pages as he hears tape-ripping noises from the door, then a long silence, until eventually,
"EEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Jordan screams.
"What is it?" Nathan puts down the book and looks over at the door.
"MY WHOLE BODY SPAZZED OUT, AND I SPREAD IT ALL OVER THE FLOOR AND MY LEG! EEUUUUHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
"Shit!!" Nathan puts down the book with fury.
"LITERALLY!!" Jordan screams.
"I KNOW, RIGHT?!?" Nathan starts violently pacing the room.
"YEAH, TOTALLY!!!" Jordan replies, grabbing an entire roll of paper towels and wetting it in the sink.
"YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS, RIGHT?"
"YEAH I DO, RIGHT???"
"POOPING OUR PANTS, HERE WE COME!!"
"I HOPE WE HAVE ENOUGH FUCKING WIPES!!"
"I HOPE THAT FUCKING FRUIT FUCKING DIGESTS WELL!!"
"THAT MAGICAL ENTITY HAS SOME SERIOUS FUCKING ISSUES!!"
"MAGICAL ENTITY, IF YOU'RE LISTENING, GO FUCK YOURSELF!!"
"GO FUCK YOURSELF, MAGICAL ENTITY!!"
-
20 minutes later, with Nathan sticking his face through the bars, breathing the outside air as much as he can, Jordan comes back out.
"I guess since I now am planning to use the diaper, I can't touch it anymore." Jordan explains.
"Okay..." Nathan takes a breath. "You cleaned the floor thoroughly, right?"
"Yes. And I showered my legs." Jordan answers.
Nathan nods, holding his breath, and runs to the bathroom, nabs the diaper, and slams the door.
"Now please put it back on quickly." Jordan winces. "I still have more do to..."
"Okayokay." Nathan comes up behind her and hastily tapes it up. He then retrieves the wipes from the bathroom, and kneels down by the sheet, as she watches Jordan grunting and making fists with her up at her chest.
"This is really hard this is really hard..." Jordan catches her breath, and sheds a tear.
"...oh yeah, you've never done this before, have you?" Nathan asks.
"...oh yeah, you have...." Jordan rolls her eyes, tries to push some more.
"Try to do it all in as few pushes as possible; it'll make it a lot more comfortable, and easy to clean." Nathan instructs.
Jordan nods, with her eyes closed.
-
The change lasting 23 wipes and 9 minutes, the diapered 20-somethings found themselves both pushing their faces between the bars of the window as far as they could.
"Oi, I'm going right now." Nathan says.
"I'm glad we're burning through these quickly." Jordan comments.
Just a moment after Jordan finishes taping up Nathan's fresh diaper, he stands up and realizes,
"I could actually go a little number two right now. Should I?"
"Well..."
"I mean we'd get through the diapers quicker this way. I promise I'll do it for you, too."
"...livin' on the edge." Jordan shrugs. "But first..." She heads to the bathroom and looks around the bathroom--the one place they've not yet thoroughly searched. "Please... please... YES!"
She comes out with an electric shaver.
"Ahh, good idea." Nathan says, as Jordan abruptly yanks his diaper right off. "Do you think my hand would let me do it...?"
"I don't care, I'll do a better job anyway!" She pushes him onto the sheet.
"Just how old *are* your nephews...?" He giggles.
"One and two-and-a-half; I'm talking about MYSELF, I've obviously done this way more than you." She turns the shaver on.
"Can you hand me the city in history?" Nathan looks over at it.
"Getting hard will actually be convenient for me here!" She dismisses him, getting started.
After both the removal, the messing, and then the cleaning, Jordan drops the dirty diaper into the trash can along with the others.
"So two really bad-smelling diapers are in the trash... what are we gonna do about them?"
Nathan comes in, ties the bag up, and walks into the bedroom.
What needs to be noted--despite not having been mentioned to the reader up until this point--is that on the opposite side of the room from the bathroom, is a door to a large walk-in closet (though it still doesn't have any clothes; just various boxes and bedding), and a small window up above the shelves. Nathan gets a wooden box, stands atop it, and gradually works the trash back through the iron bars, and lets it drop out the window. He and Jordan listen, and all they can hear is a vague noise of it hitting the ground.
-
A few more hours have passed; the smell has floated out of the room; Nathan has had another wetting episode; Jordan has had another three; and the two are on 65 pages into The City in History, their spirits ablaze with narrator passion.
"'Both the citadel and its ramparts may have begun in a more humble way...' hey Jordan, you know how I only had to go number two a little bit?" Nathan says to her, squinting and smiling in frustration.
"I'm ready for more." Jordan places the bookmark and put the book down. She undoes Nathan's tapes. "I'm gonna put it on you all loose, so it won't have to squish as much."
"Good idea." Nathan smiled, a little relieved. He spread out his legs, did the thing... and then immediately slipped, falling on his butt, and compulsively rubbing it against the floor for a few seconds.
"GLAGGHB!!" Jordan shrieks. "Those spazzes are scary-looking!"
"God. Fucking. Dammit." Nathan shakes his drooped head. "They just don't let us take any shortcuts..."
Midway through the change, Nathan says,
"At least this is pretty easy to get used to. I'm already starting to not be too bothered by it."
"Mhm? And you know what that means?" Jordan says.
He tilts up his head and looks at himself.
"Oh yeah... whatever."
At the end, Jordan just let it be all stickey-outey and taped the diaper over Nathan's erection.
"Hey guess what?" Nathan says.
"What?"
"I'm ready to pee again."
Jordan rolls her eyes, making sure not to touch anything with her hands.
"Well, glad to be using the diapers faster!"
"Exactly!"
"..."
The two of them stare at each other for a few seconds.
Nathan looks at her breasts.
"Uh... I have to be soft to do it properly."
"Oh." Jordan turns around.
-
The sun has almost completely fallen. Jordan attempted to take a shower, but her body wouldn't let her. They realized that one must bathe the other, but then Jordan wet, and they felt they didn't have the energy anymore to do something like a bath for the time being.
Nathan tapes up his companion with rapidly advancing skill.
Standing up, Jordan picks up the package, sits on the chest, and examines it.
"Wow, you know, this says it's a 20 pack, and there's only... 6 left!"
"We've gone through 14 of these in less than a day?" Nathan comes back with washed hands.
"This won't take that long then!" Jordan says excitedly, as they both look at the door.
They count: the diaper stack is 3 packages wide, and 9 packages tall.
"We can assume we can get through an entire package every 24 hours." Nathan concludes. "So we should be done with this in 27 days." He sits down on the bed.
"Well actually, 26 days." Jordan explains. "Because once the last package has been released, we can just ignore it." She also sits down on the bed.
"Oh yeah." Nathan replies. "And THAT'S assuming I can't just bust the door open as soon as there's enough room. Not that it's likely I'll be able to..." He scoots up into the bed and lays down.
"If we try really hard, we should be able to get through a lot more than just one package a day." Jordan speculates. "We did 14 in around 11 hours, so we could potentially do around 25 every 24 hours, if we get up in the middle of the night." She also scoots up into the bed and lays down.
Nathan swings the cover up over Jordan and himself, and the two of them snuggle in to each other.
His arms wrapped around her, Nathan strokes Jordan's back with his fingers, as she squeezes onto him in return; their legs mingle between one another; their breath timed across the other's face.
Nathan slides his hand down her back, to the top of her bottom; sticking his fingers into her diaper in doing so.
Jordan loosens her grip on him a little, and takes a breath.
"I dunno..." she whispers, "we're not very sanitary right now..."
Nathan smiles in her face.
"We can wash whatever we want in the bathtub." He whispers back.
Jordan immediately takes a big breath of air and her eyes widen, her arms and legs clench around him strongly. She nods rapidly.
Nathan guides his hands around to her front and untapes her diaper, pulling it away from her legs; she feels her way around and does the same for him. He lifts himself up on top of her. He tries to get a little higher up, but Jordan won't release her grip around him. He slides down a little bit and spreads her legs up. Jordan keeps letting her legs drop back down, but when he does it again, she gets the idea and keeps them raised. Her legs immediately get tired doing this so she sort of wraps them around Nathan to keep them propped up. He begins to line himself up, but it's tricky to do with her still wrapping her arms around him; he can't quite get low enough. He keeps getting misaligned because she keeps awkwardly fidgeting around, trying to keep her legs up.
Upon making connection, one of them continuously stops to catch their breath, or look at the other to see what they're trying to do. After 15 minutes, they pause for a while and try to get their heads back into alignment; laying still like that, not saying anything. On resuming, their motions immediately become desynchronized; Jordan starts getting more kinetic, causing Nathan to almost pull out. They take another short break, Jordan pulls the steamed-up blankets off of them, and then they try again with more agility, and after another 3 minutes, they manage to finish.
Nathan takes a very long, relieved sigh, and collapses onto Jordan, and sweat clams between them as he slides down to her side. Jordan lie there, only lightly holding onto him now, gradually slowing her breathing.
Another 10 minutes pass, they eventually drag one thin sheet over them, and they fall asleep.