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My mind went blank.
What did she just say?
I tried to rationalize it. Maybe she had pulled a muscle when we spared and couldn’t do it herself, but it was still peculiar that she asked me, out of all people, to help her with something like that. Not when all she’d done since we met was glare at me, barely speak one or two words to me, bite me…
I guess that she’d been acting surprisingly amiable and docile during this encounter. She hadn’t even thrown a glare or a scowl in my direction.
Maybe she had a knife hidden underneath all those bubbles and was just waiting for me to come closer…
I realized that I still hadn’t answered her question, and I tried to shake off my surprise.
“Of course.”
I walked over to her slowly, giving her enough time in case she wanted to pull back her offer. When she still hadn’t saidanything, I got behind her and touched the claw pin that held her hair in place.
“May I?”
She gave a slight nod and I gently tugged it out of her hair, trying my best not to pull at her strands. This close, I could more clearly see the redness had started to deepen around her throat, not quite forming a bruise but it was a very near thing.
Disappointment set in initially before disgust fully overtook it.
She hadn’t agreed to let herself be marked. It was spurred on without thinking, done in the heat of the moment, but I suppose that she had left her mark on me as well.
No one had ever done that before.
Ludovica sank deeper into the tub as I scooped up handfuls of warm water, letting it cascade down her hair. When it was fully wet, I picked up a shampoo bottle and squirted a bit into my hands, working it into a frothy lather. The fragrant floral scent filled my nose, so sweet that I could almost taste it on my tongue.
I began to gently massage it into her hair and her eyes fluttered shut as she leaned back, resting her neck against the edge of the bathtub. I dug my fingers into her scalp and she let out a content sigh.
“Tell me, honestly now…” she softly spoke, her voice having a dream-like quality to it. “Why did decide to take me in and not just simply kill me?”
I had been wondering about when she was going to bring up this subject again.
The worst thing was, I still didn’t have a real answer to give to her.
“Your eyes…” I said, and her eyes flickered open.
“What about them?”
I looked down at her. A bit of foam was sticking to her chin. It made me want to wrap her tightly in a towel and tuck her into bed.
“I guess I just liked your eyes.”
It must seem like such an insignificant thing.
I was well aware of how bizarre it was to save the life of someone who tried to kill my boss, allow them to stay in my home, and the only explanation I could give was only this.
I still hadn’t come to regret it, though.
She sighed and the depths of her eyes became obscured as her eyelids fell shut once more.
I continued to massage her head until my fingers felt wrinkled and pruny. I would have gone on like that if her hands hadn’t begun to slowly close around my own, moving them lower until they rested on her shoulders.
She slowly slipped her head underwater until I couldn’t see anything of her any longer, all the while still keeping her hands placed over mine. I was under the impression that she wanted to get the shampoo off, but as more and more seconds flew by, the water and bubbles remained motionless.
The feeling of wrongness at the back of my head grew stronger as more time passed.
“Ludovica?” I asked, starting to actually become worried.
