Chapter Text
She stepped back and admired her work. The room still looked lonesome and wartorn, but now it let out a dusty breath and released the precious memories made here before. Had she been able to clean off the battle along with the blood, she would have done it. Liechtenstein’s sweat-drenched hair stuck to her skin and framed her pink cheeks as she let out a satisfied sigh. With a little flourish she dropped the towel into the bucket of murky water Belarus had so kindly provided. Then she turned to leave.
Once outside, the sunlight reached her fully and she drank it in happily. Until she looked down at herself, that is. It had been easy to ignore the red in the torn carpet while scrubbing furiously at the walls. Not so much now, when the bright color had seeped into her thin dress and her legs were cut in all places thanks to a broken mirror’s errant shards.
From a few feet across the dried, bramble-like grass was Belarus, whose pale blond hair stood out against the huge sky. When Liech turned to look, squinting against the sun, something flitted past the edges of her vision. It was gone too quickly to distinguish. Perhaps it had been just the tiny particles of dust kicked up by her shoes.
“Liechtenstein.” Belarus called her over and motioned for her to take the water-filled bucket and washcloth from her arms, then leaned her hip on the good side of the cracked well. “You did good. Get cleaned up, I'll find something to eat soon.”
The young woman brightened up. “Thank you so much, Miss Belarus!” Once she'd gone some distance away, Liech pulled off all her scuffed shoes, stringy stockings, and lifted her frilled dress over her head. She stood in the middle of a vast field of dead plant life wearing nothing but her undergarments and suddenly felt very alone. Slowly, carefully, she ran the soaked wet cloth over the red and white zebra stripes on her legs. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. A quick glance backwards and she saw Belarus again, nothing but a vague outline in the distance but very obviously watching her. Heat rose to her cheeks. Yet she continued to wash as best as possible, pointedly staring at the clear water in the bucket as it turned a muddy red.