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There’s peace in water. Like it’s holding you, whispering in low tones to let you in.
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Bubbles waft through the room instead of shrapnel, the tiles glisten with golden light instead of dingy green, and the air is breathable and clear.
Caitlyn is overwhelmed.
It’s a far cry from where they've been for the past few days. Her mother had a bath drawn for her after a few hours of rest, and Cait insisted on Vi coming with her to the bathhouse, unwilling to part from the other woman.
She reaches for a blue bottle beside the pool and yanks off the topper, dumping the majority of its contents into the water.
“Ugh, what is that?” Vi wrinkles her nose, and her nostrils twitch.
“Duskpetal oil. It’s good for the senses. It’ll calm your nerves.”
“Who says my nerves need to be calmed?”
Caitlyn looks her companion up and down knowingly. Vi’s right hand cradles the knuckles on her left, her arm muscles are tense, and her brow seems cemented in a perpetual furrow.
“Okay, fine,” Vi relents, grumbling, “I’ll get in the damn bath.” She unravels her fingers from around her fist, and, with all of the candor she had in the brothel, lifts her shirt up and off.
Cait’s eyes fall away as her breath catches in her throat. She turns around just as Vi reaches to unfurl the binding around her chest. She can hear the rustling of fabric, the clink of belt buckles, and, finally, a boisterous ‘plunk’. A splash of water douses her cheek, and she lightly brushes it away.
“Your turn, cupcake,” Vi remarks, “I won’t look, I promise.”
Caitlyn is slower to undress, though she’s certain she’s wearing less layers than Vi with all of her wrappings and cinctures.
Baths and showers were always a ceremonious time for Cait - a time to shed the dirt and grime of the day and start anew with a fresh perspective. She wonders when Vi was last allowed to wash herself clean or if she was ever even offered the luxury of a hot bath in her lifetime.
She covers her modesty as she slips into the tub with far more grace than Vi. To her credit, the other woman stays true to her word and doesn’t sneak a peek, even as Caitlyn carefully rearranges the bubbles around her bare form.
“All settled,” she announces, and Vi squints one eye open at a time in a melodramatic fashion.
“So… we’re close enough for you to rawdog me with Shimmer, but not close enough to let me see you naked yet.”
“Vi-”
“It’s okay, I get it.” Vi breathes out of the side of her mouth, fluttering her fringe. “I’m only teasing.”
Caitlyn nods ever so slightly, and she permits herself to relax, letting the heat of the water wash over her sore bones and wounds. “We can get someone to clean your clothing for you,” she says, hoping her proposal doesn’t come across as condescending.
“That’d be nice,” Vi agrees, “Gotta look spiffy for the meeting tonight.”
“Mmm… Are you nervous?”
“Nah. Not if any of the council members are even the slightest bit like you.”
Caitlyn softens, and a smile itches at the corners of her lips. “Jayce will help us out. I know he will. And despite me being immune to his charms, he’s quite good at appealing to the masses. I think we’ve got a fair shot, especially with him on our side.”
Vi grins, in the lopsided way that sends Cait’s heart aflutter. “I trust you,” she says - gently, sweetly. Caitlyn is grateful she’s sitting, otherwise her legs might have given out beneath her from the mere veracity in Vi’s voice.
“Enough to let me clean those lethal weapons of yours?” she asks, nodding towards Vi’s blood-stained knuckles. Vi has drawn her knees up around her like a shield, and her hands clutch at her kneecaps, hovering just above the water.
“More than enough,” she answers. Cait glows.
She shuffles over to Vi’s side, grabbing a meticulously folded washcloth from the edge of the pool. Rusty red mixes with the light blue hues of the duskpetal oil as she scrubs blood away, and through the sharp scent of iron, Cait smells a subtle, honeyed aroma.
Duskpetals bloom only at night during the full moon, and perfumers must work quickly and carefully to preserve the essence of such a fragile flower, delicate as the moonlight itself. Caitlyn had taken many a bath enveloped in the precious, rare fragrance, but she is certain it has never smelled so sweet.
She finishes on Vi’s hands and moves to her shoulder, tracing over the lines of her tattoos. She hopes one day Vi will tell her how she earned them all, tell her whose steady hand in prison had etched gears and machinery and steam into her skin.
“What’s on your mind?” Vi asks quietly.
“You.”
The word slips from her mouth faster than Caitlyn’s brain can catch up. Vi’s teasing earlier had been tinged with validities she cannot shake. They had saved each other’s lives on multiple occasions, and Vi had all but bore her soul as they lay on her bed, holding hands and nursing internal wounds. So why is it so difficult to be vulnerable now? Here amongst the peaceful sights and sounds of the bathhouse… Here in the safety of her own quarters.
She knows she is afraid to act on feelings, to complicate an already confusing situation. They’re too close even now, constantly sticking a tentative toe over the line and crossing invisible boundaries. Cait could lean over just a few inches and press her lips to Vi’s, and the bubble would burst.
“I was thinking of you, ” Vi speaks, breaking her out of her reverie.
Caitlyn’s heart leaps out of her chest, and she smiles before slipping her hand in Vi’s again and slinking lower into the water, resting her head against Vi’s shoulder.
There is so much she wants to say. And even more that she wants to do. But this is good.
This is good for now.