vanillajello | Room 324, Sunday Evening

Holding the towels against her chest, she dropped her balled up underwear in the plastic bag on the desk, then pulled her hair loose from the ponytail they'd been in since... She wasn't even sure when.

And then she tried a faint smile on for size. "Right. Shower?"

There were other things to say, probably ( since it wasn't as if she hadn't seen him do that) but she couldn't come up with them right now.

Edited 2010-08-08 21:20 (UTC)

"Yes," he said, nodding and limping closer to her. Water was going to hurt the open cuts on his feet but it would be beneficial in the end. He hoped. "Yes, we should shower. Yes."

When she got closer, she reached for his hand and leaned in to kiss his cheek. If that meant she'd get ash on her lips or whatever, she didn't care.

Having done that, she tugged him gently along with her to the bathroom.

Bod was going to be moving slower than usual for awhile because of his feet and his leg and everything else but he followed behind her dutifully, keeping a tight hold on her hand as he did.

He really did not want to disappear.

She didn't want that either, and was completely prepared to do horrible things to the island if it pulled a stunt like that again.

But right now it just meant she wasn't going to let go of his hand before she abolsutley had to.

The towels got dumped in the sink for now, since it was as good a place as any for them. Kate was more interested in getting the shower started, making sure the water was just the right kind of warm, not too hot or cold.

"You've a bruise," he said, frowning at that spot on her shoulder now. He hadn't seen it before but now, while standing behind her and waiting for the shower to be warmed, he did. "What happened?"

Edited 2010-08-08 21:45 (UTC)

"I ran to the manor with Ariel," she replied, fiddling with the shower. "We got company on the way."

A few times, even. And it wasn't the nice kind of company.

"Does it hurt much?" he asked, reaching out slowly to cover that bruise with his hand. "I'm really sorry I wasn't here. I'm sorry."

"It doesn't hurt much." Well, it didn't anymore. "You look worse than I do."

Which was a lame way of saying he shouldn't be sorry for stupid things like that. She still wasn't looking at him. Still holding her hand under the shower, still waiting for it to be perfect.

"All right," he said, slowly pulling his hand away and letting it drop to his side. He knew he looked bad, he'd seen himself but he was trying not to think about it.

Kate sighed, and rubbed at her eyes.

"I think the water's good now," she said then, giving him a quick glance over her shoulder. "Think your skin can take soap and shampoo?"

"I don't know but I'm willing to risk it," he replied, looking down at his gray, ash tinted skin. "I need to feel clean even if it hurts. I need to - I - I just need to."

At that, she quirked another one of those half smiles at him. There was something sad about it, as hard as she tried.

"We'll get you clean," she promised, turning to face him more as she stepped backwards, under the water, tugging him towards her since she was still holding his hand. "Do you wanna smell girly or... stolen?"

She was pretty sure Bobby would not get pissy if they borrowed some of his stuff.

"I don't care," he said, feeling immediate relief and pain when he stepped into the shower. His poor, battered feet started stinging horribly but the water sluicing over him felt unbelievably good.

The bandages around his knee were getting wet but they were staying wrapped for the moment. "I just need to get the ash off me. I'm covered in it."

The water did feel kind of divine. And it was doing a good job of washing away the traces of dried blood around the radroach bites on her legs.

"I noticed." She let go of his hand to reach for her bottle of shampoo, first. "Pale and ashy is not a good look. The ash has got to go."

"It was raining ash there," he shared, turning his face up towards the spray and letting it splash over his face. The look of pain stayed there because of so many things and he didn't try to hide it.

"The air was dirty," he said, willing to share slightly about things that were easy. "That's why my eyes look like they do."

If he ended up crying (which he thought he'd do when his emotions overwhelmed him again), at least his eyes wouldn't look that differently.

"I figured," Kate said as she poured shampoo into the palm of her hand. "Had to be something like that."

Without all the ash on him, she would've thought he'd already been crying. And that would've been understandable too.

"Watch out, I'm gonna shampoo your hair."

She'd probably boggle at herself later for how she was acting, but right now she felt this was clearly what she had to be doing.

"All right," he said, tilting his head forward again and opening his eyes. He'd never had someone else shampoo his hair and he took a moment to swipe some of it out of his eyes.

For some reason, he looked down and spent a moment morbidly fascinated by the combination of ash and blood in the water. He wondered how much was his.

Yeah, Kate had glanced down for a few seconds a moment ago and promptly decided she didn't want to deal with thoughts like that.

And right now she didn't have to, because she was watching what she was doing, biting on her lower lip while she applied the shampoo to his hair, gently massaging his scalp in the process.

After a moment of that, she announced, "Done."

"No one's ever done that for me before," he said, moving his head and hair back under the spray of the water to let the shampoo slowly wash out. The soap fell onto his shoulders, taking some more ash for it and Bod actually started feeling the tiniest bit better.

"Thank you," he added, quietly but sincerely.

"It's nothing," she replied, just as quietly, shaking her head. The soothing factor of the water was making some of her stress and tension seep away, but not all of it. "At least now I can do something."

It had been an infuriating couple of days when it came to being able to do anything about anything.

"It's something. It's needed. I need you," he said, reaching for the shampoo that looked like hers and hobbling closer. "Can I do the same for you? Please?"

"Yes, please. My arms are tired."

They weren't. But he'd said please and that had made her smile a little, and if she felt like being just the tiniest bit adorable, then she was going to act accordingly and hang on to that feeling for what it was worth.

"I'm sorry for being slightly taller than you," he replied, teasing back and feeling good that he could still do that. His hands went to her hair and he shampooed carefully, massaging her scalp and making sure to get the longer ends as he did.

It was nice to be doing something that didn't require running, hiding or anything else like that. It was comforting.

"I'm done," he said and moved his soapy hands away from her hair.

She'd closed her eyes when he'd started, and let out a kind of content sigh at his touch. And once he was done, she opened her eyes for a quick look at him – tired, but fond – before she closed them again to get properly under the spray of the shower, running her fingers through her hair to get all of the shampoo out.

She needed this probably more than she'd realized, and more than she'd be able to admit.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject