Cold water fell on her, and still, her body was emanating that warmth named "life". Every movement, every action was with a purpose. To reach a point of efficiency that could make the difference in a life-or-death situation.
Her arm moved on reaching her neck, passing below her black hair. Her long and beautiful black hair, she couldn't resist her own desire and so… she allowed her fingers on going through them.
Another failure.
Another proof that she was human.
Guided only by desire and envy.
Before, she wouldn't have allowed herself that kind of pleasure. After all, her own body was destined to be turned into a weapon. Her hair, as much as she cared for them, you'll be cut without a thought if ever needed to.
A whole process of trying her best to have the blankest life possible was now challenged by her new day-to-day life.
What happened to her to be this soft?
Letting the boy learn how to braid by using her hair wasn't something drastic on its own. The boy was yearning for something and she was the only that was able to help on that instance. Since he was in her room, it would be better for her if their relationship weren't crippling her in any way.
A logical act for her better result overtime.
But the problem was that even if that instance was logical, what about the rest?
She had proposed herself to put the boy in her room after the incident, right?
It was for only for him to have a better environment, a stable one where he would be only with people like him. It was for him to leave faster and never return. But she would lie if she kept telling herself that the boy had done things that had affected her opinion on him.
Strong-willed but weak.
Self-centered and still selfless.
Alone but caring for others.
He was a humanized contradiction.
One she was resonating with in some ways.
It was different from everyone else because he had refused every opportunity offered to him to have it the easy way. He was pursuing hardship, guided by valor and guts that no child his age and with his circumstances would have.
The number of deaths in the Outskirt by day was enormous, and still, coming back from that endless pile of dead body emerged that boy. The exception borned in the kingdom of Death.
The cold water kept falling, but the girl wanted to feel more.
She had been showering for a while now, and Sunless had left a long time ago.
That single grain of sand in a perfect piece of machinery.
Because now she had tasted a piece of life, she wanted more. Her deprived self was starving and was now in a rampage. Breaking every rule she had imposed on herself, because and thanks to him.
To never show weakness.
To never long for something other than blood and pain.
To isolate herself a much as possible.
And yet, the boy had destroyed every rule… She had cried while holding him in her arms for weeks. She surprised herself wishing for his presence more and more. Not only that, but she wanted to get closer to him.
The girl-turned-machine was losing to her humanity she had once tried to discard.
The cold water wasn't enough…
Truth be told, she always felt cold.
To a point where the feeling of warmth wasn't something she had ever truly craved for. She had accepted that coldness as an unchangeable fact. A proof that she was destined to live with a single rule: "Kill or be killed".
If you were to ask her view on that coldness, she wouldn't even have tried to answer you since it would have been a waste of time.
But now… She was hating it.
Her hands moved on her body as if it attempted to mimic that feeling she was yearning for. In vain.
His touch wasn't rough, his hands didn't give her the feeling that it was made to destroy everything it touches.
It was gentle…
Far too nice for her kind. And for his too.
Because she couldn't get it. How could someone see the worst that the world could produce for years, to a point where he was forged by fear and survival, all that destruction and violence only for him to be one of the kindest soul she had seen?
Yes, he was dumb sometimes. Too much in his own world. A bit naive too from time to time. But he was pure.
Pure and true to his conviction despite having to crawl out of hell with a broken body and a self-destructive mind.
Cold water turned warm.
He was the exception.
Every prediction she had made of him had been destroyed by his undying will. His spite of the world was so strong that he pushed him to be kind. To be so far in the mindset that the opposite arrived, to go North until you arrived South.
And still, here he was. Keeping up with her tantrum, being the mature one when she failed to keep her cool. Sunless was the prime example that talent and birthright mean nothing against spite.
Nephis had seen multiple talented people until now, all of them were great on their specified work field and still, she knew. That if that boy truly wanted something, he would get it.
His heart was falling less than five month ago and now Sunless was training every day only to help her at night. He had been learning a new language from Plume, how to use a sword from Master Theseus and now, he was following Vincent's teaching to learn what Legacy viewed as sometimes useless. A mistake he refused to share with them.
And the worst part was that he was learning quickly.
Improving far too fast for her…for them to not notice it.
To a point where Nephis had heard once during a discussion between her teacher and Ashe something she had never thought about until now.
"Imagine if Sunless had started training at the same time as Nephis."
The result was easy to find.
Sunless would have bested her a long time ago.
And yet, she wasn't mad. On the contrary, she wished for him to grow. Still, her mind started to contradict itself. If he had trained as much as her, did his touch would still be able to be compared to a caress?
Warm water turned hot.
It wasn't enough.
That burning flow couldn't replicate his gentleness.
That boy was younger than her, and he had told her he was scared to be a monster. She wanted to feel his tenderness, to protect it. And so, she had accepted his request.
She had decided that his pure soul was to be protected, and she would do what she had to do to protect it. After all, she had warned him she would become his monster. She wasn't lying.
If blood were to be drawn for him, it would be from her blade.
Because she was destruction incarnate and he was… Life. He might not have understood her oath but it didn't matter. She would handle the violence and hardship and he only had to do one thing… To keep reminding her what it feels to be human. She would stay empty and he would stay whole.
Her skin had gained a few shade of red, her muscle acting like stone under a waterfall. Being refined, sharpened, and free of impurity.
A machine.
With two different directives.
To kill the Nightmare Spell with the traitors.
And…
To prevent the boy from falling into the same rabbithole than her.
Plagued both by the same curse, she had gone too far to turn back, but not him. She had lost that spark a long time ago, but not him. He had to stay that "princess" in their relationship, if not…it would have meant that she would have failed once more.
And failure was not an option for the being named Nephis of the Immortal Flame clan.
Lost in her thoughts, it was only after the second time that she heard that sound.
Toc Toc Toc
"It's Jeanne. May I ?"
Sunless was fool, thinking that he wasn't surveyed in some way all the time. As for how does knows that? It was simple. Because also her case.
There was a whole system based on the simple fact that they needed to keep an eye on them. On her since she was targeted and on him since his life was random to a point where preparation were almost ineffective.
The only difference between them is that she knew how to utilize it to communicate without being noticed.
The pale imitation of warmth that was the hot water had to be stopped.
[Nephis]:"I'll be here in a minute or two. Can you please wait for me inside please?"
She had waited for the boy to go outside to call Jeanne. Which was something she usually never did, even if she needed to ask for something for herself. Nephis doesn't ask people to go toward her, she's the one who will move toward you.
Well, with the sole exception that was Sunless of course.
Leaving the shower, Nephis was efficient for drying herself. The only part that had to wait was her hair, which had to be covered with a large and long towel. But she had to dress herself up first before putting anything on her hair.
One minute turned into two… Then three.
Taking her time wasn't an option anymore, but even now, she was having a hard time. The coldness was coming back, crippling her soul and mind. The thought of coming back into the shower had been there but was ultimately pushed away.
Opening the bathroom's door, Nephis was met with a tired woman seated on the nearest bed.
The request needed to be done with.
For their sake.
For his sake.