Alois felt her warm arm draped over his chest and smiled slightly. His hand ran over the smooth skin of her for arm, relearning the body he had almost forgotten. Her skin was smooth and soft and suddenly he was ashamed, his own skin was ruff and uneven with the proof of his love she had asked for, he knew he shouldn't be ashamed of that. But still he had never been anywhere near a match for her beauty and now… well know he was hardly a worthy match for her, but she had chosen hm.
"Your beauty is blinding." He murmured softly with a small chuckle. He had thought she was asleep but a soft giggle came in response and he felt her shift, a moment later her lips met his and he kissed her back gently.
"You've learned." She commented softly, a playful tease he knew from her tone. Still he felt a small twinge of regret that he had had to be taught, he didn't like to disappoint her and he knew he had at first.
"Indeed I have my love, I hope I have learned well." He tried not to make it sound like a plea, he knew that annoyed her. She wanted him to have some of the strength that Basile had shown at first and he did his best. She laughed again slightly and settled down next to him, her arm still across his chest and her breath tickling his neck.
"You have my dearest, you have learned very well and done very well." Alois smiled, everything Justine had put him through was worth it for this. He remembered when she had told him that this might be a possibility at all, it had been about three months ago he thought, it had been hard at some points to measure time. She had come to visit him in his cell as she sometimes did after one of the tests to talk about how they had gone, he only saw part of it after all. His hair was starting to grow back in at that point and before then she had always wished to keep it shaved so when she came in he had said.
"I believe my hair is starting to grow back, will you want to shave it again?" He had learned quickly that she liked it best when he didn't make assumptions, even when he was sure he knew what she wanted it was best to ask as if he didn't have a clue. This time he was sure he knew what she would want but it turned out he didn't have a clue.
"No let it grow it, I only needed I cut that short for the tests and now that it looks like the tests are almost over… Well I miss your hair it was always such a fair colour." Her voice was unconcerned and matter-of-fact but he was sure he could hear a touch of concealed excitement under it as he heard her short heals tapping across the floor. It would be easier to recognize the excitement if he could see her but as he recognized the tapping as pacing he knew the excitement was there all the same.
"Alright my love. Why did you need it cut short for the tests?" he knew what the tests were but he couldn't think what his hair being shaved had to do with it.
"With you're hair you were to familiar to me, seeing you might have triggered my memories to return before they were meant to, without it it was much harder to recognize you. Although you wouldn't have noticed, that's also why everything had to be dimly lit, the less I could see the less likely I was to remember prematurely and foul the results." He could picture the small, controlled, enthusiastic motions of her hands as she spoke and he smiled.
"Oh that makes sense." He agreed demurely nodding then cocked his head to the side, "Why will that no longer be necessary?" She stopped her passing, this was obviously what she was excited about because he could still hear small clicks as she rocked on her heals. He concealed a smile, the childishness of her excitement on the rare occasions that it showed had always been one of the things he loved about Justine.
"Because my dearest the test won't be necessary much longer! I have passed the test the last three times, this time I failed one of the three tests but it was out of panic not maliciousness and at the time I felt BAD about it! Do you know what this means?" She had moved forward so she was close to him, she felt her hands on his shoulders and was surprised by the contact, it wasn't often that she touched him now, he welcomed it.
"Well my love I know that means that you found the humanity in yourself that you were looking for, but your excitement suggests larger implications that I do not know." His tone was apologetic though he didn't think he was supposed to know what it meant. Her laugh assured him of this and tentatively he moved his hands to touch her, resting them on her cloth-covered waist when he wasn't reprimanded for it.
"It means that now I'm almost certain I will be able to control my desire to hurt people, my attempts to endow myself with empathy are working, now I should be able to think of how someone else feels and dissuade myself from harming them!" She sounded ecstatic but Alois wasn't sure why. He had known her tests were measuring her humanity but he hadn't known that this was why, he knew she enjoyed hurting people why would she want to stop. His confusion must have shown on his face because after a moment she said "Aren't you pleased darling?" she sounded concerned.
"I'm very pleased that it has gone as you wanted my love but I still don't understand." Again he sounded apologetic, he hoped she wouldn't mind.
"Well it means that I won't have to hurt you any more!" She said her excitement calmed slightly as she ran her hands down his arms over the scars that had been left there. "Or asking you to hurt yourself most likely, you've proved your love enough. Just one or two more tests to make sure as long as they go smoothly, then we'll have to remove the chains from your legs and the metal thing around your neck but once those wounds heal we can take you out of here!
"We can get rid of the other two, they're not properly alive anymore anyway, and we can live together just as you wanted, remember? Just the two of us. With some glass eyes and clothes that cover the scars no one will notice the difference once your hair grows back, we'll make up some story as to how you went blind and where you've been all this time and then we can settle down. Away from this town I think, in a different house, this one has to many memories, somewhere by the sea maybe?" She trailed of into a delighted laugh.
Alois didn't know how to respond at first, he had almost given up hope that he would get the life that he had wanted with Justine and now here she was excited about it. She wanted to move to the sea side, she wanted them to buy a house together, and live together and be alone together, everything he had ever wanted. He wanted to pick her up and spin her around but the metal collar prevented it. He didn't feel like he could speak but he knew she was waiting for a response so after a moment he managed.
"My love I hardly know what to say, that sounds like all I've ever wanted." He lifted his right hand tentatively and caressed her face, she was smiling wider then he could ever remember seeing, or feeling her smile.
"I'm glad." Her voice was a low murmur and she was as close as the metal collar would allow. "It's about time I began showing you that you really are my dearest one." Alois smiled, she hadn't said she loved him but he knew those words were to hard for her to speak and for her dearest meant the same thing. He had doubted it at times but he had known al along that he was the only person Justine could not afford to loose.
The next two tests went better then the previous three and then it was time to get rid of the other two. Alois felt a little bad about it but Justine couldn't kill them herself, it might have set her back in her progress to purposefully kill two people and Alois had promised he would kill for her if she asked him to. One final proof of his love, once they were both dead Justine and him buried them in the basement. She insisted on reading a few passages from the bible and putting flowers on their graves, he supposed it was part of her effort to be more companionate.
The next day they removed the metal collar and the chains, the metal collar came off first so he could lie down properly. The chains had partially healed into his legs and they knew it would hurt a lot to remove them. Justine did it so Alois wouldn't have to do it himself, she apologized multiple times as she did, Alois didn't want her to feel bad and did his best not to scream as the metal was slowly dragged through and out of his leg. He didn't want her to feel any worse but he couldn't help a few short scrams which he cut off as soon as possible.
Once it was done she bandaged his legs gently but tightly making sure he wouldn't bleed out. She tide other bandages around his legs higher up so less blood could reach his legs to exit though the holes the chains had left, he would have to lie still for a time while they healed anyway. After that she sat on the edge of his blood stained bed and ran her hand through the short hair that was starting to grow back, she hummed, talked or was silent.
After about two weeks she decided it would be safe to move him a short way, just up to a guest bedroom on the first floor where he could be more comfortable. He wasn't a prisoner anymore and he knew she felt uncomfortable with him still living like one, he didn't like it ether so he agreed. It had been hard and painful making it up the stairs but she had half carried him and he made it. After that he had slept a lot and healed, the next thing he remembered clearly was the day she had decided he was fully healed.
Then he had tried on the glass eyes for the first time and she had bathed him. It had felt great sinking into the hot water, it had been a long time since he had had a bath and he felt his eyelids slide over the eyes that made no difference in his darkness. Her hands had slid gently over him washing away the dirt and the dried blood, he felt her lips brush his jaw from behind him and he smiled, she washed his hair gently in a fresh tub of water once the worst of the filth had been washed off. It felt strange and wonderful to be clean again as he carefully got out of the tub with her help
He could have dried himself, he had long since gotten used to moving through a world of blackness but she had done it for him. She seemed to be enjoying fussing over him though so he let her, and then he let her help him get dressed, that he did need help with because he was worried he would pick something lurid like a pink shirt with a orange plad vest or something.
Once he was dressed and clean he felt so much like his old self that it was hard to believe everything that had happened before, then she took him to her bed and it became even harder. For the first time, as his newly dawned clothes hit the floor next to the bed with her dress, he felt truly happy. That night he reacquainted himself with the curves of her body he had known so well and reminded himself that his own body could feel pleasure as well as pain.
He didn't need to see her to know how to move with her, it was instinct to pleasure his love and the noises she made guide enough as to how to go about it. He was gentler with her then he knew she might have liked but he had promised himself he would never hurt her like Basile had and he would keep that promise.
And so know here he was, laying in her soft bed with her soft body in his arms, he had fallen into his musings and now he could tell by the rhythm of her breathing that she was asleep. He smiled and carefully pulled the warm soft blankets over their bare bodies, if he could have seen he would have watched her sleep for the entire night just to make sure this wasn't a dream. As it was he lay there in his perpetual darkness listening to the slow intake and exhale of her breathing and matched his own to hers.
Tomorrow they would take a carriage to the cost and begin looking at houses, they would get a smaller one then the one Justine lived in now. One that Alois would have an easier time learning his way around by memory and feel instead of sight. He had already written a letter to his mother with his excuses but he wouldn't mail it till tomorrow so it would arrive until he and Justine were safely away to start their new life together.