She stood with her feet turned in.
She floated on her toes, feet forward.
She clung to her towel, pressing fluffy white to her frail frame as desperately as one would hold a cloud or snow. Things have always had a way of escaping her.
She has tucked the end in securely and even if this seal were to break and bathe her feet in white, sea foam supporting Aphrodite, she would only laugh and tuck it in again. Things have always had a way of finding her.
Her emphasized eyes were trained on the tiled floor seeking out invisible pools of water that she would inevitably slip in. Her eyes are dark.
Her distant eyes crease at the corner with her smile and buzz like iridescent flies across the entire room but they are deep and have plenty of room beneath the surface for stashing secrets. Her eyes are dark.
"Ooh! Look, Miranda!" lily petals slid mahogany aside and steam poured out, teasing their loose hair into springs, "No one else is in!"
They padded in, slippered in steam with tulip petal toes leading the way.
"Oh!" She hugged herself against the assault of heat waves. Flies flitted quickly over to her companion, observing the instinctive defensive maneuver.
She was so vulnerable. So delicate. It was hard to believe she was older than her.
"Miranda…It's alright! It's very relaxing, I promise! Come on," the feet of a less fair complexion stumbled forward to the edge of the baths.
For a moment they were equal. And Miranda couldn't help but notice that, compared to the pale perfection of Lenalee's feet, her own European porcelain did not even look like a darker blend of white.
It just looked dirty.
The water rippled, drawing her attention. A single tulip petal floated on the surface. Miranda followed the petal's auxiliary stem up to the main stalk. Lenalee smiled,
"It's perfect!"
"Oh, uh-"She blinked rapidly, lips moving soundlessly as the words she sought escaped her, trickling to the bath house floor only to be sopped up by the towel at Lenalee's feet. She looked back down to her soiled porcelain, alone on the slick tile.
"Oh, Miranda! It's just right, "
Miranda inhaled, squeezing her eyes shut and clinging to her towel.
But some how it slipped, escaped, snowed down to kiss the cool ground that burned the soles of her feet.
"Ah!" A thousand crystal shards exploded from the surface as she sat promptly in order to conceal her rarely exposed skin. "Ah! It's-it's…it's hot!" The thousand crystal shards plunged back into the water and into every inch of submerged skin. Miranda partially rose and then sank down again, reluctant to leave the protective glove that felt so very much like her exorcist uniform.
Flies hovered around her, waiting for her next movement. Miranda gulped and then opened her dark, sad eyes.
She smiled, actually smiled, a childish, innocent smile as though she'd just tasted something sweet.
"It is rather nice, isn't it?"
Lenalee smiled back, a soft smile like a mother watching her child take her first steps.
"I think so,"
Time drifted away with the clouds of steam and they gradually sank, slumping against the wall as they gave into the constant ebb and flow of the water. A contented sigh fluttered across the surface and kissed Lenalee's half-closed eyes, forcing her out of her semi-sleep. She let her pupils hover to the sigh's source in short bursts of flight. Miranda's neck arched elegantly over the tub's edge, resting in her water-darkened hair like cream cheese in chocolate icing. Her fingertips protruded from the water's surface, making a scalloped edge to her sugary bust. Her hands were crossed over her heart in bliss and, Lenalee knew, in a habitual motion of defense.
In her barely conscious state random thoughts drifted forward from the massive cloud of idle ponderings that made her head heavy. Maybe she's not protecting herself…maybe it's too late, maybe she's already hurt and she's holding her wounds…
Lenalee thought of the many times she had held a scratch as if she could keep the blood in, the many times she had held herself as if she could stop herself from breaking.
Miranda's lips were still curved up in the perfect cake batter-stained smile. Lenalee remembered the countless times she'd smiled while she was crying and laughed for reasons that had nothing to do with happiness.
Even if it's in defense, it's a lie…it's a lie…
Lenalee realized she knew everything about lies and so did Miranda.
Time.
Miranda had been given the ability to create the most dangerous lie of all: she could turn back time.
Delicate twig brows arched in acute pain. God…God gave Miranda lies…he gave her lies…She felt the corners of her mouth twitch and a laugh well up on her throat.
"Lenalee?" Now licorice drops watched and flies sat still, "Lenalee, are you alright?"
The laugh dissolved at the touch of tapered vanilla fingers.
Dark eyes met.
"I think the heat's just getting to me…" Vanilla coated lily petals and Miranda smiled.
"Let's go, Lenalee."
Maybe a woman who could take what she was given and make it work and who could lie all the time to protect everyone that she held in her heart was strong. Maybe overlapping hands meant only bliss. Maybe true smiles existed.
And maybe she was vulnerable. Maybe she was delicate. And maybe nine years made all the difference.
But Lenalee knew she would be alright. After all, she had Miranda.
The water rained in a hundred miniature waterfalls as she broke it's surface and stood. They stepped out, stripping off the tight water stockings and donning the steam slippers once more.
She stood with her feet pointed forward, conquering the slippery tiles that threatened to yank her down.
She floated on her toes, but she would never float away entirely.
The clouds were Miranda's and she would not let them escape again.
The secrets in Lenalee's eyes had leaked out and everything had found her. Or she had found everything.
And they were both clean.