Remilia's room is one of the best maintained rooms in the mansion, but that doesn't really mean a lot when the entire thing is falling apart. All the windows in her room are barred shut and obscured by curtains. Her bed - a very, very large bed for someone as small as she is - lies in the center, with her coffin lying on top of it. In the corners of the room, there's piles of dust and broken shards of bone. Cobwebs hang from the door frame, and rats skitter around in the darkness.
It's been a couple weeks since you first visited the Scarlet Devil Mansion. In that time, you've been introduced to Remilia's younger sister - a quiet, pale girl named Flandre. You've filled page after page of your notebook with information on vampires. It's more than you even knew there was to know. And. You've gotten, much, much closer to Remilia. The girl who was once that slightly creepy vampire was now your best friend. (Hell, maybe even more than that.) Also your only friend, but that doesn't really matter. More of your time is spent in or around the mansion, gathering information and herbs and talking to Remilia.
Right now, you're doing the latter.
For a three-hundred year old vampire, Remilia Scarlet is very possibly the brattiest person you have ever met. "You're an ass, Patche," she mutters, leaning against her coffin. "I do not smell bad. I smell powerful. I smell like what any decent, self-respecting vampire princess should smell like. I smell like I bathed in the blood of my opponents." She sounds overly proud of that.
"You may as well have. You smell like a dead fish." You retort, rolling your eyes. Remilia huffs and sticks her tongue out at you. "Seriously, you need to take a bath."
Remilia huffs and crosses her arms. "No! I'm a lady of the Scarlet household! We don't bathe ourselves! We have people to do that for us."
"Had."
"Fuck off." She punches your arm gently.
You punch her back gently before brushing a lock of hair out of your eyes. "... Uh, you know. I could help bathe you, if you're really too stubborn to do it yourself." Remilia just looks at you for a moment before shrugging.
"Uh." You have very rarely heard Remi fumble over her words. "Sure, if you really want me to take a bath that badly. I guess."
"Okay. We can do it later, then. When the sun goes down, in the lake. Since I doubt there's running water or anything here." Remilia nods and yawns, sliding from her coffin and leaning against your shoulder. "Uh..." You feel a blush spreading across your face, and Remilia snickers.
"You're really cute, Patche." She shifts closer to you, so close that her face is almost touching yours. Your heart is pounding way faster than it should be, and you can feel a blush spreading across your face and neck. It takes you a moment to even register what's happening, and then she's leaning in closer and you swear your heart stops.
You slowly and gently push her away. "Uh." It's true that you've never been great at knowing what to say, but right now is probably one of the most apparent times. "Um... I..." Remilia's face falls and she sighs, shifting away, but you grab her hand quickly. "No! No. Uh. After. After your bath." Remilia blinks at you before a grin spreads across her face and she giggles.
"Okay! Okay. Haha, I was. Yeah. Uh." She holds her hands together and leans against your shoulder again. "So, you don't hate me, right...?"
After a moment of hesitation, you wrap your arm around her and pull her a bit closer. "Of course not."
"You're lovely, Patche." Remi's voice is warm and happy and it makes your heart flutter. "I'm glad I met you."
"Same here, Remi." The small vampire giggles again and wraps her arms around you. This is probably the reddest you've ever been. What a mess. Remilia hums contently, flapping her wings slowly.
The moon shines bright in the sky, its pale light reflected off the surface of the lake. Remilia flutters ahead of you before settling on the shore. You've brought a towel for her, as well as one for yourself. There's no way you're going to get out of this dry. You have a feeling Remilia's going to push you into the lake. It wouldn't surprise you. "Okay, uh. You need to get undressed, so." Remilia nods and you turn around.
A few seconds pass before you hear splashing. "You can look now, Patche." You turn back around, ignoring the blush spreading across your face. Remilia's sitting in the water, and you pull off your skirt and shoes so you don't get them wet. You kneel behind her and take the soap. It was something you had made a couple weeks ago for your own bathing purposes, based on some instructions in an old book.
You wet the soap and start cleaning Remilia's back. Layers of dead skin and grime peel back, exposing raw, healthier skin underneath. The dead skin and grime is swept off into the lake, settling in gross clumps around the two of you. Remilia pushes them away with a wave of her hand. Her wings are rougher, but they clean pretty easily. Eventually, you're done cleaning her back, shoulders and wings. "Uh, I need you to go underwater for a while so I can wash your hair."
"No problem! I don't need to breathe, after all!" She ducks underwater, giving you better access to her hair. Her hair is matted with grime and dandruff and dried blood, but it all washes out quickly enough, dispersing in the water. When you're done washing it, it's a lot cleaner and healthier looking. You never really noticed before - it's hard to see in the darkness of the mansion, especially when her hair was so filthy before - but her hair is a beautiful, pale blue. You tap her head and she rises out of the water. She shakes her head, spattering you with water. "Wow, my hair feels. Weird."
You chuckle. "That's because it's actually clean for once, Remi." After fussing with her hair a bit more, you hand her the bar of soap. "Uh. I know you're not really used to bathing yourself, but. I'm not really comfortable with seeing anything or, uh, touching you there, so..."
"Yeah! That's okay." She takes the bar of soap and starts cleaning the rest of her body. A few minutes pass in silence, with you just staring at the back of her head. And then, she hands the soap back to you. "There we go! I'm clean now! Happy, Patche?"
"Very much so, yes." Standing up, you turn away from her and retrieve her towel. She takes it, and when you look back, it's wrapped around her body. "You look much cleaner now, Remi."
She beams at you and nods. "Yes! You should probably give Flan a bath too, later."
"I already have. She's less bratty about these things then you are." You stick your tongue out at her and finish drying your legs. You slip your skirt and shoes back on and look back at her. "Wanna head back now, or...?"
Remilia shakes her head and sits on a rock. "Nah. It's nice out here. The moon's so bright and big." You nod and sit beside her, and she immediately leans against you. "So..." Remi turns her head towards you, smiling slightly. "Wanna continue where we were before, or...?" Smiling, you nod. There's a blush spreading across your face already, and as Remilia leans in, it only gets deeper. Her lips press against yours slowly. It's not much, but it's still enough to make your blush spread down your neck. Remilia pulls back and giggles, blushing slightly. "Patche?"
It takes you a few moments to compose yourself enough to reply. "Yes?"
"I'm glad I met you."
"I'm glad I met you too, Remi." She leans against your shoulder and takes your hand in her own. The moon shines above the two of you, bright and beautiful and distant.