"No dress, no pie, that's how this is going to work."

The naked mermaid in front of her narrowed her eyes, her shoulders hunching up and readying themselves to strike.

She took an unsteady step to Kylo's left. He matched her, physically blocking her route to the savory baked good on the windowsill that had become a major point of contention between them.

"Here," he shakes the off-white fabric at her, "just try it on. It's cold. You're wet. You need clothes."

The still unnamed girl steps to the other side, trying a new route for her approach. She's visibly shivering despite her fiery expression, and her wet hair now rolls down her shoulders in icy-looking coils, sending droplets pooling onto the equally cold stone floor under her bare feet.

She looks like she's freezing.

Kylo sighs and steps forward, bringing himself dangerously close to a distance where she might be able to hit him in the ribs again. She'd done just that ten minutes before, when he'd tried to get her out of the tub, and the remaining pain in his side only strengthens his resolve.

"You're looking a little chilled, m'lady. Shouldn't have stayed in the bath that long, now should you have?"

She'd been in there nearly an hour, long after the water had stopped being hot or even lukewarm. When Kylo had gone back to check on her, her lips had nearly been turning blue and goosebump swere all along her arms and legs. Other places as well, but he had stopped himself from looking for any more proof of her near brush with hypothermia.

"Put this on and sit next to the fire. If you get a cold and expect me to play your nursemaid you're going to be very sorrowfully mistaken."

He's not sure if her mind is capable of thinking that way. Of understanding his logic. Do mermaids even get sick? Injured of course, but can they catch a cold just like a human can?

The girl looks at him sidelong, eying the fabric in his hand with obvious suspicion. So little trust and he's given her no reason to hold him in such disregard. Everything about this scene is ridiculous.

"Oh bloody hell."

Kylo begins to stride forward, quickly closing the distance between them. If he has to wrestle a soaking wet, naked girl to the floor to get her to put on some damned clothes then he will, pretense be damned.

He had expected her to squawk and slap at him. Bite and perhaps claw at his eyes as well. Instead, she tenses again, cringing and backing up against the wall. Then, just as he is about to grab her and begin their battle, she ducks. Dips down low under his extending arm with a surprising speed. The girl can barely walk but she can leap, apparently, and she all but flies across the room before Kylo has a chance to stop her.

Defiantly she seizes the fish pie, holds it to her chest, and sinks down into the far corner with her teeth bared in warning.

Kylo sputters in disbelief. She was fast, he'd give her that. And crafty.

And she eats like an absolute pig, digging her fingers into the pie and shoving the largest handful she can into her mouth.

"I was going to warm that up for you, you know," Kylo says with a huff. "And how can you still be hungry? You ate half my damned pantry less than an hour ago."

No answer, not even a growl when he flings the dress at her feet and crosses his arms. She pulls the pie closer still, though, apparently unwilling to give up her feeding frenzy for any reason.

"You choke on that and I'm not helping you."

He tries to push an image of her wearing the dress into her mind. The girl blinks, stopping her noisy chewing for only a moment before continuing.

Yes, it probably hadn't been a very effective command. Kylo's not sure if the dress would even fit her, let alone how she'd look wearing one since he's only ever seen her wrapped in a fishing net and nothing else. Made the visualization of his order to her rather difficult.

"Might as well stoke up the fire," he mutters, "I expect that's all I can do for you."

Taking care of his 'guest' has suddenly become a full time job, it would seem.

"But don't think I'm giving up on this so easily, m'lady. I'm coming right back in here with some towels and then you're going upstairs again and you'll show me exactly how you got out before."

He leaves then, fighting the very strong urge to slam the door behind him as he goes. Bloody hell indeed.

The girl had apparently eaten herself queasy. That was good. Her lethargy had finally let him make some progress with dressing her.

She was shivering in her little corner when Kylo returned, towels in hand partnered with a new resolve. She looked up at him then, regarding his approach with an oddly melancholy expression. There was a half-finished pie next to her, she'd eaten a portion probably good for two or three people, and she didn't look too happy about the poor decisions she had just made.

Kylo counted himself lucky she didn't get sick all over him as he bruskly toweled her off. She was half dry already it had been so long, and her slaps against him lacked much of their usual sting.

"Upset stomach giving you trouble, m'lady? Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned in that."

She seemed rather confused at what he was doing, but she didn't fight him nearly as much as she had before. She even seemed to understand the notion of his purpose or the result of it when he draped the second towel around her shoulders. After a few moments of half-hearted thrashing, she quieted down and even wrapped it closer around herself.

"Yes. It's cold in here. I'm not doing this to torture you. Or myself, though that's become incidental. Now raise your arms."

That image he pushes loud and clear into her mind. Even in his projection she's already dressed, the strategically imperative areas of her body covered for propriety.

And she stops with her rather limp kicking away at him and Kylo can feel the shift in her mind. A sense of recognition. It pierces through the space between them, bringing along with it an understanding.

Why?

She doesn't say the word into his mind, but she projects it just as he had done to her. Kylo pauses himself, staring down at her, dimly noting that her drier but now tangled hair needs to be brushed again.

And then he immediately feels like a fool.

This was their first moment of real communication in any sense, and all he could think about was making her fix her hair so she wouldn't sleep in it with a mess like that.

"So you'll be warmer,"he tries to tell her. "Clothing is warmer. This," he picks up the edge of the towel wrapped around her shoulders and her eyes carefully follow the movement of his hand, "this is warmer. Put the damn clothes on."

Another set of images. He tries to feed her the idea of what he's trying to accomplish. Leaves out the parts of her nudity being extremely inappropriate and only becoming more so with every hour that passes between them.

She's an animal. A creature. A very strange one, unique to the world as Kylo knows it. Modesty is too foreign of a concept.

But survival and comfort aren't. Her hands raise, palms out. Slowly, jerkily lifting her arms like she was surrendering.

Communication success. She's doing what he wants her to, even if she doesn't fully understand.

Kylo wastes no opportunity. The dress is rolled into a circle, dropped over her head and arms, and he steps back. Now it's wadded up under her armpits and she frowns. Her arms stay raised, and she cocks her head to the side as if to say 'that's it? Now what?'

"Now, my lady?" Kylo says. "Now I trulyhave no idea."

What is she? What's he going to do with her? Really, what is she?

There are answers out there to every question, Kylo just has to put his mind to it to find them.

The girl was dressed finally. Dressed incorrectly, with the essential areas still exposed and the majority of the fabric wadded up above them, but Kylo was going to count this as close enough to a victory for the day.

And she squirming and looking displeased, fidgeting with the cloth around her upper torso but stopping when Kylo clears his throat.

"I have some research I must do. Don't disturb me."

And don't eat anything and everything you can get you curious little hands on.

Kylo turns then, leaving her to her own devices while he continues with pouring over every text he has to try and unlock the mystery that's been so recently presented to him.

The girl was quiet. Too quiet.

Kylo found himself constantly checking on her with the Force. Her presence told him little other than she was there, flitting about one room of his home to another. Never the room he was in, but everywhere else that her bare feet would take her.

She didn't try to go back up the stairs to her room. Either that place held negative associations already or, more likely, she didn't know how to use steps yet. He still hasn't figured out how she got out and down to begin with. There had been no obvious signs of her door being tampered with or bashed out.

He clears his throat and attempts to go back to the book he was still on the first page of for the last few minutes. There had been just one recount of a mermaid that turned into a human, and it was tied with ancient folklore. A ridiculous story of a curse and a prophecy.

However, like all folk tales of old, there was a chance there was some kernel of truth to it. A real, factual event that had once occurred and then had been bastardized by storytellers to the point of lunacy.

This is not his area of expertise. Slaying her kind was his area of expertise. Kylo will have to find someone to consult, but first make them swear to absolute secrecy.

"It's rude to stare. And to hover. You're being twice rude already, m'lady, and you haven't even said a peep."

The girl had known where he was, of course, but it had taken her this long to work up her courage to step through the door he'd left open to tempt her with.

Silence.

He can feel her eyes bore into the back of his head.

Then soft, soft footsteps. Creeping catlike and shy. She sticks to the shadows of the edges of the room. So quiet, until her unsteady legs make her stumble and knock a whole row of books of one of the shelves.

Kylo sighs and looks over at her, readying a cutting retort that would be completely lost on her but it fades when he sees her.

"You're still wearing it. Rarely have I ever been so shocked in all my days, m'lady."

She not only wearing the dress but wearing it properly. The shift flows around her, slightly too big for her tiny frame and of a completely inappropriate light fabric for the season. Most likely it descended as she was wandering about, but she still cuts a far more suitable frame than he's seen before.

And in her hand is the fish pie. She's already eaten almost all of it. Just a slice left and her frame may be boney but her food-swollen belly can be seen even through the billowy fit of the dress.

"You really are going to make yourself sick."

Just for fun, for his personal fun and hardly hers, Kylo reaches out. Extends his arm as if he's going right for her snack and he means to snatch it from her.

The girl yips. Scowls. Holds it closer to herself. She glares at him as she settles down into the far corner, prize wrapped safely in her arms.

"Better than my cooking, I take it?"

Her head cocks, ear raised toward the ceiling. Oh she's listening alright, but her mind is as unknowable to him as ever.

He goes back to his book then, letting the girl watch him in a silence that maybe, perhaps, could be considered companionable.

Light fluffy chapter with no real plot, hope you like it! Soon I promise I'll start giving this a plot. A real one. Until then, Happy Valentine's Day!

And as always, you can find me on tumblr at lost-inthesunlight at twitter at Ava_Avdal

comment replies:

Coesa Rudo: Sorry about the delay in replying, thanks so much for your kind words! I'm glad you've enjoyed this story and i hope you check out this latest chapter too! : )

Guest: Thank you! I'm glad you like ch6! Thanks for commenting! : )