Chapter Five

Axel's Point-of-View

I smile at Iris when she finally calms down and listens to me. I know she doesn't trust me, but her believing me, even for a moment, is a step in the right direction. I stand up and hold my hands out to her to help her up. She wrinkles her nose a little bit before pushing herself up off the ground and strides past me, ignoring my offer. I sigh. One step forward, two steps back.

I turn, lean against the wall, and watch her walk over to the bathtub. She dips her hand into the water and grimaces.

"Can I re-run this? It's gone cold," she asks without looking back at me.

"Yeah, go ahead," I say back, slightly amused. Here she is, not having had a bath in who knows how long, and she's complaining about the water being cold. She takes her time pulling the plug and doesn't start the faucet until all the previous water has drained. Then she fiddles with the faucet until it's at just the right temperature before putting the plug back in the drain. She suddenly starts looking around, frowns, and then turns back to me.

"Can I add bubbles to this? Do you have bubbles?" she asks, and she almost looks desperate. I'm a little confused, but cross to the cabinet and grab a bottle for her anyway. I hand it to her, and she walks back over to the tub and pours a very liberal amount of it into the water. After she's satisfied, she goes and sits on the closed toilet seat and stares down at her bare feet as though seeing them for the first time. She sneers slightly before reaching her hand up to her hair. Upon touching it, her sneer deepens and she looks thoroughly disgusted.

"I'm really dirty, aren't I?" she asks. I know she's not looking at me, but I can't help but smile sympathetically.

"It's not that bad," I lie. She turns her head slightly in my direction and looks at me disbelievingly through her lashes. After a few seconds, she scoffs slightly and looks away. I figure that's the end of our conversation. She gets up to check the water level. She seems relieved when she sees it's not full yet. She perches on the edge of the tub and glances at me very quickly before looking at the floor again.

"You know," she starts timidly, "it would make me feel a lot better about this if you told me why you insist on remaining in here." I sigh exasperatedly and run a hand through my hair. As her new master, I know I don't owe her an explanation, but I really can't argue with her logic.

"It's not something I like to discuss, but if it'll help you that much, I suppose I can tell you," I say. I'm hoping my slightly harsh tone makes her decide against wanting to know. After a few moments of silence, she looks up at me suddenly and opens her mouth.

"Proceed," she says impatiently. I'm shocked by her tone and, to be honest, a little annoyed. Oh well. You already got yourself into this. You can't renege now. I sigh again.

"I was a bit too loose with the first servant I bought. She was a very skittish, panicky girl, and decided that she'd do anything to not be here," I start. Iris glances back at the water level of the bathtub, turns the faucet off, and turns back to me. When she doesn't move, I know she's waiting to hear the rest of the story before dis-robing.

"So what's that have to do with bathing?" she asks, keeping her eyes trained on my face.

"Well, even if a girl I buy is perfectly clean, I still prefer she bathe here first thing. I don't know why; it's just a habit of mine, I guess," I continue. "Anyway, the first girl, the panicky girl, I brought her home and brought her upstairs to a bathroom that has since been destroyed-" Iris's brow wrinkles in confusion as I say this "-Like I said, she was acting very skittish, but I didn't really think anything of it. I ran her a bath, laid out towels for her, and told her to take all the time she needed. Then I left the room. Well, time passed. After what seemed like way too long to be in a bath, even for a woman, I came back up to check on her. I knocked on the door, but she didn't answer. After she didn't answer a second time, I walked in, approached the tub and found her there. She had drowned herself. Since then, I've always made sure to not let that happen again," I finish quietly. I'm staring at the floor and suddenly wonder when I averted my gaze. Finally, I look up at Iris and see she's still watching me. Her face is considerably paler now under the dirt.

"If that happened with your very first servant, why would you get another?" she asks, not unkindly. I shrug.

"I really don't have an answer for that one. Hoped she was a fluke, I guess," I answer, refusing to look away from her again. After what seems like an eternity, she finally breaks our gazes by standing up.

"At least turn around," she says, and the mood in the room shifts immediately. I smile slightly at her bravado and dramatically do as she asks. I hear some shuffling, the sound of fabric falling to the floor, and finally the shifting of water and bubbles. Silence settles back into the room.

"Can I turn back around now?" I ask, still smiling.

"Yeah," she responds in a whisper. I turn around and can't prevent my smile from turning into a grin. She sunk her body so low into the tub that all I can see in the mass of white bubbles is from her lips up. I put my hand over my mouth to hide my grin, not wanting to make her feel any more awkward. Well, now I know why she wanted the bubbles. That's when I notice something she must've missed.

"Um, I have a question," I say while forcing a laugh back down into my throat. Her eyes narrow.

"Yes?"

I'm almost giggling as I point over to the sink area, "Would you like the shampoo, conditioner, and soap?" Her eyes look over and widen slightly.

"Yes…um…any chance you could bring it over here?" she asks quietly. I raise my eyebrows.

"Forgetting our manners, aren't we?" I drawl with a grin.

"Could you please bring me everything?" she practically hisses. My grin gets bigger and I chuckle softly. I walk over and grab the bottles and make my way over to her. When I get closer, she sinks down even farther into the bubbles. I place each bottle on the edge of the tub and back up to my spot against the wall again. She stares at the bottles for what feels like forever. I start growing impatient.

"If you don't get a move on, I swear I will come over there and do everything for you," I warn softly. She looks at me fearfully before dunking backwards into the water. She comes back up after a moment with wet hair and pushes it out of her face. She reads the bottles, grabs the shampoo, squirts a small puddle of it into her palm, and starts scrubbing rather vigorously. The white shampoo suds slowly start turning a dark gray color. She rinses and repeats until the suds start coming off white. She smiles slightly and applies the conditioner, piling her hair on top of her head. She glances around the edge of the tub.

"Uh…do you have a loofa? Preferably a clean one?" she asks. Oh, I forgot about that. Silently, I go back to the cabinet and grab one. Not wanting to make her uncomfortable again, I toss it over to her and it lands on top of the bubbles. How much bubble stuff did she put in there? "Thank you," she whispers.

"Oh, um, you're welcome," I say, shocked by her actually thanking me. She takes the loofa and pours soap onto it. After working it into a lather, a small frown appears on her face.

"Could you turn around again? I'd really rather you didn't watch this," she says.

"Sure," I reply, turning my back to her again. I hear her stand up and listen as the loofa grates quietly against her skin. The sound is punctuated occasionally by slight hisses, and I'm curious to know why she's making such noises. "You okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, fine. My…uh…my skin is just over-sensitive apparently," she responds. Her voice sounds slightly shaky, but I choose to take her words at face value. After a few more minutes, she speaks again: "I'm just going to rinse my hair out and I'll be done, so you might as well stay turned around."

"Alright," I agree, feeling annoyed again that she's giving me orders. There's a soft splash followed by a few moments of silence before I hear the water start draining and her wet feet padding across the floor to where I left the towels. She takes a few minutes to dry herself off.

"Okay, I'm done," she announces. I turn around. Her hair is wrapped up in one of the towels as though in a turban and she has the bathrobe I put out wrapped snugly around herself. She keeps her arms wrapped around herself too, as though making sure the robe stays shut despite the fact that she's tied it. She shifts, uncomfortable under my gaze before breaking the silence again. "Well, what now?" she asks.

"Oh, um, clothes and food, I suppose," I say, breaking my gaze. She nods.

"Alright…Well, it's your house, so lead the way," she says, a slight bite to her words. I struggle to keep my irritation under control and stride out of the room. In the hallway, I glance behind me to make sure she's following. I smile when I discover that she is, silently at that.

Maybe there's some hope for her after all.