pre style="word-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"Carlotta finally managed to coerce a hesitant Ariel out of the tub after a LOT of coaxing and in the end she only agreed to it because most of the bubbles had popped. After lots of one-sided arguing Carlotta even had to have a small bite brought up for the girl to eat in the tub because she had already missed lunch. The strange girl loved the water, swimming back and forth the length of the tub or sometimes just sinking down below the water and holding her breath for minutes at a time (that really got Carlotta's heart rate up the first time). When she finally did step out on wobbly legs, she was at first horrified at the sight of the prune lines on her hands and feet and it took quite a bit of effort on both sides to get that little misunderstanding sorted out.
Then there was the topic of getting dressed.
By gods. The child doesn't even know how to dress herself. It's like she's never seen underclothes before.
A few minutes spent trying to help the girl into her pants, she kept rubbing her legs with an amazed expression on her face. Carlotta tried with the shirt. It was good until Ariel stuck her head under, which means it was bad from the very start.
Ariel had somehow managed to pull one of the sleeves of the shirt in on itself and turned the thing around half sideways so she was trying to put her head out the other sleeve. It was getting to be quiet the mess, little bits of red hair sticking out the head hole along with an elbow, when of course, the mistress walked in.
The door creaked as it opened and Carlotta looked over to see the Prince's very confused blue eyes. "Is everything alright in here?"
"Eric!"
If they could've seen Ariel's face under the shirt it would've been redder than her hair as her struggling suddenly stopped at hearing Eric's name.
A wide grin broke out on his face. "Need some help there Carlotta?" he walked chucking. "Grimsby and I had thought you had drowned or something, you didn't make it up to lunch."
He gently pulled the sleeve that was inside, back out again and Ariel remained still as a statue.
Now Carlotta was blushing, and gave a small laugh. "No no, the girl just enjoyed the bath. She did scare me a few times though, holding her breath."
"Ah I see. Well I'm glad to see you're both fine." He gently pulled the shirt around so it was lined up correctly and then worked it down over the poof of red hair.
Oh gods oh gods oh gods.
Ariel slowly pushed her head up when she felt Eric continue to gently tug the shirt and shinning blue eyes peered up into icy ones.
Ice.
"I've heard stories about it up and the merpeople up North. They wear seal skins to keep warm and they hunt with the whales…"
Cold and sparkling clear, while Ariel's were a darker blue than the depths of the ocean, Eric felt the same feeling of déjà vu as before. The girl's lips moved, familiar with speech yet sound still refused to come out.
I wish I could hear what you're trying to say to me…
Eric blinked and Ariel smiled at the light blush that spread across his cheeks even as she felt her own burning on her face. She timidly ran a hand through his black hair.
"Now just, stick your arms out the holes there on the side, see?"
Ariel looked down to focus on the task at hand finding it easier now that her head was freed, and complied easily.
"Now that you're dressed, would you care for a tour of the castle before dinner?"
Ariel nodded enthusiastically and Eric held out a hand to lead the way. "Carlotta, could you please tell Grimsby we'll be down later for dinner?"
"Of course dearie, you just go and enjoy yourself and we'll see you then. I'll have Louis cook up something special for our guest tonight."
A parting "Thank you Carlotta" and a calloused, yet somehow still soft and strong hand pulled lightly on the pale soft smooth one and they were out the door./pre