Chapter Fourteen - Sweet Cherry Blossoms
"I will heat up your food," Ashiya explains immediately and without hesitation as his king, already armed with a large towel, takes new clothes from Urushihara's travel bag.
This time, Ashiya takes a generous step back from his usual aversion to waste, which means changing clothes twice in two hours.
If his lord didn't care so much about Urushihara, he would.
"And I'll save some for Urushihara," he promises without being asked.
"Aren't you exaggerating a bit?" Emi wants to know from Maou. "He's a big boy, you don't have to help him bathe."
"I don't have to do anything," he says sharply. "I want to. I don't want him to fall asleep and drown in the tub, just because he seems fit to you doesn't mean he is."
Emi looks as if she wants to answer, but then stops herself. The thermometer still shows "error" and even if she doesn't admit it, she can understand why Maou is so worried.
Alas-Ramus climbs out of her chair.
"Can I go too, Papa?"
"No!" Emi, Chiho and Ashiya scream at once.
Startled, the little one jerks back and gives them confused looks.
Maou, on the other hand, struggles to suppress a smile.
"Alas-chan," he says seriously, "that's very sweet of you and Lucifer would surely appreciate it, but your father needs some time alone with him."
She looks at him suspiciously.
"Are you mad at Lucifer?"
"What? No! No, not at all."
"You're not being mean?"
"No, I promise you." Eloquently, he raises his hand to swear.
She stares at him for a moment, then nods seriously.
"Then you can go."
Never before has Maou felt so small and so worthless as he does now under this strict gaze. He swallows hard, gives a hint of a bow and then rushes into the bathroom.
The whole bath smells like sweet cherry blossoms.
Maou has been very generous with the bubble bath and now he loves to sink into the bubbles. The tub is large and offers enough room for both of them. Maou is used to sitting naked in an onsen next to his generals - and strangers - but this is new to him. He can't remember ever being this close to Urushihara. So an excited flutter awakens in the pit of his stomach as he slides into the water behind him, wraps his arms around his torso, and pulls him close.
"So you're really getting into the tub with me?" Urushihara mumbles, this time in a strange mix of angel language, demon basics and Japanese. He leans his back against Maou's chest.
Whether he is really familiar with him or just exhausted, Maou cannot judge.
Actually, it is a mixture of both. Urushihara doesn't like it, but his blindness has had an effect on his need for physical closeness and now he is simply too exhausted to resist.
"Yes," Maou answers him and gently brushes the damp hair away from Urushihara's face. "This is the best way to prevent the water from getting too hot for you, otherwise you could have a circulatory collapse. You could also have a heart attack," he pauses, holding his cheek briefly against Urushiharas' and then whispering in his ear:
"And if you get one, at least I'll be right there."
Urushihara is silent for a few seconds. Since his blindness, he feels more outcast than ever, and the only bridge between him and the world is now his sense of touch - not his ears or his nose, because sounds and smells are not tangible, they are not palpable.
But this ... Maou's gentle touch, the way he holds him - as friendly as if they were best friends - makes him doubt his most important sense for a moment.
"And this is real?" he asks hesitantly.
Something in Maou twitches at this question.
"Because I'm too nice?"
Urushihara just nods.
Maou closes his eyes and breathes deeply.
"Mea maxima culpa."
"Quid?" -What? - Urushihara asks as he leans on him even more. He feels weak and terribly sluggish and the hot water does its part as well.
"Sunt multa me paenitet" - I regret a lot- Maou admits guiltily, hoping to prove his seriousness by scraping together his pitiful language skills. He had to learn it the hard way, because Lucifer would not let him establish a telepathic connection to himself, and his grammar is probably even worse than his accent.
Lucifer's purple eyes narrowed into two mistrustful slits.
"Why do you want to learn? " he asked sharply, and the dismissive look on his face would have instantly put off anyone but Satan Jacob.
The small, young black goat grinned up at him with confidence.
"One day I would like to meet those who live there," he pointed to the blue moon in the night sky. "So it would be advantageous if I could introduce myself in their language."
Lucifer stared at him for a long time with raised eyebrows, but then he nodded and Maou tried not to smile too cheerfully.
It was only half true, but at that moment, all he cared about was getting what he wanted. Besides, he didn't want to scare off his newest and most important ally by telling him that he was just curious. He wanted to know as much as possible about him.
Maou quickly pushes this memory aside and concentrates on the here and now.
"Paenitet me, ut iratus sum tecum. Me paenitet quod Emi proiecit te de car. Me paenitet non auxilium vobis. Me paenitet quod non expecto enim ante." - I'm sorry that we were so mean to you. That Emi kicked you out of the car and I didn't do anything about it. Sorry we came looking for you so late. Yes, the language of angels is difficult, but he tries.
"Sed maxime", he adds in a weaker voice, "quod nesciebam te esse caecum." - But most of all, that I didn't realize you were blind.
Urushihara in his arms tenses noticeably at these words but says nothing. But Maou, whose hand happens to be resting on Urushihara's ribs, feels his heart beat faster.
"Since when", he begins, switching back to Japanese, hesitating and then continuing very, very carefully, "... can't you see anything?"
"Erat ego .. Was I in the forest overnight?"
"Yes."
"Then it's the Day Triginta Duo."
Thirty-two. Maou gasps for air.
"For over a month!" He racks his brain, but can't think of anything that could have happened back then that would have caused such serious damage. But this question is quickly overwhelmed by another.
"And how long has Alas known?"
"Of course...", Urushihara groans annoyed. "Don't worry," his voice sounds very rough and he takes many breaks.
The hot water is making him very tired and it is difficult for him to put his thoughts into words. It's as if they were stuck in a traffic jam on their way to his tongue. Translating them into Japanese takes even more energy, but this Babylonian language confusion is becoming embarrassing.
"I never made her a Signifer Secretorum ... secret keeper. I would never do that to her... She assumes that ... that you know and ... don't want to spoil me".
"I never meant to accuse you."
"Non ne?" - Really not? - it comes back strained.
Maou bites his lower lip.
"Lucifer," he assures him, "I didn't mean to say that, it's just that... I wish that you could trust me as much as you trust her."
Sighing, Urushihara sinks deeper into his embrace.
"I didn't tell Alas..." he mumbles, increasingly exhausted. "Alas ... instar eam."
"She found out on her own? How?"
Urushihara chuckles softly, but only briefly because his throat hurts.
"She is," his voice breaks and he has to cough. "...smarter than you," he croaks the rest of his sentence.
Maou involuntarily grabs him a little tighter when Urushihara is shaken by this coughing attack.
"Crap," Maou hastily opens the faucet and lets hot water run in while stroking Urushihara's forehead. "Now you have a cold, I hope you don't get a fever, keep warm," he thinks aloud, "drink a lot and rest. How do you feel? Are you tired? Exhausted? But you should also eat something, you need energy. Ashiya promised to heat up the food for you, but I'm sure he'd be happy to make you some broth, and then you have to go to bed. We have a nice, big western bed, you'll like it."
Urushihara just makes a vague humming sound that could mean anything or nothing. For a long time, they sit in the big tub in silence and Maou turns off the water as soon as he thinks that it is warm enough.
"How did that happen?" he asks quietly.
Urushihara understands immediately what he means.
"Meningitis," he answers willingly, but with an increasingly heavy tongue.
"I think," he adds, mumbling softly, "I couldn't do much research on the Internet before everything went dark."
Before everything went dark. Maou hugs him tighter.
"I'm sorry," he buries his face in Urushihara's neck, planting a tiny kiss on his sensitive skin without realizing it. "I'm terribly sorry."
Urushihara freezes, but then he thinks that it was probably just a mistake and because everything is just so cozy - the hot water, Maou's arms holding him, yes, even Maou's closeness itself - he decides not to say anything and just continues to enjoy this.
In fact, it doesn't take long before he falls asleep in Maou's arms.