soft as silk

'You should get cleaned up too,' Haku muttered as he watched the girl come in with his sensei's clothes in her hands.
He himself was only half dressed, making her blush and shyly look at the ground. Her little reaction made him want to laugh; it was only skin after all. Eying her for a moment, he noted she moved without thought or reason, simply going through the motions because she had no other choice.
She probably still hadn't fully comprehended what had just happened. After all, in one afternoon, she had lost everything.

He noticed she was clutching on tightly to the clothes in her hands. Dried up blood on her face, hair and clothes painted her red. She looked like a complete mess.

When he had found her, she had clearly been running for a while, halting when sensing him, she had whipped around with a kunai in hand. It was shaking uncontrollably. Panicked and afraid she cowered when he approached her but without much effort, he had her disarmed and overpowered. Clearly, she had already given up the moment she had seen it was him standing behind her.

'Just let it soak,' he suddenly spoke up, making her snap out of her daze. His eyes were on the clothes in her hands before nodding at the barrel. She eyed her hands for a second, then realizing who's clothes she was holding on to, she threw them in as if they had just caught fire.
'You change too,' he softly said. Not making eye-contact with him, she simply shook her head in response. Undressing himself further, she turned beet red when seeing him out of the corner of her eye. With a huff, she turned around and faced the wall, obviously outraged by his behavior. It made Haku laugh. He supposed girls were bit more modest.
Not that he would know, he had hardly ever been around one. Zabuza never really made a point out of being modest in front of one another.

'I have some clothes that will fit you,' he said while placing his bloody outfit into the barrel. Her shoulders defensively went up in response to his closeness. He tried to look at her, but she'd move her head away each time. Her reaction made him quirk up an eyebrow, but he remained amused.
'Take your clothes off and I'll help you wash up.'
'W-what!?' she whispered outraged at by his words.
'Yes, come here.'
Touching her shoulder, she turned around pushed herself up to the wall, her eyes watering while shakingly hissing at him to not touch her.
His smile faded, realizing that she wasn't going to suddenly change her defensive attitude towards him, even if he was being nice.

Best bet is to be honest with her, he thought to himself.

Making his expression became sterner and more serious, he grabbed her by the wrist.
'I'm not going to leave you by yourself. You are, after all, our enemy. So, you can either change in front of me or change in front of Zabuza. But mind you, he isn't going to be amused nor be very patient. If you want a quick cold wash, by all means continue with what you're doing.'
Hesitating, she finally worded her concern, 'You're a boy!'
'So?'
'I'm a girl! We can't… wash together!'
Shrugging, he simply responded, 'I don't care. It's just your body. There isn't anything to it. I'm not interested in seeing it.'

Her expression became puzzled, as if she didn't quite know what to make of his words.
He gave her a reassuring smile and loosened his grasp on her wrist to holding her hand. 'You can choose whatever you want,' he said, referring to his clothes.
He was just down to his underwear but still covered in blood and dirt. Lines on his body showed where his clothes had failed them. The fair skin of his chest however had not a speckle of blood.
Letting him guide her to the ridiculously tiny bathroom, which was just behind the washroom, Sakura halted as soon as he let go of her hand. Turning on the hot water, he grabbed some soap and washcloths.
'You need to undress.'
She shook her head, teary eyed, silently pleading him not to.
'I-I can't…'

'Come on,' he said, though not sounding angry or aggravated. Speaking to her merely as if she were being a silly child. Opening her shirt with a soft handling, he gave her look as if saying, see that wasn't too bad. Her eyes focused on his, clearly not trusting his intentions. He never broke eye-contact to proof he meant what he said. After a good minute of just staring, she finally moved to lose her shirt. Crossing her arms in front of her chest to shield her bindings of his eyes. He simply smiled in response, sitting down at the edge of the bathtub, he motions her to take of her shoes and shorts.
Warily she proceeded. Placing his feet in the water, he held out a washcloth and waited for her to step in. His eyes never left hers. His focus was solely on her face.

'Sit,' he commanded, but she only eyed him wearily. 'I'll do your hair,' he then softly said. She turned around and slowly sat down, holding herself tightly.
'Are you going to bathe in your underwear?' he asked when his eyes unintentionally landed on her lower back while combing her hair through.
'Yes!' she squeaked offensively.
He figured not to press the issue and simply shrugged while continuing to comb her pink tresses. She started scrubbing her body and by her shaky movement and erratic breathing he could tell she was trying to fight off a sob. She failed miserably when she couldn't get the blood off her fingers. He grabbed hold of her hand, holding it out in front of him. Blood had started to dry up, staining her fingertips red. Her body was trembling uncontrollable. He hadn't seen hands tremble quite this hard since…

Since his own had covered themselves in blood for the first time.

Without speaking, he grabbed the little brush on the other side of the bathtub and scrubbed off the blood on her fingertips and underneath her nails. Water sloshed around but she stayed put and let him continue while crying silently. He didn't say a word to her, calmy continuing his work.

Her movements were fast and light, as if she feared one wrong movement could provoke an unwanted reaction out of either of them. So far Zabuza had been very tolerable towards her presence, not saying much. He hadn't pressed to find a seller yet but that didn't surprise Haku.
The pink-haired girl was scrubbing their clothes with her hands. The simple white shirt he gave her looked good on her, it softened all of her features. Her focus was on the task but clearly her mind was miles away.
If only the girl hadn't been a kunoichi, that status came with certain… limited options. If Zabuza wanted her gone, then there wasn't much he could do about it and then he'd have to accept that her fate could end up being rather… dubious.

Noticing him staring, she looked up. Her green eyes only making brief contact before quickly looking back down in an almost submissive manner. Her actions sometimes stood in contrast to his idea of her being a shinobi. Perhaps he didn't have limited options to sell her off?
Her skin was soft, wrists delicate. In a strange way, she reminded him of his mother. Wringing out the clothes he had tasked her to wash, she then hung them up. When she was done, she awaited his next command by simply looking at him. Fidgeting eventually because of his blatant unapologetic stare.
For a moment he was dazed by her, taking her in. Girls were very pretty, he noted to himself. Soft as silk, fresh as cotton, warm as summers breeze… None of it was a lie when he looked at her.
He swallowed when feeling a mix of emotions surge up, he hadn't thought of his mother in a very long time…

'Girl,' Zabuza suddenly said, surprising the both of them. 'Come here, I need your help…'
'I can— 'She can do it, you just continue dinner, Haku,' Zabuza gruffly answered.
Sakura hesitated for split second before warily walking over to the man on the bed.
He was cleaning up a wound and commanded her to grab some bandages.

Haku simply remained quiet, knowing it was a test the moment Zabuza had called out for her. He continued preparing the food while watching the scene unfold.

She clearly had no experience with real-life inflicted battle-wounds, but she was covering all the basics thought in the academy. Being unsurprisingly sweet and caring, even apologizing when thinking she had hurt him when let out a wince of pain. Zabuza only frowned in reaction, not bothering to tell her she hadn't done anything and that he had just made a wrong move.
Her small hands had surprisingly much strength, tightening the bandages well around his abdomen. Green eyes stared intensely at his sensei's before looking back down to the ground. Haku couldn't help but smirk, curious to what was going on in their minds at that very moment.

Giving her a nod of approval when she was done, Zabuza told her to go help Haku if she too wanted to eat today.