Mutual Benefits
Tabitha is a cynical person. She knew there was no prince charming and that there was no one to help her but herself. So she devised a plan. A plan to save her mother and to free herself from her uncle. And the key to this plan was one, Louise de La Valliere... No one ever said it was a well throughout plan.
There were very few places which Louise liked, or to be more precise appreciated, about Tristan Academy of Magic.
The library, for its extensive and diverse books, ranging in a wide number of subjects. It's quiet atmosphere where only the more diligent students tend to stay for studying rather than check out what they need and leave. Also because she doesn't tend to meet her tormenters there most of the time.
There was also her room. A place of solace and rest. A place where she can definitely not be bother. Since not even her tormenters would dare step into her place of solitude.
Except for that damn Zerbst, but there are annoying exceptions to every case. At least she doesn't intrude on her room uninvited, only knock enough to drive her insane before Louise is forced to deal with her. Thankfully, the times where such situations occurred where very few. More of the annoyance is the fact that they even existed at all.
Where was she?
Oh right, favorite places in the academy.
There was one more, which added up to a total of three. Kind of sad really.
The last place Louise took comfort in was the Academy's Bathhouse. It was a special area, with multiple pools, charmed with heated and refreshing water at all times. Late in the night hours, after the students have gone to sleep and most of the servants have gone to bed - except those on the night shifts - Louise could then enjoy a nice long soak in the heated, relaxing water. It was a place in which she could not only wash away her fatigue. It was a place where she could finally lower the mask of steel, that she wore in front of others. She would sink her head under the water, and let all her sorrow and anguish flow.
She would cry, her tears mixing with the water, her woes muffled by it and the steam would hide her presence. Thus no one would know of her weakness. None of her bullies would gain the satisfaction of seeing her cry or hearing her weeping. She tried to be strong. Follow her mother's Rule of Steel and show herself in a manner worth of the House of Valliere. However there was only so much verbal or social harassment she could take without these moments where she lays down the armor around her heart.
The teachers, of course, do help whenever they could, if at least to display their status of how nobility should act. Sadly for her case, it is not enough and sometimes, it appears that it never will be. The mark of one who had never succeed in casting a single spell, in a school for teaching magic, was too much of a stain to be ignored.
She couldn't even afford to cry within her room. She couldn't allow for any eavesdropper to discover her distress, as she had no capability to mute the sound of her sobs with a wind spell or its equivalent. Should that Zerbst or any of her bullies hear about her moments of weakness, the news would spread like wildfire, and her time within the Academy would be ever so more miserable. Another advantage of the bathhouse is that should she be found there, then she would say that she is simply taking a bath. If her face looks a little red, that would be from staying in the water for too long. At least, she imagined that such an excuse would somewhat work.
That's why it was only in these moments, here in the bathhouse alone, where she could let down her guard and renew her strength to face another day. However the place was an ideal spot for her to cry her heart out from a difficult day, and while she had many ways to cover the act of her, self believed shame. Louise had never actually met nor encountered anyone on her late night ventures; fortune having smiled upon her so far.
It was why she didn't hear the sounds of the oncoming footsteps, slapping upon the wet floor. Or feel the rippling waves of the bath as someone entered the pool she was in, until they gently announced their presence by touching her shoulder.
She jumped in frightened surprise, and turned around to see the calm eyes of the blue haired Gallian girl, staring right back at her.
"I'm, aaa, I, it, it's just the water-" Louise tried to say something. Anything to hide her moment of weakness.
But before Louise could think of something, or get her barrings, she was interrupted by Tabitha grabbing Louise into her embrace, and taking her lips with her own.