"You can shower first. I'll wait outside, just let me know when you're done," he said, gesturing for her to enter the room first. "O-Oh, alright then," she replied with a hint of awkwardness in her tone. As he closed the door behind her, he could have sworn he heard her let out a sigh before the soft rustling of her clothes hitting the floor could be heard.
No, you idiot. Do not think about that right now. You heard what she said, and you damn well know what that means, he thought, shaking his head violently to dispel the mental image he now had of her.
Yeah, that's not going anywhere, is it? Damn you, brain, he clicked his tongue and slammed his back against the wall as he crossed his arms.
What felt like the better part of half an hour had passed before he heard the latch on the door click. The heavy wooden door slowly crept open, and he noticed the soft light from the candle bouncing off the stone walls behind a wet-haired Marte, with a soft lavender scent coming from within the room.
"T-The shower took me a minute to understand how it worked. I accidentally doused myself in cold water at first, but it all worked out in the end," she said with a nervous chuckle as she handed him his set of linen pajamas. Hers hardly fit her, hugging just a bit too closely to her body for him not to be forced to avert his eyes.
"Oh, is it that much different from the one in the castle?" he asked with genuine concern. "N-No, not really. I guess I'm just worn out from the day," she admitted with a slight blush as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"That's fair. Go ahead and lie down, then. I'll be quick if there's room enough for me to change in there," he said as he walked into the room and went immediately to the right side of the room. There was still a slight mist lingering in the air from her time in the shower, carrying the smells of sharp mint and tea tree oil.
Thank the gods there's enough room, he thought with a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him.
After stripping off his clothes, he proceeded into the shower itself, noticing the stone beneath his feet was much warmer than those just outside of it, but he didn't pay much more attention to it than that.
Of course, that was a mistake.
The moment he turned the knob, a jet of near-boiling water shot out from the spout above his head, eliciting a cry of both surprise and pain from him. "Neko! A-Are you alright?" Marte asked from just outside the door, having rushed out of bed in response to his cry. "What do you take your showers in, a lava waterfall? I nearly melted my skin off!" he shouted back, causing her to chuckle.
"Well, sorry that I can't have a nice hot shower after a long day! Besides, I was going to ask if you wanted help, but you could hardly meet my eyes from the moment I opened the door to let you in," she replied, catching herself grinning at the memory of his overt attempt at not looking at her chest.
There was a moment of silence between them that was only filled by the sound of the running water and the slow, creeping steam from the top of the door that gently licked the threshold.
Did he pass out from the heat or embarrassment? She wondered silently, considering whether to open the door for a few heartbeats before he finally spoke again.
"Alright, I admit. I… I might need a hand," his muffled, defeated voice came from beyond the door, which caused her to blush immediately. "A-Are you sure?" she stammered. "N-No, but at this point, I just want to get this over with," he said, though there wasn't much truth in his words.
If you say so, she smirked momentarily, then immediately wiped it from her face as she opened the door.
A heavy waft of steam flooded over her, immediately dampening her skin with tiny water droplets as she stepped forward. Neko was pinned up against the far wall of the shower, almost cowering away from the boiling deluge that continued to flood the bathroom with enough steam to make it difficult to see.
Damn it, I don't want to get these pajamas soaked any more than they already are. I'm going to freeze if I have to sleep in wet clothing, she realized the moment she felt a droplet fall from her chin.
She began to strip off her clothes, undoing the buttons that were hardly keeping them all together, when she noticed Neko doing his best not to stare. "W-What are you doing?" he hardly managed to ask. "Taking my clothes off so they don't get soaked. What? Have you never seen a fully nude woman before?" she asked with a playful tone.
"I have, thank you very much. I'm just trying to… I don't know, be respectful, I guess?" he asked, immediately shaking his head at the stupidity of his answer. "Well, then, this shouldn't be a problem," she said, casting off the rest of her clothes and tossing them onto the nearest available piece of furniture outside the bathroom.
She gingerly stepped inside, weathering the brunt of the water and soaking herself entirely as she turned the twin dials down to lower the water's temperature balance. Within a few seconds, the water had cooled off enough to push some of the steam aside, revealing Neko's decently toned upper torso and pinkish cheeks.
"T-Thank you," he said, still doing his best to keep his eyes off her body, which was easier said than done, since she took up much more space inside the shower than he did. She responded with a slight scoff and began to chuckle, while the water from the shower followed the rhythm of her shoulders.
"What's so funny?" he asked sheepishly. "Ah, I just never thought this is how it would go," she said with a slight sigh of relief as she shook her head. "H-How what would go?" he asked with a slight stammer. "This entire journey since we both arrived at Coltend Castle. Just think about it for a moment," she said, raising her first with her index finger.
"First, there's the entire situation with Zari, then the existence of dragons, followed by the apparent, looming end of the realm, and now our standing with one another. Take your pick of which insanity you want to focus on, but it has all led to you nearly melting your skin off in a shower," she replied with a chuckle, throwing her head back into the water for a moment.
"Can't say I disagree with you there," he said with a scoff. "I never would have guessed this little adventure of ours would land me in the same shower as you, let alone seeing you like this," he said with a gesture that caused him to accidentally graze her chest with the back of his hand, prompting Marte's eyes to widen in surprise.
"Shit! Sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were that close," he said in a slight fit of panic, but she didn't immediately reply with her customary verbal reprimand. Instead, she took a moment to silently consider the situation and slowly reached out to take his hand in hers.
"You said something about seeing me like this, but you haven't dared to look at me even once. So, go ahead. Look at me," she said, her tone much softer than only a few moments prior. "W-What?" he asked, his eyes nearly flicking in her direction. "Look. At. Me," she said, enunciating each word clearly, but softly.
With some hesitation, though admittedly it wasn't enough to cause him to stop at any point, he turned his head to look at her. Strands of her red hair were stuck close to her face, her golden eyes searching his with a mixture of longing and embarrassment; worry and hope all the same.
Shit, did I make a mistake? Marte wondered, fighting against the desire to pull away for just a few, tense moments longer.
Her breathing grew a bit more rapid the moment she'd realized he was, in fact, not just looking at her, but seeing her for what might have been the first time. She swiftly found herself entirely unable to do anything else but stare back at him.
There was a pause, one that might have been filled by two, maybe three slow breaths between them before Neko broke the silence. "Fuck it," he said in almost a whisper, reaching his free hand up to the side of her cheek, while the other moved to her waist, pulling her toward him to lock his lips with hers; a gesture to which she didn't resist at all.
In fact, she quickly found herself leaning into it.
Dawn came around just a few hours later, with the first shades of orange beginning to show themselves just behind the distant Rhydian Mountains. The training yard was already fully engulfed with activity, with a few scattered yawns here or there as they made their final preparations. Supply packs and swords were tied to saddles, stirrups were checked and adjusted, while Pyle oversaw the entirety of the operation.
Neko and Marte weren't late by any means, but they did have the tell-tale signs of those who had forced themselves awake through the late hours of the night, the moment they'd stepped through the doors.
"Look at that tired smile on their faces. Do you think they got any sleep last night?" Rosie asked quietly with a cheeky elbow to Roburn's ribs, subtly nodding in their direction. "Not a fucking chance," he smirked after giving them a single second's worth of attention. "Nice of you to join us," he called out with a shit-eating grin as they made their way over.
"Your horses have been fed and watered. Do you have everything you need for the journey back?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, thank you. We didn't bring much on the journey here, regardless," Marte said, doing her best to ignore the high-pitched mhmm eliciting from Rosie's tightly sealed lips.
But you're definitely leaving with something new, aren't you? Rosie grinned silently in the corners of her own mind as she turned away to hide her twisting features.
"Thank you for the hospitality, by the way. It was interesting to get to see where fine warriors such as yourselves have been raised," Neko added politely, also ignoring the grin still smeared across Roburn's features. "I'm sure there were more interesting things than that, but you're welcome to this place any time," he said with a chuckle as he outstretched his hand.
Neko took it and shook it firmly, surprising Roburn a little with the strength of his grip. "Well, then. We'd better hurry. If we don't run into any interruptions, we should make it there by mid-afternoon. Maybe even lunchtime, if Master Pyle believes it necessary for us to push our horses that hard, that is," he said after clearing his throat.
"Perhaps not as hard as someo-...ouch!" Rosie flinched away from Roburn, who had just stomped on her foot. However, Neko and Marte had both caught onto what she was implying.
"Is it really that obvious?" he whispered to Roburn, causing him to sigh. "I nearly mistook you two for the fucking sun with how much you two were smiling at each other. If only I could be so grossly incandescent," he said, using a voice one might have used in a theatre's play to enunciate his last sentence.
He's a few marbles short of a full bag, isn't he? Neko asked himself as he shook his head with a scoff.
"In any case, it looks like we're about to leave. Mount up," Roburn said, jutting his thumb in the gate's direction, which was already swinging open. Marte and Neko nodded to each other and got on their respective horses, following closely behind Pyle and Garett, who both regarded them with a silent, unvoiced acknowledgment.
"Ready to go, then?" Garett asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, sir," the two replied in unison, earning them a nod in response. "Let's move out!" he shouted over his shoulder, using one of his hands to raise the Dragon Horn to his lips and blow.
The sound bellowed through the courtyard, echoing off the walls and filling the entire area. Small, ground-borne creatures, birds, and other nearby beasts just beyond the walls seemed to halt whatever they were doing in response, while the trees shimmered almost reverently in reply to its sound.
There couldn't have been a more adequate answer to the meaningful weight it carried at that moment.
Here we go again, Roburn thought with a slight roll of his shoulders as he stared down the road ahead.