eldia

21 | masked desires

Warm water, closer to the hotter side, surrounds you. Opalescent bubbles float on top and fill the bathroom with a sweet, pleasant aroma.

You're sitting in the bathtub, body fully emerged with only your head and your shoulders out of water.

Your feet poked out at the opposite end of the tub, your toes fiddled with the faucet, turning the handle backward and forward so that water pours out and stops over and over again.

As you soaked in your bath, you began to think about what you had planned for the day. Wake up, take a bath, eat, explore Paradis for a while longer, get dressed and then go to the ball.

When it dwelled on you that there wasn't anything else after that, you realize this adventure was soon to be over. After tonight, what would be your excuse? You had saw the lanterns and now you'd attend the ball. What then?

Part of you wanted to continue to find excuses to stay, avoid going back home for as long as you could even though time seemed to be moving at the speed of light.

It took a month to get here. It'll take a month to go back. You were only given two months. Time was running out before your very eyes and there was nothing you could do to stop it.

You could somehow, someway, convince Jean to keep running with you. Screw the promise and screw the wedding.

But that was unfair. Not just to your family who you'd never see again but for Phoenix and his family who already put so much time and money into the wedding. And to Jean as well. Who also had his whole life back home.

You look over to a hidden envelope that was tucked away in one of your bags that rested on the sink. Inside was something that could quite possibly be the one thing that could convince him to run away with you.

"What's wrong?" A voice asks. You turn your head to the bathroom door and Jean stands there, mid stretch and freshly woken up.

You sit up some more, your collarbone and upper chest area exposed as bubbles clung to it, refusing to part ways. "Nothing." He must've caught you zoned out and knew your mind was running wild.

He walks over to the very sink that your eyes were locked onto just a few seconds ago and looks at himself in the mirror. Your heart skips thinking about him accidentally looking inside the bag that rested just a few inches from his fingers.

"Did you know I've never taken a bath on my own before?" You ask, attempting to distract him. "I mean, I have but there was always someone standing in the corner making sure I don't drown or maybe forget how to bathe myself."

He twists his body around. "You're sad because you miss someone bathing you?" He walks over to the tub and sits down by it, his elbow resting on the rim and a smirk on his face. "I can help with that."

You laugh and playfully toss some foamy bubbles his way. "It's not that." You allow your body to relax again. "I've been doing a lot of things on my own now and I gotta admit, I'm enthralled with the feeling. I don't think I could stand everyone hovering around me again like I'm this fragile piece of glass."

Your hands sway through the water, filling the room with some kind of noise so it isn't so silent. "But you know it's sorta ironic that I have the gift of some magical flower. I've always been hidden away under the shade, smothered with no room to grow. Now that I'm free and out in the sun with miles and miles of space to roam, I feel so..."

"Alive." He steals the word right off your tongue.

You smile gently. "Exactly."

He adjusts the way he's seated so he can look more serious. "I may not have been raised locked away in a castle but I've stayed in Eldia my whole life, so I get that feeling. I know how exciting it is to leave for the first time."