"No peeking." Victor covered my eyes up with his palm, ruffling my hair with his other one.
"I'm the one who's going to be showering." I pried his fingers off my face. "You can sponge bath yourself with the sink. Now turn around."
"Yes lieutenant." Victor saluted me before spinning away from me.
"If you look I'll kill you." Warning him, I stepped into the tub. My body ached for a shower. I wanted nothing more to be clean and scrub the grime on my skin away.
"Relax, I'm not gonna look Princess. No matter how good I bet that body looks." The encounter from earlier was a small dark blight in his personality. Victor was like a rubber band, he always bounced back in a snap. His goofy persona was back but I still couldn't stop thinking about how he kissed me. Well not quite.
He hadn't exactly kissed me directly on my lips. Although now the idea of a full kiss was becoming more and more appealing. I hated it. I hated that I liked it but I did.
Completely stripped of my clothes, guarded by a dirty green shower curtain, I switched on the hot water. A massaging sensation jetted deep into my flesh. The warm feeling the shower bathed me in was simply euphoric. It was delicious.
After the shower my flesh had returned to it's supple soft texture, at last able to breathe under the thick coats of dirt that once surrounded it.
I dried off with a lone towel that lay randomly sprawled across the tile. Something was better than nothing I suppose.
Once I'd redressed, I stepped out of the shower bright and shiny y/n, sparkling clean. Victor lay sitting on the floor, his back against the door. He was blindfolding himself with his hand.
"You can look now."
His fingers unfurled from that grinning face, the one with fiery red freckles that dusted his cheeks, dotted his eyelids, and peppered his forehead. They were disgustingly charming.
I envied those freckles. I wish I could catch them like fireflies in little jars and keep them for myself.
"You're the one that's staring."
"I didn't mean to." I groused, flipping over to the foggy mirror. I had no brush or comb, fingers would have to do. Victor came up behind me, sharing my reflection.
He had washed himself in the sink as I'd told him to. His hair was scarlet when wet, messy and scruffed up. His hand replaced mine, running over my hair in the mirror. Victor played around with the tangles, trying to manage them into a braid.
"Look at that." He referred to me, my hair falling loose out of that braid. "Pretty." A gaping feeling hollowed out my insides. I searched to fill it. Swiveling around, my back against the bathroom counter, I reached around Victor's neck to pull him down to me. "No." He stopped me, keeping my wrists captive. "I'll kiss you. But I'm only gonna do it once."
Victor turned me back to my reflection, the only thing I was staring at was him. He stooped over to press kisses on my back, trailing up to the sensitive skin of my neck. My pulse rang though my body. Turning my jaw to the side, he bent down and kissed me.
As promised, this was the only time he truly ever kissed me. His lips were chapped, so were mine. They teased their way against mine, brushing against my mouth. He kissed me slowly, softly, delicately, like a butterfly had fluttered on my lips. I inhaled his breath, warm against my cheek.
"You have to be the most beautiful thing that's ever walked the earth." He muttered, eyelids drunkenly half closed, hands firm on the back of my head.
After leaving final kisses on my chin, then each of my cheeks, the bridge of my nose, and forehead, he was done. This was the only time he ever truly kissed me.
"Thanks." I mumbled incoherently, facing him once again.
"I've always wanted to do that." His smile stretched crooked, cheeks flushed. "That was the only time I ever will."
"That bad?"
"No, it was too good. You're like pills, once you start it's hard to stop." Victor was breathless, a dreamy eyed expression mooning over his face. "I know you don't want me like I want you so I gotta cut myself off." He sank down to the tile, spacing out into the wall. "You're sad and confused and you miss him. But now I know."
"What?"
"I just got it for a moment but it was this feeling like I was with you." Victor tugged on the back of his hair. "Gally was really lucky."
"He was." My head leaned against his shoulder, knees on the cold tile. "He really was."