Orpheus’ vision eventually faded from having yellow at the edges to its usual blue, but the lingering feeling of delight remained in his chest long afterward. She drank the tea I made for her. He knew if he had a human face with skin, he’d be beaming with a grin.
He continued to listen to the world and sensed no Demons for the moment. They occasionally came close by, but they left, paying him no mind. They didn’t like loitering around his home since they knew he would attack them if they got too close to it – whether he was housing a human or not.
I wonder what kind of chair she would like. If she’d prefer something with a back, or just a plain stool to have outside. Maybe I should ask her. A flare of excitement was lit in his belly, hoping if he continued to make things for her, do things for her, she would grow to like him.
He would change everything about his home, make a new bed for her if she wanted it, string new ornaments with her preferred designs in mind, if it would make her content with him.
There was even a place he’d like to take her, somewhere very dangerous for a human, but he would make sure she was safe and protected as long as it meant she was able to pick things she wanted for herself. Items she could bring back here so she could decorate his home for herself.
It was foolish. He was being foolish, but Reia was different.
The reason there were so few Demons loitering around his home was because there was no scent of fear from her. It was completely gone.
She ate her meals in his presence, drank his tea, sat in the seat he’d made her outside. The protection trinket she’d made currently hung above where he slept, and he’d stared at it over the past two nights in wonder that a human had made something for him.
And she speaks with me. He’d never had one of his offerings conversate so frequently with him. She asks me questions about myself. And she didn’t seem to be disturbed by his answers.
He felt... he felt like he didn’t have to hide the truth from her so much. She knew he’d been violent to her kind in the past, and yet she didn’t turn away from such conversations in distress or disgust.
Now that her scent was no longer tainted by the sweetness of fear, he’d come to adore the way she smelled. He found himself often being closer to her than he should, just to be able to deeply take it in.
And her hair looks like pure streaks of sunlight. It even glittered in the sunlight, just as bright and dazzling. Her eyes were such a deep forestry green that he’d found himself starting to become lost in them, like a wandering traveller who’d lost their way, when she stared at him.
She looks at me, rather than shying away. She’s smiled at me, and he couldn’t stop the way his heart pounded at seeing it. And her laughter, even though just as rare, was the sweetest song.
They remained outside until the sun faded, and although it had been hours, his desire to protect her kept him rooted in place without complaint. If she liked being outside so much, then he would do this duty every day without protest. He hoped one day she would allow him to be seated next to her and allow him to gaze at her while they did this.
I want to lay my head in her lap.
He’d always felt a deep sense of loneliness around the others, but even now, with the small distance between them, it didn’t echo inside him any deeper than it usually did.
Reia let him know when she was ready to go inside, and he followed after she picked out the food she wanted to bring inside for her meal that night.
He attempted to look busy by starting up the fireplace to keep her warm even though he didn’t need the heat. He cleaned every surface he could, mildly rearranged his ornaments just so he could watch her while she moved around the kitchen without bothering her. He worried that if he sat at the table and stared at her with curiosity and interest like he wanted to that it would unsettle her, and she’d retreat into her sleeping room.
She is boiling spinach again. Her dress was pale green already, darker at the hem and sleeve cuffs because the dye had dripped and settled there when she hung it up. The lace designs were also darker than the rest, as if that material absorbed it better.
Her dinner meal, when complete, filled his home with a fragrance of different vegetables. It didn’t cause his stomach to grumble in hunger, but it gave the house life he could never give it.
“I’ve used the last of the water,” she told him as she placed her food on the table and knelt on the chair to eat.
“Then I will get you more in the morning,” he hastily answered, wanting to make sure she wasn’t without anything she could need.
The stream was only about an hour away, maybe less, and he could be back before she woke.
He wanted to sit with her while she ate, wanted to be close to her, but he placed himself in the large fur-covered chair with armrests in front of the fire instead. His mind, however, didn’t stray from Reia eating, his other senses taking her in since his eyes couldn’t.
It was only when he heard the clanking of her spoon and bowl along with her feet pattering around telling him she was done that Orpheus stood.
“I will prepare your bath,” he told her dully, like he did most nights after she’d eaten.
The colour of her pale cheeks became a shade darker, making him tilt his head because he’d never seen them do that before. They didn’t take long to pale once more after she nodded. He left, grabbing a match from the table to strike it as he walked down the hallway.
He began lighting the candles. Three were cluttered together in the corner of the room on top of a large chunk of amethyst he’d found many years ago in a cave during his wanderings. It was the biggest piece he’d found, and he obtained the rest of the near clear, pure stone many times in his life. Another three candles were on the ground closer to the tub. One larger one was next to where he’d placed the oil he made that barely had any smell to it, but was effective for what he was doing nonetheless.
He threw the match into the metal bowl with dry herbs in it so the area would smell nicer and more relaxing.
She came in not long after he was finished and waited, holding a bundled sleeping gown she’d chosen from her closet to her chest. He tilted his head, twisting it a little, when she looked more nervous than she usually did.
She was acting like the morning after the first night he’d brought her here.
Taking in a deep breath, she stepped inside and closed the door before swiftly removing the dress she’d been wearing throughout the day.
She covered her breasts with one arm and her lower regions with the other as she walked over to the tub he’d already filled with the use of his blood. He didn’t particularly like the spell, but it was the easiest way to fill something of this size without having to go back and forth from the stream, and then the same with heating the water over the hearth.