They didn't talk about it again afterwards but that phrase stayed inside her head like a parasite. All you would have had to do was ask. Had he been joking when he said that? Or was he seriously suggesting he would have slept with her if she had shown interest in him? With a sigh Emi slipped out of the long alchemist gloves she used to clean her laboratory and pulled of the mask as soon as she got out of the room.
Most of the powder was gone by now, mopped up or scooped into bottles for further testing. With her safety gear she didn't have to deal with the effects of the accidental poison she created.
But even without them something about her had changed. Every time she lay awake in bed at night all she could think about was him and the spotty memory of their... accident. And whenever those thoughts came into play she couldn't stop herself from letting her hands wander, remembering his touch on her skin and the raspy sound of his voice when he came inside her.
A rush of heat pooled in her stomach and she grimaced. Looked like today would be no different. She had finally finished cleaning her laboratory to the point where it should be usable again. That called for some kind of celebration. Something for her to relax her strained muscles. Of course, she could ask Abdulon to give her a massage, something he was allegedly very skilled in, but they had been kind of distant the last three days.
A bath! That was the solution to all her problems...or at least most of them. She'd take a long, hot bath and wouldn't think about anything at all for a good few hours. The sound of footsteps on the stairs made her turn before she entered the bathroom. Abdulon slowly ascended, reading, and almost missed a step on his way. Emi barely hid her giggle behind a fake cough. He looked up.
"Ah, I see you're done for today?"
"Yeah, laboratory is clean. Now it's only me who's dirty." She could feel her face start to burn as he raised his eyebrows, an amused smirk on his lips. "Not like that."
"Sure thing. Taking a bath?" She opted to only nod this time. The less she said the less weird it would be.
"Have fun." He winked at her and she wanted to bash her head against the wall. With a mumbled thank you she slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, not locking it. Her mother had always implored her to leave the door unlocked in case anything happened and someone needed to come help. Not like she would need help with washing herself, but old habits die hard.
It had been Abdulons idea to get a bathtub stating that "the bathhouse in this city is barely cleaner than a horse trough". Emi was glad for it, as she soon got to know the joys of taking a hot bath in the cold weather here. Being from a southern isle originally, she wasn't used to the cold and the hot water kept her spirits up and her body healthy during the freezing months. Especially since as an alchemist she had some tricks up her sleeve to make it even more enjoyable.
She filled the tub with rain water from a small barrel and heated it up with an easy spell. Magic wasn't her main field of study but warming up or cooling down substances came in handy as an alchemist. Some dried up lavender and a few rose petals for the smell and within minutes the room was filled with a pleasant steam. She got rid of her clothes leaving them in a pile to the side and sank into the water with a sigh.
Her body relaxed in the gently lapping warmth. Taking a bar of citrus soap, she opened her braids to wash her hair. It took a few minutes due to their length and by the time she was done a thin layer of foam swam on the surface of the water obscuring her body from view. She didn't mind.
