Here There be Witches

Untitled Part 18

"I'm sure you'll find the mansion to be very comfortable. We've prepared a room for you but don't be shy to ask for Whatever else you need. Anything in the house is at your disposal so please make yourself at home, but of course it would be greatly appreciated if you would knock before entering any of our rooms if you ever do," Kid explained quite formally. "Each room has master bathroom and there are several common ones on each floor..." He showed Anara through the mansion with his weapons trailing behind, occasionally making amusing comments. This place was such a drastic change from Anara's and her father's lab house that it almost felt like another world. In a way, it was. Especially knowing that she would turn around and go back in just a few days.

Regardless of how well she thought she had mapped the estate she still felt sure that she would get lost at least once. Kid and the girls showed her the kitchen, living room, dining room and then finally to her own room. The Thompson sisters had drifted off to do their own things sometime before the last stop, so now it was just Anara and Kid. Her bedroom didn't have any decoration, being a guest room, but there were big windows which would let in plenty of beautiful natural light throughout the day, which Anara greatly appreciated. She didn't enjoy being on the first floor very much, but that was just an odd complex she had about preferring to be above the ground. The giant bathroom, bed and fluffy pillows and blankets in the room easily made up for it. "It's getting a bit late already, so I'll leave you to get ready for bed and retire if you would like. Of course you're very welcome to join us in the living room for a while before bed. Do you need any help unpacking?"

"Oh no, there's not much. I'll be fine. Thank you though, and thanks for letting me stay here. I hope I'm not a bother."

"You could never be a bother," Kid reassured her sweetly. At the word never her heart warmed, thankfully squashing the cold dark feeling that yes, she was definitely a bother. She was probably nothing but a bother. "And you're welcome here anytime. Frankly we'd even let you move in permanently if you ever wanted!" Right after he finished he seemed to realize what he said and got a bit embarrassed. "Ah--I--well, yes I'll leave you to it then."

Anara smiled as he awkwardly left. He was cute when he was embarrassed. Well, cuter. She got her pajamas and set them aside, deciding she would unpack the rest later, then went for the bathroom instead. She hadn't taken a bath in forever and the tub here was huge. And it had jets! She simply couldn't resist.

Once it was filled she slipped out of her towel and into the water and almost sighed. She hadn't felt stressed before, but the warmth was instantly soothing. I could stay here forever...

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It was quite a long time of chatter and arguing and laughter before Liz, Patty or Kid remembered they had a guest. A guest who hadn't shown hide nor hair of herself since Kid showed her to her room.

"Do you think she's alright?" Liz asked.

"Oh sis what if she took a bath and drowned!?!? We killed her!!"

"No! No, Patty," The older two exclaimed together. Kid let Liz continue on her own. "She's old enough not to do that, especially in a shallow bath tub." Liz couldn't help but wonder if she knew how to swim. Was that something Stein would have taught her?

"She probably just decided to crash early. That's nothing to be worried about," Kid added.

"But what if she didn't!? She didn't come say goodnight, what if it is something to be worried about!?"

"Patty..."

"Please sis, we have to make she hasn't died!!"

They were all quiet for a moment. Patty shot Liz a meaningful look. Oh, we want Kid to go see if she's ok 'caus--wait no! Before Liz could protest her younger sister piped up again. "Kid you should go check on her!"

"What!?" Kid's face lit up red like a tomato. Liz could practically hear his scandalized thoughts arguing with the crushing ones.

But there was no way she was letting that happen. Their friend deserved some privacy. "No! No, Patty I'll go check on her. She is female today after all, I'm sure she would prefer that."

"Ye-yes, Liz should go. But she most definitely hasn't drowned in the b-bathtub, so there's no reason to even do this anyway." He was only getting more embarrassed from stuttering, and the knowing smirk Liz sent him was not helping. Despite not going along with her sister's plan, watching Kid get all flustered from the thought of it was satisfying.

Liz got up and made her way to the room they had put Anara in, ignoring Patty's pout. She knocked twice on the door, but there was no answer. She let herself step inside, and upon seeing the bed undisturbed figured that their guest must indeed be in the bathroom. She prepared to avert her gaze in case Anara was shy, but when her eyes fell on the smaller room she couldn't find Anara there either. However, the tub was practically overflowing with thick white masses of bubbles.

She jumped and nearly screamed when something in the middle moved. Upon closer inspection she realized it was just Anara turning to look at her, but Liz hadn't even seen her before because her half submerged head was so surrounded by the giant cloud on the surface of the water. They both just stared for a moment. ".....I see you found the bubble bath. We were worried something had happened to you. Well, mostly Patty. Are you ok?"

The other girl raised herself so she was full head and shoulders out of the water with a large grin. "Yeah I'm fine. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you...I just..." She looked sheepishly around at the bubbles in the large tub. At least she assumed her expression was sheepish, she couldn't really tell because of the soap suds clinging to her face as well. She looked like a small child playing around with it. "This is fun. And relaxing. Except for the time I accidentally swallowed some bubbles, that was really gross and surprisingly good at choking me. But I'm ok now."

Ok, maybe she might have died if she was not almost an adult. Liz chuckled. "Yeah, I get it. Patty and I did the same thing when we first got here. Minus choking on bath foam. How about don't do that again by the way, we don't want to actually have you die." She smiled. "Well anyway, just come out soon ok? You've been in here forever. Also, I think Patty would enjoy it if you came to say goodnight...and Kid too."

"Right, of course, sorry." The older girl turned to leave. "Wait--Liz!" Anara moved over to the side of the tub, sloshing a little water and bubbles out along the way. She grabbed a bottle of lavender scented something, probably the source of the all the foam. "What is this?"

"You don't--" She shook her head, deciding not to say anything. "It's just called bubble bath. You can get it anywhere. You can keep that bottle too if you'd like."

"That's very kind, thank you. We don't really use stuff like this at home. We don't really take baths very much either. But I'm starting to think that I should more often." She smiled serenely, and might have given the impression of some celestial being drifting on clouds if Liz had a more fantasy oriented mind. "I can get out in a minute. Again, I'm sorry I made you worry."

"It's alright, it wasn't a big deal. See you in a bit. If you do go get some bubble bath you should try bath bombs too. They're these little balls of...uhh...well I don't actually quite know what theyre made of but they dissolve in the water and turn it fancy colors. Patty loves them, I'm sure you would too." At the idea of more water toys Anara's face lit up even brighter.