Unexpected Love

Chapter 17

"Time to take this thing off." Julia scowled as she looked at herself in the mirror, the square bandage over her eye covered in tiny spots of red. She carefully peeled at the one corner and winced when she quickly pulled it off. She threw away the old bandage and tried doing what Alma showed her.

Digging through the first aid kit she took out another piece of gauze and bandage tape before looking at herself in the mirror. She felt her fear spark for a moment when she seen the empty socket that now took place for her eye.

She gently ran her thumb under neath the wound. She couldn't believe she looked like this now. She knew why the children were scared of it, she was herself. She jumped when she heard her door open and accidently knocked over the kit off the sink and hurried to pick it up off the floor. When she sat it back on the edge she spotted Alma leaning against the bathroom doorway.

"Do you want help?" She asks softly and the woman looked away.

"I can handle this just fine." Julia mutters, not wanting Alma to see her like this. She hated how she looked, this was her fault this happened. Matt was gone because of her, now this. She was drawn out of her thoughts when Alma spoke again.

"Doesn't seem like it." She says when she seen the woman wasn't messing with any of the supplies. "Here."

"I can handle it fine." The woman says in a firm tone as she sent Alma a glare. "Leave me alone."

"I just want to help."

"I think you've helped enough!" Julia snapped and looked away as she rummaged through the kit. She picked up some of the gauze pads and took some of the bandage tape to start pressing it over her eye.

"Be careful before you-" Alma cut herself off when Julia winced. "Hurt yourself." She sighs and the younger woman dropped the bandage, giving up and going to walk out of the bathroom.

"Julia, you need to use it."

"The only reason you even bother helping me with this is because you're too scared to even look at me!" She snaps and walked past her to leave, but Alma stopped her.

"I'm doing this because I don't want it getting infected until it's healed. Now let me help you and quit being so stubborn, understand?" The woman says firmly and Julia sent her a small glare before sighing and backing back to the sink. Alma then walked over and calmly took out the materials before looking up at the woman and blushed slightly.

"Could you maybe sit down?" Alma asks and Julia sends her a look before sitting on the edge of the tub, Alma tilting her chin up to face her to the light. "I couldn't see that well."

"Too tall?" Julia says with a slight smile and Alma returns it before working on the injury.

"That should do it." Alma says softly as she finishes, her breath hitting the younger woman's mouth making her cheeks burn slightly. "What do you think?"

"I can't see, what am I supposed to say?" Julia mutters but Alma caught the slight smile that played on her lips.

"A thank you maybe?" She says with a playful look and Julia raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Come on." Alma smiles and Julia held back her own.

"Thank you, Miss Peregrine." She sighs and Alma hummed, satisfied before sitting back up to put the kit away. Julia stood back up and right when Alma turned around, gave her a small kiss on the cheek. The older woman sent her a flustered yet confused look and Julia smiled.

"You never argued what I asked you earlier." She shrugs and walked out of the room, leaving the flustered ymbryne behind. Alma watched her walk off, her cheeks burning before shaking her head.

"Get ahold of yourself." She mutters to herself before walking out of the room to go downstairs. That woman confused her so much, but she'd be lying if she said most of it she didn't enjoy. Keeping her hidden and unaware to Esmeralda will be harder than she thought.

"Miss P?" Alma snapped out of her thoughts and seen Hugh.

"Yes?"

"How'd she hurt her eye?" He asked referring to Julia and Alma looked off to the side for a moment as she thought of a good excuse, unaware Julia came out of the kitchen.

"Well she.."

"Traveled across the world with an old group of pirates I knew." Julia grinned and Alma looked over at her confused. "That's right, Miss Peregrine. I used to be buddies with a few people who lived out overseas. Recently they had to take me along to go find this one treasure chest that was marked on the map."

"Really?" Hugh says with a grin.

"Yep. We passed another ship on our way there though, full of other pirates searching for the same bounty." She says with a smile. "Apparently there's been a canon shortage, they had none and when they planned to steal ours, they also seen we were searching for the same lost treasure."

"Is that how that happened?" He says looking at the bandage over her eye and Julia hums with a smile.

"Totally worth it though, we found the treasure and my friends became rich over it. They didn't have a life on the run anymore, they had everything they needed after that." She says with a small sigh as her smile dropped a bit, but only Alma noticed as she watched the two. "Their life's a bit easier now, no more people searching for them. They payed for the damage they done and then I left." She says with a small smile.

"Why did you leave?" The boy asks and Julia smiles.

"Because Miss P would quite literally die if I left." She says dramatically as she falls over into the ymbrynes lap and Alma chuckles. "The agony of my leaving would be too much for this poor woman." She says with a slight accent making the boy laugh.

"Is that really a true story?" Hugh asks and Julia grins.

"Very true. Miss Peregrine can vouch for me as well as she was one of the people who used to be on that ship." Julia says and Alma went to say something when the woman continued.

"Years ago before she made her own loop she was the head captain of her very own crew."

"Julia." Alma scolds with a grin and the woman sighs.

"Alright, fine, that part is a lie, but everything else is very much true."

"Did you get any of the treasure?" Hugh asks and Julia paused for a moment before casting a glance at Alma who looked down at her in her lap.

"I did, yes." She says with a smile.