Reborn

19: The Eye

Breaks:

[L1,2 or 3] represents the beginning of a flashback to one of Elena's past lives. There is more than one past life, which is why they're numbered. Though, these memories are usually told as she sleeps and Elena herself cannot remember them.

[/L1,2 or 3] represents the end of a flashback to one of Elena's past lives.

[P] represents the beginning of a retelling of a memory in Elena's current life.

[/P] represents the end of a retelling of a memory in Elena's current life.

~3~ is just a timeskip

__

The sink water was warm. I wasn't entirely sure how it worked though. Yugo said it had something to do with the constant fire in the metal box- the stove- but the explanation was lost on me. (Water tank? Pipes? What were those?) At least I could understand that the water was clean- drinkable clean- because of a filter. Said filter was hidden in the wall, where the pipes and tank were.

It was nice though, the warm water. Surprising, and nice.

We'd filled one side of the double sink with said warm water. Then Yugo poured in something yellow (he called it dish soap) and white frothy bubbles that smelled strongly of lemon began to form. Thanks to that strong scent, the water only faintly began to smell like the salt of the sea the longer things were washed in it.

Everything dishes-wise was made of wood. Bowls, plates, spoons, cups. All wood that had been sanded smooth and polished a dark color. They were dishes from the village.

I was in charge of rinsing- I both gave the dirty plates a rinse, then rinsed the bubbles off the clean ones. It was fascinating.

"Ah, look at them." Ruel spoke, not to us, but we could hear him just fine. He kept on making strange remarks. Like now, "two peas in a pod."

Yugo stood beside me, sleeves pushed up, focusing far too hard on scrubbing each plate like it had personally wronged him. It seemed to get worse the longer Ruel went on. After something about turtle doves, then bees, and Yugo not speaking a word- just continuing to scrub- I decided to say something.

"You don't have to glare at it," I told him softly, passed him another dish. "It's already clean."

"I'm not glaring," he muttered quickly, though the ears of his hat betrayed him by slanting down, upset. His real ears were red. In fact all of his face was red too. It'd been like that ever since Ruel mentioned 'sharing spoons' to everyone at the table. Like the color got stuck on him.

This was the longest that I'd seen him be red. I wasn't sure if that was healthy though.

Maybe he didn't like his job? I wasn't sure why he choose it if he did mind it, but I still offered, "we can switch if you don't want to wash?"

From the table Ruel's voice carried over. "Hey Yugo, don't drop the soap — she might think you're trying to hold her hand!"

I looked over my shoulder at the others. Ruel had stayed over there while he waited for his turn with the sink. The others were with him, done with clearing the table already. Now they seemed to be set up for some sort of game, though Dally was starting to look a little green again.

I'd have to refill the teapot soon.

At Ruel's remark Yugo froze mid-scrub. His grip tightened on the wooden plate until his fingers were white. Eyes shut tight, Yugo yelled into the sink, "Ruel!"