Hermes | Book 1

: 21 :

Warning: Alcohol consumption is bad for the body and mind. The characters in this story do not promote alcoholism.

Everything keeps changing; light and darkness are no different.

Chapter 21

MINT GREEN coloured, polished floors, an empty hexagonal shaped room that had three of its walls white and other three steel and a ceiling that was coloured an eye aching shade of neon yellow.
 
Hermes's mind registered all those details the moment he entered the bathroom.

With a measured breath, he entered closed the door behind him and took a long look around the room.

The room confused him (confusion was becoming a permanent emotion for Hermes these days). He wasn't necessarily believing in all Eta stereotypes but it was known fact that the the Eta continent was poor.

Latest technology was strong, mostly reliant and very very expensive. Hermes may not be staring at the most latest, but it was certainly modern and did not belong in an Eta home.

The silent bathroom that he stood in was modern. He wondered how they had gotten so much money.

The image of a dark haired man with mischief in his black eyes and a confident smirk that made the strong willed Asta crumble into a stammering blushing woman flashed across his memory but when another image stared at him-this one very much real and not a memory- Hermes forgot all about modern appliances and Charlie.

The smooth steel walls reflected his wretched image with unnecessary clarity, making him want to stare longer and scrunch his eyes tightly shut at the same time.

The clothes that Asta had given him was torn at places and miserably dirty. His white shirt had a half ripped collar which  looked grey and brown and his pants were in nearly the same state. His golden blonde curls looked a mushy brown with all the dirt it had accumulated in the past hours and stuck to his sweaty forehead.

His face looked ashen grey and he feared for the health of the slouching man that dejectedly faced him from the steel wall.

Hermes tried for a smile.

Slightly off white (yellow) teeth peeked abashedly from between his cracked lips.

He quickly stopped the action all together and began the process of stripping off the layers of filthy clothes off his body. The cold that lingered in the bathroom rushed to his boiling skin to steal his warmth.

Hermes didn't try to snatch it back and stood there without moving a muscle, his clothes in a messy pile near his feet and his eyes closed and thoughts pacified. His eyes closed on its own accord and he felt himself breathing the scent of forest and wet damp earth that he had perfumed the bare walls of the bathroom with.

"Laundry," said Hermes, listening to his voice hit every corner of the room and then bounce back at him. It sounded foreign.

He didn't hear anything in particular but he felt the feel of the rough Eta material of the clothes resting against the side of his feet slide off and disappear.

"Time?"

"Ten minutes, sir." A female robotic voice filled every nook and cranny of the room.

"Change the steel walls," he command. It was mostly for his curiosity that he did it; he wanted to know what else the Eta could afford.

"Please name the material to be replaced with."

"Wood."

To his utter astonishment and surprise, his ears took in the sound of grinding from the steel side of the walls. His eyes opened immediately and he took in the new, dark wooden walls that replaced the steel.