An Early Piece of the Puzzle

Chapter 2: A place to stay

*Can you believe that the last one and this one were suppose to be only one chapter? Hahaha what the f**k was I thinking? I have no self control :)*

Alo

After a few minutes of trying my hardest to figure it out for myself, Zach taught me how to use a shower and adjust the temperature so I wouldn't burn myself. Then he drew a proper bath for the both of us to wash in.

I'd never marveled at the wonders of Humans more that I did while I was standing under that lovely shower, an intense spray of warm water slicing through my tired muscles.

We scrubbed as much of the dirt off ourselves as we could, then took turns scrubbing each others backs. We finished that quickly then spent the rest of our time sitting in the warm bath together, taking a breather from being outside and unclean.

I nearly began to doze off when I felt Zach shuffle around under the water. I looked up just in time for him to submerge his head under the water. At first it was just for a little bit. Then a longer bit. I estimated about twenty seconds and began counting after that. When I hit fifty seconds I began to worry.

I nudged him up with my foot and Zach resurfaced with a small sputter, pushing his hair back and lightly spraying water out of the tub.

"What? What is it?" He sounded a bit anxious, like we were caught or something, and glanced to the door and window cautiously.

"Nothing, but... You were down there for almost a minute."

"Oh," He sighed then smiled, "Huh.... That's a new record. Time me again."

I only had more questions but stayed quiet as Zach slipped back under the water.

I began counting again.

We soaked for a good ten minutes or so, and in that time he managed to break his record twice; 78 was the winning number. We got out and used two towels from one of the shelves to dry off with. Then we spent a little while doing our best to shake the dirt from our soiled clothes, not that it would help much with how stained with sweat they were.

Before we finished we heard a knock at the door, "I forgot to mention, I have some spare pants and shirts. We can wash your clothes later." Marjorie called in. We cracked the door and she handed us some perfectly folded undershirts and trousers.

We gratefully accepted and were soon in dry, clean clothes, feeling more comfortable than we had in quite a while. The clothes were a bit small on me and fairly large on Zach, but they'd work for now.

Zach was suddenly very close to me, his body pressing to my side and his arms wrapping around mine. He looked me up and down before giving me a smirk.

"You really did turn into a giant." He said quietly. I laughed and took the opportunity to embrace him. Pulling him snugly close.

"Don't tell me you didn't see it coming. My mum was the tallest woman in town."

"Yeah, I remember, but..." He brought his hand up to brush aside some stray curls, "It's still surprising. You weren't nearly this tall when we..." He trailed of. His face looking a little more blank than I'd like. I gave him a small smile and took his hand.

"Hey, it's okay. We did what we had to. Your family is safe, right?"

"Yeah, they're fine." He frowned at me, pulling away and out of reach to gather up his clothes, "What about yours?"

I couldn't say anything to that.

I hadn't told him about my Mum and Vinette yet. But he still seemed to sense there was something wrong. I went about gathering my clothes as well, promising myself to tell him before we left this town. After all, he was very much her son as well.