Killing Softly ✞ (gxg)

13 | outside

Human fingertips wrestled with the unyielding windowsill, trying to pry underneath the cold metal in order to open it.

"Fucking hell, did they magically glue this shit together?" Lily mumbled to herself as she footed herself more appropriately on the bed. Whipping her messy blonde hair around her shoulder, she reached up and continued trying desperately to open the window, but it was beginning to be hopeless.

"Trying to escape again?"

"Agh!" Lily jumped at the sound behind her, falling backwards and onto her butt on the bed, being mercilessly bounced up and down as she scrambled to get on her knees. Once she did, she whipped around to see those calm yellow-green eyes watching her.

Rose looked back at her in amusement, her lips tightening into a restrained smile. "Caught in the act."

"N-No," Lily mumbled, feeling suddenly nervous to be in Rose's presence. "I was just trying to get some outside air," she explained as she sat more comfortably on the bed. "I feel like I can't breathe in here. " She chuckled inelegantly, but it quickly faded as she saw that Rose only stared at her with an unchanging expression.

Rose looked thoughtful for a moment, her lips turning into a frown and her eyebrows depressing downwards as if heavy with the weight on her mind. "I'll take you outside," she began, but cut off the beaming excitement that immediately crossed the girl's face with, "Under one condition."

Lily stopped herself from getting too elevated about being able to go outside, unsure of what exactly Queen Rose would ever need from the girl.

"You apologize to Holden. He's been such a little salty prick ever since you two's quarrel or whatever, and he has also been refusing to guard you because of it. And I don't trust any other guards to guard you."

The blonde's lips pursed, and Rose could sense that familiar defiance about to come from her. "I don't need to be guarded," she declared, but there was a streak of uncertainty in her voice.

"After the events the other night, yes, you do need to be guarded. For your own protection just as much for your confinement."

"Imprisonment," Lily corrected her, her eyes hardening. "Imprisonment is what this is."

"Tomato, tomato," she mumbled dismissively.

Lily scrunched her eyes upon realizing that Rose had used the phrase incorrectly, pronouncing "tomato" the same way each time she said it. Blinking incredulously, she spoke, "You do realize that you just—"

"Apologize to Holden or no outside for you, child," Rose interrupted her, raising her chin and placing her hands behind her back, her svelte shoulders held back in an authoritative stance, although her tone was slightly playful.

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Lily's small body deflated as she stared at the duvet. "Fine."

"Good girl," Rose purred with a smirk, sensing the heat emanating from the girl as she snapped her blue eyes towards her, thrown off by the nickname. "Get changed."

Blowing off whatever feeling that Rose's words had given her, Lily squeaked in excitement as she began to dream of the fresh, crisp air. She hopped off the bed and, without thinking, grabbed the hem of her dress and lifted it up to pull it over her head.

Rose froze, pupils dilating and lips parting in shock as she caught a flash of the girl's pale thighs and her white underwear that seemed to fit her so perfectly, dividing her delicious hips from her toned stomach. A tightness forming in her stomach, Rose quickly whipped around so that she was staring right into the wall with widened eyes. Her entire body was tense, every single muscle rigid as the image kept flashing through her mind. She clenched her jaw and tried to focus on staring at the blank wall and not looking so awkward, but all she could see was soft thighs and delicate hips.