@ecoust asked : “Let’s get you into the bathtub.” (wiggles eyebrows 😏😏)
everything hurts, like an ache burrowed deep beneath her skin to embed itself into her bones. it’s more than the scratches, or the shrapnel wounds mottling her skin like freckles. ( evelyn hastily excavated each cut before the field medics could even make it over to her --- she’s pretty sure she got it all, but it’s hard to know, hard to tell. ) being covered in dust and dirt hardly helps matters, nor the itch steadily building across every injured part of her body --- a telltale sign that she is stitching herself back together, seam by seam, already.
yet by some miracle, he’s found hot water, and the temptation both of hiding her injuries from view and a real bath is too much to resist.
❛ you don’t need to hold me, ❜ she says softly, shrugging will’s support around her waist off. he is not used to her stubbornness yet ; it may not be the last surprise he gets today, if he doesn’t make himself scarce. holding herself upright without help hurts, but she manages. uneasily, evelyn turns her back to him. she is half - undressed already, in nothing but her underthings to expose her wounds for inspection. looking straight ahead, she slips out of her thin petticoat. the shallow gouge on the back of her thigh is already half - healed, a new layer of skin forming even as she moves. unwilling to expose herself or her injuries any further, evelyn slips into the bath.
relief is immediate. the soothing heat of the water sweeps over her, and sweeps her away. she sinks down with a sigh, bare limbs disappearing under the steam ; only after a moment does she deign to crack an eye open. will is still hovering, with an abundance of overcaution, almost like a mama duck --- as though her injuries will get the better of her any second now, and he’ll have to swoop in and save her.
❛ if you’re going to stand there, you might as well keep busy, ❜ she chimes, words half - absorbed by the water. ❛ is there any soap? it feels like i haven’t washed my hair in . . . hmm, centuries. ❜
