Chương 6: He Isn't So Bad

"Oh my God!" Varya forgot any insecurities and rushed toward the prince's side.

There was a giant gash on his forehead and he had a black eye where Kruos must have hit him. A cut was opened in his chest and he lay on the floor with his back against the wall next to the bed.

"Stay away…" his usually deep, arrogant voice came out only in a whisper, "you can't do anything."

Varya shook her head violently. With each second, she found another reason to hate that corpse-like tyrant.

"I'm not a doctor, but I'm not just going to leave you here like this," she said, pushing the sleeves of her suit up to her elbows and crouching next to him, looking over his wounds, but not touching them yet. "Can I get water anywhere?"

Basileus didn't answer, instead, he wordlessly pointed to an empty corner in the room.

"Are you crazy or something?" Varya stood and looked at the corner. "There's nothing there."

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Basileus asked weakly. "Just walk to the corner."

Varya, doing as she was told, walked to the grey corner that was completely blank much like the rest of the room. However, as she arrived there, a door slid open, seemingly out of nowhere. A panel lit up on the wall with buttons labeled in a language she didn't recognize.

As she walked through the opening, she found a small bathroom with a shower stall, sink, and toilet. The only light in the room was emitted from the border of the mirror, but it was bright enough to see everywhere.

Dreading what she probably looked like, she walked forward, looking at herself for the first time in what felt like forever. Her face and hair looked as dirty as they felt. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't focus on her appearance at that moment and started looking through the metal drawers under the sink. There she found white towels and extremely basic toiletries. There was also what seemed like a first aid kit labeled with more letters she did not recognize and she opened it. A gauze-like material and a wrap should be enough, she decided. Otherwise, she grabbed two medium-sized hand towels, turned on the sink, and soaked one of them with water completely.

Going back to the room where Basileus still lay, she crouched down at his side once more.

"Don't get mad. I'm going to clean your chest and your forehead off," she stated calmly, trying to keep him calm as well.

Having no fight left in him, Basileus relents.

As she started wiping away the blood on his forehead with the wet towel, his mouth formed a thin line as he watched her. His skin felt warmer than she expected it to. Fortunately, this cut wasn't as bad as the one on his chest and would likely heal up on its own. She wiped away the water with one of the dry towels. His chest, however…

"This one is going to hurt," she said, her eyes meeting his orange ones.

"I can take it," he responds.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to completely sterilize the gash, so the water was going to have to do.

She turned the towel in her hand, grabbed a side that didn't have blood on it, and started cleaning it as gently as she could. In response, the prince's eyes squeezed shut and he clenched his jaw, no longer having any desire to watch her work.

Once the wound was clean, she opened the gauze so it was long enough and stacked a couple of pieces on top of each other. The cut was already dripping blood again so she had to work fast. She covered the cut, which was about six inches wide, completely. With one hand, she held the gauze in place and started wrapping it around him.

"Can you lean forward, please?" She asked.

He opened his eyes, orange meeting blue, and raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Was he being playful? She rolled her eyes and repeated herself, having a feeling she knew what he wanted, "Can you please lean forward, your royal highness the prince?" She finished speaking, sarcasm evident.

However, the prince only smirked and decided to do as he was told.

When she finished wrapping the bandage around him twice, she tucked the end underneath, hoping it would hold.

Varya leaned back onto her heels, observing her work. There were still drips of blood going from his well-defined chest, down his abs, and pooling where he had pulled his suit down to his waist. There was only a small part of the wet towel not stained with blood and she began cleaning away what was left on his skin.

As she got lower and lower, the prince, unknowingly to her, began to feel unsettled. Her gentle touch reached his stomach and he jumped up as if he wasn't injured only moments before.

"I can do it," his words were quick. He grabbed the towel from her and turned away to finish cleaning the blood. His face felt hot. She didn't have to be so thorough.

Varya put a hand over her mouth and widened her eyes. Maybe she was getting a little bit low. She was just trying to be helpful. It was her way of extending an olive branch to someone she didn't want to be around but had to be around.

The prince tossed the towel onto the floor and began getting dressed, still facing away from her. His back muscles flexed as he pulled the suit over his abdomen, his chest, and onto his arms again.

"Be careful or the bandage is going to come off," she said as she observed him.

When he didn't respond, only turning around and crossing his arms, she stood up, not making eye contact.

"I'm going to go shower if that's alright with you," she started walking, not waiting for him to respond. She was dying to get clean.

Once in the bathroom, she looked at the panel on the wall and started pressing buttons, wondering what each of them did. She found the door's closing button fairly quickly due to the lock symbol on it, but the rest were a mystery because of the unknown language. One made the lights dim, another was a fan, and the last one she tried opened the wall next to the door and larger towels were inside.

After grabbing a large towel, she returned to the drawer under the sink and rummaged through. There was what looked to be a bar of soap and it was going to have to do for now. She smelled it and shrugged. It smelled mild - not particularly masculine or feminine, but clean. She found a small washcloth and placed all of her items on the counter.

Turning to look at the shower stall, she slid the door open by the handle and looked inside. Turning on and off the shower was pretty standard and she started the water, finding a good temperature.

As the water ran, she stepped away from it and sighed. Her eyes went to the bathroom door. She didn't trust the prince, but she didn't have a choice. Supposedly the door was locked and she started taking off her boots and the stretchy suit once more. She backed up and looked into the mirror again, observing her body. She turned around and there was still a handprint on her backside where the evil alien slapped her. She put her hands on the counter and squeezed her eyes shut. What was next for her? Why was she stuck with some man? She couldn't formulate any kind of plan for herself if she was going to be stuck here all the time.

Varya got into the shower, slid the door closed, and shut her eyes, feeling warm. Her fingers raked through her hair as her head tilted up, long gray strands dripping down her back. She let the warmth envelop her. Never had a shower felt like such a luxury. She turned and opened the door again, grabbing the soap and washcloth off the counter. Now she could finally wash the grime from the past couple of days off of her. It seemed she had no choice but to wash her hair with a bar of soap and she hoped it wouldn't dry it out. Not trusting the soap on her sensitive face, she opted for water and the washcloth to wash it. Scrubbing her neck and making her way down her body, she used the washcloth combined with the soap to get herself completely clean. As she made it to her scraped knees, the soap stung and she grimaced. Varya dropped the soap and towel. She sat down in the shower and hugged her knees to her chest, leaning her forehead on her knees, ignoring the stinging pain it caused. The water poured over her and she sat like that in silence for a while. It occurred to her that she was crying. She didn't let out any noise as the sobs struck her small frame.

Varya needed heaven to be real. She needed her parents to be waiting for her. They were the only reason she existed. As much as she wanted to give up and join them in the afterlife, she knew she had to live for them. They invested so much of their time and money into her, and, most importantly, their love. They loved her more than anything in the universe and it hurt her heart. She still wasn't sure what happened to Earth. Was she missing? Were people looking for her? Or worse, was there no one left who even knew of her existence? She squeezed her legs tighter at the thought. Was she all alone? She saw the monster take Kallo, but she didn't know how long he could possibly survive with that awful monster. She wanted so badly for Kallo to be somewhere out there.

Not knowing how much time had passed, she stood up and turned off the shower. She couldn't sit there and cry forever. The bathroom was completely foggy.

Varya opened the shower door and grabbed the large towel. It was more than enough to dry off and afterward she wrapped her hair in the towel, stacking it on top of her head. There was no lotion or anything else in any of the drawers. She ran her right hand down her left arm. The bar of soap didn't dry out her skin and it actually felt soft. Satisfied with this, she pulled on the stretchy suit once more but didn't put on the boots. She unraveled her hair from the towel and tried to squeeze it dry a little bit more before standing up straight. There was no brush either. She was going to have to air dry it and not touch it or her natural, slight wave was going to be extremely puffy.

There were no places to store a wet towel so she tossed it onto the floor and unlocked the door to the bathroom. The door slid open, back into the wall, and she grabbed her white boots.

The room was darker than earlier and she noticed thin strips of lights along the edge of the ceiling, faintly lighting up the room. She couldn't tell the difference between day and night anymore, so maybe it was nighttime now.

Her company lay in the bed on his back. His eyes were shut and his breathing was even. Maybe he's sleeping, she thought. It would make having to climb into bed with him much less weird if he didn't notice.

She walked forward and placed the boots at the foot of the bed before climbing into the bed on her side, closer to the wall. There were two pillows unused. She lay her head on one of them and put the other between herself and the prince. Trying to get as comfortable as she could, she pulled the blanket over herself, up to her chin.

Varya shut her eyes, willing sleep to come, but it didn't. She felt the bed shift and opened her eyes once more, observing the prince as he sat up and pressed on a metal panel on the wall. It lit up and he pressed the bottom button. The room went completely dark. She felt him settle back into the bed.

A small smile pulled on her face. He could have definitely just turned off all the lights, but he waited for her to get into the bed. How strange, she thought. It was a surprisingly kind gesture for someone with such a moody personality.

Prince Basileus lay on his side now, facing away from Varya. His eyes weren't closed anymore.

He spoke quietly, his slightly deep voice easily being heard. "What's your name?"

Varya's eyebrows raised. She assumed he didn't care enough to know.

"I'm Varya. Varya Vance."

She insisted on saying her last name. That name wouldn't die with her parents. Even if it meant nothing to anyone, it was her connection to the ones she missed the most.

There was silence as he absorbed this information.

"Thank you, Varya," he said.

It was rare to find someone on this ship willing to help another person when they were injured. An injury was inevitable in his life. Survival of the fittest was the only reason he was still around.

Varya said nothing else, but a small smile remained on her lips.

While she was stuck in a room with a stranger, at least he wasn't someone like Emperor Kruos.

Eventually, she fell asleep.