Starting Again

Kye woke up in his room during the night. The low glow of the light stones on his walls bathed the room in soothing light. Vanessa had left Kye's side to go elsewhere and in her place was Alicia who had closed her eyes to catch some rest. Her hand was holding Kye's even in her sleep. Kye squeezed her hand to assure her that he was okay but her eyes slowly fluttered open. They made eye contact and Kye gave a slight smile. Alicia teared up and gently embraced Kye, slowly rubbing his back and hugging his head into her chest.

"You had no idea how worried I was you, foolish child. I will make sure you receive proper punishment for worrying your mother this much later but for now, just take it easy."

"I feel great mother, really. I'd like to get up and go to the bathroom and have a bath though. I feel gross."

"Okay, do you need any help?"

"No mother, I will be fine on my own. While I'm still in pain I can move around now, although I probably won't be doing anything physically intensive for some weeks."

"Good, you need to recover well. Now, go on, go do what you need to do. Mother will be right here."

Kye smiled widely and nodded, exiting his room and walking downstairs to enter the large bathhouse area of the mansion. Kye relieved himself and then undressed, taking off his dressings as well and gently cleaning them with a towel. He was careful not to rip the stitching on any of his wounds as he cleaned off the grime and dirt from his body. Hakos and Nadiya had likely already stopped any form of infection from when they treated him but Kye wanted to be sure that there was as little chance as possible of any complications with the healing process.

After gently washing his wounds, Kye slowly submerged himself up to shoulder level in the warm bath and sighed contentedly, tilting his head back and resting it along the edge of the bath.

"Gods this feels so good. A warm bath after a month of washing in a stream, how I missed the luxuries of civilisation."

As Kye was enjoying his bath, he heard the sounds of the bath door opening.

"Ah, sorry but I'm already in here."

Kye said loudly as to warn whoever entered that he was already using the bath.

"I am aware you were here master. I came to speak with you."

Vanessa said in response yet she did not walk past the changing room without Kye's permission.

"What a coincidence, I also had something to talk to you about as well. Though I'm not sure the bath is the correct place for such a talk, if you want to continue here then I will oblige."

There was silence for a brief moment before Vanessa walked around the corner, not dressed in maid attire but her angel robes. They were very sensual on her so Kye quickly averted his eyes, a faint blush creeping onto his cheeks.

"Not in the maid uniform this time?"

"I felt it appropriate to approach you as an angel, not your servant for this matter."

"Right, well, If you would allow me to say my piece first."

"Certainly, master."

Kye cleared his throat as he began.

"Ahem... Well to start with, thank you very much for your speedy assistance back in the forest. Without you, there is a very big chance that we would have been killed by those Unbound."

"You do not have to thank me, master."

"No, but I do Vanessa. I was reliving our shared experiences in my head while I was sleeping and I realised that I have been completely unfair to you and your feelings. When you raised your voice at me and told me that seeing me hurt was that painful for you, a lot of my preconceived notions broke there. You... have feelings and are not just someone spawned for my sake. You care for me of your own volition and I never really acknowledged that."

Kye gave a wry smile and shook his head.

"Perhaps it is my inexperience with human relations that brought this on but I have now seen that you care, not because Alayah told you to but because you want to. For that reason, I have to deeply apologise for neglecting you thus far and I promise I will do better in the future."

Vanessa's eyes widened and filled slightly with tears.

"No, please master don't..."

"Alayah's words replay in my head constantly now. 'She will be your faithful companion through your next life'. Yet despite this, I have never really treated you as my companion. But that stops today. I understand if I hurt you and you no longer wish to be close with me but if you can find it within your heart to forgive me, I would like to start again."

Before Kye could turn his head around, Vanessa hugged him from behind, resting Kye's head on her thighs as her hands joined in front of his chest.

"I would always forgive you, master. The truth is that we have both not shown each other the level of trust we should have. There are many things that I have neglected to mention about my existence to you. So, if you can forgive me for hiding such things from you, I can forgive you for your transgressions."

Kye grabbed one of Vanessa's hands and squeezed it.

"Certainly. Whenever you feel like you want to talk about what it is you hid from me, let me know. I will make time for you."

"While I can tell you most of the information now, there are aspects that I have to keep hidden as you are not socially mature enough to deal with properly. There are certain feelings that I hold that, if revealed could cause your development to be halted so I will have to keep those from you."

"I trust you, Vanessa. Now, tell me what you can so that we can alleviate both of our guilts."

Vanessa began to explain to Kye about the soul-binding process and things related to why she was devoted to him, how she came to her conclusions about Kye and the nature of her existence, including that she would regularly converse with Alayah. After her explanation finished, Kye chewed on the information before repeating his vow to her that he would place more trust in her and see her as an individual from now on. The two talked for a bit before Kye began to feel light-headed from being in the hot bath for so long and he got out to get dressed. Vanessa left the room before Kye and waited for him outside the bathhouse doors. Kye exited shortly after, gently clutching his side after drying himself a bit too roughly.

"Sorry for the wait, let's return to my room. My mother is waiting for me."

Vanessa nodded and followed behind Kye with a smile on her face. His words to her were burned into her memory and recalling his commitment to her made her blush internally.

'I doubt any other angel has a soul-binder as kind as my master. Now, I just have to be patient. One day, I will tell him everything, including my feelings.'