Chapter 61: Awoken

Lydia stared, dazed as she watched Candice disappear into the stairs heading down for a few seconds before shaking her head and opening the door towards Huey's room. The room was old but it was well maintained if she had to be honest. It had a kitchen, bathroom and bed area.

Compared to where she used to live before the apocalypse, it was quite shabby but only after spending the last week sleeping on floors did she understand what she had been taking for granted of what she had before. She hadn't even had a glass of milk or even bacon and although the mutant beast meat tasted slightly good the level actually depended on the amount skill one had when cooking, literally.

Back at the gymnasium where the rest of their schoolmates were currently taking shelter, a few who had been placed in charge of preparing meals actually had their skill recognized by the Spirit Record and had given them the passive skill [Cooking]. It was almost ridiculous but when taken to a much larger perspective it was those that had higher levels of [Cooking] that were able to prepare the meat in a way that the taste was delicious and the nutritional benefits, such as additional stats, would be taken advantage of properly. So in a way even those who had gone far enough in their [Cooking] skill could be considered important as well.

Shaking off these wondering thoughts Lydia looked towards the bed where Huey lay.

Most of his clothes were ripped off leaving him only shirtless and wearing pants that looked much more ragged than a beggar. Lydia's focus however wasn't on any of these things. It was on the state of his body. His chest was riddled with bruises and scratches but on closer inspection they seemed to be slowly fading, his right arm was caked in blood and some torn skin could be seen mending itself as well. Other than that Lydia found nothing else wrong with him, injury wise.

But looking at his general body she couldn't help but grimace slightly.

'He's dirty. Too dirty'

And it didn't seem like he was going to be waking up anytime soon. He needed to be cleaned before his wounds got infected.

Her feet were moving even before she had the thought of questioning her actions. She found herself in the bathroom where there was a bathtub on one side, a toilet in the other and a wash sink close to the toilet. She made her way to the tub, it had two taps hanging over it. She checked them out first.

One tap hot. One tap cold.

She turned the hot tap and let the water run for a few moments before finally feeling the warm water flow. She was at first surprised that the hot water could still be running but soon she was elated.

'This will make things much easier'

Minutes later the tub was filled with hot water.

Lydia stood with a satisfied expression on her face before she turned around and made her way back to where Huey was sleeping.

Sigh

What was she doing? No better question why was she doing this?

She shook her head before making her over to the side of the bed. After contemplating for a few more seconds she sighed once more. She had already made the decision so why was she hesitating. She bent low, pushing her arms under Huey, one arm under his shoulder and the other under his knees.

And then she pushed upwards lifting Huey off the bed with very little difficulty something that would have without a doubt been extremely difficult for her to do because frankly speaking the Lydia of the past wasn't physically strong as she spent most of her time practicing her summoning abilities. And well Huey's weight before had been close to 60 kilograms something that she definitely wouldn't have been able to lift and though with out a doubt Huey's weight had increased in the last week with the way her current stats were it wasn't much of an issue for her to carry him.

With his head leaning into her shoulder, Lydia carried him up 'bridal style' to the bathroom where she gently lowered him into the tub. The moment Huey's skin made contact with the water, its once clear reflection took a dark brown color before a tinge of red joined the mix. It was as though Huey hadn't taken a bath in over a month.

Lydia's face grimaced once more but she forced herself and took deep breaths before using her hands to scoop up some water in her delicate hand before moving to scrub off the grime and dirty from Huey's chest. She rubbed and rubbed until she could directly feel the skin underneath. she did the same for his arms but she was particularly careful with his right arm as she could feel that part of its bones were broken. Then she moved on to his abdomen, back and legs.

By the time she was finished the water was as black as night. It was so dirty that one would have mistaken it for a mud bath.

Looking at the water for a second she could see that it was trying to dirty Huey's skin once more and it certainly would if she didn't do something about it.

Lydia hurried and pulled the plug at the bottom of the tank, the water started draining immediately and with it all the dirt and grim that was in it. What was left was a slightly cleaner Huey whose skin could now be seen. His bare chest and slightly toned abs were on display. From how refined the muscles looked it was clear that they had only just began to form.

Lydia found herself staring more than usual and she couldn't help her eyes going lower and lower. Realizing what she was doing, her cheeks instantly turned a shade of red. She covered her face with her arms to block the view but the large gaps she left in between her fingers even more for her to see.

"My god what am I doing?" she muttered to herself. She could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest and when her eyes landed on Huey's lower region a frown formed on her face and she couldn't help but feel…disappointed.

Don't get it wrong it wasn't because Huey's 'tool' was insignificant or anything it was because of the dirty rag that seemed to cling to his lower region that caused all this. Seeing this it didn't take long for her to realize that the dirty rag was what remained of his pants.

"I'm doing this to help him… I'm doing this to help him…" she muttered repeatedly as her fingers clung to the rag.

She couldn't possibly leave the rag there right. After all it could be dirty and result in a very serious infection in a very dangerous area. Huey couldn't possibly have that on his most treasured appendage right?

Lydia convinced herself. She remembered hearing a conversation in the ladies room back at school. One of the girls had said that men took pride and great care of their…ehem. You would be surprised at the dirty things that teenage girls talk about in the restrooms.

Shaking her head Lydia proceeded to pulled the rag below Huey's knees the entire time her cheeks had gotten so red that it seemed as though she was overheating. When the rag came off she threw in the bin below the sink before making her way back to the tub. She had the intention of opening both the hot and cold taps so that Huey didn't feel any discomfort but her eyes unconsciously wondered to a certain part in Huey's lower regions and again she felt a rush of blood so intense flow to her head as her entire face turned a deep shade of red but her eyes couldn't seem to leave the thing.

To say that this was Lydia's first time seeing the body of a man would be an understatement. Before her incident with Huey a week prior where she had lost balance on her bike and Huey had carried her to the nurse's office, it had been the first time she had made contact remotely close to intimate with a person of the opposite gender. Heck she hadn't even seen a single video with explicit content till this moment which considering how common those were in the era of the internet was surprising. Shockingly so.

As the water filled the tub once more she shut off the taps before proceeding to wash the unconscious boy once more. This time however she used the unused soap bar she that had been placed. Even though the room was a bit shabby it was still relative decent enough to leave at least a single bar of unused soap in case new tenants move in. And by a stroke of luck it appeared that this room actually had one.

Wetting and rubbing the soap between her hands she diligently washed Huey's hair and face bubbling it up thoroughly before doing the same to his arms, legs and torso. She washed away the soap ten minutes later before diverting her attention to Huey's 'tool'

She couldn't possibly leave without cleaning it right?

She hesitated at first before steeling her nerves and rubbing her hands against the soap before reaching out towards it. What she couldn't have counted on was that the moment her fingers wrapped around it she would feel a pulse against her hand.

Raising her eyebrows, Lydia continued on and began to coat the thing with soap by rubbing her hand up and down. That proved to be a mistake because three seconds after she did that it raged and hardened stretching upwards until in almost poked out of the water. Veins run up its shaft and pulsed as though an enraged dragon awoken from slumber.