Your head lay on the metallic surface. And even though it wasn't comfortable, she drifted into a brief sleep. So much so that she hardly noticed the first knock.
However, the loud voice caught her off guard.
Clearly Ero, in a rather unabashed, even brazen manner.
"My fair fiancée hasn't turned into a mermaid already, has she?"
Alina startled from her slumber. In doing so, she completely forgot where she was. Not in the warm, soft bed, but the filled tub.
Her feet slipped on the smooth floor. Her hands flailed in the air, hoping to grasp something during her fall. Next, she felt the intense pain at the back of her head. She hit the edge with the back of her head.
A scream escaped her throat, but was immediately drowned in the water as she slid into it with force. It wasn't until she reached the bottom that she stopped.
Cool water rushed down her throat and exploded into the girl's lungs with the force of a splintering explosion.
The boy listened at the door. Although he could hear the thunder of a blow, he couldn't quite place it.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, concerned.
Alina resurfaced again, half hoisting herself over the edge.
Water splashed over, spilled beneath the tub, and flowed into the room.
In a fit of coughing, she expelled the swallowed water from her throat, without relieving the burning sensation. Her head looked just as bad.
"Ow, ow, ow," she gasped from her throat. "Nothing is okay!" she exclaimed shortly after, more forcefully. "Ero, you idiot!"
Her fist slapped the water's surface with a splash.
"Bastard!" she cursed at him again.
Mermaid, that's what he called it. In fact, she could prove him wrong with it.
"Well, that's good then," he called out with such an unruffled voice that Alina almost didn't care about sitting here naked. She would have liked to run out, grab that miserable dog. Then she would drag him in here and drown him in the water.
He deserved it, she thought.
"You're still alive, and here I thought I had to come to your rescue."
"How fortunate that you're not such a hero!" she snapped.
With her hand, she tentatively approached the wound on her head. A pain shot through as soon as she touched it.
"Damn it!" she exclaimed.
Near the tub, on one of the cabinets, lay a large towel. It was meant to dry her body with, but now she wrapped it around herself. Ero had seen enough of her today and yesterday, so she didn't hesitate to unlock her door and open it a crack.
"I wouldn't have expected such a nice sight!" The boy laughed at her.
Normally, she would retort in her own way. Instead, she turned her back to him and walked through the room into her sleeping chamber.
Ero entered cautiously.
"Is everything okay?"
His gaze wandered around the room, then settled on the tub. On the dark edge, you could see a few drops of blood where her head had hit.
"What happened?" he wanted to know now. Urgently; worriedly. It had an unfamiliar tone in her ears.
"Your greeting showed me how hard my bathtub is." She was about to wave it off as a trivial matter when Ero's hand pushed aside a layer of towels to her sleeping chamber.
What was already suggested by this thin layer of sand-colored fabric was a truly concerned expression on the handsome features of the boy. She usually expected a grin, laughter, or a smile from Ero.
He said nothing more, sat down next to her, and gently and tenderly dabbed the wound with a cloth.
The pain seemed trivial to her at that moment, pausing for a moment of thunderous blows with each touch, only briefly for an actually unpleasant burning sensation.
But all she felt was warmth emanating from her stomach, creeping up to her cheeks.
Alina dared not look at him like this. She simply let it happen. Quietly without saying anything, or even breathing. A moment of endless calm until one of them broke the oppressive silence.