After Aria leaves the bathroom, Arthur becomes calmer and lies down in the bathtub, letting the hot water wash over his body.
'I'm glad everything ended well…' He sighs, relieved.
With no one else to disturb his bath, he goes back to washing his body, but after seeing that red-haired girl, he can't help but think about her again. His attention is involuntarily drawn to his Nexus, the pink heart in his lower belly area.
'I wonder if…' He can't help but think if he touches his member whether that girl would appear again. Of course, he doesn't want to go through that trouble again, but the curiosity of seeing if it works gets the better of him.
'What if I... just a little…' That dangerous thought doesn't leave his mind.
'Don't touch it!' The girl's voice sounds loud and timid inside his mind.
'What?!' Arthur looks around, but he doesn't see the girl, just as his Nexus does not react. His mother would certainly have heard the girl's scream, but there is no sign of it, so Arthur is confused.
'Did I imagine it?' He looks at his Nexus again. 'Am I going crazy?'
'No, you fool!' The girl's voice sounds again.
Arthur seems to guess that her voice is coming from his mind, which is even weirder. 'Are you reading my mind?'
'That's not it,' The girl quickly responds, her voice becoming less shy and more normal. 'It's just that I can hear some of your thoughts…'
'Some thoughts?' Arthur is frightened by that idea; after all, he has locked away some dark memories inside his mind. The girl takes a while to answer, making him even more worried. 'Oi, oi, are you there??'
'Do you think I have any other choice??' The girl asks in a timid tone.
Arthur can't help but notice the girl's erratic response, which makes him think that she may have been scared by his earlier reaction to her appearance.
'I'm sorry about my earlier response, little girl. I didn't mean to scare you,' He addresses her in a kind and friendly tone. He just promised his mother that he would be good to women, so he wants to keep that promise as much as he can.
The girl takes a while to answer but does so in a much calmer tone, seemingly appeased by his apology. 'All right, I can forgive you since you did not know who I was.'
Arthur has many questions, but he knows he can't simply demand answers from the girl, or she might distance herself from him right after he managed to build a friendly rapport with her.
So, he tries a more indirect approach. 'Do you know anything about what's happening to us?'
'No,' She responds quickly.
'I see…' Arthur goes silent as he keeps thinking about the situation.
After a few seconds of silence, the girl speaks to him again. 'I don't quite understand what's going on, but I think it's like the Astral Beasts that Aria mentioned.'
Arthur was also thinking about that since his Nexus disappeared after she materialized. But he is more interested in the familiar way she used his mother's name. 'Do you know my mother?'
'I was here all the time.' She seems to be trying to be friendly, so Arthur feels that this is a good start in their relationship.
'What does all the time mean?' Arthur is worried about her words as it would mean she has been spying on his entire life since day one.
'Yes,' She says in a tone that becomes increasingly shy. 'W-we- w-wee- we have a…' Her voice becomes lower and lower, and in the end, it sounds like an almost inaudible whisper. '..bond!'
Arthur still doesn't understand anything about his relationship with the girl and how she stays in his Nexus, but he can't help but smile at the way she easily gets embarrassed. How bad can it be to be bonded to such a cute little girl?
'Not bad at all!'
"..." The girl doesn't react to Arthur's affirmation, and silence returns to the bathroom. Arthur wants to talk more to her, but he doesn't want to stress her either, so they both enjoy the silence.
In the end, he smirks and tries to tease her. 'So... if I were to touch…'
'Don't touch! it!!' The girl exclaims shyly and concerned.
Arthur cannot help but raise his eyebrows in shocked amusement and try counter. 'Do you want me not to touch my own body?'
'Exactly,' The girl responds as if it were obvious. 'Or you can't stop touching yourself, like a degenerate?'
'I'm not a degenerate!' He quickly exclaims. Though he can't help but appreciate her vicious quip to his teasing attempt.
The girl doesn't say anything else, and Arthur has to take the lead. 'Oi, you were talking about touching only where the heart is, right?'
'No,' She responds quickly, but her tone becomes shy as she continues. 'You can't touch any part in that area, especially... that... thing... and you definitely can't feel good there in any way!!'.
How could Arthur not understand what the girl means? But that seems both absurd and hilarious.
'That's impossible, you know,' He replies with a raised eyebrow. 'I mean, how do you expect me to... pee, for example…'
'Can't you do that without using your hands?' She asks as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
'I don't want to do it sitting down like a girl,' Arthur affirms with conviction. 'And doing it standing up is complicated... it will be messy.'
But the girl also seems determined. 'That's not my problem.'
Arthur grits his teeth in irritation at her irrationality as he tries to argue, but she doesn't let him. 'I'm serious; if you feel good... and summon me, I will beat you up.'
'I'm sure the scene from earlier would just repeat itself,' He speaks in a calm tone, unbothered by some little girls' threats.
'Do you want to bet??' She asks provocatively.
Arthur is not afraid of the girl, but besides the promise he made to his mother, he also doesn't want to harm a little girl out of pettiness. Since he can't win an argument with her and get some answers now, he just gives up trying to talk to her for the moment. He also can't stay in the bath much longer or his mother might come back and make him go through more embarrassing moments.
So he finishes the bath, gets dressed, and leaves the bathroom. The rest of the night goes as usual, and Arthur goes to bed after reading a little more about Astral Beasts in one of his mother's books. From time to time, his thoughts wander to that little girl he met earlier in the bathroom. He hopes that their little banter made her more open to talking to him.
However, Arthur's body is quite tired after such a day, so he slowly falls asleep. His vision gets dark, and he almost blacks out, but a strange sensation in his lower belly area wakes him up. He can't help but feel amused and wonder about the purpose of the little girls' clandestine appearance.
Arthur is lying on his side, and she appears lying on her side as well, face to face with him. Unlike before, she is now wearing a black lingerie that covers her intimate parts. He smiles at seeing her, but her blushing face becomes redder, and she seems to be getting nervous.
"I won't do anything-" Arthur quickly speaks out loud.
The girl quickly covers his mouth and whispers in his mind. 'Don't make noise, or your mother will hear!' The girl exclaims in his mind but without making any sound in the room.
'Alright,' Arthur replies mentally, and the girl seems to have heard him because she removes her hand from his mouth. He keeps looking at her, waiting for the girl to state her purpose or start talking, but she stays quiet.
He becomes curious about her clothes and asks about it. 'Where did this lingerie come from?'
'I just imagined it...' She feels shy because she chose such a sensual suit. 'I've seen Aria wave her wand and create clothes with magic so many times. I just tried it, and my energy took the form of these clothes.'
He just looks at her cute face, but even that quickly makes the girl uncomfortable. She understands that he must have questions, so she tries to say something.
'I just didn't want to sleep alone…' Her shy tone and the cute way she plays with her hair while speaking makes Arthur smile fondly in amusement.
'How cute,' His reaction to her antics was heard by the girl, who couldn't help but smile proudly as if she had achieved something.
But then her shyness takes over again, and she can't handle Arthur's curious gaze any longer. The idea of turning around and leaving her back exposed to his gaze doesn't seem good either, so she can only think of one solution.
'Can you turn around?' She asks him in a pleading tone.
'Why would I do that?' Arthus frowns in confusion, unaware of the little girl's inner struggles. She would like to be able to control her emotions better, but she simply can't handle the embarrassment.
'If you don't turn around, I'm leaving.' She tries her luck at pressuring him.
'Sigh, alright, alright,' Arthur sighs in defeat and turns around, not wanting to make the girl feel uncomfortable. He saw the loneliness in the girl's eyes and couldn't help but imagine how she felt being stuck in his Nexus for so many years with nobody to talk to.
Due to this, he feels a desire to protect her arise within him. So, even if she makes some unreasonable demands, he will indulge her a little bit for now until she can open herself to him.
Sometime after he turned around, Arthur realized something. 'Oh, you know my name, but I don't know yours.'
'I don't have a name.' The girl responds in a neutral tone, with a subtle shade of sadness. 'Or at least I don't remember having one,'
Arthur feels sorry for her, and the desire to protect her only grows in his heart.
'That's not good; I need a name to address you in the future.' He replies in a concerned tone.
'I don't…' The girl seems about to refuse but stops to think about something. Arthur is quickly learning how to deal with her and finds that being calm and patient with her seems to make her more open to cooperate with him.
As he is waiting for her to continue her thoughts, she asks him. 'Can you give me a name?'
'Me?' Arthur is taken aback by the request. He thought she would choose a name on her own, so he wasn't prepared for it.
'Don't you want to?' He feels like she's pouting behind his back, finding her reaction cute. He knows he has to think of something quick, or the good development of their relationship might be affected.
'Nyx!' He exclaims mentally.
'Nyx?' The girl asks, confused.
'Your name. Don't you like it?' He asks.
She wonders about that and ends up liking how Nyx sounds, but the most important thing is that it was Arthur who chose that name, though she won't tell him that.
'It will do,' She tries to speak in a calm and neutral tone, but she sounds shy and happy instead.
'I'm glad you liked it.' Arthur smiles upon hearing that, and she blushes even more.
After a few more seconds of silence, he speaks without turning around. 'Good night, Nyx.'
He can't see her, so she does not contain the urge to smile and even speaks to him in a softer tone.
'Good night... Arthur.'
They both fall asleep after that, feeling comfortable next to each other. Unlike the usual visions of Liam's dark life, Arthur surprisingly has good dreams this time.
__________
*Knock-knock* *Knock-knock*
Arthur wakes up to the sound of his mother knocking on the bedroom door.
"Time to wake up, darling." Aria's sweet voice sounds from the other side of the door.
He tries to get up as usual while opening his eyes, but something strange happens, and he feels something heavy and warm on his body.
He opens his eyes quickly and sees Nyx lying on top of him. 'Huh??'
She also wakes up and opens her eyes.
'WHAAAA?!?!' Shocked, she exclaims in his mind.
The sound of the doorknob turning and the door opening reaches Arthur's ears.
"Coming in..." Aria's voice follows.
"No!" Arthur shouts to his mother at the same time he sees Nyx's body turn into pink smoke, which turns back into a pink heart in his lower belly area.
Aria enters the room and sees Arthur in bed with a surprised expression. "Anything wrong, darling?"
He breathes a sigh of relief. "Sorry, Mom."
Aria is confused, but then she notices the big tent in the blanket in front of Arthur.
"Fufufu~!" She smiles lovingly. "You woke up so energetic today, baby."
Arthur is very embarrassed by that situation, but he just lays his head back on the pillow and sighs. He can't help but think that the following days will be full of such events, but also smiles thinking about the little girl.