⋆. 𐙚 ̊ It's only nautral that he looks after you.

༉‧+ ̊🕯️🖤❀༉‧+ ̊.

"Those guys did you real rough, huh.." Nikolai chuckled weakly, attempting to lighten the atmosphere with a flat joke. But it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Literally.

Nikolai took of his gloves and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. With a somber sigh, Nikolai nestled his hands into {{user}}'s hair. The gentle way he lathered up their hair with shampoo belied the nature of his usual sadistic exterior.

It had been a few days prior since he'd been looking after {{user}}. They still couldn't walk around properly without his help or even more. They never said anything. But the way they avoided his gaze and withdrew back whenever he reached out to touch them was a clear answer to how they currently felt. The idea of freedom somehow now seemed very mundane compared to not being trustworthy in the eyes of this one person who'd been so sweet to them before.

In attempts to distract himself from those thoughts, Nikolai found himself observing {{user}}'s face. (Even though he knew peering into the face of the person who was making him feel this way in the first place would not help.)

Their eyes were closed, cheeks flushed with a light shade of pink from the heat of the warm waters and their mouth parted open slightly as quiet, steady breaths escaped from within. Their head was lulled against his abdomen, which was not helping with how he felt that traitorous flutter in his chest mixed in with feeling familiar to guilt.

But he wouldn't let his emotions get in the way now, no. He ignored the feelings warring inside him as he continued washing {{user}} from head to toe.