early December

[best_thief]

Lila had been food shopping when she'd run into Sirius and learned that Kell was sick. Sirius was on his stupid phone with Kieren and didn't elaborate or seem overly concerned about it, so she wondered at the way she couldn't stop worrying. It's just that Kell must have had palace doctors and nursemaids to look after him when he grew ill back in Arnes. He probably had round the clock care, medicines and doting fit for a prince. But here he had no one. Would he even know what to do?

Lila thought it would be up to her, then, but as she stood in the medicines aisle she realized she didn't know what to do. Back in London when she got sick she toughed it out until it eventually passed, there wasn't much else could be done. She was lucky when she could even afford a room for the night to get out of the cold.

She hated having to use her phone, but she had been shown how to ask it things which had been helpful in the past. So she consulted the phone, asking it, "What do you do for someone who is sick?" She clicked the first text that came up and spent a few minutes reading and formulating a plan.

Some time later found her at Kell's window. She used her magic to unlock and open it, tossing her bag in and climbing in after it.

"Kell?"

Comments

[best_thief]

"Maybe just a little," Lila says with a tiny smile, "when you're feeling better."

She moves close to help Kell with his clothing, skimming her hands up his chest to pull his sweatshirt off. She tugs his sweatpants and underwear down next, smiling up at him a moment before standing. "It's such a shame you're so sick," she murmurs, stepping out of the way so he can climb into the bath.

[bloodandflowers]

"Lila," Kell admonishes fondly, though it's mostly to distract from the pink in his cheeks. When he awoke this morning, snotty and feverish, he hadn't expected to be standing before her completely naked by night's end. He hurries forward into the water before she can see how skinny he is, or smell him, and half falls into the tub as soon as the warm water hits him.

"Saints."

[best_thief]

Lila just grins. She likes it when Kell scolds her when it isn't serious. Sometimes even when it is. She lets him hide in the bath, though, for his own sense of dignity, even though she'd happy to admire his body no matter the state it's in. It's still the one she knows best.

Without fanfare, Lila pulls her own shirt off, her pants, her socks, joining Kell on the edge of the tub. "Let me wash your hair? It must be getting itchy."

[bloodandflowers]

The flush he'd been doing his best to hide deepens when her own clothes come off, and Kell watches her, his nose and eyes visible above the bubbles. He has a feeling he'd agree to anything she wished right now, but clean hair does sound heavenly.

"Please?"

[best_thief]

Lila only took off most of her clothes so they wouldn't get wet, having lost the need for modesty around Kell long ago, but his reaction, amusing as it is, just makes her want to tease him.

She doesn't, though. She behaves, and simply picks up the bottle of shampoo. "Tip your head back to wet your hair."

[bloodandflowers]

Kell does so with a groan. Despite the medicine, tilting his head makes the world seem to spin, and he holds tightly to the sides of the tub when he sits up again.

"I think it's gotten long," he says to distract from a sudden need to vomit "I can feel it against the back of my neck."

[best_thief]

Lila squirts some of the shampoo into Kell's hair and takes her time massaging it in, knowing how good it will make his scalp feel from her own experience of doing it to herself. Having regular access to shampoo is a luxury this place has afforded her. Before Darrow she cleaned her hair only with water, when it was even available.

"You could have me cut it. I always cut my own hair," she says.

[bloodandflowers]

"Alright," agrees Kell, his eyes half lidded as Lila's clever fingers sink into his hair. It is too long, growing all month without much notice until this very moment, and Kell apart from the fringe that covers his black eye he's has never liked it touching his ears.

"I like your hair."

[best_thief]

"When you're feeling better, then," Lila says, and once she has Kell's hair nice and lathered she picks up the showerhead and turns the water on. She carefully tips his head back a little, helping him hold it up with one hand, and with the other rinses his hair. She's never taken care of someone like this, and it's surprisingly soothing.

"You do?" She's never thought one way or another about her hair. She thought only long hair like proper ladies wear would be pretty, not her preference to keeping it short. Though it doesn't seem to be rare here in Darrow, like it had been back in her London. "What else do you like?" she asks with a grin.

[bloodandflowers]

Kell opens his eyes, grateful for the support of her hand when he tips his head upright again. Immediately his eyes fall to her body, settling on her hip. She has bony hips, yet Kell has always liked the feel of them in his hands. It's been ages since he touched her, not in bed or even to draw her closer, and Kell looks away, too embarrassed to mention her hips of all things.

"Everything," he answers.

[best_thief]

Lila just laughs, but it's a happy, not a haughty sound. She likes that, it makes her want to show him more, give him more. But for now she simply squeezes the excess water from his hair, because he's right, it is getting longer. Then she slowly curls one hand to a fist, draining the remaining water from his hair with her magic so he won't have to lay in a puddle in bed.

"Let me help you stand and rinse off," she says, taking his arm.