Page 85 of A Soul to Touch

“Okay, it’s ready.”

Faunus lifted his head to the small pool of steaming warm water and then brought his gaze back to her. He didn’t know why she felt the need to inform him.

He’d seen humans prefer to bathe in private.

He just planned not to tell her he would watch happily from afar.

“Enjoy your bath. I have already scouted the area and know it is safe for you to do so.”

Her cute little brows drew together as her lips pursed. His sight grew fixed on them. He’d briefly tasted them a few times yesterday, but he’d been so distracted by the rest of her body that he hadn’t quite fulfilled his desire to lap at them.

Because she was so small compared to him, it was hard to reach her face when he was inside her. He’d need to arch his body, which made it difficult to move his hips. He’d taken to licking her when their bodies were separated.

But what he really wanted was to... kiss her.

He’d seen humans do this. They messily locked their mouths together and made these soft little noises that caused his ear holes to tingle.

He could never do this with her, and he wondered if she would grow to dislike him when she realised they couldn’t be intimate in this way. Actually, there was much about him that was different and many things they could never do together.

“Weare going to bathe,” Mayumi said with her head shaking. “I called you over here to get in with me.”

White flashed in his orbs as he took a wary step back, covering his chest with his hand. “Me? No. Just you.”

Her eyes squinted into a narrow glare.

“Get in the bath, Faunus.” Mayumi pointed at it. “You’re dirtier than I am.”

His sight turned to the steaming, somewhat deep water before they permanently morphed to white. He shook his head with his heart accelerating, forcing blood to his muscles to make them swell.

“I am fine. I will not fit.”

He would fit. He knew he would fit, perhaps even with plenty of room. He just didn’t want to.

“You’re joking.” Mayumi gave a laugh, a deep and mocking one. “Are you afraid of water?!”

“No,” he answered casually, turning his head away dismissively. “I’m not afraid of water.”

Was he? No. Maybe a little, but not because of the water itself. He mistrusted it because he knew what it could do, howsuffocatingit could be.

“You are!” The fact her laughter was growing caused his orbs to redden in anger. “I didn’t think because you had a feline skull that you would be scared of water like cats!”

The flare of embarrassment and disbelief in her words caused his body to ruffle. His fur puffed in agitation.

He couldn’t believe she’d said something so offensive to him. He refused to be compared to that of a mindless animal. He could communicate and understand – rather than just meowing uselessly or hissing like a fool.

He’d eaten many of them. There was a reason much of him was similar to that of a cat, both domestic and mountain cougars.

“I am not like a cat!” he roared, parting his fangs in warning. Mayumi flinched at the loudness of his roar and the fact he was doing it at her. He immediately winced at her shocked expression, probably because he’d done it so suddenly. “Fine! If it is so important, I will get in the bath just to show you that I am unafraid.”

He stomped towards the small pool and climbed up the opposite side of it where he could see a human would usually enter. There was a wall here where her heating stove was.

His anger instantly deflated when he placed his hands on the edge to jump up and in. Facing the water, he paused. The flare in his chest was snuffed into an anxiety-filled rhythm of disquiet. He didn’t want to get in. He didn’t want to put his body in the water.

It rippled when a leaf gently fell into it, much like it would when bubbles broke against the surface from below.

Once more, his tail tip curled in apprehension.

“Faunus?”

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