Chapter Sixty Seven - What happened to Sun’s bath?

"Ah! Your nose is bleeding!" Sun cried out suddenly, Leon turned automatically to where the boy's voice came from, but could not properly see him. Actually, what he perceived of him was a indistinct shape blocking out the natural light that came from the blob that constituted as the entrance mixed with the small window at the front of his home. Recalling that Maimai had suffered a nosebleed before, he wondered if she was again.

Sure enough.. "Oh, don't be so concerned!" She laughed dismissively, her voice sounding slightly muffled for a moment. "It will stop momentarily... probably!"

"M-Maybe Tor should g-g-guide you b-back," Leon suggested, turning his head towards where she sat upon his other side.

"But Teacher Sagi said that we should be your eyes until your glasses are fixed," the girl protested, inwardly concerned that she would miss out on this, her daily bread.

"I am here now," Jin Li refuted her claims. "If anyone should take care of him, it will be this Lord." Maimai's nose tingled further as the joy of these words conjured up many images within her fertile mind. She found herself nodding, happily and stood up, clutching her handkerchief to her nose. She noticed the blond senior, Tor move to follow.

"Are you sure you will be alright?" the cute boy with long brown hair, who had arrived with the handsome martial artist. She narrowed her eyes, sizing up the boy, wondering over his relationship with the other for a moment.

Then she smiled at him, brightly and said; "I will be fine, but thank you." The boy's face turned a colour that was not too dissimilar to the blood on his clothes as she passed him.

"If you are okay with it," Tor said to Leon as he too made to leave, "I will return once your glasses are fixed for you."

Leon nodded towards his voice. "Yes, thank you," he replied.

Jin Li's narrowed eyes followed the two alchemist students as they left the small hut and he waited a few seconds more before turning to the unfocused youth sitting before him and saying; "How is it you are still so unguarded? Allowing others to enter your home after what has occurred before?"

"W-what ch-choice d-did I have?" Leon protested, thinking Jin Li was being unfair. "T-Teacher Sagi had them t-t-take m-me home after the accident."

"Turn them away at the door," Jin Li instructed. "There is no obligation to host them." Leon crossed his arms about his chest, thinking momentarily whether to argue with him, but in the end, he decided it wasn't worth it and just nodded. "I want some tea, but I guess you will be unable to serve it to this Lord."

"I c-can still m-make it," Leon argued, thinking that if he was really careful about it, it should still be possible, even without his vision. However Jin Li refused to allow it.

"Don't be ridiculous," he retorted. "Just tell me how to work this infernal contraption of yours."

"Oh okay." Sun watched as Leon instructed Jin Li to open the small, bottom hinged door to the side of metal box and said that the wood inside needed to be lit. Jin Li glanced at the flint to one side and ignored it, instead channeling his energy into the tip of one finger and shaping it into a spark. Leon continued to instruct his roommate and Sun felt his jaw drop as he noticed that Jin Li's lips curved into a slight smile.

The boy was becoming increasingly confused about the relationship between the two. He'd been sure that they were Master and servant, Jin Li had even called the other his servant, but what Master served their servant tea? However, before he could dwell overly long on it, he was reminded of the bug guts upon his skin and clothes as a blob splattered down upon the floor. Ah! He had stood before a pretty girl looking like he had waded willingly through a pile of rotting corpses! He felt shame flooding him and groaned aloud.

"That's right, you b-b-brought your room m-mate with you," Leon remembered, the boy had been so quiet, he had not realised that he was still there. "Sun, how d-do you t-take your t-tea?"

"Forget the tea!" Sun cried, startling Leon. "Jin Li brought us here to use a bath! I really need a bath!"

"You d-do?" Ignoring the fact of not being able to see the boy standing in the entrance, the stench of dead weevils was brushed away by the wind and the rest had been hidden due to Maimai's perfume. That and the odours within a forest could not always be fresh, Leon only now noticed the smell thanks to Sun mentioning it. "You d-do, you really do! The b-bath is in the shed, b-but it n-needs f-filling with water. There m-m-may b-be some left in the b-barrel outside. There's a fire p-pit and cooking p-pot in the shed too."

"I'll leave it to you," Jin Li informed Sun as he heaped a generous spoonful of honey into his teacup and took a sip.

Sun could only lament having thrown his lot in with Jin Li!