Boredom Flowing like Time [M - Lion]

[Zero]

"Good night, little bird." Roman said before leaving the room and quietly closing the door behind him. Whether she was able to actually get any rest would be in question. Perhaps she was a heavy sleeper?

That would be very good luck.

Into the wee hours of the morning, until dawn even, the muffled (and not so muffled) sounds of doors, footsteps, and cries of pleasure (both masculine and feminine) echoed through the house as he saw to his parade of clients. Although there were only four that night.

Mary came in at dawn, just as the last satisfied patron was slipping out. It was all routine by now. She bustled into the kitchen to make breakfast while Roman soaked and relaxed in a hot bath to clean the night's adventures away. He had breakfast at the table in nothing more than a towel, before giving mostly unnecessary instructions and heading up to bed.

The highly patient and aged maid fixed a tray and brought it up to Adrienn's room, giving only a soft knock before entering. "Good morning, child. I hope you were able to sleep."

[Lion]

If anything kept her up, it was the creaking of flooring and the thudding against a mattress. But Adrienn surprised herself by how unalarmed she was at the noises she heard. She likely figured if she was in any real danger it would have come to her already. The throbbing in her back and the aches in her body would feel even worse in the morning.

And she did, her head throbbing something fierce.  The door opened and Mary quietly came in. She turned slowly in the bed. "I feel like the dead, reanimated," she hissed, turning the blankets off of her. "Thank you, dear."

The tray smelled divinely of food, and Adrienn felt herself growing ravenous again. But curiosity was​ on her mind. "Ma'am, what is it exactly that your employer does?" Adrienn asked with as much care as possible.

[Zero]

"Well having a brush with death might do that to a person." Mary mused as she set the tray on the night stand. The plate was piled with an omelette of sweet peppers, onions, steak, and cheese with fried potatoes on the side. There was also a cup of tea, slice of lemon, and honey. A hearty breakfast was always a good way to start the day - even if Roman usually went right to sleep after eating.

"What do you think Mr. Roman does?" She asked with a bit of a chuckle, shaking her head. "He would call himself a masseuse, and a courtesan. I guess."

Not like there was a reason to deny it. Her boss didn't.

[Lion]

Gods, did everything in this house smell absolutely heavenly?  Even that smirking Roman.  He didn't smell nearly as good as this food, but she wasn't going to argue. She sat up with some care and smiled at Mary. The old man seemed nice enough, discreet, but honest.

A courtesan, huh...  A part of her wasn't really surprised. The posh housing, the beds, furniture, wine, and the amount of food that seemed to be served in a single day. She was a knight but even she didn't have as much to call her own. Maybe there was a faint sense of envy festering inside of her, and Adrienn bit it down.

"I suppose a man has to make a living," she said, nearly choking on the omelette, at the pepper inside.  She cleared her throat, swallowing it down. "How long have you been working for Mr. Moretti? He been doing this a long time?"

[Zero]

"Yes, most of us do need to make a living somehow." She kept up Roman's house for him and he slept with people who paid him lots of money for the pleasure. It was all work, in one way or another. Her attitude about the whole thing was probably why she had been able to work for him. He'd have gotten rid of someone judgmental about his lifestyle.

"I've probably been here for about ten or so years. Mr. Roman likes my cooking, and I am efficient and discreet - the most important qualities, he says. As for how long he's been a courtesan? At least as long as I've been here, but a bit longer, I think." She shrugged her shoulders. "Eat up, child. Mr. Roman is sleeping and I have to go strip the beds and remake them with clean sheets. For a man in his line of work, he's quite meticulous about having everything nice and tidy. I'll be back soon enough to take your tray. Just holler if you need something."

[Lion]

Ten years?  The woman had been here 10 years just cleaning up fluid-covered sheets and making food. She seemed happy about what she did. Fuck was she in the wrong business. Adrienn wasn't going to judge the man, for he had helped her most in her hour of need. What really could you give a man that seemed to have everything already?

For the most part, she couldn't really focus on that until she was thoroughly recovered.  Her wounds were starting to clear up now, the minor ones anyway, and bruising was lightening. She ate and slept most of the next few hours, not really needing anything else, except maybe a bath.  But was that asking too much.  The blood had crusted around her skin, and she tried to pick at her itchy scabs.

Finding strength enough, Adrienn shuffled herself out of the bed, using the nightstand for support, pulling the comforter over her shoulders like a cloak.  Each step brought sharp pains up her spine, but she persisted and quietly maneuvered for the door.

"Um....Mary? How do I go about getting a bath?" she called out. Hopefully that Roman was still asleep.

[Zero]

Mary spent those hours going about her chores. Making beds, doing laundry, and general cleaning while they slept. She heard Adrienn calling out to her and hurriedly moved to the steps, looking up the stairs with a disapproving scowl.

"Don't you go hurting yourself young lady!" The chastisement was almost motherly. "You just wait and one of us will help you down the stairs."

Well, she supposed that no one could expect the poor injured woman to lay in bed all day and night until she was well. Mary went upstairs as quick as she could, which wasn't as fast as she used to be able to admittedly. She pushed open the door slowly, peeking in at Adrienn with a frown.

"If you're wanting a bath you've got to come downstairs, and I'm not sure I can support you enough to not run the risk of you tumbling all the way to the bottom. I'll have to get Mr. Roman." She wasn't surprised that they hadn't woken him.

[Lion]

Adrienn firmly raised her hand. "No!" she hissed in response, although she hadn't meant it in a griping manner. The woman was only doing what she felt was best for her. Unfortunately Adrienn didn't agree.

"I can do it. Just help me take each step. I won't have Mr. Roman waking up and making a fuss over me again. If I can't learn to do it on my own, I won't get any better, Mary. And then I'll never get out of this house," she protested, tone not unreasonable.

She opened the door fully and hobbled passed Mary, shuffling and huffing her way to the banister, gripping it hard. "Just hold my other arm, please," she said, arcing her elbow out for Mary to grip. "I just need someone to steady me. Please.  Your gawking isn't making this go any faster, milady."

[Zero]

"Stubborn girl." Mary muttered under her breath. She only had a few options: go to fetch Mr. Roman anyway and risk Adrienn hurt herself alone in the short time, yell for Mr. Roman, or help the girl and hope that everything went smoothly.

With an exasperated sigh she took her by the arm, offering as much support as she could as she slowly helped Adrienn down the stairs. "Honestly, you act as if it might kill you to bother Mr. Roman for help. If he wasn't willing to help you then he wouldn't have let you stay in one of the rooms, you know. You also act as if taking it easy will kill you. Being careful for a couple days won't stop you from getting out of the house. It isn't like Mr. Roman could forbid you from leaving whenever you want."

[Lion]

Adrienn stopped in her tracks at Mary's last words. Not the being forbidden to leave part. Mainly the, "Being here for the next couple of days?" Adrienn hissed those words with a half hysterical gape. She said it as if 'days' were somehow an eternity. And in some ways, it certainly felt that way. The longer she waited here in recover, the further and further away her assailant was getting.

She didn't want to admit that she didn't even know who to look for, or who had ordered her assassination - and did a shit job of it at that - so Adrienn bit her tongue and finished shuffling down the stairs.

"It's not that I don't appreciate everything Mr. Moretti is doing for me," Adrienn whispered. "It's more like I just don't want to be useless. And being able to bathe is very much something I'd like to do myself. I am no paying client here.  I mean, do you let Mr. Moretti bathe you, Mary?"

[Zero]

"Well you're not going to be back in shape over night, but you don't have to wait until you're completely better to leave. I'm sure you would like to seek care from someone more familiar. We're just strangers." Mary shrugged a little and helped her down, one step at a time.

Although she did give a hearty chuckle at the suggestion of Roman bathing her. "Well he's never offered. I wasn't going to have him bathe you. Just thought he might be better able to help you down these stairs. I'm an old woman, child." Old enough to be a little stooped, but certainly still strong enough to manage herself and keep up with Roman's home to earn her living.

They reached the bottom and she steered Adrienn through the kitchen and into the back room set aside for bathing. It was a very fancy set up - imagine a whole room in a private house just for bathing! Mary certainly didn't have that in her home, but often enough she had simply taken advantage of Roman's hospitality and bathed here. At least when she was a bit younger, the huge copper tub was a bit much for her to get in and out of these days.

There were smoldering embers beneath the tub, separated in a way that they distributed heat through the water, but didn't make the tub itself dangerously hot. Roman had tried to explain it to her once, but she didn't really understand how it worked, only that it did. She suspected magic was involved.

"Well now let me fill this up for you." Now she knew this part was definitely magic. There was a bucket that looked only half-full, but when you tipped it over the tub it poured water into it, but it didn't empty. The water didn't stop flowing until she tipped it back upright and set it on the floor. She eyed the full tub, then glanced over at Adrienn with a soft tsk. "I'll leave you to it, but you know your clothes were ruined. Can't have you going about the house naked until you're better. Maybe I can find something for you to put on once you're finished."

Even a nightgown would be better than nothing.

[Lion]

The man had....impeccable taste. And if that mattered at all to Adrienn she knew exactly what she would do if she ever called upon Mr. Roman Moretti again. She'd pay him greatly to come into her own home...and completely redecorate.

That was a plan she could get behind.

For now, the task of bathing was the monumental issue here. And when Adrienn saw that tub, she balked at first. Oh not because of the decorations. Because she hadn't figured out how she was going to get in there. So she dropped the blanket and scooted it toward the door once Mary left and stepped toward the copper edge of the tub.

"Here goes nothing," she said, and tried to carefully slide along the edge of it. Of course there was an unceremonious splash and made the fire at the base of the tub sputter and nearly go out. "Aww fucking hell."  But as long as the water was here, she could at last lather up.  She didn't need help for that.

[Zero]

Not exactly the most confident that she wasn't making a mistake, Mary left Adrienn to bathe in peace. While she knew Roman would want her to make sure the girl was taken care of and not hurting herself, she also had a lot of cleaning to do.

Thoughts of cleaning were quickly dashed when she heard the splash. She hadn't gotten very far at all so it only took a moment for her to poke her head back into the room. "Are you alright? Don't give an old woman a heart attack, you hear me? Mr. Roman will not be happy with me if I let you go hurting yourself doing things you shouldn't be doing on your own yet."

[Lion]

It couldn't be said that Adrienn was a graceful 'little bird' and managing to slip into the tub certainly left her bum bruised and her arm a little banged up. But otherwise she wasn't any more broken than she was going in.

Now she could at least get started with getting her grimy self cleaned up.  That was until the door opened and there Mary was.

"I'm fine, Mary," Adrienn said with exhaustion evident in her voice. "I'm still alive. If I die trying to get out, I'll be sure to let you know."

She swallowed back the rest of the exasperation and settled into the heated waters. "Although, I don't suppose Mr. Moretti has an unused loofa around here does he? The one here has an um...a hair on it. A lower body hair."

[Zero]

"If you think you'll have trouble getting out call for me and I'll help. If you fall on the floor you might really hurt yourself. Mr. Roman already owes the doctor for you." Mary didn't say it unkindly, just a bit sternly.

The elderly woman rolled her eyes a little as she pushed into the room to remove the dirty loofah. "If'n I was you it wouldn't be the hair bothering me, but what the thing was used to clean off."

She tsked softly and rummaged around a cabinet, pulling out a fresh loofah, as well as wash cloths, towels, and scented soaps and oils. Mary set them out on a stand beside the tub, offering the loofah directly to Adrienn. "Use whatever you need, and take as long as you want, but don't go falling asleep in the tub. Just call for me if you need anything else."

And Mary left her alone again.

[Lion]

She knew when the woman meant business.  And Adrienn, if anything, could be accommodating to the people trying to heal her.  Well, by extension. The doctor healed her.

"Well, that's precisely why I asked for a new one," Adrien grumbled underneath her breath as she took the loofa.  "I mean, I will certainly call when/if I need help getting out, Mary. Thank you!"  But the woman was gone before she could finish.

At least the water was warm then and soothing to her muscles and lessened the sting in her back. Adrienn sighed in the waters, reclining and easing into the soap suds. She lifted her left leg and frowned. A bruise had formed there as well.  Gods, what had she turned into, a fucking peach?  No, wait that was Roman.

She cackled as she finished washing up and laid back into the warm waters, blowing bubbles away from her mouth.  She closed her eyes, letting the heat ease into her bones, her body, and let the darkness take her away.

[Zero]

Mary poked her head in to check on Adrienn between chores, a little worried when she hadn't heard anything for a while. Of course when she saw the girl asleep in the tub after telling her not to go to sleep, well, she huffed a bit and quickly went upstairs to fetch the master of the house. Sure, she could have woken her and attempted to help her out of the tub and back up to bed, but she had other work to do and couldn't babysit all day if Roman wanted the chores done.

Plus she knew that Adrienn wouldn't have wanted Roman to come help.

Rousing him was easy enough, Roman only grumbled a little before yawning and stretching languidly. It was as good a time as any to get up and start the day, he supposed. Considering what Mary told him, he only put on his breeches, as there was no point putting on a shirt that was only going to get super wet.

He entered the room quietly, red eyes falling over Adrienn's form soaking in his tub. She was non-traditionally pretty, he thought. Personally, he thought her short, wild hair was a nice shade of red. Sighing softly he dipped his fingers into the water, enjoying how warm it was. He should have woken her, but she looked so tired.

After her rough night he truly loathed the idea of disturbing her rest any further than he already had the previous night. Roman reached down into the tub so he could gently lift her up into his arms against his chest once again. Mary appeared beside him and draped a towel over the sleeping woman before he began carrying her through the house with the intention of returning her to the bed she'd woken up in.

[Lion]

If his touch had been any gentler, Adrienn would have just let herself pass away right then and there. Her sleep was uneventful, but it brought the rest that she desperately required and was too stubborn to admit that she needed. So when Roman's arms scooped her up from the water, she naturally turned into the warmth and curled into him.

Then she started to feel a slight draft, like she was moving. She was moving. When she was supposed to be in the water. Did the tub just get up and walk somewhere?

Her eyes tiredly flickered open. She was floating. OH shit! She was floating! "The hell-" were all the words she'd be able to get out before her arms flailed outward and the slipperiness of her body against whatever was making her float made her lose friction. Then gravity was all that was supporting her now, with a hard land on the floor.

"Oh...fucking hell," she hissed, reaching an arm up to grip her shoulder. 

[Zero]

Everything had been going very well. Adrienn hadn't been disturbed by being lifted from the tub, and he'd carried her through the kitchen without incident. They were almost to the stairs when she woke up and immediately began flailing. Roman was startled by the sudden movements, and woefully unprepared for the outburst.

He winced as she squirmed her way right out of his arms and fell to the floor - hard.

"Little bird," Roman's voice was a mixture of frustration and concern as he knelt down next to her, a hand gently moving to touch the shoulder she was holding. "Does it hurt badly? I can have Mary fetch the doctor back if you need."

Guilt gnawed at him. He should have held her tighter, should have reacted quicker to her squirming. If her injuries got worse or if she hurt herself now, it would be his fault. Sure, he didn't have to do anything he had done the past day. Roman could have ignored her or sent for someone to take her away, but he hadn't and now he felt more than a little responsible for her well-being. At least until she was mended enough to go about her life.

[Lion]

It wasn't like she threw herself to the ground on purpose. If anyone wanted her out of here the most, it was her. Nothing made her feel more restless than simply lying there being absolutely useless.  She was stubborn.
And now she was in even more pain.

Fuck...

"N-no. No doctor," she hissed.  "You just need to pop it back back in. It's easy. Like playing with wooden blocks."  Adrienn brought her eyes up to his, as if pleading for him not to over react.  "Just pop it in, I swear it'll be fine."