I step back out and find Moni already covered in the lavender bubble bath, and I doubt there’s an inch of water in the tub yet.
“Comfortable?” I ask, laughing at my bestie as she starts dancing under the faucet to a tune that’s in her head.
“Uh-huh, just presoaking, or is it called pre-rinsing? What’s the cycle on the dishwashing machine called again?” she asks as her ass twerks under the fall of water.
“Um, presoak, Mo, but you normally don’t rinse the soap off until afterward,” I tell her as I begin stripping out of my own clothes.
“Oh, I know, the heavy-duty suds are underneath my bark. You know I have to getextraclean in those places,” she giggles and then quickly sobers. “I don’t want to get a bark infection and pass it on to Chestie. I don’t even know if that’s possible. Oh my! I don’t know if I can pass on anything to my mate! I haven’t hadthat type of talk.” She shrieks and spins around to look at me, her bark turning a dark gray as she grows to her larger size, her eyes rolling back.
I trip over my pants, but I still make a dive for her anyway, saving her head from dipping into the water and possibly drowning, but I land on the edge of the tub, hitting my ribs where Angel stabbed me.
FUCK a colossal Typhlotic Chicken!I curse under my breath.
“Ugh, that’s gonna leave a mark. Okay, Moni, wake up so I can die in my shower now in peace,” I cry, shifting my weight and sitting up so I can tap her with my other hand.
“Ah!” Wide eyes bounce around until they land on me. “Rez, whatcha doing down there?”
“Oh, I thought I would just see if the tile still felt cool to the touch.” I give her a deadpan look. “Why else would I be down here?” I roll my eyes and stand so I can finish kicking off my pants and get in the shower. “Relax, Moni, nothing has happened yet, and you’ll have plenty of time to talk to Dr. Steinbeck about it, right?” I push, getting us back on subject and trying to make her see the logic to everything so far. At least I hope I’m spitting logic, but this is why I wanted some girl time with her. This is some of the stuff she might not have been thinking about.
“You’re right, Rez. I just haven’t thought about any of this,” she confesses. “It seems like life has been jumping from one thing to the next, and I haven’t had a moment to process it all.” She sighs, then takes a breath and dives under the water.
I take off my underwear and bra before sliding underneath the blistering hot magma straight from Hell and immediately melt from the heat. The water stings my skin and penetrates deep into my muscles, down to my bones, stripping them clean. It’s as if I’m reborn and washed clean, something I haven’t felt in I don’t even know how long.
Even though I want to stay in this shower forever, I know I need to focus on Moni and make sure she’s okay, so I quickly wash my hair and condition it at least twice, then scrub my body clean. I take care not to scrub too much on my newly acquired injuries, but I take note of all the places I’ve been beaten up on during our trip through hell.
As we wash, Moni and I talk about training with L.A.M.B., the good times we had, and some of the bad ones, especially when we find some bruises that we would rather not mention. Like my ass bone, when I sit down to scrub my feet. Astaroth is a damn monster, but I miss our weapons trainer. I wonder how everything’s going down in Hell.
Levi’s magic can’t beat a good old-fashioned shower. So, even though he had magicked away the blood and grime, the hot, pulsating jets of the shower and the liquid heat of magma helped soothe my achy bones. Stepping out of the shower, I slip into a strawberry silk robe and meet Moni at the sink as she grabs some jars from the cabinet.
“What’s that?” I ask, wrinkling my nose at the strong mossy scent as Moni dunks her hand in the brownish goop.
“It’s for my bark so I don’t dry out too much,” she tells me as she sits down on the counter and slaps the offending gunk on her lower leg before rubbing it into her bark.
“You mean it’s like lotion?” I stare at her in shock, and I blindly reach for my own hair goop in the cabinet next to me.
“I guess that’s one way to look at it. I got dried out in Hell. I don’t come this mossy on my own, missy. It takes work. What’s that saying, trust the mess?” Moni says as she pulls out a Sparks cup from her S.I.N. box while applying morelotionwith her spare hand.
“It’s trust the process, Moni.” I snort at her antics and shake my head as I dump a fair amount of green goop into my brunette curls. “I still can’t believe you put the Harpies in their place,”I chuckle, still in awe from earlier. “You’ve come a long way, bestie.” I give her a large smile, and she glows a bright pastel yellow.
“Thanks. I feel like a new me, like I’m still me, but a new and improved me,” she admits before looking up at me. “Like a Pimp 2.0 version.”
“Do you think it has anything to do with learning who your father is?” I hedge, not wanting to dismiss her accomplishments or her feelings, but I want to know what she’s thinking.
She pauses in the application of her lotion and crosses her legs on the counter to face me. “Honestly, I think it’s a combination of everything, like learning to control my magic, learning that it’s not completely destructive, and yeah, my father is Lucifer,” she says before grabbing some more goop and applying it to her arms. “It was scary, but when I found Chester, I also think that helped change something inside of me.”
I start finger-combing the green goop through my hair as Moni begins applying a different type of lotion to the vines in her hair.
“Yeah, popping that V-card will do that to ya,” I chuckle.
“Holy Butter Bees and Dingle Whoppers.” Moni chokes on her drink while turning a bright pink from head to toe. “Don’t make me waste my Nectar of Life,” she shrieks.
“Remember when I had to come and rescue you because Chester couldn’t wake you after your Big-O?” I laugh, watching as she wipes her mouth and tries to control her shifting colors.
“Shut up!” she laughs, finally gaining control of her emotions and shifting to her usual green.
“Good times,” I sigh, walking out of the bathroom as Moni shrinks down and catches a ride on my shoulder. “Instead, now you’re the badass wielding mouth with teeth that the Harpies will have to watch out for.”
“It was the first time I felt strong and witty with them. I was like Super Human, having no fear whatsoever. If Zeke didn’t step in, I would have boom-boomed that mini Harpy myself.” Moni zips back and forth in front of the closet before I reach it, leaving green sparkles drifting to the floor.
