She hated it. The blood was drying and it felt like she was still digging into his flesh. She could smell it, almost taste it even. A slightly painful expression was stuck on her face as she tried to ignore the scent by thinking about other things, but as she did this, it only seemed to get worse. Joking about it didn’t quite help, as she suddenly felt more aware of the blood that was sticking to her legs too, as she had sat on the ground. Her gaze moved towards the window, staring at where they had sat moments before this. Pulling the splinters from the wound in his leg. The memory alone pulled a shiver down her spine.

Hundreds of dresses. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. When he spoke again, she laughed. Finally. One step at a time. “Now we finally match” she told him. After all, they had always been such opposites. Black and white. And right now that was exactly what they needed to be. He was pulled into darkness, while she was trying to be the light he needed. She didn’t know if she was actually going to be of any help, but he seemed to take steps forward as they went. And she knew how this would go. There would be enough times where it would feel like they were taking one step forward, two steps back. And they would still pull through.

---

A bloody mess and a half it was. But, for now, they could pretend that everything was fine. Her eyes locked onto his perfect blue eyes, she just showed him a faint smile as she joked. For a second, everything was good. Because he wasn’t trying to avoid her, because he wasn’t pushing her away. In this moment, she appreciated the steps they had taken. Because while their progress was small, it was still there. Just knowing that for now, he didn’t view her as the enemy anymore, gave the woman the determination she needed to move forward. They could do this.

‘That’s not why I married you,’ he told her. A faint smile appeared on her face as she looked at her hands, slowly taking her ring between thumb and middle finger again, moving it a bit. “That’s true,” she admitted. No, they had married for something else completely. They were opposites in every way. From their looks to their opinions. Their personalities were completely different and they clashed so often. But, they held onto each other. They kept going, kept coming back. No matter the drama. And that was something rare, as so many people gave up after a single fight. She knew she wasn’t going to give up on him. “Take some rest,” she told him with a soft smile. He could probably use it after the whole wound-drama.

---

He didn’t want to leave her alone in this mess, but his effort to get up immediately failed. She changed position a bit so she would be able to face him, shaking her head softly. “I will be fine. Worry about yourself for once,” she told him with a smile. He needed this. All that mattered at this moment was him, after all. She was fine. Or, at least, more fine than he was. The struggles that had been going on these past weeks were suddenly non-existent. As long as she was in this room, they would be ignored. Until he was fine again and probably even then still. Her problems didn’t matter. He was her priority and he would be so for a very, very long time.

Smiling, she pointed towards the few books that were found next to the bed. “I’ll read,” she told him with a smile. Probably not. Seeing the mess here, she was closer to cleaning up as much as possible, just so they wouldn’t have to explain as much. It would be a lot easier. But, that was something he didn’t need to know.

---

How did he see through the lie? The woman was fascinated by books. Especially in times like these, it wasn’t uncommon for her to put her face in a book and forget about all of her worries. She’d try to fix something, anything, by using her knowledge in Alchemy. For that was her one way out of everything. Didn’t know how to fix it? Make a potion! It worked. Or, at least, it kept her from getting into a downward spiral of eternal worries. Like now, she wouldn’t have minded if she had been able to lie down next to him, a book in her hands. She would’ve just found out which herbs could have helped him heal and hoped it’d actually work. She’d feel so much more useful. It’d be great.

But, she couldn’t live with this mess and she knew that questions would be asked if she left it this way. So, she needed to fix it. “I always read,” she frowned. “You just returned, Kaz,” she told him, sounding more serious now. “I want you to get better. So please. Rest,” she tried again, now almost begging him to. He was safe here. She’d watch over him. After all, that was part of their promise, wasn’t it?  

---

They were an interesting couple, that much was sure. Their bickering could be endless, but they cared enough to eventually stop. They didn’t actually let it influence their relationship, which was good. Allowing themselves to be their stubborn selves, bickering and fighting, yet giving up before it would actually ruin anything. Where they were opposites, they seemed to have learned how far they could go. After the trial and error phase they had at the start, of course, where everything had been a lot rougher than it was now. At least when it came to the bickering.

His leg on her lap caused her to look up from her thoughts again, smiling softly. She carefully placed her hand on a not-damaged part of the leg, putting her other hand behind her to lean on it. “I’m not going anywhere,” she reassured him. No, she would pick up some stuff to clean the damn floor with, but then she would be back. By the time he’d wake up again, the room would hopefully look and smell a bit better. And so would she.  

---

He wasn’t believing her, but he was accepting it nonetheless. She threw him a faint smile, just simply watching him as he finally seemed to relax. This was the man she loved. Broken, bruised, but at least he seemed to trust her again for the moment. She was well aware that he could fall back any second, perhaps even when he woke up, but in this moment he had rid her of the doubts she had before. He still wanted to be here, with her. He still cared, even when he had been forced to face hell alone.

It didn’t take long for him to fall ‘asleep’ and carefully, she moved away, placing his leg on the bed before getting off the bed herself. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she walked up to the mirror to finally see the damage. There was this smudge of blood that started right next to her right nostril, somehow making it up all the way to the side of her right eye. There was also a bit on her forehead. Apparently she had touched her face a bit too often. The dress was completely covered in blood, almost as if it was designed like that. Her legs were a complete mess, as if she had been bathing in his blood. Her arms were mostly free, but her hands were bloodier than they had ever been. What you’d expect from someone who spent their day digging into someone’s wound, basically. A sigh sounded and she looked around the room. In front of the window there was a puddle. Next to the bed there was a spot too, where he had killed the maid, probably. From there on a few drops were found, all the way to the window. Hereby solving the puzzle of what had happened with the maid. She sighed and considered changing into something else for a second, but decided against it. Now it was hoping she wouldn’t encounter anyone on her way.

She almost did it, but of course Gareth had to show up right before she had made it back to the room. An eyebrow was raised at her as he tilted his head to the left, taking in the new look of his Grand Duchess. Not only was she completely covered in blood, she was also holding two buckets of water in her hands, towels stuck between her arm and upper body. The buckets had a clear scent to them, meaning she had thrown some kind of vague cleaning stuff into them. Because that smell had to get out of the room or she’d puke. Luckily, they lived with alchemists. They had a solution for everything. From hair dyes to some kind of detergent. ‘Are you… okay?’ he asked, clearly more amused than worried. The brunette sighed. “I just had a bit of an accident,” she tried, but he clearly wasn’t having it. “Ask me again later and I might answer,” she decided to tell him, after which he laughed. ‘Let me at least help you,’ he told her.

After some discussing on how she didn’t need help, she had allowed Gareth to walk her back to the bedroom, where he had to stay outside as she put the stuff she needed inside and closed the door behind her. He promised to keep quiet, but he knew. Maybe they just needed to kill him so he couldn’t tell anyone what had happened here. Then again. Who was he going to report them to? She just didn’t want any drama. She had promised to treat the employees of the castle well and now she was killing them. That wasn’t what she had promised Sierra. From now on, she needed to do better. She was going to live up to her promises. She was going to accept Kaz’ vampirism and make sure he didn’t kill any others.

There had never been anyone to see her in the way she was in right now. Covered in blood, on her knees on the floor, using a towel to clean up the spot next to the bed. It wasn’t completely gone and she would need to cut out the carpet later to have it replaced, but at least that was explained a bit easier than the complete mess it had been before. Plus, it wasn’t… gross. So they could stay here for a bit longer. She cleaned the drops that led to the window, after which she finally reached the puddle. Sigh. The ‘dirty’ bucket started to turn into a bucket full of blood rather than water, but eventually she had managed to get most of it in, throwing the towel out the window before using another one to get the spot as clean as possible with her current equipment.

It felt like she had been scrubbing the floor for hours when she finally decided she couldn’t do any better. She had to keep herself from puking once more, something she had been doing for probably an hour or two now. Somewhat awkwardly, she took off the dress and looked at it with pure pain in her eyes, before that too went out of the window. No need to explain that to anyone. She used the clean bucket to wash her hands, before carefully taking care of the blood on her legs and face too, as well as what had gone straight through her dress, leaving marks on her upper body. When she was finally clean, she made her way to the closet. Eventually, she decided to go with a black dress. White was probably not the best decision right now. Something about there still being blood on the bed and on Kaz, which she could only clean after he had woken up.  

---

After putting on some new clothes, it had still seemed like Kaz wasn’t about to wake up. And thus, she had decided to take the two, now filled with bloody water, buckets and leave the room again. She cleaned them up and filled them with new water, one with detergent and one without. Again, she took some towels so she could help out Kaz. She also decided to take a new set of bedsheets, throwing those over her shoulder as she made her way back to the room once more.

The first groan sounded when she put the buckets on the floor, right next to the mirror. She put the new sheets on the chair that was never used, after which she turned around and looked at the vampire, a faint smile on her face. The groan was always the first sign that he was waking up. As grumpy as he always was in the morning, probably, even though it wasn’t even morning. She walked up to his closet and got some clean clothes, which was a lot easier than picking her own, as most of what he owned was black. She put those on the clean sheets, hearing how he moved in the bed. She didn’t respond yet, however, just working on as he took his time to awaken.

‘Whatthefuck,’ was a clear sign that he was as ready as he could be, so she turned around with a smile on her face. “Good… Evening,” she greeted him. At least it didn’t seem like he woke up from a nightmare, a she seemed rather calm. “I couldn’t deal with that awful scent,” she admitted, walking up to the bed and making sure she’d sit down on a clean spot. She didn’t want to get all bloody again, after all.

---

The first few times they had spent a night together, his morning mood had been new. Unexpected, in a way. Now? She would be more worried if he woke up in a good mood. After all, it was nothing new to spend a night together anymore. They had done it a few nights before he was turned into a vampire and after that, she had spent quite a while in his house, but in separate rooms. After they had moved to the castle, however, it had been daily. And the past few nights without him had been rough. What did you do when the only person who could soothe your worries, was the one you were worried about? Luckily, he was back now. So perhaps she could actually get some sleep these coming nights. Or, eat. As she had forgotten about that today as well. Didn’t matter. She’d try to be a functional human being again tomorrow.

Kaz didn’t speak, so she just smiled at him, before moving more onto the bed and letting herself fall on her back. For a few seconds, she allowed herself to close her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. Today had been tiring, both emotionally and physically. Especially on the lack of sleep she had, as well as the lack of any food in her system. But, she wasn’t in a position to complain. “Your clothes smell,” she told him calmly, opening one eye as she tried to look at him. Subtle hint. They were going to do something about that. Because she wanted to end today as clean as possible, so she could focus on his recovery tomorrow. Both physically and mentally, though the latter would take a lot longer.

---