Timid & Fragile Honesty

"Yer just as bad as my lad, Violet. I dun know why yer even bother hangin' 'round him— he doesn't care 'bout yer," the older Bowen cast his eyes toward the young woman as she waited patiently by the window, whilst he lounged upon the sofa with a bottle and small glass of whiskey on the table before him. "I know well enough wha' he's into an' it sure as 'ell isn't yer— so 'ave no idea why yer still 'ere after all this time."

A look of pure disdain shifted her prior expression but she cleared it enough to turn and look back at him, mouth hanging open slightly at the audacity of his words and the fact that he, obviously, cared very little about how it would make her feel. If the tears building in her eyes were enough to go by, he would soon catch on, but having known how much the man had changed over recent years, she doubted very much that he would even bat an eyelid in response to her emotions.

"Mr. Bowen— I am sorry you feel that way. I really don't have anything else to say to you, because I've tried that many times before and still, you go on and on about how I'm wasting my time and that I should move on and find better friends. I think you're wrong, but you'll never open your ears or your eyes long enough to realise that," she retorted, a slight click of the tongue following as she turned back toward the window, hoping that Emlyn would be back soon to relieve her of her troubles.

"Dun be such a rude little girl. Yer lucky I even let yer in most days to come see him— I dun even know why 'ave been doin' tha', honestly... yer an' Emlyn both are a pain in my arse," he scoffed, reaching forward and gripping the glass between his fingers before downing the lot in one go. "If yer plannin' on gettin' married anytime soon, yer cun both sod off an' 'ave it happen somewhere else, right?"

Brows furrowed in pure annoyance at the older gentleman's words, but she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from blurting out every last little insult waiting to burst free. The man did not deserve any kindness from her after all he had put on her and her friend over the years and his attitude was absolutely horrid. But for Emlyn's sake, she never did open her mouth to spew forth any remarks that would somehow make the younger Bowen's life even more miserable.

Violet did not rise to the challenge of starting up yet another long and pointless debate with the man and thus, simply stood there with her arms folded and her gaze drawn to a few people walking by outside. Seagulls could be heard squawking something terrible as silence took over the gentle banter of moments before and just as she ended up a bit distracted by a group of toddlers scampering across the roads toward the beach, with buckets and spades tight in their dainty hands, the doorbell rang and the man grumbled.

"'Ave bleedin' told tha' lad enough to take his damn key with him whenever he goes out wanderin'," he complained, not even bothering to move an inch as he looked toward the girl with an expression that didn't even need words to follow, though he spoke up anyway. "Well? thought yer were goin' out with him again? off yer go."

"My apologies— I just figured with it being your house, you might want to be answering the door, even if you do know who it is," she snapped, twisting around and stomping out into the hall that led to the front door.

All she heard along the way were more grumbles from her friends father, to which she rolled her eyes and pulled open the door to greet a cheerful looking Emlyn, who soon scooped her right up into his arms when he saw her standing there with a grim expression. Welcoming the embrace, the girl released a soft squeak as she buried her face in his shoulder, when his arms lifted her feet up off of the floor. There wasn't really any room for swinging around in circles in the hall, but she knew that if there had been, he'd do so without second guessing himself or worrying about knocking things off of shelving.

"'ow long 'ave yer been waitin' for us, like? I 'ope my Da hasn't been givin' yer any grief while yer've been 'angin' 'bout," he questioned as he set her back down again to gauge the reaction that might be plastered on her face.

"Only about an hour, but you're worth the wait, of course. Your father doesn't like me, really, I think we all know that one now— but I brush it off as nothing, 'cause he's been a bit strange for a while, hasn't he," she reassured the blonde with a smile and brief shake of the head, letting him know that even though something had been said, there was nothing he needed to go and do about it.

Although her friend nodded in response to how true her statement was, the concern he felt for her was buried in his eyes and visible enough to comment on, but she would not say anything, letting it lie for now until a time when it was necessary to do something. Violet knew she could handle everything that her friends father tossed her way and thus far, he hadn't actually been that much of a bother, save for getting a few digs in here and then, but that was nothing to her. She would often tell Emlyn the same thing and hope he understood how un-severe the situation was, but he always felt as though he had to mend what was broken, just never for himself.

"Emlyn, really, it's all okay and you don't have to go talk to him or anything. I can handle myself just fine, unless he starts lunging at me from across the room anytime soon... but I very much doubt that," she joked, nudging his shoulder with her own before stepping back and allowing him to climb the stairs, with her following close behind. "He's not that bad, is he? I mean, he might be behind closed doors but I've never really been here for anything like that, so I wouldn't know.. but I believe nothing awful has happened, else it would have reached me by now— at least, I'd like to think you would tell me about something like that."

As they reached the top of the stairs, Emlyn turned toward the bathroom with an apologetic look, but she simply waved him off and went toward his room after tossing a free towel his way that had been hanging on the banister. They more or less headed straight back out whenever he returned from an afternoon show, but some days he needed that little bit of relaxation before toddling off to waltz up and down the pier for the rest of the day.

"I'll be like.. no more than fifteen, Vi— sorry 'bout this," he smiled in her direction as she opened his bedroom door and looked back at him, standing there outside the bathroom, with a cheeky little smile on his face. "Make yerself comfortable.. just dun go fallin' asleep on me, yea?"

Violet rolled her eyes at the light jesting from her friend and slipped into his room, only after sticking her tongue out at him and receiving a feigned look of shock from him before he entered the bathroom. The girl soon realised how neat and tidy his room actually was and though it had only been two or three weeks since she had last been to his home, she'd half expected to find the room a complete tip. Yet, here it was looking even more spotless than her own room, which she would be having a word with him about. There was nothing really to do, though, because he wasn't one of the many lads who had a game console of any kind, but he did have a shelf full of books.

Spotting one of her favourites amongst the rows of well kept literary tales, she pulled it free from its place without knocking down any of the others around it and settled right down on his bed, propping one arm beneath her head, the book hovering over her as she lay there in peaceful serenity. It was around about the twelfth page when she found her eyes beginning to close of their own will and with her head starting to spin the more words she followed along the page, her tiredness soon swept her under its wing. An obscene amount of time later— obscene being a mere forty-five minutes, she jolted awake after a pretty nasty dream, to find the book closed beside her and her friend still not in the room with her. She figured that maybe he had gotten out of the bath time ago, saw her sleeping and chose not to rouse her.

Curious, it was, though and wanting to prove herself right and not cause any kind of panic, she shuffled her legs to the edge of the bed and left the room to go find him. After knocking delicately on the bathroom door and receiving no sound, but finding the door unlocked, she shrugged her shoulders and inched it open bit by bit, just in case he had forgotten to lock it earlier and was still bathing— whilst looking like a crinkled chip, no doubt, given how long he must have been in there.

"—Emlyn!" she cried out, with perhaps a little too much concern as he had only, by the look of it, fallen asleep himself whilst still in the tub.

Thankfully, the bubbles covered all that he probably wouldn't want her to see and she rushed over, kneeling down beside the bath and shaking his elbow repeatedly until his eyes opened minutes later. From the dazed expression now on his face, she deduced he must have been incredibly tired and had worked his behind off all day without any kind of breaks inbetween performances. It was more than likely that was the case, because he would do that sometimes and worry both his friend and his mother sick when he came home and was falling about all over the place.

"Em..." she repeated, a sigh passing through her lips when he finally focused his eyes and looked directly at her, a sheepish grin following soon after. "Jesus, don't be doing things like that, it's a good job I woke up or anything could have happened."

"Yer feel asleep, too? See, 'am not the only one who carn keep their eyes open," he chuckled, rising a little so his top half was visible but everything else was covered by the massive amount of bubbles he had created with a coconut and almond scented brand of radox. "I dun think we'll be goin' anywhere today, Vi. Unless yer want like a midnight swim or somethin' a little later on."

Violet looked at him as though he had grown another two heads and that incited a rumble of laughter from him, but she simply dove her hand into the water and flicked some of it up so it got him right in the face. A gasp followed, then a devious little smirk and though she tried to get as far away from the tub as possible in order to evade whatever he was about to do, he was much too quick and caught her wrist before she could even rise off of the tiles.

"Emlyn... no," she warned, pulling her arm in the opposite direction, but he would not ease up and let her go as he continually splashed her own face with the water.

"Yer shouldn't start wha' yer carn finish, should yer?" he taunted, grabbing the nearest jug to fill with water before aiming it all over her.

A loud gasp was the only sound that could be heard as a result of what he had done. This time, he had not gotten only her face with a few drops of water, but had tossed a jug full of it in her general direction and soaked her shirt and shorts. Her face was a sight to see and she didn't quite know what to say to him at that point, though he finally let her wrist free and she stood up, a little wobbly on her legs and appearing almost as though she had been drowning in the middle of the Irish sea. It wasn't usual for her to give it all kinds of dramatics whenever something happened and though the splash of water had woken her up fully now, she was absolutely fuming. There was nothing here for her to change into and so, she would have to resort to lounging around in a towel for the rest of the day— or borrowing clothes that belonged to her friend, which would most likely be highly entetaining for him.

"You little shit— I can't believe you just did that.. what the hell am I supposed to wear now?" she berated him, though only mildly irritated by his antics as it was pretty funny. "I had my best outfit on as well, urgh."

"Tha' was yer best outfit...?" he remarked, dodging her hand as she lowered it to smack him upside the head. "Come on— it was funny."

"I'm only letting you off because you're a cutie and because I love you and I wouldn't even dream of hurting you, but still.. that was a bit excessive," she rose a brow, looking at him until he nodded his head in agreement and then hung it low, almost ashamed of his behaviour.

"C'mere a sec— I wanna tell yer somethin'," he spoke just above a whisper and rose a little higher in the tub, a tuft of hair becoming visible on his lower abdomen with every inch he rose above the waterline.

Although the girl tried her best to keep her face from flushing crimson at the sight and attempted to make it look as though she hadn't seen anything, her thoughts were always on display even when she didn't open her mouth, because generally, people could see everything behind her eyes. And her friend caught on to that look of embarrassment — tilting his head in response to it and wondering what had happened, but when a gush of air tickled his stomach, he realised his mistake and though it was an honest one and it could have been easily avoided, he was now highly amused and chose to play around a little more until she broke.

"What is it?" she broke the awkward silence, leaning down so her ear was near his mouth enough for her to hear him, though there was no one else around, which she then questioned— because why would he feel the need to whisper a secret if they were the only two in the bathroom? "And why are we whispering...?"

"I dun trust the people in the walls," was all he said, with absolutely no humour at all and a face as straight as a die. "Besides, there's nothin' wrong with wantin' to be a little secretive 'bout stuff, even if there's no one else 'round to hear it."

Violet resolved the issue before them by taking a seat on the edge of the bathtub and lowering her head down, as he rose up, his mouth hovering a few inches away from her ear and his warm breath sending involuntary shivers up her spine. This, though, she managed to keep well buried where he would not see it and as silence fell over the pair of them, she waited patiently for him to reveal what the most sacred of secrets was. The sooner, the better, because her damp clothes were really beginning to freeze her half to death, despite the warm air surrounding them and the still warm water he was bathing in.

"Got yer," he stated, leaving her for only a few seconds to ponder what on earth he was talking about, before he yanked on her arm and pulled her into the bath with him. "It's still a bit of a shock tha' yer never prepared for tha' sort of thing 'round me, Vi."

The girl was still in shock, too much to actually offer up a proper response to his cheeky little remark, but she did find it within herself to smack him repeatedly as she struggled to heave herself back up and away from the water. It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, as she was still fully clothed and he was not— that particular thought sticking with her a while longer than was the norm and her face, unbeknown to her, became so red that she could feel the burn without even touching it. Emlyn was watching her as she ceased her attempts to be free without making a holy mess of the bathroom floor and when he spotted that look again, he grinned, but it soon turned into a look of pain as her verbally announced in a high-pitched voice that she was causing him a fair bit of pain.

"Bloody 'ell— tha' was the worst mistake of my life! get up, get off, quick..." he groaned, aiding her in getting up off of his lap and out of the water, but it was only making it all the more difficult and so, he simply shoved her forward toward the tap end of the bath and visibly relaxed as soon as she was off of him.

"What was it you said to me before— you shouldn't start something you cannot finish? well, you started that and now you're bitching at me!" she flinched at the sound of her own voice that was a few bars above normal, but the other half of her brain wanted to laugh like an idiot at the obvious discomfort he had been in.

"Give me a break, like. Yer were sittin' on it an' it wasn't the best thing in the world—" he groaned again, one of his hands slipping beneath the water as he sat there.

"I'd kiss it better but you know as well as I do, that is never going to happen... and just ew, serves you right for pulling me into the damn bath with you," the look or horror that settled itself on her features amused him, but he was still in too much agony to actually laugh about it.

"I wouldn't ask yer to go 'round doin' things like tha', Vi. I just didn't expect yer to land exactly where yer did— tha' was all agony. But I will 'ave a cuddle seein' as yer already in 'ere an' such," he tossed a feeble wink her way as his hand emerged once more from the bath water.

Rolling her eyes and feeling moderately defeated by the entire situation the pair of them were now in, she shifted forward carefully, so as not to create tidal waves and end up having to mop up a load of water and bubbles from the tiles, and ended up between his legs with her head resting against his shoulder and her palms pressed flat against his chest. His own arms wound around her waist to keep her in place and as she looked up at him, just to see his face, he was looking down at her with a smile. Nothing out of the ordinary, vexed or playful was present in that one and it produced a smile just as loving on her own lips.

"We could just stay 'ere all night... but ah, we'd probably wake up like a pair of icicles," he pursed his lips at the thought of waking in a bath of cold water.

"Yea, we would— but we'd have each other, to keep warm," she reminded him, actually taking the suggestion into account and pondering whether or not they should. "But I don't reckon your mother or father would appreciate us hogging the bathroom for so long."

Emlyn chuckled at that and nodded, resting his chin atop her head as she settled down against his chest again. Their cuddles were like the first warmth of sun when spring was on its way and though the water was fast becoming cool, the heat flooding off of them both kept the two considerably warm.