While Mizu notices Vergil's reaction, she doesn't think much of it. He's no prim princess when it comes to cleansliness, not after his description of the demon realm and what he did to survive there. He keeps himself clean in Folkmore, cleaner than Mizu can do the same back in Japan. She too is cleaner here, with the privacy afforded by the bath and life not spent on the road. It's a luxurious life, for all the work she does. It's even easier now she doesn't spend weeks healing after each of their bouts.
Her chopsticks move to shovel the rest of her food in her mouth. Vergil's been barely eating at his plate for some time now. He's waited on her eating long enough—
Mizu blinks, her hand pausing as she processes the request. She barely kisses him back the first time, better reacting the second. She laughs a little. "It'd take far more to give me a stomach ache. Perhaps a sword to the gut."
It started when she was young, on the street. Food was there when it was there, and people would chase her off if they saw her. So it was scooped up with her hands, gone in seconds. Food was reliable with Master Eiji, a blessing she never took for granted, but it also wasn't good. It gave them energy to make swords. It didn't need to do anything else, like taste appetizing. Traveling, it was still best whenever in a town to eat her food quickly and be on her way. She attracted negative attention often enough she wouldn't always get to finish the meals she paid for if she took her time. It's hard to slow down, but Mizu takes smaller bites and chews. It tastes far better than anything she's made.
Still, it's only food, and Mizu doesn't need that long to eat it. That may say something, given it's her third serving, three times as much as she generally eats as a meal these days, but she's warm and full with it. She gives a pleasant sigh at the feeling and stands to clear her plate. She sets it on the counter and slides it across, leaning herself but giving Vergil all the room he may need in the kitchen. He doesn't have to clean up after her. She's fine cleaning in her own place, especially since he cooked. Yet she doesn't insist. She appreciates having one less chore to do.
"Your smell's changed a little since Dante and Nero showed up," Mizu comments. "Subtly, but it's there. You smell like family."
Once the leftovers are tucked away in the fridge, Vergil sets to cleaning the dishes. There isn't much already in the sink still in need of washing given that Vergil cleaned as he cooked. He's more or less ready for her dishes once she finishes and brings them over. Vergil doesn't mind that Mizu makes no offer to at least clean her own dishes because even over a year later, it still feels a bit odd to be doing things like dishes and laundry and preparing meals. They're domestic things that haven't been featured all that often in his life. But he would be lying if he said he didn't derive a little pleasure in doing them here in Folkmore, especially when they are things he can do for the ones he loves.
"Pizza grease and motor oil? You should have said something sooner," he says dryly enough that to anyone else's ear, it would probably sound like he was taking the opportunity to insult his brother and son or otherwise be dismissive of what she said. But Mizu knows the importance of Vergil's family to him and she's learned the subtle tells by his tone to know it's not a genuine refutation.
Vergil knows that he's changed since Dante and Nero arrived. He's still quiet and reserved, preferring the company of his books to others. He also has not abandoned his pride or skill as a warrior, nor has his temper dissipated. But there's also something...a little softer within him these days, and Vergil finds himself being braver in ways that he never could be when he was younger. Frankly... Well, there's really no other way of putting it than he's more human than he's been in a very long time. It's terrifying at times, and he does not always handle it with the greatest amount of grace or the least amount of doubt and insecurity, but it's sincere and just because it's difficult doesn't mean he's any less dedicated to it.
But he also knows it's not just because of his kin alone that these changes have come about. They are a large, primary factor, but that does not make Mizu's contributions any less important. She knows of his mistakes and the blood and consequences that came because of his decisions. Mizu does not and cannot offer absolution for his wrongdoings, but neither does she hold them against him. Whatever she may think of the uglier, more broken parts of him, she accepts them. Oftentimes, she accepts them better than he does even as Vergil's found ways to make peace with parts of his past. So, it's not a case of one or the other. Mizu and his family both make him better. Or, at the very least, they both push him to strive for better.
"I could only determine the former once Nero took me for pizza. Those pockets do not smell like anything," Mizu notes lightly. Pizza, even tomato sauce, was new to Mizu. She's still only had it a few times. She went back to the place Nero took her once since he threatened her should she hurt Vergil. That pizza is good, and she's often in Epiphany. Had Nero taken her to Tides, she wouldn't have returned. It isn't that good.
The smells themselves are neither good nor bad on their own. They don't bother Mizu or put her off. What she likes, what she appreciates, are what they mean for Vergil. He has his family in Folkmore, his whole reason for coming here. He can take his time here and simply enjoy a life with them. In time, he can find a way back to it in his world. After the time they're having together here, Mizu doubts anyone could keep Vergil from his son. They couldn't before either. Not someone willing to follow a fox spirit on the chance it will lead him there. He might not be looking into that right now, spending time with his family and with Mizu. It's why she's certain she'll leave first. Mizu cannot achieve her revenge in Folkmore. Even if one or more of her fathers showed up, killing them would do little good. They'd return like weeds, not removed at the root. So she will need to leave, while Vergil has what he wants here and now. And Mizu—
Mizu wants more and more, the longer she stays. It's dangerous, that longing.
"We can wash up, but we'll both smell the same in a day or two," Mizu says. That hardly negates the joy of washing or the luxury of hot water filling the bath like a natural hot spring. She appreciates cold soaks too, even enjoys them more sometimes. The ocean is a place of calm within her. "Only with more relaxed muscles."
Vergil had been surprised to learn that Nero opted to take Mizu out for pizza. Not to say that there had been any continued tensions between the two of them that would lead Vergil to believe they were best not left alone. On the contrary. Despite the fact Mizu did not heed Vergil's warning before sparring with Nero, the pair seemed to be doing well enough with each other. Not enough to say there was a friendship necessarily as Nero was quite clear there were aspects of Mizu he found to be...off-putting, if Vergil were to be generous, but certainly enough to consider them not on poor terms.
So, he wouldn't have exactly thought anything unusual if Nero had simply kept her company or let Mizu be entirely until Vergil's return. Despite how rough Nero's language may be, he is still exceedingly polite when he wishes to be, and it seems to be within his practice to remain so unless someone provides him with reason to be otherwise. Especially seeing as how by then, Nero knew the truth of their relationship. That they are...dating. (It still seems a strange thing to say for Vergil, but that's more a by-product of avoiding a label for so long than any reflection of their relationship.) Nero seemed quite nonplussed by the information, but generally supportive nonetheless. So, the polite nature of their relationship continuing seemed more likely than more intentional time spent together. Thus, Vergil's surprise that Nero suggested they go out for pizza. However, despite curiosity about the outing, Vergil chose not to pry for details from Mizu or Nero. Neither said much about it beyond Nero did giving Vergil a bit of playful grief along the lines of "you snooze, you lose," and so Vergil simply trusted it went well. There's certainly been nothing amiss since between the two of them that would suggest otherwise even if there has been no repeat since to his knowledge. Regardless, Vergil has chosen that unless either one of them explicitly requests his intervention, he shall let it be between them.
"Perhaps," he says, setting aside the last of the dishes to dry before rinsing down any remaining suds in the sink. "But I think more importantly when the scents of the bath fade, it's my scent that's on you first."
Whether that's because Vergil is with her and close to her or she's helped herself to his clothing, he's confident that his scent is the first. Perhaps that's why Kai does not mind him nearly as much, he thinks faintly. She's come to associate his scent with Mizu enough that she contemplates kicking him rather than immediately deciding it as the only choice. It's as good a theory as any, but it's not really the point. Sink and hands clean, he steps over to where Mizu is leaning against the counter and places his hands on either side of her, resting his forehead against hers in a gentle nuzzle. Vergil likes the little marks he leaves upon her regardless of whether they are marks of his passion and desire or his scent alone. Mizu is his and allows for those to remain on her skin because she chooses to give herself to him. It remains a pleasing thrill to him even beyond their more intimate acts with one another because he's proven himself to be worthy of it, safe enough for that sort of vulnerability from one just as guarded as he also tends to be.
So rarely in Mizu's life has she smelled like someone else. No doubt she and Master Eiji smelled similarly while living together. The same could probably be said for her and Mikio. Yet not even with her husband was there as much cuddling, as much mingling of their scents. She started wearing Vergil's clothes because she missed the smell of him, the sense of him being there with her. It's different but similar to reminding herself with the bruises she doesn't erase, those that comes from their time being intimate instead of sparring. She enjoys them, and she enjoys Vergil's reaction to them, so that what started as a whim becomes a conscious choice. Each one is kept, and she keeps his scent on her as long as she can, mildly bothered when his scent is gone from his clothes. He has to wear them again, so they smell right. It's a comfort and, yes, exciting to be wanted that much.
Mizu rests her head against his and her hands on Vergil's waist. Her instinct is to draw these moments out, but the truth of the matter is that they will come. More will come. Mizu can trust they will come. So she doesn't slide her arms around behind him to hold Vergil close.
"We are due for a bath then," Mizu teases, "I can't smell you on me over Kai, and Kai doesn't appreciate me smelling like her the way you do." Oh she smells a little of Vergil, from spending time tonight, but she makes the unnecessary excuse, the teasing. She kisses him, without a push for more and no hurry to move along. She rubs his sides, comfortable and full and perhaps a bit stinky but unbothered by it.
When Mizu tilts her lips close to his for the kiss, Vergil returns it. It's sweet and chaste, and the only point of contact he seeks out for now with his hands still on either side of her on the counter even as she feels at his sides over his clothes. Just as she does not push for more, neither does he. It's only ever in private that Vergil is this free with his affection, but he does not feel the particular need to be overbearing about it. These little gestures are just as important and enough on their own as compared to the bigger ones.
"Well then, if she lacks that much sense, it sounds as though she may be more foolish than the one who looks after her," he says with a teasing smile against her lips before kissing her again. Vergil moves one of his hands from the counter to along Mizu's forearm, tracing down along to her wrist and hand. "Her loss. My gain."
Intertwining their fingers together, Vergil presses a kiss to Mizu's hairline before stepping back. His other hand follows a similar path along Mizu's other arm, but does not end in holding her hand so much as gently disentangling them from one another. By the hand he's holding, Vergil leads her the few paces to her stairs, guiding her to walk ahead of him once they reach the base of them. He's long-since been allowed into the upstairs of Mizu's cabin without needing some form of explicit permission from her. There's nothing really remarkable up there as far as the bedroom or bathroom are concerned, and nothing about Mizu in those spaces would somehow shock or scandalize him either. Simply put, the upstairs to her cabin hardly feels even remotely forbidden to him as it had in the beginning of their time together. But despite there now being this implicit standing invitation to share in the space, Vergil respects the whole of it as hers still. Thus, every now and again, he does little things like this because he knows most are not privy to any of it let alone as much as Vergil tends to be.
Mizu laughs, yet she cannot imagine Kai being possessive. Not with her free spirit. They choose each other, but they remain proud independent creatures. Kai no more owns her than Mizu owns Kai. It's an independence not at odds with Vergil's possessiveness and Mizu's feelings toward it. Only a different relationship between two individuals. Mizu squeezes his hand and leads the way up the stairs, appreciative as ever for the luxuriously generous housing she's found for herself in Wintermute. As few visitors as she gets, Mizu appreciates the additional privacy of her bedroom taking longer to reach, out of sight of the front door. A space to be herself without worry and only with someone she's invited to it.
The stairs turn halfway up, another measure of privacy, and Mizu walks up without a hurry. Once in her room, she squeezes Vergil's hand before releasing it and takes the time to start the water. It is a large space to fill, hot and steaming, before returning to her room to remove her clothes. She wears the same outfit she always wears, when she wears her own clothes, and removing it piece by piece. After a moment's thought, Mizu sets them aside for the wash, rather than hanging them back in her closet. The greatest relief comes when she unbinds her chest, a small sigh. It's easier to breath, and Mizu stretches, enjoying the freedom of movement.
"We have a little time til it's ready," Mizu comments. Amazed as ever at baths that come without lugging water back and forth. It takes no more effort than turning the tap and a little waiting. She pulls her hair down, and it falls far down her back. "You know, unless I'm going out, I usually put your clothes on first after a bath."
While Mizu steps away to begin filling the tub, Vergil begins to strip his layers. When she returns and begins to remove her own clothes, he watches her. Vergil's gaze is one of admiration and appreciation rather than one of desire in this moment. It's not a rare sight for Vergil to see, but he's still captivated all the same because it's like this that Mizu has shed everything that is not her. The expectations of others that she must always answer to bears no further weight on her. She simply is, and breathes easier for it in not just the literal sense of the phrase. Her skin is not without blemishes—there are scars from old wounds and marks still fading from the last time they made love—and she seems a contradiction with such soft curves alongside hard lines of muscle, but she is nothing short of exceptional and perfect in Vergil's eyes. He makes no secret of that thought either as he looks at her.
"You're still welcome to them," he says, pressing a kiss to her shoulder, right over one of his faded marks. It used to be just one set of clothes Vergil left behind, but he's left more with Mizu since learning of her little habit in his absence to allow her to indulge in it as much as she likes. Or, in this case, allow her to indulge without leaving him without anything to wear. Vergil runs a hand through her hair, pulling some strands forward as he does, idly noting just how long it's grown. His other hand rests at her hip, thumb lightly stroking at warm skin. Vergil wants for nothing right now, his contentment plain in his expression.
Sometimes, less frequently now, Mizu expects to find a different body when Vergil looks at her like that. He looks at her the way no one else has—beautiful, wanted, loved. Her body is soft and slight for a man's, long and barely curved for a woman's. Her eyes— he likes her eyes best, has complimented them from the earliest days. What most marks her, in her world, as hideous, and he finds them attractive. Strange but welcome. While Mizu cannot understand why, she accepts Vergil finds her that way. It's present so much of the time, with and without passion, so that it saturates the space. Her bedroom is the main place she's naked. His bedroom door isn't enough privacy to strip, not with his family living with him.
Her head leans to one side as he kisses her. The skin's barely bruised any longer, and Mizu'd welcome him darkening it again if Vergil were so inclined. She traces a couple places on his skin, all perfectly clear, where she left the briefest of marks herself. Mizu has to pull back and observe them then and there if she wants to see them at all. They're gone so quickly. It is fine, part of reality. She has his clothes, if not her marks on his skin. "Then when you leave, you can wear the clothes that no longer smell like you. I've worn them out."
Mizu stays close and leans against him. "Or I can get your smell from you directly. As well."
As Mizu leans against him, Vergil's hand at her hip moves to the small of her back. It's enough to keep her close—welcoming and inviting the weight she presses onto him—but not enough to restrict her movement or prevent either of them from moving for the bath once it's ready.
"I would think either would be satisfactory for the intended purpose," he says, continuing to idly play with the loose strands of her hair. Vergil understands why she wears her hair the way she does, but he cannot help wondering what she would look like with other styles applied to it. He's certain she would look just as handsome and beautiful, but it would be a curious sight to see after so long of the same way of wearing it day in and day out. It's something that will remain in his imagination, however. Assuming she were at least amenable to wearing something different in the privacy of her room, the sum total of hairstyles known between them that would differ is likely exactly zero.
But it is no matter. He's already spoiled each time her hair is released and left for him to pet and play with. Vergil doesn't know if she likes or particularly prefers the sensation of it, but she has yet to complain when he runs his fingers through it. At the very least, she's understanding that he enjoys the act as a means of affection to her, and indulgence in something few people can likely claim to have experienced for themselves.
"Of course," he continues, "I believe one affords a bit more enjoyment for you than the other. And you could not be faulted for indulgences with as hard as you've been working lately."
So far as being reminded of Vergil when he's gone, yes, his clothes or the man himself will do. Yet the same way that Vergil always finds ways to touch Mizu when they're in private, whether they sit shoulder to shoulder, hold hands, trace each other's skin, or even like now feel how long her hair is, Mizu wants those connections. She runs her fingers along his spine, feeling the point at which his tail, his second spine, comes out when he so chooses. She welcomes him in whatever form he wishes, though admittedly a full transformation is more difficult to cuddle safely. That's no matter. She'd no more disentangle herself from him with an exoskeleton than the softer overlay of muscles over bone.
Enjoyment, as Vergil puts it. Indulgences. Oh, Mizu indulges herself with Vergil all the time, all the time they do anything besides spar. That initial reason for meeting that extended to Vergil taking care of her afterward to ensure she didn't collapse until that stretched out. Now, they spend more time not sparring than sparring, despite her ability to heal her wounds to be ready to go the next day. "You enjoy it as much as I do, as much more than me merely wearing your clothes," Mizu tells Vergil, "While I'm here, I'll indulge as much as I like."
Not that Mizu's entirely sure what that amount would be, were there not the matter of Vergil spending time with Dante and Nero. Their time together at Amrita was forced upon them by limited resources, yet with some time apart during the day, Mizu didn't feel suffocated. She misses Vergil the nights they sleep apart, and it's one reason she spends the night sometimes at his place. All they do is read and cuddle and nothing that would keep his brother and son away, save for their imaginations. Mizu appreciates having her space, that this cabin is hers that she welcomes him into, yet how much more would she welcome him in? They've found a balance that works, and Mizu appreciates it for what it is. After all, she has plenty of work to do when he's not here and falls asleep without trouble.
"How long do you smell me on you when we part?" Mizu asks. It might last longer, with a better sense of smell, but she doesn't know him to have the same habits she's picked up. Not that she's needed to leave a spare set of clothes at his home. She could.
"It is not usually a prominent scent when we see one other again, but I'm never away from you long enough to lose it completely," he says, confirming her speculation about his stronger sense of smell playing a factor given his only means of her scent is Mizu herself.
Although in Vergil's case, Mizu is right. It's not the scents of work that tend to linger in place of her scent when it begins to fade, but the the scents of his family. Because it's rare these days that Vergil is able to read without someone coming to rest upon him, and that includes his brother and son when they want his attention. And while it's more of a friendly competition than it used to be between brothers and a matter of training for his son, he still occasionally spars with each of them around various places in Folkmore. Vergil also stays in the garage for a little while to listen to Nero excitedly explain his latest project to him, and concedes to Dante's whims for dinner on occasion.
But he still has traces of Mizu. Faint and fading, and likely imperceptible to her human senses, but still there nonetheless.
It should not make her smile the way it does, the fact Vergil comes around frequently enough that he can always smell himself on her. That he's always a part of her life, present in one way or another, and reliable enough that he's simply part of what makes Mizu smell like Mizu to anyone else she meets. Others may not identify it as Vergil, and they may not be able to smell it all the time unless they too have excellent senses of smell, but it's still there.
Mizu smells like her life here: fresh steel, tea, old books, snow, a particular horse, and Vergil. The rest can come and go, depending on what happens, but those underlay the rest. Folkmore isn't a place that can last, but while she's here, so long as she's here, she's built a life. It still serves her revenge, her quest that she investigates in her time here. It simply does more? It's not the life of comfort and power that Heiji Shindo tried to bribe her with. It's not the life of a quiet life setting the rest aside that Mizu tried to build with Mikio and her mother. Yet it's a life, more of a life than she's had since she set out for her revenge. Perhaps because it isn't in Japan. Perhaps because people face far stranger than a single onryo regularly in their time in Folkmore. Perhaps because it's no one's home, and no one will stay—
Mizu strokes Vergil's back and sets aside the fact she'll leave one day. It's not today. Today she can have these luxuries. A warm private bath. Companionship. "The water should be ready."
It takes effort to pull away from Vergil. She's not that dirty, but Mizu won't waste the water. She leads the way to the bathroom and turns off the tap. She steps into the hot water. Mizu lets out a small sigh and lowers into the water. She could get used to this. She's already gotten used to so much.
Vergil holds her hand as she steps into the bath. Mizu is surefooted and unlikely to slip, of course, but he holds her hand all the same. It's a point of contact between them, and the point of leverage still serves a purpose in supporting Mizu as she lowers herself into the water. Vergil smiles slightly as she sighs, even as her hand slips from him. The need for a bath may not have been nearly so great as she pretended it to be for there to be a reasonable excuse for it, but that does not mean there is not still some benefit to be gained from it.
Once Mizu is relatively settled, Vergil joins her in the water. Mizu's tub is large enough for the both of them to comfortably fit without touching one another. But by Vergil's measure, there's very little reason to take a bath together and not be touching in some capacity. But Vergil does not settle right next to her, and when Vergil reaches for her, he's not seeking to move her from where she's already settled. He disturbs her less than that, and draws her legs into his lap. Without asking or any sort of preface, he begins to warm up one of her feet for a massage. The hot water will do plenty for relaxing and loosening her muscles back up. But with as much time as she spends on her feet with everything that she does, Vergil would be hard-pressed to believe that the hot water on its own would be enough.
Vergil only breaks his quiet once he moves on from warming her foot up to begin properly massaging it, and says, "Tell me if you want more or less of anything."
Not that Mizu has ever been particularly good at masking her reactions to physical sensations that Vergil couldn't somehow intuit his way to the right direction, but Vergil still gives her the explicit permission to guide the massage towards what feels best to her. If she wants him to linger or repeat part of it, or she wants more or less pressure, he's content to oblige her. It is, after all, meant to relax her further and bring about more relief than the water can do on its own.
Cold water is more Mizu's element than hot, but the heat soothes her muscles. That soothes her mind and relaxes her. She could soak in the water until she's loose, until the small aches and pains melt away. It leaves her in better condition than she usually ever is in Japan and more relaxed than healing herself with her Lore-bought ability. She's ready to enjoy it quietly with Vergil, and Mizu expects the touch, some form of touch, because it'd be unlike either of them to keep their distance. Her legs in Vergil's lap feels natural for that, and Mizu adjusts for it.
Less expected is the attention that follows. The concept isn't new to Mizu, but she's never received it before Vergil. A quiet reminder of how different he is from Mikio. The thought doesn't cause a flicker in her emotions or relaxation. It's natural to compare the two, and as ever, Vergil comes out the better man and the more attentive partner. She sighs a little, even as he warms up her feet. They've born her weight most of the day, it being a day of little reading, and she feels where it's taken a toll. Mizu hums slightly at Vergil's direction. She accepts it but neither plans to speak nor to hold her silence. She lets it proceed.
"Oh," Mizu groans at a particularly sore spot. There's pain, but behind that pain comes relief. The release of tension that means it will feel better once it's been dealt with. "Deeper."
Each time the pressure eases, Mizu sighs a little easier. It's incredible what pain she simply takes for granted until it's gone, relieved. You don't have to, Mizu almost says, except she knows he knows that. Vergil does it anyway. Happily. She lets him, and Mizu relaxes with it more than she ever would were she to massage her own foot on her own. Then, she'd remain alert to anyone approaching her cabin, who might interrupt while she's naked and exposed. She has to, always, on her own. Vergil's senses are stronger than her own, and he will not let someone get close. That's more relaxing than the bath: to let her guard down.
"Would you get any benefit," Mizu asks, "if I were to give you a massage?"
Vergil covers the whole of Mizu's feet as he massages them, extending the massage along not just the tops of her feet, but her ankles and lower legs as well while he has access to them. The difference from when he started is noticeable beyond just the feel of muscles and tendons loosening beneath his touch. Mizu's legs increasingly come to rest heavier and heavier in his lap as he progresses, especially after attending to a particularly sore point with deeper pressure. He does not simply stop touching her though even once he's through with the massage and all the tension seems to have left her. Vergil continues with light touches as though it would keep away any notion of tension returning and allowing her to stay with that feeling of relaxation for longer.
"I think that would depend on whether or not you had any skill with it," he teases lightly. Despite his healing factor, Vergil is not actually any more immune to muscle tension than Mizu happens to be.
Her head leans back, and the water and Vergil support much of her weight. Mizu feels both heavy and light at the same time. Even her question comes from only a half-present matter of curiosity. Vergil's teasing response pulls a bit of a scowl to her face. She would not guess Vergil had much experience with massages, and he's done an excellent job. Surely, she could do... decently. Rubbing and massaging doesn't seem that hard, and Mizu would not be trying to do more than relieve any aches he might have. Part of her wants to pull her legs down, grab his, and let him experience what that might be like.
However, Mizu is comfortable and comfortable enough not to step immediately toward a foolish challenge. Oh, she's not letting the idea go, but Mizu can be a little smarter about it. "I'll pay attention next time you massage my feet when we're not in the bath," she says, "Then I can copy what you do. As we've both seen, you have skill enough with it."
She's used to studying people's hands, their feet, their movements. Mizu wants some time to practice on her own feet before immediately trying it on Vergil's, but it shouldn't be hard. It cannot be harder than learning how to use a sword. "You'll just have to trust me."
"If you are able to learn it after one more massage, then I am doing a terrible job of it," he says with a light laugh. Not that Vergil wouldn't put it past Mizu to still unintentionally undermine the purpose of the massage to learn his techniques by watching him carefully. Mizu has proven through enough of their games that she's able to still find pleasure in sensation, but remain grounded enough that she does not lose sight of her intentions and goals. But that's a different matter. Those intimate games that he challenges her with only provide Vergil the excuse to worship every inch of her, and flood every last of her senses. Even if she doesn't succumb and lose, the outcome remains the same. This, however, has the intention of relaxing her as she is now. Keeping a sharp eye and awareness of his hands only serves to change the outcome, and undermine its intention.
Vergil reaches for her again, but this time draws her in closer to him. He doesn't pull her into his lap entirely, but he pulls her near enough that she can lean back against his chest. With her legs slipping from his lap, Vergil's entangles their legs together loosely just as he so often does when they lay in bed and idle away a portion of the morning together. He traces along one of her arms with his fingertips before more firmly wrapping his arms around her.
Mizu raises an eyebrow at the suggestion because she focuses firstly and primarily on the idea that she might not be able to learn how to perform a massage after only one more massage. She's absolutely certain that she could apply the same techniques of observation wherein she learned how to fight to the far more relaxed activity of massage. Her relaxed state means it only partially draws her fighting spirit, but her determination to prove herself burns like a furnace within. It takes longer, even as Vergil reaches for her and Mizu goes with him, to notice the second half of the statement. A proper massage would distract her, at least if his aim is to melt her into relaxation. Yet a single massage could be sacrificed so that Mizu could learn how to perform it. Vergil could even provide an extra massage, such that none is truly lost at all. There are easy ways around that matter.
This massage has worked, however, and Mizu doesn't argue her point further. It's set aside but not forgotten as she sighs. Mizu leans against Vergil and runs a hand over his thigh where it touches. It's the heart sutra in slow steady strokes over the same area of skin. If she were to write it properly, she'd use far more of him as a canvas, but they're in the water, relaxed, and there is no inkwell and brush.
Mizu leans her head farther back. Mizu cannot see Vergil in any great angle, but the words catch her by surprise. She spoke in quick heat, of her ability to learn, not of herself more broadly. Yet the two feel intertwined. He trusts she could learn how to give massages, and he trusts... her. "You're safe with me," Mizu says, "You're safe here."
He can sense any threat before she does, but Mizu doesn't mean merely physically safe, something Vergil rarely has need to fear here. She strives that they both feel safe in her home. They're safe to relax in the bath together. They're safe reading books in the mornings. Vergil can reveal anything here and be safe. Here, with her, in this space she's created. Sometimes she holds him in her arms, and she feels expansively large and protective. She has him, and she'll always do right by that. Has in the months since she found words for her desire and the way it matched his.
It does not register at first to Vergil that Mizu is writing upon his thigh. Between his lack of familiarity with the characters and just how gentle the touch is, it takes a few characters being formed completely before it occurs to him that there is structure behind the touch and Mizu is writing. Lacking any sense of meaning behind them, Vergil contents himself with merely trying to delineate where one character ends and the next begins. It's a bit of an interesting challenge with his lack of knowledge when it comes to stroke order, but the general patterns of what is meant to be drawn first begin to make it a little easier. Or so he thinks, in any case.
Mizu leans her head back and promises him that he is safe, and Vergil understands her meaning without the need for clarification. More and more, Vergil has learned to let his guard down. He's imperfect at it, and well-aware of that fact, but he's found himself more often than not trying with those he cares for regardless. For all that it often leaves him feeling vulnerable in ways that make his skin crawl, and he often must endure awkward pauses and silences as others process what he's elected to share, it has typically been a worthwhile risk. But that willingness to take a chance began here with Mizu, and it is precisely because Vergil has nearly always felt some degree of safety with her.
It's why he gives her question serious thought rather than merely brushing it aside as he would with most others. A question that he feels is asked more and more by those around him that care for him in return, and one that he never really possesses a clear answer for no matter how many times or in what different circumstances and ways it's asked. Still, he considers it as best he can before answering.
"Not right now," he says, leaning down and pressing a chaste kiss to the fading mark along the slope of her neck. "I have all that I could possibly want."
Yes, Mizu wants and is glad Vergil feels safe, and she'd gladly give him something that would help with that. She wants to take care of him the way she feels taken care of by him. Sometimes she feels spoiled. Vergil cooked dinner, did the dishes, and even in the bath has massaged her feet. Mizu, on the other hand, was a halfway decent conversationalist at best and doesn't feel she's done more than simply let him be present and around. Doing things for each other isn't a competition. It's something she's usually selfish about and takes and takes and takes because it's so rare because her revenge comes first because she knows little about taking care of someone. Instead of simply coming up short, if that's what she's doing, Mizu asks. As so many times, the answer is nothing. There is nothing for Mizu to do.
He has all he could possibly want. That's true of the moment, but Mizu thinks it's also true for Vergil in Folkmore. He has his family. He has Mizu. All that he could want is to keep it. His family seems likely to stay, at the very least not to leave by their choice. Mizu set aside learning more on the train, both in the trial with Vergil and in the next with Rin, his pendant around her neck as a comfortable presence. If she truly could have learned something of value, it might have cut down the time she needs to stay by months. Yet it is less the months Mizu's given Vergil than the peace of mind, when she leaves, as much as she can give it. Mizu will not die here, so she can take the time to hurt him as little as possible when the time comes. Let him imagine some life where she steals Kai back from Mikio's lord and makes swords near a small village on the coast of Japan. Mizu has no idea what will happen once she achieves her revenge, but it's pleasant to imagine. She wants that for him, even when she cannot hold onto it herself. She wants for him—
She messes up a kanji and startles herself a little. Ink once set down cannot be fixed, strokes taken are what they are. Mistakes are mistakes. Mizu sets hers aside and traces the brushstrokes again, properly this time. Her handwriting isn't much. She's forged more knives than written letters. She's written more in the last year, notes on England, than she ever has back in Japan. None of it focused on beauty like scholars might care about. Writing on Vergil, even with her fingers, comes with greater care than any of her notes. That it might look good if it were done with ink.
"Have you ever submerged yourself in the ocean?" Mizu asks, "It's a different sort of peace than the comfort of this hot soak."
Vergil need not know what the character was meant to look like to know that Mizu's made a mistake when she does. The stutter in her movement followed by the repetition, the correction are enough to give it away. It calls to mind when he's allowed Mizu to hold Mirage Edge, particularly that first time. Already by then, Mizu had memorized his movements so well, but she was tired from their prior sparring. And so, mistakes appeared. But Mizu corrected them smoothly until they became too numerous that she clearly felt it best to discontinue and avoid harming her form. So, to that end, it really is not a surprise that Mizu would take the time to correct her invisible writing against his skin. As she says, everything is ultimately for her art. Even something as simple as this, she needs to apply the same level of discipline. But he does find it curious that she made the mistake in the first place. He tilts his head slightly in silent curiosity, but ultimately chooses not to ask. If she wanted him to know or felt ready to acknowledge it, Mizu would say it. She does not tend to shy from speaking what's on her mind even unprompted.
"I haven't," he says while trying to remember when last in his own world, he was near enough to an ocean where he would have possessed the opportunity. It would not have been any sooner than before Nero was born by his estimation, when he chose to stay on Fortuna's island for longer than initially planned. After that, he either was without a will of his own or not his whole self each time he'd been near the water. Vergil brushes aside the thought, such things being inappropriate for where he is presently. He contents himself instead with idly tracing the gentle, subtle curve of Mizu's side as he remembers she once compared him to the ocean. He hadn't understood what she meant at the time considering all the ways the ocean could be perceived, some of which appear to be direct contradictions to one another. "I'm not surprised to find you enjoy it though. I've only known you to occasionally struggle with retaining your focus in Cruel Summer."
Not to say that she allows for it to leave her for long. Even without her favored element, Mizu does not lose sight of a battle, be it a friendly spar or otherwise. But there are significantly fewer options afforded to her there when it comes to seeking out that cool sensation.
Mizu's future looms before them, a nebulous shadowy figure, but she turns away from it so that it does not spoil everything, the wonderful night. If it sours part of it for her, better it only affects her than Vergil as well. Yet even for her own sake, she wants to turn away from it and build a memory she can carry with her. There's nothing spectacular in the moment, save the fact that this happy an evening is nothing spectacular.
Her fingers continue, tracing over the same small stretch of skin, so the flow from character to character is correct. It's different to write on a thigh than the curve of an arm. She knows that, yet better to practice here than to pull herself away from him. Vergil traces her skin as well, and Mizu wonders what her skin would look like with his poetry spreading across it. The lettering is hard to imagine, even though he's shared passages. Horizontal where she expects it to be vertical. The shapes unfamiliar and foreign. Yet she understands even better now why someone would want to experience it, though Mizu cannot imagine it having the same meaning with a stranger.
She remembers her fight against a demon in Cruel Summer, one Vergil watched. It's true that grounding herself was harder, something that truly could have cost her. Now she knows Vergil watched, she knows it wouldn't cost her her life (he wouldn't allow that), but as temperate as England promises to be, Mizu despises that weakness. She hasn't found a way to fully overcome it.
"I grew up outside of Kohama, a fishing village only worth noting on any map because of swordfather," Mizu shares. "Busy as I was helping swordfather, and I always went to bed exhausted, there was still time to go down to an isolated part of the shore, away from the village, strip my outer layers, and enter the waves. They pound against you as you stay above them, threatening to pull you down, but once you go underneath them, you become a part of them."
Mizu pauses because the words are hard to find. It's a feeling she's known so much of her life and never once put into words. They ebb away from her, and Mizu knows they will fall short, whatever she says. Vergil might turn to poetry, to the shape of someone else's words who has said what he feels better than he can (she's fairly sure that's part of what it is), but Mizu lacks those too. "I'm small, but I'm large. I float, but I'm grounded. It does not compare to anything else."
Her free hand makes a small motion to indicate that's only part of it. There's more she hasn't said, more she cannot say. She says what she can. With a smile, Mizu remembers again the foolish statement she told Vergil, the one he said was poetry. "Except you."
Vergil doesn't need to ask. He can already quite safely assume that to Mizu, this is a matter of trying to explain a fact rather than poetry. But that's not what he hears. She embraces the contradictions, how they serve her in equal measure by trying to express it through the arrangement of her words. If that does not qualify as poetry even at its most basic level and structure, then Vergil does not know poetry himself.
"Except me," he echoes in return. "You've said something similar once before. Although with fewer details that time."
And more importantly, he's experienced Mizu grounding herself through him much in the way she describes the waves of the ocean and the purpose they serve for her. So, even as her words may fail her, there is still some implicit understanding for what is left unsaid. Vergil isn't certain what exactly it is about him specifically that inspires that feeling in Mizu, but he's glad for it all the same. Because while only simplistic on its surface, Vergil does wish to return that sense of safety and intimacy that he feels with her. She deserves that much. He would actually argue she deserves more, but that much will still do for now at least. There's a brief pause before Vergil makes the decision to not just ponder upon it, but actually give voice to that desire.
"I know that between us, it is not of a transactional nature, but I am pleased nonetheless to know I am able to provide for you something that you seek out in return. It...has not been often in my life that I've wanted to reciprocate anything to anyone. Not anything good, in any case." He's typically avoided it, in fact. Taking what he needs and running before anything could be expected or he could find himself attached enough that he would protect the other's peace. "But I wish for you to feel as protected as I do with you."
Even if it is only to last so long as their time here does and not a moment longer as is the most realistic outcome and expectation, Vergil sees it as far better than nothing for the both of them. At least they shall both have this.
As little as her words convey her meaning now, she had even fewer before on the train. They lacked time, and Vergil gave her his pendant. Mizu's heard little about it, but she's seen how rarely and briefly Vergil parts with it. As someone of few possessions, it is cherished and held close. Yet Mizu did not want to part from him, though they would be forced apart, and he gave her the pendant. Only for a short time, yes, but he gave her part of himself. She wanted to give him something. She needed to release some of the feelings that roiled within her. Somehow those few words pleased him. She hopes that these ones express more what she meant, enough that Vergil can understand what isn't said.
The ocean will be there when she leaves and cold water when she leaves its shores, but Mizu wishes there were a way to bring some sense of Vergil with her. A pointless wish undoubtedly. She doubts they can bring any item of substance with them when they leave, that they must return as they left. It is why she plans to leave her sword to him, that it might not disappear entirely with her departure. No pendant, no glove, no bit of fabric of his will return with her. Only her memories of him, and that, Mizu suspects, will not be enough to ground her when she needs it. Not the way being with him does. Unfortunate, but nothing more could be expected.
Transactional describes most of Mizu's relations in her life. Even her most recent companions. Ringo wanted to be useful in return for Mizu teaching him. Taigen defended her so that they might have their duel. Akemi wanted Mizu to prevent her return to her father. Before that, her mother wanted to be taken care of and to have money for her drugs. Her marriage with Mikio was entirely based on the labor she would provide. Only swordfather. Now Vergil. For all she's taken, all she used Ringo and Taigen, Mizu and Vergil have long surpassed their terms as sparring partners. There is no ledger, no keeping track of how they have each helped each other. No value assigned and compared between what they do. Mizu receives so much from Vergil, and she wishes to provide for him some measure of such safety. Each moment he relaxes with her, trusts her, and lets her protect him, Mizu only wants to protect him more and to make that safety for him.
"I know because I feel the same," Mizu says. "I've long relaxed when you are here, knowing you'll sense anyone coming before I do. When I lack the cold, water, the ocean, even when I have those, I ground myself with you." Mizu pauses and grimaces a little. "I would have been hard pressed to keep my promise to you, not to search for clues to my fathers on the train, had you not come with me in the form of your pendant. No sooner did we part ways than I was in another world, one I then shared with Rin instead of you, when I was faced with the opportunity to force information from my father's business partner."
Mizu pauses and corrects herself.
"His business partner in that world, a man from Rin's history. He was in my grasp, and I could have—" she reaches up and rests her hand over Vergil's pendant or where it would lay, "I killed him and cut down that chance. You return me to myself, that I can choose and do what I decide. That may be the greatest form of protection, not to lose myself but to decide my own fate and make my way. In a fight. In my revenge. In my heart."
Mizu cannot explain why it has come to be that Vergil has near the same effect for her as the ocean and its shadows. It has saved her life more times than she can count. It matters. Perhaps more than the physical safety he provides with his mere presence.
"You are with me nearly every moment," Mizu admits, "when I forged the new steel for my blade, I made it from the brittle blade I first made, and I made it with the glove I stabbed the first time we sparred, and I made it with the jacket I destroyed with a grenade. You are in my sword."
Her cheeks and ears have flushed with color, but Mizu meets Vergil's gaze. Her fingers still against his leg, and she watches him and his reaction. It's been nearly a year, only a couple months shy, since she made her sword. He's been with her long before the first time they kissed. Mizu lacked the words or understanding then, but she knew it was the right choice at the time. It was needed. It would be impossible for Mizu not to feel protected when each swing of her sword carries it.
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Her chopsticks move to shovel the rest of her food in her mouth. Vergil's been barely eating at his plate for some time now. He's waited on her eating long enough—
Mizu blinks, her hand pausing as she processes the request. She barely kisses him back the first time, better reacting the second. She laughs a little. "It'd take far more to give me a stomach ache. Perhaps a sword to the gut."
It started when she was young, on the street. Food was there when it was there, and people would chase her off if they saw her. So it was scooped up with her hands, gone in seconds. Food was reliable with Master Eiji, a blessing she never took for granted, but it also wasn't good. It gave them energy to make swords. It didn't need to do anything else, like taste appetizing. Traveling, it was still best whenever in a town to eat her food quickly and be on her way. She attracted negative attention often enough she wouldn't always get to finish the meals she paid for if she took her time. It's hard to slow down, but Mizu takes smaller bites and chews. It tastes far better than anything she's made.
Still, it's only food, and Mizu doesn't need that long to eat it. That may say something, given it's her third serving, three times as much as she generally eats as a meal these days, but she's warm and full with it. She gives a pleasant sigh at the feeling and stands to clear her plate. She sets it on the counter and slides it across, leaning herself but giving Vergil all the room he may need in the kitchen. He doesn't have to clean up after her. She's fine cleaning in her own place, especially since he cooked. Yet she doesn't insist. She appreciates having one less chore to do.
"Your smell's changed a little since Dante and Nero showed up," Mizu comments. "Subtly, but it's there. You smell like family."
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"Pizza grease and motor oil? You should have said something sooner," he says dryly enough that to anyone else's ear, it would probably sound like he was taking the opportunity to insult his brother and son or otherwise be dismissive of what she said. But Mizu knows the importance of Vergil's family to him and she's learned the subtle tells by his tone to know it's not a genuine refutation.
Vergil knows that he's changed since Dante and Nero arrived. He's still quiet and reserved, preferring the company of his books to others. He also has not abandoned his pride or skill as a warrior, nor has his temper dissipated. But there's also something...a little softer within him these days, and Vergil finds himself being braver in ways that he never could be when he was younger. Frankly... Well, there's really no other way of putting it than he's more human than he's been in a very long time. It's terrifying at times, and he does not always handle it with the greatest amount of grace or the least amount of doubt and insecurity, but it's sincere and just because it's difficult doesn't mean he's any less dedicated to it.
But he also knows it's not just because of his kin alone that these changes have come about. They are a large, primary factor, but that does not make Mizu's contributions any less important. She knows of his mistakes and the blood and consequences that came because of his decisions. Mizu does not and cannot offer absolution for his wrongdoings, but neither does she hold them against him. Whatever she may think of the uglier, more broken parts of him, she accepts them. Oftentimes, she accepts them better than he does even as Vergil's found ways to make peace with parts of his past. So, it's not a case of one or the other. Mizu and his family both make him better. Or, at the very least, they both push him to strive for better.
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The smells themselves are neither good nor bad on their own. They don't bother Mizu or put her off. What she likes, what she appreciates, are what they mean for Vergil. He has his family in Folkmore, his whole reason for coming here. He can take his time here and simply enjoy a life with them. In time, he can find a way back to it in his world. After the time they're having together here, Mizu doubts anyone could keep Vergil from his son. They couldn't before either. Not someone willing to follow a fox spirit on the chance it will lead him there. He might not be looking into that right now, spending time with his family and with Mizu. It's why she's certain she'll leave first. Mizu cannot achieve her revenge in Folkmore. Even if one or more of her fathers showed up, killing them would do little good. They'd return like weeds, not removed at the root. So she will need to leave, while Vergil has what he wants here and now. And Mizu—
Mizu wants more and more, the longer she stays. It's dangerous, that longing.
"We can wash up, but we'll both smell the same in a day or two," Mizu says. That hardly negates the joy of washing or the luxury of hot water filling the bath like a natural hot spring. She appreciates cold soaks too, even enjoys them more sometimes. The ocean is a place of calm within her. "Only with more relaxed muscles."
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So, he wouldn't have exactly thought anything unusual if Nero had simply kept her company or let Mizu be entirely until Vergil's return. Despite how rough Nero's language may be, he is still exceedingly polite when he wishes to be, and it seems to be within his practice to remain so unless someone provides him with reason to be otherwise. Especially seeing as how by then, Nero knew the truth of their relationship. That they are...dating. (It still seems a strange thing to say for Vergil, but that's more a by-product of avoiding a label for so long than any reflection of their relationship.) Nero seemed quite nonplussed by the information, but generally supportive nonetheless. So, the polite nature of their relationship continuing seemed more likely than more intentional time spent together. Thus, Vergil's surprise that Nero suggested they go out for pizza. However, despite curiosity about the outing, Vergil chose not to pry for details from Mizu or Nero. Neither said much about it beyond Nero did giving Vergil a bit of playful grief along the lines of "you snooze, you lose," and so Vergil simply trusted it went well. There's certainly been nothing amiss since between the two of them that would suggest otherwise even if there has been no repeat since to his knowledge. Regardless, Vergil has chosen that unless either one of them explicitly requests his intervention, he shall let it be between them.
"Perhaps," he says, setting aside the last of the dishes to dry before rinsing down any remaining suds in the sink. "But I think more importantly when the scents of the bath fade, it's my scent that's on you first."
Whether that's because Vergil is with her and close to her or she's helped herself to his clothing, he's confident that his scent is the first. Perhaps that's why Kai does not mind him nearly as much, he thinks faintly. She's come to associate his scent with Mizu enough that she contemplates kicking him rather than immediately deciding it as the only choice. It's as good a theory as any, but it's not really the point. Sink and hands clean, he steps over to where Mizu is leaning against the counter and places his hands on either side of her, resting his forehead against hers in a gentle nuzzle. Vergil likes the little marks he leaves upon her regardless of whether they are marks of his passion and desire or his scent alone. Mizu is his and allows for those to remain on her skin because she chooses to give herself to him. It remains a pleasing thrill to him even beyond their more intimate acts with one another because he's proven himself to be worthy of it, safe enough for that sort of vulnerability from one just as guarded as he also tends to be.
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Mizu rests her head against his and her hands on Vergil's waist. Her instinct is to draw these moments out, but the truth of the matter is that they will come. More will come. Mizu can trust they will come. So she doesn't slide her arms around behind him to hold Vergil close.
"We are due for a bath then," Mizu teases, "I can't smell you on me over Kai, and Kai doesn't appreciate me smelling like her the way you do." Oh she smells a little of Vergil, from spending time tonight, but she makes the unnecessary excuse, the teasing. She kisses him, without a push for more and no hurry to move along. She rubs his sides, comfortable and full and perhaps a bit stinky but unbothered by it.
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"Well then, if she lacks that much sense, it sounds as though she may be more foolish than the one who looks after her," he says with a teasing smile against her lips before kissing her again. Vergil moves one of his hands from the counter to along Mizu's forearm, tracing down along to her wrist and hand. "Her loss. My gain."
Intertwining their fingers together, Vergil presses a kiss to Mizu's hairline before stepping back. His other hand follows a similar path along Mizu's other arm, but does not end in holding her hand so much as gently disentangling them from one another. By the hand he's holding, Vergil leads her the few paces to her stairs, guiding her to walk ahead of him once they reach the base of them. He's long-since been allowed into the upstairs of Mizu's cabin without needing some form of explicit permission from her. There's nothing really remarkable up there as far as the bedroom or bathroom are concerned, and nothing about Mizu in those spaces would somehow shock or scandalize him either. Simply put, the upstairs to her cabin hardly feels even remotely forbidden to him as it had in the beginning of their time together. But despite there now being this implicit standing invitation to share in the space, Vergil respects the whole of it as hers still. Thus, every now and again, he does little things like this because he knows most are not privy to any of it let alone as much as Vergil tends to be.
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The stairs turn halfway up, another measure of privacy, and Mizu walks up without a hurry. Once in her room, she squeezes Vergil's hand before releasing it and takes the time to start the water. It is a large space to fill, hot and steaming, before returning to her room to remove her clothes. She wears the same outfit she always wears, when she wears her own clothes, and removing it piece by piece. After a moment's thought, Mizu sets them aside for the wash, rather than hanging them back in her closet. The greatest relief comes when she unbinds her chest, a small sigh. It's easier to breath, and Mizu stretches, enjoying the freedom of movement.
"We have a little time til it's ready," Mizu comments. Amazed as ever at baths that come without lugging water back and forth. It takes no more effort than turning the tap and a little waiting. She pulls her hair down, and it falls far down her back. "You know, unless I'm going out, I usually put your clothes on first after a bath."
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"You're still welcome to them," he says, pressing a kiss to her shoulder, right over one of his faded marks. It used to be just one set of clothes Vergil left behind, but he's left more with Mizu since learning of her little habit in his absence to allow her to indulge in it as much as she likes. Or, in this case, allow her to indulge without leaving him without anything to wear. Vergil runs a hand through her hair, pulling some strands forward as he does, idly noting just how long it's grown. His other hand rests at her hip, thumb lightly stroking at warm skin. Vergil wants for nothing right now, his contentment plain in his expression.
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Her head leans to one side as he kisses her. The skin's barely bruised any longer, and Mizu'd welcome him darkening it again if Vergil were so inclined. She traces a couple places on his skin, all perfectly clear, where she left the briefest of marks herself. Mizu has to pull back and observe them then and there if she wants to see them at all. They're gone so quickly. It is fine, part of reality. She has his clothes, if not her marks on his skin. "Then when you leave, you can wear the clothes that no longer smell like you. I've worn them out."
Mizu stays close and leans against him. "Or I can get your smell from you directly. As well."
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"I would think either would be satisfactory for the intended purpose," he says, continuing to idly play with the loose strands of her hair. Vergil understands why she wears her hair the way she does, but he cannot help wondering what she would look like with other styles applied to it. He's certain she would look just as handsome and beautiful, but it would be a curious sight to see after so long of the same way of wearing it day in and day out. It's something that will remain in his imagination, however. Assuming she were at least amenable to wearing something different in the privacy of her room, the sum total of hairstyles known between them that would differ is likely exactly zero.
But it is no matter. He's already spoiled each time her hair is released and left for him to pet and play with. Vergil doesn't know if she likes or particularly prefers the sensation of it, but she has yet to complain when he runs his fingers through it. At the very least, she's understanding that he enjoys the act as a means of affection to her, and indulgence in something few people can likely claim to have experienced for themselves.
"Of course," he continues, "I believe one affords a bit more enjoyment for you than the other. And you could not be faulted for indulgences with as hard as you've been working lately."
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Enjoyment, as Vergil puts it. Indulgences. Oh, Mizu indulges herself with Vergil all the time, all the time they do anything besides spar. That initial reason for meeting that extended to Vergil taking care of her afterward to ensure she didn't collapse until that stretched out. Now, they spend more time not sparring than sparring, despite her ability to heal her wounds to be ready to go the next day. "You enjoy it as much as I do, as much more than me merely wearing your clothes," Mizu tells Vergil, "While I'm here, I'll indulge as much as I like."
Not that Mizu's entirely sure what that amount would be, were there not the matter of Vergil spending time with Dante and Nero. Their time together at Amrita was forced upon them by limited resources, yet with some time apart during the day, Mizu didn't feel suffocated. She misses Vergil the nights they sleep apart, and it's one reason she spends the night sometimes at his place. All they do is read and cuddle and nothing that would keep his brother and son away, save for their imaginations. Mizu appreciates having her space, that this cabin is hers that she welcomes him into, yet how much more would she welcome him in? They've found a balance that works, and Mizu appreciates it for what it is. After all, she has plenty of work to do when he's not here and falls asleep without trouble.
"How long do you smell me on you when we part?" Mizu asks. It might last longer, with a better sense of smell, but she doesn't know him to have the same habits she's picked up. Not that she's needed to leave a spare set of clothes at his home. She could.
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Although in Vergil's case, Mizu is right. It's not the scents of work that tend to linger in place of her scent when it begins to fade, but the the scents of his family. Because it's rare these days that Vergil is able to read without someone coming to rest upon him, and that includes his brother and son when they want his attention. And while it's more of a friendly competition than it used to be between brothers and a matter of training for his son, he still occasionally spars with each of them around various places in Folkmore. Vergil also stays in the garage for a little while to listen to Nero excitedly explain his latest project to him, and concedes to Dante's whims for dinner on occasion.
But he still has traces of Mizu. Faint and fading, and likely imperceptible to her human senses, but still there nonetheless.
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Mizu smells like her life here: fresh steel, tea, old books, snow, a particular horse, and Vergil. The rest can come and go, depending on what happens, but those underlay the rest. Folkmore isn't a place that can last, but while she's here, so long as she's here, she's built a life. It still serves her revenge, her quest that she investigates in her time here. It simply does more? It's not the life of comfort and power that Heiji Shindo tried to bribe her with. It's not the life of a quiet life setting the rest aside that Mizu tried to build with Mikio and her mother. Yet it's a life, more of a life than she's had since she set out for her revenge. Perhaps because it isn't in Japan. Perhaps because people face far stranger than a single onryo regularly in their time in Folkmore. Perhaps because it's no one's home, and no one will stay—
Mizu strokes Vergil's back and sets aside the fact she'll leave one day. It's not today. Today she can have these luxuries. A warm private bath. Companionship. "The water should be ready."
It takes effort to pull away from Vergil. She's not that dirty, but Mizu won't waste the water. She leads the way to the bathroom and turns off the tap. She steps into the hot water. Mizu lets out a small sigh and lowers into the water. She could get used to this. She's already gotten used to so much.
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Once Mizu is relatively settled, Vergil joins her in the water. Mizu's tub is large enough for the both of them to comfortably fit without touching one another. But by Vergil's measure, there's very little reason to take a bath together and not be touching in some capacity. But Vergil does not settle right next to her, and when Vergil reaches for her, he's not seeking to move her from where she's already settled. He disturbs her less than that, and draws her legs into his lap. Without asking or any sort of preface, he begins to warm up one of her feet for a massage. The hot water will do plenty for relaxing and loosening her muscles back up. But with as much time as she spends on her feet with everything that she does, Vergil would be hard-pressed to believe that the hot water on its own would be enough.
Vergil only breaks his quiet once he moves on from warming her foot up to begin properly massaging it, and says, "Tell me if you want more or less of anything."
Not that Mizu has ever been particularly good at masking her reactions to physical sensations that Vergil couldn't somehow intuit his way to the right direction, but Vergil still gives her the explicit permission to guide the massage towards what feels best to her. If she wants him to linger or repeat part of it, or she wants more or less pressure, he's content to oblige her. It is, after all, meant to relax her further and bring about more relief than the water can do on its own.
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Less expected is the attention that follows. The concept isn't new to Mizu, but she's never received it before Vergil. A quiet reminder of how different he is from Mikio. The thought doesn't cause a flicker in her emotions or relaxation. It's natural to compare the two, and as ever, Vergil comes out the better man and the more attentive partner. She sighs a little, even as he warms up her feet. They've born her weight most of the day, it being a day of little reading, and she feels where it's taken a toll. Mizu hums slightly at Vergil's direction. She accepts it but neither plans to speak nor to hold her silence. She lets it proceed.
"Oh," Mizu groans at a particularly sore spot. There's pain, but behind that pain comes relief. The release of tension that means it will feel better once it's been dealt with. "Deeper."
Each time the pressure eases, Mizu sighs a little easier. It's incredible what pain she simply takes for granted until it's gone, relieved. You don't have to, Mizu almost says, except she knows he knows that. Vergil does it anyway. Happily. She lets him, and Mizu relaxes with it more than she ever would were she to massage her own foot on her own. Then, she'd remain alert to anyone approaching her cabin, who might interrupt while she's naked and exposed. She has to, always, on her own. Vergil's senses are stronger than her own, and he will not let someone get close. That's more relaxing than the bath: to let her guard down.
"Would you get any benefit," Mizu asks, "if I were to give you a massage?"
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"I think that would depend on whether or not you had any skill with it," he teases lightly. Despite his healing factor, Vergil is not actually any more immune to muscle tension than Mizu happens to be.
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However, Mizu is comfortable and comfortable enough not to step immediately toward a foolish challenge. Oh, she's not letting the idea go, but Mizu can be a little smarter about it. "I'll pay attention next time you massage my feet when we're not in the bath," she says, "Then I can copy what you do. As we've both seen, you have skill enough with it."
She's used to studying people's hands, their feet, their movements. Mizu wants some time to practice on her own feet before immediately trying it on Vergil's, but it shouldn't be hard. It cannot be harder than learning how to use a sword. "You'll just have to trust me."
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Vergil reaches for her again, but this time draws her in closer to him. He doesn't pull her into his lap entirely, but he pulls her near enough that she can lean back against his chest. With her legs slipping from his lap, Vergil's entangles their legs together loosely just as he so often does when they lay in bed and idle away a portion of the morning together. He traces along one of her arms with his fingertips before more firmly wrapping his arms around her.
Quietly, he says, "I already trust you."
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This massage has worked, however, and Mizu doesn't argue her point further. It's set aside but not forgotten as she sighs. Mizu leans against Vergil and runs a hand over his thigh where it touches. It's the heart sutra in slow steady strokes over the same area of skin. If she were to write it properly, she'd use far more of him as a canvas, but they're in the water, relaxed, and there is no inkwell and brush.
Mizu leans her head farther back. Mizu cannot see Vergil in any great angle, but the words catch her by surprise. She spoke in quick heat, of her ability to learn, not of herself more broadly. Yet the two feel intertwined. He trusts she could learn how to give massages, and he trusts... her. "You're safe with me," Mizu says, "You're safe here."
He can sense any threat before she does, but Mizu doesn't mean merely physically safe, something Vergil rarely has need to fear here. She strives that they both feel safe in her home. They're safe to relax in the bath together. They're safe reading books in the mornings. Vergil can reveal anything here and be safe. Here, with her, in this space she's created. Sometimes she holds him in her arms, and she feels expansively large and protective. She has him, and she'll always do right by that. Has in the months since she found words for her desire and the way it matched his.
"Is there anything you want?"
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Mizu leans her head back and promises him that he is safe, and Vergil understands her meaning without the need for clarification. More and more, Vergil has learned to let his guard down. He's imperfect at it, and well-aware of that fact, but he's found himself more often than not trying with those he cares for regardless. For all that it often leaves him feeling vulnerable in ways that make his skin crawl, and he often must endure awkward pauses and silences as others process what he's elected to share, it has typically been a worthwhile risk. But that willingness to take a chance began here with Mizu, and it is precisely because Vergil has nearly always felt some degree of safety with her.
It's why he gives her question serious thought rather than merely brushing it aside as he would with most others. A question that he feels is asked more and more by those around him that care for him in return, and one that he never really possesses a clear answer for no matter how many times or in what different circumstances and ways it's asked. Still, he considers it as best he can before answering.
"Not right now," he says, leaning down and pressing a chaste kiss to the fading mark along the slope of her neck. "I have all that I could possibly want."
And that is the honest truth.
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He has all he could possibly want. That's true of the moment, but Mizu thinks it's also true for Vergil in Folkmore. He has his family. He has Mizu. All that he could want is to keep it. His family seems likely to stay, at the very least not to leave by their choice. Mizu set aside learning more on the train, both in the trial with Vergil and in the next with Rin, his pendant around her neck as a comfortable presence. If she truly could have learned something of value, it might have cut down the time she needs to stay by months. Yet it is less the months Mizu's given Vergil than the peace of mind, when she leaves, as much as she can give it. Mizu will not die here, so she can take the time to hurt him as little as possible when the time comes. Let him imagine some life where she steals Kai back from Mikio's lord and makes swords near a small village on the coast of Japan. Mizu has no idea what will happen once she achieves her revenge, but it's pleasant to imagine. She wants that for him, even when she cannot hold onto it herself. She wants for him—
She messes up a kanji and startles herself a little. Ink once set down cannot be fixed, strokes taken are what they are. Mistakes are mistakes. Mizu sets hers aside and traces the brushstrokes again, properly this time. Her handwriting isn't much. She's forged more knives than written letters. She's written more in the last year, notes on England, than she ever has back in Japan. None of it focused on beauty like scholars might care about. Writing on Vergil, even with her fingers, comes with greater care than any of her notes. That it might look good if it were done with ink.
"Have you ever submerged yourself in the ocean?" Mizu asks, "It's a different sort of peace than the comfort of this hot soak."
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"I haven't," he says while trying to remember when last in his own world, he was near enough to an ocean where he would have possessed the opportunity. It would not have been any sooner than before Nero was born by his estimation, when he chose to stay on Fortuna's island for longer than initially planned. After that, he either was without a will of his own or not his whole self each time he'd been near the water. Vergil brushes aside the thought, such things being inappropriate for where he is presently. He contents himself instead with idly tracing the gentle, subtle curve of Mizu's side as he remembers she once compared him to the ocean. He hadn't understood what she meant at the time considering all the ways the ocean could be perceived, some of which appear to be direct contradictions to one another. "I'm not surprised to find you enjoy it though. I've only known you to occasionally struggle with retaining your focus in Cruel Summer."
Not to say that she allows for it to leave her for long. Even without her favored element, Mizu does not lose sight of a battle, be it a friendly spar or otherwise. But there are significantly fewer options afforded to her there when it comes to seeking out that cool sensation.
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Her fingers continue, tracing over the same small stretch of skin, so the flow from character to character is correct. It's different to write on a thigh than the curve of an arm. She knows that, yet better to practice here than to pull herself away from him. Vergil traces her skin as well, and Mizu wonders what her skin would look like with his poetry spreading across it. The lettering is hard to imagine, even though he's shared passages. Horizontal where she expects it to be vertical. The shapes unfamiliar and foreign. Yet she understands even better now why someone would want to experience it, though Mizu cannot imagine it having the same meaning with a stranger.
She remembers her fight against a demon in Cruel Summer, one Vergil watched. It's true that grounding herself was harder, something that truly could have cost her. Now she knows Vergil watched, she knows it wouldn't cost her her life (he wouldn't allow that), but as temperate as England promises to be, Mizu despises that weakness. She hasn't found a way to fully overcome it.
"I grew up outside of Kohama, a fishing village only worth noting on any map because of swordfather," Mizu shares. "Busy as I was helping swordfather, and I always went to bed exhausted, there was still time to go down to an isolated part of the shore, away from the village, strip my outer layers, and enter the waves. They pound against you as you stay above them, threatening to pull you down, but once you go underneath them, you become a part of them."
Mizu pauses because the words are hard to find. It's a feeling she's known so much of her life and never once put into words. They ebb away from her, and Mizu knows they will fall short, whatever she says. Vergil might turn to poetry, to the shape of someone else's words who has said what he feels better than he can (she's fairly sure that's part of what it is), but Mizu lacks those too. "I'm small, but I'm large. I float, but I'm grounded. It does not compare to anything else."
Her free hand makes a small motion to indicate that's only part of it. There's more she hasn't said, more she cannot say. She says what she can. With a smile, Mizu remembers again the foolish statement she told Vergil, the one he said was poetry. "Except you."
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"Except me," he echoes in return. "You've said something similar once before. Although with fewer details that time."
And more importantly, he's experienced Mizu grounding herself through him much in the way she describes the waves of the ocean and the purpose they serve for her. So, even as her words may fail her, there is still some implicit understanding for what is left unsaid. Vergil isn't certain what exactly it is about him specifically that inspires that feeling in Mizu, but he's glad for it all the same. Because while only simplistic on its surface, Vergil does wish to return that sense of safety and intimacy that he feels with her. She deserves that much. He would actually argue she deserves more, but that much will still do for now at least. There's a brief pause before Vergil makes the decision to not just ponder upon it, but actually give voice to that desire.
"I know that between us, it is not of a transactional nature, but I am pleased nonetheless to know I am able to provide for you something that you seek out in return. It...has not been often in my life that I've wanted to reciprocate anything to anyone. Not anything good, in any case." He's typically avoided it, in fact. Taking what he needs and running before anything could be expected or he could find himself attached enough that he would protect the other's peace. "But I wish for you to feel as protected as I do with you."
Even if it is only to last so long as their time here does and not a moment longer as is the most realistic outcome and expectation, Vergil sees it as far better than nothing for the both of them. At least they shall both have this.
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The ocean will be there when she leaves and cold water when she leaves its shores, but Mizu wishes there were a way to bring some sense of Vergil with her. A pointless wish undoubtedly. She doubts they can bring any item of substance with them when they leave, that they must return as they left. It is why she plans to leave her sword to him, that it might not disappear entirely with her departure. No pendant, no glove, no bit of fabric of his will return with her. Only her memories of him, and that, Mizu suspects, will not be enough to ground her when she needs it. Not the way being with him does. Unfortunate, but nothing more could be expected.
Transactional describes most of Mizu's relations in her life. Even her most recent companions. Ringo wanted to be useful in return for Mizu teaching him. Taigen defended her so that they might have their duel. Akemi wanted Mizu to prevent her return to her father. Before that, her mother wanted to be taken care of and to have money for her drugs. Her marriage with Mikio was entirely based on the labor she would provide. Only swordfather. Now Vergil. For all she's taken, all she used Ringo and Taigen, Mizu and Vergil have long surpassed their terms as sparring partners. There is no ledger, no keeping track of how they have each helped each other. No value assigned and compared between what they do. Mizu receives so much from Vergil, and she wishes to provide for him some measure of such safety. Each moment he relaxes with her, trusts her, and lets her protect him, Mizu only wants to protect him more and to make that safety for him.
"I know because I feel the same," Mizu says. "I've long relaxed when you are here, knowing you'll sense anyone coming before I do. When I lack the cold, water, the ocean, even when I have those, I ground myself with you." Mizu pauses and grimaces a little. "I would have been hard pressed to keep my promise to you, not to search for clues to my fathers on the train, had you not come with me in the form of your pendant. No sooner did we part ways than I was in another world, one I then shared with Rin instead of you, when I was faced with the opportunity to force information from my father's business partner."
Mizu pauses and corrects herself.
"His business partner in that world, a man from Rin's history. He was in my grasp, and I could have—" she reaches up and rests her hand over Vergil's pendant or where it would lay, "I killed him and cut down that chance. You return me to myself, that I can choose and do what I decide. That may be the greatest form of protection, not to lose myself but to decide my own fate and make my way. In a fight. In my revenge. In my heart."
Mizu cannot explain why it has come to be that Vergil has near the same effect for her as the ocean and its shadows. It has saved her life more times than she can count. It matters. Perhaps more than the physical safety he provides with his mere presence.
"You are with me nearly every moment," Mizu admits, "when I forged the new steel for my blade, I made it from the brittle blade I first made, and I made it with the glove I stabbed the first time we sparred, and I made it with the jacket I destroyed with a grenade. You are in my sword."
Her cheeks and ears have flushed with color, but Mizu meets Vergil's gaze. Her fingers still against his leg, and she watches him and his reaction. It's been nearly a year, only a couple months shy, since she made her sword. He's been with her long before the first time they kissed. Mizu lacked the words or understanding then, but she knew it was the right choice at the time. It was needed. It would be impossible for Mizu not to feel protected when each swing of her sword carries it.
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nsfw warning
Re: nsfw warning
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