I really should be saying no to this offer. It shouldn’t even be a debate, just a flat rejection on sharing a bath with this girl. Yet, the fact that I’m entertaining her suggestion must mean something, hopefully nothing bad.

“Are you sure that’s okay?” I ask, instead of outright telling her no. If I’m being honestly, the main reason that I’m against it is simply because it just seems wrong. But, it’s not like I would ever do anything inappropriate.

I fear that I might be trying too hard to rationalize myself.

“I’m just a little worried.” She admits to me, shuffling in the cold wetness of her nightgown and panties. I imagine that the longer we talk about it, the more uncomfortable she’s getting with that. “The storm, it’s getting worse.”

She’s certainly not wrong about that. I thought it was just going to be a simple thunderstorm, but even I’m getting concerned over its strength. While I’m mostly confident that this castle will hold up, there’s still that doubt in the back of my mind. I can even hear the howling of the wind, blowing around what sounds to be branches ripped from trees hitting the stone walls. How bad could something like this possibly get.

“I already have a robe here, so I can wear it when I’m done.” Salt pulls out what she’s referring to from the dresser that’s in here. Lucky her, since I had to bring my own clothes here. “Plus, you said that you were already going to take a bath, and I didn’t want to make you wait too long.” I would’ve been fine with waiting, but she’s very much pushy about not letting me leave her.

“Are you sure you want me?” I ask again. “I can go grab Pepper, she’d definit-”

“No, don’t tell her.” She grabs onto me, practically begging me. “I… Don’t want to her find out.” I guess I can understand what she means. This girl is 12, and surely much too old to be having these types of accident. I guess if it stays limited to me, then she’ll live with that bit of shame.

“Fine.” I reply. “And I’ll make sure no one else finds out about it too.” That’s a promise that definitely turns her mood around.

“Yay!” She claps her hands in response. “Oh, then I’ll add in one of these soap crystals.” Huh, so that’s what they’re called. Also, lucky for her that she doesn’t have to worry about being frugal about it. Very quickly, the bathtub fills up with suds. I can’t believe something like that works so fast, without even us doing anything to mix things up.

Just as fast as the bubbles overflowing the tub, is also how fast she undresses. Salt undoes the arms of her gown, and it drops down to her feet. Either this girl is really naive about the situation, or she doesn’t care. Because all she’s wearing now is her little panties. There’s not even a bra to cover her chest. I assume because there’s nothing that’s really grown there yet, or that she simply doesn’t wear one when she’s about to sleep.

Then she goes to take off her underwear. I guess she has some awareness that she’s not alone, because she goes out of her way to make sure she’s not facing me. So I suppose that the girl isn’t all that shameless after all, as those panties drop and she jumps into the bath.

Though, even if she wasn’t trying to show me anything. The little girl didn’t even bother cover her butts, and it wasn’t hard to see it sticking out at me when she leaped in. It’s what one would describe as cute and shapely.

“You should come in too.” She splashes the water, asking me to join. I can only sigh in response. Well, as bad as it might look, I’ll come in too. So, I take off my clothes, asking her not to look at me undressing. Thankfully, she complies and I enter the bathtub with her. Though I make sure to be on the other side facing her, in order to give us as much space as possible.

I have to say, ignoring the awkward situation I’m in. This bath feels very nice. I don’t take baths, but think this is so much better than the ones back on Earth. Of course, I’m no expert on the subject.

So quickly, I try and get myself washed up. Even though baths are more for sitting back and relaxing. I’m not really in the mood considering the girl that’s sitting in front of me. Salt on the other hand, seems more content with splashing the water around for fun. This is creating a fair amount liquids to fall out of the tub.

I’m surprised she’s not feeling more bashful about this. She’s young, but I thought she’d be at the age where things like this become a bit more shameful to do. It’s like she has few worries in the world.

“Ne~ya.” She let’s out some type of sound that I can barely describe. Like it’s something that a cute girl would make if I was watching an anime. However I can certainly explain what she does next as she makes it. That would be that the girl slide right up to me and turns around. “You should wash my back.” She tell me, handing over a loofah.

It’s kind of stunning how she just closed the distance so fast. Maybe I’m just feeling a little sleepy or something, because she really caught me off-guard on her ability to move.

“Uh, sure.” I take it from her hand and get to scrubbing. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s not like anything’s going on. The more I repeat this in my head, I feel like I’m just trying to convince myself of this. What’s wrong with me, I need to stop overthinking things.

Maybe it’s because I entered a relationship with Saffron. I can’t beat around the bush, but I think she’s insanely beautiful. It’s just that girl is also rather… small. Ugh, I hope I’m not slowly corrupting myself over here. It’s like she’s changing the type of girls I’m into, and that’s not what I’d call a positive thing.

“That’s should be everything.” I do what she asks of me as quick as I possibly can. I was hoping that she’d go back to her side once I finished, hence my motivation to work fast. Too bad that’s not at all what happens.

“Thank you.” She simply replies to me, then lays her head onto my chest. Eh, what’s she doing? I can’t believe how close we are right now, and well… I feel really ashamed with what’s going with me down there. You know what, just call the FBI and take me away already.

Wait a second, they don’t exist here.

“Mmhmm, isn’t this so relaxing?” She asks me, digging more onto my chest like it’s a pillow. I swear, the only thing she knows to do in her life is make mine worse. Of course I don’t feel relaxed right now. I just hope she doesn’t notice the proof of that.

“S-sure.” That’s the answer I have for her. Even if it’s a complete lie. “If you’re about done, then maybe we could get out of the tub?”

“I wanted to sit back for a little longer.” She tells me. “But if you want to leave, then you have to do one thing first.” Oh no… I don’t like that mischievous smile on her face.

“And that would be?”

“Just close your eyes.” That’s what she wants me to do? I’m pretty confident that this is just another one of her tricks, but she’s been through enough for today. I’ll give it to her just this once. “If you don’t, then you can’t get out.”

“Fine.” I do as she asks, and close my eyes. Now all there is to do is brace myself for… Huh, I feel something push up against my lips. No, it’s clear that this is a peck of her lips on mine, as the feeling quickly leaves as soon as it came. In response, I open my eyes to be greeted with a Salt that’s gently covering her mouth. “Did you just kiss me?”

“Heh, silly.” She giggles. “Of course that wasn’t me. What are you talking about?” Obviously she’s lying, I can tell from that blushing face of hers. Actually, I’m surprised she’d pull a dumb joke like that. Unless…

“What’s going on here?!” Before I can finish my thought, we get interrupted. Too bad for me, that this is absolutely the worst person to walk into this scene…

Hmm… How do I explain this? Let’s just say that I’ve got myself into a duel set at noon tomorrow.