"Paint the scene of my own love being so horribly beaten? A little macabre, don't you think?" Bastien teased, but he would do it. The only difference between a tragedy and a victory was if you lived through it, after all, and Rexanna was sat right before him.
He watched her carefully climb into the bath, hands hovering just over her skin to help steady and hold if needed; she seemed to know how to go slowly and carefully though, so he mostly remained a spectator. Once he was sure she was not going to fall and hurt herself even more he relaxed and sat back a little, thought of which of his stories to tell.
"The most harrowing...you could not ask for the most thrilling, the most fun? Sexy?" He laughed and shook his head. "But I do have a harrowing story. Like many of my near death tales, this one begins with me painting the portrait of a noble." In his minds eye he remembered the hall as it had been. Marble columns and plush red carpet, ornaments and wall hangings imported from the East above abundant food.
All while people outside starved and sold their teeth.
But that was not the point of his story (well, not this one, anyway). "He was an odd fellow. Went by the name of Bruno....I cannot remember the name of the house. I try not to fill my brain with Noble titles. So, I begin to paint him. As I paint, I notice he is looking at me more...intensely, than most of my sitters do." Mimicking the Noble's gaze, squinting at Rexanna and screwing up his lips, he laughed and shook his head before continuing as himself once more.
"So after a while of this, I say to him: Sir, why are you looking at me so? And if you can believe it, he said: 'I have heard your people are savages. I am wondering if that translates to the bedroom." Bastien raised his eyebrows and leaned back, indicating his offence. "Well. Had I known he was simply interested in me, I would have told him no and that would have been the end of the matter. But he had now proven himself to be a bastard. So I had to do something."
Leaving the story there for a moment he leaned over the bath and kissed Rexanna's forehead. "Is the bath alright? Is it helping?" Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb
Isn't that long a stay
Life is a cabaret, old chum
It's only a cabaret, old chum
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