Vivienne stumbled into the bathroom on shaking legs, lugging Jordyn’s practically limp form around her shoulders. Her armour was not making this easy. She would admit that having to do this for her right after dealing with a monster attack – all that death and horror, all those innocent lives lost despite Vivienne’s best efforts – was grating, but… it was what she signed up for. She wanted to be a nurse. Bathing a patient after being on her feet the whole day was probably par for the course. And… at least it was a bit of a come-down. No one would bother her here. It was just her, Jordyn, and the warm water. No more death. Only healing.

  In truth, she tried not to think about it most of the time, but it was hard right after an attack. If she constantly focused on all the suffering she witnessed on a regular basis, she’d probably be a basket-case by now. It was only due to the years of therapy she had after watching Rosie die that she knew how to deal with all that anxiety and fear. Just pack it away until her next appointment, and get it all out on the shrink’s couch. Don’t let it show in front of the others. They all had enough to deal with without Vivienne’s problems piled on top.

  “Jordyn?” She shook her a little.

  “Ngh?” Jordyn lifted her head, seemingly waking back up. It was incredible that she could just fall asleep on her feet like that.

  “Do you reckon you can take your armour off?”

  Jordyn nodded, and Vivienne carefully let her stand on her own before moving to heat the water up. She could hear the sound of armour clanking to the floor behind her, and resolved herself not to look back until it was totally necessary. This was gonna be awkward enough without any accidental peeking.

  “‘M done,” Jordyn mumbled.

  “Got your shadows up?” Vivienne asked.

  “Mhm.”

  Vivienne turned, and sure enough, there was a cloud of shadows covering Jordyn’s face. The rest of her, however, was totally exposed. Vivienne swallowed, her cheeks heating up at the sight of Jordyn’s chiselled body. Gotta be professional about this.

  She approached, placing a hand on the small of Jordyn’s back, trying to ignore the raised scars under her fingers. Jordyn immediately leaned into her, obediently following along as Vivienne led her to the bathtub. It wasn’t difficult to get her to lie down, but once she was under the spray of the warm water from the showerhead, she turned all floppy again. For a moment, Vivienne was worried she’d passed out again, but her shadows remained in place, meaning she had to be at least somewhat conscious.

  “Talk to me, Jordyn. How are you doing?” she asked, wiping monster blood from her skin with a flannel.

  Her head lolled to the side. “Chest… sore…”

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  Vivienne made sure to be gentle as she scrubbed the area with soap, trying not to look too hard at Jordyn’s body in the process. Fuck, but she was gorgeous, though. All that firm muscle, and the way that she threw herself into danger today despite how scared she obviously was. Vivienne couldn’t lie, it was attractive.

  She immediately shut the thought down. Now wasn’t the time for that sort of thing, and it was the last thing either of them needed. If either of them needed to work off some pent up frustration, Brianna was there for that, and frankly, Vivienne wasn’t sure she could keep it entirely platonic if she let herself give into that with Jordyn. The dynamic was just… too dangerous right now.

  Jordyn whimpered slightly as Vivienne moved down to clean her lower body, and she immediately flinched back, heart thrumming.

  “S-sorry. You can do that yourself, if you want.”

  Jordyn shook her head. “Nnno. You can…”

  “Okay…”

  To be fair, Jordyn was barely keeping her head up; Vivienne doubted she’d be able to clean herself effectively. And honestly, why was Vivienne so worked up about this?? Again; NURSE IN TRAINING!! This should be routine! It wasn’t any different just because it was with a friend, one who’d saved not only her life, but the lives of innocents today. It wasn’t any different just because that friend had a body you could grate cheese on.

  FUCK. Vivienne resisted the urge to smack herself. She needed to STOP THINKING LIKE THAT. Jordyn was just a friend in need, and nothing more. She went through the motions of wiping her down, getting soap wherever was needed and then rinsing her off with the shower, doing her best to shut her brain off in the process. It was probably just because she was tired.

  If she really wanted to think about Jordyn that bad, there were more important matters to worry about. Such as…

  “Hey, Jordyn?”

  “Mm?”

  “Do you… have some sort of extra power you haven’t told anyone about?”

  Jordyn’s head lethargically rocked back and forth. “Mrffm…” A small tendril of shadow solidified from under her body and slid up the side of the tub, gently curling around Vivienne’s arm like an embrace. It was unexpectedly warm.

  She must have just heard the word ‘power’ and reacted. Clearly, Vivienne wasn’t going to get a straight answer right now.

  Jordyn was about as clean as she was going to get, so Vivienne shut the water off and helped her up, trying so so desperately to ignore the feeling of her wet, warm body as Jordyn leaned on her for support. It was… difficult.

  Vivienne sat her down on a stool and got to drying her off, briefly styling her wet hair into a mohawk purely for shits and giggles, because she needed something silly in her life today. Jordyn didn’t seem to mind, though she did appear to be waking up a bit more.

  It occurred to Vivienne that Jordyn wouldn’t have any clean underwear after her accident, so she quickly teleported out and grabbed a pair of panties for her. When she handed them over, it almost seemed like Jordyn lit up behind her shadows. Interesting…

  Now that she was a little more aware, Vivienne gave her space to put her clothes back on, though was a little surprised to see her re-equipping her ruined armour. It probably just felt more secure for her or something, or maybe it was about not having to focus on her shadows. Which reminded Vivienne, there was something she’d been working on lately. Maybe now was a good time to present it to her.

  But first, Jordyn needed a nap, and the rescue efforts of the destroyed buildings around the monster were still ongoing.

  Vivienne’s day wasn’t over just yet. She sighed, taking Jordyn to the bedroom. No time to rest for her, no sir.

  But, that was par for the course, wasn’t it?