Roses are Red: Chapter 6
“Okay, easy now,” Carbon said as he helped Lilo slide off of the bed. “It’s been a couple of days since you last stood on your hooves. We don’t want to rush this.”
Lilo swayed uneasily on her hooves, eventually leaning up against Carbon for support. The pegasus tensed when she touched him, but he remained in place and shifted some of his weight against her so she could stand up straight. Lilo felt light headed after leaving the bed, and she remained propped up against Carbon for a while longer until he had shifted his weight uncomfortably again.
“Okay, how about we take a few steps around the room?” Carbon asked.
Lilo nodded. After a little push from Carbon, they both began to make their way in circles next to the bed. Lilo’s head cleared more and more as they walked, and soon enough she lifted herself from Carbon’s side and walked next to him, keeping pace as he quickened his. When they were nearly galloping in circles around the room, Carbon stopped and gave Lilo a small smile. She hesitantly smiled back.
“It seems as if you are making a speedy recovery,” Carbon said, walking over towards the door to the room. “However, I do not recommend that you try to do any strenuous activities for another few days. You could possibly be still prone to frequent headaches and episodes of dizziness or nausea. You should remain here for a few more days until you have made a full recovery.”
Lilo’s ears folded back. “Oh, I, uh, I won’t be much of a problem, will I? I know you aren’t exactly comfortable with...me.”
Carbon scratched the back of his head with a hoof as he looked back at Lilo. “Don’t worry about it, Lilo. You’re welcome to explore the apartment as much as you like. You need to stretch your legs and get some exercise.” He paused, looking her up and down. “And by the discolor of your... chitin, you probably need a bath as well.”
Lilo looked back at herself, noticing that instead of her chitin colored a sleek, shining black, it was dulled with splotches of brown coating her entire body. She cringed, glancing Carbon and kicking one of her hooves out in front of her. Carbon opened the door, motioning for her to follow him.
They exited the bedroom and trotted into the living room where Lilo had first entered the apartment. There were two couches lined perpendicular to each other, with one of the couches facing the fireplace on the far wall. A coffee table sat in front of the couches, as well as a small square table standing next to the couch that faced the fireplace. A large map of Equestria hung over the fireplace while a huge bookcase filled with all sorts of books was placed next to it. The floor was covered in carpet, and upon closer inspection, Lilo couldn’t see any stain left by the blood she had supposedly coughed up.
Carbon turned down a narrow hallway, which he abruptly stopped at a door and pushed it open. Lilo looked inside, observing how there was a tub pressed up against the far wall with a rack of assorted cleaning supplies in it. There was a toilet and a sink next to each other against the right side of the bathroom while two racks full of towels had been placed on the left side. In the center of the bathroom was a dark rug.
“The bathroom is at your disposal,” Carbon said. “Just use the plug on the rack to cover the drain to fill the tub. Soap is on the rack as well and you can use whichever towels you like.” Carbon turned, heading for the front door of the apartment. “Now, I need to head back into downtown Canterlot to pick up some things.”
Lilo hastily turned, eyes wide. “Wait, you’re going to leave me here alone?”
Carbon stopped, looking back. “Well, yeah. That isn’t going to a problem, is it?”
“W-well, no,” Lilo said, looking down at her hooves. “It’s just...”
Carbon rolled his eyes. “It’s just that I’m leaving a changeling all alone in my own home?” He trotted back to Lilo. “Look, I may be a little uncomfortable around you at the moment, but during these past few days I haven’t had any reason to suspect that you would do anything brash.” He touched his hoof to hers. “I have no reason to distrust you, Lilo.”
Lilo blushed and nodded her head. Carbon trotted back to the front door, glancing behind himself one last time to say, “I should be back in an hour or so.”
“Bye, Carbon,” Lilo said.
Carbon paused with his hoof on the door. “Bye... Lilo.”
The door clicked behind him, and Lilo turned back to look into the bathroom. Her wings buzzed behind her as she walked into the bathroom, immediately making her way over to the tub. She grabbed the plug in her teeth and used it to block the drain that was under the nozzle of the tub, then turned her gaze to the knobs that were on either side of the nozzle. She turned one of the knobs, causing a jet of water to spray out of the nozzle and into the tub. Lilo jumped back, frightened by the sudden plume of water crashing against the bottom of the tub.
“Oh, that’s how these work,” Lilo said to herself, cautiously stepping towards the tub. She watched the water impact the tub and begin to fill the bottom most portion. Steam slowly rose out of the rub, blurring Lilo’s vision just slightly and coating the chitin on her face with tiny droplets of water. She pulled her head back and placed a hoof into the water.
“That’s perfect,” Lilo said, smiling.
She lowered herself into the tub and waited as the rest was filled slowly from the nozzle. Once the water was almost overflowing, Lilo reached out with her hoof and turned the knob back, shutting off the water. Steam had filled the room, fogging up the mirror that hung over the sink. She sighed heavily.
After a few minutes of letting herself soak in the tub, Lilo reached up and grabbed the soap from the rack, using it to coat her entire body once she had lifted herself from the water enough. Once her body was covered in soap, she lifted each one of her legs one by one out of the water to clean them, too, thoroughly scrubbing each one of the holes in her hooves. Once the last of her hooves had been cleaned, Lilo lowered herself back into the tub to soak again to clear away the soap and dirt from her body.
Another few minutes pass before Lilo raises herself from the tub again, stepping out onto the rug and grabbing a towel from the racks. She dried herself off completely, and then used that same towel on its relatively dry side to wipe the condensation from the mirror. Looking herself over, Lilo smiled to see that her chitin was once again black and glistening. She was about to levitate the towel back onto the rack to dry when a couple of brown splotches caught her eye. Dirt and grime covered the towel, and upon turning back to the tub, she saw that the water had turned to a sickly gray. She cringed, reaching into the tub with a hoof and pushing the plug sideways to release the water.
“I should clean this for Carbon,” Lilo said, looking down at the towel she had deposited on the floor.
The drain let out a small gurgle as the last of the water drained from the tub. Lilo placed the plug back on the rag, and then collected the towel up and left the bathroom. She made to turn for the kitchen, but before she took another step she stopped and turned back towards Carbon’s room. She slowly made her way back into the room, and upon looking at the dirty, disheveled bed sheets, she blushed.
“I should probably clean those for Carbon, too,” she said.
Gathering up all of the bed sheets, Lilo trotted back to the kitchen and she stopped again at the short hallway that led to the bathroom. She turned down the hall and looked at the door across from the bathroom door. She pushed it open, revealing two large machines sitting next to each other. One machine had a lid on top of it while another had a lid on the side.
“So these must be those new machines that ponies recently invented that cleans fabrics,” Lilo mused, setting the sheets down on top of the machine with a lid on the side.
She opened the lid of the other machine, peering inside. There was a strange spike rising from the bottom of the machine with flaps that twisted around it. Lilo shrugged, pushing all of the sheets and towel from the top of one machine into and around the spike of the other. She evenly wrapped the sheets around the spike and looked up at the shelves above the two machines.
“Hm, this must be the soap for washing fabrics,” Lilo said, reaching up and grabbing one of the bottles on the shelf. She unscrewed the cap and sniffed. “That is soap, alright.” She began to dump the soap into the machine, and after she had coated the top of the sheets in soap, she closed the bottle back up.
Lilo closed the top of the machine back up and placed the bottle back on the shelf where she found it. She then scanned her eyes across the series of buttons and knobs at the very back of the machine. The word “start” caught her attention, and without another moment’s hesitation, she pressed the button and listened as the machine came to life. Satisfied, Lilo backed away from the two machines and made her way into the living room and sat on one of the couches.
Minutes had passed and Lilo’s eyes were slowly beginning to close when there came a sudden crash from the back of the apartment. Her eyes shot back open, and she was quickly back on her hooves running to where the two machines cleaning the sheets were. She skidded to a halt at the hallway and her eyes widened. Bubbles were spilling out from the top of the washing machine and soaking the floor underneath the machines and the hallway.
“Oh no,” Lilo whimpered, eyes going wide. “Oh, no. No, no, no.” She started to try to scoop up the bubbles that were sliding across the floor and put them back into the washing machine, but more bubbles continued to leak out of the top than what she could put back in. Stepping away from the machine, Lilo was now soaked in soapy water and the pool of bubbles had begun to approach the carpet.
Dashing back into the kitchen, Lilo grabbed a couple of towels and laid them in front of the carpet so the soapy water would be absorbed before they could soak the carpet. She made for the closet door that lay between the bathroom door and the laundry room door, but she slipped on the soapy floor, causing her to skid into the door with a loud thud.
“Ow,” Lilo groaned, sliding down the door and onto the floor.
More and more bubbles started to push against her body, and Lilo scrambled back to her hooves, tripped onto her face, and then rose back up to her hooves and pulled the door open. A large push broom caught her eye, and Lilo pulled it from the closet and darted back towards the carpet. She used the push broom to back the bubbles towards the washing machine, but her efforts were rewarded by bubbles just pouring over the broom and towards the carpet.
Ditching the broom, Lilo began to simply stomp on the bubbles, trying to break as many of them as she could without paying attention to the soap water approaching the towels. She hopped around on the floor, angrily stopping every bubble that she could see, buzzing her wings in aggravation.
“Um, Lilo?”
Lilo’s head snapped up and she stopped hopping around on the floor. Carbon was standing in the middle of the living room floor with a bag at his hooves. He had one of his eyebrows raised. She took a step back and bit her lip.
“What are you doing?” Carbon asked, taking a step forward.
“I... I was trying to...” Lilo trailed off as her ears folded back and she lowered herself closer to the ground.
Carbon stopped advancing and his eyes softened. He casually walked over to the washing machine and pressed the start button, turning the machine off and causing the bubbles to cease pouring out of the top. Lilo blushed, but she took another step back when Carbon turned back around to face her.
“I’m so sorry!” Lilo said, laying down in front of Carbon and looking up. “I was just trying to wash some sheets and towels that I made dirty.”
Carbon lay down with Lilo, soaking his coat in the soapy water. “It’s okay. I can see that you have never... washed anything before. It was just an accident.”
“I ruined your floor,” Lilo said, “and I might have ruined your machines, too. I’ll do anything to help you fix it. Or I could leave if you want me to! I might break something else.”
Carbon held a hoof up to Lilo’s mouth. “Lilo, stop. It’s okay. We’ll clean this up and I’ll help show you how to wash the sheets. Does that sounds okay?”
Lilo nodded, and after a moment she asked, “What did you buy when you went downtown?”
Carbon glanced at the bag he had left in the living room. “Oh, I, uh, went out and bought a few groceries for dinner later this week. I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I wanted to treat you to something that I particularly like.”
“You want to ‘treat’ me?” Lilo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You... are a guest after all,” Carbon said, fumbling with his hooves. “I wouldn’t feel right subjecting you to my usual dietary habits.”
“I thought the mush you have been feeding me is quite tasty,” Lilo replied, cocking her head.
“You think that is tasty?” Carbon asked. “Well, just wait until you try my lasagne, then. I make this special sauce that has everypony that has ever tried my lasagne ever rant and rave over it. It has oregano, bell peppers, garlic, and onions in it. Oh, do you like spinach?” Lilo nodded her head. “Okay, good, because I like mixing that with the ricotta cheese.”
Lilo giggled. “It sounds delicious, although I have never heard of lasagne before.”
“You have never had lasagne before?” Carbon asked, flabbergasted.
“Well, there isn’t much food to be eaten where I... come from,” Lilo said, looking away.
Carbon recoiled. “Oh.” He looked at the floor. For the first time since sitting down, he felt the soapy water soaking his fur. “Perhaps we should start cleaning this up.”
Lilo nodded. Carbon rose back to his hooves and strode over to the washing machine. He looked down the top of the machine, eyes widening. He pulled out a red towel and a pink sheet.
“Well, I guess we already found you some bed sheets for tonight,” Carbon said, turning around and showing Lilo. “Oh, and look, they match the color of your eyes fairly well.” Lilo opened her mouth, but Carbon shook his head and added, “Don’t worry, I have an extra pair of bed sheets in the closet next to us. These can be yours.”
Lilo stood up and walked over to Carbon, inspecting the sheet and putting her nose up to it. She pushed her head under the sheet and looked up at Carbon, the sheet draping from her ears.
“Does it really go with my eyes?”
“Yes,” Carbon said, smiling. “Yes it does.”