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“Papa!” Bode barely had time to drop to one knee before Kata barreled into him at full speed. Her arms struggled to wrap all the way around his waist but gave it their best effort, squeezing the air out of him in the process. He laughed brightly, genuinely, the darkness that had been dogging his step all the way to their quarters dissipating in his daughter’s presence. More gently than her, he completes their hug. His shoulders are still wide enough to cocoon Kata against his chest, his hand covering half her back. He still remembered when it had covered her entire back. He hoped he’d be there to see it dwarved by her growing broadness.
“You’re back!” Kata pulled back, sounding out of breath. Her brightness was physical now, brushing against his shields in the Force. Small, subdued, but still unmistakably her. Bode sighed fondly and curled his own shields around her, drowning out her small flame to the outside while cradling it close to himself. Selfish, maybe, but also safe.
Footsteps sounded from the direction of the bathroom. Acting on training repeated until it replaced instict, Bode lunged forward to put Kata behind him. A vibroblade glinted steadily in his hand as the intruder rounded the corner. Pressed imperial whites made his fingers twitch to throw the blade, but he restrained himself.
A good thing, as a familiar face came into view to fix him with a disapproving sneer. “Agent Akuna.”
Bode levered himself back to standing, his vibroblade disappearing back into its hidden sheath with the movement. He gave a stiff nod in acknowledgment. “Agent Fern.”
“We were just about to prepare for bath time, but now that you’ve returned, I suppose my presence is no longer needed. Good day.” Agent Fern’s feelings about being degraded to babysitting duty were clear on his face. The tension throughout the room stayed at a low buzz as Fern made his way to the door, Bode making sure to shield Kata. Just before stepping out of their quarters, the agent paused for one last insult: “Perhaps bath time should be a father-daughter bonding experience.”
Bode exhaled in time with the door snapping shut. He hated, hated, hated having to leave Kata here to be ‘supervised’ by a shifting collection of Denvik’s personnel. Their only saving grace was that Kata swore they’d never hurt her. Denvik had to know what would happen if they did.
A distraction from his dark thoughts came in the form of a small, cold nose pressing into the back of his shirt and inhaling deeply. “You smell like flowers.” A wide, open field of red flowers flashed through his mind’s eye. So brilliantly red, the blood pooling under a fresh body was lost among the petals.
He peeled Kata’s hands from his sides and nudged her towards the bathroom. “Go on ahead while I get changed. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“What sort of surprise?” Kata craned her head back to fix him with a big, curious pout.
Bode gave her a small smile and ruffled her hair. “The sort you can only enjoy if you’re in the bathtub.” Kata’s pout persisted. “I’m serious, little star.”
“Ugh! Fine,” Kata pulled the last e behind her as she turned and wandered towards the bathroom. Just past the doorway, she turned and peeked around the corner. “Promise?”
“Promise promise.”
With Kata busy in the bathroom, Bode went to get changed.
Kata entertained herself by digging her toes into the extra fluffy rug her papa had brought back from one of his missions. The bathtub was only just half full, though she was already done with undressing. Her eyes idly wandered around the bathroom, eventually landing on the pile her clothes made on the ground next to the bathtub. Agent Fern always wanted her to fold them, even if they were going in the wash anyway. Papa wouldn’t care. He was probably messier than she was.
She sighed and leaned forward until the cold rim of the bathtub teased at her tummy, wondering what Papa had brought back with him this time. Was it some sort of toy that only worked in water? Or maybe an extra fluffy towel? The ones provided on Nova Garon were uncomfortably rough and only came in a soul-suckingly dull grey. She hoped it was a new towel.
The answer entered through the door behind her father’s back, his hands clasping whatever it was. “How’s the water?”
She craned her neck to the side in an effort to get a glimpse, but Papa only ruffled her hair and danced past her to the tap, still hiding the item with his body. He crouched down by the side of the tub to check the water and switch the tap to cold to adjust the temperature.
“Papa.”
“Hm?” False innocence.
“What’s the surprise?”
His smile was downright conspiratorial, making little nervous bugs dance through her stomach. Finally, he let her see the item he’d brought, offering it to her in the palm of his hand. It wasn’t a towel. Curious at the strange red ball, Kata picked it up. Its surface was smooth and hard. Scratching at it with her fingernail made little bits flake off and stain her fingertip. “What is it?”
Papa took the ball back and nodded at the tub. “Get in and I’ll show you.”
Eager now, she barely even registered the devilishly cold rim of the tub grazing her leg as she climbed into the hot water. It reached up to her chest sitting down in the full tub, warming her almost uncomfortably. Usually she would complain, or at least pull a face at the back of whichever agent was keeping an eye on her that day, but her attention was ensnared by the mysterious ball.
“It’s called a bath bomb,” Papa explained as he brought it to hover over the water.
Her eyes grew wide. “It’s going to explode?”
He laughed. “No! No, it’s not going to explode. Watch.” The ball rolled off his palm into the water with a soft plop, and a moment later, it began.
The outer shell of the ball dissolved in the water, quickly staining it a soft pink and hiding itself from view. Then, slowly, one by one, small bits of glittery rocks emerged at the surface, shining in a dozen different colors and leaving a fizzy trail as they floated around. A few brushed past her legs, and she gasped at the strange sensation. Her hands dove to find the ball—bath bomb. It was only half its original size now and continued to fizzle away happily even when she brought it up to hold it above the water. Colored rocks continued to peel away and drop into the water, revealing another red ball at the centre.
This one was slightly slimy to the touch. Kata shuddered and let it drop back into the bathtub, as far away from her bare skin as it could get. Papa chuckled softly. Looking over at him, she found him smiling, his chin resting on folded arms as he watched her with a softness she could still remember feeling in a wholly different way, before. A pang of sadness forced her to reach for him, hoping to feel it again.
Papa’s brow creased, and his presence stayed firmly sealed away, even from her. His eyes flicked away to the rocks floating through the water. “Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful.” It really was. The rocks looked like a hundred colored comets, leaving brilliant streaks of light against an evening sky. And then a sun bloomed. Her eyes widened as a small red flower bloomed at the far end of the bathtub. She lunged forward to cradle the precious petals in her palms, creating a splash of water high enough to climb the side of the tub and land outside. Papa spluttered and pulled away as his shirt was drenched in pink water.
Kata ducked her head. “Sorry.”
Papa shrugged. “Shouldn’t have worn a white shirt to a pink bath bomb party.”
She giggled and turned back to her flower, only to find it had been joined by two more siblings, a fourth just emerging. They had been hidden in the inner ball, she realised, protected by the strange slimy substance. No doubt it was also water-soluble. Delighted at the bath bombs last reveal, she carefully pushed herself back into her previous position, taking the first flower with her while leaving the rest to float as they would.
“I love it.”
Papa’s response came at a noticeable delay. “Good, I’m glad.” His smile seemed a little strained. “Don’t forget to wash up. I’m… going to go get a mop.”
Peeking over the edge of the tub confronted her with a whole pink puddle slowly soaking into his pants. “Oh. Okay.”
The little rocks continued to provide entertainment with swirls of colors as she soaped up and got her hair wet. Papa returned shortly with the prophesied mop and cleaned up the mess she’d made before sitting on the edge of the tub to rub the shampoo into her hair.
Tilting her head back to prevent it from running into her eyes left her staring up at the boring, white ceiling. Papa’s fingers felt nice, massaging her scalp as he went, but she was bored, so she searched the water’s surface for one of the flowers to hold up into her line of sight. Its petals were a brilliant shade of solid red, meeting in the middle at a tiny, slightly darker centre. She tried to picture a whole field of them, finding it a little too uniform. “Did you bring more bath bombs?”
“Two more.”
“Are the flowers in them red too?” Papa’s fingers in her hair stilled, and a strange silence descended between them. Kata craned her neck back farther, but she couldn’t see him from this angle. “I think they’d look nice if they came in other colors too. Like the rocks.”
Another moment of silence. “Yeah.” His fingers resumed their movement. “Yeah, they would.”