Members of the Ren royal family had long ago noticed certain aspects of their Magi's personality, such as how his mood shifts with the weather and seasons. Three of the Ren family members in particular also notice that their oh-so-masculine oracle indeed had a feminine side; a side that blushed at the sight of fruits and flowers. Hakuryuu made it a point to always have bowls of fruit, especially those infamous peaches, at all turns of the castle corners. Kougyoku ensured that the gardens remained well maintained and extravagant in color. Hakuei did her best to light incense in the main corridors of the special palace to make sure the scent of happiness always reached the enigma's nose. These interesting details did not slip by the grand Magi's attention, but he couldn't help but ponder about it all.

Why were they doing it all? For him? Absolute nonsense, what fool believed that Judar would like these things in the first place? The Magi shook his black hair feverishly as he passed by the main dining hall. He saw nothing but bowls of fresh fruit, perfectly arranged flower vases, and sticks of incense burning. He did his best to deny that the entire room looked like a comfy paradise, but somewhere in the recesses of his mind he knew it was just a way to console him whilst he remained imprisoned in his own personal hell. He slowly approached one of the incense burners and snuffed it out with a scowl.

'No amount of ass kissing can make me feel at home in this hellhole…' his mind said to an imaginary Hakuei that he envisioned just for the sake of scolding her without actually having to break her heart. He wholly understood that those three were, for whatever goddamn reason, obsessed with making him happy. He turned sharply on his heels and made his way back to his personal room, but not before snatching a peach off of one of the bowls of course.

Once inside his bedroom he threw the peach pit out his open window where it landed in the courtyard with the pile of other pits. Some were sprouting, some were rotting. Either way a peach tree grew or the dead pits fertilized the soil. No one dared ever enter Judar's courtyard, not even the gardeners. It was his personal wild jungle full of fruit trees; mostly peach of course, exotic flowers, a wooden bench, and a small waterfall pond that was fed from the pipes running beneath his bedroom and out into lake beside the castle.

This was Judar's paradise, one in which not even Al-Thamen or Gyoukuen was permitted to enter. He would often sleep in one of the trees to escape the constant knocking on his door at all hours of the noon. For now though, Judar was content with stripping himself of his clothing and tossing them carelessly into a basket in the corner of his room and sliding into his bathtub. Like clockwork, every morning on the tenth hour his bath was ran for him. He allowed his long braid to be undone with the simple loosening of the bottom tie. He untwisted the ebony tresses and untied the top ribbon. Running his hands through his hair he reveled in the feeling of the softness. When his hands reached his scalp he frowned; it was oily. He entered his hot bath and sat down to relax in the feeling of the water warmly wrapping itself around him like a hug on a cold day.

He submerged his head and stroked his hair beneath the waves of bubbles. When he surfaced he heard the familiar sound of his bedroom door opening, a few scuffling noises, then proceeded by the door closing again; the maids had taken his dirty laundry away and replaced them with his new clean clothes. He knew every sound this palace made and why. The occasional loud bang of pots in the kitchen could be heard from the dining hall, the sound of the maids sweeping the halls, to the sound of cooking fires crackling all rang out daily. He didn't need to question why someone had entered his private quarters without knocking, he knew their routine and they knew his. They dare not glance at him in his bathtub, which wasn't even visible from his bedroom door anyways, they knew better than to even slightly urk their kingdom's precious Magi.

A mischievous grin spread across his face, it was urking time.

He pulled on a string attached to the wall and a distinct bell sound rang throughout the halls. Within mere seconds and maid appeared behind the paravent wall by his bathtub and a tiny voice shuddered out to him.

"Y-yes, my lord?" the frail woman said meekly. Well this was interesting, Judar didn't recognize her voice at all. She must be new.

Perfect!

"I want the prettiest maid on duty today to come massage me." He ordered with his trademark tone.

That's when the new maid did something that no other castle servant had ever done before and it honestly confused Judar more than upset him. She wordlessly entered the bathroom and appeared behind him, without his permission no less, and kneeled down beside him. Without a shred of fear, or so Judar thought was a fearless act, reached out and placed her hands on his shoulders. As she began rubbing from behind him he realized he never even got to see her face. He was tempted to either let her continue her rather skilled massage, or flip out in a fit of rage. Her thumbs hit a sore spot on the back of his neck and he decided to allow her to continue, but he'd be sure to punish her later never the less.

Oh but wait, it was supposed to be urking time anyways!

"You do realize what you've done, right?" he said almost seductively. She did not stop massaging him, but she gave a noise of confusion. "You've broken four castle rules, all in a matter of about thirty seconds. That's impressive for a newbie!" Certainly not the compliment she had been hoping for.

He felt her small hands twitch and pause. For a couple seconds they were both entirely silent, waiting for the other to speak. Finally he broke the silence by letting out a noise of exhaustion. "First of all, you entered without knocking, secondly you didn't fulfill my request of finding the prettiest maid, thirdly you entered the bath without my permission, and lastly…." He trailed off as he hands began to rub on his once more. "You touched my body without my permi-"

"You rang the bell, that was all the consent I needed to enter." She said with her tiny voice.

Judar's eyes opened wide, his mouth readied a retort, but she continued speaking.

"You asked for the prettiest, and I am indeed the prettiest one here. There was no need to even look for another maid, I am the one you requested."

The audacity of this bitch!

He laughed slightly before throwing his head back to look up into her eyes. Her violet eyes brimming with a strangely immature bravery looked down at him as her wavy auburn hair fell down around her shoulders and onto his cheeks. He blinked up at her curiously.

"Lastly," she began as his crimson eyes burned into her own eyes dangerously. "You ordered a massage; I did not deny you that which you desired. I am massaging you."

Even though Judar loathed being wrong, especially proven wrong, he had a better idea than frivolously fretting about the details of her disobedience. A much, much more fun idea.

"So you won't deny any request I make?" he grinned wickedly up at her.

"None." She said without hesitation.

The game was on. A game that was quite literally impossible for him to lose, or so he thought.

He leaned all the way back into the tub with his head on the edge, cutting off her access to his neck and shoulders. "Clean me." He ordered with mild enthusiasm. Something in the back of her mind nagged at her that his request was sexual in nature, but alas, it mattered not.

An order was an order.

She pushed her sleeves up and grabbed one of the many bottles of soap scattered about the room and titled it into her open palm. "That's hair conditioner." He said flatly. With a blush of embarrassment, she set the bottle down and reached for a pink bottle, but not before he said "That's also hair conditioner." Her hand moved on to a green bottle, "also conditioner….". Her heart sank, this wasn't going well. He watched her eyes scan each bottle dumbly, he couldn't believe the palace actually employed someone so…..stupid. He watched her face twist from confusion to fear and he rolled his eyes.

As much as he enjoyed humiliating her, he didn't want to sit in that tub all day and get pruny. He grabbed a bottle and tossed it at her chest then fell to the floor. "Use that." He ordered and with shaky hands she picked it up and poured a generous amount into her palm. With less than enthusiastic hands she touched him yet again, this time starting with his chest. He watched her small hands covered in orange goop reach out and slather his chest. As almost gross as it seemed, her hands were quite skilled at what she was doing. The water level reached above his chest line so she had a difficult time getting the soap to actually rub on his abdomen. She settled for using just diluted soapy water and her bare hands to reach lower and lower until she reached his pelvis where she stopped.

He watched curiously as she retracted her hands from the water and applied more soap to them. Silently she moved to the other end of the tub and instinctively he pulled a leg out of the water and let her wash it. Her hands moved in patterns all the way up his thigh and stopping before reaching his nether region. He lifted an eyebrow in both amusement and curiosity, would she just skip over the erotic parts of his body? Did she really think she could get away with that? He lifted the other leg for her and smirked as she washed his dirty foot.

"Do you just like….not wear shoes?" she questioned as she scrubbed harshly.

For what was the shortest second in human history, Judar felt embarrassed and curled the toes of the foot she was working on, but he easily recovered and snorted at her. "They're uncomfortable and I can fucking fly, why would I bother?"

"You're the first member of royalty I've ever heard of that disliked shoes of all things." She commented as her hands rubbed their way up to his upper thigh and came back down to his knee. As her hands made one last pass of his thigh, she was within reaching range. He reach out and grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her into the bathtub with him. With a shriek of surprise she tumbled in on top of him and straddled herself between his open legs. He pressed her face into his chest and leered down at her with something only slightly less malicious than hellfire.

Her chin pressed into his chest between his soapy pecks harshly as she looked up in horror at his beautiful scowl. "Is that a problem?" he asked darkly and she shook her head 'no'. "Then why are you making such insulting comments on my body?"

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked out as she flailed slightly, her arm trapped beneath her between his torso and her own with her hand dangling between his legs. His, thankfully flaccid, penis pressed into the back of her hand; a detail that neither of them did not notice. "I just thought every inch of you was silky soft, so your feet surprised me was all!" It was her honest answer actually, and Judar sensed her sincerity and released her. She slowly climbed out of the tub, thankful that her hand was no longer touching his crotch.

"You forgot my arms and back." He commented calmly as he closed his eyes.

Exhaustedly she looked down at him. She was soaked and honestly just plain tired of him. "Should I also wash your asscrack and foreskin for you?" she said sarcastically as she rung out the front of her robe and sleeves as best she could without taking her clothes off.

"Bitch I'll make you wipe my ass every time I take a shit if you keep giving me attitude." He said without so much as opening his eyes to see her expression.

"You're actually very attractive, so please don't ruin the image I have of you in my head by showing me that side of you." She commented as she continued wringing her pants out.

'That side of me?' his mind pondered, but he came up with no retort.

She sat down beside him and poured more soap into her hands and began trailing her fingers down his arm to his wrist. He refused to open his eyes at this point, as it might be seen as an acknowledgement of some sort. Acknowledgement for what? He didn't know, he just knew he didn't want her to have his acknowledgment. Servants don't deserve that. Her hands slipped under his arm and washed underneath. She half wondered if he was ticklish at all, but after a few gentle touches she assumed not because he didn't so much as flinch. She moved back down his arm towards his wrist where she paused.

Then it happened, her curiosity got the better of her. Her soapy hand glided over the top of his hand and her fingers laced between his. She used both hands to massage his palm and top of hand. Her hands froze in that position with her fingers entwined in his and something akin to warmth kindled inside of her. Not that this man was kind to her in the slightest or that she'd developed Stockholm syndrome, but she couldn't help but notice the fact that his fingers wrapped around hers in return as if he enjoyed such contact with her. It made her wonder what really went on in his head.

'Does he order others to touch him so intimately because he secretly desires a loving touch?' she shook the wishful thinking from her mind when he opened his burning ruby eyes to glare at her cautiously, signaling that she was perhaps crossing a line of some sort. She let go of his hand and moved to his other arm, this time with less...intimacy. When she finished with his arm she stood up and grabbed a large water bowl from the other side of the room.

She moved behind him and much to his surprise she pushed her hands under his head and lifted him up enough to pull all of his hair out of the tub. He obliged and kept his eyes closed as her hand passed over his forehead and pulled his bangs back with the rest of his hair. As she used a water basin to let his hair soak in she looked around at all the bottles, wondering which one was shampoo. She knew finding conditioner would be absolutely no issue, but shampoo was another story….

It was over thirty seconds of no motion or noise before his curiosity piqued and he opened his eyes. He expected to see her staring down at him lustfully, but this was not the case. Instead she was looking off into the distance on a shelf adjacent to the tub that was stocked with many different bottles of product.

"All of the shampoo is on the shelf directly behind you, just pick one." He ordered and her head whipped around to see dozens of bottles in different sizes and colors. She picked a small pink bottle and sniffed it.

"Nope." She mumbled as she put it back on the shelf and grabbed another. Judar watched in mild awe as she put several more bottles back before settling on a small red bottle. "Yes!" she smiled as she poured some into her hands and begin working it through his wet hair. His eyes remained fixated on hers and she did her best to avoid eye contact with those hypnotic crimson eyes. She'd never seen a red eyed person before, only heard of their rare beauty, and she wasn't about to let the first one she met set her heart ablaze. Since he wouldn't close his eyes she decided to close hers instead.

He had enough hair to keep her busy for quite a while and so she decided to sing softly as she worked. "Il est la beauté, il est la grâce, mais ses pieds sont vraiment sales." He found her voice to be beautiful, but he didn't understand a word she said. "Ses cheveux sont si doux, comme la noirceur filée dans la soie, mais ses pieds sont vraiment sales." Perplexed he listened intently, ears burning to know the lyrics. "Je l'aimerais s'il n'était pas un énorme abruti et si ses pieds n'étaient pas si sales."

"What are you singing?" he asked with childlike wonder.

"It's French, don't worry about it." She said innocently. "Just an old French folk song."

She continued her so-called lullaby. "Il aime que j'essuie son cul pour lui. C'est un enfant sans défense qui a les pieds très sales."

'It's beautiful…' he thought as his mind drifted off tiredly as he enjoyed the feeling of her nails gently scraping his scalp. He awoke only when she began rinsing the suds from his hear, not realizing that he'd actually fallen asleep for a brief moment. He groggily opened his eyes to see her smiling to herself as she applied an oily conditioner to his hair. He closed his eyes again and enjoyed the feeling of those skillful hands on his head.

As she moved hair away from his ear she noticed several holes and wondered if he wore jewelry. She had heard of the black Magi before from the other staff, but never saw him in person. Her hands went back to his spun silken hair and worked a few tangles out of the miles of threads. She found herself oddly enjoying playing with his hair, even though he was a massive jerk she had enjoyed this moment in which his mouth and eyes were shut.

'Perhaps if he were a softer, kinder person he would be...be so...' her thoughts halted when his ruby eyes opened and looked up at her. '...lovely...'

"Are you done yet? I'm bored now." he said flatly and she stood up.

"If you want to wash your ass yourself, then yes."

He frowned at her. "You didn't wash my back, that's the hardest part. Honestly the only part I ever have anyone else wash for me." he confessed.

"Wait..." her eyebrow lifted at him curiously, returning the intrigued look. "Am I the first maid you've made wash you before?"

He cackled loudly. "Of course not!" he sneered at her and she looked away embarrassed. "Did you think you were special for a minute there? How cute!" he said loudly before sitting up and pulling his hair away from the water as to not get it soapy again. "Just finish your job and you can go." he said softer than before and exposed his backside to her.

She grabbed the soap bottle and dumped more than enough into her hands and began scrubbing his back harshly. It wasn't the rhythmic massage she was giving before and he realized he'd either hurt her feelings or just straight pissed her off, either way he felt victorious. The harsh backscratching actually felt nice or he'd have reprimanded her. When she was done she stood up and left without a word. He rinsed himself off alone and exited the bath.

Something inside of him was playing tug of war with his thoughts, he was far more lenient on her than previous maids, so why did he have even this slight hint of remorse? She had been the one to trespass upon him and break the rules, he was in the right to treat her harshly. But she was new and likely didn't know all of the rules yet, like only senior maids answer the Magi's bell. Maybe he could have simply informed her instead of being cruel? Utter nonsense, he must be having heatstroke from being in the hot bath too long. Damn maid took too long to do her job! He would normally have gone and complained to the headmaster of servants, but his noon nap was calling him and his body felt heavy from all the heat.

BLK: For those wanting a translation of the maid's song, I know you can't copy/paste from FFN. So here's the translation. "He is beauty, he is grace, but his feet are really dirty. His hair is so soft, like darkness spun into silk, but his feet are really dirty. I would love him if he weren't such a huge jerk and if his feet weren't so dirty. He likes me to wipe his ass for him. He is a helpless child with really dirty feet."