I took longer than needed hugging Melody while I sorted out my feelings on the issue. Once I felt I had a handle on everything, we performed the traditional ceremony between master and familiar and I kissed her forehead while she knelt before me. For a moment, my perverted mind thought, I bet ya she’d look amazing kneeling like this while sucking your d—until I punched that perverted self in the face, ending the internal conversation there. Then, I started wiping the cave of any evidence of a summoning having taken place. This included making the magic circle disappear and turning the chairs and floor back into regular dirt on the ground with Marble’s assistance in Earth Magic.

Just like Sarise did in the dungeon, Melody showered my magical feats with praise and applause. It didn’t help that she was flailing about like a cheerleader at tryouts, making her breasts, butt, and the rest of her soft body bounce and jiggle with enthusiasm. What really hit me was how unashamedly passionate she was, making her excitement and praise for me all the more genuine, and making her even more adorable, and sexy, in the process. I would have told her to keep watch outside for possible intruders, if only to give me some space and peace, but I was afraid of how likely she was to take things the wrong way. As attractive as she is, if she won’t want to be apart from me for too long, I will have to come up with some way to calm myself down so I won’t be in any danger of going too far and hurting her.

Maybe this is a good chance to experiment with Ice Magic and see how much I can cool myself down with it. It will be useful in case things get too hot down south once that area becomes a little more ‘developed’, I thought while I worked, and it was thinking about water that made me remember, Right, we still need to get Melody cleaned up and presentable for my parents. I also need to contact Sarise so she can help me with securing my new angel some clothes, but she’s still talking with my parents, isn’t she? I don’t want to disrupt her concentration, so I’ll hold off on that until Melody’s clean.

At least I can give Melody some privacy in the bath while I work out a plan to deal with addressing her needs … wait, she still has her broken halo, doesn’t she? It will probably be dangerous to leave her alone while she’s so uncoordinated right now, which means I have to … wash her myself. Which means lathering her body with slippery soap that I’d rub into all over … how the hell can I do that without getting any enjoyment out of it? I tried coming up with some solution, but gave up when I couldn’t find anything.

When I was done, I used telepathy to contact my Companions back home and asked one of them to check the bathing area to see if anybody was using it. Cinder seemed to be free at the time as she was the first to respond to my request. It only took a few moments for her to tell me the coast was clear and that the water in the bath was still warm. That meant the girls had already bathed and the fairies were taking their time partying before using the bathing area for themselves. This was the perfect opportunity for us to take action. I remembered then that I’d told the guys I’d be back before the girls went in, so some were probably worried about my absence. Making a mental note with Mona to apologize to them later, I grabbed the wooden wash bucket I had borrowed from where I left it to one side of the cave.

I opened a Dark Gate to the bath and sent Nova and Marble through first to scout the area. Once I was again given the all clear, I tossed the wooden wash bucket back inside and guided Melody through. My arm wrapped her waist for support, causing her soft breasts and warm body to press enticingly against me. Ignoring this as best as I could, I used Earth Magic to remove the majority of the dirt from her as she stepped inside, before guiding her over to the nearest vacant stool in the washing area. Setting her down, I told her to wait while I took a moment to step into the changing area.

Since Melody made a mess on me at the end of the ‘massage’, I needed to clean myself again. After I undressed, I tied a clean towel around my waist before grabbing another for Melody. Nova and Melody wanted to get back to the party in the attic, so I told them to not interfere in any of my personal businesses with my familiars from that moment forward before I sent them off. That applied to all of my fairies. I especially made sure to try and explain why it’s wrong to pressure someone into something they’re not already comfortable with through suggestive manipulation. It was bad enough that I had already tainted Melody by introducing her to the erotic in such a manner, I didn’t want anymore outside forces to drastically alter or destroy her angelic character further. Nova and Marble didn’t seem to get it, though, so I just told them to tell the others not to do anything remotely sexual with Melody. With that said, I thanked them for their hard work and told them to enjoy themselves. This left me, half-naked, alone with my totally naked angelic familiar that I’d need to wash, making me realize just how dire the situation had become.

I reached into the area where we store our washcloths, and paled when I didn’t find anything to grab. After taking a closer look inside with levitation magic to lift me up, I could clearly see that there were no clean washcloths available. The only ones left were the used ones currently tossed in the hamper to be cleaned later. Considering how many guests we had in our home right now, it made sense we’d run out of washcloths so quickly. It was a miracle there were even any spare towels left. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as I had no idea how to explain the situation to Melody.

With a clean towel in hand, I went back to Melody who was humming and minding her own business while waiting. “Here’s a clean towel, Melody, but I’m afraid we’re out of clean washcloths for right now,” I said while handing over the towel and averting my gaze.

“That’s okay, I don’t usually use a washcloth.”

“And that would usually be fine, but since you’re so uncoordinated right now, I don’t want to risk you hurting yourself, especially after that treatment I gave you, so …” I trailed off before gulping, throat parched from what I was about to suggest next, “Do you mind if I … washed you with my bare hands?”

“That’s fine, I don’t mind! I trust you, Soar!”

Though I wasn’t looking, I felt her pure and innocent gaze upon me. Her total dependency upon, and trust in, my judgement burned my soul. Why do you have to say it like that?!

“R-Really? Good, then, I’ll get started,” I said, while screaming inside.

None of this would have happened under normal circumstances, of course, but I was partially to blame for surprising Melody enough to make her slip and fall soon after bringing her here. It would be dangerous to leave her alone with her broken halo strongly affecting her already terrible coordination and balance. Even when I was cleaning up the cave earlier, after Melody played naked cheerleader for me, she showed signs of dizziness, exhaustion, and lightheadedness from all that moving around. I had to accommodate her by having her sit in my Earth Magic-crafted chair again while providing a drink with my Water Magic. She pulled me into a passionate embrace again for being so good to her, showing just how intimate she was when expressing appreciation. The physical contact from that as well as me giving her support to walk when we exited wasn’t doing my heart justice since she was naked that whole time. Despite my concerns about physical contact, someone had to help her wash, and get into and out of the bath. And since I couldn’t get anyone else in on this without them freaking out over having a naked angel in front of them, that someone had to be me.

Actually, thinking about it, I’ve run my bare hands over her naked body many times already, haven’t I? It shouldn’t be too different from everything else I’ve done to her tonight. This will be fine, right? I thought hopefully, having no idea how awfully wrong I would be.

I started off with shampooing Melody’s orange-red hair, getting it in a good lather and making sure there weren’t any split ends before rinsing it all off. Since I needed to help improve her self-esteem, I felt complimenting her rich locks was a good start as I washed them. She got bashful from it, so I figured I was on a roll and should do the same for the rest of her body as I washed it.

It was when I started using soap while working my way down that washing Melody became vastly more difficult for my sanity than I had expected.

[I apologize for the inconvenience.]