Daishoga allowed her words to wash over him in silence. He wasn't ignoring her. He was simply thinking about how he should respond. He watched as she came into the bathing room, but looked away when she began undressing. It was more for her sake than his own that he didn't watch her undress. He knew that all of this was very new to her. Once she was in the bath, he turned his eyes upon her. He twirled a finger and suddenly the water began bubbling. The temperature didn't rise, but it would make their nudity hard to make out due to the moving water.<br/><br/>"Sage, I intended for you to sleep in my bed," Daishoga said, finally. "You're my personal servant. This means that you're entitled to sharing things like my bed and my bath with me. I would have been disappointed if I had come to my room and found you asleep on the floor. As for bathing my back, I would enjoy your help."<br/><br/>The emperor moved over until he was directly in front of her and then turned so that his scarred back was open to her eyes. His entire body was marred with them. But they were most apparent on his back. He had been the victim of lashings many times as a child under the cruel and unforgiving hand of his father. That had been before his mysterious powers had properly manifested so he had been defenseless. The emperor remembered those days.<br/><br/>"These wounds were inflicted upon me by my own father," Daishoga said. Whether she was curious or not, he figured it would make for some kind of conversation. "When I was a child he was always angry that his wife preferred to spend her time with me rather than he. It really boiled his blood when he'd see us walking through the courtyard as happy as can be. But it was an arranged marriage. She was never happy with him. But she was subject to his cruel whims and fantasies just as much as I was."<br/><br/>Bitterness filled his voice. So many horrible memories of the abuse his mother and he had endured at the hands of his father. and then came the faithful day of the demons invading the capital city. He had revealed himself to be the biggest coward in the land. Of course, nobody but Daishoga had seen just how deep his cowardice ran.<br/><br/>"I apologize," Daishoga muttered, escaping the images of his memories. "I suppose that's not exactly a proper tale for bath time." He had said this because his anger was starting to get the best of him and a faint scarlet color pulsed around his body. It was very faint, but it was quite noticeable. He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself.<br/><br/>He then simply allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of her washing his back for a moment. Slowly the red pulse faded away as he calmed himself. It wasn't an easy thing to do. Daishoga's rage was infamous. Very few things made him truly angry, but those who managed to entice that rage out of him didn't often live to tell the tale.<br/><br/>Once she had finished with his back, Daishoga turned to face her once again.<br/><br/>"May I wash your back in return?" Daishoga asked with the hint of a smirk on his face. He always loved seeing his personal servant's reactions to this. Normally they were astounded that he would even ask to do such a thing, and the expressions that passed over their faces was often enough to send Daishoga into a fight of laughter. "You won't smack me again, will you?" He added in the question more for the sake of humor than anything else.