“And this is the bathroom,” Akelarre announced with a sweeping wave not dissimilar to a game show host showing off a new car.

To be fair, Velvet had to admit that it was a really nice bathroom. A little dark, and she could have done without the sinister purple lighting, but the gigantic tub that sank into the floor and the golden faucets lent everything a rather classically majestic feel. “Thanks,” she said. “I’ll just freshen up before bed, then.”

Akelarre grinned at her and nodded. “Sure thing. If you need anything just flag down one of my Grimmsects.” With that and a dismissive wave, Akelarre left Velvet to her own devices, shutting the bathroom door behind her, then stomping off down the corridor with a cheerful humm that quickly faded.

She waited a moment, coiling trepidation fading as she came to grips with the fact that she was now alone. Alone in the centre of Grimm power on Remnant.

Velvet smacked her cheeks and shook her head. “Head in the game, bunny,” she said to herself before walking over to the tub.

A few minutes later and some curious sniffing of crystal bottles while the water rose, she was sinking into water that was just shy of scalding, the fresh scent of some sort of flowery perfume rising in the air, carried by tendrils of steamy water.

Her hair pooling around her shoulder, Velvet sank deeper and deeper into the tub, feeling taut muscles relaxing as the strength was leached out of them. She had only been in the Grimmlands for a few hours and it had already been one of the most terrifying experiences in her life. For all that, it was still strangely... good.

Had someone told her a year ago that Grimm had a leader, a queen, then someone like Salem was exactly how she would have imagined them. But then Salem showed that she wasn’t just some caricature. She was a proud, if maybe overly proud, mother. She cared about Akelarre more than she probably cared about anything else on Remnant.

Grimm, who were supposed to be mindless and evil, were surprisingly tame when not trying to eat you; they had personality. Or maybe that was just when they were near Akelarre and Salem. Still, it added a whole new dimension to things, like growing up to discover that the bad guys in a favourite book might have had a point all along.

Maybe.

She was not about to start extolling the virtues of the Grimm way of life or of their leaders. Not like Mister Tyrian.

She shivered in the water and sank in until her chin was just hovering over the lapping, bubble-covered froth. Mister Tyrian was probably not completely sane, she decided.

Just as Velvet was beginning to think that maybe she should climb out of the bath and start drying off she heard a click and her half-lidded eyes snapped to the door.

A Seer floated in.

The creature’s low hum filled the bathroom and had Velvet shrinking away from it as it moved, menacingly, towards her.

“Oh no,” she whispered as the Grimm came to a hovering stop next to the bath.

Then it dropped a pile of cloth on a stool, dipped down, and picked up her uniform before floating off. The door clicked shut behind it.

Velvet blinked at where the Seer had been, then down at the folded garments left in its wake. “Oh,” she said to no one at all.

Feeling rather silly, Velvet dunked her head into the water, wrung her hair and washed her ears before finally standing up and stepping out of the bath. She didn’t want to dribble water all over, but she doubted that Salem herself was the one keeping the Spire clean. It was probably a small army of cleaning Grimm.

Smiling at the idea of Grimm whose duty it was to clean, Velvet toweled off and picked up the topmost piece of clothing as soon as she was dry.

Her smile froze.

Thick black cloth, white lace, frills all over, an apron built into the front of the dress and short, poofy sleeves.

A headdress fell off and flopped to the ground with a rustle of cloth, little more than a small cap covered in white lace with holes for her ears.

Velvet folded the maid outfit, put it back on the pile of other clothes which, she noted, were little more than stockings and underwear that were far, far too lacy, and patted it all down.

“No,” she declared.

Grabbing the largest towel she could find, she wrapped it around herself, pulled it into a tight knot then swayed a little to make sure she could still move. It might have only been a towel, but it still covered more than the atrocity folded on the floor.

Taking a deep breath, she moved to the door and slid it open to peek outside. She found empty corridors all around. Padding along, she beelined towards the passage leading to her room, hoping that she would find something more to wear than nothing.

It wasn’t to be.

Walking down the passageway with a grin fit for a madman was Tyrian. His tail swayed behind him like an excited cat’s as he walked with both hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Ah,” she said as her eyes met his.

The two faunus stopped at their respective ends of the corridor. Tyrian eyed her up and down, then tilted his head to one side.

Velvet dripped onto the floor.

“My my, the Princess sure is adventurous!” he cackled.

“I-it’s nothing like that,” she protested immediately.

His knowing smirk and too-wide eyes said that he thought differently.

“Velvet?”

Velvet spun around, breath leaving her in a wash of relief as she found Akelarre standing at the corner behind her. “Akelarre,” she said.

“Why are you, um, mostly naked?” the Grimm princess asked.

“A Grimm stole my clothes,” was Velvet’s reply. She recalled using a similar excuse to explain away undone homework once. Was this karma?

Akelarre’s slow nod hinted that she wasn’t sure about that answer but was willing to go along with it. “Okay. Did you want PJs? I have some that might fit.” She gestured towards where her room was.

“I sleep naked,” Tyrian decided to add to the conversation.

Akelarre and Velvet shared a look that held deep understanding and the kind of camaraderie that Velvet had only ever had with her teammates.

“Thank you...” Akelarre began then paused as though searching for the right words. “Thank you for sharing that, Mister Tyrian,” Akelarre said. “We’ll be going now.”

Akelarre grabbed Velvet’s hand and started pulling her along, going the long way around Tyrian who just grinned and waved at them.

“He’s a little,” Velvet started. “Yes.”

“Yup,” Akelarre agreed. They didn’t say much beyond that until Akelarre lead Velvet into her bedroom. “I have some T-shirts and shorts somewhere. I think my PJs are a bit tall for you, but they are fluffy, if you want a pair,” she said as she let go of Velvet and started pulling drawers open.

“Ah, anything will do,” Velvet said. It wasn’t quite the truth, but it was close enough.

Akelarre hummed to herself as she pulled out a pair of bright blue sweatpants and a large T-shirt with an ant head printed on the front. “This’ll do, I think,” she said as she pushed the clothes into Velvet’s waiting arms. “You can use my bathroom. It’s bug free,” she said.

“Ah, thanks,” Velvet said as she followed Akelarre’s pointing hand to a room connected to Akelarre’s. It was, as Akelarre said, a bathroom. One that was bigger than Velvet’s bedroom at home, but still a bathroom. She got changed in a jiffy, rolling up the towel she still had and tossing it into a basket of dirty clothes that was off to one side.

Finally wearing something acceptable, Velvet stepped out and into Akelarre’s room to find the princess sitting on the edge of her bed and kicking her feet out. “Are you going to sleep now?” Akelarre asked.

“Ah, yes, I suppose,” Velvet said. She wondered if Akelarre was going to insist on painting their nails and talking about boys or bugs or something. She had to admit to herself that she wouldn’t be completely averse to it.

Akelarre nodded. “Cool. Here, take this,” she said before reaching down just as a Grimmsect slipped by. When Akelarre rose it was to show off the bug she now held. She pushed it out towards Velvet and its little legs starts grasping the air, revealing that instead of claws all eight of its feet ended in little pads. “This is a hugbug,” Akelarre announced with evident pride. “I started with a tarantula, then made it more fluffy. Do you want it to help you sleep?”

“I,” Velvet started. “I think I’m okay.”

“Hrm,” Akelarre said as she placed the spider back down and watched it skitter away. “You don’t need to worry about squishing it. My bugs are very tough. I test them myself. Oh!” Akelarre’s eyes lit up and she brought both hands up as if ready to catch something. A white blur crashed into her with a squeal and she had to take a step back not to fall as it buried itself into her neck. “This,” she said as she turned the ball of fluff around to reveal a face almost entirely hidden by poofy fur. “Is a cuddlebug.”

The cuddlebug, some sort of moth if Velvet had to guess, waved its long feather-like antennae at her. “Uh,” she said.

“No?” Akelarre’s face fell. “They’re really sweet. They like burrowing into you--not literally--and they’ve very warm. Their wing dust makes you feel happy. They even purr.” The cuddlebug demonstrating by letting out a long rumble that had its entire body vibrating.

Velvet shook her head slowly.

“Tough customer,” Akelarre said as she let the moth go. It flopped through the air with more enthusiasm than grace and eventually face planted onto the pile of pillows on Akelarre’s bed.”Hrm... maybe,” Akelarre said with a considering tone. “You’re making me get out the big guns.”

Velvet watched with rising trepidation as Akelarre moved to the door, opened it, then bent over to pick up something just outside.

When the princess returned it was to show off the monstrocity she was hugging, a large, fluffy pile of limbs and wings and little antenna that stuck out in every direction. “This is a hugglebug,” Akelarre announced with pride. “It’s a hybrid of a hugbug and a cuddlebug.”

The hugglebug stared at Akelarre with all eight of its huge eyes. “Um,” Velvet said.

“Quee?” the hugglebug replied.

“I designed it using the brand new field of Grimm Science to be the most huggable and cuddleable bug ever.”

Velvet shook her head again. “I don’t think I’m... ready to sleep with a bug,” she said.

“Queee,” the hugglebug said. Its many, many eyes started to water and its mandibles puffed out in what could only be described as a pout.

“I really shouldn’t,” Velvet said.

The hugglebug started purring, it’s legs stretching out towards her as if begging to be hugged.

“No,” Velvet said to the creature, putting some force into it.

The hugglebug paused, then let all of its many limbs flop down as it gave up. The creature stuttered, its purring stopping with a shudder before its shoulders started bouncing up and down with little hiccupping motions. “Quee, quee,” it said.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Akelarre said as she hugged the bug from behind. “You don’t need to cry. Shush now baby.” The princess started rocking the bug from side to side. “It’s not that she doesn’t love you, it’s okay. She’s just not ready to commit. I’m sure she finds you cute.”

Velvet looked away, a well of guilt bursting into her chest as she tried, and failed, to ignore the pitiful sniffled coming from the monster. “Oh-okay, fine,” she folded. “But, but not too much... cuddling, okay?”

As Velvet was bowled over by a dozen kilos of happy cuddlemonster, she wondered where everything had gone wrong in her life.