Whisper

Chapter 12

Basically carrying her from the complex's parking lot to his apartment, Mateo had placed her on his couch. 

Noticing light coming from his bathroom, he stepped forward, pulling out his handgun and approaching the bathroom cautiously. He wasn't expecting visitors, and not knowing where the other Projects are was a cause for concern. 

"Stay down," he turned to make sure Clarise shuffled to behind the couch, then proceeded right up to the door of his bathroom, preparing to kick it down when all of the sudden it swung wide open and he was tackled by a pair of wet and happy dogs. "Whoa!" 

Tumbling backwards, his face was soaked by slobber as his pups licked the hell out of him. 

"Oh Mateo," an elderly man came out of the bathroom. He was a bit paler than Mateo and had shorter - greyer - hair, but he shared a similar build to him. Except he wore layers of what looked like a white undershirt, a red flannel, and a black puffy vest. He wore similar cargo pants and combat boots to Mateo, and resting right on his belt was a handgun. "They got a bit messy at my place so I wanted to wash them here." 

Mateo took glance into his bathroom that was coated in mud. "Gee thanks." 

Who is that man? 

Rio Alaveraz. 

Clarise recognized the dogs from Mateo's photos. Duke remained on top of Mateo as Tiger stood up, turning to Clarise making eye contact with her as she just watched the whole scene unfold. A little surprised at the dog, Clarise let out a little gasp, getting Rio's attention as Tiger began to bound towards her. 

"Oh wait! Tiger, sit!" Mateo sat up, trying to grab Tiger before the inevitable but before he could the coffee-colored pup tackled the delicate woman, standing on her stomach and sniffed at her. 

"Mateo? Who's your friend?" Rio walked over, grabbing Tiger's collar and tugged the dog off of her, "Sorry about that, Tiger loves meeting new people." 

It's okay. 

Rio furrowed his brow at her response, or lack of response, or her non-verbal response? Either way he can't read lips as well as his nephew and just chose not to question it. It wasn't any of his business why she 'talks' like that. 

"Uncle Rio, this is Clarise Wang, a friend from work." Mateo didn't know what else to call her. The facility's doings were supposed to be top secret, and the pair have gotten to know each other a bit more over the past few days. "Clarise, this is Rio." 

Hello sir. 

"She say's hi," Mateo shrugged as his uncle shot him a questioning look, "She lost her voice the other day, still recovering." 

"Uh huh," Rio had the completely wrong idea about the pair, and thus a completely wrong idea on how Clarise 'lost her voice.' "Well it was nice meeting you Miss Wang, I was just here to drop off the dogs." 

Clarise waved him off, watching Tiger follow him to the door. The other one, Duke, walked beside Mateo as he went to the front door to say his goodbyes to his uncle. 

"Thanks for watching them, but something has come up at work, and I need you to take them back," Mateo briefly looked back as the pair of dogs who wandered back to Clarise. 

What do I do with them? 

Hold out my hand below their noses. Go to pet Tiger first, then after he begins to lick my wrist, go ahead and pet Duke.

Doing just as she instructed herself, the dogs quickly demanded more attention from the nice lady. Clarise was also enjoying this. She's never pet a dog before, let alone 2 very sweet dogs. 

"Okay," Rio whistled and the two dogs immediately turned to go follow him out. Rio didn't bother questioning Mateo, he understands what kinds of jobs Mateo has. "Call me when you're done work." 

"Yeah, of course," Mateo gave a brisk hug to his uncle. 

"Stay safe, Mateo." Rio gave a solid pat on his nephew's shoulder before waving at Clarise who waved back with an awkward smile. 

"Thanks, and I will." Mateo leaned down to give both his pups a lovely rub before closing the door behind them. "Well I need to clean up the bathroom, but feel free the settle in." 

He finally took noticed of the trail of dirt that lead from the door to the bathroom, letting out sigh before going into a nearby closet to get out his cleaning supplies. His uncle means well, but he always causes more work for Mateo. And Mateo forgot that his uncle was going to borrow a friend's car to drop off the dogs. 

Clarise wasn't sure how to 'settle in' so she chose to sit on the couch, staring at Mateo as he walked over to his sink to fill a bucket. At the facility she never had to do chores of any sort, just sit there and answer questions. 

But it was incredibly awkward for her, just sitting there and watching him. So she tried to wave him down, seeing as he seemed preoccupied with mopping. 

"Hm?" He finally noticed her after what felt like forever, "What's up?" 

Do you want some help? 

"No it's okay," he looked up and down Clarise, realizing the full extent of her appearance. 

Her clothes had visible dirt and dust marks all over it and were incredibly wrinkled. She had a tired gaze and her face was also slightly tinted from the dirt and sweat from earlier. The only 'clean' thing on her was his hoodie, and he's pretty sure it's not that clean either.

"Hold on, let me clean up the bathroom and why don't you take a shower? I'll get you some clean clothes too." He shifted his cleaning to the bathroom and took off as much as the mud as he could, silently cursing his uncle for the state of his place. 

She felt a bit bad that he's doing all of this for her, but she doesn't know what to do. She's never left the facility and never had to do anything for herself. She was merely a lab rat. 

"Okay, this will do," he let out a satisfied huff, "The shampoo is over there and the body wash is over there." He pointed at a bottle and a bar of soap, "I'll bring you a change of clothes." 

Thank you. 

"Yeah, no problem." He shot her a smile and left her to do her business. 

This, she can do by herself. Though, she's never seen shampoo like this. 

What is 3 in one? 

It's shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. 

Does it even work? 

Depends on the hair type, but it will work for me.