Part III, Chapter Fifteen: Maru Has a Perverse Idea

Part III: Zhian

"Sometimes, there is something oddly romantic about the unromantic." --Zhi playwright, c. 1110 AE

April 27, 1112 AE
The Rose Petal, Shouchuen, Zhian

Either Maru's mother was a lousy shopkeeper or whoever she'd hired to cover the afternoon shift was a lousy employee. There was no sound of footsteps upstairs, no note on the counter explaining the absence of a clerk. She stood alone, in her mother's shop, unassisted and unsure as to whether or not that would change--at least, there was no evidence to the contrary. If only she had a quill and a scrap of parchment. Hello Mother, it's Maru. I'm staying at the Sky Dragon Inn, so don't be a stranger. By the way, you should definitely sack whoever was supposed to be here when I stopped by.

A flower shop. Her mother, Queen of Shiromori in name, owned and ran a flower shop. Couldn't she have picked something a little more interesting to sell? Or at least, something without pollen, she thought to herself as she stifled her running nose with an unladylike sniff. How were all of these plants surviving indoors, anyway? There were only a few small windows; by all means, they should have been dead. She wished they were. Might as well be, if you're caged up in a dump like this. If I was a flower... ah, who am I kidding? If I was a plant, I'd be a weed.

Behind her, the door creaked open and someone stepped inside; knowing her luck, Maru doubted it was her mother. "I'd find another flower shop if I were you. The service here is awful."

The newcomer was silent for a few seconds longer, then shut the door and spoke. "I don't care."

That was certainly an odd thing to say. Maru rolled her eyes. "Well, you should."

"I'm only here because someone told me I'd meet a pretty girl," the man replied. There was something chillingly familiar about his voice, but as far as her memory was concerned, it rang no bells in conjunction with the Zhi language. "I didn't think that he would be right."

Maru only snorted. What a creep; he was not even worth a verbal reply.

"Maru?"

She turned around and stared. She somehow had the feeling that this moment might have been a lot more fitting if she hadn't lost her ability to be surprised. "Well, I'll be damned. Half an hour ago, I thought you were dead."

Other than the motions required of speech, Aurius's features were unmoved. "That explains a lot."

"I imagine my mother planned to tell me when I came to see her?" she asked, flicking at a loose bit of flesh by her thumbnail. He nodded; she sighed. "Pity that my father was withholding her letters, then. Two years without sex was a living hell--don't ask me how I ever survived virginity."

His full lips twitched into a slight smile. "Two years apart and this is the first thing we talk about."

"Well, that's what we do, isn't it? We fuck around and talk about absolutely nothing. How sturdy do you think that counter is? I don't think we're at any risk of being interrupted."

Aurius crossed his arms and stepped around her, grabbing her hand and leading her further into the shop. "I think we have a lot to talk about first."

A shiver of guilt coursed through Maru's body; she tried to mask it with a grimace. He must have meant the baby--he must have thought there was a baby. It was cruel to let him think that, but she did not feel strong enough to tell him otherwise just yet. "Can it wait?"

He shrugged. "Who am I to argue with you? You're so stubborn that it isn't worth the trouble, no matter how obviously wrong you are." He placed his hand on the counter and firmly pressed against its surface; satisfied, he withdrew his arm to his side and grinned.

"I think it's mounted to the floor. It should be sturdy enough." He drew toward her and rested a hand on her shoulder, kissing her chin and working his way upwards along her jawline, concluding with a soft nip of her earlobe. "If you don't want to talk just now, then we might as well make use of the time some other way."

Maru ran her hand downward along his chest and unhooked a button on his tunic at random. "Pervert."

"You say that as if it wasn't your idea."

He threw his arms around her and dipped her downward as she pawed it the back of his leg with her foot. "Is this where we left off last time? For some reason, all I can remember is being beaten by a group of thugs twice my size before being thrown into a dungeon."

Maru's eyes narrowed as he plunged his face into her neck. "By Kitasa, you're disgusting--and I don't think I could love you if you weren't. Now stop stalling for time and just take off your damn clothes already."


The End.

...or is it?