Streaks of faded sunlight emerged across the charcoal grey sheets. The tall, bearded half orc man with artichoke green skin slowly tossed himself onto his back as his eyelids fluttered open. His deep, iron colored eyes darted across the room before he slowly sat up on his bed. He ran his greasy fingers through his messy, chestnut blonde hair that reached down to his earlobes while he yawned, putting his inch-long tusks, on his bottom set of teeth, on full display. He scratched his equally messy, matching colored beard, which reached down to his collarbone, as he looked around the dimly lit, smoke grey room. He noticed a faint, delicious scent in the air which drew his attention to the bedroom door. He flung his burly legs over the side of the bed as he got up, completely nude, and picked his powder blue drawers off of the cold floor. He then threw on his hickory brown trousers before he approached the door. Once he opened it and walked over to the kitchen, he was hit with a strong scent of vanilla. The man smiled once he saw a petite, pink haired woman making pancakes on the stove while facing away from him and wearing his button down top.
The man's oat beige top reached all the way down to the woman's knees and the baggy sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. The woman's messy, hip-length, rose pink hair was tied in a low ponytail. He gazed at her feminine form and focused on her smooth, slender legs as she flipped the last pancake onto the stack of fresh pancakes. The man slowly walked up to her, without making a sound, and wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned in and gently kissed her neck.
"Good morning, sweetheart." He whispered into her ear.
The woman nearly jumped when she felt him touch her body.
"Griff!" Said the woman, sounding a bit displeased, as she turned around to face him.
"I'm sorry, Mairey," said the man as he kept his hands on her, "Did I startle you?"
"Yes, you did!" Said Mairey, seeming to be very upset with him.
"I'm sorry, my dear."
"Aw it's alright, baby." Said the woman as she smiled. Griff leaned in and Mairey wrapped her arms around his neck as they shared a kiss. Griff could taste the sweet, glycerin-based balm on his lover's lips while Mairey could taste the morning breath coming from his unbrushed mouth. Mairey winced at the taste and quickly pulled her lips away from Griff, causing him to let go of her.
The man straightened his back, "Just out of curiosity," he began, "Why did you ask to stay here again? I don't mind if you want to live with me for a little while, but aren't you supposed to be living on campus?"
Mairey looked down for a moment as Tilda's words echoed through her mind.
*"This place is supposed to be a safe learning environment for women … men are forbidden from attending … Homosexual women … are no different from them …"* The woman wrapped her arms around her chest as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She also grimaced as she remembered Headmistress Biyagi's conversation with Terry.
"I…" Mairey stared at the floor for a moment before she faced Griff again, "I just needed to get away and take a little break before finals."
"Oh, that makes sense." Said the man, understandingly. He then looked at the stack of pancakes, "So what's the occasion?"
"For breakfast?" Asked Mairey, seeming a bit confused by his question, "It's the most important meal of the day!" She smiled.
"No, no." Griff shook his head, "I meant, why did you make breakfast? Isn't it a little too early to be cooking for me?" He chuckled.
"Too early?" She raised an eyebrow, "We've been together for three months now. How is any of this too early?"
"Three months?" Griff scratched his head as he gazed at her in confusion, "Has it been *that* long?"
"Yes," she sighed, "How long did you *think* we've been together for?"
"Uh…" The man scratched his chin, running his dirty nails through his greasy beard, "A few weeks?"
Mairey crossed her arms and looked down, "Oh Griff!" she sighed.
The man smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Why don't I make it up to you?"
"Oh?" She looked up at him, "How do you plan on doing that?"
"Well," Griff pushed a few strands of pink hair out of Mairey's face and behind her pointy ear, "I was wondering if you wanted to go a second round in the bedroom."
She put her palm on her face and sighed, "Sex? Really?" Mairey rolled her eyes at him, "I swear, that's all you ever seem to think about!"
"Alright then," Griff sighed in defeat, "How do you want me to make this up to you?"
Mairey put her index finger and thumb on her chin as she looked to the side while she thought about her answer. While she was deciding, Griff took the plate of pancakes and sat down at the dining table with two other plates. He served himself three pancakes and poured a hefty amount of maple syrup onto his food before he began to devour them with his bare hands.
"Oh I know!" Said the woman as she sat down, across the table from Griff, "Why don't we go on a picnic?"
"A picnic?" Griff raised an eyebrow, "You mean, in the park?"
Mairey nodded, "Yes, in the park! I wanna go this Saturday during the afternoon."
"Oh…" The man looked to the side as Mairey began to serve herself some pancakes, "Why the park?"
"I like parks," said the woman as she began spreading some margarine onto her food,
"I've been so busy lately that I haven't gotten a chance to go to the local park," she started cutting her food with a knife, "I heard the park here is really nice in the afternoons and evenings."
"I guess." He looked down at his sticky, mushed food.
She looked up at him, "What's wrong, honey?"
"I don't really like parks," said the man as he faced her, "I'm not very outdoorsy."
"Oh," Mairey frowned a bit and looked down, "Well, we don't have to go if you don't want to."
The man then shook his head, "No, no! I want to make this up to you, therefore, we should go."
She looked over at him and smiled, "Really?"
The man smiled softly and nodded, "Yes!"
Later that day, Mairey was at Lar's apartment looking after Aphiya. After tucking her in and reading her a bedtime story, the little girl had fallen asleep. Mairey quietly stepped out of her room and sat down on the couch in the living room. She took her spellbook out from her bag and began to read it. The front door opened before Lars entered the section adjacent to the living room.
"I'm home!" He announced loudly with a goofy grin on his face.
Mairey turned to face Lars and shushed him. "She's sleeping." Said the woman softly yet, sternly.
"Oh," his voice quickly softened, "My bad." He walked into the living room and sat down in his large, comfy, spruce blue chair before setting his bag down on the floor.
"How was work?" Asked Mairey as she continued reading her book.
"Busy but much better than yesterday," said Lars as he began to remove his worn shoes, "How was Aphiya? She didn't give you too much trouble, did she?"
"No," Mairey smiled, "She was very sweet."
"Oh yeah?"
The woman nodded, "We went outside to play with her skipping rope and blind man's bluff. Then it started raining, so we went inside and played snakes and ladders. She had a lot of fun and was tired out pretty quickly so putting her to bed wasn't difficult at all."
"You were able to tire her out so easily?" Lars raised an eyebrow, "I'm very surprised someone was able to do that. I mean, she's always full of energy so it's nearly impossible to get her to go to sleep willingly."
"I have lots of experience with taking care of children, mainly my nephews." She faced him, "I ended up picking up a few things from babysitting them."
"That's great!" He smiled, "What did you feed her for dinner?"
"Baked cod fillets with mashed potatoes and vegetable medley."
"Sounds delicious!" His stomach rumbled when she mentioned the food, "I think that's my queue to eat now." He chuckled softly.
"You should definitely eat! You've had a long day." Said the woman. As Lars got up from his seat and began to walk over to the kitchen, Mairey stopped him for a moment.
"One more thing," said the woman, "You're out of ketchup."
"What?" Lars scratched his head as he looked down at her, "But how? I just bought a fresh bottle last week. That should last us at least a month."
"Yes, but Aphiya finished it. You see, the bottle was half full and then she used all of it on her food."
Lars looked down and put his hand on his face as he sighed, "Oh dear. That girl sure likes ketchup. I swear," he faced her, "Back in my day, ketchup was supposed to be very acidic and sour. Nowadays, they're adding sugar to it. I know it's not a lot of sugar but Aphiya will put away anything that has the least bit of sweetness to it. That's why I rarely ever give her candy. She usually ends up eating too much and getting a tummy ache."
"Tummy ache?" Mairey chuckled.
"I meant stomach ache. Sorry," Lars smiled with a chuckle, "I've been spending so much time with my kid that I've forgotten how to speak to adults."
"I understand." The woman giggled softly at his comment.
"That reminds me!" Lars walked over to his bag and pulled out a small jar. He returned to the woman and handed it to her, "Speaking of ketchup, I saw this and I thought you might like it." The transparent jar was full of chopped, mustard yellow cauliflower, onion, and carrot.
Mairey accepted his gift, "You got me some piccalilli?" She smiled as she looked at the item.
"Yep!" Lars nodded, "I saw this white lady at the market selling these. I was wondering if it's as good as authentic Indian pickled veggies so I decided to buy some and give it to you since I've never tried spicy pickle before."
"Aww," she looked up at him, still smiling, "That's really nice of you." She paused for a moment and eyed him suspiciously, "You're still going to pay me for babysitting, right?"
Lars burst out laughing, "Of course I am! Don't worry, Mairey," he began, "This gift is just a token of my appreciation for our friendship, not a payment for your services."
"Good!" She sighed.
Once he stopped laughing, Lars looked at her with a calm expression, "By the way," he sat down next to her, "Are you free this Saturday? I need you to watch Aphiya in the afternoon."
Mairey shook her head, "Unfortunately, I can't. I have a date around that time."
"Oh?" Lars raised an eyebrow, "What a coincidence! So do I." He smiled.
"Really?" The woman was pretty surprised at the chance of this happening, "You met someone?"
The man nodded, "Last week, in fact. We met at the local market and bonded over our shared interest in music."
"Ah. So what's her name?" Asked Mairey.
"His name is Wallace." Said Lars, smirking.
"Oh," Mairey looked down, feeling a little embarrassed, "Sorry, I didn't mean to assume."
"It's alright," he chuckled as he placed his arm on her shoulder, "I can understand the confusion. Everyone thinks I only prefer women because I had a wife at one point."
She looked up at him, "So you like both women and men?"
"Yep!" He nodded, "Although," he placed his index finger and thumb on his chin as he looked to the side, "I guess one could assume that I prefer women more than I prefer men since I've only been with women so far."
"So Wallace is your first male lover?"
He looked at her and nodded, "Pretty much!"
"Have you ever taken interest in men prior to meeting Wallace?"
He nodded again, "Of course! I've taken interest in plenty of men, however," he looked down and sighed, "None of them ever had any interest in me."
"Oh," Mairey frowned, "I'm sorry."
He looked at her and smirked, "It's alright. I've come to terms with the fact that not everyone I'm interested in will reciprocate those feelings. That's just life, you know?" He shrugged slightly.
"That's a fair point," said Mairey, "So tell me more about Wallace." She put her hand under her face and rested her chin on her palm as she looked at him curiously.
"Well," Lars smirked as he ran his fingers through his plum colored hair, "He's this really cute, seelie man, a few inches shorter than me, and he has big, dark blue eyes."
"A seelie? Like, a fey?"
The man nodded, "Yep! Although he doesn't have any wings. Apparently, not all fey have wings."
"Oh. Well he seems pretty interesting," she looked to the side and thought for a moment. She then looked at him, "I have an idea!"
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Why don't we go on a double date? You, Wallace, Griff, and I can all go to the park in the afternoon for a picnic."
"Hmm," Lars looked to the side and thought for a moment, "That," he looked at her again, "Sounds like a great idea!" He smiled, "Would it be alright if I brought Aphiya?"
Mairey smiled, "Of course!"