He stood tall in the small confines of her kitchen, welding a spatula and a sizzling pan of fried eggs. The Doraemon apron frilled around his neck and waist did not soothe the hard emerald gaze pressing on the duo at the door.
"Zen, why don't you wait for momma in your room?" Soleia ruffled the kid's hair, urging him to run to safety.
"Come on, Raizen, I made a delicious breakfast! Won't you have a bite? The eggs are shaped like bears," the man tilted the pan to show the child his sunny-side-up bear eggs.
"I just ate icecream, don't you see? thank you uncle. I should change out of my uniform and listen to momma," Raizen pointed at the icecream cone in his hand and proceeded to walk toward his room. His small head shook in disdain over a proposition so preposterous as eating eggs over icecream.
Soleia dropped Raizen's backpack on a nearby couch and leaned against its back. The intruder merely shrugged his shoulders and continued to flip the vegetables sizzling in another pan. His arm moved to and fro with the precision of a MasterChef. The kitchen faced the living room and the two glared at eachother over the kitchen island.
"Aren't you quite comfortable in here. Do you have a cinderella syndrome? Are you compelled to go house hunting every afternoon, at 12, and start cooking just about anywhere? Are you looking for a job?" Soleia sighed, pressing two fingers over her forehead.
"Aren't you so intrested in me today," the man looked up from his pan and supplied a charismatic wink in Soleia's direction.
"Oh my freaking lord," Soleia gasped in exasperation, "Get out of here before I call the cops on you and file a restraining order."
"You cannot do that," he poked a knife through a piece of capsicum and blew over its warmth, "I represent the house of Valdis. I will take my son back," he rounded the counter and stood in front of Soleia with his hand extended, offering her the impaled fried vegetable.
"He isn't even your son, aren't you too delusionally loyal," Soleia rolled her eyes and swatted his hand away. Her phone buzzed inside her pantpocket.
"I must bring him back in order to inherit the estate, you know that. It'd be so much better if you marry me. It'd be such a win-win," he drawled. Just as Soleia was about to turn her back to him, he pulled her by her wrists and pressed her against the couch, with his leg wedged in between her knees. He forced the salted capsicum against her lips with a maniacal gleam in his eyes.
It reminded her of that night in the auditorium, all those years ago, when she was younger and more naive to the ways of the world. They were shrouded in darkness and the singular lightsource, which was her mobile phone, laid on the floor by her feet. He had her hands pinned behind her back and his towering frame made her heart beat like a madman in captivity.
"Blaise..." Soleia whispered under her breath, neck craned to look him in the eye. His neck was curved so his forehead could meet hers, conveying warmth in the cold of the winter.
"I want to know everything about you, Leia," he whispered, voice husky and restrained as he pressed into her.
"E-everything...there isn't much to me," she stuttered and then hated herself for becoming a stuttering mess in his presence.
He chuckled at that and his warm breath fanned her face. Blood rushed to her cheeks and she turned her face to avert his piercing gaze. Their foreheads lost contact and his face fell to press a kiss on the crook of her neck.
The phone in her pantpocket buzzed louder.
Soleia coiled her legs around his, twisted it and as he propelled forward, she rammed her elbow in his nape and stepped away. The man, caught off guard, groaned and succumbed to the floor along with his knife and fried vegetable.
"A win-win for me would be seeing you begging for qualms on the street while I get back all that you serpents sucked from us," Soleia spat. She pulled out her phone and rolled her eyes at buzzing contact.
It was Aiden.
"You've gotten tough, Ha, but you'll only end up regretting it all. You don't pick a bone from a family of mad dogs," Blaise smirked as he settled himself on the floor, back leaning against the couch, eyes daring her to pick up the phone.
Soleia slid the red button to Aiden's call and dialled building security instead.
"Hello, yes, this is apartment 209, there is an intruder here. No, I do not know him, he was here, just cooking. Yes he tried to attack me with a knife so I had to defend myself. I am highly disappointed in your security measures. Yes please, be right up."
She pushed her cheeks in a smile, staring Blaise in the eye and she hung up.
"All I need to show is this," Blaise fished his phone out of his pocket and pressed the unlock button. A picture of Soleia's cheeks squished against Blaise's showed up as lockscreen.
Soleia let out an audible groan, turned her back to him and facepalmed. Active curses directed at her past flowed out of her tongue like a waterfall.
"But I guess I will leave for now, my daily dose of annoying you has been accomplished," Blaise chuckled as he got up and dusted off his navy dress pants and the Doraemon apron. "I'll see you this weekend, in court, my precious. Be it to marry you...or steal everything you've built so far," he winked as he picked up his coat from the couch and wore it.
Soleia skimmed over the curtsey to remind him of the embarassing apron he had on.
"I hope you stub your toe against a moving truck," Soleia smiled brightly as she waved her hand to bid him adieu.
"Oh, please don't see me out. Your house is about to burn down," Blaise uttered nonchalantly.
Soleia turned so fast she was sure she heard her waist crack. Her hatred for Blaise Valdis' existence multiplied tenfold when she saw flames erupting out of the fried vegetables, like a cursed item left out of reach from its master. Though, quick on her feet, Soleia used the fire extinguisher to manage chaos before it was too late.
The building security showed up moments later and Soleia made it an occasion to complain about the damage the intruder caused. She rested only after she got Blaise blacklisted from the visitors log.
As she succumbed to the softness of her orange couch, the headmistress' words echoed in her mind. Her kitchen was partly burnt, she had yet to pick a wedding dress, the next court hearing was on Friday and Aiden was wavering in his resolve. Soleia got up and tip-toed upstairs to see Raizen sleeping in his room, sprawled in the middle of the bed, face down.
She sighed as she entered his room, picked him up and settled him on his back with his head over the pillows. She covered him with the spiderman comforter and crouched beside the small bed.
Raizen was so peaceful when he was asleep. His small chest would move up and down as he pranced away in his dreamland. He was a passionate child — Soleia smiled as she thought, a smile that reached her eyes — when it came to matters of his intrest. He could get swept away in his passions too easily, she scoffed and wondered who he got ot from. Her hand reached out to caress his cheek.
He used to be so small; his face was barely larger than her hand when she got him. He would cry all day if seperated from his momma and loved listening to her humming, as horrible and out of tune as it was. Soleia reached forward to press a kiss on his forehead.
They'd come a long way.
Now wasn't time to lose everything to a detestable person like Balise.
Now was the time to grasp at every little strand of opportunity that life would offer. Not for herself but for Raizen. He needs a better future, a future of love and support, a life of peace and kindness. Something the Valdis would never offer.
Her jaw clenched.
The Valdis' were murderers afterall. There's no way she would hand another life over to them.