The Next Day

Waking up with my Oria is pure bliss. That, and I’ve never felt so satisfied before, after last night. We slept the entire time wrapped up in each other’s arms, my face pressed into Oria’s shoulder and her hands spread across my back, pooling heat and strength into me.

“Morning, my love,” Oria hums, her palms massaging circles into my skin. Letting out a happy sigh, I press a kiss to her shoulder.

“Oh fuck. I hope you have some kind of potion to hide marks, or it’s going to be an interesting day at the shop,” I laugh, pulling back to inspect the damage I did to her neck and chest. And legs and back, and just about every other place as well, but no one will see those. Oria raises her eyebrows at me, smiling. 

“You’re in about the same position, so maybe we’ll keep the shop closed today. Although I’ve been closed for a couple days now…” she contemplates, before grinning. “Oh fuck it, we already told people we’re engaged last time we went to the market, so might as well embrace it.”

“You’re not serious - if I get seen like this people will actually think I’m a whore,” I laugh, but I’m also a little serious. I want to leave that part of my life behind. I want to leave behind every part of my life before this little shop. Oria cups my cheek gently, smoothing her thumb across my jaw. 

“You’ve called yourself that a couple times now. I don’t like it,” she mumbles, and a cold feeling drips over me.

“You…don’t like that I used to be a whore? It’s not like I liked it either, but…I mean you had to have realised, what with how I approached you and all…” I trail off, feeling ashamed. Oria quickly shakes her head, pulling me into a closer hug. 

“That’s not what I meant, I’m sorry. I don’t like how you refer to yourself in that way, like you’re degrading yourself. I respect that you did what you had to, and that you got this far. That you made it to me. I just wish you wouldn’t be so harsh on yourself.”

Gripping her tightly, I take a few deep, shuddering breaths, trying to calm myself. She’s right - I did what I had to. I made it here.

“And besides…I don’t know if I should say this or not,” Oria says slowly, “but you’re really, really good. I definitely should’ve let you take more control before,” she strokes my back gently and I finally pull back in order to kiss her.

“Well, you know what they say. Practice makes perfect,” I smile, before it slips off my face. “You’ve only been with Rius before me, but I’ve…there have been a lot of people.” Oria kisses me again, her hand resting warmly on my waist.

“I don’t mind. It only bothers me that it bothers you. But I promise, I would never think of you differently because of this. I love you just the way you are,” she whispers, that gorgeous smile back on her perfect lips. Fuck, she’s so wonderful. We stay cuddled in bed for a while until Oria remembers that the dogs will be getting hungry. She very reluctantly gets out of bed and I get a full view of her torso, now that the sun is spilling through the window. I don’t let my gaze linger, instead opting to follow her out of bed. She opens her chest of drawers, revealing exactly what I had suspected - rows of the exact same tank tops and black shirts. I snort, pressing a kiss to her shoulder blade. 

“Well, you never have to worry about what to wear,” I smile, stealing a shirt from her and wearing it myself. It smells just like her. I have to button it right up to the top and arrange my hair accordingly to hide all the marks littered over my neck, but Oria doesn’t seem to care as much. She wears her shirt exactly as she always does - top few buttons undone, revealing a little skin but not enough to see the scars, and sleeves rolled up to her elbows. A large bruise is perfectly visible above the collar, on the side of her neck. Everyone will see, since although her hair is long, only the back is so it doesn’t hide anything. Oria catches me staring and grins, crossing her arms.

“Maybe I’m feeling a little smug about getting laid and want to announce it. I promise I won’t tease you any more than this though, and if anyone asks, I’ll just say it was my fiancée. I won’t name you or anything,” she kisses my temple, circling her arms around my waist. “I’m just really, really happy that you’re finally mine,” she grins, stealing a kiss from me. Wrapping my arms around her neck, I give her a thorough kiss involving minimal groping before pulling back, breathless.

“Let’s open the shop.”

—————

-Oria-

I was happy before, that morning when Artemisia first saw my scars. That whole day, I felt like I was floating on happiness. Well, until that evening, when everything went wrong. But that feeling of joy cannot compare to how I feel today. Today, it’s like I can forget everything bad that has ever happened to me. Like I can focus utterly, completely on Temi. 

But I can’t ever forget the past. 

And that’s ok. I don’t need to forget it - I’ve learnt to live with it. Going back to that estate, I realised how much stronger I was. I still hated being there, even for such a brief moment, but I focused on Temi and it was ok. She got me through it.

She could get me through anything.

I get curious looks from several of my regular customers when they spot the mark on my neck, but I wear it like a badge of honour and refuse to be embarrassed by it. It takes a lot of self restraint throughout the day to not kiss Temi each time I lay eyes on her - how she manages to organise potions and look so goddamn gorgeous doing so, I will never understand. I spend a lot of time just watching her, her expression full of focus as she double checks a shelf again, clearly aware that something isn’t in the right place but unable to tell exactly what the problem is. The two bottles on the very left need to be swapped with each other, but if I were to tell her that, she wouldn’t figure it out for herself. And I know she wants to learn, plus this way I get to stare at her, so…I’ll leave it up to her.

Just as I’m thinking of closing up shop for the evening, a customer steps in - no, not a customer. Rius. Or, well, he is technically a customer I suppose. Moving from behind my desk after tearing my gaze away from Temi, I immediately accost my friend and push him behind one of the aisles of potions closest to the door, and furthest from Temi. Rius gives me an annoyed look, but doesn’t make a sound.

“Ri, what are you doing?” He whispers, correctly guessing that I want to be quiet. And then I grin and pull him into a hug. He hugs me back after a moment, still confused. Pulling back from the hug, I flick my hair over my shoulder and power pose with my hands on my hips. Rius’ gaze zeroes in on the mark on my neck and he raises one eyebrow.

“Congrats? I’m- I’m guessing what you’re so eloquently trying to explain is that you finally moved on, right? From that- you know. That girl,” he says quietly. Rius has seen my back, he knows the name I have etched into my skin. He doesn’t know the full story, just that I loved a girl, her dad was a psycho and that I never really got over her. I didn’t feel the need to go into egregious detail; he could see it all anyway. Eventually. It’s not like I showed him right from the start; it took a long time of us being together, almost an entire year, before I eventually took off my top around him. He never rushed me though, and I really, really appreciate that. He never made me feel ugly for the scars either, but it felt different showing Rius the scars versus showing Temi. He has his own large scars, and he wasn’t so closely involved in the situation which led to me getting them. It was Temi I was scared to show them, but…she’s wonderful. Of course. She always has been, it’s why I’ve stayed loving her for so long.

“Not quite,” I laugh. 

“Oria? If everyone’s gone, shall we close?” Temi steps around the corner and abruptly stops when she spots Rius. “Oh, sorry,” she mumbles, immediately looking awkward. Does she not like him, or is it just because she knows we used to be together? I can talk to her about it once he’s gone.

“I’ll just grab some stuff for my mother and then I’ll get out of your hair,” Rius smiles, patting my shoulder before giving Temi a quick look up and down. “She’s gorgeous. I can see why you ended up with a mark like that,” he smirks, while Temi goes an adorable shade of pink.

“I’ll um. Leave you be,” she says awkwardly before power-walking off.

“I’m guessing we’re not still having dinner together tonight then,” Rius elbows me in the ribs, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“Fuck off, I’m not about to pounce on her the moment we’re alone, I swear,” I laugh, before frowning. “Wait, shit. Was that tonight?” Rius nods, moving towards my desk at the back where I keep the potions I make specifically for his mother.

“I’ll ask Temi if she minds - she wants to know more about my life so maybe she’ll enjoy spending time with my best friend,” I glance around the shop, trying to locate my sweet archer. If she’d rather have dinner just the two of us tonight, I’ll of course respect that. It’s my fault for forgetting about Rius, just…so much has happened recently. We made these plans before Temi even appeared in my shop.

But…I want to spend tonight with my two favourite people. Maybe Temi won’t mind?