Title: Forgotten
Author: Serena J
Rating: PG
Genre(s): Romance
Pairing(s): Malik/Marik
Spoilers: none
Beta: Mishiko and SAL/Sally
Disclaimer: Just the words, not the folks.
Summary: Some things you remember forever
He has to catch the 6:42am train to get into the city on time, so I'm usually up by 5:30 to make breakfast and lunch. I woke him at 6:00 with lots of light kisses. Occasionally, I'm feeling frisky, and I'll wake him with a hummer, but when I do that he's usually late for work.
So, since this morning he couldn't be late, it's kisses and breakfast.
While he was eating, I got Isis and Rishid out of bed and moving. They needed to be on the 8am school bus.
At 6:30, I was at the front door, bento in hand.
He gave me his usual morning kiss, and grabbed his lunch. "I might go get a couple drinks after work tonight." He said casually.
My world stopped. "Tonight? But - but you can't! Not tonight!"
"Why?" He gave me a curious look. "Something special?" He unlocked the car and tossed his lunch on the passenger side. "Call me about it. I gotta go." Seconds later he was gone.
Something special? Was today something special? I don't know.
Is it special when your soul is reunited after having been split by time and space?
"Hey Pop!" Rishid brought my mind back. "I'm supposed to bring in a dozen cupcakes for lunch today." I nodded absently; it was on my calendar.
"Pop!" Isis yelled from somewhere unseen. "I can't find my yellow sweater!"
"The laundry room." I sighed. "Go get your sister's sweater for me."
"Sure." Rishid agreed with no complaint. "Are you ok?"
"Fine."
I got the kids out on time, but with odd looks from both of them.
"Get a grip." I focused enough to snipe. "And both of you, remember, you're staying with the Mazaki's tonight."
"We know!" Rishid rolled his eyes.
"You've said it, like, a million times!" Isis groaned.
Finally, around 7:30, the house was mine. First order, breakfast dishes. Then I cleaned anything that needed it, dusted and polished, and generally straighten the place. I also changed the sheets. Egyptian cotton. Feels like silk.
Around 11, I drove over to Rishid's school. The headmistress there hates me. I called her a bitch while Isis was still in her class and I think she still resents me for it.
"Mr. Ishtar."
Why that bitch was always by the damn door when I got there, I will never know.
"Ms. Crawford." I nodded, hoping that she'd let me and the cupcakes go by.
"Actually, I'm glad I ran into you, Mr. Ishtar. I'd like a word with you about Rishid."
She refused to call him who he was.
"You got a problem with my son?" I got as far into her face as the tray would allow.
"Rishid has been creating a disturbance during his classes."
The boy did have a stupid mouth; took after me, unfortunately. "So what did he do - allegedly?"
"He is refusing to leave another boy in his class alone."
That one brought me up short. "Oh?" If that was true, I was going to beat him til his ass fell off. "He's harassing this kid?"
"Rishid keeps insisting that they should be spouses and raise their eggs together."
"I - wait, what?"
"In the lesson plan?" I gave her the blank look I was feeling. "The lesson plan on relationships and children? The full semester course isn't until high school, but we give the junior high class a month-long section as an introduction. Since there are more boys that girls in Rishid's class, the teacher decided that Rishid and Wallace should both be `single fathers'. Rishid, however, has been insisting that he and Wallace should be a couple, that their eggs deserve a two parent family like any other egg, and he's making it very difficult for Ms. Hopkins to teach!"
I laughed. I laughed outright in her bigoted, bitch face. I headed into the building with the cupcakes.
"MR. ISHTAR!" Crawford screeched. "What are you going to do?"
"Not a damn thing." I had a little trouble getting the door open and keeping the cupcakes level, but I managed.
Crawford came running behind me. "I don't think you understand this situation. This little boy that Rishid is pushing himself on is not gay!"
"Oh, so all the kids in his class have announced that they are hetero?" I asked.
"MR. ISHTAR! They're children!"
"So you didn't ask them?"
"Of course not!"
I stopped and looked at her. "So then, some of the boy-girl couples you have raising their eggs might not be heterosexual kids?"
"I'm sure they don't even know -"
"I did." I told her flatly. "I knew when I was even younger." She opened her mouth, but I went on before she got it out. "So, Hopkins just assumed, without asking, that every boy in the room wanted to be partnered with a girl, and every girl in the room wanted to be partnered with a boy? And since that has to be the case, that it wasn't even possible that there was a boy who wanted to partner with a boy or a girl who wanted a girl? Seems to me that if the dumb bitch had just asked for a volunteer to be Rishid's partner, the whole issue would have been settled."
I headed down the hall. It was four dozen cupcakes and the damn things were heavy.
Crawford and I arrived at Rishid's classroom at about the right time.
"Everyone get with your partner." Hopkins was instructing. "All of your eggs are one week old today, so we'll have a birthday party for them. We'll also go over what you learned about your partner this week."
I got it. Right there, I got it totally. This wasn't about sex; this was about partners.
We were one soul, my lover and I, one being. I completely absorbed everything he was. There was no meeting as strangers. We didn't have any stories about first dates and awkward conversations. He knew me like he knew his own skin. So we couldn't teach the kids how you meet someone, how you get to know them. How you fall in love. But here in this class, Hopkins was handing Rishid exactly the knowledge he needed.
And then making him do the work alone.
My first response was to grab the bitch by her throat and break her neck. But I can't do that. I promised. No more bodies.
So, I went with my second choice. "Rishid, if you could have picked your partner, who would it be?" The whole class jumped because they hadn't seen me.
Rishid knew I was coming, though. "Miho." He answered promptly.
I heard a girl squeak and looked in her direction. "You Miho?" She nodded. "You wanna divorce that kid and raise an egg with Rishid?"
"Can I?" She started to hop up, but stopped and looked at Hopkins.
Hopkins was still stunned by my entrance.
"Sure." I said. I put the cupcakes on Hopkins' desk. "Now, you have a step-mother, a divorced father, and something approaching reality. You're welcome." I flipped off Crawford as soon as I was out of sight of the kids, and headed home.
I'd probably hear about that later, but it was worth it.
Once I got home, I got a bit antsy. What the hell did he mean he might go out for drinks tonight?
Not tonight.
I called his office and got told by his secretary that he was in a meeting all day. She said she'd have him call me when he was free. I put her on my mental list behind Crawford and Hopkins.
I tried to focus on dinner. Ful Medames with sliced eggs, mushrooms and onions. Baba Ghannoug. Kebdah. Koshari, of course. Foods from home. Nothing American or even Japanese tonight. I couldn't get a pigeon, so I had to stuff and grill a chicken, but that was my only substitution. For dessert, I made Fatir stuffed with dates, honey and pistachios.
If he went for so much as a sip of water after work tonight, I'll kill him. His ass better be on that 5:25pm train home.
I had time to shower while things simmered. Shower, shave, touch up my hair. I dressed from home as well - no shirt, a linen shift, gold collar, cuffs and armbands. I checked the mirror when I finished. I still looked like a god.
Then, I put on an apron and got dinner on the table before it burned.
If he got on the 5:25 train, he would walk through the front door at 6:40.
At 6:50, he was still not home.
At 7:00, he didn't answer his cell phone.
By 7:20 I was a wreck, flipping between the fear that something happened, and he was lying dead in a ditch somewhere, and the fear that he was in a bar getting ripped and I was going to have to break his neck.
At 7:30, as I was dialing the local hospital, I heard the doorbell.
He had a key. The kids had keys. Only strangers ring doorbells.
Strangers like police coming to tell you that you have to go identify the body.
Strangers delivering the idiot too drunk to drive himself home.
I didn't know if I wanted to open the door or not. I couldn't think of an answer I liked either way.
The bell rang again, and I got a grip on myself. If he is dead, I will find my millennium rod and lay waste to whoever or whatever killed him. If he's alive, I'll kill him.
I opened the door.
Irises. Egyptian Irises.
Too many to count. Whomever was holding them, was blocked out by them.
"The delivery was late." A familiar voice called out. "He was supposed to meet me when the train pulled in. I figured I'd be 5, maybe 10, minutes late." He peered over the top of the bouquet. "Happy Anniversary."
I thought I was gonna fucking cry. "I thought today wasn't special?" I said, moving so he could get through the door. It gave me a second to get my emotions in check.
"No more special than any other day I wake up and you're still here." He said covering the entire living room couch with the flowers. "I hope we have enough vases..." His voice trailed off. "...Wow. You look amazing."
"You could have called, asshole." I wasn't quite ready to forgive yet.
He smiled a bit sheepishly. "I left my cell phone at the office. I didn't want any calls tonight." He picked up one of the flowers and brought it over to me. "I had five dozen of them imported from Alexandria. I didn't think they'd get lost after they got to the States."
The only downside to knowing the soul of your mate is that you can't hold out on them. I can't even bluff these days.
"You should have called." I groused, taking the flower. "Asshole."
He laughed softly. "You're right, I should have." He kissed me softly. "I'm sorry, Marik."
"I was beginning to think you forgot. You're usually pretty sentimental about anniversaries and crap."
Malik knelt in front of me. "How could I forget the day - the minute - you stopped being a figment of my imagination and touched me? You tried to remake reality for me; I could never forget you. Or the day we met - in person." He smiled up at me. "You are everything to me. I wanted to get you something as breath-taking as you are."
I looked down at my light. All these years and still sweeter than I'll ever deserve. "I've still got slave cuffs around here. Stay on the floor like that, and I'll go get them."
His smile turned to a leer. "Is that a promise?" But he stood up. "Maybe after dinner. I'm starved! Is that Ful Medames I smell?"
I gestured to the fully laid out table.
He took the time to ooo and aah over everything before we sat down to eat. He picked a bottle of wine and poured two glasses.
"A Toast." He said handing me one. "To the reason I will never be afraid of the darkness, to why I will never be alone, to what gives my life meaning, and to the joy that gives me breath each day. You."
I put the wine glass down. He's the reason I'm not cowering in the shadows any more. Why I'm not afraid to stand in the light. I circled the table and pulled him out of his chair.
"What about dinner?" He asked as I dragged him upstairs.
"Fuck it."
"The kids?"
"Out."
"What -" I cut him off with a deep kiss as I shoved him on the bed and fell on top of him.
"I'm gonna make this a night to remember."