Sushi?
By AnitaB
Chapter two: Trust and food
Marshall glanced at Mary around the edge of his menu. If he hadn't held her while she cried, he wouldn't believe just by looking at her that she had a single tear, let alone enough to leave a still damp circle on his shirt. Her eyes were clear and not red at all. She was smiling a little more freely. In fact, Mary looked more centered and happier than she had in days, weeks. And he had given that to her with his words and his arms around her. That made him happier and more centered than he had been in weeks. Maybe months.
The fact that he could help Mary, could calm her, could still feel her in his arms… meant so much more to him than he could ever explain. "Well, Mare, what looks good?"
"It's raw fish, Marshall. I'm making you pick for me and kicking your ass if it makes me throw up." The look in her face said she meant it, every word.
Mary? Marshal Mary Shannon voluntarily giving up any control at all? And even with a faint smile… Marshall felt like checking her for every science fiction means of body duplication he'd ever heard of. Was she a pod-person from the planet mars? A clone from a lab? A robot copy? Or maybe his version of the dream woman from 'Weird Science'…
No, she was just his Mary. Perfect exactly as she was. "Hmm," He locked his eyes to the menu and hid a bit of a smile behind it. "At risk of an ass-kicking…" Marshall searched his memory of the hundreds of meals they had eaten together over the last seven years. He could either feed her something she would never choose on her own or something safe. What fun was safe? "Alright then. You're having the Anago with Wasabi on the side. And I'm having the Negi Toro. We're splitting an order of Gun Mandu."
The smile on her face made his breath catch. "And you're telling me what all that means in English… when?" A soft wave of her hand drew his eyes, yet again, to the naked length of her ring finger.
"After you've taken and finished at least one bite from each plate." She looked like she was about to protest, so he held up one finger to keep her from interrupting. "Even what I'm ordering… which is safe enough even for sushi newbies."
"Newbie?" He could hear the edge of heat in her voice. The old adage was even more accurate in her case. God, she was beautiful when she was angry. "You know what happened to the last person who called me a newbie… right? You, man of the freaky good memory and massive random knowledge, must recall that event."
"Didn't I almost have to handcuff you to pull you off his back? The ER gave him ten stitches and wanted to give you a tranquilizer." Marshall closed his menu and pretended to struggle for the details. "Was his name Brad or David?"
"Brady." The curve of her lips made his heart rate change. "Something Brady… or Bradley, I think. And you didn't have to handcuff me. Not even close."
Fiery Mary always made him respond. Not that she had any idea. But that wasn't what had kept him from kissing her after she'd cried in his arms. Oh, Marshall had thought about it. No man could have felt her against his chest, under his hands without wondering what it would feel like to kiss her. And he had thought about her kiss for years. But there was no way in the nine hells he was going to take a taste of her lips without her full and knowing consent.
With the smooth line of her cheek in his palm, only the uncertainty in her eyes had shored up his self-control. The only thing that scared Marshall more than losing her, was losing her after he'd found out exactly how perfect for each other they were. To watch her walk away from him when he could still taste her on his lips. He would cut out his own heart before he let himself hurt her.
Knowing all of that hadn't made pulling his hands off her skin any easier, hadn't made him wish for a kiss even a little tiny bit less.
Dragging his eyes off her lips, Marshall scrambled a moment for to get his mind back into the conversation at large. "You sure about that, Mare? I remember bruises on my shins from your heels and scratches on my arms when I went to poor Bradley's rescue."
"You'll know it if you ever try to handcuff me by the bullet holes in your ass."
"That's my violent girl," It was only when her head jerked to the side that he realized he'd spoken the words out loud, that he'd claimed her verbally like he wanted to do physically. The expression that washed through her eyes was unreadable and scared him for a quiet, stilted breath. There was something fragile in her face for the duration of their locked gazes. When her eyes pulled from his, Marshall fought to break the weird mood. "Oh I forgot for a second. You're no girl." He made sure the humor dripped from his voice and was relieved by her sharp little laugh and quick smile.
"You better believe it, man."
He loved the sound of her laughter, adored even more that she felt safe and comfortable enough around him to let go that much. There were people unlucky enough to never hear Mary Shannon laugh. "That's Mr. Mann to you."
"Isn't it Inspector Marshall Marshall Mann? I mean, if we're getting all technical." Her voice held humor and the edge of full on sarcasm. But then Mary without sarcasm was a sign of the end of the world. "Jesus, Marshall, if I hadn't seen your credentials like a million times already, I'd swear under oath that it was just you yanking everyone's chain."
He found himself smiling at the suspicion in her face. "Would I do that, Mary?"
"In a heartbeat. Somewhere behind that calm, responsible, adult exterior is the heart of prank-pulling teenage geek." He watched her fingers play along the edge of her menu because looking at her smile was just a little dangerous to his self-control. His Mary could make him feel like a teenager in more ways than trouble-making. "Don't forget, Marshall, I've seen your toy collections and listened for years to you babble nonsense about your multitude of science fiction favorites." Her shoulders shrugged and shook just a little with a laugh. "And I've seen you around guns and explosions. You are so a pyro."
"Explosions and guns are fun." Marshall found his hand moving on its own to rest on the table just a few inches from hers. "You know you love it when we get to shoot at people who annoy you."
The smile crossing her lips made his fingers twitch in the instant before her hand covered his. Every inch of his body went still at the touch, obsessed with feeling everything he could about his Mary reaching out for him. It couldn't happen enough to make him ever, ever get tired of it. "Only as long as they don't actually manage to shoot us back." Her smile failed, but the new look on her face was even more precious to him. It was only rarely that Mary showed him that she really did care about him. He always knew it… but sometimes faith was not enough to sustain a man. "I think we've both had enough close calls lately, don't you, Marshall?" Her fingers tightened on his until their knuckles went white at the force of their hold on each other. "I don't ever want to shove car parts into your chest ever, ever again."
He felt tears climbing the back of his eyeballs and held them in by the skin of his teeth. Marshall lifted their joined hands to his face and brushed his lips over her knuckles with a rough clearing of his throat. "And I never, ever want to watch you wheeled into an emergency room not breathing. My heart couldn't take it again."
He wanted to hold her again. Marshall felt the need to wrap his arms around her fill his every muscle. When she nodded, bit her lip, and leaned closer across the table, the urge to stand and pull her close got even harder to resist. Marshall felt his legs move, readying his body to stand and pull her up out of her seat and against his body…
"Welcome to Shogun's, my name is Keiko and I'll be your server tonight. May I take your drink orders to get you started?"
Mary jumped, but didn't pull away from his hand. That made him smile as he turned to the waitress. "Actually, we're ready to order." Rubbing his thumb back and forth over Mary's fingers, Marshall rattled off the foods he'd picked out and asked for normal silverware and chopsticks.
By the time Keiko headed back to the kitchen, Mary was smiling again too. "You are such a geek, Marshall. Does ordering in Japanese usually get you the girl?"
"Guess we'll find out, huh?" Marshall brushed a kiss over the back of her hand with a wide smile and a heavy faked Casanova accent. The smile and little laugh on her lips made his own smile even wider. /That's my Mary.\\
000
How had she not noticed in seven years that Marshall could be cute? She knew he was strong, smart, sarcastic, stubborn, and even attractive. But cute? That was a bit of a shock.
That accent was the worst she'd ever heard and it had to be on purpose because she'd heard him fake decent accents dozens of times. Paired with the waggle of his eyebrows and the soft little kiss to her hand, it made perfect sense that about half of their female witnesses got at least a little crush on him.
He even ordered her favorite beer without having to ask her what it was. Attentive and sweet to boot. Why the hell was he here with her? Mary shook off the feel of his lips on her skin and found that she still hadn't managed to pull her fingers from his. Frankly, Marshall didn't seem to mind and Mary was still feeling a little of the cold that had creeped into her skin when he'd let go of her in the car.
There was something that felt incredibly good in the warmth of his skin against hers. Mary found herself smiling at Marshall yet again as he used chopsticks to put three different foods onto a small plate which he then put in front of her with a challenge written in the arch of his eyebrow. "You know, Marshall, I don't usually put just anything in my mouth on someone's say so."
"Oh, I know that, Mare, but you trust me enough, don't you?" Long fingers folded on the table around his own bottle of beer. "Besides, you want to know what I picked for you, right? Can't let that curiosity eat you up."
His lips smiled in a little twist, the one he wore when he knew he'd beaten her at one of their little verbal games. She loved that smile. "Fine, but I'm still kicking your ass if any of this is disgusting."
"Agreed, and I'll tell you what you're eating after you've tried all three dishes." She could feel the warmth just in his eyes as she sighed dramatically and reached for the fork he'd gotten for her.
"You know I can use chopsticks, so what's up with the knife and fork?"
He smiled and was cute again. /So weird, how did I not notice?\\ Long fingers poked one chopstick at a filling-unidentified dumpling on her plate. "Ever tried to cut one of these in half with chopsticks?" Marshall slid the other set of sticks to her side of the table with an arch of his eyebrow. "Not in either of our skill sets. Here, Mary-san, prove your cultural mastery of the Asian eating utensils."
"Mary-san?" Mary arched her own eyebrow in a bad imitation of him. "Do I look Japanese to you, Doofus?" She found herself squeezing the hand still holding hers a little. Surprising really, that they had both managed to do so much in the last few minutes one-handed. "Are your eyes failing, or your mind?"
"As you know, Mary-san, I am a man of much knowledge and many skills. The word 'san' is a sign of deep and formal respect in Japan. That doesn't mean there are any restrictions about the ethnicity of the respected person."
"Yeah, and how many origami animals have you filled your mother's basement with already?"
"Banter all you like, Mary-san, but I do notice that you're not eating yet. Afraid?" Strong fingers returned her squeeze, seeming just a little focused on the paled skin on her ring finger. "Is Marshall Mary Shannon admitting that she's a coward?"
He must be trying to get himself shot again. But Mary knew she had to rise to the bait. No one, not even Marshall, got to question her bravery. "And this is?" She touched the tips of her chopsticks to the dumpling.
"Gun mandu." Marshall touched the other two items with his chopsticks. "And this is your Anago, and that is my Negi Toro." He pointed those chopsticks at her in a vaguely threatening manner. "And no, I'm not translating those into English until you've tasted all three. Well, Mare? What's it going to be?"
Dumplings were always safe. But he'd called her a coward. Hesitating with her chopsticks in the air, Mary turned them sharply to the Anago he'd ordered for her. The sparkle in his eyes and the dark twist in his smile as he'd ordered had said that this item was the one with the highest danger points. /Damn he's got me using gamer references.\\ She didn't allow herself any caution, pinching her chopsticks around the Anago and took a big bite. Well, she wasn't going to have to kick his ass. It had a weird texture, but tasted pretty good. But even better than whatever it was in her mouth, was the wide smile on Marshall's lips. And that smile got even wider as she chewed and swallowed. "Well, I don't have to kill you yet. Let's see if your luck holds."
"If I'm not getting beaten by the Anago, I think I'm safe. But if you're too scared to try the others…"
"You're trying to get yourself beaten to a pulp with all the comments. Is this some new death wish, or just a deep masochistic kink coming to the surface?" Mary reached for his sushi with a slow smile. "Pervis,"
His smile made her give him one back in the instant before she took a bite. Marshall had smiled more since they'd sat down in this booth than he had in the three weeks to a month before this. That look on his face was worth a hell of a lot more to her than food preferences. If she'd known it would make him smile like that, she'd have eaten the table and grinned the whole time. The sushi that even Mary, with her lack of restaurant Japanese, could recognize as spicy tuna was a breeze. "Well, Mare, am I a masochist?"
"Maybe if you'd ordered the wimpy spicy tuna for me… but since you chose the newbie sushi for yourself, I'll let you off the hook." She took a quick sip of beer before reaching for the third item on her plate. It was some kind of dumpling and therefore far too safe to let her beat his ass. With the first bite, she fell in love with the restaurant. This was easily the best dumpling she'd ever had. "Hmm… I guess you're safe from a beating, but only if you order some more of these dumplings."
"I'm impressed, Marshal Mary Shannon. You identified everything but Anago without the translation." He was smiling yet again as he divided all three foods onto both their plates. "Do you still want to know all of them?"
He was cute again. And still holding her hand. This was the warmth and affection she'd called him for. This, right here, at this man's side was where she needed to be. "Will I still want to eat it if I do?"
"My kick-ass Mary… yeah, I think you will."
/Your Mary…\\ She found her eyes dropping away from his, locking onto the beer in her hand. But she couldn't pull away from the grip of his fingers around hers. /When anyone else says that, I'm reaching for my gun… but this is Marshall… this is My Marshall.\\ Mary slugged back a swallow of beer and dredged up a sarcastic response. "Well, do you need your Japanese-English dictionary or what?"
She still loved the twist of his smile, but just now it made something twist in her chest. His grip tightened on her hand and Mary couldn't tell which one of them was holding on tighter. "Remember that you said you liked it already… it's sea eel."
/Eel?\\ "Like snake-looking fish, eel?"
He nodded around a bite of sushi and cleared his throat. "Yes, though what's more interesting about this species of sea eel, is that it changes texture during the year, depending on what season it's fished in." Marshall gave her his patented trivia look. "Just by the smoothness of the meat, I can tell that it's fresh. I would never order Anago at just any sushi restaurant."
"It does take a certain level of trust doesn't it?" Mary tried to distract herself from the weird feeling between her ribs. "To order complicated food from someone named Billy with greasy hair and a sweat-stained wifebeater under his apron."
"That's my suspicious Mary."
/Marshall's Mary…I think I like that.\\
000
