"Rabusongu - Part Three"
--Vega
***
"What did you think you were doing, embracing that weak human male in plain view!" Rurutip snarled angrily as soon as the bedroom doors hissed closed behind us.
"I- I didn't think that-" I stuttered, but he cut me off.
"That's it exactly, you WEREN'T thinking!"
Insulted, I pulled out of his arms and turned away from him, crossing my arms over my chest and staring out the window at the rose sky.
He came up behind me and wrapped his large arms around my waist, breathing warm air into my ear and ruffling my hair.
"You know what I feel," he said softly. "I don't like seeing you with another male."
"I wasn't going to do anything." I answered, just as softly. "I know what it would do to your hear – reputation." I covered my slip hastily, hoping he hadn't heard. "But Tony and I .. We go way back. I haven't seen him since before I met you."
Ru sighed, and began to nibble on my skin. I leaned my head out of the way obligingly.
"Fine. But don't ever touch the brat again," Ru snapped between bites, "Or I'll kill him. I don't like you smelling like someone else. Come," he took my hand and we crossed the living room to the bathing chambers, "we're taking a bath."
I giggled, and jumped onto his back, wrapping arms around his thick neck. "Just as long as I get sit on the steps. You nearly drown me last time." I said sulkily and began to kiss his exposed shoulder.
"Maybe," he rumbled.
***
I was anxious to find Tony when I woke up in a jumble of towels and hair on the bathroom floor, but Ru wouldn't let me leave alone.
I think he was afraid that I would love Tony and forget him.
How could he still not trust me after seventeen years?
***
Later in the evening Rurutip and I were summoned to the large sitting room that Vejii used to conduct meetings in. There were a number of elites there, Saiya-jinn and otherwise. It seemed like a sort of small social gathering.
I was relieved to see Tony there and unharmed, and from the look on his face, he felt the same about me.
"Maria!" he hissed under his breath, moving to grab my elbow and steer me away from the crowd. I jerked back from his touch.
"Please... don't." I said softly, and he stared at me with undisguised horror. "Saiya-jinn have a very acute sense of smell. I can't smell like you. Please, don't touch me."
He swallowed heavily and nodded. "Sure. Okay. Are you... alright?"
"I'm fine." I smiled disarmingly. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, the way that guy LOOKED at you..." he began nervously.
"Oh, pish-tosh." I waved that away. "Rurutip wouldn't hurt me. He was just... startled, that's all. People don't hug often around here."
"Oh."
There was a moment of silence and I looked over at Vejii, who was sprawled with superior arrogance on a couch, laying on his side, one knee crooked and his glass and hand resting on that while he propped up his upper body with his other elbow. Rurutip was whispering something in his ear, and Vejii was staring right at me.
He flipped his head to indicate that he wanted me to come to his side and I bid Tony good-night and knelt at Vejii's feet. He ran a hand over my hair, thinking, as he had done from the moment we first met. Then he said:
"You know him?"
"Hai," I answered.
"He has requested to take you back to Chikyuu-sei with him."
I looked up and saw the veiled pain in both their eyes.
"I shall do what ever pleases my lord." I said quietly, but the small tremor in my voice betrayed me. I had become resigned to my fate; I knew that I would never seen Chikyuu again. And yet, here, now, something was stirred back to life within me at the chance.... Oh, how I yearned to see that blue sky again!
Vejii stared at me long and hard, looking much older than his sixteen years. For a frightening moment he looked not like wise and just boy I had had a hand in raising, but a terrifying furious replica of his late older brother.
I shuddered. Then I turned large eyes on Rurutip. "Would you let me go, if I asked?"
One side of his lip curled back in a snarl. "No." He said. "I shall NEVER release you."
And with that he stormed out of the room. I watched him go, my eyes brimming with tears that I couldn't find a reason to shed. Then I hid my face and, for the first time I could remember, I ignored Vejii's enraged shouts as I ran from the room myself.
***
I hugged my cold body tightly as I sat under a large tree in Vejii's garden, staring at the cold stars that only dared to wink back, and not give me all the answers.
I had long ago ceased my sobbing, though why I had ever begun was still a question to me. Was I hurt by their lack of trust in me? That they thought I was so fickle that I would run away with Tony at my first opportunity? Did sixteen years mean NOTHING to them?!
Was I terrified by the fact that even after all those years, Ru maybe still only saw me as a THING to keep locked away? Was I betrayed by their deep feeling of hate towards what I used to be?
Did they ... want to keep me hidden from my roots? Did they want to keep me cut off? Isolated? All theirs?
Did I mean anything to my Saiya-jinn boys? Or was I still nothing more than an easy lay, soft hair, and a sweet voice?
Or was it that Rurutip had just misunderstood what I had asked. I said, "Will you let me go?" implying, "Will you let me visit Chikyuu?"
I suppose he heard, "Will you release me so I can go back to Chikyuu forever?" No wonder he was upset.
I didn't look up when a shadow fell over my shoulders and the sounds of armour clanking against the bark of the tree broke the still air.
Rurutip could move silently, if he wanted to. But he was making noise on purpose, which he usually only ever did when he was upset with me. Oddly enough though, he didn't yell as I expected him to.
I felt his arm encircle my shoulders and draw me as close to his hot body as I could go. I stayed there for a long time, not wishing to move, praying that Tony wouldn't find us, nor Vejii.
The tears I had been suppressing returned full-force and I squeezed back with all the strength I had.
Between my snuffles, I couldn't help but notice how good Rurutip smelled.
After a very long time, one in which Ru said not a word and merely squeezed gently back, I finally calmed, and we sat in comfortably silence for a while.
But, in the end, my curiosity broke the moment.
"Why don't you trust me?" I asked softly, not even sure he could hear me. But his grunt indicated that he could. "After all this time, do you think I still yearn to escape you?"
He sighed and my head rose and fell with his chest as he slouched against the tree so that we were nearly lying down. "After all these years, why must I feel as if must control your trust?" He responded in a forced-even tone.
"You can trust me." I answered, my voice still shaky. "And you can trust my judgement." I pressed a hand against his chest to push my face up to his. "Rurutip, for sixteen years I have given you and Vejii nothing but all that I am. You have become the centre of my world, and the only reason for my existence." I brushed the tips of my fingers across his soft lips, but he pulled away.
"Please, listen to me." I pleaded. "For once, hear me out."
He nodded, and I continued. "The first time I saw you, I was terrified. You saw that yourself. But you were interesting, intelligent... and lonely." I leaned my head against his shoulder, one hand over his heart to fell the familiar quadruple thumba-da-da-thump of his heart, so different from my own. "The first time you touched me in my bed, I wanted to kill you. I hated you with ever fibre of my being."
"Shut up," he groaned "Mayra... Don't say anything else."
But I continued stubbornly. "But Ru, you are a product of your society. There is a heart in here, I can feel it right now. You made me lonely because you were shut off. Your moral codes would not allow the weakness of emotional attachment. And so you made me yours in the only way you knew how."
He moved to cover my mouth with his hands and I jerked away, standing and stepping a few paces away, the chill abruptly returning to my flesh.
"No! Listen!" I hissed. "I hated you Rurutip. I hated you with everything I had! But... then you hit me. And I saw how your face turned red and you suppressed the tears and I realized that, even though you may never be capable of admitting anything remotely close to love for me, I was all you had. I was the only person that you could let in, even if I only got to stand at the open door ...and... you were all I had, too."
He made as if to stand and I pushed him gently back onto his back. "Rurutip... I came to feel pity for you, because the way in which you live forces you to feel nothing. But my society does not discourage that. Rurutip... I have to come to care about you. I won't leave you, even if you remove the slave bonds that keep me here."
I leaned down and planted a tender kiss on his lips. Immediately, Rurutip wrapped his arms around my shoulders and flipped us over in the grass, despising that I might be the aggressor, the one on top.
I stared up at him as he withdrew his tongue from my mouth. "You talk to much, dumbass woman."
I grinned softly. "Hai, wagakimi. I am aware of that. And yet you let me speak."
He slapped the side of my face playfully and then licked the sting away. I smiled and curled my legs around his torso.
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Rurutip whispered in my ear, and I stared past his head to the heavens once more.
"No." I agreed. "None at all."
***
The next morning, when I awoke a little later than usual, I found Ru gone. That, in itself, was no surprise. What WAS the surprise was the message left for me on the data pad on the table.
I turned the little "play" button on and Rurutip's head filled the palm-sized screen on the tabletop. He was scratching his scar irritably.
"The King and I have discussed this matter, and we have realized that if you are denied this, we will never hear the end of the bitching. You may return with this human to Chikyuu, HOWEVER, you will go on Celik's ship, and I will accompany you. This is a visit ONLY, do you understand, Ningen? Pack your things. We leave when you awake."
I all but danced into the bathroom to prepare. Not only was I going to get to see Chikyuu-sei again... but I was going with Rurutip!
***
I could tell that Vejii truly did not wish me to be out of his presence for so long as the journey and visit would take. It would be the first time in his entire life I was not right there, at all times.
I assured him that he was a King; he could look after himself.
During the week-long voyage back to Chikyuu, I tried to remember all that I could from my past life. I dug up every memory I had, and was disappointed when I found I had almost none at all.
The air between Ru and I was tense. I believe he still thought that I was going to take this opportunity to attempt an escape. I admit, I had toyed with the idea off and on in the yearlier part of our sixteen years, but learned that Vejiita-sei was best.
So, I did what I could to ease his worries, but he fretted in silence nonetheless.
How to make a lummox of a warrior realize that just because you are his fucktoy, you don't automatically hate him?
It helped that Tony was forced by some strange rule to travel on a different ship - although I had never heard of such a rule until just then.
I know both Vejii and Ru were terrified that once I reached Chikyuu, I'd decide to stay. For if I did, there was no way that either of them could find it in themselves to deny this one small bit of happiness to me.
***
When we landed seven days later in the middle of a bustling metropolis, I clung onto Ru's hand as though I were afraid I'd float away. In a way, I was. After so many years on Vejiita-sei, even with the gravity deflectors, I felt as if I was bobbing on the moon when I stepped out into the zero-G atmosphere.
Of course, that was impossible. Someone had destroyed our moon decades ago.
Even now, seventeen years later, nobody knew who. Maybe he or she was dead.
***
Tony met me eagerly on the platform, having been on Chikyuu for nearly three hours already, and I laughed at his nervousness.
Oh, naive and innocent Maria, have you returned home at last?
I pondered. If this was supposed to be home, why didn't it feel like it?
Brushing away the apprehension, I let Tony lead the way to a subway entrance. Rurutip balked at the claustrophobic space, and refused to use them, then scooped me up over one shoulder and stated rather plainly that we were going to my house to eat.
He remembered how to find it.
I shrieked with delight as he dove into the air. It was so rare that Ru and I ever got to fly.
***
I stared at my front door for a very long time before getting up the nerve to ring the door bell.... it felt so strange to be ringing at my own house.
A tiny greyed woman answered the door, her face well lived in and her hair almost completely white.
I stared at her for a very long time before I realized that this was my mother.
"O... okassan?" I said softly, and she studied my face intently.
Then her eyes widened and began to sparkle.
"Maria!"
***
Dad came out to the steps and squeezed me silly, and for the first time in a very long while, I was weeping not out of fear or hatred, or pain, but sheer relief.
Then Rurutip made his presence known and my parents glared hatefully at him. Ru smirked back, indifferent to their hatred. Why should he care what they thought of him? I was his, after all, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.
My parents exclaimed loudly how overjoyed they were that I was home at last, and that they had never given up hope that they'd one day see me again.
It made my heart twist in a way that it hadn't in a very long time to hold them close and tell them that this was not permanent, that I had duties back on Vejiita-Sei that could not be ignored.
For a moment I thought both of the little, fragile humans I held close were going to die on the spot from disappointment, but I was relieved that Mom sighed and said, "If you have to, dear. Please, come inside."
My mother had always had a respect for kept promises and duty.
Still, I had to keep reminding myself that although I wanted to squeeze my parents for all I was worth, the were HUMAN, and OLD.
They couldn't HANDLE that much.
Not that I had become stronger, but I was used to using my full strength at all times. Even the heaviest of punches could easily be brushed off by a Saiyan, and I had to work to make myself known if I chose to do so in such a manner.
Ru, probably cautious of me moving out of his line of sight, started towards the door too, but, surprising me, my frail little father turned back and said, "Don't think I don't recognize you. You're not welcome."
I turned back to my father with a look of horror on my face. Rurutip's tail bristled visibly, and flexed. I knew exactly what he wanted to do with it and panicked briefly.
I hastily made my way back outside to stand right between Ru and my father, looking up into the former's face. "Ru," I said softly, "please, don't."
He glowered down at me, then, very very quietly he said. "You make sure he keeps his mouth shut."
I nodded slowly and turned back into the house, Ru coming in right after me. Dad blanched and said nothing.
I sighed, shoulders tense and tears burning the back of my eyes and jumped only slightly when Ru's tail snaked around my waist. It didn't move all night.
***
"I don't know," I mumbled, turning to look at my rear in the mirror. "I don't remember if I ever looked good in jeans."
Rurutip, lounging suggestively on my bed in the basement, stared at my ass too. "I don't like them." he said. "They show off too much. Only I'm allowed to see that stuff."
"Huh," I sighed and stripped back out of them.
Mom hadn't touched my room at all after I left, I'd learned. She came in and dusted regularly, made the bed after I left that first night, and vacuumed once a week. She had wanted to make sure that everything was still here when I came back.
She had been so certain that I was going to come back.
It almost creeped me out.
Out of curiosity the night I had arrived, I had gone down to rummage through my closet, to see if anything still fit. Surprisingly, a lot of it did. Ru sure hadn't let me get overweight, I can say that much for him.
When my parents had retired for the night, Ru and I had retreated to my room, and he was enjoying the small fashion show. Dad had made it more to plain to Ru that he didn't want Ru in my room, and had even made a point of pulling out the sofa-bed.
But, Ru wasn't going to sleep anywhere else, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. Personally, I didn't mind.
Wearing only underwear (which was STRANGE after all this time!), and a tank top, I jumped onto the bed and mock-punched Ru in the stomach. "Your favourite outfit is my birthday-suit!"
He chuckled and we rolled over. Once again my arms were pinned above my head, and it brought a flash of fear and pain with it. Old memories surfaced and I shuddered....
**I tried to pull away from him, to pull back, but could not move. I began to panic, tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes. "Please, please, don't Rurutip!"
Something warm and furry wrapped around my waist and pulled me flush against his side.
"Please, please..." I whispered. "No..."
"Shut up, Ningen." Rurutip whispered, and I could hear the smile in his voice. "If you're too loud, you'll wake up your 'tousan, and then I'll have to kill him."
I froze, and he finally moved his hand from my mouth. "Please, no." I pleaded under my breath, I begged.
I felt rather than saw his hand run down my cheek, into my hair, and along my shoulder.
"Rurutip." I said softly, begging in only one word.
"I won't do anything you don't want me to if you obey." He answered in gentle tones. "I merely wish to speak to you more. This seems the most feasible method." The furry thing around my waist -his tail, I realized - pulled me so much that I was actually on top of his broad chest.
I began to tremble. I know I had resolved never to be afraid of Rurutip again, but now he was in my bed, wearing no shirt, clasping my body to his. I was scared absolutely shitless.
I stayed very quiet, and felt very small as he shifted his grip to the back of my shoulders, pushing me against his broad, hard chest. I whimpered.
"Stop making such pathetic sounds." Rurutip snapped. "I hate it when you whine. And stop shaking like that." he snarled, "Or you'll make me do something you'll regret."
I TRIED to stop quaking, really I did, but the threat made me even more terrified, and I shook more.
Rurutip snarled low in his throat, and the sound held warning.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my cheek into his neck, trying with all my might to relax and stop squirming, but my body wouldn't stop shivering.
The second sound that came from him was a growl that held less menace than lust.
The third was a purr that was pure enjoyment.
I grew tense and snapped my head up when I realized why. I had finally relaxed, but had been so intent on calming myself down that I hadn't paid any attention to where my various limbs were sprawled.
My lips had been pressed to the skin under his ear. My hands had been fisted over his huge pectorals... and my legs had somehow shifted so one was on the outside of his hip, while the other was in between his legs.
I whimpered again when his teeth closed gently on one of my ears.
"Just remember..." he smiled in the dark, and I felt him roll. I was suddenly pinned beneath him on my mattress, his hands on my shoulders, his legs on either side of my knees, and his tail lashing in the dark as he arched his entire body. "...you started this."**
I whined, my eyes squeezed shut and Rurutip paused in his assault of my bare shoulders to stare at my face with a puzzled expression. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
I squirmed out of his grasp and pulled myself up to the head board, the tears sparkling in my eyes.
"What's wrong!?" he hissed.
I hid my face from him, but he pulled my hands away to meet my eyes.
"Kuso, what's wrong with you? Why are you so afraid of me all of a sudden?"
I shook my head slowly. "It's ... Nothing. I just... was..." a sob caught in the back of my throat and I refused to let it out. He waited me out. "... remembering."
There was a long, heavy pause, and I heard Rurutip sigh, then he sat up himself. "I knew this would happen." he snarled under his breath and stood, stalking out of the room. "You're useless tonight."
I stared after him for a long while before looking around me.
My room, once the only place in the universe where I could feel safe and happy, was suddenly cold and empty. I felt so alone, I could barely stand it.
I snuggled down into the sheets and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep, but I was cold, so I rolled over to wrap myself around Ru's warmth and realized with a start that he was not there. I suppressed a desperate whimper and closed my eyes.
I twisted and turned, but could not find a comfortable position to sleep in. The bed was far too flat for me, too firm, and I finally ended up pulling all my sheets and pillows off the bed and throwing them into a jumbled pile on my carpet, then tried to fall asleep on that.
It was much better, but there was still no Rurutip, and I was very cold.
Peeking at the clock - 1:26 am - I snuck upstairs, preparing to go outside to try to find Ru, but didn't have to go past the living room. Ru had taken the hint and fallen asleep on the pull-out couch.
I padded over quietly and gazed down at him. In his sleep, Ru's face actually relaxed and the constant scowl eased away. He looked so peaceful and innocent. Even his angry scar's pinkish ferocity seemed to lesson.
The starlight from the nearby bay window shone onto his body, highlighting his raven-black hair with threads of mystical silver.
I watched the rise and fall of his chest, breathing in time with him, taking deep, cleansing breaths.
Then, startling me back to myself, a few whispered escaped from Ru's soft lips. "If you're going to stand there all night, you might as well climb in."
I smiled gently, grateful that he understood my dilema, and crawled onto the lumpy mattress beside him. Ru opened his arms for me and I snuggled into his bare chest, wrapping both my legs around one of his.
He nuzzled my neck briefly, nipping, then fell once more into sleep.
I followed soon after.
***
I don't think Dad was pleased to come downstairs the next morning to find Ru and I tangled around one another. At some point during the night, Ru had awoken and began to do some delightfully naughty things.
I'm surprised he could be so quiet. He'd never done it silently before.
I stared sheepishly at my Dad's angry face from the sheets, feeling like the teenager I had been the last time I had seen him, and crawled back into my clothes before going for a shower.
That was another odd thing... showers! How long had it been since I'd had one of those? When I came back upstairs, Dad was watching the morning news on the TV, and I stared at it intently. TVs! I'd forgotten about those! I wondered briefly if "Buffy" was still on...
At any rate, Mom stuffed me full of breakfast; lots of wonderful things like pancakes and cereal and orange juice and bacon. Things I'd forgotten I loved.
When I inquired where Rurutip had gotten to, they said with a smile that he'd left already.
That led me to worry, and I dressed quickly before going out to look for him. I came upstairs in the usual powder blue dress I always wore and Mom made a horrified sound. I looked down at my attire, considered her less-than pleased reaction to my unintentional but obvious gesture of subservience, then ran back downstairs to throw on a sweater and jeans.
I really wasn't comfortable in them, but at least it wouldn't Mom a coronary, and I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
I found Ru in the backyard, under a tree, and I sat down beside him. "I'm sorry they hate you." I said softly.
"Feh," he snorted. "I don't care."
"No, I guess you don't."
There was another long pause. Not uncomfortable, though.
"What will you do here, Ningen?" he asked, "We have a whole goddamned week and I'm already bored.
I turned my glittering eyes to the sky. "Remember the colour blue."
***
My old friends eventually learned that I was home, and wanted to have a party of sorts, but I said, rather plainly, "no."
I didn't do that sort of thing anymore anyway.
Around dusk that day, I sent a message to Vejii, thanking him for letting me come, and assuring him that I would be back on Vejiita-sei before he knew it.
Chikyuu was not all I remembered it being.
Everywhere I looked I saw the bad - litter on the streets, homelessness, lousy jobs, and depressed and lonely people. That wasn't all there was, I know. Chikyuu-sei had not fallen into squalor, but I was unconsciously comparing it to Vejiita-sei, were everyone had a home, and the grounds were ALWAYS clean and bright because there were so many slaves to do it.
I couldn't stand the smell of the polluted waterways and sewers that ran under the roads, and the car exhaust made my eyes burn constantly.
After wandering around my out haunts the second day I went back to my parent's house and had a shower immediately to wash the reek of industrialisation away.
The third day I didn't leave the house at all, and Tony came by with a few of our old crowd. I can't even begin to explain how uncomfortable I felt, being grilled by these strangers, alone. Rurutip had taken to staying on Celik's ship in the next town over.
And as all the people I used to know and love tried to force me to re-live my old life, I realized how dissatisfied with it I was. There was no meaning to such an existence. No one truly cared about me or what I had to say, and I had no purpose.
As a child, I had fooled myself into thinking that having an education, a job, a boyfriend, would make my life have meaning, but as I looked around me, at my friends and their husbands and wives and children, I realized that they were no more influential than ants in a glass jar.
Not that I thought myself superior... it's just that, because I had duties back on Vejiita-sei, I felt like I had MEANING.
And Chikyuu just wasn't cutting it.
On the fourth day Celik pounded on the front door of my parent's house and I answered the door sleepily, as it was barely three in the morning.
"Here, Ningen." he said, and handed me a data pad. "From the King."
I thanked him as he left, then ran into the kitchen, snapping on the light so I could read the screen.
My parents, who had also been awoken by Celik's noise, came into the kitchen to peer over my shoulder at the image of Vejii that appeared in my palm.
"Maria." He said plainly, which made me curious. He very rarely called me that in a message. "You have to come back now! There's this.... female! From Ieart-sei! I can't make her go away!" His fresh sixteen-year old face contorted in a look of extreme panic, exasperation, and fear. "She keeps... trying to stick her antennae in my mouth! You have to help!"
I laughed out loud, and my parents sent me puzzled looks.
"Please, Okassan!" Vejii whimpered, "Come home now!" And then the message-pad shut off.
I stared at it for a moment, struck dumb and stunned that Vejii had called me "Okassan." He thought of me as his mother...? I mean, I knew I had been a large part of his upbringing... but, MOTHER?
No, it just must have been a Freudian slip, that's all. I dismissed it as just that.
Behind me my parents were conversing silently with concerned looks, and I turned to them. "I guess I have to go back." I shrugged, still chuckling. "My King is having his first crisis of the heart, and I must be there for him, as he commands."
Mom stared at me for a while, her eyes sparkling with the tears that I knew were bound to fall soon enough. "You... can't..." She whispered, horrified.
"I must." I shrugged. "Either I go willingly, or Ru will drag me back. I'd rather use my own feet."
My parents said nothing, because they knew that nothing would make me change my mind.
I had to go home.
***
Celik landed his craft in my yard like a pro.
Tony stared at the large metal ship that was sitting like a giant grey spider on my parent's back lawn. Then he turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders. For once I didn't pull away.
"Don't go, Maria." he said softly. "You don't have to go back."
"I know," I smiled weakly in return, fondling the fabric of my dress. It was the first time I had worn it in almost a week, and it felt oddly comforting. "But Vejiita-ou needs me. I can't say no."
"Yes!" he hissed. "You can! Please, you don't have to be a slave anymore!"
"Tony." I said softly, looking to meet his eyes, "I haven't really been a slave in years."
Then I turned away from him and towards Rurutip, who was waiting with an annoyed look on his ever-scowling face at the foot of the gangplank. Celik was waiting with a smug smirk next to him, imitating his pose.
Tony grabbed my arm and twirled me back to him. "Maria! You don't really mean to go back with... that THING!" he exclaimed, waving vaguely towards Ru.
I glared at Tony for having insulted Rurutip in such a way and yanked my hand away, ripping free of his grasp.
I looked him right in the eye and said "I do."
Then I turned my back on my family and friends for the final time and walked over to Rurutip, smiling up at him faintly.
He glared back and his tail snaked out to enclose my hips.
And then we walked into the ship.
***
THE END
--Vega
***
"What did you think you were doing, embracing that weak human male in plain view!" Rurutip snarled angrily as soon as the bedroom doors hissed closed behind us.
"I- I didn't think that-" I stuttered, but he cut me off.
"That's it exactly, you WEREN'T thinking!"
Insulted, I pulled out of his arms and turned away from him, crossing my arms over my chest and staring out the window at the rose sky.
He came up behind me and wrapped his large arms around my waist, breathing warm air into my ear and ruffling my hair.
"You know what I feel," he said softly. "I don't like seeing you with another male."
"I wasn't going to do anything." I answered, just as softly. "I know what it would do to your hear – reputation." I covered my slip hastily, hoping he hadn't heard. "But Tony and I .. We go way back. I haven't seen him since before I met you."
Ru sighed, and began to nibble on my skin. I leaned my head out of the way obligingly.
"Fine. But don't ever touch the brat again," Ru snapped between bites, "Or I'll kill him. I don't like you smelling like someone else. Come," he took my hand and we crossed the living room to the bathing chambers, "we're taking a bath."
I giggled, and jumped onto his back, wrapping arms around his thick neck. "Just as long as I get sit on the steps. You nearly drown me last time." I said sulkily and began to kiss his exposed shoulder.
"Maybe," he rumbled.
***
I was anxious to find Tony when I woke up in a jumble of towels and hair on the bathroom floor, but Ru wouldn't let me leave alone.
I think he was afraid that I would love Tony and forget him.
How could he still not trust me after seventeen years?
***
Later in the evening Rurutip and I were summoned to the large sitting room that Vejii used to conduct meetings in. There were a number of elites there, Saiya-jinn and otherwise. It seemed like a sort of small social gathering.
I was relieved to see Tony there and unharmed, and from the look on his face, he felt the same about me.
"Maria!" he hissed under his breath, moving to grab my elbow and steer me away from the crowd. I jerked back from his touch.
"Please... don't." I said softly, and he stared at me with undisguised horror. "Saiya-jinn have a very acute sense of smell. I can't smell like you. Please, don't touch me."
He swallowed heavily and nodded. "Sure. Okay. Are you... alright?"
"I'm fine." I smiled disarmingly. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, the way that guy LOOKED at you..." he began nervously.
"Oh, pish-tosh." I waved that away. "Rurutip wouldn't hurt me. He was just... startled, that's all. People don't hug often around here."
"Oh."
There was a moment of silence and I looked over at Vejii, who was sprawled with superior arrogance on a couch, laying on his side, one knee crooked and his glass and hand resting on that while he propped up his upper body with his other elbow. Rurutip was whispering something in his ear, and Vejii was staring right at me.
He flipped his head to indicate that he wanted me to come to his side and I bid Tony good-night and knelt at Vejii's feet. He ran a hand over my hair, thinking, as he had done from the moment we first met. Then he said:
"You know him?"
"Hai," I answered.
"He has requested to take you back to Chikyuu-sei with him."
I looked up and saw the veiled pain in both their eyes.
"I shall do what ever pleases my lord." I said quietly, but the small tremor in my voice betrayed me. I had become resigned to my fate; I knew that I would never seen Chikyuu again. And yet, here, now, something was stirred back to life within me at the chance.... Oh, how I yearned to see that blue sky again!
Vejii stared at me long and hard, looking much older than his sixteen years. For a frightening moment he looked not like wise and just boy I had had a hand in raising, but a terrifying furious replica of his late older brother.
I shuddered. Then I turned large eyes on Rurutip. "Would you let me go, if I asked?"
One side of his lip curled back in a snarl. "No." He said. "I shall NEVER release you."
And with that he stormed out of the room. I watched him go, my eyes brimming with tears that I couldn't find a reason to shed. Then I hid my face and, for the first time I could remember, I ignored Vejii's enraged shouts as I ran from the room myself.
***
I hugged my cold body tightly as I sat under a large tree in Vejii's garden, staring at the cold stars that only dared to wink back, and not give me all the answers.
I had long ago ceased my sobbing, though why I had ever begun was still a question to me. Was I hurt by their lack of trust in me? That they thought I was so fickle that I would run away with Tony at my first opportunity? Did sixteen years mean NOTHING to them?!
Was I terrified by the fact that even after all those years, Ru maybe still only saw me as a THING to keep locked away? Was I betrayed by their deep feeling of hate towards what I used to be?
Did they ... want to keep me hidden from my roots? Did they want to keep me cut off? Isolated? All theirs?
Did I mean anything to my Saiya-jinn boys? Or was I still nothing more than an easy lay, soft hair, and a sweet voice?
Or was it that Rurutip had just misunderstood what I had asked. I said, "Will you let me go?" implying, "Will you let me visit Chikyuu?"
I suppose he heard, "Will you release me so I can go back to Chikyuu forever?" No wonder he was upset.
I didn't look up when a shadow fell over my shoulders and the sounds of armour clanking against the bark of the tree broke the still air.
Rurutip could move silently, if he wanted to. But he was making noise on purpose, which he usually only ever did when he was upset with me. Oddly enough though, he didn't yell as I expected him to.
I felt his arm encircle my shoulders and draw me as close to his hot body as I could go. I stayed there for a long time, not wishing to move, praying that Tony wouldn't find us, nor Vejii.
The tears I had been suppressing returned full-force and I squeezed back with all the strength I had.
Between my snuffles, I couldn't help but notice how good Rurutip smelled.
After a very long time, one in which Ru said not a word and merely squeezed gently back, I finally calmed, and we sat in comfortably silence for a while.
But, in the end, my curiosity broke the moment.
"Why don't you trust me?" I asked softly, not even sure he could hear me. But his grunt indicated that he could. "After all this time, do you think I still yearn to escape you?"
He sighed and my head rose and fell with his chest as he slouched against the tree so that we were nearly lying down. "After all these years, why must I feel as if must control your trust?" He responded in a forced-even tone.
"You can trust me." I answered, my voice still shaky. "And you can trust my judgement." I pressed a hand against his chest to push my face up to his. "Rurutip, for sixteen years I have given you and Vejii nothing but all that I am. You have become the centre of my world, and the only reason for my existence." I brushed the tips of my fingers across his soft lips, but he pulled away.
"Please, listen to me." I pleaded. "For once, hear me out."
He nodded, and I continued. "The first time I saw you, I was terrified. You saw that yourself. But you were interesting, intelligent... and lonely." I leaned my head against his shoulder, one hand over his heart to fell the familiar quadruple thumba-da-da-thump of his heart, so different from my own. "The first time you touched me in my bed, I wanted to kill you. I hated you with ever fibre of my being."
"Shut up," he groaned "Mayra... Don't say anything else."
But I continued stubbornly. "But Ru, you are a product of your society. There is a heart in here, I can feel it right now. You made me lonely because you were shut off. Your moral codes would not allow the weakness of emotional attachment. And so you made me yours in the only way you knew how."
He moved to cover my mouth with his hands and I jerked away, standing and stepping a few paces away, the chill abruptly returning to my flesh.
"No! Listen!" I hissed. "I hated you Rurutip. I hated you with everything I had! But... then you hit me. And I saw how your face turned red and you suppressed the tears and I realized that, even though you may never be capable of admitting anything remotely close to love for me, I was all you had. I was the only person that you could let in, even if I only got to stand at the open door ...and... you were all I had, too."
He made as if to stand and I pushed him gently back onto his back. "Rurutip... I came to feel pity for you, because the way in which you live forces you to feel nothing. But my society does not discourage that. Rurutip... I have to come to care about you. I won't leave you, even if you remove the slave bonds that keep me here."
I leaned down and planted a tender kiss on his lips. Immediately, Rurutip wrapped his arms around my shoulders and flipped us over in the grass, despising that I might be the aggressor, the one on top.
I stared up at him as he withdrew his tongue from my mouth. "You talk to much, dumbass woman."
I grinned softly. "Hai, wagakimi. I am aware of that. And yet you let me speak."
He slapped the side of my face playfully and then licked the sting away. I smiled and curled my legs around his torso.
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Rurutip whispered in my ear, and I stared past his head to the heavens once more.
"No." I agreed. "None at all."
***
The next morning, when I awoke a little later than usual, I found Ru gone. That, in itself, was no surprise. What WAS the surprise was the message left for me on the data pad on the table.
I turned the little "play" button on and Rurutip's head filled the palm-sized screen on the tabletop. He was scratching his scar irritably.
"The King and I have discussed this matter, and we have realized that if you are denied this, we will never hear the end of the bitching. You may return with this human to Chikyuu, HOWEVER, you will go on Celik's ship, and I will accompany you. This is a visit ONLY, do you understand, Ningen? Pack your things. We leave when you awake."
I all but danced into the bathroom to prepare. Not only was I going to get to see Chikyuu-sei again... but I was going with Rurutip!
***
I could tell that Vejii truly did not wish me to be out of his presence for so long as the journey and visit would take. It would be the first time in his entire life I was not right there, at all times.
I assured him that he was a King; he could look after himself.
During the week-long voyage back to Chikyuu, I tried to remember all that I could from my past life. I dug up every memory I had, and was disappointed when I found I had almost none at all.
The air between Ru and I was tense. I believe he still thought that I was going to take this opportunity to attempt an escape. I admit, I had toyed with the idea off and on in the yearlier part of our sixteen years, but learned that Vejiita-sei was best.
So, I did what I could to ease his worries, but he fretted in silence nonetheless.
How to make a lummox of a warrior realize that just because you are his fucktoy, you don't automatically hate him?
It helped that Tony was forced by some strange rule to travel on a different ship - although I had never heard of such a rule until just then.
I know both Vejii and Ru were terrified that once I reached Chikyuu, I'd decide to stay. For if I did, there was no way that either of them could find it in themselves to deny this one small bit of happiness to me.
***
When we landed seven days later in the middle of a bustling metropolis, I clung onto Ru's hand as though I were afraid I'd float away. In a way, I was. After so many years on Vejiita-sei, even with the gravity deflectors, I felt as if I was bobbing on the moon when I stepped out into the zero-G atmosphere.
Of course, that was impossible. Someone had destroyed our moon decades ago.
Even now, seventeen years later, nobody knew who. Maybe he or she was dead.
***
Tony met me eagerly on the platform, having been on Chikyuu for nearly three hours already, and I laughed at his nervousness.
Oh, naive and innocent Maria, have you returned home at last?
I pondered. If this was supposed to be home, why didn't it feel like it?
Brushing away the apprehension, I let Tony lead the way to a subway entrance. Rurutip balked at the claustrophobic space, and refused to use them, then scooped me up over one shoulder and stated rather plainly that we were going to my house to eat.
He remembered how to find it.
I shrieked with delight as he dove into the air. It was so rare that Ru and I ever got to fly.
***
I stared at my front door for a very long time before getting up the nerve to ring the door bell.... it felt so strange to be ringing at my own house.
A tiny greyed woman answered the door, her face well lived in and her hair almost completely white.
I stared at her for a very long time before I realized that this was my mother.
"O... okassan?" I said softly, and she studied my face intently.
Then her eyes widened and began to sparkle.
"Maria!"
***
Dad came out to the steps and squeezed me silly, and for the first time in a very long while, I was weeping not out of fear or hatred, or pain, but sheer relief.
Then Rurutip made his presence known and my parents glared hatefully at him. Ru smirked back, indifferent to their hatred. Why should he care what they thought of him? I was his, after all, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.
My parents exclaimed loudly how overjoyed they were that I was home at last, and that they had never given up hope that they'd one day see me again.
It made my heart twist in a way that it hadn't in a very long time to hold them close and tell them that this was not permanent, that I had duties back on Vejiita-Sei that could not be ignored.
For a moment I thought both of the little, fragile humans I held close were going to die on the spot from disappointment, but I was relieved that Mom sighed and said, "If you have to, dear. Please, come inside."
My mother had always had a respect for kept promises and duty.
Still, I had to keep reminding myself that although I wanted to squeeze my parents for all I was worth, the were HUMAN, and OLD.
They couldn't HANDLE that much.
Not that I had become stronger, but I was used to using my full strength at all times. Even the heaviest of punches could easily be brushed off by a Saiyan, and I had to work to make myself known if I chose to do so in such a manner.
Ru, probably cautious of me moving out of his line of sight, started towards the door too, but, surprising me, my frail little father turned back and said, "Don't think I don't recognize you. You're not welcome."
I turned back to my father with a look of horror on my face. Rurutip's tail bristled visibly, and flexed. I knew exactly what he wanted to do with it and panicked briefly.
I hastily made my way back outside to stand right between Ru and my father, looking up into the former's face. "Ru," I said softly, "please, don't."
He glowered down at me, then, very very quietly he said. "You make sure he keeps his mouth shut."
I nodded slowly and turned back into the house, Ru coming in right after me. Dad blanched and said nothing.
I sighed, shoulders tense and tears burning the back of my eyes and jumped only slightly when Ru's tail snaked around my waist. It didn't move all night.
***
"I don't know," I mumbled, turning to look at my rear in the mirror. "I don't remember if I ever looked good in jeans."
Rurutip, lounging suggestively on my bed in the basement, stared at my ass too. "I don't like them." he said. "They show off too much. Only I'm allowed to see that stuff."
"Huh," I sighed and stripped back out of them.
Mom hadn't touched my room at all after I left, I'd learned. She came in and dusted regularly, made the bed after I left that first night, and vacuumed once a week. She had wanted to make sure that everything was still here when I came back.
She had been so certain that I was going to come back.
It almost creeped me out.
Out of curiosity the night I had arrived, I had gone down to rummage through my closet, to see if anything still fit. Surprisingly, a lot of it did. Ru sure hadn't let me get overweight, I can say that much for him.
When my parents had retired for the night, Ru and I had retreated to my room, and he was enjoying the small fashion show. Dad had made it more to plain to Ru that he didn't want Ru in my room, and had even made a point of pulling out the sofa-bed.
But, Ru wasn't going to sleep anywhere else, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. Personally, I didn't mind.
Wearing only underwear (which was STRANGE after all this time!), and a tank top, I jumped onto the bed and mock-punched Ru in the stomach. "Your favourite outfit is my birthday-suit!"
He chuckled and we rolled over. Once again my arms were pinned above my head, and it brought a flash of fear and pain with it. Old memories surfaced and I shuddered....
**I tried to pull away from him, to pull back, but could not move. I began to panic, tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes. "Please, please, don't Rurutip!"
Something warm and furry wrapped around my waist and pulled me flush against his side.
"Please, please..." I whispered. "No..."
"Shut up, Ningen." Rurutip whispered, and I could hear the smile in his voice. "If you're too loud, you'll wake up your 'tousan, and then I'll have to kill him."
I froze, and he finally moved his hand from my mouth. "Please, no." I pleaded under my breath, I begged.
I felt rather than saw his hand run down my cheek, into my hair, and along my shoulder.
"Rurutip." I said softly, begging in only one word.
"I won't do anything you don't want me to if you obey." He answered in gentle tones. "I merely wish to speak to you more. This seems the most feasible method." The furry thing around my waist -his tail, I realized - pulled me so much that I was actually on top of his broad chest.
I began to tremble. I know I had resolved never to be afraid of Rurutip again, but now he was in my bed, wearing no shirt, clasping my body to his. I was scared absolutely shitless.
I stayed very quiet, and felt very small as he shifted his grip to the back of my shoulders, pushing me against his broad, hard chest. I whimpered.
"Stop making such pathetic sounds." Rurutip snapped. "I hate it when you whine. And stop shaking like that." he snarled, "Or you'll make me do something you'll regret."
I TRIED to stop quaking, really I did, but the threat made me even more terrified, and I shook more.
Rurutip snarled low in his throat, and the sound held warning.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my cheek into his neck, trying with all my might to relax and stop squirming, but my body wouldn't stop shivering.
The second sound that came from him was a growl that held less menace than lust.
The third was a purr that was pure enjoyment.
I grew tense and snapped my head up when I realized why. I had finally relaxed, but had been so intent on calming myself down that I hadn't paid any attention to where my various limbs were sprawled.
My lips had been pressed to the skin under his ear. My hands had been fisted over his huge pectorals... and my legs had somehow shifted so one was on the outside of his hip, while the other was in between his legs.
I whimpered again when his teeth closed gently on one of my ears.
"Just remember..." he smiled in the dark, and I felt him roll. I was suddenly pinned beneath him on my mattress, his hands on my shoulders, his legs on either side of my knees, and his tail lashing in the dark as he arched his entire body. "...you started this."**
I whined, my eyes squeezed shut and Rurutip paused in his assault of my bare shoulders to stare at my face with a puzzled expression. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
I squirmed out of his grasp and pulled myself up to the head board, the tears sparkling in my eyes.
"What's wrong!?" he hissed.
I hid my face from him, but he pulled my hands away to meet my eyes.
"Kuso, what's wrong with you? Why are you so afraid of me all of a sudden?"
I shook my head slowly. "It's ... Nothing. I just... was..." a sob caught in the back of my throat and I refused to let it out. He waited me out. "... remembering."
There was a long, heavy pause, and I heard Rurutip sigh, then he sat up himself. "I knew this would happen." he snarled under his breath and stood, stalking out of the room. "You're useless tonight."
I stared after him for a long while before looking around me.
My room, once the only place in the universe where I could feel safe and happy, was suddenly cold and empty. I felt so alone, I could barely stand it.
I snuggled down into the sheets and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep, but I was cold, so I rolled over to wrap myself around Ru's warmth and realized with a start that he was not there. I suppressed a desperate whimper and closed my eyes.
I twisted and turned, but could not find a comfortable position to sleep in. The bed was far too flat for me, too firm, and I finally ended up pulling all my sheets and pillows off the bed and throwing them into a jumbled pile on my carpet, then tried to fall asleep on that.
It was much better, but there was still no Rurutip, and I was very cold.
Peeking at the clock - 1:26 am - I snuck upstairs, preparing to go outside to try to find Ru, but didn't have to go past the living room. Ru had taken the hint and fallen asleep on the pull-out couch.
I padded over quietly and gazed down at him. In his sleep, Ru's face actually relaxed and the constant scowl eased away. He looked so peaceful and innocent. Even his angry scar's pinkish ferocity seemed to lesson.
The starlight from the nearby bay window shone onto his body, highlighting his raven-black hair with threads of mystical silver.
I watched the rise and fall of his chest, breathing in time with him, taking deep, cleansing breaths.
Then, startling me back to myself, a few whispered escaped from Ru's soft lips. "If you're going to stand there all night, you might as well climb in."
I smiled gently, grateful that he understood my dilema, and crawled onto the lumpy mattress beside him. Ru opened his arms for me and I snuggled into his bare chest, wrapping both my legs around one of his.
He nuzzled my neck briefly, nipping, then fell once more into sleep.
I followed soon after.
***
I don't think Dad was pleased to come downstairs the next morning to find Ru and I tangled around one another. At some point during the night, Ru had awoken and began to do some delightfully naughty things.
I'm surprised he could be so quiet. He'd never done it silently before.
I stared sheepishly at my Dad's angry face from the sheets, feeling like the teenager I had been the last time I had seen him, and crawled back into my clothes before going for a shower.
That was another odd thing... showers! How long had it been since I'd had one of those? When I came back upstairs, Dad was watching the morning news on the TV, and I stared at it intently. TVs! I'd forgotten about those! I wondered briefly if "Buffy" was still on...
At any rate, Mom stuffed me full of breakfast; lots of wonderful things like pancakes and cereal and orange juice and bacon. Things I'd forgotten I loved.
When I inquired where Rurutip had gotten to, they said with a smile that he'd left already.
That led me to worry, and I dressed quickly before going out to look for him. I came upstairs in the usual powder blue dress I always wore and Mom made a horrified sound. I looked down at my attire, considered her less-than pleased reaction to my unintentional but obvious gesture of subservience, then ran back downstairs to throw on a sweater and jeans.
I really wasn't comfortable in them, but at least it wouldn't Mom a coronary, and I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
I found Ru in the backyard, under a tree, and I sat down beside him. "I'm sorry they hate you." I said softly.
"Feh," he snorted. "I don't care."
"No, I guess you don't."
There was another long pause. Not uncomfortable, though.
"What will you do here, Ningen?" he asked, "We have a whole goddamned week and I'm already bored.
I turned my glittering eyes to the sky. "Remember the colour blue."
***
My old friends eventually learned that I was home, and wanted to have a party of sorts, but I said, rather plainly, "no."
I didn't do that sort of thing anymore anyway.
Around dusk that day, I sent a message to Vejii, thanking him for letting me come, and assuring him that I would be back on Vejiita-sei before he knew it.
Chikyuu was not all I remembered it being.
Everywhere I looked I saw the bad - litter on the streets, homelessness, lousy jobs, and depressed and lonely people. That wasn't all there was, I know. Chikyuu-sei had not fallen into squalor, but I was unconsciously comparing it to Vejiita-sei, were everyone had a home, and the grounds were ALWAYS clean and bright because there were so many slaves to do it.
I couldn't stand the smell of the polluted waterways and sewers that ran under the roads, and the car exhaust made my eyes burn constantly.
After wandering around my out haunts the second day I went back to my parent's house and had a shower immediately to wash the reek of industrialisation away.
The third day I didn't leave the house at all, and Tony came by with a few of our old crowd. I can't even begin to explain how uncomfortable I felt, being grilled by these strangers, alone. Rurutip had taken to staying on Celik's ship in the next town over.
And as all the people I used to know and love tried to force me to re-live my old life, I realized how dissatisfied with it I was. There was no meaning to such an existence. No one truly cared about me or what I had to say, and I had no purpose.
As a child, I had fooled myself into thinking that having an education, a job, a boyfriend, would make my life have meaning, but as I looked around me, at my friends and their husbands and wives and children, I realized that they were no more influential than ants in a glass jar.
Not that I thought myself superior... it's just that, because I had duties back on Vejiita-sei, I felt like I had MEANING.
And Chikyuu just wasn't cutting it.
On the fourth day Celik pounded on the front door of my parent's house and I answered the door sleepily, as it was barely three in the morning.
"Here, Ningen." he said, and handed me a data pad. "From the King."
I thanked him as he left, then ran into the kitchen, snapping on the light so I could read the screen.
My parents, who had also been awoken by Celik's noise, came into the kitchen to peer over my shoulder at the image of Vejii that appeared in my palm.
"Maria." He said plainly, which made me curious. He very rarely called me that in a message. "You have to come back now! There's this.... female! From Ieart-sei! I can't make her go away!" His fresh sixteen-year old face contorted in a look of extreme panic, exasperation, and fear. "She keeps... trying to stick her antennae in my mouth! You have to help!"
I laughed out loud, and my parents sent me puzzled looks.
"Please, Okassan!" Vejii whimpered, "Come home now!" And then the message-pad shut off.
I stared at it for a moment, struck dumb and stunned that Vejii had called me "Okassan." He thought of me as his mother...? I mean, I knew I had been a large part of his upbringing... but, MOTHER?
No, it just must have been a Freudian slip, that's all. I dismissed it as just that.
Behind me my parents were conversing silently with concerned looks, and I turned to them. "I guess I have to go back." I shrugged, still chuckling. "My King is having his first crisis of the heart, and I must be there for him, as he commands."
Mom stared at me for a while, her eyes sparkling with the tears that I knew were bound to fall soon enough. "You... can't..." She whispered, horrified.
"I must." I shrugged. "Either I go willingly, or Ru will drag me back. I'd rather use my own feet."
My parents said nothing, because they knew that nothing would make me change my mind.
I had to go home.
***
Celik landed his craft in my yard like a pro.
Tony stared at the large metal ship that was sitting like a giant grey spider on my parent's back lawn. Then he turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders. For once I didn't pull away.
"Don't go, Maria." he said softly. "You don't have to go back."
"I know," I smiled weakly in return, fondling the fabric of my dress. It was the first time I had worn it in almost a week, and it felt oddly comforting. "But Vejiita-ou needs me. I can't say no."
"Yes!" he hissed. "You can! Please, you don't have to be a slave anymore!"
"Tony." I said softly, looking to meet his eyes, "I haven't really been a slave in years."
Then I turned away from him and towards Rurutip, who was waiting with an annoyed look on his ever-scowling face at the foot of the gangplank. Celik was waiting with a smug smirk next to him, imitating his pose.
Tony grabbed my arm and twirled me back to him. "Maria! You don't really mean to go back with... that THING!" he exclaimed, waving vaguely towards Ru.
I glared at Tony for having insulted Rurutip in such a way and yanked my hand away, ripping free of his grasp.
I looked him right in the eye and said "I do."
Then I turned my back on my family and friends for the final time and walked over to Rurutip, smiling up at him faintly.
He glared back and his tail snaked out to enclose my hips.
And then we walked into the ship.
***
THE END