Tyger awoke on the floor. She rolled over and got up. It was cold in here. She grabbed some fire wood and started the fire which had went out over night. She went in the bedroom careful to be quite since Mark was still asleep. She grabbed some jeans and a tank top and went to the bathroom to get dressed. She stopped on the way back to the living room and looked at Mark sleeping. He looked almost innocent in his sleep. He was lying on his back with one arm thrown above his hand the other resting on his stomach. She studied his tattoos. He had quite a lot of them. He had her beat to hell. She only had two. Ok Tyger get a move on and quit staring at him, he is about as innocent as a rattle snake she told herself.
Tyger rattled around in the kitchen. She moved to the music she was listening to as she made biscuits. She was singing along to "Cleaning out my closet." By Eminem. She liked the song it reminded her of her fucked up life. She would love to let lose on her aunt like that. She put the biscuits in the oven and started some gravy. Mark come in and watched her singing along. "Do you have to listen to that noise this early in the morning?" he asked. Tyger just rolled her eyes at him. "If you old people would listen to the words he sings instead of complaining about a couple of cuss words you would understand what he is trying to say." She said. She poured Mark a cup of coffee and set it in front of him. "Who are you calling old?" he asked. "You." She said and went back to cooking. Mark watched her work. She knew her way around a kitchen. She was a good cook. He knew she had worked as a cook before one of her many jobs. All of a sudden she screamed and turned up the Cd player. "It's my song." She said. Mark heard "The real Slim shady" come on. Oh Great he thought. But he started laughing as she sang along and danced to the song. "Your weird kid." He said laughing. She just shrugged and kept singing. Tyger pulled out the biscuits and put them on a plate. "It's ready, come get you a plate." She said. Mark got up and fixed him a plate. They sat down and ate. "You're a good cook." He said. She shrugged. "I've had a lot of practice." She said. "Can I ask you something?" Mark said. "What?" she said. "What's with the name?" he asked. "I only know what my aunt told me. She said my moms said I looked like a little tiger cub and decided to name me Tyger. My aunt thought it was pretty dumb." She said "But what the fuck does that bitch know anyway." Tyger mumbled as she got up to wash her plate. Mark could see there was no love lost between her and her aunt. "Do you know much about your mom?" he asked. "No, my aunt never told me much, Just she got knocked up from a one night stand. I don't know anything about my father either. My aunt said she didn't know who he was. Just a typical guy hit it and run." She said. Mark watched her she showed no emotion about her life it was like she was talking about a stranger. "I'm going out to cut wood." She said. "I'll do it." He said. "You can help; we'll get it done faster. It's cold as hell out there." She said. Okay, lets get going." He said getting up.
They had been working about an hour. Even with the hard work it was cold. He was chopping now and she was stacking the wood on the long porch. She had insisted on chopping for a while. But he had taken over after about twenty minutes. Hell if he was going to let a woman stand there and chop wood while he stood there and did nothing. "Hey Lurch, let me do it for a while." Tyger said. Mark burst out laughing. She made quite a picture standing there with her hands on her hips like she could take on the world and win. "Listen shorty you just stack the wood, I'll chop." He said getting back to work. "Stubborn old goat." She mumbled. "Hey did you just call me old?" he asked. Tyger started laughing. He didn't seem to mind the stubborn goat part. Mark looked at her and smiled. He had never seen her laugh before, she was beautiful. She turned around to start stacking wood and felt something hit the back of her head. She turned around. That Neanderthal had hit her with a snowball. "Tell me you just didn't do that?' she said in a threatening voice. "I'm so scared." He said laughing. "You should be." She said scooping up a large handful of snow. She threw it and hit him right in the face. Mark sputtered. "Oh did I forget to mention I'm a excellent shot." She said grinning. "You're going to pay for that darlin." Mark said advancing on her. Tyger knew she couldn't get away; snow was to deep to run. So when he got close enough to her she lowered her head and ran straight into him knocking him back into the snow. Tyger fell onto him as he went down. Mark lifted his head and caught her around the waste so she couldn't get up. "Your mean as hell ya know that?" he said. "Yea don't forget it." She said. She tried to get up but he wouldn't let her. "Payback is hell kid." He said grinning. Tyger struggled to get away she was starting to panic. "Let me go." She said in an urgent voice. Oh God she thought what he was going to do to her she thought still struggling to get away. Mark saw that it wasn't a joke no more she was freaking out. "Tyger calm down." He said in a soothing voice. He sat up with his arms still wrapped around her. She was practically sitting in his lap now. She tried to push away from him. "Didn't I tell you I wouldn't hurt you?" he said turning her head to look into her eyes. She slowly nodded. He took his hand and wiped some snow from her face. "Go make some coffee. I'll be along in a minute." He said. He released her and she stood up and ran into the house. Mark was determined to find out what the hell she was so scared of. That kid definitely had some demons.