Chapter 18: Asha's Birthday
A/N: romulanlover, well spotted! :-D You'll find out later in the story about the brown eyes. I wrote that in with a purpose.
Anya, thank you very much for your review! However, I did remove the link you included. I would be glad if you did not include links to external websites in your reviews and I hope you don't mind.
I have not researched Romulan anatomy in such minute detail, but canon indeed states that Romulans and Humans are compatible with each other (Sela, who is Human/Romulan; Simon Tarses, Human/Romulan, whose paternal grandfather was Romulan). About the Romulan temperament: I recall Deanna Troi describing Romulans in "The Neutral Zone" (TNG) as, I'm quoting her, "creatures of extremes; one moment violent beyond description, the next tender." I'm more interested in how they express (or hide) their emotions than the anatomical stuff. You'll be finding out more about Vreenak later :-)
As this is my very first Romulan fanfic and I'm having such fun writing it, I encourage you to write your own once you feel ready :-)
Thorek wanted to know more about Asha's life right before Romulus and her journey on the Warbird to his home planet.
It had taken ten days to reach Romulus, during which Asha, scared, confused and angry, had been confined to her own quarters and been given very limited access to the replicator. Guards had been posted outside her door, and the commander – a stony-faced woman – of the vessel had visited her twice: during the beginning and end of her journey. She had been told very curtly that she was a prisoner, suspected spy and would be delivered to the Tal Shiar. If she misbehaved on board of the vessel, she would be shot. She was not allowed contact with anyone or to set a toe out of her quarters.
For entertainment, she had had only the contents of her suitcase, and she had fortunately had the means of washing her clothes, thanks to the Romulans' scrupulous notions of hygiene.
After the flight, she had been taken directly to the prison and dumped into her cell.
"I was invited for my cousin's wedding and would have flown directly back to Earth to attend. I had packed two lehengas, gifts and other stuff in preparation," she said. "I'm not sure what to do with them now. A lehenga is too elaborate to use for everyday wear."
"What is a lehenga?"
"A dress with a special blouse worn in some parts of India, especially for festive occasions. The blouse is called a choli and it usually ends above the midriff. The exposed parts of the body can be covered with the dupatta."
"Dupatta – the shawl?"
"Yes."
"Will you show it to me?"
She went up to her bedroom and opened her cupboard, drawing one of her lehengas from the back of the shelf where she had kept both of them wrapped in a cover bag. The lehenga had a dark green gold-bordered blouse with a matching dress and shawl. She brought it downstairs, and Thorek touched the fabric and spread it over his knees.
"I have never seen this garment before. If it is not too much trouble, could you please wear it so I can see what it looks like?"
"Sure."
When she returned, he gazed at her in obvious admiration. She was also wearing a sticker bindi on her forehead. He wanted to know all about its significance. Asha explained its connection to religion and its eventual evolvement into a fashion accessory without religious affiliation, especially outside the Indian subcontinent.
"How is the shawl wrapped?" he asked next.
She removed the safety pin from her shoulder and the dupatta. She shook out the shawl, pleated it and placed it over her right shoulder.
"Could you please pin it to my blouse?"
He obeyed. She took one end, draped it across her chest, wrapped it around her back and tucked it into the front of her dress, behind the diagonal fold of the dupatta across her stomach.
"It is a very becoming garment. We don't have this kind of fashion on Romulus. It is well suited to our climate."
"Thank you. I wear these for special occasions only."
"And you would have worn this outfit for your cousin's wedding."
"Yes."
"I have no doubt that an occasion to which you can wear it will arrive over here on Romulus."
"And with matching bangles."
Thorek smiled. "May I see them?"
She laughed, left for the third time and returned wearing twelve bangles, six on each arm. He asked her to remove one and give it to him.
"So little," he murmured, studying it. "They don't even go past my knuckles, nor would they fit an adult Romulan woman. But you, with your small hands…"
He rose and slid it over her wrist.
"You look like a ri'hwathech," he commented, using the Romulan word for "queen". He bowed his head to her. She blushed and smiled.
"Do you apply mehndi when you wear this?" he inquired.
"Yes, as this outfit is meant for special occasions like weddings. For now, I can't paint mehndi on my hands or feet. I finished my henna cones. Have you got something similar to henna or body paint on Romulus?"
"We do. There are tattoos used by Romulan dancers and performers that fade away like your mehndi do, and sacred tattoos used by priests and priestesses. Then there is one type which is used for tattoos following a mate's death. It is carved on the mourner's wrist or shaved head and once the ink fades, which it does after three years, the mourning period is over and a new mate can be sought. Obviously, that's not something you're looking for. I will see if I can obtain some paint for you, though I can't think of one that will be dark red like yours."
"Thank you, but please do not take so much trouble."
"It is no trouble as I am learning more about your traditions. Your garments and even your names are influenced by religion. Is your religious faith Hindu?" Thorek asked. She sat down next to him, cross-legged.
"India has tons of religions. I have my own faith. It's more of a..." She frowned, thinking. "André calls it panentheism. Maybe I oversimplify things by saying that for me, religion is like a language. I have grown up with many languages and religions. Hinduism is just one of them. What about you?"
"I grew up in an atheist environment, such as is usual among the highly educated, with a strong emphasis on science and nature. I believe in the four elements from a scientific point of view. Hence my choice for my current career. My creed, if you can call it that, is in passion. Passion in one's beliefs, passion in one's principles, passion in one's choices, in doing things full-heartedly."
She nodded. "I believe in that, too." She looked at him thoughtfully, drew up her feet and embraced her knees. "The problem with terms like atheism, pantheism, Hinduism, you name it...just one word is so inadequate to describe a whole belief system with so many variations. There are not enough words for this."
"I agree. Words can either be powerful or they can fall woefully short of describing certain situations...or feelings..."
They talked for a long time until the twenty-fifth hour rolled around.
"I think," Thorek said, rising reluctantly, "that we will enjoy many future midnight discussions."
Asha laughed. "I'm already looking forward to them."
As the Y'gora tree's blossoms turned fully silver, Asha's first birthday on Romulus arrived. Christine and Vekal used the encrypted channel, as they had done on Thorek's birthday, to wish her all the best. Kihika overrode Thorek's protests when he went upstairs to dress Asha's hair and took over, making a particularly elaborate hairstyle for her. Thorek, his face grave and his ears a bit green, presented her with his poem and a poetry album after breakfast. As it happened, Asha's birthday fell on a Romulan weekend, and he had his two days off.
"To use your human expression, I am literally and figuratively quite green behind the ears where poetry-writing is concerned. I never excelled at such an art."
"You just showed the opposite," Asha said, laughing. She sat down, and Thorek watched her as nervously as she had watched him on the same occasion during his birthday.
Thorek's poem was brief, to the point and without verbal frills. In his lines to her, he thanked her for opening his eyes to her world and enabling him to see his own world with that same sense of novelty. He also added dryly that her flitter-driving skills were enough to put any Romulan to shame and he appreciated her joy of learning and, above all, her companionship.
Asha smiled, touched. "Thank you so much, my deyhhan. I know it has not been easy for either of us, but I am very glad we have reached where we are now, and you describe it perfectly in your words."
He bowed his head in acknowledgement of her praise, then placed a box in her hands and handed her a bangle.
"I also got this for you. I borrowed one of your bangles with Kihika's aid so the jeweller could work with the correct size."
"Thorek, what exactly have you been up to?"
"Open it," was all he said. Asha carefully opened the lid.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed.
It was a lovely cuff bracelet with an intricate floral design. Tiny green gemstones covered this work of art, and the centre of the inside was engraved with her name Asha Sen t'Darak in Romulan characters, together with a tiny Romulan emblem of the raptor on one end and an equally tiny planet Earth on the other. Romulans disliked chunky or gaudy pieces of jewellery, and Asha's bracelet was a model of elegance.
"It's so beautiful," she whispered.
"Romulan spouses or bond mates exchange bracelets. I had one made for myself, too."
He drew back his sleeve, removed his cuff and gave it to her. Her eyes and nose prickled when she saw that he had had planet Earth engraved on it as well.
"I should be offering this to you," she said.
He shook his head. "What I want to say is that I fully acknowledge our bond, regardless of whether someone might cross our respective paths or not. We share this bond between us for good, no matter what, and your company is precious to me. It is an expression of my poem."
"Thank you. They're the loveliest birthday gifts ever."
She placed his cuff around his wrist, and he did the same to her.
"Thank you," she repeated, hugging him. He hugged her back and stroked her hair.
"You're welcome, my ailhun."
In the evening, they went out for dinner, Asha wearing a pretty Romulan dress in anthracite. This time, they attended a show featuring Romulan acrobats.
"Our history of athletic training and performance dates right back to when we first arrived on this planet. Dances are combined with athletic elements and sometimes with weapons."
"It's amazing," Asha whispered to him as she watched a performer dance wielding a knife with a dangerous-looking blade. Romulan music was strong on drums, cymbals and lyres and reflected the characteristics of their people well: sometimes almost violent, at other times soft, sweet, and tender. Asha watched with interest as several handkerchiefs were pulled out to flick at eyes, noses and cheeks. It would seem that when Romulans were focused on something, they did it with complete passion, heart and soul. As much as they did not tend to demonstrative in public, so they were during such performances. She could have sworn that even Thorek had dabbed at his eye with a discreet thumb.
On the way home, comfortably ensconced in a yall'ianen carriage, Asha asked Thorek if Romulans had cinema houses. In all her reading, she had not come across anything remotely resembling Human cinema houses.
"We have them for strictly educational purposes, not for entertainment ones. There was an attempt at a Romulan love movie a few years ago, and it ended very badly."
"How come?"
"Well…It was about a Tal Shiar agent falling in love with a military commander. From what I remember, everyone involved in the film mysteriously disappeared overnight," Thorek told her in a low whisper.
"I don't know who's crazier – the film crew who went ahead with their plans despite the political circumstances or those who arrested them," Asha whispered back.
"Both," Thorek commented. "Then there are movies for pornographic entertainment. They, of course, can only be viewed in the appropriate establishment, such as sex taverns."
Asha recalled that prostitution on Romulus was legal. Many women and men from Romulus's highest social circles often visited brothels that targeted a socially distinguished clientele, purchasing sexual favours within polished settings.
"Did you ever go to a sex tavern?" Asha asked curiously.
Thorek merely raised an eyebrow. "Two or three times in my early adulthood. I engaged with both sexes. My experience was enlightening in that it underscored my preference for your gender. Did you visit a similar establishment on Earth just to obtain a first impression?"
"No, I never really had the time or the interest," Asha replied, suppressing a grin.
"It is, in my opinion, not a very good resource of what reality has to offer."
"You mean, learning by doing is more efficient?"
"Yes," Thorek agreed, "if outfitted with the appropriate theoretical knowledge. Romulans educate their children at a very early age about sexuality, with the aim of instilling responsibility into them and preventing teenage pregnancies. Pregnancies in early youth are regarded as a shame and can result in clan feuds, forced abortions and castration, even if the couple engaged in consensual intimacy."
"My goodness. What happens to these people?"
"They are ostracised and live in their own communities far away from the cities."
Asha sighed. "That is very sad."
"I agree. It is too harsh."
Their carriage passed the senate's building.
"It's so imposing," Asha commented, looking up at the ominous raptor on the roof.
"Indeed," Thorek said, following her gaze. Asha touched the bracelet on her wrist and studied his profile, admiring his upturned face. He turned his head and looked right into her eyes.
"You wished to say something?" he inquired.
"You are full of exciting surprises today," she remarked, glad it was getting dark and he couldn't see the blush steal over her face. "You seem to enjoy experimenting more than you let on."
"I am merely a man of science."
"And do you have a scientific approach to love and lust as well? You know, sex as a science project?"
"Love and lust would seem to be areas that defy science despite all the research and results on neurochemical reactions. I regard myself as fairly open to experimentation in such matters. So, to answer your question: if there is a systematic science hidden behind matters of the heart and its passions, then I have yet to discover it."
"And your intimate relationships have been exclusively with Romulans?"
"It has been the case so far, though seeing that other species on Romulus are exceedingly few, my choices have practically been made for me, if you are thinking in terms of species."
"I see," Asha said, smiling. "And if you could make the choice?"
Thorek glanced her, wondering why she was being so persistent about the topic. Maybe she had interpreted his gift as an invitation for...mating with her? She had certainly never shown signs of interest in that direction, though. "I have never really thought about it," he admitted. "Why are you asking?"
"I'm just curious. On Earth, we are so globalised and I am...or rather was used to seeing people of all kinds together, including interspecies couples, like Vulcans and Humans. My cousin Maya married a Vulcan, for instance. It used to be the opposite a few centuries ago. Thank goodness it changed. Maybe things will change on Romulus, too?"
"Possibly," Thorek said. "Only time will tell."
"As you said once," Asha said with a smile. She leant on the armrest and enjoyed the sights as their carriage passed. Thorek glanced at her a few times, musing about her questions. A Human and a Romulan mating. Christine and Vekal were hardly the first couple of that combination. So why not...? Thorek ran his thumb absent-mindedly over his wedding bracelet and dragged his thoughts back to preparations about his next lecture.
The carriage took them home as they sat together in companionable silence. When they were indoors, Asha hugged him. "Thank you for a wonderful birthday, my first one on Romulus."
"I enjoyed your birthday, too, my wife."
She laughed. He wished her a good night, and they went their separate ways to sleep.
