Dark Chocolate Discoveries
Written for the Decorate the Palace Challenge on Caesar's Palace
Prompt - break the fourth wall
A/N: I've teased Sumatranfox about this for a while now, and decided it was finally time to write this. Sumatranfox, this is your future. Nessie, go read Love's Healing Touch. And listen to your uncle when he says to stay away from boys until you're older.
It was bound to happen eventually. Zahara was getting older, and Scabior couldn't keep his niece from exploring the house and getting into everything. Keeping an eye on her was easier when she was little. But now that she was a teenager she was becoming more curious and independent, nosing through the books on the shelf to see what kind of stories Violet wrote.
When she was little, Scabior used to read to her before she went to bed. Sometimes she'd ask about Violet's books, pointing at them and asking Scabior to read them to her. Scabior would then glance at the bookshelf, hesitating before speaking as his eyes scanned the titles on the shelf.
"You like the looks of those, ay?" he said, thinking that maybe he could read something that wasn't about him. But if he read one book from Violet's personal library, pretty soon she'd want him to read more. And Scabior wasn't ready to deal with the consequences should she happen upon something she shouldn't be reading.
Zahara nodded, an innocent smile on her face as she looked up at him. She had no idea what was in those stories, and Scabior wanted to keep it that way.
"Look, sweet'eart," Scabior said, his tone gentle as he spoke to her. "There are some things in those books tha aren't meant for little children."
"Like what?" Zahara asked.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
Scabior sighed and looked back at his neice. "I'll explain it to you when you're older."
That seemed like a good excuse. Wait until she was older, and by then she'd lose interest in the books and forget all about them. Or at least he hoped she would. Now she was thirteen, and came running up to him one morning with a book in her hands.
"Uncle Scabior! Look what I found!"
Scabior took one look at the book's title and nearly fainted. Of all the books she could have chosen from the shelf, she just had to choose Marital Bliss.
Sanderson was standing nearby, and when he heard Zahara say, "Uncle Scabior, what's this about you and chocolate doughnuts?", he laughed so hard that he slid down the wall to sit on the floor, then proceeded to roll on the floor laughing.
"No!" Scabior exclaimed, snatching the book out of her hands. "No no no no no! Don't read tha! You're too young to be reading stories like tha anyway."
"Uncle Scabior, can I give my boyfriend doughnuts when I start dating?" Zahara asked.
"No, you most certainly can not," Scabior snapped. She was his niece, and she was so young. He really didnt want to think of her like that. And he wasn't ready for her to start venturing out into the world of dating, especially not with a big box of chocolate doughnuts tucked her arm. "And no dating until you're fifty," he added, taking the book and walking out of the room. He had to find somewhere to hide Violet's books before she read anymore of them.