Kintsukuroi_ Chapter-3
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CHAPTER-3
Someone- she had no idea who- drove them to the nearest town from where they
caught a cab to take them to the quaint little airport. It was a fairly big
party, with her in-laws and their security teams all piled onto what the locals
called a ‘matador van’. Coloured a pale green, the van no longer reminded her
of the colour of young leaves the way it had when she’d first seen it. She
remembered posing next to it for Adam and the ‘moody goth’ vibe they had been
trying to achieve with the shot getting ruined when Ben had jumped in suddenly,
both arms raised as he pointed at some bird on the boughs above. It had still
been a good photograph- nowhere close to what they had been hoping for, but
beautiful in a different way.
“Omega-heir?”
The low call shook her out of her memories
and she glanced askance at the warrior.
“Everyone else is in the matador. Do you
need a moment before you join us?”
She glanced around at the old trees and the
mansion behind one last time- and her breath caught as she realized that this
was the first of many journeys she’d have to undertake without Adam by her side.
When she had arrived a fortnight ago, she’d had stars in her eyes as she’d
hoped to charm her in-laws in accepting her into their fold; her hopes had been
realized in a way, but now she was eager to escape this place. Determinately,
she turned away and climbed aboard the old vehicle, squeezing herself into a
seat by the window. Ben was being cradled by his grandmother and given that Jayna
planned on never returning, she guessed she could allow the older omega
these few minutes with her grandson.
The matador took them to the nearest town
and the whole party disembarked to see them off to the cab which would take
them the rest of the distance. It took her a moment to realize that her
alpha-in-law’s were wet and that her
omega-in-law was openly weeping. Offering a stilted smile and an awkward nod,
she slid into the waiting cab and busied herself with securing Ben in the provided
car-seat. Janardan slid into the passenger seat in the front, next to the driver
and then they were off.
It was only when they stepped out of the
cab in front of the airport that Jayna felt like she could breathe for the
first time. She could almost taste her freedom at this point and lost in her
thoughts, it took her a moment to realize that Janardan was just staring
blankly at the cab-driver when the man announced their fare. For the space of a
heartbeat, she wanted to be cruel and let the alpha make a fool of himself, but
then she remembered that for all her anger at the way the pack had treated them,
Janardan himself wasn’t personally responsible for any of it.
“Oh, your wallet’s with me, Dear! Remember I put it in my bag while you were
busy with Ben?” She fibbed, smoothly stepping in.
The alpha’s eyes widened comically at her casual usage of the endearment ‘Dear’ and Jayna almost laughed at his expression
and gave the lie away, but somehow successfully passed Ben to the stupefied man’s arms and pulled out her wallet to settle the fare
without further incident. Once inside the airport, Ben squirmed to be put down
and Jayna spilt her attention between her son and this strangely peaceful
‘warrior’ who was looking around like he had never been in an airport before.
“First time?” She asked curiously.
Janardan nodded, eyes darting this way and
that as he tried to take in everything at once.
Jayna smiled, softening in the face of the
alpha’s visible bewilderment. They were early enough that she could allow herself
a breather and she directed them all to the airport’s coffee-shop. It turned out to be good decision because it
allowed Ben to burn off some of his energy as he made a bee-line for the indoor
playground set up by the cafe and Janardan to look around and take in
everything.
Once they were on the move again, she was
vaguely conscious of Janardan’s constant eyes on her, and struggled to ignore
the discomfort from it, aware that given how protective the alpha had been in
Pack-land itself, he was going to be far more alert out here. She couldn’t help
but smile when Janardan followed her actions blindly, trusting Jayna’s lead in
the unfamiliar environment. The blind mimicry had him following behind Jayna at
the ‘security-check’ under the ‘omega’ queue, causing mild amusement from the
airport-staff; but the way Janardan’s expression fell and his body twitched
with hyper-vigilance when Jayna was momentarily ushered behind the curtain for
her screening, made it hard for her to tease the alpha.
Once on the flight itself; Janardan
white-knuckled the hand-rest during take-off and Jayna shook her head in
amusement, laying her own hand over the fisted, callused one.
Her attempt at comfort backfired when the
alpha went even more tense at the touch. Wide eyes swung to hers- the look of
an animal trapped and desperately searching for a way out.
Jayna felt herself soften at the visible desperation
leaking from the alpha and decided that the man was in need of urgent
distraction. “Janardan, there’s some things we need to discuss.” She spoke
quietly, deciding that distracting the alpha from his apparent phobia while establishing
some boundaries was the best course of action.
“Of course, Omega-Heir.” The man nodded his
acceptance instantly even though his eyes were still wide with unease.
“Hm, okay,” She hummed, “Firstly, you have got to stop calling me Omega-Heir. I’ve got a name, use it.”
The man ducked his head at the rebuke, “My
apologies.”
Jayna nodded, “Secondly, everyone is going
to expect you to handle the payments since you’re an alpha. The city’s progressive;
but even now when people see an alpha and an omega together, the majority
assume that the alpha’s the one who would handle money. Is that alright with
you?”
Janardan shook his head desperately, eyes
wide. “Please... I- I don’t know how-”
“You don’t understand financial
transaction?” Jayna asked in disbelief.
Janardan shook his head slowly, “I’m sorry,
Omega-Heir. I’m just a stupid warrior-”
“Hey, no... its fine, okay? It’s absolutely
fine.” Jayna assured, taken aback by the apology and sudden lack of confidence
on the alpha’s part. “Would you like me to teach you?”
“I would be honoured if you could spare
time to-” Janardan began but Jayna cut him off.
“Hey, it’s no big deal, ‘kay? I can show
you right now.” She interrupted, uncomfortable at the warrior’s gratitude over
this simple thing. “It’s pretty simple actually, the driver will tell you the
amount and you simply count out the cash and hand it over. If you don’t have
the exact amount, hand over the next largest sum and wait for the change.”
“Change?”
“Uh- the balance?”
“Balance?” The man repeated blankly, “And uh...
you said ‘Cas’? What’s Cas?”
“Cash,” Jayna corrected absently, staring
in disbelief at the warrior. “Just... if I may ask... if you don’t understand
currency, how did you buy stuff back in your pack? I know they use currency.”
“I- I was part of the Guard... we hunted
and provided the pack food. Patrolled its borders ... the pack gave me everything
I needed.” Janardan shrugged easily.
“So clothes, food... utensils... the pack gave you all of it?”
“Not food, not usually.” Janardan explained
with a smile, “Only if something khasss
... um...something-something,” The alpha frowned, obviously wracking his mind
for the word to translate before his expression cleared and he faced Jayna
again with a smile, “ uhm...issspeshul?”
[Khass=
Important/ special]
It took a minute for her to understand ‘special’ due to the man’s accent. She
looked at him curiously, “So what did they give you when it was not ‘special’?”
“Weapons and some other things.”
“Other things?”
“Umm... you know soap, Katori, Tchammatch...” [Katori= Bowl; Tchammatch= Spoon]
“Katori? Tchammatch?” Jayna repeated in confusion.
Janardan’s brows furrowed as he snorted in
frustration at being unable to make himself understood. “Katori!” He gestured a
small circle and mimicked eating from it.
“Oh, plate!”
“Puhlate?”
Jayna shook her head, correcting: “Plate.”
“Plate.” The man repeated obediently.
“Good.
Okay, so what’s tchammatch?”
Janardan’s brows furrowed again before
smoothening as a flight attendant served instant noodles to the passenger
across the aisle and the warrior just leaned and snatched away the boy’s spoon.
He waved it at Jayna, “Tchammatch!”
“You can’t do that!” Jayna yelled,
embarrassed and grabbed the spoon away from the alpha before offering it to the
stunned air-hostess with an apologetic smile. Janardan was watching the scene
with a small frown when she looked back at the alpha. “Okay, so tchammatch is a spoon, right? I got
that, Janardan; but you simply can’t take something from anyone without asking.
Okay? You don’t do that out here!”
“It was just a child…? And I meant to
return it after showing you!” The alpha countered uncertainly.
“Still, you can’t simply take something from
anybody without asking, okay?”
The alpha nodded, chastised. “I apologise.”
She nodded, “Okay, so what else did they
give you?”
“Kapra... uh... colothes?” [Kapra= Clothes]
“Clothes. Right.” Jayna nodded her comprehension.
“Clothes.”
The warrior repeated dutifully with the correct pronunciation.
Jayna nodded, only then realizing that Janardan’s
clothes didn’t fit him all that well. They were old, carefully repaired in spots, and worn soft from use. And Janardan’s
duffel was frightfully small for someone leaving their pack for years. It was
possible that Janardan thought he could get more stuff when he needed them, but
given that he had no concept of currency; Jayna realized that it might not have
been choice, but a necessity for Janardan to travel light.
“Alright, so this-” She reached into her
wallet, and began: “is a note. Money or currency are some of the other words
for it. It looks different for every nation, but most have similar values.”
Green eyes watched her with rapt attention
and Jayna found the two hour flight passing in the blink of an eye as she
explained the ins and outs of using money to Janardan.
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Earlier Parts: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2
Author's note-
There a POLL going on at the moment, where I write a short story in the genre with the most votes, to be published on the 2nd Wednesday of this month. So what are you waiting for? Click here and Vote now!
Awesome as always. Loved the way you write.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words. :-)
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