Kintsukuroi_Chapter-7
Chapter-7
Jayna had been horrified once Janardan revealed what Hayden had said to him; while Miles had explained to her how Janardan had only defended himself and that Hayden’s words hadn’t been exactly complimentary of either Jayna or Ben, she had not quite anticipated the viciousness of his words.
She thought back to the police station and the cops’ repeated questions about whether Jayna had been hurt/ was being abused by Janardan and remembered her shock and embarrassment at the intimate nature of the queries... at the time she had dismissed it as routine questioning when summoned for domestic disputes, but on hindsight... She shook her head.
She had been forced to submit to a elementary but humiliating ‘check-up’ by a (thankfully) omega cop to confirm that she was not trying to hide being abused before they had agreed to release Janardan. A young, oriental-looking cop whose name-tag identified him as ‘Sergeant Chao’ escorted Janardan out of the holding cell and Jayna had noted with surprise the naked admiration on the cop’s face. Janardan, however; had eyes only for her and it had set off a nervous flutter in her belly.
Just before they had left, the omega cop who had examined her had pulled her aside to privately warn her against Hayden. When she had spluttered her disbelief and assured that they were just colleagues and friends, the cop had sighed and told her that it had been Hayden who had summoned them to the house. When Jayna had just frowned in confusion at the disclosure, not understanding why that was important, the elderly omega had huffed. She had then explained that her so called ‘friend’ had made the call before he even set foot inside Jayna’s house that day, knowing it would take the police atleast thirty minutes to reach the property... which meant that he had been the one planning to create a commotion… or at least provoke Janardan to violence. It went unsaid that manipulative people like that were best given a wide berth.
Now, hearing about what the man had said to Janardan had ice flooding Jayna’s veins even as gratitude filled her- despite such blatant provocation, Janardan had not shown any hint of violence, only stepping up to restrain Hayden when the man had tried attacking him. Even though Janardan didn’t say anything about what Hayden had said about him, Jayna was more or less certain that the alpha she had thought of as a friend all these years, had heaped verbal abuse on the man before her before eventually switching to monologuing about his vile plans for Jayna when the personal attacks failed to garner any reaction.
As she lay in her cold, empty bed that
night; she wondered what she would... could
say to Hayden at their next meet... part of her wanted to call the alpha and
give him a piece of her mind; the rest of her wanted to cower away, too
repulsed by the horrific plans Hayden had for her. In the end, she found that she
had fretted needlessly; Hayden didn’t turn up to pick her up for work as had
become the norm over the past month and didn’t seek her out at the college
either. In fact, the alpha seemed as keen to avoid her as Jayna was.
Jayna would have cheered at this development
if it didn’t put her in the awkward position of asking Candice to pick her up
for work unless she wanted to resort to taking a cab every day. Her omega friend assured that it wasn’t an
issue, but Jayna hated feeling like charity... besides, what made it more
awkward was that it wasn’t like she couldn’t drive, she could and she had, before. She was just
not confident enough in her skills to risk taking Ben along with her.
Eventually, as a compromise, she decided to give herself two weeks to steady her
hands enough to drive Ben. ... Mind made up, she enrolled herself at a driving
school with a schedule for every evening once she returned from work.
The first day, she left Ben with Janardan-
having started to gradually trust the man with her child. She arrived with a
lot of confidence, but once she arrived she found only hardened-looking trucker-
types due to the late hour. A few of the men leered at her and despite the heat
of the sultry evening; Jayna buttoned her over-shirt right upto the top-most
fastening self-consciously. They brushed up against her under the pretence of chivalrously opening the door for her and
her skin crawled. By the time the hour-long training was over, she was
trembling from restraining her instinct to bolt away and collapsed shivering in
Janardan’s arms the moment the alpha opened the door. When Janardan didn’t protest,
Jayna nosed under the alpha’s jaw, inhaling the man’s calming scent and
struggling to soothe herself.
“Sshhh...” Janardan murmured, one hand
coming up to cup the back of Jayna’s head and guide her even as the other undid
the top two buttons of his button-down and shifted the collar away to ensure
the harsh material wouldn’t rub against the soft skin of her cheek. “Just
breathe... you’re okay... just breathe...”
Jayna was mortified when she came back to herself
after a few moments- arms tight around an alpha that was not her mate (or even a blood-relative!) and inhaling
the man’s comforting scent. She jerked back instinctively and would have
stumbled if not for the guiding hand at her shoulder.
“Rukiye,” Janardan said as he pulled
back once she was steady on her feet. “You’re okay, just calm down; alright?” [Rukiye=Please
stop/wait]
Jayna stared back in surprise, colour still
flooding her cheeks from their intimate embrace, but for all his usual sense of
propriety, Janardan was yet to release his hold on her shoulder. As though
realizing it himself, the alpha hurriedly let go, blushing as well. “I’m sorry
if I was too presumptuous, I didn’t mean to-”
And that finally gave Jayna the anchor she
had been searching for: “It’s alright, I know.” She assured.
“Ummm... and if I may be so forward, what
happened?”
“’twas nothing,”
“Please,” The alpha requested, “You can
tell me anything...”
“Nothing happened.” Jayna sighed, “Its just... the rest of the learners were
all alphas.”
“Someone say something?”
Jayna shook her head, “No. ... But I was
uncomfortable,”
The alpha hummed.
Jayna glanced at the man’s eyes again, before
lowering her gaze self-consciously, “Seriously, it was nothing. I-... I’m just
overreacting.”
“No,” Janardan refuted quietly, “Its better
to err on the side of caution than risk yourself. And you’ve also got a child
that you must think about. I’d rather have
you and Ben safe than brave.”
Jayna stuttered out an awkward ‘thanks’ and
headed to her room, only pausing to peek into Ben’s room and reassure herself
that her baby was safe and asleep.
The next day, Jayna pulled on additional
layers and finished off with an oversized shapeless hoodie to keep away prying
eyes as she prepared to leave for her driving lessons. She froze when she
spotted both Janardan and Ben dressed for going out.
“Going somewhere?” She asked, trying to
infuse a lightness in her voice that she did not feel. Worry ate at her about
just where the alpha was planning to take her child at this late hour.
“We’re coming with you,” Janardan explained.
“But-”
“Please,”
Jayna swallowed and gave in. She felt
slightly embarrassed to have her family with her for a generally solo-activity,
but was grateful for the company when she noticed that none of the gathered alphas
leered at her tonight. For a few minutes, she was worried about exposing Ben to
such a rough environment, but then, watching Janardan cradle the boy to his
chest protectively helped her relax. The absence of leers and unwanted touches
helped her relax enough that she was able to actually focus on the lesson and
though her hand-eye coordination was not excellent, she was making enough
progress to receive an encouraging word from the trainer. She emerged from the training
car after her round to find Janardan peering under the hood of one of the cars,
deep in conversation with one of Jayna’s fellow trainees. Ben was perched
safely on his hip and Jayna felt herself smile unwittingly at the matching
expressions of rapture on the two faces.
“You have a beautiful family,”
Jayna jerked at the sudden voice, looking
up at the powerful alpha that had sneaked up next to her. Although built like a
line-backer, the man’s age was obvious from his silvery hair and the deep
crevices marking the laugh-lines around his eyes.
“Thank you,”
“It’s god to see such an open minded young
lad. Letting his Om learn first.”
It hit Jayna then that Janardan didn’t know
how to drive either. It was a useful skill to have and if she was going to
trust the warrior with her kid, she needed the man to be able to be mobile
without relying on public transportation.
Decision made, she went to the tiny office at the edge of the lot and
made the necessary arrangements to get Janardan enrolled as well.
Where Jayna had struggled to manoeuvre the
gas-guzzling steel behemoth as per the trainer’s directions; the alpha proved
to be a natural- picking up driving like he had been born to it. The man only
struggled with the road-signs and Jayna knew that was because of the language
divide.
But she had to admit that if nothing, the
man was sincere about his efforts... Jayna realized the extent of his sincerity
only when she got up for some water one night and found Janardan sitting by a
small lamp with one of Ben’s school-books open and softly trying to sound-out
the words on the page.
The warrior jumped at Jayna’s presence,
apologising profusely.
“You want to learn the language?” She
enquired curiously, glancing at the book on the table.
Janardan turned a brilliant red as he
stammered out excuses, “I-I- I’m sorry. I would have kept it back, kasam se. I-I know I’m much too stupid
to touch young master’s things; but the pages were rangeen and I just thought-” [kasam se= I promise/ I swear; rangeen= colourful]
“Janardan, it’s not a crime to want to
learn.” Jayna interrupted the frantic words. “But you’re right, Ben’s books are
slightly advanced- not because you are stupid, but because progressing to short
sentences directly for someone who doesn’t know the language or its script is
going to be difficult. Give me until this weekend, I have some of Benny’s old
books, you can look through them and then we can get you some of the more
advanced stuff.”
“Thank you, Maalik. Really, bahut
dhanyawad aapka,” Janardan whispered, his eyes reflecting the gratitude he
wasn’t able to fit in his words. [Maalik= Master; bahut dhanyawad aapka= thank you so much]
As promised, Jayna pulled out Ben’s books
of A-B-C-Ds and basic word-building over the weekend. Janardan’s whole face lit
up at the gift and Jayna was pleased to find the man to be a diligent
student. Soon, he was at par with Ben
and then within days surpassing the youngster as well. Their driving licenses
arrived and while Jayna still drove Ben to school and dropped him off herself, she
let Janardan collect the boy after school. Jayna had Adam’s car and while she
was saving to buy one for Janardan’s use as well, the alpha seemed content to
use public transport in the interim.
Ben had warmed to Janardan as well now that
Jayna wasn’t ostracizing the man and while Jayna was curious about how the duo
spent their time together once Ben returned from school, she was way too busy
with the university examinations and buried under a mountain of answer-scripts
to correct.
And then she got that migraine from Hell
that forced her to go home early.
Jayna felt like she’d closed her eyes for
barely a minute when the sound of the front door opening had her waking but a
quick glance at the clock confirmed that it had been a solid hour’s sleep.
Yawning tiredly, she just sat in the dark, cherishing the blessed peace- her
headache had lost its bite, having finally responded to the drugs and settled
to a dull throb. With neither of the other two aware of her presence for the
moment, Jayna took her time to make herself known. Plus, it gave her a chance
to see what Janardan and Ben did everyday before Jayna got home and satiate her
curiosity.
Her son’s cheerful babble washing over her
like a comforting blanket, Jayna settled back into her cosily dark corner to
watch as Janardan seated the youngster on the couch and then kneeled before him
to pull off his shoes. Jayna frowned: this
was something Ben was old enough to do on his own... especially considering the fact that Jayna
made sure to get him Velcro-snaps instead of laces. Her frown only deepened
when the child continued to swing his free sneakered foot even after it struck
the alpha’s shoulder twice while the man was working on his other shoe.
The alpha didn’t reprimand the boy, though
and while uncomfortable; Jayna held her tongue, choosing to watch and observe
for now. Such behaviour would not have flown with either Adam or her and the
strangeness of the situation had her looking a little closer. She nearly gasped
out loud when she realized that it was Janardan who had brought in the boy’s
bag, not Ben himself. Not happy with the picture that was forming; Jayna
debated interrupting but then realized that she might never find out what else
was happening behind her back if she stepped in now. After all, Janardan might
be helping them, but the warrior was not
Ben’s father and from a completely different background besides. Perhaps
children were coddled and exempt from politeness in the pack, but it was
certainly not going to be accepted here- especially
not in her home. Biting her lip, she just sat back and watched as Janardan
placed some chopped fruits before her son and then stepped back as though waiting
on him.
Ben made a face and pushed the plate hard
enough that it slipped off the small table and splattered the floor, broken porcelain
and mashed fruits going every which way.
Jayna gritted her teeth and seethed when Janardan’s
expressive eyes widened with hurt before being quickly veiled as he hurried to
clean the mess. Not a word of reproach left the alpha’s lips ... and the man’s
silence worried Jayna- was he unwell too? It was only when Ben went to jump off
the chair that Jayna saw a glimmer of the fierce warrior Jayna had been
introduced to back in the pack as he forcibly pushed the child back in his seat
before his feet touched the ground – that,
despite having been across the kitchen just a second ago. For the fraction of a
second, Jayna worried about her son’s safety, but then realized that while the
warrior had been frighteningly fast, he had also been gentle in the way he’d touched the child.
“Careful, Master Ben; there’s glass on the
floor.”
“Then clean it quickly!” The child demanded.
Jayna would have taken the boy over her
knee just for his tone, but Janardan was evidently more patient than her.
“Can’t let you leave before you’ve eaten
something either,” The man told the child, battle-hardened hands tender as he lightly bopped the boy on
his nose.
Ben giggled at the action but frowned the
moment Janardan returned to cleaning the mess, whining “But I don’t want fruits!!!”
Janardan just grinned at the child as he
continued collecting pieces of glass, “What do you want, then?”
The boy’s face lit up at the question,
“Ramen!!!”
“Again?” The alpha paused in his cleaning
to ask.
“Ramen!” The boy repeated, little legs
beginning to swing again in excitement as he began to chant: “Ramen! Ramen!”
“Okay, fine.”
The warrior chuckled, “I’ll make you some ramen.”
“The way you do it? With cheese and
chicki?”
Ramen
with cheese and ‘chicki’?? Jayna rarely approved of ramen, but she hadn’t
told Janardan about her aversion for the quickly-cooked and tasty but
nutritionally-low food and evidently Ben had picked up on the slip and was
making the most of it. She didn’t blame the warrior for being conned. She would have a talk with Janardan later; for
now, she found herself curious about what ‘Janardan’s way’ meant.
“With cheese and chicken,” Janardan agreed,
rising swiftly and washing his hands briefly before crushing a couple of garlic
cloves and popping them into a saucepan with a drizzle of oil.
Jayna frowned; shouldn’t he have waited for
the oil to heat first?
She watched as the man proceeded to swiftly
chop up some onions while the oil heated and the garlic began to crackle before
adding the chopped onions and giving it a little stir. While the onions cooked,
the alpha returned to cleaning the floor. He dumped everything in the bin and
washed his hands again before chopping some carrots and peppers. The man
retrieved some of her boneless chicken pieces from the freezer and tossed them
in with the onions. On the other burner, he measured out one and a half
tumblers of milk and set it to boil before tossing Ben an orange from the fruit
bowl.
“Going to try a new recipe today. Want to
help me, Chotey maalik?” [Chotey maalik=
Little master]
Ben nodded eagerly, clutching the orange
and then diligently setting out to peal it. Jayna watched, impressed by the
efficiency as the man squeezed some lime into the by-now boiling milk, making
it curdle and then set out the
cottage-cheese in a cheesecloth to strain before heading to the broom closet
and returning with a broom to sweep the floor and ensure no stray pieces of
glass remained. Once done, he cleaned his hands again and added in the chopped vegetables to the chicken, followed by
the strained cottage cheese. He added in the ramen and some water and set it to
simmer before accepting the peeled orange from Ben and quickly juicing it. He
poured one-quarter into a tumbler, added a dash of salt and some freshly
crushed pepper and set it before the child. “Try it?”
Ben- expectedly-
wrinkled his nose at the fruit juice.
“Hey, just taste it once, Master. If you
don’t like it, I’ll have it.” The warrior coaxed and Jayna watched in amazement
as Ben obeyed. Apparently he liked it because the tumbler was empty in seconds.
“Good boy.” Janardan praised, before
returning to the merrily bubbling pot of ramen and taking it off heat. He
poured in the juice and gave it a quick stir before transferring it into one of
Ben’s Iron-Man plates and setting it before the child.
Jayna noted that the man didn’t take any
for himself and felt her eyes moisten as she realized just where her missing chicken pieces were disappearing everyday. She’d
suspected the alpha making something for himself, but the reality had her
feeling extremely guilty. She was snapped out of her thoughts by the tapping of
a nail against the table.
“Janardan! Water!”
And.
That. Was. It... Jayna had had enough.
“Benjamin
Arthur Fahlmer ! Is that the way to talk to anyone?!”
The boy jumped at her voice and the wide
eyes answered her question about whether Ben knew he was being rude or if his treatment
of Janardan had been because of childish innocence. She felt the vein at her
temple throbbing in time with her fury and her migraine threatened to make a come-back.
She knew she would skin the boy if he laid hands on him in his current state
and took a deep breath, trying to rein herself in,“Off to your room! Now!”
She watched the boy scurry and waited for
the door to shut before she turned to face the watching alpha. She sighed,
rubbing her face wearily, “I am so
sorry....”
But the warrior was staring at the
abandoned plate with stricken eyes. Janardan licked his lips to moisten them
before venturing, “Kya mainey... -
uhm... did I... was I wrong to prepare him food?” [kya
mainey= Did I?]
“Oh God, no!” Jayna hastened to assure
before glancing at the forsaken meal. “He should really eat it after you spent
so much effort on it, shouldn’t he?”
“Oh... no, I-I-I didn’t mean-”
Jayna shook her head, “Gimme a minute,
okay?”
She grabbed the plate and took it to Ben’s
room, setting it on his table and ordering him to finish it before stepping back
out and closing the door behind her. Janardan was still in the kitchen.
“I- I just... I don’t know where to start, Janardan...”
The alpha lowered his head, “Maafi, Huzoor... I mean, Omega-heir....uh-...” He shook his
head, forehead furrowed as he desperately tried to bring up the correct words.
His expression cleared after a moment, “I-I-I’m sorry I keep making mistakes
and bothering you, Omega-heir.” [Maafi, Huzoor= Forgive me, Lord]
Jayna swallowed, not quite sure how to
respond to that.
“I’ll try to be better...”
Jayna steeled herself: even if Janardan was
older than her, Jayna was the proverbial ‘adult’, here. “Would it be okay if we
talk?”
Janardan nodded immediately, following her
to the couch and taking his customary seat at the end of the couch. Jayna took
the armchair opposite.
“Alright, first things first: you didn’t do anything wrong, Janardan. Ben did.”
“I understand and accept my punishment.”
The words were spoken softly and entirely without inflection although Jayna
could hear the resignation threading them.
“I just
said that you didn’t do anything wrong!” Jayna protested before
understanding dawned and she blinked in horrified surprise, “You-... you think
I’m going to punish you?!”
Janardan’s face lost its stoic placidity at
Jayna’s shocked outburst and he furrowed his brows in confusion as he ventured
a hesitant, “Yes?”
“Why???”
“Because Master-Ben is Alpha-heir and you
cannot punish him?”
Jayna inhaled sharply as she understood the
implications, “Are you telling me that someone else was punished everytime Adam
did something wrong when he was a kid? That he had never been punished in his life?”
Janardan shrugged.
“Oh God,” Jayna breathed; it explained so many things... like the fact
that her late husband had claimed that he’d never been punished a day in his
life but still had startling aversion to even a mention of corporal
punishments... At the time she’d put it down to Adam having heard
embellished ‘horror stories’ of punishments from his friends back when he was a
kid and having never encountered one himself had believed them naively.
“If I may ask... who was puh-punished in his stead?”
Janardan tilted his head in confusion, “I
was,”
Tears welled up in Jayna’s eyes, “But you-
you said you were his friend!”
“I’m honoured if Late Alpha-Heir Adam
described me as such, but even if he called me his friend... I was not and never
can be his equal, Omega Heir.”
“I-... I cannot deal with this right now,” Jayna
whispered, her mind a mass of jumbled confusion. “But we’re going to talk about
this later, alright?”
Janardan nodded his acceptance, face a
placid mask not betraying his emotions.
“For now, I’m angry at Ben’s behaviour. Yes, I’m going to punish him. No, you cannot take the punishment in
his stead. Understand?”
“Yes, Omega-Heir.”
“Two, you’ve got to stop calling him ‘Maalik’. He’s a kid.”
Janardan’s brow furrowed in incomprehension,
“But-”
“Janardan, he’s a kid; alright? He doesn’t
know any better at his age, but unless we correct him, he’ll grow up thinking
it’s acceptable to be an asshole. And that
is something I cannot accept.”
“He is a child. He will grow up to become
an alpha...” Janardan countered, nose adorably crinkled in confusion, “Why do
you think he’ll grow up into a ... muldwar?”
[Muldwar=anus]
“Mull... drawer?” Jayna repeated blankly. She wondered if she should feel
guilty about really liking the way
the alpha had gone red.
“Muldwar,”
Janardan corrected before waving his arms frantically as he tried to make
himself understood. He quieted back down when he realized that Jayna was watching
him with increasing confusion. His face turning an even darker shade of red, he
huffed out a sigh as he gave voice to what he’d been trying to avoid putting
words to: “It’s uh... uhm... you know, the word you used-ashuul?.. it’s- it’s where you go potty from.”
Jayna nearly cackled at the whispered
explanation and the charmingly innocent choice of vocabulary. Her elementary
knowledge of Adam’s native tongue told her that ‘dwar’ translated to ‘door’, so ‘mul’
must mean... as Janardan had so primly put it: ‘potty’.
Janardan’s horrified expression at Jayna’s
attempts to keep from guffawing had her snorting helplessly till she was
leaning into the alpha and trying to get herself back in control. She
straightened and wiped the tears which had sprung up because she had laughed so
hard and struggled to keep herself composed as she explained, “No, I uh... asshole is not- I mean, yeah, it is but what I
actually meant is uhm... a bad person, you know? Someone who doesn’t care about
others and who is not liked...”
Janardan’s
distress seemed to increase at the explanation, “Chotey maalik- uh... Ben is good. ... Good boy, good alpha.
Ben is not an arsehole.” [Chotey maalik= Little master]
Jayna choked at the unwittingly British-way
Janardan had said the word in and sighed, wondering how to explain it to the
older man. She spotted the dough she had set to rest on the kitchen counter before
taking her medicines and falling asleep and got an idea. She walked to the
dough and rolled it in her hands as she formulated her thoughts: “No, Ben is
not bad... He’s a sweet kid. And I’d like him to stay that way, you now? I mean
think of him like this little ball of dough, alright?”
She tore of a small ball and showed it to Janardan.
“He can be anything right now...” Jayna
worked efficiently to make a humanoid looking form from the dough -well okay, so it looked more like a slender
little snowman than a ‘human’- and showed it to Janardan. “this... or...”
She quickly pinched the ‘head’ of the
little figurine to make two horns, “this.”
Janardan nodded, eyes tracking Jayna’s
hands as she balled up the little figure again and added it back to the rest of
the dough.
“So it’ll depend on us what he turns into,
right? And we need to correct him when he’s wrong.”
Janardan nodded.
“What I’m trying to say is,” Jayna sighed,
“you need to be sterner with him.”
Janardan’s face fell but he nodded again.
“You can still pamper him; I’m not asking
you not to.” Jayna’s throat closed up as she realized that that was precisely
what Janardan had been doing: pampering
Ben. “But when he does something wrong- like-like-like the way he kicked
you while you were helping with his shoes, or the way he threw the bowl
today... you need to tell him to stop.”
“Didn’t hurt,” Janardan protested softly.
“His kicks?” Jayna asked. “I know that! But
that’s not the point, Janardan. He cannot swing his legs like that when someone
is that close to his feet. What if it’s another child from his class who’d been
in your spot? Or an older person? Ben could hurt them... Oh, he wouldn’t mean
to! But if he doesn’t learn that it is wrong, he’ll do it somewhere else and
then someone can get hurt.”
Janardan nodded soberly.
“And you need to remember that you are the adult. You don’t need to punish him- you can tell me when he
deserves some, but you need to be firmer. And you cannot do that if you keep calling him Master.”
“But-”
Jayna swallowed, looking at her feet to
gather the courage to what she needed to say. “Thing is... now that Adam’s
gone, I- I don’t know how to raise Ben alone, you know? We had always planned
to raise him together. So, I need help... and I need it from you. I need you to
be his co-parent, Janardan. Not his
servant... Please.”
Janardan looked gobsmacked at her words but
quickly reigned himself in, “You honour me, Omega-Heir.”
“So you’ll do it?”
Unlike her expectations, Janardan
hesitated. “I’ll try.”
Jayna smiled, feeling her eyes grow moist,
“That’s all I’m asking.”
They stared quietly at each other for
another minute before Jayna blew a breath and straightened, “Okay, now to the
hard part-”
“May I make a request?”
She paused, quirking a curious brow at the
warrior.
“Don’t-... please don’t punish him this
time? He didn’t know and I didn’t correct him.”
Jayna bit her lip, eyes softening as she
looked at the older man. “Okay.”
She walked to Ben’s door before she hesitated
and walked back to Janardan, “We need to present a united front, okay? I mean always. Please don’t force me to become
a villain to my son.”
Janardan looked startled, “Of course,”
“I- I mean... I know I might do things you won’t approve of, but please don’t
object in front of him. I mean...uhm... I know you’re the alpha, but please
don’t undermine my authority.”
Janardan smiled, “I understand. I won’t.”
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