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Chapter Ten Filia shut the door and locked it, turning around. "We survived the first day," she announced, leaning back against the door, wearing a lopsided grin. "I knew you'd do it, oneesan!" Jillas replied. "You're a success!" "A busy opening day is hardly a good gauge for success," she said. "Maybe not, but all these coins here from the sales and this list of custom orders is," Valgaav told her. "We'll see how much money's left after I restock my supplies." Then she laughed, hugging herself and reveling in the thrill. "But they liked my work!" "Once Jillas and me finish making that forge, we'll have another draw for customers," Gravos reminded her. "I still think that's odd," Filia said. "Selling tea things and weapons in the same store? But I like the idea." Valgaav leaned on the counter, grinning at her slightly. "That's because it's you. Teacup in one hand, that mace from hell in the other." Filia laughed again, feeling absolutely giddy from the rush of the day. "I couldn't have done all this without your help," she told them, then hugged Jillas. "Especially yours. You did such a wonderful job on that kiln." Jillas practically melted from the praise, staring at her in open adoration. "Anything for you, oneesan." "I don't know about the rest of you, but making money has made me hungry. Who's up for some supper?" Filia asked, and got an unanimous response in the affirmative. "All right. Valgaav, Jillas? Could you two please restock the shelves for tomorrow while it's still light? Gravos, you can help me get supper ready." She helped him fill two large pots with water, and while he set one in the fireplace and stoked the flames higher, she began mixing the batter for the biscuits. Gravos lit the second fire that heated the small oven, and once it was sufficiently heated, Filia dropped the batter on a tray and put it in. "What's next?" "Could you get some of that venison and dice it up for me?" Filia asked, opening the larder and selecting some vegetables. He went out back to the icebox, returning with a slab of meat. "This what you wanted?" "Perfect." She flashed him a grin while she washed the potatoes in the second pot of water. "Shop's stocked," Valgaav announced, walking in, then grinned at her, adding, "and waiting for you to sneak in there when you think we're not looking and fuss over how everything's arranged." Filia blushed. "Can I help it if I'm picky about my teacups?" He chuckled, picking up a slice of venison Gravos had just cut. "Jillas is putting the money and the custom order list on your desk." Filia nodded, then blinked at him as he bit into the uncooked meat. "That's...not cooked yet!" He nodded, chewing. "That's nasty!" Valgaav peered at her for a moment, then swallowed. "We're dragons, Filia." "So? I can't believe you like eating raw meat." Valgaav and Gravos exchanged a look, and Valgaav suddenly started coughing, the fit subsiding into chuckles while Gravos smirked widely. Filia shot them a suspicious look. "What?" "Nothing," they both said at once. "Valgaav, what is so funny?" "Nothing, Filia." "Gravos, tell me, or you're not getting any supper!" "That threat would work if I thought you'd actually see it through," Gravos retorted, grinning at her. Filia scowled. "You two are laughing at me! Tell me why!" "We're not laughing at you, Filia," Valgaav assured her. Then he grinned. "We're laughing near you." Frustrated, she stomped her foot. "What is so funny about you eating raw meat?" All that did was send both males into unsuccessful attempts to smother their laughter. Valgaav smirked at her. "You'll find out when you're older." Giving him an indignant glare, she threw a potato at him, which he caught with ease. "You're a jerk," she said. "Both of you." Valgaav just grinned at her as he started cutting up the vegetable. "You could always give her a demonstration, Lord Valgaav," Gravos said, his tone casual as he carried the chopped venison over to the pot. The knife almost slipped in Valgaav's hand, and he shot Gravos a wide-eyed look of disbelief. Filia studied his face, noting the faint hint of a blush that appeared on his cheeks, and she blinked. "This conversation has a hentai meaning, doesn't it?" she screeched, glaring at them both. "I didn't say a thing!" Valgaav protested. "I'm just trying to be helpful!" Gravos added. Giving them both an evil look, Filia snorted softly and resumed chopping potatoes. "Baka hentai males," she muttered. "How're we doing?" Filia looked up from her paperwork to see Valgaav standing by her desk, holding a tray with a fresh pot of tea. "You looked like you could use a refill," he told her, setting the tray down and clearing away the now-empty pot she had been using. "Yeah, thanks." She gave him a tired smile and stretched her back slightly as he poured her a cup. "How's the day's profit looking?" he asked. With a sigh, Filia set her pencil down and looked at the columns of figures. "Honestly? Rather dismal. But that's partially because I have to pay off the tabs that we were running at the supply shop and market. If we keep up these sales, though, we should be turning a profit by next week." "Are these the bills?" he asked, hitching his leg up to sit on the corner of the desk, picking up a stack of papers. "Yeah. I'm going to go pay them off tomorrow." "Want me to do it for you?" "Would be nice." She handed him another sheet of paper. "There's what I've figured out for what we have so far. We don't have nearly enough to pay them all off right now, so I've divided up the money and figured out who gets how much. The rest of it goes to getting the supplies for the special orders. I don't have all the right colors of paints we need for them." "Where do I find them?" "Just give this list to the supply shop clerk. She'll take care of it," Filia answered, handing over yet another sheet of paper. Valgaav nodded, shuffling them together then set them aside. "What's that you're working on?" "I'm trying to plan out a budget." Filia made a face. "It'll be hard keeping our heads above water." "Filia, relax. We're doing fine. Your shop's gonna be a success. I can feel it." When she looked up at him, he gave her a reassuring smile. "Now, why don't you put that aside for now? It won't go anywhere, and you have the bills worked out already. Time to wind down. It's been a long day." "What time is it, anyway?" she asked, picking up her teacup, sipping it slowly. "I heard the bells chiming out the tenth hour a bit ago. It's probably half-past by now." "Already? Where did the evening go?" Filia closed her eyes, sighing ruefully. "I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up this pace. When will I find the time to work on the orders, and make new merchandise?" "You've already got a good head start with everything you've done so far. The last few batches will be ready for painting soon, and then they can be fired. We can set up your workstation behind the counter, move away some of the shelves. That way, you can work while you tend the shop," he suggested. "Pottery work's very messy, though." Valgaav smirked. "You think your customers will complain? You'll be messy from making more things for them to buy." "Well, yes, but I don't like looking that bad." "You couldn't look bad if--" She glanced at him as he abruptly cut himself off. Valgaav looked away and stood, walking over to the opposite wall, staring out the window. "If what?" she asked. He hesitated, turning his head in her direction slightly, eyes downcast. "If you tried." Filia stared at him as her mind patched together the broken sentence, then smiled softly, feeling her cheeks growing warm. "Thank you." There was silence for a few moments, then he cleared his throat. "I haven't seen any indication he's been around, have you?" She didn't have to ask who he meant. "No. To be honest, though, I was fully anticipating him showing up today." Valgaav chuckled. "You too? Tell me you suspected Widow Burkely at first?" "The way she walks around with her eyes looking like they're closed? Definitely. If Jillas hadn't told me she's actually a well-established figure here in town, I just might have thrown her out." Filia winced. "Which would have done nothing good for my business." "Maybe he'll be staying away." Filia just looked at him. "Gee, do you have a magical beanstalk to sell with that?" "I didn't sound as convincing as I hoped, did I?" "Not really, no." Filia poured herself some more tea. "Although, truth be told, I'm wishing he would show up, just to get this over with. It's been two weeks now, and I'm getting tired of waiting." "That's probably part of his game plan," Valgaav said, scowling. "I'm never owning a cat." "Huh?" "I think I can empathize with the mouse right now." Valgaav glanced at her, then walked over, standing behind her chair and resting his hands on her shoulders. "We'll be fine, Filia. All of us. Trust me." "It's not you I don't trust, Valgaav. It's him." "I know." Filia closed her eyes as his fingers began to lightly kneed the tension from her shoulders. "You make good tea," she said quietly, holding the cup inches from her lips between her hands. "I just added the water. It's your blend." "Still..." Filia fell silent, lowering her hands to the desk, setting the cup down. His fingers continued to work over her shoulders, easing the knots out of the muscles. "That feels nice," she admitted quietly. "It's been feeling lately like somebody's worked me over with my own mace." Valgaav chuckled. "I'm not surprised, from what I've seen of you these last two weeks. Jillas said that's pretty much the pace you've been keeping." "Yeah." She paused to stretch slightly. "We need to get this shop off the ground and solvent, and soon." "We'll manage it," he assured her. "It's strange, though." "What is?" "Just...having to worry about material things, like food, supplies, money." "Same here. I lived in the temple all my life. We don't, that is, we didn't have much in the way of material possessions, but we didn't want for anything either." Filia bit her lip, wincing. "I'm sorry." His hands stilled for a moment. "Whatever for?" "For bringing them up..." He was still for a moment, then his hand came up to smooth back her hair. "You didn't. You were talking about how your life was before. Frankly, I'm impressed that you're doing so well with managing the finances. It doesn't sound like you had much of a reason for that before." Filia smiled ruefully, leaning back against him. "I didn't. It's amazing what you can learn when you have to. I've had to learn more in this last year, since I first wound up with Lina and her friends, than I ever did in the last five hundred." "For a dragon, a few months is as good as overnight." She nodded. "I think back to how I was, sometimes, and it's like I don't know her. She's someone else, a stranger to me. That day I first met them, it wasn't even a year ago, but it feels like a lifetime." "In a way, it was." "Yeah," she whispered. "It was." They were both silent for a few long heartbeats. "You know what it's like, though, don't you? To grow up overnight, to feel like you're in a world that's a very warped mirror image of the one you knew." "I do," he said softly. "So do Gravos and Jillas." Her heart swelled rapidly to the point where it grew too full to hold everything it was feeling, and before she could try to contain them, tears spilled out of her eyes, splashing against her arms. It was a mixture of so many things, it was overwhelming. Grief, loss, pain, fatigue, they were there, but she was also used to them by now. The proverbial straw was the realization that she wasn't alone. Her head had understood it, and now her heart finally did. "Filia?" his voice was soft, worried, as he moved around to crouch by her chair, reaching up to brush her hair out of her face to look at her. "What is it?" "I'm sorry," she apologized, trying to wipe away the tears, but they were falling too fast to try to keep up with them. "It's just...I'm just..." She stammered a few more times, trying to put what she was feeling into words. "It's...not feeling alone anymore," she managed to say, her voice cracking in spite of her attempts to keep it steady. "Been there," he told her, and hesitated before pulling her into a hug. Filia clung to him, crying more from relief than anything else. After a few minutes, they began to slow down enough for her to make an effort to wipe them away, and she drew back slightly. "Thank you," Filia whispered. He gave her a small smile, that tiny little expression she'd come to love so much, that always seemed to hint to her what he might have been like, a gentler person, perhaps, before everything was taken from him. As she studied him though, that expression gradually changed into something she couldn't quite place. Her own smile faded as she began to feel curiously self-conscious of every breath she took. Her heart started to beat faster, her mouth felt dry, and a warm sensation spread up her nerves, originating from where his hands rested on her forearms. Filia blushed faintly from the curious feeling of hyper-awareness as she looked in his eyes, but as she tried to break the gaze, it only moved to his lips. Her face began to feel warmer, and she quickly looked back up to his eyes, only to have a curious, fluttering feeling low in her stomach when she saw he was watching her mouth. Before she realized what she was doing, she licked her lips to try to alleviate the dryness. Blushing even more furiously, her gaze dropped to her lap as she bit her lip. A tingling sensation raced through her nerves as his fingertips brushed her forehead, tucking her hair behind a slender, tapered ear. Lifting her gaze back to him once more, they both held position, just watching one another. Filia didn't know who moved first. Maybe they both did. But one moment they were staring at one another, and the next, she closed her eyes as his lips brushed lightly over hers. The fluttering sensation in her stomach not only increased tenfold, but moved up to seize her heart as well. As he started to draw back, Filia felt like she was no longer in control of her actions as she followed, kissing him back. His hand slipped down around her neck, under her hair, his touch both cool and warm at once, holding her to him gently. Her hands found their way to his shoulders as their lips met again, this time with more a more definite contact. The kiss was slow and tender, shy and questioning, and the way he rested his other hand against her cheek, delicately framing her face, stole the air from her lungs as her heart melted. But it wasn't enough to completely quell the nervousness, the sense that her world was spinning even more out of control than it had been to start with. Trembling, she drew back slightly, their lips mere inches apart, her eyes meeting his once more. "What are we doing?" she whispered, tremulous and weak. He didn't answer right away, then managed a tiny, lopsided smile. "I think the correct answer to that would be 'kissing'." She chuckled quietly, briefly, out of anxiety. "We're changing everything. If we keep going, nothing will be the same between us anymore." Valgaav gently brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. "Is that what you want?" he asked. "For things to stay the same?" "No, I..." She trailed off, thinking for a moment. "I don't want to lose you." "Filia." He cupped the side of her face in his hand, and chuckled nervously. "I've lost too many people I've let get close to me already. However it goes, you won't lose me." She nodded slightly, then half-smiled as she looked down, but not from amusement. "I'm scared," Filia admitted softly. He hesitated. "Of what? Me?" "Not of you, no," Filia replied, giving her head a little shake. "Of changing things. Everything's already changed so much, it's...I'm just scared." He pulled her close, and she buried her face against his neck, holding onto him tightly. "Don't be," he told her softly. "There's no rush to change anything. We've got all the time in the world." |
to be continued...
Chapter Eleven