Blue Bottled Belly Dancers and other fine myths
Part 3
It was growing late in the night when I finally decided that I should, like any good tourist, get some rest. I had after all, flown in, gotten to the hotel, and headed right back out again to explore. I was tired after a long day, though it seemed like several days had in fact passed.
Heero had settled down with his chin in his palm, staring out the window at the city lights as they went out and came on as the morning approached. I slipped off the bed as quietly as I could and made my way to the bathroom. I reeked after a day of reactions.
The shower was as sumptuous as any I’d seen, a large tub, a mirrored panel opposite it. Soft, fluffy towels piled high and even a few native bath products. I sighed in pure happiness. In a few moments, I was naked and sitting in a filling tub, carefully holding my braid out of the water to keep it from getting wet. Sometimes it was tempting to just tie the damned thing up to the rack above my head, rather then hold it.
I had just settled back and raised my feet to the ledge, sinking lower in the water, when the Djinni came in. Without knocking, but then, do Djinn even know what manners are? Considering I was completely naked, I think I handled it rather well. I sunk under the water, only afterwards noticing that the water was perfectly clear, and my evasive maneuver for nothing. After sputtering and coming up for air, I looked at him to find he was leaning on the sink ledge and watching me with amusement. I pulled on my imaginary cloak of indifference and tried to gather my dignity. "Do all Djinn have manners as bad as yours?"
He tilted his head and regarded me. His eyes seemed softer now, and I felt myself flush at his scrutiny. I found myself trying to fill up the silence with empty chatter, just to make that gaze go away somehow. "You could of at least knocked. What do you want? I felt dirty, so I thought I’d take bath." Throughout my vague and shallow tries at a dialogue, he didn’t respond. If anything, his eyes had grown more dangerous somehow. Predatory.
My Djinni, mine. He had no right to make me feel as if I were a piece of meat. I straightened up and tried to stop turning red. "Did you have something you wanted to say? Or are you just trying to make me wish for you to go away?" I tossed my head and steeled my eyes.
"Modest human." He smirked at me, and I started blushing all over again. "You haven’t used up your first wish yet."
I turned in the tub and leaned over the edge, propping my head up on my palms.
"My first wish hmm? I do want to know more about you. Tell me about yourself Heero." And I hoped it would distract me enough so that I wouldn’t care about the fact that I was naked in a tub talking to a Djinni.
It did not help that he towered over me in the bathroom, making me feel smaller then I really was. I am in fact, not that short a person, but Heero made me feel positively miniscule. I looked up at him, locking gazes. "Why do you have to be so damned big anyway?"
He blinked at me, and then... well it was strange. One minute, there he was towering over me and making me feel small, and the next he was... my size. He looked exactly the same, only not so big. It didn’t change his presence though; it still felt as if he were bigger then I was, somehow. But this was more comfortable, and at least now, I didn’t have to look up quite so high, my neck had been starting to ache. "Much better." I murmured.
And he smiled at me. A slow, soft smile, that had me feeling warm and more naked then I already was. "You remind me of a priestess of Bast. She would bath for hours and talk to me over the edge of her tub."
"Bast? Don’t you mean Bastet?"
"Yes, she was known as both names, sometimes also she was viewed as the beneficent side of the lioness-goddess Sekhmet. My priestess was well worshiped, she never decided on a wish, and merely kept me near her side as a companion."
I was shocked, hearing him say he was as old as the sands of all the deserts, was one thing. But to hear about him actually being alive in the time of the ancient Egyptians, was a completely new reality. It was fascinating. "Did she have cats then?"
He still smiled at me, sinking to his knees and curling up against the vanity. "Many, they roamed the entire temple, the constant noise and smell of them was very individual."
"How so?" I leaned a bit further out of the tub, resting my elbows over the edge and bringing my head down on the smooth surface to watch him.
"Each one had a smell and a voice, and the mixture of all of them was like a great chorus to the cat goddess. That is what Inea said it was. A prayer for her goddess."
I thought of something, and mulled it over a bit before asking. "Have you ever had sex with one of your masters?" I had been curious, no sleep, no eating, what did he do? And love after all, takes many shapes and forms. He had seemed to love these various owners, and I wondered just how much and in what ways. To my surprise, he looked embarrassed. This from someone who had barged in on my bath without a qualm.
"I have. Some wished for it, and others wanted it." He looked away for a moment, and I realized the ones that wished for it, were probably not the ones he would have picked. It was not a pretty thought, but I would have bet it was true.
"Did any of them ever love you?" It was four a.m. and according to my internal clock, it was a completely different time. My questions, I admit were becoming a bit more open and bold.
"Yes, and I many of them. You seem curious about this."
I nodded, watching him over the edge of the tub. "I am." I didn’t say anything more, waiting to see how he would respond. Though, I didn’t expect him to lean over with that feral look and kiss me. That, was the last thing I expected. My eyes closed even as his lips touched mine, and after only the briefest moment of them brushing against me, a shock ran down my back. Kissing Djinn was going at the top of my list of favorite things to do.
After a few seconds, he pulled back and stared into my -most likely- glazed eyes. "Curiosity can be dangerous human."
That did it. "Stop calling me human! I have a name." I pulled back and yanked the plug out of the drain, standing up and reaching for a towel. "Damned Djinni." I glared at him. "Go wait in the other room, would you please?"
He stared up at me from the floor for a moment, and then stood and headed for the door, just as it was shutting behind him, I could have sworn I heard a soft "Yes master." It made me feel... odd.
***
He was back at the window by the time I made my way out of the bathroom. He looked different in the near darkness of the room, watching the soft light on the horizon as the sun began its awakening for the day. I dug through my duffel bag and pulled out a pair of shorts to sleep in, glanced at him, and then pulled out a t-shirt as well. Normally I slept naked, but just looking at him made me feel the need to be as dressed as possible. If I had owned a flannel pair of pajamas, I would have put them on, despite the heat.
Without saying a word I slipped under the sheet and thin blanket, tugging them up to my chin and trying not to watch him. I wondered what he was thinking about, then turned over and curled up on my side, staring at the wall instead. My mind kept playing with that kiss, wondering what it had meant, if anything. Eventually, I managed to sleep.
***
It was most likely late afternoon when I woke up again. I had almost half expected the arms that were wrapped around me. And I didn’t mind them one bit. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck, and realized he was still my size. I wondered if somehow he was sleeping, but knew he wasn’t. Then I wondered if he knew I was awake. He answered that question within a moment of my thinking it.
"You’re not even silent in your sleep." His voice said right next to my ear. I rolled over slowly, not noticing until after I had, that our faces were mere inches apart, my body pressing firmly against his. I didn’t move.
"What are you doing in my bed? I thought you didn’t need to sleep?" My breath came out in a soft huff on the last word as he shifted slightly.
"You were crying out. You were afraid of something." He smirked and leaned closer until his nose was brushing mine. "You became calm when I stroked your back, master." I cringed when he called me master.
"Please, stop calling me human and master, my name is Duo. Ok?"
He blinked and leaned back a bit to regard me.
"Duo. It makes me feel... like I’m horrible somehow when you call me master, and it just degrades me when you call me human. I am human, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And I may be your ‘master’ but... just don’t call me that either." I finished lamely, looking down, avoiding his eyes.
He was silent for a long time. Then my stomach growled, I felt him shift and move back. Looking up, I watched him glare at my belly. Without him even making a gesture, I found myself sitting at a table that had appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of the hotel room. I blinked.
"Hhhow... how did you do that?"
Food appeared on the table, eggs, bacon, and slices of fruit, breads, pastries, and coffee in a dark lacquered pot. It smelled divine. My stomach gave another rumble at the offering. Heero sat down opposite me in a chair that hadn’t been there a moment before. He gazed at me silently.
"Thank you Heero." I dropped my eyes to the table again, picking up the fork that lay there. "Thank you very much." And when I looked up, he was smiling at me again. I smiled back at him.
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