“Welcome home,” Amy greeted.
It was a quiet evening. Gareth was nowhere to be noticed, but there was a pot of something fresh coming from the kitchenette and the projector was already set up with the next episode of Murder Most Fowl loaded up. Amy herself sat in her usual spot, curled up on the couch with a textbook over her lap.
She noticed the hint of a smile tug on the corners of Jeriah’s face at her greeting. “I’m back.” He hung his bag up next to hers. “Did you make something?”
“Just a soup. Do you want some? It just needs to be heated up.” She moved the text off her lap and stood up.
“Thanks. I’ll get it.”
“I haven’t eaten either. It’s fine.”
“It’s the least I can do since you cooked and waited for me,” he replied.
Amy shifted between her feet with a little pout but relented and went back to her book.
A few minutes later, the soup heated and the table set, Jeriah wandered over to the couch.
“We can eat now. What’re you studying?”
“Business Economics,” she replied, shutting the textbook and returning it to his bookshelf.
“I’ve been wondering; why business?”
“Well, you’re planning to head an international hotel chain, right? I figured that if I’m going to be your wife I ought to learn a bit about the trade. I don’t want to be a nuisance to the group.”
“Oh.” He seemed shocked, or touched, or something between the two. “You’ve gotten pretty far in it since you started.”
“Hopefully. Anyways, let’s eat.”
They talked about normal things over dinner: the funny things participants did in the lab, the readings that week, what was going on in the news and with the Krovstoff Group, what Ryan was up to, their speculations for where Kevin the butler had gone on his vacation, where Murder Most Fowl was going…. As they washed the dishes together, Amy wondered if there had always been this much to talk about. They glimpsed each other at work every day, and they talked almost every night expect when one of them got back late, yet she felt like there was still so much to talk about.
She pushed her thoughts away quickly and they settled into their usual positions to watch A Murder Most Fowl. She curled up next to him, even though there was no Gareth to act for, and he seemed pleasantly surprised.
“I love how Minerva never doubts Ezreal even when the Commissioner pins evidence of the murder on him,” Amy murmured between episodes.
“Seriously. Even Ursula was convinced,” Jeriah commented, his fingers waiting on the remote in case she had another comment.
But Amy was wrapped up in her own thoughts. Shouldn’t she be like that then and trust her fiancé even when it seemed that there was no reason to?
“Amery?”
Or would that be stupidity, like when she had trusted Cyril without regard to her gut instincts and the evidence around her? After all, one she had lived through. And the other was a story.
“Hey. What’s on your mind?”
She snapped her attention back to him and realized she had been staring at him. She shook her head. “Sorry, I was just imagining what kind of faith that would take.”
“Love,” he replied nonchalantly. He glanced down at her. “Or so the characters would like you to believe.”
“I thought I loved Cyril,” she muttered bitterly. Did she love Jeriah? She was going to marry him, but she wasn’t sure she had the proper feelings of a bride going into a wedding.
He caught it. He hesitated. “Who’s Cyril?”
She paused too. She hadn’t meant to bring Cyril up again at all, particularly not in front of Jeriah.
He waited.
“Cyril…is my ex-boyfriend. We dated for a while in college. I found out he didn’t see me as anything but a tool. In the end he got into some trouble with the law. I testified against him at the trial.”
Suddenly Amy didn’t want to know what kind of reaction Jeriah would have to this. “Anyways. Sorry for the detour. Cyril was guilty, but we’ll see if Ezreal turns out innocent,” she said, turning back to the projecter. “Go ahead and start.”
“Amery….”
She reached over and pressed the play button. She felt his gaze on hers through the opening song, but she kept her eyes trained on the screen and concentrated on finding the terrible people that were trying to take down Ursula, Marguerite and Minerva.
Finally, Jeriah turned his attention back to the screen. She felt him sigh, and he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, but he didn’t try to talk.
As she watched the finale, Amy remembered why she loved reading romance novels, where everyone was always a good person and everything always worked out and somehow despite the ridiculous situations, the protagonists always found true love. Her eyes blurred as the final credits rolled.
Jeriah offered her a tissue sympathetically when he turned the lights on and realized she was tearing up after the beautiful ending.
“Who was your favorite?” Amy asked, dabbing away her tears after the happy ending. Jeriah had a gentle smile on his face as he watched her.
“Ursula. She’s a mastermind.” He left her field of vision.
“Dark-haired, badass genius type then?” Amy frowned, tossing the tissue away and thinking over his answer. “I’m not badass or a genius.”
“What does that matter?”
“I’m trying to figure out your type.”
Jeriah reappeared with a mug of tea and a skeptical smirk. “You’re my type. Just be yourself.”
She flushed. “From the cast!”
“If you insist, I think Marguerite is beautiful.”
“I look nothing like Marguerite!”
“As a character. You have her strength and fragility.” He looked so serious that
Amy’s protest died in her throat.
She pulled her knees up on the couch and sipped the tea he’d made her. He must’ve been watching her make her own because he’d gotten the proportions of the blend right. And he had remembered that she always had a calming cup after their episode to help her sleep. A warmth spread in her chest that wasn’t from the tea. That wasn’t something a man who didn’t care would do, was it? But Cyril had done nice things for her too. Not that he meant them. Not that he cared.
She took a deep breath and a long gulp of tea to soothe her nerves and put her head against the couch, watching Jeriah.
“Why?” she whispered finally.
“Marguerite’s emotionally destroyed, but whenever she’s in front of other people she maintains a strong image. You’re like that. You said a little bit about your ex, yet you went forward with this sham of an engagement so composedly. You always project a confident image at work or in front of my family.” Jeriah watched her seriously. “I’ll be here when you want to talk. And I hope I don’t ever do anything to make you feel like that again.”
She wanted to reply, but her eyes were slipping closed. She must’ve been more tired than she’d thought. She murmured something, and he said something in reply. She slumped forward a little, something soft caught her, and she didn’t hear the answer.
Notes:
Half of this originally happened back with the stuff in Reasons and the tripping over the laptop-cord. It was cut off to it’s own section here and the Murder Most Fowl stuff was added to harken back to what they talked about in Stories.
Also, Minerva is me-Minerva because Minerva in Murder Most Fowl is basically me. ^^ And the name Ezreal stems from my silly crush on Ezreal from League of Legends.
Anyways, where Reasons was more my adding in otome-ness for the sake of showing a budding relationship, is more my brand of romancing: the “welcome home” greetings, the cooking, the studying stuff that’s interesting for the other person, the shared fan-gushing time, that kind of hanging-out. <3
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