D:CM Suspicion

PREVIOUS (Grandmother)
“I’m glad the meeting with his family went rather well,” Ryan commented as they browsed the outdoor mall in Fairen’s entertaining south district. 

“I’m glad too. Grandmother really scared me at first, but I think I like her the best now.” Amy made a face. “It feels weird to think of them as my future in-laws. I still feel weird whenever Jeriah introduces me as his fiancé.”

“Are you going to keep staying with him then?”

“Yeah. It’s more convenient for the story.”

“I still can’t believe you’re going through with this.”  

Amy fell silent. She didn’t know how to convince Ryan that Jeriah wasn’t a terrible person. But she wasn’t thrilled by the idea of marrying him still, so she kept quiet.

They were wandering down the street when something caught her eye. Amy whirled around, surprised. Trudging out of the South district station was Jeriah himself. 

He had his bag slung over his shoulder and a carefree smile on his face. Amy wandered in the same direction, keeping her eye on the figure on the other side of the street. What was he doing here? 

Jeriah strolled with familiarity down the street before turning down a a side alley she had never noticed before. Amy followed, and Ryan let her lead, telling her about the latest designs Passion Fruit had come out with. 

“I heard that Passion Fruit’s director of design will be here for a shoot,” Ryan said. “I volunteered to be part of the tech crew, so maybe I’ll even be able to meet— hey, why’d you stop?” 

They had turned down into a side alley lined on both sides with bars. But Amy was rooted in place, staring at a building with a bright red and pink sign that advertised services that Amy had never considered existed outside of shady back-corners or even in her hometown’s city at all. 

“What are we even doing here?” Ryan scowled. 

“I-uh, got lost,” Amy said, staring at the door to the pleasure house. Her stomach knotted itself together and her heart seemed to pump despair instead of blood. 

“Let’s just go,” Ryan said, pulling her away from the door of a pub and back out towards the shopping centers. 

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

NEXT (Sister of a Feather)

Notes:
It’s not a hard split, but I think of this as halfway through the story, only because everything up to now has been more or less continuous over the course of one week. From here to the end of the story is supposed to cover about a month’s worth of time.

D:CM Grandmother

PREVIOUS (Lunch)
The server led them inside the pavilion to a dining hall off the side of the lobby. The doormen bowed their entrance. She recognized Jeriah’s parents sitting off to the side of a wrinkled woman in a stern monochrome suit. The server announced them.

“My lady, Gareth and Jeriah. Accompanied by Miss Amery Dahla, Jeriah’s fiancé.” 

“Thank you. Leave us.” 

The server bowed and left, closing the door.

“Grandsons. Sit.” 

Amy shifted a little before realizing she hadn’t been called. Jeriah touched her arm gently—in comfort? Or as a reminder?—before sitting roughly opposite his grandmother  around the circular table. Across the table Jeriah’s parents sat with quiet smiles stitched over their faces. Cousins Sherman and Valerie sat on Grandmothe’rs other side. If Amy thought they looked detached before, they looked almost hostile now. 

Grandmother leveled her gaze on Amy. The head of Krovstoff Group was smiling pleasantly, but after spending the mid-afternoon with that smile’s relatives outside, Amy couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. Even more, she could feel the intelligent and calculating gaze of a businesswoman behind the misleading smile. “Amery, tell me about yourself.” 

“Yes ma’am,” she said instinctively, making sure she was standing straight with her hands held loosely at her side. She opened her mouth to recount their backstory when she realized the question posed and changed her mind on the spot. “I studied psychology at Ashnim University and was doing clinical and theoretical research there. I moved back here in June after I was accepted to the Cognitive Sciences PhD program at Fair Ridge, but will hopefully will not be starting until next fall. With your blessing, Jeriah and I would like to get married later this year.” 

“You said you moved back for school and romance, yet you worked part-time at an ice cream parlor once you were back and didn’t start living with my grandson until this past week.”

Amy felt her head spin. She thought she had until the end of the month to perfect her act! But she focused on what she knew about their relationship and what their story was. She looked down for a second, intentionally showing her embarrassment, before looking back up with a smile and chuckle. “Yes. My first day back in town, I really wanted to get ice cream and they were desperately short-handed. At the time I hadn’t secured my position in the Dreams lab and was reluctant to not have any income over the summer. And…Jeriah didn’t propose until last week.” She glanced down at him shyly, doing her best to seem like she was blushing. 

“She likes to stay busy,” Jeriah put in helpfully.

“No ice-cream maid, no matter her good intentions, could ever be good enough for my grandson or accepted into this family.” 

Amy met the calculating gaze of the woman she was supposed to impress.

“I-I’m sorry you feel that way,” she replied, holding her head proudly. “But I love him,” Amy started, even looking towards him to make sure the act looked the part. “So if you meant that, I would tell you that I’m willing to fight for our relationship and our marriage. And I believe that he would fight for me as well. As for my intentions…I want to support him.”

Someone coughed.

Amy laughed as well and and replied gracefully. “I suppose that’s odd, that an ice-cream maid wants to support the son of a multi-million dollar international company. But we didn’t meet like that. We were just old high school acquantances at first, and then coworkers. Jeriah’s on so many projects at the lab, and he’s always reading up on new research; I can really see his passion for his field, and his kindness in small things. And I want to be by his side through that, helping him however I can, be it making a snack when he forgets to eat or,”—she turned to Jeriah with a mischievous grin— “offering another opinion on a transliteration graph.”

Jeriah’s poker face cracked for a little bit in to show her what looked like an embarrassed flush. Her smile was easier to hold after that. She looked back up to his grandmother, her words sharp but deliberate. “But you aren’t actually asking me all  that, are you?” 

Grandmother nodded, but whether it was in approval or dismissal Amy couldn’t really tell. “Well rehearsed.” Amy feel the blood rush out of her head and it took all her self control not to snap her head up in surprise. Instead, she lifted her head slowly, pinching her eyebrows like she had just noticed the odd choice of words. 

Then Grandmother laughed. It was a rumble at first, and too short to build, but she laughed. “Amery, sit,” Grandmother finally welcomed her to the table. “If you are an actress, then you are a fairly good one, and an astute girl as well. Jeriah, tell Martin he can serve us now.” 
Amy slipped into her seat, exchanging smiles of relief with Jeriah as he got up. She wanted to just sink into it and stop talking, but even when food was served, she was the center of conversation:

“Amery, Jeriah never says anything to us, so we know nothing. How did you two meet?”

Finally, a question she had rehearsed. She told Jeriah’s parents the story about her being out birdwatching and nearly tripping over an old classmate who was engrossed in his reading. Catching up had led to getting ice cream, and similar research interests had kept them in contact. 

The other guests kept the questions coming. Amy felt like she was the target of a shooting range rather than an interview. Jeriah jumped in sometimes, answering for her so she could eat. 

“You have a healthy appetite,” Valerie commented during a slightly sour dessert. 
“I would think this is better stuff than the kind you served at the ice-cream parlor?” 

“The dessert reflects the company,” Amy shot back. She almost slapped her mouth shut and stuffed another bite of lemon meringue and fruit-tart ice cream. When there was no response, she risked a glanced up. Valerie and Sherman were glaring at her. 

“I do like sour treats,” Grandmother said, entirely too innocently and composed. Amy’s heart pounded in dread, imagining the worst. What if Grandmother kicked her out here and now. 

Then she noticed Gareth grinning unabashedly and flash her a double-thumbs up.

“Grandmother thought it was funny,” Jeriah whispered to her. She realized he was trying to hide a laugh.

They finished the meal without another comment questioning Amy’s background. 

Finally, Grandmother dismissed them, arranging to meet with Sherman, Gareth and Jeriah over the next few weeks. 

“And Jeriah. If you hear from Lynna, please ask her to stop by as well.”
Everyone at the table seemed to be surprised by that. Amy took careful note of everyone’s reactions: Most of them seemed upset; Sherman looked visibly annoyed, while Gareth just seemed perplexed. Jeriah just nodded and took Amy’s hand, and they left the luncheon in high spirits.

Outside, away from the skin-searing smiles of his family, Amy cheered. “That went well!”

Even Jeriah seemed less uptight than usual. He took off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. “Good job.”

“This calls for celebration,” Amy declared. “Let’s get ice cream. My treat.”
He indulged her with a nod and smile. “Something sweet?”

“Yes!”
He laughed and offered her his hand again. 

She wasn’t sure if it was an act or just the moment, but she took it, giddy with excitement. “It’s a date then.”

NEXT (Suspicion)
Notes:
Another scene that was written and edited and spliced together maybe a dozen times. Grandmother’s character kept changing and wavering and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with her. Jeriah’s parents originally had a bigger role and following this was supposed to be a scene where Jeriah and Amy run into Amy’s parents at the ice-cream parlor, but that all ended up too much for what I wanted for the scope of the story so it’s just this :). 

D:CM Lunch

PREVIOUS (Reasons)
“Mom, Dad, I would like to introduce you to someone. This is Amery Dahla, my fiancé. Amery, my parents.” 

They shook hands and exchanged a few words. They were surprised, but not 
unpleasant; Jeriah had never brought a girl home. She expressed interest in Mr. 
Krovstoff’s research in chemistry and they chatted for a while. But Mrs. 
Krovstoff still seemed detached and rather cold—even when she assured them 
that they had every blessing a parent could offer. Then other relatives had 
started showing up and his parents went to greet them.

They wandered the room as well, greeting relatives. Amy’s head still spun trying to remember everyone. At her side, Jeriah greeted everyone with a with a small smile and introduction. The names and faces blurred, despite Jeriah’s efforts last night to tell her about some of the relatives  There was something about every reaction that rubbed Amy the wrong way though, from Uncle George and Aunt Tiana who congratulated them with tears in their eyes to cousins to cousins Sherman and Valerie, who just stopped by to call Jeriah a “weak, antisocial traitor” and Amy a “money-whoring slut” before walking away again. There was Cousin Leroy with dead, glazed-over eyes, who didn’t seem to be interested in Amy at all, only that Jeriah was getting married and that he was in the running to be the next Head of House. Amy wondered if she had made a mistake. Sure she enjoyed having more money than she knew what to do with and the comfort of a date, but was it worth having to call so many people family? 

And of course there was Gareth, who kissed her fingers and asked her to walk 
with him.

 “Actually, your parents want to talk to you. Alone.” He gestured to Jeriah’s 
parents, who were standing another corner of the tent. Gareth dismissed him, 
taking Amy’s arm from his. “I’ll watch Amery for you, don’t worry.” 

Amy caught his questioning expression and showed him a smile. “Go ahead. I’ll 
be ok.” She would be ok. He was right; what could Gareth do in an afternoon 
walk around the park that he wouldn’t do any other evening at home?

Jeriah nodded, composing his face; Gareth and led her away, towards the lake. 

“You’re beautiful.”

“Thank you.” She was surprised at the straightforward compliment.

“I meant you, not the dress or the hair,” Gareth clarified, surprising her again 
with the his directness. Gareth leaned in closer. “Although I quite prefer the just 
out of the shower look,” he whispered in her ear, referencing when she had 
wandered into the kitchen in only a robe with her hair still dripping wet. Gareth 
had been very clear that his bed would be waiting for her that night if she 
wanted to sleep with something other than a stick or a book.

Amy flushed. “I told you to forget that.”

“How could I?” Gareth’s face turned suddenly serious and he pulled away to a 
more respectable distance. “Amery. I owe you an apology. My behavior towards 
you in high school was that of a immature boy infatuated with a girl he couldn’t 
possibly compare to. I’m sorry for teasing you then, and even more if I made 
you uncomfortable since your engagement to my cousin. Could you find it in you to forgive me?”

“Oh.” She saw Gareth in a new light suddenly. He was manlier for his apology, 
and a lot less annoying. “Of course.” She found herself struggling to find the 
proper words. “Thank you… for your concern. I hope we’ll get along now…
cousin?”

“Just call me Gareth. May I call you Amy?” 

“Haven’t you been doing so all along?” she teased. Still serious, Gareth opened 
his mouth to object before he realized she was messing with him. He chuckled, 
and the tension seemed to die away. “I’d like to continue then, with your 
permission this time.”

“Permission is given.”

“Yes!” He touched her waist suddenly, and lifted her easily in the air. “Hello, 
Amy!”

The wind shuddered through her hair, threatening to mess it up. Her dress 
fluttered elegantly around her and her heart leapt into her throat, pounding so 
hard her surprise came out sounding more like a squeal. “Gareth! Put me 
down!” 

He spun her around laughing before setting her lightly on the grass. He looked 
like he was about to say something else when a server approached them. 
“Master Krovstoff, Miss Dahla, my lady would like to see you.” 

Gareth’s face took on a serious countenance again as he noticed the the server’s attire—this one had a burgundy and gold-trim vest where all the other ones had simply black ones. He took his hands off Amy’s waist and followed. 

“Amery, us too.” Jeriah appeared following the server, his face and voice serious, and maybe just a little dark. He offered her his arm and she took it with a questioning expression. He shook his head. “Grandmother wants to talk.” 

NEXT (Grandmother)

Notes:

The Gareth x Amy thing is supposed to be a much bigger deal than I ended up writing it as. :X

D:CM Reasons

PREVIOUS (Stories)
“Jeriah? Why are you even aiming for head of the group?” 

“Because I want to live a cushy life and never touch another firing-pattern transliteration graph again,” he muttered back, not looking away from the screen. “Seriously, what the hell do these valences even mean?”

Amy laughed but set the textbook in her lap on the ground and  leaned down to see what he was working on. She skimmed through his detailed notes and markings before remembering something from her clinical experience. “Zoom out?”

“What?”

“Zoom out. Can I see the overall notes?”

“The software keeps saying depression, but I don’t believe it.”

“Did you meet the subject?”

“She seemed nervous. I would have guessed anxiety if anything, but all her readings are looking like depression. Normal answers though. She didn’t seem too nervous about being hooked up to the dream-reader.”

“Go back to the spike you were wondering about?”

He did so. “Amery? What do you think?” 

“Sarcasm,” she guessed. “This whole part about never having trouble with her clients— The subject is amused. This activation sequence and the general positive reading—but I’ll bet there’s something bitter in there was well. Corresponding with right ventromedial prefrontal activation that matches the time of utterance—yeah. I’d say she was being sarcastic. You didn’t pick that up?”

“No. She seemed pretty deadpan.”

“It was your first time meeting her, it’s ok.” Amy reached over and hit a button to pull up a transcript of the interview. “Not quite depression or anxiety? Hm… It reminds me more of some minor PTSD cases.”

“Trauma?” 

“Nothing like war or death. Just small things. In her case, her client’s words. 
This sounds like sexual harassment.” Amy looked down and noticed Jeriah staring at her with awe. “I-I’d have to take a closer look though,” she said nervously. “It was just a guess.”

“It’s all yours,” he replied, sliding the mouse and headset to her. “Thank you for volunteering to finish this for me.”
She laughed and backed away. 

“Please? Translating always takes me forever!”

“You were able to translate my interview readings,” Amy protested, but pulled a 
cushion to the floor to sit next to him. “Dinner says you’re thankful.” 

“Right. Hand me my phone, I’ll get pizza.” 

Her hand froze around the phone. “What, I can do that. Go cook something!” 

“I have Kevin for that!” he shot back, reaching over her. “Come on!” 

“My my, I’m learning so much about what you can’t do today,” she laughed, 
scrambling to her feet, phone in hand. “You can’t code simple data, you can’t 
cook, next thing you know it’s that you can’t do your own laundry—“ 

“Amery!” He stood up to give chase, reaching around her in a vain attempt to 
reach the phone. “Hey, watch—“ 

The warning came too late. Her foot caught against the book she had set down. 
She stumbled, but her balance was way off and her foot flew out. She winced as she fell, more from surprise than actual injury.

It took her a moment to realize she didn’t hit the ground as hard as she thought she would and that she wasn’t staring at the ceiling. The way she was angled, her head ought to have smacked into the table. Yet there was a gentle hand on 
the back of her head, prevent her from colliding with the sharp corner of the 
table. The other hand held Jeriah’s weight off her. 

She stared up at him, surprised he’d reacted fast enough to even catch her. 
Their eyes were wide and their faces frozen in surprise. He was a little taller 
than her, and his shoulders were broader than she’d noticed before—he usually 
seemed so much smaller. For the first time, she noticed just how light the gray 
of his eyes were, and how dark the bags that traced under them were. 

They were so close, she could feel his sharp intake of breath before they moved 
apart in a hurry. “Thank you,” she murmured. 

“Sorry,” he apologized at the same time, immediately putting a yard between 
them. “I mean, yeah. No problem.” 

Awkwardly, Amy held his phone out, focusing on the floor. “You wanted this.”

“Right.” He took it, sounding just as flustered before heading for the kitchenette 
like he was escaping. The room seemed unusually silent as Amy sat down by his computer, fiddling with the headset. 

“If you want, I can cook a little,” Jeriah finally said, checking the refrigerator. “It 
isn’t as good as yours, but it should be edible.”

“Y-Yea, that’s good,” she said. “Ok. I’ll finish this.”

When Gareth got back, he complained loudly that his cousin’s food was probably poisoned and commented even more obnoxiously his surprise that at least the poison tasted decent. Amy tuned it all out of course, but for once she was glad for Gareth’s noisiness—it masked the silence that had settled between her and Jeriah. It continued even when he had finished his shower and they danced around each other, standing on opposite ends of the room. Amy wondered how they usually functioned at night. And what even had started this whole awkwardness? Her tripping? They had been talking normally about work before then.
He pulled his blankets over his shoulders and leaned against the window, book in hand. Nestled on the oversized bed, Amy looked up from her own text and stared at him. She wasn’t exactly unhappy with the distance, but its suddenness seemed concerning. 

“Oh! You never answered my question earlier!”

He narrowed his eyes and the book remained closed. “What?”

“Why are you even aiming to be head of the group?”

He hesitated. “Eternal funding,” he joked again.

She rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t make sense. You love your work, and Gareth 
seems like he would enjoy running the business anyways."

Jeriah’s eyebrows knitted together. 

Aha, I’ve struck something. She shifted on the bed, rolling onto her stomach 
and facing him. 

“I don’t plan on running the company,” he said finally, then shut his mouth, 
pursing his lips. “Anyways, it’s something else.” He opened the book, and that 
was the end of the discussion. 

Amy watched him for a while longer, before finally sighing to herself. She shut 
the economics textbook and left it on the bedside table for tomorrow morning. 

“Goodnight, Jeriah.” 


She didn’t expect a reply, but a few minutes later, when he thought she was 
asleep, she heard him murmur in reply. “Goodnight, Amery.”

NEXT (Lunch)

Notes:
This was one of those scenes that I forced in for the sake of otome-ness and for the sake of showing that some relationship is indeed happening. It hasn’t deviated much in terms of content from draft 1, but the actual writing of it has changed a lot.

D:CM Stories

PREVIOUS (Interlude: Friends)
“You can write our love story. Put all the fluffy romance you’d like. I understand I’m stripping you of all the fuzzy feelings you get from dating and marrying someone you actually fell in love with.”

Amy had blinked in surprise when she realized she was being given free reign to make up a beautiful, romance like the kind she read in romance novels. 

“Anything?”

Jeriah had shrugged, as ambivalent as he seemed about everything. “It just has to convince my grandmother and the rest of the family.”

But she needed a story that would convince herself as well. An afternoon, in the park. She would be birdwatching. He—would a park be out of character for him? No, all the grad students seemed to enjoy doing their readings outside on the meadows of the Fair Ridge’s campus. It wouldn’t be a terrible stretch. 

“Is there anything you’d like in though? A certain way you imagined the proposal or first date or meeting?”

“Not really. I can help think of ideas, if that’s what you’re asking. I just figured you would have your own ideal romance story.”

After a few days of late night chats just catching up about life since high school and just talking, Amy handed her supposed fiancé their backstory: how they met, how they dated over the past year from different schools, how he’d proposed.

Ryan had checked the stories and lists for sanity. She had grumbled throughout it, saying that Amy’s dreams were so ordinary, and half of them were based on what she and Cyril had done together. There was definitely someone else out there that would go birdwatching with her—why did it have to be some guy who didn’t actually love her and just wanted a trophy wife to get his inheritance? 

“I’ve never been birdwatching before,” Jeriah commented when he examined the list and backstory. Amy fidgeted with her ring nervously. Would he have her rewrite it? “What do you do, walk around looking at birds?”

“You identify them,” Amy replied. 

She mentally ran through what her first few times were like. 

“It’s a lot of walking around actually, and we go to different places: nature reserves, city parks, regional parks, beaches, marsh preserves. Sometimes my neck aches afterwards from carrying the binoculars. But basically we’d just walk around, chat about whatever, and occasionally find and identify a bird. Maybe tell a story about it.” 

“Sounds boring.” Her heart fell. “I’d like to try sometime.”

A smile blossomed over her face. 

“Mornings are the best time, and since neither of us work in the mornings—“ she stopped. 

“Mornings are terrible,” he groaned. 

She giggled, remembering how he always threw the covers over his head and grumbled groggily whenever either of their alarms rang. 

“Let’s go sometime though.” 

He went back to reading. Amy watched carefully, learning more from gauging his reactions than she had writing it. 

“What are you frowning at?”

“Proposal. It’s so…”

“Sappy?” 

She had written a starlight evening out in the park after ice cream and a movie from home. 

“Straight out of a romance novel?”

“Yeah.”

“Makes sense. That’s where I got it.” 

Kinda. She had some reference from her ex. He had taken her on some pretty romance-novel-perfect dates. Almost too book-like. She tried to shrug it off now, but just shivered instead. Jeriah reached for the thermostat immediately. 

“I’m ok. Is it too much?”

Jeriah crinkled his eyebrows but didn’t push the matter. 

“If you think it’s believable. It seems in-character to the ‘us’ you’ve written anyways.” 

He nodded at the page.

“My favorite ice cream flavors are coffee and mint. What’re yours?”

“Rocky Road—uh, but I change every few months. Rocky Road is a safe bet though.”

He nodded, jotting a note down. 

“Also, I haven’t actually read or seen Under Black Wings. I have read the author’s dissertation paper on vampire history and physiology though, and they made a documentary-style film out of it; can that be one of the movies we watched instead?”

“You read Forsaken’s dissertation? Was the documentary any good?”

“The paper was fascinating; the documentary was crap. What about A Murder Most Fowl?”

“The TV series? It’s amazing! Although…I haven’t actually finished it.” 

He frowned a little. “Want to watch it here? It’d be good if we actually watched it together if it’s going to ‘our’ show.”

She nodded excitedly. “Can we start from the beginning? It’s been a while.”

“Sure. What do you remember about it?”

“That the actor for Rothfeather is gorgeous?”

“Rot-feather’s terrible, but I agree the actors look good. Have you read the short story?”

“There’s a book?” 

“It’s on Forsaken’s site. No plot spoilers then I guess.” He shook his head with a grin and made another note. “My cousin might want to watch it too.”

She beamed excitedly. “We’ll pretend the third-wheel isn’t there.”

He laughed, satisfied enough, and scanned back up the points. Finally, Jeriah looked up again, pointing to some line on the page.  

“Have you been to the science museum by Dewmark? They added a robotics exhibit back in March.”

“Kinda. Ryan told me about the robotics exhibit and I volunteered there over the summers.”

“It hasn’t changed too much,” Jeriah commented. “Shall we have seen that together?”

“Sure.” She had pulled out her own pen and was making amendments as well. 

“Great. Also, I was at the University at Ashnim in May for a symposium. You can add something about that.” 

“What did we do? Walk around the campus?” She ran through Ashnim city’s popular attractions and things that she frequented. They couldn’t cite anyone from her lab, but maybe she could count on Ryan’s support? “Ate lunch with Ryan, then went to the virtual reality arcade?”

“Sure. You beat me at Battle Blitz so I paid for dinner.”

“You play Battle Blitz?”

“Not anymore, that’s why you beat me.” He scanned the page again. 

“Other than that, this is fine. I’ll memorize it by tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah. Oh. It’s Tuesday, isn’t it? I’ll be back late, so don’t wait for me.”

She nodded and texted Ryan. Late nights talking with her coworker and arranged fiancé were one thing. Studying up on business economics in her free  time so she could convince her future Grandmother she wasn’t a useless ice-cream maid was one thing. Hanging out getting dinner with his annoying—albeit attractive—cousin though, was not what she had agreed to. 

NEXT (Reasons)

Notes:
The first line, “You can write our love story,” was another of the lines from my original inspiration. I don’t really write myself into any stories, so I never thought of writing my own love story, and this was a really weird thought. Maybe it’d be fun though haha.

Forsaken is, of course, my friend xForsakenx and the stories are actual stories she’s writing. She’s not working on the dissertation paper on vampire physiology though :P Hopefully everything makes sense without actually having read Murder Most Fowl, buttt I do reference it a bit :x

Birdwatching is awesome.  

D:CM Interlude: Friends

PREVIOUS (Unwelcome Guest)

“I’m still banishing her. And then you can spend your days searching for her dead body.”

Jeriah sighed frustratedly in response.

Jeriah and Gareth’s conversation was interrupted from by Ryan Norton appearing in the doorway. She was about as tall as Gareth, with the same thick-boned structure, and pixie-cut blue-gray hair. Nothing about her seemed to say “girl” to him. But Amery had been pretty clear. 

“Miss Norton, I apologize for miscalling you earlier. I was not aware,” Jeriah apologized. 

“Miss Norton?” Gareth stared at Ryan incredulously. “You’re a girl?”

“Gareth, kindly remove yourself.”

“What, and we were having such an intellectual conversation!”

“We’ll finish later. I hope you reconsider your plans.”

“Alright, I know when I’m not wanted. Goodnight, Miss Norton.”

Gareth disappeared into his room. 

“And sorry for his reaction.”

Ryan hesitated for a moment, but just nodded. “It happens a lot.” She sat down by the blankets. “Thanks for the couch, by the way.”

“Absolutely. It seemed like you were waiting to talk to me as well. Would you prefer now or the morning?” 

“Now, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.” 

A few minutes later, with the sound of the shower coming from both rooms, he was seated in his usual chair again, facing Ryan on the couch. With the large coffee table between them, it really did seem like a meeting. 

Practice for when we meet the rest of the family, he told himself. “Please speak freely.”

“Amy told me about your deal.”

She had called Ryan her best friend, and he understood the need for a support structure behind their sham of a relationship. At Ryan’s questions, he told her quietly about Grandma’s mandate that if he wanted a chance to run for Head of the Group, he’d need to be married or at least intending to. Why was that? Grandmother had the right to make seemingly arbitrary rules. He’d no power to contradict her. He told her what he’d told Amery yesterday: they were vaguely familiar high school classmates. He mentioned the dream-reader interview, and Ryan’s frown turned into a grimace. “She’s earnest too,” he noted. “I appreciate that.” 

Ryan’s scowl didn’t let up, but she continued talking. “Amy seemed to be set on seeing this through.”

They talked for a while longer. “I’m surprised she’s told you this much,” he confessed during a pause. “But I don’t remember you being particularly close in high school. What happened?”

“We went to the same university,” Ryan said with a shrug. “She was there for me when I came out, and I was there for her when her boyfriend started being dangerous. We’ve only been rooming together since she got back from school.” 

“What happened with her boyfriend?”

Ryan’s grimace deepened.  “That’s more her story to tell. But he hurt her.”

Jeriah knew better than to ask. “She’ll tell me when she’s ready.”

Ryan gave him a long, hard stare. “I’m surprised as well. You don’t seem like a terrible, calculating machine. Why do you have to do this?” 

“I’ve never had a relationship. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to find someone quickly after you’ve spent your entire life shutting yourself off from all possibilities at romance.”

Ryan scoffed outright. 

“It’s pathetic, I know. Amery called me desperate, and that about sums it up.”

Ryan didn’t seem to care much for his response, but she let it go. Better pathetic  than malicious. “I won’t hinder your act,” she said finally. “But know this, Krovstoff: this isn’t a game. You mess with her, I mess you up; got it, sunshine?” 

He felt a little better, knowing she had such a strong friend, despite how nervous it made him as the person proposing such a lie. 

“I won’t give you a reason to.”

NEXT (Stories)

Notes: 

Interludes are basically points in which the story is told more from Jeriah’s perspective than from Amy’s. 

This section was also majorly updated a bunch before it served enough of a purpose. Even now I don’t think Ryan puts up enough of a fight but I’m not sure how much else to emphasize that point.

D:CM Unwelcome Guest

PREVIOUS (Friend)

The evening afterwards, Amy rang the bell of the penthouse apartment she would be staying in for the next week—and if everything worked out the way she thought it would—longer. She didn’t expect Jeriah to answer the door; he had mentioned a butler, and he had still been engrossed in data analysis when she left the lab an hour ago. 

The door opened. 

“…Gareth?” Amy stood in a daze, staring at the face of her high school nightmares in the doorway of her new fiancé’s apartment. A shirtless Gareth Krovstoff examined her with curious eyes.

“Are you here for my cousin?” Gareth laughed and took her hand. He pressed her fingers against his mouth salaciously, his eyes sliding down her sweater and jeans. She tried not to stare too long at his muscles, which were still glistening from sweat or a shower. “Is this his type?”

“Hands: Off.” Ryan appeared behind her and glared down at even Gareth, her eyes darkening. She squared her shoulders and the shadow made her loom even taller. 

“I didn’t know girls came with bodyguards now,” Gareth commented, looking up calmly and not letting go of Amy’s hand. His eyes narrowed on the duffel bag on her shoulder and the giant box in Ryan’s. “Or luggage.” 

Amy finally yanked her hand away. “Y-you— what are you doing here?”

Gareth raised an eyebrow. “I should be asking you that.” He crinkled his eyes at her. “You look familiar.”

“I-I—“ Amy threw her hair over her shoulder and faced him as confidently as she could. She had forgotten Jeriah had such unpleasant family. But that just meant Gareth was one of the people she had to fool. “My name is Amery Dahla; we went to high school together, remember? I’m Jeriah’s fiancé.”

Gareth’s expression scowled with suspicion and then realization. “Amy? My cousin’s fiancé? What—is this a joke?“ Gareth doubled over in laughter. 

Still standing awkwardly in the doorway with a giant duffel bag over her shoulder, Amy glanced up at Ryan, who was glowering at the baboon in the doorway. Finally, Ryan cleared her throat. 

Gareth moved aside, waving his hands in welcome. “Welcome then, welcome. Hah, who knew even my cousin could pull his head out of a textbook for long enough to pick up a girl.”

Amy steeled her nerves and swept in like she owned the place. The apartment was spacious—and gorgeously simple. Directly to the right of the entryway was a neat kitchenette with an island counter. Ahead, down two steps, was a comfortable seating area with an L-shaped couch leaned against another island surface, facing a lone plush chair, a wall of bookshelves and a view of Fairen city at night. There were two doors on opposite sides of the room. Amy set her duffel on the seating area island. 

“Just leave my stuff here for now,” she directed Ryan, who had momentarily forgotten Gareth to admire the interior design. Amy turned to the door on the left. 

“That’s my cousin’s room,” Gareth called. Closing the door, he had stopped laughing and was smirking at them. 

“I know,” Amy shot back immediately. He raised an eyebrow at her. Mistake, she realized, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. She opened the door anyways. “I’ll be right back. Put on a shirt, would you?” 

Jeriah’s room consisted of a just a plush king-sized bed facing the door. There was another window here, as well as more bookcases. She wandered quickly into the bathroom on the left—giant bath, shower, sink, mirror, walk-in closet. Wow. Amy washed her hands and splashed a little water on her face and through her hair to give her an excuse. 

She took a deep breath and cleared her head to take stock. The other door might have led to the room the butler used. Maybe a study. That wasn’t the problem; Gareth was. Was he the butler? No way. Ok. Potentially helpful butler—missing; annoying cousin—present. She took a deep breath before heading back into the main room.

Gareth was lounging at the kitchenette island. He had gotten a bottle of beer, but not a shirt. She turned away, half irritated, half trying not to stare. Whatever misgivings she had about Gareth Krovstoff, his body was much better built than his cousin’s. Gareth leaned back, watching her movements with amused, unsettling eyes.  

“So. You’re my cousin’s fiancé?” 

Amy wasn’t sure whether he sounded more surprised that it was her or that his cousin actually had a fiancé. 

She replied with her own question. “What are you doing here, Gareth?” 

“What, I can’t pay my dear cousin a visit?”

“A surprise visit,” she snapped.

Gareth shrugged, but Amy noticed he didn’t contradict her. She let out a small sigh. Gareth chuckled. 

“I would offer you a drink now, but you’ve obviously already helped yourself.”

Gareth held the bottle up in mock salute. “Where’s my cousin?” 

“Late night,” she replied, pulling her phone out of her bag. She was surprised by how casual her tone was. “He’s meeting with Dr. Syis about a tricky participant.” 

“But it’s the night his dear fiancé’s moving in. You’d think he’d be here to help you unpack.” He made a good point, but Gareth’s voice was entirely too innocent to be genuine. 

She shrugged noncommittally. She was already sending Jeriah a text, thankful he had remembered to give her his number last night. 

“And the butler isn’t even here tonight,” Gareth continued. “Although Mr. Grouch here could probably be his stand-in.”

Amy ignored Gareth—and the urge to snap back at him—and turned to the stuff sitting on the couch. She turned back to Ryan, who stood next to the stairs in front of the stuff with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed on Gareth. “Ryan, give me a hand with the books?”

Amy hopped down the two stairs and scanned the titles on the wall under the pretense of looking for room for her own books. She was surprised to see a few familiar names among the reference books. “We’ll put them next to the journals for now,” she said, pushing some of the books to one side to make room. “Just the textbooks. Just leave the novels in the box for now.”

An hour later, with everything she couldn’t find a place for haphazardly thrown in Jeriah’s room, Amy was sitting between the oddest stare-down. Ryan hadn’t stopped glaring at Gareth, and Gareth was still watching Amy’s every move. 

“You haven’t eaten,” Gareth commented mildly. 

“We ate before coming,” Amy lied. “What about you?” 

“I’m drinking in my meal now,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her. Once Amy understood what he meant, she ignored him.

Silence. 

“Is this usually what you do? Just sit on the couch and wait for him?” 

“Usually I’m not here without him,” she replied as evenly as she could. She pretended she was talking to a patient. “I just moved in tonight, remember?” 

Silence again. There wasn’t even a clock in the room to count the passing time. Ryan kept glaring at Gareth, and Gareth just lounged on the couch, showing off his muscles and sipping his beer. 

“It’s nearly midnight. Shouldn’t Sir Stares-a-lot be heading home soon?”

That was a good point. “Ryan…the trains will stop running soon.“ 

“It’s fine,” Ryan replied tersely. Amy nodded, understanding. Ryan wasn’t leaving her side until she met with Jeriah, especially not alone with Gareth. Amy checked her phone. Still no reply. 

More silence. 

“Would you stop staring?” Amy shifted uncomfortably under Gareth’s intense scrutiny. He’d been staring for hours now probably, and she had been fidgeting with her ring. She felt like he was going to suddenly see through her and call her out. 

“Only if your bodyguard here returns the favor.”

“Please.”

Ryan opened her phone with a snort. After a moment she started scrolling through the latest designs on Passion Fruit, her favorite clothing brand.

Even more silence. 

“Are you going to the luncheon next Saturday?” 

“Luncheon?” Amy shut her mouth quickly, racking her brain for mentions of a lunch date. The only date Jeriah had told her about was that they were meeting his grandmother at the end of the month, when she would decide who would inherit the title of Head of Krovstoff Group.

“Yeah. Lunch on Saturday. Yes or no?”

Amy drew a blank. Was it a family thing? Would Jeriah usually attend a Saturday luncheon? 

Fortunately, she was saved by the sound of the door opening. 

“Cuz!” 

“Jeriah!”

“Finally!” 

Everyone greeted the door at the same time. Jeriah looked up from the door and took in the situation, the surprise superseded only by his apparent weariness. He hung his bag on a hook on the wall to the left of the door. “Guests. Hi. Amery, sorry for being late.”

“It’s ok,” she said before really thinking about it. It was not really ok. But what else could she say? 

Jeriah bypassed Gareth entirely and greeted Ryan. “You’re Norton, right? Ryan Norton? You were in my AP Computer Science class senior year of high school. You’re a friend of Amery’s?”

 Ryan seemed surprised to be addressed—and remembered so clearly. She shook his hand. “Yes. Amy’s best friend. I was helping her unpack.” 

“Thank you for taking care of her,” he said, looking Ryan in the eyes seriously. He sounded sincere before turning back to Amery.

“Sorry I’m late,” he apologized again. “Kevin was in an accident and I was at the hospital. It looks like you’ve mostly been able to settle in?”

“Just fine,” Amy replied, shifting uneasily. She wondered if they should have some kind of greeting ritual. A kiss? He looked like he could use a hug. “What happened? Is Kevin ok?” 

She had other unvoiced questions: Why hadn’t he at least texted her back? Did he usually get back so late? Did his annoying cousin usually show up for unexpected visits? More immediately—who was Kevin? 

“He woke up just before I left. He broke a few ribs and lost a lot of blood but the doctors said he would be fine.” Jeriah cracked a smile. “He had enough energy to ask for a month off and plane tickets. I think he’ll be ok. Sorry I didn’t call you. My phone died before I left the lab.” He plugged the dead scrap metal in and she couldn’t tell if he was serious or just a very convincing actor. 

She let out a breath in relief. Whoever the guy was, at least he was ok. Kevin sounded like close friend—and an employee—the missing butler, probably. 

“It’s late,” Jeriah turned back to Ryan. “Do you want to stay over tonight? It’d have to be Kevin’s bed though.” He gestured to the room Amy hadn’t explored. 

“If you don’t mind, I’ll take the couch.”

Jeriah nodded. “I’ll grab a blanket. There’s a washing machine in the bathroom as well, if you wanted to shower or wash your clothes before tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” Ryan hesitated. 

“Of course.”

Amy nodded with a smile and Ryan disappeared to the guest room for a shower. 

Gareth piped up. “Hello? Any greeting for your kinsman?”

“You didn’t tell me you were staying at my place,” Jeriah snapped.  

“And you didn’t tell me you were engaged, so fair,” Gareth threw back.

“Of course, how inconsiderate of me. Amery, this is my cousin Gareth. He studied business at The University at Cornsilk and freeloads at my place when he’s back in town.”

“I noticed.”

“Wonderful,” Jeriah said so seriously she almost laughed. “Gareth, could you stay with mom and dad or something?”

“Why? Since Mr. Norton’s taking the couch, couldn’t I stay on guest bed?”

“What, there are three people here—“

“And I assume Amery’s sleeping with you? She went straight to your room when she got here.” Gareth waggled his eyebrows again. 

“Of course. Whatever. Just get out, Gareth. We’ll talk in the morning.”

“I’ll entertain myself,” Gareth assured, heading for the guest room before Jeriah could protest. He winked at Amy. “See you in the morning, cupcake!”

The door closed, leaving Amy alone with Jeriah for the first time since their little contract began. They stared at each other for a long minute before Amy broke the silence: 

“Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. You had to deal with something unpleasant even though it was supposed to be a relaxing move.” He sighed, heading for his room. At the door, he sighed. “Come on then.”

She followed him into the room and noticed the bag with her clothes still sprawled over his bed. She grabbed it quickly. “Excuse me.” 

“No, no, you can use the bed,” Jeriah said. He had been headed for the bathroom then paused. “You haven’t showered yet, right? Go ahead and take one first. I’m going to grab a blanket for Mr. Norton.”

“Miss,” Amy corrected. She was too tired to argue and found a change of clothes in her duffel. “Although you can just call her Ryan.”

Jeriah processed this sleepily. “Right. Okay. I’m glad she asked for the couch then.” He stifled a yawn. 

“Goodnight, Jeriah,” Amy replied, equally tired, and plodded to the shower without complaint. Today had been too long. 

NEXT (Interlude: Friends)

Notes:
I actually really like this scene... :x I had to edit the ordering of some things because it was awkward the first time around, but I kinda liked this scene once it was written and decided. I had a few early renditions with Kevin Knight, the butler, but didn't actually end up using him.