Reclaimed – Chapter 7

I have plans for my last night of freedom before getting back on the road to the farmhouse we left behind. Oyama grills up whole fish and vegetables, drizzling mine both with cake-infused oil. I admit that I don’t like the taste, but after I get through the first five bites, the medicinal qualities seep into my blood stream, and my appetite resumes. I need the cake at most hours of the day. My gag reflex is so strong, I can barely brush my teeth and eating is a chore. I’ve read the database on lung disease and cancer, and it’s not pretty, so I’ll keep smoking to a minimum, but my one smoke in the morning is peaceful and calming. Almost better than coffee. Almost.

Kazuo doesn’t show up for dinner, so I hope he’s still coming with us tomorrow. I didn’t want to make an enemy of him again, but I didn’t want him or anyone else thinking that I had forgiven him. I haven’t and I can’t fake it. I want him as an ally, and if not that, at least not an enemy. Julia, Natsu, and Taya integrate into our group without a hiccup. Julia sits next to Beni and they talk quietly to each other. Natsu chats with Kentaro, and Taya makes polite conversation with Mariko.

While everyone is eating desserts, drinking tea, and laughing, I rise from my spot at the table, lean over and whisper, “Meet me at the women’s bathhouse in five minutes,” in Jiro’s ear. I don’t wait to see if he acknowledges me.

I grab two towels from our room, and when I reach the bathhouse, I open it up and make sure it’s empty. The hoses are tucked away, so I turn two on and run them until the water turns hot. The bathhouse is warm and steamy by the time Jiro meets me.

“Lock the door!” I call out from the washing area. A strong click echoes through the room, and Jiro appears in the doorway, a smile on his face.

“What have you got planned for the evening?” he asks, unbuttoning his Nishikyō gray shirt.

“Some quality time together.” I slip by him into the changing area, hang up my sweater, peel off my shirt, pants, and underwear. His hand meets my back before he pinches my ass as I walk past.

“Get undressed.” I wave him away with my heart beating way up in my throat. It’s been a long time since we’ve been intimate. Between the kidnapping, rescue, and traveling, there’s been no time or privacy for it. I place two stools next to each other at adjoining stations, sit down, and hold the hose up to let hot water rush over me.

Jiro enters the washing area naked and sits down. “Are you still bleeding?” He looks at my lower body, his gaze clinical and observant, not sexy.

I swallow past the lump in my throat. “No, though I don’t think my body is ready for anything.”

He grabs the nearest hot water sprayer and leans over to kiss my shoulder. “Of course.” He douses himself with hot water starting with his hair and working his way down. “I think I’ll wash my hair. Do you ladies keep anything in here that doesn’t smell like flowers?” He reaches past me to my washing station, purposely brushing up against my breasts along the way. I would laugh, really, because his gesture is so blatant but my heart is beating too fast.

“Here’s mine. It smells like…”

“Oranges. I know.” He smiles. “Why don’t you help me wash my hair?”

I laugh as he wiggles the bottle in my direction and raises his eyebrows. “It’s a miracle men can do anything on their own.” I stand up and he widens his legs for me to step between them. I gaze down, and he’s already turned on as well. Didn’t take long.

I pour a good amount of shampoo into my hands and work it through his hair, swiping suds away from his forehead with my thumb. Jiro’s hands grasp my hips and slide up my back, and his lips land on the space between my breasts before he rests his cheek there. He hugs me tight to his chest and sighs.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” he whispers.

I need to rinse his hair, but I let my soapy hands clutch him to my body.

“I’m glad to be alive too. I thought I was dying in the hospital.” I remember when I closed my eyes, I thought I may never open them again. I thought that was the end. It was just the end for my baby.

Jiro kisses along my breasts to my neck and pulls back. I lean over and grab the hose so I can rinse his hair and he smacks me on the ass. “Ow! Hey!” I start to laugh as I look down at the red mark on my butt. I snap my hand out and pinch his nipple.

“Ow! Sanaa!” He laughs too, almost falling out of his chair, so I take the hose, push my finger into the opening, and spray him in the face with it.

“I was trying to be nice, asshole, and rinse out your hair.”

He snatches the hose from me. “Did you just call me an asshole?”

“Yes. Yes I did.” I sit down in my chair and fill up a loofah with soap.

“Good. Being on the road loosened you up. I hope to hear you swearing like a yakuza in a month’s time.” He tips his head over and rinses out all the soap. Sitting back up, he wipes the water from his face and smiles at me. “Kentaro said he heard you swear several times in the castle.”

“Yeah, well, the situation called for it.”

He grabs a sponge with a bar of soap and starts to work up a lather. I’m watching him wash his shoulders and bite my lip as he works his way down.

From the other room, the sound of the door’s metal lock clanks around and somebody knocks on the door. Jiro and I both turn around and yell, “Go away!” at the same time. I giggle at how in sync we are.

“Okay, okay.” Poor Beni. She was probably looking to relax this evening, but she gets to stay here while I’m on the road. I’m not giving up private time with Jiro for her right now.

I scoot over and sit in Jiro’s lap. “Let me help you with this.” I kiss him, putting every ounce of love, want, and desire I have into this kiss.

Looking down at him, I realize we hold a lot of power over each other, Jiro and me. Sex, love, adoration. I would do anything for him, and I’m sure he’d do anything for me.

“Come out to the bath.”

I pick up the hose and rinse him off before we exit the bathhouse to the outdoor hot tub. He sits in the deep corner, and I sit between his legs and press my back against him with a sigh, letting the warm water seep in and wash away the trace of nausea. Jiro’s fingers reach into my scalp and massage along my hairline to the top of my head.

“Mmmm. Thanks.” Between the heat of the tub and Jiro’s pampering, I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep in the water. I settle into his lap, letting my arm float in front of me in the water. “Remember when we rode into that last town? The one with the minka?”

Please let him have seen what I saw. I don’t want to be crazy.

“The squirrel?” He rests his chin on my shoulder and lets his arm float up under mine from behind. “Do you think it responded to that woman?”

“I don’t know. Is it crazy to think the people here talk to animals? Actually communicate with them?”

His fingers meet mine, and he pulls my arm to my body and enfolds me, protecting me. “Crazy? No. I saw that squirrel respond to that woman with my own eyes. And the way Romi’s animals obeyed her? I’m sure something is going on there.”

“Wouldn’t it be amazing to talk to animals?”

“As if you don’t already?”

I laugh. “But this must be different. To really understand them?” I shake my head. “It sounds like magic.”

“I’ve seen you with Kumo and Momo, with Kagemusha. You already communicate with animals. If what you think is happening in the North is happening, I’m going to be living in a zoo before long.”

“I’m sorry…” The apologies slip from my lips easily these days.

“Listen to me right now,” Jiro commands.

Pushing me away from him, he slips out from behind me and places me in the corner instead.

“You need to stop apologizing for things that are not your fault. You apologized to Beni for blindsiding her with her cousin, and you should never apologize for doing your job. Beni should have sucked it up and not even said a word. You apologized to Kazuo when he doesn’t even deserve to walk by your side. Most of all, you should not be apologizing to me, me of all people, who dragged you all over the continent when you were sick and starving. I made you sleep on the ground and you should have complained more. Honestly.” He growls and smacks the water sending it splashing in a wave over the lip of the tub.

“Shhh.” I reach out for him, sure in his anger he’s going to turn away and stalk off. “Don’t be angry,” I plead. “There was nothing we could do. You heard the doctor as well as I did. It was inevitable.” His hand meets mine under the water, and I pull him to me. “It’s easy to be angry or upset or depressed, but it’s harder to move on.”

Jiro dips down into the water and resurfaces, only his head above his chin hovering over the water. He pushes his hair back, and I sink down farther stretching my legs out so my feet grasp the sides of his chest. We sit for a moment, quiet and assessing each other like we usually do when we have a big decision to make. Finally, he exhales a deep breath, blowing bubbles in the water, before grabbing my legs and using them to pull him towards me.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” he says, standing up over me. “I think it’s going to be a year or two, maybe three, before we can have kids, if we even make it that long in this war. So we keep the implant and hope it doesn’t fail again before we’re ready.”

I break eye contact with him and concentrate on the water instead. This is painful for us both. He sets his knees down on the bench on either side of me. I laugh at how blatant he’s been since that night in the alley, how he takes charge and shows me what he wants. I run my hands down his back, my hands on his ass, and lift my face for a kiss. He smiles at me before pushing my short hair back.

“If animals are going to make you happy, make you feel whole, we’ll fill our lives with them. I don’t care.” He leans over and our lips meet, opening up and letting our tongues slide over each other. Mmmm, this kind of normalcy is nice — kissing my husband in the bath. If only I were a little more healed. He pulls away and kisses my cheek. “Just remember who loves you the most when they try to take over the bed.”