Page 2 of Monster Married
“I do, but—let’s go find food, okay?”
He nodded. “Yes. After we clean you up.”
In one smooth movement that shouldn’t have been so easy for someone so tall and broad, Inkiri was on his feet quick, and just as quick, he gathered me in his arms.
“I think you’re a bit too light. I’d like to plump you up.” He walked to the wall on the opposite side of the bed area.
I snorted. “Hard no. If I’m all juicy and plump, I’ll have trouble running from monsters, and they’ll think I’m…you know, juicy and plump.”
He put me on my feet, and to my surprise, slid the wall aside. It wasn’t a wall at all, but a sliding wooden screen that functioned as the door to an en suite bathroom. That was neat. I knew we were at an inn or hotel-like place, and since the small glimpses I’d seen of bagu culture were close to the Middle Ages in terms of technology, I’d been afraid there’d be an outhouse like in the wayhouse. Oh, the sweet relief of indoor plumbing.
The bathroom was more luxurious than I could have hoped for, with a bathtub set into the floor, about half the size of a regular tub and no deeper than the middle of my calves, and a pretty normal-looking sink with a round bowl on the other wall. A shelf on the left held plenty of towels and some small containers of what I assumed were cleaning products. They had neat writing on them.
I pointed. “That’s your language, right? LaGuardia.”
Inkiri clicked as I went over there and picked up one of the containers.
“Lugarra, that’s right.”
“Lugarra—ah!”
He picked me up again and set me down in the mini tub. He held my left wrist up to take off the friendship bracelet, working it open carefully.
“Hey, wait. That needs to be cleaned with soap. Is this soap?” I shook the container. I’d been wearing the bracelet back on the monster world, and now everything needed a good clean at a minimum, though I wouldn’t have minded burning whatever that goo had touched.
Inkiri hummed. “I’ll do it later. Let’s take care of you first, Sadir.”
He turned on a faucet with a wide rectangular spout and used a soft sponge to soak and wipe me down. It was embarrassing, but Inkiri didn’t seem to mind. Maybe this was something you did, just like the communal bathing and showering I’d already experienced.
Once he was done with my private area, he took the container I was still holding and sprinkled some of the powder it contained over my skin, then massaged it in with the sponge—thankfully not the same one he’d used before. It foamed a little bit and smelled amazing. Like cotton candy and roasted nuts. The scent made me feel nostalgic.
“I can wash myself, you know.” I felt like I had to at least mention that. Hopefully he didn’t think my personal hygiene was lacking. If it was, it was only because we’d been traveling. And because of the orange spider, of course, but no one in their right mind would expect a monster spider to bleed out on top of them.
“It’s all right. You can relax and let me do it, at least today.”
Should I argue? Maybe. “Okay, that works.”
I heard him exhale, almost a sigh.
“About what I said… You are light, and you shouldn’t have to worry about being plump. I disappointed you. I intend to keep you safe from now on, to make sure you never again have to fear a monster. Or anything else. I don’t want you to have to worry anymore.” His brow was furrowed.
“I didn’t mean it like that about becoming too juicy. I was trying to be funny. I don’t expect you to, I don’t know, kill off all monsters in order to keep me safe. That’s not very realistic.”
“Rory—” He stopped himself with an aborted kind of sigh. “Let me at least take care of you after making love from now on. Making love is what you call pleasure play, yes?”
I giggled. “Yeah. You say pleasure play here?”
“Yes.”
“Sort of more accurate, I guess.”
He hummed and diligently worked the sponge over my skin in small circles. For my hair, he used powder from a different container, although the scent was the same. With careful fingers, he gave me a scalp massage before rinsing everything off with a cross between a pitcher and a watering can that he kept refilling from the faucet.
After Inkiri wrapped me in a towel, he showed me the toilet, which was next to the shower area and also separated from the main room with a screen. It was one of those European-style double designs with a bidet. I’d basically expected a hole in the ground, which was what it had been at the wayhouse. This was really fancy, and I was extra impressed considering this culture seemed to be several decades behind Earth technology. Or at least pre-apocalyptic Earth technology.
Then again, I’d lived a very privileged life before the apocalypse. Who was I to judge a whole different world by what little I’d seen of it and by what was normal for me? The descendant of colonizers, that was who. Although…Ireland had been colonized by Britain, if I remembered correctly.
Either way, I had privilege and absolutely no business judging anyone, least of all Inkiri’s people. Likely as not, I was underestimating bagu culture with how little I knew about them.
