Misconstrued, p.24
Misconstrued, page 24
I looked hard at his excessively innocent face and didn’t believe it for a moment. Still, having an attached greenhouse and the built-in water filtration that came with it would be good. “Do you like that kind of house?”
“Everything has purpose,” Romeo explained his agreement.
That was a fair point, but it also argued for a wood stove for cooking and heating. Maybe an outdoor pizza oven thing for cooking in the summer. That I didn’t know how to find.
No. That wasn’t true. There was one at work, but I was hoping someone might still be using that one.
“I haven’t been into the garage since I slept there. Is there anything in it?” I asked. When they shook their heads, no, I added, “We should start looking for the things on the list and see how much stuff we need before we decide what kind of house. I think we will need a big stove, but I don’t know where I can get one, and I don’t know how big it will be if we find one.” I thought some more. “Jo is really good at organizing. I wonder if she could ask around the camp about what things we would need.”
- - - -
It didn’t feel any faster than building Miriam’s house. Her daughter was born days after they moved into their new house, and my family was still trying to figure out what we were doing.
There had been some careful trips out to the orchard. The property was lovely; the burnt-out farmhouse wasn’t. We had been able to harvest the fruit at the end of season and distribute it in camp before a shovel ever hit the dirt to start building a house for us.
I learned that part of the problem with orcs and dogs was probably that they couldn’t tell the difference between canids. I caught Tybalt trying to lure a coyote back to where we were picking apples the one day. I explained that it wasn’t a dog while he listened politely. I’m not sure he believed me, but I also explained that coyotes would eat the chickens he seemed so keen on. He frowned at the poor thing with a grim look of determination.
“That’s why we need a guard dog,” I pointed out. “To keep the coyotes away.”
“I’ll keep them away,” he growled under his breath, making Iago snicker.
My hoard in the garage was always changing. I would find something, then trade it for a better something, or give it away to someone who needed it sooner than I did. The guys rarely said anything about that, prepared to let me scavenge. The exception was the Piqua Ware.
In a garage, I found a box full of rusty iron pots and pans with Favorite Piqua Ware’s smile logo cast into the bottoms. I promptly dropped everything and spent a week scrubbing out the rust and reseasoning it. I was ridiculously proud of the find. Somehow, word got out; I must have developed a reputation for being a pushover, because some random woman asked for it.
She argued that her house was almost built and we hadn’t even broken ground on mine. That was a fair point, but I felt sick at the idea of giving it away. Iago heard her ask and came over to stand very close to me. He flat out told her no before she even got to the end of her ask.
“Excuse me!” she snapped. “I was asking Mina.”
“No,” he repeated, letting a bit more growl into his voice.
She gaped at him, then looked back at me. Iago stepped between us, so she had to take a step back. As I looked around, the other orcs were watching the show more intently than I liked. However sexy the protective display was, it needed to stop now. I put my hand on his arm.
“I’m keeping those pans,” I mumbled without any confidence, “but I’ll keep an eye out for a set of cast iron for you, if you like.” She didn’t look pleased, but she left me alone anyway.
After she had left, Iago turned and gave me a worried look. “You worked hard on those. You love them.”
I nodded.
“You can keep some things, Mina. Don’t have to share everything,” he pointed out.
That was huge. For the last couple of years, I did have to share everything. There wasn’t enough of anything to go around. I had only survived because I fell in with a group of people who were all willing to share. None of us could have made it on our own. The idea of having things that were just mine was like a lost memory. It took me back to before they arrived. Even if it was only a mostly filled day planner, a box of pencil crayons, and a set of pans, it was huge that they were mine.
The guys were mine too. Somehow, they had fallen into the role of family.
I had worried about how the other humans would react when that story got back to the camp. It didn’t turn out how I was expecting.
- - - -
Her name was Beth, but I didn’t know her. She had approached a random orc guard and asked to speak with me. My guys were being overly cautious, so we met in the classroom where Mac had been working the day I fell asleep in the library.
Beth politely introduced herself, with a slight smile on her face. “I wanted to ask about those pans you found.”
“Yes?” I replied, cautiously.
“You found them in ... number 16 Main Street, was it? In a cardboard box under an ugly green work bench made out of old kitchen cupboards?”
Shit.
“Yes?” I repeated, not liking where this was going one bit.
She grinned even harder. “Those were my grandmother’s! My asshole ex-husband took them for camping, then refused to give them back when we split up.”
“I’m not sure where you’re going with this,” I admitted.
Beth just laughed. “I’m not going to try to get them off of you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I think I must have audibly sighed in relief, because my expression made her laugh harder.
“I just wanted to see them again. And I hear you’re looking for a wood stove?”
I nodded, cautiously happy to not be at imminent risk of losing my pans.
She nodded along with me. “Well, last time I checked, the stove to go with them was in an old farm house out on Highway 11. Three grid roads past Old Mill Road. It should still be pretty mouse proof. The farm was named Risken Pray. There was a big arch way at the driveway with the farm logo on it. Anything you find there—if you can use it, you take it.”
“Risken Pray?” I just had to ask.
Beth just rolled her eyes, “What can I say? Someone in the family had an unholy love of puns. When your last name is Risken, there are a lot of them to be made.”
- - - -
Orc transport was weird. It took a while to get me permission to travel in one, and no one seemed happy to have me there. My guys weren’t driving, but Iago seemed to know the three who were. I guess it made sense that if he was hunting, he would need some way to get around. It was weird being in a vehicle that needed three drivers.
When we got to the Risken Pray farm, I stayed in the vehicle with Mac and one of the drivers while the others checked to see if the property was safe. Mac’s reaction to that was interesting.
“I could go look,” he explained.
“No, you can’t,” the driver countered.
Mac snarled something I didn’t understand, then tried again. “I could go, but I stay here in case someone is hurt.”
“Medic stays with the transport,” the driver agreed.
“I’m not afraid,” Mac continued.
I looked between them. “Are you afraid?” I asked the driver.
“No!” he snapped.
“Alright.” I chose my next words with care. “I don’t understand why you’re telling me that.”
Mac relaxed, but the driver got more anxious. “I’m not afraid!” he echoed Mac’s earlier statement.
“Good?” I suggested.
They had a conversation in orcish. Whatever was being said, Mac didn’t seem to be all that convincing.
“Look,” I interrupted. “Are we in danger here?”
“No.” Mac was calm, but firm in his response.
“You told me that you checked for people with the scanner or whatever and that there wasn’t anyone here, right?”
“Yes. No one here,” Mac agreed.
“Could be traps,” the driver suggested.
I looked out at the farmyard. This place had been abandoned long before the orcs arrived. The worst that I could imagine would be risks of skunks or hantavirus from mice. But that did raise some concerns. “Tybalt knows not to pet any black-and-white-striped cats, right?”
They both stared at me, then Mac laughed. The driver did something and suddenly was on the orc equivalent of a speaker phone. The only part of the conversation I understood was “black-and-white-striped cats” and the sound of Iago laughing really hard. Shortly after that, Mac and I were allowed to join them.
From the smell, the farmhouse was definitely full of mice and feral cats. The glass in the windows was broken, but they had been boarded up and it didn’t seem like that much weather was getting in. There were boxes of old tools stacked on the stove. The whole place looked like an episode of hoarders where the cardboard had all rotted away years ago and the only prize you could get was tetanus.
The guys were openly skeptical when I pointed out the stove, but they dutifully cleared a path to it and brought it out of the house. The stove pipe was missing, but when I explained what I was looking for, they went back in and found it. It was the state of the chimney that gave me pause.
“The stove is in great shape,” I announced. The sound of disgust that one of the drivers made had me add, “It’s really dirty, but there isn’t any rust, and the enamel isn’t cracked or chipped. The pipe isn’t great, though. It’s rusty and it isn’t double walled. That part doesn’t look safe.” I realized I wasn’t sure if they understood how this worked. “We want to keep the fire in the fire box and not let it burn down the house.”
“Could be not real fire in the fire box,” Romeo suggested.
My brain shorted out a little. “If there’s fake fire, how will I cook on the stove?”
The other unnamed orc rolled his eyes. “Fake fire is still hot,” he explained. Then he growled out a string of orcish and there was another debate.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” I grumbled. “It isn’t fair that I explain to you, and then you talk so that I can’t understand.”
They stopped to stare at me, then Romeo, Mac, and Tybalt all looked at Iago, who had a pained look on his face.
“Orc fire is not something humans have. I’m not sure we can get ...” he stopped to think for a moment. “... heat and light like the sun.”
“Solar power?” I suggested.
He considered this and nodded slowly.
“Tell me how this works,” Romeo demanded.
I showed him which part was actually the fire box and which was the oven. I talked about the warming drawer up by the chimney and how the stove top got hot, but you could remove parts of the top to make it even hotter. That sparked a sudden hunt for the lid lifter.
There was more discussion than I would have liked about whether we would even be bringing the stove back with us. I insisted, although I’m not entirely sure I needed to. The transport guys treated this project with barely concealed scorn, but my four helped load the thing. We brought the stove pipe too, even after Romeo said he would find a better way.
By the time we got home and unloaded the stove into the garage, I was filthy and exhausted. Romeo wanted to keep playing with the stove, but I just wanted a shower. I stood and watched him open and close the doors for a while as Mac and Tybalt headed out to the porta-showers.
After a moment, Iago tugged on my sleeve. “He will play with that all night. Easier to just let him.”
“It’s not that interesting,” I protested.
“I make bombs. Fire is interesting to me,” Romeo countered. “I will try to make sunpower for it.”
I was about to rub my face when I saw how dirty my hands were. “Definitely time to shower,” I mumbled.
When I turned to face the door to the house, I found that Iago had been standing in my blind spot. I jumped a little, but he didn’t react. I bet he had a lot of practice at not reacting to me being weird. I flashed him a smile. “Are you okay, Iago?”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything.
Once again, I wondered what he must think of all of this.
“Come on,” I murmured, not really wanting to make a big announcement in front of Romeo. “You can wash my back.”
He just nodded solemnly.
Part of me wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to, but it occurred to me that it was a really impolite thing to suggest in front of another orc. I waited until I had him alone in my room.
“You don’t have to,” I mumbled, not looking at him.
Iago snorted. “Erika told me something.”
That made my head snap up.
He smirked. “She said you want to be reassured like I do. I want you. Do you want me?”
Well, that was certainly blunt enough to have come from Erika. “Yes.”
His expression softened and for a moment, he looked almost shy. It wasn’t an expression I expected to see on such a big and hulking figure. I looked away and turned my back on him to start taking off my clothes. I felt ridiculous; I was about to be naked in the shower with him and I still felt shy.
I turned on the water and marveled again how it was instantly the perfect temperature. I looked over my shoulder to find a fully dressed Iago watching me from the doorway. “You’re a bit overdressed for this,” I pointed out. “Are you going to stay, or do you need to be on your own?”
He cocked his head a little and asked, “Did you want to take my clothes off again?”
That made my breath catch in my throat. I hadn’t been thinking of that. “Would you like that?”
He smiled a little and nodded. As I peeled him out of dusty coveralls, he nuzzled my hair. “I like this.”
“Why? Shit. I’m curious, but that was a bit rude.”
He chuckled. “You look at me when you do.”
“I look at you all the time, Iago,” I contradicted.
I had no idea he had dimples, but when he smirked, there they were. “No, Mina. You look at my face. I like how you look at the rest of me.”
Well, that made me blush. He did have a very nice everything else. His body was the most human shaped of any of them—except for his foot, and someday I was really going to want to look at that. The visible mechanics were fascinating, like an old fashioned skeleton watch. Right now, I was having to watch him step out of his pants and be a naked orc wearing socks.
“Those will have to come off too,” I pointed out, watching a muscle in his jaw jump. “Can I do that?” I asked softly.
He was surprised, but nodded his agreement.
I dropped to my knees and pulled the one off his flesh leg first. Iago hesitated before shifting his weight to let me remove the other. I looked up to see him clenching his teeth and looking away from me. It was entirely too hard to resist, so I didn’t. I licked his cock as I stood up. That got his attention.
“Come on,” I smirked, as I took his hand. “I feel dirty. Time to shower.”
- - - -
Iago wasn’t exactly much help washing my back, since his hands were shaking. Mind you, I needed him to kneel so I could reach to wash his shoulders. I could feel the knots in his back muscles and tried to massage them a little as I went. But he wasn’t exactly giving me much feedback on the process.
“Am I hurting you?” I finally asked.
He just silently shook his head, no.
“You don’t have to let me do this, you know,” I reminded him.
“Feels good, but the grey won’t wash off.”
“What?”
“Humans aren’t grey unless they are dirty. Orcs are always grey. It won’t wash off and leave me pink underneath,” he explained, then added, “Not without hurting.”
That was appalling enough to make me squirm and take a step back. “I’m not trying to scrub off your skin!”
He looked up at me with sad eyes. “I know. You won’t hurt me.”
I crossed my arms under my tits and watched his eyes follow the movement. “So, what’s with the wash off comment?”
He shrugged. “I’m not human, Mina.”
“I noticed, Iago,” I snarked back.
That made him smile. He stood up then. Towering over me, his cock was about level with my belly. I gave it a gentle stroke and watched his eyes roll back in his head. He blinked, then reached past me to turn off the water. He sighed and watched me.
“Why?”
