In the Kitchen: Ram/Java

[_java_]

By the time that breakfast was said and done, with the dishes cleaned and placed back in the cupboard, Java's happiness over what had happened the night before was slowly giving way to reservations. Setting the dish towel on the counter, she slipped around behind her husband as they stood in the kitchen, wrapping her arms around his waist and

Comments

Post breakfast.

[virtual_ram]

As he watched his wife working in the kitchen, Ram thought back over the past few years that they had spent together. His eyes narrowed as he thought of how their lives had changed over the past few weeks. It wasn't long ago that his wife had been Queen of the Technos, now she was reduced to doing her own cooking and cleaning. His hand absently went to his chin as he thought, his fingers stroking lightly over his unshaven face. If anything she meant more to him now than she had before, she had proven herself to him. She deserved so much more than he could offer her right now, and one day he would give it to her, he would see to that

Re: Post breakfast.

[_java_]

Java's gaze fell at the feel of Ram's hand against hers, his skin warm and tellingly smooth in the moment before he spoke. The years of avoiding anything more physically demanding than typing had left his fingers devoid of the rough edges and and callouses so common among the virts, she noticed idly; there was something vaguely aristocratic about his touch, a pleasure denied to her until yesterday. She thought of the rest of him as well, thought of his body as it had looked stretched out on the sheets the night before, smooth and perfect; his was the rare body of a man who had not spent the years since the virus living like an animal, holed up in some hovel and prowling the streets for food, slaving away in the darkness of the mines and clinging to the fences at the work camps. With his disability and weaknesses removed, every inch of her husband was still that of a privileged man, the last remaining caste mark in a society that had crumbled, and, while Java had generally tended to prefer the warrior type in practice, there was

[virtual_ram]

So Java was planning on going into town again? It worried him for her to be going there alone, he used to be able to send bodyguards with her wherever she went. What if something happened to her? What if she got injured, he no longer had access to all of his medical supplies, they would have to struggle through like dirty virts. Just the thought made him feel a rush of anger. After all of the work that he had done, they were left with nothing. This was not acceptable, he had to find a way to re-build their lives

[_java_]

"Meat, Lord Ram?" Java's brow darted up skeptically, her smile tightening. Ram couldn't possibly be so oblivious as to believe that there was actually any decent meat to be had in the markets, could he? Her husband had gone a bit mad, she knew, but surely even he knew the impossibility of what he was asking... "I'd be afraid to feed you anything like that from the market," she began, trying to figure out what he was about; "you -know- the virts don't understand proper safety protocols..." Her eyes narrowed very slightly, inspecting his gaze as he surveyed her own; was it a trick? Java forced her smile to acquire something akin to sincerity, and, seeing no sign of lenience, said what she had learned to always say when Caesar demanded the impossible: "But... I'll see what I can do." Her smile could have cut glass