Page 134 of A Soul to Touch

“I think she was insane. She had to be to have chased my father all the way to Hawthorne Keep.” When Faunus’ hands halted, and he tilted his head, Mayumi turned around and sat sideways over his lap to face him. “If my father was stubborn, I think my mother was more so. They both said I was more like her than him, not just in the way I looked but also her personality.”

Faunus didn’t say anything as he curled his hand around her hip to hold her to him. She eventually looked down her body, then back up to his face as she cocked a brow.

“Well?” she asked, her smile turning a little more mischievous than usual. “There’s still plenty of me to wash.”

“Will you tell me more if I keep going?”

He’d only stopped because he was waiting for more.

Her smile fell as her brows furrowed deeply. “Why?”

“Because I want to know everything about you,” Faunus grumbled.

He wanted to know how she came to be, so he could learn how he came to find her in his bleak existence. Perhaps that would be the answer to why he found her so astonishing.

“There isn’t much to the story. My father was still climbing through the ranks of the guild when he was forced to go south. There was a big issue with Demons attacking the border wall and breaking through, so many sectors sent Demonslayers south to help them while they rebuilt.”

As she spoke, Faunus reached to grab the soap vial, but she grabbed his hand to stop him. For some reason, she didn’t want him to wash her while she spoke of this.

“The south is different than anywhere else. They cut down most of the trees and built a big wall that crosses through the entire land to block out most of the Demons. They still have walled towns, just in case, but it’s like a first blockade. They already had to deal with Demons coming from the sea, so they were trying to prevent constant harassment from both sides. A lot of them farmed and fished.”

She looked down to both her hands gripping one of his. She started drawing patterns in the rough palm of it, causing his fingers to twitch.

“You’d think at first glance looking at her that she was a meek woman, especially in her later years... but she was actually asoldier. I think that’s why my father was drawn to her at first. If he was a poised man, my mother was a bear. He was a lot more brutal when no one was looking, so I think he liked being able to throw her around.” She snorted a laugh as she said, “He hated it when she put him on his arse a few times when they sparred as I was growing up.”

“He bonded with her because of this?”

“No. Like I said, she chased him to Hawthorne Keep. My father spent a lot of time with my mother when he was in the south, but he eventually left her there when the wall was rebuilt, and he was called back. I don’t even think he really considered staying because his home was here – he’s always refused to abandon it. And I know everyone in my family history has had to chase people who have tried to take it for themselves when it was unoccupied.” Her pretty eyes finally drew up to his orbs, and the humour he saw in her expression was a little dark, perhaps twisted. “After he left, my mother travelled north all by herself and bashed on the guild gates until they opened them. She wasn’t afraid. She’d always been a determined person once she set her mind to something. When they finally let her see my father, she demanded that he take responsibility for getting her pregnant. My father, being an uptight and fundamental man, agreed to marry her and let her guard this house for him. In return, he made sure she and I always had money, and he visited to take care of us both when he could. She trained me just as much as he did.”

“She was not upset that she had to leave her home?”

He’d been forced to leave his own, so he didn’t understand why someone would choose to.

Mayumi shrugged.

“I told you my mother was an orphan. Her parents died when she was really young, and the people who fostered all the orphans were forced to move around a lot. Not many villages,towns, or cities wanted to house so many collective, unwanted children because they are often afraid of everything – the Demons, the dark, their futures. They were pushed out of a lot of places. She felt no tie to the lands she’d come from and had never put down roots. She’d been renting a room with her wage. She saw no point in staying there, and she wasn’t going to raise me by herself when there was a father available – even if he was far away. She didn’t know she was pregnant until he left, but that wasn’t going to stop her. She told me that if she’d died along the way, then it just wasn’t meant to be, but she knew she wouldn’t have been able to travel that distance once I was born. I would have cried and brought the Demons upon us.”

Faunus lifted his head to look at the sky, thinking deeply. Once he’d made his decision, he turned it back down and leaned forward so he could stroke his tongue across her cheek.

“They were right. You must be more like your mother then.”

“Excuse me?!” she squealed. “You didn’t meet either of my parents, so how would you know?”

“She was foolish to wander the world by herself with you inside her womb. Just as you are often foolish.”

Mayumi gripped the horn on his good side with both hands and shook his head wildly, causing the rare occurrence of bones to rattle from him.

“That’s really mean, Faunus!”

“Is it not true?” he chuckled. “Currently, you are shouting when we are outside in the middle of the night. I can barely hear if a Demon is approaching with how noisy you are being.”

Her lips parted in disbelief. Then she made this weirdharrumphsound as she crossed her arms over her lovely breasts and turned her head away from him with a pout.

“I have upset you,” he said while trying his hardest to hide his humour. He snuck his fingertips under the crossed section of herarms so he could palm her chest. “I can continue bathing you to make you feel better.”

“I think I’d rather get out after that.” Her tone gave a hint of a lie.

“You are not getting out of this water until I know for certain you don’t smell of others,” he warned, green immediately lifting in his yellow orbs – the heat of his desires had died during their conversation. “I will rid you of their scents, even if I have to force you.”

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