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“Go and get cleaned up.”
Better than nothing, I guess.
“Fucking asshole.”
Oh no. My mouth has gone and said the thing I secretly felt.
He grabs me by the arm and swings me around. He’s snarling with anger.
“How dare you speak to me in such a way!”
“You would have a dead fucking foal if it wasn’t for me,” I point out. “And you couldn’t even say thank you.”
“Do you need thanks for doing what should come naturally to anybody worth anything?”
Well, now I feel like the asshole. That’s not fair. This jerk is making me feel like a jerk.
“No, but…”
“Then go get cleaned up. And stop tempting me to beat you, because we both know Equs would have my head if I did that.”
“We do know that, don’t we.”
He lets me go, snarling. I almost feel sorry for how impotent he is when it comes to me. He obviously hates that. Good. I hope it fucking burns. He’s an asshole. Not like Equs. A worse kind of an asshole. One I don’t like even a little bit. We don’t fucking know each other and he’s choosing to be a huge aggressive dick.
I go upstairs, even though I don’t want to. I want to see the foal take her first, wobbly steps. I want to make sure nothing goes wrong with Gossamer. I want…
I turn around on the stairs.
“GO!”
He’s yelling at me! The asshole is actually fucking yelling at me. He’s put his hands on me. He’s raised his voice.
“You go,” I growl back.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for king and realm. You’re a horse thief who seduced the king.”
So that’s it. He thinks I don’t deserve to be here.
“I’m a horse thief who was the difference between a live foal, and a dead one. And you’re the stable manager so busy being petulant you missed all the signs of impending birth. Go and get fucking laid if that’s what you need to do. But stop taking your obvious issues out on me. And if you are going to stay down here, actually pay a-fucking-attention to the newborn foal who is taking her first steps while you bitch me out.”
I turn and I storm upstairs. Fucking asshole. I don’t know why Equs puts up with him. Or maybe I do. It’s because Equs has a dick, and this stable guy only respects dick. I know way too many men like that on Earth.
I am filthy though, and I’ve done the hard part. I go and I grab a bath. They don’t have showers here. I strip off all the dirty clothes that don’t fit me anyway. They’re hand-me-downs because there hasn’t been any time to get anything made for me and they don’t have clothes robots here. I’m sure Equs can get me something to wear from the city. In the meantime, I wear his tunics, belted at my waist, like little dresses. The only thing I’ve kept from my previous life are my boots. They’ve been worn in over three years, and they’re soft like butter as I slide them off, even without socks.
I lie in the tub of warm water which flows and fills easily and drains away through some weird system I can’t be bothered learning about right now, and I look at my boots, thinking about all the places they’ve been and all the things I’ve seen while wearing them.
Life has gotten weird. And amazing. And beautiful. But there are still some petty things in it. Asshole males seem to be a universal constant, as does war, and conflict, and official bullshit.
When I’m done cleaning myself, I get out of bed, wrap a towel around my body, and lie down on the bed. The furs wick the excess water off my skin, and the fire in the hearth slowly dries me off. This is a very cozy, very comfortable place to sleep. I am exhausted, and elated, and pissed off, and that’s a weird collection of feelings and states to be in. I wish Equs was here. I wish he’d do something about Vulpes. Hell. I wish he’d do something about a lot of things.
“Wake up,” Equs murmurs gently, brushing his lips over my forehead.
“Mnggh… what?” I open my eyes, not sure how long I’ve been asleep, but very sure that it wasn’t long enough.
“Gossamer had a filly.”
“I know. I ripped it out of the placenta with my bare teeth.”
Equs looks surprised for a second. “That explains the bloody clothes strewn across the bathing chamber.”
“It does.”
“I owe you a great deal of thanks,” he says, wrapping me in a tight embrace.
“Thank you,” I mumble. “About time someone thanked me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Vulpes was there, and he just told me to get cleaned up. No thanks, no good job, no nothing. And then he acted like a huge…”
Equs cuts my tirade off with one of his firm, warm kisses.
