Chapter 290: Mother Cat 1

Parc patted his belly, full with the Mistralian take away they'd just ordered. Compared to anything, it was that of earths chinese food. Nasi and Bami with a bit of sweet sour chicken and roasted duck and even a few dumplings. Enough to feed all four of them. Though Marigold seemed exceptionally shocked by the food.

When asked why, she had said she didn't know about Mistralian or even take away for that matter. Apparently Bleu had kept her on the rich mans meal created by professional and personal chefs. She didn't say much as she ate, mostly due to her soft smile as her focus was exclusively that of her food. He'd noticed it on the cruise, but she only ever hung her head as she ate, never even turning her eyes up to the people in front of her. If he didn't speak to her he doubted she'd ever look at him.

Come night, their chattering had dwindled to mere small talk. Often Blake and even Marigold would yawn and rub their eyes. At the loudest Kali let out a cutesy giggle and questioned her daughter, "why don't you go sleep honey?" Blake looked to her then to Parc with a twitch besides her tired eyes. Something was going to happen, she knew that much.

Facing her mother once more, she focused on that expectant glisten in her eyes. That excitement that she was to be left alone with Parc. She should be more disgusted, that much she knew. Just the concept of her mother sleeping with the boy who was—supposedly—her boyfriend, it shouldn't have been so tantalizingly arousing as it was.

She looked down to her empty glass and plate then nodded. "Is my room still there?" she asked.

"Of course it is!" Kali puffed, "I wouldn't just get rid of my daughters room to make a bonsai room, now would I."

That was much too specific for Blake to be comfortable with. The tiredness in her eyes hardened as she lifted herself to her feet, worrying exactly how many miniature tree's she was going to be trapped living with while they stayed in Menagerie.

She looked to Parc questioningly, "I'll be there soon," he said and watched.

"Oh Blake," Before she made off, Kali called and got her daughters attention, "why don't you show Marigold to the guest bedroom? You must be quite tired after your travels."

Marigold paused, looked between the two then nodded. "I… that would be great, thank you." As kindly as she could. Marigold stood, joining Blake as they filtered out of the room, Marigold going first as Blake lingered in the doorway glancing over her shoulder to Parc and her mother sat across from each other, suspecting that distance to drop until they were on top of each other not long from now.

Leaving the room, Blake slowly pulled the door shut behind herself, never once parting from the two until the door clicked shut and she turned back to Marigold and lead her up the stairs.

Watching the door, Parc listened to Blake's 'unintentionally' loud footsteps as she climbed the stairs. Knowing she was gone, his lips curled up at the ends and he faced Kali. "For a mother who loves her daughter, playing with her boyfriends balls right in front of her is quite the thing to do."

Kali laughed and leaned one arm onto the table, her chin in hand and fingers over her cheek, "I couldn't let Lady have all the fun, could I?" there was spark to the way she looked at him. A heat of amusement and unbidden lust to her dilated pupils like she was high off a catnip cake.

"Of course not, but still. You can't deny how wrong it is for her very own mother to do that. What if Blake noticed," she laughed, they both knew she knew. But she didn't stop them, didn't do anything to even insinuate her distaste. If she even had any.

"What's to say she did notice?" Kali leaned back, darted her eyes to the dirty plates on the table and then to the door leading into the kitchen at the back of the room. Her pinkish lips curled up radiantly and her eyes softened to slits. "Would you like anything to drink? I've got some nice wines, sake maybe? Or are you a beer man?"

Pondering for a moment, he said, "sake. I haven't had that in a while."

"Alright, just a minute." Kali stood, taking with her the piled plates and empty Mistralian cartons and through the door into the kitchen. Parc followed her with his eyes, focusing on her thin back and her plump, motherly rump as it swaggered away.

As she disappered into the kitchen, he could hear the sound of water running, filling a sink and the clunk of new cups for them. In her absence, Parc inspected the room, its broadness more resembling a large lounge blended with a dining room and a lounge. The section of Kuo Kuana they were in had come to be known as the Chieftain retirement zone, the area where the families of the chieftains could go when one's ruling ended and another began. It was a sign of respect, a thank you for guiding their people.

On one of the walls were several picture frames with small, dark brown lacquered wood and glass overlapping various pictures of a loving faunus family. Parc stood, approached them and inspected one of them closer. It was an old picture, Kali was younger, without that those small wrinkles under her eyes with slightly longer hair held in a bun and only two gold piercings in her ears. Besides her was a titan of a man with bright gold eyes and olive skin.

He dressed thinly, in a shirt that was unbuttoned at his chest, it was purple with metal pauldrons on either shoulder and white fur around his neck, warming him in winter no doubt. His lips were curled up into a bright smile as he held up the young Blake looking to be about five, maybe six years old, and let her sit on his arm as she looked to the camera with a shimmering smile.

Surrounding them were throngs of people, faunus from the looks of their ears, horns, tails, and skin. They threw their hands up, fists high shouting victoriously to the world.

"We took that after the Ghira first got an amendment to Mistralian labour laws." Parc spun around to Kali just as she set to sake cups and a large white bottle on the table and moved to his side, joining him at the picture. "Nearly eight months of constant fighting just so Faunus could be treated the same as every one else at work. Barely saw him at all back then, maybe once a week he'd come out and just collapse." She stroked along Ghira's bearded cheek, melancholly to her motions.

"Must have been lonely."

"Mmm," Kali bobbed her head side to side, "it was and it wasn't. He was passionate about it," she snorted, "whenever he came back he was always passionate, I remember days when I could walk because of the things he did to me."

Parc rose his brow, angling it her way. Smirking, she glanced to him out the corner of her eye, "I won't deny my legs were a little wobbly for a few days at a time after that."

"Are you hopping I'll leave you wobbly as well?"

Kali had already peeled away, cheeks dimpled with her smile, "I don't expect you to. Ghira was something else."

She squeezed between the couch and the table and seated herself where Lady had been sitting. There she unstacked the sake cups, uncorked the bottle and poured both full. Parc skirted around the table and joined her, accepting the cup she offered out to him.

Taking a slow sip, Parc let out a satisfied puff as the sweet tasting alcohol ran down his throat and warmed his ears red. "It must be lonely without him."

Kali's thumb rolled across the rolled sides of her cup, "it's nothing I haven't been through before. Early, before we even got married. Ghira had proposed to me but something came up in Atlas and he ended up heading off for two or so years as he dealt with that. We didn't get to talk much then, not face to face at least. There's a few ships going back and forth with letters, if you can believe that. So we kept in contact like that. My lord," she sipped her sake and shook her head, "you do not want to know what my twenty year old self thought was appropriate to send overseas like that."

He eyed across her body, her subtle curves hidden behind her shrug and hakama. While bulky with their folds, they left her hips open, enough for him to see the kimono hugging her body. She had curves ones just slighlty plumper than Blake's. Kali wasn't as tight, she was fit, there wasn't a doubt to that, but she didn't have those muscles like Blake had hidden beneath her smooth skin.

"I'm pretty sure I do." Parc leaned back, pulled his leg from under the table and inclined his head just slightly her way.

She followed his motion, a knowing glint in her expression. "And here I thought you said it was wrong for me to be doing something dirty with my daughters boyfriend."

"Ha! I did, didn't I? Can't deny that. But it's Blake we're talking about, for all we know she could be pressing her ear against the floor just waiting to hear you begging me to go harder."

Kali fell to harmonic laughter, only to suddenly let out a small hiccup, she patted her chest, held her breath, then turned to him. "Who's to say it's not you that's going to beg ME to go harder?"

Parc sat up, set his cup down, his teeth showing through lifted lips. "Sounds like you're challenging me, Kali."

"And what if I am?"

Without hesitance, Parc leaned his cup towards her, "then I'd say I can't wait to start."

Kali eyed his cup then brought up her own, "that makes two of us," and clinked them together.