You Know What I Know

as I watch the foaming breakers
when the tide comes rushing in

Her laughter vibrates in the waters around them, and though he does not bother to conceal his own amusement at the delightful noise, it's clear he's charmed as ever by her feigned demure nature. After meeting the fellow, I don't think he'd be inclined to another eight pairs of legs in that particular bed my dear. A prickly man, that one. Though Maru is always inclined to joke and tease and play, unashamed to find Nerissa beautiful for all that she remains off limits for any variety of reasons. Though her bed may be open, he's quite sure her guard-shark would not be inclined to allowing interlopers.

Her news is equally, if not more so, intriguing than the act she puts on. For all that others may shy away from gifts and concealed boxes that come from her hand, Maru has no such reservations. They both know what game it is they play between them. His hand comes smoothly to meet her own, fingertips brushing smoothly against the backs of her knuckles as he receives it. When the box is in his palm, he lifts her hand to kiss the back of it, dark eyes intent upon her even as he bends to do so. They change indeed, in more ways than the seasons we have weathered. Smoothly straightening and releasing her hand, he instead glances down at the box for a moment, dark eyes slanting upward when he feels she has waited enough. The canals the Governor helped us create should be open for us soon. We've agreed that our people shall be folktales no longer. Perhaps this will be a turn in the tide for your...business? Information shared is a bartering system of their own, a language they both speak. Once upon a time Maru had to have that language drilled into him by his mother, disappointed as she already was in her singular progeny being male. It does not come as naturally to him as it does to her, but he plays her game all the same. Hopefully without being too disappointing a partner.

I will contemplate my lifetime
with its virtues and its sins