One simple truth Nuru knew was that food tasted better after a long morning of turning over pieces of machinery, half-dead and just waiting to be soldered together into something new. It was a hunger that settled deep inside of him, growling in a way that worked like flames, lapping up at him until it grew and grew, groaning just behind his teeth, making him go blind, it felt, with starvation. Only then, when he had finished his looking, but not buying, did he find his way to the Garden for something fresh enough to eat. Nuru was a simple man, delighted by simple things and vibrant spheres of fruit were among them.
The day’s weather had held out for him, a cloudless sky that hummed to him, his own self desperate to buzz back. The sun was warm, the Overmarket smelling that much more like a tight compact of people, the scent of vegetation a half-step from rotting. Nuru walked through the clusters of people with a square of his shoulder, body dressed in all black and white, stark contrast in ratty old sneakers. He walked until he found a place to stop, leaning over he peered at the rows and rows of different colored treats.
The little magpie felt it too-- the hunger. It tended to linger far longer in her frail bones, articulated by her featherlight joints. But always, she knew that in the Overmarket, she could at least quell it for the price of one little race of heartbeats.
She strolled through the stalls, scarf hooded around those pretty features, fingers trailing on the splintering wood that held all those shiny red apples, those sweet pears just at the perfect ripeness.
Stille couldn't imagine how, in a world so nearly decimated, the land around Descoria still managed to give so much.
But give or take, take or give, Stille finished her little walk with an apple in one hand and an orange in the other as she approached the mechanic, offering him an innocent wink.
And oh, how weak she was for a pretty boy, a pretty face, 'cause she tossed him that orange as those blue eyes lingered
even as she slunk past.
Nuru caught the orange in a graceless twist, but, it managed not to fall from his fingers as he took a half-step back. The skin was firm, the fruit fragrant, warm from the sun and from the girl’s hand and he took a moment to think about it, watching her continue on past him. He stared a moment too long, not noticing how hard he was holding the orange and the sharp edge of his nail sliced the rind, releasing the oils onto his fingertips.
All he could do was laugh and he turned away from the things he thought about buying and turned in the direction she was walking, keeping a close eye on her so she wouldn’t fade.
Light hair, light skin, light eyes that resembled a sunburst. Nuru knew he’d have to be a fool to just walk the other way. There was always the possibility of rejection, neglect and even embarassment, but, he stuck his finger into the very top of the sphere and began to peel at the skin as he took a step in her direction.
She pressed her lips to her apple as she felt his footsteps in her spine, felt him watching her shoulderblades as she meandered through the aisles, dipping through people who were crowding the stalls with their trades and their barks.
Who was she kidding? With those low slung hip huggers barely clinging to the swell of her pelvis, low enough to just barely, barely reveal the cleft of her ass, he'd have to be an idiot to be following the sight of her shoulderblades.
That ibis-hearted girl did glance over her shoulder to catch his gaze, to see if he'd followed at all or if it'd just been her imagination.
She could almost smell the zest of orange peel clinging and cloying under his nails.
She approached the eastern edge of the Overmarket, where the platform met the lift that led to the Undercamp and she settled against the wall of an alleyway, finally content to take a bite.
Nuru left the rind on the floor like storybook breadcrumbs, a scattered pathway from where he had been to where he followed her. He was not animal, but, he wasn’t thinking all that great. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he imagined things to way, ways to be. He was a process man, from step one to step two and step three wasn’t working out all that well in his mind.
He popped in an orange slice as he walked, chewing on the tender fruit as he thought. Being impulsive hadn’t gotten him anything but a wall and a girl standing on it, so, he stood offcenter from her and ducked his head down, covering his lips with the back of his hand as he chewed, as he swallowed, as he took a moment before he spoke.
"I like to at least be able to thank the girls who get me lunch."
Nuru’s voice was quiet, but deep like the scar on his cheek he was showing off by keeping his chin pressed almost into his neck.
"How you gonna thank me?" the girl asked coyly, canting her head to the side as she hid her cardinal lips with that ruby red fruit.
Her voice itself was trouble. Instead of peeling back another slice of orange, Nuru lifted his head, his gaze at her. The process continued to fail him, but, he gave a soft shrug of his shoulders. "My mother taught me my manners, but, I don't think those rules apply here."
With the rest of his ambition, he slid over to the wall beside her and offered his hand out.
"I should at least offer you a taste, though."
She canted her head to the other side before she took a step closer, delicate hands cool against the heat of the mechanics skin. She pressed her thumb into the palm of his hand, rubbed her index against his wrist bone as she pulled him closer, stared him in the eye so she could make sure he saw exactly how she took that segment from his fingers.
Those features couldn't have looked more pleased.
"I don't know a whole lot about manners, but I appreciate the thought," she confided carefully in the space between them before she separated them with the ringing of her laugh. She pressed her fingers to her lips as she leaned back against the wall. "What brings you down to earth?"
"Parts, machine things, little fragments that find themselves lost from their bigger pieces. I have a tendency to need those pieces to put the things I have back together."
Words about what he did were simple for him, they gave his brain a chance to play catch-up for his heart, which was beating a second too quick and his skin, which was feeling a fierce burn. Attractive forces, nervous gestures. The next bit of orange he took a hasty bite of tasted even better than the one he had before and he was quite sure he just wasn't imagining it.
"I have to admit, the ground isn't my favourite place. But, you can find some beautiful things down here."
"I bet you can see everything from up there-- and I bet it's real beautiful seeing the sunset above the clouds," she murmured as she studied him, the valley of his scar, the nervous rise in his temperature as he took anxious bites of the fruit she'd given him. "Or the sunrise."
The compliment wasn't lost on her. She tucked her chin to her chest a little, giving him that bright blue look that promised all sorts of dark prospects if he'd just come a little bit closer.
"So you come down often, then."
"When I have a reason to." He took the last of the orange and turned it in his fingertips. Every part of him said no, but, his feet moved anyway, inching into the space and offering it to her, a half-breath from her mouth.
"I prefer sunrises, though, if you're asking."
"I like getting up early," she conceded with that distracted murmur, pressing her lips to the orange in a silent kiss. "I also like staying up all night."
Nuru gave a soft laugh. Some part of him knew the entire thing was laughable, that it teetered on the edge of perfect idea and absolute absurdity, but, the girl had him enraptured. Whoever she was, it didn't really matter.
In that second, he would be willing to stay up for days.
"The best view of sunrise is after a long night, just before you go to bed. But, I have a feeling you know that already."
That flighty girl, pale against the wall, had stilled her fluttering heartbeat as she drew in a long breath, slow and serene and coloured by the tint of the orange at her lips. She let her lashes drop, thinking momentarily, before those bright eyes flit back up to his face.
She took the orange from him then, kissed his fingertips as she held his eyes steady with that ghost chile gaze.
"You got something you like to be called?"
"Nuru." And he paused. "Yourself?"
It took a long moment to bring his fingers back, but, he did, curling them into his palm and dropping it at his side. They were sticky sweet and it took all his willpower not to lick them clean. He was a polite boy, though, it was how was brought up. Instead, his blinks were slow, refusing to lose her gaze that way. His eyes, dark and plain and no glitter to them whatsoever were at least good for that much.
"Stille." A quiet answer, soft and silken and absolutely lovely. She leaned forward, pressed her hands to his chest and lay her minute weight into him, the skin of her midriff bare against him. Her lips ghosted against the shell of his ear. "If you ever feel like sleeping through the day with someone, you should come and find me."
"Where would I be able to find you?" His words were hardly above a whisper. His breath caught in his throat where it felt like a hummingbird flew, covering a thousand miles in a second.
"If you're not busy, I could show you." She dawdled over the words, thoughtful and carefree all at the same time. Completely innocent. "If you'd like to come."
She took his hand in both of hers and toyed with his fingers, stroking the webbing between those long digits.
"I'm afraid if I follow you, spider, I won't get anything I need done…" He licked his own lips, looking down at her hands. Nuru was well aware of how he was shooting himself in the foot, of how the very pretty girl would easily let go of his hand, find herself lost in a crowd, but, he swallowed and stuck to his words.
"But, I'd like to meet you there sometime, Stille." Her name rang on his lips. He liked the way it sounded, imagined himself saying it a few more times, with reason and conviction. "I have a very good memory for directions…" Nuru twisted his hand and caught one of hers, bringing it to his lips. He kissed it at the fingertips, closing his eyes for the half-second. "And for tastes."
She pulled him closer, then, and whispered to his mouth, straight to the gleaming white of his teeth and the polite candor of his tongue. "Here's a memory for you then."
The pale girl pressed her lips to his, gingerly at first to seek out the heat of a response before the kiss turns rough, dark, and she leaves him with the taste of her mouth and the reflection of her canines in his bottom lip.
"Down the lift, take a left. Quarter mile, turn right. A few blocks down, there's a house with a skylight. That's mine. Come and see me."
Nuru found himself dumbly staring at her, the words registering but the sensation of her lips against his own was dizzying. Without a thought, he let his tongue peek out, recovering the ghost of her on his mouth before he nodded, commiting it all to memory.
The sun beat overhead, burning against his neck. It was a moment stopped in time.
"I promise," he said, tearing his gaze from her for a moment, to the wall beside him, worried that it was, in fact, holding his body up.
With a smirk, that quick little slip of a girl slid from between the mechanic's body and the wall, her hand trailing along his stomach as she passed him and fell away, waving as she disappeared into the crowd.
She pulled her apple out of her pack and took another bite.
Stille didn't take a whole lot of stock in promises, but she sure did hope this one remembered his.