Chapter 687: A Different Time, Part 1
It's been two years since they defeated Lilith. Oren and Etsuko have settled down to raise the twins. Life is calm, and everything is almost perfect. Though he and Etsuko are together, Oren's old fashioned sensibilities say it's not official until they're married. But how does one propose in this modern era? Oren is painfully away that the world - and women - have greatly changed. Can he figure out how to pop the question in this different time, or will it be a disaster?
***
The moonlight shimmered on the drifting snow. Naked trees swayed in the winter wind. It was the kind of night meant for sitting before a fire, listening to the howl outside, but Oren had no fire, and he needed the privacy.
He sheltered against the side of the house, the phone pressed to his ear. For the thousandth time in his life he was grateful to be immortal, impervious to the temperatures, to the discomfort of the weather. Yes, he felt the tiny crystals hit his face. Rather than the biting sting he dimly remembered, it was only a soft kiss of cold that faded before he'd really noticed it.
He waited as the phone rang; one after another flaring and dying, unanswered. He ended the call and double checked the number. It was the one Jorick had texted him. Or more likely Katelina, using Jorick's phone. He couldn't actually imagine his master and friend text messaging anyone. In his mind he saw Jorick glaring at the device, waving away the idea. "If I want to send someone a message, I'll write a letter."
Oren hit the call button again and wondered if he should try that now. It seemed a letter would get answered sooner.
As the rings sounded, he closed his eyes and let his attention drift. Inside the house, Etsuko sat in the living room, sewing clothes for the children. He'd teased her once that they could order apparel from a catalog or the mysterious "online" shops. Her answer had been a soft smile. "Yes, but the work is enjoyable. Does not even an immortal life deserve joy?"
She'd gone back to her labor, while he hovered in the doorway, watching her. Watching the smooth motion of her stitches, the way the light glittered in her deep drown eyes, watching her lips tighten and relax with concentration. Even now the memory hung behind his eyelids, a bright spot against the howl of the snow.
"Ridiculous," a familiar voice muttered in his head. It was the ghost of Jesslynn - or rather the imagined ghost of her. His first wife, she'd hated sewing, and had been grateful when catalogs appeared. He didn't think she'd sewn a stitch since then. The thought worried him. Did Etsuko feel the same, but kept on with the task because she felt she had to? Or did she inexplicably really enjoy it?
"Hello?"
Jorick's voice, Oren jerked back to reality.
"Um-Yes. Hello."
Jorick waited, cleared his throat, and finally said, "You called?"
"Yes." Oren leaned away from the house, straightening his shoulders and tugging at his clothes. "I-I need some advice."
He tried to ignore the amusement in Jorick's voice. "Of course. What can I help you with?"
And there it was. The moment to say it out loud, to make the secret thoughts a reality. He'd rehearsed this conversation several times. Sometimes beginning with an explanation, sometimes leading up slowly with small talk, but now that it was here, it seemed easier to cut to the chase. "I wish to propose to Etsuko."
Jorick made a surprised sound. "I-All right. What advice do you need? Whether you should or shouldn't? That's up to you. You seem-happy together and-"
"No," Oren cut in. "I've already decided that. What I need is advice on how to do it. You have more experience than I do. You've proposed at least three times and-"
Jorick's voice rumbled dangerously. "Three?"
"You had a wife as a human, and then there was..." Oren stopped short of bringing up Velnya, and instead moved to, "You've done it more recently than I have. It's a different time now. Etsuko may be old fashioned by modern standards, but she's certainly more contemporary than my courting experiences."
"I wouldn't bet on that. How did you propose to Jesslynn?"
Oren flinched at her name and the guilt that came with it. Did he have a right to consider this? To move forward while her ashes lay buried in an abandoned graveyard? Etsuko's words came back to him, as they had many times over the last year.
"Does not even an immortal life deserve joy?"
Yes, he believed that it did. He'd done what he could for her in life, and avenged her death. How much more could her memory ask of him?
But, that didn't solve his problem. "It was-mutually agreed upon before the time." That explanation was easier than explaining that Jesslynn had practically ordered him to propose.
"If you wish to continue courting me, sir, then it is time you put your intentions forward. I have neither energy nor patience for one who would dally. Either make our union an official one, or find a more playfully minded lady."
He imagined it wouldn't be long before Etsuko said something similar to him.
Jorick chuckled, and Oren suspected he knew the truth. "In that case, you'd do better to ask a modern woman. Isn't Xandria still living with you?"
Oren's eyes rolled involuntarily. "Yes. It seems she's determined to stay, but I doubt she'd know romance if it hit her in the head. Her idea of a relationship seems to be quick sex in a closet with no commitment."
"I noticed that." There was a thoughtful pause, then Jorick called to someone else, "Little one! Come here a moment."
Oren cringed. He should have expected it would come to asking Jorick's new wife. No, not that new. They'd celebrated their one year anniversary last October. Has it been so long, already?
He knew the answer, knew that was why it was time to make the same proposal to Etsuko. If only it could be done without taking Katelina's advice.
