Labor of Love

Nine

The teasing’d started almost the second Bobby’d walked up to the front porch, where he’d finally set the young Witch down. It was the flushed, well-loved looks on their faces that gave them away more than anything besides the fact that they’d been gone all Night. Still, that didn’t mean that either of them appreciated even a cheer, even though they knew it was all in good fun and jest.

        Luckily, Richie’d been able to start breakfast, even though many of the Time considered that a woman’s work. Both were more than a lil grateful since they were starving after such an active Night. They were just glad that he never said a word about their expressions as he passed out plates.

        Once Bret and Rikki’d headed out to get started on the Day’s chores, the younger brunette dragged out the Tin bathtub. Marissa’d sighed like she was looking forward to that, which garnered her a curiously-cocked brow from her lover. She explained that he was no doubt setting up a Healing bath to help with any aches from the Night previous.

        “Sounds like an Epsom Salt bath to me,” the bassist chuckled.

        “A what?” she asked, looking confused.

        “Something people in my Time do to help with muscle aches, bruises, and sore feet, to keep the list short,” Bobby explained with a grin.

        “Well, I’ll be Blessed,” the young Witch laughed.

        “Hey, just ’cuz medical science’s improved so much doesn’t mean the old ways’ve been completely abandoned!” he told them. “It’s just that not nearly as many people use them anymore.”

        “Really?” Even Richie seemed curious as he lugged in enough Water to fill the kettle a few Times so he could heat it on the Wood stove.

        “Well, I’m used to taking something called aspirin for a headache, but that bark Marissa makes me chew on works pretty good, too,” the bassist explained with a shrug.

        “Willow bark,” Marissa chuckled. “It’s been known to relieve pain for Centuries, if not Millennia.”

        “I betcha if ya were to quiz Bret and Rikki on that, they wouldn’t be able to give ya that answer,” he said. “Let alone tell ya what’s in Willow bark that relieves pain like aspirin does.”

        “I doubt it, to be quite honest,” the younger brunette agreed.

        Having killed off his coffee, Bobby said he’d take care of the dishes on the front porch this Morn. It wouldn’t be fun to lug them back in later, but he was willing to give the young Witch her privacy. But she was quick to tell him that she wasn’t gonna send him or her friend outside. Said friend had seen her nekkid plenty of Times, and Goddess-only-knew he’d seen even more the Night previous.

        The bassist simply shared a look with her, his expression a questioning one. He knew there was no Changing it once she’d made up her mind, but he was still a gentleman. Still just a bit too sore to try starting yet another round, it wasn’t like he was gonna do anything to her.

        Assuring him that she didn’t care, the young Witch simply stated unbuttoning her shirt. Richie politely averted his eyes as she slipped it off her shoulders, but not before catching sight of the marks littering her shoulders, throat, and upper chest. He turned a surprised look on the bassist, who merely grinned and shrugged as he got started on the dishes. Marking a woman like that was something he usually did without conscious Thought, not ’cuz he meant to hurt her. Besides, such marks were really only a hair tender, if they hurt in the slightest.