Oppressor sss2

    Special side story. Amor Fati (2)

    ****

* Read the complete translation here     https://www.patreon.com/collection/188783

**

    By the time the sun reached the edge of the cliff, the kids were back home. The foundation work that had begun in the morning was more or less finished, with the tarp being placed on the compacted ground.

    He wanted to present her with a pond before summer, and that's why he was in a bit of a hurry.

    Heiner came out of the bathroom, toweling off his hair. As he listened quietly, he heard a small rustling sound coming from the kitchen.

    He walked slowly toward the kitchen. In the scarlet glow of the new curtains, Annette was washing dishes.

    Heiner watched her with tender eyes, then walked over, bent down, and wrapped his arms around her waist. He pressed his lips to the white nape of her neck and murmured.

    "Leave it."

    "The dishes? There aren’t many. The kids needed a drink of water."

    Annette replied as she continued washing the dishes with a familiarity.

    "I have to use the kitchen. I'm almost done."

    That was as far as the dinner preparations went. Heiner brushed it off, burying his face between her neck and shoulder as if he didn't care.

    He was in charge of most of the household chores, including cooking. At first, Annette had done some of the menial tasks, except for the heavy lifting, but then the overbearing Heiner had usurped her duties one by one.

    It wasn't a matter of being good or bad. Whether it was her personality or the lingering effects of an injury to her left hand, Annette was very slow. A load of laundry would take her all evening.

    Moreover, she would often fall asleep at night, exhausted, once she had finished her work and household chores. Heiner was particularly unhappy about this.

    He insisted that if she had the time and energy to do the chores, she should spend it on herself, which was how he ended up taking over the household.

    He pulled Annette into his arms and ran his hands over her waist and stomach. She'd been so thin at first he'd wondered if there was anything but bones, but now there was something.

    The flesh felt soft in his hands, along with the fabric of her dress, and it made him proud to know she was fed three meals a day, no excuses.

    "Come on."

    Heiner pretended not to hear her, repeatedly pressing his lips to her cheek and then to the nape of her neck. Her flesh smelled of soap, like his own.

    "Hold on, it'll be over soon."

    Annette nudged him with her shoulder as if he was in the way, but Heiner clung tenaciously, refusing to let go.

    He wasn't overtly obstructing her work, but his size meant that her movement was severely restricted.

    As Annette struggled to wash the dishes with the big man on her back, she eventually missed a bowl. The bowl fell into the sink with a loud clatter.

    There was a moment of silence. Heiner removed his hands from around her waist and stepped back.

    ***

    The sun had fully set, casting Sunset Cliff in total darkness. A yellow electric light was still on inside the light blue-roofed house on the hill.

    "Wow, that smells delicious."

    Annette crossed into the kitchen to help set the table, the savory smell of risotto with all kinds of vegetables and potatoes filling the house.

    Annette's eyes widened as she saw her share of food on the wooden table. It was almost as much as Heiner's, who ate much more than her.

    "Isn't that too much for me?"

    "Not as much as you think."

    "Did you see it with both of your eyes? Let's take a little less."

    "Leave it, I'll eat it."

    The calm-spoken Heiner pulled out a chair and sat down. They said a short prayer before picking up their cutlery.

    "Thank you."

    Annette took a bite of risotto and let out a small gasp. Heiner’s cooking skills, which had always been quite good, seemed to be improving day by day.

    She had been picking up recipes from the women at the village church every week, and you'd think her husband was the best cook in town.

    "The husband is so desperate to feed his wife, he's upset.

    "The lady is too thin. She needs to gain weight. If my husband was like that, I'd be rolling around already, ha ha."

    Annette smiled slightly as she remembered their words. Cutting the meat into bite-sized pieces, Heiner switched his plate with hers and said, 

    "The kids seem to listen to you well."

    "The kids? Oh, Theo."

    Annette shook her head in disbelief.

    "He doesn’t listen. If you look away, he’s gone."

    "The other day I opened the warehouse door and Theo was cowering in the corner."

    "Ahhhh, did he?"

    He didn't have to look to see it. The boy must have been in pain at the piano, then slipped out and crawled into the storage room.

    "More than that, what were you and Theo talking about earlier? It sounded serious."

    "Just......"

    "Just?"

    "......for some relationship counseling."

    "Relationship counseling?"

    Annette's eyes widened, and then she burst out laughing.

    "He's been dying over his girlfriend these past few days, so he finally came to you? Oh, that's so cute."

    "Did you know that?"

    "He says it's a secret, but he's been dropping little hints."

    "What's a kid doing dating already......."

    "What an old-fashioned man. Kids nowadays, if they like someone, they confess."

    Annette added as she stabbed her red beans with her fork, as if reminded.

    "Well, you didn't ask me out until the end, so I confessed first."

    "You're supposed to be serious when you say something like ......."

    "Anyway, Theo is too young, and I just liked you when I first saw you, I never thought about wanting to be in a relationship or anything like that."

    "Really?"

    "Of course, considering how young you were then, what kind of......."

    "Even if I asked you out first?"

    His brows narrowed slightly at Annette's playful question, and he shook his head in disbelief. The very thought of it was unscrupulous.

    Annette laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. Then she popped a piece of meat into her mouth and whispered, 

    "You know, if I had met you when you were younger, I'm sure I would have fallen for you too."

    "You don't ......know what I looked like when I was younger."

    Even as Heiner said that, he managed a faint smile to make sure she wasn't offended.

    He had no portraits or photographs of himself as a child, a life he did not deserve, and so Annette would never know what he looked like when he was a boy.

    "So you're saying you weren't serious back then?"

    "Yes."

    But she shook her head. She must have grown to like the little boy. She was vaguely convinced of that. After a moment's silence, Heiner spoke up, slightly embarrassed.

    "Anyway, Theo asked me how I met you. Come to think of it, I don't think I was ever told the exact reason either......."

    "Because you were handsome."

    "The capital is full of handsome men."

    "So you want to know why I picked you out of all of them? Um......."

    Annette thought for a moment, then answered nonchalantly.

    "Because the tips of your ears were really red when you asked me out on our first date."

    "......me?"

    "Yep. I still remember the way you looked back then, and it was kind of cute for a guy who seemed so cold and indifferent, and..... I wondered what kind of person you were."

    "...."

    Heiner felt a little ridiculous to his old self, who had been so full of hatred for Marquis Dietrich and Annette that he'd approached her with the self-assurance that it was all part of a plan, and had asked her out with the tips of his ears reddening.

    Heiner's jaw set at an angle, he stared at his wife as she ate, a mundane scene that seemed like a painting.

    He absentmindedly touched her full cheek with his index finger. Annette blinked, as if questioning him, her clear, glistening eyes staring right back at him.

    As he admired her face, he realized that the redness in his ears wasn’t an act and, frankly, unavoidable. It was weird not to feel anything.

    I asked this girl out on a date.

    Heiner's index finger, which had been tracing her cheek, moved to her lips, and he rubbed her bottom lip lazily, removing a bit of the white sauce.

    Annette, who had swallowed her food at the same time, glanced over at him.

     "Not again in the middle of eating."

    He neatly withdrew his hand as if he was just wiping something off the corner of her mouth. Then he sucked the sauce off his finger.

    Catching her look of disbelief, Heiner smirked like a child.

    Waves crashed over the cliffs. Laughter drifted along the side streets, up the highest street in Santa Molly. It was an ordinary, uneventful evening.

    ****

    To donate for extra chapters for my series or to tip me visit my personal kofi page 

    https://ko-fi.com/doradora 

    Join my discord to get notifications for updates     https://discord.gg/KftaxqanE4

    (If the link is expired, message me for a new link)