Zugzwang, Book II, Chapter 042
Chapter 042 – Water in Acid
As if enacting a response to the kindly meant queries of Sho and Chiaki, the party at the Dragon’s Pearl had just finished their simple three course Chinese dinner and were partaking of the post-dinner beverages, which in this case was Australian strawberry port for Haruyo and more pu-er tea for Alys. Haruyo had apparently ordered some wine in the course of dinner and pretended to be one of those women who insisted on having alcohol even though they had little capacity. Her motivations for ordering wine were less pure. It was her intention to look as if she was in her cups so that Nino would have no choice but to support her, when he did so, she could cunningly grope some part of his anatomy. Ignorant of this plan, Alys watched Haruyo’s consumption of Australian strawberry port with a jaundiced eye. As a rule, Alys rarely consumed alcohol, preferring instead to mix two parts water with her claret at Christmas. Thus, she had a near puritanical distaste for hard drinking within the purview of her vision. On his part, Nino politely took a few sips of the port before deciding that it was too much like Haruyo in being too sweet for his liking, and he promptly pushed aside the glass.
The conversation between the three had been stilted whereby the women were sizing each other up and Alys was inflicting physical torture on Nino with continued kicks, thwacks and smacks. Therefore, it was with some relief when the bill was summoned and duly paid, whereupon the tipsy arch coquette Haruyo was shoved into a taxi and sent on her way to the hotel from which she came. Indeed, she could not be more pleased with herself, for her plan was flawlessly executed. In fact, it was too well carried out in Alys’s estimation. Both she and Nino had gone to Haruyo’s assistance when she unsuccessfully tried to rise from her seat, however much they would have liked to leave her to fester in the restaurant. Although Alys had no idea that Haruyo’s inebriation was an act, she was monstrously displeased to see Haruyo slip her hand down to Nino’s buttock for a feel when they supported her and called a taxi for her.
That, coupled with the facts that Nino had done absolutely nothing to deter Haruyo’s less than subtle advances towards him, had incensed Alys. He had even asked her if she was jealous. Of course she was, but she would not grant him the satisfaction of knowing it. To Alys, Nino’s failure to discourage Haruyo and his subtle manner of goading her on by giving Haruyo that meltingly winsome half-pleading smile in his eyes, were the most galling things of the evening. He may have brushed aside Haruyo’s hand when the younger woman groped his posterior, but Alys was not the least palliated. She may have said nothing, but she had eyes enough behind her glasses to see that Haruyo had spent the entire evening making eyes at Nino and making little seductive gestures by flipping her wavy hair, and adjusting her well-enhanced bosom in her dress.
“What were you trying to prove tonight, Ninomiya-san?” Alys asked him quietly when the taxi carrying the model-actress sped off and they were left alone on the porch of the Excelsior Hotel.
The return to formality did not startle Nino. He had long been used to his lady’s habit of retreating into cold civility when she was angry. However, her refusal to lash out at Haruyo still gnawed on his mind and he wanted to uncover the reason for it. To that end, he goaded her with a sneering, “I’ve been thinking of taking that one out for a test drive. I wasn’t sure you’d approve of my choice? Ne, Teng sensei, what do you think?”
The philosopher pursed her lips and pushed up her glasses to calm herself as she reminded herself that this was merely a worst case scenario come true, and that she would be able to get over it in time. “Is it to be out Alys and in Ichinose Haruyo?” she enquired in voice of faint interest.
“Iya, just a little, you know, fling.” He slid his hands in his pockets and looked askance at her from the corner of his glasses, waiting for some kind of negative response.
“I will not have you flaunting your mistress in front of me. I told you before – if you must have affairs, do it safely with protection, and make sure I never find out who they are, or God help me, I will not be accountable for what could happen to you,” Alys informed him, surprising him with the quiet venom in her voice.
His mind went, “I’ve got you now, Alys-chan!” That was the opening he needed to strike. It was a sign that she was angered by Haruyo’s preposterous behaviour, and was similarly cross with him. Nino flashed her a cocky smile and raised a brow as he followed her to the lift lobby, watching her jab the button violently. “And you said you weren’t jealous? You could have nipped in the bud, Teng sensei. Why didn’t you?”
“Why didn’t I? How bloody wonderful that the onus should be on me!” she snorted and glared at him when the lift door opened. “Why didn’t you discourage the tart?”
“I knew it,” Nino said, the traces of a giggle clinging to his voice. Nino turned his head to the side as they stepped into the lift, hiding his chortle. The plan may have failed to permanently rid him of Haruyo, but that was inconsequential. He was delighted to have elicited a response from Alys in which she was dignifiedly jealous. It meant that she still cared and that was enough. Haruyo, well, he could manage and deal with her appropriately as she deserved. But his Alys – she was a different story, and the most challenging game he had played to date.
“What are you sniggering at? Is this one of your plots?” she snapped waspishly in English, pressing the button to her floor.
Seeing how the game was up, he laughed aloud and gave himself away. “I knew you’d know. I knew you’ll be bothered with what I did.”
“I couldn’t care less what you did. But what she did! Ha! How could you play me this way!” she hissed, repeatedly smacking his arm as hard as she could.
“It’s what I do,” he smirked, taking hold of the hand that had been assaulting him and chafing it gently to warm it.
“What you do? You practically encouraged the tart! How did you think I felt watching her play the coquette, ogle at you, and grope your arse while you did nothing!” she snapped, snatching back her hand.
“Yeah? What did I feel when you didn’t explode at her! Ever thought about that?” he riposted half-teasingly, not knowing that Alys was already on the warpath.
“What good would that have done? I could get rid of her – true, but if you wanted to ‘play’ you would have found others. Why get rid of all those girls when you’re the cause of it!” she bit back in a low hiss, steadily glowering at him and flicking her hand sharply so as to cuff him.
Deftly catching the hand that would have struck him, he met her glare for glare, now fully riled up. He had meant for her to be jealous so as to be rid of Haruyo, and he had planned to apologise for making her upset, but she was making it too damn difficult for him. He was incredulous that his reasonable prank should result in her putting the blame on him, and his inner displeasure and earlier jealousy were now incited.
“Me?” he returned crossly, slapping her verbally with an accusation of his own. “What about you? I saw you at the conference hall at that City University place! I saw what you allowed him to do to you! Have you been stringing me along? Am I second best to that Eyre sensei guy? It had always been him, am I right? I know he wants you back!”
“You’re a bloody fine one to talk! Why didn’t you do something if you saw it? Henry said you were lurking outside, I went out to… God knows what I thought!” she riposted, flinging aside the uncomfortably painful grip with which he had used to stay the slap she would have given him.
“You went out to what? To meet him?” he challenged, his eyes glittering in the need to know, placing a hand on the lift wall to keep her pinned in place.
“I don’t give a fig about Francis Eyre any more than I give a fig about your pathetic inability to follow a simple English conversation! Where were you when my virtue needed rescuing, hmm? Go back to your hotel and reflect upon what you’ve done. Goodnight.” She whacked aside his arm with her handbag, straightened her posture, and stalked out of the lift.
As she did so, Nino swiftly strode after her. It would have been too much to expect Nino to leave her be for he did not cow to threats anymore than she did. Besides, the quarrel was far from over in his opinion. As with all their quarrels, this was one a match of hard fighting, for the woman had unbearable insults to avenge and the man wished to extort his revenge on his lady for failing to crush her rival. Thus, no sooner did Alys insert the keycard into her door than a burst of ironic laughter arrested her from stepping inside. She turned to see him ambling casually towards her with a mocking smirk affixed on his face. As he came towards her, she backed into the room and tried to shut the door against him. However, he was too quick for her and she soon found herself against the wall closest to the wardrobe.
Upon shutting the door behind him, he roughly grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the wall. “Ever the rational creature, eh? You have no virtue, Teng Alys!” he spat. “How can you expect me to react when you didn’t do anything to Ichinose? You could have clawed at her. Did you defend my honour when she made her moves on me?”
In response, she struggled out of his grip and unhesitatingly turned the tables on him. “Why should I? You encouraged her with that chocolate marzipan mouth and that imploring gaze!”
“Oh yeah?” he riposted, leaning closer with a sneer. “Maybe you could have kept at her bay.”
“Enough, I’ve had enough of your games!” she shot back, pushing her glasses up and glaring at him poisonously so as to deny him the satisfaction of cornering her. Deciding that she no longer wanted to deal with his irascibility, she sought to escape to the bathroom.
His reflexes, much better than hers, owing to years of dancing and acting, prevented her exit as he tugged her around to face him. The impact was so great that she forcibly came into contact with his chest. Meeting her scowl as she hurled all manner of English and Latin abuses at him while struggling, he manoeuvred her to sit on the edge of the bed and curled his lips dangerously at her. While he was perfectly aware that his Ni no Arashi attempt had gone awry, he was presently much too incensed to bother with that tiny detail.
“You’re not walking away from me! This is as much your game as it is mine!” he hissed, a hard edge of irritation clearly audible in his voice.
“We’re a game now? I should have known! You want to go out and frolic with painted maypoles like that tart? Very well! Go forth and sow your wild oats! I don’t give a damn,” she snorted dismissively in English, flicking a wrist at him.
Catching both her wrists, he studied her expression for any subtle changes and sneered, “Yeah, I’d go do that if I didn’t dislike oats.”
“Then sow wild whatever! See if I care!” she retorted, still in English, meeting his penetrating gaze and refusing to back down. There was a chance that she would win this argument, and even if there wasn’t, she would have stuck to her guns anyway.
“I’ll make a note of that. I’ll bring them home when you’re in and do it on our bed!” He increased the pressure of his grip on her wrists, and leaned forward so much so that she fell back on to the mattress.
“You want my blessing on top of my permission? Done, you have it,” she purred in a dangerously low tone as she attempted to break out from his iron grip.
“Bluff away, I love it when you do.” He curled his lips at her tenacious spirit.
“Don’t give me that self-satisfied smirk! It’s none of my business what you do with your time and with whom,” she coldly stated with narrowed eyes.
He inched closer to her face, without relinquishing her wrists. “I’ll do things with them that will make your blood curdle. I’ll make sure you can hear us.”
Glaring at him so as not allow him the satisfaction of having frightened her, she answered in English with frosty disinterest, “Sod it, Kazunari! You could videotape it for all I care.”
“Yeah? I’ll deliberately make it so that you can see us,” he spat almost viciously and leaned in until their noses touched.
She felt her breath pick up a notch and she hissed unevenly, “I’ll kill you if you do that.”
“Do it now. No one’s watching,” Nino whispered with malicious smirk before devouring her contemptuously curling lips. As their glasses had clashed when she enthusiastically returned his kiss, he judged that he could release her wrists. That proved to be his mistake, for immediately upon regaining her freedom, she bit him harder than usual on the lower lip. So startled was he by the assault that he had to roll off her. Seizing the opportunity his shock afforded, she quickly straddled him, stepped her right foot on his chest and took hold of his tie.
Watching him touch his mouth as he checked for blood, she pursed her lips and purred in English, “Kill you, my darling? With pleasure.” Following which declaration, she tightened the knot of his tie by pushing it further up his neck to constrict his breathing. While mentally taking note of the time and digging the heel of her shoe into his chest, she informed him in between savage kisses, “Do you know the brain could die if it is oxygen deprived for four minutes?”
“Alys…chan… let go…” gasped a startled Nino from both a lack of air in his lungs and surprise that the woman with whom he had slept, quarrelled and discussed money matters did indeed possess a perversely violent streak. Yet he was strangely unperturbed by it, feeling instead a certain strange amusement that she had played him and caught him off guard. Well, it would seem that this was as far as she could be pushed. He would make a note of that, and would take heed never to provoke her over the edge again.
“Of what? The necktie or you?” she asked, a mocking smile playing on her lips.
“The tie…” he managed to wheeze.
She cocked a brow at him and did nothing, choosing to watch him struggle for his breath until the two minute mark. Once the hundred and twenty seconds were past, she abruptly released her grasp on his tie, and rose without haste, drawing her dress closer across her hips. Coolly eyeing him through the mirror as she sat on a dressing chair and removed her glasses, she cuttingly reminded him while removing her makeup, “Flaunt your mistress in front of me again in another one of your bloody excuses for jokes, and I wouldn’t let go until you’re dead.”
It took him a while to regain his breath and in the interim, he watched her remove her makeup. He had expected her to be upset and a little jealous, but not to this extent; and if he was honest with himself (which he was), he found himself excited by this hitherto unseen side to her. Then again, he reminded himself, even the tightly controlled manner in which she threw aside the dirty facial cottons in forced calm excited him.
“That’s easy, isn’t it?” he rejoined bitingly with a careless gesture when he recovered enough to sit up. If she could strangle him, step on him with high heeled shoes, and tear facial cotton to shreds, what else could she do to him? Idly, as his eyes met hers in the mirror, he wondered if his mode of thinking and her manner of dealing with him made them perverted. His lips curled almost malevolently when all her makeup was gone and she had replaced her glasses on her face.
“Is it?” she intoned crisply, narrowing her eyes at his, still staring at him via the mirror.
“Yeah,” he sneered, reclining on the bed and glaring a challenge at her. “I’ll just have to make sure you never find out about the others.”
Turning her head sharply towards him in an impassive sideways glance, she placed one hand over the other in a semblance of calm and chuckled bitterly. “Rot in hell,” she said coldly, lifting her eyes to his.
The brief flash of pain written in her eyes twisted something in Nino’s chest and he wished he could have taken his words back. It was meant to be a sarcastic jest; it had not been his intention to wound her. He strove to explain himself, “I didn’t mean it to…”
She cut him off curtly by hissing angrily, “Didn’t you? I resent you. I want to hate you.” Then removing her glasses, she pounced on him, kissing along his jaw and biting the part of his neck closest to his collarbone. She continued in the same dangerous purr when he gasped in surprise, “Is that how it is? Do they do this to you? Do you pretend you are with a younger and prettier woman when you’re with me? Do you pretend that you’re with that sweet ingénue actress you slept with on-and-off before me?” She kissed him desperately and with such ferocity that Nino was in no position to protest even if his mind could find the words. Rolling her eyes at his silence, she went on bitterly between bruising kisses as she removed his tie and whipped it against his legs, “Not tonight. It’s high time you were punished. Tonight, Kazu, you’re mine and mine alone.”
Nino allowed her to do what she wanted with him. Without really understanding why he allowed her to do so, he let her do as she chose, following her lead and indulging in her needs for the better part of two hours. He could not find it in himself to protest against the force of her ire or the fury of her passion or find words to soothe her fears and insecurities. It was difficult to get a word in edgewise in objection when his mouth was constantly occupied with various pieces of her anatomy. Likewise, it was nigh impossible to form an articulate sentence when she was evoking sensations in him that he did not think he was capable of.
When it was over and their tempers had fizzled out, they managed to arrive at some verbal understanding as to what set off each other’s dark sides. After cuddling, exchanging apologies, differing points of view and desultory post-coital conversation, one half of the satiated pair drifted to sleep murmuring that she was sorry if she had injured him.
On his part, Nino merely pulled the bedcovers over her before lighting a cigarette. What had just happened? He found himself asking as he puffed on his cigarette and absently stroked her hair. It wasn’t like they hadn’t made love before. However, their previous engagements in the deed had not been like that – wild and unfettered. While it had been interesting and pleasurable for them both, he could not help but feel a little used. Well, he had driven her to it, he mused with a smirk, gingerly rubbing the areas where she had bitten him in the heat of passion. The irony of this reversal of roles was not lost on him and he rubbed his face in mortification until the ringing of his mobile broke through his guilt induced haze. Scrambling to find his trousers and his mobile, he hit the answer button when he saw who was calling.
“What do you want, Sho-chan?” he whispered harshly as he slid down the bedcovers again to watch Alys sleep.
“Woah, Nino, chill. Just checking in. Are you all right? I thought the professor had murdered you! Where are you?” came the anxious voice of the ‘mother’ of Arashi.
“In bed. With my Alys. Why?” he replied, half-watching his lady kick and curl into the foetal position in her sleep.
A long pause fell over line. Then when Sho found his voice again, he sighed and decided to go ahead and issue Nino a friendly reminder. “Will you be back in time for the 10am shoot? It’s our last day on this set before we head home.”
“Ever known me to be late to work?” responded Nino smugly, stubbing out his cigarette as Alys curled up into a smaller ball and muttered brokenly about the injustice of judging her by her unorthodox interpretations of ancient texts and the harms done to students who were allowed to pass the course without handing up their assignments or attending class.
“Are you coming back tonight?”
“What do you think?” he asked sarcastically while soothing his partner’s apparently fitful slumber as she kicked and hissed violently she was at least attempting to lead the philosophic life rather than an acquisitive one that only paid lip service to the all too human things.
Sho groaned over the line on catching the implication. “You have to be back in your room by 9.10 tomorrow morning or they’d know you’ve slipped out. Say hi to the professor for me.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Putting away the mobile phone so as to hold her shaking, sleeping form, he wondered what he should do. He knew she had night terrors where she would mutter incomprehensible things in English and another language he could not identify, kick him, and occasionally sob and scream. He had a rough inkling what these night terrors were about, having often woken up to them – if it wasn’t about her or her mother being ill-treated by her father, it was probably about idiot students who wouldn’t leave her alone or about her ill-fated foray into further education in America. He never asked her about them because he had a feeling she would evade the issue and would dismiss everything as ordinary nightmares. While considering the possible repercussions of waking her, he paused in mid-thought when she clawed at the bedcovers over him.
“Not my books! Don’t take away my books. Don’t expel me. Hang me, quarter me, suspend me from the university, anything – don’t deny me the right to study philosophy,” she sobbed in English whilst tossing away from him in her sleep.
Smoothening her tousled hair, he snorted at the realisation that she was still haunted by her ill-fated expulsion from that American university. Holding her cold body and patting her as best he could, he murmured soothingly precisely because he was certain she could not hear him or recall it when she awoke, “Shhh, I’m here. Listen to me, no one’s kicking you out. You are a philosopher; iya, even better, you are a professor in Todai. Shhh…. No one will take anything from you. No one will unreasonably say ‘no’ to you. I’ll see to it. Shhh, sleep, sleep.”
NOTES
I know the standard procedure is AW (acid into water) rather than WA (water into acid). But there is a reason why I have titled this chapter Water in Acid.
Traditionally, when acid is mixed with water, a lot of heat is released. It then follows that adding more acid releases more heat. When acid is added to water (AW), the solution that forms is very dilute and the small amount of heat released is not enough to vaporize and spatter it
However, when water is added to acid (WA), an extremely concentrated solution of acid initially forms at a very rapid rate. This causes a lot more heat to be produced than the traditional AW method. When WA occurs, so much heat is released that the solution may boil very violently, splashing concentrated acid out of the container.
Now that you know the difference between AW and WA, I expect readers to make the necessary connections to understand why I have titled this chapter “Water in Acid” and what this means for the characters in this chapter AND beyond.
Those who have no idea what I’m talking about vis-à-vis night terrors should:
(a) do some research so as to know the difference between nightmares and night terrors
(b) it has been stated in the previous stories of this series that Alys kicks and talks in her sleep. It is also stated in the previous stories Nino occasionally talks in his sleep
(c) reread Between Wit & Sarcasm for Alys’s academic troubles and past. Cf. Chs 11, 21 and 31 of the aforementioned story.
