Nostalgia Ch. 11

Every day was a little bit less awful than the last.

Ana had decided that after her parents' house had been cleaned out, and after the funeral was done, she'd become a landlady and get some tenants. She didn't think she had the mental strength to move in. Every room would slowly kill her. She very carefully read all the landlord/tenant laws and even took some advice from a attorney just in case. Vlad teased her a few times about it. "Now we're both property owners. We have more in common than before!" He also reminded her to hire a good property manager.

Mihai was still often quite busy, but he made time to hang out with his "tiny family," which was what he sometimes called Vlad and Ana. He had dinners with them, watched movies with them, and still invited them on outings at the Fair Orchard Country Club. Exactly what he was busy with? Mihai didn't always give sharp details, but meeting with business owners for current or potential investments was his most common explanation.

Mihai also seemed to look at his phone more often. Sometimes, he seemed so distracted and stressed that Ana wanted to reach out and comfort him. So she'd put a hand on his shoulder and say something to the effect of, "Hey, have some ice cream with us," or "Whatever's going on, we got your back." Then Mihai's eyes would crinkle and he'd tell her everything was fine.

When Ana met her uncle and aunt at the airport, she hugged them for a good while. Or rather, she hugged Uncle Daniel while Aunt Tomomi looked on with sad eyes. Then she drove them to the townhouse. Her landlord knew about the guests. No problems there.

At this time, Vlad thought Ana was much better than before, and she was living in her home again. Ana still hadn't unpacked yet, though. He just hated unpacking things when she thought she didn't need to. It felt tedious. What she didn't hate was showing her guests to the spare bedroom and giving them chamomile tea before the jet lag won their bodies over. They were a sweet couple. They deserved a clean bed and a caring host.

In the morning, Ana made a stack of blueberry pancakes and chatted with her guests, answering their questions, mostly in Japanese. As gentle and well-meaning as Aunt Tomomi was, she gave the most probing questions.

You have a boyfriend now? He's so much older than you. Maybe you'll get married? You don't plan on having children with him, do you? Are you the type to not have children? Maybe you could adopt a child?

Ana wasn't irritated. Those questions were only proof of her aunt's concern.

After breakfast, Ana took her guests to a local museum, then for a walk in the nicest park. Lunch was taken in a restaurant. Uncle Daniel mentioned how he'd missed a good old fashioned, local style burger. Then there were light discussions on the changes that had happened in the neighborhood over time. Poor Tomomi was lost there, completely out of anything resembling her depth. She was happy, though, and she loved the "exotic" and "foreign" world she was visiting.

Back at Ana's townhouse, they relaxed and watched silly stuff via Netflix. Ana hadn't watched used traditional television in years, and didn't plan to in the future. Streaming was her source of casual entertainment. Tomomi was disappointed at first. She'd been looking forward to watching American television, but she was quickly satisfied by the streaming.

Mihai and Vlad visited for a time, and they brought gifts with them. Candy and snacks, plus cheese and wine, for the visiting couple. For Ana, a bouquet flowers and more wine. They all charmed each other, talking about their different cultures and life experiences, comparing and contrasting social norms, those sorts of things.

Tomomi later helped Ana cook dinner. Stir-fry noodles with green pepper, cabbage, and chicken. Ana couldn't remember if she'd ever had so many people in her home, let alone so many happy and warm people.

"Ana-chan! Chi ga!"

Ana! There's blood!

Ana stopped cutting her chicken and looked at her aunt. Tomomi looked down at Ana's hands.

Ana followed the trail and saw that she'd made a tiny slice in the length of her thumb. She hadn't noticed it before. How silly. "Mondainai," she said to Tomomi.

No problem.

As Ana washed her hands and got out some first-aid supplies, Aunt Tomomi gently lectured her about how she needed to pay more attention. How could she take care of a man, especially an older man, if she couldn't even take care of herself? That sort of thing.

"Ești rănit?"

Are you hurt?

Putting on a bandage, Ana turned around to see Vlad peering into the kitchen with burning eyes. Ana told him she was fine. There was only a tiny cut. His eyes cooled and he sighed as he seemed to realize there was nothing horrible going on.

Then they heard a vehicle's tires outside. "I'll see who it is," Ana said. She nodded towards Tomomi. "Please manage the food while I'm gone."

Vlad chose to walk with her to the door, and although Ana wasn't sure why he did that she was happy to have her hand in his. Behind the door, they saw Brun, of all people. Ana hadn't invited her. She'd barely even thought of her.

"Uhm ... hi Brun." Ana gave Vlad a surprised and questioning expression. With a tight jaw, Vlad shook his head as if he wanted to say he didn't know but he probably did know anyway. Looking back to Brun, Ana asked, "What do you need?"

Brun's face seemed so curious but also oddly colored in the outdoor light. She wasn't in an aggressive stance, but her presence was still quite disconcerting. Her hands were in the pouch/pocket of her hoodie. She almost smiled as she said to Ana, "I'm intruding. I know. I'll leave soon. I only want to know, are your loved ones here?"

Folding her arms, nervously licking her teeth, Ana gave Vlad another look. Vlad's eyebrows were high. He asked Brun, "Are you feeling well?"

Brun didn't react to Vlad, didn't even glance at him. She only focused on Ana. "You've cut yourself."

Ana knew she didn't have anything to hide, but she put her hand in a pocket regardless. Just how observant was this weird woman?

Brun continued. "Hey, Ana. Listen to me." Her head moved to one side under her hood. Her voice was quiet but pleased. "There are so many people in this world. Plenty of blood. You have room to be stingy. Do don't donate your blood to blood banks. Ever."

The redhead whirled around and left immediately after giving that ... creepy bit of advice. Ana started to say something, but Vlad gripped her arm and shook his head.

While Brun got in her jeep and drove off, Ana asked Vlad, "The hell's her deal? Did she just threaten me?"

Vlad exhaled and shook his head again. "She doesn't really think like other people. Please don't take offense." He put on an unnatural, embarrassed smile. It made Ana want to cringe because it didn't suit his features at all. His face looked like it was trying to resist the smile, threatening to crack from the pressure.

Eyes narrowing, Ana asked, "Why are you even friends with that woman?" She closed the door. "She makes me think you're involved in some shady stuff."

The smile became more realistic then, calm and familiar. Vlad kissed her cheek and said, "I'm a very shady person. I watch alt-right videos and donate money to Christian organizations."

That did it. That got her to laugh. Vlad gave up religion years ago, according to what he'd once told her. As for alt-right stuff, they both had once agreed that they didn't even know what alt-right was. When they were in the hallway, closer to the kitchen, Ana said, "Try to keep Brun away from me. I don't want to call the cops on her."

"I'll talk to her. I promise." He gave her butt a small tap as she went back into the kitchen.

***

A double funeral and a double burial. Two coffins, two graves. Two portraits of two different people. A happy couple taken away from the world too early. It was appropriately solemn. When everything was over, when the deceased was buried and Ana's uncle and aunt left for their home in Japan, Ana felt like her insides had been scraped out and her eyes would fall out. Her home felt similar, painfully empty.

She hung around in all the rooms, already missing the morning greetings from the guests. She thought she could still hear soft echoes, though. Her head turned one way, then the other, as she listened to the ghostly voices. English and Japanese bounced around the quiet house.

Her heart ached, her hollow belly too. Wanting some form of attention, she texted Vlad. He didn't answer. Then she texted Mihai. He also didn't answer. Silly night-owls.

Ana went to her desk to work on her comic. She was almost done with a chapter. It was nearly pornographic, really. She preferred mature, adult audiences. She thought that targeted audience would give her more freedom. Plus, dicks were fun to draw. She'd learn to appreciate them even more after starting her relationship with Vlad.

Ana held her pencil in the air as her lower lip was sucked behind her teeth.

He'd have to go back to Romania eventually, wouldn't he?

And then ...

Then what?

Ana tried to gulp that worry down.

Later on, when the sky was darker and the air was cooler, she got a text from Vlad. "Hello. Are you feeling well?"

"Yeah. I'm ok. What are you doing?"

She sat her phone on her desk and patiently waited for it to notify her.

"I'm thinking of you."

Ana's heart felt much lighter after reading that. "Let's do something."

"Understood. I'll be at your door soon."

"Give me some time to get ready for you."

A shower and a bit of shaving. A loose T-shirt dress of black cotton that hung just above her knees, no panties. A few sprays of vanilla perfume on her wrists and throat. Her hair was still damp when there was knocking on her door. Her phone showed a text from Vlad confirming it was him. As soon as she could, Ana knocked herself into him. He had to grip the stoop's railing to keep them from falling backwards.

Words blended with kisses.

"It's been so long!" Ana.

"I ... I know." Vlad

"It's all my fault."

"You've been in mourning. Don't curse yourself."

She still clung to him when he sat down on her couch. Her socked feet curled as her legs pushed between his body and the couch's back. Her dress almost naturally bunched up to her waist. Her fingers clawed in his shirt.

With just enough force, he tugged on her hair to get her mouth off him. Then he kissed and licked up her throat. Each touch there made her whimper and jolt.

At her ear, hot and pressing. "Micuţa Mea," My Little One, "Draga Mea," My Darling, "Let me keep you. Please let me keep you."

Those words alone made her pussy clench around nothing and grind onto his rough jeans. If she was leaving a wet spot on him, Ana didn't care. "Yes, please! Take me!"

One of his hands had her ass. It felt delightfully rough, and it made her grind even harder. It all had her sensitive parts aching.

Vlad stood up, carrying her with his movement. Up to her bedroom. Where her dress was flung away and her back met a wall. She was still allowed to hold his clothing's textures onto her throbbing parts. Her breasts and nipples loved the rough feelings. It was as if those nipples were in a competition with her clitoris to see which would react the most.

"I need it," she moaned in his ear. "Don't hide it from me."

"Silly little girl." There was something animalistic in his voice. "I'm not hiding it."

Ana quivered in his arms. "I need it now!"

Vlad's teeth scraped up her throat, and then he kissed her.

They went to the bed. It took almost no time for Vlad's fly to be undone and his jeans and underwear shoved down. They both shuddered as he sunk into her. Ana's toes crossed in her socks as her feet pressed into the mattress.

Her pussy seemed to wave and pulse around the welcome visitor. It was so thrilling. Her vision blurred as she was almost violently pounded into. The mattress sounded like it was crying and begging for the rocking to stop. Ana was crying and begging for the rocking to never stop.

She felt his pubic hair slam and rub against her split and stretched opening with every thrust. She heard his rhythmic grunts and felt his face and mouth on her neck. Her body was chafed by the clothing he still wore. It was lovely.

Ana's fingers went up to Vlad's hair, which was mostly kept up by a band. She managed to pull that band away and claim the bouncy, clean hair for her own selfish desires.

"I missed this," she whined. "I missed this so much."

"I wanted it every day." Vlad's heavy tone made her shiver. She imagined him sadly thinking of her while in his bed or in the shower, gripping his cock and whispering her name.

Harder, harder, and then her ass was held again. She felt his fingernails bite down and spread her cheeks as his teeth clamped on her throat.

He growled.

Growled ...?

Like ... like a ...

Something?

Weakly, Ana tried to utter a noise, a part of a word. But the abrupt speed in the thrusting made her forget to say anything. There was fire in her, amazing fire, blissful heat. It sawed in and out, hitting her G-spot. Not caressing it. Not stroking it. Hitting it. Ana screamed.

Behnd the screaming, she thought she heard a woman's voice muttering something in a language she didn't know. Then she forgot it all as she had an orgasm so crazy that her belly hurt.

Soon after that, Vlad's drool trickled down her neck, and he finally shot himself into her, flinching and groaning all the while.

Only when he rolled away, when Ana's body was vibrating and her cunt was spasming and leaking, did she realize there was pain in her neck. "What ... What the hell?" Her palm went to a burning patch on her throat. She coughed and mumbled like an elderly person as she got up. The joints in her knees even popped. "God damn, did you break the skin?"

His face looking wet and greasy, Vlad gazed up at her with half dazed eyes partially hidden by his hair. "If I did, then I humbly apologize." There wasn't even a sliver of humility in his voice.

Ana went off to her bathroom, turned on the ceiling light, and examined her neck. She saw the angriest bite she'd ever had.

"God damn it, Vlad!!" She sounded like she was nagging at him over a bit of mess left behind in a kitchen. "Next time you might really hurt me!" Delicately, her fingertips touched the hickey. "No more biting for now, okay?!"

She actually heard some remorse then. "Have I truly damaged you so?"

"Yeah. I'm going to get some ice." Ana made a few swipes between her legs and thighs with a dry towel. Then she padded off to get that ice.

Ten minutes later, Ana was wearing clothes and snuggling with Vlad in her living room. He'd already apologized so many times that Ana got tired of it. At one point, while she was looking through different titles on Netflix, Vlad told her something mildly unexpected. He patted her thigh as he said it. "I have good news, Micuţa Mea. I'm going to get a Green Card."

"Hm?" Ana put her remote control down and looked at him. His gray/green eyes were playful. "Green Card?" Ana tried not to sound rude. "I thought you were just visiting."

His broad shoulders moved up in a casual shrug and he said as if there was very little importance, "I need to stay with my son." Then his eyes softened and he leaned in, putting his warm palm on the top of her hand. His other hand went up to her face so his fingers could lightly press under her chin.

Ana thought he was like a king about to tell a servant, who had a crush on him, to meet him somewhere secret for a lusty meeting.

Quietly, as if telling a secret, Vlad said to her, "But I also need to stay with you."

Ana's brain had difficulty absorbing this information. Like a hopeless, mute simpleton, she gaped up at him. She tasted the air. It wasn't refreshing. It was uncomfortable.

Smirking, he said her name.

"I ... Vlad ...?" She blinked a few times as she moved her head away from the gentle fingers, but her hand was still firmly held. "I'm not a good reason to stay in a foreign country."

Brow furrowing, Vlad reached back for her head. This time he held her cheek.

"Ana, haven't you realized that I'm in love with you?"

A storm ... a great storm ... it flashed in Ana's brain. Lightning and alarm.

Her hand moved over the one on her face. "You ... you're just saying that because I'm so much younger than you. You're having a midlife crisis." At that moment, it was all she could think of. He couldn't have fallen in love with her. He couldn't have taken her that seriously.

His smile ... it was so sharp, so vivid ... the teeth parted so the tongue could slither out to give a quick lick on a canine tooth. "I know what you are. You're precisely what I need, what I dream of."

Crash!

Breaking glass!!

Ana squealed.

"Ce puii mei?!" Vlad drew back to find the source of the noise. His surprised statement literally meant, "What my chickens?!" The connotation was close to, "What the hell?!"

Ana also searched for the problem, and they both found it. There was a brick and quite an amount of glass shards on the floor. The nearby window was broken. There was also the sound of car tires crying out on pavement. Vlad rose to go to the broken window. He admitted, "I lost sight of the car. I don't know what was on their license plate."

With cautious feet, Ana took three steps towards the mess. "This has never happened before. Fucking stupid!" Anger was growing in her belly. How dare these random people vandalize her home?! "I'm calling the cops." The fact that the cops probably couldn't do much was beyond her.

As she spoke on her phone, she noticed that Vlad was taking photos with his own. Then he started typing on it, probably texting someone. All Ana cared about was that she'd need those photos to give to her landlord for his insurance purposes.

The police arrived some minutes later, and a report was made. Those officers were quite honest with her. They might not find the culprit. There weren't even any security cameras around the neighborhood.

When the couple was alone again, Ana began sweeping the mess up. Vlad volunteered to pick up the larger pieces of glass and take away the brick. Then Vlad told her she needed to have the window covered with some wood. Plastic wouldn't be good enough for discouraging more crime.

"Nevertheless," the man said with a snobby tilt of his hooked nose, "you're not going to sleep here for a long while. Pack your things again."

The mighty king was protecting his common mistress, Ana thought.

It was late by the time Ana was in her car, following Vlad to Mihai's house. During that quiet drive, she wondered if she needed to tell Vlad she loved him. Whether she loved him or not wasn't important. What was important was whether or not he needed to think she did. She cared for his feelings, at least. She'd hate to break his heart.

Was he entitled to her love?

No. Ana shook her head and rolled her eyes.

He was entitled to her respect and loyalty because he'd earned it, but love was a different issue.

Yet when she imagined a rejected Vlad, bent over and sniffling like a child, Ana felt ill.

Truly ill.

Vomit nearly greeted her throat.

She took a mint from her purse.

Her nose and cheeks heated up. Her eyes watered a little. She dabbed at them with a sleeve.

The swift recognition made her titter to herself.

When they were parked at the mansion, Ana didn't immediately start taking bags and suitcases out of her car. Like an excited child she just ran up to Vlad as soon as his door was open. She jumped at him and hugged him so hard that she knocked her own breath out. When she caught it again, Ana gave a whining little statement.

"Hey, hey you Geezer! I love you!"