Vanessa
The rest of the day was difficult, but at the end of it, peace had finally returned to the house. Torwood and I tossed all of Tom’s bags out after him, and we didn’t hear another word from him as he gathered them and stormed towards a taxi. I spent the whole day dreading a furious call from my father, but it didn’t come. Instead, Torwood and I focused on putting everything back that had been disturbed, and making sure that Grandma Shirley was alright. We danced around the events of the morning, not wanting to upset her further, but a dark cloud hung over her head.
The mood was melancholy as we finished up our dinner. Torwood had insisted on cooking, but I put my foot down and told him that he needed a night off. I couldn’t stop him from sauteing vegetables and breaking out a chili and herb-infused oil to dress up the pizzas that I ordered, but it was nonetheless a quiet affair. Grandma Shirley nibbled at her crust, then straightened up and cleared her throat.
“Well, I’m sorry about this sour day spoiling our delicious meal. Torwood, I think there’s something we show Vanessa to cheer us all up, no?” she said.
Torwood arched an eyebrow in confusion, before realization dawned on his face.
“Oh. Well, I don’t quite...I am not ready,”
he replied.
“Nonsense, you big oaf. We’ve been practicing for weeks, and I think Vanessa will forgive you for a few missteps.”
Torwood sighed, then pushed back his chair and stood. The mood was already getting lighter. He looked at me, deadly serious.
“You are not permitted to laugh.”
Grandma Shirley clapped her hands, then hopped to her feet. “Doctor Carol recommended a moderate amount of movement to keep my blood circulating while my leg got better. I told poor Torwood here that if he didn’t help me out then it was basically elder abuse. Hit it, T!”
With that, Torwood pressed play on the radio, and a CD began to spin. The tinny sound of a jazz tune began to drift out. It was an old one, Miles Davis or maybe that famous birdfolk saxophonist, what was his name? Charlie Parker?
Torwood leaned down, took Grandma Shirley’s tiny hand in his massive one, and began to step in time with her to the music. The height difference was so great that he had to bend almost ninety degrees at the waist so my grandmother’s hand could reach his shoulder. I could tell that he was helping her stay upright, and giving even more assistance to the float runes on her leg brace.
Grandma Shirley was a lifelong dancer. She was involved in a very modern company for most of her early life, and continued to find a community in dance even after she’d had my mom and moved to Pigeonpond. Her passion had ignited my own, and she was the first person I’d called when I was accepted to my first professional company. Dance had kept her nimble, and though she’d slowed down some, her movements were no less fluid and precise than I imagined they’d been fifty years prior.
Torwood, on the other hand, was a tank. His muscles could chop a young tree down in three axe swings or throw a shitty brother fifteen feet onto the lawn, but the coordination and poise needed for partner dance was simply not there. Despite Grandma Shirley’s best efforts, whispering instructions and gentle reminders to him, she couldn’t stop his feet from crossing and his arms from flailing wildly. His chaotic steps were amusing and strangely familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. At last it clicked: these were the exact clattering, arrhythmic thuds I’d heard from his room my very first night here.
My eyes welled up. I pictured Torwood in his room, probably shirtless, trying to learn the steps my grandmother had shown him so that he could support her while they danced. And then I had burst in and accused him of taking advantage of her. That night seemed like forever ago.
Torwood and Grandma Shirley swayed together for several more minutes. The clumsiness of the dance did nothing to diminish the impact it had on me, and by the end I was wiping away falling tears. The song concluded, and they clasped hands and executed an awkward bow. I whooped, and started clapping, hoping they wouldn’t notice my wet face.
“That was amazing!”
I said, and I meant it.
“You wouldn’t believe how much he’s improved,”
said my grandmother, and a flare of pink rose in Torwood’s cheeks.
“I...thank you for watching our dance, Vanessa,”
he said. Unable to restrain myself further, I rushed Torwood and pulled him into a deep hug. I shed a few more tears into his shirt before pulling away, and gave Grandma Shirley another, much more delicate, hug.
“Really amazing, you guys. You could sell tickets to that,” I said.
Grandma Shirley laughed, I laughed, and even Torwood started to chuckle under his breath. We laughed until our bellies hurt, sinking back into our chairs. The morning’s events had been weighing heavily on all of us, and it felt so good to forget it all for even a moment.
“Well,”
said Grandma Shirley once we’d settled back down. “I’m going to sleep soon. It’s been a long and difficult day, and I think we all need some rest. But, before I do, there’s one last thing I need to speak to you both about.”
I shared a look with Torwood. He placed a hand on my knee under the table and squeezed.
“Although he was being a right asshole about it, unfortunately I have to admit that Thomas had a point. I can’t stay here forever, and I can’t ask Torwood to give up his life to take care of me. I won’t always be the spry young woman you see before you; eventually I will need a change. This house is simply too big for me to keep on my own. Of course it’ll be hard to see it go, but at least we can do it on our own terms, no?”
“We’ll move in,”
I blurted out. “Well, not we since Torwood already lives here, but me. I’ll move in, and Torwood will stay. Right?
His eyebrows sprung up in surprise. “You will stay? Then I will stay too.”
“I don’t want to leave you here alone again,”
I said. I was looking at my grandmother, whose eyes were beginning to brim with tears, but as I spoke I reached for Torwood’s hand. I couldn’t leave him either. “I’m sure I can find a job teaching dance here in town, and I have enough savings to make it work. We’ll take care of you, and we won’t let anything happen to you or to this house.”
“I swear it,”
said Torwood. He was at my side, tall as a giant, one massive hand in mine and the other on my grandmother’s shoulder.
“I...I don’t know what to say,”
said Grandma Shirley after a long pause. “I thought this part of my life was over. I thought my family was over. Thank you. Thank you both.”
***
“Vanessa?”
a knock sounded on my door. I was halfway changed, wearing only my sleep shirt. My pants and underwear lay in a heap on the floor.
“Torwood?”
I responded. “What is it?”
The door creaked open, and the huge orc stepped inside, ducking to keep his horns away from the doorframe. He was, of course, without shirt.
“Oh! A thousand apologies,”
he said, instantly noticing my half-nakedness. He covered his eyes, and turned away. “I should have waited before entering,”
I reflexively pulled my shirt down over my crotch. Then, realizing the ridiculousness of that, I released my hands and let it spring back up. “It’s fine. You can look.”
He dropped his hands slowly, and I could feel his hungry gaze fixed on me. I felt a rush within my pussy, and I became very aware of the closeness of his muscled body. “I told you I was going to come up to your room after I got changed,”
I continued.
“Yes, but...”
he began, and paused.
“But what?”
His expression was strange, fixed restraint pulled tight over a raging fire. He was breathing heavily, and one fist was clenched tightly at his side. His cock, almost impossibly large and tantalizing, strained against the thin linen of his pants.
“But I could not wait.”