xp_logs | Match & Sharon: Apologies

xp_match posting in

After her conversation with Sooraya, Sharon apologizes to Match for her pretending to eat Milton.

Sharon stood in the doorway, solemn-faced and bipedal for the occasion. Clearly she had something of great seriousness to discuss.

"Husband. We must speak."

"Wha?" The aglet of his hoodie dropped from Match's mouth as he looked up at Sharon, Milton dozing in his right hand as he scrolled through something on his phone. There was a firmness in her voice that made him squirm inside, but instead he nodded. "Okay. What's up?"

The older girl's tail twitched with a hint of anxiety. "I have spoken with Sooraya," she said. "An apology is owed to you."

And his lip raised in confusion, brows drawing together as he went over the last couple of days in his head. "Who? Oh, Liam?" He hope the cats had made up.

"You," Sharon said with the infinite patience she reserved for Match. She had factored several of these moments into the scenario while working out her approach. "Matters have already been settled between Kitten and I. To you I wish to apologize for pretending to eat Milton. This was cruel and undeserved."

"Oh," and the tenseness that had been in his shoulders left suddenly. Though the confusion remained, his left thumb began to slowly scroll again. "Yeah, you said that already, I think. It's all good, you don't gotta apologize again. I believe you." He'd even put Milton's travel cage away, the top shelf a newly half organized chaos, carrier carefully re-stored in its original box from the store so no parts got lost.

Sharon nodded. "I thought only that it should be stated explicitly. A marriage should be built on trust. Never again shall I deceive you in such a way." Then, because Sharon was still a cat, she added, "About anything of importance."

"Of course," Match agreed easily, having accepted Sharon's reasons. "That's good, I promise to not do that either." It was much easier communicating with a cat than with other people.

"Then we are understood." Now Sharon, too, finally relaxed. She wasn't usually uncertain about Match's reactions, but recent events had her second-guessing herself. She chided herself for not trusting her instincts. This was only one of many reasons their marriage worked, after all.

"You are reading something interesting?" she asked, moving over to the couch so she could peer at his phone. Milton continued to doze, unbothered.

"Yeah, I mean, I think," Match nodded, tilting his phone to share the article he'd been slowly making his way through, the bottom of the title still somewhat visible. "It's about geckos, fun facts and stuff like that."

Sharon's yellow eyes skimmed the text and noted a few terms. She held out a clawed hand.

"Is zoology," she said. "This is interesting. I will read to you?"

"Oh, yeah, you like zoology too," Match handed his phone to her with ease. He bumped into his own right hand, though Milton opened his eyes, mostly, he made no indication of moving.

"They have a pretty long life it turns out, for lizards."

"Yes. You were wise to take Milton for your own. They are fascinating animals." Sharon took the phone and sat down beside Match, not touching but close enough to benefit from the heat radiating from his body. She began to read where Match had left off.

"'This lizard can be yellow, tangerine, lavender, or what with black or chocolate spotting, patching or striping. There are also albino and melanistic occurrences.'" Sharon leaned over to Match and pointed at the last sentence. "Albinism, this is an absence of pigment. You have seen this in other geckos, the ones with pale eyes and markings of yellow, pink and orange. Melanism, this is the opposite. An increase in dark pigment. Is like that black gecko, the one which sold for so much. This was hyper-melanistic. This is clear to you?"

“Yeah.” While Match had shifted some when Sharon sat, there was a curious calm about him, eyes flicking from the small screen to her. He mouthed the new words as she said them easily. All-bin-ism — absence of pigment. Color? “Like people, right, but probably easier to notice in geckos?”

There had been no waiting for an answer as he tried the other word. Melon-istic — increase of dark pigment. He’d liked that gecko, and now he had a word to describe her. “Does that one happen in people?”

Sharon gave the question serious consideration. "Usually is no," she said. "Pigmentation of human skin already is very diverse. Is result of generations of evolutionary adaptation to environment. Areas where sun is more intense, more melanin is needed for protection. Areas where sunlight is rarer, more ultraviolet radiation must be absorbed to allow production of vitamin D. Many genes are involved. Melanism is result of one specific genetic mutation only, so is not applicable to humans. But with x-gene is technically possible, maybe."

“That makes sense,” Match commented with an idle nod. He remembered something from a class. “It’s, um, closer to the equator, right? Like my dad’s family was from Guyana, so because they were closer and the sun was more intense? But go norther and because no sun, er, not as much, people eat more fish for vitamin d instead.” This was recited with only mild brow furrowing as he dug through his memory. “But you think if someone’s like… x-gene caused like animal, I mean zoology when they manifested, it could cause melanism in them?”

Sharon's tail flicked approvingly against a couch cushion. "Or something similar, is maybe. Genetics are complex. Take myself. Is my skin so paste-white because of my Western European heritage? My mutation, like the purple of my hair? Because twenty years had passed before the privilege to go outside and touch grass could be mine? This is forever a mystery."

This was much to think about. Oh. A laugh finally slipped out as Match registered Sharon's comment on the grass. "Maybe I can get you a little break away harness and take you on little cat walks if you want, with Milton. I bet people would love to praise a purple cat."

Sharon gave this apparent non sequitur serious consideration. There was no conventional term to describe the attachment she felt for Match. He was sensitive and kind, and while Sharon lacked these qualities she instinctively felt they were worth protecting. If the world needed a label to indicate he not to be touched without risking Sharon's wrath, "husband" would do.

"Yes," she said at last, "Praise is my due. This shall be permitted."

It really was a very functional marriage.