Chapter 19: Saturday Morning Ritual

Three Days Later

Grabbing a pot with a metal spoon, Essence inhaled sharply. Making her voice as deep as she could, she slammed the spoon against the pot. “Wake it up! Wake it up! Wake your fine ass up!” Jerking from his sleep, Kano hit the floor hard, making her laugh. She covered her mouth. “Oh, my goodness! Your ass looked just like the giant when he fell from the beanstalk.” Grumbling under his breath, Kano stood and glowered at her. She shook her head. “No go, mister. I told you what we were doing this morning.”

Handing him a broom, Essence pushed him from the guest room to his own. His eyes shot open at the realization he’d forgotten to clean the walls. Picking her up, Kano tried to race away from the room, but Essence pinched his back hard. He put her down, and she cut her eyes. “No.go.mister,” she repeated. She pulled out the key. “I swiped it from your pocket. You really do sleep hard. That’s dangerous as hell.” Trying to snatch the key from her, Kano groaned when she moved quickly, opening the door. She rolled her eyes. “I don’t get why you’re so reluctant to com—” Her sentence broke, and she stared horrified at the writing on the walls.

I FAILED MY MATE! I FAILED MY MATE!

She whipped around and faced him as he looked down at the ground. Dropping the cleaning supplies, Essence grabbed onto him and hugged him tightly. She burrowed into him. Saying nothing, she waited until she felt his arms close around her. She looked up, and Kano caressed her face. Leaning down, he kissed her, and they hugged once more. Releasing him, she pulled out her phone and mini speaker from the bucket.

“Alright, let’s put on some cleaning music,” she said as she flipped through her playlist. She moved through the room and placed the items on the rickety dresser. Kano tilted his head as he walked over to see what was playing. He chuckled, reading the playlist title.

Essence’s CLANE not CLEAN playlist

She snapped her fingers. “Laugh all you want, but let me tell you something. If you hear some Anita Baker playing early Saturday morning, you better get your ass up and prepare for a day of scrubbing baseboards and washing windows.” Kano scrunched his face and looked behind him, causing Essence to roll her neck. “Aht Aht, they work hard enough. You made this mess, you clean it. I’m going to help you. You know how to use a broom, don’t you?” Making a mocking face, Kano purposely turned the broom upside down and scraped the handle against the floor. He pouted, and Essence laughed. “Such a big damn baby,” she teased.

“I would have to agree with you about that, Essence,” Cayden said, entering the room, smirking. Taking the broom from his brother, he flipped it right side up and handed it back. “Savina would be very displeased if she knew you gathered nothing from your time down from your bell tower, Quasimodo.” Kano growled at his brother, making Cayden’s grin widened. He covered his chest with his hand in pretend shock. “My word, Adam! You’re so cranky in the morning.” Kano’s face paled, and his eyes shot to Essence, whose face held a smirk.

“Your middle name is Adam?” She asked in amusement. He huffed and nodded before shooting daggers at Cayden with his eyes. Taking the broom, Kano walked to Essence and pointed it at his brother. He sneered, and Cayden gasped.

“How dare you?! I do too clean my room!” Cayden shrieked. Kano scrunched his face and shook his head. Before Cayden could get out another word, he heard Essence on the phone.

“Hey, Ani… yeah… guest room?….mhm, probably because he doesn’t want you to see his dirty ass room…. mhm, just bought some and Savina has a lot…. yep, see you soon.” Essence hung up the phone and grinned brightly at Cayden. “Ani is on her way over to help you clean your room… Lumière,” she mused.

His mouth dropped. “What?! She told you my middle name?!”

She chuckled. “Yep, and I think it’s downright adorable. Now, stop distracting us, and go pout in your own room. Your mate will be here in a minute.”

Cayden cut his eyes at Kano. “Tattletale,” he said, stalking off. Laughing, Kano mocked his brother as he had once done to him.

Thirty minutes, and many trash bags later, Kano’s room finally started to look like normal. Picking up more items from the carpet, his eyes locked with something underneath his destroyed desk. His heart raced as he stared at the creature.

Rat! He screamed internally. Not wanting to scare Essence, he swallowed his spit and shakily grabbed the boom. Kano struck the creature hard and upon seeing it bounce, he could no longer hold it in. Belting loudly, he let out a piercing shrill, “Rat!” and slapped it hard with the broom. The creature flew, and his eyes widened when he saw Essence jump up and tackle it. Landing on the bed in a tuck and roll, she held the creature under her arm.

She sat up, and shouted at him, “Are you crazy?!” He looked at her as if she were the insane one. She murmured, “It’s okay, Stella… he didn’t know it was you.” Straightening out her most expensive wig, she looked it over. “I think I saved her. It was a close call, but I-I think she’s going to be okay.”

Kano stared at the long hair; his heart threatening to give out. Wishing it had been a rat, he whispered, terrified, “E-Essence, w-we don’t scalp people, he—” His words were interrupted by Essence cackling loudly. He sat in confusion, his face growing redder by the second as she continued to laugh.

Finally wiping her tears, she shook her wig at him. “I did not scalp anyone, crazy man, it’s a wig. I told you I wear them. What the hell did you think I was talking about?” Kano shrugged and she chuckled. “How did you think I changed my hair color all the time? I literally left the other day with a yellow one on and came back with pink.”

He scratched his head in embarrassment that he hadn’t really thought about it. He liked the way she wore her hair all the time. Pulling him to her, she kissed him, then laughed. “Such a goof. You’re lucky you’re cute or we would have been fighting because you attacked Stella.” He pointed at the wig, and she nodded. “Yep. All of them have names. This is Stella.” Kano waved hello before giving the wig apologetic eyes, and they both laughed, falling back onto the bed. Looking at the ceiling, she hesitantly spoke. “Can I ask you something?” He nodded. “How come you haven’t done what we discussed and agreed to the other day?”

Kano stilled. He knew that eventually she would have brought it up, he just hadn’t known when it would be. Sighing, he sat up, and she fiddled with her fingers in slight sadness. “You know, it’s okay if you changed your mind,” she said, and he shook his head.Standing, he walked to the other room and returned shortly after. He handed her a slip of paper and watched her face fall as she read it. She looked at him. “Who could be so evil to do something like this?”

He had an idea, but for him and Cayden to be sure, he had to pretend that he didn’t. He also knew that if he told her his suspicion, she would do more than pick up a piece of plywood. For as strong as she was, there were others he knew didn’t play fair, so he just shrugged his shoulders and held her close. He looked at her, vowing to protect her no matter what, even if it meant trading his life for hers.

Essence caressed his face. “We can wait until we figure this out. I just want you to know I’m completely in when the time comes.” He grinned at her brightly, then kissed her, leaving her dazed. She saw his eyes tinge, and she shook her head. “Nope. You’re not working me over in this room. Clean first,” she said.

“Trim second?” he whispered before raising his eyebrows up and down. Letting out a laugh, Essence nodded, and he quickly grabbed a rag and darted to wash the walls.