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The first New Year's party since he was an independent man.
His parents were going to come back, it was almost obvious if he was to deduce anything from the fact that the patriarch of the Mundi family had invited all the Cereans of the surroundings for the evening and the night, and that he was his only son to marry. Droe, a blessed spinster dedicated to religion and therefore to religious and sacred celibacy, watched with annoyance the family's attempts to marry off her little brother, but unfortunately she had little right to object to their sterile father's desperate attempt to find at least one partner for his only heir whom he could marry.
Sometimes Ki-Adi really felt that his father wanted to compensate for his own sterility and monogamy by marrying his son to as many women as possible. Perhaps he was worried that the disease that had almost killed him and made him infertile would also trigger in him, which he could understand but, for all that, Ki-Adi was not going to be swayed by this.
His life was his own, he would not let anyone run it for him.
His parents' traditional good intentions were one thing, but as an independent young man who knew something other than the life he was destined for, he couldn't bring himself to support three women on his salary, to have children he would barely see and to live without love...
He wanted more than that. Ki-Adi dreamed of true love, not hesitating to look beyond Cerean women when he had the opportunity. He didn't just want to settle down, he wanted to live, he wanted to feel a thrill he couldn't find in his native land, and which he sincerely doubted he would ever find.
After absentmindedly discouraging the third young woman from coming to talk to him and investigating the lack of a wedding ring or earring, he walked away to a balcony. There was no door to separate it from the party, but it would at least be largely unlit.
Unfortunately, he was forced to stop as soon as he stepped outside: someone was already there.
Someone who was incredibly sexy in a glittering midnight blue dress and a very pretty neckline.
Kriff. Another woman, and clearly not married.
- "This place is big enough for two," she pointed out with a mocking smile when he pretended to back away.
- "I know, it's my house," he replied as he approached, not about to accept appearing as a coward to anyone..
- "I know," she repeated with bright eyes. "I know who is inviting me to a party, Ki-Adi Mundi."
- I see you have an advantage, I don't know who you are.
- Shea Sundar.
- "Pleased to meet you," he nodded, because his family had raised a polite boy.
- Same here.
Ki-Adi then slipped into the shadow of a vine when he heard his mother talking about him. He preferred to dodge her at these social gatherings. When it was just the two of them, things were more serene, but whenever they were in public, his parents always made him feel unwillingly uncomfortable by trying to extol his virtues. They never lied, but that was no reason for him to like it.
- "This party seems almost in your honor, yet you don't seem to be enjoying it," the woman remarked, clearly not noticing that a lock of her long, curly blonde hair had fallen out of her neat hairdo.
- I appreciate it, I just wish this New Year was less about me and hopes of marital bliss.
- Oh, poor darling, how sad to be a man desired by dozens of women...
Ki-Adi rolled his eyes at the obvious sarcasm.
- Yes, they only want me because I can make babies for them, because if they really knew me, they would know that I am not husband material.
- Yes, it's clear from just one conversation.
...well, if this girl wanted to be insulting, Ki-Adi wasn't going to hold back. Just because he was disapproving of the idea of being a sperm donor to unknown women that his parents kept introducing him to didn't mean he thought he was that undesirable.
- "I'm not a bad match, I just don't want to get married," he clarified through his teeth, struggling to keep his tone cordial.
- "I understood," she replied immediately with a surprisingly open smile. "Don't think you're the only one who doesn't like family plans. I've even had to turn down a few men my parents have introduced me to in order to go to school, my parents would rather I be a good wife than a good working woman as a daughter."
- Oh.
Ki-Adi was so upset about his parents that he forgot about the social pressures on women. He knew, objectively, that Cerean women had to compete with each other to attract good men and marry them, but it was another thing to bring it up so bluntly with a young woman who was directly concerned and just as disapproving as he was of their lack of freedom. He was only twenty-three, he didn't want to know what it was like to be married, he had never even seen the point of romance and had never done anything more than kiss a few girls.
In fact, his parents didn't know it yet, but he was so scared of having children that he denied himself sex for fear of an "accident". No contraception was perfect, and Ki-Adi would take no chances, he would not marry against his will.
His own parents still remembered his threats to go for a vasectomy, a threat made just before his coming-of-age birthday.
He had enough money in a private account to do it, and above all he was a man of both action and word. He wasn't the type to back down, that had definitely calmed them down.
- "What kind of studies?" He finally asked, sipping his champagne.
- Horticulture.
... What was horticulture again? Shit, Ki-Adi was an aeronautical engineer, he didn't know anything about what the word "culture" meant. His plants were plastic and his only other living presence was the wild Takea who had decided that now Ki-Adi was his Cerean and had never left.
- This is...
- The plants, the florists' suppliers, to put it simply.
- Ah, that's good.
Plants... well, he even killed the cactus, he preferred to stay with Light.
- Hmm... you seem to have a nice garden.
- "It is," Ki-Adi acknowledged with a nod. "It's probably the part of the house I miss the most when I'm in town."
- What do you do?
- Space engineer.
- "Wow, a mathematician, I can see why you're the kind of man a woman should avoid," she giggled with a genuine smile before leaning towards him to add in a whisper, like a confession, "I'm more a woman of letters and dreams than science, I admit."
- "I would have thought that making plants survive would require some scientific skill," he replied with an amused smile.
- That is where you are wrong, O great man with his head in the stars. Plants are like all other creatures, they don't live on science, they live on love.
This time, Ki-Adi couldn't hold back and pushed the rebellious lock of hair back under the appropriate shiny white pin with his fingertips.
- I'm sorry.
She looked at him blankly before shrugging and looking inward, but... she... blushed. Underneath her foundation, Ki-Adi was close enough to see her skin flush and... he was rather hot himself.
- Would you like to see the gardens a little closer? I doubt we'll miss anyone.
- "Can we?" She whispered, clearly excited by the idea, moving to get up from where she'd been leaning on the balustrade before resuming a more nonchalant air.
He'd had the best idea of the evening coming here, but he knew he'd have fun this far, this girl was probably the most interesting company he could find tonight.
- If you wish.
- Please.
They slid laughing like children down the main staircase and Ki-Adi then led them through a few rooms and out through his office, slipping through hedges still in bloom thanks to the temperate climate of the area.
- "Ahaha, great idea to get away so literally!" She exclaimed as she literally walked faster than him despite her heels, smiling as she passed from one side of the hedges to the other to take a closer look at some of the pots and displays with slightly more exotic flowers.
Ki-Adi followed more slowly, his heart beating unusually fast, satisfied that the first fountain in the garden was drawing more attention than him.
- Is this a joke?
- "Is what a joke?" He grunted, looking around before looking up as she pointed to the wooden archway they'd stopped under. "What's that?"
- I hope you're not serious.
- I'm deadly serious, what's wrong with this ivy, you're supposed to like plants.
- It's mistletoe, you doofus.
- "It's..." he began before sighing and pinching his nose. "Kriff."
He knew the principle, though he'd been careful to avoid any doors with plants in them as much as possible to avoid that.
- "We can ignore it," he offered with a shrug, "there's no one to blame us."
Except that Shea straightened up and raised an eyebrow at him with deep judgment in her eyes.
- What, you think I'm going to back down?
- That doesn't sound like your type to me.
- Damn, you've found me out!
Her eyes crinkled in her smile and she tilted her head.
- Come on, let's go and ravish the poor innocent young woman.
- "Innocent," he repeated with amusement, leaning in. "Your perfume is... really nice," he remarked when he was sure the scent was coming from her.
- Thank you, it's my favourite, but strangely few people like it.
- It's a good thing I'm not everyone, isn't it?
- "I'm beginning to think so, yes," she replied, moving slightly closer as he lifted her chin towards him.
As their lips touched, a loud noise erupted all around them and the garden lit up with red, yellow, green...
Fireworks.
It was midnight, and they had missed it all... but kissing Shea Sundar under a sky of multi-coloured stars, Ki-Adi didn't feel like he was missing anything.