Scars to Your Beautiful (New)

Ava's Gonna Kill Me

The next morning, I woke up as usual with the sun but found myself loathing to get out of bed. I wanted to continue basking in last night's afterglow, relishing in the knowledge that the woman in my arms was now my intended. A dream I hadn't dared to have or thought I would ever have. Not before living among the Trikru.

So, before reality could assert itself, I kissed and nipped the exposed flesh laid out before me, drawing my love, my heart out of slumber with soft moans and a responsive body. I slowly made love to Ava, marking her body as mine for all to see, taking pleasure from her cries as she came undone beneath me. Leaving us both breathless as the world woke around us.

Only then, once we'd recovered, did we leave the warmth of our bed to begin the day. Sharing a bath and making our meal together, neither one of us eager to part just yet. We did not part until I had walked her to her temporary shop in the small market. With a parting kiss and a promise to get me for lunch, I finally headed to begin the sole reason we were at the outpost.

My first stop was the building that housed the maintenance workshop. The maintenance workers would begin on the needed renovations to the buildings I would bring electricity to. I had already drawn up the plans with the head of the maintenance team's advice, so now, it was only a matter of going over everything with the rest of the team. That included the trench they would dig between the outpost and village to lay the cable and protective piping for the sound-powered phones.

While they worked on those projects, I would focus on building the necessary components. I hoped the installation would go quickly once everything was built, and I could keep my one-month timeframe.

After the meeting, I headed to the warehouse/workshop and got to work. With some help, I organized the warehouse better and began the first step, bringing temporary electricity to the building. It felt like I had barely started before Ava arrived to collect me for lunch.

But I was right back at it afterward and didn't come up for air until Ava returned to bring me home for the night.

It took me two days to set up the workshop and begin the first of over a dozen builds. Building the fans from scratch and the mounts for the solar panels. The work was labor intensive, and while I disliked stopping for even a minute, I learned to appreciate Ava drawing me away from my work. She wasn't only stopping by to remind me to eat or rest at the end of the day; Ava was also stopping by to provide me with a break, allowing me to stretch and remind me that there was a world outside of work.

In her way, she was teaching me how to have a balance between work and life. So much so that by the middle of our second week, I found myself voluntarily taking breaks and searching Ava out, even if it was for a few minutes or an hour. But it wasn't only Ava that I found myself interacting with on my breaks. I found myself getting to know the residents of the gongeda, slowly introducing myself and what I was doing there. While most were skeptical of the tek I was bringing them, they were also curious about it. They were intrigued by the idea of not needing a plethora of candles to illuminate a room or that something could cool a room without needing someone to do it manually. There was enough curiosity that I started to find people loitering around outside the building, craning their necks on the off chance of seeing something whenever I left the building. Though, I always ensured that I locked up whenever I left. I didn't need those bolder than curious to enter and accidentally hurt themselves.

Though, apparently, my vigilance wasn't enough to stop everyone.

It was the last day of the second week, and I had spent the afternoon installing the sound-powered telephones. Running the cable and the small diameter PVC pipe down the cable and through the trench. It also required drilling through the walls and running both up the inside and through the cheka's walkway before wiring both phones and testing them. By the time I returned to my workshop, night had fallen, and I was exhausted.