Hunger

Chapter 14

Oh, would you look at that," Buggy murmured as Columbina began to stir awake. "Took her longer to come to than I thought it would. Come on, Pink. I know you're more of a threat than that even when you haven't been properly cocked."

He'd brought her back to his room on the ship, Richie standing guard outside the door. One of the windows was propped open, the breeze from the sea drifting in, causing her wealth of thick hair to rustle in the air. He'd done her a favor by going ahead and divesting of her ponytail holder and tiara. On the windowsill Buggy had lit a stick of incense, the twin scents of sandalwood and vanilla lightly perfuming the room.

He watched as his Flashy Girl blinked and grumbled herself awake as the smoke tickled her nose. She scrunched her eyes a few times, opening them against what he knew was a splitting headache. Her black-rimmed gaze met his bemused expression. Buggy pushed away from the black oak desk he had stationed in the center of his quarters. He pulled up a chair so he could sit in front of the one he'd tied her to. He crossed his elbows over his knees, leaning towards her. "We both know you're better than that, Pink," he repeated, "Makes me wonder why you chose to not give me your... all today," he made a show of appraising her at the word "all."

Columbina, as much as she was able to move her neck, tossed her hair away from her face. She glared at him with defiance strong enough to bruise. "Must you make every interaction I have with you so," she observed her current predicament, tugging at her restraints, " Vulgar ?" she asked with mock disbelief. "Come on, Buggy. Surely there's a gentleman hiding somewhere underneath all of that clown grease?"

He'd been eyeing her with a sardonic gleam in his eye when a whistling sound rang throughout the cabin. It was the sound of a tea kettle going off. He raised his eyebrows, making a gesture with his hands as if the answer to that question should be obvious. He looked pointedly over in the direction of the boiling water. Buggy giggled before giving Columbina a little boop on her nose. He stood.

"That was pathetic today, Pink. Very bad form," Buggy reiterated as he walked away from her. He took off his tricorn hat and long coat and put them on a coat rack in the corner of the room. He took the tea kettle off of its heat source and brought it back to the black oak table. He sat it down next to various other accoutrement he'd sat out on the map that he had sprawled across the desk. It was the worthless half she'd left him with. No need to worry if he spilled something on it. He sat to work preparing something for her that was going to help ease the pain he'd caused.

"I take it your morning dick appointment got canceled?" he asked as he saw her eyes dart about the room, taking in her surroundings. Trying to find an escape route. "Tell me about the unlucky gent I scared away from my girl today. Or was it another woman this time? Someone who identified as neither? Who were you in the mood for for breakfast today, Pink?"

"I am not your girl," she watched as he gave her a look that very much said "you are right now." She returned the look with one that was a good replacement for the middle finger she currently couldn't flip at him.

"Late twenties if you gotta know," she said casually as she attempted to look over her shoulder, see exactly how he'd bound her wrists. "School teacher. Blonde. Porno stache. Always puts three packs of sugar and three things of creamer in his coffee," she made a noise of disgust. Buggy made a mental note to not make her tea too sweet. "Likes B-horror movies and not paying his child support. Came to watch my first set at that coffee shop you said was nasty last time you sliced your way through here. Asshat had a salty look on his face the entire time. They always do. Saw me get thrown to the damn floor two feet away from him after you unleashed The Buggy Ball. Hauled ass quicker than when he abandoned his ex-wife after he knocked her up with their twins."