Hodari's Story

Hodari's story 3

Dae continued work on her garden. Pulling napweeds from around her new blueberry bushes. She wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand as the sound of her gate opening alerted her to a visitor.
    "Hodari! I swear!" She blurted, jumping to her feet and spinning. Finding instead an awkward Najuma holding a basket. "Najuma!?"
The girl couldn't put the basket down fast enough before barreling across the yard and wrapping her arms around Dae's waist. Burying her face in her shirt.
    Dae! I've missed you so much!"
Dae confusedly patted her back before pulling her away.
    "What are you doing here?"
Najuma hurriedly wiped a sleeve across her eyes before indicating the abandoned basket. "Dad said you dropped yours last night and was worried if you had enough food. So I brought you some."
    "Thank you really but how did you find my house?"
Najuma looked a bit embarrassed. " I had to ask around. Everyone in Kilima really likes you and had no problems pointing me to your homestead."
    "You went into Kilima!" Dae said surprised.
    "Yeah it's not my thing but I knew if I asked my dad he would stop me.."
Dae cut her off, " Najuma your dad and I.."
    "Wait Dae please! " The panic in Najuma's words stopped her. " I miss you so much! The workshop isn't the same without you. I made the tool with the ore you got me. It was more than enough and a bit of flow and pallium my mom got me for the battery!"
Dae placed her hands on the rambling girl's shoulders." I am not sure if I can come back..."
    "No! That's where you're wrong! Dad is sorry! He says its okay if you come back he's just really really bad at saying it." The hope in her eyes melted a piece of Dae's heart. She thought over the last interaction with the gruff miner and realized that may actually have been his poor attempt at apologizing. She sighed deeply, taking off her gardening gloves.
    "Okay we can try. Let's get you home."
    Hodari woke later than normal. Maybe it was Tamala's sleeping potion or maybe it was exhaustion finally catching up to him.He stumbled out into the kitchen with only his loose sleeping pants on. Fumbling to start the coffee and get food on the stove. A bit later he had thrown on a clean unbuttoned white shirt and his breakfast was cooked and coffee brewed. The memory of Dae choking on her coffee almost made him chuckle as he headed to the front door. Just as he set his plate down on the outside table a sound carried over the birdsong. Noises and voices from the workshop.
"What the.." Coffee still in hand, he made his way down the hill and across the small bridge to Najuma's workshop.  Peering around the corner he saw Dae and Najuma leaned over the large rock he had brought out of the mines excitedly showing off her new rock drill. A small smile slipped across his lips. I'll be damned Juma did it. It was the calmest and happiest he had seen her in weeks. Dae was radiant. Her eyes glittered with excitement as Najuma began teaching her how to run the drill. Hodari felt it deep in his chest how much he had missed seeing the two of them together like this. Watching them he felt like a hole had been filled and something like ease settled over him.
Dae and Najuma seemed to notice his presents at the same time as they both looked up. Dae's heart stuttered in her chest. Hodari stood in the warm morning sunlight. A ghost of a smile on his lips. His fresh white shirt was fully unbuttoned, the sleeves still rolled to his elbows. His sleeping pants hung low on his hips. His feet bare. Steam curled from the coffee as Hodari quickly took a sip to hide his smile. Dae could finally fully see the scar across his pec and collar bone as well as some tracing down his abs. Why didn't she expect him to have abs as cut as his arms and chest? Whoever said dad bod had never laid eyes on this man. She could see a light trail of hair as dark as the hair on his head, disappearing from below his belly button into his pants band. The V of his hips cut perfectly along either side. She coughed suddenly, turning her eyes away. Wait, was that a chuckle from Hodari!? She looked back quickly, catching him sipping his coffee again and looking off to the back wall. No. She needed to stand her ground. He wouldn't intimidate her anymore. She set her face to neutral and looked back down at the newest project.
"Mornin, ladies." He drawled.
"Mornin dad!" Najuma chirped. The happiness on her face healing something inside of him.
"Hodari." Dae nodded coldly. His gut clenched. He wasn't sure how to respond to that. Dae went back to work. Hodari cleared his throat but turned to go back to his breakfast leaving the two to their work.
Hodari worked his way down into the mines, testing support beams with a tap of his pickaxe head on the way by. Could never be too careful. Finding the node he had been working on the day before he set to work.
It was a long grind and after a while a huge sigh busted from Hodari as he sat the head of the axe against the floor and leaned on the shaft. He eyed the meger pile of ore next to him. Pushing his goggles up into his bangs he rubbed his eyes. He couldn't focus. He couldn't get Dae out of his head. He hadn't missed the way those beautiful eyes had traced him from top to bottom or the beautiful blush when she was caught. But that cold switch she flipped. He growled suddenly, swinging the axe down hard and cleaving the boulder in two. " I think I need some air"
Over the next few days Hodari woke to find Najuma and Dae working away together in the workshop. Sometimes he would make his way over to see their progress but lately the coldness in Dae's demeanor was almost too much for him so he had resigned himself  most days to sitting outside the house at the table eating breakfast and sipping coffee listening to the happy chatter and laughter drift across the pond. Every night as he dropped off the new bag for the females he would linger in the workshop. Being able to smell the sweet clean floral smell that seemed to follow Dae everywhere.