Bargain Wedding

Communication Is The First Step

Axel was in bed before Jona entered their room after the party, and she pretended to be asleep. If this was a normal relationship between the two, Jona would have wanted nothing less than snuggling with the girl, placing kisses all over her, and making love to her, maybe. But now, it was a far-fetched dream. No matter what he felt or how intense his feelings were, he had to hide them from her.

He slowly trudged inside the walk-in closet where his eyes fell on the wall-sized mirror, and he realized how red his face was. All this push and pull from her had gotten him into a hormonal turmoil. He walked closer to the mirror as he trailed his flushed skin. "Axel, I will love you right. Will you allow me to, please?" He mumbled. Standing there for a few seconds, he heaved a sigh and strutted far right to his wardrobe.

Everything was as it was. He thought once Axel started to share the room with him, a few things would change, but everything remained the same except his neck hurt from sleeping on the couch.

Wandering towards Axel's side of the wardrobe, he gingerly stroked his palm over it. He slid open a door and caught sight of the white gown she had worn. It was hung separately from other clothes, still exuding her fragrance. Smiling, he closed the door and got out after changing himself into a satin black robe.

For some reason, he had an urge to touch Axel and see if she had a temperature, but he was also afraid that she was awake, and she'd think that he was a perv. He didn't want her to stop sleeping in the same room as him.

One step closer, inch by inch, he did get to a sleeping young woman who looked appealing. Her lips were pouting from the way she'd cradled her hand on her face and the other one hugging her larger-than-life hug pillow. Jona let a breathy chuckle out as he couldn't restrain himself. Caressing Axel's hair gently, he mumbled "sleep well" and walked away towards the couch.

Axel felt her heartbeat accelerated by Jona's little maneuver. Was she angry that Jona touched her without her permission? No. Did she like it? Also no.

She had an array of emotions going through her mind right now. She kept feeling bad for making Jona sleep on the couch and for her little outrage in the morning when her so-called husband called the doctor. She wondered why she got pulled into Jona's embrace earlier today while dancing. She didn't want Jona to think that she was making an advancement of any sort. Bearing so many questions in her exhausted mind, sleep came easily.

☘

It was the weekend and hence, the holiday. Jona hoped he could have some of Axel's time today to talk or try and at least get to know a few things about her. To start somewhere. The only problem was whether Axel was up for it. He had no idea what weekends looked like for her before the wedding. Was she a going-out-for-party kind of person or a snuggling-with-good-book kind? But Jona was curious to know. He left the room early after showering when Axel was still sleeping.

After a while, everyone was waiting for Axel at the breakfast table. Obaasan came to call her. She knocked at the door. When Axel answered, Obaasan looked at her. "Master Jona has asked me to inform you that he is waiting for you at breakfast."

Axel nodded in response and thanked her without words and just a smile. Today, she was feeling nervous. Yesterday went smoothly because she had her day filled with an agenda, like college and then reception, but today, there was nothing to do unless she left the house for the entire day, which she thought would be rude and inappropriate.

Judging by her inked arm and leather outfits, people assumed her to be a whippersnapper who cared for no one or had no feminine urges or feelings, but deep down, only Axel knew who she really was — a feared little girl who sought validation for her choices for so long, but in the end, she found herself lonely. The other girls always looked at her as an outcast and spread rumors that she was a lesbian when she wasn't. She could never understand why. Even though her family had supported her, she still had intimacy and trust issues.

She thought she would now be bound to stay in the same room as Jona the entire weekend. What would she even talk about to a stranger? She didn't want to mingle with him much and wanted Jona to understand that this was how it would be. They would indeed live together, but not together.

Quietly pondering and chewing her lips, she reached downstairs and saw everyone already settled at the dining table with a head seat at the end occupied by Jona. Wishing everyone a good morning, she hesitantly walked towards Jona's right side to grab a seat for herself. "Did you sleep alright?" Hana asked Axel, who barely looked at her and replied with a small nod and tentative smile.

"You don't talk much. Do you?" She asked again with her signature plastic smile on her face.

Axel didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully, Jona interjected. "Let's eat, mother. I am famished," he helped to serve food on Axel's plate, and everyone looked at Jona in bewilderment. The maids were the ones responsible for this job. Jona never served food on his plate, but he did it for Axel. "And Mother... I have asked Obaasan to discard sunflower-containing oils and ingredients from the kitchen. I wanted to let you all know that Axel is allergic to sunflowers."

The elder woman c****d her eyebrow at Axel. "Oh, you poor thing. Sorry about that," she soothed with concern.

"That's alright, nothing to be sorry for. Allergies aren't that big a deal now, considering we have medication for them," Axel apprised as she spread butter with a knife over her toast. "In fact, I am sorry for the trouble." She apologized, smiling at Obaasan who shook her head silently, signifying that it was no trouble at all and Axel didn't need to be sorry.

"Is there anything else we should know about?" Ms. Suzuki asked, the utmost concern displayed on her face.

"No, ma'am. I am just allergic to sunflowers and kiwis," Axel mentioned, and took the first bite.

Jona looked at her, dumbfounded, absolutely oblivious to the fact that Axel was also allergic to a fruit. The caterers for the wedding were given instructions to not use sunflower-based condiments, but what if there was kiwi in the desserts? He wouldn't have wanted his wife to have ended up sick on the day of their wedding, albeit bargained.

"Jona-San, I didn't see your lady friend at the wedding. Are you guys not on good terms anymore?" Jussy cut off the conversation all of a sudden in her shrill voice.

Axel paused for a moment as her toast remained hung between her lips for a jiffy. She quickly composed herself, but it didn't go unnoticed by Jona. "We are still friends, Jussy. But the event was for family and close friends. She was just not suitable for that criteria," he replied sweetly.

"Oh, Jussy! Shush now," her mother reprimanded, observing Axel closely. "You don't have to worry, Axel. Delany was just a friend like many. Nothing special. Right, Jona?"

Jona smiled at her, and then he hummed. "Of course, nothing special," his reply was short and enough to abate the worthless discussion further.

Ms. Suzuki all of a sudden asked the maids to excuse them. Usually, all the maids had to stay at the table until everyone finished eating, but as they were commanded, they bowed before excusing themselves. What the red-haired woman said next was something nobody saw coming.

"Axel, honey... Please don't mind me telling you this. There is no one senior here other than me, so I will have to be bitter-sweet to you sometimes. But please, consider me as your mother when I tell you about family traditions," Jona looked at her as if he wanted her to stop. "You need to be a little more tactful about reaching events on time, especially the ones organized for you. Jona had a hard time yesterday handling everything alone when you weren't here on time."

Axel nodded in agreement. "I am sorry, ma'am. I wasn't aware of the reception, and I will take care of it in the future."

Before she could bark anything else, Jona stood up. "Axel, I need to talk with you when you are done. Take your time, please. I will be in our room." Flashing a smile, he walked out of the dining hall.

When Axel was left alone, she couldn't eat all that much after Jona exited. Soon, she also excused herself and knocked on the bedroom door.

When a soothing voice called her in, she entered. "Yes, Jona?" She stood at arm's distance from the man who was sitting in his study chair where he usually sat, or on the couch, leaving the bed for her.

"Please sit," Jona pointed at the couch and Axel sat on one edge. "About what mother said. Don't mind h-"

He got cut off in the middle. "I didn't mind her. You don't have to explain."

"Very well," Licking his lips in thought, Jona breathed slowly. "I want you to know that you can always talk to me. Whatever it is." He tried to peer into the big, innocent eyes, but the younger never made any eye contact with him, which made it difficult to read her expressions.

Axel only nodded.

"And, about what Jussy said," Jona paused, fumbling with his fingers to think of the right words. "Delany was just a girl who liked me, but I was never interested. She later tried to mingle with my family so that they could intervene. She wanted to marry me-"

"Why didn't you?!" Axel abruptly clamored, looking at the white and gray plush rug on the floor.

For her, life was unfair. She was made to marry Jona and the one who wanted to marry him couldn't. Why did it have to be like this?

"Axel-" Jona uttered softly.

"Why didn't you marry her?" Axel gazed directly into Jona's eyes this time, repeating her question. The gaze was painfully piercing, burning holes in Jona's existence.

Jona couldn't let himself say anything for a moment but slowly formed the words. "Because I never loved her."

"Do you love me then?" Axel asked bitterly, the festering rage coming up to the surface. Jona could sense it. He knew why she was asking him the question. Weirdly enough, even though they had met a few weeks ago, the answer was yes.

Jona also didn't understand how he could care so much for Axel, but he knew that care was a deeper form of love. He wanted to tell her that he loved her albeit the marriage was arranged for reasons. He remained quiet and waited for Axel to pour out all her anger at him, but she didn't.

Jona didn't get any reaction out of her after that, so he dropped the idea of talking to her any further. Considering how they were in the same room, he knew it would be difficult to avoid each other. It was enough damage for the day.

He wanted to hug Axel, make her understand how much he cared about her, kiss her, comfort her, and take all of her pain away, but he was disadvantaged.

He was burning himself in the dilemma of how not to love her so that his heart wasn't pierced by the daggers of her hatred. Was he even capable of not having feelings for her? He knew deep down that he would have to suffer Axel's wrath when he agreed to marry her. After all, it was he who didn't deny the wedding proposal when Axel practically begged him to do so as her last resort.

Axel just laid in bed with her headphones plugged in while Jona kept reading something under the reading lights.

From time to time, he kept stealing glances at his wife, wanting to talk to her so much, but he was aware that it was better if he didn't.

Axel was enraged, sure, but guilt also ran through her mind. The man was being nice to her, after all. He was trying his best. Under the circumstances in which the marriage happened, she thought Jona would advance himself on her or assert his dominance, but the man was opposite. The wedding gift she got from Jona, the respect she was offered, his concern when she got a slight fever, or how Jona told her that it was okay to not attend the reception if she wasn't up to it, though, that wasn't the case for her stepmother-in-law.

Everything was done by him with good intentions. Jona was dealing with everything alone. He was doing everything for her to make her feel as much at home as he possibly could. Heaving a heavy sigh, she got up from bed.

Jona was trying to accumulate the courage to say something, dejected, thinking he'd face rejection. Lost in his thoughts, he was startled when he saw Axel standing right next to him. "You scared me," he clutched his chest.

Axel laughed.

Jona couldn't believe his eyes, the ever so playful and happy giggle being uttered at him was too adorable to be true.

Axel never spoke much, let alone laugh, her face was more on the adorable side with the combination of her round cheeks and big eyes giving her face a baby-like naïveté. One could argue she was the prettiest woman in the room. Jona thought of her as the cutest person he'd ever laid his eyes on.

Her hearty laugh just turned Jona's inside into a puddle.

"Sorry," Axel apologized, still chuckling at the dazed man.

"Did you need anything?" Jona asked, jostling himself out of the trance and the sweetest smile blossomed on his lips.

"No," Axel responded and started to play with the book Jona was reading, which he'd put aside on the table. "Listen... I am sorry, Jona." She managed to say at last, without making any eye contact.

Jona stood up from his chair slowly. "No, Axel. You don't ever have to apologize to me."

Who was this man? Was he really that nice? Or was it just a facade? Axel was sketchy on what to believe. When the news of her arranged marriage with Jona was dropped on her, and that too, in the coming three weeks, her world came crashing down. Her dreams, her future, her free will, everything was snatched. At first, she was in denial, but when she was made to meet Jona a week before the wedding, her bubble popped, and the reality dawned.

When they met, at last, she didn't dare take a look at the man. Just one glance, and she knew that Jona was out of the world. At least, physically he was, but she didn't care about how good he looked because she wanted the marriage not to happen. If they met in other circumstances, she might have developed a liking for him. She still had a last sliver of hope when she begged Jona to say no to the proposal because that wasn't the option for her.

She'd hoped that her father would at any minute receive a call from Jona that the wedding was off, but that call never came.

"Do you want to go out somewhere?" Jona asked, still in a low tone, causing Axel to get out of her thoughts as she looked at him, perplexed. "I mean, any place you want. You must be getting bored here." The man covered up immediately, not wanting to sound as if he was flirting and asking her out.

Axel nodded mutely.

"Any place you specifically want to go?" Jona questioned excitedly as he closed his book after placing a bookmark in it and picked up his wallet and keys.

"Anywhere is fine," Axel answered and smiled and followed him.

She finally smiled, a genuine one.

"How about shopping?" Jona suggested with furrowed brows.

"Cool."

One hour later, they were in the Bugatti showroom looking at the cars.

Axel was laughing at Jona loudly. "When you said shopping, I didn't think you would come to buy a car."

"Which one do you think looks good?" Jona asked the brunette.

"I don't know your style. I didn't peg you as a sports car guy," Axel answered, looking over many models shining under the illumination of the building.

"You are no help, Axel."

They were finally talking like two normal human beings.

Later in the evening:

"How are you, mom?" Axel called her mother as she sat by the water pool on the satin-cushioned chaise lounge outside the house.

"Sweety, thank god! You called," Mrs. Aoki gushed, sighing in relief.

"Thanking the wrong one there, Mother. You can thank God when he calls you," Axel jested while poking her left inner cheek with her tongue, unamused.

Her mother laughed. "Why didn't you call earlier?" She complained.

"You didn't call me at all," Axel retorted in anger.

"I was you giving you space," the mother spoke lowly and Axel felt the amount of guilt in her voice. She didn't want her mother to feel that way.

"How is Cloudy? I miss him," Axel asked.

Chuckling again, the mother answered. "He is missing you too. He runs to your room and looks for you under the bed, your balcony, and the bathroom, and then he comes back to me whining that you aren't there."

"Why can't I keep him?" Axel groaned with an indignant pout.

"He needs attention twenty-four-seven, sweety. You know he is sick, and you won't be at home all the time to take care of him. But you can come and visit," Mrs. Aoki wanted to know when Axel was planning to go there, or if she wanted that at all.

"Soon," she replied.

Axel loved her parents, but right now, she still didn't want to see or talk to her father, who had pushed her into this hell.