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[b][u][center]Expectations She Can’t Fulfill

Part 3

For Rayo_ElGatubelo

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

When it came time for dinner, they took a cab. Samiya didn’t want to walk, and public transit – for some reason – didn’t go near Naguiba’s house. Considering that neither of them had a car, her due to the poor student budget and Jibreel by choice, that meant getting a ride from someone else.

“I wish you’d let me pay,” Samiya said, rubbing her arm. “I don’t like you picking up the tab all the time.”

“I have no doubt that it’ll be worth it.”

“You’ve never met my auntie…”

“It is time spent with you. That’s worth it to me.”

She blushed, still not entirely sure how to feel about compliments that were that strong. Were they suggestive? Were they meant to imply that she would be doing other things that would make him happy later? Or were they just innocent, saying that he liked spending time with her?

Despite not being sexually interested in anyone, there was still that awareness of how sex worked for most people. She was all too aware of some of the guys on-campus that would pay for things with expectations that they would be ‘taken care of’ later, and she had no intention of ever falling into that trap. She had dodged that with most people, but with Jibreel…well, she didn’t know how much of his money was from his family and how much was his own, but he seemed confident enough that he was making a good ‘investment’ by spending it on her, and she just hoped that he’d be able to forgive her later.

Not for the dinner – though she imagined that it would be pretty bad, considering the way that Naguiba was – but for not being open with him. Mughriya was right; sooner or later, she had to come clean to him and talk about her own little…thing. She didn’t know what to call her lack of attraction, but as nice as he had been to her, he deserved to know about that.

And if they continued to work well together, probably the werelioness thing, too. That was…that was a little hard to hide when you were with someone more or less all the time, and she doubted she’d be able to hide the full-moon transformation forever.

[i]But that’s for later,[/i] she told herself, squeezing her knees in the back of the cab. [i]For now, just try and survive auntie for the night…[/i]

“So, what is your family like?” Jibreel asked, leaning against the window on his side of the cab.

“Uh…traditional,” Samiya said, chuckling. “Well, my auntie is.”

“Yes, you mentioned. How traditional are we talking?”

“Uh…you know how you’re a rather faithful Muslim?”

“Mmm-hmm?”

“She’s…Coptic.”

“…Do you mean the ancient one, the –”

“Oh, yeah.”

“…Goodness.”

“Mmm-hmm. So, she’s got a few…opinions about things.”

That was putting it mildly. Most humans would never know how much her auntie loathed them. She had held the opinion that humans were all but worthless for years, perhaps decades, and she doubted that meeting someone that mattered to her would do anything to change Naguiba’s stance on that. All she could hope was that the older werelioness wouldn’t make it part of the dinner conversation.

[i]She will, though. She always does.[/i]

“Are you alright?” Jibreel asked.

“Yeah, just…nervous.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be on my best behavior.”

“Oh, no, no, don’t.” She shook her head. “I’m not worried about you. And to be honest, I’m not worried about my cousin Mughriya, either. It’s just –”

“Don’t worry. I’ve dealt with traditional relatives before. There are many back home, some of which have been wondering why I am still waiting to take a wife.” Jibreel chuckled. “I have told them before, my studies come first.”

She chuckled, hoping it sounded less nervous than it was. Oh, she was sure that he had a few family members back home that were judgmental, but none of them held a candle to her auntie. Oh, there were few people on this earth that did, if half the rumors that she had heard from the other weres around were true.

[i]It’s going to be fine. Mughriya’s going to be there. We can take care of things together if we need to.[/i]

And at least it would keep her auntie from going on about her being prudish for a while. At least, she hoped it would; being seen with a boyfriend, even a human one, should at least silence those comments.

Jibreel took her hand and squeezed.

“It’ll be alright,” he said.

“…I wish you didn’t have to comfort me like this. It’s my family. It should be my job to comfort you,” she said.

“You bring comfort by being here, and being you.”

“Why are you so charming?”

“It is called being genuine, I am told.”

“Well, you’re way too good at it.”

“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head before letting go of her hand.

The worst part was, he hadn’t even brought up the night before. She’d spent the whole day thinking about what she’d tell him about her sudden departure, why she had to run off, and what kind of apology she could give over leaving him in the lurch like that, but he’d never asked. All he’d done was make sure that she was okay, that nothing was wrong, and just like that, everything was done. Water under the bridge and all that.

The more time she spent with him, the more that she wondered what the eventual cost would be. Sooner or later, something had to come due for having someone like this in her life. Nothing was free, and he was too good to cost less than something precious. She just hoped that it was something that she could pay when the time came due.

The cab finally reached Naguiba’s house. Jibreel looked out the window and blinked.

“That…is a lot of cats,” he said.

“Yes, well…my auntie’s a bit of a cat lady.”

She bit off a chuckle at the unintended double-meaning, slowly getting out of the cab and looking over the roof. Just as always, about half of Naguiba’s pet cats were gathered in the yard, most of them black-furred, but some of them slightly sandier in shade. They sat in the grass, sitting up and staring at them with such stillness that one could almost believe that they were statuettes until they licked a paw or flicked an ear. It was like a small army, and she reminded herself that they were benevolent.

Mostly.

Usually.

As Jibreel paid the cab driver, Samiya walked to the fence around Naguiba’s property. It was a low thing, more of an American cottage sort of fence than the sort that her auntie probably would have preferred, but it still worked to keep the average person from bothering her. She squatted down, offered her hand to the cats, and waited until one of them came over to give her a sniff.

Was it actually magical? No, but her auntie had her beliefs, and that included keeping a bunch of cats like they were icons of her gods. The feline sniffed her fingers, sneezed, and turned away. The others started moving again, wandering through the yard without a care in the world as Jibreel joined her.

“Strange things,” he said.

“Don’t let Naguiba hear you say that,” she muttered, opening the fence gate. “She’s [i]very[/i] serious about her beliefs.”

“Anything that I need to know?”

“Do you know much about Bast?”

“A few things.”

“Pretend you don’t, and take everything that she says as gospel,” Samiya said, shaking her head. “Whatever happens, just nod and agree and let her have her way. I’ll apologize on the ride home later.”

“…You really don’t want to be here, do you?”

“No. No, I really don’t,” she said, realizing the truth at the same moment he asked. “But we’re here now –”

“I am fine with leaving,” he said.

“…I…”

It was such an appealing offer. The fact that he was giving her an out, not even asking why, was both unexpected and desperately appreciated, but at the same time, she knew that it wasn’t really possible. She [i]had[/i] to do this, if only not to leave Mughriya alone for a dinner like this. She reached out and took her boyfriend’s hand.

“Thank you, but we should. They did go through the trouble of putting things together for us, after all.”

“I will be led by you.”

“Now I know that your family members wouldn’t appreciate that.”

“Heh. Some would. After you, Samiya.”

He bowed his head and gestured toward the door, and she led him up the curving walkway to the front door. A few small idols and statuettes of other gods graced the front porch, tucked in and out of the way like guard animals. She ignored them as best she could, keeping her eyes forward.

[i]Who’s going to answer?[/i] she wondered as she ran the doorbell. [i]Auntie or Mughriya? Which one?[/i]

Footsteps followed, the door opened –

And it was Mughriya. Her cousin greeted her with a smile as they embraced, holding each other for a moment. Mughriya patted her back a few times, but she knew that the other woman was mostly using that moment to get a good look at Jibreel, probably measuring him and making some judgment or other. She allowed it; it was their first meeting, after all.

When they broke their hug, she didn’t see any hint of a frown on her cousin’s face. That was something.

“Jibreel, this is Mughriya. She’s a little ahead of me at Grant State –”

“Heh, and a bit further in life, so to speak,” Mughriya said, offering her hand. “And I can see that Samiya caught herself someone good.”

“I hope to give her a good life, if things work out.”

“Hope, hmm?”

“None can predict the future. Right now, things are stable, but what the future holds is unknowable.”

“Does he always talk like this?” Mughriya asked, looking back at Samiya while gesturing at Jibreel.

“Mmm-hmm,” Samiya said with a nod.

“Heh, auntie’s going to have a fun time with that. She’s usually the one talking like a mystic.”

“Is she? I hope that we will get along, then.”

The cousins barely hid their wince. Samiya could already see that there would be heads butting and worse, and she could only imagine how her auntie would take to having a human of all things in her house, talking like her, approaching her like an equal when she couldn’t lash out about it. There would be consequences later, and she started to wonder why this had seemed like a good idea.

[i]Because you’re sick of her looking down at you like you’re less than Mughriya, and all you want is a little recognition. A little bit of being treated like you’re normal.[/i]

Not that that would happen tonight. Gods, she should have thought this through before agreeing with it.

“Shall we go inside?” Jibreel asked.

“Might as well,” Mughriya said, shrugging.

“Time to face the music,” Samiya agreed.

They stepped inside and were immediately greeted by even more cats. There were at least a dozen in the room, and there would be a few more spread throughout the rest of the house. The ones that were too lazy or too old to come meet the new people were probably sleeping on different shelves or being fed in another corner. There weren’t so many that it looked like a crazy cat lady house, of course, but there were more than enough to add a sense of something…wrong with the place.

She was used to it, but she could feel Jibreel tense up as he walked among the various felines, feeling his way forward and starting to shuffle to avoid stepping on any tails. He stumbled from time to time, reaching out to catch her until she took his arm and led him through the cluster of fur.

“Why does she have so many?” he muttered.

“Religious beliefs.”

“Since when does believing in an old god mean keeping this many cats?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Samiya!”

“Speak of the devil,” she muttered.

“Good, you’re finally here. Come to the table and – ah.”

Her auntie rounded the corner at the end of the hall, her sharp red suit from university cut tight around her. She arched her head backward, looking down her nose slightly at her and Jibreel, her eyes narrowing as she did.

After a few seconds, she adjusted her sleeves, her heels clicking together as she cleared her throat. The ankh earrings she wore shimmered in the light.

“I assume this is the boyfriend that Mughriya told me about?” Naguiba asked.

“Yes. This is Jibreel. We’ve been, uh, dating for the last…how long?” she asked, looking back and up at him.

“Two months,” he said, nodding. “Two months of wonderful times.”

“…I’m sure. Jibreel, Jibreel…Jibreel Alharis, yes?”

[i]Oh no…[/i]

“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “How did you –”

“Come.”

Samiya gritted her teeth. If her auntie had gone looking at the student records, then things were going to get very awkward, very quickly. She could only imagine what the older woman had found.

Not to mention that pause. [i]That[/i] had been no less than total awareness of a human in her house. Samiya didn’t know how her auntie did it; no other were seemed to have that level of immediate knowledge that someone else was not among their own kind, but Naguiba seemed to be able to tell from a look. There were times when Samiya wondered if there was some blessing from Bast that gave her that sort of knowledge.

Regardless, she squeezed Jibreel’s arm and nodded.

“Come on. Let’s…let’s go to the dining room.”

A few snacks had already been set around the table, which itself was surrounded by large busts of great black cats made of painted wood. They universally stood and watched, like guard animals around the table. Usually, they felt comforting; today, they felt like attack creatures waiting for the order to strike.

As her auntie gestured for them to sit down, Samiya braced herself. She had barely started scooting her chair forward when Naguiba started.

“I assume my prudish niece has been disappointing you.”

If her face could have burned any hotter, there would have been steam coming from her pores. Samiya dropped her head into her hand, bit back her immediate response because it never did any good.

“Pardon me?” Jibreel said.

“Unless my niece has changed drastically, I doubt that the two of you have done anything yet.”

“We have done a great deal. Studied, gone on long walks, had many a dinner date –”

“Don’t take me for a fool. I know what young men want from their partners in college.”

“The chance to have a good time?”

“That would be a way of saying it, yes.”

“Well, me and Samiya have had many a good time. I am certain I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Her head was spinning. Her auntie insulting her was a regular thing; she had heard the number of ways that she was worse than Mughriya time and time again, ranging from her lack of interest in the past to the way that she was prudish, cold, frigid compared to the other weres in the class. For a while, she had taken to checking her food for drugs because she was sure that her auntie would start spiking her dishes with aphrodisiacs to try and prove a point.

But to have the insults coming fast and furious right for her when there was someone around that wanted to defend her…that was new. And a little scary to hear someone else speaking up for her when she didn’t know if she could ever be good enough for that.

Naguiba sat a little taller on the other side of the table. Oh, she was getting angry; she didn’t like it when someone could meet her verbally like that. She was a steamroller, not a verbal fencer.

“Please –” Samiya whispered.

“Are you telling me that you’ve finally ‘thawed’ my niece?” Naguiba asked.

“I doubt that there is any thawing to do. You’re acting like she is some ice queen, ma’am. Samiya has been warm and kind from our first meeting, and incredibly helpful; she’s kept me from failing out of my classes.”

“Hmmph. Of course she has.”

[i]That[/i] one, she knew, was directed at him. The judgment of being human, of being lesser, of being the sort of species that needed to be looked down on; that was familiar. That was [i]very[/i] familiar.

She gripped her legs under the table as she tried to think of some way to derail the conversation, to take it somewhere that wouldn’t be painful for all of them, but –

“Well, if we’re going by what we were doing lately, I took a pregnancy test this morning.”

All eyes turned to Mughriya. Every single one of them. Her cousin flicked her dirty-blond hair out of her face, chuckling.

“What? I didn’t say it was positive.”

“No, but you didn’t say that you were at risk, either.”

“At risk? Auntie, you sound like I was taking an STD test; not like someone could catch being pregnant from me.”

“Even so…”

The difference in her auntie’s tone was obvious. Cold and disapproving, only heating up with anger while talking to her and Jibreel, while vaguely bemused and slightly exasperated with Mughriya. Story of their life when they were in the same house and under the same roof as Naguiba. It was hardly new.

But it was embarrassing, and actually painful to hear. Just when she was starting to feel comfortable with someone, she had the rug yanked out from under her. She already felt bad enough about being different and lying about how long they were going to have to wait; she didn’t need to be made to feel more freakish.

Sadly, Mughriya’s distraction didn’t last long. Naguiba turned back to them, this time clearing her throat before going at it again.

“I suppose I must be blunt. Have you had any relations with my niece, sexually?”

“A very blunt question. Then I must be blunt in turn. No.”

“And you’re happy with this?”

“Well, if I just wanted sex, there’s much easier ways to get that, isn’t there?”

“Don’t pretend that you aren’t disappointed. Look at her.”

Just like always, the eyes at the table turned to face her. Naguiba, Mughriya, Jibreel: all of them stared at her, some more kindly, some with a little more irritation. She wanted to shrink into her chair and just die.

“For someone that was made like her, with her looks, she could be making quite a few people happy. The commandments of Bast are to be fruitful, to take pleasure, to bed others and enjoy them. And she does nothing. She exists. That is all that can be said of her prudish self.”

“Hmmm. Now that [i]does[/i] bring up an interesting question,” Jibreel said, leaning back in his chair. “You say that’s the way of Bast, yes?”

“You know nothing of my gods, I am certain.”

“Oh, very little. Mostly because they [i]are[/i] something of a dying religion; the only reason people still know about some of them is, well, legend, at best.”

Samiya bit off a snort of amusement. Oh, she knew that wasn’t going to go over well, but the look on her auntie’s face was more than worth it.

“But putting that aside, it makes me wonder. You say that Bast commands this. But why should your niece have to follow the commands of your religion if she isn’t part of it?”

“…”

“Or me, for that matter. While I’m not quite what you’d call a traditionalist, I am firm in following at least most of the tenets of Islam. Part of that is not giving into the temptation of pleasure before marriage, after all; our two religions would butt heads constantly, with these contrasting commands.”

“Oh, lovely. One of [i]you.[/i]”

“Oh? Do you have a problem with me?” Jibreel asked, cocking his head to the side.

Samiya realized that her aunt had been walked right into a trap. She could either push her own beliefs as the only true ones at the cost of offending someone that was a foreigner, and one with money and perhaps the ear of a few people in power, or she could back down and admit that she’d taken it too far. Her boyfriend had walked her right into the trap, keeping her from offending him any further.

But that didn’t mean that she was safe. Samiya sank deeper into her chair as her aunt rounded on her.

“And this is what you choose to bring to the table?” Naguiba asked. “And here I thought that you had learned better than that.”

“I don’t…I don’t have the same interests as you and Mughriya –”

“So you try and find someone with money to thaw you out.”

“…His money has nothing to do with our relationship,” Samiya said.

“Anyone care to join me in getting some plates for dinner?” Mughriya asked.

“Would you care for some help?” Jibreel asked.

“Yeah, come on. Hurry up. Samiya?”

“I –”

“Stay. Where. You. Are.”

Even Jibreel flinched at the frosty tone in the professor’s voice. Samiya clenched her fingers tighter against her thighs, trying to brace herself for what was coming.

As Mughriya and Jibreel walked down the hall to the cupboards and cabinets with the good plates, Naguiba leaned in. Her aunt’s voice was quiet, but venomous, each word hissed with all the fury of an enraged cat.

“I taught you better than this. Bringing one of them there. Claiming that he’s equal to you. You ignorant little kitten.”

“He’s a good man.”

“He’s a [i]human.[/i] If you must have one, there are ways, but not for someone so foolish as you. Not for someone that cannot learn to enjoy herself the proper way. Ugh. And one of them? The Saudis? The rich dogs of the west? They’ve forgotten not just their faith, but who they really are.”

“He’s a [i]good[/i] man.”

“You keep saying that. It does not matter. Bast does not reward the men. A lioness stands on her own, not with the help of her man. All they are useful for – you know this. I have taught you this. Why am I bothering?”

[i]Because you are a hateful cow that’d be better under Hathor than Bast,[/i] she thought, but knew better than to say it. One wrong move and she might push her aunt into a full rage-filled transformation, and then other steps would have to be taken. And considering how much older a were Naguiba was compared to her and Mughriya, she was fairly sure that they wouldn’t exactly win in a fight with the older woman.

“If you know what is good for you, you will show him the door as soon as dinner is over. You will make it clear that you made a mistake, that he is better off without you, and never see him again,” Naguiba said, shaking her head. “Idiot kitten.”

“…”

“And to think that he shows pride in his beliefs. Tsk. The very idea that he could be a man of faith compared to what we believe –”

“What you believe, you mean,” Samiya muttered.

“What we all believe,” her auntie countered. “Bast and the other gods are ours, and have been ours for centuries. Millenia. There are no other gods, particularly not in those upstart –”

“Just…leave it alone,” Samiya said, looking off to the side. “All he said was that he didn’t believe the same things as you, and he didn’t care about whether we…did that.”

“Hmmph. He’ll leave you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“He’s a human. They will take what they want and leave, and that’s if they don’t do something worse.”

Naguiba pushed her chair back from the table, muttering something about getting the food from the kitchen. Samiya just stared at the table, unable to take her eyes off the tablecloth.

Everything was slowly going red in her vision, and it was giving her a headache. Oh, she had taken Naguiba’s abuse and humiliation before. It was an old custom of the older woman, and Samiya was used to it to an extent. She knew that she had to take the pain around the older werelioness, and she was ready for that.

But she…she was not ready for the rest. Not the way that her auntie had gone after Jibreel, not for the way that she ripped down every bit of happiness, and not the way that she was just so [i]vile[/i] about it.

It wasn’t right.

Her aunt wasn’t right.

And she didn’t trust Naguiba to leave it there.

Her hands shaking, Samiya pushed herself up from the table and walked around it. The kitchen door was still open a crack, and she pushed it open the rest of the way. The smell of roasting meet hit her square in the face, the smell familiar…and sweet.

Her eyes went wider and wider as Naguiba turned from the oven with an obvious roast ham in the middle of the baking tray. There was no attempt to hide what it was, no shame in giving something non-halal to a Muslim guest, and literally no guilt on the other woman’s face. There was only a cruel satisfaction that pushed Samiya over the edge.

She didn’t know what she was doing until she had already crossed the room and slapped the baking pan out of Naguiba’s hand. The whole thing clattered to the floor with the loudest bang she’d heard in years, and she only ‘came to’ as she realized she was shouting at the older werelioness.

“You evil bitch! Just because you can’t accept me doesn’t mean that you can’t accept a guest. You think that you can just ignore every rule that you don’t care about? What about the rules of hospitality? Kindness? Everything that comes down that isn’t about taking control and being better than the people around you? Do you remember any of those, you vile, hateful [i]cow![/i]”

“Samiya, you will –”

“I will NOT! In fact, I’m GOING to leave! Right now! Because I can take all the things that you want to say to me, but you are [i]not[/i] going to take away one of the few good things in my life right now. Maybe it won’t work, not forever, but I don’t fucking care anymore! It’s better than dealing with your bullshit!”

She kicked the tray, sending it flying across the floor. It ricocheted off the far wall and went flying back out the way she’d come. Jibreel almost stepped inside before something – probably Mughriya – yanked him out of the line of fire, and the tray stopped on the floor of the dining room.

Half-furious, half-humiliated, Samiya stomped out of the kitchen. Her aunt shouted after her, but she didn’t even hear the words anymore. She was too hurt, too angry to process any of it.

“Wow…”

Mughriya shook her head as Samiya stumbled out of the kitchen, tears coming to the younger cousin’s eyes. She let herself be gathered up in Jibreel’s arms as Mughriya ran her hands up her arms, miming rolling up her sleeves.

“Right. You two might want to clear out. This is going to be a shouting match of epic proportions.”

“Mmm-hmm…”

“You get on home. I’ll make sure that auntie knows she went over the line.”

It was more than that, for Samiya. More than that by far. She didn’t even know if there was a line to go back over after this. The fact that she’d gone this far in defense of herself probably wasn’t something that Naguiba would be able to forgive.

But if she couldn’t…she was pretty sure that she could live with that.

She let Jibreel lead her back through the house. The cats didn’t swarm them on the way out, probably because of the shouting already happening back in the kitchen. She didn’t envy her cousin the night that she was going to have, but at least there was enough blood-connection there for the shouting to happen. Samiya wouldn’t have had the same protection if she had stuck around, and she would have put money down on getting scars after all was said and done.

They reached the sidewalk. She fumbled for her pocket, but Jibreel already had his phone out, already calling another cab.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“It’s not your fault. I have met people like that before.”

“Not this bad, though.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said, shaking his head. “But I always appreciate the bad ones telling you what they are in advance. It saves the trouble of liking them and then getting hurt later. I can just go right to justified condescension.”

Chuckling, she leaned against him for a few seconds, gathering herself after all the adrenaline drained from her system. She wanted to just collapse, forget about the night, and move on with life. It would have been so easy.

But there was something else she needed to be honest about first. Something he probably should know. Not [i]the[/i] secret, but…the other thing, yes.

“Jibreel? I…have something we need to talk about…”

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: The night of the dinner arrives, and Naguiba’s anti-human stuff comes out.

Tags: No Sex, Humiliation, Hateful Family, Human, Werecat, Werelioness, Speciesism, Series, Drama, Emotional,