Zaria refused to let Gu Cheng bother the Speaker while he was at the hospital with his daughter. Not being allowed to deal with the issue he wanted to deal with led to an increase in the anger and frustration that was affecting both of them, and when he stormed out to take a walk she did not consider stopping him until he was long gone. A call came in from the Speaker while Zaria was sitting alone on the couch playing games on her phone to calm down. Cathy had been in labor, perhaps for hours already, and she was far enough along that they were keeping her at the hospital assuming that it could be any time. In between contractions, and speaking over her husbands demands that she not do anything but focus on staying calm so their child would have a happy start in life, she told her father about the Prokis and sent him on his way to deal with it.
This led to a phone call to clarify with Zaria what she knew, which reminded her that she and Gu Cheng were probably just extra mad at each other thanks to the Ones. So she took a moment to send him a message apologizing and asking him to come back. There was no response, but that didn't mean anything, or so she told herself. She wanted so much to be mad at the whole situation, but actual anger only seemed to come out directed at Gu Cheng. Then she knew she should be angry about THAT, but it came out as a gentle Oh Shucks type of feeling.
He was still not home when the call from Adrien Vlachos came in later that evening. Despite having more information, Speaker Andrews declined to interfere with his daughter's challenge. He saw no reason to deny her the happiness that was dangling in front of her and did not believe that Zaria posed any real threat. The only offer he could make was to try and convince Mina not to kill Zaria during the match.
Zaria laid on her back on the wide bed, staring at the shadows cast through the filmy bedroom curtains as the sun set outside. It seemed like her only options were to get ready for a battle with a werewolf, or run and hope that they couldn't track her down. The impression that she was given was that she would not be able to decline the challenge.
Some obscure law that was dug up earlier in the day by Speaker Andrews said that if a Prokis was declared and the mates were verified, the interloper could not refuse. Archaic, they all admitted, but if they started to pick and choose which laws they would follow, then anarchy would take over. The law could be changed, and that was already being set in motion, but it would not happen before the day of the challenge arrived. The Lykos speakers would make sure to stall it during World Congress long enough for their interests to be served.
She reached up and scratched an itch on the tip of her nose before dropping her arm back onto the mattress with a muted thump. Running was not an option either, unless she took Rika, Yamada, and Yamashita with her. She honestly did not know if Gu Cheng would come if she ran away. He spoke that way when they were calmly talking, but when he was away from her, his mind seemed to turn away thanks to the magic affecting him. The thought poked around her brain that he would probably end up with the woman eventually if she was not around. There would be nothing to remind him that his feelings were being forced. It could already be happening. He had been gone for a long time.
The room grew darker as the sun dipped the last of the way below the horizon. A message came in letting her know that Cathy had her babies, one more than they expected, which was a suprise to everyone. All of them were fine. Voices drifted in from the other rooms. A tap on the door and a quiet voice called her name, but she chose not to answer. She really did not feel like interacting with anyone else. The world was affecting their moods in a good way, and she didn't want to do or say anything to take away from that for them.
Prokis. There was one full day and another morning before she needed to arrive at the Everbright meeting site. Speaker Vlachos had agreed to take her and act as a witness. If the challenges were issued between two of the same species, it was generally carried out in the large central field there. When Anis were involved and met with one of the other two species, they increased the area to include the surrounding forest to level the playing field, so to speak.
Lykos were allowed their magic wolf like form, Sanguine were allowed their speed and strength, and Anis were allowed their tricks among the trees. The system was still heavily unbalanced toward the ones without powers, but they were allowed to use any tool they wanted as long as it was not a projectile or able to seriously injure their opponent. Nobody seemed to think it strange that Anis could be declined bladed weapons while Lykos were allowed to eviscerate with their claws. Maybe it was because a Prokis where one of the two was a universe mandated mate was not meant to be fair. One was obviously the interloper, and it was likely the Anis?
Zaria had a plan, of sorts, the best she knew she would be able to come up with. The shadows shift on the wall as the night progresses, and she doesn't know when she fell asleep, but when she awakened with dawn's light, she was still alone. She shivered on the blanket and rolled over, noticing that the bed next to her was mussed but not sure if she did it while rolling around.
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The day crawled by. As the sun rose, noises bloomed up in the apartment outside of her door, everyone getting ready to go out and greet the world with new friends and lovers. Zaria waited until the voices went away and the door shut toward the front of the apartment before she got up and headed to the shower. Less than a day left before yet another awful and ridiculous situation in a new world comes to pass. She rested her forehead against the tile in the shower as she let the water beat against her. Next world, if she survives this, and if Gu Cheng leaves and takes her with him, she is finding a forest in the middle of nowhere and staying there until it is time to leave again.
The living room was empty when she finished getting clean and dressed. She wasn't hungry, but she made something small and ate it quickly before settling on the couch with a game on her phone from City C. An hour of dying repeatedly in the rpg she usually played with Gu Cheng told her that she didn't have patience for anything requiring it, and another hour playing a puzzle game told her that she didn't have the mental bandwidth to work through any more problems. So she spent the rest of the day laying down and staring at the ceiling or sitting up and staring out the window.
Not long before she would normally be starting dinner, Gu Cheng stormed into the apartment, his face dark with anger.
"Why did I just get a message asking me if I was going to be present at that challenge tomorrow morning?"
Zaria sighed and rolled to face the back of the couch. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say it happened because your phone was charged up, and the message went through, and you noticed it."
Shoes thumped on the ground as he dropped them, his silence almost loud enough to cover the sound. "This is not the time to be funny," he ground out, and she did not need to roll over to know he was gritting his teeth as he marched over to her. "Why did you accept it?"
"Because I didn't have a choice, Gu Cheng." She closed her eyes so she would not have to see him with her peripheral vision either. "It turns out that in the situation of destined mates, if the true mate declares Prokis against the one keeping the two destined apart, the interloper can't decline. Since they are going against the universe, they must be ready to deal with the consequences."
"Then I am going to fight for you."
"No offense, Mr. Gu, but you won't fit into my clothes to try and pass as me."
A growl, and she was being sat up and forced to face forward. "I said it is not the time to be funny. I will accept your spot as the one being challenged."
"Nope." Zaria sighed as she finally looked up at the angry individual. His clothes were different than the day before, not proving that he had slept on the bed, but showing he had come home to at least change. "You can't change the person challenged."
"No, but according to the laws, the mate who is being sought can step in to speak their choice in order to diffuse the situation. Hideki and I went through every line of the law today to figure out a way around it. It doesn't make sense that if the person being fought over doesn't want one of the two, they have no say. If I speak against her, she might back out. If she doesn't, then I am allowed to retaliate if she continues. She would know that there is no way I would accept her. "
"And would that do a thing, Gu Cheng? I don't even know if this is within her ability to stop at this point. She is being influenced to. You know what would have helped? Having the man who I am apparently going to be fighting to the death over not just disappear without even a note. That would have been great."
Zaria got up and pushed past him, heading to the kitchen to start dinner. "I'm not angry, Gu Cheng. I am sad. Once again, you decided you were going to do things and not talk to me about them, and then come in telling me what to do. That is not a problem specific to this world. That is the great CEO Gu knowing best. Partners, Gu Cheng, we are supposed to be partners. I am not your sweet little woman who will follow everything you tell her to do."
"I'm---!" She looked up as Gu Cheng cut himself off, roaring his frustration. When he calmed down and sat down in one of the stools, she continued to get items out for the meal as he spoke. "I am trying, Joseph Zaria. I am used to making all the decisions and people following, and I am trying to do things with you and be a team like you want. But this is my fault, and I can't see you get hurt again. I just...can't."
The room was quiet except for the sound of water being poured into a glass, which she pushed across the counter to him. "This isn't your fault, Gu Cheng. Even when the women would fight over you back in City C, it was not your fault that you look the way you do, or that you were born into money. And your personality was horrible. I mean, really, really rotten egg sucking bad, and yet they still chased after you. How is that your fault?"
"It wasn't that bad," he mumbled as he took a drink of water.
"Gu Cheng, I can't express to you how true my words are. If I had not needed the money and felt bad about Auntie Wang maybe getting in trouble for letting me work at her shop, I would have swam across the ocean to avoid being around you rather than take a job with you after our first meetings. Luckily, you showed me little bits of who you really were inside, and I discovered you don't suck too bad."
"Hey," he looked up with what was supposed to be a stern look but was marred by the hint of a smile peeking out from behind the clouds. "I am not so awful!"
Zaria smiled and held up her thumb and her forefinger pinched to show just a little space between them. "Just a little. So, now that you are talking to me and not avoiding me or speaking at me, what do we want to do?"