I’m not sure if I already posted this, it’s been quite some time
“This is a childish, thoughtless game-” slap “Ah merda! Puttana!” he hissed.
“And yet you’re just as bored as I am” slap “oh my, that looks like it hurt” she mocked.
They sat inside of a confessional facing one another, the curtain in the window was removed, and their were hands in a praying gesture. Integra’s hand shot out and swiftly slapped Enrico’s which earned her another hiss from the Bishop and she in return grinned.
The two had just finished bickering over treaties and geographic boundaries. The annual summit meeting was held in Italy this summer, it served as a forum to share new knowledge about various “special affairs”. It lasted for a week, and they were only two days in. The whole event seemed to drag on until the very last day when formal, written agreements were drafted and signed.
The summit, although insightful, was boring and for some didn’t exactly serve as the environment for settling disputes. Some chose more creative ways to hash things out.
“Sign it” Integra was too fast for Enrico and slapped the same hand with more gusto.
“No” He groaned and began to grind his teeth, the sting of the slap to his hand settling into his already sensitive skin. “You cannot have jurisdiction over that area you cow!”
Integra jerked her hands back, nearly being slapped by Enrico. She whistled in surprise, “Am I making you mad? You should just sign it” she slapped his hand again and watched him throw his head back in pain.
“This is pointless! How do we even keep score of who is winning” he barked, frustrated.
“Judging by how red your hands are perhaps it’s best that we call it” she then frowned, “and you sign the damn treaty” she rolled her eyes then went to slap his hands again, only to have him pull back.
“I am no stranger to pain” he kept his eyes focused on her hands, his brows furrowed as he studied her movements.
“Oh come off it, you’re sweating while a little girl beats your hands” she tilted her head to the side “what are your suggestions for amendments, I certainly want to be finished with this before noon”
“We have two sectors in the UK, you have one in Ireland, two in Spain, none in Italy or Greece” he spoke, flinching every now and then in reaction to the slightest of Integra’s movements.
“You want to know why you’re losing, you’re paying too much attention to my hands, I can tell by your face when you’re about to lunge” she slapped his hand and he let out a frustrated yell. “You’re too concerned about the number of sectors and not the land mass they occupy, I don’t-” she snatched her hand out of the way of Enrico’s attempt to strike her. “-want to have more area’s of dominion, just one in each area.”
“The UK is a beast of a territory, giving up two sectors won’t kill you, and I cannot let you have any sectors in Italy” he saw her check her wrist watch for the time and finally landed a successful hit, and a hard one at that.
“Shit!” she winced but kept her hands steady, “Wow you’ve been able to hit me three times compared to the dozens of times I’ve hit you” she couldn’t deny that his slap would leave her with a welt, after all he had bigger hands.
“For what I lack in speed I make up for in other ways”
“How can you possibly cheat in this game!?”
“You’ve never been to boarding school have you?”
He lunged and slapped her again, she closed her eyes to process the pain and breathed through her nose. “I get one sector in Italy, I’ll allow three in the UK, then I’ll stay with one in Ireland but I want one in Greece”
“You cannot have a sector in Italy I ju-” Integra slapped his already bruising hand, he stomped his foot in response.
She dropped her voice to a lowered tone and mocked his accent, “Then you cannot have a sector in the UK” she paused to give him a chance to recoil, “dual occupation?”
“Of which area?” he jerked his hand away from Integra’s slap.
“One in UK and one in Italy”
“Two in the UK and one in Italy and I’ll sign it…”
“Do I get Greece as well?”
He paused and looked up at her, a deep scowl on his face, he slapped her hand as hard as he could. Integra let out a surprised cry and suppressed it by covering her mouth and waving the slapped hand.
“....Fine” he extended his less battered hand and sighed in resignation, “Draft it and I’ll sign it”
She gave his exposed hand a look and moved as if she was going to slap it, causing Enrico to gasp and pull back, causing Integra to laugh. She reached out and shook his hand firmly.
They both exited the confessional, Integra rolling down her sleeves and Enrico putting his gloves back on. “Now to decide where to get lunch, are you up to that task are will you be resistant on that front as well” Integra quipped.
“That depends, do I get to pick based on my knowledge of the area or will you just come up with another excuse to resort to violence to get your way?”
She gave him a tense look, “time will tell, but for now” she stepped to the side and shrugged “lead the way”
He sighed in relief and began to walk, “God help me…” he murmured under his breath.
