A difficult romance

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redblood

redblood

Anxious Tomato Will Bite You!
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Afternoons, evenings and nights.
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Historical, fantasy, magic, horror, supernatural, survival, vampires, demons, pirates, mutants, ghosts, romance (FxF, MxM, MxF) (Romance should be part of the plot and not the whole plot in itself), etc.
"What am I doing here?" A young man muttered to himself. His name was Adam, and he had just been forced to come with his father to one of his many factories. Since he one day would have to take over his father's work it was important that even he checked around so that everything was in order. But that didn't mean he had to like it. He actually despised it quite a lot. But there were worse things in the world. Like Victoria, his fiance. If he hadn't walked around the factories, pretending that he cared, then he would have to stand her nagging instead while pretending that he cared. That was a fate worse than death.

"I must go and take care of some paper work, I'll be right back. Why don't you go and talk to Mister Remier over there, he could explain how things works around here." His father proposed before leaving Adam.

"Pff, as if I would do something that boring." He said to himself before walking off around the factory. Maybe he could find something interesting instead. Adam was a very lively guy, he liked to always be on the move and he couldn't stay still for very long. Money didn't interest him, but his freedom did.


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The weather outside was the middle of winter, but inside the factory you could never tell. The heat from the machines and the noises within it were keeping the area hot and the workers miserable. Young Elizabeth, a worker in the factory going on nine months now, was one of those people. Her dark hair had been pulled back into a bu, but strands had fallen throughout the day and were sticking to her sweaty neck. Her fingers were raw from the constant twisting of the sting against the spinning machine. Yes, it was just another long day within the factory. The owner was up in his office along with a few other men she hadn't quiet noticed before.

Probably new supervisors, She thought to herself as the one started down the stairs to the rest of them. The orders from the current boss could be heard barking at the young children as they ran through the factory trying to get the baskets to each other women. Elizabeth watched as a young girl, no older than ten placed another basket of sting to be spin by the machine. Her brown eyes looked down at the basket. She was not going to be out of here by supper.
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The factory was just as Adam had thought it would be. Boring. People working all day, no one that actually had time to entertain him by going out for a bit in the winter cold. It was snowing outside, he wondered if the workers knew that. They might have gotten into the factory after it had started. He felt a bit sorry for them, having to work so hard while he just inherited money from his family. Well, life was unfair and he weren't going to give up his inheritance just because of that.

Kids ran around the factory with things for the ladies. It disgusted him a bit that such young children had to work like that. They should be out and have fun, not be working. But that wasn't how society worked, and if he shared those believes with others then they would just laugh at him.

Suddenly he heard someone screaming and he turned his head. One of the people that kept an eye on the workers had gotten irritated on a child that apparently had worked too slowly. What was that? A penal institution? A prison? Adam walked up to the man and just as he reached him the man had rose his hand to hit the kid. Adam stopped his hand before it got even close.

"Is this how you treat my fathers employees? If you can't even handle a child then you should get the hell out of here." He told the man with a threatening voice before letting go of the man's hand. The man was pale white from the moment Adam had said father's employees. Though he was probably the only one that had actually heard those words since Adam spoke too silently for the people around them to hear. He didn't care what they thought he were, but he rather not be seen as the son to the factory owner.

"You okay?" He asked the kid as he went down on his knees to get to the child's height. The child nodded. "Good, get back to work now, okay?" His voice was warm and comforting, just like his mothers had been when she had spoken to him as a child. The kid nodded and ran off.
 
Elizabeth listened as the man yelled at the child who had just dropped off her own basket. Her eyes glanced at the child and the man while working with the thread, not paying attention to really what she was doing. She watched as the younger man from above had stepped between the child and older man. She couldn't understand what was being said, but before too long the child came running back towards Elizabeth and grabbed another basket. The kid didn't seem hurt and seemed as if everything was okay. Whatever the man had said it had her boss wondering around a lot more careful looking.

Elizabeth looked back at the machine to see what her hands were doing and then back towards the young man walking up and down the aisle of the factory. It wasn't too long, however, before she felt the sharp pain she remembered form a child.

"Ow! What the..." She looked down at her hand noticed the blood coming from the top of the finger. She had cut her finger once again on the thread once again. She put her finger in her mouth for a second to stop the bleeding. There was no aid for injuries. You just suck it up and take it with you. She wiped the rest of the blood on the edge of her dress and bent down to grab some more thread. She listened to the sound of boots coming down the concert floor and she quickly stood up and started to put more thread on the machine. The blood still coming up at the top of her finger.
 
Adam noticed that some people looked a bit curiously at him after he had helped the kid, some even whispered to each other as if it was big news that someone actually helped a fellow human. What was all that fuss about? Wasn't it just common sense not to hit a child?

He started to walk around again, pretending that he actually was interested in what happened around there. But actually he just waited for his father so he could say that he had learned a lot and was ready to get home. But his father was far from done, when he said soon it could take up to an hour. He was worse than Adam's mother when it came to time. Soon for Adam was max five minutes, his mother was max thirty minutes and his father. Well, once it had taken a day before he had actually done what he said would be done soon.

He spaced out for a moment, lost in his own thoughts. Once he woke up from his thoughts he noticed a woman, she seemed to be quite young. As she hurried to get on more thread on the machine blood was coming out of her finger. Wasn't she going to take care of that? He walked up to the woman once he had looked around and figured no one else was going to ask.

"Shouldn't you put on some band aid on that wound? It seems to bleed a lot." He said concerned as he stood just beside her.
 
Elizabeth quickly looked up at the sound of the man's voice. It was the one that had helped the kid. His comment about her finger puzzled her. She looked at him and then at the finger again. It wasn't bleeding quiet that much. She had been through and had much worse done.

"Um, no, it'll be okay," She spoke looking at him and giving a faint smile, "You aren't normally around here are you?"

The politeness and almost caring features about him seemed as if he had not been in a factory setting at all. He did not know that the workers were not taken care of as they should have been and ninety percent of the time they were just left to do the work no matter what happened to them. Especially the children.Small finger cuts were not a the top of the list for the employer. Even children that were killed trying to get the broken down machines running again were not on the high end of the list.

She started putting more thread onto the machine, hoping that this would be last basket of the day and that the young man was not going to get her in trouble for "not finishing her daily tasks and being lazy."
 
"Is it that obvious?" He asked a bit jokingly. It was kind of obvious that he didn't work there because of his clothes, and the way he acted made it even more obvious that he weren't used to how things worked in the factories. A rich spoiled brat as him would probably never understand the lives of those around him, and it wasn't like he tried to understand. But he weren't heartless and turned away if he saw something wrong happen in front of his eyes. His father was the complete opposite of him, or maybe he was an opposite of his father.

Adam took up a handkerchief from his pocket and ripped off a long slim piece of it. "Here give me your hand." He said at the same time he took her hand and started to put the piece over her finger and then made a little knot so it would sit in place. "There you go, make sure to wash it later. You wouldn't want your finger to get infected." He said with a bright smile and also a bit of a warning in his voice.
 
"Yes, it is that obvious," She laughed looking at him for a second. Her hands kept working the thread, trying to finish as quickly as she could. her stomach was in pain from hunger as it growled just a bit. She watched as the last roll of thread was placed onto the machine and starting to be spun around. The sweat on her brow had start to dry a bit as the wind crept in from outside.

Her eyes went back towards him as he took the slim piece of handkerchief and started to wrap her finger before she could object. She felt the material stick to the finger and allow for the bleeding to stop. "Um, thank you," She said looking at the finger that was now wrapped up. "I will, I, ah, wouldn't want to lose my job over a finger." Her voice was half joking and half serious as she started to placed the finished thread into the basket. body bent down to grab the work of the day. A whistle blew over the factory as the big boss came out of his office yelling down at the young ladies. Elizabeth looked form the machine and young man and up at the boss. She was hoping it was time to go. Seriously doubted, but she could dream.
 
Adam chuckled a bit at her comment, not even realizing that it could have been serious. He simply wasn't used to such a way of living and didn't know the hard work they had to go through everyday. Then he saw his father walking down the stairs. His father was a very strict man, and he didn't want to get into trouble for talking so freely with someone that tried to work. He didn't really know if he's father would care about the differences in status between him and the girl, but at least he would care that Adam disturbed the workers.

"I need to leave now, see you soon." He said and hurried away without any explanation to what he meant with see you soon. He simply were going to tell his father that he had someone he had to meet in town, which wasn't really a lie, and that he could send someone to pick him up in the outskirt of town later that evening. His father didn't complain about that explanation, mostly since he didn't know that Adam were going to wait for the girl to be done with her work and then try to talk with her again.

So he waited outside, in the snowy landscape. He didn't dislike the cold, nor the snow. He actually loved it. He missed the time when he and his sister used to throw snowballs at each other as kids. Now she were too much of a lady to do that sort of things.
 
Elizabeth watched him hurry away and she mumbled a small goodbye. The rest of work day seemed to go by rather slowly. Her stomach continued to ache as she started towards the back of the factory to drop off the rest of her finished thread. Her body was still covered in sweat and dust as she went to clock out for the day after the final whistle had rung.

As she clocked out and grabbed jacket she could not help but think of the young man that had talked to her earlier. He was polite and seemed to actually care about the people around her. It was too abnormal. Nobody cared about the little workers like that. Maybe he was one of those guys they hired to make sure people were doing their work and a report was turned into the boss and whoever was not working was fired. Who's to say?

The icy wind hit Elizabeth's sweaty body suddenly as she stepped outside for the first time that day. Snow had already covered most of the roads and the wind was whipping through you like a sudden sting of a bee. She wrapped her coat around her tighter and started towards her home. It was pretty much dark outside already as she turned the corner towards the slums of the city.
 
"Hey there." Adam said as fast as he saw the woman from before rounding the corner. His smile was wide and bright, as a child that just had gotten candy. "Done with work now?" He asked, even though he was certain that the answer was yes. As he asked he leaned away from the wall that had supported his back for a while.

He wasn't certain why he had spoken to her, it was mostly just helping a random person and then deciding that he wanted to know more about her. He didn't know anyone outside his family or the rich society, and he thought that getting to know someone that works for his father might be a good idea. Then if he really needed to take over after his father then he knew what was bad and what was good from the workers perspective. It was also because he was bored to death by the people in the higher society. Everyone forgot how to have fun way too early. Maybe he could find someone interesting outside the walls of riches.
 
Elizabeth kept walking with her head down. Her arms were crossed over her chest and the sudden, familiar voice caught her off guard. She looked over at the wall and noticed the man from earlier standing before her. He was leaning against the wall almost eying her up and down. Of course, all the people from higher society did that to people of her ranking in society. Her family had always been at the bottom and it was not getting any better anytime soon. So, what this man was so fascinated by in her, she hadn't had a clue.

"Um, yes," She answered to his question, "Done until tomorrow anyways. What about yourself?" She had done stopped her walking and was standing at the other end of the sidewalk right across from him. Her skirt moved with the wind slightly as she looked at the young man. She hadn't gotten a good look at him and had to admit, he wasn't bad looking. "So, tell me? What were you doing at the factory? I've never seen you before, if you don't mind me asking."
 
Adam got a bit happy when she didn't try to tell him that she was in a hurry and didn't have time to talk. Any normal person would probably do that if a stranger had waited for them in the dark.

"Hmm.. What did I do there?" He asked and looked up at the sky as if he really had to think about it. "I helped a little boy and I wrapped a beautiful girls finger." He then said with a boyish smile and a laugh in his voice. "But in all seriousness, my dad thought that I should see his workplace so I simply went with him." He then confessed, but didn't give any hints about who his father was, though anyone would know that it was someone high in the hierarchy in the factory because of his clothes.

"I guess I have acted a bit rude, we don't even know each others names." He then said with an apologetic voice. "I'm Adam. Would you mind giving me your name beautiful lady?"
 
Elizabeth let out a little laugh as he spoke of her finger. "Well, why thank you for your compliment," She spoke listening to him. Her eyes looking at his when he spoke of her father. He had to have been on the big guys. He just had to be. His clothing was too nice for him to actually be working inside the factory. She let out a small swallow when she thought of the possibility that he could be the owners son.

She looked down for a second when he spoke of knowing each others name. She really shouldn't have been speaking with someone on the opposite end of the society chain. Not that it was illegal, but the fact that it was simply not done. "It's, um, Elizabeth, but most people who know me call me Lizzy," She spoke her voice slightly harsh as she tried to clear her throat a bit. She had to admit for herself now that yes, she was nervous.
 
It puzzled Adam a bit when Elizabeth's voice suddenly changed a bit, was she nervous? Maybe she had understood that his father was the owner of the factory. Even if she didn't she was nervous over something. He should do something to make her calm down a bit and feel at ease in front of him. Even if this would be the only day they would actually speak to each other he still didn't want to leave with her having a bad impression of him.

"Hmm... Well then Lizzy, would you give me the honor of taking you out for dinner before we depart?" He asked with a soft voice, trying not to make her even more nervous. "If you aren't in a hurry of course."
 
She looked at him and her jaw nearly hit the ground. How can he possibly be asking that? Did his parents never teach him the way the world worked? Maybe he just didn't care. She looked at him and then down at her dirty dress. It would be nice to have a decent meal that she did not have to share with twenty other people. Her mother would be worried but she would be okay wouldn't she?

"Um...a...um...nice dinner would be nice," Lizzy answered, "As long as you don't mind my dress. I do not exactly have decent clothing." She let out a small laughter and shook the skirting of her dressing. The dust fell out some as she looked back at him.

((Sorry about the long wait. Been busy with personal business))
 
"Don't worry about that, I don't think anyone is interested in looking at the dress when you have such a beautiful smile." He told her as charmingly as he possibly could. "I know of a good place just five minutes walk from here, their lamb is delicious." He then said.

Adam had only been to a couple of restaurants in that town since most of them weren't to his fathers liking. For the most if they decided to eat outside then they went to some other town close by with more expensive food. Because it must be expensive, or else it won't be any good. At least that was his father's philosophy. He himself didn't really care, he usually liked to go around in the forest and eat berries for free. He just couldn't understand his father sometimes.
 
She laughed at both his comments. "Isn't someone quiet the charmer?" She asked, with a slight hint of playfulness within her words. She took a step closer to him and stood by his side before linking her arm around his. It had been awhile since she had been out with a "friend". She days were spent with work and chores and more work. It wasn't exactly the life that anyone would want to live, but it was what she needed in order to get by. "Now, why don't you lead the way?" She asked, looking up at him, "I do not think I would know the way to the place in which you speak of."

Soon she was walking beside him and they were on their way towards the restaurant. Her feet trailed through the snow as they came to a nicer part of the city. She had always known it was close, but not within walking distance. The women were dressed, not in the best clothing, but they were much better off than the dress she wore. She could feel their eyes on her and possibly him as they came to the white building. It didn't look to be like the elegant palace like places she had heard about from Mrs. Jenkins, whom had worked as a maid in one of those fine hotels, but it was better than any place she had ever been. She glance over at Adam and then back at the place. "Are you sure they won't mind how I'm dressed? I'm pretty sure the help is dressed better....and cleaner." her voice was nervous and somewhat hoarse.
 
Adam laughed at her comment about him being such a charmer. She had the same hint of playfulness as his sister had when she teased him. At least she used to tease him. Now she was married to a 'gentleman' chosen by their father and she had since long been living far away from them. He still hadn't got the chance to meet her since the wedding.

He led the way towards the restaurant, it wasn't a five star restaurant that his family was used to, but it was better than a normal inn. The place was much cleaner than the industrial part of town, but it was very far from being as beautiful as the places their family used to go to. Even he noticed the eyes that examined the two of them. The women often started to look at him and then turned to the girl he had beside him, even though they didn't say anything he could see on their expressions that they didn't understand why a man like him would be with a dirty woman like her.

At first he had thought it would be alright to go like that, but as she spoke to him again he realized that if someone said something about her then she might just feel like leaving. "You're probably right." He mumbled deep in thoughts before looking at her with a bright grin. "So lets go and clean you up a bit. I know a place that sells lovely dresses very close by. Lets make them really jealous." He had a bit childish tone in his voice. He didn't care much for women and dating. Messing with the societies view on ranks was more his thing.
 
The people kept looking at her up and down and she noticed how a few women around her own age leaned in and started whispering and giggling to each other. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Someone like him did not belong with someone like her. He must have sensed her uncomfortable feeling or the fact that everyone was now looking at them.

Elizabeth looked at him in shock as he started to lead her out of the shop and down towards another. "Um, I really can't take that offer," She said, feeling as if this would only come back to haunt her. "I should really be heading home." Her feet went through the snow as they came to a dress shop with dresses of every color and style hanging in the window and she could only imagine what could be behind the door. Her eyes went wide as she started to try and get away some. "Trust me, my family is going to be worried. I can't ask you to do this for me."

((Sorry it's soooo short))
 
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