#zarina slamming her hand on the table: done. i'll meet her

[zorkaya-moved]

❝Hey mom, do you think that you can do me a favor?❞ Rin would turn to the other with an inquiry, he wasn't sure how she'd respond to his request or if she would accept it. Either way, he knew he would have to do work if she does decline. ❝Saturn's sister's Pluto is interested in meeting you. I know she's someone that Saturn dotes on a lot too. I kind of asked a favor of her and in return she wanted to meet you. So um, if I am good not to skip classes for a while and quit my rental boyfriend dating in exchange, would you go meet her?❞

@eliteimperialism 

It was natural to expect that she will stop working, but she did not. The documents were on the table as she would be reading them while speaking with Rin and not missing even a second of his company. He was her son, she could work here without any problems. It didn’t matter as long as he won’t inquire about the details as this was a classified information written in three different languages as a code, combined with her own coding that only she would be able to read along with her teammates. Matthew did a good job in sensing everything coded like this, other people would take days to understand what’s written here while for Zarina it’ll take seconds as if she’s reading a book. 

“A favor?” She’d settle down the paper upon lifting her molten gold gaze to look at her son. It was fine if he’ll see her in her work mode, the chaotic self would be pushed aside as the ice empress would come out. For Rin to ask her a favor, it must’ve been important. Arashi’s words made her frown slightly in concern, it could’ve been considered as her being unhappy, but the gleam in her eyes spoke of genuine concern over what the other would speak about. Sokolova remembered she asked him to be honest regarding his life and its dangers, all so she would be able to protect him; it made her wonder if it was about that, but the words spoken made her tilt her head to the side instead. 

A look of momentarily confusion would cross the feminine features, ichor gaze would change from concern to inquiry. A question met with a questionable gaze. Why did he want her to meet Saturn’s younger sister? It didn’t matter what Saturn thought of his sister. She would not do something as foolish as try to butter up his siblings to like her, she would remain respectful to them and she would be polite to them as they were his family, but it didn’t mean that she would want to bend her knee to make herself likeable. None of them deserved to know the real her besides Saturnus, Rin, and Albionite. It was quite harsh, but it was her opinion that she will not speak of, but the specific conditions Rin would provide didn’t give her much problems to speak next words.

“I will meet her if you promise to drop your rental boyfriend job. Your classes are yours to take and skip as you wish, simply do enough to pursue your wished career no matter what it is. Also... Allow me to pay your allowance once a month, speak of a sum later during the week and I will be sending it to you every month. You still need some sort of income and you can save it for your future education,” her cool and collected nature would show-off in a strict manner as she would state her conditions to meet with one of the maidens from Il Vuoto family. If Pluto wanted to meet, why not simply meet her when she was visiting Saturnus? Or ask Mercurius or Saturnus themselves to tell her that message? It was strange, quite irregular to apply her son’s presence and his conditions to make her go. It was smart, the woman won’t lie, it was quite an intelligent move as she would not be able to deny Arashi’s favor when conditions were what she wanted her son to stop doing immediately upon learning it. The skills of rental boyfriend, in her judgmental eyes, would not provide him with the skillset he’d need in the future. Charm would only carry him so far, but it was her own understanding. “Quite cunning of her to tell you to ask me such a favor. I assume since Saturnus did not tell me anything about this, it must be her idea that she does not want him to know. It might be, hm. I wonder now what she wants from me.” 

Zarina would take a moment to place the documents down and collect them all together. If Pluto wished to meet, it would be better to get this over with as soon as possible to avoid any interruptions with her actual job. She would have to leave for a while to visit the MEU once again as Andrea said his mother in Turkey needed several new... samples. It would mean that she’d have to go “hunting” for certain individual samples that will be beneficial for the experiment. 

“As I said, I will meet her as long as you drop that job and tell me the sum of your wished allowance. I will not accept anything less than fifteen thousand dollars a month, but nothing higher than thirty thousand dollars a month as you are still a student,” the prices were astronomical to some people, but Zarina actually was quite strict regarding what she was offering from her own look. For her, such money was easy to get and it would not be hard to acquire in an hour. She didn’t think it was that much to offer, Sokolova thought that she shouldn’t spoil her son too much; to her, money was easy. “If I learn that the favor you asked of her is dangerous to your life, I will not hesitate to do anything to protect it, Rin.” Spoken as a matter-of-fact, Zarina would look at her wristwatch before looking at the calendar on her phone. “I’ll have to deal with this first thing then. It would get in the way if she won’t meet me in the next two or three days.”

What should she expect from Pluto? And what would Rin ask from her that she couldn’t ask from her or Saturn? Zarina wouldn’t dive into that as long as it would not harm her beloved son. His life was his to live, the only time he will not be given the choice by her if he is going to die. To her, it was how the rules of the jungle went. 

mention of @alchemiasaturnalis‘s Pluto.