16 Chapter 16 Mist

Arodelf slept a bit. His face was calm and surreal. He was handsome before all of the operations. The modifications made him look more attractive. He really is a very pretty boy. I tried not to touch his face but before I knew it, my hand lingered to the space between his forehead that was all scrunched up as he slept. The part relaxed as I touched it. I was yawning by the time my thighs grew tired of carrying the weight of his head and shoulders. I carefully lifted his head from my lap and put his head safely on the mattress. As I was about to go down the stairs for a drink, he held my wrists. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm thirsty. I'm going to drink something. Are you thirsty? I'm going to get you a drink...what would you like?" I asked him as I placed my hand on his hair.

"I would like some coffee please. Oh. I'm going with you."

Arodelf sat up and fixed his hair. He stood up and he knew he needed something to suppress his need. Being injected with serums can take a toll on his desires.

When we got down, he immediately went to the fridge and brought out a pie he made.

Arodelf looked at me, "What are you waiting for? Make us your fancy coffee. I'm craving for that again." He laughed a bit and took some plates from the cupboard. I made some coffee for the two of us immediately.

As we sat down, Arodelf asked me and looked at me in the eye, "I want to be honest with you. I love you. I really mean it." He took a sip of the coffee and put both of his hands on the table.

"What do you want me to say?" I toyed with his statement.

"I was expecting a requited answer, Micella. If you think that I'm lying to you, you are wrong." Was he reading my mind?

"I love you. I mean it." I looked at him intently and held his hand. "What do you want me to say?"

"Promise me that you wouldn't want to see your ex-boyfriend again nor see nor make love nor have a relationship with another man."

That got me thinking. It is not indicated in the law that a paired couple is not required to be faithful with one another. This is disturbing since most paired people can actually still be attracted with their previous lovers.

I sternly stated since everything is possible, "You too? Would you promise that you wouldn't want to see your ex-girlfriends again nor see nor make love nor have a relationship with another woman?" I asked him too.

"Of course. Yes. You?" He assured.

"Yes." I assured him too. "Why did you ask that out of the blue?"

"Everything is possible now. The law doesn't require anyone to be faithful." He looked at me with darting eyes as if he already judged me by my actions.

"I know. I read it from the manuals they gave us three years ago. You don't need to worry about me. I was just..."

"Just what?"

"I already told you, didn't I? I was just guilty." I retorted.

Arodelf sighed, "My sister came home before and cried to my mom that her partner was having an affair with another woman. It appears that my sister has deeply fallen in love with the one she was paired with and the guy has been in an affair with his previous girlfriend. For some reason, the guy and his mistress work in one company. My sister has nothing to do about it and when my sister confronted him. The guy told her the truth and she has nothing to do about it." Arodelf's teeth were clenched, "He told her to do the same, to find a guy she likes too."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I looked at Delf and held his hand tighter.

"You don't need to be sorry. It just bothers me a lot. I told you before that my sister gave birth to twins right?"

I nodded.

"Ever since that day, my sister has been given prestige over things. She was head of the family. Her DNA made her likely to mother twins and triplets and..." He paused. His mood shifted as he was telling it.

"Then what? You're making cliffhangers..." I was bothered.

"The guy was moved in a different company and so does his mistress. There was no way they could contact one another again." Delf's voice was a deep monotone. It's like he was supressing his desire to laugh at the guy's situation.

"Do you mean that..." I trailed off.

"Probably. A person could not switch work up until you at least had three years of service in that field or position." Delf moved his eyebrows up and down as to confirm my question.

"I don't care about what you know." I told him.

His eyebrows furrowed from what I said and before he could utter another word, I took his hands and kissed them.

"I had already told you my intentions. You do not have to scare me or warn me. I'm not afraid because I'll never do that to hurt you. I promise." I smiled at him.

Arodelf was shocked by my answer and told the truth, "I was scaring you though but what happened is true. I was just considering things. I can't deny that I was afraid of losing you. You're the only one I have now." A tear crept down his lashes and added, "I swore to the skies. When I saw you filling the form with blood caked in your face, I was filled with hope. When I saw you in the pairing room, I was filled with hope again. You were always my symbol of hope." He cried again and whispered things that I also saw during the war.

He leaned his forehead in my shoulders. I hope he'll get through this. He suffered so much. He is now conflicted since I have the opportunity to have an affair. It was bothering him so much that his PTSD kicked in from the war.

"I was questioning the existence of God and why he let me live. Now, I know the answer." He knelt in front of me and hugged me tight.

I asked him to stand up but he didn't. I just caressed his back for him to calm down. I made him sit on the chair again and went to the cupboard to get some meds. I took the box of his pills from the cupboard and I put them on the table.

I was bothered by number of pills he has to take every single day. They were all labeled on what day of the week he's going to take them. I earnestly read the labels. Antidepressants, pain relievers, topical anesthetics, antibiotics, and antiseptics are all to be taken within every week. That's not all the drugs he's going to take, he was given serums too.

I took the pills he has to take that day and helped him take it one by one with timed intervals. While he was calming down, I read his medical records and prescriptions. I was skimming his records and was shocked to see it.

"Are you doing fine now?" I told him.

He nodded and muttered, "I'm sorry. I was just...I don't know what happened. I'm like this whenever they inject me serums since I can't have minimal doses...the effects are worse."

"I know. I read your records and..."

"You won't think of me differently right?"

"No. Why would I?"

"I mean. I thought that if you would see my records..."

"We had trauma because of the war and I had my sets of insecurities and faults too." I smiled at him. "I would like you to see my records as well. Good thing, my meds work the way it should be."

"Except for the arousing drugs...that is..."

"Except for that... and I now that you have hypersensitivity with it and you're just repressing it for me. I thank you for that." I smiled at him.

"I thought you're going to be weirded out with me." He confessed.

"No. I won't. We'll help each other out."

"Thank you. Thank goodness you're fine with it. So..." He looked at me intently.

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow I think, I would be fine again. I'm just going to take my medications. I promise." I went and put his medicines back into the cupboard and I took mine out along with my records and prescriptions.

"Would you mind if I read yours?"

"No. I don't mind it."

Arodelf skimmed through my records. I admit. I lied.

"They did this much procedures on you?"

"Fat and skin. They did minimal reductions in my face and jaw."

"Minimal... this is a lot..."

"Not in their terms. They told me I had minimal surgeries and procedures compared to most women."

"Is that so? I only had two operations done. You had six."

"When I spoke to the plastic surgeon, she told me that some women had 30 procedures in the two year-frame preparation."

"Rhinoplasty. Jaw-reduction surgery. Filler Injections. Fat reduction. Collagen treatments for hair and skin. Discoloration treatments." He started reading my procedures.

"Yeah. That may sound a lot though but I had minimal surgeries."

"Hmmm. That doesn't change the fact that they kept your best features. I wonder how they came up with such technologies. It is really fascinating." He started touching my face again.

Before I knew it, he landed a swift kiss on my lips. "Micella. You're really what I want. That is scarily accurate. That mere fact is scary."