Star Crossed: Finding the other - 13. Mirrors of Chocolate

Mekaias

“Yes, I think this one is nice on you.”

Remelia asks me to turn around in some tight black pants.

For someone who said my clothes were too revealing, this doesn’t exactly feel any different.

“Oh my god!" She pipes up. "We should get you a crop top! It would look so cute on you! I'm sure you can pull it off!”

Before I can ask what a crop top is, she runs off in the other direction of the store.

I stand in the middle of a room that allows people to change into the clothes.

I find that very weird. Wouldn’t people be able to steal stuff easier?

A group of three female humans walk into the room and one walks into a small cube for privacy.

The two female humans whisper and giggle to themselves. Every now and then they would cast a glance in my direction.

I hear the words “fag” and “alien” thrown around. I don’t exactly know what the first word means but I do know the second.

I notice now that sometimes their eyes look at me in disgust.

Before I can ask what is wrong, Remelia shoves past them and dumps a pile of clothes into my arms.

The two humans glare after her and call out to their friend that they are leaving.

I am pushed into another cube and asked to put on various clothes.

Some are too much for me. Especially long sleeve shirts.

I can’t stand them.

I end up mostly choosing the tank tops, shorts, and maybe a few crop tops.

I like feeling as open as I can!

I’ll blame being tied up for long periods of time for that.

Remelia said I needed at least four pairs of pants if the squad ever has to represent U.U.P.P. in public, so I got two blue and two black ones.

I don’t like them because they are still too tight.

How do people live with these everyday?

I did get a weird jacket with the sleeves cut off. I am not sure why they are cut off but it’s a plus in my book!

I find it weird that I have to get any of these at all.

Remelia said she has already made my suit for combat. I feel like this is all a waste of money.

Speaking of money, I find it a little frustrating how much everyone throws their money at anything.

They all must be rich or something.

They never stop buying things or replacing things that aren’t even that broken.

Norian says that Kane likes to have everything looking its best.

We are now in a line to buy the clothes at the front of the store.

Again, I am weirded out by how easily we could just grab everything and run out the door. There aren’t any guards or anything here! Yet we stand here and wait for our turn.

Apparently there is only one worker in this giant store that can take care of everyone’s purchases.

A little strange.

She must be very wealthy to be able to sell all these clothes.

“Next!” The worker calls.

Remelia walks up and dumps the giant bundle of clothes on the table.

The woman gives a small sigh and starts shooting it all with a laser.

It doesn’t burn a hole into the clothes however. Must be a light.

I hear voices of the three humans from before behind us now.

I flick one of my ears back to better listen to them.

“Oh gross. The alien fag is back,” one says.

“I don’t know. It’s following the butch fish one. Maybe she is his little master?” Another giggles.

“Nah, he got crop tops and he’s wearing makeup. Definitely a fag,” The first voice answers.

What in the world is a fag?

I reach forward and poke Remelia’s shoulder.

“Remelia, what’s a fag?” I ask and tilt my head in question.

The worker stuffing the clothes in bags pauses for a second and looks at me as if I am some sad child.

Remelia looks at me confused, then she looks behind me and practically fumes fire from her nose.

“Excuse me a second,” She smiles to the worker and then walks past me to the human group.

They seem to get scared and try to walk away but she follows.

They get out of earshot and I don’t hear anything she is whispering to them.

She doesn’t look angry. She looks pretty calm honestly. However she must be saying some scary things because each of their faces begin to pale and then they are nodding their heads frantically.

She turns and walks back to pay.

Remelia flashes me a smile and then we leave.

“What was that?” I grab two of the bags.

There are six giant bags. I am a little annoyed after realizing this all much have cost too much money.

“Oh nothing you should worry about,” She grins and carries the four other bags with ease.

We arrive at a restaurant that smells incredibly sweet.

What is that amazing smell?

I let my nose follow its way to a glass case.

Under the case are strange...puddings, of different colors.

Being closer now, it feels a lot colder than before.

“What is it?” I point and turn to Remelia.

She grins and drops the bags at a table near the front.

“That is ice cream! Choose whatever flavor you want. Just not the orange or yellow one. Those are citrus and I don’t want another birthday disaster.”

I nod and decide on a really pretty white one that has little blue and pink dots in it.

Remelia pays for two cups for each of us and we sit at a table.

She takes a bite out of hers and then motions for me to eat mine. I get a small amount on a spoon and sink my teeth into it.

Suddenly, a sharp pain spikes into my teeth and spreads to my head.

I drop my spoon and grip my head.

The weird slightly painful feeling goes away rather quickly.

“Wha-what was that?” I glare at Remelia, who has a smug grin on her face.

She bursts out laughing.

“I believe that would be a brain freeze.” She laughs behind her hand and then offers me a new spoon.

“Don’t bite into it. It’s good I promise.”

I frown but try again without biting it.

It’s a lot better and the taste is absolutely heavenly!

I immediately scoop up as much as I can into my mouth.

“No don’t do that! You’ll get another brain freeze.” She laughs but then offers her ice cream. “Here. You can try some of mine.”

It's a brown ice cream.

I don’t exactly want to try it because it looks like a certain disgusting substance.

“It’s chocolate,” She says with a push.

I get a bit on my spoon and sniff it.

Nothing I recognize.

I lick and I swear something in my brain short-circuits.

I don’t know what comes over me, but I think I found possibly the best food in the entire universe!

Remelia must have noticed this because she orders a bunch of little chocolates wrapped in weird metal sheets.

I ate them all.

I think I may have discovered an addiction.

Remelia keeps pushing it onto me. She bought even more!

I eat so much that I feel like I am going to throw up!

I love her for it!

When we finally arrive at the house, I have a giant bag of chocolates to take with me on the ship.

~~

“Come on, Mekaias. Lift me!”

Remy is standing in front of me with pillows and blankets strapped to his body. He looks like a walking cloud.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?" I frown. "What if you get hurt?”

He wants me to blast him into the air to 'fly.'

“Yes, yes, it’ll be fine," He waves it off. "We have these pillows here to soften the blow in case I fall. Now hit me!”

He readies himself and grins down at me.

I sigh and with a wave of my hand, a blast of purple energy pushes Remy high into the air.

He gives a yelp and starts laughing when he is in the air.

I try and concentrate and make purple chains that go around his wrists, ankles, and hips. They help me level his body in the air and I make him float around the training room.

He actually does look like he’s flying and clearly he is enjoying himself!

I twirl him around in the air and flip him this way and that. He laughs and screams with some slightly scarier dives.

“This is the best thing ever!” He shouts.

I laugh and make him float around faster.

A boom of a door opening startles me and I almost drop Remy.

I steady myself and lower him gently to the ground.

He gives a groan at me ending his fun.

I giggle and look over to who came inside.

It’s George!

He gives me a smile and turns to the pool as always.

He hasn’t really spoken to me anymore. I try and talk to him and he always comes up with some excuse to get away from me.

I hope I haven’t offended him in any way.

“I’m going to hangout with George for a bit!" I say to Remy. "I’ll see you later.”

I give him a hug and walk over to watch George swim. I sadly don’t have a bathing suit to join him.

“Hey, Mekaias.” George nods in my direction and moves himself into the middle of the pool.

I sink my legs into the water and sit on the edge.

“Hi George! How have you been? We haven’t spoken in forever,” I smile and lean back to rest on my hands.

“Yeah it’s been awhile," He says as he moves to rest his arms next to me. "Sorry if I seemed like I was pushing you away, just been super busy talking with an old friend recently.

"What have you been up to these days?" He pushes off the edge and floats on his back. "You know we are leaving tonight right? I would expect you to be getting ready instead of messing around in here.”

We are leaving on a gigantic metal ship that is supposed to carry us deep into space.

I’ve been in a pretty good mood all day because I only a small peek of it when we traveled from Utrio to Earth!

Finally being able to really take it in will be fun!

“Oh I am already packed and ready! I am just passing time with Remy while Norian and Remelia are talking to Kane.”

At the mention of Norian, George’s smile fades away.

I tried asking Norian why they can’t just get along. All I was told from Norian is that George is an asshole. George just says that Norian is a jerk who is full of himself and takes the spotlight from everyone.

I personally don’t see either of them that way.

“Are you packed and ready then? Will Poofs be joining us as well?” I scrunch my nose while talking about that ugly house cat.

It’s so ugly.

He laughs and shakes his head. “Poofs stays here on Earth. I have a few things to pack, but I need to talk to my friend first. I was going to take a swim while I wait for his call, but I am fine with talking with you.”

He winks and pulls himself out the water to sit next to me.

“I discovered chocolate yesterday,” I grin and pull some out of my pocket and offer him some. He laughs and takes one.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” I say as I shove one in my mouth and enjoy the smooth sweetness of it.

“I hate to break it to you, but I think you have an addiction already.” He chuckles and eats his piece.

“I won’t fight it,” I giggle and stand up to leave. “I’ll leave you to swim. I don’t want to bother you. We really should talk more.”

I wave and turn to walk away.

“Yeah we should.” He calls out. “I’ll try and make more time for it.”

I know we barely talked this time. The wink he gave me only made me a little uncomfortable.

I tend to try and keep away from things that do that now.

Like mirrors.

I haven’t looked in a mirror ever since Lucain freed me.

It’s not that I don’t want to see myself, well that’s probably a small part, but the bigger reason is because the masters would get a mirror and make me watch as they did things to me. Be it cuts or other things. Mirrors bring those memories back and I don’t want those.

Lately it’s been hard not seeing them flash in my mind when I close my eyes.

Sometimes it could be because I happen to see something or someone that reminds me of the masters. Red hair is a big one that tends to make me think of King Talemo.

Apparently I have 'episodes' based on what the neighborhood doctor says.

They are a little scary because I forget where I am and I find myself living in a small scene where it almost feels like I am back in that cage.

Norian must be able to realize when I have an episode. He calmly whispers in my ear and rubs my back or cheek. Eventually it brings me back, then he holds me and after awhile, I feel like I am safe again.

I had told him that I should sleep alone.

We still haven’t slept a night away from each other.

I still get scared that I’ll wake up and find that I have hurt him or worse.

Because of this I don’t sleep. I wait for him to think I am sleeping and then when I feel he is, I get up and go to the training room.

I close a door off in the middle of the training room and sit in my ring. I don’t even spin.

All I really do is sit there and wait it out. I don’t know what I am waiting for, but I wait.

If I feel like something is going to happen, I tie my hands up to something and wait for whatever is to come.

Nothing ever does.

If I see the sun beginning to rise in the giant window, I walk back to the house and get back into bed with Norian.

When he wakes, I fake sleep until he leaves.

If I’m lucky I will actually pass out.

This happens every night now.

How I am going to do it on a ship in the middle of space will be interesting.

~~

It is a little weird to see the stars moving as we fly along in space.

Unfortunately Norian and I are sharing a room.

While that probably sounds bad, I must say that I really don’t like the idea of having my mind taken over in a metal thing floating in the middle of space.

So many bad things could happen!

I am trying my best not to think about it and enjoy the fact that I am finally doing something I’ve always wanted to do.

The tiny pit of fear still resides inside me though.

The room Norian and I have been assigned has a gigantic window on one end of the wall that shows everything outside the ship. I’ve practically had my face glued to it ever since we left. Norian even helped me move the bed to be right next to it!

Watching all the dots move as we cruise past is so beautiful!

There are even some different planets that we go by that are all different colors I've never seen!

I feel a weight fall on the bed next to me.

“Dinner is served!” Norian grins and places a tray of food onto my lap.

I eat but keep my eyes on the window.

He laughs next to me.

“I was the same the first time I left my planet," He says as he presses a kiss to my shoulder. "It is rather beautiful isn’t it? I still love watching it now even after all these years.

I lean back and rest against him, “I’m glad I met you! I know Kane had a lot to do with it too, but I’m happy to have met you and the squad. It’s like I have another family! I lost my family and now I have a new one. I don’t feel so alone anymore!”

I smile and lean up to kiss his cheek.

He looks at me with food in his mouth and his cheeks look all puffy.

I laugh a little and hug his arm.

He swallows his food in a loud gulp.

“I would say sorry for this but I still refuse to apologize for it!” He leans over and grabs my face in his hands, “I love you so much, Mekaias.”

I just smile as he kisses me softly on the lips. I kiss back and then pull away.

“I do too," I blush. "I’ve never really said it to anyone but my mom.”

After saying that, I realize how lame that must sound. It makes my face burn.

Norian gives me the biggest smile and pulls me into a tight hug.

“Oh god, you're going to make me cry!" He kisses all over my face. "Also you’re super cute when you blush!”

I laugh and then we move to get under the covers.

I feel something in the pocket of my shorts and then I remember I have chocolate. I reach down and try and open the wrapper under the sheets.

“Mekaias?”

I look up at him but keep trying to open the wrapper.

“Are..are you doing what I think you’re doing?” He lifts the sheets and his face goes blank before he bursts out laughing.

“I’m opening a chocolate bar,” I smile and lift it up.

I snap it in half and offer it to him.

He keeps laughing and takes it.

“For a moment I thought you were touching yourself while I was in the bed with you,” He shakes his head, still laughing and wraps an arm around me.

I grin and turn to rest my forehead on his chest. “Of course not! I just found chocolate in my shorts and opened it.”

He rubs a hand up and down my back.

“Yeah Remelia told me about your new chocolate addiction. Don’t eat too much or you’ll get sick.” He pauses for a moment and then says, “can you get sick?”

I nod and finish my half of the chocolate bar.

“I’ve been sick," I shrug. "It’s not exactly fun. My body tries to get rid of it as fast as it can and so it gets a bit severe.”

“Should I be worried? We wouldn’t need to go to a hospital would we?”

“No of course not. I’ll be fine. I just let it happen and wait to get better.”

“That...doesn’t sound smart but if you say so. I’ll take care of you when you’re sick.” He pulls me closer to him but then he tries to turn me around. “You should watch the stars! Let them put you to sleep. It’s very relaxing.”

He does sound a bit sleepy himself. He has probably been watching them this whole time.

I have my back to him and he has both arms around me.

He leans down and kisses the middle of my head. “Sweet dreams, Mekaias.”

At that I frown.

“Sweet dreams, Norian.” I keep my eyes on the stars passing by.

Norian’s breathing eventually evens out and then I am left to think if I should leave.

I take a deep breath and then start counting down as many stars as I can that pass.

I keep counting until I finally go to sleep.