Mekaias and Norian - 3. Zafiro

Mekaias

The doorbell rings.

I frown and pause my music.

Norian should be at work right now. I know Remy is out on a mission and Remelia is sick.

She wouldn’t come here would she? That seems a bit strange.

The doorbell rings again and then I hear a knock.

Quickly, I put on a shirt and some shorts before making my way downstairs.

“Hello?” A voice calls. “Is anybody home?”

I do not think I know this voice.

“Piggie, are you sure this is the right house?” The voice says.

I unlock all the locks on the door. There are about four separate locks that Norian installed.

When I open the door, I am greeted to a man that is about my height. That alone weirds me out. I haven’t met many people recently, but finding someone who is my height is definitely a first.

They have tan skin, dark hair, black eyeliner, and they are wearing sunglasses.

They wear a black jacket, a blue shirt, and tight jeans. The person also has a mask around their neck that looks like the ones used by doctors.

“Oh, hello!” They smile and slide their glasses into their hair. “My name is Raul.” He extends his hand.

This person has the strangest blue eyes I have ever seen. They almost look fake. They are a dark blue, but their color isn’t at all died down like regular eyes.

I narrow my eyes and stare at their hand. “Who are you?”

Raul drops his hand. “I was sent by Norian to clean your house.” He bends down to pick up a bag of cleaning supplies. “I hope you don’t mind. I really could use the money.”

Oh. Well if Norian trusts him, then I might as well let this person in.

“Oh, sorry for being rude.” I say and step back, “Come on in.”

Raul smiles and walks in with his bag.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” I ask.

He reaches into his bag and pulls out some rubber gloves. “No you can just do whatever you want. I can handle this.”

I nod and not knowing what else to do, I go upstairs and back to the gym.

I press play on my music, then get back into my dancing.

Aileta has been sending me music from Utrio. Apparently people have begun to make more music there. That makes me pretty happy honestly.

There have been moments recently where I have been missing my planet.

Obviously Utrio is not at all where I should be, but I can’t help but miss Aileta and Arnio.

U.U.P.P. has freed Utrio from most of the Firelight influence. There are the few that still want to keep the slavery and executions, but there are more that wish for peace. If only this had happened a lot sooner. I doubt I wouldn’t have gone through much of this.

Then again, It is because of me that Firelight fell.

Tanner’s death was like a spark of flame that led to the end of firelight. It burned away all that was left over.

Their Captains were giving us all the locations of their bases, and they helped us end any remaining secret operations that they had.

My new friends from Firelight, Tony, Dozer, and Alicia, they have been busy working on any possible runaway Captains and Officers.

They do not really keep in touch with me. My guess is that it has something to do with how we managed to meet.

In time, I hope we can all become true friends. Well, I like to think that Alicia and I could have been good friends at least.

I just had a great idea!

What if I were to visit Aileta and Arnio? Surely that would be nice. I haven’t them in forever, maybe in about a year.

Using the holovids to chat is not exactly the same as meeting with a person face to face. I want to see them so I can hug them.

Of course Norian would come. He has to. Aileta is pretty much my living mother, so in that case, Norian should meet her. Again.

Well, did they really meet the first time? I do not remember them ever speaking to each other.

I just know that Aileta and Kane were arguing about what to do with me.

Kane.

I stop dancing and move towards the window.

That is one of those things that bring back a lot of bad memories.

It has taken a lot of pushing in myself to say that I did not kill Kane. I know that I was under the control of Enyod, but it does not help that I vaguely remember the feeling of killing Kane.

I close my eyes and just let the music try to keep me here.

My therapist says it is best to try and latch onto things that ground me into reality. Before, I found that stupid and impossible. Now, It is stupid that I have to do it, but it is no longer impossible.

It is all just bad memories, Mekaias. They are all in the past.

Should I check on the cleaner man? Raul was their name.

I wonder what that means?

Walking out of the gym, I see that the door to my room is open.

I frown. Are cleaners even allowed to go in there? I feel like they aren’t.

Raul has his mask on and is cleaning off the bedside table.

When he sees me his eyes smile.

“May I help you?” He says.

I just purse my lips and shake my head.

“Would you like a glass of water?” I ask, trying to play it off as if I was not snooping in on him.

He shakes his head, “No I am fine. I’ve got my own water.” He pats a water bottle that is attached to the belt on his hip.

I nod and move to leave him alone.

Maybe I am just being mean. I should not just assume the first person I am going to me is bad. Well, I can, but there have been a lot more nice people lately.

Instead I go downstairs and treat myself to a glass of water and a cookie.

I notice that the dirty dishes have still been left to clean.

While everything in me is screaming to clean it myself, shouldn’t this person be doing it instead?

Why did Norian hire a house cleaner? This is just lazy. We always clean up after ourselves. Sure we have been sick, but we do not need someone else to clean everything up. It is just weird and lazy.

I will have to speak to him about this when he gets home.

Also, shouldn’t Raul have done the dishes by now? He was down here but these have just been left here. Maybe he is saving them for last? I know I do that too.

Walking around downstairs, I start to notice that Raul missed out on a lot of things.

The carpet is crooked and the couch is making it ruffle up. There are crumbs on the carpet, a couple of beer bottles left by Norian on the floor. The coffee table has finger smudges.

Raul should have cleaned all this by now. What has he been doing all this time?

I want to get onto him, but I feel like that would be mean. What if this is his first day on the job? I don’t want to make him feel bad.

Biting my lip, unsure of what to do, I end up deciding to help him out and clean up whatever he missed.

I throw away the beer bottles, get a wet rag to wipe off the tables, I even vacuum to get the crumbs out of the carpet.

When I get everything clean in the living room, I walk over to the kitchen and clean all the dishes.

This makes me feel a little better honestly. I like cleaning things my way. This is just makes me realize that some people are not at all good at cleaning stuff.

Whoever hired Raul must have done it because they feel bad or something.

Speaking of, Raul makes his way downstairs and when he sees me he freezes, looks around the living room and kitchen, then frowns.

“Why did you clean everything?” He says, “I wanted to start from the top and then make my way down. Then I wouldn’t be bothering you.”

Oh…

“Uh,” I pull on my fingers. “Sorry? I’ll still get Norian to pay you! I promise.”

Raul raises an eyebrow but slowly nods. “Right. Well, I just wanted to know if you have any other rooms that will need my attention?”

There is the secret bunker room, but I doubt Norian would want a regular cleaner like Raul to know about that.

“No, there aren’t any other rooms.” I simply say.

Raul nods and then makes his way back upstairs.

Well now I feel bad.

Should I apologize? I feel like what I did is seen as rude.

I am going to apologize.

Making my way upstairs, I find Raul in the bathroom organizing everything.

“Hey, I just wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you were doing awful at your job.” I say.

Raul raises an eyebrow and smirks. “You think I am mad about that? I would actually thank you for making me do less than I needed to do.”

I bite my lip and nod.

I guess that is the bright side for him.

“You know, it is not everyday you get to meet the famous Alentian, but I know nobody has ever gotten him to do their job for them.” He chuckles.

I roll my eyes and smile. “Well, I just happen to be rather nice.”

“I would assume so.” He says, “After all, you saved an entire civilization from going extinct. I think that would make you one of the nicest people out there.”

Raul squats down to look into the cabinets.

“Maybe,” I say. “I am sure others would have done it if they could.”

“Yes, but only you can do what you do.”

Honestly, this feels like I am talking to Norian and Aileta. They constantly say things like this when I don’t really care to hear them.

Just let me forget about those moments and let's move on with our lives. It only brings bitter memories and I do not like it.

I leave Raul alone and walk downstairs. Mostly because the chemicals in the supplies he was using were getting to me.

Maybe I can convince Norian to pay Raul extra? I somehow think that isn’t really needed.

Why am I so hungover this? Raul sounded pretty amused and fine with what I did. I just need to calm down and eat some damn cookies.

I do just that.

I eat a whole line of cookies and also watch a movie.

Around halfway through the movie, I end up falling asleep.

~~~
~~~

Norian

“Mekaias! I’m home!” I say with a box under my arm.

Boy do I have the biggest surprise for him!

I find Mekaias in the living room with the tv on. He is asleep and a packet of cookies sits next to him.

I smile and move over to lean down and kiss him on the lips.

Mekaias’ eyes flutter open and he smiles when he sees me.

He pulls me down and kisses me again.

“I missed you.” He says with a stretch and squeak.

“I missed you too,” I grin and plop next to him.

Setting the box next to me, I wrap my arms around Mekaias and pull him in for a big kiss on his cheek.

He laughs and runs his fingers through my hair.

“What’s in the box?” He asks.

I open it and pull out a special device.

“It is a machine that allows us to literally go inside different virtual worlds and have all kinds of fun.” I say with a smile.

“Virtual worlds? That sounds dangerous.” He says.

I laugh. “No it’s not real. It’ll be fun! We can get a bunch of people together and we can have a little party out of it.”

Mekaias smirks and kisses my cheek. “You’re cute when you get excited.”

I feel a blush coming on and I try to look anywhere but him.

Instantly something feels odd.

“Did you move things around?” I ask.

Mekaias frowns. “No?”

I stand and stare an empty wall. I am pretty sure something was hanging there before.

“Wasn’t there a painting on this wall?” I ask.

Mekaias moves to stand next to me. “I think so? Maybe the house cleaner you sent cleaned it.”

“House cleaner?” I exclaim. “I never sent a house cleaner.”

Mekaias stares at me for a moment before he bolts up the stairs. I chase after him.

When we reach out room, we find that we have indeed been stolen from.

The painting that hangs over out bed is gone, the planetarium that Mekaias got me for Christmas is gone, and the safe that holds some of our money is gone.

“I...I let a thief into our home.” Mekaias facepalms and sits on the bed.

~~~
~~~

Zafiro

“Here you go, Piggie.” I say with a smile.

“You have some balls, kid.” Piggie says with a laugh. “Stealing from the Alentian and Metonian takes a lot of balls.”

I just shrug and hold my hand out for my cut.

Piggie chuckles before handing me about six hundred dollars.

“Thank you!” I smile and turn to walk away.