Soul Mate Service (boyxboy)

Chapter 24

THIRD PERSON POV

Aria held his cheeks between warm palms as he walked down the corridor, trying to hide the pink, flushed flesh behind thin fingers. "I really don't know what's happening Andrea, but something's just... different!"

Said redhead just raised a wary brow at her friend's statement as they strode side-by-side.

Andrea had been surprised to find a message from Thaddeus on her tablet at the end of the day, practically begging her to walk Aria back to their Housing Pod after he was notified of being assigned to overtime at the Construction Unit. Considering Aria was one of her closest friends, Andrea didn't have a problem with helping out, but the desperation evident in the message had thrown her a bit off-kilter.

Andrea didn't like Thaddeus. Based on the stories Aria told her every day during Nutritional Period, she didn't trust the cocky prick as far as she could throw him – hence the reason she'd gone to The Elders about his despicable behavior in the first place. But lately, to her absolute shock and surprise, the man had been acting... well, weird, for lack of a better term.

Kindness. It was far from a characteristic that the brutish man possessed, and yet over the past week and a half, that was all he'd shown toward Aria. The drastic shift in behavior was baffling to say the least, and doubt was a sharp twist in her gut as she prayed that her naive friend wasn't being taken advantage of in some covertly sinister way.

"I sure hope so, Ari." Andrea sighed heavily as the pair rounded the corner, the door to Aria's Housing Pod now in clear view at the end of the corridor. "Just know that I'm here for you, okay? You can tell me anything." She finished, sincerity lacing her tone.

Aria glanced up at his friend, finally allowing his fingers to drop from his cheeks in favor of twisting them nervously in front of his body. "... Anything?"

Andrea's eyes widened at Aria's suggestive tone, and she suddenly yanked her friend out of the flow of foot traffic and into an alcove just big enough to fit the both of them.

"Spill."

"Andrea!" Aria scolded after muttering a quick 'sorry!' to a Society Member who almost tripped due to their quick exodus. "It..." He glanced back into the flow of traffic, trying to avert his gaze from his persuasive friend as he whispered, cheeks reddening once more. "It's... nothing, really."

"Oh cut the crap," The redhead crossed her arms, "I'm not blind, you know. I'll accept an 'I don't really want to talk about it yet,' but there's obviously something on your mind that you're dying to share."

Gnawing gently on his lip, Aria shuffled from foot to foot as he contemplated his options.

Technically, the Elders hadn't told him that he couldn't tell anyone about their... situation. And as every day cut deeper, passing like a scalpel across his skin, it taunted as it whispered, reminding him that they were running terrifyingly low on time.

Ignoring it simply wasn't working anymore, and now, he yearned to share this burden with at least one other person. Someone who wasn't directly involved, someone who could maybe even give him some advice.

Sex and reproduction were something that was heavily touched on in upper level Instructional, and Aria – like the exemplary student he was – paid attention to every second of every lecture, no matter how hard he had to rub his thighs together under his desk to get through it without passing out from embarrassment. But regardless, the idea of actually putting that knowledge to real, hands-on use was...

Aria squeaked out his concern, stomach filling with a million butterflies as his mouth flew open. "I have to have sex with Thad by the end of the week!" The words were a terse whisper, and came out so quickly that they sounded more like a single word than a sentence.