InterGalaxia (On Hold)

1.14

Lei Yang's heart dropped as he spied the man through the eyeglass. The magnified image of Edris Sawyer was waiting patiently for Lei Yang to open the door. His roving eye caught sight of the eyeglass and stared at it. Lei Yang's breath caught and his fingers fumbled to open the lock. Sticking his head around the door, Lei Yang questioned Edris with his stare. Edris leaned his hand on the door and used his sheer weight difference to Lei Yang to barge into the apartment. Walking up the couch, he took a seat without much care for the apartment owner. "Yes, why don't you come, guest?" Lei Yang grit sarcastically through his teeth.

 Deciding the silence was suffocating, Lei Yang turned on his Bluetooth speaker tower in the corner and set up his music playlist to shuffle. The bass of the song created a slightly more atmospheric vibe to the room, the silence replaced with the boppy song. Lei Yang sat in the recliner to the right of the couch and turned his stare to his uninvited guest. "Mr.Sawyer, is your watch working? If so, then kindly note the time because it's rude to barge into people's apartment at such an hour". Edris smiled and leaned back into the couch. "It's not like you were asleep, seeing as you are wide-eyed and bushy-tailed" he simply pointed out. Lei Yang narrowed his eyes to glare at the man. "Anyway, I came to apologise for my ignorance the other day. I looked up the terms you mentioned and realised why you were miffed. I have been home-schooled my whole life, only taught what my parents deemed necessary, so terms not in my immediate vocabulary make it rather difficult to understand at face value. I took everything you said as it literally was so I am sorry about that" Edris apologised with a serious face. Lei Yang hummed in acceptance and used his thumb and forefinger to rub his bottom lip in thought.

 "What I'm confused about is why you even approached me in the first place. You've probably heard of me from connections in different social circles, as for the last couple years I have made my rounds and made myself known throughout the city. I understand that but the type of business I participate in is completely different from the business you conduct. Usually, our types of businesses don't collaborate in any way, what made you seek me out?" Lei Yang laid his doubts on the table on the surface, though he was already cognizant of why Edris was trying to stick to him like a bad smell. Edris smiled briefly before leaning his body in Lei Yang's direction, his eyes staring into Lei Yang's with a strange glint. "What if I said I want to be your friend, so I want to be close to you?" Edris posed. Lei Yang cocked a brow in wonder. "Mr.Sawyer - no, Edris - we can be friends but that's no way to go about establishing ties. You could have set yourself up for failure if I actually took your suggestion on board and it went downhill. Though I'm not too sure about your sudden need for friendship, I will for now, reluctantly accept it" Lei yang gave in after thinking about it. Edris smiled brightly and relaxed back into the couch. "You're much too smart to set me up, it doesn't benefit you, so even if I was ignorant, you'd still decline my offer" Edris offered his explanation. "You hold too much trust in a stranger such as myself. Though it is flattering, it could also be your downfall" Lei Yang muttered quietly. Edris shrugged his shoulders, not denying nor affirming Lei Yang's statement. 

Since he accepted his friendship, Lei Yang decided to get to know Edris so they talked for a few hours about everything and nothing in particular. Lei Yang's eyes were drooping at 5 a.m. so he showed Edris the spare bedroom and then went to sleep. Edris sat on the edge of the queen bed, softly stroking the mint green duvet with his head in the clouds, unknown thoughts passing through his mind. Waking up at 12 p.m., Lei Yang unwillingly roused himself from the bed and stumbled into the kitchen to cook breakfast. Edris felt Lei Yang's soul force stir to signify that he was awake and his uncrossed his legs from the lotus position and left the room for the kitchen. Lei Yang was busying himself in the kitchen making breakfast. Since Lei Yang found himself in a body again, he has been perpetually more hungry than he was in his original body. He keenly observed that when his soul force became stronger, he grew hungrier and hungrier. He put it down to the more he intakes energy and uses his own to consolidate it; the more his body needs a supply of energy to fill in the gaps, ergo the increased food intake. Now that he's confirmed that Edris is also a mercenary, he needed to supply more food to feed them both. The song 'Money for Nothing' by Dire Straits was blaring from the speaker tower, Lei Yang mumbling the lyrics under his breath as he prepped for cooking. When he first arrived, he noticed a lot of parallels between Earth and this world, mostly with music, movies and Internet culture but there was a lot of differences as well. He didn't care so much and just enjoyed what he could. The song switched to the music number from the movie 'Anastasia', 'In the Dark of the Night'.

Greasing a tin foiled oven tray, Lei Yang puts the sausages in the oven to bake, putting the bacon strips on the rack above the tray so the bacon grease drips can help flavour and spread a golden hue to the sausages while they are cooking. Turning on the frying pan on the stove top, Lei Yang put a knob of butter in the pan with some chopped sun-dried tomatoes, cracking the eggs into the same pan. As the song grew to a crescendo, Lei Yang made his movements exaggerated to match the dramatic music. As he was dancing, Edris watched on in amusement.

Taking some peeled potato shavings, Lei Yang coated them in an egg wash and a light dusting of flour, salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Making vague patties out of the potato shavings, Lei Yang stuck them in the egg and tomato pan to cook them into hash browns. On the last note of the song, Lei Yang flicked his wrist like he was conducting an orchestra, pretending to lay down his baton, he flicked the switch on the kettle, starting to boil the water. Placing two large mugs of coffee on the side ready to go, Lei Yang moved in time to the music as the next song started playing. It was 'Once Upon a December' from the same movie soundtrack. As Lei Yang danced in circles around the kitchen table and floating across to the different kitchen appliances to keep an eye on the cooking food. Crossing his hands across his chest to hold his arms and swaying to the music, Lei Yang was envisioning what he could remember from the movie.

 Finally feeling Edris' presence, Lei Yang told him to get the milk without looking at the man, still humming along to the song. The milk silently appeared on the bench next to the mugs and Edris stood behind Lei Yang, causing his back to stiffen. "How did you know I was here when I didn't make a sound nor did you turn to look at me?" he breathed down Lei Yang's neck, causing him to shiver. Lei Yang was wholly concentrated on cooking the breakfast and dancing, he didn't acknowledge the man at all. Wiping his hands on his apron, Lei Yang slid past Edris to pour the boiled water into the mugs. "Ever since I was young, I had this kind of sixth sense. I can tell when someone is around me. Even if you don't believe me, it's still true so don't look at me like I'm crazy" Lei Yang made up a believable excuse. 

Even though he had trained his soul force to copy ordinary people's, he still subconsciously released a more than average amount of soul force. Using this to his advantage, he made it seem like he was innately different but not in a way that would be unbelievable to a mercenary. Edris nodded his head in agreement, thinking that it was an acceptable excuse. As soul force itself exists and mercenaries possessed control over it, who says that normal people of the worlds he visits can't have strange abilities due to possessing more soul force than other world inhabitants? However, he hasn't absolved his suspicion of Lei Yang as of yet. He needed definitive proof that the man wasn't a mercenary. He wasn't sure why he absolutely needed to know if he was or wasn't the same as him, he just felt that it was necessary to be aware of other mercenaries. It was an instinctual reaction that came from nowhere but he trusted it completely as it made sense in his mind.

 Lei Yang took the toast out of the toaster and plopped it on the readying plates to be buttered, the tomatoes and eggs already plated. Taking the sausages and bacon out of the oven, he used a paper towel to pat them dry. Once everything was on the plate, Lei Yang set up the table. Turning down the music until it was quiet background noise, the two got stuck into their breakfast.