seaycee (A Collection of Short Stories)

Compatible 1/?.

P.S. Future Hanna here, highkey given up on this but if I think of anything I'll be back, promise lol

edited :)

"Are you nervous?"

The question was cast aloud out of the blue, but it had long plagued her mind, like an irritating pest; chomping and unraveling tender nerves.

Turning her head, she faced the boy who lay beside her.

Her bestfriend. Her love.

The two lay side by side beneath the cover of the environment regulation dome, on her part, dreading the arrival of dawn. The coming morning would bring with it possibly destructive change.

She watched as he rolled to face her, a smile, hers alone, tipping his mouth upwards. The dimples she adored appeared in his cheeks.

She dragged a finger across them, outlining the dents before trailing his lips. Catching her hand, he places a kiss to her palm, settling their joint hands on the blanket.

"Why would I be nervous? Everyone already knows what the reading will say, but most importantly we know" he murmured, eyes unknowingly flashing with heat at the thought of what the day would bring.

The laws were simple.

Kill none, do no wrong. Do that, and you will successfully avoid death by execution.

Laws that, according to the history books of Old, had been reintroduced after the dark period, where a tyrant president of Old America had started a nuclear war, resulting in the death of almost the worlds entire population. The survivors had worked for centuries to build a sustainable society, manufacturing technology that would rebuild the infrastructure of the savaged planet that had almost died with its inhabitants, protecting those who were left. Those survivors formed the Potestas Council of the New World, the governing body of New America, devising the laws they lived by.

And they were simple, for the most part. Kill none, do no wrong.

Then there was the law of compatibility.

The history books of New claimed the law was proposed by council member Gregor Mendel, a scientist of genetics who devised a law of compatibility, matching couples through selective breeding that would ensure the strongest genetic traits were successfully passed down generations.

On the dawn of each day, those celebrating their 18th birthday would attend the reading ceremony, where they would be advised their match. The ceremony was privy only to council members and the selected guests of each birthday celebrant. The age difference between a match could be no greater or less than 2 years. If one matchee was not yet of age, the match became pending, announced officially on the day the younger became of age. Those who failed to match became an Isolated, the matched became the Compatibles.

And those who paired outside of the law of compatibility were sentenced to death.

She was nervous. She'd never admit it, but she was.

He was perfect in almost every way, athletic and intelligent, talented in almost everything he attempted. And beautiful. A face created through careful genetic matching, he was chiselled with high rounded cheekbones, lips full and dimples that were both innocent and alluring. It was stupid to worry. A blind person could see their compatibility without needing to examine their genetics, their chemistry was tangible, their awareness of each other a wire that connected them.

"You're right, you know I just worry about everything," she said flippantly, brushing the nerves away to be examined at a later date.

"Tomorrow we start a new chapter, we'll be official Compatibles and be able to do anything we want" he grinned, releasing her hand to tap a finger to the tip of her nose.