Soul Mate Service (boyxboy)

Chapter 5

Third Person POV

| A  F E W  D A Y S  L A T E R |

"Attention, Society members: the time is now four o' clock PM. Daily Schedules are now terminated, and Free Period has now commenced. Nightly weekday curfew will commence at 10:00 PM. Those found out after curfew will be punished as Society laws regulate. Enjoy your Free Periods and remember, long live The Society of the People." 

Thaddeus Axton leisurely made his way towards the AirLift at the end of another long day of Construction Unit Training. He chatted playfully with the man beside him named Mitty, the two large males laughing at something as they entered the glass structure. About a week had passed since Thaddeus's kitchen altercation with his mandated Soulmate, and since then they had begun to work themselves into a steady routine of avoiding one another. 

Well, the avoidance was mostly his Soulmate's doing. 

Over the past week the smaller male developed a habit of crying himself to sleep, wondering what he had done to make his Soulmate hate him so. He still only slept on a little sliver on the edge of the bed, a small part of him tried to hold out on hope that one day, he might wake up to Thaddeus sleeping next to him. However, as the days passed Aria found himself waking every day to nothing more than stale, filtered air and a feeling of loneliness that he found it hard to shake.

Aria still felt an overwhelming sense of guilt about making Thaddeus get a strike on his record, even though he still had no idea what he'd done to cause it. Regardless, he tried his best to please his Soulmate, staying out of his way as much as he could as he feared Thad would get angry at him again. 

Angry Thad scared the smaller boy worse than anything he'd ever seen.

To accomplish this, Aria began waking up at around four AM every day to make breakfast and both of their lunches. Afterwards, he would iron Thaddeus's Construction Unit uniform until he was sure that he'd gotten every single little wrinkle out of the fabric. Aria would then leave all three of those things on the glass coffee table that sat in front of the couch - the one that Thaddeus slept on every night - along with a small note in his lunch wishing him a good day. 

Aria always allowed himself a few moments after finishing all of his tasks to sneak a glance of his Soulmate as he slept. The curls on top of the larger man's head were always a little frizzy and a bit of drool usually escaped the corner of his mouth during his night sleep, but Aria didn't care. To him, the larger man was absolutely perfect.

Aria would then pack up his Occupational Training bag full of all of the fun activities that he'd planned for the kiddos that he loved teaching so much, and then leave the Housing Pod. The smaller boy struggled to get everything done in just an hour and a half at first, but as the week went on he had expertly mastered the art of completing all of his tasks in a timely manner, leaving the Housing Pod before the digi-windows even had a chance to show the morning light, and - more importantly - before Thaddeus woke up.

Little did the innocent boy know, Thaddeus was making his own habits as well, though they did not come from the same, kind part of his heart such as Aria's did. Thaddeus's habits consisted of throwing the breakfast and lunch that Aria made him down the chute to the incinerator after reading Aria's daily notes, each of which filled him with more fury and contempt towards the smaller man. 

Thaddeus always seemed to be in a state of frustration over the past week. The man found himself on edge of an angry outburst all of the time, only being able to relax when saw his best friend during Lunch Period, or when they walked back to their Housing Pods together after their shared Occupational Training. His friend was a welcome distraction to the reality of his life at the moment, a reality of which Thad still wished would somehow be exposed as some kind of cruel joke.