Mission Zero

--Day 3--

River

Aaron had shifted a lot of us around for sleeping arrangements. I mean, I wasn’t complaining- I didn’t have to sleep by myself now. Denise was really fun too! She knew a lot about makeup and I let her play around with my hair last night.

Anubis had made an announcement about the changes, and there was also a projection about it on the recently set up TV that looked something like this:

Room 1: Josh-Chad

Room 2: Amber-Jamie

Room 3: Aaron-Benny

Room 4: Maxi-Sora

Room 5: River-Denise

Room 6: Jacob

Room 7: Envy

Nobody was complaining- well, except for Envy. I didn’t like him, not in the slightest- he was always being a perv and making anyone who was even remotely feminine uncomfortable. He was apparently upset to have a room by himself- Hah! That’s what he gets for being gross.

That aside, I was talking to Benny now. We were on the upper deck that was above the mess hall- what I started calling the pillow room. It had an opening that let you see into the main deck, but it wasn’t the balcony above it. And, true to its name, it had a ton of pillows on the floor and against the walls. Aaron had said there was no real purpose to it- it was more of just storage, and there happened to be an overabundance of pillows.

Anyways, Benny was talking to me about how he got into the whole ‘space scene’.

“I started out like you, to be perfectly honest. Daddy was the co-founder of the OEA, and I also knew Aaron. He was one of the first captains appointed, so that’s why working with him is supposed to be a big deal. I’m sure the news has it buried, but I remember. I went with him on his first mission; to Pluto- and I was treated like a fool.” He openly recalled, looking thoughtful as he laid amongst the pillows.

I flopped into a pile- It might not have been necessary, but this room was fuckin’ amazing-

“Really? How long have you known him?” I was amazed that he and Aaron went back that far.

“Oh man- let’s see- He’s thirty-two now and I’m twenty-nine.. Uh- He was my senior in highschool, but I briefly knew him as far back as second grade. We only really got to know each other in college. He was going for astronomy as a major and I just wanted to be a rock climber. But, he ended up getting me to go for geology so we could have some of the same classes.” He pondered, seeming to amaze himself as he spoke of the timeline.

Before I could say anything in return, Aaron and Jacob popped up in the doorway.

------

“Hey! I figured you might be here, seeing as you asked.” Aaron addressed River, laughing as he made his way through the pillows to the other two. Jacob hesitated at the doorway, but the smile creeping up on his face betrayed his uncertainty as he stepped in more carefully. “Lunch is gonna be called soon. What’re you two up to?” Aaron smiled, plopping down with no sense of shame. Jacob took a little longer to settle into the mounds of fluff, building himself a little bit of a fort in the process.

“I was telling River about how we met. You went to college with us too, didn’t you, Jacob? I recognize you.” Benny pointed out.

“Huh? Oh- uh, yeah- I think so. I don’t quite remember you, sorry. But uh.. Yeah, I met Aaron in an art elective.”

“Can I ask what happened to your arm and eyes?” Benny questioned boldly, addressing Jacob.

“Ah- yeah, about that.. Had an incident with a bus…” His lip pulled back in a bit of a grimace, but gave no further explanation about the event. Instead, he flipped his eyepatch up. The pupil was red and surrounded in black- one of the earlier designs for bionic eyes. Nowadays, bionic eyes look normal, aside from the iris being silver. That specific look came about because of side effects of other bionic parts; silver irises were the telltale sign of someone having some form of robotic implant or replacement.

“I had this eye replaced first- that was before they looked good.. And I can’t get it changed. So, I just cover it because it’s creepy.” Jacob chuckled, flexing his fingers on his robotic arm. “I think this is kinda cool though; it doesn’t look normal like the new ones, but I think it has a nice aesthetic.” He explained, fixing his eyepatch back.

“Anyways, your guys’ past?” Jacob finished, trying to redirect the subject.

“Ooh- yeah, we have a juicy history.” Aaron snickered, sitting with a pillow in his lap as he looked between the three with excitement.

“Tea?” River couldn’t help but smile, trying to push a little for some more details.

“I trust y'all, so don’t out me to anyone else-” Benny began, pausing a moment to watch River and Jacob nod in curious agreement. “But, in our sophomore year, we were roommates.. I was in the midst of an identity crisis, and Aaron was nothing but supportive- He ended up helping me get top surgery n’ shit..” Benny smiled, a blush rising to his cheeks as he pulled up his tank top to show the scars right beneath his pectorals.

“I told you you’d be happy with it! Besides, I know all the health problems those bind-y things cause. And look at you now; you’re fuckin ripped!” Aaron retorted and the group went quiet for a moment before the two idiots burst out laughing.

“Oh! Wait, you’re that demi-boy, right?” Jacob stated, seeming to recall something. “s**t man, I didn’t even recognize you. The therapy really worked out for you, huh?”

“Yeah, I stopped with it last year. My voice is as low as it’ll get. Did you end up with that other guy I introduced you to?”

River was lost in the discussion, but the other three were following along perfectly fine with each other.

“Oh, yeah.” Jacob chuckled softly, subconsciously playing with two rings on a finger as he shyly looked down at the ground. “I married Thomas two years ago.”

Aaron and Benny went f*****g wild like the air-heads they were, and River perked up as she noticed something.

“You have your wedding and engagement ring on?” She pointed out, and the other two stopped with their nonsense to give the subject their attention.

Jacob made some sort of noise in understanding of the question.

“Mh-! Yes, but the wedding ring’s from Thomas. I uh.. I’m polyamorous, and I met another guy in my senior year. Salem; he proposed to me before I left for the mission.” He stated simply and River looked as if something hit her.

“You can get married twice??” She almost yelled, completely baffled.

“In my state, you have to wait three years between marriages, but I haven’t heard of a limit since the government’s allowed polyamory.” Jacob shrugged, a shy smile on his face.

“So you’re all together?” River pressed, trying to understand with the best intentions.

“Oh- no, no” Jacob chuckled a bit, shaking his head as he thought for a moment to explain. “I’m with the two of them, but they’re not together. It’s kinda like roommates with extra steps, I guess- And before I left, we were talking about getting Thomas’s other partners to live with or at least closer to us. It’s like a nice little community of our own~”

“And that works??” River looked incredulous, amazed by the concept.

“Yeah! For us anyway- It takes a lot of communication.. But, we’ve pretty much been together since- about a year after this ‘lil oopsie-” Jacob gestured to his arm halfheartedly.

Benny seemed to pout.

“Awe, so you didn’t end up with them during college?”

Jacob visibly got uncomfortable with the question.

“Uuh- yeah. We kinda reconnected later on..” He didn’t explain further and Aaron got up suddenly. He made a wide gesture for the others to follow him, trying to cut the conversation from further prying.

“C’mon, lunch is bound to be ready by now.”