“Bah BAH!” she said while looking at him, face pinched.
Seri giggled. “Well, they shouldn’t have done that.”
“Gah!” she babbled, before turning back to the TV.
Shaking his head, he grabbed something, intending to fold it and frowned, holding it up. That…damn Dweller. He eyed the fuzzy owl onesie. Severo seemed intent on dressing up his daughter as an animal at every turn. Seri’s gaze flicked to Skya, eyeing the fuzzy yellow starfish onesie she was currently wearing.
She looked adorable, this was true, but he also had no clue where the outfit had come from, and she had not been wearing it before her nap. He should have known Severo had been up to something when he offered to nap with her in his room.
Shaking his head again, he folded the new piece of clothing and moved on to the rest.
He glanced around the room. The place that was becoming more and more familiar to him. It was hard to believe they’d been living together for two weeks now. Interestingly enough…he didn’t mind sharing an apartment with Severo.
Usually, he’d get irritated quickly having someone in his space, but it felt almost comfortable to have the man there. He wasn’t sure if that was something to be concerned about or not. All he knew was that before this, every other roommate he had ended up annoying him in some capacity. Preston and his guards didn’t count, as that was just hell on Earth in all aspects.
But it was odd how different the two Dwellers were…No…it wasn’t odd. It wasn’t odd at all, he told himself.
No two people were alike, not even twins. So, Preston could be a horrible person, while Severo could be… How could he describe Severo? He was a good guy. A bit funny…but good. And Skya seemed to like him. She had always been iffy around strangers, so it could only be a good sign that she warmed up to him so quickly. He didn’t understand why Severo wanted to be his friend, but…Seri couldn’t find it in himself to hate the idea.
He could do without the man dressing Skya up as every fucking animal on this planet…
He glanced up at the sound of the front door opening. Brows raising when Severo appeared, and then stopped as he tried to walk down the hall with a box that was not fitting in the least.
The man frowned, backing up and disappearing around the corner. When the Dweller came back around again the box had been rotated. It just barely slid by the wall by about a centimeter. Box aside, there were several bags swinging from the man’s right arm that looked suspiciously like they were from the baby story Severo ‘loved’.
He eyed him. “What did you buy?”
“It’s a surprise!” Severo exclaimed with obvious excitement. The man strode forward and pushed Seri’s pile of clean folded clothes aside with his foot, right in front of Skya, before he slowly rotated the box and sat it down in front of Seri with a grunt. The box made a soft thud as it was placed down, letting him know it was heavy.
Seri sighed when Skya, of course, lost interest in the TV and grabbed from the middle of the pile of clean clothes, toppling it over. He could only stare at his formally folded clothes in disgust. “Severo…”
“Oops…” The man plopped down on the floor, dragging the remaining folded clothes and the toppled ones away from Skya’s reach. She didn’t really care, since she already had her little mitts on a onesie and some of his underwear. Which she was, of course, swinging around.
Seri sighed again. At least the underwear were just simple black boxer briefs.
“I’ll…refold that,” Severo said with a hesitant laugh. “Not sure why you don’t use the automatic folding machine though.”
“I don’t like how it folds things. Some items end up folded weirdly and too tight. It makes it harder to unfold quickly when I need to change Skya. Also, I found it damaged a few buttons.”
“Fair enough. I’ll fold, you open!” Severo said, dropping the bags behind him as he started to refold some of the clothes.
Seri’s gaze flick to the bags before looking at the giant box in front of him. There were fragile stickers all over it, along with ones that said hazardous materials. With his nail, he sliced through the tape, and pulled the flaps of the box open.
Looking inside, Seri’s eyes widened at what he found. There were more boxes, but the shocking part was the labels on them. Test tubes, a microscope, pipettes, a Chemical Analyzer, and loads more things one would find in a testing lab. And it was legit testing equipment. All the names he was reading were ones he’d seen on equipment in the various labs he used in school, and for the grant study.
“What…?” Seri asked, as he looked at Severo.
“Well, I mean, I figured you could pick up where you left off. I did a bit of research, and then sent a request to Ender and they had it delivered to the P.O. Box. I know it’s not all the things you need, but whatever is missing, we can buy. Maybe it could help? Maybe you’ll create something that will offer greater protection than dysea does against my kind. I thought, if you could do something, it would help…make you feel safer?” Severo winced. “Maybe I overstepped again.”
“No! I… Thank you.” Seri smiled, his face heating. “It…was very sweet of you. Being able to continue my research… I think that is definitely something I’d like to do. But not just to hurt your kind…you know that. I…” He gnawed on his bottom lip.
“I know.” Severo smiled. “But honestly, even if itwasjust for that, I’d get it.”
“It’s not though!”
The Dweller chuckled. “I know, Seri. You didn’t start your research to hurt my kind, but the fact is, my kind can hurt you, and many other people, without much effort, and sometimes without much proof. But when there is evidence to capture and convict, having a way to safely contain them, to limit their abilities, would be a good thing. And it’s the perfect thing for you to test because I am here, and I am a very willing test subject.”
Seri shook his head. “I couldn’t… I could seriously hurt you. And without major medical access, it would be too dangerous.”
