Man Made God 003

by Brandon Varnell

  “I want to watch For You,” Aris said.

  “The romance, huh? Okay. We’ll watch that.”

  Adam paid for their tickets and entered the theater. While small, the theater still had a concession stand, which sold popcorn and several snacks. The person standing behind the concession stand looked awfully bored since no one was coming up right now.

  “Can I have popcorn?” asked Aris.

  “Let’s not this time.” Adam gave Aris a small grin when he saw her pout. “The movie will finish around lunchtime. I bet Fayte will have lunch ready by the time we get back. I don’t want you ruining your appetite—and Fayte’s cooking is way better than popcorn.”

  “You seem to know Fayte pretty well,” Aris said.

  “You think so?” Adam looked away and scratched his cheek when he saw the perceptive expression on her face. “Well, she and I have been living together for about a month now. It’s only natural I’d know a little about her.”

  “Hmm…”

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing. Since you don’t think I should have popcorn right now, I don’t mind just watching the movie with you.”

  Adam sighed in relief as Aris acquiesced. He never noticed the mischievous grin on her face as he pushed her wheelchair into the theater where their movie would be playing.

  Fayte returned home to discover that Adam and Aris were still out. She slipped off her boots, set them off to the side, and slid out of her ugly brown jacket. After placing it on a coat hanger, she walked into the kitchen and started making lunch.

  Her fridge had all the ingredients necessary for simple macaroni and cheese. Noodles, cheddar, Velveeta cheese, milk, and butter. She grabbed the ingredients and set them on the counter. She then took a pot, filled it with water, and turned the stove on high to bring the water to a boil.

  As she waited for the water to boil, she thought about Aris and Adam. She was truly happy that Aris was now awake. She had seen the look on Adam’s face when he visited Aris while she was in cryosleep, and it had torn her apart inside. He tried so hard to be strong, but she could tell he was in pain. No strong facade could disguise it.

  Fayte absently placed a hand against her chest as a sharp pain pierced it. However, this pain was in no way physical. It felt like someone had grabbed her heart and given it a strong squeeze.

  “They really do make a great couple,” she said, wondering at the bitterness in her voice.

  Macaroni and cheese was pretty simple to make. After bringing the water to a boil, she placed the noodles inside. Then she set the cheddar and Velveeta into a separate pot and began melting it. She added some milk, butter, and salt for flavor. She considered adding bacon bits to the cheese, but she didn’t have any bacon.

  The sound of her door opening and closing told her that Adam and Aris had returned, and just seconds later, the sounds of their voices could be heard coming from the entrance.

  “I can’t believe how amazing that movie was. The love between Kenichi and Amanda was so touching,” Aris was saying.

  “You think so? I thought Alex’s love for Amanda was much stronger. He was willing to die for her sake. I feel kind of bad for him because even after being willing to go so far, she still chose Kenichi in the end.”

  “Dying is easy. Isn’t living for someone much harder?”

  “I… suppose you bring up a good point.”

  “Hee-hee. Of course I do. You should listen to me, Adam. I know what I’m talking about.”

  “I won’t deny that.”

  Fayte froze with the smile halfway on her face when Adam and Aris came into the living room.

  Aris was, of course, in Adam’s arms. She looked just like a princess being carried off by a gallant prince. It was such a picturesque scene that Fayte couldn’t help but feel like an intruder getting a peek at their private lives. The sharp pain in her chest returned, but she tried to rub it away and smiled at the pair.

  “Welcome home, you two,” Fayte said from the kitchen. “I hope you’re both hungry because I made lunch.”

  “Hee-hee. It’s good to be home. By the way, what are you cooking?” Aris asked suddenly, sniffing the air. “It smells delicious.”

  “Macaroni and cheese?” Adam asked, an amused smile touching his lips.

  Fayte felt her cheeks grow warm at the look he directed her way, but she kept up her smile. “You can’t beat the classics.”

  Adam set Aris on the couch, turned on the TV so she would have something to watch, and walked into the kitchen. He didn’t even ask if she needed help before he started getting out the plates, forks, and cups. He got three of everything.

  As he walked past her, Fayte froze when his masculine scent entered her nose, somehow overpowering the smell of cheese. He wasn’t sweating, and he didn’t smell like body odor. The scent was fresh and crisp, as though he had just gotten out of the shower and put on a splash of cologne. It made her heart accelerate.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Adam suggested. “I’ll serve the food since you made it.”

  Adam looked at her with that soft smile of his, the one she had been subjected to for the past four weeks, and she couldn’t stop her legs from growing weak. She looked away to avoid that expression. She needed to be strong.

  “Okay. Yeah, I’ll go sit down.”

  Fayte walked to the couch on shaky legs and sat down. Aris was leaning against the armrest. She still seemed a little weak, but Fayte noticed that the girl looked much better now than she had yesterday. When she first woke up, it took all her strength just to sit straight.

  “Thank you for making lunch,” Aris said with her typical tender smile.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Fayte wondered if the guilt she felt was because she wished Aris wouldn’t smile at her like that or if there was another reason. Bitterness once more crept into her heart as she imagined what it would be like to be in Aris’s place.

  “By the way, I don’t know if you remember saying you wanted to play Age of Gods with Adam, but I’ve got your system,” Fayte said. “It’s in my bedroom right now.”

  “Really?! Thank you so much!” The smile on Aris’s face became so brilliant that Fayte felt like she was being blinded. “You’re such a great person! Just like a big sister!”

  “You think so?” asked Fayte.

  “Definitely.” Aris nodded several times. “Hee-hee. If I ever had a big sister, I would want her to be just like you.”

  Fayte didn’t know how she was supposed to feel about those words. All she knew was they made her body shiver unpleasantly. She liked this girl. It was hard not to, and yet… a part of her could not help but feel incredibly envious of her. Fayte could not deny that she was jealous of how devoted Adam was to Aris.

  At that moment, the reason for her envy entered the living room and placed three plates of macaroni and cheese and three cups of ice water on the coffee table. He then sat between the two.

  “Thank you for bringing out the food,” Fayte said.

  “Thank you for making the food,” Adam replied.

  “I’ll just thank both of you. Now, can we hurry up and eat?” asked Aris. Her words elicited a smile from both of them.

  Conversation was sparse as everyone ate. However, Adam eventually began talking about how he wanted Aris to begin her rehabilitation starting tomorrow. Since she had only just woken up, he first wanted her to get used to the changes in her body, but he eventually planned to have her begin doing basic stretches and calisthenic exercises to build up her strength.

  “Once you’ve got a decent amount of strength built up, we can begin having you try to walk,” Adam said. “It’s going to be hard. You’ve been confined to a wheelchair for three years and your muscles have atrophied, but they fortunately haven’t been ruined. They just need to be worked out. It might be a few years before you can walk normally.”

  “So long as I can begin walking, I don’t think it matters how long it takes,” Aris said. “Hee-hee. That said, I’d like to begin wal
king soon so we can have sex like you promised.”

  Fayte almost did a spit-take when Aris said those words. She could feel her cheeks burn. How could such an innocent girl be so blunt?!

  “Aris,” Adam said in warning.

  “Hee-hee. Sorry.”

  Aris didn’t look the least bit sorry, but that was surely Fayte’s imagination. Yes, the mischievous grin—reminding her of a cat after it caught a canary—could only be a delusion, since there was no way such an innocent girl would talk like that. She coughed into her hand several times and used what she knew of keeping calm in stressful situations to rein in her blood flow.

  “Let me know if you need any help,” Fayte said. “I don’t know much about rehabilitation, but I used to attend a calisthenics class meant for women, so I might be able to ask my former instructor if she knows any good exercises.”

  “That would be a great help,” Adam said. “Thank you, Fayte.”

  “It’s no trouble at all.”

  Fayte found it hard to look at Adam when he was staring at her like that. She felt a combination of embarrassment and pain. Her face had blood rushing straight to it, but her chest felt cold, like it had been dumped in ice water. It was a feeling she’d never experienced before. She didn’t like it.

  However, just as she looked away from Adam, she found Aris staring at her. There was an unusually perceptive look in the young woman’s eyes that Fayte didn’t recognize. All she knew was that it made her feel naked. She felt like that young girl was seeing her innermost thoughts.

  “Why don’t I get your system for Age of Gods now?” Fayte stood up.

  “That would be great. Thank you, Fayte,” Aris said.

  Fayte tried to smile, but her legs were already carrying her out of the living room. Once she had entered her bedroom, Fayte shut the door and leaned against it, closing her eyes as she pressed a hand to her chest.

  She could feel her heart throbbing in her ribcage. It was painful. Green envy and black self-loathing mixed together inside of her.

  Aris’s awakening was undoubtedly a good thing. Adam was happy… so incredibly happy. She had never seen him smile the way he did when he looked at Aris. She was happy for him. She really, truly was.

  And yet…

  And yet…

  “Why can’t he smile at me like that?” she asked herself, voice a hoarse whisper.

  There was not a soul present who could answer her.

  Apologies

  “It’s been so long since we’ve taken a bath together.” Aris sighed, her body submerged in warm water up to her modest chest. She was leaning against Adam, her back resting on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. It was a comforting position for them both. Adam felt like it had been years since he was able to hug Aris like this.

  “It has,” Adam agreed. “It hasn’t been that long since you were placed in cryosleep, but it feels like it’s been forever.”

  Even before Aris contracted Mortems Disease, the two of them had been taking baths together—much to the disgruntlement of Aris’s parents. The four weeks that Aris had spent in stasis made Adam keenly aware of how much they did together. Taking baths with her was just one of the things he had dearly missed.

  “We shouldn’t stay in much longer though,” he added.

  “Hmm… just a few more minutes,” Aris murmured as she closed her eyes.

  Adam shifted a little to adjust his erection so it wasn’t pressing against Aris’s back. It was hard for him to be in the bath with this girl.

  “Hee-hee. Adam, do you feel like sticking that thing inside of me yet?”

  And, of course, Aris did not fail to notice his growing arousal. She had always been aware of what she did to him and made it perfectly clear that she wouldn’t mind in the least if he took her virginity. Were it not for the fact that her body was still weak, he would have turned her into an adult a long time ago.

  “I do… but you know we can’t.”

  “You mean ‘yet’.”

  “Yes. Yet.”

  They remained in the bath for a few minutes longer, but Adam eventually had them get out. He dried Aris off with a towel, then dressed her and himself in simple pajamas. His merely consisted of gray sweatpants. He didn’t wear a shirt because his companion said she liked feeling the warmth of his skin against her. Aris’s pajamas were light pink shorts that stopped about halfway up her thighs and a button-up pink shirt. After dressing her, he carried her into the living room and let her watch TV as he combed and dried her hair with a portable dyer.

  “In the latest news on Age of Gods, the hottest virtual reality game currently on the market, a list was recently released regarding the top five most powerful hidden classes currently available. Standing at the top of that list is, surprisingly, not Lin Akamine, the current number one gamer on the International Power Rankings. An unknown player named Adam, who was the first person to leave the Village of Beginnings, is currently the holder for the most powerful hidden class known as Seven Forms Spearman. What do you make of this, Josh?”

  “Well, Drew, while Adam might seem like a new player on the gaming scene, I’m not actually sure that’s true. There was a player who went by the name of Adam. I did some research and discovered that Adam was a well-known player several years ago who dominated every game he played and even defeated Lin Akamine in single combat during the International Gaming Championship.”

  “And you think they are the same person?”

  “I think there is a good possibility that the Adam from Age of Gods and the Adam who defeated Lin Akamine in the past are one and the same.”

  The newscaster was a stunning woman whose beauty looked fake. It was like staring at a plastic model rather than a person. Adam thought it was all the makeup she wore, or maybe she’d gotten plastic surgery to make herself prettier. She didn’t possess the natural beauty of Aris and Fayte. Her companion was a middle-aged man with a sharp beard, blue eyes, and the kind of rugged good looks expected of a male newscaster in this day and age.

  “You’ve been busy, huh?” Aris said as she sat with only a small slouch. He was a little surprised she wasn’t leaning to the side, which normally happened because her body didn’t possess the strength for her to sit up on her own. Did that mean she was already growing stronger? That couldn’t be it. Only two days had passed since she woke up. She hadn’t even begun her rehabilitation yet.

  “I’ve been playing Age of Gods for about twenty hours every day since you were put in that cryobed,” Adam confessed. “It really helped me level up quickly and get all those accomplishments.”

  “I’ll bet. Hee-hee. I knew my Adam was the best.” Even if Adam couldn’t see the smug smile on her face, he knew what sort of expression she was making. “Everyone thinks that Lin Akamine is the strongest player in the world, but that’s only because you haven’t been playing consistently. If you’d kept gaming back then, you would have been listed as the number one player in the entire world right now instead of her.”

  “I don’t really care about being number one,” Adam admitted. “So long as I’m your number one.”

  His words, spoken with complete sincerity, caused Aris’s ears to turn red. She would have turned around, but he was still gently running a comb through her hair. Because her hair was fairly long, it took a while for him to completely comb it, though he honestly didn’t mind. Sometimes he wished it took longer so he could enjoy this feeling of closeness and intimacy more.

  As he continued combing her hair, Fayte stepped into the living room, saw them, and paused in the hallway. An uncertain look flashed across her face, but then she smiled and began walking backward.

  Her smile looked fixed.

  “It seems… I’m interrupting something,” she said in a slow, measured voice. “Sorry. I was about to make dinner, but I’ll leave you two alone.”

  “There’s no need for that. I just finished combing her hair. Also, since you made lunch, let me make dinner,” Adam said as he set the comb down and slid out from beh
ind Aris.

  With Adam no longer supporting her, Aris fell back onto the couch, though she was able to readjust herself so she didn’t slide off the edge. Adam helped her keep steady. Even if she was stronger than he expected, she still wasn’t very strong.

  Fayte seemed hesitant about remaining in the living room. She glanced back and forth between Adam and Aris several times. In response, Aris smiled and patted the spot beside her.

  “Don’t worry about dinner. Sit with me. I’d like to talk to you some more.”

  The hesitation, while still present, was not enough to overcome Fayte’s kind personality. She sat beside Aris and spoke to the girl as Adam made them a simple meal of pan-seared lemon salmon and a citrus salad. The salmon’s taste was complemented by lemon dijon vinaigrette, which he made by mixing lemon juice with dijon mustard, parsley, salt, and pepper slowly whisked in olive oil. Aris and Fayte both complimented him on his food.

  “Your cooking really is to die for,” Aris moaned around a mouthful of salmon.

  “Please don’t talk with your mouthful,” Adam muttered with a resigned smile.

  “I have to agree with Aris. Your cooking is incredible. Even the Dairing Family’s chefs are no match for your skills in the kitchen,” Fayte added.

  “Stop it. You’re making me blush,” Adam said with a smile.

  Fayte rolled her eyes.

  Adam, Aris, and Fayte stayed up until around 7:00 PM. Fayte was the first to retire, saying that all the excitement had made her exhausted. Adam did not think that was it, but he didn’t have the heart to say anything, so he just bade her goodnight and carried Aris into their bedroom.

  Once they were nestled under the covers, Aris, perhaps exhausted because of all the excitement, immediately fell asleep while snuggled against his chest. Adam tenderly stroked her hair and just watched her sleep for a while. However, he eventually closed his eyes and logged into Age of Gods. It had been more than a day now since he’d logged on, and whether he liked it or not, he did need to spend time playing.

  When Adam reappeared, he was not inside of any city, but standing in the middle of a field. There was a sleeping fox yokai not too far from where he stood. There was also a very irate fairy who, upon noticing him, fluttered in front of his face and gave him a glare so harsh even the Spider Queen would have run away in fright.