Page 14 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love
It was wild, watching her laugh. But even better was the sound accompanying the sight. It stirred something deep in his chest, waking him, warming him, and lulling him to sleep all at the same time.
It was also incredibly contagious. More hilarious than the visual image of himself as a mouse—a lab rat. That’s what he was, wasn’t he? And if it meant he could keep watching her laugh like this, he didn’t mind being a mouse either. Complete with the rounded ears and a pointy tail.
Squeak. Squeak.
Nori
A t first, she’d been laughing at the dumb imagery her brain had thrown at her, but once Vir joined in, it became increasingly harder to stop. She hadn’t laughed this hard in a long time. Not with another person.
The realization sobered her quickly.
“I should warn you,” she said, crossing her arms against her chest. She wasn’t finished discussing their living arrangements yet. “Since you’ll be living with me for a while…”
Vir’s single arched brow made her pause.
She wanted to know how he did it—move just one eyebrow independent of the other.
It was something he seemed to do often. But she bit back her curiosity.
Now was not the time for tutorials. It was the time to establish who the real boss was. One not to be messed with, or else…
“Nori? ”
“I have a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo,” she bluffed. She’d only recently received her second dan, but he wouldn’t know the difference.
“Okay…” Vir half nodded, as if waiting for her to continue.
“I’m a light sleeper, too,” she continued, stretching her spine upwards to appear taller.
“And I have a bad habit of breaking things… and limbs… if anyone so much as breathes near me when I’m asleep.
Since we’ll be sleeping in the same room, I thought I’d warn you before I accidentally—” She lowered her voice and jutted her chin out for good measure.
“—or intentionally, end up hurting you. Besides, the experiment and ultimately your survival, is in my hands. It will do you good to remember that over the coming weeks.” There. He should consider himself warned.
While Nori waited for the gravity of her threats to sink in, she watched Vir’s expression go from curious to shocked disbelief before morphing into something that made him look like he was trying not to laugh.
He whipped his face to the side, his eyes squeezed shut and lips pursed so tightly together as if he was standing there ambushed with stupid knock-knock jokes and not his very life on the line.
“You heard something funny?” Nori scowled.
“Not at all.” He turned to face her again.
“Do you need me to repeat myself?”
“Nope. Don’t mess with you unless I want to die.”
She gave him a curt nod. “Not the exact phrasing, but you got the gist. Otherwise, make yourself at home, I guess. And let me know if you need anything.”
Vir’s expression broke into a grin in response. But it wasn’t the condescending kind she’d been expecting. He seemed almost… happy.
She’d expected worse. Two nights had already passed.
Eventful ones, and scary in other ways, sure.
But she was yet to feel the terror she’d been anticipating at the prospect of sharing her living space with him.
She hadn’t expected to be able to fall asleep with him in the same house, let alone in the same room.
Weirdly enough, she had slept well. Especially last night. Her thoughts drifted back to waking up clingy-koala style, and her face grew warm again. She glanced up in time to catch Vir eyeing her with a curious tilt to his head.
“What are you thi—? ”
“Have I told you about my cat, Goober?” She’d almost forgotten about the emotion sensing stuff.
The pain in the ass could feel exactly what she was feeling.
“I was just thinking about him. He’s part-Siamese.
They have a certain gene mutation that makes them turn darker in the cold and lighter as temperature rises. Would you like to see some pictures?”
“Ah. Yes, of course.”
Not a mind reader then. Just emotions. He didn’t seem to be able to tell the why, what, or whom behind them. Good.
Nori let out a relieved sigh as she tapped on her phone’s photo gallery to formally introduce her triangle-eared son, Mr. Goober Arya.
L ate afternoon, a few relatively uneventful weeks later, Nori occupied her usual sunny spot at the dining table, having spent the past hour attempting to reduce the lag in her algorithm.
Her gaze wandered off across the room, as it often did these days, and landed on Vir’s still form perched on the couch.
He had his eyes glued to a tattered, old copy of Synchronicity by Carl Jung .
She didn’t understand why he kept going back to it, when he must already know the book from cover-to-yellowed-cover by now.
Vir peeled his eyes away from the book long enough to scribble something on a notepad. He absentmindedly nudged his round gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose, his lashes fluttering with each slip of his gaze between book and notepad.
Catching herself, Nori quickly averted her gaze. It was already the second time this week she’d caught herself staring. What was wrong with her?
She wanted to smack the stupid glasses off his face.
“Nori?”
She swore under her breath. Of course, he’d sensed the embarrassment. And how pissed it made her, too. Maybe she could tell him she was thinking about Goober again, and that time he’d pooped on her pillow right before bedtime. And how she’d found it too late.
“Can I ask you something?” Vir prompted again.
“You’re already asking,” Nori replied, not looking up from her screen. “Go on. ”
“Is something bothering you?”
“No, why?”
“It’s just that I keep sensing these spikes of irritation and anger… It’s making me wonder if I’ve done something to offend you.”
He was clearly trying to keep the hurt out of his words. But it was the concern underlying them that made guilt poke at Nori’s insides. She filed her cat’s poop story away for another day.
“Sorry.” She offered him an apologetic smile. “It’s not you. I must have been over-analyzing the algorithm again.”
Vir pursed his lips and eyed her for a moment.
“Want to go for a walk?” Nori asked, relieved when he didn’t press further.
It was sunny when they stepped outside, but the winter chill hung crisp and unforgiving in the air. Nori’s arms erupted in tiny goosebumps as an icy breeze swept past her.
“Forgot my jacket.” She swung around and nearly bumped into Vir.
“I got you,” he said, before holding her jacket open for her to push her arms through.
She did and turned to face him again, realizing he still had the dumb glasses on.
“Tha—”
Vir clasped the ends of her jacket together and pulled the zipper all the way up.
“—nks.” A familiar warmth trickled down her chest and pushed a jagged lump up her throat. She hated it.
Vir’s brow quivered, his dark eyes holding her still. What did he feel from her now? And could he make sense of whatever it was? Because she couldn’t.
She tore her gaze away with some effort before she turned and marched out.
Vir’s footsteps kept pace behind her as she trudged faster up the winding road. He didn’t say a word. Or expect her to fill in the silence. It was nice with him that way. He somehow knew when she didn’t want to speak, and he didn’t push her for it. She was growing to hate that, too.
With a barely audible sigh, Nori slowed her pace, falling in step beside him. In her peripheral vision, she noticed the hint of a smile. She ignored it .
The lazy afternoon walks had become routine.
And while Vir wasn’t overly chatty at home, on these walks, he liked to talk.
And usually, Nori did, too. It was simultaneously strange and familiar, how he’d started feeling like a friend she’d never known she’d missed. It warmed her, and it terrified her.
And she hated it.
Their knuckles brushed, sending a jolt of electricity through her skin, making her draw her hand back in surprise.
“Static?” Vir said, quickly thrusting both his hands into his jacket pockets.
Nori followed suit, putting some distance between them as they continued to walk for a while more, the entire time hating the fact that she wanted to do it again. And this time, maybe let her fingers weave through his. But only to confirm if it really was static.
For science.
No other reason.
No other reason.