Page 16 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

“Thanks. You can take a seat. I’m almost done.

” He wasn’t sure if he could handle being this close to her for much longer.

His heart was on the brink of jumping up his throat as it was.

He hoped she didn’t point out the unusual activity that was bound to show up on the algorithm.

If his failing heart didn’t kill him first, the embarrassment definitely would.

“Let me boil the pasta at least,” Nori offered, while reaching for a saucepan that Vir had taken off the stove a moment before she’d arrived.

“Careful, it’s—”

“Aargh!” The hot lid flew from between her fingers and hit the floor with a loud clang.

Vir swore as he dragged her to the sink and thrust her hand under the faucet. “I’d just taken that off! I’m so sorry!” Swearing under his breath again, he hastily pushed her t-shirt sleeve up her arm to keep the fabric from getting drenched.

His fingertips brushed against the bumpy raised lines first before he saw them—the deep, jagged scars running along her wrist.

An icy chill dropped down the pit of his stomach.

Nori snatched her hand back, rushing to pull her sleeve down again. “It’s not that bad. I’ll go put on some ointment.” She scurried past him without waiting for a response.

He followed after her only to stand outside the bedroom door, hesitant.

It was the first time that he couldn’t read a single emotion from her, not even the beige neutral calm that he was so used to by now.

It was as if both her heart and mind had gone blank.

As if she wasn’t even there anymore. It scared him. More than he was willing to admit.

He raised a hand to knock on the door before letting it fall back to his side. Another long moment later, he quietly shuffled back to the kitchen.

Once the food was ready, he went and lightly tapped on the door. “Nori?”

It cracked a few inches.

“Nori?” he called again, before letting himself in.

He found her curled up on the bed, with the gentle rise and fall of her shoulder indicating she was fast asleep.

He tiptoed to her side and turned her palm over to find blisters forming on her reddened fingertips.

With gentle strokes of a cotton swab, he applied the burns ointment on them.

Her fingers quivered in response, but it didn’t wake her.

A lump rose in Vir’s throat as his eyes dragged over the jagged lines peeking from under Nori’s sleeve. It was shabby work at best, but the scars were so deep and angry, it was physically painful to look at them, or to look away.

He draped a blanket over her and a sudden, almost desperate need to scoop her in his arms knocked the breath right out of his lungs. He wanted to hold her. For as long as she’d let him. But he knew she wouldn’t let him.

After a few minutes of quietly watching her sleep, he got up and left, only to return with a glass of water and a page torn from his notepad. He placed them on the nightstand. With one final glance at Nori, he walked away again, closing the door behind him as he left .

Nori

N ori woke in a groggy daze, her tongue scraping like sandpaper against the dry walls of her mouth. She recalled coming into the room earlier. She’d leaned on the pillow for a bit and… dozed off?

There was something sticky on her fingers. It smelled of sesame oil and peppermint—topical cream for burns. Had Vir put it on her while she’d slept? That was the only plausible explanation.

Nori groaned, and with a resigned sigh, she pushed herself upright.

That meant he knew she wasn’t a light sleeper, always prepared to spring into action and whop someone’s ass at the slightest disturbance.

Quite the opposite. She slept like a corpse.

She could fall right off the bed in her sleep, and wouldn’t know it till the next morning.

Thankfully, she hadn’t done that in front of Vir.

It was already dark outside the window. She’d slept off an entire afternoon. Looking to the side, she found a covered glass of water on the nightstand with a piece of paper folded next to it. She took the glass and helped herself to the water first before unfolding the note to read:

Nori,

Please excuse me for letting myself in.

Dinner’s ready whenever you are.

Yours,

Vir

Nori’s mouth curved into a small smile as she ran her ointment-free thumb over the “ Yours ”. Then she remembered Vir tensing beside her seeing the marks across her wrist, and her smile faltered before vanishing completely.

She’d been so careful, making sure to only wear long-sleeved clothing around him. She didn’t want to talk about the scars or what they meant. Any judgmental remarks from him would—

No. She didn’t care. He was free to assume whatever he wanted to. She didn’t owe him an explanation. She didn’t owe him anything.

He was her subject. Her lab rat. That was all.

They weren’t friends. They weren’t anything.

Vir

V ir looked up from his e-reader at the soft click of the bedroom door, followed by Nori’s quietly mumbled, “Hey.” She stood there staring down at her feet as she tucked a loose curl behind her ear.

“Hey.” His jaw unclenched. “Dinner?”

“Not hungry,” she replied, but half a second later, her stomach’s muffled grumble called her bluff. She pursed her lips.

“Have a seat. I’ll heat some pasta.” Vir sprung to his feet, handing her the throw he’d been using.

Nori took it with a quiet, “Thanks.”

Minutes later, he returned with a bowl of hot pasta and handed it to her. He settled into his side of the couch, watching her nudge small pieces of broccoli around before taking a small bite. Then another. A few more bites later, she began actively ploughing steaming forkfuls into her mouth.

Vir grabbed his e-reader to resume his attempts at focusing on the page he’d been staring at for the past half hour. At some point, Nori’s empty bowl clinked lightly against the coffee table as she set it down.

In his peripheral vision, she sank back into the couch with an almost inaudible sigh.

“Would you like some chai?” he asked her after a while. When she didn’t respond, he glanced sideways and found her asleep again.

Multiple stray brown curls had sprung loose from her hair tie and lay fanned across her face. Before the rational part of his brain had a chance to reason with him, Vir reached out and gently tucked the hair behind her ear.

“Nori.” He lightly tapped on her arm. “Nori.” She didn’t move .

Leaning forward, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders, hooked the other under her knees, and stood with her in his arms. She remained fast asleep as he carried her back to bed.

Nori wasn’t a light sleeper. Not in the slightest. She’d rolled off the bed in her sleep countless times during the past month of them sharing the room. And she’d continued sleeping through each fall and even afterwards. Unbothered. Every single time.

A few nights like that and Vir had finally grasped the real reason behind Nori’s insistence on his taking the bed—she couldn’t fall off if she was already on the floor.

He was now used to picking her up and returning her to bed every so often. But he doubted she suspected it at all. The woman slept like a rock. He suppressed a chuckle, recalling the deadly warnings she’d given him at the start of their living arrangement.

When Vir stepped out into the living room again, he made himself a coffee and settled back on the couch with his e-reader. Knowing this time, he’d finally be able to focus on the words.