Page 35 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Twenty On e

Movie Night and the Marionette

Nori

L ater that night, they pushed the couches back to make space for four large floor-cushions in the middle of the living room. Trays full of snacks and leftover cupcakes covered the coffee table, while two more overflowing platters with fruits and crispy fritters sat on the rug below.

“Are we filming a mukbang ?” Nori asked, gaping at the spread. “How are we ever going to finish all of this?”

“There’s more in here for seconds,” Adi spoke up from the kitchen. “Would you prefer chai or iced coffee?”

“Iced coffee’s fine, thank you,” she replied, joining him there, leaving Vir and Anita to bicker over what movie to watch.

“I don’t mind some good old Japanese horror.” Vir grinned as he scrolled through an array of movie thumbnails on the screen.

“Seriously, do you want your brother to cry and throw up?” Anita took the remote from him.

“Hey!” Adi protested. “I can hear you.”

“Sorry!” Anita laughed. “But you did throw up that one time, remember?”

“I had food poisoning.”

Nori followed him back into the living room, and they placed four chilled glasses of iced lattes on the table before taking their seats.

“Okay, how about this time travel—” Anita stopped to look at her buzzing phone. “I’ll be right back.” She threw the remote to Vir again and stepped away to answer the call.

Dragging her floor-cushion a little further back, Nori leaned against the couch to now watch the brothers bicker over movie selection, her eyelids growing heavier by the second. It didn’t matter what they were going to watch. She was going to pass out within the first few minutes, anyway.

“Adi, we need to go.” Anita reappeared a moment later, visibly distressed. “Maddy had an accident. Lana just called from the emergency room. She’s pretty shaken up.”

Adi swore under his breath, lurching to his feet. “No, you stay.” He waved a hand towards Vir as he started getting up, too.

“Besides…” Anita threw a concerned glance at Nori when she rose and immediately began swaying on her feet. “She really needs some sleep.”

Nori opened her mouth to protest, but her words turned into a yawn instead.

After the two drove off, she helped Vir wrap the snacks and put them in the fridge before retiring for the night.

As she crawled into bed, she waited for him to pull her into his arms like always. But he just lay there, staring at her quietly.

“Nori…” he said after a while, his dark eyes full of concern.

“Hmm?”

“Did something happen earlier?”

She thought back to the afternoon’s events. “Anita did a card reading for me,” she said. “It was just supposed to be for fun, but I… I grew so inconsolably sad. I’ve never felt that way before. At least I don’t think I have.”

“It felt like you were— ”

“—grieving,” she finished his sentence. “Yes. But I still don’t understand what happened.”

“What do you need?” Vir asked, placing his palm against her cheek. He gently stroked it with his thumb before his hand moved up to smooth her hair. “How can I help make you feel better?”

“You already did.” She leaned into his touch, and her eyes fell closed.

Vir sighed. “Come here.”

He pulled her into the cocoon of his arms, and any remaining tension melted off her almost instantly.

“I love you,” he whispered against her temple.

I love you. She wanted to tell him, too. She wanted to tell him a hundred times over. But the words wouldn’t form.

Because she was elsewhere, drifting, floating through a dense white fog. Her toes dipped into the water below. Water that wasn’t wet. And it made perfect sense that the water wasn’t wet, because she was dreaming, clearly.

But even in her dream, Nori’s fingers stretched out in front of her, searching. She was afraid she was going to lose him again. She had to protect him. She’d promised. But how was she supposed to do that if she couldn’t even find him?

She called his name, but there was no sound.

A hand brushed against her outstretched one, before soft, slender fingers wove themselves through hers. Warm grass tickled her feet right before they met solid ground, and his face slowly came into view as the fog lifted.

It was him, standing with her in a meadow full of bluebells as far as she could see. He’d found her.

He had found her .

“You found me,” she whispered.

He smiled in her direction. “I’m sorry it took so long.” His hands reached for her face.

“I’ve missed you.”

“Not more than I’ve missed you.” He kept staring straight ahead, while his fingertips grazed her features, as if memorizing all the dips and contours.

Why won’t he look at me ?

No sooner had the question popped up in her head, the answer appeared, too. Right. He couldn’t see.

Had she forgotten? She had… for a while.

Rising on her toes, she pressed her mouth to his, and his lips instantly parted.

As she began tasting him, his palms brushed down her sides, leaving trails of warmth and want everywhere they went. His fingers fluttered like a bunch of moths against her skin, taking their sweet time remembering her. All of her.

He pressed closer, and their lips danced, savoring every lick and graze. Slow and urgent. Eager and patient.

Nori embraced the familiar feel of his hair between her fingers and his bare skin against hers as their clothes dissolved to nothing. He spoke her name. Over and over.

What was her name? She couldn’t remember.

Tender grass cushioned her back as they sunk into it together, and she gasped at the feel of him sliding into her. She kissed him again as he slowly began to move. In and out. She’d missed that. Missed him. And the way his mouth kept smiling in between kisses and thrusts.

Her back arched, and his name rolled off her tongue as she felt herself peak and shatter into a million pieces. And a short moment later, he, too, shook against her, crushing her to him.

“I love you,” she told him.

“I love you.” His fingers traced the edges of her face. Her jaw. Her lashes. Her nose. Another kiss.

The fog rolled back in, engulfing her, and she drifted off again.

Nori opened her eyes to find herself in bed, in a partially moonlit room. As she pushed herself up, a single tear trickled down her cheek.

“A dream,” she whispered, choking back a sob. She turned to find Vir’s side of the bed empty. “Vir?”

She switched the bedside lamp on.

Had she lost him again?

Vir

V ir heard the panic in Nori’s voice right before the ripples of her fear rammed into him.

“Vir? Vir!”

He shut the faucet off and stepped out of the bathroom to find her teetering ashen-faced in the middle of the room.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, rushing to her side.

“Vir!” Her tense stance loosened, and before he could ask her again, she slammed right into him.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she mumbled into his chest, “again.”

“Again?”

“I thought… I thought…” She backed away from him and stood staring at her feet. Her hands tugged at the hem of her shirt, nervously twisting the fabric between her fingers. When she finally glanced up again, she looked deeply confused.

“Did you have a nightmare?” he asked, his palm cupping her cheek.

Nori’s brow creased at the question, and she shook her head. A tear rolled down her cheek. Followed by another. And another.

“Nori…” Vir brushed them away with his thumb. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” He gently tilted her chin up and waited till her eyes lifted to meet his. His breath caught at what he found simmering behind them.

He kissed her, softly. Once. Twice.

The third time, he let the tip of his tongue graze the crease between her lips, and her mouth parted with a sigh.

Her desire spiked without warning, fueling his own.

Her hands tangled in his hair, curling into fists as she melted against him.

And it wasn’t long before they were both gasping for air.

Waves of burning need and impatience rolled off Nori, crashing and merging with his.

He looked at her swollen lips and into her wild, drunken eyes, and it took all his strength to keep his hands from peeling both their clothes off.

He didn’t know if he had it in him to be able to stop if he let himself touch her any further.

But oh god, how he wanted to touch her .

While he stood debating with himself, Nori unbuttoned her shirt and let it fall to the floor. Then began tugging at his t-shirt, too.

“Wait.” He grabbed her wrists.

With everything he could sense from her—the raw desire, the longing, and love—all mashed into one fiery, volcanic ball that mirrored his own molten insides, it was excruciating to hold her back. But what had she meant by losing him “again”?

“Sorry,” Nori whispered. Color bled into her cheeks as she started pulling away from him. “I didn’t mean to rush you. I’m sorry.”

“No.” He cupped her face in his hands and tilted it up to make her look at him. “I’m worried about you, Nori. Are you—”

“Don’t—please,” she cut him off. “Just stop worrying about me. I’m fine! I want this. I want you .” Her voice shook at the last syllable, and with it, his resolve.

Suppressing a shudder, Vir pulled his t-shirt off and threw it aside before he closed the gap between them. Nori’s face lit up a split second before she melted into his arms again, her smile slapping away any remaining brain cells right out of his head.

His body conjured a mind of its own, miles away from logic, restraints, or caution. His hands reached around her to unhook her bra. And with a single pinch, it fell at her feet.

Nori’s fingers tangled in his hair, while his mouth roamed down her neck, tasting and sucking at her skin, till he took a nipple into his mouth.

Goosebumps erupted under his palm at the same time as a low hiss escaped her.

But the breathless groan was his own. Every subsequent touch, nip, and graze made him greedier for more.

His skin consisted of nothing but naked live wires beneath her hands as they fluttered all over his body, leaving sparks everywhere they went. “Nori,” he whispered through gritted teeth.