He gave in, sinking in like a rock in water.

To his surprise he found an Oasis database very fast. It was called “Professor X's Online Database”.

Professor X…? Like X-Men or something? Sounds more like a silly conspiracy theorist blog.

He ignored it, looking at the other links.

This one hasn't been updated for ten years! And this one… is definitely a blog…

Hastily, he stopped skimming the databases finding that most were old info/not quite illegal, and some were about actual desert oases.

This is such shit…

He banged his head on his keyboard vigorously.

Wait. There's still… that one database.

To his luck he had found it again. The “X-Men" database.

This has better be good… thank God most of the databases aren't linked to the government at least… I got away from those without a scratch.

Entering the database there was a pristine/seemingly professional white and golden start screen. The top of it was titled “Professor X Online Database”.

Below it had a description that read:

“Welcome to the Professor X Online Database. I'm sure you're a stupid ass conspiracy theorist interested in all of this. Well if you can't pay the price of ten million karg and have an official letter of confirmation from me, then you're not getting anything from me. Now you may leave. Hope you like my start screen. Fuck off. :)”

Geez. Well this is all I have left. Might as well dive in…Hmmm... that currency… karg was it? Never heard of it in my whole entire life, and how does anyone get a confirmation letter? This database is just asking to be hacked into…

Rory popped his knuckles, starting to break into the database.

The security is damn good. But I'll find a way in…

After a whole two hours of tinkering with the blockades of security, and hefty amount of trial and error, he was in.

“Yes!” He cheered under his breath.

Now the database was just a long article with a sidebar on the side entitling the different chapters of the article.

Whoa… ninety-seven chapters of information…. and more to come. Wow.

The first chapter was simply titled “Congrats”.

The first paragraph of Chapter One read:

“What did you expect the title of Chapter One to be called ‘Introduction’, or some shit? Well it's called this, because I'm genuinely impressed that you got permission from me, and all of that money, to be on here, so 'Congrats’ fucker. :P”

This dude is such a dick.

Rory looked down the long list of chapters, finding Chapter Twenty labeled the “Turning Point: Colony Seven And Six”.

That has to be it… I hope.

He started to read it, bracing himself for the inevitable asshole comments mixed in with the information. But to his surprise after all unbearably sarcastic intro, he found relevant information.

They stated facts about a foreign aircraft slamming into Colony Six twenty years ago.

It killed almost all of the inhabitants, and crushed all of Colony Six.

The Corporation, “Project Oasis”, had two large headquarters there, that had been attacked by the unknown species, suspected to be from the foreign aircraft.

The few surviving inhabitants of Colony Six were sent to the “in construction”, “new”, Colony Seven. They were promised a “new life”, if they agreed to work as farmers, and let government agencies, such as Mechon Industries and Project Oasis operate there as well, without the public eye knowing of their facilities.

Most of the once Colony Six citizens agreed to the contract, some didn't and were executed, and some were taken into Project Oasis custody.

The chapter ended off saying that the ruins of Colony Six were taken as property (owned by Project Oasis) for “classified research”. No one could get in, even Professor X’s high class drones.

But overall, their drones got all of the valuable info that was described in the chapter, including pictures of everything.

He clicked on the picture file attached to the end of the chapter, excited to see what pictures were in it.

The first picture was of a strange silver skeleton with curving and arched bones, three arms, a shattered (what looked like) skull, and something glowing in its “rib cage” area. The skeleton was definitely not anything human.

The second picture was of even more strange silver skeletons squashed by debris and rubble, along with human remains as well.

The third was a large shot of Colony Seven under construction; the barrier walls were incomplete, with large robotic construction aircraft building it from above.

The fourth was inside of Colony Seven, it appeared to show a higher up general speaking to people sitting up in patient beds, inside a temporary tent.

Those must be the Colony Six survivors, and that man must be negotiating with them about the contract…

The pictures went on and on. But they were all definitely real. They proved every part of what was stated in the chapter.

Rory filled out the last of his notes for the day, copied the the chapter into his data document, cited it for future reference, and shut down his computer.

He threw his arms up into the air; a glowing smile was present on his face.

“What are the chances of finding such good info without infiltrating government databases! Ha!”

He danced and celebrated like a ludicrous idiot, but didn't have a single care in the world at the moment.

He grabbed his com ready to just indulge in being lazy, as a reward for his job-well-done today.

He turned it on, seeing a message from Corrin from four hours ago.

“Shit! He's probably texting me about the study thing!”

He frantically he opened his messages, seeing Corrin's message.

It read,

“So you're fine with letting me study at your house tomorrow?”

He responded back by saying a simple “yes”, hoping that he'd check his com in the morning.

“Ugh I should've thought about this… I hope he responds in the-”

A notification buzz came from his com. He picked it, praying that it wasn't Corrin.

Ah shit.

Corrin: Okay. Good.

Why are u still up

Corrin: I could ask you the same thing. Ha. Well, I'm only still up because I'm working on my homework.

Ah k forget that u guys actually have hw

Corrin: Yeah it's awfully tedious. Why are you still up?

Just got carried away with video games

Corrin: Cool. I'm going to bed now. Goodnight. Let's meet up before school.

Oh alright Gnight

Corrin: Sleep well, Rory.

Thx u too

Rory stared at the phone for a while, mainly at the words “Sleep well, Rory”.

It gave him chills just reading it, but not frightened chills but chills of ecstasy. 

He already knew he was blushing and anxious in every way, but decided it was best to not let that get to him. Besides he had accomplished much that night from the discovery of Professor X’s database, and the “long” text conversation between Corrin and him.

Satisfied, he brushed his teeth, washed his red face (although with no effect whatsoever), and headed off to bed.

Rory closed the backdoor of his house slowly, as he crept out of the house. He locked it with the twist of his key, then proceeded out of the alleyway.

As he walked out, he noticed his bike resting on the cement wall, it's trashed appearance looking worse.

He sneered at it, kicking before coming out of the alleyway.

Corrin was waiting outside his house. He was dressed with a pink bomber jacket, paired with a white turtleneck sweater, acid washed jeans, and cream colored slip on shoes. His hair was pulled into a ponytail that rested on his shoulder, instead of his usual free flowing hair.

Why is he wearing so much clothing…? I mean- sure it looks really nice on him… but it's gonna be hot today… now that I think about it, he's always wearing heavy clothing...

“Morning…” Rory greeted, waving his hand a tad.

“Morning to you as well.”

Corrin combed a finger through his ponytail, then came next to Rory.

They started to walk to the station; the roads weren't quite dark or light, the sky a deeper shade of blue.

“...So I wanted to start reading some more classics like you do… Any suggestions?” Rory asked, his speech more laid back than his usual Corrin banter.

“You could start with 'Of Mice and Men’ or maybe 'The Secret Garden’. Those two are definitely favorites. But if you want very well known classics ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’, are good as well,” Corrin said with a passionate tone, smiling and playing with his hair as he spoke, “...but personally I'm not that fond of 'The Great Gatsby’, but see if you like it… sorry I'm rambling…”

Rory had a laughing gaze at him, finding his intense love for literature slightly humorous, yet also a captivating part of Corrin's character.

“Thanks, I'll definitely look into those,” Rory said, looking down at Corrin's happy expression.

“That's good…”

Corrin smiled up at Rory for a moment, the two blushing and turning away immediately.

My heart's racing… not this again! And I thought I finally was gonna just have a normal, happy day, without that… Dammit!

The subway whirled down the rails at a somewhat faster speed than usual, for some odd reason.

Corrin and Rory sat side by side as the darkness of the black tunnel outside, flashed behind them.

They sat silently. The awkward tension was loose, and wasn't as daunting as usual. But Rory could still feel the restless ring of his heart, and the heat rushing to his cheeks.

Corrin saw his anxious face, as Rory saw his eyes looking at him curiously.

Corrin's expression shifted to an uncomfortable wandering of his eyes, and gripping of his knees.

Then an idea popped into his head. Corrin reached into his pocket, revealing his six cat borgs.

“...Do you want to hold them?” Corrin asked, trying to wipe his uncomfortable gaze from his face.

“Sure…” Rory choked, barely able to not stutter.

Corrin placed them onto his hand gently, their hands meeting one another's.

Their cheeks splashed with pink, Rory almost dropping the borgs on to the ground.

I need to calm down… and stay casual.

He looked down at the borgs, watching them move around on his palm. One curled up and slept on his palm, another “groomed” itself, some we're walking about, and some were playing with the other cats.

“This is amazing… they're so realistic...” Rory complemented, still gazing at them, “how'd you make them?”

“Well it actually was a lot of work. I'm not very familiar with programing, so there was an immense amount of trial and error. But after getting past integrating their behaviors and such,putting them together was quite a thrill… they have to be my favorite project yet… although they're fairly simple,” Corrin admitted, poking the little cats on Rory's hand.

“Wow that's impressive…” Rory said with genuine interest, “...you know I'm pretty good at programing… if there's any bugs I them, I could fix them... if you'd like.”

Corrin patted his shoulder in a friendly way, smiling at him.

“Ha… it's fine. I sorta like their imperfections. But if I decide to make more… then I'll let you take care of programing.”

“S-sounds good!” Rory squeaked, heart thumping.

Corrin nodded pleasingly, then went back to touching the borgs.

Rory's chest wanted to burst open. He licked his lips nervously, looking away at the black window, to calm his horrendous heart beat.

They arrived to school early as usual. They went to the library and sat comfortably at a table.

“...not to sound rude…” Rory said, seating himself, “why did you want to meet up this morning?”

“I just wanted to just chat for once. We always just…talk about calculus… and… study... I guess…” Corrin trailed off, turning red as he spoke.

“...Oh okay.”

Rory didn't want the conversation to drift away again. He awkwardly grabbed the collar of his t-shirt, as if to boost his confidence.

“So…. Engineering… you seem to like it… a lot?” Rory said, chopping up his words.

“Y-Yeah…” Corrin responded still a tad ashen in the face, “I’ve been doing it since I was able to get my hands on metal… I love just the whole idea of fixing mechanics or upgrading an old device… and so on. I do little ‘jobs’ here and there for people…”

“That's pretty sick. Didn't know you were that  handy… let alone that you run a small business,” Rory said, as if he hadn't known that he was both incredibly handy, and had a small business.

“Thanks… it's no business… but I suppose maybe it'll be bigger one day...” he said, smiling at the flattery and twiddling his thumbs.

Rory grinned back, glad to see the conversation was functioning fairly smoothly so far.

They conversed for the rest of the morning before class started.

Rory never really knew how nice it was just to talk to a normal person, unlike Vega.

But at the same time, he knew he wasn't getting anywhere with research on Corrin, if he just played it safe the whole time. He had to step up his game.

They walked into the classroom, five minutes before the bell rang.

Both of them sat in their seats next to one another.

Corrin pulled out his notebook, starting to write in it vigorously. Rory peeked over at him, trying to see what he was writing.

The… Institute… of-

Corrin saw him looking, although Rory didn't see him looking.

So… it says The Institute of… aha! The Institute of Colony Eight Scientific Research! Hmmm… so this notebook is his planner. It says that today after our study… he'll be heading there! I'll have to look up where that is… this could be be a breakthrough!

Rory giggled to himself happily, feeling proud of his recent research breakthroughs.

Corrin stared at him, a dubious look in his eyes.

Jasmine sauntered down the hallway towards language class. Her heels clicked and her bracelets jingled as she walked.

She spotted Rory walking ahead of her, his tall figure and curly hair standing out.

“Hey Amari!” she called.

He didn't turn to look, as usual.

“Amari!”

Rory still didn't notice her, but did see Corrin walking in the opposite direction of him.