"You can't avoid the lunch hall forever," Tyron said with a grimace as he chucked Aero a nutrient juice packet.
"I don't intend to," Aero muttered, not bothering to look up from the flight manual he had reading, "I only need to avoid it for one more day until we're shipped the hell out of here.
"You do realise he'll be coming with?"
"Whatever Jago decides to do is nothing to do with me," Aero replied with a huff, slamming the book shut. He had read the same page five times anyway.
"You're meant to be a partn..."
"Tyron I swear to god if you say 'partnership' I will throw this manual at your head, and trust me it's heavy, it's got a 400 page appendix at the back."
Tyron snorted as he sat down opposite Aero, "Is it okay if Zach comes to hang out here for a bit?"
"Sure," Aero grit out between clenched teeth, thinking of the last remark Zach had made to him.
As if on cue Zach pushed through the door a moment later, followed by...Zach.
"What the fuck was in that nutrient juice Tyron?" Aero frowned, glaring down at the packet.
Tyron chuckled as he looked up at waved to the 'Zachs', "Aero this is Taryn, Zach's clone."
"Clone," Aero repeated flatly.
"Yeah, we were part of some side experiments within the Feral programme," Zach grinned.
Aero narrowed his eyes before noticing that Taryn's hair was slightly different to Zach's. Aero also judged from the unpleasant look that Taryn was giving him that it was Taryn and not Zach who had caught him with Jago last week.
"Science - fun for all the family," Aero mimed unenthusiastic jazz hands before standing up, letting his book fall to the floor, before he stormed out of the room. He could hear Tyron calling out an anxious "Aero?" behind him.
Aero stalked all the way to the training gym, pushing open the door before freezing as his eyes fell on the back of the fair haired figure facing the other way.
"Fuck," he announced loudly, not caring that Jago flinched and almost dropped the weights bar he was holding. Aero turned and started to walk back down the corridor before he heard a door opening and closing behind him.
He spun round in panic, thinking maybe Jago had tried to follow him but there was no one there.
Aero tiptoed back down the hallway to see that the door to the gym was swinging on its hinges, peering through the window he noticed that the room was now empty, no sign of Jago.
"Well, at least now I can work out in peace," Aero muttered, pushing his way through the entrance and heading towards the abandoned equipment.
The grip of the metal bar was still hot from Jago's palms and it was resonating slightly from the weight it must have been loaded with.
Aero grimaced and put on as many heavy discs as possible to get it to stop shuddering with the echo of the Feral's touch.
He wondered if he could use the same method to get his own skin to stop vibrating?
**
The next day was the launch day of the mission. They were going to be accessing the Sierra Zula Galaxy via designated Worm Hole 64 Alpha Bravo.
Turned out humanity was one of the most impatient species out there, and when it came to intergalactic space travel, century long journeys just weren't going to cut it.
The worm holes were artificially engineered by human scientists and their allies to bend space where it was most convenient for short hops across the universe.
And by 'short hop' Aero meant the kind of horrific journey that made you feel like your eyeballs might be melting and all you wanted to do was puke your guts out.
"Everyone taken their gag suppressants?" Sienna asked breezily, rattling a jar containing red pills at the assembled group.
"Aero?" she asked with a sigh.
"Yes!" he replied indignantly, knowing full well that he would be the most likely to forget. "Not that I need it, I have like zero gag reflex."
He raised his voice loudly on the second assertion. Aero's eyes flashed quickly to the side to satisfyingly register Jago tensing with his back to him.
He had made up his mind when he’d seen the Feral walk up to the launch platform that morning - he wasn't going to act like some kind of pathetic, humiliated wreck.
Instead, Aero had decided he was going to try and make things as awkward and uncomfortable as possible for Jago.
It seemed like the adult thing to do.
Plus, it was pretty much the only thing holding Aero together right now, given that he was going to have spend the next three hours trapped in a wormhole with the asshat.
"The Shuttle is loaded and ready for takeoff," an official announced, jogging over to them. Handler Itagawa and Dr. Itagawa were standing in front of them and going over some last minute checks. A moment later and the order was given for the Ferals and Dolls to go get strapped in.
"You'll receive your next set of instructions upon arrival at the designated planet," Handler Itagawa informed them before ushering everybody forwards.
"Aero," she called out before he could follow after Cody.
"Yup?" he turned back to her.
"You're a Doll," she stated firmly before going back to marking things on her clipboard. Aero frowned at her for a moment, "That it?" he asked confused.
"That's all you need to hear," she replied with a curt nod.
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