“Fuck off,” I whispered to myself a bit annoyed. It took me a moment to realize what I had said reached his ears as he removed his hand from my head. Liam let out a sigh before stepping back a bit. A feeling of guilt came over me. “Welp!” he said, “I’m going to get those cuffs off you. I'm sure they are uncomfortable so I’m going to need you to stand for me to do that.” I slowly stood up from the couch.

He turned me around and I could feel him unlocking the cuffs. When they were undone he flipped me back to face him. At the same time he typed a passcode on my collar that disabled it. I had tried figuring out the passcode myself but I found out that it only worked for non-hybrids. It also scanned the person’s face to make sure they were documented in files of people who worked as trainers, scientists, or anyone else working for the government. “I’m going to make dinner as I’m sure you’re hungry. Since you don’t seem like you want to talk with me I hope you’ll at least listen. Go bathe yourself for 15 minutes and put on some clean clothes. Your room is up the stairs and the end of the hallway. Be down in 25 minutes.”

He finished speaking and walked away. Everything about the situation pissed me off. It was so much easier to be rude to someone who wasn’t being nice, but doing it to this guy almost made me feel guilty. I tried to ignore my subconscious telling me to just give him a chance and made my way upstairs.

I got to the room I was supposed to stay in and was pleasantly surprised. It was a decent size and the idea of having a room to myself was odd but nice. Up until that point I was always forced to share with two or three other hybrids. I didn’t feel like I’d deserve that, but still was excited to sleep in my own bed. Putting my things down, I went to the bathroom to take a shower. The hot water running down my back felt nice against my skin and gave me time to think. If I escaped I’d be found soon due to the micro tracking chip embedded in my neck. If I was disobedient, I’d be sent back. If I was too obedient, I could still be sent back to be assigned to a job which wasn’t something I wanted. I’d be lucky if they gave me a teacher occupation, but if I’d also heard of some hybrids getting really out of the box occupations. There was no getting out of the situation I was in.

There was never getting out of any of this since I was just a cat hybrid. All of the other hybrids got houses as soon as they were born where they could go with an assigned guardian for the holidays when they got older with friends they had met during the training program. When their training was completed, those houses would belong to them as long as they took the job assigned to them. There they could start a family and be happy. There were times I wished I had that, then again most of the time I didn’t. It was sad seeing that all of the hybrids thought it was normal to have someone dictate what you do in life.

The sound of the door being knocked on reached my ears. “Dinner’s ready. You’ve been in the shower for 25 minutes already. I’m giving you these time frames for a reason, Kitten,” he said, through the door.

Hearing him call me kitten caused a low growl to emit from me. Lots of workers and hybrids over at the training/ experimental center would call me a kitten and it pissed me off. “Not my name,” I growled quietly. Liam chuckled a bit at my response. “Ok, then. There are a few things I want to talk to you about at dinner, so please hurry up. Ok?” I remained silent and turned off the shower. After I said nothing he let out a sigh. “Ok, don’t say anything that’s fine.”

I heard footsteps leaving the room and going back downstairs. I got out of the bathroom and changed into some clothes. It was just a white tee shirt and some comfortable star-patterned, pajama pants.

The smell of burgers and fries hit my nose as I finished changing. My stomach growled when I smelled such delicious food for the first time in a while. I nearly ran downstairs, excited to eat. Two plates of food were set out and I sat in front of one. I’d only been given very bland food that didn’t sit well with my stomach at the facility so excitingly I looked up to be sure that I could eat it. Liam gave me a nod and smiled. Almost immediately I dug into the really delicious food but could feel his eyes on me as I took bites of the burger.

“Is it good?” he asked, to which I gave no answer. He was probably only being nice to get me to talk to him. It was also most likely a tactic he was using so that I would later obey him when we started training. “Listen, I understand that we’ve only met an hour ago and I know that it’s hard to trust someone you don’t know, but I know more about you than you do about me. That’s something that we can fix if you just talk to me. I’m here to help you, ok?”

I didn’t know why he cared so damn much. What was he even getting out of all this that would make him want to be nice to me? Maybe if he kept me the whole month he’d get paid or something. “Kitten I need you to start responding to me, ok? If you think I’m going to send you back for any reason you are sadly mistaken so it would be so much easier for you to just cooperate.”

My body couldn’t seem to move. I wanted to correct him about the nickname but it was as though my mind went blank. He said he wasn’t going to send me back. Why? What purpose could I possibly serve? Maybe he just meant for the next month? Yeah. That made more sense. He meant that he wouldn’t send me back for the month I was with him. What would happen if I don’t shapen up and he sends me back at the end of the month? Are they going to get rid of me? “Nickel, whatever you’re thinking about, stop,” I heard him say sternly.

I chewed, swallowed, and drank whatever was in the glass in front of me. Tasted like some sort of juice. I wanted to just ignore him and my thoughts so I continued to eat. I placed my burger down in attempts to grab a few fries but my plate was pulled away. I had already let my guard down because at the facility if someone took your food you didn’t get another plate. You had to be wary at all times. “Did you hear me?” he asked. “Tch, yes I heard you, I get it. Gimme my food.”

He only laughed a bit but kept the food in his hold. “I think that’s the most you’ve said to me so far. I’ll give it to you but I want you to answer a question first. I did say before that I needed to talk to you.” I rolled my eyes as he continued. “I was given a copy of your medical history and as you heard earlier I was informed of your habit. I’m going to go off on a whim and assume that you scratch out of stress. Am I correct?” I really disliked talking about such matters. There’d be times when other hybrids and even some instructors would pity me. Of course, they wouldn’t ask if I was ok but they’d talk about how sad it was to look at me. I nodded remembering to respond. “Well is there anything I can do to help you?” I nodded my head as a thought formed in my head and I smiled. “Great! What is it?”

I looked up with a saddened face on. “Well… i...it’d really help,” I couldn’t help but grin at the next part, “If you gave me the damn food back.” He didn’t seem too amused but I snickered. “You aren’t funny but I suppose that’s what I get for making that rude joke earlier.” The minute he pushed the plate close to me, I reached over and snatched it back. Liam grinned as I continued eating my meal and he began eating his.

That night I went to bed completely full for the first time in a while. Not just that but it tasted fucking amazing. The food at the facility was awful and often upset my weak stomach, so to

have something I could eat without getting sick was nice. Not only that but some of the hybrids would often try and take my food or knock it over. I felt myself relax into the silky pillow and wrap the sheets around me. Maybe, just maybe, this next month wouldn’t be so awful. 

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