I had to quickly come up with an excuse… “They just don’t really tell me much.” I nervously laughed.

“You have a clearance A card though.” He stared directly into my eyes, he wasn’t buying it.

I had to think of something, or… I don’t know what would happen if I couldn’t.

Think, Think, Think!

“Uhh-” my voice cracked—I couldn’t think of an excuse.

His eyes were darkening as he… wait, that’s perfect!

“You know! Because of my Xeno!” I nervously laughed again sounding desperate.

“Your…” He stopped to think, I could see his eyes slowly going back to normal.

Without thinking I blurted out something else I hoped would completely sway him, “I think they’re afraid of me…” I tilted my head down to sell it more.

To my surprise, he grabbed my hand, like I did his before, and said, “Hey… sorry, you don’t need to explain, I understand what you mean.”

I titled my head farther down to hide the grin on my face. I’m not sure why, but my smile felt more evil than relieved, but I didn’t have a choice whether I lied to him or not.

I lifted my hand up and poked my eyes, while making it look like I was wiping them. Some tears started rolling out from the pain, which sold my story even more. I really didn’t need to manipulate him this hard, he already fell for the lie… but I guess better safe than sorry.

“Sniff… sorry, I guess—well, I started working there in hopes to make a friend or two, since I don’t really know anyone… but they’re all scared of me and don’t even talk to me.” Man, I was really pushing this fake story… well, to be fair, I wasn’t completely lying.

He didn’t respond to that though, and I was getting worried that I just blew it. I slowly looked up and saw that instead of an angry face, or even a confused one, his face had lit up. Why was he exited about that?

“W-we could be f-f-friends…” He struggled to say it, but when he did the look on my face was just dumbfoundedness. He really fell for it…

Though, since he fell for it, and based on his reaction, does he not have any friends either?

“Wait… sorry for asking, but how old are you?” I wasn’t trying to be mean, but the way he acted and looked didn’t really match. He does look young, but his rashness and impulsive actions, like kidnapping me, make me feel like he’s much younger…

He pulled his hand back and started thinking… how hard was it to know your age?

“I’m not really sure, the last I remember was… maybe 15?”

I somehow spit like they do in shows, but I had nothing in my mouth. I quickly wiped my mouth with my sleeve and asked, “Sorry what did you say?” There’s no way he’s 15??

“I mean, I was at the facility for a couple years and I made it through national security so I think I’m at least 18 now…” He held his chin with his hand.

“Do you have a passport?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I see it?”

“I don’t have it with me right now.” He looked so clueless.

I facepalmed and said, “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to have it on you at all times…” I’m not really sure how I knew this, but I did.

“I know… But why should I care what they say, they don’t own the world yet!” He pouted as he crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

I couldn’t help myself from laughing, he just looked so funny.

“W-why are you laughing?” He had become flustered.

I imitated him and crossed my arms, “ThEy DoN’t OwN tHe WoRlD!”

We both started laughing. I couldn’t believe that I was laughing with the guy who kidnapped me, and could easily kill me if he wanted to. This moment made me one hundred percent sure he wasn’t the one who murdered Lydia, and just a dumb teen who’s trying to find his sister in the wrong ways.

After a bit we stopped and I grabbed my side, Lydia must have never laughed with how much my side aches. After a minute of breathing, I told Yuri that I’d help under one condition.

“I know I said I’d only help if you told me why, but now I have one more condition.”

He caught his breath and asked me what it was.

“We do this the right way, no more kidnapping employees, they didn’t do anything wrong.” As I said this, I could see his face change, he either couldn’t accept my offer, or what I believe, is that he doesn’t believe anyone at Lunar Labs is innocent.

I quickly added, “Most of them probably don’t even know what’s going on, they just think it’s a normal lab…” I had to help him understand that not everyone working there was involved. I’m not sure what they did to him, or myself, but as he thinks I dealt with the same thing, he’ll trust me more.

His face changed as he realized I wasn’t lying. He probably remembered something from the past and accepted my offer.

“Fine… as long as you get all the information I need and my sister, I won’t need anyone else.”

I jumped up in excitement, “Perfect! Now I can go there tomorrow, but for now, we need to eat something then get some rest.” I picked the chair up with the other one that I had laid my leg on earlier and brought them back to the table.

I looked down and remembered my pants were all ripped and somewhat gross.

“We should also probably change, these outfits are all sweaty and covered in dirt…”

“All my extra cloths are at my base…”

I had somehow completely forgotten that Yuri was a boy, and I doubt Lydia had any boy clothes.

I rushed over to the closet and started searching for clothes, I found an outfit I was very keen on wearing, but for tonight, I’d just wear the simple button pajamas.

Now for Yuri…

“Do you know what size you wear?”

“What?”

I turned around with a shirt, and pointed to the tag.

“I… I still don’t know what you mean…” He shook his head in confusion.

“Okay, get up, let me see the back of your shirt.” How does he not know cloth sizes?

He hesitantly got up and turned around. I pulled his shirt back a little and couldn’t find a tag, but it did look like there was an imprinted size on the material. I went back to the closet and searched through the shirts. The main problem I was having was that most of the clothing was the same, but just a different colour.

I finally found one at the very back, which was a black t-shirt and one of the only ones with a design. I looked at it and there was a floral design on the front. I quickly checked the size—bingo! It was one size bigger than his current shirt. I also searched through the pants and found three different sized sweatpants. I handed all of them to him and told him to change in the bathroom.

As he walked over there, I reached into the closet to clean it up a bit, and found something… the outfit I was keen on wearing tomorrow looked… exactly the same as the outfit I was wearing when I woke up here. After noticing that I realized the mistake I just made as he shut the door.

I had just sent him into the bathroom, with all the bloody cloths right next to him.