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August 18, 2059
Matt was busy doing podcast stuff, so Tate invited Alex to join him in person for lunch. Tate cooks well, and has reorganized the kitchen so he can find everything. He asked Lisa for recipe suggestions, based on what ingredients were available, and what Alex likes to eat. Lisa helps him when he can't find or identify something. It's also part of the living-together rules Matt & Tate worked out, that Tate needs to cook at least one meal per day, and do some other chores.
As they dug into their meal -- caesar salad with chicken breast -- Alex asked whether Tate was feeling any better than yesterday.
"No! You always pretend like you don't know everything that goes on here." Tate pouted.
"No? I thought you guys talked it out."
"Whatever."
Alex was enjoying his food, took a minute to savor it, "Thanks for cooking, this is great."
"You're welcome."
"So, did you like doing a 'top-secret' assignment? Would you do another one? Do you want to become one of Chris's 'Bond girls'?"
"It was fun, but it was also horrible. And I'm still not sure what really happened. And what's a 'Bond girl'?"
"That sounds like a good assignment then, better than picking up a dead drop from a public park at 2am every night, or doing surveillance on a boring dude all week. A 'Bond girl' means one of the secret agent gals who seduced James Bond in the '007' movies."
"I never liked those movies. I dunno, I don't think I'd be any good at seducing people who I don't like." Tate didn't think he was much of a seducer at all. He'd only had sex with two people, both of whom he'd met through Chris, both of whom had experienced extreme social isolation due to crazy technological problems with their brains/implants when he jumped into their lives. It looked like he had a thing for lonely, broken guys. Maybe because he felt like a lonely, broken guy too.
Alex pointed out, "The Bond girls always liked James Bond. Anyway. There are people who make a career of having sex with spies. I think you'd be good at it."
Tate stuck his tongue out and made a sound like "phblphblech".
"And it pays well. And you probably don't even need to fix your eyes to do that job."
"phblphblech, phblphblech, but I have decided to fix my eyes, but first I have to visit Mom and bail her out, because I remembered they don't let people with implants into her jail building for security reasons."
"Ah, good call."
They ate some more, quietly, then Tate asked, "How did you get into security as a career?"
"Hmmm," Alex had to think about the why, more than the how. "Well, what you're good at in school, your temperament, and whether the on-campus interviewers from the security companies think you're full of shit. Needing the money. And liking the people you work for. I guess by temperament I mean you have to be assertive and enjoy paying attention to details. Security is not something you do half-way."
Tate didn't respond immediately, taking some time to eat.
Alex decided to change the subject, and prepared for the reaction, "I want you to know something. When you first arrived here I ordered Matt to be monogamous with you for as long as you want him to be, even if that meant the rest of his life. This order did not and does not depend on you being monogamous with him. And Matt will follow this order until you release him from it."
Tate didn't respond immediately. Which surprised Alex. This kid was not 100% predictable.
"Why does Matt follow your orders?" asked Tate, sounding genuinely curious.
"Man, I'm not a psychiatrist! It's how we roll. I'm his Sir, he's my boy, and he follows my rules. He needs to follow somebody's rules. He follows mine. He'd probably follow yours also, if you were into that kind of thing."
"What if I told you to stop giving him orders, because he's my boyfriend now."
Damn!
Alex considered his words carefully. "If that's what both of you wanted. My arrangement with Matt is consensual. He's allowed to break up with me. Hell, he's allowed to fire me. But watch out for the severance payment, my contract is tight."
"I was just asking! I don't want to get rid of you, Alex! This is my first relationship, I'm still learning how these things work, and I'm afraid I fucked it up already. You know Matt way better than I do, you guys have 'systems' or whatever. I think he's going to dump me for ... Ugh." Tate threw his silverware to the side and was about to cry.
"No, he's not. I think Matt was much more worried that you were in danger, than you were having sex with somebody else. Were you in danger?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Probably? But everything seemed pretty well locked down."
"I'm sure Chris locked down as much as possible. He's the best."
"No, he's not. But he's pretty darn good. I think we were just lucky."
Matt was busy doing podcast stuff, so Tate invited Alex to join him in person for lunch. Tate cooks well, and has reorganized the kitchen so he can find everything. He asked Lisa for recipe suggestions, based on what ingredients were available, and what Alex likes to eat. Lisa helps him when he can't find or identify something. It's also part of the living-together rules Matt & Tate worked out, that Tate needs to cook at least one meal per day, and do some other chores.
As they dug into their meal -- caesar salad with chicken breast -- Alex asked whether Tate was feeling any better than yesterday.
"No! You always pretend like you don't know everything that goes on here." Tate pouted.
"No? I thought you guys talked it out."
"Whatever."
Alex was enjoying his food, took a minute to savor it, "Thanks for cooking, this is great."
"You're welcome."
"So, did you like doing a 'top-secret' assignment? Would you do another one? Do you want to become one of Chris's 'Bond girls'?"
"It was fun, but it was also horrible. And I'm still not sure what really happened. And what's a 'Bond girl'?"
"That sounds like a good assignment then, better than picking up a dead drop from a public park at 2am every night, or doing surveillance on a boring dude all week. A 'Bond girl' means one of the secret agent gals who seduced James Bond in the '007' movies."
"I never liked those movies. I dunno, I don't think I'd be any good at seducing people who I don't like." Tate didn't think he was much of a seducer at all. He'd only had sex with two people, both of whom he'd met through Chris, both of whom had experienced extreme social isolation due to crazy technological problems with their brains/implants when he jumped into their lives. It looked like he had a thing for lonely, broken guys. Maybe because he felt like a lonely, broken guy too.
Alex pointed out, "The Bond girls always liked James Bond. Anyway. There are people who make a career of having sex with spies. I think you'd be good at it."
Tate stuck his tongue out and made a sound like "phblphblech".
"And it pays well. And you probably don't even need to fix your eyes to do that job."
"phblphblech, phblphblech, but I have decided to fix my eyes, but first I have to visit Mom and bail her out, because I remembered they don't let people with implants into her jail building for security reasons."
"Ah, good call."
They ate some more, quietly, then Tate asked, "How did you get into security as a career?"
"Hmmm," Alex had to think about the why, more than the how. "Well, what you're good at in school, your temperament, and whether the on-campus interviewers from the security companies think you're full of shit. Needing the money. And liking the people you work for. I guess by temperament I mean you have to be assertive and enjoy paying attention to details. Security is not something you do half-way."
Tate didn't respond immediately, taking some time to eat.
Alex decided to change the subject, and prepared for the reaction, "I want you to know something. When you first arrived here I ordered Matt to be monogamous with you for as long as you want him to be, even if that meant the rest of his life. This order did not and does not depend on you being monogamous with him. And Matt will follow this order until you release him from it."
Tate didn't respond immediately. Which surprised Alex. This kid was not 100% predictable.
"Why does Matt follow your orders?" asked Tate, sounding genuinely curious.
"Man, I'm not a psychiatrist! It's how we roll. I'm his Sir, he's my boy, and he follows my rules. He needs to follow somebody's rules. He follows mine. He'd probably follow yours also, if you were into that kind of thing."
"What if I told you to stop giving him orders, because he's my boyfriend now."
Damn!
Alex considered his words carefully. "If that's what both of you wanted. My arrangement with Matt is consensual. He's allowed to break up with me. Hell, he's allowed to fire me. But watch out for the severance payment, my contract is tight."
"I was just asking! I don't want to get rid of you, Alex! This is my first relationship, I'm still learning how these things work, and I'm afraid I fucked it up already. You know Matt way better than I do, you guys have 'systems' or whatever. I think he's going to dump me for ... Ugh." Tate threw his silverware to the side and was about to cry.
"No, he's not. I think Matt was much more worried that you were in danger, than you were having sex with somebody else. Were you in danger?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Probably? But everything seemed pretty well locked down."
"I'm sure Chris locked down as much as possible. He's the best."
"No, he's not. But he's pretty darn good. I think we were just lucky."
