Page 20 of Secretly Abducted
"It's fine. Your whole place is beyond fine. It's so clean it makes me nervous." He looks around. "When did you last move something out of place?"
I can't remember.
He deliberately takes a nutrition packet and places it at an angle. My hand twitches to fix it.
Leave it," he says gently. "The world won't end if one thing is crooked."
"It's inefficient."
"It's human." He continues exploring, touching things, leaving subtle traces of his presence. A cabinet door not quite closed. A chair shifted two degrees. Small rebellions against my perfect order.
He finds the synthesizer and starts poking at the interface. "What can this make?"
"Anything in its database."
"Earth food?"
"If it's been programmed."
He lights up. "Can it make mac and cheese?"
"I don't know what that is."
"Pasta with cheese sauce. Comfort food." He's already searching through options. "Oh, you have pasta! And cheese! This might work."
While he figures out the synthesizer, I find myself following behind him, compulsively straightening things he's disturbed. He notices.
"Vel'aan."
"What?"
"Stop cleaning."
"I'm not cleaning. I'm organizing."
"Stop that too." He abandons the synthesizer and turns to face me. "Your place doesn't need to be perfect."
"I prefer order."
"You prefer control. There's a difference."
The observation is uncomfortably accurate. I move to adjust a cultivation chart that's slightly askew, and he intercepts me again.
"Okay, new rule. Every time you try to clean or organize something, you have to tell me something about yourself."
"That's arbitrary."
"That's the rule." He returns to the synthesizer. "So? Going to straighten that chart?"
I let my hand drop. The synthesizer chimes, producing something that smells... interesting. Orange sauce over small tubes.
"Success!" Alex retrieves the bowl. "Want some?"
"I'm adequately nourished."
"That's not what I asked." He programs another portion before I can protest. "When did you last eat for pleasure instead of necessity?"
The synthesizer produces another bowl. Alex hands it to me, then looks at the single chair.
