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Carlene hadn’t expected it to rain this hard. It was a rare occurrence there, so no one could blame him if he hadn’t carried an umbrella.
He was the only one with classes on that day, thanks to him being an android and having a higher processing view, he was also supposed to have more classes than the average.
The others were housesitting, which he wasn’t all that concerned about but he would hurry up home, despite the rain being heavy. He put a hand out into which the droplets fell in.
The sensation was striking and made the place where it fell grow slightly numb, not to mention cold. He had to run home in this darned rainy weather. He wouldn’t even have minded this sort of weather, if he wasn’t the one outside in the pouring rain. He sighed as he pulled over his hoodie, which was disappointingly enough, not waterproof.
As he ran through the rain, he could tell he was getting completely drenched as the water started to seep through his hoodie. It was bad enough that he had forgotten his phone, and now the rain made it worse. As if the weather couldn’t have made it even worse, he was feeling strangely nostalgic and the rain reminded him of many things.
Some good, some bad, some he wouldn’t mind revisiting and some that he would rather not go back to for the rest of his life.
The day he was created had been a stormy day. It had coincidentally also been the day he had met Seth. The weather brought a blend of emotions back to him, from regret and jealousy to bliss and peacefulness. The day his father had made him was a memorable day, of course it was. He could easily recall the depressed man that had been starstruck as Carlene moved for the first time after being programmed.
Carlene could vividly remember the first time he felt, with emotions ringing through all the circuits. It was such a muddled yet clear feeling.
The first time he blinked he could feel the realistically plastered skin on his intricately manufactured machinery. It was almost uncanny to a human appearance. The memories shifted into a
He could also remember the day he met Seth though. It had also left quite the impression in his mind, perhaps even a thing he never wanted to forget. For once, in a long time, someone had come to his house, and contrary to his expectations, it ended up being that boy instead of his father.
His platinum blonde hair always shone brightly which changed into curls at the ends of his mane, it wasn’t blinding but more of a soft glow that exuded an aura of pride and dignity. It reminded him of a lion, a vengeful lion who had a sharp gaze. The man himself wasn’t anything like his mane though, he was more like his eye that shone brightly in the dark, eye catching and blood red. It reminded him of a ruby that had been polished for a long time, ever sparkling, and had been used to replace his original pupil.
He also had a clear memory of the day he met Damian. He didn’t like the redhead at first. His hair was straight and matched Seth’s eye. It looked intentionally coloured to look like that. Fire and blaze is what came to mind when he saw the straight locks. His personality was coincidentally the same as his first impression– Hot and almost scalding.
He wore a clean silver tux that looked like it had been rolled in glitter at least five times, getting almost every single one of the shimmering particles to stick on him. He had a face mask that was neatly dotted with the similar silver glitter that had been shaped to look like a cat, the eyes behind the mask had a similar shape to the said animal’s. They were light brown, earth looking. That too was how he behaved. Carlene thought of him to be a cat-like creature, a cat that adored shiny stuff perhaps.
He got closer to Damian during the time of Seth’s short-lived crush on Rowan, and he found out several things about the boy.
He was from Korea, had purple hair before, which by Carlene’s flexible standards would have looked perfect on him. It was also supposedly wavy, and curled up slightly at the ends. Though throughout the time he had lived along the two, he had come to see him straighten his hair on several occasions, it wasn’t as surprising from the time he first saw his wavy red hair. He was a sharp tongued person and his powers included telepathy, the latter of which Carlene had an inkling about.
His mind started to wander, rapidly reaching the last day he saw his father, coincidentally the day he met Seth.
That day, he realized that his father isn’t all that as he cracked him up to be. Counter wasn’t the perfect role model. Counter was broken, though he already knew that, it had become more apparent. Counter wasn’t the good person, but Carlene had thought he was. Frankly, he already had a feeling that he had been conned.
The past had a familiar feeling, be it a good one, or a bad one. It was wishful, sometimes he wished he returned to the time when he was 18. He enjoyed those times, they had been pleasant, that is if he left out the fact that his father had been jailed sometime around that time.
Carlene clicked his tongue as he sprinted down the spiralling lanes, being careful to not fall while he was trying to reach his apartment.
Since he had been living there for some time, he was quite familiar with what paths to take, which had lesser people at certain times, and where they led him to and without much time wasted in between the two distances, that he finally found himself standing in front of his apartment, trying to turn the knob unsuccessfully. He sighed as he struggled to remove the keys from the clothes that were stuck to his body clutching on like a leech.
The keys jangled as he inserted the key in the lock hole, using his free hand to hold the lock.
He moved it to the right.
It didn’t work.
He then moved it left.
It still didn’t work.
Carlene’s eyebrows twitched no matter the time he had spent here, this small tinkering which he had left to Meo, which in hindsight was a bad move, it never ceased to please him; quite the opposite of that.
After a few moments of misplaced navigation through the keyhole, he finally opened the door, and took off his shoes at the entrance, pulling his socks off vigorously as the socks refused to get out. Another thing that had been overlooked on his part, adding onto the weather forecast and the phone– his socks, well footwear in general.
He forcefully yanked off his hoodie, which also expended some of his energy since even that simple task was more energy consuming as the hoodie had absorbed a large amount of water as a sisyphean way to protect Carlene from the rain.
At this point Carlene had started to wonder where the other two, who had been tasked to look over the house had gone. He walked in the drawing room to see said two people on the couch, one fast asleep while the other locked eyes which were filled with surprise with Carlene.
It was Damian.
Carlene was puzzled at why no one even came to see whether he was at the door, before Damian slowly got out of Seth’s clumsy attempt to hug the redhead in his unconscious state, and walked towards the soaked slightly taller man, his eyes and expression showing clear signs of concern.
He pulled Carlene’s hand and led the other man to the hallway, veering him out of the drawing room so as to not disturb Seth. Damian’s eyebrows furrowed as he asked Carlene while drying his hair with a nearby hand towel, “What even happened? Did you forget to watch the weather forecast? It said that there would be a high chance of rain today. Even if you did, didn’t you carry your phone-”
Carlene looked down awkwardly, “...I forgot to take my cell and didn’t have enough time to check the forecast.”
Damian tried to stifle a laugh, “In the rainy season?!! Who forgets to check the news!” barely succeeding, which in contrast was more joyful if compared to Carlene’s frown which had been staring at the floor, to make it easier for Damian to dry his hair. It had been an unsatisfying day for him to say the least.
Damian, who had stopped laughing to breathe a bit in the middle, tried to get a few words out before returning to his unending laugh, “You should go have a bath. You look drenched head to toe.”
Carlene agreed with him, not with the man’s smile at his suffering but the suggestion of taking a bath, and walked to the said bathroom, his energy completely spent with today’s events.
He turned on the hot water heater and waited for the water to fill. In the meantime, he stripped in the corner of the bathroom and stood waiting, dabbing himself with the hand towel to prevent himself from freezing. Upon realizing the water had been filled up to the brim in the tub, he pulled the shower curtains and submerged himself in the warm water.
He appreciated the warmer water that brought him comfort and calmness. He made a noise which was akin to a purr of an engine. He lay in the accumulated mass of water as he took a breather, while letting his ebony hair flow freely in the water, some strands floating on the water while some not so much. He didn’t think about much and just closed his eyes as if to relish this moment of tranquility.
He was suddenly awakened from his dream with a sharp voice in his head, one that brought him back to the stark reality. [Oi, you’re taking far too much time in the bath. Lunch’s already ready! Get out of there unless you’re planning on making a mini house there!] It was Damian’s clear voice that rang through his head.
Carlene hurried up with the washing and quickly exited the bathroom. He knew how annoyed Damian got whenever someone took too much time to get out and join the table. He quickly changed into a random grey tee which had the words ‘earphones’ written in the center. Carlene didn’t know why this was in his clothes pile, it was probably Seth’s but he didn’t want to complicate it. He decided to not judge one’s fashion sense.
As he walked out, he saw the tired Seth who he knew had spent the night up due to some work which hadn’t been completed yet. Seth then looked at Carlene and snickered at the dripping boy. His long hair was draped and not dried before it touched his body. Carlene looked a bit confused, “What’s wrong?”
Seth, who was operating on 15 minutes of sleep, didn't have a proper response to that, “Your hair looks like a slug has been plastered on a bald head.”
Carlene was a bit weirded out at the response but was not surprised, since it was coming out of the sleep deprived student’s mouth. Seth had a group project and as nice as it would have been if people weren’t as gutsy as they are, he had been left to do all the work and had been busy last night. Carlene had taken some time to help him, and Damian did help him but could not help as much as he thought, he couldn’t since they didn’t even share the same minors in the subjects and it looked mostly like foreign language to him. Begrudgingly, he had settled for making the coffee for them for the night, and so Seth had landed in his current condition. He had more projects and since this one was due the next day, he tried to finish up as soon as possible.
Carlene got another chair to sit down beside Seth who had his head buried underneath his sweater coated arms, as he waited for Damian to call them to set the plates.
Seth’s face emerged from a gap between the arms, yawning, his bored eye turned up to scan the familiar surroundings, trying to find something that would keep his attention up until the food was served. He was sure that he was going to conk off if he didn’t distract himself. He would have got his plate himself but frankly he was dead tired and didn’t have any energy to move his body away from the couch. His eye dashed to his seatmate and proceeded to notice the subtle difference he usually was from now. He could tell that Carlene had forgotten his umbrella, since Carlene would rather bathe later because he thought that it was too much work to go straight to the shower as soon as he came home. So, he definitely got caught in the rain.
A voice came out of the kitchen, “Carlene, come and help me with the plates.”
Carlene got up, beginning walking towards the kitchen, and so Seth had lost his only sense of amusement.
He sighed, diving back into his safe haven of darkness that he had formed using his arms, each and every part of his body felt like they were going to collectively decide to collapse any moment and he had no control over that movement. His thoughts went to the past, remembering the time when they had been as carefree as villains. Yet they had to change, become functioning members of society, because of rampant corruption through both the villain and the hero professions. It was work to change, that too an undesirable change.
He tapped his free hand on the table
It bored him. This life of his was boring. He craved excitement and wanted to do something. And that ‘something’ had kept on tugging at his nerves. He was waiting for an opportunity to go unhinged. To lose it. The thought of staying still and living an unassuming life pricked. He had been planning to get a lucrative job, so to say the least, after his college education was over. He had the network that would make his career rather successful.
He knew villains all over the country who had thought that it would be a good idea to return to the deep underground. Even his sister’s girlfriend had returned to the underground in order to make their work quieter since it had been branded as illegal. He could open up his own new group, perhaps with Carlene and Damian as his right and left hand men. It would suit them.
As he was enveloped in the soft blanket of his thoughts that may or may not harm the society, he heard a loud thud which prompted him to turn his gaze towards the table quickly. He could see the chicken glazing over with a thick slick of hot sauce placed in a glass bowl. On the plate next to it, a side of rice which had some vegetables in it, along the rices’ neatly aligned clump there was some brown liquid that looked like it had also been stuffed with carrots of odd sizes and shapes. He pulled himself up to get a better look at the delicacy, smiling at the rice that had been placed neatly to the side. It looked like heaven to him, no doubt. It had been a long time since he had eaten such a full meal. Mostly due to the fact that he had no time to do so in the past few days, it had been so hectic lately that it was near impossible to catch a break long enough to have such an extravagant meal.
As Seth was immersed in the lavish spread that lay in front of him, Damian and Carlene started pulling chairs to make space for themselves to sit in.
Damian liked the atmosphere that slowly permeated through the room. It was soft and felt like he had wrapped himself in a blanket of relaxation and made him feel right at home, but he liked this moment in general. It was quite a wonderful sight to see both of his lovers actually eating something well cooked and not instant. He didn’t have anything against instant food but it was still favourable for them to have an optimum nutrition intake, especially since they had been working harder than ever lately. Well, it wasn’t that he didn’t work hard himself, it was just that his workload had been slowly decreasing along the last few weeks and had become a bit easier to cope with.
Damian majored in Law and World History which was quite different from Seth’s and Carlene’s majors which were Business on Seth’s end whereas Carlene did Computer Science, mostly focusing on game theory. He couldn’t really talk about his course and try to correlate the three broad classifications together, of course, they talked about it sometimes, but never could delve that deep into it. Luckily, the experiences and sentiments towards college were shared between the three. Tiring. Nothing more, nothing less. He put another morsel into his mouth, chewing it slowly as his head was still working without paying attention to the background. Damian liked the present.
He couldn’t help but always think of time as the rough sea, unrelenting and cold, and that each person was an unmanned ship that rocked itself, some surrendering their fate at the hands of the sea while some trying to make the most of their lives. It truly was beautiful, time that is. It was gorgeous yet so harsh, it caused a few emotions to eat up people from the inside and for some, it helped heal their wounds. Hence, he thought that the ever-changing present was good. It kept on shifting, yet the moments that they had now could never be taken away from them. He liked that about life.
The others also ate silently, all of them too tired to talk. They spoke a few words but were too spent to talk any more than a couple of sentences asking whether the food fit the other’s taste. So, when they saw Damian chuckle in the middle of eating their attention had been pulled towards him. Damian kept on eating the meal yet having small fits of chucking always occurred between each bite he took.
After some time Carlene asked him, “What are you laughing about?”
Damian paused, musing before breaking into another fit of short laughter, “Hmmm? Nothing. Let’s all just take a nap after this. All of you need a break.”
Carlene and Seth smiled. It was odd for Damian to act this way, but it wasn’t that bad once in a while.
They finished up quickly and washed all the dishes quickly, wanting to return to their bed.
Carlene and Seth jumped into the bed headfirst out of sheer exhaustion, while Damian scoffed, taking his time to get the blankets and lay the sheets on top of them.
“Scoot.” He demanded as he dove into the bed beside the two. Seth smirked, wrapping his arms around Damian to form a hug. Damian used the corners of his eyes to see this and tried to dodge, failing and nearly falling from the bed before Seth caught him using the near end of his tee-shirt. Carlene who was watching this chaos sighed, pulling Seth towards himself as to not let the others move, Seth followed in suit doing the same to Damian, forcing him to join the giant hug.
It was a peaceful time. All of them fell asleep without much effort or the need for waiting. They had all been rather tired since Damian had stayed up through the night to make the coffee and go through his materials.
Carlene had been helping Seth with his group project while simultaneously completing his own small model.
They had been swamped and now they just wanted to relax.
‘Ah this afternoon will probably make a nice memory.’ thought Carlene as he fell asleep.