25

It was late afternoon when Cloe turned off the computer, pushed her chair back and stretched her back. All these hours sitting behind a computer was making her body stiff and achy. She wasn't used to sitting still for so long. Back at the mall there was always things to do - cleaning the kitchen, playing hide and seek with Brady or going out looking for food. The only exercise she got here was when she went to the gym. She mainly did this to blow off steam and when she was bored.

Sitting at another computer on the other side of the table was Ved's pal Tyler. He had brown wavery hair, blue kind eyes and a square jawline. Rather handsome. He and Cloe had become friends over time, as they shared the same humor.

"Long hours?" he asked as he watched Cloe stretch her arms over her head and groan softly.

"Yeah, all this computerwork is making me stiff."

"Or maybe you're just old," Tyler said grinning, and ducked out of harms way when Cloe threw a ball of crumbled paper after him. He had been teasing her for as long as they had been friends about the fact that she was a year older than him, constantly making jokes about her being 'old'. She didn't mind though - it was nice with a bit of fun in this otherwise scary and difficult existence.

"You forget; older means wiser," Cloe said and winked at him, "and the right to rule."

"Is that so?"

"It is," Cloe said and got up, "And I decide that we go and do something fun."

"Like what?"

"Like..." Cloe took a moment to think about it, then an evil smile spread across her face and she looked down at Tyler who was laughing at her mischievous expression.

Then slowly, as it downed on him what Cloe was thinking, his face fell serious. "Cloe, no. We can't. It's too risky."

"Oh come on, you big coward! It's so much fun," Cloe laughed and thought back at last week, when the two of them had been so bored out of their minds that they had been hyping each other up to do something crazy.

Cloe had given Tyler a dare, knowing he was too proud to say no, challenging him to go into Ram's room when he had his usual afternoon nap and tinkering with his wheelchair. It was an insane and dangerously risky affair - if they got caught Ram was going to severely punish them - maybe even delete them. But it was priceless to hear the crashes and then the outraged roars from Ram when his wheelchair reversed instead of moving forward and went right instead of left.

Cloe and Tyler had been dashing down the hallway and out of sight before anyone would see them, laughing so hard that they had tears streaming down their faces. Ram had been in a terrible mood for days, demanding to know who was messing with him and threathening with apocalypse if he found out. The two guilty ones had been standing with poker faces, not daring to look at each other, at the risk of bursting out in giggles.

"Aw what's the matter - are you scared?" Cloe asked, hoping to stir up the pride in him.

"Hell yeah I am!" Tyler said with a nervous laugh, "I bet he's got camera's in there now and everything. And I think he means business."

"Oh you big baby!" Cloe laughed, "Okay if you won't - then I will!" She went dashing for the doors, but was grabbed from behind before she reached it.

"No!" Tyler said with his arms wrapped around her, "I'm not letting you." He was lifting her up from the ground (he may be younger, but he was still severel inches taller).

"Let me go!" Cloe squealed, laughing and writhing in his grasp, "As the ruler I demand you to put me down!"

"Well I'm refusing to obey!" Tyler said, struggling to hold her, "And I'm going to throw you off the throne!"

"Okay! Okay!" Cloe laughed, "I'll surrender. Just put me down, please."

"If I put you down, do you promise not to run?"

"Fine, I promise!"

Tyler put her back on the ground, but didn't release his grip around her, "I'm not sure I trust you," he grinned. Just then the door opened and Ved appeared. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw them, his eyes going from Cloe, down to the arms around her and up to Tyler's face. Tyler immediately let go.

Cloe studied Ved's face, looking for any sign of emotion, but his face was hard and stripped of any.

"Quit fooling around!" he barked, his icy voice cutting through Cloe like a whiplash, "This place is already packed with useless idiots, we don't need any more."

Whoa, Cloe thought, he was really in a bad mood today. It was a shame - he had been so nice and kind - almost humble - these past few days, since the whole thing with K.C. Now he was clearly over that.

She looked over at Tyler who was staring at his feet. He and Ved may be buddies, but Ved was still his suprior and had total power over Tyler's faith. He dared not disagree with Ved when he was in this mood. But Cloe did.

"Calm down, we were just having a bit of fun," she said defiantly. Ved snapped his head up to look at her. There were lightning in his eyes; bright and deafening and deadly.

"We don't have time for fun," he hissed, almost baring his teeth like an snarling wolf, "We've got work to do."

"You're beginning to sound like Jay - did you know that?" Cloe said and looked at him. She knew she was hitting a nerve, because the lightning in his eyes turned into a stormy hurricane with tornados and thunder and hail all at once. She shuddered internally at his glare.

"You!" he snarled, glaring fiercely at Tyler and taking a step closer to him, "Leave. Now. Go down into computer-room 3 and help with fase 2 - make yourself useful!"

Tyler nodded stifly and hurried past Ved and out of the door. Ved strode over to the door and slammed it shut with one agressive shove. He was breathing heavily from anger.

"What is wrong with you?" Cloe snapped, finally losing her temper, feeling like he was overreacting. He was such a gooddamn dramaqueen sometimes! "You're being a complete jackass!"

"I told you, we don't have time for your childish games," Ved growled, walking past her and sitting down at one of the computers.

"We have been working for 8 hours straight - we were just taking a break, for godsake!" Cloe said, rolling her eyes, "Have breaks been prohibited recently?"

"Of course not, don't be stupid," Ved said, not moving his eyes from the screen.

"Then what's your problem?" Cloe pressed on, demanding an answer as to why he was such a jerk. Not so much towards her, but towards Tyler - he certainly didn't deserve this amount of wrath.

"My problem -" Ved said, spinning his chair around so that he could sent her a disgusted glare, " - is that I could hear you all the way down to my room. Is this your way of keeping your head down and blending in? You are a virt and you're not really supposed to be here. Or have you forgotten?"

Cloe felt a prickling behind her eyes. The fact that Ved still saw her as just a virt - the lowest of the lowest from techno perspective - really hurt her. Yes she was a non techno, only pretending to be a techno, but still...

"No I haven't," she said with forced calm, after forcing the angry tears back in where they belonged and quenching the tremour in her voice, "just like I haven't forgotten who brought me here in the first place - against my will."

They glared mutely at each other for a few seconds.

"Yeah well, I'm beginning to regret that," Ved said, "you're proving to be much more work than I anticipated."

"Then let me go," Cloe shot back.

"I can't."

Cloe groaned frustrated and turned around, running a hand through her hair. He was so unpredictable and moody. She never knew on what foot to stand or what he expected of her.

"I'm really getting tired of you yelling at me over something stupid," she said turning back towards him, "And what did Tyler do to deserve that?" She held out a hand towards the door that Tyler had ran out of, "We weren't doing anything wrong."

"You're not taking things serious!" Ved shouted and flew up from his chair, "You're noisy! You're childish! You're lazy!" He held up fingers one by one as he counted, "The two of you are a couple of slackers!" He almost spat the word at her and looked disgusted.

Cloe felt wildly offended. Didn't he hear when she said they'd been working for 8 hours straight before taking a break? He was being totally unfair. The tears behind her eyes were pressing on with new force, determained more than ever to escape.

"Maybe I should seperate the two of you," Ved went on in his icy tone, "For good. As you can't seem to work together efficiently."

"What?" Cloe said in disbelief, dread filling her stomach - then a defiant, "No!"

"You're giving me no choise."

"Of course you have a choise!" Cloe yelled, "You're chosing to punish me! And I don't understand why!"

"This has nothing to do with you, Cloe," Ved said, "I'm doing what's best for the program."

Of course! His beloved program! That was all he ever cared about…

It was first, as she stood breathing heavily from anger and hurt, that she stopped to think things through. She had flown into such a temper that her head had been all cloudy, and she hadn't been able to think clearly.

Now things were slowly downing on her. She thought back at when Ved had entered. How it must have looked like to him, seeing Tyler's arms around her. She hadn't thought about it before now, because it wasn't like that at all. They had just been kidding around.

Now when she remembered what K.C had told her, about Ved having feelings for her, then the almost-kiss in her bathroom, she understood.

"Are you jealous?" she then asked, eyeing Ved, "Is that it?"

Ved snorted scornfully, "Oh please! Don't flatter yourself. I'm not jealous." The slight trembling in his voice said otherwise. But Cloe just couldn't take it anymore. She had had enough of his mood swings and the scorn and contempt that she felt she didn't deserve from him.

"You know what," she said, her traitorous voice breaking slightly in the end, "Just forget it. I'm done." She turned around and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Ved asked, alarm in his voice. It made Cloe stop and turn around.

"I can't win with you. Nothing I ever do is good enough. I don't understand what I did to deserve this." The tears had finally found their way out and was running down her cheeks. She wiped them away angrily and turned back around to leave.

"No wait!" Ved called out, getting up and holding up one hand as if he was reaching out for her, though she was far out of his reach. Cloe shook her head and started to open the door but suddenly Ved was beside her, slamming it shut with his hand and holding it there. Cloe looked up at him in surprise.

"Don't leave," he said quietly, staring into her eyes, "I'm sorry."

"I don't get you Ved," Cloe said, as a new stream of tears started to flow, "I don't understand."

Ved closed his eyes, "I know," he sighed, and then said again, "I'm sorry."

All the anger and contempt that had filled his face before was now completely gone. Instead, it was now filled with sadness and regret, "You did nothing wrong."

Cloe shook her head weakly, trying to sort out all the mixed signals. She couldn't make sense of it all. It was just too confusing.

They were still standing by the door - Ved with his hand on it to prevent Cloe from leaving, looking down at her with tortured eyes - and Cloe with her eyes closed and tearstained cheeks. They stood like this for some time, neither of them speaking. It gave Cloe time to think - and she had made up her mind.

"I can't do this," she finally said, breaking the silence. She opened her eyes and looked up at Ved, "It's too exhausting."

Ved looked like someone who had lost the will to live. He said nothing but just stood there, looking at her, hand still on the door like it was glued on.

"Can I please get out?" Cloe asked. She needed time to think. And she couldn't think when he looked at her with those almond eyes. It made her head spin.

"No," Ved said calmly, unleashing the full effect of his gaze on her. Whether he was aware of his eye's effect on her, Cloe didn't know. Her legs started to go numb.

"Please Ved. I need to think."

"No." He didn't budge even an inch.

"You can't keep me in he-"

She was interupted mid-sentence by Ved's lips, which suddenly pressed against hers. At first Cloe was totally surprised, standing stiffly with wide eyes. Then, slowly, her eyes fluttered shut and she gave herself into the total and utter bliss that took over her mind and body.

—

As soon as Ved felt Cloe's body relax, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. He'd taken a chance kissing her like that, not knowing if she would kiss him back, or simply slap him.

His whole body felt weak with relief and euphoria now that she was kissing him back. He'd only hoped and prayed that she would, but wasn't sure about what she felt for him. He hadn't exactly been nice to her recently, crazed with jealousy - one of his many flaws.

He kissed her hungrily and deeply for a long time, and he wondered briefly if he was ever going to be able to stop. But eventually he had to stop for air, worried too, that Cloe needed some.

When he finally opened his eyes and pulled away, he was slightly out of breath. He looked down at Cloe and smiled wryly. Cloe was mildly flushed and her lips were swollen. She returned his smile shyly.

"I'm sorry," Ved murmured, "I couldn't resist any longer."

"Don't be," Cloe said and smiled at him. She put her hands on his cheeks and pulled him down into another kiss - this one a bit shorter, but just as sweet.

"I'm glad you did it," she said when they pulled apart.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Ved put his forehead against hers and stood like that for a while, eyes closed, just enjoying the moment.

"Ved," Cloe said after some time, "I really do need to go. I have to report back to Jay about today's work."

Ved promtly let go, afraid that he had caused her to be in trouble. Jay was ridiculously fussy about these reportings and could get particularly miffed if you skipped one.

"Sure, of course." He stepped back a bit so that he wasn't blocking the door any more. Cloe smiled and took a few steps towards the door and reached for the handle. She looked up at Ved before she opened the door, then reached up and gave him one last quick kiss.

"I'll see you later," she said, before opening the door and disappearing out of it.

—

Cloe walked down the hallway, absentminded. She didn't seem to be able to lose the smile on her face. Her body may be walking in this hallway, but her heart, mind and soul was still back in the computerroom with Ved. It took every ounce of her willpower not to turned around and run back, throw herself into his arms and kiss him like there was no tomorrow. It was all she could think about. She wanted to kiss him and never ever let go.

Somehow, she managed to walk all the way down to Jay's office and to report, rather destractedly (Jay darted her a dissaproving glare), about today's work. Afterwards she floated back to her room in a daze and threw herself on the bed, facing the ceiling.

Ved kissing her had certainly changed things, but she still needed to think things through. She just needed to locate her brains first.

Oh it can wait! she decided, after very few and weak internal arguments. So for now, she settled with just lying there, in total bliss and without a care in the world. For now she was simply wallowing.