Tieria arranged the ingredients on the counter. They had already been measured to a T, down to the individual grains of flour. Everything was methodically assembled on the glossy counter of his kitchen. It had surely been Regene who thought of arranging such a well equipped kitchen for his personal use.
With all preparations done, there was only the actual confection left but Tieria could not resolve to get started. After a whole week of Regene being a non-show, Tieria decided he had waited far too long. He settled on cooking wonton soup, a favorite of Regene's.
The idea was to surprise Regene but Tieria wanted to serve it right away, without carrying it all the way to Regene's quarters. He could fix the dumplings now and finish the soup at Regene's but this minor issue hardly justified his hesitation. In reality it was a pretext.
What truly bothered him was not knowing how Regene would react and more importantly why Regene refused to visit him. Tieria was resigned to Regene's mysterious absences and learned not to be too concerned about them but he knew Regene had not left the Compound. For some reason Regene had decided to keep his distance and whatever this was, Tieria was afraid of finding out.
He could, of course, have dropped by Regene's place at any time. But that was not part of their usual interaction. Regene was the one who came to him and to break this pattern was already to admit that something was if not amiss than at least not quite right. And this was something Tieria most definitely did not want to admit.
For all his downplaying Hiling's obsession with her twin, Tieria was all too aware that he desperately needed Regene. The way he went about it was very different as was his relationship with his twin but if he were to analyze it, it was patently clear it might not be healthier than Hiling's. And he had absolutely no one to ask advice about it either.
Tieria decided to load all the ingredients and carry them to cook at Regene's. Just as he was about to wheel the cart into the corridor, the door slid open and there stood Regene.
"Hello, Tieria."
"Regene!"
Suddenly terrified that Regene would simply disappear before his very eyes, Tieria pulled him inside and held him in a tight hug. If Tieria had stopped for even a heartbeat to think, at all, his many anxieties would have held him back. It was a spontaneous gesture. Warmth flowed from Tieria's body to Regene's. Tieria breathed in deep, letting the moment sink into his skin, permeating it all the way to his veins that flowed in tandem with Regene's.
"I missed you too, Tieria."
Tieria finally let go.
"I was about to cook you something at your place."
Regene lit up.
"Let's eat here. And I get to watch as you cook."
Tieria placed everything back on the counter, Regene took a seat on a stool. Tieria methodically went about mincing the meat, slicing the shrimp, preparing the dough for the dumplings, making the broth, washing and cutting vegetables. Regene took everything in. Tieria had his glasses on, something he often did whenever engaged in anything that required attention to detail. It was entirely psychological, Tieria did not need glasses. Regene found it absolutely endearing. Every gesture was calibrated to the finest degree so that cooking became a work of art in progress.
"There, done."
They took their usual seats on the balcony. Tieria ladled a generous portion for Regene and held his breath as Regene sampled it.
"Delicious as ever."
Tieria tried to reply to Regene's warm smile with one of his own but his heart was not in it. Before he could work himself out of his awkward silence, Regene spoke. "I used to eat this with Liu Mei...you replicate the flavor exactly."
Tieria nearly spluttered his soup. Regene's wistful tone took him entirely by surprise. He could not remember Tieria ever truly showing any affection for any human being. It was not that Regene shared Ribbons's hypocritical bigotry toward humans but more that Regene seemed indifferent to humanity at large. Humans could be useful, humans could be a hindrance, humans could be entirely immaterial to whatever Regene wanted: this was Regene's approach. Regene could bring himself to care for particular humans if they mattered to Tieria, which was why she had something of a vested interest in Mileina even though he had no actual emotional attachment to the girl. But Tieria had never been friends with Liu Mei, he surely had no fond memories of her to reminiscence about. Tieria wanted to hear more about this but he was all too aware if he showed too great an interest, Regene would clam up. So he tried to be very casual about it.
"Do you miss her?"
Regene had been staring at the sprawling scenery, spoon in hand. He now brought his gaze back to Tieria. Regene shrugged.
"I suppose. But her death was unavoidable."
In other words, Liu Mei fell from the category of "useful human" to the category of "hindrance". Tieria placed a hand over Regene's.
"That's not what I asked. I asked if you missed her."
Somehow, it seemed vital to get an actual answer to this. It could bridge a gap between them. The hesitation in Regene was palpable and oddly endearing. It was also horribly familiar. Tieria knew he looked precisely like this, the slight widening of the eyes while involuntary connections raced through his synapses, mouth parted in the prelude of words that he would rather not have to utter.
"Tieria! Where's the rest?!"
Both Tieria and Regene jumped as Hiling's voice cut through the moment, shattering it into so many shards of nothing. Tieria gritted his teeth.
"What do you want- what the…"
Tieria's anger gave way to wonder as he turned to Hiling and actually saw her. Having burst into the balcony, she now stood before the two twins, fuming as usual but wearing an attire Tieria had never seen on her before. He immediately recognize as Land of the Lustrous cosplay, there was no other way of calling it: the short black shorts, short sleeved black top, white shirt underneath and black tie. Even her hair, Tieria now realized, was cut to match Phos.
"Where's the rest of the story! How does it end!"
Hiling stamped her foot and waved a book around. Regene snickered.
"I already gave you all the available volumes."
"But the story is not over!"
Tieria shrugged. Why did the Lettuce duo have such a horrible timing.
"There's nothing I can do about that. Some information was irrevocably lost, Veda does not have any more volumes either."
Hiling slumped.
"But did Major Ichikawa finish it?"
"Major…? The mangaka is in the army now?"
"Never mind that! Did she finish it or not!"
"I don't know. Maybe she did and the missing volumes disappeared along with so many things that were irrevocably lost because your precious Ribbons was bent on destroying humanity and everything 'Major' Ichikawa held dear."
Hiling bit her lip and just stood there, deflated.
"Why don't you draw an ending, then?"
Tieria and Hiling both turned to Regene at this.
"Me? Draw an ending to the story?"
Regene had another spoonful.
"Yes. I'm sure you can draw if you put your mind to it, Ribbons can do it so there's no reason you can't. If you're so keen to know how it ends then make an ending yourself. It's not as if you'll have to deal with copyright issues."
Hiling swayed slightly on her feet as she considered this.
"Okay, I'll give it a go. But I can't do it on my own. Not good at...thinking up scenarios like that. Tieria, you'll help me with the writing."
Tieria sighed.
"Why? Why me? It was Regene's idea, let him help you."
Hiling shook her head forcibly.
"No way. Regene is too, well, Regene."
"Why, thank you Hiling. You're too kind."
Regene smiled one of his wicked smiles.
"See? He's like that. It's got to be you, Tieria. You have a heart. That's important for manga."
"Right…"
There was no point arguing, if Tieria did not agree to this Hiling would just annoy him until he did. It occurred to him that for all their non-humanness, Innovators defaulted to very human like usages of language. There was none of the strict, unwieldy literalness that Tieria knew humans tended to associate with androids in general. Then again, they were also easily swayed by emotions, even these did not align quite with the usual human pattern, but Hiling's present tantrum was yet another example. Tieria made a mental note to look more into this and ask Regene's thoughts on the matter.
"Great! Thanks, Regene."
"System 'Hiling Care' has encountered a critical error: FATAL ERROR! "Gratitude" could not be 'read'."
Hiling rolled her eyes. Tieria tried very hard to muffle a chuckle. Regene had a way of deliberately going out of his way to mock his peers with robo-speak.
"Very funny. Hey...was I interrupting anything?"
Only now did Hiling notice the soup.
"As a matter of fact, you were."
For a second, it seemed Hiling was about to up and leave. No such luck.
"Oh. Sorry about that. That looks tasty."
And just like this Hiling invited herself. A chair had to be brought over, even then Hiling did not seem terribly bothered at she was so obviously intruding in what was meant to be a moment between Tieria and Regene. Tieria would readily tell her to get lost but Regene seemed so amused that he did not have the heart to do it. Behind Regene's typical trollish ways Tieria could tell that Regene was using Hiling in order to avoid their prior conversation. "You really are great at cooking. So you guys actually do stuff like this."
Tieria blinked.
"Like what?"
"You know, cook and have food together. I figured you guys spent all your time together having sex."
It was Regene's turn to chuckle.
"Good thing we don't, with the way you just burst into my quarters like you own them."
Hiling took no notice of Tieria's tone.
"A bit of a shame, though. Could be instructive if I got to see how you go about it."
Tieria adjusted his glasses to keep himself from punching Hiling.
"I'm pretty sure you've had plenty of opportunity for seeing enough sex to last you many lifetimes."
Hiling refilled her bowl.
"I guess but I wasn't paying much attention, know what I mean?"
"You still have the logs, just replay them."
"But it's just not the same! Come on, Tieria. It wouldn't hurt you, it's like you're not used to-"
"Get out. Right now."
Only now did Hiling fully register Tieria's hostility.
"Hey, no need to get upset...I mean, I'm just curious."
Tieria got on his feet.
"Go ask Lavender."
Hiling glanced at Regene before turning to Tieria again, quickly finishing her soup and going,
"Okay, okay. Catch you later."
Tieria would be glad never to see Hiling again and at least for now she was gone. Tieria sighed in relief but the damage was done, Hiling intrusion had completely destroyed the mood. The silence that followed weighed on Tieria. He no longer cared about what Liu Mei might have meant to Regene at some point.
Tieria could try to take the high road and pretend it did not bother him but Regene was the closest he had to a support network and honesty was his best policy at this point.
"Why have you been avoiding me?"
Regene's look of surprise took Tieria aback.
"I thought you knew? I did it for you."
"I don't follow."
Even as he said it, an idea began to form in Tieria's mind.
"It was meant to further your plan. I figured it'd work better if I wasn't around."
"And you know about my plan because you know me so well?"
Regene smiled.
"Of course."
"So, what is my plan, then?"
"You figured you'd get Ribbons to change his mind about wiping out what remains of humanity by seducing and thus influencing him. It's a great idea."
Tieria hardly knew what to say. There was always something truly disturbing in the way he was so transparent to Regene. It seemed that no matter what Tieria did, thought, planned or even dreamed of, Regene knew all about it simply by borderline supernatural instinct. Maybe Regene had perfected a kind of subsystem, a drive dedicated to predicting Tieria Erde and Tieria Erde exclusively, with a degree of accuracy that genuinely scared Tieria. Yet at the same time, that Regene was not avoiding him but instead still thinking of him was profoundly comforting. This ambivalence defined much of their relationship: be it as siblings, as friends, as lovers.
"It's hardly that great. If you can see through it that easily then he must know all about it already."
Regene's smile was brimming with malice.
"Oh, I don't know about that. Our dear Ribbons can be quite dense, for all his god complex. Not to mention, just because he sees the trap ahead does not mean he won't fall into it."
Tieria considered this. Ribbons thought so highly of himself that he was very capable of not seeing the obvious. Emotional manipulation was a layered, messy affair as it was and Tieria knew Ribbons was vulnerable precisely because Ribbons felt above such things.
"Regene, Hiling was absolutely right. You don't have a heart."
Regene laughed.
"By the way, you don't have to worry about the tunnels."
Tieria started despite himself.
"I guess you'd know about that as well."
"It was easy enough to figure out. There are no tunnels as such."
"As such?"
"Follow me."
Regene took Tieria to the main room, stood in the very middle and waved a hand. Just like that two circular hatches swung open on the floor and on the ceiling, a cylinder of light forming between the two.
"What is this supposed to be…?"
"Our emergency getaway if things go South. This leads to a fully prepared shuttle. Complete with a gravitational system that leads directly to the shuttle if you just stand in the beam."
Tieria walked around it, still stunned.
"Unbelievable, Regene. And no one else knows about this, right?"
Regene folded his arms.
"What the others don't know won't hurt them."
Not even remotely true but that was the whole point.
"And how do you factor in in this?"
"My quarters are immediately above yours. I can slide down and pick you up along the way if need be or we can rendezvous at the shuttle."
"And let me guess. Your quarters are also connected to a shuttle via the ceiling."
Regene beamed.
"Of course."
"How did you manage to build something this massive into the structure without anyone noticing?"
"The same way Ribbons never bothered looking into the maintenance sections even though they are teeming with those pesky humans he hates so much."
"Right..."
There was, as ever, something both highly impressive and profoundly depressing in the way Regene saw to all contingencies. That he was very much aware of the humans did not surprise Tieria but was still something of a blow. The confirmation stripped away his own place where he thought he might escape Innovator eyes altogether.
"The shuttles are just one preventive measure. The quarters themselves can be converted into escape vehicles."
"Redundant systems all around."
This brought to mind considerations Tieria was desperate to avoid yet could not.
"It's not like that, Tieria."
Tieria sighed.
"You know, for someone who claims not to read my mind, you come very close."
Regene shook his head sadly.
"Not close enough."
Three mere words to convey so much regret. It was too much, Tieria did not know what to do with it. And it was far too little. This, too, left Tieria helpless.
