Chapter 4

    
    I woke up in the middle of the night to something moving grasping at me.  The figure in the darkness moved quickly across my room.  I was about to let out a scream but the figure quickly muffled me at that moment.  
    I just sat there in the darkness afraid and caught my breath.
    “Shh...”
    I looked at the face.  It was Vino.  
    He stared back at me.  He had his olive skin.  The nights around here were hot and I had been sweating all night.  He seemed to notice.  Vino was staring me up and down my body.  It reminded me of when Shin said that thing about how attractive I am to the aliens.
    “You're late,” I told Vino, “You said you were going to meet me later.  It is the middle of the night.”
    “Antliens have a different concept of later than humans do,” Vino replied.
    “Maybe not.  I've been stood up on dates by male guys before.”
    “Stood up?  I don't understand.  I'm sorry all human terms aren't too familiar with me.  I should have paid more attention during our schooling,” Vino replied.
    He looked down as though embarrassed.  At times I forgot the Antliens weren't human.  I assumed they were just really, really attractive humans.  It wasn't until I used some sort of slang that it came to my attention that they had no idea what I was even talking about.
    “It's when one human agrees to go on a date but doesn't show up.”
    “Why would a human do that?”
    He seemed honestly confused and interested.  I shrugged my shoulders, “They are dickheads.”
    Fuck.  Slang again.
    I shook my head, “No.  Like they are just bad people in other words.”
    “Doesn't human dating lead to marriage?  It seems like a good thing.  I'm confused on why someone would stop that.”
    “Do Antliens have marriage even if there is only one female?”
    Vino nodded, “Yes we have a concept similar to marriage.  A partnership in a way.”
    “Gay marriage.  Hilarious.  You guys really are much more advanced than we are...”
    “In a way yes.  In a way no.  Everything is arranged,” Vino replied, “It is arranged by the judges.  That is why I came here.  To tell you about the judges.”
    “What about them?”
    “They are watching you. Well...they ordered me to keep an eye on you.”
    “They ordered you to spy on me?”
    He nodded.   What the fuck was so special about me?  I mean I knew I was human but spying?  Really.  What were they so paranoid that I knew?  I was in their home.  I was basically living in their world.  I didn’t really get it.
    “Yes, they wanted me to dispose of you if you influenced your brother in a negative way...”
    “My brother hasn't even been around.”
    “He's coming soon.”
    “Here?”
    “Yes.”
    “Thank god.”
    I took a deep breath.  I felt so alone.  I had to explain everything to these Antliens so many times before they understood me.  I just wanted to talk to a human.  I just wanted to speak to someone normal.  In Kaden's case that was definitely relatively speaking.
    Vino didn't seem to understand why I was so happy.  Matter of fact he seemed to look bothered or something.  I watched how he paced the room.  I wondered if this was some sort of universal show of anxiety or whether he had learned this studying humans somewhere.
    “I wouldn't be so happy if I were you,” Vino replied.
    “Why?”
    “Take my word for it.  You should trust me on that.”
    “Why would I trust you?  I have no idea why you are helping me...”
    “I'm helping you because I don't want to kill you.  Don't you understand?  I'm not trying to save you.  I'm trying to save me.  I'm trying to save my...what's the human word?  Soul.”
    Soul.
    They believed in having souls.  These Antliens got more and more interesting every moment.  
    “I should leave…”
    I started to panic. Vino’s news was scarier than I could have imagined.  
    “Leave and go where?  You are in space. You are in real danger,” Vino replied, “You have to trust me.  I am not the only one however…with a soul.  There are others.  But I won’t lie to you.  You are a threat to them.”
    “Why?  I’m just a normal kid...”
    “Because your brother is very important and you have the ability to influence him.  Your influence scares the judges.  He is the only Antlien that lived among humans his whole life.  They are going to use him for something.”
    “What are they going to use him for?”
    It always came down to this.  It always came down to the fact that my brother was very important to them.  They were planning on using him for something but none of them were willing to let me know what exactly it was that they were using him for.
    Vino looked over at me.  I wondered if I could trust him.  I wondered if everything he was telling me was the truth.  Shin didn’t want me near him and there had to be reason for that.  These Antliens seemed to just be so full of secrets.
    Vino shook his head, “You can't panic if I tell you...”
    “Tell me.  Please.  What are they using my brother for?”
    All of a sudden there was a knock on the door.  It was a strong knock on the door.  Shit.  It had to be Shin.  I walked over to the door at that moment.
    Fuck. Fuck Fuck.
    “Who are you talking to in there?” Shin asked me from behind the door.
    “No one.”
    “Open the door.”
    “I don't know how...” I lied.
    “Say door open.  The artificial intelligence will recognize you as the owner of the room.”
    I looked back all of a sudden.  The window was open.  Vino was gone.  God knows how it was possible for him to get all the way up to this floor of the building.  The tall buildings weren't connected by much of anything.
    I opened the door at that moment.
    “You ok?” Shin asked looking around.
    “Fine.”
    “Who were you talking to?”
    “Just myself.  It's...a human thing.”
    Shin nodded.  A part of me actually thought that he believed what I was saying.
    “You should rest.  Your brother is coming in the morning…”
    My brother.  So many questions.  I needed to see him.  I needed to talk to him.  I needed to let him know about what Vino told me.

    It wasn’t until the afternoon that brother showed up.  He walked in the house followed by three men.  The beautiful men looked over at him and then looked over at me.  They had suspicious eyes.
    “Can you wait outside?” my brother asked them.
    “Yes sir.”
    Sir?
    I was surprised this at that moment.  In the next few moments however my brother turned back to me.  Shin was looking over at us from the back of the room.  He kept his distance but I could see his eyes watching and almost contemplating what was about to happen.  It was almost like what Vino stated.  They seemed to not trust me with him for some reason.
    “No hug?” Kaden stated, “Damn, I thought you would have missed me.”
    “Kaden…”
    I lost it all of a sudden running to him.  I missed the fuck out of him.  My arms wrapped around him.  I didn’t think Kaden could be anymore handsome than he was back on Earth but somehow he was.
    “I missed you kid…” he replied.
    He played with my head like he used to when we were younger.
    “You look different.”
    “The few scars I had were healed up,” he stated, “Remember that one scar I got when we were bike riding in the mountain.  Look…”
    He rubbed my hands over his arm.  There was a huge gash there.  I remembered we were racing in the mountains on our bikes back when we were just teenagers.  We were in our early 20s now and the scar never faded.  It wasn’t only that scar though.  Kaden’s skin seemed to glow.  He rivaled the beauty of everyone else…even Vino.  
    “How is that possible?”
    “Their technology.  They are so much more advanced than humans are.  They have the capability to completely rejuvenate skin.  Why do you think no one here looks above the age of 20?  Look, how old are you Shin?”
    Shin stared about over, “45 years old.”
    My jaw dropped.
    Kaden looked excited about the idea of it.  It just kind of scared the fuck out of me to be honest.  Shin was a 45 year old man who looked like a 21 year old model.  
    Kaden smiled, “I can have them do it for you too.  I can have them fix your face, make you perfect like us.”
    “I like my face how it is…”
    I was being sharp with Kaden.  I knew I was.  I could see that I was acting like he had offended me.  Maybe he had.  Why did I need to have my face perfect like them? Why did I need to look like the 1% of drop dead gorgeous men on Earth?  I liked how I looked.
    Kaden seemed to catch on that he offended me.
    He put an arm on my shoulder.
    “I didn’t mean any harm by that.  It’s just.  Aren’t you amazed?”
    I looked over at Shin.  Shin looked back at me as though wondering how I would respond to the question that my brother asked me.
    “It is amazing,” I stated shortly, “How long?  How long do we stay here?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Kaden.  This isn’t our home.”
    “This isn’t your home,” Shin jumped in at that moment.    
    “Can I have a minute with my brother?” I asked him.
    “That isn’t possible,” Shin replied.    
    Shin was looking over at me.  I looked over at Kaden.  Why the fuck couldn’t I have a minute alone with him.
    “Please, just a minute Shin,” Kaden asked him.
    Shin gave me a suspicious look.  What the fuck was wrong with these people?  This was my fucking brother and what did they think I was going to do to him?  Chop his head off or something like that?
    “You can go out onto the patio,” Shin replied.
    “Thanks for the permission to speak to my own brother…” I snapped a little bit.
    Just at that moment Kaden grabbed me.  I knew the look he was giving me.  It was the look he always gave me back home when I got in trouble.  My mom was a nut and my dad was gone most of the time.  Most of my discipline came from Kaden.
    The patio was outside.  I could see from the distance all the towers in the space station.  I looked at all the beautiful people.  They were smiling.  Everyone looked just look humans.  They weren’t humans though.  They just weren’t…
    “What is your problem?” Kaden said, “Why are you snapping at Shin?  He’s been nothing but nice to us since we met him.”
    “Something is off.”
    “About Shin?”
    “About everything!” I replied shaking my head.
    ‘Why do you say that?”
    I hesitated to tell Kaden about Vino.  Truth was I still didn’t know who to trust.  I guess the only person that I could trust was Vino.  
    I shook my head, “Someone came to visit me.  He told me some things.  I think something horrible is fucking going on.”
    “Who came to visit you?”
    I hesitated.
    “Kaden I can’t tell you.”
    Kaden laughed at that moment.  I was annoyed.  I was glad he found this shit funny.
    “You are over exaggerating.  Some mystery man comes and scares you a little bit so now you think what…some conspiracy is going on?  News flash…they are addicted to humans.  The guy is probably trying to sound all interested so he can get in your pants.”
I rolled my eyes, “That’s not the case.”
“Is he cute?”  Kaden laughed, “I know you little bro…”
“KADEN, this is fucking serious.”
 Kaden finally wiped his smile off of his face.  He leaned back against the wall, “These people are just different.  They are letting us stay here. Look at this place.  Have you seen something so beautiful?  These Antliens have technology we could only dream of on Earth.  Anything you want you literally just have to ask for it.”
“Not anything.”
“What do you want? I guarantee you can get it,” Kaden replied at that moment, “Name it.  We can get it.  No money.  No nothing.”
“I want you.”
He paused.  I hadn’t meant it like that.
“Um…”
Shit.  Things got awkward almost immediately.
“I meant I want you around.  I want you here.  So why come we don’t live together?”
    “I’m working Billy.”
    “On what?”
    Kaden paused at that moment.
    “I can’t tell you.”
    Weird.  We shared everything.  

    I crossed my arms and stared him down.  There was something different about him.  It wasn’t the fact that he had his body perfected either.  Something was still off.  Something was just weird about him and I wanted to know what it was.
    “You are my brother…” I asked him.
    “You got to trust me.  I just can’t tell you…”
    “Why?”
    He looked away, “It’s not something I want to tell my kid brother. That’s all.”
    “Your kid brother is grown now.”
    Kaden looked over at me and smiled, “I can tell.  Look at you.  You’re right.  You got all handsome all of a sudden on me.  You don’t need their medicine.  You’re perfect the way you are.  But regardless of how handsome and mature you get, you are always my kid brother.  Some things you just have to let me take care of. And you know I’ll always take care of you.”
    He really wasn’t going to tell me what he was doing all these days.  Why did he feel like I couldn’t handle it or something?
    “I’m not your kid brother anymore.  I can prove it.”
    He laughed.  
    “How the hell are you going to prove it…?”
    That was when I did it.
    I just leaned over and kiss him.  I kissed him hard on his mouth.  I pressed Kaden up against the back of the window. At first he seemed like he was shocked about it.  Sooner than later it eased up though.  His mouth opened.  He let me tongue into his mouth.  I could feel him breathing resisting but wanting to pull me in as well.
    His hands were at my sides.  He hesitated seeming unsure where to put his hands.  They ended up grabbing onto the sides of my shirt.  
    “Wait…this isn’t right…this isn’t…”
    I didn’t let him pull away from me.  I pushed my tongue into his mouth again shutting him up.  I could feel the pressure of him holding onto me.  
    “BILLY!”
    He had turned me around completely and pressed me up against the building.  He had his hand out as though trying to separate us.
    “You can’t tell me you didn’t feel anything just now.”
He looked at me.  Even as I attempted to get away his arm kept me pressed on the side of the building as though trying his hardest to keep me away from him.  He was breathing hard.  He hadn’t expected it.  I hadn’t expected myself to do it either.  It wasn’t like the kiss that we had before.  The kiss we had before could have been excused as some sort of brotherly kiss.
This kiss was different.  I had my tongue down his throat.
“You’re my little brother…”
    “No I’m not!”
    “What is going on with you?” he asked me, “First everything is some conspiracy and the next moment you are kissing me.  Billy.  What the fuck is going on with you?”
    “I wanted to do it.  You know I wanted to do it.  We need to stop pretending…”
    He looked down.  My bulge in the jockstrap that I wore was huge.  It was clear the kiss had turned me on.  He sighed when noticed.
    ‘This is wrong.  This is SO wrong!”
    “So you didn’t like it?”
    “You are my brother.”
    “That wasn’t the question I asked.”
    He looked at me.  I didn’t know what he was going to say.  If he didn’t like it why didn’t he just say no?  Why was he hesitating like this?  He was just holding me against the building keeping me away from him.  
    His eyes seemed to melt in me.  All this confusion was in his eyes but behind that I wondered if there was something more.  I wondered if there was something deeper.

    Just at that moment Shin appeared.  Fuck.  He was annoying.  He seemed to appear every time almost like he was listening in from behind the door.  Shin was standing there all of a sudden and he saw how Kaden was holding me up against the wall as though we were fighting or something.
    “Is everything ok?” Shin asked.
    “We wanted a fucking MOMENT,” I replied to the nosy ass alien.
    He looked at me and shook his head at that moment.  He was going to return back inside but it was Kaden who actually stopped it.
    “We were done talking actually.”
    “No the fuck we weren’t.”
    Kaden shot me the hardest eye, “Billy stop.”
    “Foods ready,” Shin replied.

    I literally had to go take a cold shower.  I was that turned on.  When I came back out Kaden and Shin were talking.  Their voices got quiet when I walked in the room almost like they didn’t want me to hear what they were discussing.  They just seemed so nervous.
    The table was awkward.  I was looking at Kaden.  That kiss had meant everything to me.  My heart melted.  It wasn’t just a normal kiss.  It was fucking fireworks.  Kaden was looking away.  He was acting almost like he didn’t even see me there.  He was avoiding my stare.
    All I wanted to do was jump across the table and kiss him again.
    “Are you leaving again?” I asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “I have to work Billy.  You know that.”
    The secret job he was doing for them.
    “How much longer?”
    “It’s almost done.  I think we’re almost done.”
    “Oh god.”
    “I’ll come visit as often as I can.  I promise.”
    Kaden was eating.  We were eating a full chicken like meal.  It may have actually been a chicken but it had to have been the best chicken that I’d ever tasted.  God knows how these aliens got Earth chickens in a space station.  I figured I wouldn’t know the explanation for it anyway.  I was so sure Shin hadn’t cooked it either.  He had just went over to the food machine and asked for it and in few minutes a full meal had appeared.  This was the Antlien way.
    “How is your food Kaden?” Shin asked him.
    Shin was sitting between us.  Kaden was on the opposite end of me.  Kaden clearly was uncomfortable and I knew why.  His little brother had just slobbered down on him.  He would be uncomfortable after something like that.  I wondered what was going on in his mind.  I felt bad that he was uncomfortable but I didn’t regret my action.
    “It’s perfect as always.  Thank you.”
    “Thanks for what?” I asked all of a sudden, “He didn’t prepare it himself…”
    “Billy…that’s rude,” Kaden scolded me, “Shin has been an amazing host for you…”
    Host.  Is that what he called it?  It seemed more like Shin was my babysitter.  
    I shook my head.  I couldn’t believe I was dealing with this.  
    “It’s fine,” Shin stated, “Rudeness is something that is common among our people as well.  I am used to it.”
    “You should be…” I stated.
    Shin was rude as hell.  He always seemed to be around listening and watching.  It was annoying.  
    Shin nodded, “There are also very sneaky people who lie often.  Have you encountered that at all?”
    “What?”
    “Has anyone suspicious…contacted you that may have been spreading horrible lies?”
    Shin looked at me.  I looked at Kaden.
    “You TOLD him?”
    I couldn’t believe it.  That is what they must have been talking about when I walked in the room.  Kaden looked up at me at that moment.
    “I was concerned,” Kaden replied, “It was once a popular thing for Antliens to rape humans.  I don’t want no one I don’t trust around my little brother.  So I asked Shin.”
    “And you trust HIM? The guy who eavesdrops on everything?”
    “Billy!”
    I was pissed.  I was flaming.  I felt betrayed at that moment.  I was about to get off the table.  I wanted to leave.  I wanted to go back to Earth.  I had nowhere to go but that didn’t stop me from getting off the table as angrily as I did.
    It was Kaden who grabbed my hand at that moment and stopped me.
    “Get off me.”
    “Relax.”
    “You want me to relax?  You want me to relax after you told this random guy everything that I told you.”
    “I’m not random,” Shin stated, “Kaden…you should tell him.”
    Kaden paused at that moment.
    “This isn’t the right time.”
    Kaden was being secretive.  He turned to Shin and crossed his arms.
    I looked over at Shin.  For some reason I could tell by the smug smile that crossed his face at that moment that he was willing to say something even if my brother wasn’t.
    “Tell me what?” I asked Shin.
    “Didn’t you wonder who I was?  Didn’t you wonder why I took you in?” Shin asked me.
    “You work for the judges.”
    I just figured he was some sort of ambassador.  I had never really thought who Shin really was or anything like that.  It just didn’t make sense to me.
    Shin laughed, “Everyone here works for the judges.  That isn’t what sets me apart.”
    I crossed my arms.
    “What is it? Tell me…”
    Shin looked over at me, “Antliens are sometimes promised to one another at a very young age.  Antliens don’t have parents.  We are harvested and raised in a common community.  Sometimes there is a special Antlien, like your brother.  Sometimes that Antlien is promised.”
    “What are you saying?”
    I looked over at Kaden.
    Kaden answered quickly, “I didn’t know either but it is Antlien law.  Once an Antlien is promised to another Antlien, they are together until death.”
    “And we were separated, but we are reunited again,” Shin replied.
    “We?”
    Shin shook his head, “Yes.  I guess I should call you brother as well, because Kaden is my husband.”

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