Decha was going crazy. He knew that he was supposed to be on break, but on the second day, he was finding it nearly impossible. So he snuck into his father's office and began looking into the footage from the hospital.

There was a man dressed in all black in the video. His face was purposely covered. After swiping his finger across the screen, Decha found out where the man went after encountering Rory in the hall.

He even identified the vehicle. It was the same car that almost ran him over the night he went to check on Rory. But the license plate was invalid. Decha swore. How had he not realized it before?

He needed to find out who this guy was. Right as his fingers traced the keys, the door behind him slid open. "Decha!"

"Yes?" Decha grumbled, not bothering to take his eyes off the footage.

"You're supposed to be resting!"

"I am..."

"You're working!" Jessica Chen stomped into the office with a hard scowl on her face. "Get off your father's computer! What would he say if he found out you were working behind his back?"

"I assume he'd tell me to get off as you did."

"Is this funny to you?"

"I don't know what else I'm supposed to do." Decha shrugged. He couldn't keep his mind off of the case.

"When you were a boy, you loved to paint and read. Why don't you do that?"

"Painting is extremely messy, too much to clean. And I've already read every book in this house. I've memorized every word." Decha stated monotonously.

"You're too smart, Decha." Jessica groaned.

"I'm sorry?"

"Come with me. I've arranged a great way for you to relax." Jessica tugged Decha off the office chair and out of the office. "You remember Lisa Garner, the well-known masseuse?"

"I don't." Decha didn't know the first thing about massage therapy, or the therapists who worked in the field. He was usually surrounded by Generals, Fighters, Council Members, or just people who helped run the Sector.

He didn't know much about any celebrities.

"I've scheduled an appointment for you."

"Great," Decha mumbled sarcastically.

The two walked down a hall and downstairs. On the second floor of the house were the living room, dining room, kitchen, multiple bedrooms, and bathrooms, as well as many rooms for recreational use. Jessica's office so happened to be used for relaxing.

When they entered her office, Jessica and Decha both approached a short curvy woman with short wavy black hair and hazel eyes.

"Jessica!" The woman, Lisa, smiled at her. "I brought lavender oil with me today, shipped in from the flower fields on the west."

"Oh! It must've been expensive! The oil must be very pricey! Do you have any extra? I'll buy it from you."

"I brought you an extra, but consider it as a gift. It's no problem!"

"You're Sweet. Oh, this is my son, Decha. He's taking a break from work, but he needs help unwinding. He's a bit of a workaholic."

"Mom," Decha rolled his eyes.

"It's true, don't deny it."

"Let me see your hands." Lisa grabbed onto Decha's arm and grazed her fingers up his muscles. Without asking, she flipped his hands over to examine them. Decha was a bit surprised but didn't mind it. "He's a strong man."

"I've trained with the best." Decha nodded.

"You're a General." Lisa pointed at the scar on his wrist where his ID chip had been inserted into.

"I am."

"Your shape is not bad. But your shoulders and posture are too firm. How often do you stretch when you work?"

"Often enough."

"But your muscles are tired. You must push yourself a lot."

"Rest isn't in my job description," Decha stated, and Lisa raised a brow at him.

"I can tell. That is one thing I dislike about that program. They work you people to death."

"The pay is good." Decha shrugged.

"Take off your clothes," Lisa demanded. "I'll give you a deep tissue massage."

"A deep tissue massage?" Decha huffed and crossed his arms. He wondered what made her think that he needed that kind of therapy. He was used to his muscles aching all the time. He thought it built character.

"Go on Decha, do what she says." Jessica tapped his shoulder and frowned. "I'll be in the kitchen fixing lunch. Take care of him, Lisa. And Decha? Behave."

"I'm not a child."

"I know you aren't. Just lower your guard and do what she says." Jessica closed the door behind her as she walked out.

"Take off your clothes."

Decha groaned and began to strip. He took his shirt off first and sat on the massage table, but Lisa gestured for him to take off the bottoms too. "These too?" Decha flicked the fabric of his pants.

"Here is a towel to wrap yourself with. I'll be working with your back and your legs."

Decha took the rest of his clothes off. Lisa immediately wrapped a white towel around his lower region and fixed it tight around his waist. When she looked up, she saw all the scars that were on his bare back.

There were so many healed cuts and bruises that were unattended to. She wondered how he was able to stand proudly with so many wounds. Did his mother know?

Those scars told a story. This General was a great combatant. He had to be. Most Generals were talented fighters but the marks on his skin indicated he was much more than that.

"Lay here." Lisa tapped the table. Decha positioned himself awkwardly on his front and Lisa grabbed his head and pressed his face down in the opening. "Tell me, do you get any aches in your shoulders or lower back?"

"Sometimes," Decha mumbled. "It's no big deal. I drink a lot of water and it helps."

"I see..." Lisa pressed down on Decha's skin and glided her hands slowly across his lower back. The therapy started and Decha felt uncomfortable in the beginning. The touch was unfamiliar, and the process was somewhat painful.

But after about 30 minutes, the pain turned into pleasure. Decha let out his first moan, shocking himself. Lisa ignored it and continued.

"What are your hopes and dreams?" Lisa asked, hoping to fill the silence with some small talk. Decha didn't answer though, his mind went blank the moment Lisa put pressure to ease one of his sore spots.

"Your mother tells me that you're taking care of a woman." Lisa rolled her fists on his shoulders.

"Yeah," Decha huffed and kept his eyes tightly shut.

"How long have you two been together?"

"Huh?" Decha groaned.

"The woman living here with you. She must be special if you took her into your home, right?"

"She's a patient. My mother is helping her with her condition."

"Does that make her less special to you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You brought a woman into your home, for your mother to meet her, and take care of her."

"Yes, and?"

"Usually, Generals don't do something like that unless they're about to get married. So I'm saying she must be very special in your heart."

"...No." Decha let out another long moan when Lisa reached for his shoulders. He swore under his breath, but Lisa smiled when she heard it. He was too distracted by the massage to understand what Lisa was saying.

"What's the girl's name?"

"Ro... ry..." He murmured.

"That's a cute name. No doubt you think so too." Lisa continued with the massage for another hour. By the time she finished rubbing oils on his back, Decha's mind had completely blanked out.

Work was the furthest from his mind now. Whatever this feeling was, he was enjoying it.

"I'm all done. You can rest here if you like or put your clothes back on. I'm going to pack up my things and go talk with your mom."

"Mhmm..." Decha nodded, not having anything else to say to her. His back felt great. He hated to admit it, but he was the one word he dreaded, relaxed.

Lisa left the office, allowing Decha to sit up and process all the foreign feelings welling up in him. He put back on his pants but left the shirt off because he didn't want it to be greased with the oil still on his back.

He balled his shirt and opened the door, but stopped when he saw Rory walking by. She stopped when she noticed him, shirtless and his abdomen on display. Her face went hot quickly.

She shielded her eyes and backed into the wall, nearly knocking down the paintings hanging behind her.

"Did you eat yet?" Decha asked, completely oblivious to her reaction to him. He knew that Jessica was preparing lunch, but wanted to make sure Rory already drank the medical tea that was keeping her stable.

"I... um..."

"Why are you on this end of the house?" Decha closed the office door and sauntered toward her.

"I got lost!" Rory blurted out a quick lie.

"Why didn't you ask the Butlers for help?"

"They won't talk to me." She lied again. Decha raised a brow at her and studied her for a moment. He noticed how fidgety she was acting. That was a sign of her being nervous.

She was holding something back. He could tell.

"Were you looking for me?" He sighed.

"No!" Rory spun around and began walking back down the hall. She was ashamed that he caught her.

"Rory," Decha's stern voice made her halt in her steps. "What were you going to ask me?"

"Well... I see that you're busy. So I can just ask another time—"

"Just ask." Decha rolled his eyes and took steps toward her to close the distance.

Rory's eyes glazed across his body quickly, and she looked to her feet. A tall shirtless high rank General stood in front of her like it was nothing. Was he not aware of how fit his body was? Wasn't he aware of the effects he gave her? Apparently not.

"Could you take me out?" Rory blurted.

"Take you out?" Decha's relaxed state turned stoic. Was she asking him to kill her? "Death is not a laughing matter, Rory. Don't make jokes like that."

"What? No! I meant could you take me somewhere." Rory realized that he could've interpreted that sentence the wrong way too. "Not like a date! I meant I need to—"

"Where are you trying to go? Everything you need is here."

"I need to go back to Sector—"

"I'm not taking you to Sector B until the walls are rebuilt. We've already established this."

"Well is there a store nearby?"

"What do you need from the market?"

"It's not something I need..." Rory fiddled with her fingers and frowned. "More like something I want..."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Decha scoffed. "I won't take you anywhere because of the high security and early curfew. Tell me what you want and I'll get it for you."

"I think that would be asking for too much."

"You're under my care. If it's a reasonable ask, I won't mind taking a request. Besides, you already owe me hundreds of thousands of Tekels. I'll add it to your tab." Decha smirked.

Rory scowled at him. He was still keeping track of how much she owed him. She was more annoyed hearing that. "I want a few tools and parts."

"The engineering kind?"

"Yes— wait!"

"You want to construct a physical device of whatever you're working on," Decha stated, reading her mind completely. "I thought you said it wasn't important."

"It's not."

"So why are you asking for parts? It seems important enough that you want to build it."

"I don't mean any disrespect, N96. But I don't enjoy it when you interrogate me like you're my parent or like I'm an enemy. I'm an adult. Although my resources are limited, and it's hard for me to work for myself, I'm not a child who's completely unaware of everything." Rory bit her lip nervously. "I'm trying my best to be polite."

That was bold of her to say. A trait that he enjoyed about her. "Alright. I won't interrogate you, but I'll ask questions because of safety concerns."

"What safety concerns?" Rory crossed her arms. "I may be a Bracketer but I'm not hostile. I'm not trying to hurt anyone."

"I'm not talking about our safety. I'm talking about yours." Decha admitted, and it caught Rory off guard.

"What? My safety? I'll be fine."

"You say that and refuse to acknowledge that your hobby takes a lot out of you. I'll get the parts you want but will be monitoring how much time you spend on building. It may seem controlling, but I'm only trying to make sure you take care of your health."

Rory was astounded. His words were confusing. They were direct and clear hard to understand whether he was showing genuine care.

His eyes held the same blank void. No warmth or emotion. But something about what he said gave her a sense of comfort.

Her eyes on him made him feel uneasy. "Did you eat? You haven't answered my question."

"I didn't."

"Let's go." Decha nodded in the direction of the kitchen. Rory hesitated but followed.

~~~

After lunch, Decha sat on the living room couch and just looked up into space. Avon was still at his daycare, and Jessica and Lisa were gossiping in the other room. His father was still at the Agency.

Even after the massage, he felt bored. He was relaxed, but sleep was the last thing on his mind.

Rory walked in and eyed him nervously. She wanted to watch the television, but she didn't know how to respectfully stay out of his way.

"What?"

"Huh?" Rory blinked.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Decha narrowed his eyes at her.

"I... I wasn't."

Decha wasn't stupid. Far from it, he wasn't good at reading people, but he was able to read her expressions after seeing her so many times. "Then, go." He waved her off, testing her.

Rory looked at the TV, and then back to Decha. She looked at the TV again. Internally swearing at him, she walked over to the couch and sat down.

Decha's lips curled into a dastardly smile as Rory picked up the remote and turned on the screen. She awkwardly flipped through the channels, waiting for a negative reaction from the General sitting beside her, but he seemed lost in his thoughts.

When she finally settled on a show she liked, she kept her eyes hooked on the TV.

The show was an Astellian Mystery series. One that she started watching the day she arrived at the mansion. The main characters were two siblings, a brother, and a sister who were detectives solving impossible and disturbing cases.

Rory didn't know why she liked the show, but it intrigued her. The show started with a recap of the previous episode, showing the cliffhanger where the brother character fell through the roof of a dark old cabin.

Then it continued to show the scene of the sister searching for her brother. The music became more suspenseful, putting Rory on edge.

Decha hadn't realized it, but halfway through the episode, he was invested. Although he thought the brother was stupid and the sister was bland, the premise caught his attention.

The sister couldn't find her brother, instead, she found an opening to the basement. But the stairs were covered in blood. Decha clenched his teeth when he watched the character ignore the clear signs of danger and go down the dark stairway.

"She's gonna die," Decha mumbled.

"Huh?" Rory glanced back at him. "What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything." Decha lied and caught himself.

They two stopped talking when the character in the scene began to scream. The stairway turned into a slide and forced the sister down. When she landed in the basement, the blood trail led her to a closet.

"Don't open the door." Rory grabbed onto a pillow. Decha sat forward, repeating her words in his head.

The sister walked toward the door and grabbed the knob. The music became faster-paced. At this point, both Decha and Rory were on edge. The sister turned the knob but stopped when a beeping sound was heard.

"A bomb," Decha mouthed, and balled his fist.

The sister opened the door, and there was a bloodied body next to a timer. The dead person was the suspect. "It's a trap!" Rory hissed.

The character ran and climbed back up the stairs. The scene switched to the outside of the cabin and it exploded. The sound effect was so loud and so real that it startled Rory. She screeched and instinctively clutched onto Decha.

The scene faded with the cliffhanger.

"I don't think this is a show you should be watching." Decha voiced monotonously. Rory was still pressed against him, but he didn't push her away. He grabbed onto her wrist and felt for her pulse. "You should try to keep your heart rate as steady as possible."

"It's my favorite show." Rory leaned away and tugged her hands out of his. Suddenly, she hiccuped and coughed. The action startled Decha.

"You okay?"

"Fine." She nodded and covered her mouth as the coughing continued. She pushed herself off the couch and scurried away into her room down the hall.

~~~

Decha was trying his best to endure the lack of work. His mother kept bugging him about massages, mud baths, face masks, and other beauty remedies for him to relax.

She even went as far as trying to schedule him a day at a nearby sauna. But enough was enough. This was his 4th day being home, and he was extremely exhausted from relaxing. If he didn't spar or touch a weapon soon, he felt like he was going to go crazy.

Avon was usually at Daycare. By the time he came home, the boy was too tired to interact. Rory was locked away in her room doing Heaven knows what.

But he noticed that she kept going to the back porch frequently. Every few hours, she'd go and isolate for thirty minutes and then come back inside.

Decha worried about her immune system. It was cold outside now. Winter had already approached.

He decided to confront her about it.

The moment he walked out of the home, he heard Rory coughing. However, when she caught sight of him, she forced herself to stop and avoided his gaze.

Decha ambled over to her, near the edge, and rested his arms on the railing. The silence between them was forced. Neither of them wanted to start a conversation with the other.

Rory kept her eyes glued ahead. So Decha followed her lead. He knew he had to get her to go back inside. "Why are you out here?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's cold."

"I'm wearing a jacket." Rory flicked the heavy fabric and kept her stare on the sights in front of her.

"You are." Decha agreed. "Why did you come out here?"

"I'm not allowed to?"

"It's not that you're not allowed..." Decha couldn't think of what to say next. "I noticed that you do it often."

Rory sighed. "... I like it out here..."

"In the cold?"

"It's quiet. It's peaceful. And I can think about more things out here than I can in there."

Decha nodded. "What are you thinking about?" Was she thinking about home? The bombs? Her condition?

"Home..." Rory's shoulders sank. "Do you see the city lights over there?"

"Midtown." Decha was able to tell the location precisely. Midtown and Downtown Astell were the big cities and popular tourist attractions. He'd been a good number of times when traveling from the Outside to visit his family.

"On the other side, far away is Sector B."

"Rory," Decha frowned. "I can't take you back—"

"I know you can't." She cut him off. "I know I can't go back right now, but don't stop me from thinking about it." Rory rolled her eyes.

"That wasn't my intention."