บท 38: "Burning Meat (and Desire)!"

Three days had passed. Lia and Gem still couldn't believe that Lovely would break her promise to them days ago, that she would wait for their return before she leaves the facility. When they asked Miss Faye about it, she just said that Lovely took her compensation money for the sudden termination of her contract, and didn't leave a message. They couldn't even contact her in D-Chat or her email. It was like she vanished in thin air.

Lia and Gem continued with their lives without Lovely, but it was a bit gloomy without her. She was the one giving them corny jokes, and they missed her smile.

The two of them had coffee and pancakes for breakfast. "I really missed Lovely, but it was her choice." Gem said and sipped her milk tea. "I just hope she forgets her mutant so she wouldn't get depressed. It's like she was separated from her sister."

Lia nodded while putting sauce on her pancake. "Yeah. But I understand her. If I'm going to be separated from my mutant, I-" She stopped her sentence and her cheeks turned red, realizing that she and Aesop had become intimately closer with each other.

"Hmm… maybe you're right, Lia," she said, pondering about the situation. What if she got separated from little Chelone today? The cute turtle mutant might cry a lot, and Gem will feel sad for her.

After eating breakfast, they went to their respective mutants. When Lia entered and changed into her indoor shoes, she was surprised to smell something burning.

"Ae? Are you cooking?" she said as she ran over to the kitchen. "Oh, it's burning! Turn off the stove!"

Aesop turned the knob to disable the electric stove.

"Whew, that was close…" Lia said with relief on her face. "Why were you cooking? Why didn't you wait for me?"

"Lia…" Aesop uttered. "These past few days, you were a bit unhappy… I just want to do something for you..." he was sad to see the whole chunk of unsliced, burned meat.

Lia was touched by his comforting actions. "I told you, last time, right? It's because one of my co-caretakers had a terminated contract…" she sighed as she tried to get back to her feet for Aesop's sake. "I know, how about I teach you how to cook?"

"Yeah… Alright," Aesop replied. He took away the pan of burned meat to the center counter table. Then, he selected another frying pan and placed it over the stove.

"First, let's slice the meat," Lia said, as she took the uncooked meat from a container. "Good thing you have another batch of pork here, and it's unfrozen. I can start teaching you how to slice."

Lia took the sharpest knife from the drawer. As she started slicing pork thinly, Aesop leaned in closer and peeked at Lia's hands. He closely observed how her hands moved, but as she sliced the meat, he noticed that he was only looking at her delicate, smooth hands and not the outcome of the sliced meat.

The whole kitchen still smelled like burnt meat, but because of Aesop's closeness to his caretaker's body, all he smelled was her shampoo. The vulture mutant lost track of time and focus as he drew nearer to Lia. He started moving behind her and peeked at the slicing of meat from the side of her neck.

Lia noticed the shadow of Aesop's large wings on the counter table. "Uhm, Ae, your wings are-" she turned her body towards him.

Aesop stood in front of Lia, and his golden eyes gazed into her deep blue eyes. Lia's body leaned against the kitchen counter, and she turned beet red when she realized her nearness to him.

Aesop placed both of his hands on the counter, putting Lia in the middle and enclosed space. "Why did you stop?" Aesop whispered as his face drew closer to her. As his body drew near her front, he tried to peek on the sliced pork, while secretly smelling Lia's hair.

This made Lia so embarrassed that she felt her blood come rushing through her veins! "Ae!!!" she shrieked, "You're too close!"

Aesop realized that this made Lia uncomfortable, thus making him get his hands away from the counter and step back. "Sorry, I was looking at how you sliced it…" he said, which wasn't a lie, but he kept it a secret that he was smelling her shampoo.

"I couldn't see much because of your shadow…" she said, blushing. "Can you watch from my side?"

Aesop nodded. Too bad, he wanted to smell her more. He knew he was acting strange towards Lia, that he wondered if it was an unknown part of his trait as a vulture or his human desire taking over him. He stepped towards Lia's side, while she continued the cooking tutorial.

Both of them knew deep inside, that their growing feelings towards each other would soon be out of control.

Meanwhile, on the e-train platform…

"Welcome, Dr. Mullock," the Head Scientist said, giving a bouquet of pink lilies wrapped in white translucent cellophane, tied with a pink ribbon.

The guest scientist, who was wearing a classy, branded light blue suit, smiled sweetly as she said, "Thank you, Dr. Logan." The Core Scientists welcomed her, clapping their hands as they saw her receiving the flowers.

"It's been a while since I visited the facility, and I still feel your warm welcome," Dr. Jaia said as she walked with Dr. Logan towards the entrance of the main building.

"We know you're just here for a limited amount of time, so we've already prepared the meeting room for you. Some promising Assistant Scientists will present their progress," Dr. Logan said.

"Very well," she said. "I look forward to the new breed of our future Core Scientists."

"Breathe in, breathe out," the nervous Sanya told herself, as the presentation was about to start. She sat in line together with other Assistant Scientists at the side of the meeting room.

Inside the meeting room were some of the heads of the laboratories, and some Core Scientists whose studies were related to those who would present.

Dr. Logan entered the room. He briskly walked towards in front of them, "Let's all welcome our guest scientist, the head scientist of our affiliate research facility abroad, Dr. Jaia Mullock," he said, and everyone clapped their hands.

Dr. Jaia gave off a smart aura, smiling as she nodded her head to greet everyone. She stood in front beside Dr. Logan, and said, "Thank you for inviting me. I look forward to seeing our Assistant Scientists' presentations," then, she looked at them. "I will select the best presentation. Only one of you will have a special reward from me."