I Prefer the Mind Control Chapter 16
Hey there,
Here's Chapter 16 of "I Prefer the Mind Control." I'm trying to make actual chapters now. Enjoy the possibly-NSFW ridiculousness!
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5(ish), Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15
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Damn, was I glad to get out of the fucking hospital. I had seen enough enough hospitals to last me a million lifetimes. A doctor who used more exclamation points in her speech than should be possible didn't help, either. Seriously, Dr. Merrico was too fucking bouncy. Was her mother exposed to Perky Radiation while pregnant with her? Did Zimarans even get pregnant like humans did? I didn't actually know, only assumed so.
I exited the bathroom after showering to find Xan smiling at me. He said, “You're absolutely beautiful, you know that?”
Okay, I knew I wasn't supposed to argue with him on that, but it was still weird to hear. Sure, my parents had told me I looked good, but parents didn't fucking count. And being called “ugly” a thousand billion times in high school after being outed as bi didn't fucking help. I guess I had absorbed that, like a low self-esteem sponge of doom.
“Logically, I know. Emotionally? Still working on that,” I mutter.
He gave me this look like he wanted to take a bite out of me. “I know how I can help with the 'emotional' part. Why don't you take off that towel and come join me on the bed?”
I was more than happy to oblige, removing my towel and flushing just slightly under Xan's predatory gaze. Smiling, I climbed onto the bed. Xan wasted exactly no time, kissing me intensely. Damn fuck, that felt good. Somehow, I could feel a difference between before the Soulbreaking and after it. He more easily overtook my mind, pushing out all thoughts other than those about him.
Maybe I was still just fucking glad to be alive. What better way to affirm my I'm-not-dead state than by giving Xan what he clearly wanted?
I was enjoying myself thoroughly when Xan's vidscreen flashed. He was about to turn it off when he noticed it said “Message from York the Spork.”
“It's Preston; he got through again!” he said. “We should answer that, as much as I would rather enjoy you.”
While I wanted to enjoy myself with Xan, I knew Preston didn't exactly have an easy time getting through to Zimara due to the political clusterfuck that my Soulbreaking should have resolved. Wait, am I tempting fate by saying that should have resolved the problem? Shit. I probably fucking am, aren't I?
Xan accepted the call. Preston's face appeared on the vidscreen. He looked on the verge of exploding or possibly imploding.
“Oh my god, oh my god!” he shouted. He paused, his eyes going wide. “Oh my god, you're naked.”
I was, wasn't I? It didn't bother me, but I didn't think it was so good to freak out Preston. I got under the sheets. Xan followed suit, though he was fully clothed. I said, “Look, I'm less naked now.”
Preston, oddly enough, had turned kinda red. “You're still not wearing anything, but that's not so important right now. What's important is I got through. And the rumors. Holy shit, the rumors! They're so out there, your brain will explode when you hear them!”
Xan muttered, “They can't be very accurate, considering communication between our planets is supposed to be nonexistent.”
He laughed. “As if rumors ever are that accurate! Though there's one particular rumor that's so ridiculous it sounds like a deliberate smear campaign designed by President Bradley herself.”
That piqued my curiosity. “And what kind of rumor is so absurd that it has to be the product of a fucking smear campaign?”
Xan put his arm around me, holding me closer. I got the feeling he wasn't entirely thinking about Preston and rather, he was wanting to return to our interrupted activity.
Preston took a sip of root beer and answered, “One that's insultingly false, considering how happy and ridiculously romantic you two look.”
I grumbled, “Would you just tell me what the damn rumor is, already?”
“Okay, okay. What they're saying is Xan broke Dylan's very soul in some weird psychic pseudo-marriage ritual. Apparently, that's a thing you can actually do. If you believe ridiculous rumors, anyway. But that's not the worst part about this story. Apparently breaking someone's soul makes them your sex slave and messes with their mind so they can't even think about saying no to you. They say that's what all permanent Zimaran pairings are like. Seriously,” he said.
Wait, what? What the fuck? I felt Xan tense next to me. He must have been as freaked out by Preston's rumor report as I was. Since when were those ever fucking accurate? Ever?
“That's a rumor that people are actually spreading? In the real world? There are people saying that? For fucking real?” I couldn't quite get myself to believe it.
Preston nodded. “They're really fucking saying it. It's insane. President Bradley almost certainly has to be behind it.” He noticed my Soulbreaking Symbol necklace. “And since when do you wear jewelry?”
His brain might explode all over his laptop when he heard why I wore jewelry now.
I said, “Actually, Preston, about that rumor about Xan breaking my soul and making me his sex slave?”
“Yeah, what about it?” He took another sip of his root beer.
“It's completely true.”
He spit his root beer all over his laptop's screen. His eyes bugged out. “What?!” Preston shouted. “You're joking!”
Xan hugged me even tighter as Preston wiped off his laptop.
“It's the kind of 'joke' that is absolutely not a joke,” I said. “And, as I'm sure you're going to wonder, it was one hundred million percent voluntary. My idea, actually.”
“'One hundred million percent' is mathematically inaccurate. And your idea? Excuse me while I have no idea idea what the hell is going on,” Preston groaned.
Excuse my ridiculous math. I know very well that you couldn't be “one hundred million percent accurate,” but how else should I explain the degree to which I desperately wanted Xan to Break me? More importantly, you got any ideas how I can convince Preston it was a voluntary thing? I'm on my own? Screw you, author.
Xan spoke up. “Here on Zimara, we take consent very seriously. Soulbreaking, as the process is called, doesn't even work if both parties don't want it. Our practices may be highly unusual to humans, but we believe in making sure everyone consents.”
Preston looked skeptical. “Even if that's true, why would you want to do this, Dylan? Why would any human raised on Earth?”
Funnily enough, enough people on Zimara had asked the same fucking question. And there were multiple reasons I Soulbonded with Xan. Primarily, I just fucking wanted to. How could I not want to be as close as possible to someone as beautiful and sweet as Xan?
I said, “Remember when you said I needed a 'fancy loophole' to get out of being dragged back to Earth? This is that 'fancy loophole.'”
“How so?” he asked.
“The Important Person Retrieval Agreement that the Coalition of Earth Nations wants to use to force me back to Earth only applies to legal people, right? Legally, I'm not a person anymore. According to Zimaran law, I'm Xan's property. Taking me back to my birth planet would be theft, which is super fucking illegal. Earth shouldn't want to risk pissing off Zimara over their property laws. I won't have to go through the crap of possibly being arrested or anything now,” I said.
Preston smacked his forehead with his palm. “There is just one tiny little problem with that idea!
“And what would that be?” Xan asked.
He sighed. “Earth is really not big on anything to do with slavery. It's COEN Leader Elena Terzi's fucking berserk button. Referring to your return as theft like you're some huge shiny diamond? She will flip out at that. You know this, Dylan. The whole planet is going to be in a bigger uproar than they are now when they find out about this particular rumor is true. I wouldn't bet against President Georgia Bradley clamoring for war over human rights violations.”
I snorted. “With the Jordan-Mitchel Prison Scandal, she's one to talk about human rights violations!”
Preston shook his head. “That doesn't matter, and Earth won't care that this was voluntary. They will still freak out about it. I don't think you're getting out of going to Earth. If your goal was to get your home planet off your back, you failed spectacularly.”
Xan held me even tighter, if that were fucking possible. “We'll protect him. Dylan is ours now. They can't take him, not without causing themselves a lot of trouble.”
“They'll cause that trouble!” Preston squeaked.
Shit, he was right, wasn't he? Well, I refused to be fucking arrested. I would find some way out of this, despite the fact that my first “way out of this” apparently caused extra fucking problems.
“You know what else? Your parents are going to freak when they find out!” Preston said.
I didn't think about that at all. Fuck. How would my parents react? They were understanding as far as parents went, but yeah. This? A bit out of the realm of normal human experience, which made fucking sense considering Xan wasn't human. Just how did you translate “hi, my boyfriend broke my soul and made me his sex slave” into something your parents would understand and accept?
I muttered, “Yeah, they probably will freak. It's not like I can contact them right now, though. So I have some time to figure out how to explain things.”
Preston laughed. “Got time? Not necessarily. I can get them in on this call. That's probably your best chance to talk to them before any truly bad shit goes down.”
My stomach twisted into a hard knot. I didn't want to talk to my parents while so unprepared. They might well not approve, probably fucking wouldn't. I wanted them to be proud of me, okay?
He asked, “So, you want me to bring them in?”
Sighing, I agreed, “Sure, contact them, but let me put some clothes on, first.” I turned to Xan. “Ready to meet my parents?” I couldn't help laughing a little, nervously, as I got out of bed and put some clothes on. My heart may haves started hammering in my chest.
Preston said, “I'm contacting them now. Let's hope this works. Good luck, Dylan. You'll need it.”
No need to tell me that! I was perfectly fucking aware.
Xan muttered, “I can't say I'm exactly ready to meet them, no, but there's not much choice, is there?”
There wasn't.
In a matter of seconds, my parents' faces appeared on the screen. Preston's face remained in a small window in the corner. My parents looked both shocked and ridiculously happy. I didn't know that they would stay so happy after I explained everything. This should be fucking fun, if by “fucking fun,” you meant “totally fucking nerve-wracking.”
My mom's blue-gray eyes, just like mine used to be, shone with fucking tears. “Dylan! You're alive!”
Dad said, “We were so worried about you. All the things people have been saying...didn't know what to believe. I see you've...got a new look, but the important thing is you're okay.”
“Uh, yeah, I got turned into a cyborg.” Compared to the other stuff, that was fucking minor. Just to experiment, I turned on my lie detector, wondering if it would work with people on a screen.
Just then, I noticed my dad had a bottle of beer next to him. Considering past incidents, I thought it might be a good idea to warn him not to drink anything when talking to me.
“Jim who teaches computer science is going to be so jealous when I tell him the rumors about you being a cyborg are true. I've been wanting to make him green ever since he said teaching English literature was a waste of time.” My dad fucking smiled. Damn fuck, he was taking this a little too well to be believed.
He took a sip of his beer.
“Uh, dad? You might want to put the beer down,” I said.
Dad sighed. “I had several students turn in essays that would be more at home superimposed over images of cats making funny facial expressions. I need this beer, but I'll put it down for now if you say so.”
I had to smack my forehead with my palm. LOLcat essays? Fucking seriously?
Preston evidently had the same opinion. “Really, Mr. Hathaway?”
Dad's sigh said it all.
Then, I figured I ought to formally introduce Xan. My parents knew about him, but yeah. “Hey, guys, I'd like you to officially meet my partner, Prince Xan.”
He smiled his gorgeous smile at them. That should win them over, right? “It's very nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway.”
My mom smiled back. “It's so lovely to meet Dylan's boyfriend, even under these trying circumstances. Oh, the rumors that have been flying around!”
“Boyfriend” wasn't quite accurate, anymore. “Mom? Dad? Xan is a bit more than just my boyfriend.”
Preston did not fucking help matters by smirking and trying, badly, to stifle his snickering.
“Don't tell me you're thinking of getting married already!” My dad obviously found the very idea to be unbelievable. Judging by my mom's facial expression, she thought the same thing.
Fucking hell, just how did I explain this? Time to seriously freak out my parents, I guessed. You sure you don't want to provide me with a script or something for doing this? No? Didn't fucking think so. Dammit.
I pulled Xan to me, needing his physical presence for support. “I'm not thinking about it. We already are married. Well, the Zimaran equivalent thereof, which is, shall we say, uh, different.”
Preston's grin should have been fucking outlawed. “Why don't you tell them how it's different, Dylan?”
Why don't you remove your vocal cords for the good of humanity, Preston? I noticed my lie detector said, for all three of them, “not enough data - probable truth.”
As annoyed as I was with him, he was right. I did have to tell my parents how the Zimaran equivalent of marriage was different.
I sighed. Damn fuck, was this awkward. “It's more...psychic than human marriage. You know how Zimarans are said to have the ability to induce lust via mind control? The process, called Soulbreaking, is, an extension of that power. It's kind of exactly what it says on the tin. As weird as it sounds, Soulbreaking involves actually breaking one person's soul.”
“Wait, what?” My dad asked.
“Dylan, are you serious?” My mom wondered.
Preston didn't help by smirking so much I wanted to strangle him with my dental floss.
My stomach swooped. Come on, self, just get the fuck through this, I thought. “Yeah, souls are real. And you can break them, and then rebuild them in such a way that you're permanently bonded to the person whose soul you reconstructed. But that's - not the whole of it. You know how modern marriage is supposed to be between equals? Soulbreaking, well, isn't.”
I took a deep breath and continued, trying to ignore my major fucking nervousness. “The person who does the actual breaking of their partner's soul is called a Breaker. The person who's broken is called a Broken. All Broken are considered, socially and legally, property of their respective Breakers. So, now, I'm Xan's property.”
Despite my anxiety and my fear of my parents' disapproval, I couldn't help smiling a little bit as I talked about how Xan owned me. I couldn't resist looking into his eyes. A strange urge to kiss him came over me. I acted on it, for a loving but quick “fine in front of the parents” kind of kiss.
“You are truly happy with this arrangement, aren't you?” Mom said. She sounded like she couldn't quite believe it.
“I am. Very much so.”
My dad took a deep breath and a sip of his beer. “I...can't claim to understand this, at all, but I'm still going to support you. Especially with everything that's happening down here on Earth. COEN is acting like Zimara stole their favorite toy, and I'll do anything I can to keep them from taking you back.”
“Me too, honey,” my mom said. “I'll always support you, even when I don't understand.”
Dammit, I felt I might cry. I didn't want to cry in front of my parents, not even when they were being so incredibly understanding. How, again, did I get so fucking lucky? It was beyond amazing, my good fortune. I didn't understand how someone like me could possibly deserve this, but I wouldn't let Earth take it away from me.
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written for the hc_bingo prompt "Theft"
Here's Chapter 16 of "I Prefer the Mind Control." I'm trying to make actual chapters now. Enjoy the possibly-NSFW ridiculousness!
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5(ish), Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15
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Damn, was I glad to get out of the fucking hospital. I had seen enough enough hospitals to last me a million lifetimes. A doctor who used more exclamation points in her speech than should be possible didn't help, either. Seriously, Dr. Merrico was too fucking bouncy. Was her mother exposed to Perky Radiation while pregnant with her? Did Zimarans even get pregnant like humans did? I didn't actually know, only assumed so.
I exited the bathroom after showering to find Xan smiling at me. He said, “You're absolutely beautiful, you know that?”
Okay, I knew I wasn't supposed to argue with him on that, but it was still weird to hear. Sure, my parents had told me I looked good, but parents didn't fucking count. And being called “ugly” a thousand billion times in high school after being outed as bi didn't fucking help. I guess I had absorbed that, like a low self-esteem sponge of doom.
“Logically, I know. Emotionally? Still working on that,” I mutter.
He gave me this look like he wanted to take a bite out of me. “I know how I can help with the 'emotional' part. Why don't you take off that towel and come join me on the bed?”
I was more than happy to oblige, removing my towel and flushing just slightly under Xan's predatory gaze. Smiling, I climbed onto the bed. Xan wasted exactly no time, kissing me intensely. Damn fuck, that felt good. Somehow, I could feel a difference between before the Soulbreaking and after it. He more easily overtook my mind, pushing out all thoughts other than those about him.
Maybe I was still just fucking glad to be alive. What better way to affirm my I'm-not-dead state than by giving Xan what he clearly wanted?
I was enjoying myself thoroughly when Xan's vidscreen flashed. He was about to turn it off when he noticed it said “Message from York the Spork.”
“It's Preston; he got through again!” he said. “We should answer that, as much as I would rather enjoy you.”
While I wanted to enjoy myself with Xan, I knew Preston didn't exactly have an easy time getting through to Zimara due to the political clusterfuck that my Soulbreaking should have resolved. Wait, am I tempting fate by saying that should have resolved the problem? Shit. I probably fucking am, aren't I?
Xan accepted the call. Preston's face appeared on the vidscreen. He looked on the verge of exploding or possibly imploding.
“Oh my god, oh my god!” he shouted. He paused, his eyes going wide. “Oh my god, you're naked.”
I was, wasn't I? It didn't bother me, but I didn't think it was so good to freak out Preston. I got under the sheets. Xan followed suit, though he was fully clothed. I said, “Look, I'm less naked now.”
Preston, oddly enough, had turned kinda red. “You're still not wearing anything, but that's not so important right now. What's important is I got through. And the rumors. Holy shit, the rumors! They're so out there, your brain will explode when you hear them!”
Xan muttered, “They can't be very accurate, considering communication between our planets is supposed to be nonexistent.”
He laughed. “As if rumors ever are that accurate! Though there's one particular rumor that's so ridiculous it sounds like a deliberate smear campaign designed by President Bradley herself.”
That piqued my curiosity. “And what kind of rumor is so absurd that it has to be the product of a fucking smear campaign?”
Xan put his arm around me, holding me closer. I got the feeling he wasn't entirely thinking about Preston and rather, he was wanting to return to our interrupted activity.
Preston took a sip of root beer and answered, “One that's insultingly false, considering how happy and ridiculously romantic you two look.”
I grumbled, “Would you just tell me what the damn rumor is, already?”
“Okay, okay. What they're saying is Xan broke Dylan's very soul in some weird psychic pseudo-marriage ritual. Apparently, that's a thing you can actually do. If you believe ridiculous rumors, anyway. But that's not the worst part about this story. Apparently breaking someone's soul makes them your sex slave and messes with their mind so they can't even think about saying no to you. They say that's what all permanent Zimaran pairings are like. Seriously,” he said.
Wait, what? What the fuck? I felt Xan tense next to me. He must have been as freaked out by Preston's rumor report as I was. Since when were those ever fucking accurate? Ever?
“That's a rumor that people are actually spreading? In the real world? There are people saying that? For fucking real?” I couldn't quite get myself to believe it.
Preston nodded. “They're really fucking saying it. It's insane. President Bradley almost certainly has to be behind it.” He noticed my Soulbreaking Symbol necklace. “And since when do you wear jewelry?”
His brain might explode all over his laptop when he heard why I wore jewelry now.
I said, “Actually, Preston, about that rumor about Xan breaking my soul and making me his sex slave?”
“Yeah, what about it?” He took another sip of his root beer.
“It's completely true.”
He spit his root beer all over his laptop's screen. His eyes bugged out. “What?!” Preston shouted. “You're joking!”
Xan hugged me even tighter as Preston wiped off his laptop.
“It's the kind of 'joke' that is absolutely not a joke,” I said. “And, as I'm sure you're going to wonder, it was one hundred million percent voluntary. My idea, actually.”
“'One hundred million percent' is mathematically inaccurate. And your idea? Excuse me while I have no idea idea what the hell is going on,” Preston groaned.
Excuse my ridiculous math. I know very well that you couldn't be “one hundred million percent accurate,” but how else should I explain the degree to which I desperately wanted Xan to Break me? More importantly, you got any ideas how I can convince Preston it was a voluntary thing? I'm on my own? Screw you, author.
Xan spoke up. “Here on Zimara, we take consent very seriously. Soulbreaking, as the process is called, doesn't even work if both parties don't want it. Our practices may be highly unusual to humans, but we believe in making sure everyone consents.”
Preston looked skeptical. “Even if that's true, why would you want to do this, Dylan? Why would any human raised on Earth?”
Funnily enough, enough people on Zimara had asked the same fucking question. And there were multiple reasons I Soulbonded with Xan. Primarily, I just fucking wanted to. How could I not want to be as close as possible to someone as beautiful and sweet as Xan?
I said, “Remember when you said I needed a 'fancy loophole' to get out of being dragged back to Earth? This is that 'fancy loophole.'”
“How so?” he asked.
“The Important Person Retrieval Agreement that the Coalition of Earth Nations wants to use to force me back to Earth only applies to legal people, right? Legally, I'm not a person anymore. According to Zimaran law, I'm Xan's property. Taking me back to my birth planet would be theft, which is super fucking illegal. Earth shouldn't want to risk pissing off Zimara over their property laws. I won't have to go through the crap of possibly being arrested or anything now,” I said.
Preston smacked his forehead with his palm. “There is just one tiny little problem with that idea!
“And what would that be?” Xan asked.
He sighed. “Earth is really not big on anything to do with slavery. It's COEN Leader Elena Terzi's fucking berserk button. Referring to your return as theft like you're some huge shiny diamond? She will flip out at that. You know this, Dylan. The whole planet is going to be in a bigger uproar than they are now when they find out about this particular rumor is true. I wouldn't bet against President Georgia Bradley clamoring for war over human rights violations.”
I snorted. “With the Jordan-Mitchel Prison Scandal, she's one to talk about human rights violations!”
Preston shook his head. “That doesn't matter, and Earth won't care that this was voluntary. They will still freak out about it. I don't think you're getting out of going to Earth. If your goal was to get your home planet off your back, you failed spectacularly.”
Xan held me even tighter, if that were fucking possible. “We'll protect him. Dylan is ours now. They can't take him, not without causing themselves a lot of trouble.”
“They'll cause that trouble!” Preston squeaked.
Shit, he was right, wasn't he? Well, I refused to be fucking arrested. I would find some way out of this, despite the fact that my first “way out of this” apparently caused extra fucking problems.
“You know what else? Your parents are going to freak when they find out!” Preston said.
I didn't think about that at all. Fuck. How would my parents react? They were understanding as far as parents went, but yeah. This? A bit out of the realm of normal human experience, which made fucking sense considering Xan wasn't human. Just how did you translate “hi, my boyfriend broke my soul and made me his sex slave” into something your parents would understand and accept?
I muttered, “Yeah, they probably will freak. It's not like I can contact them right now, though. So I have some time to figure out how to explain things.”
Preston laughed. “Got time? Not necessarily. I can get them in on this call. That's probably your best chance to talk to them before any truly bad shit goes down.”
My stomach twisted into a hard knot. I didn't want to talk to my parents while so unprepared. They might well not approve, probably fucking wouldn't. I wanted them to be proud of me, okay?
He asked, “So, you want me to bring them in?”
Sighing, I agreed, “Sure, contact them, but let me put some clothes on, first.” I turned to Xan. “Ready to meet my parents?” I couldn't help laughing a little, nervously, as I got out of bed and put some clothes on. My heart may haves started hammering in my chest.
Preston said, “I'm contacting them now. Let's hope this works. Good luck, Dylan. You'll need it.”
No need to tell me that! I was perfectly fucking aware.
Xan muttered, “I can't say I'm exactly ready to meet them, no, but there's not much choice, is there?”
There wasn't.
In a matter of seconds, my parents' faces appeared on the screen. Preston's face remained in a small window in the corner. My parents looked both shocked and ridiculously happy. I didn't know that they would stay so happy after I explained everything. This should be fucking fun, if by “fucking fun,” you meant “totally fucking nerve-wracking.”
My mom's blue-gray eyes, just like mine used to be, shone with fucking tears. “Dylan! You're alive!”
Dad said, “We were so worried about you. All the things people have been saying...didn't know what to believe. I see you've...got a new look, but the important thing is you're okay.”
“Uh, yeah, I got turned into a cyborg.” Compared to the other stuff, that was fucking minor. Just to experiment, I turned on my lie detector, wondering if it would work with people on a screen.
Just then, I noticed my dad had a bottle of beer next to him. Considering past incidents, I thought it might be a good idea to warn him not to drink anything when talking to me.
“Jim who teaches computer science is going to be so jealous when I tell him the rumors about you being a cyborg are true. I've been wanting to make him green ever since he said teaching English literature was a waste of time.” My dad fucking smiled. Damn fuck, he was taking this a little too well to be believed.
He took a sip of his beer.
“Uh, dad? You might want to put the beer down,” I said.
Dad sighed. “I had several students turn in essays that would be more at home superimposed over images of cats making funny facial expressions. I need this beer, but I'll put it down for now if you say so.”
I had to smack my forehead with my palm. LOLcat essays? Fucking seriously?
Preston evidently had the same opinion. “Really, Mr. Hathaway?”
Dad's sigh said it all.
Then, I figured I ought to formally introduce Xan. My parents knew about him, but yeah. “Hey, guys, I'd like you to officially meet my partner, Prince Xan.”
He smiled his gorgeous smile at them. That should win them over, right? “It's very nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway.”
My mom smiled back. “It's so lovely to meet Dylan's boyfriend, even under these trying circumstances. Oh, the rumors that have been flying around!”
“Boyfriend” wasn't quite accurate, anymore. “Mom? Dad? Xan is a bit more than just my boyfriend.”
Preston did not fucking help matters by smirking and trying, badly, to stifle his snickering.
“Don't tell me you're thinking of getting married already!” My dad obviously found the very idea to be unbelievable. Judging by my mom's facial expression, she thought the same thing.
Fucking hell, just how did I explain this? Time to seriously freak out my parents, I guessed. You sure you don't want to provide me with a script or something for doing this? No? Didn't fucking think so. Dammit.
I pulled Xan to me, needing his physical presence for support. “I'm not thinking about it. We already are married. Well, the Zimaran equivalent thereof, which is, shall we say, uh, different.”
Preston's grin should have been fucking outlawed. “Why don't you tell them how it's different, Dylan?”
Why don't you remove your vocal cords for the good of humanity, Preston? I noticed my lie detector said, for all three of them, “not enough data - probable truth.”
As annoyed as I was with him, he was right. I did have to tell my parents how the Zimaran equivalent of marriage was different.
I sighed. Damn fuck, was this awkward. “It's more...psychic than human marriage. You know how Zimarans are said to have the ability to induce lust via mind control? The process, called Soulbreaking, is, an extension of that power. It's kind of exactly what it says on the tin. As weird as it sounds, Soulbreaking involves actually breaking one person's soul.”
“Wait, what?” My dad asked.
“Dylan, are you serious?” My mom wondered.
Preston didn't help by smirking so much I wanted to strangle him with my dental floss.
My stomach swooped. Come on, self, just get the fuck through this, I thought. “Yeah, souls are real. And you can break them, and then rebuild them in such a way that you're permanently bonded to the person whose soul you reconstructed. But that's - not the whole of it. You know how modern marriage is supposed to be between equals? Soulbreaking, well, isn't.”
I took a deep breath and continued, trying to ignore my major fucking nervousness. “The person who does the actual breaking of their partner's soul is called a Breaker. The person who's broken is called a Broken. All Broken are considered, socially and legally, property of their respective Breakers. So, now, I'm Xan's property.”
Despite my anxiety and my fear of my parents' disapproval, I couldn't help smiling a little bit as I talked about how Xan owned me. I couldn't resist looking into his eyes. A strange urge to kiss him came over me. I acted on it, for a loving but quick “fine in front of the parents” kind of kiss.
“You are truly happy with this arrangement, aren't you?” Mom said. She sounded like she couldn't quite believe it.
“I am. Very much so.”
My dad took a deep breath and a sip of his beer. “I...can't claim to understand this, at all, but I'm still going to support you. Especially with everything that's happening down here on Earth. COEN is acting like Zimara stole their favorite toy, and I'll do anything I can to keep them from taking you back.”
“Me too, honey,” my mom said. “I'll always support you, even when I don't understand.”
Dammit, I felt I might cry. I didn't want to cry in front of my parents, not even when they were being so incredibly understanding. How, again, did I get so fucking lucky? It was beyond amazing, my good fortune. I didn't understand how someone like me could possibly deserve this, but I wouldn't let Earth take it away from me.
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written for the hc_bingo prompt "Theft"