Life Gives You Lumps

Ezza came home from work exhausted just like everyday since they had moved to the Port City. Life here was much busier, but also more exciting. Sitting on the couch Ezza took her shoes off. She rubbed her tired feet. I never knew how much pain this caused woman. They’re crazy, she thought. Then giggled because she caught herself. After a few minutes of just resting, she got up and walked down the hall of their apartment to their tiny kitchen. Zas would be home soon and he’d probably be hungry.

Ezza prepared the ingredients as she looked out the window. This place was much smaller than their house. At least they’d been able to decorate it to their liking. The life they had now wasn’t much to either of their liking, but they were trying to make it work. Zas had taken a job as a Critic and it had the option to branch out into food. He missed his job as a chef, Ezza knew and she felt guilty. Sighing she flipped and then put the mixture in the oven and then went to change.

Their cramped little Master bedroom was barely big enough for their bedroom furniture. They had reverted back to their original arrangement. Technically their apartment had two bedrooms, but they had needed an office space. Their living room was now little more than a couch and a tv. It wasn’t a bad place just a little cramped and occasionally the pipes and electrical box in their kitchen acted up, but with Zas’ mechanical know-how it was easily fixed.

Ezza finished dressing in her casual clothes and then went to check on dinner. She heard the ding of the elevator coming up the shaft. That was the other thing they had to get used to. Their home in Windenburg had been isolated to a degree, here there were 3 or four people living on their floor, and more throughout the building; and not everyone had the same work schedule. So getting used to the constant coming and going noises took a bit, but it was almost white noise for the both of them now.

Zas came into the apartment and sighed, this place sucked. It was small and cramped and he didn’t like not having space; constantly running into Ezza all the time. It was about as small as that first box they had moved into when they crashed, but now it was different. Ezza wasn’t Ezza anymore. Well he was, but he was now a she and She got Zas’s blood boiling. Scratching the back of his head Zas went into the office area and sat down at the computer like he had done everyday since moving here. He began to compose his article for work when Ezza bounced in.

“Welcome back.” She said. Zas found it embarrassing whenever Ezza spoke. Ezza had transformed through the Isolation protocol. It was designed so that a stranded Pairing could pass on knowledge through their descendants and hopefully they would make it home to the Academy one day. The way it worked was once the Isolation protocol kicked in, it would scan the pairings and assess them. Then it would choose one of the pairing to change into the opposite gender. Sometimes the protocol wouldn’t be needed but opposite gender Pairings were very rare. Based on the other half of the Pairings attractions it modifies the one to fit the fantasy and desires of the other. This is to ensure mating and survival of their knowledge. Embarrassingly enough, Ezza had changed into a very close approximation of Zas’s ultimate woman, well except for his voice which remained the same as ever. Which meant Zas had been attracted Ezza’s voice this whole time.

Pausing, Zas looked at what he had just typed into the article. By the Mates, can’t have that in there, he thought erasing the last few lines he’d typed. No one cared about his weird little attraction to his best friend.

Ezza was just about to say something to Zas when the doorbell rang. Frowning she turned and went to answer it. Outside stood a petite human with an awfully familiar face. Trying to place it Ezza opened the door.

“Hello?” Ezza said.

The woman looked up at Ezza with wide eyes and then started giggling.

“Oh my Sugar, with a voice like that, you must scare off the men. Just between you and me though, I think they need it. Plus with your attributes I’m sure they’d be willing to over look it.” The woman had walked in as she was talking. Looking around quickly she motioned for Ezza to follow her and headed back towards the elevator.

“Now, to business. Not that you’ll be able to use it in there, but I have a gift from the Council. Here is one unseeded stump,” she handed Ezza a small stump. “Now, the goal is to go around to the new hybrids and ask for seeds. You’ll get one seed from each person you talk to, the trick is their emotions. You need six seeds total, so six different emotions. Put them in the stump and then voila! You get a tree with forbidden fruit. You can eat it to experience a new greener you!”

Ezza looked at the stump in her hands.

“Is this like the skull challenge?” Ezza asked. When the woman nodded Ezza sighed.

“Yup, now I must be going. I have to go out to the boonies and hand these out. People out there love their Jasmine Holiday, and I do love to be loved.” She said winking at Ezza as the doors closed on the elevator. Ezza shook her head and went back inside her apartment.

“Who was it?” Zas called from the office.

“Jasmine Holiday. New special challenge. You collect seeds from plant people.” Ezza called back. There came a weary sigh from the office.

“You going to do it?” Zas asked. He already knew the answer. Plants + Ezza = insanely happy.

“Yeah, why not? The skull thing was fun wasn’t it?” She said. She was looking all around the apartment for a place to keep the stump until it could be used again. With nowhere else, she shoved it under the bed.

“You coming for dinner?” She called out as she headed back into the kitchen. Zas saved his progress and then rubbed the bridge of his nose, Ezza wasn’t the greatest cook in the world, but usually it wasn’t bad. The fish taco incident last week had almost caused him to lose his mind however, and that was after he had almost choked on little fish bones that Ezza had not taken out. Slowly Ezza was shaping up into a wonderful woman, with decent domestic skills, but Zas wished she’d stay out of the kitchen when he wasn’t home.

The two of them passed the night amicably talking and trading work stories. Ezza cleaned up the dishes and Zas went in to finish up his article on the computer. A little while later Ezza came in to the office walking quietly, she came up behind Zas and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Are you coming to bed?” Ezza asked. Zas looked up from his computer screen, he was almost done his article. Intending to tell Ezza that, he lost the ability to speak for a moment. Ezza stood behind him in a silky green nightgown with lace trim. The material flattened to show off all of her curves and valleys. The colour seemed to glow against her skin, and there was a lot of it. Her long bare legs traveled down from the hemline that barely graced her thighs, and her breasts filled out the top of the neckline and almost seemed to strain against the material holding them in. Her long black hair fell softly down her shoulders, framing her little pixie face and lush lips. Zas could feel his heart start pounding. Her inquisitive eyes looked at him, eyes he’d know for years but never really given any thought to. He wanted to reach up and pull her onto his lap and just forget about work for the night. He opened his mouth to tell her that as he reached his hand out towards her.

“I have to finish my article.” He croaked out, he felt himself pat her on the arm. “You go ahead, I’ll come in later.”

Ezza watched as he turned away from her. She recognized the lie, she’d been hearing it for a while now. Nodding she left the office and went to the bedroom. Climbing in, she faced towards the wall and waited.

Zas let out a breath after Ezza had finally left. It took him a few minutes to clear his head, but then he got back into his writing. He finished the article and shut everything off. Then he went into the bedroom. Ezza lay on her side facing away from him. He put one knee on the bed and leaned towards her. Why is this so hard? He thought to himself. They’d shared a bed before, this was no different. Ezza just had a few more soft lumps then she had before. Nothing had changed really. No matter what he told himself, he knew things had changed though.

He pulled the covers up over Ezza’s shoulders to make sure she wouldn’t be cold and then he went out into the living room and laid on the couch. It was where he was spending most of his nights now. Sighing, he wiggled around and contorted until he was comfortable and then fell asleep. In the bedroom, Ezza grabbed the edge of the blankets that Zas had pulled over her a few minutes beforehand, pulling them over her face, she cried herself to sleep.

4 Comments

  1. bmitjessesue

    What a wimp! Not that I’m saying anything has to happen, but at least sleep in the same bed! PST…more pics, more pics, more pics!

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