C16 Simon Waterhouse

Simon groaned awake with a throbbing headache and a bitter-sweet taste making his tongue feel furry. The rest of his body felt warm, cozy and naked underneath a blanket. He remembered where he was.

“Morning Love.” Bruce nibbled into Simon’s ear and hugged him tighter.

They cuddled each other underneath a snug blanket on a futon they had set up at the back of the AI studio of the T-Strike building.

Simon loved these moments where he woke in Bruce’s arms. He still didn’t understand why Bruce couldn’t live with him. They were always making excuses to be together overnight somewhere. Of course, it was natural to have insecure thoughts and imagine the worst reasons. Simon was no stranger to being in relationship with men he believed loved him, only to find out they were testing out their ‘straight’ with him. Many times he faced heartbreak for that reason. What the hell did testing out your straight even mean? You were either gay or not. In love or not.

His relationship with Bruce came as a shining light to his faded hope. Their love affair began awkward and on shaky ground, with misunderstandings a plenty. Bruce turned out different to all the others. He was the first man to fight for him and make him feel like he was ‘the one’. He gave all his heart to Bruce, pushing aside his insecurities and fears.

“Hey, Bruce, I know I keep asking, but why can’t we live together?” Simon asked, feeling Bruce’s heart beats against his back.

“It’s complicated. I love you very much. You’re my life.” Bruce sighed, brushing aside the hard question with a passionate kiss.

Persistent ringing pulled Bruce out of the kiss. He leaned over Simon for his phone on the stool next to the futon that serviced as a side table. Bruce expelled a heavy sigh at the voicemail message he listened to.

“What is it?” Simon asked, worried.

“Nothing, just my mum.” Bruce, brushed off as he quickly locked his phone and placed it on the floor.

Simon frowned, feeling seeds of insecurity swirl about his heart again.

“You’re pouting inside. I feel it.” Bruce teased Simon.

Simon sighed. “Don’t cheat on me, okay?”

“What?! Is that going through your mind?” Bruce clicked his tongue, annoyed.

“Then why did you hide the message from me?”

Bruce shuffled out of the cuddle and blankets. He hastily dressed and scooped up his phone.

“Bruce?” Simon sat up, perplexed.

“You know I love you, right?”

“Yes. At least, I want to believe it.” Simon answered a bit spitefully.

Bruce shook his head when he picked up his keys and bag near the door.

“After all this time being together, you still refuse to trust my honesty in this relationship.” Bruce angrily threw back to Simon, before slamming the studio door behind him.

Simon sat shaken by the quick turn of events. He cursed his splitting headache that had resurfaced and spiteful habit of testing his relationship. Of course, he didn’t think Bruce would do anything to hurt him. Yet he was struggling to accept that there were things his lover kept from him. They had been dating for almost two years, but they hadn’t really progressed further as a couple.

“It’s not wrong to be greedy or worried, right?” Simon swallowed back his question and tears that strayed from his eyes.

His phone ringing disturbed his thoughts. He quickly fixed himself up and answered the call.

“Adrian.”

“You still in the office, Simon?” Adrian’s voice asked, oblivious to Simon’s earlier dilemma and tears.

“Yeah. What do you need?” Simon sighed.

“I need you to access Joel’s old drive on the main network and pull files for Project Songbird.”

Simon shuffled off the futon to turn on one of the PCs, balancing his phone on his ear. “All of them?”

“Yes. Send them to me via secure drive.” Adrian answered and ended the call.

“Right.” Simon slowly exhaled and glanced about his body, realizing he was standing before a work computer butt naked.

The irony of his morning made him chuckle sarcastically as he dressed. He thanked Adrian’s phone call from keeping his mind busy with work. It stopped him from spiraling into a place of self loathing.

“Why Joel’s old files now?” Simon frowned with curiosity.

He hadn’t been involved with the A-Human conceptual project at the time as this had been managed by Joel. Something must’ve popped up unexpectedly for Adrian to ask for the files. Of course, his curiosity was piqued.

It took him a few goes to decrypt the drive. He used the decryption waiting time to go out of the studio for coffee. When he returned the files were ready for viewing. He perused through documents, most being irrelevant. One caught his interest within the project’s commercial folder. He opened up the file and read through terms and conditions. His eyes widen with shock at a passage.

“What the? Joel, what the hell were you thinking?!” Simon cursed out loud.

He hastily closed up the file and folders, zipped and uploaded them to Adrian’s private cloud drive. The fact made him think that an old friend had returned to their lives.

“God! Can this morning be any more troublesome!” He groaned as he cleared the computer’s history and reset the drive’s encryption before closing down the machine.

He grabbed his keys, bag and locked up the studio on his way out.