“Let’s go then. They might want to take blood tests so if you’re afraid of needles you can hold my hand if you’d like.” “I’m not a child. Needles don’t scare me,” I responded. 

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and unlocked the door before we both headed downstairs. I could smell the men waiting before even seeing them. One of the men smelled of leather while the other smelled like roses. The man who smelled of leather appeared to be a tiger hybrid.

The other was not a hybrid, rather a black male with shoulder-length dreads and looked slightly less intimidating than the taller, more muscular middle eastern appearing man. Both wore black suits and the taller man held a briefcase in his hand. “Hello!” the short one said. He stuck out his hand and I shook it tentatively. “My name is Dr.Oak and I’ll be running a few tests on you. The man next to me is my assistant/nurse Mr.Sari. Do you have any questions before we start?” I shakily shook my head no. I was nervous about the idea of him “testing” things on me as I didn’t have good memories associated with that.

Dr.Oak turned towards Liam. “Is it alright if we use the living room?” He nodded his head.

“Of course. Do whatever you need to do.” The man walked towards the living room so I followed along. “Ahmet if you could set everything up that’d be great. I need to talk to Liam privately.” I sat on the couch as the man walked away leaving me with the hybrid. His glare was piercing through me and my ears instinctively pinned against my head.

The man opened the case and pulled out a few things I didn’t know their names but some of them I recognized from the facility. I could slightly hear Dr.Oak and Liam speaking but it was nothing interesting. Something about the surgery. “So, Ahmet, that’s a nice name you have,” I said trying to make some sort of conversation to distract myself. He didn’t respond and instead asked his question. “Are you guys in a relationship?” My eyes widened at his question. “What? No! Why would you even ask.” He had a blank face on as if he didn’t believe me but it was true. “I heard your conversation from downstairs.” I rolled my eyes. Rude much.

“I just confessed to him, is all. And we made up after a misunderstanding.” He wrapped something around my bicep to take my blood pressure as he spoke. “I was only asking because it’s not often Mike and I meet other hybrid and human couples. Especially no queer ones.”

“Well I’m happy for the two of you but Liam and I aren’t in a relationship.” The machine tightened around my arm before inflating once more. Ahmet unwrapped it and typed something into his wristwatch. Next, he pulled up my shirt sleeve and wiped down the area with a wipe. He looked at my nearly faded scars for a second then went back to preparing me. “What should I do about it?” I asked. He looked at me before going to wrap a rubber band around the lower area of my bicep. “What kind of question is that?” he asked with a dry laugh.

“I mean, I have no experience in things like romance, what should I do next? Do I ask him out or do I–,” I didn’t get to finish before the Doctor and Liam came back. “Ok, I’m just going to take your blood then we’ll run a few allergy tests,” Mike said before going to get the materials Mr.Sari had set out.

“This won’t hurt that much… right?” I turned to the shorter man. “That depends on your pain tolerance. It shouldn’t be too bad but you might get panicky if you don’t like needles and/or blood.” He put on some gloves and picked up the syringe and needle. I gulped, feeling my body shiver and stomach drop at the thought of blood. Not to mention that though I didn’t have a “fear” of needles they did bring back painful memories of being poked a prodded. Both Liam and Ahmet stared at me, probably picking up my fear with Ahmet smelling it stronger than Liam.

I focused on a random tapestry hung on the wall as Mike grabbed my arm and began looking for a good place to insert the needle. “Are you ok?” Liam asked, sitting next to me. I shakily nodded my head. “Don’t worry, kid, this will be over fairly quickly.” Mike kneeled in front of me and as he was about to insert the needle I grabbed Liam’s hand with my free one. I shut my eyes and felt the needle go in. I heard Ahmet let out a laugh at my display but I didn’t care. Sure it didn’t hurt that much but made me queasy.

“Ok, all done,” Dr.Oak said after a few seconds. I didn’t immediately open my eyes as I had no interest in seeing him transfer my blood from the syringe to a vial. I smelled Ahmet come to place a bandaid on me. After that, I opened my eyes and released Liam’s hand.

Mike finished placing my vial of blood away and made me lay on my stomach. He started to brush stuff onto my back for the allergy test. “There doesn’t seem to be anything you have an allergy to, at least to what we’ll be using on you so that’s good.” I sat up to pull my sweater on again.

“So I’ve already explained this to Liam but I’ll also inform you. Don’t eat or drink anything between midnight and the surgery. Make sure that after the surgery, you don’t engage in any psychical activities until your neck has healed which may take up to 3 weeks or so. You’ll be given a neck brace that I recommend you wear for about 2-3 days and after that just be cautious. That’s about all you need to know, I think anything else will make you nervous.”

“When he says psychical activities he also means sex,” Ahmet chimed from the corner he leaned against. “Ahmet!” Dr.Oak scolded.

“What! I’m just joking,” he laughed, winking at me. Liam faced me questioningly and I saw how scarlet his cheeks were. “My apologies,” Dr.Oak said. “No, no it’s fine,” I said, trying not to blush.

Once both men finished packing up their things, Liam went to see them out. I stayed on the couch and waited for him to return. While he was gone I decided that I would ask him out on a date. I wasn’t sure how to do it, but somehow I’d I heard the door shut then saw Liam come back. “What?” I asked when he stared at me quietly.

“Nothing, I just thought that you weren’t afraid of needles,” he smiled and sat down next to me. I rolled my eyes. “I’m not, I just panicked a bit, is all and blood makes me queasy.” We sat in silence for a bit but then I realized something. “If you never had any intention of making me leave why have you been tutoring me?” Liam turned his body towards mine to look at me. “Well, I just thought that it would be good for you. It would also be beneficial in case you did or ever do decide to leave and get a job though not sure how you’d do that now since the government wouldn’t assign you one.” I gave him a blank stare. “So I’ve been doing busy work.” Liam placed his hands on either side of me, leaning closer in the process.

“No, not at all. You’re getting your chip removed tomorrow so after that if you don’t want to continue working out then you don’t have to, but that thing tracks everything including how many hours a day you work out. So I had to make you do some sort of exercise so no one got suspicious.” I couldn’t help but slightly smile though I still was annoyed. “That doesn’t answer why you made me type essays, read a book, and take tests.” He smirked and pet my head. “Yeah, it was mostly in the case of if you did want to leave, but I figured you wouldn’t. Honestly, I just tutored you as an excuse to spend time with you.”

I turned my head when I felt my cheeks becoming red. “Liam,” I said in nearly a whisper. He tilted my head back towards him and managed to move closer to me. God, it was getting harder to ignore how sweet he smelled. “Yes?” I felt as though he was doing it on purpose but perhaps he wasn’t aware that he was making it stronger.

Oftentimes, hybrids’ scents only became potent when they were trying to seduce another. Since he was only half hybrid he may have done it on accident. Nonetheless, I felt my body become warmer and my eyes landed on his bright pink lips. “I wanted to ask if ma...maybe we could go on a picnic date today? I don’t have much experience when it comes to romance but you’re the first person I’ve liked so I was thinking maybe we could go by the lake later to eat lunch since it’s still noon.”

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