Chaz was a pretty nerdy guy. Skinny, 5'6 with glasses and still having problems with acne at the tender age of 23. He was frustrated throughout his life with the way his genealogy betrayed him and others. He had seen many attempts at gene editing in the past but most of them were either unsuccessful on humans or just outright dangerous, but Chaz had finally made a break through. He threw off his worn and scratched up prescription goggles and ran upstairs out of the dark of the basement, right into the bright sunlight which pierced through the bay windows of the kitchen. "Ive done it!" He pronounced his chest as puffed as a skinny dork's could be. But all Chaz could hear was sobbing. At the kitchen table was a lump of a woman, hunched over in an old wooden chair. "Mara? Honey?What's wrong?" Chaz cooed.
"I just-" Mara began but her voice was cut short by the shotgun of snot which hit the back of her throat. "No matter what I try! I just can't lose this weight! Im so ugly!"
Chaz's heart sunk. He'd been so focused on fixing his own body, he had completely forgotten his girlfriend's battle. She was an incredible person but to be honest she wasn't very attractive physically. She was shaped like a ball almost and with no breasts or ass to really hone onto. Although she had been trying for months to work out and eat healthy, nothing seemed to budge. Chaz knew this must be a genetic deficiency of some sort because anyone else would have shaped up in no time with all the effort she put into it. Even with her asthma she would try her best to run every day. Her hair was oily, her skin dry, her face also acne ridden and honestly a little manly. Thin lips, small eyes, Chaz could never admit it out loud but he hadn't dated her for her looks. She did have a really beautiful voice when she sang though. "Sweety..." Chaz tried to console her "Im sure somethings got to give soon" he knew what he had to do, but he couldn't tell her. "Im sure all you need to do is..." He was bound by law, if he told anyone but his colleagues or superiors about what his research entailed, then he'd lose funding, and his scholarship. "Give yourself a break! You've been trying so hard, you just need to give your body some rest! And don't say you're ugly, you know that's not true!"
"Give my body a rest? Don't you think I look enough like a couch potato already!?" She paused. "Im sorry its just... frustrating."
"I know baby." Chaz pulled a couple of pills from his pocket when she wasn't looking "But really you've been at it constantly, trust me... I am a biologist of sorts afterall." He popped the pills open and poured their contents into a store-bought protein shake and shook it up. "Here, drink this."
"I'm not really feeling that hungry or thirsty, I mean that's the reason I'm in this mess isn't it?" She looked like she was about to bawl again.
"Babe, drink this, it will ease your stomach, besides I'm sure you've burned enough calories crying." He smiled hoping the joke would work.
"Okay... well thanks sweetie."
"Of course. Now drink up and I'll start a bath for you." Chaz patted her shoulder and kissed her softly before exiting the kitchen and making his way to the bathroom down the hall. Okay step one complete. The pills are simply an activating agent that would allow her body to be susceptible to genetic alteration, basically making her cells more accepting of new DNA and RNA sequences. Step two was to gather some genetic material which should be easy because although she was only 21 years old, Mara had thin hair as she tended to shed a lot. Chaz took some strands from the bunched up mess of furry tangles on Mara's brush and placed them in a small vile which he slipped back in his lab coat. He turned on the water for the bath and even put in a solution to make sure that there were bubbles available.
Not long after, Mara came into the bathroom with her puffy dark brown eyes and smiled at Chaz. She hugged him and at only 4'10 she just came up to just above his chest. Her greasy black hair was in a mess but he ran his fingers through her hair, kissed her and then shut the door as he left back into the hallway. Okay now step three, we begin the resequencing. He headed back downstairs and placed the vial of her hair into his genetic sequencing machine where he got to work. After a short break to eat dinner and many hours of intensive labor, he had finally finished her new code and placed it into several different viles which he marked with the different days of the week. Today was Sunday so he immediately put the blueish solution for today into a syringe and headed back upstairs.
It was 2:00 a.m., Mara generally fell asleep pretty easily and Chaz could tell that she was asleep since the walls were rattling with the sound of blissfully ignorant snoring. It also helps that the the prepping agents that he had given her in her drink generally made people drowsy. As he approached their bedroom he began to contemplate whether or what he was doing was right or not but in the end he couldn't help but feel as though he had to do it. He loved Mara dearly and wanted her to be successful and to be happy with who she is but at the same time he would be lying if he said that he wanted her to stay the way she was. Although he enjoyed the sex he always imagined more attractive women when having it with her and that was kind of fucked up. Besides, he loves the mind and the soul inside right? What's a little bit of a boost especially if it benefits her in the end? He approached Mara's side of the bed where she was flat on her back with one arm hanging off the side. He pulled out what looked like an alcohol pad from his pocket and tore open it's small package. It was infact a numbing pad that he applied to her arm. After giving it a moment to set he checked the syringe to assure that there were no air bubbles and immediately injected the solution into Mara. She turned a little bit almost appearing disturbed in her sleep but quickly settled down and went back to snoring. Chaz pulled out his notebook and jot down a few notes before placing it in his overcoat which he tossed on a coat rack and collapsed into bed, knowing it would be an early morning tomorrow.