Jeff set the box on the kitchen table. Even with his big jock body, he felt like a little boy in that moment. He trembled.
“This is crazy,” Scotty realized after yesterday, his words could have been chosen more carefully. He took Jeff’s hands, then noticed his boyfriend was shaking. He looked at Jeff with sincerity. “I didn’t mean you. I’m sorry, I just meant all this TransDem stuff is kinda freaky, that’s all I mean.”
Jeff hugged him, trying to warm himself up against his boyfriend’s hot body. Scotty just held him quietly. Their muscles felt good against one another. Then Scott whispered in his ear, his voice a tender contrast, “I love you. No matter what happens. Nothing will ever change that, Jeffy.” He took him gently at arm’s length, looking at him with conviction. “Nothing.”
“I know,” Jeff said, his dark handsome face softening at his boyfriend’s words. “I feel the same.”
Scotty rubbed Jeffy’s hairy pecs, smiling at him. “Besides, where would I ever find another guy as hot as you?”
Jeff flexed one pec, then the other, showing off. Then he grinned at his boyfriend. “True.”
“Dick,” Scotty growled, but couldn’t keep a straight face and they both laughed. He ruffled Jeffy’s long black hair.
Jeff's low gigle faded as his eyes caught on the box sitting on the table.
“May as well open it,” Scott slid it over to him.
Jeff took a knife from the knife block on the counter. “Yeah. Still, pretty strange how they knew about the two of us.
“Yeah,” Scotty said with concern on his face; how did they know Jeff would be here? Was he being punked? he wondered to himself. But something told him if so, it was one of their friends. Jeffy had nothing to do with it - he was too deeply effected by all of this. “Hopefully there’ll be some answers in the box.”
Jeff slid the knife along the top, opening the flaps. He pulled out an inner box donning the silver TransDem logo. He set the box down, opening an envelope taped to it, unfolding a letter. “Dear Mr. Malik, please find enclosed two of our latest state-of-the-art emitter bands for you and your partner, Mr. Hanson.”
They muscle jocks exchanged puzzled looks, but Scotty was growing more convinced a friend was punking them. Still, Scotty couldn’t wait, and with a nod of approval from Jeffy, started to open the inner box.
Jeff recalled the concerns Scotty voiced yesterday about the power of the Chronivac and its makers, and now he was wondering who these seemingly all-knowing people were himself. He continued reading.
“We wish to convey our sincere apologies for the defective unit we sent you, and assure you these new wrist units have been thoroughly tested by quality control.”
Scott set what looked like two black watches on the table. “No cables or instructions,” He shook the empty box for emphasis.
“Huh, must be wireless,” Jeff stood closer to Scotty, rubbing his hand down his boyfriend’s back. The closer proximity made Jeff feel safer after the cold feeling they’d both gotten. He resumed, “The software is in the units now. Settings are accessed via ocular display beamed directly into the user’s mind, and appears unobtrusively in the field of vision.”
Definitely a prank, Scotty thought to himself, but didn't want to upset his boyfriend so remained silent. He turned one of the black ‘watches’ over in his hand - very convincing looking, but surely just a smart watch of some kind, nonetheless. He started to feel anger welling up that a so-called friend would go this far to prank them - they must have done something to convince Jeffy of all of this too - maybe drugged him or something?
Jeffy put an arm around him, and kissed him on the cheek affectionately, interrupting Scotty's thoughts. “You okay, babe?”
“Yeah,” Scotty snuggled against him this time, shaking his anger off. “I'm fine, sweety. Just flashed back to our conversation about all of this yesterday, that's all.”
“Hey, it’s okay baby,” Jeffy reassured him softly, hugging him closer with his arm. He knew Scotty still couldn’t believe the Chronivac was real despite being spooked, but he just wanted to comfort his boyfriend. “I don’t care about all of this so much now – if it turns out someone is trying to mess with us, we’ll figure it out. The most important thing is, we’re together – and whatever the future brings, we’ll face it together.”
“Okay,” Scotty said with some relief. Their lips met, lingering, feeling one another’s warm breath. His voice was nearly a whisper. “I love you so much.”
“Love you more,” Jeffy said with a wide grin. He looked in Scotty’s sparkly eyes with good humor, and when Scotty grinned back and nodded to the letter, Jeff continued. “We understand you have concerns. You will find the ocular displays to be completely safe. As for the rest of your questions, we are including the master help and background files which explain our company and exactly how our systems work in lay terms, and that also outline the very extensive and elaborate safeguard systems that prevent anyone from truly harming themselves or anyone else, despite appearance.”
Scotty set the unit back on the table and massaged his boyfriend's shoulders, looking over them to the letter as Jeff finished, “It is our hope that you will enjoy our technology and use it to the benefit of yourselves and others. Sincerely, the TransDem Labs team.”
At least he seems much more relaxed with it all, Scotty thought, hoping Jeff would just accept it’s not real, they could find whoever was goofing on them, then that would be the end of it. As long as they were together, that was all that really mattered to him.
“P.S.,” Jeff read, “In order to calibrate properly, the new units will reset any changes from the previous unit to your original pre-Chronivac state once you put them on. Any changes that are undone will be put in a special buffer and the unit can walk you through how to reapply the desired changes safely.”
Jeff tensed after reading that.
"You okay, sweety?" Scotty noticed Jeff tense up.
"Yeah," Jeff said, thinking. If he put the unit on, he would revert from an 18-year-old hairy brawny muscle jock back into his scrawny, short 16-year-old self. He would be attracted to girls again, and knowing now how powerful the Chronivac was, he wasn’t certain how he would feel about Scotty…. Or how Scotty would feel about him upon seeing his true self.
Scotty was eager to get this over with so they could get back to real life. He put one of the units on, handing the other one to Jeff.
Hesitant, Jeff just stood holding the letter, wondering what to do. He looked at Scotty, who was watching at him questioningly.
Jeff got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
He reached out to take the Chronivac wrist unit.