The Day Before We Met

What Do You Look Like?

"Keenan and Zander are sweeping the whole building. I'll be patrolling around the bus while you stay with her and make sure she'll be ready in a half hour." Ajax left before I could ask to switch roles. Why do I keep getting paired with her? Would I ever be honest with him and tell him why I want to change jobs? No, I barely fully open up to Keenan.

"So you got to have your gear off some last night?" Hannah started a conversation as soon as she walked to the front of the bus where I was.

"Keenan made me because I had to shower." I didn't want to take my gear off. I hate taking it off when we aren't on base and I've made that clear to everyone.

"Well, I'm glad you were able to have some time without it on. I'm sure the shower was nice." Hannah stayed positive despite my blunt response. "How do you eat?"

"Our bodies have been modified so we only need to eat a lot of food once every three weeks. My body will store food until it gets more, and if needed my suit injects vitamins, electrolytes, and other supplements." I shrugged. "Keenan refilled the supplements last night while I was out of it."

"What about water? Don't you get dehydrated?" Hannah grabbed an apple and leaned against the mini kitchen counter.

"Similar to food, our bodies can store water for several weeks at a time. They looked to camels and cactuses to see how they worked before doing it to us." She had decent questions that I had never been asked, so I had no problem answering them. I honestly enjoyed explaining it when it's a genuine question.

"Oh, I thought about this last night. How do you guys go to the bathroom?" Hannah got excited when she remembered her question and I smiled to myself.

"We can go up to two days without going, but our armor plates come off in pieces, so we just remove what we need to and it can go right back on." I watched her mindlessly look around.

"One day I'm going to sit you four down and ask every question I have on it, because I'm too curious." Hannah giggled at her own curiosity before hitting me with one more question. "What do you look like?"

"A multicellular organism."

Hannah squinted her eyes at me. "I'll see you one day. You'll come around. I wouldn't sneak a peak without your permission. That would be wrong of me, and I don't need to. You'll at least take your helmet off at some point."

A small smile appeared on my lips and I couldn't help but admire her determination.

"At least tell me your eye color." Hannah gave me a look. One that said 'I'm being reasonable' and I sighed.

"They're gray. They were blue and green when I was younger, but after all of the modifications they became gray." I gave in a little. Her knowing the color of my eyes isn't a big deal.

Hannah's lips curved up into a smile. "See? I got you to give in some."

"That's all I'll say." I leaned back against the back of the couch and watched her search the cabinets for food.

"Why don't we ever have food?" Hannah loudly whined.

"I'll make someone get you food some time this week." I chuckled as she checked the empty bags beside the counter.

"I just want snacks to hold me over till we get inside and they have actual breakfast." She huffed and sat down in the chair across from the couch.

"You grumpy when there's no food?" I lightly laughed as she crossed her arms.

"I'm not grumpy. I'm just hungry." She clarified and squinted her eyes at me.

"Mhm, if you say so." I rolled my eyes and shot up from the couch when the door abruptly opened.