Unexpected Fate

Chapter 3

Kao tries to keep their contact to a minimum outside of sex, but even when they meet with that one shared goal in mind, Kao and UP end up learning new things about each other each time―whether it's about Kao's poor sleeping habits, UP's ability to sing and play the piano which he refuses to let Kao bear witness to, Kao's affinity for animated movies and guilty pleasure webtoons, UP's tendency to volunteer at animal shelters, or any other little detail about their lives that they happen to reveal, intentionally or not.

The more Kao sees the more he finds to like about UP. He wonders if the reverse is true, too.

"Have you ever thought about getting tattoos?" UP asks one day as they bask in the afterglow, fingertips absently dancing along Kao's arm.

"Hm?" Kao hums, blinking his eyes open and pretending he wasn't just about to doze off instead of sending UP home. He'd probably be gone when he woke up, anyway. "Yeah, sure. Never went through with it though. Obviously."

"I see that," UP says. "It's not too late though." Kao turns to him, raising an eyebrow. "What? You'd look sexy with a sleeve, just saying."

Kao laughs. "I don't know about a whole sleeve, but... hm. Maybe something, someday."

"Like what?"

"You're gonna laugh."

"Probably."

Kao chuckles. "I dunno... Maybe something from a Ghibli movie." He side-eyes UP to check his reaction, but he only hums to encourage more. "Or an animal. Like a jellyfish or something. Maybe it'll help me be reborn as one."

"You want to be reborn as a jellyfish?" UP asks, sounding genuinely curious.

"Yeah. I wanna rest. Let the sea carry me."

"Mm, that sounds nice. What kind would you want to be?"

Kao shifts, humming in thought. "Well, they don't live very long, so I'd have to choose carefully. Maybe a black sea nettle; those are beautiful," he muses. "Flower hat jellies are really pretty, but they only live, like, six months. Moon jelly? Those live longer. There's always the immortal jellyfish, but I don't know if I'd want to be a jellyfish forever, you know?"

He turns to UP for his input, met with the sight of him smiling at Kao with mirth in his eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing," UP snaps, unsuccessfully trying to wipe the smile off his face. "Are immortal jellyfish really immortal?"

"Well, when it's faced with death, it regresses in its developmental cycle, turning into a polyp which will then mature into a genetically identical adult," Kao explains. "They're like―if a butterfly were to turn back into a caterpillar when it got injured and restart their life from there."

"Yeah, being immortal sounds kind of miserable," UP contemplates.

"I guess if it got tired of living it could just feed itself to a sea slug," Kao says. "There's no coming back from that."

Kao doesn't know how long they lie there talking about jellyfish of all things, and while he's thrilled to have someone (in addition to Lily) willing to listen to his info dumping from all the knowledge he's accumulated from National Geographic and such, he feels a little sheepish to be blabbering on so much. UP seems plenty interested, at least, asking questions and enabling Kao to keep going, but still.

"What about you?" Kao asks. "What would you be reborn as?"

He fully expects it when UP easily says, "A cat."

"Shocker."

"No, but think about it," UP says. "You lie around and sleep all day. People feed you and hold you and pet you."