my beta boy | ✎

Nursery

The meeting with the Delta unnerved Sistine. She found herself less willing to wander outdoors because it reminded her of how they are essentially the prisoners of Martriach Manor, after all, what establishment needs guards to secure the perimeter if not to keep them in?

But the chance encounter snapped Sistine out of her daze. She would not resign herself to a life that she disagrees with. It was a hard truth, one that she didn't feel quite comfortable examining. After all, it was less than a year ago that she held very different views regarding the matter.

Instead of wandering outdoors, Sistine decided to explore the grounds. More specifically, to try and locate the nursery based on the information that Z10 gave her. Drawn to the South Tower, she waited until after lunch, when most of the girls had gone off to their chosen activities, before making her attempt.

She stole out of the kitchens and glanced into each open door, feigning interest. But her feet took her past the activity rooms, the theater, the wards, all the way until the end of the hall where a set of tall double doors separated the manor into two sections. Sistine put a hand on the wooden panel, marveling at the intricate wood grain and drinking in its oaken smell before ever so lightly, applying pressure onto it.

The door opened without so much as a creak.

Sistine straightened up and looked through the crack. The hallway was almost identical to the one that she was standing in and equally deserted. She took a deep breath and pushed her way through.

Sunlight filtered through the large panel windows and Sistine realized that the corridor must have once been exposed. The brick arches and lowered ceiling betrayed the hallway's origins.

She crept down the hall, pausing every so often to check whether there was anyone around but the gnawing feeling of being watched amounted to nothing and she found herself standing in a circular foyer with a steep steel staircase. There was an elevator right beside the stairwell, encased in glass and looking far too fragile for Sistine's comfort. She decided to take the stairs instead and was quickly winded. There hardly seemed to be any room for a breather as there were no platforms for rest, just a string of steps waiting for her to climb. No end in sight, Sistine focused on each step before her, willing herself forward as though her life depended on it.

When she finally reached the top, she was greeted by a tiny room. Sistine sagged against the nearest window, her fingers curling around a bar as she heaved for breath. She had never felt more out of shape. She would have thought that years of dancing and exercise would make her more fit than any of the other ladies at Martriach Manorr... though there was no reason for anyone else to come up to the room she had forced herself into.

She pulled herself up towards the window and glanced down, realizing with a start just how high up she was. A scoff erupted out of her. How stupid was she to imagine that the Nursery might be at the very top of the tower? And now... she would have to take the torturous descent. It felt far too long and all she wanted was to sink to the floor and be teleported back to the start.

Giving in to the urge, she loosened her grip on the window and settled down, leaning her head against the time-worn stones.

Closing her eyes, she could almost hear her own giggling back when she was happier.

"When do you think they would realize the switcheroo?" Sistine asked, laughing still.

B73 snaked a hand around her waist and pulled her close to him, "Hopefully when it is too late," then, he kissed her. Deeply and passionately, with a playful fire. Sistine returned his fervor with her own, the familiar burning need snaking up her stomach, promoting her to card her fingers through his soft curls.

"How long till someone notices what we've been doing?" she asked gleefully between kisses while pulling B73 into a vacant room.

"Let's hope they never do," he murmured, shutting the door behind him and pulling off his shirt and crawling up the bed where Sistine lay panting in anticipation.

In the throes of their passion, they had forgotten the two strangers that they had not too long ago strung along and misled. B73 had told the girl, a Beta like him, that he wanted to blindfold her, while Sistine's conquest was under the guise that she preferred the lights out. But the lights were on now and they drunk in each other's presence as if they would never see each other again. Their gazes filled with an intensity and eyes only for one another.

When they had their fill of each other, the two lay listening to the soft sounds of moaning and squeaking beds, though their thoughts led them back to the one right beside them.

"I've been thinking," B73 breathed, "what if we stopped doing what we've been doing and find someplace for us? Just us."

Sistine quivered, loving the way he talked about them as if she were the most important thing to him. She flipped over on her belly to get a better look at him, "Someplace you have in mind?"

Grinning back at her, B73 had an answer ready, "That little shack Aem brought us to, when we were looking for the Pleasure House up on the hill."

"I love our little games," Sisitne pouted, though B73 could tell she didn't truly mean it by the way she played with his fingers, "and we can't possibly stop now. What if people notice that–"

"We aren't going to stop mingling and socializing and everything we've been doing but we don't have to wait till we manage to get into the same galas to spend time together... we could sneak off every now and then, even when there are no Events to attend."

Lips curling, Sistine leaned forward to give him a light kiss, "I should love that," she said, but what she really wanted to say was, "I love you."

Taking a deep breath, Sistine braced herself before pulling herself upwards, regretting that she didn't tell him how much he meant to her more than she should have. Glancing down at the stretch of stairs below her, she began her descent, one painfully slow step at a time. It didn't help that her belly obscured part of her line of sight and she had to rely on her feet more than her eyesight.

When she finally made it to the foot of the stairs, she wasn't as winded as she had been at the top, but it had taken something out of her and she had half a mind to abandon her mission when she heard a mewling cry. Strangely foreign but it was a welcomed sound.

Turning her head to hear better, she followed the noise to a door. Creaking it open, her heart sank when she saw more stairs, but at the top of them was an illuminated door. Inching up the steps, she peeked in and found it abandoned. Thrilled at her luck, Sistine pulled the door open and wandered down rows and rows of tiny cots, each holding the most precious resource of Society.