Where the Lines Overlap Ch. 06

"You really are the best boyfriend ever," he smiled.

"Of course I am," I replied smugly, turning from the car.

"Not humble though." I heard Taron shout, but I simply smiled and walked on into the workshop.

Stepping through the door, I was immediately met by a man who looked to be in his late forties. Although bald, he had a full beard that extended down the side of his face which encased his jaw. He stood a head shorter than me but he exuded authority and he was no doubt the person in charge of this workshop. He eyed me with dark brown eyes, smiling at me with thin lips. "Hi sir, how can I help you?" he said in his baritone voice. "I must say, we don't usually have elites visiting this sector."

I smiled at him. Even out here, I'm getting mistaken for an elite. "I'm not an elite."

"Oh? I just assumed when I saw you getting out of that hovercar," he said, surprise written on his face.

"Oh that's—" I stopped, wondering if I should say that the elite was my boyfriend, but then I remembered that I was going to try and stop second guessing our interclass status. "That's my boyfriend's car. He's the elite," I finished.

"You're boyfriend is an elite? I never knew that that interclass initiative took off," He said, more to himself than to me.

"Is there a problem with that, sir?" I asked, hoping that he didn't. I mean, this guy was probably going to be my boss, and getting off on the wrong foot wouldn't exactly make my life here any easier.

"What? Sorry, no problem. A surprise is all. So, I'm assuming you're my new mechanic?" He asked, to which I nodded in response. "Well, we weren't expecting you for at least another hour, but you're lucky we aren't very busy today. Follow me."

I watched as he turned on his heels, heading towards the back of the workshop. I followed as instructed, looking around the place as I walked. If I thought the outside looked like the workshops in the city centre, the insides were similar if not better than those in the small city workshops. It seemed ironic to me, expecting the city centre to have the best of everything. "This place is more well equipped than I imagined," I muttered.

"Strange, isn't it? You would think that the city centre would have it all, but I guess they distribute resources based on where it's needed most and believe me, our workshop sees way more work than any city workshop I can tell you that," he beamed, obviously proud of that fact.

"Makes sense. By the way, I didn't catch your name just now," I asked, unsure of how I was to address him.

"James, but everyone calls me Jay. What about you?" he asked.

"Kevin, but everyone calls me Kev," I replied, mimicking Jay's own words.

"Hmm, a tinge of sass. You'll fit in fine here kid," he chuckled before turning and shouting out, "Hank!" The volume of his voice startled me, not expecting his sudden outburst.

"Yeah?" I heard the voice come from further back in the shop.

"You're new mechanic is here," Jay said, turning to me. "Hank is second in command in my shop, should you need anything, feel free to approach either one of us."

Before I could even acknowledge him, Hank, as I could only assume, walked up to us, wiping his hands on a dirty rag. His dark blue overalls were unzipped and hung from his waist, exposing his well muscled upper body covered underneath his dirty wife beater. He was devilishly handsome for a natal, even with the dirt stains across his cheek. Short brown hair covered the top of his head, unruly and yet still looking presentable. Judging by his face, he was probably only a few years older than I was. "So, where's the fresh meat?" He asked, shooting me a haughty smile, showing off his perfect white teeth. Stopping a few feet from me, I noticed he wasn't exactly my height but he was as close to elite stature as I was.

"This is Kevin. He'll be with us from now and I want you to show him the ins and outs of the workshop. Make sure he knows the ground rules," Jay said to his right hand man. Hank turned his attention to me, giving me a once over.

"Will do boss, I've had to work with worse before," he said, smirking at me. I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he was implying with his comment.

"I'll leave you two to it then," Jay said, leaving us alone.

"So Kevin—"

"Kev. It's just Kev," I interrupted.

"Well 'just Kev', looks like I'm in charge of you now," he said, plastering a cocky smile on his face. I'm not gonna lie, the arrogant attitude was a little off putting but I figured I was just going to fight fire with fire.

"Oh joy," I said, making sure sarcasm oozed from my words.

"Oh the wittle boy wants to play the sarcasm card?" He cooed, as if talking to a child.

"Sarcasm? From me? I would never," I replied, further caking on the sarcasm. At this, Hank stared at me hard. Thinking he was just trying to intimidate me or something, I returned a glare of my own.

I think we stared at each other for close to a minute before his glare softened. A smile, a genuine and not a cocky one, graced his lips. "Oh you will definitely have no problems around here," he laughed, slapping me on the shoulder.

"What?" I asked, unsure what happened to the Hank I was just talking to. For a moment, I wondered if he could be bipolar or maybe suffering from some sort of split personality disorder, because the complete attitude one eighty was beyond strange.

"You just passed test one," he said.

"Test one? What are you talking about?"

"In order to survive in this workshop, you'll need to be able to hold your own. You just passed test one, meaning that we don't have to teach you how to be a sarcastic prick. You're already one," he said.

"Gee, thanks," I replied, again with another sarcastic remark.

"See what I mean?"

"So you're not an arrogant douchebag or do I have to consider killing myself."

"Arrogant, not so much, but I've been known to be a little annoying at times."

"I'm starting to see that."

"Watch it kid, or I'll go Kung fu on your ass," he said, jumping back and chopping the air with his hand a few times.

"Wow, you really taught the air a real lesson there."

"Hmm, I like you. I swear some of the people who come here are complete sticks in the mud," he said, patting me on the back. "So Mr sarcastic, where art thou from?"

"Sector 5."

"C'mon man, I'm serious," he laughed, actually thinking that I was joking. When I didn't say anything, it finally dawned on him that I was indeed telling the truth. "Shit dude, why'd they post you here?"

"I was wondering about that myself."

"Whoa, sector 5. City boy huh? How did you get here so fast then?" he asked, confusion on his face. Unlike Jay, Hank didn't see me arriving in the hovercar, so naturally he would wonder how I, a natal, travelled halfway across the moon in such a short time.

"Got a lift."

"Elite friend?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Figures someone like you would have elite friends. I almost mistook you for an elite when I first saw you just now."

"Speak for yourself," I retorted. "You don't exactly look the typical natal either, you know."

"Whoa dude, I know I'm hot and all but..." he said, putting up his left hand, showing me the back of it. I raised an eyebrow at him, unsure what he meant by the action. "Well, this would make a lot more sense if you could see the band of metal here," he said, motioning around his ring finger with his right hand. I immediately got his message and slightly shocked that he had thought that I was hitting on him.

"You're not hot enough for me to hit on you man. Besides, my boyfriend has you beat hands down."

"I KNEW IT!" He exclaimed making me raise an eyebrow at his outburst, completely weirded out by his spontaneous and frequent outbursts and personality quirks. I made a mental note to myself to stay clear on Hank on my 'need peace and quiet' days. Taking a look at my puzzled yet weirded out expression, he took the hint to explain himself. "Okay hear me out, I have a theory."

"A theory?" I deadpanned.

"That all gay people are ridiculously hot, for natals at least." I had to raise my eyebrow at that. I mean I wouldn't say that I knew a lot of gay people, only five to be exact, and sure enough all of them were on the attractive side, but to have a theory that a person's attractiveness is dependent on one's sexuality was just ridiculous to me.

"Isn't that stereotyping?" I countered.

"It depends on how you look at it. I only know of three gay people and all of them have so far been relatively hot. My theory stands until I find a gay natal who doesn't meet those standard attractive requirements."

"Good luck with that, I'm just saying that if you want to come up with a theory like that, you'll need a bigger sample size than a measly three, one of which I'm assuming is me," I said, trying to poke loopholes into his very flawed theory.

"Oh, I didn't know we had a science nerd here," he countered, obviously not wanting to lose without a fight.

"Not me, but my brother. Hang around him long enough and these things tend to stick."

"Well whatever the case, I'll still hang on to my theory, at least until it has been disproved. That being said, there are not many gay people in sector 76, so I'm not really sure how long that would take," he said, thoughtfully stroking his chin before shaking himself out of his reverie. "But I digress. You're here to learn about the workshop, not about my wacky theories."

I shook my head, chuckling as Hank turned and motioned for me to follow. Hank was a personality, that much was certain, but I don't know, he seemed like someone I could become very close to.

For the rest of the morning, Hank literally showed me around the workshop, which I had to admit, was a lot bigger than it looked like from the outside. There wasn't a single corner of the place that didn't have some vehicle undergoing repairs, which also told me just how busy a place like this could have been. Furthermore, Hank made sure I understood that it was considered a slow day for them, repeating it on more than a few occasions. Whether he was exaggerating or not, I couldn't tell but I knew I would only find out after I have worked there for a while longer.

By lunch, I had basically met everyone in the workshop. Luckily, most other people who worked there didn't have the same big personality that Hank had, basically falling more in the 'normal' range. Some of them even seemed to roll their eyes at Hank's bad jokes or lame attempts at being funny, and I could definitely relate to that.

Sitting down in the lounge with Hank, we had a quiet lunch, accompanied by another two coworkers whose names escaped me. Hey, don't judge me, there are a lot of people in the workshop and remembering all of their names is a feat in itself. "So, seeing that you're from sector 5, you know what that means right?" Hank asked, stuffing his face with a sandwich that was almost as big as his head.

"That I'll be relocated?"

"Yeah. It can be pretty tough, literally dropping everything and moving. Phil here knows all about that, don't you Phil," Hank said, turning his attention to one of the, no longer, unnamed men seated diagonally from me.

"Shut up," Phil replied, going a slight shade of pink.

"Phil went into a depressive funk when he got transferred from sector 57," The other unnamed guy whispered from my right.

"Depressive funk is an understatement," Hank boomed, on the brink of bursting out laughing. "Sector 57 is only an hour away and he went all emo on us. I hope you're not gonna be like that."

"I can't promise that," I replied. Although it may have seemed they were joking that the expense of poor Phil, I could tell that it was all in good fun. In fact, it was just their way of offering their help, in their strange male bravado kind of way. I knew that if there was any depressing feelings that were going to form from the relocation, I could go to them for help. Sure they may poke fun at me for it and whatever, but deep down I could tell that the people in this workshop looked out for one another,

"Hank!" I heard the voice of Jay call out from the workshop.

"Yeah boss?" Hank returned, shouting at an equally loud volume, his voice echoing in the small backroom we were having lunch in. A second later, Jay popped his head into the space.

"The living arrangements are prepared for Kev, brief him through it after lunch, yeah? Building R87." He said, leaving without waiting for a reply from Hank.

"Sure thing," Hank replied, turning to face me. "Seems like we're going house hunting...well, except the hunting part."

"They've already settled my living arrangements? I would have thought it would take at least another day before anything was finalized."

"Normally that would have been the case, but seeing that you're being relocated from such a far sector, my guess is they decided to expedite your transfer."

"Oh," I said, unable to hide the slight dejection from my voice. Sure, I knew that I would eventually be moving, but everything seemed to be moving so fast, I felt like i could hardly keep up. Apparently, my change in tone was not lost on the guys either.

"Oh cheer up, it's not that bad," Phil said, which got him a raised eyebrow from Hank. "Sorry, I'm not the best person to be saying that."

Shaking his head, Hank turned back to me. "But he's right though. Besides, you'll never guess who you have as a neighbor." By the way he said it and the subsequent smug look on his face, I could already guess who it was. "Yep. Hi, neighbor."

"Oh joy," I deadpanned, which made the others at the table laugh.

By the time lunch ended, I was getting ready to head out of the workshop and to see my new house. The thought did bring on a bout of sadness, knowing that it was indeed happening. I would be moving halfway across the moon and with it, away from my family, friends and my very new, very fragile relationship with Taron. I pushed the feeling aside though, knowing that this was life and it had to happen whether I wanted it to or not. The best thing to do was to keep my head held high and hope for the best. It was the only thing I could do.

So there I was, sitting in a tram with Hank in the seat in front of me. "I guess I should thank you," he said, not even turning to face me.

"And why is that?"

"If not for you, I wouldn't be able to get off work early today," he said, adding dramatic effect by crumbling back into his seat and letting out a long contented sigh.

"Hmm, I could've have sworn you love your work, what with the way you couldn't seem to stop talking in the workshop this morning," I jabbed.

"No need to get smart with me kid," he said, throwing back a glare at me. "Yes, I love what I do, but I love not doing it even more. I'm only human after all."

"Could have fooled me. I thought you were an alien."

"You know, I think I'm starting to regret having you as my neighbor," he said, turning in his seat to face me with an annoyed look on his face. I just laughed in reply.

I don't know why I was being so snarky, but I did feel a sense of nostalgia wash over me, arguing with Hank like that. Probably because it reminded me so much of how Taron and I used to throw insults at each other. It reminded me of a simpler time, before my life was apparently thrown for a crazy ride.

"We're here," Hank said, getting up from his seat and exiting the tram.

I followed him, taking a look around as we exited. Much like sector 5, the area house mostly residential buildings, with row after row of boring looking houses. I would say though that the houses here were a fraction bigger than the city counterparts I lived in. "They're larger than I expected," I voiced, hoping that Hank could offer an explanation as to why.

"More space and lesser people equals larger houses," he said simply and he walked down the street. We walked for about five minutes, weaving in and out of alleys and side streets, making me lose my sense of direction by the fourth corner we turned.

"This seems like a confusing road to take," I voiced, which Hank chuckled at.

"It's a shortcut. You could follow the main street, but that would make a huge circle from the tram station. Don't worry, you'll get it in time."

"How much further anyway?"

"Patience is a virtue my friend," he said, before coming to an abrupt halt. "But, we're here."

I looked to my left and took in the familiar look of the house standing there. Engraved onto the wall beside the door was R87 and I knew that this was my new home. It did give me some comfort knowing that residential houses looked mostly identical, meaning that it shouldn't have felt much different from home back in sector 5.

"Go on," Hank said, ushering me towards the door. "Test your BIC to make sure it works."

I stepped up to the slab of frosted glass that was the front door, waving my BIC across the front, seeing the door slide aside. Knowing it worked only further reinforced the realization that this was happening. I stepped inside, looking around the eerily familiar abode. Everything looked the same, from the furniture to the position of the lights on the wall. It should have been a source of comfort, seeing the familiar but it felt anything but. This place didn't have the same warmth that I was accustomed to in my home.

"It takes some getting used to, thats for sure," Hanks said, his voice startling me. "It may look the same, but it doesn't feel the same, does it?" I shook my head, couldn't have agreed more with him. "Yeah, but eventually you learn to love it, especially when you find someone to share it with."

"No truer words have been spoken," said a voice that I didn't recognize. I turned around at the new baritone, seeing the source standing by my front door. "Are you the new neighbor?" he asked, nodding his head to me. He stood around 5'10", had dirty blonde hair that was neatly cropped, a beard coming down around his jaw. Again, a pretty good looking natal.

"Kev, this is Max. Max, Kevin," Hank introduced. I did the polite thing and stepped up to him, extending my hand, which he shook with a firm grip.

"So, you're my neighbor?" I asked.

"Yep, the house next door," he said, motioning in the general direction to the left. I nodded my understanding before turning to Hank.

"What about you? Which house do you live in?" I asked.

"The one next door," he replied, waving in the same direction that Max just did seconds ago.

"But he lives there," I said pointing to Max, slightly confused. Hank simply replied with a smirk, before walking up to Max and completely shocking me by planting a soft kiss on his lips.

"Hey babe," he said, smiling softly to the man still calmly leaning against my door frame.

"Wait wait, hold up. What's happening here?" I asked, completely and utterly bewildered.

"Really Kev, it's not that hard to understand," Hank said, weaving his arm around Max's waist. "After all, I did say that I knew of three different gay guys."

"So hold on. You," I said, pointing to Hank. "And you," now pointing to Max. "Are boyfriends?"

Hank rolled his eyes at my question. "Seems like you weren't listening to a word I was saying earlier today." At that, he raised his left hand and motioned around his ring finger once again.

Realization dawned on me at that point. "Oh, you're husbands."

"Thank you captain clueless."

"Shut up," I shot back. "So, your theory about gay guys—" I started but was abruptly interrupted by Max.

"Not you're theory again?" Max whined, turning to face his husband.

"Yes, my theory again and now I have another point of reference to add to the equation," Hank said, pointing to me. Max turned to me, surprise written on his face.

"You're gay too?" Max asked, to which I nodded. "Yes, threesome time!"

My eyes doubled in size, "Whoa whoa, slow down there tiger. There are no threesomes anywhere in the near future."