40. Terms And Conditions

Slumping on the bed, Yeon remembered the last time he had been here. Stan had bitten his neck and warned him not to see Elric again...and then he remembered other things that made him get flustered, bringing him to sit upright in an instant.

"What?" Stan asked, turning the key to lock the door.

"Why are you locking the door?" Yeon asked suspiciously.

"I always lock it...if it makes you uncomfortable, I won't lock it with a key then..."

"Unlock it...please..."

"As you wish." Stan obliged, unsure why Yeon suddenly seemed nervous, or perhaps he was feeling claustrophobic...or maybe he preferred it open since he sometimes slept with the door open because of the nightmares. "I can't keep the door open throughout though, the neighbors might see me and I'm quite private with my life here...I barely know them."

Seeing that Yeon was still quiet, Stan felt the need to assure him further. "This place used to belong to my dad Joss. Before they reunited with my father, he worked in the city and lived here. I lived here for sometime too when I joined collage but later moved out closer due to proximity so I use this place sometimes as my escape...Elric barely knows about..."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Yeon asked looking annoyed. "Feed me, I'm hungry."

Smilling, Stan replied as he walked towards the open kitchen, placing their takeaway meal on the counter. "You seemed nervous so I wanted to assure you this place is safe and we can have our own privacy here."

"A bed sitter with a semi-spacious kitchen while dad Robin stays in a mansionte, Dad Joss is quite stingy with himself."

"That part of him has never changed. Even uncle has criticized that character of his. He only spends money on dad, who is quite extravagant if I may add."

Yeon listened to Stan talk of his parent's separation, chattering on about how both his dad's divorce had impacted him negatively when he was a child, making him swear to find his true love so he won't have to get a divorce. Yeon found it naive that he still held onto that idea.

"I'll head to Niel's new place once I'm done with dinner. I haven't given him a housewarming gift yet."

Yeon's statement brought Stan to a halt. "Why?"

"I just told you. He moved to a new place and I want to see it. I'd told him I'll be passing by campus so we agreed to meet later on..."

"You're not going anywhere Yeon. You never informed me in advance about..."

"Hey..." Yeon said calmly, but made sure his facial expression showed he wasn't impressed with Stan making decisions for him. "You're not my father so stop this."

"We are just sex friends right?" Walking to sit beside Yeon, Stan asked. "Since I'm just a sex partner to you, give me your number then. With it, we can always make plans on when to have sex don't you think? It would be difficult to do so if I only depend on seeing you when you're such a person on high demand."

"I'm not responsible for what you feel so take responsibility by yourself."

"What's that have to do with getting your number?" Stan asked, battling his anger and confusion at Yeon's statement.

"Here in this place...you said you liked me before the last time we were together when you bit my neck. I heard you but I remembered what you whispered in my ear as soon as I got here. I'm guessing you had liked me for a while. Therefore it is not my responsibility to accept your feelings so stop acting like we are dating. It pisses me off you know. I have not dared forced my feelings on Niel that's why we can still remain friends without ruining what we have. Neither have I burdened him by telling him how I feel because it is me that feels this affection for him and not him so stop acting jealous. We are bound by fate. It's neither of our fault. However, before I became your fated, I had a life, hobbies, a friend and people I cared for so..."

"Yeon, I'm just asking for your number that's all. You're free to go as you wish. I'll take you there myself so let's eat first" Stan said calmly. He didn't want to get into another fight with Yeon, especially after it had taken him months for them to even sit down and have a conversation.

"You're up to something. Knowing you, you wouldn't make me an offer like that without naming your price so what is it? Only my number?"

"No. I'm offering to take you to your beloved against my wish too so that's two things. I want something else, much bigger since you are putting me at a great inconvenience."

"I never asked you to take me..."

"Yet, I'm still going to take you there." Stan said sturbbonly. "You heard my uncle today. He confirmed what my dads said about your new erotic scent..."

"Stop. You don't have to repeat it. I already told you I'm scared of our situation. You should have seen my professor today. He kept blushing and started talking about his spouse and how many zillion years they have been together. Which reminds me, I changed my project so I may graduate much later than you."

Stan did his best to seem unaffected by Yeon's remarks, wondering to himself how oblivious he was to not realize the situation he was in with his new scent. If what he had said had happened, the professor was the fifth person to have complemented his new scent, including Stan himself, and he knew very well how that made him feel. He may have managed to have gotten away with his sweet rosey soothing scent before, but now, this new scent was far more specific and intentional.

"What will you be doing now then?"

"Severing ties between fated mates." Yeon responded happily, amused to see the drop on Stan's face.

"What?"

"Think of it this way. After what I went through, I got inspired to start this project. According to the professor, there have been other people ahead of me who have done this project before and if I collect their findings, together with the vast knowledge from your uncle and dad Joss, I could use one of their labs and complete this project within a few days."

"Why would you need to sever ties with me?"

Yeon could see Stan's disinterest in encouraging him but he'd decided he wasn't going to waver on this decision. "This isn't about us...in some way. Actually, Elric inspired this idea too. Think of his mother who'd lost his fated...how does she carry on? A fated loosing their partner cuts deeper than loosing a pair. During marking, the first to fall involve is the one who is marked, which leaves them dependent on the one who marked them. For pairs, even though they may not be able to recover their original eye color, the bond slowly weakens after a couple of years. However, for fated, the bond is for life even if their partner is no more. My new project focuses on this. If I can manage to prove to severe bonds between fateds, imagine how much I can do for pairs too."

Stan was bemused when he asked Yeon how he intended to carry out his new found passion to tear them apart.

"I'll use us as specimen. I'll need your blood and semen."

"Why my semen?" Stan asked suspiciously.

"We are both fated so our blood constitutes most of our scents, including the ones I haven't manipulated yet. Actually, it does make my blood a perfect specimen since my not being fully marked allows me to use my blood and monitor my transition. In fact, I'm like the link between pairs and fated mates. As for your semen, I'll use it for residual scents like lust, desire, affection, emotion, fantasy among others. If I'm able to successfully severe a link between fated mates then don't you think I should be able to explore all scents from a fully manipulated fated just as yourself."

"There is nothing about this that I like."

"If you are not willing to cooperate then I can always get semen samples from my father, my professor and your uncle. I figured I'll ask you since you might not like the idea of getting samples from others."

"You're right, I don't like it."

"Stan, I intend to do this project whether you agree or not. Think of people like me marked without consent. What if you hadn't been there to save me? What about Elric's mother? If this project is successful, I could scientifically manipulate Elric's blood together with her mother's and find his father's scent, making her be able to use his scent as a perfume. We are fated so you should understand my passion to help people like us, and those unable to recover from either loss of their loved one, or those fully or partially marked and abandoned."

Stan could see Yeon was committed to his newfound passion but still despised the idea. If Yeon were to successfully execute this so called project, he could end up loosing him.

"Say you are successful, what happens to us? Will you sever ties with me? What about our strong spiritual essence? How can you break that?"

"Unfortunately that can't be broken scientifically or otherwise for fateds since it's not something tangible, but both of us can resume normal lives regardless of that. I get to live my solitude life and you will be off to find your true love as you see in the movies. Spiritual essence is just a minor glitch we can live with. I'll be free from your scent manipulation and so will you mine."

"Minor glitch you say..." Stan's statement was sinister and it made Yeon a little nervous, though he couldn't smell his scent. Stan had been careful about letting his scent for a while and as much as Yeon appreciated it, at moments like this, he couldn't tell what mood he was in. "Fine then. Let's first come with terms and conditions. I'll agree to your ridiculous project over a number of things."

"And what are they?" Yeon asked, anxious of what was running though his mind.

"We will have sex at least three times a week. That's the first condition."

"Wait! Hold on..."

Ignoring Yeon's request, Stan continued. "We hadn't set terms for our sexual relationship so let me finish and you can accept or reject afterwards." When Yeon nodded, he added, "You will use my uncle's lab and afterwards, we will come here where you'll stay with me until you complete your project..."

"That's ridiculous!"

"You will not see Niel, Elric or your ex girlfriend..."

"She lives with my parents, how can I not see her?"

"Failure to adhere to these, I will have sex with you anytime I want, whenever I want, however I want. Additionally, I will not induce your heat whenever we have sex until it comes naturally."

"You can't do that! You know that is the only way you can mark me and initiate imprinting!"

"Your intention is to severe ties with me right? Well, if we are going to do it let's do it the right way. Anytime we have sex, I will not let out scent and since you can't control your scent, I'll take inhibitors for as long as I can until I'm ready to induce your heat...or sense mine."

"With all these conditions, I stand to loose! What if I end up loosing my eyesight? What if I end up staying like this forever?"

"Then you must make sure your little project doesn't fail because if it does, you're mine forever..."

"Fuck you!"

"Someone has to." Stan smilled, pulling Yeon towards him in an embrace and whispered in his ear. "You know, after that little incident when you provoked me, almost taking both our lives, I started taking strong inhibitors to handle your overpowering scent that even right now, when you scent out in large volumes like this, I can still calm you down without loosing my sanity so try all you want Yeon. Take everything...my blood, my semen, my ears, legs...I don't care because I'm not planning to ever let you go."