Future Studies

Cold water. It ran down their backs as they ran together towards the building before them. Lore removed a key from their pocket and unlocked the small, semi-detached house. Char was about to question them but was just thankful to be out of the rain. Lore removed their jacket and draped it over a nearby chair. The house had a utilitarian décor, clearly designed for three with the dining table and living room only having enough places for Lore, Char and a guest. Lore removed the hourglass from their damp pocket. They held it to their eye and saw that just three of its sands had fallen to the base. They showed the timer to Char who was towelling off her hair with a tea towel.
“Three hours. I am so sorry.”
“What is your mother’s problem with humans?” Char placed her hand on Lore’s shoulders gently and gave a sorry smile.
“You know I love you, don’t you?” She brought Lore in closer.
“So she doesn’t hate humanity, she hates me.” Lore was beginning to look confused.
“She doesn’t approve of any one who values peace over strength. She sees it as a weakness and she really doesn’t tolerate those.” Char shuddered. “Did we just break into a random house?”
Lore smiled. “No. Your Lore left me a pair of cubes in our quarters. The useful one had a list of safe houses hidden throughout time and this was one of them.” Lore separated themselves from Char but still held her hands in theirs. “Somewhere in this city, I’ve just been born and inducted into the Temporal Sciences Guild.”
“It’s a nice place.” Char looked around. She had no clue what she was looking at apart from the basic furniture. “I think. Fancy exploring with me?” She winked suggestively. “Maybe see if we can’t find some dry clothes.”
Not wanting to remain damp, Lore nodded. “If I recall correctly, there’s a wardrobe upstairs with clothes for the both of us.”
“A what?”
“A wardrobe. In this time period people had to buy their clothes in advance rather than fabricate them as and when they needed them.” Lore had spent their spare time on Illia reading up on this time period in the hopes of impressing Char. It was working.
Char dragged them up the carpeted staircase and into the first room they came to on the landing. There had been three doors to choose from and she had chosen the upstairs toilet. She had better luck behind door number two which led to the master bedroom. The room wasn’t particularly large and was mostly dominated by a king sized bed. Lore pointed to the left side of the bed, highlighting the adjacent drawers.
“The top cupboards have tops and trousers, the drawers are pants and socks.” They opened their cupboards and removed a red flannel shirt and grey under shirt. The cupboard was filled with them.
“Any chance there’s a bra in there?” Char was stood in her underwear. Lore hadn’t been paying attention and twitched upon seeing their wife in such a compromising situation. “What’s wrong?”
Lore averted their eyes and pointed at the cupboards overhanging their bed. “In there, mine are on my side, yours are on yours. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Listen, about earlier, you don’t have to keep calling Lore ‘Your Lore’. You’re my Lore. And they were you.” She quickly replaced her bra. “Come here.” She beckoned Lore to her. They had finished changing so crawled over to her side of the bed. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that.” Char bounced on the bed from her seated position. She bounced again, looking Lore up and down, thinking. “I know according to my people’s traditions, our marriage has been consummated but by yours…” She went to rub Lore’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry.” They twitched, recoiling from Char and the bed like a shot. “Sorry!” They repeated. “It’s not you, it’s me.”
“Hey, hey, it’s fine.” She grabbed her top from her bedside cabinet. “I don’t want to force you into anything you’re not comfortable with.”
“Sorry.” Lore had hidden their face behind a cupboard door in embarrassment. “I want to but…It’s just…” They peeked out shrugged.
“It’s fine.” Char slowly approached and held out her hand. “If you ever decide you want to, I’m here but if you decide you don’t, then it’s fine.” Lore took her hand and then pointed out her lack of trousers.
“What now…” Lore looked to their flashing Breacher.
“Sorry to bother you but I’m getting some weird interference from your Breacher. System’s registering two of them in your current time zone. It’s closing on your location, you wouldn’t mind checking out the anomaly?” After Lore’s confirmation, Brian apologised once again and signed off. Lore had a good idea of what to expect so grabbed a spare outfit and towel and waited by the door downstairs.
The doorbell chimed. Lore answered the door and sure enough their expectations were met. Stood before them was the drenched figure of Tay. Face like the thunder that filled the skies she entered the house, tried to dry her feet and began to peel off her sodden layers.
“Two miles in the rain with five cars splashing me. Why did you have to pick the twenty first century?” Tay accepted the towel and began to dry their face. “Even my siblings would call that too much and they’re all military.”
“Brought you some dry clothes too. There’s a spare room upstairs for you to get changed.” Tay looked to Lore confused.
“You were expecting me?” Lore nodded. “Nice. It’s been a while since someone looked after me.” She winked to herself.
A quarter of an hour later and Tay joined Lore and Char in the living room. Lore went around the group and offered a cup of tea. They poured a small amount of milk into each mug then added the tea from the pot before finalising the brew with a stir and some sugar.
“I’m guessing you’ve got some questions.” Lore and Tay said in unison. “Ask away.”
“Ok… I feel weird asking you this stuff, if you want to ask me anything, any time. First question: Can I please have your current ages?”
“I’m twenty, nearly twenty one.” Lore looked to a very sheepish Char.
“Real age or equivalent because my equivalent age is twenty six but if you go by real age I’m a hundred and thirty five.” Lore’s jaw hit the floor. “Quatarrians don’t develop like humans. Well, we do for a bit but then it sort of slows down. After our eighteenth we slow down so we use equivalent ages.” Lore took a sip of their tea as Tay began excitedly filling in their notebook. Research Purposes.