Just Like Home

"Are you ready, dear?" He cuts the thoughts that have been filling my mind since breakfast. I'm sitting down in the living room, but I can see he is still inside the open bathroom. He turns off the lights as he closes the door, and comes to me at the couch while holding the comfortable black cat in his arms. I don't understand why, but I blush like I had never seen him in a suit before.

"Y-yes! …Darling. Are you already done?" I smile. The cat in his arms clearly doesn't want to leave, but he puts it on the ground carefully like it was fragile. He looks down and sees his white shirt is now covered in cat hair. He smiles.

"...I was." His laughter was so genuine and happy, it just kept going as he spoke. "I can't believe you're supposed to not pet your cat when getting ready to work…" He walks back into the room as he undoes his shirt, smiling and shaking his head in disapproval of the reality. I look away at the window. "I'll only wear black clothes now. Then no one can stop me. Mwah hah hah" He laughs like he’s an evil genius… Then giggles like a little kid.

"Tomo deserves it, that's exactly what you should do, submit to him" I laugh along too.

"Mow" Tomo says, sitting on the ground. Not quite a meow, but we know he's trying his best. Me and Hero aw in harmony… Then we both break into laughter.

"It's just like he can hear us." I admire the cat, rubbing it's cheek on my legs. I'm glad my pants are black.

"He can, he still has one ear." Hero comes back wearing a black social shirt now. Tomo runs towards him, he lowers his arm and the cat crawls all up to his shoulders. "He understands everything, and even listens better than most people I know." He says smiling proudly. I chuckle. "All done. Tomo, I'm sorry, but you can't come today." The cat lowers his ears. "Are we ready? Need anything?" He says standing right in front of me, I blush a lot, suddenly not used to it anymore.

“Let’s get going. We’re probably already late.” I chuckle.

He opens the door for me to pass, he looks at Tomo, Tomo looks back at Hero, and jumps off his back right after. I blush again as he heads forward, holding the elevator open for me.

“...I already can’t wait to be home with you again.” He smiles looking into my eyes as we reach the main floor, walking towards the building’s exit.

I hold the door handle, not opening it yet, just smiling at him.

“I’ll miss you more.” I giggle. I can see he’s also red, it makes me smile more. I turn my face back at the door, more nervous about not remembering where I work than about my husband. “Have a good day of work my darli–”

I open the door and I suddenly can’t even hear my own voice because of the lines of cars, the music, the screaming. I look up, buildings which end farther than my line of sight, like the sky was never real. After I cough through the smoke, my eyes tremble as suddenly things start to make a lot more sense; dozens of outdoors in every corner, all of them with either my face or Hero's.

"Hi-Dra Tech 2031: All the same dispositives from 2030, now waterproof."

"Introducing, the Cat-a-ton, CORP S.E.'s new product that allows you to recover the visual memory of any cat you've ever seen and upload it to the cloud."

"Hi-Dra cellphones, now with Corp. S.E. operational system."

 I look at him, he seems just as shocked as I am. His face turns back at mine with his jaw almost hitting the floor. I get nervous and quickly recompose and he instantly does the same.

“...Have a good day of work.” He says, red as the lights on the street.

“Have a good day of work.” I say putting my hand on his cheek and leaning in for a kiss, but my eyes open wide before I do it. Noticing what I was doing, I freeze right in front of his face. His eyes wide open scream confusion and nervousness just as much as I me.

I caress his cheeks trying not to finish it in an awkward moment. I back away slowly, trembling as much as him.

“S-see you tonight...! Love y–” He gasps before he could finish talking and turns around walking away so fast it 's borderline running.

I do the same, feeling my heart knocking on the suitcase pressed tight against my chest. After quite the distance, I take a deep breath to calm down.

“I don’t even know the way…” I look down, scared at how different this world is from everything I know. I stop walking, ready to turn back, until I look up at the huge building with neon lights shining ‘HI-DRA’ at my face. “...Thank the Gods it’s a stupid dream.”

 As I prepare myself to push the glass door, it magically opens as I approach, I get shivers down my spine.

The inside is even more stunning. Workers going to the left, on their phones, during calls, and a line of scientists going to the right. I smile and follow the same path. From that point on forwards, the minimalist and white nature of the building seemed to calm me down and be familiar to me in some kind of way. I follow my guts, and enter another elevator instantly hovering my finger on the buttons. For some reason, my mind tells me to click on the last one.

“Morning, Miss.” “Morning.” “Morning, Hiro.” says the 3 men inside the elevator towards me synchronized with each other, they clearly know me or at least my name and face. I chuckle nervously and with a crooked smile.

“M-Morning.”

After the strange silence inside the elevator, they begin to leave on different levels and I continue my way down. We arrive and the door opens, for what seemed to be eternity.

It’s the most pleasant surprise to see an array of labs on each side of the corridor. Finally, something I can understand. As I stare inside one of the glass rooms, my eyes roam in thrill through every single little machine I’ve never seen. I reach the end of the corridor to a door that had my name on it and I enter. A large office with a huge and apparently important chair that I can’t wait to sit on.

I take a deep breath, finally relaxing on this soft as a cloud throne, closing my eyes, laying my legs on the table, putting my case on the floor, and then jumping on my seat and sitting straight as something on the table starts to ring very loudly. I press the shining button.

“Why won’t she pick u-- Hiro? Hiro! Where have you been? You have a huge important day today and you can’t afford to be late.” I listen to it straight faced.

I take a deep breath to calm down before answering.

“Good morning for you too. It is none of your business, anyway. And?” I ask uninterested, the voice replies louder.

“M-morning… And? 5 meetings! 2 of whcih you already missed so, please, head up to the heliport for the meeting with the president of--”

I reply as quickly as lightning.

“Cancel all of them.”

A long silence follows before her shaking voice comes through.

“W…What?”

“You heard it, cancel them all. I’m taking the day off. You sound like you need the same.”

“Have you gone insa--”

“I’ll give you a raise so you can buy a life.” I press the button again and her voice stops. Good, easier than the turn off button people have in person.

I pace around my office looking at everything around me, analyzing what I could do… I see many books on my enormous bookcase by my table, and see another one of those… Screens… I grab it and turn it on, unlocking it with my thumb and exploring. I found a search button, clicking it and then typing on the keyboard the name of my kingdom. Instead of a kingdom, it seems my empire is of another kind in here.

I get back an entire page filling me in on what this company is.

"So an technology and health business. The cellphones in everyone's everyday, monopoly over the health industry… It's just missing one little thing."

I get up, walking up to the bookshelf. I pass my finger through all the books, until I find exactly  the one I was looking for. A huge binder filled beyond capacity, I open it, the amount of weapons blueprints is incomprehensible.

"Nope, seems like we're the exact same." I smile satisfied.

I get out of my office, bringing with me the screen and the binder, looking for a lab with my name on it. After warmly greeting hundred's of workers I've never seen before, I enter and change clothes before spending so much time lost in the lab and on the internet, trying to understand more about the different mechanics of this world as if it were real.

Almost everything is equal to my world, just… This one lacks any magical knowledge, apparently. I spend so much time experimenting and reading that I lose track of time and get home really late, yawning the whole way. One of the most peaceful afternoons I’ve had, as far as I can remember... I don't think I've ever been this relaxed.

After a couple hours, Hero finally storms in through the front door, looking happier than he's ever been seen.

“My dearest I’m ho-ome!” He says like he was dying to say it on his whole way home.

I’m laying down in bed reading things on the screen, but I can see him from here.

“Welcome back, good day?”

“PHENOMENAL. Being a CEO is the easiest thing ever invented. You just sit in an expensive chair and give orders all day, it’s AMAZING! Everyone should go to CEO college.”

I hold on to the laughter as now I know what CEO means.

“What a shame you got here so late…” I say not taking my eyes out of the tablet. “We lost another chance for a bath. Aw...”

As I say that I immediately hear him choking on air, coughing and leaning at the bedroom door.

“I-I’m sorry… It was so fun I asked everyone to stay with me past midnight so we could keep doing it...” He says staring into my eyes heartbroken. “But did I get home in time for us to make dinner together…?”

I smile, putting my screen down and looking at him with red cheeks and a shining smile.

“Yes, you did.”

He smiles back even more, back to even happier than before.

“Then you wait there and I’ll be here as fast as I can.” He quickly hops into the bathroom.

I get comfier in bed with a little smile, thinking of how this day has been so good from start to finish.

“Uhh… Excuse me.”

He gets out of the bathroom with just a towel. My eyes lock on the screen once again, reading the same lines over and over again as I can’t move my face, thinking: “Get dressed already, get dressed already, get dressed already, get--” Over and over and over again.

“There.” He whispers.

I look to my side trembling, he’s wearing pajamas, more dressed than today morning, and offering me his hand so I could get up.

“You okay?” He asks giggling as I stare. I take his hand.

“I’m good! I’m perfect, amazing!!” I burst trying to justify myself, clearly over excited. “...I’m just tired, that's all.”

“Okay then! I’ll cook our dinner by myself.” He walks toward the door, laughing.

I follow in despair.

“NO… You’ll murder the food.”