Both Ethan and Roland agreed not to make a big deal about their relationship. After all, the Earth Alliance government has always discouraged public employees from falling in love with foreigners, and they may even be deducted from three to five points of morality, maybe even more. Affect year-end assessment. They met infrequently at the Energy Bureau, but sometimes Roland would deliberately make a detour past Ethan's office. Ethan would also take a few more glances inside the laboratories when he passed by. If he saw Roland who was wearing a white coat and focused on playing with some instruments, he would be very happy all afternoon.
Even his assistant secretaries were whispering, saying that Ethan became a lot nicer at that moment, and even if he made a serious mistake, he was not scolded by him.
And after get off work in the afternoon, as long as Roland didn't work overtime or have meetings with other researchers, he would knock on Ethan's door around dinner time. Sometimes Ethan cooks dinner, and sometimes they order takeout. They both like movies and ancient history. They chat for hours, and they have sex on Ethan's bed at night. Roland was very gentle to him and very skillful. It's just that Ethan secretly wishes he could be rougher.
Of course, there was no way he could express such a shameful wish.
They also occasionally went to a restaurant or movie theater far away from where Ethan lived to avoid being seen by people they knew and reporting it to their superiors. Ethan didn't feel wronged at first, and even liked the feeling of cheating. Roland secretly left a kiss on his cheek when no one was there, quietly hooked his calf with his foot under the table during a meeting with the director, and patted his ass without a trace when passing by. The small movements made his heart beat faster, and he was excited and excited.
But as time passed, he gradually became a little lost.
During the month of the breakthrough in the new metal synthesis technology, the bureau hosted a dinner to which all relevant researchers and administrative staff were invited and allowed one dance partner per person. Obviously, from choosing the venue to determining the menu, arranging the security and contacting the band, it was all handled by Ethan, and he, the main person in charge, naturally had to participate. He didn't bring any partners, thinking he wouldn't have time to dance anyway.
However, he soon regretted it.
He saw Roland walking in in a tailored indigo blue suit, next to a handsome and lovely young Omega holding his arm, smiling as bright as a spring breeze, occasionally tiptoeing slightly, whispering a few words to Roland , and the Alpha would laugh loudly. The two people were so matched in both height and appearance, they were particularly eye-catching in the crowd, arousing envious admiration.
Ethan was standing on the second floor listening to the person in charge of the hotel checking with him the number of people present, but he did not hear what the other party was saying at all. His eyes wandered back and forth between Roland and the new engineer from the Energy Bureau in his arms, and there was a big hole in his heart.
"Mr. Eldridge?" The manager's somewhat puzzled call pulled him back to the duty in front of him. He tried his best to calm himself to confirm the late guest list, and then made his way back down the stairs to the second floor.
The band had already played a classic and cheerful pop tune, and people soon came to the center of the dance floor in pairs, wiggling their bodies between the light rhythms. Ethan stood by a dimly lit colonnade outside the dance floor, watching Roland and the engineer dance lightly in the middle of the dance floor. Obviously there is no spotlight, but Ethan feels that the two people will shine. Their dance steps are so harmonious, the smiles flowing between their eyes are so moving, and even the people around them are applauding.
Ethan has never been good at dancing. On the dance floor, he often moves stiffly and looks embarrassed, slipping away after ten minutes. He could never dance so harmoniously with Roland.
At this moment, he suddenly hated himself a little bit, but even more hated the smiling young man revolving around Roland.
The rest of the night Ethan was in a low mood. Except for communicating with the chef and the director when necessary, or giving directions when the guests couldn't find the bathroom, he silently held a glass of champagne and sat by the side. Beside the tall bay window, I occasionally glanced at the crowd of Yanyan Yan. He had already arranged everything in the banquet in good order, when to serve the first main course, when to serve the second, when to ask the director to speak, everything was going according to the schedule, and nothing would happen without him trouble. Looking at the couples of lovers around him, he felt more and more that he was superfluous.
He thought about leaving early on the excuse of being unwell, but in the end he stayed until the end of the banquet. He didn't know why he had to torture himself. He kept watching Roland and the many men and women around him joking with Omega and Beta. Even the always indifferent Tai Feng was amused by his jokes. He could see how popular that Alpha was, and how could such a popular man fall in love with him alone
Ethan was confused and suddenly lost all sense of security. He wanted to catch Roland, but he didn't know what to do.
When the banquet finally ended, Ethan took a few people and stayed behind to help the hotel people clean up the venue as usual, and he was busy until two o'clock in the morning. He put on his coat and gloves, wrapped himself tightly, and stepped into the cold air outside the gate with his head down. The winter on the space station was frighteningly cold, and he just wanted to hurry home and bury himself in the soft bedding, wrapped layer by layer. He walked towards his aircraft, but suddenly found a person standing in front of him.
It's Roland.
"Can you take me in for one night?" The man smiled handsomely and charmingly.
Ethan put him on the plane and turned on the autopilot from the driver's seat. The aircraft automatically ascends into orbit and quickly glides through the bustling and lively space station long street even at night. Ethan didn't say much, silently watching the bright neon outside the window.
"Not happy?" Roland asked.
"No, I drank a little too much and felt dizzy."
"You're just unhappy. I can tell." Roland's blue eyes stared at him quietly, "Is it because I came to the banquet with Yanni?"
Being told the central thing, Ethan felt like something was stuck in his throat. He really wanted to punch the man in front of him, so what the fuck? ? Even though he was with him but brought another person to the banquet, wouldn't he be jealous when Ethan's heart was really made of steel
But he always felt that he didn't seem to have a position.
Although they were lovers in private, they never let anyone know. Ethan didn't even tell his own family. This always made him feel that his relationship with Roland was shameful and could end at any time.
He knew that Roland would leave the Earth Alliance sooner or later, and he would have to part at that time. Their so-called love relationship can only last until then. Ethan thought he didn't mind, anyway, who is in love or for marriage now? Don't they all meet by chance, they are together when they fall in love, and they break up when their fate is exhausted
So I don't seem to have the confidence to lose my temper now.
"It's none of my business who you bring."
Although I wanted to say it in a calm and unwavering voice, it sounded sour.
Roland suddenly held Ethan's hand on his thigh and squeezed lightly, "We're just friends. He said the other day that he had no partner, and neither did I, so we just came together. I've been looking at you, but I dare not come to find you, the moral value system of your Earth Alliance is too terrifying, and I am always afraid that it will implicate you."
Ethan snorted, and just wanted to sneer, but suddenly something happened. There seemed to be something wrong with an aircraft in front of them, but they suddenly forcibly changed lanes and collided with the aircraft in front of them. A high-pitched siren sounded in Ethan's aircraft, and the autopilot system began to brake hard, but it was too late. Their aircraft collided with two aircraft ahead.
At that moment, I only heard Roland shout something, and then he rushed over and hugged Ethan tightly in his arms. A violent shock followed, and Ethan heard a loud bang and slammed his head against the glass, losing consciousness.
He wasn't seriously injured in the car accident, just a few stitches on his forehead. Obviously, most of the shock was absorbed by Roland, who was protecting him. Alpha broke a leg and took more than a month of recuperation before he could walk on the ground.
Ethan can no longer care about whether others can gossip or not, even his work is abandoned, and he runs to the hospital every day. He brought food to Roland, helped him, who had inconvenient legs and feet, to go to the bathroom to wash up, and brought him a few books from his own home for him to relieve his boredom. Roland said with a smile that he had broken his leg earlier if he knew that a broken leg would be able to live with this kind of food to open his mouth and stretch out his hand.
But Ethan couldn't smile. He still clearly remembered the shocking power of Roland's body wrapping him tightly around him, blocking him from all impending disasters. He still remembered that when he saw Roland in a coma in the hospital with blood all over his body, the pain and fear in his heart seemed to be torn apart by life.
He had never been so afraid of losing someone. I am afraid that even when I learned that my mother was infected with cancer, I did not have such a strong fear.
It was that car accident that made Ethan understand that he probably already fell in love with Roland. He wanted to be with him, justifiably together.
After Roland was discharged from the hospital, the cast on his leg had not been completely removed. In order to take care of him easily, Ethan took Roland to his house for a temporary stay. The Bureau of Energy seemed to be doing everything as usual, except that the director called him into the office and asked a few questions why Roland was in his car when the car accident happened, and why it was rumored that Roland had moved to his house. The reason for Ethan's prevarication is that Roland lent the aircraft to a friend that day, and he kindly gave him a ride. Taking Roland home was just to repay his life-saving grace. The director nodded, asking him to pay attention to his words and deeds, and not to be truthful, so he began to discuss with him the matter of sending the next group of researchers to Mars to continue Project Zero, and told him to sort out the transmission from Mars. The more than ten points of research results that came here were briefly summarized into a key report. He was going to report it to the State Council on another day, and Ethan got it at 10 o'clock at night as soon as he got it. Because the director was in a hurry to ask for it tomorrow, and there was another one at home who was not very good. A patient who can walk has not eaten much until now... Ethan hesitated for a while, but decided to bring the information home to sort out.
Ethan had never done such a thing before, because the top secret Project Zero should not have left the director's office. But he thought he was just taking the last few copies back. Besides, the smart computer at home had been heavily encrypted and was very safe, so there shouldn't be any problems. He then stored the data in his personal information bank and called a taxi home.
In the distant future, when all the truth was revealed, Ethan recalled that maybe from that time, Roland somehow cracked his encryption program after he fell asleep, and got his authentication number and password, and then started Collect research data on Project Zero and send it back to the Ophiuchus Alliance.
He even began to wonder, was the car accident really accidental