Chapter 6 - Huh, That's New
*****
'What's this?' Jordan was sitting on the couch in the living room a few days after he had begged on his knees for Luke to forgive him, to stay together. He had finished reading the sheets of paper that Luke had presented to him.
'I'm willing to stay together,' Luke said, 'under some conditions.'
'It looks like a contract,' Jordan stared at the sheets of paper, the words a blur of jargon and legal terms. 'Why do we need something legal to continue being with one another.'
'Well it's clear you haven't exactly been loyal,' Luke explained, which made Jordan blanch. 'I'm going to need some sort of guarantee you won't be doing that in the future, or else this isn't worth doing.'
'Ok, I'll stay loyal to you. I don't see why we need this for me to do that,' Jordan shook the papers.
'I'm not that naive, and are you really trusting in your own abilities not to cheat again?' Luke asked, sipping some coffee.
Jordan hated to admit it, but his boyfriend had a point. 'Ok, well, what else is in this? Half the stuff in here I don't understand.'
'Basically what it boils down to is that I will stay with you. I won't kick you out and I'll take care of you. Likewise, you have to stay devoted to me.'
'Right, sounds fine to me.'
'Well, weren't not done,' Luke smiled. 'What it also states is that you will become my property, my object if you will, and you will become my prime test subject for experimentation with the Bod Mod app.'
'Hang on, I'm going to become your guinea pig and you're going to do tests on me?' Jordan glared as sunlight shone in through the window.
'Pretty much.'
Jordan scratched his neck. 'I dunno, this seems a bit too far.'
'You've already had multiple tests done on you so far, and they've all gone well.'
'What more will you do to my body?'
'That's for me to know,' Luke crossed his arms.
Luke sighed. 'But, I'll be your property, like some sort of slave?'
'Not in those words, but yes I will do as I see fit with you. Don't worry, though, you'll still have all the freedoms you have now, besides the cheating of course.'
Jordan rolled his eyes as Luke got another dig in about his promiscuity.
'Chill. Look, I'm not going to control you financially, you can still work, exercise, socialise as much as you like as long you're fit and able to do so.'
'What does that mean?' Jordan didn't like the sound of the end of that sentence.
'All it stipulates is that being the test subject will take precedence. You might need to cut back on your work or free time if I need you in the lab. That sort of stuff.'
'I don't know,' Luke stared at the papers again.
'Well I'm not going to force you,' Luke shrugged his shoulders. 'It's completely up to you. If you want to walk out that door now, or at any stage in the future, you can. I'll own you if we're together, but I won't keep you prisoner here. If you don't want to be together, that's fine,' Luke turned his back to Jordan as he cleaned his coffee cup at the sink, steam from the hot water rising into the air, 'and I'll revert all the body changes too so don't worry about that.'
Jordan considered his boyfriend's words for a moment. A bird chirped in the tree outside. 'Will we ever go back to how we were?' He said in a small voice.
Luke placed the cup on the draining board beside the sink, his shoulders slumped. 'I don't know,' he sounded defeated. 'But never say never,' he turned with a small smile.
Jordan stared at his boyfriend, the sweet face that he had fallen for, the eyes that had seen the best parts of him, the heart within that had loved him for all the foibles and vices that would have turned others off. He looked down at his body, the clothes that clung to his pumped muscles, then looked around the house that he and Luke had made a home: the framed photos of them together, laughing in the park, at parties with friends; the walls they had painted while splashing paint on one another; the souvenirs they had collected on holidays. It was the life they had built together; his body his boyfriend had built for him; a home they shared together. He didn't want to throw all that away.
Finally, with a sigh he made the decision. 'Ok, I'll do it.' He signed the contract with a swift stroke of the pen.