The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

"WELCOME home, Master," greeted by a blue-gray cat once they opened the door. 

Astrid bent down and picked the small mechanical cat.  "Was everything okay while we're away, Xiao Lan?"

"Yes, Master.  No one has come by.  Xiao Lan cleaned everyday so that when Master comes back, you will be comfortable."

"Good job," Astrid said, rubbing his cheek with Xiao Lan's.  Really, the AI robots of this era was truly the definition of high-end.  It felt like he was holding a real cat instead of a robotic one.

He walked inside with Xiao Lan in his arms, Reas followed behind.

"What do you want for lunch, Reas?  I'll go and quickly prepare." 

He put down Xiao Lan and walked to the kitchen.  He was about to put on his apron when he realized that he still hadn't heard his brother's answer.  He turned back and saw that Reas just slumped on the couch.  He looked rather listless, as if he was thinking of something quite important. 

He raised one of his brows.  He already had a guess on why the other was reacting this way. 

"Do you want me to give you Lauren's Terminal number?  You can video call him if you already miss him so much," he said with a teasing tone.

When they left earlier from FS01, Lauren had already left the filming studio planet before them.  According to Sienna's words, the other was whisked away by his agent because he had another job.  And since then, Reas had been in this listless state.

What he said startled Reas.  He came back to his senses and turned to Astrid.  "There's no reason for me to miss him.  Therefore, I don't need to know his number."

Astrid only smiled.  "If you say so," he said then he turned around and took out ingredients from the pantry.

Reas looked at the back of his brother and knew that the other didn't believe him for a bit.  He was truly not disappointed that he was unable to say goodbye to that guy.  Again, why would he?  He'd only known the other for, what, four days?  There's no reason for him to form an attachment to someone who he'd only known for such a short time?

His brother should know that he's not the type of guy who could be attached that easily.  And yet, Astrid had been teasing him numerous times about that guy since last night.  Really, he wondered if the two of them had seen two different things for him to conjure up things. 

He decided not to say anything more because this brother of his with his overly rich imagination might just think that him being so defensive must meant that he was indeed correct.  He couldn't have that now, could he?

And yet, even after he said that, an image suddenly flashed in his mind.  That of an annoyingly clingy guy with dark blond hair and a pair of big light brown eyes.  He shook his head and forcefully pushed that thought away.  It's all Astrid's fault for making him unnecessarily think of that Lauren.

Because there's no way he would think of him otherwise.  No reason at all.

Astrid didn't continue to tease Reas because he knew the other would just deny it.  So, he just proceeded on chopping the vegetables in front of him.

Although he wondered why there's a need to deny it when it was so obvious that he took a special interest towards Lauren.  Did his brother think he wouldn't notice it?  He even smiled so happily while teasing the other.  Now, that didn't sound so good.  But his brother was not the type to smile like that just for anyone.  But he did so for someone he considered as 'annoying'.

Well, he could only think of one reason for all the denial.  Reas probably hadn't realized yet why he was interested with Lauren.  Heck, this kid probably didn't even notice that the fun he had while teasing Lauren was actually him being interested towards the other. 

He sighed.  He couldn't really blame him for being so dense.  They were only 18-years-old.  Being together for all their lives, Reas had only shown interest towards Mechas.  No wonder he couldn't recognize what his feeling was. 

As the older brother, he should help him by continuing to tease him.  Such a good brother he was.  And he must say, Reas did have a good taste.  If someone was to be his brother-in-law, he wouldn't mind if it was Lauren. 

Of course, he wasn't planning his brother's future.  They had at least 280 years left in their lives.  A lot of things could still happen.  They could fall in and out of love in that many numbers of years.  But if Reas could experience his first love now, then he would be here to support him.  Because every experience could help a person's growth.  Even he, himself, also wanted to experience something like that – falling in love with someone.

But for now, his career was more important.  Once he established his career at the entertainment industry, then maybe he would give this 'falling in love' a try.  After all, it's something he had never experienced in his previous life.  It would be good to experience it now.  Especially since he wouldn't be judged even if he had a relationship with another man.

The absence of prejudice against same-sex relationships was probably one of the best things in this era.

While thinking of that, his Terminal suddenly sounded a message notification.  He put down the knife he was holding and opened the message.  His eyes winded a bit when he saw that it was a message from none other than Cassius Grimaldi.

[Good day, Astrid.  I wonder if you and your brother are finally available for dinner tomorrow night?  I know you said you will contact me once you're available, but I decided that it would be better to message you again myself.  However, if you're still busy, we could re-schedule this dinner to another day.]

Right, Astrid almost forgot about that dinner.  He did ask almost a week ago if they could re-schedule this dinner tomorrow or the next day.

He turned to his brother.  "Reas, should we have dinner tomorrow with our maternal family?"