"I would ask where we're going, but seeing that you showed me yesterday, there's truly no point," I said to James as we walked down a familiar row of hallways towards the hospital wing.

"Technically, you don't know exactly where we're going," he teased, pulling my hand along with him down the next hallway. It was the first time James openly physically touched me in a more-than-acquaintance-like way, which I thought was weird for around two seconds before I decided that...I liked it. I liked how my skin felt the slightest tinge of heat from James' fingertips. I liked how James's touch was soothing. But above all else, I like how James' touch made me feel alive-like I could run a one-hundred mile marathon and never stop.

"That's true," I surmised. "But, I know enough to know that we are going to be arriving there very shortly," I smirked, amused when he pursed his lips. Something that I recently learned about James is that he likes to know the most information in the room; which makes for an interesting social experiment when I want to have a little bit of fun.

"Yes, but that's assuming that I don't change my mind and take you somewhere else," James replied in a serious tone that told me he understood the mood of my joke.

"We had a deal!" I whined, giving James wide puppy dog eyes that immediately made his face soften.

"A deal that I won't go back on," he promised sincerely, with newfound softness in his gaze as his eyes skimmed over my face.

I shifted my gaze awkwardly towards the floor with a strange pit filling my stomach.

"I know," I whispered, shooting him an assuring smile.

James led me into the wide glass double doors that signified the hospital wing, and past the receptionist he spoke to yesterday into a small hallway that turned a corner out of view. At the end of the hallway stood a single white metal door with no windows or locks, only a single touch pad to the right of the door frame. James easily strode forward so he stood in front of the touchpad, and he lifted the pad of his index finger to the screen, holding his finger in place until the screen lit up green and made an approving, "Click."

"Ladies first," James said, gesturing to the opening white door.

"I'm okay," I squeaked, staring bewildered into the pitch black room.

"Hmm," he murmured softly as he touched the corners of his lip with his finger delicately in a graceful gesture. "Well then, I suppose the proper term is 'follow me'," he said, not bothering to look back before he took a few steps into the dark room and pulled a lever that made a cascade of bright lights go off in the room as if it was a glowing tunnel.

"Brilliant," I muttered as I stepped into the widely lit room that was filled with glass screens and large cylinders that almost touched the wide ceiling. The room oddly reminded me of what I imagined a scientist's lab would look like with its white simplicity and silver accents.

"Emily likes to think so." James quirked a smile at me.

"...Emily? Do you have a line of suitors that I wasn't aware of?" I teased as I wandered towards the largest glass screen that was next to a machine of sorts.

"I'm sure I would have multiple suitors if that was an option, but I'm afraid I'm already annoyingly attached to a brunette with these green eyes that can stare daggers at you when she gets annoyed."

I rolled my eyes.

"You're insufferable."

"Really?" He asked with concern. "Because that's a shame."

"Because you're next in line for the throne, and you are going to annoy the people so much that they have no choice but to overthrow you?"

"No," he frowned. "The people actually like me more than my parents-but, no; I was referring to the irony that you agreed to go on a date with me after today, and yet you find me insufferable."

"Dang it!" I cursed under my breath.

"Yeah..." he smiled with a knowing glint in my eyes, "You really should start paying more attention to our conversations. Next thing you know, you will have agreed to marry me."

"You are a jerk!" I said, before allowing an amused smirk to play on my lips. "Now show me what this thing does before I start to regret my life decisions."

"As you wish," he said, taking a step in front of me so he was now facing the large glass screen. "This room is the genetics lab, made for matching people with their genetically compatible mate." James gestured to the machine next to the ceiling length screen and turned to face me. "Typically it is only used by the Royal Family, but there are allowed exceptions. You prick your finger inside the DNA extractor with the fine needle and from there, it uses the stored genetic data acquired on all available humans to match you with your mate." He motioned to the screen in front of us. "This screen here shows you an image of your partner, their name, height, predicted height, hair color, and traits."

"Traits?" I muttered curiously, furrowing my eyebrows to stare at James questioningly.

"Yes," he smiled. "It is all too common to find genetically paired couples who share a number of personality traits as well as interests. Of course there are also mates who compliment each other with their difference; they are just less common."

"...This machine," I pointed to the glass and silver-lined box in front of me, "Can not only tell you every detail about a person's physical appearance, but it also describes their personality and interests?" My voice steadily grew louder as I pondered over the insanity I had just heard.

"Yes."

"And you're okay with that?" I asked slowly, implying that I wasn't.

"Well," he started, "You have to understand that I grew up with matching as a normal thing. Would you consider it strange if I took a picture of the sky with a camera? No; you wouldn't because that is a normal occurrence to you."

"I can understand that...but you don't use cameras?" I said with a smile pulling up the corners of my lips.

"We do; it was merely a comparison." He shook his head at the thought, dismissing the concept that they didn't use cameras.

"Oh-I guess your people really aren't that different from us, are they?" I said in a splintering realization.

"No," he said softly. "We aren't."

A long moment of silence passed between us, filled with shy side glances and eyes plastered to the floor.

"So...what now?" I said out of the blue.

James furrowed his eyebrows as he met my bright green eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"We're matched...supposedly by this machine." I gestured to the silver box next to me. "What are we supposed to do?"

He lightly chuckled, a wide grin taking over his face.

"We are supposed to use it, silly."

"What-why?" I sputtered.

"Well, I didn't bring you here not to use it. You are going to look at my profile," he said calmly as if this situation was normal.

"How?"

"...With the extractor...."

I face palmed my forehead.

"I was paying attention; I promise," I sighed as I looked up to James's amused grin.

"Don't fret, love. Just hand me your index finger."

I hesitantly held out my hand towards James, and he delicately took my hand into his plush and warm palm, guiding it towards the DNA machine. At James' request, I held out my pointer finger and he quickly, but gently, pricked my finger on the fine needle in the extractor, drawing out a single drop of blood that traveled through the needle into the machine.

He pulled out a white handkerchief from his back pocket of his black dress pants and wiped away the tiny spot of blood that was left from the needle.

"Thank you," I said kindly as I turned to meet his warm gaze. I hadn't taken much notice of it before, but James was truly handsome with his dark brown locks contrasting with the light color of his eyes. The sight made my stomach fill with a strange heat that made me simultaneously want to throw up and sport the kind of smile that only love-crazed idiots wore.

"Your welcome," he smiled, before turning his back to face the large screen. "Now we wait."

The screen lit up with a bird's eye view of space, dotted with tiny specs of stars, before hundreds of thousands of small white boxes popped up with images of young males, their name, age, and their birth nation. The screen shifted from a deep blue to a vibrant red as the galaxy moved near its center: the Sun. Finally after hundreds of thousands of male faces briefly popped into the shifting galaxy, the screen stopped on the far outskirts of Earth, in between Earth and an unknown planet. At first, thousands of unknown male faces consumed the screen, but just as quickly as they appeared, the male faces disappeared until one remained: James.

James white, outlined profile filled the screen with at least one-hundred pages of data. It stated his full name, James Leo Collins, his height of six foot, one, his birthday, weight, parents' names, sex, and any physical description a person could think of that was too "in depth" for my own taste.

I skimmed over his profile curiously, before James tapped the screen to the next page, which, to my surprise, listed every single behavior and trait that belonged to him.

"You're stubborn?" I asked with an undertone of surprise in my voice. He never struck me as the "stubborn type."

"Sometimes," he replied honestly. "Though, I try not to be."

"Hmm..." I drew, rubbing my chin as I continued down the list of expected and unusual traits that belonged to the boy beside me. "Intelligent, likes to read informational texts, funny.... You can't cook?!" I said in a tone that was louder than what was considered to be respectful.

"No," he said in a manner that was unusually unsure of himself. "I've never had the need to learn that skill."

I shook my head in disbelief; how could he not know how to cook?

"It's sealed, then," I said confidently.

"What?" A confused frown passed over his face.

"For our first date, I am teaching you how to cook."

"How about the afternoon after our first date?" James awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as he avoided my stare.

"Why?" I frowned.

"Well, first, I already planned out our date for tomorrow night. Second, I'm afraid a date includes a bit more than cooking."

"A date is supposed to be fun, James, and cooking is fun."

"I've never been on a fun date," he emphasized with a playful arc to his eyebrow.

"I've never been on a date."

"Then how do you know it's supposed to be fun?"

"Intellectual instinct," I replied with a wide smile.

James let out a lighthearted chuckle.

"That isn't a thing."

"Is too!" I laughed, sporting a wide grin.

"Well then, I guess we will have to test both theories," James said with a mischievous smirk.

"You want two dates?" I mockingly gasped.

"I don't know yet. Ask me tomorrow," he said briefly, stopping to close the program on the glass screen.

"Why tomorrow?" I asked impatiently. Jame's cryptic responses that withheld information I wanted were getting on my nerves.

"Well, I wasn't going to ask you on a second date if we hate each other after the first," he said very casually as if I should have already come up with this assumption.

"James!" I cried with wide eyes, shaking my head in disapproval at his attempted joke.

"What?" He asked innocently. But, the evil glint in his eyes told me he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Must you joke about everything?" I sighed, turning my back to him and the, now, crystal clear screen.

"I don't joke about everything," he replied honestly with furrowed brows.

"Most things," I corrected in a short tone.

He frowned with underlying confusion in his gaze.

"Would you prefer for me to be serious all of the time?"

"No..." I sputtered. "I just want you to be yourself," I added softly. "...Which isn't exactly the easiest thing to do around a stranger."

"You are not a stranger, Elena," he murmured softly.

"Then what am I?" I asked, both curious and hesitant.

"Hopefully, a future friend," he replied honestly with a strong, meaningful gaze.

"I like the sound of that." I smiled at his handsome face.

"Me too," he heartily agreed, before we wandered out of the genetics lab, smiling like a lot of idiots.

AN: Finally! We have a chapter 11 after so long! I am so sorry for the wait guys; I have recently gotten back into my sport of bowling which has taken a chunk out of my time, but updates should continue more regularly from this point forward. I have been working on the plot of this story and I have a pretty solid path moving forward for at least the next 3-4 chapter so they should be out soon, hopefully within the next week.

I want to personally thank you for getting this far in the journey with me (especially after that two week long pause). I spent a long time thinking about the matching process and how it worked, which was probably less necessary than I originally thought since I was broad with its description anyway, but nonetheless if you want more information on it leave a comment below and I will happily answer it!

Obviously things have gone pretty good for Elena and James so far aside from the whole "his parents killed her parents" thing...but that will be changing in the next few chapters. What good is a story without  bad guy(s) and some high stakes? But on a better note, the next chapter is Elena and Jame's first date(and yes I already now what it is! I am going to start it after I post this :) )

Finally, I am so sorry about that long break; I am going to try to get back into my groove and post at least every three days which shouldn't be too hard considering the new content you guys got coming! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it and stay tuned for upcoming updates in the (hopefully) near future :)

-Elly6431