Aisle was sure she was dead.

What made her think this way?

Well, that God-awful stench was one thing. Seriously, she was just about to gag from the smell.

But what made her mind up that she wasn't dead was when she opened her eyes and noticed she was lying on top of a very dirty boy.

Aisle didn't have very many friends. In fact, she didn't have any friends at all if she didn't count Rosy and Rochelle from work. She had only seen people behaving romantically to each other on the television. She had also never known what physical contact with a male felt like even if she was to be married in a few months time. The only man aside from her father to ever hold her was the contractor his father worked with, and that was a handshake. Now, she was sprawled all over this boy in a very small room. She was almost screaming when she scrambled up from his body.

The vigorous movement roused the boy and he was coughing violently as if he had just been chocked. Aisle remembered that she had been hanging onto something that felt like a neck before she passed out. So he was the one in her house. But she glanced at the room she was in and there was no way she was in her house. Where the hell was she? Was this what death looked like? If do then death had pathetic taste in decor.

The boy finally managed to get a hold of himself and stood up. He seemed just as disoriented as she was as he was looking around the room. After a while, he sighed and murmured to himself that he had only been dreaming and something about the machine being a bust. Aisle was still too scared to speak as he went about collecting various items that had been on the floor. His room, if it was his, was so small. Aisle was just wondering how a human being could live in such a condition when the boy turned and looked at her.

They were both silent for a long while before they started screaming at each other. Aisle was throwing each and every thing that she could land her hands on at him.

"Will... you ...stop," he said, ducking the junk being hurled at him. Aisle was not going to be taken without a fight however. She was just about to seize something long and wooden when he was upon her and snatched it from her hand.

"Who are you? Where am I? What do you want with me?" Aisle's questions came fast and thick as she tried to break free of his hold. He was about to speak when snapped his mouth shut. He was glancing at her for a long while before his mind finally made the connection. She was the hazel eyed girl form that house. But if it was not a dream, then what the hell just happened to him.

"Look... I'm going to let you go now. If you throw anything else at me, I'm throwing you off that balcony over there."

Aisle was calculating her options of winning any physical battle with him. She had to accept that that was impossible. I mean the size of him was enough to make her cower. He was also about a foot taller than her. The math of an escape was only equitable if he willingly let go of her. So she nodded and watched as he slowly let go of her hands.

The boy was not sure if the hazel eyed girl had been a project of his imagination. But Papa would have mentioned that he had lost his mind if ever it happened.

Of course.

Exactly. So it only meant that the machine had done more than he had intended it to. What exactly had it done again? After he was sure that the girl was not going to chuck anything heavy at him, he turned to look at his machine. The watch on his wall told him twenty nine minutes had passed since the test run. So he had not died... that was a relief. But the machine hadn't exactly worked either. Or had it? What exactly had those blueprints from his father been about? Where they real for cell degeneration inhabitation?

"Who are you?"

He turned around to look at the girl. He was convinced that the girl was the owner of the house he had been in twenty nine minutes ago, or at least the pink room he had woken up in. There was that same smell of lavender on her too. He was beginning to imagine her in that very pink, very lacy thing he had found in her room.

Concentrate.

He shook his head to dispel the thought. Papa was right.

"Clew."

"What clue?"

"No... not clue. Clew"

"You don't have a clue?"

"No! I'm saying my name is Clew! C-l-e-w... Clew!"

Aisle wasn't sure if this boy was ok upstairs so she just nodded her head. She had never dealt with any mentally challenged person before but she would do her best to get the message across.

"Where... are... we?"

Clew watched her gesturing every word she was speaking and wondered if she was ok in the upstairs region. Maybe she was just a slow speaker. He knew lots of friends here that were slow. But wait, she spoke normally just a few minutes ago. It took him a while to realize that she thought he was the stupid one.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh! You can understand me? Then you better start explaining where we are before I call the Authorities."

Clew looked at her for a while before he started laughing. Call the Authorities? Like they had a number that could just be contacted at will? Oh, this girl was funny.

Aisle was genuinely shocked that he laughed. What was so funny about her threatening him with the option of involving the Authorities in this? But that was not the only thing she noticed. She was just realizing that this boy... this Clew... he was very handsome.

"Sure... you can call the Authorities. But I doubt they'll come since we are a very long way from their headquarters."

Aisle was still working this out when he went to the window and drew the curtains back. The first thing that she noticed was that the sun was still up, and it looked well on its way to setting rather than rising. So she was definitely not in her town. The next thing was the general environment of the area. It looked worn out and tired. Even the people walking around in the streets could attest to just how hard this life was. They all wore monochromatic clothes. This was her personal hell.

But wait a minute... she had seen these kinds of people before. That one time she was at the workshop with her father to see if they could get workers for their own small company. She did not want to believe it... but she knew where she was.

Clew could see from the horrified expression on the girl's face that she had finally figured out where she was. It was interesting to see the light now dancing around in her eyes. It was just as he had anticipated they would be; enchanting.

"As you can see, you are a very long way from home... what was your name again?"

"Aisle."

"Like the 'walking down the aisle' kind of aisle?"

"Oh sure... Make fun of my name, Clueless."

Aisle wasn't sure what had rubbed her the wrong way. If it was the joke or the reminder that her life was about to be tied to that moronic imbecile of a man back in her town.

"Fair enough," Clew chuckled as he went back to observing his machine, "Whatever this thing did... I'm guessing it's the reason for you coming here."

"Well, turn it on and send me back."

Clew turned to look at her.

"This isn't a toy. The calibrations I did on it were all specific to me. I wasn't aiming to phase through space in the first place, much less have someone else follow me back here."

Clew wasn't sure if he was being understood by the girl. He was in full geek mode and not most of the people in his life understood him then. Actually it was sort of an illness here, if you were as smart as him that is.

"So if you weren't doing Matter Displacement then what the heck were you working on?"

He was shocked. He had never in his life, not even all the times he had spent in the Facilities with those Controllers, heard anyone say that phrase. He had only read it himself in Papa's books. This girl was smart. But just how smart was the question. Would it be ok to tell her what he was really doing here? What if that information put his family at risk? He had to always think about his family first if they were all ever going to make it out of this world together.

Caution, Clew.

Papa was right. He needed to exercise caution with the girl. But he could see nothing at all that would be harmful about her. Maybe those eyes though. Those were a very harmful pair for any boy who ever glanced at them.

Clew exhaled when he knew that there was no way he could ever reason clearly when Aisle was looking at him.

"I was trying to stop my cell degeneration process."

Aisle was not very smart with the science things of the world. She only knew so much as the broadcasts on T.V ever showed. A product of not having a very social life. But she had heard about Cell Degeneration from her mother once. They were terming it as the next step in immortality. A revolution that would see mankind have the ultimate power in the universe. But that wasn't what her mother and the Society ladies thought about that. They were only excited about it when they heard that they wouldn't ever have to worry about stretch marks ever again.

But even Aisle knew that that was a very complicated branch of science. The fact that Clew had actually made something out of the trash that he had here was incredible.

"Why do you want to stop your cells from degeneration?"

There was a loud sound from beneath the floor and a shouting match that ensued between two people.

"Because of that," Clew said and picked up his jacket as he made his way out of the room. It was almost as an afterthought that he turned to Aisle, "Oh, the machine needs time to charge. You might want to get something to eat while you wait."

* * *

Clew's family was... well, they were loud, for one thing. Mealtime was almost a circus event in the house. The two girls were always arguing about one thing or the other. They each had dirty blond hair that might have been better styled that just held in ponytails behind their heads. They would have passed as twins were it not for the fact that Clew mentioned that there was a two year difference between them.

The youngest boy in the family was a very quiet one. He had more in common with Clew than the other two. He was certainly going to be as tall as him in just a few years time if he was already a few inches shy of meeting Aisle's height. He too had dirty blond hair that was scattered in all directions on his head. He was so quiet that Aisle had to ask if he was mute.

"Luca doesn't like talking to people he doesn't know," that was the response she was given and Aisle supposed that she too could say that was reasonable.

The three siblings were not even paused by the fact that she was inside their home. It was apparently not the first time someone else who didn't live there was dining with them. Aisle was surprised to learn that people from any house were always allowed to come and dine with them. They called it get-togethers, where they just talked and had a good time. She knew about get-togethers in her world and they were only about gossiping amongst ladies.

"You're hair smells nice," the one named Elena spoke to her. She had sat herself between the girls because they didn't smell the same as Clew, which was a relief and it got her thinking that maybe he was just a dirty person and not a Commoner's predicament.

"Thank you. It's my shampoo's scent."

"I want one of those too, Clew," the one named Mihaela turned to her brother with just as much enthusiasm as her older sister.

"Not likely. You don't even know how to use it."

"Aisle will show us, wont you Aisle?"

She was shocked by the ease of conversation here. They all trusted her even though she was a complete stranger. Why was that?

"Sure."

"You smell funny, Clew," those were the first words from Luca and Aisle liked him just for that. She was not sure if it was just her nose being prejudice about him.

"Sorry, buddy. We'll get cleaned up after dinner."

Aisle could not have agreed with him more. He needed to get cleaned up... wait a minute. He said 'we'. Did he mean that she smelled too? There was no way she could smell that bad when she had showered not six hours ago.

"Is it the same thing as that green stuff on Aisle's shirt?"

Aisle's shirt! She glanced down at her shirt and noticed the green satin on her left side rib. The stain had snaked its way up her side to the collar. No wonder she had imagined him to smell that bad. She was part of the contribution.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it. Just eat up."

Aisle had just lost her appetite, and it was a good thing that she had little to eat. Clew had almost inhaled his food with the first two spoonfuls of it. She could tell that food was not a very common provision by the fact that he ate almost a quarter of the amount her pilled on for his siblings. She was just wondering where his parents were when the girls screamed that they were all done and jumped from the table.

"Not so fast, you two. What day is it?"

That was an interesting question for Aisle to him ask them. People had not been concerned about dates for a long while. She herself had no idea about them at all.

"Wednesday," the girls droned in unison.

"And what does Wednesday mean?"

"The boys cook and the girls clean."

"Well, don't let me stop you."

They picked the now empty plates from the table and headed to an adjustment room that must have been the kitchen. It was only separated by a counter with the living room where they had been dining. Aisle had noticed how chipped the utensils where to know they were used more times than the normal two in the Middle Division.

"If we finish before six, can we go to Cristina's place?"

Clew sat with this for a while before he told them it was fine.

"But you come back before eight."

Aisle suspected that the girls were not paying attention to the stipulation as they were now washing away with joy. Luca excused himself from the table and went outside of the house. It seemed he was the one who had been in charge of cooking today. For an eleven years old, he cooked very well. Her mother might have actually liked him were it not for the fact that he was a Commoner. And for the looks of things here, it seemed that they were all strays too.

"I suppose you want to wash up now," Clew got up and motioned for Aisle to follow him back up the stairs. He stood next to a door as she made it to the top.

"There's soap on the dish. I'm afraid we don't have shampoo so you'll just have to wash your hair with that. I'll get you something clean to wear."

He was off down the hallway and into the room that was furthest from the bathroom to the right. Aisle knew this as his bedroom since she had been in it first in all the areas of the house. She was curious though with the other rooms that were to the right though. One of the room's door was open and she could just see enough inside to know that that was the girls bedroom. There was not an inch of the room that wasn't covered in posters.

The next room was open a jar and she had to strain hard to know it was Luca's room. The bed seemed made to perfection. There was nothing on the wall, save for the dull wallpaper that as chirping away in almost every part of the house. What she was curious about was the room that had its door closed. Was that a store or was something hidden in there.

"Here you go."

She literally jumped at his words from behind her. He had changed to another grey shirt and the smell only lingered in the air. But Aisle suspected that she was the one smelling now. He held out another pair of grey clothes, but these looked more for a woman. Did they not have anything else that was not gray?

"Thank you."

She took the clothes and went inside the bathroom. She ran her eyes through the contents of the room and was really starting to sympathize with Clew and his family. They all shared this same bathroom. And it wasn't just a bathroom, it had the toilet right there! I mean, if someone had to go to the toilet if she was in the shower.... She didn't think about it too much as she stepped out of her clothes and into the shower. Well, at least the water was warm. She had been dreading a cold shower here since she wasn't too sure about electricity being available. But didn't Clew mention something about the machine needing to be charged for reuse? That's right. He did. She was just disoriented from events of the day.

She finished the bath and put on the fresh pair of clothes. The dress was actually not a dress as she had thought. There were pants, still grey, folded inside the blouse. It would have been a wonderful outfit were it not for its dull color pattern. She was stepping out of the bathroom when she noticed Clew was coming out of the door furthest to the right.

Clew had never been more mesmerized by anything in his life than then. Her copper brown hair looked like a glowing fire with the way it was wet right now. And with the rays from the sun that managed to pass through the window in the bathroom, she looked... enchanting.

You've used that one before.

Papa was right, as always. But there was no way he could not be enchanted by that site in front of him. She deserved every man's attention, and anyone who didn't give it to her was just plain stupid. But that was what she could do to you. She could make you stupid just with her appearance. And not forgetting those hazel eyes. Those were weapons of mass destruction.

There was a slight cough from behind him and those hazel eyes finally released him and glanced passed the door frame at the woman on the bed. Clew balanced the tray on one hand and closed the door behind him.

"All done?"

"Yes... I-ah... is everything ok?"

Clew glanced back at the closed door behind him, quickly thinking it through if it was worth it telling a Controller about his problem. She was so used to having everything on a silver platter, she would never understand his problems. But those hazel eyes... they could get him to do anything.

Sucker.

Papa had it accurately spotted. He was a sucker caught in the trap of glowing copper brown hair and dangerous hazel eyes.

"Yeah. My Grandma isn't feeling well."

Aisle noted that he said his Grandma and not mother. So she had been right about kids being orphans. She knew that Clew was worried about the day his grandmother would die. The Authorities would gather wind of that and descend on them like no one's business. That was another thing that Aisle had never understood. The Government could always deduce events on every corner of their world. Did they have ears everywhere? Did they know right now that she was illegally in the Commoners' world?

But she forgot everything she was thinking about when she looked at Clew's face. He was a boy who had been forced to become a man, at only God knew what age. From what Aisle had heard and seen at dinner, she could tell that he was the only reason everyone here was alive. He had worked and sometimes stolen just for his family's well being. His build and physic was mostly due to the long hours that he put in the Factory that Elena said was the only reason they had food on the table.

And she was just starting to understand how he was built. The boy was unlike any other she had seen in her life. He had hazel eyes, just as she did, but they were different. His were almost to the point of being blue. And they seemed tired of what life had already shown them as of now.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No. I'm afraid her illness is not the bacteria related. It can't be treated by antibiotics or that kind of thing."

They both stood there for a long while until Clew asked her if she would like to wash her clothes here or when she got to her place.

"Wash my clothes? You mean you expect me to wear this again?"

Clew was a bit surprised. Even though he shouldn't have been. But it was hard not to. The blouse she held in her one hand was only stained with the green slime that he was sure would come off once soaked. Her pants were basically brand new was it not for the dust patches here and there. She was willing to throw away such good clothes because they got dirty?

"Did you not have any plans to wear it again?"

"We don't wear the same clothes in the Middle Division twice. They get recycled and..." she halted midsentence and realized something. The monochromatic clothes everyone had here... so that's why she thought the outfit she wore would have been amazing with color. It did have color once, and was probably worn by a very rich Middle Division woman.

"If you don't want them I'm sure they girls wouldn't object to them," Clew decided to brush past that revelation of the girl's spoiled culture as he descended the staircase. He had worked his behind off just to make sure Elena, Mihaela and Luca were clothed and fed. And here was a girl who was applauded by her community for throwing away fabric that had the pleasure of coming into contact with her skin for a mere twenty four hours.

But hold on... what would that mean for the very pink and very lacy item he had seen in the pink room? He was sure that one was used at least for a day. Did that one hold some sort of sentimental value to her?

"Clew."

He was busy arranging all the contents of his tray in the cupboard and didn't turn to look at her. He had to make sure he did not get the order wrong because he would need to go find something to eat for tomorrow and trusting Elena with remembering the pill schedules was a task synonymous to him becoming the General of New Earth.

"Look, I'm sorry if what I said offended you."

"It doesn't matter. That's just how you people are."

"'You people'?"

He regretted it almost the moment he heard her tone. But he was right and the hurtful comment was the truth. The Controllers were all insensitive people who could never fathom the plight of the people of the real world here. And as much as Aisle was pretty...

Ahem!

Ok, Papa... as much as Aisle was beautiful, she was not one of them. He was just blinded by her glowing copper brown hair and her explosive hazel eyes from this truth.

"Yes. You people."

Aisle was not an impulsive person. But she just couldn't stand anyone who would make assumptions on her just because of where she came from. Clew didn't know her. He had no right to just jump on the bandwagon and think that she was this bratty princess that thought she was above everyone else. She had enough reminders in her life as it was without him adding to the list.

"Well I'd say the same thing about Commoners and them being assholes but your siblings seem fine to me."

He turned around to now stare at her and she could see the fire that was being kindled in those eyes. She had been right about the blue color. There were almost glowing luminous with rage.

"Just listen to yourself! Always calling me a Commoner like you are so above us! If you haven't noticed yet, anyone who gets to live here will become a Commoner whether they want it or not!"

"And how is it any different when you call me a Controller? You think just because I live in that rich country that I'm living the dream? Newsflash, Clew; The world doesn't work that way!"

"You really want to start comparing worlds when we've both seen the inside of each other's rooms? You could fit almost ten people on your bed alone!"

Aisle was about to respond when her mind went blank.

"You were in my room?"

"And you were in mine. So let's not try to compare who's living a miserable life here. You'll embarrass yourself."

Aisle was trying and failing at getting the idea of Clew in her bedroom from her head. She knew that was a bit hypocritical because, hey, she had just been lying on him in his room not four hours ago. But her room was a sanctuary she was always pleased to have. No one, not even her own parents were allowed a single foot inside it.

"That's not the point," she said almost to herself as she tried to keep her mind straight, "You don't get to judge me when you don't even know what I've been through!"

"What you've been through?" he gave off the dark laughter before he could help it, "And what could you have been through that would be so bad? Oh, let me guess, your Mama told you to wear the same blouse two days in a row. How terrible!"

"IT WOULD BE IF SHE WERE ALIVE!"

He was struck dumb by that comment, but Aisle had reached the limit of this conversation. She had unwillingly found another reminder with Clew as much as she was trying to avoid it. She couldn't stand the site of him in front of her. She needed to get back to her world. She had been wrong about coming to the Commoner's world. There was just no way that she could ever live here for even a day if they all behaved as Clew did when they knew she was from the Controller's world.

She was up the stairs and straight into his room, ready to get herself to he house. She was half way through her raging thoughts that she realized she had no clue whatsoever how the machine worked. And the clue she had that could work for her was one she did not think about. She was stewing in her own thoughts when she heard the soft knock on the doorframe.

"Can I come in?"

She didn't want him to come in. In fact, she didn't want him in a six feet radius around her. But she lost her voice with the weight of the reminder she had just received. She may have not been on the best terms with the woman, but she would only have one mother in this world to love. She watched from the corner of her eyes as he crossed the length of the room in three strides and settle himself on the chair next to the desk. They were both silent for a long while before Aisle noticed the sniffing sound was coming from her. When had she started crying? She must look like an idiot to the boy now.

Clew didn't know how to describe it. But all he knew was that he never wanted to see tears spill from those hazel eyes, much less be the cause of it. He had been truly insensitive towards the girl. Had he not seen how the pictures in her house only held two individuals save for that one when she was a child? I guess he just assumed. It wasn't the first thing he had assumed about the hazel eyed girl it would seem.

"I'm sorry about what I said."

"You should be."

And he was. He knew after all, how it felt like to lose a mother.

"My Mama is gone too. I was around fourteen when it happened. Just thought you should know that."

She had already known that. What she was interested to know was that he had also lost his mother the same age she did hers. Was this fate that had led her here? Was someone up in the skies trying to answer her prayers for a new life? She had once thought about poverty being an even exchange for freedom. But this poverty wasn't so hard to deal with. It might have meant sticking it with Clew too, but that was a compromise she was willing to take wasn't it? She had to make a decision on her life's path. For the first time in her entire life, she had a choice.

Clew was up from him chair and switching on the machine. She might not want anything to do with him anymore. And that was fine. This... this thing.. it was never going to last. It was better to nip it at the bud rather than have it mess his already complicated life. No it was better if she went back to her world and he stay in his to try another attempt at the Cell Degeneration Inhibitor.

But why was there this heavy feeling inside of him. With every movement he did to set up the machine, he only felt like reminders of what he was about to lose. That glowing copper hair... those explosive hazel eyes... that sweet lavender smell... why was he trying to get rid of such beautiful things in his life?

A Better life.

For once in his entire life, Papa was wrong. There might have been a life after this was over... but it was surely not going to be a better one. He was just about to turn the machine on when he heard that sweet resonating sound call out to his very soul.

"Wait."