"I'm still mad at you," Laura said after understanding his reasoning for telling her, though her anger had devolved from actual rage to a harmless pout, "Why do you have other women in the first place?" She acted angry.
"I was already bonded with some of them before meeting you." Alex said nonchalantly, "How do you think I'm able to use Chaos Magic?" He said as Laura's eyes widened in realization.
"You're bonded with Scarlet Witch?" She seemed horrified.
"Don't worry. She's not the genocidal witch that you're thinking of. She's a gentle and loving soul, if a bit too passionate." He said.
Laura opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. She opened her mouth again, but just sighed, "I didn't know that your magical abilities were Chaos magic since I never saw the crimson glow…"
Alex didn't say anything and kept looking into her eyes. Her resistance had already died down but she still didn't know what to react with.
"Am I just supposed to accept this?" She asked with an uncomfortable expression.
"I understand that it's very difficult for you to accept something like this. But the main problem of polygamy, attention division, doesn't really exist with me. I'm always going to be with you. No matter what." He said gently while stroking her hair.
Laura didn't address his words, "Where are we?" She asked instead.
"Gaia Federation. Earth-96283." Alex said words that Laura could not for the life of her make sense of.
The number was the official editorial designation of the 'Maguire' universe. Alex had recalled this little tidbit after he perfected his memory and recollection. He could currently recall any moment from his life with perfect detail.
Farm Earth's title in the Gaia Federation was Earth-96283 and Research Earth's official title was Earth-120703.
"English please…" She said dryly, "What's with the numbers? Just call them one and two…" She said.
"Two of the planets in the cluster have come together and formed the Gaia Federation. It's a whole thing… As for the numbering scheme, they are arbitrary and are just assigned to distinguish between the planets." Alex didn't go into the details.
"And I presume that you're the leader of this Gaia Federation?" Laura said with an almost smug tone.
Alex frowned, "How did you…" He trailed off as he understood what happened, "You're already getting better at reading the subtle cues through my emotions." He smiled helplessly.
"You should be happy you told me about your cheating habits yourself. If I'd found out about it myself, I would've positively blown up on you." Laura said with a huff.
"I still have your stab wounds." Alex pointed to the holes in his torso that he hadn't yet fixed, "I think that's enough of a 'blowing up on me', don't you think?" He asked.
Laura just gave him a dry look without saying anything. She was aware that her stabbing him had the same effect as lightly scratching his arm. None at all.
"Fine, whatever," Alex shook his head, "We're on a safe planet with pretty much nothing to do. But we can't stay here we need to take care of the stuff that we left back in Hydra Earth."
"Yeah, we got time." Alex nodded, "Only a couple of days though. I would rather get back there sooner than later so we can get things finished quickly."
"Sure." Laura nodded, "Now will you show me around your Empire, Mr. Dictator?" She gave him a cute smile.
…
"This is the white house…" Laura said with disbelief lacing her tone.
"This is the white house." Alex nodded.
"This is insane…" Laura said.
"I just said that I essentially own two entire planets," Alex said with amusement.
"It's different hearing it and seeing it with my own eyes," Laura defended herself.
"Come on, I have presidential duties to attend to," Alex said and led Laura to his office.
As they both entered the Oval Office, Laura told him, "I've been here once before."
"Really?" Alex asked.
"Well, not exactly here," She said, "But the one on my Earth. It was before the bombs…before everything went to shit." She smiled with a hint of sadness as she felt Alex tightening his hold over her hand.
She continued with a sad yet fond tone, "After the facility was destroyed, I came here with my Dad. I don't, for the life of me, remember what he and the President talked about, but I can still vividly recall his warmth." She said with a happy innocent smile, "I wouldn't let go of his hand, no matter what. I felt as if he would disappear if I let go. It was the first time in my life that I actually felt any comfort…" Her eyes grew misty as her words continued, "Why did he never try to come get me, Alex?" She said with a choked-up tone, "I was stuck there for years, and he—"
"Shh…" Alex brought her in for a hug and didn't let her say anything more, "You're free now, right?" He rubbed her hair as she leaned into him, getting comfortable, "Everything's fine. After finishing our little side-quest on Hydra Earth, we'll go meet your father and the X-men, okay? We'll figure out what happened."
Laura nodded while pressing her face on his chest, Alex could feel the slight wetness of her tears but didn't address them. He just comforted her as she let out some of her bottled-up emotions.
After a while, "Sir, your 9 o'clock is…here." Felicia entered his office and trailed off as she noticed the vulnerable figure in her boss's arms.
"Delay him for a while, Fel. I'll let you know when to let him in." Alex said to her with a little smile.
Felicia knew not to ask questions right now and nodded, "Understood, sir." She left the room and closed the door.
After a couple of minutes, Laura pulled her face away from his chest. and looked up at him, "Is she one of your hosts?"
"Hm?" Alex was confused for a moment, "Oh, you mean Fel." He realized, "She's my assistant and pet cat."
"Pet cat?" Laura was confused.
"You'll know tonight when I take her out for a walk." Alex said as his tone took a slightly awkward turn, "The thing is that…uhh, I've gone a bit too unrestrained with whatever I want to do here…" He trailed off and let Laura fill in the blanks.
"How fun…" Laura said dryly, not really registering his words, "Should I leave?" She asked.
"Why?" Alex asked.
"You have a meeting," She said, "I'll explore the place while you do your thing."
"No need." Alex said, "You can just stay with me, albeit discretely."
Laura frowned as she got an ominous premonition, but followed Alex nonetheless. As he sat behind the desk, he said, "Get under the desk."
"I knew it." Laura looked at him accusatorily.
"What? I want us to have some fun while I do all this boring work." He said before his tone turned enticing, "We can even have quickies between meetings."
Laura looked at him for a few seconds with a scrutinizing look, "Get one of your whores to suck your dick." She huffed before turning on her heel.
Alex coughed at her outburst but didn't follow her. Laura left and he told Felicia that he was free now.
As for Laura, as she walked away from the office, she stopped after realizing that she had no idea where she was supposed to go. At that moment, Alex appeared beside her, "Come on, I'll lead you to the garden." He grabbed her hand and made her turn a corner.
"Don't you have your dictator duties to take care of, Mr. Dictator?" Laura asked with a teasing tone. Though the glee in her tone and expression was unmistakable. She was happy that he was going to accompany her.
As they reached the garden, Laura was positively mesmerized, "I haven't seen any real flowers in years…" She mumbled.
"Hey, I give you flowers every week." Alex defended himself.
"Yeah, but those were fake. You created them with that black material like most of the stuff you gave me. They weren't naturally grown." Laura said as she walked through the path and brushed her fingers along a row of sunflowers.
"What an ungrateful girlfriend I have…" Alex grumbled as he sat on a bench at the side while Laura walked around and admired the flowers.
"You are cheating on me with multiple other women. You don't get to be annoyed by me." Laura said with a huff.
"This is how it's gonna be from now on, isn't it?" Alex groaned, "I do anything and you shoot me with a, 'You're cheating on me, Alex.'" He said the last part in Laura's voice.
"Relationships are monogamous because it means that both partners are revealing everything about themselves to their significant other. You can't do that sustainably with other people involved." Laura said.
"Yes, yes, you're right," Alex said nonchalantly. Laura just needed to go through the motions. He could deal with her occasional snide comments as long as she accepted the situation.
Laura moved around through the garden while admiring all the flowers and other plants that had been meticulously grown and cared for. As for Alex, he just admired her carefree and elated expression, "You look amazing in that dress…" He said loudly so that she would hear his words.
"Thanks, but you're a sucker for sundresses." She turned and gave him a sly smile, "Your opinion is biased."
"I'm a sucker for you too." He said with a chuckle, "My opinion was biased from the start."
Laura shook her head at his words and continued moving around. Soon, "Come here." She called him, "Tell me about these flowers." She wanted him to show her around.
"Coming."
***
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