Kai and I walked into what looked like a new grocery store with bright green walls and bright embroidery on the glass shelves and frozen sections of the store. Kai supplied me with a fake phone. "I almost forgot what it's like to have an ID", I smiled. I had forgotten about the phone laws up here.

Phone laws came into effect in the year 2085 since everyone had a phone, poor or rich. Since every phone had an address and had everyone's information embedded in it, the government decided to replace old style ID cards and driver's licences with the apple phones. Other countries use phones that were created there so everyone would know where in the world they came from if they had a different style of phone. Phones record everything that is done or said so if anything happens to an individual, the phone captures it all and is used in court. They have been used since 2085 to stop what had happened in the past. No one goes "un-recorded" this time but those of us who live in the Fog because that is an area that no one pays attention to.

Everyone up here is afraid of the unknown since mankind has discovered "everything" since then. The deepest part of the Ocean's and abysses along with the deepest and darkest point in the earth. It all lead to the discovery of multiple places where the Earth's core can be seen from a safe distance along with finding multiple human skeletons on the ocean floor and treasures that have been underwater since before 1823. Many people became wealthy from these discoveries.

"Leela", Kai snapped. He looked at me dumbfounded as I remembered what I was here for.

"yeah, I'm good. I just dazed off for a bit. Sorry" I apologized. He said nothing as we continued strolling down an aisle. I grabbed tomato sauce, cheese, meat, pineapples, and many more ingredients for pizza. Kai grabbed some fried wings from the deli sections before walking down multiple aisles for anything we might've forgotten. We checked everything and noticed that nothing was missing from our list of ingredients. Kai grabbed a box of cookies as we headed towards the self-checkouts. "How do we pay for this anyways? I still have some left-over money that I didn't lose in The Fog", I offered.

"Don't worry about payments. I got this", he said as he waved around the phone in his hand. As we headed up to the scanner, Kai looked around to see if there were any recording devices near us besides the actual self-scanner and the phones. He proceeded to scan the phone to pay.

"Kai, you're just paying regularly", I spoke quietly.

"To you it might look like I am but look a little closer", he said as he handed me the phone. The phone had a small bar code on the lower right corner so no one could see it besides the person holding the phone and the scanners. Kai swiped the bar code across the scanner and instantly saw the approved sign in green on the screen. He let out a slight breath

Those bar codes were not commonly used these days and only a few people had known how to use them. Since this new society has evolved into a technological one, most services automated meaning that there are less humans around to do work. Most humans are working as supervisors to machines in case of malfunctioning. But for the most part, tricking a heavily secured machine is easier than fooling a human with a brain to analyze other people.

We were relieved as we quickly gathered the bags and left, just in case the scanner would pick up later that there was no money going to it. We headed out into the busy street, knowing that if anyone were to try and look for us, it would be a challenge even with street cameras and the sidewalk that analyzed people's footsteps. As we were leaving, I noticed Kai eyeing the area as we walked down the street. He checked to see if anyone was watching before guiding me down an alleyway from the main street. The alley seemed like such a long path the more we walked down it in silence.

Soon after we walked for what seemed like forever, we reached the edge of the alley where the edge was. The Ladder that led to the fog stood below  us, where the edge was. Anybody who was afraid of heights would be terrified of the sight of the ladder as well as not being able to see where the ladder leads to due to the actual fog that was miles thick. I didn't have to worry about that feeling anymore now that I'd lived down there for several months.

As I let my mind wander while I stood near the edge, Kai was busy putting all of our bags in a box. He sealed the box and secured some straps around it along with a parachute. The phone beeped twice in his hand. "Amaya is by the ladder and is waiting for our stuff", he confirmed. I moved out of his way as he picked up the box  and held it over the bridge. "Leela, hold the top of the parachute above the box and when I saw drop, let it go so the parachute can spread out and make our stuff float into the fog". I nodded in response. He counted, "1...2...3...drop", as we let the box of groceries float down.

"Kai how is Amaya gonna catch the box if it doesn't fall near the latter", I asked.

"Don't worry", he continued, "She'll be looking up for something floating with bright yellow showing".

"Yellow?"

"The bottom of the box is painted with bright yellow and the inside of the parachute is a bright metallic yellow so it should be noticeable right away", he explained. "If it falls away from the ladder, I trust Amaya can retrieve it quickly before it reaches the ground". I stared over the edge again to see where the box was falling but I couldn't see it anymore past the thick fog.

Before doing anything else, Kai was typing in a bunch of numbers in the phone that made it malfunction and threw the phone on the ground, destroying the actual phone and SIM cards. He pulled a trash bag out from one of the trash bins near one of the buildings which made up the alleyway. The trash bag was filled with all kinds of destroyed technology, some were personal and some were public service technology. Each seemed to have either wires broken and sticking out of it while others seemed normal, which meant that they were water-damaged, malfunctioned, or had out-dated microchips in them. Kai threw what was leftover from the phone into the trash bag and put the trash bag back into the trash bin. Not a trace of us had been left behind.

Noticing that Kai had already gotten rid of the evidence, I thought I was thinking ahead of him and started to climb down the ladder. "Hey, not yet", Kai called, "We still have more stuff to do". He gave me his hand to help me up from the ladder, pulling me up.

"What else do we have to do, Kai? I thought we were only going to get ingredients for homemade pizza", I said.

"That's true but I need to do something else with you too, okay", he asked.

"Okay", I agreed. He pulled me back towards the opening of the alley, as he held my hand, lightly jogging so as to get to the main street faster. When we got to the opening, Kai looked out of the alley to see if anyone would notice us. The coast was clear so we rushed back into the main street and walked briskly. I let Kai lead us to where we were going since I still had no idea what or where we were going.

A couple of turns, jogs, and stoplights later, we came across an old fashioned building made of bricks instead of the shiny new metals that made up all buildings in this era. This building was in a place almost like where we we were for the ladder. The building had signs that blocked it off, making it seem a though it were going to go under construction. It had a normal sidewalk made of concrete instead of the black sidewalk material that had lights aligned on it and foot detecting software. This building is what people would call a skyscraper, an old building that reached heights people in the old days thought was highest but now seemed low since buildings reached close to the stratosphere now.

He lead us into the building and all the way to the top of the skyscraper. It opened up into a hallway and from there Kai took us through one of the doors on the far left side of the hallway. The door opened up into a nice apartment complex. "Ta-dah", cheered Kai. I took off my shoes, as I entered the apartment and walked along the walls. The apartment had a blue color scheme that perfectly fit Kai's calm and happy aura. The furniture was mainly blue velvet couches while the kitchen area was sleek and glossy marble and marble. It was beautiful. There was one wall made entirely up of glass, letting some light in. On the wall parallel to the wall of glass, there were pictures lined up of Kai and his family.

"This is my safe place. It's the place I come to when I want to be alone, think, and be in peace. It's my home", he said with a fondness in his voice.

"It's wonderful", I marveled. Kai stood behind me as I looked at all of his pictures.

"I'm glad you like it", he said. I had no idea how to respond to him so I kept quiet. "I want you to use this place as a safe place too, Leela. Especially when you are feeling like how you did earlier".

"Thank you", I said turning around to embrace him in my arms tightly. I've never had anyone comfortable enough to show me their safe space so I felt happy. He hummed into my shoulder.

"You can always come to me if you need anything, even if it is to talk about me. I promise I won't get mad either", he whispered in my ear. I chuckled a bit to myself.

We hugged for a few more moments before I pulled away. 'Sometimes I just want to tell you that I love you', I thought. I went back to looking at his family pictures. In one picture, he was a little boy with another little kid near a slide. I noticed that there were green grass, shrubs, and trees in the background.

"Kai, how old is this picture?"

"It's from when I was younger. Why", he asked.

"Because there is a lot of greenery around in this picture", I said.

"That's from a trip me and my family took when I was little. We were in Hawaii". That made sense since Hawaii was one of the places people have made into a wildlife and greenery preserve. Some countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe are also preserved. Only certain cities have been preserved in Australia.

I didn't say anything since he was explaining it all to me and I didn't want to dig too deep into him until it got uncomfortable. He was already telling me some pretty intimate details about his family life. And although I had some questions I wanted to ask him, I knew he would ask me questions about myself that I can't answer to him. I also wanted to share things with him.

"Leela, do you know about the night", he asked me. "Not the night sky that you see in pictures and videos. The real night sky that you can actually see?"

"Yeah, I've seen the night sky plenty of times. It's beautiful and I'm more fond of nighttime than daytime because of it". Kai smiled at me.

"Well, I know you'll like this next room in my house", he said as he lead me through an Indigo colored door. The room we went into was dark but as soon as he closed the door, all the light was shut out and all of the 'stars' and 'planets' gleamed against the darkness.

"It's a planetarium!", I cheered. The room made it feel as if we were in actually in space, staring at the passing comets and enjoying the sight of the colors that made up our galaxy.

"I knew you'd like it in here". Kai pulled me onto a fort of pillows and bean bags with glow-in-the-dark star patterns on it.

"I do", I said as I watched Saturn pass by us and almost hit us with it's rings. I had barely noticed that the further away from Earth we were, it had gotten colder in the room until I felt the goosebumps on my arms. Kai took note that I was cold and wrapped me up in a thick blanket with him. His arm rubbed the goosebumps away as I leaned my head on his shoulder. "Can we stay here forever", I asked as I turned to look at him.

"We can stay for as long as you want", he replied as he looked me in my eyes. I looked away not wanting to feel awkward from looking him in the eye for too long. I hummed in response.

"I kinda love you, Kai", I said under my breath softly.

"I love you, too", he said. I was shocked.

"I thought you wouldn't hear that", I said quietly. I felt so embarrassed at that moment.

"It's okay! I was gonna tell you just now too but you ruined it and confessed first", he teased.

"It's not my fault you're so slow", I chuckled as I nuzzled closer to him.

"I thought it was an accident", he laughed.

"It was", I said finally looking at him, "but I still confessed first so it counts". I felt him laugh through the blanket. His smile lit up through the darkness of the room and the brightness of the visual planets, making me smile along with him. And this time, Kai went first as he moved his face closer, touching his lips to mine. His lips moving slow as aged honey on my lips, sweeter than any sugar anyone has tasted and taking time to savor the sweetness of his kiss. This was one of the moments that I have ever felt like I wasn't left behind in time. I was right there with him.