Loki Beaker had never been a nice boy.

When he met Circe Salamis he felt that she was his soulmate. She could be quite nasty but that was exactly what Loki liked about her. She did not fall easily for some stupid sweet talk and he was pleased to see her rejecting Pascal when he tried to get his first kiss from her.

Everyone later remembered the fight with Buzz Grunt (which he lost) and nobody ever talked about his fight with Pascal, although he was sure that this was when Circe first took notice of him.
When she later went out with Pascal's younger brother Vidcund, Loki did everything to ridicule him. On the day Circe agreed to go steady with Vidcund, he played a trick on him which ended with Vidcund wetting himself. Circe broke up with him instantly.

After they had grown into adults he and Circe fell in love and got married. They did not plan to have children since they were both more interested in their career. Instead the social services (who completely ignored the youth of the Beakers and their obvious deficiencies in character and only saw the big wealthy home) approached them and they agreed to foster Nervous Subject. Nervous was a fragile and unstable sim, which was more due to the grim reaper being his father than Olive neglecting him. Living with the Beakers made it worse. Nobody knew when and why it started, but without any particular dislike involved, Circe and Loki developed the idea that it would be interesting to use him for some experiments. They did not consider the serious harm which could result as a consequence.

They (or Circe at least) took reasonable care that it didn't happen, but even if it remained a secret what they did exactly everyone agreed that their actions were disgusting and immoral.

It was rumoured that Nervous was shocked several times and wired up so much that it nearly burned his nerve cells. Not all of it was true, but Circe knew that regardless of the scientific value of their experiments no university or hospital would have ever consented to them. To be honest she did not really know why she did this kind of thing. She would have liked to blame Loki, but she played no lesser part in it. She loved Loki because they were so alike and at the same time she felt that he was bringing out the worst in her. Sometimes she hated herself for the entertainment she got out of playing psychological tricks on Nervous. He was only a teen - a child actually, he grew up very shortly afterwards - when he moved in with them and she knew that what they were doing was wrong.

Maybe it was during her visit with the Curious brothers that Circe first noticed that something inside her was changing. Vidcund looked very good although he told her that the pregnancy was taking it out of him. Then they were talking about the old times and she remarked that things probably would have been very different if they hadn't broken up when they were teens. She heard herself saying it and wondered. She and Loki were happily married, why was she thinking about that now?

Incidentally Loki came back with Lazlo later. Vidcund was very upset to see him in their house and could not understand why Lazlo had invited him. He appeared very glad that they had renewed their friendship and Circe was convinced that he would have liked to flirt with her, even if this alone was not the reason for his anger. Vidcund hated Loki and began to argue with him immediately. Loki was not impressed (Vidcund was a loser in his opinion) and stayed on out of spite.

Circe talked to Pascal and then went into the bedroom to have a look at his baby. Estella was a weird creature, yet, holding her ignited the wish to have a child of her own.

It hurt her, when Pascal came hurriedly into the bedroom and was visibly uncomfortable seeing her with Estella in her arm. He looked as if he was afraid that she could steal her. Could she not be trusted with a child, did they all think so bad of her?
Pascal tried to distract her by talking about her marriage and if she was planning to have children with Loki one day and she didn't like the subject. 
Something else which disturbed her during her visit was Lazlo making a phone call to his new girlfriend, immediately disappearing into his bedroom with her when she arrived. Apparently she had missed some of the developments in the neighbourhood. Like most of the neighbours she had changed her appearance (and got compliments on it), but Loki did not notice. Contrary to others - like the Curious brothers - he did not improve and looked the same as before, only the goatee was finally gone.
Talking about children again later she noticed the astonishment when she mentioned that she could imagine to have one.

Not much changed in Nervous' life in the beginning. He was a family sim and now that he was an adult he mainly thought about falling in love and getting away from the Beakers. He was used to staying in, being very shy and completely dependent on Circe and Loki regardless of his feelings towards them. Eventually though he realised that he had to go out if he wanted his dream to become true. The first positive result was him and his mother forming a bond again. Olive had been stopped from seeing him while he was a teenager and she would have never come to the Beaker house. In the years without her he had worried that she did not love him and it was good to find out that she did.

He had to get used to a totally new appearance when he met her again shortly after. When he returned to the coffeeshop in Desert City one evening she was there, a young woman, looking even younger than he remembered her as a small child. It was weird, but she explained that it was actually a gift from his father. Nervous couldn't adapt to it easily, because it brought back very early memories which he had almost forgotten, but it had to be great for his mother.

Like him she wanted a family and Nervous wondered if she would beat him to it. He went out often now and got to know several women in the neighbourhood, but they had no romantic interest in him, so little in fact that they even talked about the men they were attracted to in their conversations with him. It did not bother Nervous. As much as he wanted to fall in love he could not feel any attraction for them either. He could not fancy any woman. He would have thought he was a homosexual but he did not fancy any man either. Nervous was unaware that his slight aversion to both sexes was due to the experiments conducted on him. Many of them had involved learned behaviours and negative reinforcement.

He tried and it was appreciated but as soon as he was getting a bit closer his approach was rejected. Most of the time he had no idea what to do anyway.

When he came home one evening after another disappointing day out, he found himself charming Circe, but she told him to stop it. The Beakers had not treated him well as far as he knew - because some things he could not remember - but he had always wanted them to like him, especially Circe.
Circe was astonished when Nervous began to flirt with her. She realised that she had never seen him as a grown up. Or had it affected her thinking, just not consciously?

Nervous was sad that Circe had reacted so negative earlier, but later she came into the kitchen and gave him a backrub. It felt really nice. He did not think that she was such a bad person as some neighbours said. For the rest of the evening she was very friendly towards him and spent it mostly with him even when Loki returned from work. Maybe she did like him - he wished it was so.

Circe kept thinking about the earlier incident and the fact that Nervous was an adult which resulted in some strange and puzzling feelings. She and Loki had treated him badly, but she would not let that happen anymore. Actually it had been quite sweet how he had attempted to charm her, he was so innocent. She had only wanted to show him that she was not angry, but when she began to rub his back there was this warm feeling for him; it felt so nice that she stayed in the kitchen talking to Nervous instead of joining Loki, who was playing chess in the living room.

The next day Nervous went out as usual. First it wasn't any different from before until it got dark and he met that vampire woman. Maybe it was his father's inheritance, but vampirism had always appealed to him. He talked to her and since she was friendly he dared to make another attempt to flirt with a woman. 'Oh thanks, that is very nice of you to say that', she replied when he complimented her on her looks and smiled at him. All of a sudden she appeared much lovelier. Had he finally found a sim he was attracted to?

But when he looked around he noticed that this change in perspective wasn't limited to her. Goddess, all these women were lovely!

How had he managed to overlook it? He had talked to most of them, but until now he had not noticed how beautiful they were, each in her own way. It seemed to him that they had begun to shimmer. Everyone of them was surrounded by a white starry glow.

The loveliest of them all was Circe though. Her shift did not start until six o' clock and she was painting when he came downstairs the next morning. He had stayed up last night so that they could still talk for a little while when she returned and she had told him that this was very sweet and that she wanted him to know that she was his friend, even if he remembered bad things she had done in the past. Her hair was like a shiny copper helmet; even without a glow she was more beautiful than any of the women he had met the evening before.

He got himself a coffee and sat down with her while she had breakfast. They had only started to do this very recently, but to sit and talk to her was precious to him already. Loki and Circe used to ignore him unless they wanted him to do some tests (when he still had to sleep in the dark basement) and during this time he had always dreamed of it being like this. He did not know why Circe was so nice to him now but it was not important. He felt very close to her.

'I'm really sorry about the way I acted the other day, you were only trying to be nice and I was my usual nasty self again', Circe said and hugged him. She had gone upstairs to tidy up and he had followed her to talk some more. He felt a strong need for her company and hated it that she had to work later and he would be alone with Loki in the evening.

Circe became aware that they had slowly moved while they were hugging and were standing in the bedroom now. She was also aware that her apology had only served as an excuse for an embrace. The warm feeling when she was in his company was getting stronger all the time and she had been longing to touch him. She wondered what it was like to kiss him and before she was finished with the thought her lips were touching his.

His dark eyes began to shine when he smiled at her. It could only be because she had ignored him being an adult why she had not noticed how handsome he was. Instead of bringing relief the kiss had only increased the desire for his touch. Others often said that she had no heart, but would it be possible to feel so tender towards him if this was true?

Apparently Nervous felt the same, because she did not have to say a word to get him to join her on the bed. Inbetween the kisses she got rid of her clothes and he helped her and was taking off his until they were in their underwear. He ran his fingers down her back and if there was a warm feeling before she was burning now.

She looked at him and he smiled. He was all innocence but there was no doubt that she had a man in her bed and not a boy.

She had anticipated him to be more awkward - she was sure that he had never been with a woman before - but he seemed to know what she needed. The initiative had come from her but then he took over moving on top of her while they kissed.

She could tell that he was excited too, because he was breathing hard and then he entered her, moving slowly and gentle until he was deep inside her and she closed her eyes and gave in to the passion, feeling his lips on her neck and her breasts and his cock thrusting harder before he groaned and came, with her following only a second later. She had not known that it was like this now. After their wedding night she and Loki rarely slept with each other, which was not in the least unusual at the time. But in the last couple of weeks this town had gone through a crazy period and hardly anything was like it used to be. No wonder that Lazlo had been in such a hurry to get into the bedroom with his girlfriend.
Nervous needed a few minutes to understand what had happened. When it happened he had been unable to think. Suddenly they were on the bed and Circe had begun to kiss him. After that he had only wanted her, wanted her close and wanted to fill her when her legs had parted for him. Then he exploded.

He could not forget this feeling and wondered if it was the same for Circe.

When they got up Circe began to fear that Nervous might not be able to handle this experience, but he came over and put his arms around her, soon kissing her passionately again. He appeared more mature all of a sudden, it was the way he was touching her, no, definitely not a boy.
Nervous found it hard to take his hands off Circe. He hated the idea that she had to go to work even more now.

Circe was glad that Loki had a day shift, because she and Nervous could not separate the whole afternoon. He followed her around the house but she would not have wanted it any different and was eagerly waiting for each touch. She could not get enough of it.

'I have to leave soon, but we see each other later, yes?'
Nervous was not sure what she meant. Of course they would see each other when she returned from work, but the way she had said it, it sounded strange.

She looked at him strangely too, he did not think she had ever looked at him like this before.