Chapter 7: Dancing and Discovery

Iason stared at his computer terminal, but wasn’t really focused on it, his thoughts were on Riki. It had been almost a week since they had been to the beach, and things between him and Riki were severely strained. He had even taken another business trip that had kept him away the last four days and had returned to his regular office to work instead of his condo office when he arrived home this morning. He’d lost his temper with his pet that night and had hurt Riki because of his own selfish and unreasonable jealousy.

His pet had held strong, through the humiliation, the pain, and the hours of sex. He had pleaded for release, pleaded for Iason to stop, cursed, and threatened him, but had never admitted the truth of what happened at the casino. He had protected Mimea through all of it and that still infuriated Iason.

He had given his pet two days to recover from his punishment, because he truly regretted hurting Riki, but once those two days were up, he’d expected things to return to normal between them again. He suspected there to be some sort of battle, given Riki’s fury at being punished, but he had hoped that Riki would accept that he was wrong to lie about Mimea and things would return to normal.

Instead, whenever Iason came home, Riki was inconveniently intoxicated and positively reeking of cigarettes. His pet was compliant with his master’s demands, but the alcohol deadened Riki’s reactions to the extent that he may as well have been using a sex doll to bed. After two days of this, he’d told Cal lock up the alcohol and take away Riki’s cigarettes.

He’d expected the tantrum to extend to refusing to eat or bathe next, but his pet had learned his lesson from such behaviour before. Riki knew that Iason would punish Cal if his pet was not properly cared for, and so Riki would eat and bathe as he was supposed to. So, while there were no outward protests, their meals over the last few days were as silent as the grave. No amount of prompting would get Riki to speak, not even when Iason tried to provoke him into anger.

The mongrel had chosen to protect Mimea, and then Cal. Iason couldn’t understand why Riki had so much forgiveness and loyalty for a former pet and Furniture, yet none for him, his own Master. It was excruciatingly frustrating. Why couldn’t Riki just belong to him? Why couldn’t Riki love and accept him and understand that everything he had done was to make life better for his pet?

Riki was provided with good, healthy food to eat, a warm bed at night, as much credit as he cared to have to buy whatever he might like; all things a slum mongrel coveted, and yet Riki cared nothing for such things. Even when Iason made several adjustments just to have the boy as his own, had broken several rules of his own people, Riki showed no gratitude for his sacrifice.

He would do anything to make Riki happy, well, any reasonable thing. Riki had accepted his life as a pet when he returned to Eos and accepted that he belonged to a Blondie. Yet, because of one incident Riki was acting almost as belligerent as he had in the beginning. It honestly made Iason want to pull his hair out!

Picking up a few strands of the blond tresses that fell over his shoulders he wondered if he could pull it out? He supposed he could, but would it grow back? A Blondie’s hair was simply there, it never grew and was never cut, that he was aware of. No, he wouldn’t pull it out, he liked his hair. Riki liked his hair, he liked to play with it when he was in the throes of passion. Iason smirked remembering several instances when Riki did just that, curling strands of his master’s hair through his fingers with a gentleness that contradicted the urgency of his other responses during that time.

He sighed. Why couldn’t things be like that all the time?

“You are looking very contemplative.”

Iason didn’t bother to look up as his friend and brother entered his office. “It is my job to contemplate, consider and choose.”

“That look is different from your usual office look.” Raoul settled into a desk chair, crossed one long leg over the other. “Trouble with your pet again?”

“No.”

“Oh? Usually that’s the only thing to put you into such a state.”

“What state is that, Raoul?”

“You’ve been staring at the same information for almost fifteen minutes and have made no move to adjust or accept it.”

“What makes you say such a thing?”

“I have been standing in your doorway for that length of time and observed it myself.”

Iason glanced at the screen, accepted the proof of Raoul’s words. “I have already adjusted it; I simply haven’t sent the results yet.”

“Why is that?”

Iason touched a key on his terminal and the data closed. “There, now it is sent.”

“You didn’t answer my question, Iason.”

“Your question is invalid, Raoul.” Iason rose and pulled on his cloak. He wanted to go home, but he didn’t want to face another night with a sullen pet. Besides, if he went home and Riki was still in that awful mood his temper might snap and he could make things much worse. “Shall we go for a drink?”

Raoul blinked and rose. “You haven’t asked me in quite awhile.”

“Are you declining?”

“Of course not.”

The two Blondies left the office and headed for the lifts.

“I am merely surprised. I expected you would want to rush home to that pet of yours.”

“I would like to relax first, is that so hard to believe?”

“No. It is always a pleasure to have a drink with you, brother.”

“Is it?”

“Of course. You are usually a stimulating conversationalist.”

“Usually?”

“You have been rather morose lately. Care to discuss it?”

“I am not one of your studies, Raoul.”

“I would never consider you one.” Raoul waved at a trio of elites who bowed their heads slightly in greeting as he and Iason exited the lift and the three entered it. “However, I have considerable experience in the psychology of other species so I could offer counsel when it is requested.”

“I require no counsel.”

“Your words contradict your recent attitude, brother.”

“Your words are starting to affect my attitude, brother,” Iason countered as they entered a lounge designated for Blondies and settled at a small rounded booth.

A young girl hurried over and took their drink order then rushed away to retrieve it.

“That statement itself reveals you are preoccupied,” Raoul smiled and accepted his drink, allowing his gaze to linger on the scantily clad server before she hurried off. “I often annoy you, and you have never remarked on it.”

Iason sipped his drink and tried to clear his mind of all the nonsense rolling around inside of it; there were sometimes disadvantages to having an organic brain. “If I have never spoken of it, how did you conclude that you annoy me?”

“I annoy everyone at some point in time, and you are far too easy to read, dear brother.”

“Am I?” Iason looked at Raoul. He was far from expressive and maintained a cold detached demeanor with everyone so that no one could know what he was thinking; well except for Riki of course. His fingers curled tighter around his glass at the reminder of the situation with his pet. “How so?” he asked neutrally to give away none of his current frustration.

“There is no need for concern, no one else can get through that armour you surround yourself with, but I have known you since your creation, Iason. I have watched you develop. Combined with my extensive knowledge of the human brain, as well as micro-expressions, body language, and multi-species cultural and mental attributes, I can attest that I always know when you are annoyed with me.”

“Am I annoyed with you now, Raoul?”

The other Blondie laughed. “Of course, because you feel I have defeated your defenses, but fear not. Such information will remain between us.”

“If you know I am annoyed with you, why do you insist on irritating me further by speaking of such things?”

Raoul grinned, sipped his drink. “Because I find it enjoyable.”

Iason set his glass down, studied his brother who, by all accounts, was always been slightly more open with his emotions than all the other Blondies. “I believe I should speak to Jupiter about performing a brain scan, you appear to be in need of an adjustment.”

Raoul’s smile faded and he set his own glass on the table. “That is not amusing, Iason.”

“Oh?” Iason waved at the server to order another glass. “Can you not tell when I am being facetious, brother?”

Raoul held Iason’s gaze, then slowly picked up his drink again, sipped. “You are not known for your good humor.”

“Ah, well I regret to announce that you do not know me as well as you think.”

Raoul sniffed, but a small smile twitched at his lips at being bested in the conversation.

Riki awoke from another nightmare staring at his old pairing partner. It was very similar to the last one, including Guy becoming Iason during sex, only they hadn’t been burned up by fire this time. Instead, Riki dreamed they were falling, he and Iason both, into a bottomless pit and it had been so dark and cold. He kept calling for Iason, but the Blondie wouldn’t answer him. He could feel Iason in his arms as they fell, but still the elite refused to answer him and that scared him more than the dream of being burned alive. Guilt, fear and sadness had engulfed him in the dream, and he had thought why wouldn’t Iason talk to him? Why wouldn’t he respond?

Sitting up, he rubbed his neck and stared down at the pale blue sheets of his bed. Iason had been gone for four days, he should be happy about it, but he wasn’t. Things had been tense between them since the beach house. He was still feeling off about it. Was that why his dream had a different ending?

He had tried to rebel the first few days by drinking several bottles of alcohol every night, as he had in the very beginning, trying to drown his sorrows. He also smoked as many cigarettes as he could, ignoring Iason’s rule of only one or two a day, knowing the Blondie would find the scent on him disagreeable. By the time Iason returned home, he was in a state where he neither cared what Iason did to him nor could he respond properly. Alcohol always dulled his senses, making him sluggish and compliant, too much apparently was a turn off for the great Iason Mink.

Cal had locked up the liquor and taken away his cigarettes, but Riki simply went out, on one of his very rare excursions to the shopping areas, bought another pack and hid them. It was easy enough to smoke in the bathroom with the window open, but he suspected that Cal knew he was doing it, Cal knew everything that went on in the home of his lord and master, but the boy had not reported it to Iason, because otherwise the cigarettes would have been taken away again.

Turning his gaze to the wall, there was no window in the pet room; he let his eyes adjust to the darkness until he could make out the spare pieces of furniture. He was sleeping in here again because there was no way he’d willingly go back to sleeping in Iason’s bed. That bastard had hurt him, again, and he would not forgive him this time. Granted, he had lied about Mimea, but that’s no excuse for what Iason did. He should have just trusted him, believed him, but instead he flew off the handle, as usual. Bastard.

“For fuck’s sake!” Riki sat up and angrily tossed back the covers.

Why was he even thinking of that cold-hearted prick anyway? He was glad Iason wasn’t home! It wasn’t like he missed him or anything. His body missed him, sure, but he’d gone longer; hell, he had survived an entire year without the Blondie’s touch, he could certainly survive a few more days. Iason would take him when he returned, he was sure of that because Iason would need to reassert control over his precious pet, right? It had nothing to do with wanting Riki, or caring about him, it was just about control and satisfying the perverted needs of an android. He was nothing to Iason but an outlet for sex.

Needing to rid himself of where his thoughts were taking him, Riki snatched the first thing from his closet, a pair of black, low rising jeans and slid into them. He did up his zipper but didn’t bother with the top button as they were tight enough, they would not slip off.

Stepping out of his room, he paused for a moment, thinking about how Daryl would have to let him out of the room, because Iason always locked him in at night. He knew Daryl had been ‘discontinued’, as the other pets called it, and that still bothered him. Iason would never tell him what happened to Daryl after the Furniture had opened the doors of Eos to let Riki outside.

When he returned and found Cal was Iason’s new Furniture, he had promised not to let himself get close to the boy, but that had been difficult because sometimes there was only the two of them and there was a natural progression of camaraderie ship after a while. When he had heard about what happened with Daryl, he changed his mind about keeping his distance and started being nicer to Cal. There was no telling what might set Iason off to have this Furniture disposed of, so he would try to be considerate of Cal’s position, within reason. He still insisted on washing his own ass.

He moved to the parlor and stared out the floor to ceiling windows of the wrap around balcony. It was very late, the sky was a deep raven black, but the bright lights of the city shone in through the windows casting a subtle bluish glow on the white furniture. The darkness reminded him of the pit in his dream and he tried to shake it away.

“I need a drink.”

Heading into the dining room he moved to the wall opposite the table. As he pressed his fingers to the palm plate just to the left, he smirked when it flashed red. “Denied?” Iason must have told Cal to lock up the liquor. “Oh really?”

Heading to his room, he collected the little multi-tool he had brought back with him from Ceres, and then returned to the dining room. Humming to himself he removed the front of the palm plate, then propped the thin tool in his mouth as he coded in a sequence of numbers, crossed two wires, and coded in a second series. The wall panel slid open revealing the fully stocked bar.

“Well, hello there,” He greeted to all the gleaming bottles. After quickly reconnecting the plate to the panel, he ran his fingers over the multiple sizes of colorful bottles. Not in the mood for Sake, or for whiskey, he selected a thin decorative blue bottle from the top shelf, pulled the cap off, sniffed and nodded.

Cal stepped down into the dining area just as the bar panel was sliding back into place. “Mr. Riki.”

Riki almost smiled at the resigned disapproval in the young man’s voice. Cal probably would make a great mother; not that Riki had any idea what those were like.

“Go back to bed, Cal.”

“Lord Mink decreed that you were no longer to have liquor.”

“Lord Mink isn’t here.”

“Please return the bottle to the shelf, sir.”

“Nope.”

Cal sighed. “I have not revealed your continued smoking, but I will have to tell Lord Mink about this.”

Cal held off on reporting that small indiscretion because his master was not due back until tomorrow, in which case he would be taking Riki’s cigarettes away in the morning and making sure Riki bathed to erase the smell. He didn’t see the harm in letting the young man smoke while Iason wasn’t there, and it was a small concession to thank Riki for at least trying to teach him to swim.

“Mr. Riki?” He lifted a firm gaze to the mongrel. “I don’t want either of us to get punished, so please, will you put it back.”

“I’m just going to have one drink. I can’t sleep...”

“I’ll give you a sedative...”

“I don’t like how they make me feel.”

“Some tea or warm milk?”

“No, I want this.”

“I cannot allow it, Mr. Riki!” Cal stepped up, determined to get the liquor from Riki regardless of what it took. He had to obey his master but he was growing to hate having to discipline this rebellious pet. Not because it was tiring, which it absolutely was, but because he liked Riki and did not like to see him hurt. “I insist that you give the bottle to me. Now.”

Riki scowled and handed the small white bottle over to him. “Fine! Take it.”

Relief flooded the young boy. He didn’t want to resort to the electric wand he carried in his pocket, which could physically harm the pet, but he had a duty to obey Lord Iason’s order and would use whatever means available to fulfill that duty.

“Thank you.” He would take the bottle of Sake to his room and put it away in the morning. Better to keep the cabinet closed and Riki away from it all together. “Would you like me to make you some tea, instead?”

“No. I’ll just put on some music and try to relax.”

“Are you sure? You won’t go into the cabinet again, will you?”

“No.”

“Will you promise?”

“Yeah, I promise to stay out of the cabinet.”

Cal nodded. “Okay then. Good night.”

“Night.”

Riki waited until he heard the subtle click of Cal’s bedroom door behind the kitchen, then reached beneath the table, by the head chair, and plucked out the tall blue bottle he had chosen earlier. When he’d heard Cal coming, he’d grabbed the Sake as a decoy. He didn’t want the furniture to get into trouble, but he also needed something to help him stop thinking so much.

Riki returned to the parlor, poured himself a generous helping of the thin, golden liquid then knocked it back. Wow! That shit tasted pretty, damn good! It was kind of sweet, almost like candy and not like regular alcohol at all.

“Engage stereo, level three, selection slow jazz,” he ordered and the house system immediately filtered the requested music through the living room speakers. Collecting his bottle and glass, he stepped out to the balcony and poured another glass, before setting the bottle on the small breakfast table. Lighting a cigarette, he inhaled deeply then exhaled on a slow, deep sigh. Taking a healthy swallow from his drink, he let his thoughts drift back to his earlier dream.

Guy had hit Riki, knocked him around in Ceres, before he’d returned to Iason. Riki had worked his friend up enough that his anger had taken over. Iason had told him to break all contact and make sure it stayed broken. The only way to do that was to make Guy hate him. He’d said horrible things that night and regretted every single one of them, but he’d done it to keep Guy safe.

There should be no reason for him to be dreaming of Guy again. He’d made his choice to return to Iason, and usually once he made pea choice, he didn’t allow himself to regret it. As a Slum Mongrel, there was so little he had a choice in, so when a decision was left to him, he was very careful in making it. Allowing any self doubt to cloud that choice, after the fact, just wasn’t practical for a mongrel. Maybe it was his recent punishment from Iason and having what little control he’d managed to regain, stripped so effortlessly from him, that had triggered it. That solid sense of betrayal that the Blondie had resorted to such tactics out of jealousy reminded him of the betrayal he felt when Iason showed up in Ceres a year and a half and, after setting him free, and forced him to return. He knew that Guy also felt betrayed by his actions before he left, so had the reminder of that betrayal sparked the dream?

The moonlight caught the metal of his bracelet and caused it to shimmer. He was pissed off at Iason, furious with him, actually, so why was he still wearing it? Why did Iason bother buying him gifts and shit, pretending to treat him well, then punish him at the drop of a hat? Was the Blondie trying to buy his affection or something? Well, it wasn’t going to work. He could never feel affection for Iason. He could never feel anything but resentment for the man who had ruined his life. Still, it had shocked him that Iason’s hands had trembled a little when he’d asked him to put the bracelet on him; he was usually so calm and cold. It couldn’t have been from anger, Iason seemed pleased that he’d accepted the gift.

Christ, it was so hard trying to figure the elite out. Riki fingered the chain on his wrist. Why had he kept it? Why not put it in the closet with the others after Diman and Shiouvan had left? Iason had been especially nice to him when he had been upset by Shiouvan coming on to him on the balcony. He’d expected Iason to punish him, without even asking about the situation. Instead, Iason had believed the female pet was in the wrong and had removed Riki from the brazen pet so he could calm down. Iason had let him smoke inside the condo. It had been a side he hadn’t seen from Iason before, and it confused the hell out of him.