Walk forward, into the world

Title: Walk forward, into the world
Author: Ainzfern
Genre: Ai no Kusabi – Post OVA
Code: Iason/Riki
Rating: NC-17
Parts: WIP - 13/?


“So… approximately fifteen hundred,” Riki murmured unhappily, looking at the data that he and Katze had just collated.

Seated in front of the multi-terminals in Katze’s own apartment in the outskirts of Midas, Riki sighed and rubbed his fingers against his tired eyes. “It’s not enough.”

Beside him, Katze was silent, filtering the figures once more.

“Shit,” Riki whispered. “Why are there so few of them, Katze?” he asked suddenly. “I mean, the Elites have been dumping their unwanted pets out into the streets for years. Why are so few of them out there?”

Katze sighed softly, his pale face filled with profound sorrow as he looked over at Riki. “They just don’t survive long, Riki. They get mistreated. They get abused and murdered. It’s not a nice fact, but it’s a fact nonetheless. They’re just such easy prey, because no one cares.”

Riki stared at him for a long moment before, almost as if he could no longer bear to stay still, he got to his feet, stalking over to stare out the window of the office, his arms wrapped around his body in a peculiar gesture of self-comfort, his shoulders tense and unhappy. “Shit,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Shit.” He glared back over his shoulder. “That’s fucked up, Katze. That’s the sickest, saddest fuckin’ thing I think I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s still true.” Katze dropped the hard-copy audit data list back onto the desk top and hung his head, defeated.

“It’s just not enough,” Riki repeated again.

“I know.”

“God, we were that close, y’know,” Riki swallowed hard. “It was a good idea, Katze. It really would have worked.”

“Perhaps Neeson will agree to a reduced compliment?” Katze suggested hopefully.

Riki glanced at him again. “Maybe. I don’t know. I can ask him, I guess. I just really wanted to give him the full numbers right up front.” He sighed once more, leaning his forehead against the window pane. “What a fucked up world we live in,” he muttered, almost to himself. “Sometimes, Katze,” he went on, his voice soft and sad, “I wonder if it’s even worth trying. I mean, just when you think people can’t get any worse... they go and shock the shit out of you by doing stuff like this. Stuff that’s so fuckin’ ugly you just can’t get your head around it.” He wet his lips, his eyes closing painfully. “It’s like a punch to the guts. Only it’s worse because it just keeps on hurting.”

“There are good things out there, though,” Katze said from behind him. “I mean, look at you. You’ve found hope, right?”

Riki sighed again. “I don’t know about that either, Katze. I mean, sometimes, I still wonder if I’m not just kidding myself. Just pretending to be respectable little companion of a man who’s so far above me that it’s not even funny.”

“Riki…”

Ignoring him, Riki continued. “There are days, Katze, when I actually think I should just get the hell out of Midas. Go back to the slums where I belong...” He trailed off, his eyes suddenly widening as he stared sightlessly out the window. His heart began to hammer, and his breath grew short as a surge of genuine excitement pulsed through his body.

Oblivious to the internal shift in his employee, Katze huffed a doubtful little chuckle. “Now, I know you don’t mean that, man.”

“Have you been keeping tabs on Guy, Katze?” Riki asked then, turning around to face him, his tone distant and distracted by his deep thoughts.

The ex-Furniture looked sharply up at him. “Why?”


“We need his contacts, Katze,” Riki rolled his eyes, “.I’ve been too long out of Ceres, but if Guy’s still there then he’s still running deals. He’ll know the heads of the other gang members, but he’ll also know the names of the current Ceres-Edge community leaders… and they’re the ones that I really want. This is an opportunity that the residents of the slums would jump at! A chance to get out. A chance for a real future.” He ran his hands through his hair, the idea taking him fully. “Now, I know that you have people in your network that can probably get the same information but, believe me, this way will be faster.”

“Riki… are you serious?”

“I might be. I don’t know yet.”

“Ceres-Edge leaders don’t do business with the gangs, Riki,” Katze reminded him pointedly as he resumed his seat.

“I know,” Riki walked towards him, his eyes filled with excitement, “But if Guy’s M.O is still the same, he’d have made a point of knowing who they are, just in case an opportunity ever came up.”

“All right,” After a long moment, Katze nodded up at him. “Yeah, he’s still in the game. As a matter of fact he’s consolidated his position significantly since Dana Bahn,” his mouth twisted into a little smirk, “playing off the fact that he’s the one mongrel in the whole of Ceres that fought a Blondie hand-to-hand and lived to talk about it. He’s almost a little legend in his own life-time, now.”

“Typical,” Riki shook his head wryly. “Any fuckin’ angle that works.” His expression grew more serious then. “So he’d know that Iason is alive, right?”

“He’d have to by now. Iason’s return to the leadership of the Syndicate was broadcast on the news-links,” Katze smiled maliciously. “I can imagine he punched a few walls the day that happened.”

“I’m sure,” Riki sat down again, a sense of regret washing through him. “Listen, I know that you hate him, Katze.”

“No shit.”

“But I don’t,” He held up one hand as Katze’s expression grew angry again. “Just… listen, okay?” He sighed, struggling with it. “I actually feel kind of sorry for him. Yes, he kidnapped me. Yes, he hurt me… and badly.” Riki looked into Katze hard eyes, pleading for some manner of understanding. “But, he’d also gone kind of insane by that time, I think. And he lost everything that day. Everything that he cared about. Even his self-respect. He was so obsessed with saving me, that he couldn’t see that what he was trying to do was the very thing he’d always accused Iason of. Keeping me against my will.”

“Yeah, but even so…” Katze began unhappily.

“I have no intention of leaving Iason, Katze,” Riki assured him again. “Not for Guy. Not for anyone. And no way am I stupid enough to go anywhere near Guy without back-up.”

Katze relaxed slightly, approval in his eyes.

“But this idea will work.” Riki chuckled sadly, “Once Guy gets over the shock of finding out that I’m alive, of course.”

“Riki,” Katze leaned towards him intently. “Are you sure Guy will even talk to you?”

“Oh, he’ll talk to me, all right,” Riki replied confidently. “He won’t be able to help himself. The tough gig is going to be convincing Iason to let me do this.”

“Ah,” Katze winced. “Oh, yes.”

*****

“Absolutely not,” Iason’s voice was flat and final, “There are no circumstances under which I will agree to this.”

“Iason,” Riki rose from the sofa where he had been sitting when Iason and he had begun the conversation just moments before, walking across the room to stand in front of his agitated Blondie, “It’s important. I can probably account for about fifteen hundred displaced ex-Pets currently in Midas, but I need more people. Neeson’s minimum requirement is four thousand, five if I can get them.”

“It’s far too high a personal risk for you, Riki.”

“But the pay-off will be worth it, don’t you get that?” Riki stared up into Iason’s stiff face and ice-cold eyes, silently pleading for acceptance. “This is a chance that won’t ever come again. A chance for the lowest caste in this world to also get out, to make a new life. I’m not naïve enough to think that it’s going to be a Utopia for them, or even anything like it, but it’s still a chance for them to have some control over their own futures. It’s hope, Iason, and that’s something that the mongrels of Ceres have never had.”

“Why must it be him?” Iason literally hissed the words, “Why must it be Guy?”

“Because he has the contacts, he knows the right names,” Riki wet his lips with the tip of his tongue, lowering his voice slightly. “And I know him. It’ll be quicker this way.”

“Then send Katze.”

“Guy won’t talk to Katze. You know that.”

Turning abruptly away from him, Iason stalked across the full length window that graced the side of the Penthouse along the balcony. He paused there, his hands clasped behind his back, as he stared out at the night. “No, Riki,” he said at length, “I cannot accept the excuse that the benefits outweigh the risk. Not this time.”

“Iason…”

Iason turned back, his eyes flashing coldly and his face hard as stone. “You will not go to Ceres. Not tonight. Not ever.”

“I see.” Riki felt his face flushing, his gut filling with dismay and bitter disappointment.

A feeling that he honestly had thought he would never experience again from this man.

“I get it,” he continued dully, his hurt and anger clear in his voice. “All the promises that you made to me - all that bullshit about my not being your fuckin’ Pet anymore and you not being my Master. That only holds true until it becomes inconvenient, is that it?” Riki turned and walked toward the front door of the Penthouse. “Well, that’s just fine, Iason. You go right ahead and have it all your own fuckin’ way again.”

In the next instant, Iason was suddenly right next to him, having closed the distance between them so quickly that Riki was honestly stunned by his lethal speed. The Blondie’s hands grabbed him firmly, sharply pulling him around to look up into a transparently anguished face. Shocked by Iason’s expression, by the sheer depth of emotion there, Riki felt his mouth drop open, his eyes growing wide.

“I am not trying to give orders to you as a master would, Riki,” Iason low voice was tight with upset, “I am trying to appeal to you as your partner. Riki... he took you. He kept you from me. He hurt you. He nearly killed you. Surely you remember this?”

“Of course I remember,” Riki whispered, his throat aching.

“Then don’t do this.”

“Iason, I have to,” Slowly, he lifted one hand, pressing it gently to the side of Iason’s flushed face. “Please try to understand. If I turn my back on my own kind when I have the power to help them… what kind of man would that make me? How could I ever look into a mirror and meet my own eyes again? How could I ever face myself, or anyone else for that matter, without shame for the rest of my life?”

Iason looked deeply into his eyes for a long moment, a wealth of emotions crossing his perfect face. Finally, he sighed, a slow and shattered sound, as he nodded reluctantly. “Then bring him to Midas.”

“I… What?” Riki gaped at him, honestly surprised.

“Have Katze send a few of his men to collect him,” Iason explained. “Bring him to my office in Jupiter Tower, where I can at least ensure that you will be safe while you negotiate with him.”

Riki bit his lower lip, hesitating.

“Please, Riki,” Iason laid down his final card. “Please.”

Sighing, Riki nodded. He knew this was pretty much the best compromise that he was going to get.

Besides, he had to admit, it did make a certain amount of sense. “Okay,” he stepped forward then, sliding his arms around Iason’s body and stroking his powerful back slowly, trying to ease some of the dreadful tension he could feel out of the muscles there. “Okay. We’ll do it your way. Are you happy now?”

Iason buried his face in Riki’s hair, returning his embrace with almost fervent intensity. “Far from it,” he murmured in his velvet voice, “But at least the fear of losing you again will be less this way.”

“You won’t lose me, Iason,” Riki whispered, lifting his face to kiss the side of Iason’s jaw. “I promise you that.”

“Good,” Iason smiled slightly, sadly, as he looked down into Riki’s eyes once more. “Just see that you keep that promise.”

“I will,” Riki breathed, slipping one hand around the back of Iason’s neck, drawing his face down to kiss him softly. “I will.”

TBC…