Would You Love Me?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Two

The next day Riki was taken to a hospital, one that specifically catered to pets. The walls were painted soft, pastel colors and the magazines were light fare and easy puzzles—which frustrated the mongrel more than anything. He grumbled about not needing a doctor the entire ride there, grumbled about not being a child while in the waiting room and grumbled about the doctor smelling funny when they got into the examination room. It wasn’t until Iason put a warning hand on the wrist computer that would activate Riki’s pet ring that he finally quieted.

The doctor, however, was beside himself with joy. He was, after all, attending the pet of the great Lord Mink. He took some blood samples and several x-rays, an ultrasound to look at the state of the mongrel’s organs and poked and prodded Riki more than he cared to be.

He was only giving such a thorough examination because of the status of the pet owner, ordinarily he would have assured the master that it was a flu and to wait it out. It was nice having so much power sometimes. While stress levels and tensions were high, at least he could expect nothing less than impeccable service from the rest of the population.

The doctor left after he had thoroughly molested the mongrel and the pair had to wait a while until the tests were analyzed. Riki had moved to a soft cushion on the floor and Iason sat in the doctor’s desk chair.

“Sick or not, I’m still treated like a fucking dog.” The pet grumbled.

Iason’s fingers were gently playing in Riki’s hair but at the comment they tightened and he forced the mongrel to look at him. “Didn’t I tell you to behave today? One more smart comment and I’ll have no qualms about chaining to the wall when we return. Sick or not.” His perfect lips twitched upwards into an almost cruel smile and then he leaned back, fingers gentle and eyes straight like nothing had happened.

Riki was silent until the doctor returned.

“Lord Mink, may I speak with you?” The shorter, pudgy doctor said. Iason quirked an eyebrow. It wasn’t often that someone requested permission to speak in his presence. Then he understood.

“Alone? Certainly.” The Blondie stood and left Riki to glare at the pair of them as they left the room. A female attendant appeared almost immediately- a chaperone for the pet in case anything went wrong. Of course Riki just ignored her.

-----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile the doctor led Iason to a small, cluttered office. The Blondie couldn’t help but to wrinkle his nose at the state of things—it was certainly unprofessional and he wasn’t used to seeing such a mess. The doctor mumbled some excuse and quickly cleared a chair for the Blondie to sit.

“I have quite an interesting diagnosis.” He began, looking down at a file he’d brought with him. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really the sort of thing you only read about in textbooks. In all my years as a professional, I’ve come across some odd things and I must say—“

Iason interrupted. “Will you get on with it? I’ve got a busy schedule.”

The doctor blushed and nodded frantically. “Um… yes, forgive me. Your pet… understand that we checked and double checked to be sure that the diagnosis was correct. He might never have known about it, in fact it’s nearly impossible to tell unless—“

The Blondie cleared his throat.

“Forgive me. Your pet is pregnant.”

There was a silence in the room as Iason tried to gauge whether or not the man was serious. Pregnant? It was impossible, Riki was male.

“He’s… five weeks along as far as we can tell. It seems that he was born with both male and female internal organs, but only the male genitals formed on the outside. It’s a birth defect that’s common in males who have been exposed to certain types of radiation, much like what we might find in the Ceres slums…”

But Iason wasn’t paying attention anymore. Riki was… pregnant? But that had to be impossible! He tried to wrap his mind around that fact, and then the second part hit him. That mean that the child had to be his! Riki hadn’t been let outside the penthouse in months, even for pairings, and nobody had been in except Darryl, but he was a Eunich. Weren’t Blondies supposed to be sterile? Was there some sort of defect in his OWN genetic makeup?

“Now there are several methods that I’ve brought forward that would be helpful for removal of the fetus. The first, and easiest, would be a removal of the fetus only, however it would be possible for another pregnancy in the future so I might recommend removal of the uterus as well. The second is an injection that would cause a premature—“

Iason cut him off again. “No! This child, however unlikely it is, will be carried to full term!” He was angry that someone as low class as this fat doctor would DARE mention aborting his child. Then he remembered through his rage that there was no way the doctor would know. “I mean, I would like to have my pet give birth. It might be… a novelty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take my leave before I’m late for my meeting.”

The two stood, shook hands and Iason left the cluttered office, clutching Riki’s file and smoothing his face into his normally expressionless gaze so he wouldn’t betray his emotions.

------------------------------------------------------

When he entered the room where Riki was waiting, he simply motioned for him to follow and turned on his heel to leave again, not saying a word. Riki did as told, but attacked Iason with questions. “What is it? What’s wrong? You poisoned me, didn’t you? Or.. or… gave me some STD! Am I dying? How long am I going to be sick? Why won’t you answer me! It’s MY health, not yours, you’ve got no right to keep it from me!” But it wasn’t until they reached the street and climbed into the back of Iason’s car that he spoke.

Then, after making sure the driver couldn’t hear them, he turned to the mongrel and kissed him hard on the lips, his hands tightly grasping his shoulders to pull him close. When the kiss broke, Riki watched Iason’s wide smile with suspicion.

“Happy I’m dying, you bastard?”

“You’re not dying. I’ll tell you when we get home, but for now won’t you just act like the world isn’t against you for once?”

The mongrel felt like smacking Iason for that, but of course he didn’t. The car ride home was silent, the only noises were the occasional kisses to Riki’s shoulder, neck or cheek that Iason planted. The elevator ride was much the same, but less kissing and more of the Blondie’s hand stroking Riki’s back.

Finally they reached the penthouse and the mongrel whirled to face his captor.

“Tell me!”

Iason nodded, that infuriating smile still plastered on his face, and pulled a picture out of the file the doctor had given him. He handed it to Riki and let him figure it out.

It was a picture of an ultrasound. There wasn’t anything to see on it yet, but the doctor had circled the subject with a red marker. Riki knew what it was. When a friend of his in Ceres had gotten pregnant, the gang scraped together enough dough to finance her hospital visits, hoping that one of them would be able to get out of the slums. Even so, he had to ask. “What is this supposed to be?”

“That’s our child, Riki. This ultrasound was taken today in you. That right there is our child.”

Riki shook his head. Even if it was possible for him to become pregnant—which it totally wasn’t—he didn’t want a child. He just couldn’t have it! “Lies… you’ve got to be lying, there’s no way… I don’t want to have your fucking baby!”

He dropped the picture and took off running towards his room, not able to handle being near Iason.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------