Please feed the author

    "Iason, is it true that you're in a bad position because of me?"

    "Who did you hear that from?"

    "You hear rumors from everywhere, . . . As it is I'm supposed to be THE rare animal."

    *Chuckle*

    "It's no laughing matter!"

    "So you're worried for me."

    "Who me? I'm just a bit concerned that I'll get sent back to Eos."

    "If you've got time to worry about that you'd better learn some new skills. I'm not saying you should be a hacker but. . .  If not you'll always just be a rare animal."
 

<Part One>

    Riki wandered through the city with little aim in mind but losing himself. He had been warned that to be truely free he'd have to leave the city. He'd been warned before Bison had fallen. Before Iiason had returned. And he'd still remained there. Deep inside he knew why, but it was frightening to admit to. Impossible. He lowered his eyes and shivered even in his heavy leather jacket. //I've fallen for him. For Iason Mink, Mr. Blondie. God how stupid am I?//

    A loud sound startled him from his revary and he spun around to see a hovercycle baring down on him. He was knocked to the ground and rolled with it, mind racing as the rider raised a gun. //Iason! Katz was right, I'm Iason's Achilles heel. If I'm taken he'd. . . no. I'm just a mongrel. There's no way . . . I never told him that I. . .//

    The rider's eyes became clear as he trained the gun on him and Riki tensed in recognition. "Guy?!" He felt the electricity jolt hard through his body and fought to remain consious, but it was a battle he wasn't able to win. He fell to the pavement. His last thought of the blondie who had held him so gently the night before. Who'd told him to grow, to be more than a pet. Iason. . . who cared enough to let him work with Katz, who wanted him to be all he could. Iason.//

_______________________

    When he awoke, Riki's first thought was that Iason was probably worried, or angry, probably both.

    "How are you feeling."

    His heart pounded hard in his chest. //No. Oh please no.// "Just great."

    The lips he knew so well smirked, "I thought so."

    //So calm. Have you gone completely mad? Guy? Why would you do this?// "Where are we?"

    "Dana Bahn."

    "Dana Bahn? The underground shelter from the revolution."

    The smirk hardened and his eyes flashed, "It's not in the best of shape, but it isn't everyday you come across a place like this."

    //Such a young looking face. I thought I loved this man, once. But. . . it couldn't have been. That feeling didn't compare to. . . but I still don't want him killed.// "We'll be found soon. The pet ring has a tracker on it."

    "It won't be of any used here. This place is sheilded." Guy turned the mad gaze on him and finally said, "I had to take these measures to hear your true feelings."

    //Oh you'd love that.// The mongrel thought sinically. "What's the use of saying what's true and what's false now?"  He sat up and nodded, holding his head. The shock gun still had him dizzy. Years of living on the streets of the slum came to his aid then as him analytical mind kicked into gear. Not chained, no weapon, but he was stronger and faster than Guy. If he could just get above ground, the tracker would work. Even a moment would be enough. Iason would be able to find him then.

    "There's use. Tell me."

    Riki let out the breath he was holding and looked at Guy in sorrow for the pain this would cause him. He was still his freind, even after all of this. "Iason. . . he's in my blood, Guy."

    "Like poison." The brunet spat and Riki shook his head.

    "No. I want him to be. I care about him."

    "You're his PET."

    "But he doesn't treat me like a pet all the time! He wants me to be happy. Anything I need he finds a way to provide it even at his expence. I hadn't realized how much he cared until last night. . ."

    "Last night? While he was burried in your ass? Word's mean nothing when they're spoken in the heat of it."

    Riki blushed a bit, he hadn't realized that he 'could' still blush. "It wasn't. . . It was after. While he held me. We share a bed. All night. He holds me as I fall asleep. I wake up to his face each day, I don't think he even 'has' a bed in his rooms in the capitol."

    "Riki Wake UP. You're his Pet. No matter how well he treats you you'll alway sbe his pet."

    "He took the ring off once before! He could do it again! If I really wanted to leave, he'd let me!"

    "Do you really beleive that?"

    He stood and faced the grinning man, fists clentched. "Yes!"

    "You were never a fool before."

    "Then beleive that I'm not one now! Do you realise what you've done?! You haven't just slapped his cheek! You've pissed on the pride of a blondie. Of THE Blondie!"

    "So confident." He rose to face him and smiled meanly, "You think a blonde will get so pissed over the theft of a mere Pet?"

    That hurt. God how it hurt. A mere Pet? He wasn't just a Pet to Iason was he? If he could escape, Iason would find him. Iason CARED about him. "You want to know the truth?"

    "Yes. I do. Until I'm completely satisfied."

    Riki nodded and said the words for the first time out loud. "I love Iason Mink." The grin fell and anger replaced it, but Riki wasn't finished yet. He stripped of his clothing in angry jerking motion and stood proudly with only his pet ring and watched Guy fall back into his chair. "This is the truth. Did you know my whole body shivers if I'm carressed here?" He rubbed his nipple and gasped and tilted his head to show his neck. "Or here? Iason calls them my sweet spots. As long as I wear this Pet ring he can touched me and I can touch him. You have no right to wreck that!"

    "You're saying I'm self-complacent." He gripped Riki's muscled arm and held tight. "Don't I even have the right to feel for you?!"

    The pain in Guy's eyes made Riki realise what he'd done to his freind and his heart ached for him. Bu he couldn't give him what he wanted so much. //Don't do this to me Guy. Don't tourcher me with those eyes. Don't make me chose between my freind and my lover. You know who I'd choose.// "I will do as I please!" He turned away and felt Guy latch onto his arms again.

    "What is it about him?! Is he better than me?! I won't approve of that! You were our boss!" He hugged the black haired man from behind and Riki tensed. "When we were together people all stopped and stared. When we were together I didn't care how dangerous it was. . ."

    "Neither does he."

    "I'm not saying come back to Bison. I'm not even telling you to be my Riki, just don't be his. Not His."

    //But even without the ring I would be his. Why don't you see that?// He hand over his penis brought him back from his thoughts and he gasped.

    "I can't approve of you being his toy for the rest of your life. Not that. You were so proud Riki. You once thought it would be better to die than to be enslaved like this. Maybe it's better if you have no one."

    "How can you claim to love me and suggest that?"

    "You doubt my love?"

    "I doubt your sanity!"

    "Sleep for now. Maybe you'll see things differently once you've calmed down."

    Riki sat back on the bed. He watch guy open the door and then sprang for it. Catching the other man off guard. He ran for the outside as fast as he could and managed to leap into the night air before he was stunned once more. //It's over Guy. You aren't the freind I knew. And now, Iason knows where to find me.// He closed his eyes and struggled weakly against being carried back inside. //And he will find me.// His lips opened to take in the starry sky. //Won't you? Iason?//

    He watched through slitted eyes as Guy set explosives while he dragged Riki back inside. //Katz, please know what this means.// He hit the communications button on his watch and tossed it subtly out into the open. //Iason.//

____________________

    "Riki!" Iason almost sobbed in releif as the tracker on his wrist flashed and sprang to his feet and to the map panel. "Dana Bahn. //The signal would be blocked from inside the shelter.// He nodded and walked quickly down to the parking garage.

    "Iason?" Raul gasped and jumped from the rushing Blondie's way.

    "I know where he's been taken."

    "Iason." He followed and asked softly, "How do you know he was taken? He could have run away."

    "He's in Dana Bahn. If he ran away why would he leave there knowing I could still track him?"

    "A trap?"

    "Not likely." Katz drove up and motioned, "Need a lift?"

    Iason stepped inside and Raul shook his head and followed. "How did you know?"

    "Riki's watch has a comunication signal on it to use when he does jobs for me. He must have made a break for it and turned the com link on before he got caught. It's still going which means he dropped it. You caught the brief signal?"

    "Yes." Iason looked deadly even without showing a single emotion. "Dana Bahn."

___________________

    When they reached the old shelter, Iason walked inside straight away, forcing the others to follow him or wait.

    "Katz. . ." Raul began.

    Katz nodded, "I'll stay here. Just get them both out alive ok?"

    He smiled slightly and followed his freind and comrade.

    "Can you pick up his signal now that we're inside?"

    "Yes, It's straight ahead." He was so calm Raul almost beleived it. Almost.

    "So you did come."

    They stopped and stared at the man before them. Long, dirty hair and sanity questionable, it was Riki's one time pairing partner. "I know you." Iason said coolly. "Guy isn't it?"

    "After everything you've done to him. . . why? Why won't he let me take him away? Are you really that much? You treat him like an animal."

    "A rare and loved animal."

    "He's a man!"

    "And so is he not free to chose his own life?"

    "Iason?"

    All eyes turned toward the doorway and the dark man slumped against it. The tallest Blondie moved first. He walked up to the beautiful creature and enfolded him in a tight embrace. "You are alright."

    "Yes."

    "Get away from him!" Guy raised his gun and Raul crushed it in one hand. "You'll be sorry. You slapped my cheek first! No one will treat him like a toy. Even if I have to. . ." He reached into his jacket and pressed down on the detenator there.

    "Guy!" Riki lunged for it but the explosions had already started. Raul knocked the human kidnapper against a wall and turned away.

    "Come." Iason took his lover's hand, "We have to leave here."

    "We can't leave him!"

    The stone eyes broke and the full lips thined in pain. "You love him. . . so much?"

    "No! It isn't like that! Please! I couldn't live with myself if we just left him!"

    Raul placed the man over his shoulder and motioned, "There, now let's go."

    They walked at an angering pace toward the exit, but managed to stay ahead of the explosions until the very last. Raul and Guy were outside already and Riki, but Iason was caught in the back.

    It all happened in slow motion. Riki looked up and saw the doorway start to crumble, and the wall of fire coming at it. His eyes widened and his heart raced as he sped forward and reached out. He tackled the taller man to the ground just in time and cover the pale body with his own. There was not enough time to move out of the way.  The burst of fire and heat melted the skin right from his back and he screamed as Iason caught him. "Riki!"

    "Iason!" Katz dared to raise his voice, the blondie was beyond hearing his regular tone. "Come on! We need to get him to Jupiter!"

    "Riki." He sat in the back of Katz' car and cradled the injurred man lovingly. "Keep your eyes open. For me."

    "Ia-son." He voice was raspy and full of pain, so soft the Blondie could barely hear it. "I d-dn't run a-way."

    "I know you didn't. I know." He stroked the soft black hair and smiled a real, soft smile. "Jupiter will heal you. If you died I would too."

    "don't."

    "It's true."

    "I'm jus-. . . pet. . ."

    "You are so much more my Riki."

    "We're here!"

    He rose from the vehical and for the first time in his life, Iason ran. He rushed up the stairs instead of waiting for an elevator, and slammed into Jupiter's control room. The statuesque virtual form stood staring at him.

    "Please." He gasped, all pretense of calm collection gone. "Please save him. I can't help him."

    The computor looked at the black haired man in his favored's arms, at the burnt flesh and the pain on his face, at the tears running over Iason's cheaks. And he reached out and called him resources to him. Everyone at his comand who could help was sorted through and the most qualified was called forth. and through the whole operation and regeneration, Iason watched through tear blurred eyes. *You care deeply about this one*

    "Yes."

    *My human creators had a saying. If you love something, let it go. If it returns to you, then it was meant to be.*

    "I would die without him."

    *Maybe, he will die with you.* The computor image desolved into multiple spheres and reformed with a hand to the side of it's creation's face. *Some mongrel's can be caged, but this one is a free soul. He will never be happy, unless he is free.*

    The blonde watched the scientists urge Riki's body to heal at an extraordinary pace, watched the sleeping face he loved so very much, and he turned his head to the side and squeezed his eyes shut.

    *You are my greatest achievement Iason.* Jupiter smiled *So human inside and still so much more than they could ever be. You are my magnum opus. And you will do what is right. I know this because I can see the love in your eyes. You crave his happiness more than anything in the world. That is what love is about.*

    He lowered his head and wiped the tears away resolutely. Jupiter was right. And Riki. . . Riki was not a Pet. He was a treasure, lover, companion, and maybe even a freind. And he was his own person. Iason would not hold him against his will any longer. As soon as he was well and healed, his rare animal would fly free. //And if there is a higher power at work in this universe, it will send him back to me.//

<Part 2>

    The first thought that entered Riki's mind as he begn to regain conciousness was, //Iason! Did he get out of the way in time?!// The second was realisation that he knew the feel of the bed beneith him. His room in the pet building. Then the scent reached him and he smiled and breathed into the pillow. "Iason."

    Strong arms suddenly enveloped him and Riki gasped as he was pulled gently against the hard form he knew so well. "Are you in pain?"

    He relaxed and sank into the embrace. "No. I should be. What did you do?"

    The blonde whispered over Riki's dark hair, "I took you to Jupiter."

    "Jupiter. . . You were already in trouble before. What will happen now?"

    "They will erase my memories of you and reprogram my mind like a computor, back to the way it was before I met you in that alley."

    He pulled back sharply and glarred at him in shock. "How can you say that so lightly?!"

    "I knew it would happen one day the moment that I brought you here."

    "Then why did you?! Why didn't you leave me in the alley?! In my home?! Why did you bring me here?!"

    He smiled softly, "It doesn't matter."

    "It does to me."

     "Riki, do you know what a Blondie is?"

    "The right hand of Jupiter."

    Iason shook his head, "A blondie is a child of Jupiter." He corrected. "I am a fabricated man. Jupiter made me."

    "Why are you telling me this?"

    "I am nothing but a walking breathing computer." He shook his head, "With you though, I imagined that I could be more. You make me feel like a man. You make me want to laugh and cry and smile as freely as I see you do such things. That is why Blondies take pets, Riki. To taste a brief peice of humanity denied us from creation."

    "But you're more than that." He insisted.

    "Which is why I will be reprogrammed. I have proved unstable in my treatment of you."

    "Because you care about me."

    "Perhaps."

    "Iason." Riki gasped as he felt Iasons hand around his genitals. He moved to offer a kiss but then the pressure was gone and Iason slipped out of the bed and pulled a robe around his thin frame and dropped something onto the bed. "Iason?"

    "Go." He ordered.

    The black haired man looked down before him and gasped. His pet ring shone up at his from the coverlet. Iason had taken off the pet ring.

    "That will be worth a small fortune on the black market. And all of your accounts are still activated. It is enough to allow you to live in comfort for the rest of your life."

    "Why?" he demanded.

    A pale and soft hand caressed Riki's cheek and Iason rubbed his face against Riki's hair like a cate scenting it's human. "I am to be reprogrammed in a few hours. I won't remember you. You cannot stay here or they will send you to a brothel in the cities. You are too old to be a pet."

    "How long will it be for this time?"

    Iason laughed without humor. "I am giving you the pet ring. This is forever. You are free."

    "What if I don't want to be free?"

    "You have no choice. I can not take care of a pet I do not remember."

    "Of course you can."

    The blondie rounded on him and snarled, "And what would you do? Blondies only take other Blondies as partners, if we even deign to mate in such a way. I would not touch you, I might watch you at times but I wouldn't speak to you besides giving orders. I would be cold and uncaring. I am not going to be the Iason you know." He growled, "Fickle little human. First you want only to be rid of me and then when I try to let you go you want to hold on?"

    "Guess there's no pleasing soem pets."

    "You are not a pet."

    "I can be." Riki moved to replace the pet ring and Iason snatched it from his hand, crushing it.

    "You are not a pet." He looked away, "And that means that you are trespassing in this place." He pressed the intercome. "Guards, I would like you to remove a mongrel from my chambers. He is not to be harmed, just take him back to where he came from."

    "Iason!" Riki tried to grab hold of the blondie but the guards filed in and snatched him away, dragging him out of the room and away from the Blondie who would soon not know him from any other mongrel. "Iason! You can't just throw me away! Iason!" 

    Iason didn't turn around once. He stared out the window and tried to tune out the cries of his Riki. The boy was confused, He had forgotten what it was liek to be free. Riki had always valued freedom above anything else. //When he gets a taste of what I've been denying him, he will never return. He has money, he will be taken care of, he will be happy.//

    "You lied to him. Jupiter is not going to rewrite your memory." Raul observed as he stepped into the room.

    "If he thought I would remember him, he would always be waiting for me to bring him back. This way it offers him a clean break."

    "On one side at least."

    "On all sides. He is free."

    Raul studied his freind and frowned, "Do you truely beleive he will return of his own free will?"

    "No." The othe man replied honestly. "I love Riki with every inch of myself and everything in me that can love. But Riki doesn't love me. He will find another pairing partner. His old partner still lives if he wishes. He is free. That is all that has ever made Riki happy. Freedom."

    "And what has made you happy."

    "Riki."

    "And now that he is gone?" Raul questioned even though he had a good idea what the answer would be.

    "I will continue to serve Jupiter as always. I am just a Blondie." He strode from the room and Raul stared after him.

    //Iason. . . Just a Blondie? Do you have any idea? You have never been 'just' a blonde.//

~tbc~