Sheep's Eyes
Summary: Sora Destin was about to meet his special one… only he didn't expect to find it in a bundle of fur.
It was a story that happened in a city called Demoss; a most peculiar story of its kind. A boy, named Sora Destin, was about to have his life turned upside down. But it was a quiet night; an ordinary Saturday night in the suburbs of Demoss. Everybody was out in downtown; the residential streets were quiet, the dark black night fell on the streets like a thick blanket, sparkling with stars. A lone streetlight was twinkling brokenly among the healthy others.
"Oh, come on, Sora! It's Saturday!" Kairi, his friend, said on the phone. "You gotta get down here with us!"
"No, I think I really will pass tonight." Sora sighed.
"Why? Seriously, Sora, there are so many cute guys here." She said. "I bet they'll all be lining up for you once you show up."
"Kairi, we went over this." Sora said. "I'm just not really ready for another relationship. I'm too tired—"
A sudden knock on the house's front door distracted Sora from his conversation.
"Hey, you know what? I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." He said.
"Wait, Sora! Wa—"
"I'm coming!" The boy yelled out as he headed towards the door. He swung it open but there was nobody there. A rush of cold night breeze whisked past him; the trees rattled with a thousand little voices. The first thing he managed to see was a farm truck powering up its engines, leaving a sheep behind.
"Hey, you left a sheep! Hey!" Sora ran out to the sidewalk yelling, but the truck was already on its way down the street.
"Baa!" The poor creature moaned. It was moving away from Sora in fear, backing out towards the road.
"No, no, it's dangerous there!" Sora wanted to reach out to the sheep, but it was too frightened. It backed further away from Sora and into the heart of the road. From afar, Sora could see the headlights of an oncoming car.
"Shit!" The boy looked back at the frayed animal. An idea then suddenly came to him as he watched the creature inch slowly away from him. He stepped right towards the sheep, effectively causing it to back away further; in fact, it ran across the street to the other side of the road. Sora followed after it.
"Come here, little buddy. I won't hurt you." The boy stepped slowly towards the animal; it stepped back from him. But it didn't realize it was backing up against Sora's neighbor's garage door and soon found nowhere to escape to.
"Here, here. Easy, boy." Sora picked it up gently. It made weak attempts at struggling; it was then that Sora felt a bit of its bones under his hands. He headed back towards his house and closed the door. Finally, the sheep's legs found solid ground again, and Sora took a good look at it.
It was shivering; its legs seemed weak and wobbly. In fact, it looked like it hadn't eaten in weeks.
What kind of owner did it live with? Sora thought irately as he tried to figure out what he should do. It took him a minute to remember that sheep ate grass and weeds. Hurriedly he headed for his backyard where the weeds had been invading lately, and pulled out a handful of them, along with a few sticks of grass. He even got some sunflower seeds and water.
But when he went back inside, the sheep was not standing anymore; it was lying on the ground, looking half-dead.
"Oh no!" Sora rushed to its side. "You've gotta eat. Come on, buddy! Wake up! Eat!"
The sheep's mouth moved feebly. Sora plucked some leaves off the vegetables in his hand and slowly stuffed them into the sheep's mouth. Then he fed it with some water, and waited for it to chew. The sheep did so at an agonizingly slow speed. They had to repeat this feat a few times before the sheep finally coughed up and looked a little better.
"Phew." Sora sighed. The sheep baaed and wriggled on the ground, and Sora helped it up. It grazed on the remaining food. Sora began cleaning up after it and the house already smelled like a sheep.
That night, when Sora was taking a shower, he finally found the time to think about just how strange the night had been. The sheep didn't struggle or fight or tried to get out of the house after it finished eating. In fact, it seemed to be following Sora around. Not that Sora minded it, but all this was just a little too sudden for him to fully understand what was going on. But as he crawled into his bed, he knew that the first thing he had to do in the morning was to call ASPCA to report the incident.
"Baa!"
Sora's shoulders jumped at the startling sound. He looked over his shoulders and found the sheep looking back at him. Its tummy was full and it seemed to want some company.
"What's up, buddy?" He asked groggily.
"Baa!"
"You wanna sleep up here, don't you?" He smiled, picked it up and placed it on the other side of the bed. It settled down on its knees and closed its eyes. Sora reached an arm out and touched its head lightly. It's got very fair skin and silver wool. The boy smiled again, and fell asleep with it.
Soon the night passed and Sunday came greeting the city of Demoss. Sora was still in bed up until the sun was in the sky and the city was alive. It was too hard to resist the warmth next to him. His arm was still reached out as he slept facedown. He squirmed a bit to get a more comfortable position, getting closer to the body next to him, his lips almost kissing clear skin.
A loud horn from some taxi out there somewhere broke Sora's comfort and woke him up. Rubbing his eyes, Sora sat up on the bed and yawned. Finally he opened his eyes and saw something uncalled for.
He screamed.
The naked man in his bed was startled awake by the scream. He wriggled and turned his head to the side, opening his eyes to see Sora backing away from him to the edge of the bed.
"Wh-Wh-Who are you?—ah!" The boy fell backwards onto the ground. "Ow."
"Baa!" Came the awkward yet familiar sound. The man was now hovering over the edge of the bed, hands grabbing at the edge with his chin on them, smiling down at Sora. He had a clear head of straight silver hair and two bright turquoise eyes on a handsome face. If he hadn't shown up in Sora's bed unwelcomed and naked, maybe Sora would've found him cute.
Maybe.
"What did you just say?" Sora frowned.
The man hesitated. He paused for a moment before saying again, "Baa!"
"What the…" Sora sat up, utterly confused.
"You sure you didn't go get drunk last night? Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought this morning?" Kairi asked, trying hard to suppress giggles.
"Oh for Pete's sake, no!" Sora threw up his arms in frustration as his friend failed to see the severity of the situation. "No, I did not get drunk last night. I didn't pick up nobody to bring home. This is all real and I am not hallucinating. And don't even get me started on this morning."
"Well, forgive me, but it was just a little hard to believe you picked up a sheep that turned into a man." Kairi chuckled, and stole a glance at the uninvited stranger. "That point aside, he's actually pretty cute." As she finished, she headed towards the stranger on the sofa.
"Kairi!" Sora whispered harshly.
"Hi." She said to the man. "What's your name?"
The stranger looked at her, seemingly puzzled, and glanced at Sora. Sora made no sound, but only shrugged his shoulders. The man looked back at Kairi, and made the usual "Baa" sound.
Kairi almost jumped at the response. Sora cracked a bit, while his friend stood and stepped away from the stranger back to him.
"Holy shit! It's true!" She said, overwhelmed with shock.
"Told you. Why would I lie to you?" Sora said. Kairi pinched him in the arm. "Ow!"
"So what do you plan to do with him? ASPCA aren't gonna take him, are they?" She asked.
"I don't know." Sora shrugged. "I don't even know if he's really human… Maybe I should bring him up to a veterinarian first."
"No, not that." She said. "I mean, if he's actually still a sheep who's somehow taking the form of a human, then it's fine 'cause it'll just be like you got a pet or something. But, what if he's really human now? Are you going to feed him and let him stay here?"
"Do I have any other choice?" Sora held out his palms at her. "I'm just as confused as you are! I don't know what to do!"
"Okay, okay." Kairi said. "Let's get him to a vet first… if anybody will even believe us."
And so Sora and Kairi brought the man—whose name happened to be Riku, as Sora found engraved on his necklace—out along with them to a nearby veterinarian. They had explained everything Sora knew of, starting from the moment he opened his door last night, yet they could not convince the vet of his story. The vet regarded them as bored young adults with nothing better to do than to pull a prank at the clinic.
"This won't work." Kairi said as they headed somewhere for lunch. "They won't listen to us unless they know us well enough."
"What a trouble!" Sora whined, ruffling his hair in frustration. He looked over at Riku silently following behind them. "And I don't know what's safe for him to eat."
"I guess we should just get him vegetables for now." Kairi said. "Sheep can handle that, can't they?"
"I suppose." Sora sighed.
"Hi, I'll have a roast chicken salad, please." Kairi said to the clerk. Suddenly a thought came across her mind. "Hey, Sora. I just remembered something."
"What?" He looked away from Riku, who was grabbing at his arm for no reason, towards Kairi.
"Didn't Zexion say he was going to be a pre-med?" Kairi said.
"Zexion?" Sora frowned. "Oh, that quiet kid back in high school."
"Yeah." Kairi said. "We were good friends back then. I still talk to him sometimes now, even if we don't meet as often."
"What about him?" Sora said as he grabbed his and Riku's plate of food and headed for an empty table.
"He told me he's been interning at the hospital near campus…" Kairi said, musing, "You think maybe he can lend a hand to us with Riku?"
Sora glanced at Riku. The man was examining the silverware on the table, obviously oblivious as to how to use them. Then, before Sora could even demonstrate, Riku put them back where they were and just hit the plate—literally smacking his face right onto the food. Apparently, Riku is oblivious that he's human, too.
"This is not going to be easy." Sora rolled his eyes and collapsed onto his arms with defeat.
At first Zexion was just as skeptical as other doctors, but after Sora's relentless pleading and Kairi's incessant threats, he decided to examine Riku just for once. Sora stayed with Riku inside the room to act as an interpreter, more or less, in order to calm Riku every time Zexion tries to put a stethoscope on Riku's chest or place him into a fMRI scanner.
Eventually Zexion was glad Sora and Kairi came to him. What he had discovered is unlike anything he'd seen before, and it might just have substance that'll make his senior thesis worthy.
"These are the preliminary scans of his brain." Zexion said, clipping up fMRI scans onto the light box. "This is a scan of a normal human's brain. These scans are taken with the human performing a number of basic tasks, the same ones that I just asked your friend here to do. Now, notice how on several different tasks, the normal human brain shows an increase in blood flow in these regions. Your friend, though, shows blood flow in other regions, or no blood flow at all."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Sora said, looking at Zexion with a lost face.
"In simple words, these differences indicate your friend can't speak languages, compute, and reason. He can, however, perceive things from his five senses and control his motor functions. He also has a conscience." Zexion said.
"Simpler words, please." Kairi crossed her arms. "Is he a human or is he not?"
"He is a human." Zexion rolled his eyes. "Physiologically he's as human as you and I are. He may even have a personality, for all we know. But he's a man in an adult body with a baby's brain."
"So he can eat meat and do all that stuff that humans do?" Kairi asked.
"Yes! See for yourself," Zexion brings them to another scan. "He has the body of a twenty-two year-old guy. One heart, two lungs, one stomach, small and large intestines…"
Sora and Kairi looked at each other, then sighed.
"What?" Zexion said.
"Nothing, except all of a sudden now I have another person to take care of." Sora said. "Thanks for your help though, Zexion."
"Wait, I'd like you guys to bring him back a week from now for a few more scans!" He yelled after them as they left.
"Well, I suppose you can try putting him into an orphanage." Kairi tried lamely.
"Kairi! Look at him, he's twenty-two!" Sora said, stopping suddenly and surprising Riku. "This won't work. I can't put him off just anywhere; no one will take him. But I can't just leave him out on the streets."
"What about the people who left him?" Kairi asked. "Ever thought of trying to find them?"
Sora's train of thought stopped. "That's it! I should try to search for them!"
"Yeah." She agreed.
"But how?" He sulked. "I didn't even catch their farm name."
"It'll work out, somehow." She patted him on the back. They've arrived back at Sora's house. "In the meantime, I guess you'll just have to make do with him."
Sora sighed.
They went home and Sora spent the evening researching for any similar case to Riku's. He didn't find much, while Riku just remained beside him or hung around the backyard for the most time.
When nighttime came, Riku obviously hadn't recognized the humans' social need for privacy quite yet. He went directly after to Sora, almost following the boy to his bed, until Sora almost screamed again and pushed him off. Sora ended up pulling the portable spare mattress out for Riku. But Riku didn't seem to understanding of Sora's intentions.
"Sleep." Sora said, pointing to the mattress. Riku only blinked at him. "No, Riku, you can't sleep with me in the same bed." Sora sighed. "Not anymore; not after what you've turned into."
Riku blinked again. Sora sighed, and took Riku's hands in his own. He sat down onto the mattress, bringing Riku along with him.
"Now, go to sleep." Sora touched Riku's hair gently, and Riku seemed to have understood. He lied down onto the makeshift bed, still looking at Sora. There seemed to be something in Riku's eyes—a gleam of trust, a search for guidance, perhaps—then Sora noticed a small, small, tiny smile at the corner of Riku's lips.
Sora smiled back at him, bid him goodnight, and went to sleep himself.
A/N: Brainchild of a strangest dream I had a couple of weeks back... Can't figure out what it means but thought it'd be an interesting topic for a fanfic.