Chapter 3: The Right to Family
by lightpathetic
ZERO retched painfully into the bowl of the toilet he was currently hugging desperately. He wasn't particularly concerned by the fact he was vomiting. Heaven knew it's happened many, many times before, usually accompanied by a hangover.
But this... scared him, simply because he hadn't been drinking the night before and because of the violence of his sickness. It was also a culmination of a recent spate of queasiness he'd been experiencing in the mornings. He hadn't been back to his doctor, though. He had been leaving the company, for one, and two, well... he couldn't face the fact that whatever was happening to him may be because of the attack. It would come out then.
That I've been...
"Here. Drink this."
Zero looked up in horror, quite put out that he hadn't heard him come into the bathroom, but then he'd been retching quite loudly, his head almost below the rim of the receptacle.
"What... What is it...?" Zero rasped, his throat burning from stomach acid.
"It will settle your stomach. Make you feel better. Works like a miracle when I'm hung-over."
"I'm not..."
"What?" Kaname asked, prompting the younger man who had stopped his sentence abruptly. Zero placed the glass to his lips and downed the contents, praying for relief and a better answer to the question.
Saying he wasn't hung-over would raise all types of questions. He didn't think he would earn his money or design credit locked away in quarantine. When he got a chance he'd just go see his doctor privately but until then he'd keep his concerns to himself. It was damned puzzling, though. That's why it was so scary. He felt fine usually: no fever, no pains. Just this nausea in the mornings. He was always fine by lunchtime...
"I was going to say 'I can't imagine you being drunk'," Zero eventually managed, feeling quite proud of his powers of improvisation. "You seem a little tightly laced and puritanical..."
"That's a good image to have when you run a company the size of GE. Please know I'll deny ever having admitted such a thing. Are you feeling better?"
"Yes." Actually he was! He sat up as a strange hope came over him. Maybe if he stockpiled this stuff... Did Kain know about it? "What is it?"
"Stadamine XE. My doctor recommends not getting drunk in the first place, by the way."
The censorious tone was back. Zero wondered if he had hallucinated the earlier sympathetic manner. He got to his feet and smoothed his hands over his clothes before going to the bathroom sink to wash up.
"I'll be right out. Thank you for the help."
"I did say what you did in here was your own affair but if it interferes with my work..."
"I understand. It won't happen again." This day was just not going well. He wished he could stop it, rewind and start over.
"No it won't. There is to be no more alcohol drunk or drugs used while you are on this job. If I so much as sense you are in any way inebriated you are on your way home. Is that clear?"
"You can't do that! My free time is my own business...!"
"But now it is mine as well. Obviously you can't control yourself so I will help you. Your inefficiency reflects on me. For instance, I will have to reschedule three conference calls because I am in here taking care of you..."
"You have some nerve!" Zero bellowed, unable to tolerate his superior tone a second longer. He'd been through too much in the last few weeks to take this crap from him. If only he could say that he hadn't been that weak! But, dammit...! "If you are so sure I'm a frigging junkie why not just fire me and stop ruining your 'efficiency'?!"
"Because I am over a barrel, just like you. Don't forget that. Besides, I refuse to be wrong about anything, including you. I need someone I can depend upon now but if you force my hand I will get rid of you. Even I can run out of patience."
Zero turned away to the mirror, leaning on the small, cerulean blue carbon polymer sink as the livid brunette exited the small room and left him to his own devices. Maybe he should go home. He wasn't well, he was being treated like a child and he was having some murderous fantasies about his boss that he couldn't quite talk himself out of carrying out. What he needed was some time to recover from his trauma. He did need to run away...
"Mr. Kiriyuu! I need your opinion on this. Are you going to work at all today?"
Zero looked up into the mirror and pursed his lips. He could run and hide. He could pack and walk out. But to what end? Did he really need to have nothing more in his life than self-pity? How sad was that?
What was happening here was bigger than his own problems or his boss. He had the chance to shape it. Now. Now he had the chance to transcend what was forced onto him. If he was strong enough to take the opportunity.
"Mr. Kiriyuu!"
But first, Zero thought, he'll need to at least find the speakers in his room and take a bat to them.
"Coming!" Zero yelled, grabbing a dehydrating strip, then mumbling. "Keep your shirt on..."
"I WANT THE recreational facilities to be to the north. There will be several acres for a park where there will be a gymnasium, pool facilities and game courts for all manner of sports. The offices will be to the east and south and the residences will be to the west. There will be a centralised hub for easy mobility..."
Zero listened, fascinated by the possibilities even as he looked out on the arid, reddish-brown earth. The settlement could be seen in the distance and they had left their vehicle and walked upon the dusty, sun-baked earth. Zero couldn't believe he was here. He'd heard so much about this forbidden place and now he was walking over it. Albeit in a climate controlled banana-yellow containment suit. Still...
"What about waste management?"
"There will be a recycling plant a few hundred miles to the south where all waste will be separated, processed, neutralised and reused. All powered by solar energy. This city will have the best and be almost completely self-sufficient."
Zero whistled low and asked softly, "What is the budget like on this?"
His boss had been in a good mood ever since he came out of his room and saw Zero awake and finishing the tasks he'd been set the previous day. He'd loved the new revision Zero had been working on all morning and since then he could do nothing wrong...
"There is none, Zero. The WGB is funding this. Whatever it takes to return us to where we were before..."
There. He'd called him "Zero" again. Seems that was an indication of his mood.
"I wish they would throw as much money behind the fertility issue," starting the old public gripe again. "Aren't they worried about there being no children anymore?"
Zero was surprised when Kaname stopped his excited scrutiny of the dark, reddish landscape and looked right at him. He then turned toward the vehicle and trudged off leaving Zero in his wake.
Zero's mouth dropped open at the sudden change. It was a fairly hot issue nowadays: what the WGB was doing to further research into the declining population. The human race was facing extinction and they were building cities and legislating on every aspect of peoples' lives. Why wasn't cloning working? Why did so few – and normally the rich - benefit from surrogacy programs? And how did they expect fertile women to come forward if they disappeared into some facility or other just to make babies? It should be a choice!
Shouldn't it?
"Are you coming?"
The large tank-like vehicle stopped in front of him and the door opened to let him in. Zero hopped in and was barely seated before it moved off across the parched landscape to the settlement.
"I didn't mean to imply this wasn't worthwhile. I wouldn't be here otherwise..."
"But you did mean to imply that nobody was doing anything about the childlessness," the other man bit, slamming his foot to the floor of the vehicle, accelerating as if he couldn't wait to get away from Zero. Zero couldn't believe this.
"It's just an ongoing issue!" People griped about what the WGB was doing about the childlessness as an icebreaker at parties. It was so well-trodden Zero couldn't imagine anyone becoming offended by it. It was like that old one about global warming... "I didn't mean to offend..."
"What are you doing about it, Mr. Kiriyuu? Except sitting there and passing judgment on other people?"
"What is your problem? Honestly?! Are you going to pretend you've never heard the ongoing discussion on the drastic population decline? That save for the rich and lucky there may be no-one to populate this extravagant vision of yours?"
Zero braced himself as the vehicle suddenly halted and the doors to the vehicle opened on his side; probably to suggest he get out and walk. Zero ignored this "suggestion" and instead looked ready to beat his boss' head in. A dark head turned away from the cold grey gaze and leaned forward onto the control panel placing his head on one arm. His breathing was noisy; almost gasping and Zero finally stopped frowning and wondered if he was okay.
"Hey, Mr. Kuran. Are you...?"
"I wonder… what you would do if you had the chance, Zero. To help. If you were able to help a very desperate person. Someone who had always wanted a child. Someone who had sunk billions into the research and... had even tried but..."
"Jesus..."
Zero thumped his helmet in frustration. How could he be so obtuse?
"You've tried haven't you? To have a child? Of course, you're rich enough..."
"I never said...!"
"Please. Don't insult my intelligence. What's a black market pregnancy among the rich? Commonplace? And you're upset when people like me complain?"
"So what? We can take care of them! In case you haven't noticed you can't even afford your own home while I have..."
Well, Zero thought it was time to use the door. He hopped out of the vehicle and began to trudge across the dusty wasteland towards the settlement. The land was brighter as the sun began to rise and Zero could feel the heat on his face through the visor but he didn't care. He was going back, on foot, to pack and then he was leaving. He would not be condescended to by this insufferable jerk...
"Zero! Come back here!"
"Mr. Kiriyuu to you, you fucking asshole," Zero shouted over his shoulder, picking up his pace. He heard the vehicle rev-up and move off. Maybe he was going to kill him with it to stop him talking about his crime. Zero kept a wary eye on it as it circled him and parked in his path, a figure in yellow disembarking from the vehicle to accost him.
"Get in. Let me explain..."
"No. You don't have to. I understood perfectly..." Zero moved to go around him but then...
"I carry the trait for Amanpour Syndrome, Zero. They disqualified me. Said I was unfit. Simply because my child may have a 1% chance of having a hyperactive personality. One percent! What would you have done in my shoes? What good are my means if I shouldn't use them to get what I want?"
"That's not how it should be done...!"
"I dare you to say it. I dare you to tell me to my face that you would never have done the same thing and I'll leave you alone. They had wanted fifty million dollars and I had forty trillion. Tell me what you would have done! Tell me that, if it were in your power to find a way to reproduce but it meant bending a few rules, you wouldn't do it!"
Zero groaned in annoyance as he felt himself slow down and stop... He needed to go. He needed to go! He'd known this was a bad idea from the beginning. He had enough problems of his own without taking on someone else's. But he'd seemed so pathetic. And he'd promised an escape...
Damn, he was a softie. A coward. A cowardly softie.
"What happened? Did you...?"
"She miscarried. Twice. We were only allowed two chances."
"'We'?"
"My wife and I..."
"You're married?!" In what universe?!
"Was. She blamed me. I had the abnormality so..."
"Oh," Zero said quickly, not too keen on getting embroiled in his boss' private life even if it was a bit too late now. He conceded that if he did have forty trillion dollars he probably would have done the same thing.
Especially if it would have made her stay...
The silence descended like a damp blanket until the older man noticed the day was getting uncomfortable.
"Perhaps we should go inside."
"Yes..."
The men turned to head back to the vehicle.
"I'm sorry about my behaviour..."
"Forgotten," Zero replied, waving as if to dispel the awkwardness. "I didn't understand until now. At least you got a chance. People like me don't."
Kaname grew quiet at this for a while. They were seated in the vehicle again – Zero driving this time – before he asked, quite softly, barely audible over the hum of the engine.
"If you did have the chance, what would you choose?"
Zero laughed bitterly, pushing his foot down on the pedal. Why dream of such impossible things?
"To have a child, of course.
"It's so... awful knowing that you'll just die and be forgotten. Unless you can do things like this," Zero said, gesturing to the construction nearby. "Monuments to your own vanity, your immortality lies in your children. Not just your genes but... you know, to be able to teach them what you know, to pass on the old stories and customs, to shape them into people better than yourself and have them remember that you lived. I think to die alone and simply forgotten... isn't that everyone's fear?"
"It certainly is mine. It's surprising. You're so young but you understand perfectly."
"Gee. Thanks," Zero drawled, but he grinned. He was getting used to "Mr. Kuran".
"But you can get that satisfaction from having a protégée as well, you know."
"It's not the same. Your child has a vested interest in his roots... Hey! Is that why you wanted me here?"
Zero looked to one side at the lounging yellow mass which stayed quiet even as he stared hopefully at him, then gave up as he realised no answer was forthcoming. A protégée! He'd been chosen as a protégée to Kaname Kuran! Wow!
Zero figured he'd better stop worrying about his boss' bad attitude and other things. He should try harder to get along with him. Who knows? Maybe he'll get some of the money...
"IT'S WORKING!"
"Thank goodness!"
"Thanks, Mr. Kuran!"
"Don't mention it. See that the bit is changed every five working hours until we fly in the replacement. We simply can't afford to stop drilling until it comes."
"Yes, Sir. Are you going out to the North Field now? They called to request that you..."
"No. We're going to head back inside first. We mustn't miss brunch, must we, Zero?"
Zero coloured painfully and turned away while the foreman and his assistant had a laugh at his expense. He couldn't understand it himself. He was ravenous so often he couldn't see straight. And he was gaining weight! Oh, the indignity! And it seemed to be all on his stomach. The morning he couldn't fasten his pants any longer he'd decided to go back to bed and let the world be damned. What was wrong with him? Yet his boss wouldn't let him have time off to go to the doctor.
"You seem fine. No fever. Eating properly. It's probably because you aren't working out. When you go back you can make up for that..."
"That can't be all, Kaname. It's all going onto my stomach. If you hadn't told me about that shop so I could adjust my suits I'd still be naked. It's happening fast and when I try to cut back on my food..."
"You mustn't do that. I can't afford to have you get sick. Your body is telling you what it wants to cope with the conditions. Don't ignore it."
And it was the oddest thing; from then on, his boss had been making sure Zero ate regularly and often, as if growing as fat as a rhinoceros was a completely normal thing to do. Zero grew miserable, especially since he couldn't even stop himself – he had "midnight" snacks twice a night. And whenever he wanted to exercise restraint Kaname sabotaged it almost expertly. In fact, he's been obsessive about his meals since they'd arrived.
Kaname. He'd insisted he call him "Kaname" as they were working and living together. His boss wasn't bad once he wasn't feeling the pressure of the situation, which was seldom. However, when he did relax, he was still a little straight-laced but with a dry sense of humour, patient and quite kind. Like now. Knowing Zero's odd proclivity for not being able to wait until lunch anymore, he would promptly drop everything to head back in the middle of the morning to make sure he ate. And healthily. The greasy sausage wraps were relegated to Tuesdays only. Zero, who had been beginning to like him, began again to plot his demise.
"Do you have to do that? Make me the brunt of jokes?"
"You are gaining weight, Zero, and you have to eat more regularly. You think they won't notice that? I am trying to make light of it so it seems normal. People handle stress in all sorts of ways and..."
"It's not stress, Kaname. I feel like... something's growing inside of me. Like a tumour."
"Nonsense. You're are as healthy as a horse. Your bio-screen was perfect. You don't even have cancer in your family..."
"I was adopted, Kaname. My family died in the attacks when I was two..."
"I know. I've checked out everything about you. Look, you have nothing to worry about. Come on. Why don't you think about what you'd like to eat? I'll make it for you when we get back."
Zero gave up and stepped up into the vehicle, only hesitating a little as Kaname insisted he move around and let him drive.
Damn, he was being treated like a ticking bomb. It made him more nervous. Rather than think of his weighty choice between Oat-Wheats with milk and "Wheat Thin Bars with Strawberry Flavoured Soy Protein chunks for a satisfying crunch and great nutrition" without milk, Zero decided to ask a favour.
"Kaname."
"Hmmmm?" His boss sounded distracted as he backed out of the pit. Zero soldiered on.
"I need a break. Two days at the most. I've been working for two months without a moment to myself..."
"Are you complaining? You know my schedule...!"
"I know. I just... I have to see a doctor. This is really beginning to worry me. Either you give me permission or I..."
"No! Don't. I understand, okay? Just... let me think."
Zero became silent as well, wondering what there was to consider so deeply. He was sure Kaname could manage two days without him. They were ahead of schedule. In another four weeks and they could begin the reinforced perimeter. Zero looked back at the yellow suit that drove in grim silence beside him and waited another ten seconds before...
"Okay. I know a doctor that owes me a favour. I'll have him fly down to examine you..."
"No. I prefer my own. I don't want a stranger at this point."
"Who is he? I'll have him come..."
"Must you police everything I do? What the hell is making you so nervous?"
"Nothing! Nothing," Kaname repeated, more calmly. "I just want… to help."
"You can help by letting me leave for two days. Honestly, I can manage going to the doctor by myself..."
"I don't think you should go to just anybody. What if they report you and you get quarantined?"
"Not him. He's cool..."
"Who?"
"That's my affair. I think I like actually having a secret from you, Kaname..."
"I think… we both need a break. Why don't I go back with you?"
"What?! No!"
"Why not? You can stay with me. You ought to remember that you are still practically homeless."
KANAME sat on his bed staring at the cold harsh night beyond his window but seeing none of it. He was listening carefully.
"Sure. I can fit you in, Zero. What time?"
"How about four o'clock on Thursday afternoon? You are usually free then..."
"Yes. My scheduled gym time. I'll see you then. How is everything? Any more pain?"
"I'll talk to you when I see you. Thanks."
"No problem. Goodbye."
The call ended and Kaname exhaled, not realising he'd been holding his breath until then. He thought he recognised the voice but...
"Laura. Confirm call address."
"Dr. Albert Rosenberg. Global Engineering suite 15, level 300."
"Thank you. Resume monitoring."
"Yes, Sir."
Kaname lay back on the bed, his face showing the agitation he was feeling. There had to be a way to handle this...
"Lakewood Assistant: call Mr. Aidou."
"Yes, Sir."
to be continued
lightpathetic wrote this as DramaticPause on AO3 but these are not my original characters. They are based on a manga called Vampire Knight.
