Chappa 5-- Du Hast Meish

Mariana left sometime in the late night, while Mason had finally decided to get his sleep. She had only left a brief note, saying her reason for departure: she was looking for Makato. Mason was grief stricken at this, and could not be consoled whatsoever. Ryan was still recovering in the infirmary, and Ichiro watched over him constantly, never letting him out of his sight. However, Ichiro had finally relented on insisting that Mason or Mariana or both would come and visit Ryan. Oft, Ichiro had used such tactics as trying to invoke their sympathy or even just make them feel obligated to visit Ryan. It was true that he was a relative, and they hadn't seen him in a long time, and it was true that he was in a very poor condition, and extremely unhappy (alleviated some by Ichiro's presence), but nevertheless, it would help Ryan to have some visitors. Yet, Mariana and Mason had ignored all of Ichiro's attempts. Thus, Ryan remained alone, save Ichiro.
However, something rather interesting happened one day. Mason happened to come by Ryan's room in the infirmary. Ichiro was sleeping at the time, and Ryan had only just woken up, but was still groggy. He was cheered at the sight of Ichiro's sleeping form in the chair next to his bed, but startled when some one walked into the room.
"Ah, who's there?" Ryan slowly hoisted himself up onto his elbows. He relaxed some when he saw that it was only Mason. "Ah, Mason-kun... what brings you here?" Ryan felt slightly dizzy from sitting up, but the swaying sense faded after some short time. Mason glared at Ryan.
"What did you do to my Tousan? Where is he?" Mason asked harshly. Ryan blinked.
"What happened to Makato? I don't know. He's gone. I know not where he went to." Ryan shook his head slowly as he said this. Mason hissed.
"Did you kill him?"
"No. He is far from dead. I could have, mind you, but it wouldn't have been the most appropriate thing to do. No, he is alive. He is gone."
"Where did he go to, then?"
"I don't know." Ryan stared at Mason, watching him. Mason, on the other hand, was looking as if he was trying to suppress his expression, trying to retain his look of anger, while another was trying to surface. Ryan sensed that his nephew was angry, and also grieved. "I'm sorry." Ryan tried to alleviate Mason, yet inadvertently exacerbated him instead. Mason ran at Ryan, meaning to attack him, shrieking, but was stopped by a reflexive barrier. Ryan looked calm as ever, though his head cocked slightly to one side as if curious of Mason's behaviour. Mason tried to claw through the barrier, but stopped when he noticed that his cries had awoken Ichiro.
"Ehh... What's going on?" Ichiro blinked a few times, yawned, and looked around. He noticed Ryan sitting up, looking rather curious, and Mason with his hands against some sort of barrier that was between him and Ryan.
"... I see." Ichiro stood, and pulled Mason off the barrier. "Ryan-san needs to rest, and recuperate. He (and I, for that matter) has no need for hostility from any one. Save that for when he is back to his normal self. I dare say you deserve the worst from him, but I'm sure that he'll treat you as kind as if nothing had ever happened... You're very lucky that it is very difficult to cross Ryan. It is, however, quite unfortunate that your Tousan didn't have the sense to keep from upsetting Ryan so."
"Ichiro, that will be enough." Ryan barked hoarsely from the bed. Ichiro looked strangely, but obeyed.
"Of course." Ichiro muttered, and stepped back from Mason. The barrier melted away, and Ryan looked back at Mason again.
"If you want to stay, you may, if you wish to leave, you may. It doesn't really matter. It is enough for me to have the company of just one person, as it has been years, really, since I have been in able company of people. I don't want you to feel obligated to visit someone you loathe."
Mason couldn't have left quicker. Ryan watched him, then turned to Ichiro, looking rather reproving of him.
"You shouldn't have acted like that." Ryan said. Ichiro scowled.
"He's a spoiled little brat, and you shouldn't put up with him like that. You've changed, Ryan. Before, I'm sure that you would have given the boy the discipline he deserved, but now... You speak of him as if he were your beloved nephew or so. He'd turn on you sooner than look at you!"
"Ichiro, his animosity for me is well deserved--"
"WHY? Why should he hate you? His damn father was in the wrong, not you! Look, you're putting your self down again, you're starting to slip back to the way you were when you were a child, hating your self--"
"ICHIRO! That will be ENOUGH! Mason is still a child, he isn't able to know or see the entire issue! He still loves and reveres his father, and isn't going to be willing to see any fault in him. I know this. For example, I saw how my own father had never intended to raise me, nor care for my existence, things that were of his own fault, and what did I do? I tried to kill my self. I took the blame, for things that weren't my fault, and for I did not have a scapegoat to place them upon. Do you see, now? Mason is doing the same thing, yet he has some one to blame, and that is me. In time he will realize everything for what it is, but this will be as he ages, matures. I am not saying that it is right for him to do this, but there isn't going to be an easy way to convince him. Besides, he hasn't had time to think this over."
Ichiro scowled, but said nothing.

Nearly a month passed before Ryan had recovered fully. However, he still saw it fit to attend Makato's funeral in his condition, and to take part. Ryan saw it as an unavoidable obligation that had to be fulfilled. His hair was growing back quickly, though it was still unbearably short for Ryan's tastes. Even though Ichiro insisted upon trying to help Ryan, he still refused his help, and tried to do everything on his own. Ryan had been talking with the executives regularly, and was being brought up to date on the situation of Team Rocket. First, and foremost, Ryan decided to take care of the financial problems.
"Sama, I'm not sure how this program is to work. The old breeding program was scrapped years ago. No one knew how to manage it. Besides, how will it bring in money, any way?" Executive Izumi questioned Ryan's proposal.
"It's simple. We already have many rare and excellent quality Pokemon here. All we need to do is to re-instate the breeding program to make more. Even have custom Pokemon bred. People will lap this up, other companies will become customers, even. The breeding and sale of Pokemon eggs is very fecund, and I dare say that it is also very inexpensive. We already can manage the costs of the Pokemon we have, so, there really aren't much more. It is the customer who takes care of the rest. However, we must first see how many would be interested-- You can take care of this, Watanabe, ne?"
Executive Watanabe nodded. "Of course, Sama."
"Excellent. I can look over the breeding, as I am an old hand at it any way." Ryan began to hand out assignments to the rest of the executives as well, and also received reports on other projects, and so on. The meeting went on for some time, as Ryan still needed to be briefed on some things. Ah, yes, Ryan finally had something that kept him rather busy throughout the day. When Ryan was able to end his time at work, he decided to rest in his dorm. Surprisingly enough, yet not at all, Ichiro was there, waiting in a chair by the door.
"Ichiro, how kind of you to have dropped in. Don't you usually work at this time?" Ryan smiled at Ichiro as he walked into the apartment. Ichiro shook his head.
"No, I don't. Not any more. I changed my hours. As a matter of fact, I am free to do what I wish through the day, unless I'm paged for an emergency. For the moment, I asked to not be bothered for ... several hours." Ichiro grinned.
"Ah, several hours, then? How fitting." Ryan said, then bent to kiss Ichiro. "You should stay in here, really..."
"Should I?" Ichiro snagged Ryan by his tie and pulled him down. "Sit." Ichiro let Ryan sit on his lap, then held him there with his arms.
"Of course. Really, it makes the most sense. Me thinks you don't really get to see your own home any more, do you?"
"No. No, I don't. I live in here, now, don't I?"
"Yes, that is true, therefore..." Ryan broke off and yawned, then snuggled against Ichiro. "I'm really tired to-day, though. I just need a short nap, though."
Ichiro nuzzled Ryan. "Sleep, then, koibito. I'll be here when you wake."

Ryan awoke, and found that Ichiro had placed him in his bed to sleep. Ichiro was still there in the apartment, however, and was busy reading the paper. Ryan yawned and rose from the bed, and walked over to Ichiro. Ichiro looked up, smiled, and put the paper away, folding it into fourths and tossing it onto the coffee table next to him.
"How long did I sleep?" Ryan asked groggily. Ichiro chuckled.
"An hour, not long. Feeling well?" Ichiro said. Ryan nodded, and drew a chair from across the table to the space next to Ichiro, to sit next to him. They both were quiet for a moment, before Ryan spoke.
"Ichiro... I was wondering... From whence did your middle name come from? It's hardly pronounceable." Ryan asked. Ichiro turned, puzzled.
"My middle name? Isn't it obvious? My mother had insisted upon it. It's a German name. It's really not that hard to say, now..."
"I can't figure it out... It's something like 'Shoordeiigu', ne?"
"Schuldig. It's Schuldig. Your middle name isn't really all that pronounceable, either. You should hear how those who have never been raised hearing it say it -- Riyaan, just going by the spelling. Ri-ya-a-n. But, I think you should spell it differently, really... to help. Raaen would be better, really..." Ichiro said, smirking. Ryan frowned.
"Yours is worse. How do you say it, again? Sh, Shuhrdiigu?" Ryan tried to pronounce the word, but to no avail. Ichiro chuckled.
"You don't get quite the guttural 'u' and the 'l'. Nor the 'i', either. Quit trying to say it as if it were in Japanese... Didn't you take English, once? The pronunciation is quite similar."
Ryan frowned, and then brightened again as an idea came to him. He grinned at Ichiro.
"Ichiro... What languages can you speak, besides Japanese?" Ryan said, grinning broadly. Ichiro looked at him strangely.
"What an absurd question.. I know German, of course, and I took Latin and English in school. Why do you ask?" Ichiro was apprehensive of Ryan, who had suddenly taken to acting quite strangely. Ryan leaned over the arms of his chair, and placed his hands on Ichiro's head, covering the top where his brain lay below. "What are you doing??" Ichiro asked sharply. Ryan tutted.
"Tsk, tsk! Stay still, don't be so nervous! I just need to ... share information with you. You have knowledge that I need, and perhaps I have information you would like. There's only two languages that I was able to retain from school -- Spanish and French. If you would like, we could exchange and share this knowledge with each other. Neither of us would lose what we had worked hard to learn, but we would also gain what the other knew before. Are you game?" Ryan said, grinning. Ichiro looked nervous.
"Are you certain that this could work? What if you or I made a mistake? What then?"
"Don't worry. Just calm down, and I'll take care of everything. You don't even have to think, if you don't want to. I've done this before, if I had to for special reasons... But I realised that I could use this skill as a learning tool, and that both can gain from it. Are you ready?"
Ichiro nodded, and tried to calm himself as best as possible. Ryan began, and quickly they both began to feel dizzy and disoriented, until they both fell unconscious. However, the information was traded nonetheless. Ryan awoke, shortly after, and felt none the worse for wear, and noted that Ichiro was only now starting to awake.
"Feel all right? It's supposed to go like that. I'm sorry that I didn't warn you. However, If you don't feel too well, I'll let you rest in my bed, and I'll do any thing needed to make you comfortable." Ryan crawled onto Ichiro's lap again, and buried his head into Ichiro's shirt.
Ichiro nodded, and rose, holding Ryan in his arms. "Cat nap?" Ichiro asked, putting Ryan down in the bed. Ryan grinned. Ichiro lay down next to Ryan, and wrapped his arms around him. Ryan did same, but also curled his tail about Ichiro as well. And thus, they slept.

***
Ichiro had slept well, and rose to the minute sound of his beeper, squealing incessantly for him to wake. Ichiro reluctantly obeyed, and extricated himself from the bond of Ryan's paws and tail. Ryan awoke, now, and looked up at Ichiro, confused.
"Where are you going?" Ryan looked hurt. Ichiro frowned, but knelt next to Ryan to hug him and quickly peck him before leaving.
"I'm sorry, but I'm being called down. It must be something important, or they wouldn't have bothered. I'll see you later, then..." Ichiro spoke quietly, then left for the infirmary. Ryan watched Ichiro exit the room, and continued to stare blankly through the door even after Ichiro was gone. Ryan, downcast, flopped back down, and went back to sleep as well he could.