Chapter 2: 2: Epidemic: Egoist

02/15/13

So this is a reposting of this fic.

I moved it to YFF when FF began enforcing its no MA content rule last summer. Due to popular demand I am returning it here. If you have an issue with the content or are not of a suitable age please click out of this fic now.

There is not any really sex in this piece until at least thirty chapters in. I will post warnings at the top of the chapters that contain overt sexual content.

I humbly request that if you take offense at my work that you please PM me rather than report this to FF, so that those who enjoy reading these pieces may continue to do so.

For all those of you who have been requesting the return of this fic, Thank you for your interest in this and your patience with its author!

Sincerely,

Cerberus

The Uke Flu

Chapter Two: Epidemic

The new flu had been around for a little over two years now and the world was still adjusting. The official name of it was MP3REG36, but the virus had numerous other names, many of them derogatory. In Japan it had come to be known most often as the "Uke Flu."

In other parts of the world the outbreak of this virus had caused massive problems, riots, wars. Horrible violence had been visited on many of the Flu's first victims. But now things had finally started to settle back down, at least in Japan, where the occasion of the virus was seen as an unfortunate but undeniable fact, a necessary evil of the modern age.

There had been a number of reasons that Nowaki had no cause to think that he would ever contract the flu. First and foremost, he was a "seme," or whatever other label one chose to put on his place in his relationship dynamics. For some unknown reason that was still puzzling scientists, semes seemed to be impervious to the virus. At least that was what all the evidence had previously pointed to.

Second, Nowaki had been exposed to it so many times by now, if he was susceptible he should have contracted it a long time ago. Especially if one considered that he had been the physician responsible for treating Japan's first carrier of the Uke Flu, Takahashi Misaki.

It was a terrible thing that had happened to Misaki.

The young man had been vacationing in South America with his lover, Usami Akihiko. While they were there, the youth with his pheromonal charms, had caught the eye of a very bad man, Vladimir Korovin.

Vladimir Korovin was a Russian expatriate, a sadist, and a lunatic scientist with a highly honed uke gaydar. Korovin had seen Misaki and become obsessed with adding the young man to his collection. He had kidnapped Misaki as he was on his way home from the beach, while Usami (a world renowned author) was in their hotel room having a phone conference with his editor.

Korovin spirited Misaki away to his jungle estate, a terrible place: an opulent torture chamber. Here, he conducted perverted experiments on about a dozen or more confined ukes: a cache of young beautiful internationals he'd stolen from other resorts, just like Misaki.

If it had not been for the tenacity of his devoted lover, Misaki would have surely died. As it was, however, the youth had been terribly damaged, mentally and psychologically more so than his physical trauma, which had been severe.

Even now, two years later, the young man had not really recovered from this time of incarceration.

MP3REG36, was one of a host of biological experiments, that Korovin had been involved with. Given the results of the virus, one can only shudder to think of what the mad sadist's true intentions were, when he administered it to all of the ukes in his dungeon. This was one of the last things Korovin had done to his victims before he was finally apprehended.

When his captives had been recovered from his estate so many more pressing physical issues were present, given the things Korovin had done to them, that no one identified their infection with the virus until months after, and by then it was too late.

When the infection began to finally manifest itself, each of Korovin's former victims had returned to their respective homelands. They had been living out in the world as much as they were able, and no one had any inkling that throughout this time, all of them had been spreading the aggressive, virulent contagion.

Nowaki's partner Hiroki was an old friend of Usami Akihiko. For this reason, once Misaki and Usami had returned to Japan, Nowaki had been asked to oversee the medical part of Misaki's recovery, despite the fact Misaki was much older than Nowaki's usual patients. Misaki had been through so much and had been so traumatized that Nowaki had arranged to handle all of the young man's treatments at the couple's home, so that Misaki did not have to undergo the stress or scrutiny incurred whenever he left Usami apartment.

Calling the virus the "flu" was really a bit of a misnomer. Unlike the common cold or a regular flu bug, the Uke Flu lasted much longer and its effects were far more serious. The initial phases (1 and 2) of the Uke Flu lasted at least three months. However, at the end of that time, if the proper conditions existed in the life of the host, the changes brought about by the illness would progress to its final stage (3), leaving the poor uke suffering in totality for almost an entire year. If the conditions were not met, the body's natural immune system would over time return the uke's internal workings back to their natural state.

The virus could be transmitted through the air as well as by contact and it was able to survive outside the body for much longer than many other viral infections, making exposure much more likely. The strain could also lay dormant in its host for a time and then be sparked into life by certain biochemical combinations.

Nowaki remembered when he'd made the third stage diagnosis for Misaki. The young man had been feeling poorly for months as the virus had unknowingly wreaked its havoc on his insides. Once it had done its damage however and Misaki's new biology caught, it was then he really began to suffer.

Usami had been beside himself, and Nowaki could still remember Misaki's haunted green eyes watching him as the author relayed his lover's symptoms.

Misaki only wanted to sleep, though he'd certainly been doing more of that since being brought home after his ordeal. Misaki was also incredibly emotional. Usami had later confided to Nowaki out of earshot of Misaki that the youth had always been that way, but it had been much worse than usual.

Nowaki had initially tried to console Usami, saying that these could just be a part of Misaki's processing, of healing from the horrors he had endured.

Then however, the author told Nowaki that though Misaki wasn't running a fever, he had been ill for weeks. The youth was sick to his stomach almost constantly, vomiting often. Misaki was so severely affected by it he couldn't even bring himself to cook, the only thing that still really brought him much joy, because the smell of food only made it worse.

It was running the blood work on Misaki that had provided the answer. One that was beyond what anyone could have possibly previously comprehended.

Nowaki had asked that every possible test be run on Misaki's blood-work: Usami had all but demanded it, no matter the cost. Because the name Misaki was generally a girl's name, someone in the lab had mistakenly marked the "F" instead of the "M" box on the paperwork ordering his tests.

The simple but startling answer that came back... stage three of the Uke Flu: Takahashi Misaki was pregnant.

And today, Kusama Nowaki had learned only hours before, that now he was too.

If you would like to read about Misaki's harrowing ordeal, please check out my ongoing prequel "Days Without Sun" now also being re-uploaded to FF.

Thanks for reading. Please review.