Sequel

Yes, that's right. Rel is hot for Mik. I think Mik just has that effect on people. This was amusing for me for several reasons.

Partners will update in an hour or so, depending on how long it takes me to write it. It is, obviously, paired with this one here. Rel usually notices more about a person than just first glance sort of things but he's a bit out of it and I don't think he quite realises how out of it he is.

Read, Review and enjoy.




Mm let Past put the needle into his arm and seemed puzzled as to why the doctor pushed him back to the mattress once more. Rel sat at the edge of the bed and held Mm’s hand as Past administered the sedative. It could be anywhere from a few hours to forever. Mari didn’t say forever, but Rel read it in how her eyes were on the floor instead of meeting his.

If the damage was too extreme, the program wouldn’t bring Mm back up from the sleep.

Rel’s part in the program would be done, he could leave and go home to… nothing at all. No cares, no concerns and his assets would be his own again, in a few years. Until then. He’d figure something out.

He didn’t want the Sidhe to die, but it just seemed like it would happen. Mm had been fed metal over the course of his life, meant to wear down teeth and insides so that the Sidhe couldn’t offer resistance to his captors. That much metal, over that much time. Was a lot of metal to get caught in the guts. Too many variables, too much could go wrong that even if the statistics were in Mm’s favour, it was a bleak outlook.

So Rel smiled at Mm and tried to pretend that everything was okay. How did one relate to someone who spoke another language that it was going to be alright when people couldn’t even say it to those who spoke their language? Too many variables in the look even.

Mm smiled sleepily at Rel and closed his eyes.

Palt waited a moment, took Mm’s pulse and let out a sigh of relief, “out. Get him on the stretcher now, Rel, move, let them do their work.”

Rel hadn’t realised that he was gripping Mm’s hand tightly until Palt spoke. He carefully uncurled his fingers and stepped away from the bed. The two male nurses Palt brought with him immediately pushed to the bed and plucked Mm up like he was nothing at all and set him gently but quickly on the stretcher. The two rolled him out as Past stepped up beside Rel and pushed a pill bottle into his hand.

“Light sedative, you may find that you need it,” Past murmured, “come on, you said you’d be there throughout and you don’t want him waking to find you not there.”

Rel shrugged and pocketed the pills, later, now, in a few weeks when he was having a bad day, the pills would come in handy. He followed Palt out of the holding cell and waited for the elevator to come back down from dropping Mm off. Up the elevator and into… quiet.

Thick, lush carpet underfoot and tables covered in cloth. Atop the cloths were small, artistic things. A statue here, a plant there, a velveteen stuffed animal on another. People wandered the hallway as if this were normal, even though at the chime of the elevator they all reacted like deer caught in headlights. People weren’t supposed to be in the hallway when a Sidhe was present, was all Rel could come up with to explain the reaction.

“Here,” Palt walked to an unmarked door and opened it, “they should have him loaded into the x-ray by now, we’ll have results in a few minutes.”

Rel slid into the doctor’s office and had an odd feeling, as if he were the wrong person, as if he wasn’t certain why he was there. A moment later the feeling was gone and he was left standing in the doctor’s office, staring down at the floor, highly confused.

He shook the feeling off and took a seat when Palt motioned to it.

A man was sitting in the chair beside his. Rel looked about the room, trying to find something to occupy his time.

“First time here?” the man murmured.

“Yes,” Rel responded, “is it that obvious?”

“Mm,” the man’s chest puffed with a breath, with pride even as brown eyes glanced at Rel and then back to the table, “most partners find the quiet of the doctor’s office relaxing. Only new ones need something to occupy their time.”

“Ah,” was all Rel could come up with. Then he remembered courtesy and said, “why are you here, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Regular test. He didn’t want the others around for it, so I came instead,” the man nodded, bringing his long brown hair into his eyes. It looked like it had grown out of a military cut. Like the man had lost track of time.

Rel’s heart skipped a beat as the man flashed a smile at him. Rel swallowed the odd feeling that jittered through his nerves.

“Regular test, huh? If it’s regular, why didn’t he want the others coming? And who are the others…” Rel murmured the last bit more to himself than to the man.

“He did something he wasn’t supposed to and now he’s hurting because of it,” the man responded, “if the others knew he had hurt himself, they’d go nuts and he’d cry and I’d get upset and the others would get crankier. It’s a huge mess to deal with him when he gets hurt.”

“Like it is to deal with any social creature.”

“No. Souse got cut the other day, one of the board members flipped out,” the man sighed, “all he got was a ‘why aren’t you smart enough to duck’ but if they found out that…” something flickered over the man’s features, “Auhi was hurt, then they’d throw ten kinds of fits.”

There was that flutter, at the bottom of his stomach. Then the strange feeling that he should say something to connect himself to this man. Rel’s legs were weak, his fingers trembled as he moved them from the arm rest to his lap. His chest felt constricted and fear ran rampant through his veins.

Why?

“Mik,” a nurse came out of a room, a tall dark haired, green eyed Sidhe following closely behind her, “Paw’s ready for you.”

Paw.

Wait.

Rel’s head snapped around and he looked at the man. Those rakish looks, that… but. Rel frowned, not understanding how he hadn’t recognised the man before.

When he looked to Paw, the Sidhe was looking down his nose at Rel, his lip turned up in challenge and Paw stalked to Mik. The fear in Rel bloomed and took root in the man’s gut.

Paw was reacting to his emotions, his strange feelings towards Mik and thus was claiming the man by driving fear into Rel. Not just fear in general to scare him off. The fear was Rel’s own, created at the thought of the Sidhe finding him there.

“Rel?” Palt came out with a sheet of that x-ray stuff, “could we speak to you, please?”

“What’s wrong with him?” Paw rolled his head lazily to Palt, arrogance and an uncaring attitude, “try to kill himself.”

“No, Paw,” Palt responded as if he were speaking to a child, “the farmers fed him metal filings and they are lodged in his intestines. He’s in an intense amount of pain.”

Paw wilted under the man’s tone, curling an arm up and around his chest as he looked away and down. Mik sighed and stood.

“Come on, Paw, before you manage to make everyone in the program aware of your condition.”

Paw followed Mik out and Rel looked at Palt.

“How bad is it?” Rel asked Palt.

“Come see for yourself.”

“I’m not certain my damnable legs will work.”


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