Partner

Just because a world seems to follow the same rules as your own doesn't actually mean it does. I've been having giggle amounts of fun with that fact and anyone who reads the end, once it's done, will read back and see all the places where I've added things just for the sake of foreshadow.

I have no idea if areas of the brain light up when a person has autism. I know almost nothing about autism... well... not that much. So obviously I made that up. But then... you can't use bone in computer chips.

And a bone from someone dead and gone can't speak to you.

I'm just saying.

Really should have left for work ten minutes ago... so

Read, Review and Enjoy.





Paw let Mik sleep four hours before waking him up and having him. Even afterwards, sleeping, Mik could hear his own voice crying out for more as he came. When he woke up to his alarm going off, Paw immediately thrust into him again, pinning him to the blankets that made up his side of the nest.

Suffice to say, they were late for their appointment.

Which Mik didn’t know about until after they were late, so it wasn’t really his fault, now was it?

Mik and Paw slipped into Palt’s office and Paw immediately moved to the doctor’s bed and sat on it. Palt smiled at Paw and then glared at Mik.

“We have rules here, whether you’re a golden boy or not,” Palt snapped.

“I wasn’t informed about the appointment until this morning, I apologise,” Mik murmured.

Palt gave Mik a look as if he didn’t believe him, then looked at Paw, “could you hop down, Paw? Mik has to go first.”

Mik moved to the table, to hop onto it, but Palt stopped him, “Physical, like when you joined the army.”

He tried not to grimace as he stripped off the shirt and pants… and sadly everything else. He moved to the designated spot and spread his legs and moved his arms away from his sides. Palt came over with a measuring tape, the type that seamstresses used, and took measurements of everything from his littlest toes to the size of his mouth.

To enter all new military applicants into the drone system. Into all the recording systems everywhere. When a man fell in battle, the military knew it almost instantly, because of these measurements. Mik didn’t like the idea that, should they want to, the military could find him anywhere in the world with one of their satellites and zoom in close enough to smell his piss.

Just a little too close for comfort.

When the measurements came to his penis, Mik leaped a foot in the air but settled back into his position under Palt’s reproaching look. After the physical measurements were finished, Mik was allowed to sit on the doctor’s table, hands at his side and on the bed, back straight.

Palt wrote comments about his posture, about the way his back bent, at the way his arms sat. Palt cut a bit of Mik’s hair and put it in a little baggy, took nail clippings and a swab of his mouth. All for identification purposes.

“Doing dental today, doc?” Mik asked after the swab left his mouth, “Paw hasn’t eaten this morning.”

“We will be doing something. But the physical and dental is being done in different parts. Others did them on different days, but we need to finish these today.”

Reflexes were tested. Mik had to stand and bend every joint. Had to bend at the waist until his back cracked. Touch his toes, hold his hands in front of him and close his eyes. Pass a sobriety test.

Piss in a cup.

Mik looked at the cup and looked at Palt, “part of the test, or because I came back from vacation?”

“Test, Mik.”

Mik took the cup and moved to go behind the screen.

“Uh… Mik… Paw has to see, least he not understand what the cup is for.”

So Mik had to piss in a cup… in front of Paw and Palt.

“At least you don’t have to… you know… had a heck of a time explaining that to Souse. Though eventually, we’re hoping Paw will let us test his fertility.”

“Not fair to force.” Paw replied.

“I know, Paw,” Palt murmured.

“You’ve discussed this with him?” Mik twisted the cover onto the cup and held it out to Palt.

“Of course. Edno tried to get him in for this exam but he howled the entire time. Only time Paw’s ever been mean to me.”

“Paw was very mean,” Paw’s head bowed, “Edno not happy.”

“What did Edno do?”

“Not meet Paw’s eyes.”

“Put your clothing back on, Mik.”

Mik dressed and sat back on the bed. Palt took his temperature, looked into his eyes and asked Mik to read the smallest line he could on the chart. Fifth down. Ear check, nose check, mouth check. Checked pulse and blood pressure.

“Think you can keep him still for an MRI?” Palt murmured, “others didn’t like the sounds.”

“Loud machine, Souse say like thousand screaming children,” Paw responded.

“Thinking not,” Mik murmured, “suppose we’re going to try?”

“Yes.”

Paw was asked to strip. He imitated Mik’s stance in the marked area but when he sat on the bed, Palt had to push him into a proper position. Notes were taken. Paw was asked to lay backwards and reach for the floor.

Mik had no idea Sidhe were that flexible. When Paw had to turn to crack his back, he turned to an impossible position. Paw’s sobriety test involved standing on his tip toe, chanting the song Palt sang for him as he touched his nose with each syllable.

Which was insane.

Mik only thought Palt was asking Paw to rub his tummy and pat his head at the same time was torture.

Paw did it perfectly.

The smallest line he could read?

“Made in Northen Sorch.”

The smallest print possible for man to make, down in the corner of the page. So small that Palt said the first time he heard a Sidhe say that, he had had to pull out a magnifying glass and guess that that’s what it said.

Into the dentistry room. X-rays were taken. Archaic, Mik thought. Mik didn’t like biting down on the bit that would make an imprint of his teeth. Paw fooled around with it, chasing after Mik jokingly with it sticking out of his mouth.

Palt pulled out the impression from Paw’s mouth then pulled out an odd looking set of teeth. He moved in front of Mik and Paw and showed them the set, “Souse’s mouth. People have four, sometimes five, molars. Sidhe have six. The last one is smaller than the rest, sits not at the back of the other teeth, but sits further back in the jaw. Their canines are longer than ours. Paw, can you go-” Palt bore his teeth and Paw did the same, “you can see the difference. Essuan and Hohi have even longer canines, obviously larger. Paw. Your bite, Paw, is not perfect. Your front teeth bend just like a people’s does. Other’s are straight. Do you have a baby set?”

“Baby set?” Paw looked confused, “Sidhe teeth fall out. Grow back in. Bad tooth, yanks it. New tooth. All Paw teeth bad?”

“Not bad, Paw, just different.”

Palt finished up and took them into yet another room, the MRI room. Paw whined when he saw the MRI machine. Mik and Paw had a chat about Paw trying to do the MRI. Paw agreed to it finally and lay down in the machine. Mik stressed that there were no children in the machine, that was not how it ran, no Sidhe children were being hurt to make the machine run and the screaming was just the machine.

He walked behind the glass and the MRI commenced. Paw didn’t move. Not once, he barely breathed.

“Amazing,” Palt murmured when it finished before clicking the microphone, “good job Paw.”

Paw slid off the bed and slunk into the room, curling against Mik’s side. Green eyes darted to the screen.

“That Paw?” A motion with his nose to the screen.

“Yes, yes it is,” Palt murmured, “Was it terribly bad, Paw? The sound, I mean?”

“Sidhe in machine tell me about life. No screaming.”

“The… Sidhe…”

“Finger bone in chip in back. Sidhe said machine new, but him not. Him was new dead. Dead afore machine created. Stockpile,” Paw murmured, “why Paw green and yellow?”

Palt clicked through several pictures and stopped, “odd.” click. Click. Click.

“You’re a doctor, Palt, you can’t say odd and simply keep clicking away,” Mik snarled.

“We’re going to need to look into this more. But looking at the … this region here, of the brain, is the part that is least active in people. Not even active in animals. It’s lit up like someone lit a bonfire in his head.”

“And the people it is active in?”

“Autistic… sometime so called psychics have that area affected. Most of them are autistic and just don’t know it though. High functioning… Very high functioning.”

“Paw is not autistic. Or …”

“If he is, so are all the other Sidhe. Autism isn’t anything bad or different, it’s just a way of seeing the world, Mik. Most can live normal lives, with the pills and understanding from their handlers.”

“He’s not autistic.” Mik growled, “you can’t just label him like that, like it explains everything.”

Palt looked at Mik, “an entire race cannot be autistic. If it’s the norm for the people… well … obviously they aren’t autistic. Most autistic, with that kind of lighting, need constant help. They aren’t leaders of men, let alone Sidhe. It could be nothing at all.”

“Could be the imagination center of the brain,” Mik muttered, “he did say the machine spoke to him.”

“Kahvoshi, from the northern region of smaller continent, small, short Sidhe, god, strong bones. He say flaw in machine. Second row up, two space in. Pzzt bad thing put there sos we have to buy new one. Paw want to go home. Mik. Can we go home?”

“Sure, Paw. Palt, would you mind calling Koln for me. Paw’s… upset.”


.