Pater Familias

Sunday came too quickly. It seemed a matter of hours since we’d arrived here, but now I stood in Syvas’ embrace, bidding him goodbye. His long arms tightened around me as he whispered in my ear. “You know, the tentacles aren’t technically a transformation, don’t you, Kanie?”

I grinned. “Yes, I do.”

He slipped something into my pocket. “I labeled your presents this time. Come back and visit me again very soon, and bring our family with you. Bring that lovely Cherry Blossom, too.”

“I will.” I kissed him on the cheek, surprising and pleasing him. “I may be back sooner than you think. I’m a man on a mission these days.”

He chuckled lowly. “Good. Get out of that lab every so often and smell the flowers.”

We lingered a few minutes more, exchanging goodbyes as a group, then loaded back into the huey. Sephiroth started the engine. I kept my brother’s eyes during our lift-off, drinking in the sight of him. He waved and I waved back.

“What a charming man, your brother,” Aerith said. “I’d like to meet his children.”

“They’re quite scattered, but I’m sure that can be arranged eventually,” I replied, craning my neck to look at her. “Expect the Hojo family’s black eyes and hair.”

Sakura’s attention drifted over me, lingering on my hair.

Sephiroth, I thought. Is she thinking about my hair?

Running her fingers through it, he answered. Thank Shiva you aren’t greasy anymore.

I sat straight again, watching the landscape drift by. Son, I might need your help on a rescue mission. Sakura’s parents have her sister, Damiana, sequestered in a monastery.

What do you want me to do, father?

I think just to convince Garchae that Shin-Ra should back my play. Sakura’s parents have the law on their side.

It shouldn’t be a problem. Sephiroth clapped his hand to my shoulder briefly. Eldon appreciates all you’ve done to help Lily.

I know, but this might be a political problem for the company. Abduction isn’t something Garchae wants his business known for, after all.

Let me worry about it. Sephiroth swung us over the mountain range, skimming close to the trees.

********************************************************************************


Because I now carried the tracker bot, I let Sakura return to her own apartment. Still, I convinced Shin-Ra’s housing director to increase security in her building. No sense in pushing luck.

Once home, I stretched out on the couch and let my mind wander.

Sakura’s full, soft lips danced through my head, eliciting a shiver. Shiva, I wanted to feel more of her. I wanted to touch her everywhere. I knew she wanted me, but she wanted me to approach her slowly, for some reason. What reason could that be?

Inquira prowled the apartment, acquainting herself with her new territory. I made a mental note to get her a sandbox. I had food to share with her, but she needed her own…

The clock chimed. I glanced at it, rubbing my hand and feeling the tiny piece of metal under the skin. I needed to go back to the lab and check on my guests, especially Havars. He would have to tell me if this bot belonged to him.

I took a cab and made it there in ten minutes. The security personnel gave me nods as I brandished my pass card for the locks. “Lookin’ good, doc,” one of them said, sounding sincere. “Haven’t seen your assailant since we kicked him to the curb.”

“I’m not worried about a Cro-Magnon,” I said, tripping the latch and holding the door open. “Thank you, though,…?”

“Peterson,” the man replied. He’d been the one to take charge first.

“Do you have SOLDIER training, Peterson?” I asked.

“Nah, hired off the street, doc. Used to be a bouncer.” He grinned at me. “You didn’t do badly, to judge by the mess. Burnside’s a sight bigger than you.”

“Doc’d whip you, too, Peterson,” someone teased.

Amused, I tipped an imaginary hat to the man. “Peterson,” I said, addressing the brown haired, grey-eyed man. “Why don’t you come with me to check on my prisoner? I need an alert set of ears and eyes.”

“Okay with you guys?” the man asked his friends.

“G’wan,” one said.

“Braver than me,” one whispered.

“We ain’t going nowhere, so go ahead,” said another.

Peterson ditched his coffee cup and walked to me, grabbing the door so I could enter first. “After you, doc,” he said in a cheerful tone. “But, call me Zed.”

We walked down the long and featureless hallway to the lift. I punched in the button for my main lab’s access, and stepped in, Zed at my heels. He looked at me openly. “You gonna strap me to a table, doc?” he asked.

“No.”

“Make me carry out a body?”

“No.”

“Huh.” Zed scratched his head. “Make me smarter?”

“No.” I started to grin.

“Well, if I ain’t cheap meat, and I ain’t cheap labor, and you don’t wanna improve me, what’s yer game?”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t improve you, only that I wouldn’t make you smarter,” I corrected.

“Well, pardon, but it’s my worst feature, my brain. Been hit too many times in the noggin.”

I laughed. “If you have intelligence issues from mere injury, then maybe I can make you smarter, Zed,” I said, stepping out of the lift and leading him down the next hallway. “I brought you in for a mako shot.”

“R-.” Zed caught himself before letting his overly loud and surprised voice carry. “Really?” he asked quietly. “I thought that was just for SOLDIERs.”

“It is.” I led him to a prep table and opened the cryo-storage, selecting a particularly pure vial of mako.

“Then, it’s illegal to give it to me,” he said, sounding worried.

“A law passed with the old government.” I rolled up Zed’s sleeve and pinned it. I cinched a tourniquet around him and cleaned his inner elbow with an alcohol pad. “But if it bothers you, I won’t tell anyone. This is my thanks for coming to Miss Leijanna’s aid quickly. She means a lot to me.”

“I get it.” Zed grinned. “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t. If I did, everybody’d want a shot of mako.”

“Too true.” I sat him down on a bench and slapped his vein a few times. “You have very good veins, Zed.” I prepped the needle and held it over the site. “You aren’t scared of needles, are you?”

“Nah.”

Very slowly, I dosed him. His eyes fluttered shut as the planet’s blood soared through him. I watched him carefully, wondering if he would fly to ecstasy like five percent of injected people, or fall to the twisting agony the other ninety-five percent endured.

“Hey doc,” he said softly. “Always wanted to ask you about Jenova.”

“Ask away, my friend,” I told him.

“Well, me and the guys were wondering…” He took a deep breath and looked at me. “You gotta wing like your son?”

I laughed, genuinely amused. “No, Zed, I don’t,” I said.

“Oh.” He seemed to pout for a moment. “They’re pretty. I thought it would be cool to have a wing.”

“I’m sure it helps Sephiroth’s flight capability, but he doesn’t really need the thing.” I shrugged before beginning to slowly release the tourniquet. “I have something better.”

“What’s that?” Zed started to look interested again.

I summoned a tentacle from my back and picked up a glass with it, filling it with water. His astonished eyes boggled. He accepted the drink and downed it while keeping his eyes on the round-muscle limb.

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” he swore softly.

I knew I liked him.

“Do you have a family doctor, Zed?” I asked.

“Nah, Shin-Ra’s insurance is too expensive.” Zed flexed his arm. “I feel great, doc!’

“You’re lucky; most people get sick at first.” I gave him a lollipop, grinning when he grinned. “You need medical attention, come to me. That goes for your family, too.”

“Awesome.” The young tough swung his legs to the ground as he un-wrapped his sweet. “Thanks, doc.”

“Not a problem.” I waved my hand at him. “Try not to brag. Or, if you do brag about the mako, make it clear I only give it to people who do their job to suit me. The more people I have looking after Miss Leijanna, the better.”

“You offer it to the boys and they’ll watch her twenty four hours a day. Hell, they’ll sleep outside her door.”

I considered that.

“All of them? You trust all of your co-workers?”

“Yep. We’re tight.” Zed pulled himself erect proudly. “Only eight of us assigned to this building, so we gotta keep a close eye on each other.”

“And you wouldn’t mind sharing?”

“Nope. Make me feel safer.”

“Alright, send them down here one at a time, but don’t tell them why,” I told him, smiling wickedly.

I handed out eight mako injections and eight cherry lollipops. Carrying the infectious high spirits of the guardsmen, I whistled happily while approaching Havars’ cell.

“Sit,” I told him as I entered, and he had to obey.

Glaring, he plopped down. “What are you here for now?” he asked. “And, where have you been?”

“Miss me?” I crouched beside him. “I came to ask you about Sakura’s little, metallic tick.”

Havars sneered. “I didn’t track the bitch. Her parents are the ones that track her.”

“But, you put in the bot?”

“They paid me a fortune,” he confirmed. “Gave her mako, too, but only five treatments. She bled most of it right back out again the first time.”

I looked at him. “She hates you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

“What did she ever do to you?”

“She kicked me in the balls and stabbed me with a boil-lance when I attempted to treat her.” Havars grimaced.

I didn’t need to hear any more. I stood and kicked him in the balls. As he puked all over the floor, I leaned down and whispered in his ear, “That’s for calling her a bitch.”