Ai No Kusabi Fan Fiction ❯ Remember ❯ Katze Remembers ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3 - Katze Remembers

 

I remember the day when Jupiter's troops came for Iason and Riki. The whole scene was surreal, I was shocked that it had finally happened almost five years after the start of that star crossed relationship. I was thankful that Daryl's and my relationship was not forbidden because even with Iason's power and money he couldn't prevent the inevitable end of their life together.

 

My sweet love Daryl helped Tai to get rid of the evidence of all of us being there for breakfast. Even though we had practiced it and talked about the eventuality of when it would happen and what we were to do, I was afraid that my little rattlebrained Love would panic and start running around the room in circles as he usually did when confronted with a stressful happening in Iason's penthouse.

 

When I had a second to glance at him I saw he was holding up under the sudden stress and did his part calmly. I was so proud of him for his level headedness because my assignment was to make sure that Riki was safely removed from danger. I couldn't look after Daryl too because we all knew that Riki would be a handful when he realized that Iason was staying to confront Jupiter's troops.

 

I saw Riki instinctively run to Iason so they could escape together. When he realized Iason was staying behind, he started trying to pull the big stubborn Blondie toward the hidden door but Iason wouldn't budge. I was urging Riki to get a move on, pulling on his arm and he was trying to push his lover to safety when pulling his arm didn't work. As he realized that Iason intended to stay and face the troopers, he began to cry frantically and beg Iason to “come on, please Iason don't let them catch you.”

 

I was wrestling with him to get him to safety as he desperately hung onto his Master's arm when suddenly Iason took the matter into his own hands and after a quick passionate kiss for his little mongrel he knocked Riki out and threw his naked, unconscious body into my arms and pushed me towards safety. I ran for the exit with Daryl on my heels. Odi and Tai were holding the door open for us and pulled it shut as we rushed in and turned toward the door for a last glimpse of the room beyond.

 

I remember …

 

The last glimpse I had of Iason was as clear now as the day it happened. He was looking longingly at the unconscious burden in my arms as the door closed and we fled down the block long, dimly lit corridor to the hidden elevator at the end of the hallway. Opposite the blank looking wall that hid the elevator was a heavy, reinforced emergency door leading to stairs down to the street beyond to make followers, if there were any, think that it was the only exit, an emergency exit to the street so many floors below.

 

In the first elevator I pushed a combination of floor buttons triggering it to take us to the lowest level where we exited. It would return to street level after delivering us to the lower level and even if some how it was discovered behind the false wall it would not give a hint of this lower level, as there was no button for it on the panel. As I said, it took a combination of six floor buttons all pushed at the same time to trigger its decent to that second, secret corridor leading to the elevator which took us directly to Riki's penthouse apartment in the hotel down the block.

 

I remember …

 

We all seemed to huddle in our easy chairs watching the drama of Iason's arrest on the wall Vid as we waited for Riki to awaken. His furniture, Adam brought us all coffee, that expensive hundred dollar a cup variety but we were too shaken to appreciate the flavor. We waited for the first hint of Riki's recovery and when it happened, it scared the shit out of all of us.

 

He suddenly bolted off the couch after having gained his senses and lying there still and quiet, gathering his wits he maked his plan to escape and go back to rescue Iason. As I said he leaped off the couch when we were all occupied with watching Iason being hauled off to face Jupiter alone. Riki ran for the door that lucky for us who were designated as his guardians now that Iason was arrested, the door was dead bolted with three different locks, or he would have gotten out. As Odi and I wrestled him to the floor and held him, he cursed and swore vile words at us, at all of us for leaving Iason behind. When it was apparent that he wasn't going to calm down I ordered Daryl to get the sedative that had been prepared for just such a happening.

 

When he saw the needle coming, Riki struggled so hard that we almost lost complete control of him. He broke away from me and Odi and went for the door only to be caught by one leg and brought to the floor again by my long, strong arm catching his ankle. Odi and I wrestled him into submission again but it wasn't easy to subdue the tough little mongrel and Daryl hurriedly gave him the shot in one thigh while Riki cursed and threatened to kill us all when he was finally free.

 

I remember …

 

All the time we fought to keep him from throwing away Iason's gift to him, his safety, his future, his life even he was crying as he screamed and cursed and struggled to get free. We held him tight to keep him from hurting himself or us until the sedative took effect. When it did he closed his tear-filled eyes and slumped into unconsciousness with a shuddering sigh, whispering "Iason." It was the most horrible experience of my life and as he lay silent and asleep on the couch I cried and so did everyone else.

 

As instructed by Iason, I kept him lightly sedated and then under the influence of anti-depressants for the first three months, letting him watch the Vid news with the rest of us when he was awake. He sat and watched Iason's televised trial in a stupor until the Blondie finally ended it by confessing to everything. After Iason was mind wiped I slowly reduced the dosage of the opiate until Riki was finally free of any meds except a mild tranquilizer. Everyday I stood over him until he swallowed each pill and checked under his tongue to make sure that he actually did swallow them. I didn't want him saving up enough pills to end his life. We never left him alone for that first six of months.

 

I remember he was almost a different person by the time the trial was over. He never met anyone's eye or smiled or laughed or did anything but stare out the window for another whole month. After that he began to read voraciously, telling me, one of the few times he spoke, that Iason had once told him that books were a magic carpet to a different world and that he really wanted to be somewhere else if he couldn't be with his Master. He read every book that we had in the apartment and then all the books Katze had in his place.

 

I remember…

 

He was trying to escape from the world he was in, the one that hurt so much. The one where his lover didn't remember him at all. It was on the tip of my tongue all the time to confess it was all a hoax, that Iason did remember him but I knew that it would be even more disastrous than Riki thinking that Iason had been mind wiped. It was so hard that it affected my moods too. Thank God I have an understanding lover. Daryl didn't know what plagued me but he offered me solace and understanding and his love to get me through the depression and the urge to tell our dear friend that Iason still remembered him. Only Odi and I knew the truth and the burden of it was hard on both of us. Often we would catch Riki just staring at one page of his book for hours, it was terrible to see him so listless, with no spirit. Then one day he caught a glimpse of someone he thought was Iason on the Vid at a televised event for Blondies and his interest in life revived. He began to watch all the televised Elite events hoping for another glimpse of his Master. God! it was heart breaking.

 

Eventually when he didn't see his lover on the Vid he even lost interest in that, he stopped reading and barely ate enough to keep body and soul together. We were all getting worried about the state of his well being physically and mentally. Finally When he had been held in the apartment for nine months Iason determined it was time to let him have some freedom. He wasn't eating well or sleeping much so it was determined that perhaps some freedom was in order. One of us, either Odi or I would accompany him when he left to walk the streets aimlessly. After awhile he started hanging around at the edge of any crowd of lower Elites and citizens when they were gathered to watch any time Blondies were scheduled to show up at an event.

 

He promised both Odi and I that he wouldn't do anything to call attention to himself or endanger which ever of us was with him, he just wanted to watch Iason from afar. We didn't like it one bit but if we protested he just might lose control and do something crazy to call attention to himself. As long as he stayed at the back of the crowd and just watched we hoped there wouldn't be any trouble.

 

It all went smooth for over a year until suddenly one day when I was with him he saw Iason climb out of a hover car. As he did Riki suddenly began to make his way quickly through the crowd. I couldn't catch up to stop him without making a scene so I followed with a feeling of doom in my gut.

 

I watched horrified as he deliberately walked in front of Iason and bumped into him. I almost had a heart attack. I was close enough to hear him apologize and to see the flicker of joy in Iason's eyes. Thank God no one else saw or they interpreted it as anger as I heard Iason snarl for him to watch where he was going as he shrugged off the contaminating touch and went into the building without a backward glance.

 

Riki continued down the block, his shoulders hunched in his jacket, the collar pulled up against the evening chill and prying eyes, his hands in his pockets, as he slowly made his way through a sparse crowd of late comers to the event. I followed with my heart in my mouth waiting for an official to call out to try to detain him but after several blocks when nothing happened I began to breathe easier. I stepped up my pace to catch up with him.When I got up even with him I grabbed his arm to steer him firmly back to the Hotel as fast as we both could go with out attracting attention.

 

I remember when we got upstairs I chewed him out but he was so happy for the first time since this mess started that I just couldn't keep it up. I did make him promise on Iason's beating heart that he wouldn't pull such a stunt again as it added at least ten years to my age and I was surprised to see in the mirror that my hair hadn't turned white from shock and fear. Riki was euphoric for about a month and then he began to come down from his high and settle back into a dark world again.

 

We couldn't get him to join in our card games or do anything that might lift his spirits. He sank back down into being the most depressed, saddest person I have ever known except for Iason who was in the same shape only he had Raoul to keep him company through any rough night that he might have, sone one to lend him a shoulder to cry on. At the end of the second year I realized that Riki didn't have anyone's shoulder that he could rest his head on or cry on as I knew the strong Blondie, Iason Mink did with Raoul. As much as Iason was suffering, it was nothing to what his lover was going through, basicily all alone. I had Daryl to cuddle with and love at night and Odi had Tai. Riki had no one to comfort him in the dark of those nights when nightmares and loneliness clawed their way into his heart and mind.

 

I remember…

 

At the start of the fourth year of them being apart Riki was losing all interest in anything going on around him, he even stopped watching the Vids and stopped reading or going out. I determined that something drastic needed to be done or one day he would end it all for himself. I was glad that we didn't have a balcony. I was surprised that he hadn't tried to do away with himself before now.

 

We often found him pressed up against the only window in his apartment where he had a view of Iason's apartment. How sad that all the time he was with Iason he begged constantly to be given his freedom and when he finally had it, it was purchased at bitter painful price. He was drinking too much and when he did go out, he always managed to come back with a packet of something to get him through the night. I was determined to bring up my only solution to help Riki to Iason as soon as I could. I didn't think he would like it very much but, as we all were, he was becoming more and more alarmed at the decline in Riki's mental and physical state.

 

I remember…

 

At first Iason was vehemently against my only suggestion to help Riki but we had already tried traveling and a pet, a stupid little dog that Daryl adopted against my wishes when Riki never paid it any attention. And a dozen other things to raise his spirits but he was just a shadow of his former self, slowly disappearing before our eyes. He kept himself away from any overtures from us to resume our close, friendly relationship. I couldn't blame him, I missed his former sassy charm and cocky attitude, but I knew it wasn't going to happen any time soon or at all if we couldn't bring him out of his depressed state and soon!

 

The only thing I could think of was…Guy. I'd kept tabs on him since the fiasco at Dana Burn and could contact him in less than an hour. He had fallen on hard times with the Bison disbanded and him with only one arm. He was only days from being completely homeless. I hoped that he might be amenable to coming to live with Riki and maybe becoming his lover again. God knows that they both needed someone badly, why not a former, needy lover?

 

If only they could both overcome the fact that Riki had been Iason Mink's Pet for five years, it was a formidable barrier. After watching Riki lay in bed all day, not touching the food placed on the bed table as he stared at the ceiling with an occasional tear running down his temple, Iason gave in and snarled permission for me to approach Guy with my proposition.

 

I could only hope that Guy was not too proud to agree to my offer and if he did that Riki would accept his comfort. It was obvious to all of us, even Iason though he gave his permission grudgingly, that the two of them needed each other desperately to survive the rocky road they both walked alone. I knew that the sight of Riki and Guy together would tear Iason's heart to pieces over and over but if he wanted his lover to live he needed to let Guy take his place in Riki's arms.