Riki's trail was easier to follow than expected, Iason not even needing to activate the tracer in the Ring, finding himself already connected to his Pet in more ways as Neu-Jupiter than ever before. He could feel him pulsing, confused...afraid, yes, evidently in fear which made the Blondie frown in dismay as he glided in mid-air, commanding his own wings effortlessly. Was Riki in trouble?
Besides the feeling leading him on, Iason was following obvious signs...like the trail of the raw and unchecked release of power, the unexpected accessing of his Pet to the System, no doubt, as evidenced by a Tanagura district in total darkness now as he flew through it. He went even higher than the pod cars drifting below, although unnecessarily perhaps, but still just wanting to simply slip past anybody who might notice.
He went on for a few minutes before he felt it, a faint sense of his Riki nearby, the other's utter loneliness which only continued to magnify as he drew closer and closer.
"I'm coming Pet," the Blondie scanned the surface. "Just let me find you. Please."
And the rain slowly began to fall in the merciless world of the Capital city.
--
Fear. Riki felt it eat at him inside. Fear. That he had been cast from one hell to another and now without anyone he'd loved or known there...
Desperately, the Pet tried to seek some sort of comfort in his thoughts as he sobbed rather uncontrollably on the rooftop where he'd found himself, chased by his own imaginings about the Tower he escaped from. He shivered. Not only for remembering the earlier ordeal, but for the obvious cold and starvation wracking his entire body.
He was alone now and far away at least, the surrounding area seemingly having hid him as the lights slowly died and extinguished themselves when he wished earlier that they would. He however thought it to be coincidental, believing instead in the peace brought about by this darkness.
The wings folded behind him, more obedient to his will than he'd ever been to anyone although now he can feel their weight like stone having been drenched by this unforgiving rain. Riki didn't know what to do.
"Damn you Blondie..." all he could murmur was this curse, finally recalling the incident that had led to all this but without the slightest idea what had happened after sharing a last deep kiss with Iason, telling the man he thought he loved him. He brought his trembling hand between his legs. "What had they done to me?" and squeezed, feeling the new Pet Ring rub around his organ.
Lightning.
The annoying downpour became heavier about him by the minute, icy almost as they marred his body, seeping seemingly through his bones. Yet instead of seeking any form of shade from it, Riki remained, himself pinned to where he already was, a crying mess in the dark and cold. Could he go back to Ceres still? But what would he find there? Certainly not his old life.
The Pet wrapped his arms around his knees and curled into a ball, wishing for once that he was ensconced safely between the sheets with his only master, touched by his need, his cool warmth...
"Ia...Iason..."
Lightning. And with common nightmares, he simply buried his head.
--
Sapphire eyes glared at the vulnerable form of the Pet trembling with some manner of pain, not even noticing that he was no longer alone there, so uniquely vulnerable, Iason at last finding him after searching so hard and so long.
He had to call his name, "...Riki..." to which the other immediately opened his eyes, his heart altogether, staring up, apparently stunned.
It was a voice that he knew quite well enough, the timbre of which making his soul melt, his body yield... Sure enough, his senses had not deceived him, had not been pushed to madness at this rate. Riki blinked.
There he stood, right in front of him, the towering form of the Tanagura Blondie Iason Mink, casting him a stare of severity but actually looking with such love and worry behind them. The Man's arms crossed gracefully under the canopy made of his own dark wings.
"Iason…?"
No. They were actually blue, the Pet's mind amended. Like the sky was the shade of midnight even with the moons up. He had become like him, or was that the other way around? No matter. It was a moment unexpected. His master. His Iason was alive!
"You destroy part of our beautiful home in the new tower," the Blondie began. "...cast a large sector of the Capital into utter darkness, and have possibly shorted out every standing system facility within three hundred miles around you.
"Such trouble. Always wherever you went..." he gestured with a graceful hand, sighing in practiced disappointment, masking how he was feeling inside, how his emotions truly wandered about. "You can't even use those wings properly. How pathetic you look."
Riki visibly shuddered, mind starting when that voice dissipated in the ambiance to be replaced by the nonsensical pitter-patter of the rain. It scared him. But when he blinked, the vision stayed. It did not falter. The Blondie of Tanagura who had made him captive both in body and then heart still stood there, waiting, alive, scolding him again with those eyes, owning him with his presence.
If there be punishment, he was all right with it...as long as he was no longer alone.
"Bastard!" Riki immediately jumped, almost wanting to throw his strongest punch at him but instead collapsing into the other's arms, falling straight into his embrace, a mass of wet wings, clothes and all. He wanted to struggle against him, to rebel, but then he simply couldn't, just can't, begging with all his heart, "Why?"
Questions. He wanted to ask the other about many things yet he felt entirely weak for them, managing only the most important one: "Why did you leave me!?"
Iason was shocked, but then understood that rage, those scowling and, yes, still crying eyes. The need for some assurance behind it all making him smile ever so gently, breaking the pseudo-heartless visage he had chosen earlier, to become a Man most in love.
Riki was shaken, his tears still well-defined as they ran down his cheeks despite the rain. Lightning again, breaking the sky into shards overhead, but held no meaning as the Blondie simply enfolded his Pet, no second's hesitation, and right into his arms Riki had never felt more safer.
"I'm sorry, my dear one," whispered Iason, the voice of Neu-Jupiter. "I was kept busy and unable to welcome you into waking. I should have been there. You must have been scared."
All Riki could do was sob into those blue velvet robes, staining them wet by the minute, yet Iason could care less as he lovingly ran familiar fingers through those wet tresses, affectionately assuring the other that it was all right, and assuring himself that this was indeed his Riki, finally with his eyes open and conscious...no longer a sleeping doll.
Crying, Riki's shaking hands grasped onto his Master's clothes as if he would drown without him, having but only one wish.
"Take me…" he pleaded. "Take me home..."