Fic: Planning Ahead

[daegaer]

Kouryuu has a plan. It only involves breaking the law a little. Well, a lot.

"I'll give you a whole pack of cigarettes if you take a break now."

"Merciful Kannon," Nill said, raking his fingers through his hair. "I'm actually on a roll for once, Rin."

"I'll write five pages for you."

"Done."

Kouryuu waited while Nill shoved his data pad into his bag and stuck a note on his desk to say he'd be back in fifteen minutes. The undergrads had exams looming and tended to shark desks left unguarded.

"What is it?" Nill said, as they lit up outside. "Desperate for human companionship and suddenly realising that the cold touch of downloaded articles just doesn't cut it?"

"Your boyfriend," Kouryuu said.

"Is mine, I'd like to remind you. Yes?"

"You said his ex-girlfriend –" Kouryuu dropped his voice. "Was going out with a Cat-B guy now."

"Wow. You do want human companionship, you're desperate for gossip about people you don't even know. Yeah, Stel's going out with some guy over in Music. Even worse, he's an undergrad."

"So? How are they avoiding trouble?"

"They don't meet up in public, and his family's wealthy so they can afford lawyers if the worst comes to the worst. Anyway, it's not serious, they're only denting the gene laws, not really breaking them." He stared at Kouryuu. "Fuck! Rin! Tell me you're not that stupid!" He dragged Kouryuu further into the shadow of a pillar.

"Of course not! It's just – look, I just thought maybe they had some idea for getting around ID swipes and things. If I didn't want Goku and me ringing up as different categories every damn place we go."

"Fuck. That is breaking – Rin – Kouryuu, is he your actual kid?"

"No," Kouryuu said. "He's an orphan from the devastation zone. I just want to be able to adopt him, but I'll settle for permanent guardianship." He took a breath. "I'd settle for the records saying I had it. If it was believable."

Nill stared at him, then,

"You're not doing weird shit to this kid, right?"

"I'm going to fucking break your neck."

"OK. That's the reaction I expected. I just had to ask." Nill pulled out his communicator, still looking at him, wide-eyed. "Hey, honey! Yeah, yeah, fine. Hey, can you send me Stel's details? No, I just need to ask her something about you-know-who." He chitchatted a little longer and broke contact. "I'm going to get grilled so long tonight," he muttered, forwarding the information on. "I'll tell her you'll be in contact. She's going to kill me. Why couldn't you have just treated this as some tasty gossip about a stranger?"

"Thanks," Kouryuu said. "You don't have to be involved any more."

"Oh, I won't be."

* * *

Two evenings later, Kouryuu left a jubilant Goku with Hakkai, and enough cash to order food for at least three people. He was sure that idiot Sha would appear within minutes of him leaving.

Then he went to the painfully trendy bar where he was to meet Nill, who had changed his mind about being involved. His heart sank as he realised Nill's boyfriend was also now involved. How many people were coming on this excursion?

"You remember Quan, right?" Nill said, loudly to be heard over the terrible music.

"Yeah," Kouryuu said brusquely.

"Pei says you're being oppressed by the state," Quan yelled, putting a glass of vodka in front of him. "That really sucks."

"You have a way of cutting through to the heart of things," Kouryuu said dryly, and Nill toasted him, while making a Shhh gesture at Quan, who mimed Oops back.

He took a mouthful of the vodka, trying to quell his nervousness. He had to be calm, or he'd start to fight with people. That wouldn't be helpful. It took another twenty minutes before Nill nudged him and nodded towards a young woman approaching them hand-in-hand with the most beautiful boy Kouryuu had ever seen. She plopped down opposite Quan, reaching over to pat his cheek, and the boy slid in beside her gracefully.

"Hey, Quan," she said, and looked disapprovingly at Nill. "Pei."

"I'm glad you came, Stel," Quan said. "This is Pei's friend, Rin Kouryuu. Kouryuu, this is Qi-"

"Stel is fine," she said.

" . . . OK. This is Stel. And Phan. Kouryuu needs some advice."

"I'll have a G&T," she said. "And Phan would like a vodka and tonic. Off you go, Pei."

"Right," Nill said, looking chastened, and headed to the bar.

Stel gave Kouryuu an unfriendly look. He decided he might as well give in to the nerves and have the fight.

"I can't believe you've been spreading my business around, Quan," she snapped. "Keep Pei under control. I'm sure you're a perfectly decent guy, Kouryuu, but how is this your business?"

"I could lose my goddam kid," he snapped back. "He doesn't have any family to find, but I can't get the guardianship. And sooner or later his temporary ID will be taken away."

"Don't be a fool," she said. "How old are you? Pei had some story about you not being old enough to get the guardianship –"

"I can't wait," Kouryuu said. "And I don't want to tell you why. All I want is advice on how to avoid trouble. Like you two."

"Why not wait?" Quan said. "I mean, in a year or so you can apply again –"

"Because social workers can come around at any time and perhaps spot if something's off," Phan said. "Like seeing that there's double occupancy in a single room. That's done for more couples than you know – all it takes is a nosy neighbour." He leant forward, even his curiosity graceful. "So what would they notice about this kid, Kouryuu? Do you have some big banner up saying, I love my genetically diverse child or something?"

"He's just a kid," Kouryuu muttered. "Loud, clumsy, eats my entire budget –"

"You kidnapped him," Phan said flatly. "You either found him in some shit situation, or you had some idea you'd be better for him than his own family. They were just a poor colony Cat-B family, after all."

Kouryuu's fingers tightened on the glass. He glared into Phan's remarkable ocean-blue eyes.

"No. I didn't kidnap him. Where I found him, he was the only living thing." He couldn't tell the truth, they might agree that Goku should lose his ID. "Look – he didn't have an ID, and the way he talked, I don't think anyone had a parental licence for him. OK? I didn't report that, and I put him with the other kids who'd already had a genetic sample taken for relatives to be traced. Then I got a friend of my father's to help me rush through an emergency application for fosterage."

"Wow," Quan said. "Cool! Stick it to the man!"

"Shit," Phan said, his eyes wide. "I don't want to hear this. Come on, Stel."

Kouryuu grabbed his wrist as Nill returned with the drinks. "You did hear it. Are you going to turn me in? Because unless you are, you're already part of this."

Stel and Phan looked at each other in alarm and went very still.

"What just happened?" Nill said.

"Kouryuu's rescued an uncategorised kid! We're making sure he keeps his Cat-B!" Quan said in excitement.

"Shut the fuck up," Stel hissed. "Merciful Kannon, you running at the mouth is part of why we broke up!"

As she, Nill and Quan got into a whispered argument, Phan slid closer to Kouryuu, a grim expression on his face.

"OK," he murmured, "my life's none of your business, you got that? Your life's none of mine. Let's ignore all social boundaries for a minute – do you know your kid's genetic heritage?"

"I'm assuming great ape somewhere," Kouryuu said, showing him a good recent image of Goku. "I don't want to get him tested."

"You think these unlicensed parents of his were also an unapproved gene-match?"

It was a far better answer than the truth. Kouryuu nodded.

"It wouldn't surprise me; it'd be a reason for refusing the license, right?"

Phan looked at him wordlessly, then, "Why do you care? If he ends up Cat-X you could still find a way to send him to a decent-enough school, put money in an account for him –"

Kouryuu thought of the seemingly endless trek through the devastated streets in the moonlight, the small arms wound around his neck.

"No. He doesn't deserve that. No one does."

Phan shook his head. "This is all such bullshit. – I might know someone. He's not in Keiun, I met him in one of the clubs my band plays in. I can tell you right now he'll say you need to start by establishing residency somewhere that isn't the damn centre of everything. Can you do that? It needs to be halfway plausible that your documentation might come from the ass end of nowhere."

Kouryuu half-laughed, and vowed an extra-large offering of flowers on the family shrine. Thanks, Dad.

"Yeah, I can do that. Have you ever heard of Kinzan Monastery?"

"No."

"It's the fucking definition of the ass end of nowhere. I'll go there to do research – I'll even bring Goku's tutor. Unless it would look better to enrol him in a local school?"

"A scholar of independent means with a private tutor – that looks good," Phan said. "Let me coordinate from this end. This guy isn't going to want to meet you. And don't let bloody Nill Pei annoy Stel too much, OK?"

"Deal." Kouryuu looked at him dubiously. "You play in a band?"

"What? You think I just study music theory all day and night?"

Kouryuu shrugged. Not everyone could be like him. He supposed.

* * *

"Don't fucking argue," Kouryuu said. "I'm offering you five times your daily rate for the next two months' work. You know you can't afford to say no."

He watched Hakkai hum and haw while looking anywhere but his face. It wasn’t in doubt, of course. Who could turn down a bonus like that? Thank God for his trust fund. Still, time to unleash the secret weapon.

"Don’t you want Hakkai to come with us, Goku?"

"Yeah! Hakkai, you've gotta come! It'll be so cool!"

"Got to, Goku. Got to - try to enunciate clearly. It's not that I don't want to come with you," Hakkai said, giving Kouryuu a dirty look, "but I need to consider Gojyo as well."

"He can come too!"

"I'm not paying for him."

"I doubt he can take time off from his course," Hakkai said. "I can pause mine, but his is in a different facility."

"So?" Kouryuu said. "You're not permanently joined at the hip, are you?" He smirked at the even dirtier look sent his way.

"Five times the usual rate," Hakkai said slowly.

"Including weekends."

"Two months."

"Two months." It was a lie. He thought they'd be there at least three, but he didn't want to scare away the one person besides him that he was sure could handle Goku. The brat didn't know his own strength and sometimes had a flash of encroaching-puberty mood swings that could be worryingly volcanic. "And if you insist, Sha can visit at the weekend. At his own expense."

"Yeah! I can have a dessert eating contest with Gojyo at the weekend!" Goku crowed. "You have to say yes, Hakkai!"

Hakkai was weakening. Kouryuu kept a bland expression on his face as he made a nutritious snack for Goku and a pot of tea for the adults. The snack – carefully seared slices of flavoured tofu over cold noodles – didn't get so much as a Thanks before it was gone, and Goku was looking hopefully at him.

"Can I have some algae chips? The prawn flavoured ones?"

They tussled over the contested chips for a while before Hakkai wrested the bag from Goku's hands and poured a less than enormous amount into a small bowl. He looked ruefully at Kouryuu.

"Maybe you do need an extra pair of hands."

Kouryuu nodded in satisfaction as Goku cheered, spraying algae flakes across the table.

Comments

[kirathaune]

He's trying so hard to avoid the Sanzo Option, isn't he?

[daegaer]

The Sanzo Option gets your loved ones killed horribly in front of you! Genkai and Toudai both died horribly in front of Koumyou, Koumyou died horribly in front of him - if he becomes a sanzo, he'll be killed horribly in front of Goku.

Jikaku: Have you considered therapy?

Kouryuu: FOR WHAT?