[KH2] - Bad Affection (Xigbar/Xaldin/Replica Riku) (Chapter 9)
Much to Braig’s annoyance, he received a phone call early the following morning from Xehanort. The unexpected ring woke Riku from its sleep. It got out of bed and crept down to Dilan and Braig’s bedroom to see if there was a problem that it could help its masters with.
The sadist and the cannibal had clearly gone to bed the previous night without any of their bedroom antics, as there were no hooks or chains out and the walls, ceiling and floor were devoid of blood. The only thing out of the ordinary was that Braig was sitting up in bed, naked aside from the blanket draped across his hips. He held a cell phone to his ear, his expression a mix of disgust, outrage and complete annoyance.
“Let me make sure I’m understanding you,” he repeated into the phone. “You have called me. At four in the fucking morning. To tell me to pack my shit because I am leaving to go out of town to a conference. In two hours. Is that really what you’ve called to tell me, Xehanort? You couldn’t have told me this yesterday? Or, even better, gotten some other useless fuck that works for you to go?” His voice raised with each word until he was practically yelling into the phone at the end. At his side, Dilan groaned and elbowed Braig roughly in the ribs as he pulled the blanket up over his head.
“Shut up and just fucking deal with it,” mumbled Dilan.
“You shut the fuck up!” Braig snarled at him before he turned his attention back to the phone. “Yes, and you shut the fuck up too. I am not some goddamned grad student intern who you can just bitch around!” He fell silent for a moment and Riku could practically feel the anger radiate from him.
“Fine,” Braig said at last. “Fine. Yeah, do that. I’ll be there.” He slammed the phone shut. “Riku, go pull out my bag and start packing it. I’ll be fucked if I let those bastards order me around like this.”
“You are their employee. You are paid for them to order you around.” Dilan’s voice was muffled by the blanket. He knew for a fact that Braig wasn’t nearly as angry about being ordered to travel as he was just pissed off at being woken up in the middle of the night. The reality was that Braig loved to travel. It gave him an excuse to sample “foreign cuisine.”
He pushed himself out of bed, not bothering to grab the pants that he’d discarded on the floor a few hours prior. Braig’s eyes fell on the digital clock on the bedside table again at the time.
“Almost wish we’d been fuckin’ when he called,” he muttered. “That woulda taught him not to call in the middle of the goddamned night.”
At Dilan’s sleepy chuckle, Braig prodded a bony finger into his lover’s gut.
“I know you’re pleased about this. Don’t even try to lie about it.”
“I’d be pleased about anything that got you to shut the fuck up and let me go back to sleep.” Dilan rolled over, away from Braig’s finger.
“Whiny little bitch.” Braig turned and looked to see Riku diligently packing his suitcase. The sight immediately lightened his spirits, at least. There was just something about seeing that kid in footie pajamas and a dog collar that made him feel just a little bit warm and fuzzy inside.
“It’s done, Master.” Riku went and stood by Braig’s side. “Shall I go make you some coffee?”
“That’s all right, kiddo, I’ll do it myself.” Braig put a hand on Riku’s hair and pulled it close, scratching the clone’s scalp as he did so. Riku rubbed up against him, making a happy noise at all the attention. “Now, Daddy’s going out of town for a few days because his bosses think that he’s a little bitch like Dilan over there and Daddy can’t eat them because he’d have to find another job and he hates going to job interviews. So, you be a good boy while I’m gone and do whatever Dilan tells you, understand? If you’re very good, maybe I’ll bring you a present.”
“Yes, Master. I’ll be good.” Riku kissed Braig’s hands.
“Good boy. Now go back to bed.” Braig grabbed his suitcase and watched as the replica padded back down the hall to its room. He really needed to get that kid a tail or something. Or maybe he could get Ev to graft some puppy ears onto it. With the collar, it would really be just too cute for words.
The rest of the morning passed fairly normally aside from Braig being absent from the usual morning activities. Riku and Dilan rose and got dressed and Riku prepared breakfast (French toast and tea - Dilan’s favorite) for them while Dilan read the paper.
“I know that Braig’s been having you come meet him at the office after school for the last week or so.” Dilan spoke without taking his eyes off the finance page. “But you will come straight back here after you’re finished with school. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” Riku poured Dilan another cup of tea and put three lumps of sugar in it, just like Dilan preferred.
“Good.” Dilan sipped the tea and almost smiled. Out of all Braig’s idiot ideas, adopting the replica had surprisingly turned out to be the best. Despite its unusual upbringing, it was polite, charming, obedient, intelligent and - as Dilan noted yet again as he watched Riku adjust the collar beneath its school uniform - very, very cute. Dilan liked cute little boys. It had been a long time since he’d had one - since before he and Braig had established themselves as together. It wasn’t as if he and Braig had ever done anything to make it “official” - neither of them were the ceremony type, after all - they had merely come together one day and simply never parted.
As for Braig, he was well aware of Dilan’s sexual preferences, just as Dilan himself was aware of Braig’s little culinary quirks. And Braig had no problem with Dilan bringing kids home to play with, so that wasn’t preventing Dilan from having his fun. The problem was that Braig got overexcited. And while it was true that Dilan did love to see his playmates in pieces, he preferred to take them apart himself, and only after he’d fucked them. Having Braig around made that just somewhat difficult.
Dilan glanced at his watch. “All right, we need to leave now if I’m going to walk you to school.”
“Yes, sir.” Riku looked at the dishes and paused. “Shall I do them when I return from school?” It knew that Dilan did not like leaving a mess, especially in the kitchen.
“Just make sure it’s cleaned up before I get home.” Dilan pulled on his coat and grabbed his briefcase and watched as Riku did the same. “Now that Braig’s out of town for a few days, we might actually be able to get the place decently clean.”
“I can start on the housework after I get home from school,” Riku said.
“Excellent.”
It was only after Dilan had dropped Riku off at the front gates of the school that the clone reached into its bag to look for its books and felt an unfamiliar piece of paper. It removed it and discovered a folded note with “Riku” written on it in Braig’s familiar, square handwriting. It opened the note immediately and read.
It was short and Riku folded it up carefully and put it back in his pocket after. So. Master wanted it to please Dilan while he was gone. Riku was fairly sure it knew exactly how to carry out Master’s orders…
Dilan came home that afternoon feeling… almost good. It wasn’t unheard of for Dilan to be happy (he wasn’t like Even, who was commonly thought to be incapable of mirth), but it was extremely unusual for something to break through his usually stoic demeanor. Perhaps it was that Braig was gone. Dilan loved his partner and felt a little guilty at taking pleasure in having the house to himself, but there was nothing wrong with playing hooky. It gave him a chance to sit down with a gallon of rocky road ice cream and watch movies without Braig hovering over his shoulder and making snide remarks about how ice cream rotted teeth and television rotted the brain.
That’s all that Dilan was looking forward to as he climbed the stairs up to their floor. Movies, something to satisfy his sweet tooth and maybe getting the replica to massage his shoulders for an hour or something. It already sounded like near-perfection.
So when Dilan walked through the back door into the kitchen and was immediately greeted by the sight of the replica in a schoolgirl uniform (complete with short skirt and knee-high socks) washing dishes at the sink, he stopped dead in his tracks. One hand held the door open and the other was wrapped loosely around the handle of his briefcase.
Riku turned to look at Dilan. Its arms were covered in suds up to its elbows and it was wearing the special collar with the pink heart tag instead of the usual chain. The mid-afternoon light caught on its silvery hair and made it momentarily glow. Dilan thought he could hear a choir of angels.
“Hello, Master Dilan. How was work today?” Riku tilted its head inquisitively.
“It was fine. Why are you wearing a schoolgirl uniform, Riku?”
“Because Master told me to make you happy while he was gone.”
“He did, did he?” Dilan stepped inside and put his briefcase down. It sounded like some sort of trap that Braig would set. Tempt him with a cute little boy (in a skirt no less) and then crucify him for it when he gave into the temptation.
“Yes, sir.” Riku rinsed the suds off its arms and dried them on a dishtowel. It pushed itself up onto the counter and sat with its feet dangling above the floor. Dilan walked over to it and Riku reached out to grab Dilan by his tie and pull him closer.
“You can do anything you want with me,” the clone whispered quietly, pressing his lips against Dilan’s jawline. “Master gave me permission.”
“Did he now?” Dilan’s hands found their way to Riku’s legs and slid up underneath the skirt. Riku shivered appreciatively. Dilan’s touch was different from Master’s, but… still very nice. “Anything I want?”
“Yes.” Riku gasped a little bit as Dilan’s skillful surgeon’s hands found their way to its hips and pulled it closer.
“Even if I wanted to peel off your skin?” Dilan began to unbutton the top of Riku’s uniform.
“Yes.” Riku rolled its shoulders so that the shirt fell down its arms and Dilan ran his hands down the clone’s smooth, pale torso. There wasn’t a blemish on its entire body, not a scar. Not one mark. Nothing to show that it was flawed and human. But it wasn’t. It had been grown and created, cultured in a sheltered room free from outside influence. Its whole life, it had been handled like something precious (and it was) and kept free from contamination. It was the most pure being that Dilan had ever laid eyes on.
And even after it had been removed from its sanitized sanctuary, it retained that inhuman quality. Even after Braig had corrupted it with his own brand of parenting, it had remained inexplicably flawless. Braig had transformed it from the perfect innocent to the perfect killer. The metamorphosis that Dilan observed happened in the replica was fascinating, and yet… Although he had given Riku the very finest in bad education and bad affection, Braig had always been so very, very careful…
Dilan smiled to himself. It was time to ruin some of his partner’s hard work.
“Come here, Riku.”
He pulled Riku off the counter and held it tightly, getting a little thrill when the clone wrapped its thin arms around his neck and began to kiss his chest and jaw - any part of him it could reach.
“I’m going to teach you something that your master never would,” he growled softly to the clone as he carried it to the bedroom he shared with Braig. “I’m going to teach you the value of human pain. And you are going to love it.”
Riku shivered.
To Be Continued...