Chapter Thirteen - Old Friends

Chapter Thirteen – Old Friends

The Expo was a huge affair, drawing visitors not only from Japan, but overseas as well. The stalls ranged from simple canvass-roofed structures, barely large enough to show off one display, to huge prefabricated pavilions. Aiko hadn't realized how many people would be there. After the small and close-knit community she was used to back on the island, the packed stalls and hordes of people felt claustrophobic.

The crowd gave Miyatsu a wide berth, wary and uncertain of the status of the tall cat that padded sedately by the side of the two humans without leash, collar, or any obvious restraining device. Although there were other GMAs with their masters at the Expo, they were generally the smaller and calmer personal pet breeds, and all were securely leashed or wore hobble chains and muzzles.

A few people even recognized Miyatsu as the "Attack Cat" of the circuit twelve years ago, and wherever he went, eyes would turn to watch. Aiko soon found the attention uncomfortable. It was with mixed feelings of apprehension and relief that she saw the Raikatuji pavilion. It was large and resplendent, standing out amongst the others like a racehorse in a field of donkeys.

A young saleswoman sitting behind a desk at the entrance looked up at their approach. The polite welcoming smile she had assumed froze on her face as she saw the big cat walking with the two humans. It gave her features a rigid, startled look, like a toy doll with a single fixed grimace.

"May I -- help you?" she asked uncertainly, her eyes flicking from the humans to Miyatsu and back again. Her body was tense, as if she'd rather scream and run than sit talking to them.

"Thank you. We've come to see Raikatuji-sama," Miyatsu answered calmly, and the saleswoman's eyes widened further in surprise at being addressed by a GMA.

Aiko looked down at the ground to hide her slight smile. No matter how often she saw that look on people's faces, their shocked reaction to her mate's confident grasp of human language never failed to amuse her. She wondered if she too had done a bad impression of a stranded fish when she first heard Miyatsu speak, that day at the Raikatuji Centre.

You did, a voice inside her head assured her, and she looked up to see Miyatsu watching her with a carefully bland expression. She could hear the echo of his laughter in her mind and grinned back at him.

"Er -- do you have, um, have an appointment?" the receptionist stammered.

Suddenly Sakaki appeared at the entrance, just as if he'd been waiting for their arrival. He had a huge smile on his face. He spread his arms wide and strode toward them, beaming with delight. "No appointment needed for all of you! Miyatsu, Aiko! And Dr Fujimoto! I hoped you'd visit again today! It's alright, Mai-san," he addressed the young woman, "these are old friends of mine! At least," he said, his smile faltering for a moment as his eyes searched their faces anxiously, "I hope you still are my friends?"

Aiko smiled back at him. "Of course we are. Oh, Sakaki, it is good to see you again!" And she hugged him.

He laughed with relief and patted her back. "And you, Aiko. Let me look at you. It's been a long time!"

"Too long," she answered. She gazed at him. He did look older, but then so did she. His hair had gray streaks, and there were lines on his face she didn't remember seeing before. And although his eyes sparkled with delight at seeing them again, they were red-rimmed, and there were dark circles under them that made his face appear tired and older than it should.

"You're still as pretty as ever; island life must agree with you," Sakaki said. He glanced at the cat GMA beside them and grinned cheekily. "And still hanging around with this guy, I see!"

Miyatsu's features relaxed, and Aiko felt the tense emotions he had hidden behind the calm facade begin to drain away at Sakaki's words. Once again she felt the fond fraternity in her mate's mind towards this man. It was quieter now, not the desperate yearning it used to be before he had a family of his own. He put a hand on Sakaki's shoulder.

"Aiko says we should never have let our friendship die, Sakaki-kun," Miyatsu said. "I agree with her."

Sakaki made a small bow to Aiko. "You always were wise beyond your years," he said gravely. "The fault lies with me. I was too embarrassed to seek you both out. I hope we can put the past behind us?"

"We have many good memories," Aiko answered. "Too many to let one small incident spoil them."

"Excellent! Come inside, all of you, we can talk more comfortably there and catch up. And I can show you some of the things my people have designed lately."

They followed him in. The crowd in the big pavilion was neither as raucous nor as large as the one milling about outside, and the contrast was soothing.

Sakaki led them around the room, stopping here and there to explain what each display did. Dr Fujimoto senior was fascinated by the wealth of biotechnology being exhibited and was soon walking well ahead of the others, poking into everything with great enjoyment.

Aiko smiled. "He's like a child in a candy shop," she remarked.

"Miyatsu, Aiko, you've got to come and see this!" Dr Fujimoto called. "It's a new, improved gestation unit. We could use this back home for the next set of kittens -- just look at some of these features!"

"What's wrong with the unit we have, Dad?" Aiko called back, but Miyatsu, with a look of interest on his face, strode ahead to join Dr Fujimoto, and together they began examining the machine intently, discussing its possibilities.

"It looks like you've made a sale," Aiko observed to Sakaki wryly, as they stood watching the pair.

"I wish all of my sales were as easy!"

"How's Suzu?" Aiko asked.

"I assume she's living in the lap of luxury somewhere," Sakaki answered with a nonchalant shrug. "My accountant knows where -- every month I sign a cheque that he sends to her."

"Oh, Sakaki, you didn't divorce?"

"Afraid so. We didn't even last a year together. As a matter of fact, I realized I'd made a mistake not long after we got back from the honeymoon. Do you remember, just after Miyatsu was forced to cut short the circuit tour?" Sakaki grinned. "I'll never forget how you roasted me for leaving him by himself in a foreign country!" He held up his hand to forestall her embarrassed reply. "No, it's all right, I deserved every word you said. But Suzu and I were a mismatch from the beginning. She didn't love me, she loved my money. She was very honest about that."

"Sakaki, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you..."

"Don't be. This way everybody is happy. Suzu has plenty of cash to play with, and I'm free to cry on your shoulder and complain that nobody understands me!" He grinned at her so disarmingly that Aiko found herself smiling back. "Ah well, it looks like Miyatsu got the best girl!"

"Sakaki, you're teasing. I remember you ignoring me often, back when I was just your humble employee."

"I did? What an idiot I must have been."

"So are you still single now?"

"Mm-hmm." Sakaki dropped his teasing tone, his voice becoming serious. "There was one woman, years ago. I lost my heart to her in a big way. Unfortunately for me, she was already with somebody. I believe she was -- fond of me, but that was as far as it went. That's one of the reasons I didn't try harder to make my marriage with Suzu work, I suppose. My heart just wasn't in it." He sighed, looking so woebegone that Aiko felt her heart go out to him.

"What happened with the other woman?" she asked sympathetically.

"Nothing at all. You see, she'd never leave her partner." His eyes were unfocused, like he was looking at something far off in the distance. "It's as if she's bewitched by him; if only I could make her see how wrong he is for her..."

Something flickered behind his eyes, something dark, and Aiko felt a sudden chill breath down her spine, lifting the fine hairs on the back of her neck and making her shiver with an unreasoning fear. She had felt like this only once before in his presence, and it had ended with her on the floor beneath him. She didn't understand what it meant, but she didn't like it.

"Sakaki?" she whispered, taking a fearful step back from him.

His eyes returned to the present and he gave Aiko a wan smile. "I'm sorry, Aiko, I forgot where I was. What's wrong? You look like you'd just seen a ghost."

"No, no, I'm fine," she said, shaking off the feeling with an effort.

"I haven't thought about her for some time," Sakaki apologized. "Speaking about it again made me remember. Don't mind me -- I'm resigned to it by now."

They walked on a little further, leaving Aiko's father and Miyatsu still examining the features of the gestation unit.

"Where's Koneko?" Aiko asked, suddenly realizing that Sakaki's shadow was nowhere about.

Sakaki looked down at his hands for a moment and didn't answer at first. He seemed to be searching for the right words. Finally he met her eyes again. "Koneko is no longer with me. She -- passed on, several years ago."

"Oh, Sakaki! But she was only a young cat, wasn't she?"

"There was an accident at the Centre, a procedure she was having went wrong. Please, Aiko, I'd rather not talk about it. Koneko was very dear to me..."

"Of course. I'm sorry." Aiko desperately cast about in her mind for another subject to discuss; it seemed everything she'd brought up so far had bad connotations. But Sakaki himself broke the impasse. They were walking by an alcove containing two comfortable-looking armchairs, and he stopped with a slight smile.

"Here's something I'd like you to see. I'm quite proud of it -- it's one of my own ideas. It's a holographic display generator built into one of the chairs. Let me show you how it works."

He seated himself in one armchair and waved Aiko to take the other. "Now, I place my fingers in these indentations in the chair's armrests, see?" A discreet humming sound came from the armrests as Sakaki's fingers slid into a recess Aiko hadn't noticed at first; she had taken it for a pattern on the soft dark fabric. "That's the generator. It was activated by contact with my skin." He rested his head against the back of the chair. "The headrest has adjustable sensors built in. Now, watch that table in front of us while I concentrate."

Aiko turned her attention to what appeared to be a quite ordinary coffee table standing in front of the armchairs.

Something flickered on the tabletop. Slowly, a picture began to build up, as if being scanned line by line from the ground up. It appeared completely solid and three-dimensional. It even cast a tiny shadow onto the honey-colored wood.

Aiko gasped. It was herself in miniature, dressed in traditional kimono and obi, with her hair done up elaborately. The image was only about fifteen centimeters high but was completely convincing. The holographic Aiko stared back at her expressionlessly and unmoving, then it abruptly blinked as if coming to life, smiled and bowed to her politely. Sakaki chuckled, and Aiko glanced at him, feeling unnerved by her realistic double.

"She's very lifelike, isn't she? The generator reads my memories of you and creates a holograph. I can dress her any way I like. The generator adds things like folds in the cloth and shadows; I can even have background if I want to. But there's more!"

The chair hummed again, and slowly a second figure appeared, once more scanning from the bottom up. It was a representation of Sakaki dressed in Samurai attire. Aiko gazed in wonder at the little image. This was Sakaki as she remembered him from twelve years ago, his hair jet-black, his face handsome and unlined.

"I know you like flowers," Sakaki said, his forehead wrinkled in concentration, and Aiko saw a cherry tree in full bloom appear beside the tiny couple. Green grass spread like a swift-flowing pool over the table.

Aiko reached forward, fascinated, and touched the edge of the grassy lawn. Her finger passed through the solid-looking image to the tabletop beneath. She shook her head in wonder and sat back to watch what would happen next.

The little Samurai Sakaki reached up and plucked a branch from the tree. With a courtly bow, the holographic Sakaki presented the flowers to the holographic Aiko. Aiko laughed in delight as she watched her image accept the flowers with a gracious nod of her tiny head.

"Sakaki, that's brilliant!" she said. "Can they talk?"

"I can make them speak, but it's not quite right yet. I'll show you." And Sakaki concentrated on the little figures. The Aiko-image turned to look at them both and opened its tiny mouth. "What would you like me to say?" it enquired. The voice was deep, masculine, and utterly Sakaki's.

"I see what you mean," Aiko said, chuckling.

Sakaki laughed too. "That part needs some work," he admitted. "But you can see the potential applications of such a device. The holographs can be recorded on traditional disks and played back. You could make your own movies, video games, tutorials and presentations, whatever, straight from your imagination."

"You make it look so easy. Can anyone use it?"

"The system requires some training to master," Sakaki admitted. "The computer in the chair needs to be customized to each user. And this is just a prototype, the only one in existence so far. If we get enough advance orders from this Expo, I'll think about manufacturing more." He smiled slyly and concentrated once more, and the tiny Aiko bowed to them.

"You'll need to fix our voices first," the holograph grumbled, making Aiko laugh again.

*

They had rejoined Miyatsu and Yutaka, and Sakaki was now deep in discussion with them about the relative values of the new gestation unit.

Aiko wandered a little way from the three to gaze at the other displays on offer. It was amazing how much the Raikatuji Corporation had achieved. Sakaki had diversified into many different fields, no longer concentrating on biotechnology alone. She stopped in front of one display and looked it over with interest; it was a new energy-generation plant currently under construction. What made her look closer was the map posted with the display: she remembered the area well. The Raikatuji Clean Energy Facility was built on the same site as her beach house had been. It gave her a little pang to think that the small cottage where she and Miyatsu had first made love no longer existed; Sakaki must have bought up the whole area for his new plant.

It was an awesome undertaking though, she thought to herself, studying the information. A renewable power plant harnessing waves to generate electricity which it would then sell to the national electrical grid. The schematics showed that the wave power generator was not situated on top of the water as traditional generators were. Rather, thousands of big pylons were loosely tethered to the sea floor, rocking with the action of the ebbing and flowing tide to produce far more electrical power than traditional wave generation could manage. It was discreet and didn't spoil the view above the water.

She waved her hand over the computer screen built into the display and smiled at the sight of fish swimming unconcernedly amongst the gently rocking pylons to the music of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons".

"Like it?"

Aiko started in surprise, then smiled at Sakaki, who stood behind her, also watching the display with the air of a proud father.

"Very nice. You've really branched out from biotech, haven't you?"

Sakaki shrugged. "Renewable energy is the wave of the future, if you'll pardon the pun. Hydroelectricity has been stretched to the limits in this country, and it seems such a waste to be surrounded by ocean just sitting there doing nothing when we could use it to generate vast amounts of clean power. I'm quite pleased with it; the infrastructure's all built now. I plan to open it to full generation in a few months time once we've tested everything."

"There's such a lot of sea floor taken up with generation," Aiko said. She pointed to the small, discreet building a little way up from the beach. "I would have thought you'd need a bigger plant to manage it all."

"I wanted to keep the visual aesthetics of the area. Tourist and fishing boats will still be able to sail over the surface unimpeded," Sakaki explained. "That building is really just the entrance and administrative centre. The plant itself is built underground. It extends quite a way under the seafloor as well, so that we have easy access to the generation pillars from underneath. Each one can be individually lowered like the periscope in a submarine for manual checking and repair if needed." He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. "The first time I toured the area without my engineer guide, I got lost, can you believe it? Of course, it's all signposted now, but it was quite confusing at first. The corridors run under the entire pillared area, and that's a lot of corridors! And of course, the further out you go, the deeper the water above gets. I've built reinforced viewing windows in some of the higher levels, where the sunlight still penetrates; the amount of sea-life in the area's really quite astounding and well worth a look."

"We must come and see it when it opens, my brother." Miyatsu and Yutaka were standing behind them, listening with interest.

"You'd be very welcome," Sakaki assured Miyatsu. "I've kept my old office at the top of the Raikatuji Building, since it has easy access to the plant and I still dabble in GMA research. Drop by anytime."

"The plant must have been very expensive to build," Aiko observed.

"Only the infrastructure and start-up costs. Once it's generating at full capacity, maintenance is easy. And if this one is as profitable as it's projected to be, I plan to build a string of them, all along the coast."

*

Sakaki insisted on taking them all to dinner at the Expo hotel that evening. He hired a private room and advised the hotel staff about Miyatsu's presence, so their meal was a pleasant affair, with only the occasional wary glance from their waiter to distract them from the excellent food and drink.

"Tell me about these kittens of yours," Sakaki said as the entrée was served. "You told me yesterday the girls and boys are unrelated, Miyatsu. Why did you bother with that?"

"It was so they could safely become mates," Miyatsu answered. He looked at Aiko's father. "I think you can explain it better than I could, Yutaka."

"We did it to avoid inbreeding. Since they're genetically unrelated, they can breed healthy infants. And because each kitten is gestated in the same unit as its twin, they bond from an early age using their latent psychic abilities."

"Our first two, Mieko and Montaro, are going through puberty," Miyatsu continued. "They're beginning to act like mates now instead of twins."

"They still enjoy the company of their younger siblings and the family group," Aiko added. "But recently they've begun wanting time alone together. Sometimes they're gone for a full day. They levitate to an uninhabited part of the island and just hang out together without the rest of the family constantly around them. And even when they're back with us, they groom each other and kiss as Miyatsu and I do, cheek to cheek. We're building separate living quarters for them now, a little way from the main house, so they can start their own family once they're ready."

"You make them sound as if they're in love," Sakaki protested. "But how can that be? If they're raised as brother and sister, surely it's... it's akin to incest for them to mate?" His voice held a slight note of distaste as he said this.

Aiko shook her head. "But we didn't raise them as brother and sister," she stated. "They bond in utero as mates, don't you see? They always know they are meant to be partners."

"But what if they didn't bond? What if they're just trying to live up to family expectations? Isn't it unrealistic to expect them to want to stay together for the rest of their lives?"

"It's a cat thing," Miyatsu said, trying to explain the concept to Sakaki. "I bonded with Aiko from the moment I opened my eyes in the gestation unit and saw her. It didn't matter that we were only seven years old and not even the same species. Our minds reached out and touched each other, and from that moment I loved her. When she left, I tried to follow her with my mind and came across my sleeping brothers. I was able to raise them to consciousness, but it was Aiko I'd bonded with, to the exclusion of all others." He turned his blue eyes to her. The pupils were fully dilated in the muted lighting of the room, as round as a human's in his cat-like face. "And I never forgot my little mate," he said tenderly, reaching one hand to intertwine with hers across the table. "I was only ever half-alive until I met you again at the Raikatuji Centre."

"Ah!" The knife Sakaki had been using to open his oysters had slipped, cutting a gash in his hand, and Sakaki sat staring at the blood dripping onto the tablecloth as if in surprise.

"Sakaki!" Aiko gasped. She grabbed her serviette. "Here, give me your hand; I'll wrap this around it... "

Sakaki took the serviette, dabbing it at the wound as he examined the cut. "That was clumsy of me. But it's not deep. It'll stop bleeding in a moment."

The head waiter appeared with a first-aid kit, basin of warm water, and profuse apologies, as if he himself were to blame for the accident. He made sure the wound was washed and dried before applying disinfectant spray and a cloth bandage. He then efficiently and quickly removed the remains of the entrée, replaced the tablecloth with fresh linen and replenished their drinks. Soon the only sign of the accident was the bandage on Sakaki's hand.

"Why did you never attempt to contact us, Sakaki?" Miyatsu asked as the main course was served a few minutes later.

Sakaki looked embarrassed. "You know why," he mumbled, toying with his food abstractedly.

Only Dr Fujimoto appeared puzzled by this statement, as neither Aiko nor Miyatsu had told him or his wife about the incident.

Sakaki looked back up at them. "But there was another reason," he continued. "When I finally convinced myself to get in touch, I couldn't find your new telephone number. I tried ringing the lab at Shima, but the line had been disconnected. You seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to keep your location secret. Why was that?"

Miyatsu and Aiko exchanged a glance.

"We were getting anonymous calls, unpleasant ones," Aiko answered finally.

"Our relationship caused some people a great deal of anger," Miyatsu added. "We had calls ranging from mere profanity to outright death threats."

Sakaki stared at them. "I had no idea! Did you find out who made the calls?"

Aiko shook her head. "I suppose a few disapproved of what they chose to see as bestiality. But some were made by groups, and that was frightening."

"The groups gave themselves absurd names," Dr Fujimoto joined in. "'Humans Against Genetically Engineered Organisms', for instance. And the 'Return to the Wild' group."

Aiko smiled a little grimly. "'Return to the Wild' at least had the gumption to show their faces over the telephone. They thought I was Miyatsu's master and demanded that I free him from my evil human influence and let him go back to nature."

"I spoke to them," Miyatsu answered. "But it made no difference. It didn't matter that I said I am free, and that I've never lived in the wild, they wouldn't listen to me. Apparently because I'm an animal I couldn't possibly know my own mind."

"Their spokeswoman kept saying you were born and raised in captivity, remember?" Aiko reminded her mate with a grin. "She tried to convince you that you'd like it in the wild, communing with your fellow creatures, living as nature intended..."

"... and I told her I imagined it'd be uncomfortable in the wild. You've got to catch your own food, there's biting insects, no plumbing, no soft beds -- " and Miyatsu stopped speaking abruptly, baring his sharp teeth in an amused grin.

"And no warm human mate to share the bed with!" Aiko finished for him.

Dr Fujimoto gave a bark of laughter at this. "We never heard from them after that!"

"I'll give you our private number, my brother," Miyatsu offered. "Do you have a pen?"

Sakaki shook his head. "No, but I have a mobile telephone in my jacket. Put the number into its memory."

He reached his bandaged hand into his pocket clumsily, pulled out the mobile and handed it across to Miyatsu. As he did so, Aiko, who was sitting next to him, noticed something drop from the pocket. Curiously, she leant down to pick up the tiny plastic packet. Inside were two fluorescent yellow tablets, each marked with a swirl of acid-green spiraling out from the centre. Their unique color made them unmistakable. She drew her breath in sharply in recognition and clutched her fist closed on the tabs, looking around quickly to see if anybody had noticed.

Miyatsu had passed the phone across to Dr Fujimoto, as the fingers on his modified paws were not small enough to be able to punch the numbers reliably. Aiko's father was now speaking to his wife back on the island, informing her that they would be home a little later than expected.

"She said she'd already guessed that," he informed them all dryly. "Our dinner has been fed to the seagulls. Well Sakaki-san, you have our number now. Don't go giving it out to strangers, will you?"

Sakaki placed one hand over his heart melodramatically. "You have my word of honor. I will die before revealing it!"

*

Sakaki took them back to the dock by limousine and walked with them down the long, silent jetty to their catamaran.

"Why don't you two go on ahead?" Aiko suggested to her father and Miyatsu. "I want a quick word with Sakaki in private."

"She's going to try beating you down on the price of that gestation unit, my brother," Miyatsu told Sakaki with a slight smile.

"Come on then, and let the girl work!" Yutaka joked as he and Miyatsu continued down the jetty.

Aiko let them get well ahead, then quietly took the tabs from her pocket and let Sakaki see them resting in her palm. They seemed so innocuous in the dim glow of the dock lights, their appearance belying their grim reputation.

Sakaki started. "Where did you get those?"

"They fell out of your pocket during dinner."

Sakaki looked embarrassed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you they were aspirin?"

"Sakaki, these are Anodyne, aren't they? You must know what these things do to your brain."

"Don't lecture me, Aiko. I've got enough money to buy the pure drug. You only get psychosis when it's been cut with rubbish."

"Sakaki, this stuff is poison! How long have you been a user?"

Sakaki's expression had become grim. "That, Aiko, is none of your business. They help me relax. When I think of all the things I could have done differently with my life - I get depressed. The drugs help. Simple."

"It's not simple, Sakaki. Have you had blackouts? Has anybody commented that you've been acting... uncharacteristically?"

"I've got nobody to care if I do, Aiko! That's why I take them. This is the real world, and it's a miserable place. We're not all lucky enough to live on an island paradise with the love of our lives." There was a bitter edge to Sakaki's voice as he said this.

He continued with an effort. "I've been married and divorced four times, Aiko. The only woman I've ever loved is with somebody else and unfortunately for me appears content to stay that way. My money doesn't buy me friends, and the people it can buy, I don't want." His face set in stubborn lines. "But one thing I can have is oblivion, and that's what those tablets in your hand represent. They keep the depression at bay and they let me sleep at night." He held out one hand. "I want them back."

Aiko took a step backward. "No, Sakaki. These drugs will drive you mad."

"That's just the junkies. I'm not addicted, I can stop taking them anytime I want."

"Have you tried?" Aiko regarded him seriously. "Truly, Sakaki, isn't that what every addict says? I've seen the press on DreamScreamers," she continued, referring to the drug's street name. "Addicts get delusional. They become aggressive, paranoid, and get wild mood-swings. Sakaki please, book yourself into a rehab clinic and get cleaned up."

"You don't know what these last twelve years have been like for me, Aiko! The drugs help. You may as well give them to me; I can easily get more."

Aiko shook her head. "I know I can't stop you buying them; but I can stop you taking these."

She drew her arm back and flung the packet as far as she could. It arced over the black water lapping the jetty pylons and fell with a tiny splash, to disappear amongst the small wavelets.

Sakaki stared at her for a moment, his jaw clenched angrily as if he didn't trust himself to speak. He drew a deep breath.

"So you're my judge and jury rolled into one, and I've been convicted, is that it?" he said finally, his voice tight. "Nothing I do is ever good enough for you, is it, Aiko? I try and try, yet I always fail in your estimation. You have everything you've ever wanted, living with that... that cat. I'm just a lowly human – how can I even compete against Miyatsu's engineered perfection?" The last word was flung out like a curse.

Aiko stared at him wide-eyed as he abruptly turned away. He stared moodily across the water, trying to regain control, his breathing harsh against the backdrop of waves lapping gently against the pylons.

"Sakaki?" Aiko ventured at last. "I -- I'm sorry. I know I have no right telling you how to run your life, but that stuff is poison. If you're determined to kill yourself, drinking drain cleaner would be quicker."

Still Sakaki ignored her, saying nothing. Aiko approached him and diffidently laid one hand on his arm. With a shock she realized he was trembling.

"I care about you very much, don't you see?" she pleaded. "I hate the thought of you doing this to yourself. Oh, Sakaki, please talk to me. "

Slowly he turned. "My welfare means that much to you?" he asked, searching her face.

"Sakaki, how can you even ask that? Of course it does."

Sakaki wrapped his arms about himself as if chilled. His eyes were haunted. The small worry line that had appeared on his forehead was so like Miyatsu's that it was all Aiko could do to still her hand, to not reach up and stroke his face to try to make it disappear, as she would for her mate. "Oh, Aiko, nobody else gives a damn if I live or die. Why should you?"

"Stop the self-pity right now," Aiko ordered. "I love you. Miyatsu loves you. You know we do. Perhaps we should have made more of an effort over the years to re-establish contact. But we have now. You're our family and we do care about you."

Slowly Sakaki nodded. "Yes. Yes, I know that. You're right, I'm acting like a spoilt child, crying because I can't have what I want." He stared at her, looking lost. "Tell me what I should do, Aiko. You have the right. I'm not thinking clearly enough to know. But I trust you. I'll do whatever you say to clean up my act."

"The first thing to do is to stop taking that drug," she insisted. "Book yourself into rehab and get it all out of your system."

Sakaki was watching her intently. "And -- then?" he breathed.

Aiko hesitated. She hadn't really thought beyond convincing him to fight his addiction, and floundered a little. "Well -- well then, you can do anything you set your mind to," she said finally. "You admitted you started using because you were miserable with the way your life was going. But you're the only one who can change your direction. Listen to me, Sakaki, you're attractive, rich and charming. Work out what you want to do with your life, and just -- go for it!" she finished.

Sakaki's brows had drawn down as she spoke, as if he were concentrating hard on her words. "Just go for it?" He repeated softly. "Surely it can't be as easy as that?"

"Why not?" Aiko challenged. "You never know what you can achieve until you try. Look at everything you've made -- like that holograph unit you showed me. That's amazing stuff, and it didn't exist before you made it a reality."

"But could I do it?" Sakaki wondered. He had half-turned from her and was speaking as if to himself. "Could I change -- my own reality?"

Aiko frowned, not entirely sure what he was talking about. However, she didn't want to discourage him when he was finally beginning to act positive. "Just go for it," she repeated firmly. "Take it, whatever it is, with both hands and make it work. You'll be surprised at what you can achieve."

Sakaki turned back towards her, and Aiko was delighted to see that he was smiling again. He put his hands on her shoulders, beaming down at her. "I'll do it! Aiko, you've inspired me!"

Aiko smiled back up at him. Impulsively, she stood on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "That's the spirit! You can do it, Sakaki!"

He stepped back, still smiling, holding both her hands in his. "I will, then!"