Out/Law
A Sequel/Continuation to Cage/Wire
In Progress
Dull yellow sunlight pricked at a dinge grey sky through the wall to ceiling glass of Kaoru's flat. The jagged teeth of London's sky scrapers and ancient buildings flowed more like a gunmetal forest to Demyan now, after the balm of several night's sleep and the desensitisation of the view he inspected until a bird's mental map of the City and surrounding boroughs formulated into his head. Steam hissed out of the kettle's spout, the gentle click and ding of it reaching a temperature as close to an alarm as Demyan needed. He poured the water over coffee grounds in a glass French Press, waited for the grounds to bloom before adding the rest of the liquid. The smoked chocolate and fruitiness of the coffee rose like an offering, blissfully sacred to the man, who broke the cap of grounds up to watch the lighter crema peek to the top. Plunger perched atop the carafe, Demyan sighed and leaned against the raised kitchen cupboard to watch the rest of the fickle sun through London's nigh eternal damp.
"I swear all you need for nirvana is a supply of coffee." The rustle of covers on Kaoru's bed combined with feet shuffling into slippers. A soft slip of a satin house coat against Kaoru's pyjamas. Demyan's eyes flicked to the reflection in the window, Kaoru's black hair as ruffled as the fatigue under his eyes as he stretched his neck and yawned.
"London is different today. She's like a forest full of birds and squirrels, all waiting to wake up."
"Why are you awake at this hour?" Wrapping his arm around Demyan's waist, Kaoru propped his cheek on the other man's shoulder and nuzzled.
"London calling..." Demyan hummed with a timid smirk, leaning his head far enough back to feel Kaoru's breath on his growing buzz cut, "... in the morning light."
"Couldn't sleep, hm?"
"I didn't want to dim the glass and miss the city, the sun woke me."
"Hm! Not many in England get to mention the sun waking them in the morningtime. Is there any more water in the kettle? For something proper, like tea?" Kaoru kissed Demyan's shoulder, eyed the folded bed linens and extra blanket on the corner of the futon where Demyan slept. The man had been up for a while.
"Ja, I made enough for your leaf-water." A warm and delicate chuckle emanated from Demyan's chest clothed in a basic white t-shirt from Kaoru's supplies, tucked into the plaid pj bottoms Kaoru lent him on their first night.
"Hah! Has the man of the early hour decided upon a breakfast menu, or is that once more in my court?"
"The odds of you enjoying what my utilitarian mind dreams up for breakfast are worse than the odds of our holographic parts coming in time for Friday's rave night." Demyan quirked his head to the side, 'you decide' it seemed to say, the odd bit of chatter from the young man as disparate as the past he ran from, the scents he kept clean.
"Pastries it is. You're not allergic to anything, are you?" Kaoru tapped at the smart glass window, calling forth current offerings from the patisserie down the block from the tower, which included Kaoru's CageWire club and the upper floor flat. Offices and flats nestled below them, fewer above as the Mandidate Tower ruffled its slender feather-crest in the London landscape.
Demyan shook his head and plunged down the coffee grounds in the French Press, poured himself a cup of chicory brown nectar into a cup and saucer already laden with cream.
"A few of this and that, then." Kaoru bustled about the tiny kitchen making a cup of tea, cognizant from the peripheral of Demyan's statuesque silence. The flicking eyes analyzed everything in their field of vision, comp-glass or no. "Is there something about London you've yet to memorize? The nest of a few new pigeons down the way?"
The saucer and cup slid off the marble counter, Demyan padded barefoot to his futon and curled one leg underneath, saucer on his thigh, the other raised for his knee to hold up his arm.
"The parts ought to be closer to base, we'd have them sooner if you...Never mind. Do you want to get out of my company so quickly, Demi?" A spot of milk and honey in his tea, the bag pressed against the side with a spoon then doffed into the compost recepticle.
"I want to look for work."
"You have a job, I hired you." Kaoru's stomach dropped like a damaged elevator. Thirteen days and nothing on Crypt.AI or the secrets the man on his sofa locked in the curved highways of his mind. Placating Demyan was a lesson in runners buying necessaries in shops, ordered from online menus as the man set up a new deck out of scrap from the supply room in CageWire. Writing a deal, figuring out how to finagle a proper agreement with an outlaw sans papers took a few days. A few quiet and enigmatic chats to lawyers who never saw Demyan in the room.
"The parts won't be in for days, I can't write any more of the software until I see what set-up I can accomplish and max out. I can take more than one client at a time." Nighttime was easier, the bartenders released any booze Demyan wanted, and the man danced like he was young and the shackles of adolescence were thrust off in explosive decompression. Catching sight of the man in alcoves, necking whatever hot body he found was a tight comfort in Kaoru's chest. Keep him occupied.
Keep him in CageWire and the flat.
Safe from everything but STI's if he went too far without a condom in his back pocket, shoved between his wallet chit and the yellow plastic staff badge.
"Aren't you concerned?"
"What do I have to be concerned about?" Demyan sipped his coffee in a long, slow draught, a motion Kaoru was beginning to translate as stalling for thought. Yet another question Demyan asked to search Kaoru's knowledge. To peer through the veil they built like the free standing art panels separating Kaoru's bedroom from the rest of the studio flat.
"Weren't there people looking for you?"
"Aren't you protecting me? My Whiskey Saviour." Another long draught of coffee, the cup emptied of its contents as the chime of the elevator swept onto the smart glass with a bold green square revealing Ferdi and a basket on her arm.
"Breakfast delivery! Croissantes, a couple danishes and some of them Thai coconut jelly things."
"Wun Kati?" Kaoru peeked into the basket as Ferdi laid it out on the counter, waving a slight hand at Demyan. "Ah, yes! Coconut jelly, you should try them, they're delicious."
Demyan nodded, padding to the counter for more coffee and a danish, a swirl of cream in his mug. The air clung around his shirt, cheeks still too thin from dwindling rations to look properly filled out. He smirked at the glass, as another flash of information twitched to life and news alerts began peppering the screen. Kaoru went to speak and thought better of it, sharing a glance and nod with Ferdinanda, who gave a wave and snuck away.
"I'm thinking a business near Picadilly, the holograms were destructively terrible."
"I don't think you should focus on more than the rather large commission I gave you right now."
"Why?"
"Because you're new to London and your IDent hasn't been tested yet. Call it selfishness, but the idea of sinking money into a project with you gives me the desire to keep safe my investment. You out there? Alone in London, on a fake IDent you cobbled together with the tech in my smart glass isn't reassuring."
"I'm not concerned."
"You should be. I can only rescue you in here, not out there."
"I want to see the British Museum. The National Gallery, the Tate."
"Some of the most watched places in the world."
"I can wear a disguise. My algorithms are figuring out the facial recog the Conglom uses, it's 86 to 1 they could know it's me." Demyan crunched down on the danish, the boredom of containment swelled across his shoulders, defiant in the small relative safety he found over the last two weeks. Staring at the young man, Kaoru ran his fingers through his black hair and tugged at a tangle to bide time.
If Demyan lost himself in the crowded club...
How long could the Idless hold out the fact they knew where the keeper of Crypt.AI was? It occurred Demyan was testing him, pushing to see how far... and with a twitch of his nostrils Kaoru recognized the defiance in Demyan's eyes. He brought his tea to perch on the chair beside Demyan's futon, and blew on the steam.
"Truth. We don't know what Branislau told Tara before he was killed. I'm sorry, but the club is the safest place we have and I can't lose you to the dangers of London."
Demyan's lips twitched up in a tight smile. "I'm starting to flip. I don't like feeling trapped and want to see London. The museums, I've wanted to see them my whole life."
"New boots and trousers, today's fashion trend in your size, a toque low enough to hide your hairline, and your comp-glass on at all times. You go with someone, never alone. And you're back here for opening."
"Keeping tabs on me, hm?"
"Keeping you alive. Don't... don't make me into a villain. I'm not. I had no idea when you walked into my door, but now I do and the Conglom isn't going to be merciful. Liam will be around with your new clothes, consider them part of your welcome bonus."
"I survived the war, I can survive London."
"You survived a war
"Are you Idless?"
"God, no!" Kaoru set his tea on the floor. "Not one of those anarchists, not nearly."
"Why are you helping me?"
"I'm too small a fish to feel comforted with the corpocratic bottom line. But! I do what I do. Which first?"
"Hmm?"
"The British Museum or the Tate? Which would you like to visit first? I'll get Zhou to drive us in the car."
"The British Museum... pleasure doing business with you."
"Find another job, will you? Before mine's done? Pshaw." Kaoru smiled with a shake of his head. "You're going to be the end of me, Demi."
"No." Demyan shook his head, biting and swallowing another nibble of pastry. He looked past Kaoru to the rest of London, the Conglom tower complex, the London Eye. Parliament and Westminster Abbey. "Not you. Their world. Might as well see it first."
An in-progress continuation of Cage/Wire, published in Future's Lens & Lenses Anthologies.
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