Milliways: Reo and Mark

[remindmeofthepups]

To say that the last couple of days have been overwhelming is an understatement. Reo has just barely begun to process half of what's happened, and now it's time for his first practice as a member of Seirin.

He is not the tiniest bit sorry to see Milliways on the other side of the gym door. He's been hoping for it in the back of his head all weekend; he needs more time to come to grips with the fact that his entire life has turned upside down, and Milliways is the only place where he can get all the time he needs.

He considers his options before heading to the fireplace. The comfort of the fire's warmth and squishy couches is the most appealing thing he can imagine right now.

Comments

[showyousomethingnice]

"Why -" Reo pauses, looking for words.

"Why did he want to use you, then? Why not just kill your family himself?"

This Galen sounds to Reo like a more impulsive person than Mako-chan is; years of cultivation and training is something Mako-chan would -

Something he did do. Something he did to Reo.

No wonder Milliways led Reo and this man to each other.

[unmarred]

"He couldn't get to them alone, or with the resources he had. And he wanted to be particularly cruel about it. It's more complicated than 'twin brother' - I'm a clone. My family didn't know I existed until just a short while ago. So to them, it would have seemed like my brother had gone mad and started murdering everyone."

[showyousomethingnice]

"Oh."

That makes sense. Part of Reo - the part that belongs to Mako-chan, the part that had to exist to keep Mako-chan happy - almost admires it.

"You call them your family. They've taken you in?"

Does he sound a little hopeful as he asks that?

[unmarred]

"My brother has. I haven't met my parents yet, but I think - I hope - my brother says they will, and I believe him."

[showyousomethingnice]

Reo smiles, warm and genuine and - yeah, just a touch relieved.

"I'm glad to hear that," he says.

[unmarred]

Mark smiles back.

[showyousomethingnice]

"I'm starting with a new team today," Reo tells him. "Mako-chan and I met because we both play the same sport, basketball. He - did what he did because he wanted me on his team, and I'm - I'm good at some things that he could use. He doesn't play to win, he plays to break the other team and see them lose, and he wanted me to help him do that."

He pauses, guilt squeezing tight.

"Since Mako-chan took charge of our - of his team, there's been an injury in every game we've played, always on the other side. Sometimes just bruises, sometimes -"

His voice shakes as he thinks of Kiyoshi.

"Sometimes worse. Sometimes we put people in the hospital.

"I thought I was stuck there. I didn't want to do those things, but I was already part of it and I didn't know how to - but I ran into an old friend, the other day, and he convinced me to transfer schools and play on his team instead. He convinced me I could."

[unmarred]

"My brother did something similar for me. He... demonstrated that it's possible for someone to care about me."

[showyousomethingnice]

Reo smiles. He likes this brother immensely.

"We're very lucky," he says. "Kiyoshi was the first person we really hurt badly. I still can't believe that he . . ."

He shakes his head a little.

"I don't know if he's even real. I half-expect to walk into that gym and find out that I made the whole thing up."

[unmarred]

"Sometimes people just decide to be kind," he says. "I don't understand it but I'm not about to complain."

[showyousomethingnice]

Reo sighs.

"I should have stayed friends with him in middle school instead of letting Mako-chan drag me away."

[unmarred]

"I'm sure you had your reasons. Or your false friend had them for you. They're full of reasons, that sort."

[showyousomethingnice]

Another sigh, because reasons Mako-chan most certainly had.

"He knew I wouldn't stay as long as I did if I had anywhere else to go. He was my only friend."

My only real friend, he remembers sneering at Kiyoshi, and cringes a little.

[unmarred]

"'Was' as in 'caused himself to be', yeah?"

[showyousomethingnice]

Quietly:

"Yeah. Not that it was very hard for him. I was really lonely in middle school. My teammates all hated me. None of them wanted a queeny fag on their team."

He spits the slur out bitterly. The only unreservedly good thing about Kirisaki Daiichi was that he never once heard it from a teammate there.

He's not looking forward to going back to having a captain who undoubtedly thinks it whenever he looks at Reo.

"I was probably the easiest target Mako-chan's ever gone after."

[unmarred]

"I'm... sorry to hear that," he says, a little uncertainly; social niceties are not his strongest area, even - perhaps especially - when he means them. "I've been lonely, too, but not quite the same way."

[showyousomethingnice]

Reo nods a little.

"Is cloning common on your world?" he asks, thinking that if not, being the only one or close to it would be very lonely indeed.

[unmarred]

"Not very. And often, when it's done, it's done for nasty reasons. There's an entire industry - small in galactic terms, but thriving - based around cloning someone, growing the clone to adulthood in ten years, then transferring the customer's brain into their clone's body. Which kills the clone, of course. It's a small industry because it's illegal on every planet but one."

[showyousomethingnice]

Reo sucks a breath in sharply.

"That's awful!"

Made even moreso by the fact that the person telling him about it is a clone himself.

[unmarred]

"Yeah," he agrees. "The people Galen paid to make me, that's their usual business. Until I was five, I was raised with the clones who were made to be murdered. But I tried to run away too often, and it gave the rest of the children ideas, so they sent me to Galen five years early."

[showyousomethingnice]

The phrase made to be murdered is the new worst thing Reo has heard in Milliways.

"Do - do they know, that -" He shakes his head. "No, I'm sorry, that can't possibly be something you want to talk about. I'm glad your own situation was at least preferable to that."

Being as it has resulted in still being alive and having a family. Or a soon-to-be family, anyway.

[unmarred]

"They have rumours. But they don't know. And yeah. I knew I was different because I looked strange, compared to all the other children. They were all made as healthy as possible, for the customers, but my brother has a bone density problem that wasn't genetic; they had to use all kinds of drugs and surgery to make me turn out short and slightly crooked instead of six feet tall and perfectly normal-looking."

[showyousomethingnice]

"No wonder you tried to run away," Reo murmurs. He doubts those procedures were especially pleasant.

[unmarred]

"Yeah. It wasn't much fun."