Heroes & Ghosts

by SA Payne

  were adaptable with the use of secondary commands, harder, softer, faster, slower and a few

  others. That made his mouth fall open a little and even sitting alone he blushed.

  He found a chapter on what to do when bringing a new pet home. Most of it was things Ichi had

  already covered, like the assembly of the crate and offering food and water but he hadn't thought

  to show the pet where the bathroom was. That seemed pretty high on the list of important things

  so he finished his tea and got to his feet.

  When he peered inside the crate again, the pet was watching back at him. "Heel." Ichi tried to say in a firm voice and was surprised when the pet actually crawled from it's crate to sit near his feet. The instructions had said something about praise so Ichi softened his voice. "Good boy." He tried to coo and just felt stupid.

  A few experimental steps proved the pet was following and Ichi led them past his bedroom door

  to his bathroom. It wasn't large by any means but space on the station was a commodity. The

  one upside to working on an Avalon station was the combination showers, both the fast, vibe

  showers most smaller stations used but real water ones as well. It was a testament to the organic

  nature of Avalon's culture, the same as the handmade blanket chest at the foot of every bed. It

  was just Avalon tradition. It was small though, his combo shower but the water always ran hot so

  he was thrilled.

  "Potty." He spoke, placing the location, hopefully, into the pet's mind. He turned to leave and see about getting the collar onto the pet but the pale man stood in the bathroom.

  "What?" Ichi glanced back and the steady face twisted up for a second and a small whine

  escaped from the back of the pet's throat. "Do you have to go? Well, go on then."

  Another whine and a quick glance from the toilet to Ichi. It took a moment but Ichi finally

  understood the pet was trying to ask him to go. "Oh, sorry, I'll be out in the living room." He muttered, forgetting the pet wouldn't be able to understand him. It surprised him the pet would be

  shy about such primal, basic things like urination.

  He was still digging in the shipping box when the pet quietly slipped back into the living room.

  Ichi stood up and smiled slightly. "Better now?" His hand swung forward and the slender stick he'd found came into view.

  The pet instantly hit the floor. He just dropped and curled up, his arms wrapped around his head,

  his knees tucked up to his chin and he started whimpering. The reaction was so sever that Ichi stood confused for a moment until he remembered he'd just found the discipline stick. He

  dropped it back into the box as if it were a viper.

  "No, no, shhh it's okay." He tried to comfort but when he moved closer to the pet it only made the whimpering worse. It made Ichi feel like a bully. He backed away, giving up the idea of putting

  the found collar on the pet and with careful movements sat back on the sofa.

  Ichi sat down and tried to start reading again but his focus was on where the pet sat, obviously

  terrorized at the sight of the stick. It took a long time but the pet eventually stopped whimpering, his arms slowly lowered but he stayed across the room for far longer. When he did move it was

  to scurry quickly back to his crate before diving safely inside.

  That made reading easier and Ichi dove into the more complicated side of the manual. It detailed

  the process of how a pet's genetic code was spliced and re-made. It spoke in fairly scientific

  terms of how the brain was dwarfed, stunted, and unable to develop into human consciousness.

  It was fascinating and as he read he grew more comfortable with the pets construction. Just like

  his rats, he had not a single doubt that they felt nothing when they were fed to his insects. His

  newest pet did feel, and obviously had some base line emotions but there was no way a brain as

  underdeveloped as his could think, let alone process information. He was just an unusual dog,

  with a high libido.

  He read until his eyes hurt and he was yawning. There was no point in staying awake and the

  day had been odd. He'd have a mountain of information to study and process tomorrow just

  going over the tapes of the nest's construction. Ichi needed sleep but he paused before he turned

  off the lights. In the end, he left a small light glowing. It was tiny and would be a small nightlight in the living room. That made him feel better and he kept his bedroom door cracked open in

  case the pet had to get the bathroom during the night. Yawning widely, he laid down to sleep.

  And found his mind too awake. He laid there, drifting into light sleep and starting awake, his mind buzzing about nothing in particular. The truth was, he wasn't comfortable sleeping with another

  living thing in his rooms. It made him nervous and a little worried.

  After over an hour, he got up and figured he'd rest better if he checked on the pet and made sure

  he was okay. The night light seemed bright now that his eyes were used to the darkness of his

  bedroom and it gave him plenty of light to see by. Ichi crept with soft steps to the crate and

  peered inside.

  The pet was curled up into a tight ball, asleep. Only, even in the dim light, Ichi could see

  goosebumps across the pale skin of the curved back. A body had to be exhausted to sleep when

  cold enough to shiver but it wouldn't be restful sleep. He sighed and glanced from the pet to his

  notebook filled with the proper care instructions.

  "Be damned." He finally whispered and disappeared into his bedroom. He turned on a dim light and opened the blanket chest at the foot of his bed. From inside he pulled out the largest,

  thickest of the quilts, the one he never used and a spare pillow. They were a warm, heavy weight

  over his arm as he went back into the living room.

  The hinges on the crate's top stuck and than rattled when he pried them open but the lid lifted

  easily. Only now the pet was awake, still curled up, and watching him.

  "Here now." Ichi tried to sooth and lowered the pillow into the box near the pet's head. "You looked cold, so, here." He spoke and draped the quilt over the chilled body.

  The pet's eyes were wide and one hand petted the soft fabrics of pillow and quilt. There was

  something disturbing about seeing what looked like gratitude over such simple comforts. He

  shook his head, lowered the crate's lid and went back to bed.

  This time, when he laid down, he fell soundly asleep.

  Part Five:

  He woke up several minutes before his alarm actually went off, which was normal for him when

  he wasn't drinking all night. He yawned and scratched and stumbled from his bed. The sheets

  were tangled around his legs and he kicked them aside as the lights in the apartment gradually

  raised.

  As he always did, he found his way to his kitchen and fumbled to pull the tab on a carton of

  coffee. It started to heat in his hand as his eyes fell on the crate. It hadn't all been some overly vivid dream. He rubbed his eyes and sipped at the coffee, burning his lip in the process the way

  he did nearly every morning, as he shuffled over to the crate and peered in the mesh lid.

  His pet was curled up in the quilt. The pillow was tucked under his head and partially along the slender body, the dark red hair spilling out everywhere. The blanket had been wrapped and

  twisted to engulf the long body, he'd even managed to get a corner pulled up over the side of his

  head. Only a hand and one bare foot stuck out from the quilt and the sight made Ichi smile

  again.

  He shook his head and glanced down to find the food bowl half empty and the
water bowl

  completely empty. The coffee was too hot to drink anyway, so he set it down and refilled both

  bowls. When he knelt down to put them on the floor, grey eyes peered out from the blanket at

  him.

  "Morning." He heard himself saying but the awkwardness made him retreat. Nothing was that different, he had work to get to and his morning patterns didn't have to be altered that much.

  Another careful sip of the coffee proved it was too hot still and he yawned on his way to the

  shower. The carton of coffee took it's normal place on the counter top and he got the water

  going, hot and steamy. He was half naked before he remembered the pet was in the living room

  and that made him glance out into the bedroom to make sure the pet wasn't lurking somewhere

  close at hand before he stripped off his pants.

  Once he was under the hot water, all worry about the pet maybe seeing him naked fled. It was an

  irrational worry anyway, he wouldn't worry about a dog seeing him naked.

  "It's the eyes." He heard himself saying. Those human eyes in such a haunting color, they made him feel ugly and plain and ordinary. A reaction he'd never feel around a very pretty cat or dog,

  he was sure. The human shape made things so much more complicated.

  But those eyes, Ichi sighed. If only he could find a guy with eyes like that with a mind to match

  behind them. Unbidden, the idea of a lover with eyes like the pets came rushing into his

  thoughts. He imagined what it would be like to feel the slender lean body against his own, those

  cold, silent eyes watching.

  It was there that his fantasy took a turn. Somewhere in his mind the idea went from the

  possibility of a lover with similar looks to remembering the way those eyes had glanced up at him

  while the pet had kneeled in front of him. That had his erection from the night before returning

  full force and demanding attention.

  He stumbled back and leaned his back against the cool shower wall and lightly thumped his head

  against it. "So not fair." He whined. It was some mocking joke, some comedy of absurdity. A single gay man on a tiny station surrounded by nothing but straight people given a sexual pet he

  was to uncomfortable, to proper, to touch. It just wasn't right, Ichi reminded himself. He wouldn't have used the stupid sex doll he'd drunkenly ordered and he wasn't going to lower himself to

  fuck a pet either.

  That didn't mean he didn't have his own mind as comfort, and the steady touch of his own hand.

  What a man fantasized about wasn't wrong, he couldn't be blamed for that. The soap made

  everything slick and Ichi just dropped his head back and closed his eyes. He was too logical to

  deny himself the tiny pleasure of masturbating in the shower, even if it just made him feel more

  alone than ever when he came.

  The coffee was cold when he finally got out of the shower and dried himself off. He wrapped the

  damp towel around his hips and slurped the cool coffee down as he moved to dress for the day

  and nearly choked to death on the swallow when he stepped into his bedroom.

  His pet was naked, that was the first thought to sink in once the sight of all that creamy exposed

  skin stopped shorting out Ichi's brain. He was naked, his hair was loose and he was kneeling on

  the still unmade bed. Not just kneeling but almost posed, his knees parted and he was raised up

  enough to display anything that Ichi might want to glance at. The pet's hands were held at his

  middle, hovering in the center of his body and he was clutching a tube. It was one of the

  grooming items from the kit attached to the side of the pet's crate, the kit Ichi hadn't bothered to inspect too closely.

  It sunk in slowly that the tube wasn't shampoo and even in his limited experience his mind

  recognized lubricant when he saw it. There would be only one reason the pet would be naked, on

  display, in the center of Ichi's bed, clutching a tube of lubricant and the total it added up to made Ichi grateful that his body was too spent to become aroused again. That didn't stop his heart from

  speeding up or his breath from catching in his throat, the sight was a stunning one, after all.

  Ichi stood frozen. The pet stayed in his awkward pose. Both men seemed unwilling to move, locked in some silent stalemate. Grey eyes raked across Ichi and the expression on the normally

  blank face grew to one of worry. As Ichi watched, trying to think logically, focusing on just how

  worried a pet could actually feel and how much of the expression was from the mobility of a

  human face, any thought of logical analysis melted when the pet turned.

  When the first pose failed, the pet turned around and presented his back and ass to Ichi. It left

  little room for doubt as to just what was expected and Ichi felt his palms sweating. A small voice

  in the back of his mind teased him. It whispered about Amanda saying pets were social

  creatures, how they needed interaction to be happy. It whispered that this pet was built for sex

  and should than, logically, require sex to be happy. It whispered that it was almost cruel to deny

  the creature, not to mention cruel to deny himself.

  He drew a long breath and nearly had himself convinced when the pet glanced over his shoulder

  and briefly met Ichi's eyes. It wasn't a look of lust or want or even one of unfulfilled need, it was a look of uncertain fear. It startled Ichi enough that he'd see such a human looking emotion that

  he thought he might be reading too much into the single glance, until he really looked at the pet,

  not just at how lovely the pet was.

  The pale skin trembled and it wasn't from lust or a chill. The body was tense and it wasn't just in the muscles being used to hold him in the awkward pose. Even the pet's shoulders were

  rounded, hunched up slightly as if fearful of pain or injury but it was the pet's hands that tossed cold water on Ichi's lust. They clutched at the tube, not just strongly griped but with white

  knuckles clutched it. Everything from the posture to the expression spoke not of a creature

  looking for comfort and pleasure, but one fulfilling a feared and unwanted duty.

  The glance came again and the grey eyes widened at the frown Ichi wore. The lube was dropped

  quickly and the pet scrambled to drop his upper body down and support his weight on all fours.

  His head lowered, the round smooth expanse of his ass raised and his knees slid a little further

  apart.

  As lovely as the sight was, as much as Ichi knew it would show up in his fantasies later, right now it churned his stomach over. "No." He spoke firmly and earned himself another fearful glance.

  "No, bad, no!" He scolded and tapped his hand to his thigh. "Heel."

  Ichi felt a little like he might be trembling too now, from lust and disgust all mingled together but seeing the pet slink off the bed to come and kneel at his side in obvious fear upset him. He let

  himself pat the top of the worried head. "Good boy." He tried to sound pleased. "Stay." He ordered and left the creature kneeling in his bedroom.

  He took the tube of lube back to the kit and dug out the more common items for grooming, the

  shampoo and soap, washcloth and towel and combs. There was no getting around it, he was

  going to be late getting to the lab but he couldn't just leave now. If he was going to attempt to

  retrain the pet into something that he could live with, even for the short term, he'd have to start replacing behaviors.

  The combs he dropped on the bed but the rest he took directly into the bathroom. He got the

  water on and set the soaps and such around. "Come here." He shook his head. "Heel." He waited

&
nbsp; until the pet obediently, and still very nakedly, joined him in the small bathroom. "Bathe." He ordered and the pet nearly frowned in confusion but stood and slipped into the hot water.

  Ichi hung around long enough to see the pet was actually washing off. Soaping up his hair and

  scrubbing his skin with almost human like sighs of pleasure. It was almost disturbing how human

  the thing could occasionally be, he'd have to ask Will if dogs sometimes acted like people too.

  Comforted that the pet was properly washing himself, Ichi took the time to dry off and dress

  himself. He brushed out damp hair and left it to air dry as he always did and heard the water in

  the bathroom shut off. He wandered in to see the pet trying to dry off with what was obviously to

  too small towel. It seemed to be sucking the water off his skin well enough but at the same time

  did nothing for warmth, modesty or comfort.

  Another choice had to be made and Ichi landed on the same side of the fence as he had last

  night. He opened the small closet and tugged out not one, but two of his own fluffy towels and

  shut the door.

  "Here." He offered on to the pet who stopped in mid rub down to stare. "Go on." He shook the towel a little

  Grey eyes scanned across the towel, glanced to where Ichi had hung up his own towel that

  matched it and than back to the offered towel. Eyes drifted up the arm and studied the face for signs of angry or hidden malice before very slowly the pet accepted the larger, softer towel. A

  small sigh slid from the tense and cautious body as the softer towel rubbed across drying skin.

  Ichi smiled slightly as the grey eyes half closed in pleasure and remembered what Amanda had

  said about the pet having double terminated nerve endings. The towel that had come with the

  pet had been rough, scratchy even and it made logical sense that the softer towel would be a

  very real physical pleasure.

  "Better huh?" Ichi talked mostly to himself and moved forward with the second towel to start gathering up the impossibly thick and long hair. "I about purred the day I got them. Had to special order them all the way from the Pockelet Mills. Some small pleasures are worth the cost." He'd had the foresight to pick up a new, clean kilt and offered it to the pet. "Change." He ordered and the pet dropped the damp towel and fastened the simple kilt around his hips. "Come on, let's get this hair unknotted."