Half a broken Wing - 2. Chapter 2

~Cedric~

With one hand buried in his hair, one twirling a pencil, the third thoughtfully on his chin and the last hand operating the computer mouse, Cedric stared at the screen. Preparing a meeting for Nolan was nothing new, even at such short notice, but the sudden worsening of his grandfather's health worried Cedric. He had studied medical economics for a reason - as had his uncle Nicholas, Frederick's older brother - but without Nolan, he would be the only one who really knew the business. Because Uncle Nicholas, like Frederick's sister Solana, had turned his back on the family, and the little time Cyril spent in his office was ridiculous. And it wasn't fair that he got paid for doing nothing.

The intercom beeped and snapped Cedric out of his thoughts, making him realize he'd been staring at the void instead of the data for a while. He pressed a button. "Not now, Simona."

"Cedric, it's getting late. I'm supposed to remind you especially today," Simona, his secretary, returned gently.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his reflection in one of the picture frames - his hair was sticking out in all directions and he tried to smooth it down. "I know, but I'm not finished yet." If he wanted to visit the lab early tomorrow morning - that is, before the change from night to day shift - he had to go to bed on time. Otherwise he wouldn't be fit for the meeting afterwards.

"I don't think Mr. Cartwright approves of having an overtired Cedric at the meeting. Go home, eat and sleep." Simona's motherly manner was usually very pleasant, but at times like this, Cedric sometimes wished she wouldn't.

"And I doubt he'd be pleased with a half-prepared meeting," Cedric said. His gaze lingered on some numbers which were giving him a headache.

Simona sighed. "Besides, you still have a private life." Cedric almost laughed bitterly at this point. "Dolen has called four times in the last hour alone."

Cedric frowned slightly worried. "I'll call him back." His best friend preferred to do things in writing - they had that in common - and accordingly, so many calls were unusual.

"Do that." Simona ended the call from her side and Cedric reached for his mobile phone.

"Call whenever you can," Dolen had written, almost three hours ago.

That was enough and Cedric had the phone pressed to his ear.

"Woooeeeey, Cedric!" Dolen answered casually.

"What happened?" Cedric wanted to know. In order not to get distracted, he turned his desk chair away from the computer monitors.

"I met up with some old friends and had to think about you." Dolen chuckled, in the background there was a murmur of voices.

"Well?" The answer confused Cedric a little. If there was nothing urgent, why was Dolen calling? "I mean, I'll see you on Sky Day, won't I?"

"Yeah, that's the point," Dolen drawled in reply. He sounded like he was grinning. "You know, Cedric, I might have something for you. Something better."

"Better than what? Spending time with my best friend?" Now genuinely confused, Cedric stood up, rolled his shoulders and shook out his wings briefly.

"Maybe." Dolen chuckled again. "A blind date."

"A... Warming Sun!" Sighing, Cedric rubbed his eyes. "A blind date sounds anything but better."

"Why?"

Because Cedric searched for suitable words for a moment too long, Dolen continued.

"Come on. Give the guy a chance. You desperately need a relationship-"

"I have-"

"And don't you dare mention this Rico now!" Dolen interrupted Cedric's attempt to protest. "You're paying him to go out and into bed with you."

Embarrassed, Cedric squeezed his eyes shut. As if no one could see him when he himself couldn't see anyone from the large panoramic window of his office.

Dolen was silent for a few heartbeats. "Ced. Really." Now he sounded anything but cheerful. "Your little brothers are doing just fine on their own now. The company won't go belly-up if you take a little time for yourself. So give the guy a chance, okay? And if it's not enough for a second date, Warming Sun, then maybe it's enough for sex. That wouldn't be bad either."

Cedric swallowed. He was aware that an escort was no substitute for nothing, but he had no idea where he was going to find the time and nerve to get to know someone. "I don't know, Dolen..."

"Oh, come on!" Dolen rarely struck such a pleading tone. "Two hours, Ced!"

Sighing, Cedric opened his eyes and looked out over the city, the jumble of skyscrapers and green spaces. "Can't we just watch a mindless movie and eat unhealthy stuff like we agreed?"

Dolen sighed back. "One hour, Cedric. One hour with him at the fair and I'll buy you a kilo of candied sunflower seeds."

"That's blackmail." But genuine indignation wasn't on Cedric's mind because his mouth was watering.

From Dolen came a snort. "I'll organize everything, okay? Just keep your cock in check until then."

"Excuse me?!" Now Cedric was very well indignant, but with his refound chuckle, Dolen hung up.

~Riley~

As a child and teenager, Riley had hated it when his mom involved him - unlike his brothers - in the housework. By now he had realized that even this kind of knowledge was valuable. Not only because, unlike many of the other young men he had met at the Thistle, he could cook without setting off the fire alarm on a regular basis, or avoid ruining his laundry by washing it incorrectly. This knowledge was particularly valuable because he could earn money with it. Cedric Cartwright paid well.

And that was why a vegetable soup was simmering in the kitchen, the smell of which Nate and Josh had described as delicious when they'd arrived home a few minutes ago. Riley could hear them arguing as he sorted through the damp laundry in the small utility room where the washing machine and tumble dryer stood.

He still remembered with amusement Cedric's puzzled expression at the "job interview" when he had explained: "My mom made me iron my dad's work-shirts on my own responsibility before I was even allowed to fly to school alone." Yes, by now he was grateful for the eternal lessons.

"Hey, Riley! Can we eat the soup already?" Nate shouted through the apartment.

"Yeah, sure!" Riley shouted back. "But turn off the stove!" He didn't understand the answer and so he continued to sort out what could and couldn't go in the dryer. He paused, puzzled, when he suddenly felt lace between his fingers.

The sight of the black lace thong reminded him unpleasantly of Andrew's words yesterday. But hey, at least one of the Cartwright brothers had a better intimate life than him. It briefly crossed his mind that the thong was oddly cut, but firstly, he wasn't familiar with women's underwear, apart from his mom's old-fashioned panties, and secondly, a loud clanking sound distracted him thoroughly.

"No harm done!" Nate shouted immediately, but Riley wasn't fooled.

Standing in the kitchen, Nate answered Riley's skeptical, questioning look with an apologetic shrug.

"It sounded worse than it is. The plate's still whole."

Reassured, Riley nodded.

"Are you eating with us?" Nate then asked, ladling soup into his bowl.

Admittedly, Riley had already helped himself to a small portion just before the boys arrived, so he shook his head. "Leave enough for your brothers." Under Nate's grin, he turned away to finish the laundry.

Nate was a sweet boy and would be a handsome man in a few years, with cream-colored skin, elegant white hair and fur, and pretty patterned magenta-and-white wings.

His brother Josh, on the other hand, who nearly ran into Riley in the hallway and gave him a distant glance, seemed to have made the opposite of his parents' color combination. Dirty pale yellow skin blended into pale pink hair and fur and his wings looked like a ruined watercolor painting in yellow and pink.

Riley always found it fascinating how much greater the color variations were in butterflies. His eldest brother Troy looked like a copy of their father. He himself and his second oldest brother Wayne were - apart from the color markings around their eyes - practically identical.

There was another loud clink just as he picked up the laundry again. This time, however, he didn't go to check. Instead, he filled the dryer and hung the rest on the line.

Two more lace thongs fell into his hands, which he must have overlooked earlier. Did one of the brothers have a girlfriend who regularly spent the night? At fifteen, Nate certainly not, and with Josh's permanent scowl and bad mood, he found the theory rather doubtful. Cedric? He couldn't imagine that either, the man practically lived in his office. Well, he wasn't going to pry.

He actually wanted to say goodbye afterwards, but Nate literally forced a plate of soup on him. So he sat down with them and suppressed a pleasant sigh as he shoved the first spoonful into his mouth. Instead of snacking in secret when he was cooking, perhaps he should let himself be invited more often...

"How is it that you can cook so well?" Nate asked curiously, wiping his plate clean with a piece of bread.

"My mom and my grandma taught me," Riley replied, wiggling his antennae meaningfully.

Nate giggled and Josh rolled his eyes at his childish little brother. "Is that normal for you?"

"What do you mean 'for us'?" Riley asked back, trying not to react coldly right away, even though he suspected the answer. He shoved a piece of bread into his mouth.

"Nocturnals. Moths." Josh shrugged, but one hand made a downward gesture, wordlessly adding 'the lower classes'.

"Probably not." Riley tilted his head slightly and forced himself to smile. "My mom actually wanted a girl after three boys. She wanted to pass on her accumulated household knowledge to someone."

"Cool," Nate said with a grin.

Josh, on the other hand, snorted. "Your dad should have taught you how to court women properly."

Riley's antennae twitched. "He did try. But what was the point of me learning if I don't even like women?"

Now it was Josh's antennae twitching.

Nate, on the other hand, waved his spoon through the air. "So if you ask me, cooking is cool. I bet there are enough women who'd be impressed."

Josh snorted again. Without a word, he stood up and walked out.

Puzzled, Nate looked after him.

"I really don't know anything about women, but I'd say you can't be that wrong," Riley said, addressing Nate. Not only because Nate's expression had turned to uncertainty and his antennae were quivering, but also because he really believed it. He would definitely be happy to find cooking skills in his partner.

Slowly, Nate nodded. His smile looked terribly forced. "Maybe you can teach me something."

"Of course, why not?"

*

Josh's strange reaction had thoroughly spoiled Riley's mood and in the lab technicians' changing room he slammed his locker shut. His wings always felt trapped under the tight lab coat and their involuntary rustling was unpleasant.

With two hands he stroked his antennae, with the others he wanted to close and lock the locker properly, but he paused when his phone rang. As his working hours were already running, he hesitated, but in the end he pulled it out.

"Danny." he greeted in surprise.

"Yo, Riles. What's it look like?" Danny greeted him back.

"What's it supposed to look like? I've got one foot in the lab."

"Better than one in a grave," Danny returned, laughing darkly.

Riley couldn't stop himself from huffing a quiet laugh. "What's up, man?"

"Ya free t'morrow at dusk?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm off tomorrow. Why?" Something about Danny's voice roused Riley's alertness.

"Good, good. I've got something for ya."

"In what sense?"

"In a good sense. A blind date."

Blinking into the twilight of the locker room, Riley frowned. "Why does that sound more like you're trying to pull me into one of your dubious schemes?"

"Fuck the Sun, Riles! Don't be so sus." Danny's eye roll was audible. "The chance was there an' ya deserve to think about somethin' else."

"I don't have time for a relationship," Riley protested, but Danny growled in between.

"Because ya fuckin' yaself with ya two jobs and lettin' Eric fuck ya to boot. Figuratively speakin', 'course."

"I have to take care of mom and Troy-"

"No, ya don't."

At Danny's tone, Riley's antennae curled up a good bit, even if this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation.

"Face it, Riles. Ain't nobody thinkin' 'bout ya but yaself. Except me, obvi. But ya brothers ain't givin' shit about ya, and ya mom's still cryin' twen'-six years later 'cause ya own a dick."

"Danny..."

"I'm serious. Take a couple hours to do somethin' else."

"Danny, really, I-"

"Riley Goswick, shut ya fuckin' trap and listen."

"Yes, Daniel..." Riley rolled his eyes and gave the empty room the middle finger. Three, actually.

"I saw that," Danny said promptly, simply because they'd known each other for twenty years. "Never mind. Focus on yaself for once. Or if ya don't wanna, focus on someone else. Who knows, might even turn into somethin'."

Riley doubted that very much, but he didn't say so. Nor did he voice his concerns that the other guy might possibly - most likely - just want the one thing.

"Deal," Danny said cheerfully, even though Riley hadn't said anything. "I'll send ya the details later. Thank me afterwards."

It clicked.

Riley rolled his eyes to the ceiling and sighed deeply. He wasn't a particularly spontaneous guy, which was why he kept clashing with Danny. And less than twenty-four hours' notice was already uncomfortably spontaneous for him.

With another sigh, he stowed his phone in his locker. The lab didn't like to wait.

~Cedric~

Medicine was an exciting field. It wasn't just because Cedric had grown up in a pharmaceutical company, but because it really interested him. However, he was disgusted by blood and had seen enough unpleasant images during his research into studying medicine to say goodbye to a career as a doctor. He would rather keep a certain distance in the third row and allow doctors and nurses and lab technicians and so on to do their work.

His wings protested against the tight lab coat, the completely superfluous protective goggles pressed uncomfortably on his ears and nose and he would not be able to get rid of the stench of the gloves for the rest of the day.

"Attention!" the night shift supervisor shouted into the main room. "Switch to twilight!"

Over the humming and buzzing and clicking of the equipment, a quiet protest reached Cedric's ears, then he suppressed a sigh of relief because he could finally see something.

Somewhere, though, someone was groaning in agony.

"Come on, Mr. Cartwright." The female firefly, who didn't even reach as high as Cedric's chest, led the way with squeaky shoes.

"Who's in charge of the beta test?" he wanted to know from her. "There's no name in the documents."

She sighed. "On the day shift, it's Miss Meßmer, but she's been ill for so long that even if she were here, she wouldn't have a clue. The responsible technician from the night shift was fired shortly after the test began and the laboratory management has not appointed a new responsible one," she then explained, a hint of frustration creeping into her voice. "However, Mr. Goswick has been working on the relevant workstation for the last few weeks and will probably be able to answer most of your questions."

"Thank you, ma'am." Cedric nodded to her and then again as she gestured to a large room. There stood a monster of a machine in the shape of a giant eight, with light gray panels, some glowing buttons, and a large computer terminal in the center.

It was Riley standing there, clacking away on the keyboard with nimble fingers, swearing vividly. "What do they think?" he added, holding up a blood sample with one hand. "That we can do magic here?"

Cedric cleared his throat. "Mr. Goswick...?" Normally, if they met it was only at Cedric's house and they were on a first-name basis, but professional distance was necessary, even if it felt weird.

Apparently Riley was pretty engrossed in his rant, because he winced and whipped around, his antennae curled up. "... Mr. Cartwright."

Smiling, Cedric stepped closer. "I was told you were unofficially in charge of the beta test."

Riley grunted grumpily and fished a sheet out of a tray. "I made a list of problems with my colleagues. And wrote down a few things which work better than with the standard system."

With a nod, Cedric accepted the list and skimmed through it. This kind of preparation made things easier. "What do you mean by light sensitivity?" he then wanted to know.

With a grumbling sound, Riley beckoned him to follow, so Cedric stepped through the narrow passageway into the space in-between the device. "In here," Riley then said, patting a panel with a gloved hand, "we run some optical tests. And that's where the biggest problem is."

Cedric listened to the explanation and took notes while Riley continued to work on the device, besides giving his report.

"Apart the problem with the optical tests and a few minor teething problems, the device is pretty solid. And if only the new device was running, the reduced water consumption would also be clearly noticeable," Riley finally concluded. It didn't seem to matter whether he was hanging laundry on the line or overseeing vital blood tests, he did everything incredibly seriously - almost somberly - and exuded a competence that was often lacking even in many people with more years of experience.

"I'm glad to hear this." Cedric nodded with a smile. "And you were very well prepared, Mr. Goswick. If only everyone was when questioned about such things..."

Riley gave a growly grunt and closed a panel loudly, shrugging. "You announced your visit, sir, would have been foolish not to prepare."

To this, Cedric inclined his head approvingly. "Then enjoy your weekend off Mr. Goswick."

Riley rolled his eyes. If they hadn't known each other outside of this building, Cedric would have resented him. "I'll try. But you deserve a weekend off after the meeting, too. You really put yourself into it when you come all the way here."

"I don't believe in making decisions from the top down," Cedric replied and received a skeptical raised eyebrow in response.

"Maybe you should go into politics with that attitude..." Riley suggested half-heartedly, but Cedric grimaced.

"May the Sun forbid." He really couldn't do anything with politics. He'd rather study medicine after all.

Riley pulled up one corner of his mouth and shrugged. "So may the Moon give us good politicians."

The conversation got strangely stuck at this point. Cedric was good at sophisticated discourse, but polite phrases weren't his thing and the forced, somehow stiff professionalism didn't help one bit. "Thank you, Mr. Goswick," he finally said a little too hastily.

"Sure," Riley replied, giving Cedric only a quick glance as the terminal screen flashed red.

Since Cedric didn't know what else to say anyway, he wasn't offended by the end of the conversation and headed back through the lab to the counter at the entrance. If he survived the meeting later in the day, he could still think about what topics were innocuous enough for the blind date.

The lab technician - although he was hot - and the nurse arguing over burnt fecal samples were definitely not among them.