The Lunar Life Ch. 08

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Threats are made and emotions begin to spiral out of control.
5.1k words
4.82
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Part 8 of the 11 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 04/22/2015
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A few days passed and things returned to their routine. Will spent many afternoons contemplating calling his parents, in an effort to reconcile their differences after the scene that occurred a few days prior, but every time he was close to it, he stopped. Sure he wanted things to be okay between them again, but his mother was right. He needed to give them some time to deal with the situation that was so unceremoniously presented to them, and he wasn't doing that if he called.

He not only had to deal with his parents, but also found himself constantly thinking about Tracey and expecting something to happen because of it. He didn't know what to expect though, no one did, but he thought perhaps some swat team was going to burst through his door and drag him away. Thane, on multiple occasions, had to calm Will down before he had a panic attack, playing the rational voice in Will's head.

Of course, even with all this going on, his training still had to continue, although he wanted nothing more than to have a week off to get his mind on straight. Thane, having completed his recent hospital project, had a sudden abundance of time on his hands, a strange occurrence for him. Not surprisingly, he found himself spending this free time accompanying Will to his trainings, something Varek thought was more a distraction than a help.

They had just returned to Helios Grove after spending a day at the Lunaris Programming Centre, where most of the programming on Lunaris was done. Everything from droids, to city infrastructure, anything that was remotely automated was controlled from the building. It was, in fact, the place where Varek worked for most of the time, so it was only natural that Varek was a little more excited that day as compared to others, being in his element. Although he didn't speak of this, a part of him had hoped that Will would eventually decide on electrical engineering to specialize in, like himself.

Although he had only been mentoring Will for not more than three weeks, Varek had already taken a strong liking to the boy, feeling like he was a second son. The fact that him and Thane were hitting it off with each other, in more ways than one, was somehow just icing on the cake. Both Varek and his wife could plainly see how much happier Thane had been lately, and they had no doubt that it was attributed to Will, something they couldn't help but smile at.

"You were practically bouncing the whole day." Thane smirked as the trio walked into their home.

"Well it's my bread and butter. I'm sure you can understand why." Varek replied.

"Well Varek, I've got to say, you sure know how to sell your line of work. I'm half decided on my specialization now." Will said. Even though Varek hadn't mentioned it to him, he could tell that Varek wanted him to follow in his mentor's footsteps, and he did seem interested in it, especially after Varek's spirited introduction to the line.

At Will's words, Varek's eyes just about lit up, a Cheshire cat grin taking over his lips. At that moment, Steve came in, greeting them as per usual. "Pardon me gentlemen, but you have a visitor. He is waiting in Mr. Hopper's office." He announced.

"A visitor? Who." Varek asked.

"President Dart." The droid voiced.

"Oh? Hmm, I wonder why he's here." Varek thought aloud.

"He's probably just checking up on Will's progress." Thane suggested. Varek nodded slowly, thinking that it made sense. "I'll let you both go talk to him then." Thane said, about to head off in a different direction.

"Actually Master Thane, President Dart has requested to see all three of you." Steve interjected before Thane could take a step further.

"What? Why would he want to see me?" Thane asked, bewildered that he had been summoned as well.

"That's the instructions he told me to relay. I know nothing more." Steve said.

Thane raised an eyebrow and turned to his father, hoping to get some sort of explanation, but Varek only shrugged his shoulders. "Should be nothing." Varek said, dismissing it and proceeded in the direction of his office. Thane took the place next to Will as they both followed behind Varek.

"You don't think this has anything to do with Tracey right?" Will whispered, immediately growing wary of President Dart's surprise visit, and his paranoia sparked once again. Could this be as he had feared all along since the day at the hospital? Varek did say that President Dart wasn't the most keen on the idea of homosexuals.

"I sure hope not." Thane replied, himself growing a little uneasy about the whole situation.

The walk to Varek's office seemed to take a lot longer than normal for the boys, something they weren't sure whether to me happy about. This could go one of two ways and a part of them wanted it to be over with, while the other part didn't even want to deal with it at all. Of course, they did eventually make it to the door as Varek shot the boys a glance, before knocking and opening the door.

Inside, President Dart sat at the desk, looking out the window behind him. At the sound of the door, he turned in his chair, slowly and almost menacing. "Ah Varek, Will, Thane, it's good you're all back. I've been waiting awhile." He chuckled, which did nothing to ease their nerves.

"You could have called sir, we would have made the time to meet you." Varek said, trying his hardest to hide his nervousness about the situation, the tension emanating from the two younger men behind him slowly affecting him as well.

"Oh nonsense, no need to interrupt your busy day." Dart waved off. "But now that you have returned, I have been meaning to speak to all of you."

"Is this about Will's progress?"

"Oh yes, it is. First of all Varek, can I speak to Will and Thane privately?" Dart asked, so polite and yet the threat in his statement was quite clear.

"Oh...of course." Varek said, turning and looking at the two elites behind him, trying to convey with his emotion for them to stay calm, before exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

"Oh boys, please take a seat." Dart said, motioning to the two seats across the desk from him. Both of them did as they were told, sinking down into the leather chairs. "So first of, how is everything going so far Will?"

"Um...great. Everything's been good."

"I'm pleased to hear that. Adapting well to elite life?" Dart asked, his facial expression showing what looked like genuine curiosity, to which Will nodded. "Good. How about you Thane? I heard you just completed the droid project down at the hospital."

"Yes sir." Thane replied.

"With Tracey Beckard, am I right? I was just down by the Beckard household earlier today." Thane nodded. "Sweet girl yes? Although a little oblivious at times?" Dart said, chuckling slightly.

"Well, she's just different." Thane said. He didn't like that Dart had brought up Tracey. Had she said something? Was that what this was about?

"Yes I guess she is. So anyway, down to business." Dart said, bringing up his BIC, swiping his finger across it, causing a holographic interface to beam up from his wrist. Will's eyes bulged slightly, never seeing a BIC do that before, something that President Dart caught. "Pretty neat huh. One of the perks of being president." Dart snickered as his tapped at buttons on the floating screen in front of him. "So, can we be honest with each other. Let's do that shall we? I promise I'll be honest with you guys." He said, the smile dropping from his face instantly, not taking his eyes off his holographic panel.

Thane and Will exchanged a quick glance but Dart continued talking straight away. "Rumors are part of Lunaris and it's always good to nip it in the bud before things get out of hand. Well I heard this rather disturbing rumor while I was down at the Beckard's. Tracey really shouldn't spread things like that, especially when there are people around within earshot. Like I said, the girl is pretty oblivious...and loud. I swear she was halfway across the house and I could still hear her." He stopped, finally meeting Will and Thane's eyes once again, smiling innocently. "I apologize, I'm rambling. Perhaps you should decide yourself." Dart pressed a button on his panel, starting a sound clip playing from his BIC.

"I swear to you Lara," It was Tracey's voice. "You can forget about your little crush on Thane. He's not gonna be interested."

"Why not? What did he say?" The other girl replied, who Will could only guess was Lara, on the other end of a supposedly private call.

"He didn't say anything but he definitely showed it."

"C'mon Trace, stop keeping me in suspense here."

"This is just between you and me, okay? So don't tell anyone this, but you know that natal elite guy, Will Harrison? Yeah well Thane brought him to work today." Tracey said.

"So?"

"You should have seen the way they looked at each other. Those two are definitely involved with one another." You could almost hear the smile in Tracey's voice. As Will and Thane sat there, listening to the recording in shock, Dart had his eyes closed as he too, listened to the clip.

"Wait, you mean Thane is...gay?"

"Probably. Can't be too sure but it sure seemed like it. You should have seen them, they make such a cute couple." Tracey said. This time, Dart opened his eyes, tapping his BIC and stopping the clip. If not for the situation he was currently in, Will would have been touched that Tracey thought his relationship looked cute, but all he felt was appalled.

"That sounded like a private conversation." Will muttered.

"Oh it was, but like I said, the girl was loud." Dart smirked. "Okay so maybe she wasn't that loud, but all calls on Lunaris are monitored, so getting a clip of it wasn't too difficult. But I digress, care to put these rumors to rest?"

"It's not true. You yourself said Tracey was oblivious. She's just jumping to conclusions. You can't trust her." Thane replied, knowing that whatever it was, outright telling Dart the truth was a grade A bad idea. Will nodded, hopefully to some added effect.

"Oh I don't. Being president, you learn not to trust anyone." He stopped and Thane's shoulders relaxed just a tiny amount. "But like I said, being president has its perks." He went back to his BIC, bringing up a new window, this time opening a file, which displayed prominently on his holographic panel. It opened up two separate graphs, although neither knew what it was for. "One of those perks, is access to every records and monitoring system on Lunaris, including the vitals monitor on every Lunarisions BIC. If you could divert your attention to the graphs, I have taken the liberty to compile both your vitals from the last few days, more specifically, four days ago.

"As you can see, at around 9 p.m., we see a spike in both your pulse and breathing rates. Based on your BIC GPS, you both were within ten meters of each other. Please explain to me what happened that night?"

"We were both working out." Will said, remembering Thane use the same excuse with Tracey.

"Oh of course, why didn't I think of that? That makes so much sense now." Dart chuckled, hitting his head lightly as if to show how stupid he was. "So am I right to assume the same happened the next morning at approximately 9 a.m.?" Thane didn't like where Dart was leading this, but all he could do was nod. Dart looked in thought for a while, nodding slowly to himself, before finally bringing his hand up and swiping across the graphs, switching them for two new ones. "Well then, I guess that explains the increased levels of epinephrine in your blood during those two occasions as well. That would happen if you worked out wouldn't it.

"But this part baffles me see, both of you had a spike in oxytocin levels, within minutes of each other. That part I don't understand." Dart raised an eyebrow at Will. Will remembered what oxytocin was, from one of his biology CKT sessions. Oxytocin was released during orgasms. There was no excuse for this now. "I'm disappointed in you boys, I thought we agreed to be honest with each other here." Dart said, closing the panel on his BIC. "So I'm asking one more time, what were you boys doing that morning."

"You already know, why do you need us to say it." Thane said, his brows furrowed together, glaring at the president.

"I guess you're right. Well that's it then, thank you boys for your time. You may go." He said turning around in his chair and facing out the window. "Send in Varek after you."

"Wait, that's it? Aren't you gonna do something?" Will asked. He wasn't looking for trouble but you don't just interrogate someone like that and then let them go after.

"Oh don't worry William, I'll handle it in due time." He said. The threat was clear as day in his voice. He was already planning something and it wasn't going to be good for neither Will nor Thane. "Please send Varek in." Dart said, his finally dismissal of the boys. Will continued to glare at President Dart's back as Thane pulled him out of the room.

Outside, Varek paced the hall. Seeing the two boys exit, he quickly marched to them. "What happened?" He whispered, not wanting Dart to hear.

Before either of them could say anything, Dart's voiced boomed from the room. "Varek, I need to speak with you, now." The enunciation of the 'now' gave the statement a commanding tone, conveying that he wasn't going to ask again. Varek gave the two men a look of sorry, before quickly entering the room and closing the door.

As the door clicked shut, Will took off, storming to his room, Thane at his heel's trying to keep up. Pushing his door open with force he didn't know he possessed, Will stomped into the room, pacing up and down the length of it. Thane followed him in, closing the door behind him as gently as he could in his frustrated state, which still wasn't very gentle.

"I can't believe him, I mean, tapping into people's private conversations?" Will shouted, continuing his pacing of the room.

"I'm currently more furious at Tracey. She could have just kept her mouth shut, but no of course she had to go blab about us." Thane muttered, running his hand through his hair.

"I admit, she could have been a little more discreet about it, but we can't completely blame her." Will said, finally stopping his pacing. He closed his eyes, rubbing a finger against his temple. "I can honestly say, I won't be able to see that idiot's face from now on without wanting to punch it. That fucking smirk he kept shooting us, God what I wouldn't give to be able to rip it off."

"That makes two of us." Thane said, walking over to the couch and dropping into it. "Ugh, this is giving me a headache."

Will walked over to Thane, sitting down beside him. With his hand, he pulled the elite down onto himself, resting Thane's head in his lap, slowly combing his fingers through his thick brown locks. He applied slight pressure to Thane's scalp, massaging him in the hopes of alleviating his headache. Thane sighed in response, closing his eyes and enjoying Will's fingers as they worked their magic. With each passing minute, the scowl on Thane's face slowly relaxed till it was gone. "Feel better now?" Will asked.

"Yeah. Thanks." Thane said, reaching up and grabbing Will's hand, clutching it at his chest. "What do you think he's gonna do?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure it can't be good. Goddamn it, why must everything be so screwed up."

A knock at the door drew both of their attentions. "Guys, it's me. Can I come in?" Varek asked through the door.

"Yeah Dad." Thane replied, not getting up from his position in Will's lap. Varek entered, looking none too pleased as well. For a moment, both Will and Thane thought the anger was directed at them. Varek did give explicit instruction to keep this under wraps, to avoid exactly what had just happened and they both thought Varek was there to reprimand them for being so careless. Varek took a seat at one of the single sofa seat and stared at the air in front of him. "I'm sorry Dad." Thane apologized.

At those words, Varek's expression immediately softened and he turned his attention to his son. "What? Why?"

"We were careless. You told us..." Thane started, but was cut off by Varek.

"No no, I'm not mad at either of you. You two did nothing wrong. That Dart however, I'm pretty furious." Varek said, immediately resuming his glare of the empty space in front of him.

"What happened?" Will asked. Varek took a breath to calm himself, before turning back to the boys.

"Well after I went in, he jumped straight into it and went on and on about his 'research' he had conducted on you two. The call, the graphs, everything. Didn't even give me a chance to speak. I couldn't interject even if I tried, and I definitely tried." Varek said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "After his whole presentation to me, he turned to me and said, and I quote, 'now I'm sure you're disappointed with your son', and I lost it. Freaking shouted at him to shut up, which he did. No one talks about my son like that, let alone try to dictate how I should feel about the matter."

Thane's heart swelled at his dad's words. Thane had always been proud to have a father like Varek, but at that moment he was absolutely beaming with awe. So touched was he, that his eyes started to well up, not enough to full out cry, but he could definitely feel his chest tightening.

"I told him I was proud of my son, and my protégé, and I wasn't an ignorant bigot like him. Of course, the president didn't take kindly to being shouted at, himself flipping out. Went on about how I will rue this day and all that crap. I kindly told him to leave, saying that he was no longer welcomed. Even got Steve to escort him out." Varek said, seemingly pretty proud of himself, especially at that last part. Thane had sat up, pulling himself out of Will's lap, staring at his dad, his tears close to spilling over. Varek looked at him, noticing Thane's expression, smiling sadly at his son. "I meant everything I said. I am so, so proud of the man you've turned out to become and don't let anyone ever lead you to believe otherwise."

Thane got up, walking over to his father and engulfing him in a tight hug, finally letting a tear fall, trailing down his cheek. "Thanks Dad." Thane said, pouring everything head into the hug. He couldn't articulate his thoughts out loud, but he wanted to say so much more to his father. He wanted to thank him for always being there, always having his back and most of all, for being a person that he could look up to and respect as not just as a father, but a human being.

Will couldn't help but smile as he watched the two share their father-son moment. At the sight, he immediately remembered his own father, his smile dropping at the thought, remembering that his father didn't share the same sentiment as Varek, and he wasn't going to lie, it broke his heart. He would give anything for his father to look at him in the same way Varek looked at Thane. He would have given everything to hear that his father was proud of him.

Thane and Varek broke their embrace, smiling warmly at each other as Thane returned to his place by Will. Varek looked between the two boys and caught the look on Will's face, somehow broken on the inside. "I mean that to you too Will." He said, causing Will to look up. "I treat you like a son and I'm just as proud of you." At this, Thane grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Thanks Varek. I really appreciate it." Will said, cracking a half smile. Well, even if his father didn't fully understand him, he was surrounded by people who did, and that couldn't be all bad.

"Well anyway, I actually came here because I need to offer you my advice once again." Varek said, suddenly remembering the main reason he had come to speak to the pair. "With Dart now on your case, you can expect that he would soon try to pull something off. I'm not trying to worry you two, but you guys need to be careful. Dart may seem innocent at times, but he is dangerous and I want both of you to take care of yourselves."

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