Reworked the ending of Chapter 12. (Patreon)

Didn't love the wrap, so here's the new ending! I'll try to remember to include the v2 in with Chapter 13, btu since this was only a few hundred words of editing I didn't think it needed its own upload.

******

“I’ve brought him for you, Doctor.”

Rei stopped beside the woman, partially out of politeness, partially out of uncertainty. He did not, however, bow. He knew it was the right thing to do, had learned as much in his digging into the company that had so recently turned his world upside down. A bow, however, indicated respect.

And as far as he suspected, there was no respect due to the man before him, the man in a dark suit coat  in the process of turning towards him with hands clasped behind his back, gaze dropping from where he’d been looking wistfully up at the trees before Smith had called out to him.

The man with black hair turning to silver and sharp, handsome lines of many long years creasing the corner of his slate-grey eyes.

For a long moment, the two of them only stood there, taking each other in. Neither moved. Neither spoke. Rei wasn’t sure what it was the man was seeing, but for his part he was having a hard time with looking into those eyes. Those damn eyes…

At long last, it was Doctor Kamiya Hiroto, CEO of the Kamiya Corporation, who broke the silence.

“Hello, Reidon… Can I assume you already know who I am?”

His voice was… odd. Tight. The doctor’s expression was taut, unmoving, but Rei thought he more had the look of a man having to work hard to maintain a composure that usually came easy to him.

He was glad he wasn’t the only one struggling.

“That… is a loaded question,” he answered after a beat, choosing his words with care. “I know your name, if that’s what you’re asking. I know your title.” He narrowed his eyes at the man, feeling anger start to bubble unbidden. “Now I know—assuming Jasper kept her promise—that you’re also the guy who wanted me in your corner so badly that you were willing to offer a first year the moon.”

The corner of Kamiya’s mouth twitch, almost like he’d stopped himself from smiling.

“‘In my corner’…” he repeated to himself quietly, letting out a sigh that was somewhere between sad and frustrated. “Yes… I suppose that’s one way to put it, isn’t it?”

“Is there another way?” Rei didn’t like that his hands were clenched at his sides. He wanted—needed—to calm down.

“Infinitely other ways, yes.” The doctor’s eyes flicked down briefly to his fists, but made no comment about them. “All of which you have the right hear. Have for a long time, in fact.”

That statement, that simple, easy statement, sucked much of the fire out of Rei then. It wasn’t gone, per se. Hardly. It was more like the air had been pulled from his lungs, the fuel that had fed it momentarily sucked away.

‘A long time’? Did that mean—?

“Abigail, Reidon and I are going to go for a walk,” Kamiya told his steward, his grey eyes lifting to her. “Stay here, if you’d be so kind.”

For the first time Rei saw something other than benevolent warmth on the woman’s face as she blinked, the surprise at this order brief, but present.

“Here? But, sir—”

“Here,” Kamiya confirmed gently, cutting her off as he raised a hand to motion that Rei should join him. “I will appraise you of our discussion later, I am sure. For the time being, though… I’m afraid this is a family matter.”