Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Space is lonely. Even if you are not actually alone, the sheer sight of the gigantic planets, stars and simply the whole sight of the vast black area is enough to make you feel small, unimportant, lonely. Having goals and workers do help Dmitri Yuriev push away the feeling of loneliness, and yet it still creeps up on him at times. 

He stands in his study, the papers on his desk are mixed up, he has to organise them. Yet, he can’t bring himself to do it. The loneliness feeling is eating at his brain once again. He gets up from his comfy study chair and walks to the giant window in the room, looking out at the endless space. It doesn’t bring comfort, it makes everything worse, and yet Dmitri can’t help but look out and admire the stars, the planets, everything his eyes can see.

As he always does when he feels lonely, he opens up his pickup. He enjoys the way this old technology manages to fill his whole room, as well as his mind, with music. He looks at his library to pick what to listen to this time.

“Let’s see, which album for today… Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths?... No… Post Pop Depression by Iggy Pop?.. Absolutely not… Hmm…”

He looks at many records, and he pauses when he sees one he hasn’t listened to yet.

“Something Stupid by Frank and Nancy Sinatra… This seems to be a single song recording…” 

Taking the record out of the album, he admires the technology. Funny , he thinks, how I feel more impressed by a circle that makes sounds than I feel by almost anything I have seen. Placing the record on the pickup and placing the needle on, he waited for what type of song awaited him. Suddenly, the sound of soft guitar fills the room. The melody is uniquely comforting.

“I know I stand in line until you think you have the time to spend an evening with me”

The vocals compliment the guitar , he notes to himself.

“And if we go someplace to dance, I know that there's a chance you won't be leaving with me”

He can’t help but sway his head slowly from side to side.

“Then afterwards we drop into a quiet little place and have a drink or two”

He takes his eyes off the pickup and looks back out the window once again.

“And then I go and spoil it all by saying somethin' stupid like, ‘I love you’”

His swaying stops. Love . It’s been a while since he has truly loved anything or anyone. He doesn’t find it necessary when he has been accomplishing so much. 

“This song is indeed something stupid.” He snickers shortly, and yet he doesn’t stop listening to it. The love song ends after a bit. Silence fills the entire room. Dmitri can’t get himself to move and take out the record. He stands, deep in thought, looking out at space, wondering if he will find love someday. He looks back at the record, still spinning without making any sounds. He takes the needle and plays the song again. And again. And once again. Just one more time. One last time. 

Damn it…

Chapter Text

Klaus stepped into the space station. A well known scientist with many awards, a man who dedicated his life to helping humanity.

Behind him walked Galea, always the unappreciated, who worked just as hard. She also had awards, but Klaus was still the more well known one of the duo.

"I am not sure I want to work here Galea… The goal sounds sketchy."

"Klaus, you were the one who accepted the job. 'We need money for our own goals!' , remember?"

Klaus sighed, she was right. Their research was going too over the budget, they had to. They had to find some extra cash or the whole research would be for nothing.

Klaus groans "Yes, I did say that… Still… the wording is very suspicious is it not? The job application said 'Experimenting on Child-Like Beings' , I jumped on the opportunity because they were offering a lot of money but…"

"Hey, it's fine. If it's something really bad, we'll find a way to get out of the situation. You already spent hours convincing me."

They walk down a long corridor and reach a secretary desk. A woman sits at the desk, clearly busy as she fills some documents. Galea speaks first.

"Excuse me, Miss. I'm Galea and this is Klaus, we are here because of the job that was offered to us."

The woman looks up and gets up.

"Yes, welcome to the Yuriev Institute. Please follow me, for you will have to meet Mr Yuriev and sign an NDA."

Mr Yuriev huh… Klaus has the feeling he will not be liking this man. He has heard certain stuff about him, never anything positive other than "He's smart.", he hasn't even been able to form a picture on his head because he mostly heard of his actions instead of personality and appearance.

The scientists follow the secretary and walk through some long corridors. They walk up a large set of stairs, the walk is silent, the only sound being the clacking of shoes. That sound was soon silenced as well when they reached a large door. The secretary knocked.

“Mr Yuriev, the scientists have arrived.”

A strong yet calm voice answered from inside the room.

“Let them in.”

The secretary wasted no more time to open the door for Klaus and Galea. Behind the door was a study. One large oak desk, many bookcases, a giant window revealing the endless space, and of course, standing tall before the window, Dmitri Yuriev. He turned around to greet the scientists. And there it was, his first time making first eye contact with the infamous Dmitri Yuriev. 

Oh. Oh I hate him already… Klaus lied to himself.

Chapter Text

Dmitri listened to the same song for multiple whole days, when he stopped, he felt the urge to listen again. So he spent hours in his study, simply listening to the song, being lost in thought. He kept telling himself the song is stupid, his work and success is enough for him, he doesn't need love, and he doesn’t need this song. Then he played it again and again. Before the two scientists arrived at his study, he turned off the song to appear professional. And as he saw the blond man, it felt like the song had started again.

Dmitri couldn't break eye contact even if he wanted to, and he in fact did not want to. It felt like hours had passed when in reality it wasn't more than a few seconds. Dmitri cleared his throat to stop himself from staring any longer, and welcomed the two scientists.

"Welcome to the Yuriev Institute. I assume you are Galea and you… are Klaus. As you probably assumed, I am Dmitri Yuriev."

When Dmitri spoke, Klaus was able to stop his staring at last. He gave a small smile and shook Dmitri's hand. Noticing Klaus' flustered state, Galea stepped in to speak for the both of them.

"It's wonderful to meet you Mr Yuriev, we are Galea and Klaus, as you know we are from Rhadamanthus. We are here for a certain experimentation job." 

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you two. You are probably aware but we will be providing you with housing, food, and any necessary means while you are staying here. Please do tell if you need anything else. "

Klaus tried to look focused on Dmitri's words, but he couldn't help but stare at his hair, his eyes, his face.

Goddamn it…Focus Klaus… He isn't the first attractive person you have seen!... I should say something…

"Uh- Thank you Mr Yuriev. We will be starting the experimentation tomorrow."

"That's wonderful, Mr Klaus. Please, call me Dmitri."

Was that too far? He wouldn't tell just any worker of his to use his first name. Though he looked calm and confident outside, his thoughts were racing, he was getting more anxious every millisecond.

"Oh… Alright, Dmitri."

Dmitri didn't realise how beautiful his name could sound if said by the right person until then. It sounded like music… Almost like it was one of the lyrics to that cursed song he kept listening to. He nodded his head and tried to focus on the conversation.

"Wonderful. Well, my assistant will take you two to your rooms. Your rooms are next to each other, the laboratory is close to them. Since you are my esteemed guests, you will be eating with me in the special dining room that is reserved for me."

Klaus couldn't focus on the words. He was busy admiring the man and being annoyed at how easily he got distracted by him. He decided he would ask Galea what Dmitri was saying later.

"Thank you, Dmitri. Let's take our leave Klaus."

"Y-yes." Galea's words broke him out of his trance. "Thank you, Dmitri."

And so they left. Dmitri didn't feel as lonely now, though he was left alone in his room.

Chapter Text

The experimentations were to begin that day. Klaus and Galea were slightly nervous. The wording still ticked them off. They walked to the lab without exchanging words. As they entered the lab, they noticed two people inside.

Dmitri Yuriev and… a blonde kid?

"Ah! Welcome you two. Are you ready for the experiment? I'm assuming my secretary made you sign the NDA before she took you to your rooms."

"Yes, we have signed the NDA." said Klaus. Today he had decided he would be more confident in front of the very powerful man. 

"Wonderful. Well then it is time for you to learn the subject of this research."

Galea slightly leaned forward in curiosity. "Does it have anything to do with this child that's sitting on the examination table perhaps?"

"Indeed… You see, this is no ordinary child. This is a URTV. It is a clone of mine. A biologically engineered clone…"

Both Klaus and Galea's eyes widened. They had heard of experiments on cloning but they weren't aware someone successfully cloned themselves.

"There are more than six hundred of them."

Now they were practically gawking. What could even be the purpose?

"Almost all of them share a consciousness. There are four variants. Your research will have you working with ten URTVs, including the variants."

They didn't know what they were supposed to expect out of this job, but they absolutely did not expect this .

"You do not have to learn their purpose, it is not necessary for this research."

Galea finally managed to speak. "What exactly will we be doing in this research?"

"You will be researching how the variants differ. It is very important so I expect this research to be very thorough. There are documents on your assigned desks over there-" Dmitri pointed at two desks with organised papers on them. "-which have more detailed explanations on how the URTVs came to be, how they work, all the current facts about them, and what remains unknown, which you will be researching."

Galea was the first to move to her desk and look at the papers. Klaus stood in his place, staring at Dmitri. In a way he felt icky about all this. Apparently his face showed his thoughts, so Dmitri spoke.

"You have no reason to worry, Klaus. You don't have to consider them real children."

"...But they are… aren't they? In a way they're your children."

"Well, yes, I guess you could look at it that way."

Klaus paused to think. He had already signed the NDA, and if he left now, he wouldn't be able to see Dmitri again… Oh! Right, and also his own project would be a failure because of budgetary issues.

"...We'll get to work right away, Dmitri."

Dmitri grinned. It felt genuine and yet so wrong. Still caused Klaus' heart to clench though. His face betrayed him once again, and he smiled back. Dmitri's smile was just contagious.

Chapter Text

The research was going normally. Klaus and Galea created a very controlled environment in the lab and kept researching the children. It was a tiring process but the reward money would be so helpful that they didn’t mind. Galea sighed deeply as she finished writing down some of her notes on the written document. "Hey Klaus?"

"Yeah?" Klaus responded, not looking up from his desk. He was “theorising on what else they could be researching on the URTVs”. Truth be told he had not been able to think of anything related to their research. His mind was just filled with a single person and he hated it.

"Do you want to do the experiments today? I couldn't sleep at all last night… " She rubbed her eyes as she finished writing down her notes.

"Hmm… why couldn't you sleep?"

Galea groaned, annoyed at the response. "Come on man… I'm asking for some assistance here and you're interrogating me?"

"H-huh? Oh! No, that's not how I meant it. Sorry… I'm just a bit distracted."

"...by what?"

Klaus' eyes widened and he looked up. "Nothing!"

Galea raised an eyebrow. Klaus was acting a bit strange. She had a good guess as to what had gotten him so distracted, but decided not to bring it up. Klaus would tell her when he was ready anyway, that's how the duo always worked.

"Well then… Will you do the job for me today?"

"Fine… You know, if it was someone else asking, I would have said no. You are very special." Klaus smiled in an annoying manner. Galea chuckled in response.

"Alright asshole. I'll bring you a sandwich or something from the cafeteria and go to my room."

"Thanks…"

With that, Galea left the lab and Klaus was alone. He looked at the program that had been planned beforehand. The experiments were getting tiring since all the URTVs were giving the same responses. kept writing the report when his mind began to wander. He had seen Dmitri yesterday, during dinner. 

"I'm very impressed with the amount of dedication you are putting into this." Dmitri had said.

Though it was directed at both him and Galea, Klaus felt as though Dmitri was giving compliments to him specifically. It felt… strangely good. God, he really needed something to distract him. Usually focusing on work would help but this job was so repetitive that it had the exact opposite effect. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the door to the lab behind him open. Must be the next test subject.

“Come in, sit on the experimentation table.” Klaus spoke without looking at the door and he got up.

“Oh? I was hoping to go out and take a walk with you actually.” A smug voice said. Klaus knew that voice, he kept replaying that voice in his head.

“Dmitri!” He turned around to look at him in shock. “Ah… What are you doing here?”

Dmitri gave a small smile and leaned on the doorframe of the lab. “Since you and Galea have been working so hard I decided it would be a nice idea to give you two a day off. It seems Galea is already absent… Shame…” 

“Oh. Thanks Dmitri, that’s really nice of you. Galea was really tired so I’m working in her place for the day.”

“Wonderful, we get to be alone then.”

Huh?! Did he actually say that? Does he want to be alone with me? What does he mean by that? Is he interested in me? What? Why would I wanna know if he’s interested in me? I’m not interested in him so it doesn’t matter, does it? Maybe he wants to talk about the job? Or maybe he actually wants to spend time with me? Could that be it? Holy shit?

Oh God I actually said that. I shouldn’t have said that. He is going to think I’m interested şn him. Well, I kind of am interested in him. Still, showing my intentions feels so embarrassing. Maybe I can say something to clarify that I didn't mean it romantically. Though I kind of did mean it romantically. Damn it.

They stood in silence for a bit and Klaus decided he should say something to show he didn’t mind that sentence. “I’d lo- uh… I’d really like that.” Love is a big word , he decided.

Dmitri grinned at the slip up in Klaus’ words. “Let’s go then, there’s a place I would like you to see.” When Klaus smiled back at him, he felt stupid, in the best way possible.