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Arcade had finally made a breakthrough.. well, a small one. He'd learned how to mass produce stimpaks with broc flowers and xander roots - even with barrel cacti and agave fruit.
He'd been hard at work for a couple weeks, helping other followers learn, as well, how to concentrate the effects, how to make one in a pinch, exact proportions and what improper ones did..
And, in the back of his mind was a rather political idea. A rather good one.. he hoped.
The Followers, as devout believers in helping humanity, would never use the knowledge of extracting concentrates and making chemicals for evil. The Kings, though.. he wasn't sure. The King was respectable, to be sure. But Pacer had a jet problem. If he was going to let them in on the knowledge, he needed to make sure they wouldn't enable him.. or make it worse.
He wanted to discuss it with King, first, in any case. He was.. easier to convince. He felt a bit bad - he hadn't visited King in over two weeks. The last time he'd seen him, they'd hooked up.. he'd enjoyed it, and King had, too. Maybe he could make him promise something with a little.. persuasion.
Arcade hadn't explained it to Julie, but he had told her where he'd be. She had smirked a little and told him to have a nice time - he'd gotten out of there, quickly.
Arcade wandered over to the King's building, and when he walked in, he was greeted with the usual scene. Kings hanging around, Rex wandering around the bottom floor.
When Arcade saw him, he walked over, bending down. He stuck his hand out, happily scritching Rex's chin. "Hi, boy.." he murmured, watching Rex happily pant. He squinted when the pup jumped up, promptly licking his face. "Excited to see me, huh?" He flatly asked, chuckling.
"He ain't the only one." A familiar voice said to his left, a familiar deep voice said.
Arcade looked up to see The King, the man himself, standing over him and smiling while he watched him pet Rexie.
"Hi.." Arcade murmured, smiling at him. "It's nice to see you."
"Nice to see you, too. Was kinda worried you ran off for good, last time." King confessed, scratching behind his ear.
"No, no.. that's what I wanted to talk to you about. There's a reason I've been away.. nothing to do with you, mind you." Arcade managed to say, stumbling over his words a bit. "Can we talk?"
"Course we can. My room?" King chuckled, pointing behind him.
"Yeah.. is there a table in there? My visit kinda has to do with science."
"Oh, I'll move a couple desks in. Plenty, from this old school." King held out his hand, helping Arcade to his feet. "Let's go, ah?"
Arcade happily let himself be led by King's hand, silently walking with him to his room, waving hello at passing King's members. They weren't a bad sort, really. Arcade was just a bit unused to gangs.
He was safer than ever, however, as both a follower doctor and a man walking hand in hand with The King. King squeezed his hand, looking around as they walked together.
"It's so good to see you, sugar." King purred, leaning next to Arcade's ear. "I missed you."
"Missed you, too." Arcade confessed, turning his head to smile at him.
King looked at him for a while, walking him up the staircase. "I wanna kiss you so bad.." he whispered, making Arcade shiver a little. "Cutie."
"Can you wait a minute?" Arcade chuckled, tugging him to be a bit faster. "C'mere.."
King and Arcade sped up even more, quickening their pace and practically running up the staircase. They power walked down the halls together, gunning it for the Kings room.
When they finally got there, King confidently pulled Arcade inside and shoved him against the door to close it, smirking at his cute little giggle.
"Hi, baby.." King purred, cupping his chin in hand. He pushed forward and kissed Arcade on the lips, noting his eager response, feverishly kissing back. "You really missed me, huh?"
"Mmhm.." Arcade murmured, pulling King in to kiss him a few more times. "This is my way of saying 'sorry it's been so long'. I've been hard at work, and made a useful breakthrough, for once."
"Don't sell yourself short like that, sugar." King reassured him, rubbing his chin. "What'd you discover?"
"Mm. Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Arcade giggled, kissing him on the cheek. "That's why I need the desks.. but, I wanted to talk to you about that, first." Arcade wrapped an arm around King's shoulders, slowly guiding him further into the room.
King tugged him, too, and the two ended up on his heart shaped bed. King giggled, easily pulling Arcade into his lap. "Okay, doc.. what do you wanna talk about?"
"I need you to promise me something." Arcade murmured, pressing forward to kiss him. "I need you to really promise."
"What do you need, honey?" King purred, ruffling his hair.
"I've been researching stimpaks.. and other helpful medical chems. And I've discovered a way to concentrate and mass produce them from common desert fruit, like barrel cacti and prickly pears." Arcade explained, watching King's face.
"Oh, wow. You're brilliant, baby.. that's so noble.." King leaned forward and kissed Arcade again, this time out of gratitude.
"I wanna teach you how to do it.. uh, how to make a bunch of stimpaks out of desert fruit, that is." Arcade chuckled, looking away. "It involves some chemistry and science.. I'll be glad to teach you."
"Yeah?" King breathed, a slow grin spreading across his face. "That's great, baby.. jeez, that's amazing. Thank you so much." He pushed forward to kiss him again, but Arcade gently held him away.
"Teaching you how to do this will, in turn, teach you how to concentrate other things.. other, less helpful things." Arcade breathed, looking King right in the eye. "You'd be able to make bad chems. Jet, psycho, slasher.. I don't have to tell you how dangerous that could be."
King nodded, keeping quiet to let Arcade finish. Arcade sighed, breaking eye contact.
"..I need you to promise me that if I teach you this, you won't do that. You'll use your knowledge for stimpaks, med-x, fixer, mentats.. first aid for freeside citizens." Arcade kissed his cheek again. "I trust you wouldn't do that. But you've got a big gang here. It would be a big responsibility."
"Ahh, I see what you're askin." King nodded. "You want me to keep it outta the wrong hands."
"Exactly. If you wanna keep a steady supply, you might wanna get a third party faction to do it.. or maybe we could make a hybrid Follower-King faction for that purpose. I'm not sure." Arcade pet down the back of King's head. "All I need is your promise you would do your best to make sure the knowledge is used for the good of all people."
King thought about it for a moment, looking at Arcade. "That's a tall order.. if it's a big success, we'll need more people for more production. Gets too big, we might have to spend some time puttin' down anyone who turns drug dealer."
"I know. Believe me, I know." Arcade nodded. "I'm not asking you to prevent it entirely.. if it happens out of your hands, that's not on you. If it's a success, the operations inevitably will get bigger, and some scoundrels will become.. freelancers. But that's far in the future, and it's a risk we have to be prepared to take to focus on the here and now of Freeside's needs."
"Ahh." King nodded in approval again. "And once it's such a big success, there'll be more locals alive n' well than junkies, if we ration our Fixer right."
"I like the way you think." Arcade chuckled, squeezing his shoulder. "What do you say, then? Do I have your word?"
"Course you do, sugar." King purred, bringing Arcade in for a long, sweet kiss that left him breathless. "You've got my personal guarantee.. nothin's gonna fall into the wrong hands. Not on my watch."
Arcade breathed a sigh of relief, happily hugging King close and nuzzling his neck with his nose. "Thank you." he quietly purred, finally completely relaxed in King's arms. "Guess we should.. lug those desks in, huh?"
"I've got a better idea." King murmured, a mischievous tone in his voice. "If I don't get it outta my system now, I dunno if I'll be able to keep my hands off you durin' your lesson. And, seein' as I just agreed to do no harm.." King smirked. "You wanna take care of some.. other things, first?"
Arcade grinned. "Such as?" He playfully asked, a coy smile on his face.
"Maybe we can see what we can do for that self esteem of yours." King purred back, slowly rolling Arcade over to straddle him. "Make you fully aware that you are one special guy."
Arcade scoffed a little, despite the shudder he felt go through him. "Hah. Good luck."
"Yeah?" King kissed his neck, slowly, sucking a light bruise just to hear Arcade's nearly silent gasp. "Well, let's see what I can do for ya, sugar."
King and Arcade had forgotten to lock the door - however, soon the loud moans, creaking floors and whispered dirty talk flooding from the bed would drive any King's away, no matter if they needed to see their leader or not.