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Corporate Engagements

Part 1

For Catsithx

By Draconicon

Kain's stepfather was dead, and he was pretty sure that he was supposed to be more broken up about that than he actually was. The half-breed cat shook his head as he looked up at the skyscraper headquarters that the panther had built up and run for decades, sighing to himself.

"Why are we here again?" he muttered.

"Your stepfather's will is being read. As his son, you are legally required to be here, my friend."

Rolling his eyes, the dark-furred cat turned to his companion. The jackal, dressed far more formally than he was, smiled in an understated way. There was no love lost for Kain's stepfather, from either of them, but he supposed that Ramses had a fair point. If nothing else, there might be some pittance in the will for him.

He sighed again, still not wanting to be here. He'd had an estranged relationship, at best, with his stepfather ever since his mother died. Nothing good had happened there, and he doubted that anything good would happen with the patriarch of the family dead. He half-wished that he could have seen the massive company come rattling down at the panther's death, if only to spite the old man in his grave.

But that wasn't going to happen, and there was no point in wishing for the impossible. Shaking his head one last time, he walked up the steps to the front door.

As soon as they opened, he felt completely out of place. Everyone else wore a suit, at the minimum, and he imagined that there wasn't a single person in the lobby that wasn't wearing at least three-hundred-dollars in various pieces of clothing. In contrast, he was wearing little more than a t-shirt and jeans, not caring about how he looked. He stood out like a sore thumb, and everyone turned to look at him as he passed by.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, slumping his shoulders as he walked through the crowd. Here and there, little stares got worse as people stared at him, judging him as they always did when he came to his father's word.

"Look at the...thing..."

"Why was he let it? Is he the son of a customer?"

"No, he's the former owner's son."

"Disrespectful. Show a little class, a little pride."

Kain didn't listen to them. He never did. Instead, he just slouched his shoulders a bit further, pulling his ears back over his head, and continued walking toward the elevator on the far side of the room.

It wasn't a good way of handling things, he knew, but what else was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to fight them? Was he supposed to argue? Maybe someone else would have, but him? No.

Ramses joined him as the doors shut, sealing them into the little metal cube. The cat grumbled under his breath.

"This isn't going to be worth it."

"You might be surprised. Your father was more open to outside persuasion during his last days," the jackal said.

"Yeah? That just means that he might have listened to the Board to shut me out."

"The Board had little contact with him during the last days. He only met with those that were known family friends."

"And that's better?"

"It might be," the jackal said, smiling mysteriously.

"...You know something."

"I may, but that is immaterial. After all, we're there."

The doors opened. Ahead of them was a single boardroom, one with walls of glass that did nothing to hide those that were already on the other side. Ramses stepped forward, one orange-furred hand grasping for the door handle, and then pulled it open, allowing him to step through as if he were a valet rather than a friend.

It was a small boost to Kain's confidence, at least. The dark-furred cat stepped through, making his way to the empty chair at the foot of the table.

The rest of the Board looked at him with the usual disdain, their heads tilted back so that they could look down their muzzles at him. Nothing good would come of that, he knew. They had always disliked him. Half-breed that he was, born out of an affair, they probably felt that he had no right to be here.

And in all honesty, they were probably right. The only reason that he had even the slightest interest in the company was because of the occasional bauble that Ramses snuck out to him, the little gadgets that the company was so good at producing and making so fascinating.

After all, magic harvested for the mundane made for good money.

As he got comfortable in his chair, the boar at the far end of the table stood up. He wasn't familiar to Kain, so the cat imagined that he was the lawyer that had been retained for the reading and explanation of the will. The boar cleared his throat.

"Chairmen of the Board. Executives of 'The Magical Mundane'. Family members."

Family members. There was only one of them, and that was him. Kain slumped back in his chair as the various business executives turned as one to give him a cutting stare. No words, since the will must have named him to be there, but they were definitely not pleased with him. They never were.

But with him dead, and the rest of the family gone from experiments...

The boar continued. As he reached down for a tablet, doubtlessly to read the will from it, Kain braced himself for the worst.

"It has been brought to my attention that the reins of the company must settle in the hands of a single individual. The Board, in its efforts to make itself the primary decision-maker of the company, has managed to set delay after delay upon The Magical Mundane, to the point where we were nearly bankrupted through the loss of several extreme contracts. As a result, I am utilizing my power through ownership to name a direct successor to the head of the company."

That meant that the whole thing would be just handed over to someone that probably didn't even need all that money. Someone on the Board, probably, Kain imagined, or someone in the executive lists that had been performing well. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Ramses, asking wordlessly why they were there again.

The jackal shook his head, flicking his ears. The orange color on the inside waved like a pointing finger for him to keep paying attention.

"As such, I am naming Kain as my successor."

...What?

The feline sat up in his chair as the executives and the Board erupted around him, the complaints coming loud and fast. Not one of them seemed happy with the decision, and in all honesty, why would they be? He had been completely absent from every function that he would have been allowed to attend, and he had deliberately kept himself at a distance from every function back in college that he might have shown up at.

Ramses smiled down at him, and he glared at the jackal in return. His friend had known. He had fucking known.

Damn it...

Before he could say anything, a tablet was passed down the table, the boar sending it along a line of minor functionaries before it reached him. Kain took it out of habit, looking down at it.

"You..."

He flicked through the legal details. Much as he hated the idea of being involved in the corporate bureaucracy, he had learned how to make his way through a contract simply by being raised by that man. Legalese was as much his language as English, at this point.

One page after another went by, and his heart continued to fall. For all his lack of plans for the future, Kain had never imagined that anything in the company would become his responsibility. It had been a family concern...and his stepfather had made damn sure to let him understand that he was not a real member of the family.

Trying to pull me out of a normal life...trying to make me be part of a world that doesn't want me...

Even with his eyes down on the page in front of him, he could feel every single exec staring at him, every Board member giving him a death glare for daring to be part of this world now. He stood out worse than ever, his casual clothes making him feel more and more like a kid in front of all the other men of authority around him.

They don't want me here. They want me out.

He set the tablet back down on the table, shaking his head.

"Let Ramses have it," Kain muttered. "He's been here for years. Let him have the company."

The company men looked at each other, then at the jackal. For a moment, that almost seemed to be the solution that they were willing to go for. After all, his friend had been assistant to various VPs throughout the company, going so far as to be assistant to the big man himself for a few years.

Then the jackal ruined it.

"I'm afraid I cannot take this post. Much as I have the skills your father would appreciate, he has specifically named you in his will," Ramses said. "You may fight it, if you like, but the contract specifies you as the head of the company."

"...But...but..."

"However. After a year, if you and the Board reach an amicable agreement, you may put the mantle down and name your own successor," the jackal said, stepping in just as the rest of the Board was about to complain. "It is a safety clause. Your father wished to see you taken care of after his death, after all."

"...Stepfather..."

Kain shook his head. He looked up at the lawyer, hoping that the boar would be able to give him something, but it seemed that the executor of the estate was already busy drawing up the other contracts. The feline clenched his hands tightly, shaking his head.

Ramses passed the tablet back to him, scrolling down to the bottom. There was a spot for a thumbprint, just waiting for him to sign his agreement.

He looked up at his old friend. The man that had been there for him when his father hadn't, the jackal that had - in some of the most important ways - replaced his mother after she died. Ramses had always been there to push him up, to help him figure things out.

And now, he was here to trap him into a life that he didn't want.

"Why?" he whispered.

"Trust me. It's for the best."

"...It better be," he muttered, pushing his thumb down on the screen.

A beep later, and the contract was signed. The tablet was hustled back over to the boar, and the rest of the Board grumbled under their breath as it was made official. Kain was now their new boss, for better or worse.

#

They left the building in a limo after arriving there in a bus. Kain leaned against the door in the back, rubbing his face and staring out the windows by turns.

"I can't believe you made me do that."

"It's for the best, my friend," the jackal said, shaking his head. "Trust me, this will turn out better than you think."

"It'll have to work real hard to turn out worse..."

"It will be better."

"..."

He shook his head, leaning back against his seat. Things were just going to get a hell of a lot more complicated.

The Magical Mundane was just one of many mega-corporations that ran things in the world, these days. They had sprung up during the great Mana Rush of the last half-century, and those that managed to find a way to work with the mysterious energy had managed to bring themselves to the top of the heap. Those that had stuck with the basics, the normal stuff, had consigned themselves to the bottom.

After all, in a world where gas wasn't needed, where cars could run on whispered words rather than liquified bones, then it was hardly proper to be drilling for that. When food could be kept cold with a few little written charms rather than an expensive refrigerator, what was the point in making them anymore?

And when the mega-corps had the power to stomp out competition through magical means as well as financial, how did you fight back? The simple answer was, you couldn't. You just got out of the way.

Now that they're all in charge, you get a job with them or against them, and if you're against them, you try to stay the hell out of their territory, he thought, remembering how he had tried to get a job outside of the corporations while he was at college. He tried freelancing, putting his skills to work for different low-level employers, trying to make a living without jumping into the magic business.

However, either they had heard who he was related to and didn't want to touch someone else's 'property', or they were too busy shoving their heads up the asses of the magicians in the company that they didn't want to deal with someone that was more...mundane. He had been jobless the whole time.

Yet, even that hadn't been enough to make him want to go home and take a job under the old man. He would have been willing to try starving before going to that, before giving in and giving up what little pride he had left. The idea of working for someone that was so willing to stomp out the competition...

He shook his head. Better not to go too far down that road. He was already angry. Thinking about his stepfather was liable to make him furious.

As he leaned his head back further, Ramses reached out and took his hand. The cat looked down, tried to pull his hand free, only for the other man to pull it back.

"It's going to be alright," the jackal repeated.

"How do you know, huh?"

"I know."

"Yeah, but that...that doesn't tell me anything. It could mean anything. You said that when we got to the will-reading, and you shoved me into this."

"That's because it will make your life better," Ramses said, giving his hand a squeeze in the process.

"How? Just tell me that. How?!"

"Because I will be there to make it so."

If there was anything that the jackal could say to make the cat believe him, that was probably it. Kain sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

Ramses had been there when his father hadn't been. He could remember the jackal being around even when he was just a little kid, someone that was a new adult, someone that was kind to him and interested in him, even when he wasn't doing anything particularly interesting. Ramses had always talked to him about his schoolwork, had been there to help him with the harder problems, and had supported him through some of the bullying in school.

More than that, the jackal had always been there when times were tightest. When he was off at college, Ramses had occasionally showed up with a small manilla envelope of cash, giving him what he needed to make rent when he had lost a freelancing contract, or when the student loans hadn't come in yet. The jackal was always there, and he always made things better.

And yet...

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the black and orange man, looking at him in his fancy white suit. For all that he had been there for years, for almost two decades, Ramses looked no older now than he had in the past. He looked, if anything, slightly younger, as if he were aging backwards rather than forwards.

"Ramses?"

"Yes?"

"You're not a magical contract that he made, are you?"

"No, sir."

"Then what are you?"

"That would be telling, sir."

The jackal smiled, shaking his head, as he always did. It was always mildly infuriating and charming at the same time, and as they did every other time that the question had been brought up, they put it to the side again.

Kain looked out the window again, watching as the city passed by. Here and there, he saw the beginnings of new magi-tech concerns that were trying to pull together the funding and the attention that would give them a chance to rise to the top. If they were lucky, one of the mega-corps would notice them and swallow them up rather than extinguishing them, but that would require some serious luck. Most of them were big enough to not need any new hands, and most of the new guys just got squished.

If he did hold onto The Magical Mundane, he imagined that he might try and change that policy, but he imagined that the Board would be doing everything in its power to try and stop him from doing just that. He sighed, shaking his head again.

"Why all the sighs, sir?"

"I don't want to be in this position."

"It is a position of power."

"And responsibility. And doing things that I really don't want to do."

"It's the only way that things can change, sir."

"You think I want to change things?" Kain laughed bitterly. "I just want to have a normal life."

"I suppose that is an ambition, but I'm afraid that normality has left the world long ago. We chased it down and killed it, and banished its children."

"I guess we did."

The idea was a sobering one, and a sad one, at the same time. He closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead.

"Why me, Ramses?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did he choose me?"

"Because he wanted things to be better for you."

"Since when? He never wanted that before. I doubt that he had a last-minute change-of-heart on his deathbed."

"You never know -"

"No, in this case, I really do know."

He could remember the last time that he had met with his stepfather in person. The panther had been busy behind his desk at the top of that tower back at the company, and he had been forced to wait for nearly two hours while the old man did nothing but stare out the window. It had been a power play, a reminder that he was nothing but a half-breed, that the panther had taken him in after his mother died as an ethical responsibility rather than a moral one.

The fact that the panther had experimented on his other children, had done everything to make his products better including seeing some of them die, had been enough to tell him that the panther's ambitions were too big to allow any sort of kindness and affection into his heart. It was better to stay away from him, particularly considering that seemed to be exactly what his stepfather wanted, anyway.

Nothing but a hybrid, a half-breed to him, Kain thought, curling up on himself as he thought about how much his mother had loved him, how much the cat had taken care of him before the gradual starvation claimed her, too. He just saw me as a remnant of her. Something to keep around as a way to feel good about himself, or...

There was nothing good in those memories. He pushed them away, sighing under his breath.

"I'm going to give the company back in a year. I'm going to do so badly with it that the Board will want to kick me out, I promise you."

"That will be your choice, sir, but I imagine that you won't be able to bring yourself to do something that cruel, particularly not with the lives of so many employees depending on the different decisions that you make."

"...That's not fair."

"Neither is your decision to hurt them, sir. Would you prefer that I stayed quiet?"

"...No."

"I didn't think so."

The jackal smiled, nodding towards the front of the car.

"Driver, if you would make a quick stop? There are a few things that we need to pick up."

The car turned, and Kain blinked. This was the first that he'd been told that they needed to get anything on the way home.

Ramses didn't say anything, merely giving the driver directions. There was no help there, so he pulled out his phone. The high-tech, high-magic thing read his aura immediately as he touched it, opening up and offering him a fairy guide.

He dismissed her, pushing her off to the side of the screen, and opened the map program. Unlike the old apps, this one pushed itself out of the phone as a hologram of sorts, twisting and turning around as the car did. It formed a series of different representations of other cars and pedestrians, as well as magical animations for the people that were in the different shops that they passed.

The car slowed and stopped right outside of a clothing shop, a tailor's business, for that matter. He blinked, only to yelp as he was suddenly pulled from the car.

"Come, we have work to do, sir."

"What are you talking about this time? Ramses, tell me what the hell is going on?"

"In a moment, sir."

"No, now!"

He pulled and squirmed, but the jackal's grip was as ruthless and tight as the grip of the mega-corps on the world. There was nothing that he could do to escape.

They stepped through the front door of the small shop, the little business obviously having many clients from the mega-corps, considering that they had all the suits in the world - or so it felt - hanging from the walls around them. There were a few people that sported magical devices of their own that browsed between the different bits of clothing, pulling down this or that piece of attire before putting it back with a shake of their head.

No sooner had they stepped inside, though, then one of the staff stepped forward to greet them. It was a raccoon, no, a tanuki, and he bowed at the waist.

"Welcome to my shop, good sirs. May I ask if we are both getting sized today, or if it is just the young man?" the tanuki asked.

"Sized?"

"Just him," Ramses said. "It is important that he looks good for tonight."

"Then allow me to ensure that he does."

"Ramses, what is going on?" Kain asked. "Seriously, you're not telling me anything again."

"Trust me."

"...If this was anyone other than you..."

#

The final bill for the new suit was an astounding $800. That was the most that he had paid for anything in his life, including his monthly rent when he was going to college. The fact that he had to wear something that was worth that much astounded him, and he almost didn't dare to move once it was on him.

The fact that it was a fancy tuxedo didn't feel right. He was not a fancy person. He walked around in jeans and a t-shirt because it was more suitable for someone that didn't have any real income, who wasn't important. Wearing this made him feel like he was trying to be someone that he wasn't.

It didn't feel good.

When Ramses paid for it, the jackal gestured back to the limo. However, Kain had had just about enough. He planted his feet in place, the shoes clicking in the process, and shook his head.

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on."

"It's a small thing. You won't mind it, I promise."

"You promised a lot. Now, why don't you start talking, instead?"

"You would prefer to do this in public?"

"If we go back to the limo, we're just going to start driving again. I don't trust you to not take me right to whatever I need this suit for, so start talking!"

"If you wish, sir."

The jackal shook his head, folding his hands behind his back as he took a more formal position. He took a deep breath, leaning his head back.

"The Board has arranged a dinner party for you involving the potential marriage between yourself and two female candidates of other mega-corps."

"..."

If there was one thing that he hadn't considered as a possibility, it had to be that. His jaw dropped almost halfway to the floor, or so it felt, and his mind felt like it was on the fritz, sparking and misfiring as he tried to understand what the hell had just happened.

Marriage.

Him getting married.

Married to other...

"If you will follow me to the car, sir?"

The cat nodded, allowing himself to be pulled along as he tried to sort out his own thoughts on the matter. He had to think quickly, had to figure this out.

It didn't take long. The Magical Mundane had gone through as much growth as it possibly could in the area, and it couldn't push out further without treading on the toes of other mega-corps. The only way that they could actually get more than they already had was to connect someone in their company with someone in another, and the higher-up that connection went, the better.

That meant that it would be a pair of women that were heirs or the next thing to it for other companies, people that would allow for a potential hostile take-over in the future. Kain would be nothing but a bartering tool, something that looked like The Magical Mundane was giving up something of value as well, but in reality was nothing but a pawn for their schemes of expansion.

They were in the car when he finally realized that, and the door was shut, keeping him from hopping out as the driver kicked the car into gear.

"I'm not going to do this," Kain managed to mutter.

"It is up to you whether you follow their suggestions or not, but as the party has already been set up, and you must choose between them, you will have to do something. As it stands, you'll offend someone. It is merely a choice of who."

"Heh..."

"You find this amusing, sir?"

"I...I don't want to marry anyone...and I don't want to be just a tool for the Board..."

"You are limited, sir. If you are not a tool for the Board, as you put it, then you will offend both the young women and the executives on the Board. If you choose one of them, you will only offend one of the young women."

In other words, no matter what he did, someone was going to get hurt, and he was the one that would have to pay the price. He laid his head in his hands, whimpering under his breath as he tried to think it through.

How the hell could they do this to him on his first day? He didn't even want to be part of the company, and the first thing that they wanted was for him to get married? Just so they could get a bit more land, a bit more reach in the world?

Assholes. Bunch of...corporate...assholes...

Ramses didn't say anything else, only rubbing his back instead. Kain couldn't help but lean into it, doing the same thing that he had done since he was a kid, allowing the jackal to comfort him.

I have to...I have to...

He had to get out of this. He had to show that he would do something unexpected, something that the Board would never approve of. Something that technically went with what they wanted, but would still piss them off enough to make them kick him off the company at the end of the year.

What can I do, though?

Maybe one of the girls was an obviously worse choice than the other? No, the Board wouldn't give him that chance to screw things up that badly. The Board itself might be divided on which woman would give them the best chance to grow, but the choice would be more or less equal. He couldn't sabotage them that way.

So what could he do?

He racked his brain, trying to figure something out while not giving into panic. The feline was not doing a very good job of that, either, and the only thing that was keeping him from sinking into pure, blind fear was the hand on his back, the slow rubbing going up and down his spine. He whimpered -

Then it clicked.

Kain sat up, staring straight ahead. Could he...was he mad enough to try something like that? Would he be able to get away with it?

That was a stupid question. If it came to doing something selfish, the mega-corps could get away with just about anything. They were the ones that set the laws, these days, and if they didn't like it, they changed it.

A smile crept across his face as he slowly turned to the jackal again, nodding to himself. Ramses cocked his head to the side.

"You have a thought, sir?"

"Yes, I do." He smiled. "I'll marry them both."

The End