[Fic] Error Code - 3/5
Mar. 20th, 2011 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coley_merrinTitle: Error Code
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Pairing cameos: Tablo/Eunhyuk, Siwon/Hangeng
Rated: R
Genre: AU, sci-fi, angst, romance
Summary: A gift that isn't a machine, but much more than just an ordinary man. A place of safety where waiting to see, means waiting for danger.
In the same universe following Bolt and Strike, but not necessary to read to understand this.
***
With Kyuhyun as a promised sentinel, Zhou Mi seemed comfortable doing things on his own. It wasn’t like there was far to go. All the rooms spread out from the center, or along two hallways. He could’ve shouted from any point and still be heard. But it was nice to sit without someone in his proximity, touching. Though there had been less and less of that. Zhou Mi seeming to sense his presence better, relying on his ears, instead of just touch. It was kind of like losing a ring that was habitually worn, and feeling the phantom presence of it. But it wasn’t like he was alone, even when the others were out. Siwon was in, but in the exercise room with Zhou Mi. Which seemed to be their new routine.
It was an advance that took a weight off of Kyuhyun’s mind, and added it in another regard, as Zhou Mi learned to use the bathroom on his own in the midst of things. Even eventually learning to shower without giving Kyuhyun heart attacks. Thinking Zhou Mi was going to break himself in the shower was apparently too much for his brain to handle. Still, after Zhou Mi mastered the art of the exercise room, half killing himself with eagerness on the exercise bike the first time, a shower had definitely been required.
Still it was nice to sit. Tablo was the one manning the central room in case there was anything needed. They hadn’t had a lot of opportunity to talk, especially not alone. He was curious, because even if he knew Siwon and Hangeng were together, they were subtle. Tablo and Hyukjae had no such secrets, and he saw that metal plate shining through Hyukjae’s hair at times. Maybe because his own experience with a former android had been so dramatic.
Tablo didn’t seem surprised when Kyuhyun edged into the topic, making a rough comparison to how he’d found Zhou Mi, and what he vaguely knew of how the project to rescue all the enslaved androids had started.
“Hyukjae said you were instrumental in starting it. That you saved him.”
Tablo shook his head. “He would. He’s the one who really did what needed to be done. All I did was buy Hyukjae as a security droid. And somehow caused a short that freed him from his orders. Zhou Mi waking was traumatic, but in a different way from Hyukjae’s. For Hyukjae, it was…inundation. To be able to feel, hear, see. Suddenly having control over things like arousal, speech. It was rough, for a while. I was pretty much all he knew. Kind of like you were to Zhou Mi. But it was kind of like fate. Here Hyukjae was, and he knew me, trusted me. I couldn’t help but care. He was sweet and unsure, and needed me - needed someone.”
“But you’ve been together since.”
“Yeah.” Tablo touched a slip of glass dangling outside of his shirt. “Hyukjae didn’t need me for long. But that didn’t reduce the need to be together. We fit.”
It was a little hard for Kyuhyun to swallow the whole fate idea. Like they’d been meant to find each other, right for no one else. Well, okay, Tablo hadn’t gone that far. Simple good luck that their personalities were compatible in the face of a rather startling discovery. This robot is a human. And kind of likes you.
“We worried, because of how dependent Zhou MI was,” Tablo said, setting aside his book. “How long you’d be able to be patient. It’s hard. For anyone. But you did well, and it seemed you two have been getting closer. I think he worries after you as much as you worry after him.”
Kyuhyun snorted at the imagery. “Sure, because he thinks I’ll trip out the door one day and not come back.”
“That’s all?”
The door opened, Siwon and Zhou Mi exiting from the room set aside as an exercise room. He was sweaty, flushed, and had his fingertips on Siwon’s forearm.
“Kui Xian?”
“Over here.”
He held out a hand as Zhou Mi left Siwon, stepped closer. Their fingers tightened together, Zhou Mi smiling in the direction of his head.
“Kui Xian.” Like someone would say chocolate. “I got to run on the treadmill, and it felt so good. I’m hungry, but I need a shower. Can we eat after?”
“Sure, what do you want to eat?”
“I choose to let you decide tonight,” Zhou Mi said archly.
“Cheeky. Go get your shower.”
The smile was still on Zhou Mi’s face as he let Kyuhyun’s hand go, turning very precisely and making his way toward their room to fetch clothes. Kyuhyun watched him go, kind of waiting for a trip or something he needed to help with, but Zhou Mi was edging into the room without too much effort. And with Siwon off to shower in his own room, he was faced with a curious Tablo.
“You think he only thinks of you as protection, a security blanket?”
“He’s still figuring so much shit out.”
“But he’s still human. And a man. People don’t tend to worry about waiting for everything to get figured out before their feelings get engaged.”
Then what, Zhou Mi was falling for him? Or had already? The way Zhou Mi held him was softer. Not desperate. Wanting to be close, yes. And he knew Zhou Mi knew of Hyukjae and Tablo’s relationship. Maybe his brain was building a correlation. Guy who used to be an android, guy who was helping out. True love forever and ever. He swallowed hard. That Zhou Mi might think they were going to stay together? Who knew about his sight, but just after he got his walking issues down, figuring out how to deal with himself day to day.
“He can’t stay with me,” Kyuhyun mumbled.
“Even if he can’t see, he’s making leaps and bounds. His life won’t be confined to a room or a house. There are so many—“
“I have a life!”
One that didn’t include Zhou Mi.
“We all do,” Tablo said. “We all did. But at least you know now that he can make it without you.”
Yes, that was exactly it. If Zhou Mi could make it without him, Kyuhyun could leave without feeling guilty. It didn’t have to be right away, because Zhou Mi still had a ways to go. Maybe it made it harder the longer he waited. Maybe every meal they ate together, and every joke that dawned over Zhou Mi’s face, and every rolling hug, made it harder. Could they get along together? Even just as friends. Get an apartment, settle in. They could both take classes, eat meals together. Zhou Mi could send him off to work, and greet him, and they could get a dog. And Zhou Mi and his impossible limbs could stretch out on the bed under Kyuhyun. That mouth softening to him.
It kept him breathless and awake during the night, to think those things. He didn’t even feel ready to be able to keep a dog, much less a human. But the difference was, Zhou Mi was learning to take care of himself. Learning to be himself. All those smiles and touches. The fact that Zhou Mi kind of made him laugh.
It wasn’t like he’d had many relationships himself. Certainly none that had involved having someone live with him. Though if he wondered how he’d deal, he really only had to look at who was laying behind him on the mattress. It wasn’t the being together part that scared as much as the fact that all his plans, everything he’d counted on, everything he knew his life to be, started getting so slippery. Trying to rethink and re-plan it all made his head start splitting. And he had no idea if someone holding his hand in the end made that better.
***
No matter how many things changed, how many accomplishments Zhou Mi gained, what didn’t change was that Zhou Mi slept beside him. It was starting to be him who’d be weirded out by changing that. So used to hearing Zhou Mi fall asleep first that the sounds of breathing actually lulled him. At least when Zhou Mi wasn’t actually having nightmares. Or terrors. Those were the worst, the sounds caught in Zhou Mi’s throat, unable to escape from them. And those were the times they actually slept touching more than just at their hands, Zhou Mi wrapping himself around Kyuhyun. And he didn’t mind. Couldn’t mind, when it kept Zhou Mi from shaking. And Zhou Mi had begun talking to Siwon on his own, behind closed doors. Excluding him. He wondered if Siwon caught on to the fact that he played it off, but was secretly unhappy about it. How could he not be? If it was something really important to Zhou Mi’s recovery, he figured that Siwon would let him know about it. But, he heard nothing.
And as Zhou Mi crawled into bed, having made it from the bathroom, to their room, to the bed, on his own, he sighed.
“Sometimes the darkness is overwhelming,” Zhou Mi said, his voice soft in the dark that they both were in. Hyukjae and Siwon still put all their knowledge into figuring out why Zhou Mi couldn’t see. But the simple truth was, they had no idea if they’d ever find out.
“You remember what things look like, though?”
“Yes. I remember my… I remember you, Kyuhyun. A mark on your hip, one inch from your hip bone, dark, 7 millimeters. Approximate shape of—“
“How the hell do you know that?” Kyuhyun butted in, knowing exactly which mark on his body that Zhou Mi was talking about. And it was not in a place he showed people.
“When you believed me to be an android, you were less concerned with modesty. I observed you on several occasions after you had showered, and it was my duty to catalogue your person. For all safety protocols. Lesser, that your skin flushes after you have completed orgas—“
“Okay. Okay, so you paid really close attention.” He knew he’d never jerked off in front of Zhou Mi back then, but he’d probably wandered out to get a drink afterward. But never naked Maybe it was more obvious than he’d thought. Or maybe Zhou Mi had just been trained to observe way closer than any other regular human. He comforted himself with that. “Hopefully I didn’t scar you.”
“Your body is… Your body and your face are the last things I remember. Your voice. I could do little but find that trust in you.”
“Sorry you didn’t get a better person.”
“I’ll become more than this,” Zhou Mi said. And the assurance in those words nearly made him shiver, as though Zhou Mi was swearing it. “Please believe me.”
“I think you can do anything you put your mind to,” Kyuhyun said.
He didn’t protest when Zhou Mi wrapped an arm over his side, and breathed against his neck. When those knees met the backs of his legs and he was totally edged by Zhou Mi.
“Kui Xian, you’ll remember this?”
He frowned at the wall.
“Yes? Why?”
But Zhou Mi didn’t answer, and soon had already fallen asleep.
***
When Kyuhyun woke alone, he was not immediately alarmed. It had happened at least once, with him racing out to find Zhou Mi had just went for the bathroom. So he just flopped his limbs across to the edges of the bed, and let himself vegetate. But after a few minutes, there was no telltale sound of Zhou Mi making his way back, creeping like an old man. And when he edged over, he saw a paper float down off of the blanket. He frowned. A note?
They had showed Zhou Mi how to use the computer, telling him he could write down his thoughts and print notes. Just as a way of getting him involved. Which meant that the note he saw had to have been done at least the day before, because Kyuhyun hadn’t heard anything at all.
But the note itself had him running out the bedroom door. Zhou Mi’s clothes, the ones they had set out the night before, were gone. The bathroom was empty. He beelined for the office, interrupting Siwon on a call, who immediately made excuses and took the piece of paper Kyuhyun was flapping in his face. Siwon’s frown told him everything.
The typing wasn’t perfect. But the gist of it was there.
That Zhou Mi intended to leave, to go back to the factory that produced the androids to begin with, and have his sight fixed. He told them not to follow. And thanked them.
And then typed his name.
But the line that stood out, was unobtrusive in the middle. “Kui Xian said he did not want me for like like this. I have to fix it.
“Did he talk to you about this? The idiot. There’s no guarantee they can do anything for him!” Kyuhyun burst out.
“But it is possible,” Siwon mused. “Even hacking into their databases, there are things we still haven’t learned. Hyukjae is finding things out day by day, but it could be years until we map all the circuits they used. And of course he talked about fixing his sight, but I had no idea he’d go this far.”
The raised voices brought curious onlookers, Hyukjae and Tablo and Hangeng. It took only a few words to inform them what was going on, but Kyuhyun wasn’t through.
“He left, knowing he could get himself killed. He’s never been outside without one of us. How—“
“He has money on his credit chip,” Hyukjae pointed out. “We’ve been teaching him to count and use it, and let him keep it. He could catch a taxi. He knows, because of his databanks, where the factory is. He knows enough that he could fake being a broken android following return instructions.”
“And if what’s broken in him is too much trouble to fix? What if they rip the circuits out of his head, and just call it a day?”
Hyukjae winced at the imagery, and Kyuhyun felt guilty for letting his anger get the best of himself. There were those here, who had that same engineering in their heads. Working every day to find out how to live with it, and how to overcome it.
“I don’t know what we can do,” Siwon said. “If we—“
“We have to go after him. He doesn’t even have a phone.” Kyuhyun wheeled to Siwon, not prepared to take any negative answer. “We have everything we need to put a man inside that factory. You know it, too. We can’t just send him in there, and cross our fingers.”
“But we could also be putting him, and one of us in danger.”
Kyuhyun shook his head. “I know Hyukjae, Hangeng and Tablo couldn’t go. And it’s way too dangerous to send you. But I can do it. I’ve sat in all your meetings, read all the information. It has to be me, since I’m the reason he went.”
“You can’t know that,” Siwon said. “And even if that influenced him, he definitely went for himself.”
“You read the note. Help me.”
Siwon’s eyes left him, and he knew they went to Hangeng. But then also to Hyukjae, and Tablo, who had been involved even longer than he had. And he dared them to say anything. Dared them to argue, because of the five people in the room, three of them were free of implants. And the other two would, in a heartbeat, work to get either Hyukjae or Hangeng free. Even if they were in relationships, and he and Zhou Mi were not. That didn’t make his responsibility or his need less, and he cursed himself for even considering what that really meant.
***
Creating the identification for Kyuhyun took slightly longer than expected, as it took even more hacking than Hyukjae had originally planned on. They had prepared badges already, and that was simple, but they had to create a backdoor for him. Not only for him, but also a way to get Zhou Mi out. There were facial recognition scans on all incoming visitors and employees, but everyone exiting still needed to scan a badge or be buzzed out manually. It meant that Hyukjae, Hangeng, and Tablo could never enter through official channels. And he knew by going in himself, that he was removing the option that he would ever be able to go in again.
“They’ve scanned in Zhou Mi’s data,” Hyukjae said, his voice rising with it. “Now that he’s in their system, I can track where they’re keeping him.”
As long as Zhou Mi was still alive and in one piece was the important part.
Siwon shifted. “What if they can actually help him, but we’re going in too quickly?”
“What if they’re dismantling him and we’re going in too slow,” Kyuhyun countered. “Does their server tell you that?”
“No. I suspect they have to sync records with the system after medical procedures,” Hyukjae mused. “I agree with Kyuhyun. The risks are too great.”
They had hacked video of people entering and leaving, so there was something for Kyuhyun to watch to get a feel for it. Even with preparation and the right clothes, no one was denying that there was a risk to Kyuhyun as well. But even with double sets of blueprints, a communicator that put him in touch with Hyukjae at the touch of a button, and no less than two getaway cars? The option was still there for failure. He’d just discarded the thought of it. Though he told no one, it was the look of fear on Zhou Mi’s face that haunted him. And he would not have called himself brave or self-sacrificing. But he could not let that look go unanswered. He was Kui Xian, to Zhou Mi. The one person Zhou Mi trusted. And if he couldn’t go to help, then he was useless. Kui Xian, Zhou Mi had whispered so many times in the night, pressing against Kyuhyun’s back. Thank you.
They’d find him, and bring him back. That was the only option.
***
Kyuhyun breathed the clean air of the factory. It wasn’t strictly a factory. They called it that, because of the “androids” it produced. It was more like a very high tech research and production laboratory. He knew more about its layout than he figured most of the workers inside did, and even so he cautioned himself about being too confident. He knew which turns to take, but he wasn’t a machine. He had to go in as a worker, and pretend he was there officially. And he wasn’t the best actor there was to be had. And even if they could sneak him in to this facility, where Hyukjae had come out of, there were still so many things Siwon and the others wanted to know.
The most troubling was their inability to find the actual production facilities. Where they groomed and taught children in advance of modifying their bodies to an android state. If he had heard any one goal more than another, about what they wanted to accomplish, it was saving those children before the procedure could be done. But how many locations there were, and if they would just move to another place, meant the planning was slow and arduous. And he had no ability to do what needed to be done to get that information.
Kyuhyun hadn’t really let himself become invested besides sitting in on meetings. He had been an innocent bystander, totally unaware, and happy in his ignorance. And then a six foot pile of limbs dropped through his door. And not only was it a man, but a whole clutch of them trying to do good and save the world.
And then he was suddenly breaking into a secure facility that he could easily be erased from existence within. Whether he’d meant to be so or not, he’d gotten involved, sucked in. And he had no idea if he would be able to swim for the top. Ideally, they needed someone working on the inside. He just wasn’t that person. This little trip guaranteed it.
He busied himself with his handheld computer as he walked. For one thing, it had faint traces of the halls he was traveling. For another, it let him walk without feeling as though he were pretending not to see people along the way. And there were people. Voices from rooms, people moving along hallways. The building was big enough, employed enough people, that he didn’t stand out as someone too unfamiliar.
He held his breath as his ID was checked at a terminal, before smiling and nodding and going on his way. Awkward engineer, that was all.
The log they had of Zhou Mi’s arrival told him that Zhou Mi had been saying only one thing. The error code that indicated a breakdown in neural connectors leading to loss of sight. That was the official error description. But even if they had known what the error was, fixing it had been a different issue. He didn’t know more about computers and coding than what it took to send messages on his computer, or appreciate the games he played.
He found the corridor leading the Repair unit.
Zhou Mi was in C section.
Section A.
Section B.
Each section was split into quads, and people were thicker in the first two areas. His heart was pounding in his ears, and he was breathing through his teeth to keep from feeling like he wanted to pass out.
Section C, had an actual, human guard. Or perhaps an android. He couldn’t tell, even with the cold stare his face was given as he held out his credentials.
There was a separate path chosen to get them both out. But not knowing what sensors there were in back corridors, they had chosen to take the direct, in plain sight approach. And sweat trickled down the back of his neck. Trying not to emote at all, and seem bored, was one thing. Trying not to get caught and risk their lives was another.
The door buzzed as the lock was released, and he nearly left his ID behind. Awkward laugh, a little cursing inside. He kept his head down like he was really reading something and watched the numbers.
C-3. Room 8.
His card had to have clearance to get him into a Repair room, and he actually held his breath as he swiped it. Blinking red. And red again. Yellow.
Green.
And then he had the thought to pray that Zhou Mi was actually in the room, that he hadn’t been moved. That he was alive. And so many other thousand things that went through his head.
And kind of praying Zhou Mi was alone.
First sweep, the room was empty of humans. With the exception of the one prone on a raised examination table.
Zhou Mi. Clothed in some kind of scrubs
The door, devoid of windows, clicked closed behind him, and he wasted no time. There was a computer at Zhou Mi’s head, hooked into the built-in port in Zhou Mi’s skull that Siwon had never entirely closed off. An IV, hooked up to Zhou Mi’s arm. Hyukjae had all sorts of theories on what they might do to repair Zhou Mi, and how, but the truth was, they had no idea.
And when he thought that there were twenty rooms in C-3 alone, each possibly with a woman or man controlled by processors? His head couldn’t even grasp it. Less. Less than there had been. But not enough.
“Zhou Mi. Hey.” He touched Zhou Mi’s shoulder, and imagined he’d magically get a response.
The words that came out were soft and mumbled, Zhou Mi’s eyes closed.
“This unit is in automatic override. Please see user manual for further instructions.”
“Like hell you are.”
He eased the needle from Zhou Mi’s hand, wincing. He had drugs in his bag, was all but prepared to do magic if it meant getting Zhou Mi alert and able to walk out. And seeing Zhou Mi so still and blank, he wanted to vomit. The blindness was something Zhou Mi could be with. Not being human at all was something else.
“Wake up, dammit.”
He snapped his finger against Zhou Mi’s arm, and got a jerk. That was a good sign. It meant Zhou Mi was still reacting as he should be. He found the adaptor plugged into Zhou Mi’s head, and replaced it with the handheld one he had brought. It searched any pathways that might have been blocked, and restored the updates Hyukjae had created. Allowing Zhou Mi to come back to himself. He shut the unit down, sealing down the plate on Zhou Mi’s head again, and shaking his shoulder.
“Hey, wake up. It’s Kyuhyun.”
Zhou Mi jerked, trembled, half sitting up and struggling. When Kyuhyun reached for him, he was nearly shoved aside.
“Hey,” he said, wrestling with Zhou Mi’s hand and dragging it to his face. “Hey, it’s Kyuhyun. It’s okay. Stop fighting me.”
There was no way that Zhou Mi coming to the factory could have erased all his memories. Even the hazy ones he had of Kyuhyun were better than nothing. If they had to start all over, or if Zhou Mi didn’t remember him at all? He was too busy trying to keep Zhou Mi’s hand in his to realize he had finally caught Zhou Mi’s attention.
“It is you,” Zhou Mi said.
And when Kyuhyun looked up, their eyes locked for a moment and he jerked, as a fingertip ran very precisely down the edge of his nose.
“They fixed you?” he said dumbly, realizing he still was pressing Zhou Mi’s hand up against his face like an idiot. There wasn’t any reason to touch, when it was blatantly obvious that Zhou Mi could see.
“They did,” Zhou Mi said, sliding off of the table to stand toe to toe with him. Far too close. Far too close.
“You all right standing?” he asked.
“Yes. They tested my equilibrium sufficiently.”
He dragged his eyes from Zhou Mi’s mouth, and fumbled under his shirt. In a pouch around his waist, he had clothes. They’d been prepared for almost anything.
“Put these on, and let’s get out of here.”
A pair of slacks, that Zhou Mi shimmied into, and a long sleeved shirt to make him blend in. The shoes Zhou Mi had on were plain, but not attention-calling. As Zhou Mi discarded the clothes he’d been wearing, Kyuhyun folded them neatly and put them back on the table. Not out of cleanliness. But to make it seem like there had been no hurry. Just a misplaced android. He had only one other goal, finding the cord and clasping a small transmitter onto it near where it went in the floor. Hopefully unnoticed. That small signal would transmit, hopefully allowing Hyukjae another way into the secure network. He handed Zhou Mi the extra ID he’d carried, and shuddered, as Zhou Mi grasped his wrist.
“You came for me.”
“We’ll talk about your stupid later. Keep your head down, your mouth shut, and stay close. Okay? Let’s go.”
He handed Zhou Mi the handheld computer, and held his breath as they exited the door. No alarm. That was a good sign. They went the opposite way that he had come in, and he smiled at a woman who called hello. All Zhou Mi had to do was keep his face out of everyone’s business. In the corridors between B and C units, was where they deviated entirely. Heading toward the rear exit of the building that was mostly for deliveries. But there were underground passages for evacuation in case of fire. Unlike the fire escapes of the past, there were no alarms associated. And fire codes demanded that the hatches leading to the escape routes be clear. So even in storage, he knew they’d be able to get down. If they hadn’t been welded shut.
“You two, ID. This is storage, why are you here?”
Sick cold squirmed up his back as Kyuhyun turned, seeing the guard approaching them.
“We have orders to—”
“Only dock workers should be here.” The man peered at Kyuhyun’s chest. “Your ID shouldn’t have gotten you back here. Come with me.”
Kyuhyun wasn’t sure that he’d ever been reached for in his life, quite like that. A menacing hand, intending to lead him away, turn him in, accuse him. And if he was unprepared for technical computer things, unable to hack his way out of a paper bag, he was definitely incapable of fighting to get Zhou Mi away. Though if he had been in reach of a fire extinguisher, he’d certainly have tried.
But words, those he had.
“No, we were buzzed back because—”
“Kui Xian, get back,” Zhou Mi said, angling past him. And he stared up at that face. Eyes so set and determined that it nearly made him flinch. And to the guard, the words were soft, deceptively soft. “Don’t touch him.”
The guard slumped to the floor against the force that Zhou Mi used to push him into the wall, Zhou Mi standing like an uncomfortable sentinel to see if there was any movement. And there was something feral and raw in that face, that had no regard for anything except the safety of them both. Would Zhou Mi have killed, if he’d had to? The thought had him swallowing. All of that instinctive training that Zhou Mi had gone through. Knocking out the guard as though he was a fly, and turning, pushing at Kyuhyun so they kept going in the direction Kyuhyun had been leading them. He went on deadened feet, and wondered, heart still too fast too track.
He used Zhou Mi’s fake ID to scan them in, their breaths so loud in the quiet of the storage areas. And along a back wall, a hatch leading to the tunnels. No visible wires, and he slid a thin glove on his hand. With a click, the top came up, showing the ladder beneath it.
“Go first,” Kyuhyun said, muscling Zhou Mi forward. He wanted no evidence left. With a last glance at the door, he started down after Zhou Mi, pulling the hatch down after him.
The hands that ringed his arm as he stepped onto the solid floor were painful.
“Kui Xian. The dark.”
“It’s not your eyes. It’s the tunnel.”
The computer screen lit, giving them several feet of illumination. And it was a comfort to him, to grasp Zhou Mi’s hand and keep him close. The last layer of security was a door with a code to be entered. One for fire. Another for maintenance. He keyed in that one, and waited with held breath until the light blinked green. The air on the other side of the door wasn’t as fresh, stinking of sewers and oil. An underground maintenance tunnel, that came up at a pre-determined spot. Where Siwon had already freed the heavy chains.
So that when they climbed the stairs, and he pushed the heavy metal doors, they were on the street.
And free.
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Pairing cameos: Tablo/Eunhyuk, Siwon/Hangeng
Rated: R
Genre: AU, sci-fi, angst, romance
Summary: A gift that isn't a machine, but much more than just an ordinary man. A place of safety where waiting to see, means waiting for danger.
In the same universe following Bolt and Strike, but not necessary to read to understand this.
***
With Kyuhyun as a promised sentinel, Zhou Mi seemed comfortable doing things on his own. It wasn’t like there was far to go. All the rooms spread out from the center, or along two hallways. He could’ve shouted from any point and still be heard. But it was nice to sit without someone in his proximity, touching. Though there had been less and less of that. Zhou Mi seeming to sense his presence better, relying on his ears, instead of just touch. It was kind of like losing a ring that was habitually worn, and feeling the phantom presence of it. But it wasn’t like he was alone, even when the others were out. Siwon was in, but in the exercise room with Zhou Mi. Which seemed to be their new routine.
It was an advance that took a weight off of Kyuhyun’s mind, and added it in another regard, as Zhou Mi learned to use the bathroom on his own in the midst of things. Even eventually learning to shower without giving Kyuhyun heart attacks. Thinking Zhou Mi was going to break himself in the shower was apparently too much for his brain to handle. Still, after Zhou Mi mastered the art of the exercise room, half killing himself with eagerness on the exercise bike the first time, a shower had definitely been required.
Still it was nice to sit. Tablo was the one manning the central room in case there was anything needed. They hadn’t had a lot of opportunity to talk, especially not alone. He was curious, because even if he knew Siwon and Hangeng were together, they were subtle. Tablo and Hyukjae had no such secrets, and he saw that metal plate shining through Hyukjae’s hair at times. Maybe because his own experience with a former android had been so dramatic.
Tablo didn’t seem surprised when Kyuhyun edged into the topic, making a rough comparison to how he’d found Zhou Mi, and what he vaguely knew of how the project to rescue all the enslaved androids had started.
“Hyukjae said you were instrumental in starting it. That you saved him.”
Tablo shook his head. “He would. He’s the one who really did what needed to be done. All I did was buy Hyukjae as a security droid. And somehow caused a short that freed him from his orders. Zhou Mi waking was traumatic, but in a different way from Hyukjae’s. For Hyukjae, it was…inundation. To be able to feel, hear, see. Suddenly having control over things like arousal, speech. It was rough, for a while. I was pretty much all he knew. Kind of like you were to Zhou Mi. But it was kind of like fate. Here Hyukjae was, and he knew me, trusted me. I couldn’t help but care. He was sweet and unsure, and needed me - needed someone.”
“But you’ve been together since.”
“Yeah.” Tablo touched a slip of glass dangling outside of his shirt. “Hyukjae didn’t need me for long. But that didn’t reduce the need to be together. We fit.”
It was a little hard for Kyuhyun to swallow the whole fate idea. Like they’d been meant to find each other, right for no one else. Well, okay, Tablo hadn’t gone that far. Simple good luck that their personalities were compatible in the face of a rather startling discovery. This robot is a human. And kind of likes you.
“We worried, because of how dependent Zhou MI was,” Tablo said, setting aside his book. “How long you’d be able to be patient. It’s hard. For anyone. But you did well, and it seemed you two have been getting closer. I think he worries after you as much as you worry after him.”
Kyuhyun snorted at the imagery. “Sure, because he thinks I’ll trip out the door one day and not come back.”
“That’s all?”
The door opened, Siwon and Zhou Mi exiting from the room set aside as an exercise room. He was sweaty, flushed, and had his fingertips on Siwon’s forearm.
“Kui Xian?”
“Over here.”
He held out a hand as Zhou Mi left Siwon, stepped closer. Their fingers tightened together, Zhou Mi smiling in the direction of his head.
“Kui Xian.” Like someone would say chocolate. “I got to run on the treadmill, and it felt so good. I’m hungry, but I need a shower. Can we eat after?”
“Sure, what do you want to eat?”
“I choose to let you decide tonight,” Zhou Mi said archly.
“Cheeky. Go get your shower.”
The smile was still on Zhou Mi’s face as he let Kyuhyun’s hand go, turning very precisely and making his way toward their room to fetch clothes. Kyuhyun watched him go, kind of waiting for a trip or something he needed to help with, but Zhou Mi was edging into the room without too much effort. And with Siwon off to shower in his own room, he was faced with a curious Tablo.
“You think he only thinks of you as protection, a security blanket?”
“He’s still figuring so much shit out.”
“But he’s still human. And a man. People don’t tend to worry about waiting for everything to get figured out before their feelings get engaged.”
Then what, Zhou Mi was falling for him? Or had already? The way Zhou Mi held him was softer. Not desperate. Wanting to be close, yes. And he knew Zhou Mi knew of Hyukjae and Tablo’s relationship. Maybe his brain was building a correlation. Guy who used to be an android, guy who was helping out. True love forever and ever. He swallowed hard. That Zhou Mi might think they were going to stay together? Who knew about his sight, but just after he got his walking issues down, figuring out how to deal with himself day to day.
“He can’t stay with me,” Kyuhyun mumbled.
“Even if he can’t see, he’s making leaps and bounds. His life won’t be confined to a room or a house. There are so many—“
“I have a life!”
One that didn’t include Zhou Mi.
“We all do,” Tablo said. “We all did. But at least you know now that he can make it without you.”
Yes, that was exactly it. If Zhou Mi could make it without him, Kyuhyun could leave without feeling guilty. It didn’t have to be right away, because Zhou Mi still had a ways to go. Maybe it made it harder the longer he waited. Maybe every meal they ate together, and every joke that dawned over Zhou Mi’s face, and every rolling hug, made it harder. Could they get along together? Even just as friends. Get an apartment, settle in. They could both take classes, eat meals together. Zhou Mi could send him off to work, and greet him, and they could get a dog. And Zhou Mi and his impossible limbs could stretch out on the bed under Kyuhyun. That mouth softening to him.
It kept him breathless and awake during the night, to think those things. He didn’t even feel ready to be able to keep a dog, much less a human. But the difference was, Zhou Mi was learning to take care of himself. Learning to be himself. All those smiles and touches. The fact that Zhou Mi kind of made him laugh.
It wasn’t like he’d had many relationships himself. Certainly none that had involved having someone live with him. Though if he wondered how he’d deal, he really only had to look at who was laying behind him on the mattress. It wasn’t the being together part that scared as much as the fact that all his plans, everything he’d counted on, everything he knew his life to be, started getting so slippery. Trying to rethink and re-plan it all made his head start splitting. And he had no idea if someone holding his hand in the end made that better.
***
No matter how many things changed, how many accomplishments Zhou Mi gained, what didn’t change was that Zhou Mi slept beside him. It was starting to be him who’d be weirded out by changing that. So used to hearing Zhou Mi fall asleep first that the sounds of breathing actually lulled him. At least when Zhou Mi wasn’t actually having nightmares. Or terrors. Those were the worst, the sounds caught in Zhou Mi’s throat, unable to escape from them. And those were the times they actually slept touching more than just at their hands, Zhou Mi wrapping himself around Kyuhyun. And he didn’t mind. Couldn’t mind, when it kept Zhou Mi from shaking. And Zhou Mi had begun talking to Siwon on his own, behind closed doors. Excluding him. He wondered if Siwon caught on to the fact that he played it off, but was secretly unhappy about it. How could he not be? If it was something really important to Zhou Mi’s recovery, he figured that Siwon would let him know about it. But, he heard nothing.
And as Zhou Mi crawled into bed, having made it from the bathroom, to their room, to the bed, on his own, he sighed.
“Sometimes the darkness is overwhelming,” Zhou Mi said, his voice soft in the dark that they both were in. Hyukjae and Siwon still put all their knowledge into figuring out why Zhou Mi couldn’t see. But the simple truth was, they had no idea if they’d ever find out.
“You remember what things look like, though?”
“Yes. I remember my… I remember you, Kyuhyun. A mark on your hip, one inch from your hip bone, dark, 7 millimeters. Approximate shape of—“
“How the hell do you know that?” Kyuhyun butted in, knowing exactly which mark on his body that Zhou Mi was talking about. And it was not in a place he showed people.
“When you believed me to be an android, you were less concerned with modesty. I observed you on several occasions after you had showered, and it was my duty to catalogue your person. For all safety protocols. Lesser, that your skin flushes after you have completed orgas—“
“Okay. Okay, so you paid really close attention.” He knew he’d never jerked off in front of Zhou Mi back then, but he’d probably wandered out to get a drink afterward. But never naked Maybe it was more obvious than he’d thought. Or maybe Zhou Mi had just been trained to observe way closer than any other regular human. He comforted himself with that. “Hopefully I didn’t scar you.”
“Your body is… Your body and your face are the last things I remember. Your voice. I could do little but find that trust in you.”
“Sorry you didn’t get a better person.”
“I’ll become more than this,” Zhou Mi said. And the assurance in those words nearly made him shiver, as though Zhou Mi was swearing it. “Please believe me.”
“I think you can do anything you put your mind to,” Kyuhyun said.
He didn’t protest when Zhou Mi wrapped an arm over his side, and breathed against his neck. When those knees met the backs of his legs and he was totally edged by Zhou Mi.
“Kui Xian, you’ll remember this?”
He frowned at the wall.
“Yes? Why?”
But Zhou Mi didn’t answer, and soon had already fallen asleep.
***
When Kyuhyun woke alone, he was not immediately alarmed. It had happened at least once, with him racing out to find Zhou Mi had just went for the bathroom. So he just flopped his limbs across to the edges of the bed, and let himself vegetate. But after a few minutes, there was no telltale sound of Zhou Mi making his way back, creeping like an old man. And when he edged over, he saw a paper float down off of the blanket. He frowned. A note?
They had showed Zhou Mi how to use the computer, telling him he could write down his thoughts and print notes. Just as a way of getting him involved. Which meant that the note he saw had to have been done at least the day before, because Kyuhyun hadn’t heard anything at all.
But the note itself had him running out the bedroom door. Zhou Mi’s clothes, the ones they had set out the night before, were gone. The bathroom was empty. He beelined for the office, interrupting Siwon on a call, who immediately made excuses and took the piece of paper Kyuhyun was flapping in his face. Siwon’s frown told him everything.
The typing wasn’t perfect. But the gist of it was there.
That Zhou Mi intended to leave, to go back to the factory that produced the androids to begin with, and have his sight fixed. He told them not to follow. And thanked them.
And then typed his name.
But the line that stood out, was unobtrusive in the middle. “Kui Xian said he did not want me for like like this. I have to fix it.
“Did he talk to you about this? The idiot. There’s no guarantee they can do anything for him!” Kyuhyun burst out.
“But it is possible,” Siwon mused. “Even hacking into their databases, there are things we still haven’t learned. Hyukjae is finding things out day by day, but it could be years until we map all the circuits they used. And of course he talked about fixing his sight, but I had no idea he’d go this far.”
The raised voices brought curious onlookers, Hyukjae and Tablo and Hangeng. It took only a few words to inform them what was going on, but Kyuhyun wasn’t through.
“He left, knowing he could get himself killed. He’s never been outside without one of us. How—“
“He has money on his credit chip,” Hyukjae pointed out. “We’ve been teaching him to count and use it, and let him keep it. He could catch a taxi. He knows, because of his databanks, where the factory is. He knows enough that he could fake being a broken android following return instructions.”
“And if what’s broken in him is too much trouble to fix? What if they rip the circuits out of his head, and just call it a day?”
Hyukjae winced at the imagery, and Kyuhyun felt guilty for letting his anger get the best of himself. There were those here, who had that same engineering in their heads. Working every day to find out how to live with it, and how to overcome it.
“I don’t know what we can do,” Siwon said. “If we—“
“We have to go after him. He doesn’t even have a phone.” Kyuhyun wheeled to Siwon, not prepared to take any negative answer. “We have everything we need to put a man inside that factory. You know it, too. We can’t just send him in there, and cross our fingers.”
“But we could also be putting him, and one of us in danger.”
Kyuhyun shook his head. “I know Hyukjae, Hangeng and Tablo couldn’t go. And it’s way too dangerous to send you. But I can do it. I’ve sat in all your meetings, read all the information. It has to be me, since I’m the reason he went.”
“You can’t know that,” Siwon said. “And even if that influenced him, he definitely went for himself.”
“You read the note. Help me.”
Siwon’s eyes left him, and he knew they went to Hangeng. But then also to Hyukjae, and Tablo, who had been involved even longer than he had. And he dared them to say anything. Dared them to argue, because of the five people in the room, three of them were free of implants. And the other two would, in a heartbeat, work to get either Hyukjae or Hangeng free. Even if they were in relationships, and he and Zhou Mi were not. That didn’t make his responsibility or his need less, and he cursed himself for even considering what that really meant.
***
Creating the identification for Kyuhyun took slightly longer than expected, as it took even more hacking than Hyukjae had originally planned on. They had prepared badges already, and that was simple, but they had to create a backdoor for him. Not only for him, but also a way to get Zhou Mi out. There were facial recognition scans on all incoming visitors and employees, but everyone exiting still needed to scan a badge or be buzzed out manually. It meant that Hyukjae, Hangeng, and Tablo could never enter through official channels. And he knew by going in himself, that he was removing the option that he would ever be able to go in again.
“They’ve scanned in Zhou Mi’s data,” Hyukjae said, his voice rising with it. “Now that he’s in their system, I can track where they’re keeping him.”
As long as Zhou Mi was still alive and in one piece was the important part.
Siwon shifted. “What if they can actually help him, but we’re going in too quickly?”
“What if they’re dismantling him and we’re going in too slow,” Kyuhyun countered. “Does their server tell you that?”
“No. I suspect they have to sync records with the system after medical procedures,” Hyukjae mused. “I agree with Kyuhyun. The risks are too great.”
They had hacked video of people entering and leaving, so there was something for Kyuhyun to watch to get a feel for it. Even with preparation and the right clothes, no one was denying that there was a risk to Kyuhyun as well. But even with double sets of blueprints, a communicator that put him in touch with Hyukjae at the touch of a button, and no less than two getaway cars? The option was still there for failure. He’d just discarded the thought of it. Though he told no one, it was the look of fear on Zhou Mi’s face that haunted him. And he would not have called himself brave or self-sacrificing. But he could not let that look go unanswered. He was Kui Xian, to Zhou Mi. The one person Zhou Mi trusted. And if he couldn’t go to help, then he was useless. Kui Xian, Zhou Mi had whispered so many times in the night, pressing against Kyuhyun’s back. Thank you.
They’d find him, and bring him back. That was the only option.
***
Kyuhyun breathed the clean air of the factory. It wasn’t strictly a factory. They called it that, because of the “androids” it produced. It was more like a very high tech research and production laboratory. He knew more about its layout than he figured most of the workers inside did, and even so he cautioned himself about being too confident. He knew which turns to take, but he wasn’t a machine. He had to go in as a worker, and pretend he was there officially. And he wasn’t the best actor there was to be had. And even if they could sneak him in to this facility, where Hyukjae had come out of, there were still so many things Siwon and the others wanted to know.
The most troubling was their inability to find the actual production facilities. Where they groomed and taught children in advance of modifying their bodies to an android state. If he had heard any one goal more than another, about what they wanted to accomplish, it was saving those children before the procedure could be done. But how many locations there were, and if they would just move to another place, meant the planning was slow and arduous. And he had no ability to do what needed to be done to get that information.
Kyuhyun hadn’t really let himself become invested besides sitting in on meetings. He had been an innocent bystander, totally unaware, and happy in his ignorance. And then a six foot pile of limbs dropped through his door. And not only was it a man, but a whole clutch of them trying to do good and save the world.
And then he was suddenly breaking into a secure facility that he could easily be erased from existence within. Whether he’d meant to be so or not, he’d gotten involved, sucked in. And he had no idea if he would be able to swim for the top. Ideally, they needed someone working on the inside. He just wasn’t that person. This little trip guaranteed it.
He busied himself with his handheld computer as he walked. For one thing, it had faint traces of the halls he was traveling. For another, it let him walk without feeling as though he were pretending not to see people along the way. And there were people. Voices from rooms, people moving along hallways. The building was big enough, employed enough people, that he didn’t stand out as someone too unfamiliar.
He held his breath as his ID was checked at a terminal, before smiling and nodding and going on his way. Awkward engineer, that was all.
The log they had of Zhou Mi’s arrival told him that Zhou Mi had been saying only one thing. The error code that indicated a breakdown in neural connectors leading to loss of sight. That was the official error description. But even if they had known what the error was, fixing it had been a different issue. He didn’t know more about computers and coding than what it took to send messages on his computer, or appreciate the games he played.
He found the corridor leading the Repair unit.
Zhou Mi was in C section.
Section A.
Section B.
Each section was split into quads, and people were thicker in the first two areas. His heart was pounding in his ears, and he was breathing through his teeth to keep from feeling like he wanted to pass out.
Section C, had an actual, human guard. Or perhaps an android. He couldn’t tell, even with the cold stare his face was given as he held out his credentials.
There was a separate path chosen to get them both out. But not knowing what sensors there were in back corridors, they had chosen to take the direct, in plain sight approach. And sweat trickled down the back of his neck. Trying not to emote at all, and seem bored, was one thing. Trying not to get caught and risk their lives was another.
The door buzzed as the lock was released, and he nearly left his ID behind. Awkward laugh, a little cursing inside. He kept his head down like he was really reading something and watched the numbers.
C-3. Room 8.
His card had to have clearance to get him into a Repair room, and he actually held his breath as he swiped it. Blinking red. And red again. Yellow.
Green.
And then he had the thought to pray that Zhou Mi was actually in the room, that he hadn’t been moved. That he was alive. And so many other thousand things that went through his head.
And kind of praying Zhou Mi was alone.
First sweep, the room was empty of humans. With the exception of the one prone on a raised examination table.
Zhou Mi. Clothed in some kind of scrubs
The door, devoid of windows, clicked closed behind him, and he wasted no time. There was a computer at Zhou Mi’s head, hooked into the built-in port in Zhou Mi’s skull that Siwon had never entirely closed off. An IV, hooked up to Zhou Mi’s arm. Hyukjae had all sorts of theories on what they might do to repair Zhou Mi, and how, but the truth was, they had no idea.
And when he thought that there were twenty rooms in C-3 alone, each possibly with a woman or man controlled by processors? His head couldn’t even grasp it. Less. Less than there had been. But not enough.
“Zhou Mi. Hey.” He touched Zhou Mi’s shoulder, and imagined he’d magically get a response.
The words that came out were soft and mumbled, Zhou Mi’s eyes closed.
“This unit is in automatic override. Please see user manual for further instructions.”
“Like hell you are.”
He eased the needle from Zhou Mi’s hand, wincing. He had drugs in his bag, was all but prepared to do magic if it meant getting Zhou Mi alert and able to walk out. And seeing Zhou Mi so still and blank, he wanted to vomit. The blindness was something Zhou Mi could be with. Not being human at all was something else.
“Wake up, dammit.”
He snapped his finger against Zhou Mi’s arm, and got a jerk. That was a good sign. It meant Zhou Mi was still reacting as he should be. He found the adaptor plugged into Zhou Mi’s head, and replaced it with the handheld one he had brought. It searched any pathways that might have been blocked, and restored the updates Hyukjae had created. Allowing Zhou Mi to come back to himself. He shut the unit down, sealing down the plate on Zhou Mi’s head again, and shaking his shoulder.
“Hey, wake up. It’s Kyuhyun.”
Zhou Mi jerked, trembled, half sitting up and struggling. When Kyuhyun reached for him, he was nearly shoved aside.
“Hey,” he said, wrestling with Zhou Mi’s hand and dragging it to his face. “Hey, it’s Kyuhyun. It’s okay. Stop fighting me.”
There was no way that Zhou Mi coming to the factory could have erased all his memories. Even the hazy ones he had of Kyuhyun were better than nothing. If they had to start all over, or if Zhou Mi didn’t remember him at all? He was too busy trying to keep Zhou Mi’s hand in his to realize he had finally caught Zhou Mi’s attention.
“It is you,” Zhou Mi said.
And when Kyuhyun looked up, their eyes locked for a moment and he jerked, as a fingertip ran very precisely down the edge of his nose.
“They fixed you?” he said dumbly, realizing he still was pressing Zhou Mi’s hand up against his face like an idiot. There wasn’t any reason to touch, when it was blatantly obvious that Zhou Mi could see.
“They did,” Zhou Mi said, sliding off of the table to stand toe to toe with him. Far too close. Far too close.
“You all right standing?” he asked.
“Yes. They tested my equilibrium sufficiently.”
He dragged his eyes from Zhou Mi’s mouth, and fumbled under his shirt. In a pouch around his waist, he had clothes. They’d been prepared for almost anything.
“Put these on, and let’s get out of here.”
A pair of slacks, that Zhou Mi shimmied into, and a long sleeved shirt to make him blend in. The shoes Zhou Mi had on were plain, but not attention-calling. As Zhou Mi discarded the clothes he’d been wearing, Kyuhyun folded them neatly and put them back on the table. Not out of cleanliness. But to make it seem like there had been no hurry. Just a misplaced android. He had only one other goal, finding the cord and clasping a small transmitter onto it near where it went in the floor. Hopefully unnoticed. That small signal would transmit, hopefully allowing Hyukjae another way into the secure network. He handed Zhou Mi the extra ID he’d carried, and shuddered, as Zhou Mi grasped his wrist.
“You came for me.”
“We’ll talk about your stupid later. Keep your head down, your mouth shut, and stay close. Okay? Let’s go.”
He handed Zhou Mi the handheld computer, and held his breath as they exited the door. No alarm. That was a good sign. They went the opposite way that he had come in, and he smiled at a woman who called hello. All Zhou Mi had to do was keep his face out of everyone’s business. In the corridors between B and C units, was where they deviated entirely. Heading toward the rear exit of the building that was mostly for deliveries. But there were underground passages for evacuation in case of fire. Unlike the fire escapes of the past, there were no alarms associated. And fire codes demanded that the hatches leading to the escape routes be clear. So even in storage, he knew they’d be able to get down. If they hadn’t been welded shut.
“You two, ID. This is storage, why are you here?”
Sick cold squirmed up his back as Kyuhyun turned, seeing the guard approaching them.
“We have orders to—”
“Only dock workers should be here.” The man peered at Kyuhyun’s chest. “Your ID shouldn’t have gotten you back here. Come with me.”
Kyuhyun wasn’t sure that he’d ever been reached for in his life, quite like that. A menacing hand, intending to lead him away, turn him in, accuse him. And if he was unprepared for technical computer things, unable to hack his way out of a paper bag, he was definitely incapable of fighting to get Zhou Mi away. Though if he had been in reach of a fire extinguisher, he’d certainly have tried.
But words, those he had.
“No, we were buzzed back because—”
“Kui Xian, get back,” Zhou Mi said, angling past him. And he stared up at that face. Eyes so set and determined that it nearly made him flinch. And to the guard, the words were soft, deceptively soft. “Don’t touch him.”
The guard slumped to the floor against the force that Zhou Mi used to push him into the wall, Zhou Mi standing like an uncomfortable sentinel to see if there was any movement. And there was something feral and raw in that face, that had no regard for anything except the safety of them both. Would Zhou Mi have killed, if he’d had to? The thought had him swallowing. All of that instinctive training that Zhou Mi had gone through. Knocking out the guard as though he was a fly, and turning, pushing at Kyuhyun so they kept going in the direction Kyuhyun had been leading them. He went on deadened feet, and wondered, heart still too fast too track.
He used Zhou Mi’s fake ID to scan them in, their breaths so loud in the quiet of the storage areas. And along a back wall, a hatch leading to the tunnels. No visible wires, and he slid a thin glove on his hand. With a click, the top came up, showing the ladder beneath it.
“Go first,” Kyuhyun said, muscling Zhou Mi forward. He wanted no evidence left. With a last glance at the door, he started down after Zhou Mi, pulling the hatch down after him.
The hands that ringed his arm as he stepped onto the solid floor were painful.
“Kui Xian. The dark.”
“It’s not your eyes. It’s the tunnel.”
The computer screen lit, giving them several feet of illumination. And it was a comfort to him, to grasp Zhou Mi’s hand and keep him close. The last layer of security was a door with a code to be entered. One for fire. Another for maintenance. He keyed in that one, and waited with held breath until the light blinked green. The air on the other side of the door wasn’t as fresh, stinking of sewers and oil. An underground maintenance tunnel, that came up at a pre-determined spot. Where Siwon had already freed the heavy chains.
So that when they climbed the stairs, and he pushed the heavy metal doors, they were on the street.
And free.
***
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 11:10 pm (UTC)(...I really should comment on the other ones first, but...)
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Date: 2012-07-20 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 11:48 pm (UTC)He's really being stupid... but awesome.
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Date: 2011-03-20 11:23 pm (UTC)god damn it
(this actually means that i love you and you are brilliant, but that's besides the point)
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Date: 2011-03-20 11:53 pm (UTC)I bet Siwon and Mimi were talking 20% medical things, 10% small talk, 70% how beautiful Kyuhyun is.
Also, when Mi started describing how he had seen Kyu before, I nearly jumped out of my chair... and then I was disappoint. #kyustan
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Date: 2011-03-21 12:03 am (UTC)hahaha... but there will be a happy ending?
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Date: 2011-03-21 12:14 am (UTC)I so love this story anyway =3
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Date: 2011-03-21 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 12:36 am (UTC)but
really great!
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Date: 2011-03-21 12:57 am (UTC)but mimi can see now!!!!! =)
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Date: 2011-03-21 01:07 am (UTC)I think I might go back and read the "Bolt and Strike" for some background, even though I only ever read Qmi. O___O
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Date: 2011-03-21 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:21 am (UTC)i was on the edge of my seat for that whole chapter!
and zhou mi has his sight back!
and that was so crazy that he could just knock that guard out! former-android!mi is a badass!
the hopeless qmi romantic in me is squealing over the fact that zhou mi knows that kyuhyun came for him and the fact that he did at all!
okay, i'll stop rambling, but i can't wait for the next chapter!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:59 am (UTC)Also, the Kyuhyun in my icon is what Kyu did when he found out Zhou Mimi had struck out to the factory by himself. I totally squeeeeealed when he absolutely insisted on going to save Mimi. Kyuhyun, quit denying it, you love him and you're willing to go to any length to save him. As you showed everyone. :D
Next chapter please??
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 06:19 am (UTC)Loving it.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 06:58 am (UTC)/stares
/reads
/stares
/STARES
/sighs
/mumbles something about cliffhangers and why is the fic so damn perfect
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 07:21 am (UTC)Zhou Mi why are you so dumb =.= Urgh. Well then. I'll be waiting for your update & the confrontation scene :D
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Date: 2011-03-21 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:29 pm (UTC)but omg I love this!
you never disappoint! <3
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 04:29 pm (UTC)FREEDOM.
I love how Kyu is all 'We will talk later.' and Mi's all /beats up innocent-yet-bad-guy-guard.
Beautiful as always.
Kyu arguing with the others about going after Mi made my eyes water. xDDDD
no subject
Date: 2011-06-21 04:26 am (UTC)