thehauntedfrequency

doggone

[In the time following his departure from Tabito and Manabu's company, the alias "Grey" has wound up sticking.

Not that everyone calls him that, he's used a few other aliases since then, but it's what he's wound up thinking of himself as. If Grey had taken the time to think about it a bit more he might have picked something with a little less connection to Rezo's name, but it's still leagues better than thinking of himself as "Rez- wait, no, just a copy." And maybe that's why he's felt significantly calmer since he left Sairaag.

By his own standards, Grey has been laudably well-behaved; sure, he's been mostly doing under-the-table psychic work, often on behalf of criminals, but! He's been trying to keep a low profile so it's usually things like clairvoyant spying rather than anything violent, and he's been making a point of not doing anything that directly impacts the galaxy railways.

It would be extremely awkward if Manabu Yuuki had to try and arrest him, after all.

He's found himself frequently thinking about Manabu, much to his annoyance. He has no serious expectations of ever seeing Manabu again, so it's simply a waste of mental bandwidth to find himself wondering what Manabu is doing right now or where he is, or to reminisince over their incredibly brief acquaintanceship. Grey can only suppose that because Manabu was the first reasonably normal person he got to know after leaving Sairaag that Manabu is going to stick out in his mind for a while.

And it's probably because of the real estate that Manabu is hogging in Grey's mind that he's been very aware of every mention of the SDF that crosses his path. He hasn't exactly been tracking the SDF's activities deliberately, but he does pay attention to the news and the SDF frequently winds up in there, even if Manabu's name in particular isn't normally dropped.

Until the day it does.

SDF Officer Taken Hostage By Pirates]

* * *

[It's taken several weeks of investigating, but Grey has been able to track down The Huntress's client, a Dr. Parish and associates. It must be a small galaxy, because Dr. Parish is someone Grey knows. Sort of.

Rather, Dr. Parish was a colleague of Rezo's who collaborated with the man on chimera research (and other unsavory things) in the past. Not only that, the man was an ardent admirer of Rezo's superior psychic prowess, and desperate to improve his own meager abilities.

He'd had quite a shock when Grey approached him in town, but after the initial surprise it had been sickeningly easy to convince Dr. Parish that he was the real Rezo. Grey can only surmise that the man wants to believe too badly to let himself be properly suspicious. It had only taken a day for Grey to be invited to tour Parish's laboratory.

The lab's located on the grounds of a former Marquess's estate, a ways out of town and secluded by trees, a high wall, and a long drive. Grey's done a little recon before, but actually being here is different, especially since he has to navigate by cane at the moment. Grey is doing his best to politely nod and smile as Parish guides him from room to room, explaining their work and occasionally handing him things to examine himself.

But evidently Parish realizes that "Rezo" isn't entirely interested, because he stops partway through an explanation of some stem cell experiments he and a few others have been working on to say "Of course, the really interesting specimens are kept in the basement floor."

Grey already knows this. He hopes his expression seems the right sort of eager.]

Interesting?

["Something along the lines of what we did in the past. Would you like to see them?"]

Nothing would please me more.

[Grey can practically hear Parish's delighted grin. To soothe the surge of irritation, Grey reminds himself that he's going to kill this man before the end of the day and allows Parish to guide him out into the hall and to the basement entrance at the back of the building.]

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Because you'd have gotten caught. [that was risky! reckless! something Manabu would do! stop stealing his schtick!

sigh.]

...Where'd my clothes go...

[Clearly Manabu's been a bad influence on poor, innocent Grey!

Grey glances around the bed and surrounding floor. Most of the clothes are his; he'd been wearing more layers than Manabu had when they'd gotten distracted.

Manabu's boxers are pretty easy to spot, at least, crumpled in a heap on the floor at the edge of the bed. Those stripes are distinctive. Grey crouches and scoops them up for Manabu.

...Seems familiar. As he's handing them over:]

This is like the morning after we first met, isn't it?

[Except Grey had handled Manabu's underthings rather more gingerly at the time.]

N-no it's not... [his mouth twitches, grabbing them and scooting himself to swing his legs over the edge of the bed and finagle things on.]

You didn't hit me out of the blue.

[Grey blinks at that, then flushes a beat later as he recalls when he backhanded Manabu so hard he fell and cracked his head on the sidewalk.]

That was a bit later, as I recall! And I did give you first aid afterwards.

[squint.] Didn't you elbow me off the bed at first...? [did he imagine that? it SOUNDS right. logical.]

No. You screamed at me and rolled off the bed yourself.

[And given how painful that scream was to his hungover past self, he'd say that counts as Manabu being the first aggressor!]

Oh yeah... [his face gets pink, mouth twitching in a sheepish grin. he shrugs, shifting onto his feet so he can pull up his boxers.] That makes sense. [that's definitely a thing he would do, just as much as getting elbowed.]

[Grey mirrors that twitchy smile, thinking back on that absurd memory.]

...I do wonder now if we'd been intending on, er, doing anything. [He'd completely denied the possibility at the time but considering he is now standing here naked and post-coitus, that denial has gotten a lot shakier.] You don't normally sleep undressed, do you?

[He'd only invaded Manabu's bedroom that one time so it's not like he has any special insight into Manabu's normal sleeping habits.]

N-no, definitely not! [he looks around him now that he's on his feet, opting to move to sit closer to the side table and get hold of the tablet and data stick. keeping his hands busy is way easier than just going through this stuff while making eye contact.] We, we were probably being stupid. I mean, I remembered banging my leg on the coffee table...

[Well, that definitely sounds like Manabu. Grey exhales and leans over the bed to grab his underwear.]

Stupid as that night may have been, I wish I could remember it properly. It doesn't feel right to only half-remember our first meeting. [And besides that, he hates not knowing things!]

Unless it was too embarrassing to handle? [his mouth twitches while he watches the tablet boot up.]

Aren't you the one who banged your leg? [Grey smirks, turning and stooping to put his underwear back on.]

Yeah... But maybe you did something worse. [with no evidence!]

[Grey snorts.] Unlikely. [How often does he do embarrassing stuff, huh??? Besides become besotted with Manabu Yuuki????]

[but not impossible. however, Manabu's not a witty banter kind-of-guy, so Grey gets to sit on that somewhat-high horse while the tablet's finished booting up.]

Well, here's hoping there's no tracer bug on this thing...

[or they'll have to hop places. and there goes the convenience of laundromats!

it's good to have a task to focus on, boring though it may be, because otherwise Manabu might dwell too hard on his ass hurting, and that's hardly useful for recovery. for now it's perusing files - some the tablet can open, some it can't - and skimming names amid the medical and technical jargon beyond his grasp. he'd be more worried about violating privacy policies if he stumbles across any medical data, but he's gotta be real: he knows he won't remember any of it.

except...]

Hey. [he breaks the quiet eventually to tilt the tablet Grey's way.] This one's...about animals, right? I saw "canine" in the title.

[sure enough: canine genetic maps and markers, with certain points highlighted as "potential tethers," scaled in a hierarchy of most to least viable on a matrix of various other labels Manabu can't read. cats, birds, rodents, people.]

[While Manabu gets to work, Grey busies himself slapping together some simple sandwiches they can eat while they read and recover. Occasionally, he peeks over Manabu's shoulder to get a look at the documents for himself. He half-expects Manabu to ask him to explain some of the jargon, but it seems that Manabu's managing since it takes a while before the other man speaks up.]

What is it...?

[Grey plucks the tablet from Manabu's hands and begins to scroll through the document. He frowns as he does, the expression deepening as he reads further.

Combined with the major piece of physical evidence that is Manabu, and this document looks deeply suspicious indeed. Grey muses aloud as he reads.]

...Chimera research is very strictly limited by intergalactic law. While it's not necessarily illegal to have information on it, putting that information into practice without committing animal cruelty or a human rights violation is difficult. The issue now is proving that the people at the university with this information are connected to the ones who were experimenting on you.

[Manabu feels an uneasiness in his gut as he listens, quietly mulling on it for a beat afterward.]

Since this stick is university property, it could implicate the the whole organization with this stuff...

If we can locate any of the machinery or tools used in that lab, get some images... [maybe it would be enough to leak to the SDF?]

Then tomorrow night, let's investigate the storage lockers.

[Grey hands the tablet back to Manabu, giving him an assessing look. If he carries Manabu and flies to the location... Maybe that would leave Manabu with enough stamina to accompany him... But if Grey can do it himself, isn't it better to leave Manabu here to recover further? But if the data they have is compromised will it be safe to leave him on his own? Needless to say, Grey's staring hard at Manabu as he broods.]

Are you sure you want to sneak on at n--[eh?

EH??

he double-takes when he catches that vetting look on Grey's face.]

Wait, both of us there? Not just you doing your magic stuff?

I can't take physical evidence if I'm not there in person, and it will be easier to protect you if you're with me than if I have to rush back to this apartment.

[Delicate flower that Manabu is, in need of constant babysitting.]

It'll be a stealth investigation, so night will provide extra cover. We won't have to bother hiding your tail, and I can fly you to the area to save on your stamina. [Two factors that will hopefully keep Manabu from collapsing halfway through the investigation.]

[Manabu almost doesn't hear the details and assurances, and as for that tail? it's begun wagging - he may as well just be a dog told they're going for walkies. tired and spent as he'd been moments ago, the suggestion has reinvigorated him the way no amount of useful research ever could.]

So you, you already know which areas have motion sensors and not? Or do we need to disable those somewhere?

[The tail wagging prompts a thin, amused smirk from Grey.]

I can take care of those with some EM manipulation. [More psychic bullshit courtesy of your overpowered boyfriend!] We might need to sort out some other supplies beforehand as well- bags for evidence and so forth. We won't be able to take anything large, but maybe we can pick up a few items to help solidify the case.

Laundry bags! [he's already starting to scoot to the edge of the bed to get to his feet, raring to go--

--as his stomach growls for attention.]

Er...af-after a meal, of course...

[And that smirk turns into a full-on grin.]

Of course. Do you want to handle it or shall I?

[after a meal and clean-up, plans get underway. amazing, the things that can get done within such a short span of time; Manabu isn't even a proper week out from the lab and already raring to get right into this business of uncovering all the illegal work that he'd been subject to - he and however many others may have been victims.

with the weight of that on his mind, he leaves no room for himself to make any complaints: he dutifully ties down his tail and stuffs his ears under a cap, takes a bit of time to carefully stretch his limbs, even holsters the modded gun without comment. what they're doing isn't sanctioned, so he'd be in trouble with or without the self-defense measures.

honestly? were they to get caught by the authorities, Manbabu was going to just...tell the truth. while it's easier to get this done without so many cooks in the kitchen, he doesn't mistrust the local authority (as he perhaps ought to) - it's just not his first resort.

also, were it just him involved, it'd be easier, but Grey...

it'll just have to work out. if it doesn't, Manabu will have to just work harder to make it so.

when night falls, Manabu gathers up the bags, tucking him in a large-fitting jacket, in one of his sleeves. once Grey is ready, he follows him outside, hesitating only a little at the stairs down. his vertigo nemesis is about to become just a speed bump if they mean to fly...

but as earlier, Manabu isn't opening up to complaints or concerns; he just wants to see this through.]

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