doggone

[repeatedprayer]

[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.]

Comments

[siriusly]

[with pleasure senses flooded, it's all Manabu can do to not completely zone out of all awareness of place and time; the weight of Grey's arm helps keep him from completely floating out of body (which is fine, given that being in-body is where the cozy feelings are).

distantly, he's once again aware of sore legs.]

I'm...gonna have to move again, aren't I.

[repeatedprayer]

Mm. Perhaps.

[Eventually, certainly. But the weight of Manabu is pleasant, a more mellow bit of intimacy after the vigorous fucking they'd been doing. Grey's more than content to stay like this for a little while.]

[siriusly]

[eventually. though...Grey's not bothering to goad him into said moving, so Manabu lets himself linger, even doze a little while easing out of afterglow. his forehead rests on Grey's shoulder, his own shoulders slumped with the weight of Grey's arm; there's some notion in his head of cozying up properly, but that'd require too much moving.

ergonomics be damned, he's just going to linger there like some awkwardly positioned statue figure.]

[repeatedprayer]

[Grey continues to sit and quietly observe Manabu slumped against him in an almost bemused manner. It turns out that the optimum method for making Manabu actually get some damn rest is to just fuck him into submission. And Grey is going to be mentally replaying said fucking for a while, even as he tries not to get himself worked up again. Manabu had said he couldn't take a second round right away, after all.

After a while his body's starting to grumble about their current position. Since he can't pet Manabu right now, at least not without getting his hair dirty, Grey goes ahead and leans in to press a kiss against the top of Manabu's head.]

...Alright, we should probably get cleaned up. Shall I fetch you a towel?

[siriusly]

[one of the ears twitches slightly.]

Hmh-? [wait, huh? do what,now? where--

oh, right.

Manabu grunts faintly through his nose, lifting his head and blinking slowly, eyes coming back into focus on Grey's jaw and chin before he looks about. his thigh...]

Yeah. Yeah, thanks...

[he sighs, making a face when he hears his back crack in sitting up straighter while Gery's on mission to get towels. gradually, the world starts to come back to him - time and place, things he should or could be doing...

it ought to bother him more, shouldn't it? being selfish and idle. maybe it would, were he by himself. but watching Grey - also a part of time and place - seems to keep much of that sense at bay.

gosh, it's like he enjoys and wants to be around this guy or something!

while taking the towel offered:] What time is it...?

[repeatedprayer]

[Grey waits for a few moments so that Manabu can adjust his position and support himself before he gets off the bed and starts puttering about the apartment. There's still a bag of groceries left on the counter, from before Grey got distracted, and he belatedly remembers they were planning on eating.

Well. This was a more pleasant diversion, and the groceries can wait for a little longer. Without closing the door he heads into the bathroom to wash his hands and dick, emerging shortly afterwards with a lightly moistened towel for Manabu.

He kind of wants to groom Manabu himself, in a bit of a possessive, caretaking urge, but he allows Manabu the dignity of cleaning himself this time.]

...I'd wager it's some time in the afternoon. [Grey cocks his head slightly and adds:] It sounds busy out. That's probably the civilians commuting home from work.

[It's still light outside, so Grey didn't let Manabu nap for that long.]

[siriusly]

Which means...I have time to get some work done. [he smiles crookedly. besides the workout! and the...the workout.]

You went to the trouble of getting me that data, so...

[repeatedprayer]

[Ah. Naturally, that's Manabu's concern. Grey nods, approving, since this doesn't involve Manabu karate chopping bad guys or whatever.]

Right. I didn't have time to properly comb through it while I was there.

[What with trying not to get caught by any of the staff or students and all.]

[siriusly]

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

sigh.]

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

[repeatedprayer]

[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.]

[siriusly]

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.

[repeatedprayer]

[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.

[siriusly]

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

[repeatedprayer]

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!]

[siriusly]

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.]

[repeatedprayer]

[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.]

[siriusly]

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...

[repeatedprayer]

[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!]

[siriusly]

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

[repeatedprayer]

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

[siriusly]

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

[repeatedprayer]

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

[siriusly]

[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.]

[repeatedprayer]

[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.

[siriusly]

[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?]