Selective Glitching

Pairing: Cain/Glitch

Summary: Glitching has it's advantages. Slash.

Disclaimer: (Sob) Why would you even bring this up?!? You know how sensitive I am about not owning Tin Man!

It was a beautiful day in the O.Z. the suns were shining, casting a warm glow over everything as a gentle breeze wafted through the air and all manner of flowers and plants were thriving and in bloom. If you were so lucky as to live in the royal palace it would be the perfect day to go for a stroll through the palace gardens, where the only thing to be heard was the gentle sound of the natural surroundings. . .

"GLITCH!"

. . . That is until it was shattered like a pane of stained glass window in a church built from dynamite.

Cain was on a mission. At the current moment he was searching for his friend/lover/whatever so that he could convey a message entrusted to him for Glitch by the queen. Things had gone pretty much back to normal in the O.Z. and while Glitch had yet to have his brain replaced, he still had obligations as advisor to the queen to perform. Sometimes he just needed reminding of that.

These days if you were looking for the Headcase you could usually find him down in one of Ambrose's old labs tinkering with various parts and plans to odd machines that nobody understood but him. Which is why Cain found himself trekking across the castle to one of the main-level workshops that Glitch favored most.

"GLITCH!" Cain called again, knocking loudly on the heavy wooden doors to the lab.

When no reply was heralded he took it upon himself to show himself in.

The sound of tinkering and metal whirring could be heard from the back room and Cain headed strait for it figuring he'd most likely find his boyfriend at the source.

"Hey Sweetheart, you here? The Queen's been looking all over for you. Needs you to fill out some damage reports from the last Longcoat attack! . . . . . Glitch?"

The Headcase was there all right, in all his Scatterbrained glory, screwdriver in hand messing around with something Cain couldn't identify if he tried. Walking over to the desk the curly-haired rouge was working at he snatched up the screwdriver placed it beside the scrap of . . . Thing . . . Glitch was working on. He then promptly smacked him up side the head.

Glitch raised a hand to protect his zippered noggin from further attack, casting an accusing gaze up at the Tin Man.

"May I help you?" he said narrowing his eyes at his aggressor as he stood from his seat.

"Don't even start with me Glitch." The blonde said, rolling his eyes at the melodrama his boyfriend so often affected. "I know you heard me calling you, Now come on." Cain warned, grabbing at his lover's wrist in an attempt to lead him from the lab.

Glitch merely continued to stay put, nonplussed. "No, really. May I help you? I mean, Have we met?"

Stopping resignedly in his tracks Cain mumbled "Not again." before, turning to the tinker-er with a sigh:

"Yes, Glitch –We've met." He said gesturing back and forth between them. "In fact you and me, we've definitely more than met."

Glitch continued to appear unaffected. "We have?"

"Yes. I'm Cain. Wyatt Cain. And, well, we're sorta . . . . you know . . ."

"No I don't. What?"

Cain let loose A deeper sigh this time, slightly frustrated, this glitch was being more stubborn than most. "I'm your, well, ugh. I'm sorta your boyfriend . . . person-thing" he was quick to cast his gaze anywhere but Glitch. This was too much.

"Really?" Said the scatterbrained brunette, somewhat disbelievingly.

Scowling, he looked pointedly at his lover "Yes, Really."

He watched, somewhat suspiciously, as the younger man stood up and began to circle him, eying him up and down appraisingly. "Huh." He said, in a speculative tone. As He stopped in front of the Ex-Ex-cop (who by this point was more than just a little on edge).

The Tin Man frowned at the palace's resident Headcase. "What?!" he barked –not just a little defensively.

"Nothing, Nothing" Glitch back-peddled, hands raised in submission and a goofy smile on his face. Then, with a devious smirk: "I was merely thinking, that I could have done much worse for my self, is all"

Cain almost had the decency to blush. Almost. Instead he merely cracked one of his more suggestive grins "You're not so bad yourself there Sweetheart." He slipped his arm around the slightly shorter figure.

"You know we could always get outta here and . . ." He stopped mid sentence. Wait wasn't he supposed to be doing something? Great, the glitching was becoming contagious. He growled low in his throat "Grr . . . .Wait a second, wait a second! Stop distracting me!!"

"I'm sorry . . . . and what exactly am I distracting you from?"

"From the reports!! The queen needs them written by tonight!"

"In that case, please. Don't let me stand in your way" Glitch returned to the pile of blueprints at his desk, beginning to examine some of the more complex looking ones. Cain merely stood there looking momentarily lost.

. . . At least until his brain kicked back in. Slamming his hand down on the pile of plans (severely starling the brunet) he exclaimed: "But it's your job to write them! That's why they sent me down here to get you."

The inventor seemed to take this in to consideration. "Oh." A pause. "And you are?"

With an explosive and frustrated sigh Cain closed his eyes, tilted his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to alleviate the headache he could already feel beginning to settle in.

"We've already been over this Sweetheart. I'm Cain, Remember; Cain" when the Headcase only looked at him curiously, head cocked gently to the side, he growled discontentedly to himself, bringing forehead to palm in an irritated gesture of surrender.

"You know what? Never mind, it wasn't that important any way." He said wearily casting a glance at his zipper-headed lover, with all his misfiring synapses.

Turning around he began to mumble resignedly to himself "She's not gonna be happy about this. Although I suppose I can always get one of the lower advisors on the council to write them up while his brain is on the fritz." Sighing he addressed the forgetful man before him one last time. "I'll see ya later Glitch"

And with that he gave a casual wave to the absentminded inventor (who still looked slightly confused, but never the less managed a shrug and a farewell) before turning swiftly around and shuffling his way out the door.

To his credit, Glitch managed to wait until the exasperated footsteps of the Tin Man had faded from earshot before a sly grin lit up his face.

Picking up his displaced screwdriver and turning back to his latest machine he began to laugh softly to himself, his eyes flitting briefly to the door Cain had exited from.

"Heheheh, Works every time."

End