A/N: This is just a little fic that I got out while I'm trying to get myself through the scene in "Meaning It" that I forgot I needed to plan for. (Oops…)

Anyway, this is in the same post-mini semi-AU-verse as a WIP that I haven't actually gotten up here… (-sweatdrop-) I don't think you need to know much about the storyverse to get this story… I'll put the clarifying details at the end.

Please read and review!

It's bad enough when he looks over, expecting to see Glitch, and there's Ambrose, trying to fake him out but just a little too distant to play his better half. It's worse when Glitch is the one he sees, just for a moment, and he has to stop himself from grabbing the head case. It's even worse the times when he doesn't stop himself, when he just grabs the thin dancer's body and holds the fractured man to his chest, breathing the strange, indescribable scent that he knows is Glitch, knowing even as he reaches out that he doesn't have much time.

He knows Glitch thinks he doesn't know, but he realized the moment he aimed the gun at the brain in the tank. The moment Glitch switched from fumbling for a number that wasn't there to desperate to keep that lump of gray matter intact, worthless as it is.

So those moments when he sees the face beneath the zipper and it's Glitch staring back at him, Glitch meeting his eyes and squeaking in surprise as Cain grabs him, it's worse. Those moments, it's all he can do not to cry as he wraps his arms around Glitch, and wishes with all his cold dead heart that this moment could last as long as he will.

Then that one moment in a thousand, when he meets Glitch's eyes and there's no trace of the haughty advisor at all, he seriously considers going back and shooting that gods-damned brain-in-a-box. He would, too. If he thought it would do any good, he would do it in a single beat of his dead heart. If he thought it would make that cold other person leave Glitch alone, make him go away and never come back…

But it wouldn't do any good, and all he can ever do is reach to tangle his fingers in Glitch's hair, to feel the cool hardness of the metal zipper and the wild ropy threads of the dark curls, to hold Glitch and wish he could protect him, wish he could protect him from everyone, even that lump of synapses that calls itself Ambrose…

He steals those chances every time they appear. But he doesn't expect to feel Glitch's arms come up, one of those one-in-a-thousand moments, and return the embrace. He's shocked to feel Glitch's hands clutch the fabric of his coat like he might disappear at any moment. He's not quite so surprised to feel the tears on Glitch's face stain his shirt as the man tilts his head so he can whisper a few words in his ear, but the words themselves make his world spin.

"I love you, Wyatt Cain." Glitch's voice is choked from his tears and hoarse from the screams that he's been trying to force through his lips, but the words are as sure as anyone he ever heard in his life.

It's at that moment that he wishes his heart would stop beating. Because if this moment isn't going to last, then he doesn't want to either.

A/N: So? What did you think?

Clarifying notes:

Cain says "gods-damned" because I'm pretty sure they referred to "gods" at some point in the mini. So yeah.

As for Glitch and Ambrose… I realize that might have been a little confusing… Basically, there's no way to physically put Ambrose back in Glitch's head; but the link Raw set up between the brain and Glitch opened a door, and Ambrose jumped through it. So it's half a brain, but two people, and Ambrose is almost always in control.

Reviews of all kinds are much appreciated!