One moment Noah was bored out of his mind in calculus, the next he was waking up strapped to a lab table. Only vaguely surprised Noah spent a moment grateful that aside from his jacket he was clothed. Testing his bonds though only garnered disappointment, more than sturdy enough to keep him down. But that didn't mean he was going to lie down like a damsel in distress until someone saved him. It was alright the first few kidnappings but Noah felt that if he set a precedent he'd have to start calling himself Zelda and if Rex didn't already look great in green…Nerd fantasies later, escape now.
He was in the middle of trying to wiggle his way to freedom when a door slid open and a cheerful César strode in. "Noah! It's been a while hasn't it? If it wasn't for the surveillance we would have thought you and Rex had broken things off."
"Or it could be that I'm not made to fight EVOs," Noah snapped. Or, despite surviving the boot camp from hell and helping out before Rex suddenly refused to 'endanger' him. They had argued about it sure, but at the end of the day Noah had to settle for the second hand chaos attached to Rex.
He wasn't happy about it, not that César seemed to notice while rummaging through a drawer, "Where, where, where…Aha!" He pulled out a needle and syringe. "Now let's have a look at those nanites."
"Right, in case you haven't noticed your brother's the one with the freaky nanites." Noah shifted as far away as possible from the maniac holding a needle over him.
Who was a carefree as always, "We have plenty of those. However, a subject with regular, intimate contact with an EVO and their nanites is something we haven't encountered before." César winked at Noah who was already all sorts of horrified, "It's no wonder you're our first subject. Rex has good taste," did César wink? He did didn't he?
"Are-are you," his throat was almost to dry for words. "Are you coming onto- Ow!"
"Nope. Just distracting you," They both watched the syringe fill with blood, "Can't have you moving around and making me miss the vein." César carefully extracted the needle and stuck a band aid on Noah's arm, "There. Now that couldn't have been too terrible."
"Yes it totally was," Noah found himself yelling at César's back as he labeled a vial. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Probably. But with the low number of hostile EVOs appearing our spies noticed there was a higher than average exchange rate of fluids between you two; so I decided now was the best time for you to come in and provide a sample."
Noah stared in horror, completely unnoticed by César, who was busy creating a slide. His mind, either having destroyed itself or retreated for its own safety, refused to comfort him. César humming a happy little tune while examining his blood finally snapped him out of it. "You keep track of how often we…" Nope, he couldn't say it in front of his boyfriend's mad-scientist brother, "Get intimate?"
"Sex?" César didn't even look up, "Of course, but there's plenty of ways to exchange fluids. Last night for example; not technically sex but Rex was plenty happy and, based on the lack of contents in your wastebasket, you still ingested plenty of nanites."
Something inside of Noah died. Several things actually, starting with the desire to ever remove his boxers again. He spent half an hour in shocked silence, unable to stop himself from wondering how many people knew the intimate details of his sex life. Were there videos? Recordings? Was that creepy Black Knight watching?"
The strangled gasp Noah made caught César's attention. "Oh. You're still here."
"I'm strapped to the table!"
"Right," César stood up and walked over to Noah, who resumed struggling in earnest, "Just let me do a couple of scans."
"Or you could let me go now."
"Why would I do that?" César pulled some sort of beeping device from his lab jacket. Flicking some switches he waved it around, "See? Completely painless."
Noah was still feeling to nauseas to struggle much. Mostly he laid back and tried to ignore César's intrigued noises and note-taking. Where was Rex? Or anyone really, Noah was desperate to go home, and then join an order of monks.
Especially if César kept looking at him as if he was a particularly cute lab-rat. "You done yet? Because I have a test in English tomorrow."
"Almost. It's quite fascinating to see how Rex's nanites interact with others." That sent another jolt of fear through Noah.
"Interact?" Yeah, he was definitely panicking. All those times they had been too lazy to go to the drug store flashed through his mind with images of his doom. Was it worth it, really worth it?"
"Whoa!" Your heart rate is," César looked up at Noah with surprise, "not good." He seemed confused, "It's nothing much. Most of the nanites quiet down and end up leaving along with any foreign fluids. A few though," he bounced back to excitement, "are sticking around and following your nanites."
Great. There was no way this could be good for Noah. His stomach gurgled in protest against the stress he was undergoing. Surprisingly, César immediately began to un-strap his arms and legs. Noah swung his legs over the table and pushed himself off, "Thanks for the trauma, I'll be going now."
"I wouldn't if I were you," Noah stopped a few feet from the door, "Black Knight's a little odd about security."
Right, more like completely insane. "Then why did you untie me?"
"I could always tie you up again. But I was thinking about lunch." The mention of food had Noah's stomach groaning in protest. César took it as confirmation Noah's appetite hadn't been killed. "There's a fridge around here," he set the scanner on a nearby table and started looking. "With soda? Something fizzy."
It turned out to be ginger ale and a couple questionable apples. Noah took a few bites, mostly so he could enjoy throwing the core into a trashcan across the lab. Then, realizing no one had showed up to rescue him it was time to stare at the floor and sulk. "Is there some sort of disaster going on?"
"No, why?" César didn't seem to care that only response he got from Noah was a pained groan.
Five more minutes he promised and Noah would break himself out.