by Nix Winter
Disclaimer: I do not own Tinman or it's characters. I think Scifi channel does.
"I know what you feel," Raw insisted. They were looking at the brain. The brain. Still in it's sustaining fluid, still living. Still separate from it's owner. "It's so loud."
"No, you don't," Glitch disagreed, his arms across his chest, posing the way Ambrose might have. "I'm not feeling what you think I'm feeling."
Raw rolled his eyes, reached one hand for the tank, another for Glitch, only to have Glitch move away, dancing and skittish. "How could you know what I'm feeling?"
"Because it's so loud," Raw growled. "It's a good thing to feel. Everything is alright now. The wicked witch is dead and it's okay. DG will tell you it's okay."
As if drawn like a moth to the flame, Glitch moved back towards his brain. "It's not okay. I remember. I remember. I remember."
Raw gave Gitch a gentle shove and the former royal adviser shoved his hands under his arms. "Well, I do."
"What you remember?" Raw rumbled. "Time goes by. New things are."
"Not some new things," Glitch said, one hand touching the zipper on his head, the other touching the glass separating him from his mind. "Raw, leave me alone."
"Only trying to help," Raw complained, shrugging, "What's old is gone. What's new is better."
Glitch watched the seer leave, then sank down to the floor. Even without his brain he had a heart. It wasn't like most people were interested in knowing a zipper head, especially one that had been as big a threat to the queen as he had. No, not threat, adviser, that's what he'd been. He couldn't remember one day to the next, one face over another, and what memories he did have slipped away like sand in a sieve, but he felt.
Feeling, and around that one person feeling took new brightness. Feelings of hope and joy, of happiness, of fluttering brightness, and desire to be near, or desire to say something that wasn't stupid and see him smile. Glitch wanted to be more than a gibbering idiot. Glitch didn't want to be someone else though.
He had been someone else. He'd been Ambrose. So close to his own brain, he could remember that. He could remember the welcoming smile of a lover, but not his lover's name. He could remember the man's strong hand and blue eyes, yes, there had been blue eyes.
He knew that man was dead. He'd seen the vision of it with Raw's hand on his shoulder and the ugly scene playing out for them in a mirror they'd swiped from one of the bedrooms. It had been the darkest day, the day he'd lost his mind, but he wasn't sure that hadn't happened before they'd cut out his brain. His lover had died protecting him, calling his name, and Ambrose had been powerless.
Glitch wasn't powerless though. Glitch had saved Kane. Glitch had survived and come back to the tower, shut down the evil, made friends, helped DG, and he had these feelings, rainbow light feelings of joy and wishes and he danced around the word in his head because if he said the word and then he forgot it, well, he'd lose more than if he never said the word at all.
It couldn't matter anyway. Kane loved only his wife and son. Kane had no heart to care if a stupid zipper head loved him or not. Glitch couldn't remember what happened when you loved someone and they loved you back anyway. It was something wonderful and fantastic and terrifying and he didn't think he'd ever remember. It wasn't as if what happened between two adults hadn't been pretty dark and painful. Yeah, painful. He kinda remembered something Central City, before he'd gotten out, after the Sorceress had turned him loose. Adult could be painful.
He didn't want any part of that. This feeling of happiness and need to reach out and touch Kane and make sure he was okay, that was just his own brain glitching again. That's all it was. He'd forget all about it by tomorrow.
But he hadn't forgotten that Kane called him 'sweetheart'. He hadn't forgotten Kane's smile when he'd handed the man back his son's toy horse. He remembered Kane.
"Glitch!" Kane's voice bellowed as the doors to the brain room were pushed open.
Glitch skittered away, behind the pedestal his brain was kept on. "He's not here," Glitch said.
"Right," Kane said, shutting the doors gently. "Raw said he was here. My mistake."
Kane was dressed for the ball they were having. DJ and Azz' ball. Big celebration. Everyone who was anyone was there. Kane was dressed in a black tuxedo his hair clean and cut, and he was polished and fit like the finest queen's man that he was and Glitch watched him from where he cowered behind the brain column.
"Good, good, now go away," Glitch said, "go back and dance at the ball."
Kane sat down on the floor on the other side of the brain column, leaning back. "What if I don't want to?"
"Well, fine, stay. Do what ever you like," Glitch said, fluttered, heart beating faster and it confused him. "It's not like I care."
"Well, see," Kane said, his voice a soft drawl, "I was looking for him because I was at the ball, and there was dancing and fine food and people saying all kinds of fancy things, and it just wasn't right without my friend."
"He doesn't have nothing to say, nothing fine, not anymore," Glitch said, peering around a little, so he could see Kane. "You look good."
"You think?" Kane asked looking over his shoulder, "I wonder why Glitch doesn't want to be at the ball. He can be Ambrose again and I think he ought to like being the royal adviser again."
"Ambrose might," Glitch said, hesitantly.
"What about Glitch though?" Kane asked non-threateningly. "What does Glitch like?"
"You," Glitch said, then gasped, ducking back behind the brain column. "Just glitching that's all, glitching, that's it. Glitch doesn't know what he's saying."
Kane scooted a little closer around the brain column. "I think he knows just fine. I can't say I understand, because you know, I'm a tinman and I don't have a heart."
"I'm a zipper head. I got no brain," Glitch said, smiling understandingly, forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be there. "All I got is heart."
"I think you got more than that," Kane said, "So, what do you mean you like me?"
"I don't know," Glitch said, fingers fiddling with his nearly dreadlocked hair. "I feel happy when you're near me and I think about wanting to see you smile, and I want to touch your hand and I remember you. I don't remember anything, but I remember you."
"That sounds very strong," Kane said, setting his hand down near Glitch, tempting him. "I wish I felt things like that. I just know though that you're my friend, maybe my best friend, and I trust you. If you feel something, it's probably a good thing."
"You trust me," Glitch asked, his hand just happening to set down on top of Kane's. "I'm Glitch though."
"I like Glitch," Kane said. "So, would it make you happen if we danced? They're dancing upstairs and I don't want you to miss out on anything."
Glitch blushed, wishing he'd gotten cleaned up, that he'd washed his hair, that he could go to the ball and that Kane would dance with him. "I don't remember how to dance, Kane."
"I'll show you," Kane said, "the simple stuff anyway."
Kane stood up and held out his hand, smiling wickedly, daringly, and maybe he was feeling again, maybe he was feeling a little.
Glitch took Kane's hand, lightening flashing through him as Kane pulled him up. "Oh, I think I remember," Glitch said, drawing Kane's hand to his shoulder, "I remember a song! It's a love song!" Glitch hummed and very quickly he was leading Kane in a waltz around the brain room. Just as he could fight using his body's memories, his body remembered how to dance, with Kane in his arms.
Kane felt the first trickle of emotion as Glitch pulled him close, felt the strength in his friend's hand at the small of his back, and suddenly he felt safe, accepted, all his secrets on the verge of admission. Glitch had no secret motives, no dark plans, just his heart and Kane let that innocent love soak into him.
As they danced, neither of them noticed that Ambrose's brain began to shrink…
tbc ☺