Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman/Mega Man or any of it components. These all belong to capcom.
Warnings: Boy love.
Other: my other Rockman.exe fic 'Catching-up' is a prequel to this, you might want to read it before you read this one.
When Chaud woke up this morning he had found himself lying next to Lan, with one arm slung over the boy.
Now he was already showered and dressed, sitting on a comfy blue sofa next to the bed, watching how Lan slept while contemplating what happened yesterday.
It had been so easy to talk to Lan, like there was something that just clicked between them.
Which was strange, considering nothing had ever seemed to be willing to click between them in the past.
To Chaud, Lan had been an annoying, stupid and not to mention arrogant civilian, who thought that he could possibly do fight the skilled hackers and terrorists of the WWW.
Hell, the first time they met, the boy had ran straight into a trap of the WWW, helping them to release the poisoned water of the occupied waterworks.
Afterwards the kid had been able to fix his own mistakes, but he still didn't get any respect from Chaud, even destroying the life virus didn't impress him.
Lan then had the gall to join the officials, and invited Chaud to some camping trip.
Chaud, who was used to people trying to use him for networking purposes only, had seen this as Lan trying to benefit from from his status as a S-ranked net-official.
Chaud had been disgusted at this and declined his offer, but unfortunately the commander had sent him on a mission that same evening to investigate the threat of the dam being blown up at that same camp-site.
The camping trip went really well, besides the fact someone actually did try to blow up the dam.
Lan's friends turned out to be rather rational people who had known Lan ever since he was little, and not the bunch of rabid fans Chaud was afraid of.
He got along with Mayl, and she insisted to him, that Lan didn't have any hidden agenda's:
"Lan's barely able to keep whatever he got for my birthday – if he even remembered it – secret, and you think he can manipulate people like that? Chaud, you don't know Lan very well, do you?"
He didn't have the time to think about this, and wouldn't for a long time, as the Gospel attacks followed each other in rapid succession. Which of course didn't stop until Lan pulled some stunt that made the world at peace again.
Afterwards, he figured that maybe Mayl had been right and Lan had meant the invitation as a honest attempt at being friendly.
He also felt himself become envious of Lan's large group of friends, as he didn't have any childhood friends himself.
When he expressed this to ProtoMan, he got the following question fired back to him: "Then what am I?"
He replied it with "You're my Navi.", and said Navi disappeared to be found again a few hours later, brooding in the cleaning machine of the bathroom downstairs, but not after Chaud had scanned the whole house for his presence.
The following days ProtoMan stayed unusually reserved to everyone, including Chaud.
Later Lan proved again that he didn't care about screwing Chaud over by saving Chaud's father and ProtoMan from the evil clutches of a crazy TV producer.
The fact that he did this by assaulting the producer with MegaMan's PET, didn't take away any of Chaud's gratefulness.
It was after that event that he sarted to consider Lan as a person he could really trust, no matter how often the boy walked into traps of the WWW.
Which was good, because Lan appeared to be a very useful partner in ending future crisises, to the point that Chaud actually admitted he needed his help.
And now he was here, sitting on a blue couch in one of the many suites of the M/S Nereid with this warm feeling in his gut and a sleeping Lan on his bed, opposite of him.
And they'd... Well, fooled around big time – he had a bit of muscleache due it – the evening before, and he didn't know where this was supposed to lead.
Lan already had a wonderful girlfriend in Mayl, and his father wouldn't be happy to know that he would never be called grandfather in his whole life.
No, this whole thing had been a mistake, and he was certain Lan would agree with him, if he woke up that is...
Chaud looked at the clock, which said it was seven in the morning.
With that, and what he knew about Lan, he was certain the other boy wouldn't wake up for another hour or two.
So Chaud opted to go and search for ProtoMan instead, who had disappeared again, as he usually did when confronted with sexuality in general.
Chaud stood up and headed for the door, but stopped.
He turned back towards lan, but decided against it, and hurried himself out of the suite.
ProtoMan had, aside from MegaMan chaneling the intimacy of their operators, a nice night.
He had spent it with the blue Navi as his companion, exploring the ship.
The M/S Nereid's network was nearly void of viruses, and ProtoMan figured that they had hired virus busters to clean it out regularly, which was rather ironic, as the tournament had attracted sixteen of the best netbattlers to the ship. It was as if you held a convention for pest control, and had to hire a special company to get rid of the rats in the kitchen.
The network was aside from clean also gigantic, even with all the suites' network being restricted the place was even bigger then most suburb networks, it even had it's own NetSquare!
MegaMan, who had told him all sorts of stuff regarding the problems he had with Copyroids, was very quiet in the beginning. ProtoMan thought that one one hand this could be because of what happened at the digital café, but on the other hand, it could also be because they didn't know each other very well. Seeing how most of their conversations had been shouts in the heat of battle, it was not much of a wonder they didn't know each other that well, their operators usually did the talking anyway.
Although, Chaud and Lan seemed better at annoying the hell out of each other rather then having actual civil conversations, they seemed to be doing great yesterday, but after what happened in the café, ProtoMan supposed that they had been aided in their civility by biological factors.
But he couldn't blame them for arguing so much, Chaud had never been that friendly, and he guessed that Lan had his bad moments too.
Out of curiosity, he asked MegaMan about it:
"Yes, Lan can sometimes be very thoughtless in what he says." Confirmed the Navi, "What made you bring that up?" He asked, slightly confused.
"I was thinking of how our netops used to argue." Replied ProtoMan.
"Ah," Was MegaMan's reply, "Yes, they used to be very good at making each other angry, weren't they?" He smiled, and continued: "To think that they'd be... well... uhm..."
He stopped at that line, and looked away in embarrassment over what happened.
They stood still now, and ProtoMan was becoming uneasy. He looked around, to see if there was something that allowed for a change of subject, and found it in a blue skinned Navi and his green Comapanion.
"Ah, it's FreezeMan and PlantMan..." As soon as he said it, he wondered why the hell those two where here at all, together at that.
Sure, their operators where both manipulated into netcrime by Wily himself, but ProtoMan couldn't imagine that Miss Anetta and Mr. Obihiro had met at ex-hacker-therapy and their Navi's started hanging out with each other because of that.
MegaMan was happy with the diversion, and went to greet the two Navi's.
The conversation that followed made ProtoMan lose his faith in human civilisation, as it appeared that not the operators, but the NetNavi's themselves had met at group therapy...
Netnavi group therapy...
To process their trauma's and repress their criminal tendencies...
Instead of, you know, reprogramming...
ProtoMan didn't quite get it either...
Meanwhile, FreezeMan and PlantMan were praising the therapy into heaven and ProtoMan was grateful when MegaMan decided to change the subject into that of the tournament:
"So, there's some pretty interesting people participating, don't you think?" He said.
"Yes, indeed." Agreed FreezeMan, "It's an honour to meet with all the Navi's here, I personally would love to fight Colonel or Phoenix."
"Phoenix?" Asked Megaman, he turned to ProtoMan "Isn't she that female Navi?"
"Yes, she's the mascot of the ESTek company."Said Protoman, "She has quite a fan base, if I recall correctly." he commented with distaste, after remembering having seen one of the many fan sites for the lady program, it had not been a very pleasant experience...
"I see..." Said MegaMan, "So, Colonel's here too? Man, there's so many familiar faces at this tournament..." He continued observingly.
"Familiar? I barely know any here!" Exclaimed PlantMan, "Hell, I don't even know who Fabio here is!" He said, gesturing to ProtoMan.
FreezeMan raised an eyebrow, and MegaMan snorted, trying to hold his laughter.
"Fabio?" ProtoMan repeated, "The model?"
"Yeah,he's blond too, right?" PlantMan said, "Sure, he's a bit taller, and a bit more muscular..." PlantMan stopped to take a better look at the red Navi, "And more handsome looking in general, but the resemblance is there!" he finished happily.
ProtoMan had wanted to kill him right then and there, but instead he chose to stare at him, hoping to nerve him out. MegaMan However, decided to interrupt: "PlantMan, don't tease him like that, you do know ProtoMan right?"
"Yes..." PlantMan said, "Ah, he's ProtoMan then?" he asked perplexed, "Man, I imagined you a bit..."
"Taller? More Muscular? More Handsome?" Suggested ProtoMan scathingly.
PlantMan looked like he wanted to say something, but then he turned away, as if he heard something and was trying to listen to it.
ProtoMan then heard a bossy female voice seemingly coming from PlantMan himself.
"PlantMan, can you hear me?" ProtoMan supposed this was Miss Anetta's voice, PlantMan's operator. "Yes Ma'am, I can hear you loud and clear." PlantMan said.
"Good, could you come back to the suite? I need your help with those backups" Said Miss Anetta's voice casually.
"Yes Ma'am, I'll be there in a sec!" Plantman turned to the other Navi's, "Sorry guys, the missus needs my help, so I got to go." Before logging out, he added, "It was fun talking to you!"
"I ought to be going too" said FreezeMan to the others.
"You too?" Asked MegaMan with a hint of sadness in his voice, had ProtoMan not known the blue navi disliked good-byes, he would've felt insulted at the implication of himself being bad company.
"Yes, Lord Sean would be worried if he woke up and finds me missing." FreezeMan replied.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then!" MegaMan grinned.
FreezeMan nodded in agreement, before he also logged out.
This left MegaMan and ProtoMan alone in the hall.
MegaMan spoke: "Maybe we should go back too" He suggested.
"You can go if you like, but I would rather wait at the café" said ProtoMan, "I don't feel like finding out how intimate they've been."
"Ah, yes..." MegaMan looked embarrassed at the mention of their operators, "Uhm, would you mind if I go with you."
"Do as you wish" ProtoMan responded.
MegaMan smiled and started to walk back to the direction where they'd came from, but ProtoMan decided to stop him; "The café is the other way."
"We've been walking in a circle then?"
ProtoMan nodded, and head for the café.
The trip back had been rather event less save for the vendor who kept insisting that they should buy from his gift store and kept yelling "Speshul prize 4 U!".
At the café ProtoMan had started reading magazine's again, because the night had ended, and the staff had replaced the magazines.
MegaMan was sitting across the table, playing a card game with SearchMan of all people, apparently the latter hadn't seen MegaMan in quite a while, and they were catching up while playing the card game. As long as it wouldn't turn into 'Catching up', ProtoMan didn't mind their loud conversing.
Suddenly, somewhere during an article about the new medical uses for nuclear radiation, ProtoMan heard the sound of a transmission link being made between his program and what seemed to be Chaud's PET.
Sighting, he lay away the magazine and opened the communication window, waiting for the link to enstablish.
When it did, Chaud's face appeared in the window.
"ProtoMan, where are you currently?"
"At the café, Sir." Answered ProtMan, "You want me to log out?" he added.
"How's Lan?" The conversation had piqued the interest of the two Navi's, and MegaMan was standing behind ProtoMan, staring at the communication window for a reply.
"He's doing fine." Was Chaud's answer, "He's currently sleeping at my suite, you can ask ProtoMan for the P-code, if you want to wake him up yourself." he suggested.
MegaMan smiled and nodded.
Chaud then turned his attention back to ProtoMan. "ProtoMan, we have a long day ahead, so please do log out." and with that, the transmission ended.
ProtoMan sighted once again, yes, Chaud had become more polite and thoughtful towards him, but he still had moment that made him want to kick him. He made a file containing the P-code to the network of Chaud's suite and gave it to MegaMan. "It's room 128, you can access it from NereidComp2" He explained. "Thanks!" MegaMan smiled again."Your leaving now? Will I see you later?" He asked.
ProtoMan nodded, and logged out.
Chaud did have a bit of trouble finding his Navi, and the though security of the ship's network didn't make it any easier to find him.
Eventually he just gave up finding ProtoMan all by himself, and asked the staff if there was a digital caf'e in the network, and where it would be the easiest to access that place.
One of the co-workers advised him to try jacking into the coffee vending machine in the dinner hall.
Chaud followed the unusual advise, and found himself being able to set up a transmission lick with his Navi from there, and was able to call ProtoMan back to his PET.
After he had done so, his Navi had seemed strangely annoyed, and greeted him with a scathing tone of voice: "Had a good night, sir?"
Chaud briefly wondered if the words 'got lucky' had appeared on his forehead.
He's straightened his bangs to make sure that if it was there, it would be covered, while feeling his face heat up. ProtoMan made an annoyed sound.
"Ah, look who we have here" Said an elderly female voice.
Chaud turned around to find the voice belonging to an elderly pale woman.
"It's Eugene Chaud, isn't it? My name is Ann, Countess of Zap"
Said Ann Zap, "We are competing today." She clarified while holding out her hand.
Chaud shook her hand and replied " Yes, I'm Eugene Chaud, it's nice to meet you, lady Zap"
"'Lady'? Mr Chaud, you flatter me! " She smiled, "You can call me Madam Zap if you want."
She looked around the dinner hall, " It's nice to see that my first opponent is and early bird like myself." She turned to Chaud again. " Say, would you like to join me for breakfast?" She asked.
Chaud said he would love to.
A few minutes later he found himself sitting at a table that was stacked with delicious food.
Mrs Zap was sitting opposite of him and was putting milk in her empty teacup, " So, Mr Chaud, what are you hoping to find at this tournament?"
"I'm here to represent IPC, the company of my father, they want a business deal with ESTek." Chaud answered.
He had no idea what the name was supposed to mean, but ESTek was the main sponsor of the Poseidon Tournament, and a huge Netopian robotics company.
IPC was a huge computer hardware company, obviously, they were a match made in heaven.
At least, that's what the guy from marketing had thought.
"I see, it must be quite a job." The elderly lady mused, she reached for the teapot and said "To be honest, I'm here for the prize money. My family isn't that rich any more, you see, and the house really needs to be renovated."
"It must be really old then." Chaud replied with genuine interest.
"Oh, yes, it's very old" Mrs Zap told him, "It was build after the first world war by my great great grandfather Jason Pones, but the house is more a victim of being poorly kept rather than age.
My husband tries, but as you may understand, he's more of a technician then a handyman." She smiled.
Chaud smiled back, he remembered staying with his aunt after his mother had died.
She lived in this gigantic though warm house at a little place called angel's beach that lay in the west of Creamland. He had fond memories of the place, especially considering he received ProtoMan there, who had looked much like a standard Navi at the time.
" Aren't you going to eat, Mr Chaud?" asked Mrs Zap, shaking Chaud out of his memories.
"Ah, yes, I forgot." Said Chaud bewildered, and started to eat.
The dinner hall was slowly filling up with people of all sorts: Netbattlers; Sponsors; or just people who were rich enough to effort a ticket for the tournament.
Mrs Zap and Chaud talked about the new drivers for quadruple core processors, and Chaud was slightly surprised to find that Mrs Zap had a very good understanding of computers, she explained to him that she graduated in physics and computer technologies, and that she had been a programmer in her younger days.
"But I can't do that any more, with all these new programming languages, my spectacular knowledge of basic and C+ is useless."
The hall was crowded when they finished around half past nine.
"Well then, I'll hope to be seeing you at the arena later this day Mr Chaud." Said Mrs. Zap.
"Yes, I expect a good fight from you, Madam Zap." Was Chaud's respond.
"I ought to guarantee you it will be! Goodbye Mr Chaud." And with that, Ann Zap left.
While Chaud was watching the elderly lady leave, ProtoMan gave a small cough that Chaud usually interpreted as ' Give me attention! NOW!' as ProtoMan had done some pretty awful stuff when his coughing was ignored. One particular incident came to mind, and to Chaud's knowledge, his word processor was still traumatised by the event.
Chaud took out his PET and looked at the small screen to find the red Navi compressing his e-mails. "What's wrong ProtoMan?"
"Sir, shouldn't we be training for our fight? Elecman is quite a strong Navi, I've heard." Was the reply.
"I suppose, if we can find a place to train" Chaud said.
"We don't have to search any more sir, there's a training room down the hall on your right." Said ProtoMan, Chaud observed that his Navi was quite enthusiastic about training.
"I see, thank you ProtoMan." Replied Chaud and he went for the door on his right.
However, after going into the hall, Chaud stopped as he saw something that caught his interest:
Lan, who had finally woken up, and Sean, and ex-hacker.
And they were talking.
Author's Notes:
I finally started this fic, I took some time to get a plot, but I have it(somewhat). And the chapters are longer too!
I'm trying to see if I can combine a good plot with romance, and I hope the two different POV's will help me with that.
English isn't my first language, and while this fic was spellchecked, it's not beta'ed, as I don't have a beta in this fandom.(Yes, I am searching:)) But beta or not, if there's any weird inconsitencies, gramar rule breaking, or other things that bother you, don't hestiate to leave a note!
Because there's probably gona be a lot of questions and sidenotes, aswel as drawings from my side, I'll make a little section in my bio-page for Razing Ragnarok to collect all these things.
Anyway, please tell me what you think of it!