Chapter 2: Team
{A/N Still Don't own Guilty Crown...}
"So...you're the advisor Mr. Shinbungi told me about..." Kurt started off, trying to break the ice. "Yes...I'm Ayase..." "So...I apologize, I'm still new to the customs here...so that would be Ayase-san? right?" The girl nodded. "That is the formal title, yes...now, we might as well go check out that lab." she said, wheeling herself towards the elevator. Leaning forward and hitting a button to call it, he walked up next to her quietly, just standing there. Well shit this is awkward...way to go Kurt...well at least she's cute and not some old man..wait WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING! BAD KURT BAD! The elevator dinged and he let her enter first, following behind her. "Kurt, is it?" "Yeah...just call me Kurt...Kurt-san just doesn't sound right to me..." "Okay, so do you always wear sunglasses inside?"
"Yeah...its a long story I don't really feel like sharing right now..." The elevator dinged and opened, signalling they were on the ground floor. Strangely alot of the security detail had left, only a few people at the door to guard. Guess theres not much here to secure yet... were Kurt's thoughts as he walked along side Ayase. "Say...do you um...maybe want me to...erm...push?" He asked, trying not to sound awkward at the seemingly innocent question. "No." Came the immediate response. "I don't need help." He just looked at her. "You sure? I mean...you look like you could...YEOOWW!" he was cut off as she whirled her wheelchair into his shin. "What. the. hell. was that for?" He asked, massaging his lower leg. "I don't need help...do not offer it...clear?" Yes Ma'am..., outwardly all he said was; "Got it."
They entered the part of the ground floor that had been setup as a lab, in the center was an odd dome shaped device with a glass top. Along the left wall there was a row of empty server racks save for one server that wasn't even powered on, on the back wall where they had come in there was a counter with various tools and a small rack with what looked like headsets. Farther to the right were a couple of chairs that Kurt presumed were for controlling Endlaves, looking out into the dimly lit warehouse, he could make out what looked like an antenna array on the ceiling. "Wheres the light switch?" He asked aloud, looking over the counters. Ayase, meanwhile, had wheeled herself over to the chairs, looking over them, lost in thought over the many memories she had in a chair that was similar.
"So long..." she sighed, looking down to her useless legs. "So long since I've walked..." "Ayase-san!" Her thoughts were interrupted and she whirled around to find Kurt surrounded in what looked like a laser light show. "Kurt...what did you do?" her tone wasn't one of worry but rather of annoyance. "I don't know..I tapped the surface of this dome thing and it lit up like this!" "Its an ARHI..you don't have them where you're from?" "erh...no...Japan's much more ahead when it comes to tech than we are in the States..." she wheeled over and tapped on what looked like a gold ball, a large interface seeming to erupt into life in front of the two. "Oh...should've guess that...anyway lets see here...Modeling...ooh that'll be handy later...Physics Simulation...nice...Building Controls! Aha!" Kurt called as he tapped on the control, the main controls seeming to shrink and expand into various other displays and controls.
"Lets see here...ah..Lighting...hmm..." He tapped on the control and it brought up what looked like a slider. he 'grabbed' the slider and slid it up, lights in the warehouse suddenly brightening and turning on. While Kurt was busy acting like a kid on Christmas morning with the ARHI, she wheeled away to look at the warehouse as is lit up. She gasped... "Kurt...are you seeing this?" she looked back at him just in time to see his jaw hit the floor as he looked up from the ARHI. The warehouse wasn't big, it was HUGE. At least 2 miles long, a mile wide, and a half mile tall... "Damn...that Shinbungi doesn't play around...I knew this place was big but...wow..." "No he doesn't...I'll admit that he seems to have gone all out with this project..." Ayase agreed.
"So what is this project exaclty?" she turned around to face him fully. "Its simple really." He began, minimizing the interface to a small little ball on top of the dome. "We're going to design the next generation of Endlaves...only these units need to be stealthy and faster than the current generation Gauiter's and Jumeau's..." "What about Japan's current contract with the current developer?" Kurt shrugged. "I don't know...but both of our respective governments want in on this...and theres a handsome payout when we get done..." He reached over and grabbed the glowing ball, expanding the interface again. "We should probably get to work right away then..at least with initial concepts..."
"So..." he started, opening the 'Modeling' portion of the interface, but oddly enough it came up with an error. "Storage array not detected? what?" He looked at the error blankly. "Lets see...storage would be a server...server would be.." he looks to the rack and spots the lone, lifeless, server. "There.." Ayase wheeled over to the box and did the logical thing...pressed the power button, and the server did absolutely nothing. "Hmm...wonder if its plugged in?" Kurt thought aloud, walking over to the rack and accidentally tripping over a cable on the floor, falling face first and desperately trying to grab onto something to stop or slow his fall. Unfortunately that something was Ayase, and she was dragged out of her wheelchair, falling next to him on the floor in front of the rack.
*CRASH*
Kurt groaned...his back hurt...his front hurt...well nothing felt broken. He moved his hands in an attempt to get up but thats when he felt something odd. His skin registered something soft...and fleshy. Ayase moaned aloud...which caused Kurt to freeze...moving his head he looked to see exactly where his hand was...and to his horror it was on one of her breasts. He scrambled upright, blushing profusely. "I'm so sorry! sorry! sorry! sorry!" Ayase quickly realized her position and glared at Kurt. "How dare you! Touching me like that! Without permission while I'm on the floor! Why I oughta!"
"It was an accident! I swear! I was going to check the server and I tripped on something!"
"I'm sure...look could you leave the room for a bit? I don't exactly look graceful climbing into my wheelchair."
"Are you sure you don't want help?" Kurt asked again. "Yes...just leave...you've done enough already." Kurt sighed and walked out the door, shutting it enough so that it would look closed but leaving it open a crack. He wasn't usually a peeper...but something about this girl was interesting to him...he didn't know why...but her voice seemed...familiar. He watched as she pulled herself with her arms over to the wheelchair, which had rolled away during the accident. Propping herself on one arm, she reached for it, turning it around and beginning to pull herself into it, but it rolled away again under her off centered weight.
She fell again to the floor and thats when he had enough, angry or not, he wasn't about to let a woman struggle like that. He opened the door and walked towards her, she turned her head and saw him. "I thought I told you to leave?!" she said in an almost panic. He ignored her, grabbing the wheelchair and whirling it around to face her, reaching down and clamping the brakes on the wheels. He then marched right up to her, and, much to her protest, picked her up bridal style and set her in the chair. She glared at him. "I told you I didn't need any help." "And I call bull shit." She blinked at his sudden boldness. "What?" "You heard me. I may not know you that well but I can tell when people really need help but are either too embarrassed or proud to ask for it. Which one are you?"
Then she noticed something different about him. He was no longer wearing his sunglasses, as they had been shattered during the fall. His ice-blue eyes seemed to bore into her, cutting through every front and facade she had. "I-I don't know what you mean." She stuttered. Damn what's wrong with me? Why can't I just tell him off like everybody else? "Judging by that, I say you're too proud, now the question is why?" Kurt said calmly, however on the inside he was quite the opposite of calm. What the hell am I doing? Since when did I become a shrink? She really looks cute though...damnit...its like I have a crush on her...NONONONO bad Kurt BAD! "Look...Its just...I don't like being pitied, okay! Everybody sees the girl in the wheelchair and offers to help because they feel bad! I'm sick of it! I can take care of myself just as well as someone with working legs! I. Don't. Need. Help." She vented, she wasn't sure why to him, but at the moment she didn't care.
"Thats it?" he just chuckled, which caused her to stop mid rant. "What? What are you laughing at?" "Nothing...well thats actually a lie but maybe I'll tell you later...anyway I have a server to get working...care to tag along?" She just stared, why, no how could this man get under her skin and just...disarm her like that? He just started walking off towards the rack on the wall, she watched as he looked over the counter and grabbed a couple of tools. She watched as he walked over to the rack and slid the server out, popping off its upper case.
Kurt looked inside the machine and found what he was looking for, the power supply wasn't properly screwed in, he picked up a screw driver and began adjusting the component. But the screwdriver slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor, rolling across the floor only to be stopped by Ayase's wheelchair. She leaned down and picked up the tool. "Need this?" she smirked as she wheeled over and handed the tool to him. "Decided to help eh?" "Well we are a team apparently...besides your different..."
{A/N So this one's a tad shorter...but I'll keep writing...review 'n stuff!}
-The17thScripter
