Author: Lokaia
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Slash of the favorite kind. H-B.
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By the third day of Harlan /knowing/ he was being studied, the human finally snapped. Oh, he'd snapped before, on many an occasion over the last three days, yelling and threatening Bova. At one point, he'd even attempted to tackle the other boy if only because then he might /finally/ be able to get a look at the compupad data. Unfortunately, Bova's freakish speed was still freakish and Harlan had only a ten minute respite before the Uranusian came out of hiding and began to quietly observe the human again.
But by the third day… by the third day he'd had enough.
Harlan was actually quite proud of himself. It was a difficult job and he'd done it on his own! …Aside from some help from Suzee. Not /that/ much, though. All she'd done was set up the distraction, the main point of the trick itself, and the delivery of the final product. See? Not much.
Right on cue, five minutes after Rosie had called Bova up to the mess hall to sample a new treat she'd created called 'brownies' and only two minutes after the crashing sound in the halls followed by Suzee's sharp snap of, "Watch it, Bova!", the Yensidian entered the team room with a smug smile on her face.
"Target achieved," she informed Harlan where he sat on the couch.
Harlan grinned back and reached out a hand. "Give it here, then."
The fact that she then decided to put her hands behind her back and give him another smug smile clued Harlan into the fact that Suzee would like to brag first. "First tell me what a genius I am."
Harlan, perhaps not thinking quite clearly, snorted and kept his hand outstretched. "Genius? You showed Rosie a brownie recipe and ran into Bova in the hall. What do you want, a medal?"
Smugness turned cold when Suzee began to glare at him. Suzee's glares had /never/ become less effective, though Harlan had managed to suppress the shudders it usually caused. "What do /you/ want? 'Cause it sounds to me like you don't /really/ want this com." At these words, she brought said compupad out from behind her back and waved it just out of his reach tauntingly. "See, if you /really/ wanted it, you wouldn't piss off the person who had it."
Harlan gave her a look that was incredibly serious and somber. "I'm not above tackling you, Suz."
"Hmm, and somehow, I'm not above calling Bova back down here to let him know he dropped his com."
The serious expression dropped and Harlan glared at her. Yup, just as ineffective a look as ever. Still, the glare did /something/. It told Suzee he was about to give up, and that caused her smug look to return. She smiled at him and waved the compupad just out of his reach again. "Oh, and don't forget to say how pretty I am, too."
At this point, Harlan thought, it would take him less than Bova's allotted week to wear all his teeth down with the grinding. Through clenched teeth, he managed to growl out, "You're a genius, Suzee. A very pretty genius. I am in awe of your presence."
"As it should be," Suzee replied, smiling and satisfied as she /finally/ tossed the compupad to him.
Harlan caught it out of the air so quickly, it might have actually looked as if he would try to tackle Suzee. It might have looked this way because the Yensidian immediately took several steps back with wide eyes. Of course, once she realized what he actually wanted, she turned and flounced from the room. But not before Harlan caught a glance of an embarrassed blush.
That, plus the achievement of finally holding Bova's compupad in his hands, caused Harlan to grin. As he turned his gaze toward the computer in question, that grin became almost predatory. Turning it on, he began to type quickly, searching through the information Bova had been keeping on him. Most of it seemed fairly generic: the order in which he did his morning schedule, how much time spent in ComPost duty, outside work, free time, and meals. There were a few little quirks here and there that were specifically Harlan: how many times he complained about things that couldn't be changed, how many times he argued and won vs. how many times he argued and lost. The human winced at the extremely low number of the former and high number of the latter. How much time he spent training was coupled with what exercises he did and how often he did them, which leg he favored for kicks and which arm he favored for punches.
As he scrolled through the almost-endless list of information, Harlan came upon a certain list that stopped him cold. Reading through the new list slowly, his expression became a mixture of surprise and intense confusion. By the time he'd finished reading, all he could do was look up blankly at the far wall.
"What the /hell/."