A/N – Not the most action packed chapter, but they can't all be. Some plot development and the like. Please read and drop a review. More to come shortly.

Oh, and to those people who were asking about Odds and Ends (I'm going to be really embarrassed if I got the wrong title of my own collab XD;;;) the next chapter was thrown up oh… ten minutes before this thing was! Hooray!

Gimp

X rolled over slowly with a groan and forced his eyes to open. "Morning…" he grunted and patted Zero softly. Only it wasn't Zero; rather it was Zero's pillow

He sat up and groaned a little louder, that usual faint ache crawling up his lower back slowly, causing him to wince. That bastard… Fucking him silly and then taking- he blinked slowly, frown righting itself into a small smile. There was a note on his pillow from the blonde.

Morning lovely (and hopefully not angry!),

Don't worry about field training this morning – I've decided to give your unit a lesson in humility, Zero style. Beating up rookies always was a favourite pastime of mine.

Zero

X couldn't help but smile a little at that. It almost made up for the blonde's little confession the night before- almost.

Well, as nice a gesture as it was, no sense in wasting the day in bed. He got up slowly, throwing a robe over his bare body. He wasn't feeling up to wandering about, but there was still paperwork to do, and of course his meeting with Cain that evening.

He brewed himself a pot of coffee, and was just taking his seat at the work desk in his living room, mug in hand when Dynamo let himself in the door. He strolled over to the shorter man and gave his sash a sharp tug, blinking as his robe fell open.

"Ooh, neither… Very daring!" he mused, then raided the coffee.

X took a few deep, calming breaths before he snapped. Getting angry at Dynamo was about as effective as trying to explain quantum physics to a five year old. "What the hell do you want, Dy?" He asked, annoyed. The tall, blue haired man had bothered him so much lately he was ready to strangle him.

"Hey, don't get so touchy. Have a hard night? Poor X, you can come sit in my lap if you want." Dynamo cooed, copping a feel and then dodging X's foot. "I'm here on business, you know."

"Business?" X frowned. What business could Dynamo have with his head in their refrigerator? "What business? What are you up to?"

Dynamo blinked at him, shrugging, and took a bite of chicken from last night's dinner. "You." he shrugged, eating slowly. "Got hired to watch you. " he leaned against the counter, smiling at him disarmingly. "Just to watch."

X frowned at that. Who would have him watched? Why would someone even watch him? Could it be…? No. Sigma was dead. And even if he wasn't, some bad business had gone down between him and Dynamo years ago; Dynamo hadn't received some promised money, and he no longer did work for the mavericks. Then who?

"Who is it?" This could become a serious problem. Dynamo, however, was oblivious to X's dilemma. He grinned a little and shrugged in response. Damn mercs and their cherished confidentiality.

"I'm bored." Dynamo whined, sulking when his comment went ignored. "Where do you hide the sex toys?" he flopped down on the bed, checking under the pillows; then leaned over the side, hair dragging on the floor lightly as he checked under the bed.

"Dy, if you don't come out from under there, I'm going to kick you out… No, forget it. I'm going to kick you out anyway."

"Maybe here?"

"Dynamo."

"Behind the boxes?"

"Dynamo, I'm serious."

"Hey, I found them!"

"Dynamo!" X shouted. Within seconds Dynamo was out the door, bolt sliding shut behind him. "Don't come back!" he cried, muffled.

Dynamo shoved his hands in his pockets and wandered off, grinning. That had been way too easy. Now he could watch X from afar; he had the whole room bugged. Not that he wouldn't visit. He ducked in a dark hallway, activating his pager. "Better have that money ready, this won't take long at all." He allowed himself a brief smirk before cutting the connection.

() () () () () ()

X filled out his paperwork feverishly, sighing loudly. Once Dynamo had left he'd thrown his clothes on. At least he'd finally had some peace and quiet. Grabbing a big box, he filed the paperwork quietly, blinking when he heard a faint rapping again.

Sighing, he got up and answered the door, surprised to see it was Alia; she hadn't been over n ages. "Did you see Dynamo on your way over ere? " he asked, paranoid and wanting to be sure the mercenary had really left.

She rolled her eyes a little, nodding. "Yes, he pinched my ass as I was coming out of the office." She took a seat at the couch, sweeping her hair back with her hand. The body language was unmistakable. She wanted to talk about something. "You haven't been by in a long time, X."

X sighed, eyes on his paperwork. "Yeah, I know. Between work keeping me at my desk or on the field, and Zero keeping me in bed, I've been rather busy."

Alia smiled a little at this. Yaoi was always a forgivable pastime.

X paused, pen resting on the form in front of him lightly. "Seems as if they're trying to keep me busy all the time… And distracted too." He spared her a glance, looking up from the form he was filling out. "Know anything about it?"

Alia held her hands up in defense. "Sorry, this is your battle, not mine." She sighed. "I wish I knew what was going on, but the truth is that you probably know more than any of us. You're the one who's been going to all those meetings."

X nodded a little. He'd figured as much. The humans were keeping all of them in the dark, not just him. Still, apart from programming and reploid engineering, gossip was Alia's field of expertise. He was surprised she didn't know anything- she had a tendency to learn things she really wasn't supposed to know. This just further proved just how little everyone else knew. He really was the only one with an inking as to what was going on.

() () () () () ()

Sigma sat at his desk quietly, ignoring the maverick standing next to him. He was going over battle plans, preparing for when he would meet with X, and make him see the err of his way. One reasonable conversation would take care of things, he was sure of it. If he had X on his side, he knew he could sway the majority of the reploids to join their cause, the virus would take the rest later. If he played this out carefully, there was no way he could lose.

"Sigma, sir. When do we attack?" The maverick spoke up with finally, staring at his battle plans. "The men are getting restless." Sigma held his hand up to silence him and he did so. The maverick immediately fell silent, staring up at him quietly. "Tell them to have a little more patience, they'll have their fun soon enough."

The maverick nodded, taking his leave.

The bald man sighed, returning to his plans. They would indeed attack soon; midnight the following evening, but he wasn't about to announce it. He always got better results when he didn't inform the other mavericks ahead of time about when the attack would be. It got their blood burning more. Finally, it was almost time to get his plans under way. He'd been planning this for years, lying in wait and starting small, unorganized attacks to keep the Maverick Hunters distracted. Because of this, the Hunters now thought him dead; they had no idea what he had in store for them.

This, of course, wasn't a major attack, just a little wake up call, a reminder to let them know the mavericks were still there. It also provided the perfect opportunity to approach X. They were so close now…

He couldn't help but grin.

() () () () () ()

X stared blankly at the blonde woman as she ran on and on, her voice long since transformed into background noise, and his eyes wandered from time to time to the bedroom, where his warm, soft bed awaited him, cool sheets pulled back lightly. He frowned a little. He found it rather sad that he was fantasizing about being alone in bed and sleeping; then, Zero and himself were hardly the normal couple.

"Yeah, and then the aliens swooped down, gave me a lobotomy, and here I stand; missing a piece of my lobe and good as new."

"Uh huh." X grunted.

Alia, sensing X's lack of concentration finally, had the good grace to leave the man to his thoughts. "You know, it's late and I've got a lot of paperwork left, so I guess I'll see you around." She kissed his cheek lightly and let herself out the door, trying to mask her agitation at the inattentive X.

X watched her leave quietly, hoping she wasn't upset with him, and sighed, leaning back on the couch and groaning quietly when his hand dropped limply onto the massive stack of paperwork. He'd rather hoped that it would just go awake if he didn't think about it for awhile, but things rarely went his way anymore.

He stared at the papers for a few moments more, giving himself a mental pep talk before picking up his pen and returning to his paperwork, which continued to wait for him faithfully. Slumping back against the cushions heavily, he prepared himself for a long, boring day of forms and charts while Zero got to flit about outside in the sun, not a care in the world. Zero had no idea how lucky he was to be far out of X's sight right now.

He settled and began the long, boring task laid out before him.