"Neo? Are you awake?" Trinity asked softly upon reentering his room- food in hand.
"Yeah." Neo sleepily replied, blinking his eyes open.
Trinity smiled at the vision before her- Neo with heavy eyelids, looking half asleep- before asking gently, "How are you feeling?"
"Better. My head doesn't hurt anymore."
"And your chest?"
"Throbbing." Neo smiled weakly despite the strength in his eyes.
"Well, I brought you some breakfast. Special of the day." Trinity added, trying to gain a reaction from him.
She was not disappointed. Neo arched an eyebrow in mockery before a slight smirk graced his face. "Hmm, I bet there were so many choices of cuisine to choose from." Lifting the bowl to his face, he smelled it. "So the special of the day is runny eggs?"
"Not hard to figure out, is it?" Trinity replied, her smile widening. She had long since given up on pushing down the emotions that were so desperately trying to be expressed. Happiness and exuberance were for once not being suppressed- were for once actually desiring to be conveyed- and Trinity allowed them to be, both in her smile and in her eyes. She knew that as much as she needed this- needed warmth and love in her life- she still had just lost four crewmembers, and she knew that it would be out of place to act as if none of the sadness and pain had affected her. So she kept her emotions in check- however strongly they fought for her to just let go and feel for once.
"It's food. I guess I should just be glad to be eating." Neo replied before taking a few bites.
"I guess so." Trinity suddenly felt a strong need to eat, and picked up her own spoon.
Several minutes passed in silence as they ate- Neo on his bed, Trinity sitting on the floor. When Neo had swallowed the last bite, he glanced down to watch Trinity place her bowl on the tray before looking at him, a silent question in her eyes. Understanding, Neo handed her his bowl, hoping to get another touch from her hand in the process. Disappointed when Trinity gripped the bowl from the other side, Neo pulled his hand back and proceeded to try to sit up, but only ended up gasping in pain.
"Let me help you." Trinity stood and moved over towards him. Slipping a hand under his shoulders, Trinity lifted him as she adjusted the pillows to allow for a more comfortable sitting position.
"Thanks." Neo's gratitude sounded genuine to Trinity's well-trained ears, causing her resolve to slip yet another notch. It seemed that as of late, Neo had been able to somewhat crumble the walls she had built around her heart and emotions- and with next to no effort.
At this sudden realization, Trinity straightened up before lifting the tray. "I-I should go. We need to start fixing this ship up enough to fly or at least- send out an SOS for the closest ship to help us."
Neo's confusion at Trinity's sudden change of attitude unnerved him, but only caused his resolve to show her love to strengthen. "I'll help."
"No. Neo- you need to rest. After everything that happened yesterday, you need the most rest out of all of us." Trinity calmly replied, crushing all ideas of his getting out of bed. Taking one last look at the rather aggravated look on his face before leaving, Trinity couldn't help but feel both sorry and aggravated also. Sorry because he was basically an invalid and aggravated because they really needed all of the help they could get.
"Shit." Trinity cursed quietly- one whole hour down the drain now that the fucking socket blew. Moving around to wriggle out from underneath one of the many engines on the ship, Trinity saw a pair of boots approaching. Standing on numb feet, Trinity wiped her hands on a rag before glancing in surprise at the man before her.
"Neo, what the hell are you doing out of bed?" Trinity moved forward, gripping his shoulders- and finding that he welcomed the support.
Pulling him to her body to keep him from falling, Trinity could do nothing but take Neo's silence as her answer. Sighing in submission to the fact that he just wouldn't listen when given an order- even for his own health- Trinity helped lead him back to his room.
After sitting him back on his bed, Trinity again turned to leave, but was stopped.
"Wait. I-I came out to see you." Neo explained quietly, watching, as Trinity froze mid-step and turned around.
"Why? You know I'd come to check up on you in a little while." Trinity couldn't help enjoying the warmth spreading through her veins at the statement.
"I didn't-couldn't wait that long." Neo answered, his face gaining a reddish hue. Running a hand over his scalp, Neo lifted his eyes to meet Trinity's gaze.
"Neither did I, but as soldiers, sometimes what we want to do isn't the same thing as what we have to do." Trinity slowly sat down next to him, her eyes on the wall opposite them, unfocused, as if in thought.
"Are we always soldiers?" Neo inquired softly.
"You mean, is there ever a time when we can throw our duties to the wind and just be free to live the way we want?" Trinity asked back. Off of Neo's nod, "Yes. For a glorious 30 hours."
"When?" Neo's shocked question didn't surprise Trinity; most newly unplugged people were amazed at this truth.
"In Zion. When we're off duty."
"Oh. Are we going there?" Neo turned his face towards hers and looked into her eyes. One would say looking into a person's eyes when they are unguarded is like taking a glance at their heart. Neo had never believed that until this exact moment.
Trinity broke the gaze, her eyes looking down at the floor, "Eventually. We need the ship to be in working order first. Once she can be flown, we'll send out a SOS call to make sure we can get home since we have no protection from another sentinel attack. Our ship has lost too much power to even attempt another EMP, let alone use the gun turrets."
"Gun turrets?"
"Every ship has at least two, but usually four, gun turrets where a crewmember mans each gun to fire at sentinels. It's a back up plan to the EMP. We almost never use our turrets." Trinity explained tiredly causing Neo to figure he wasn't the first to ask that question.
"Why not?"
"About five years ago, we had a man named Forrest on board. We were using the turrets to hold off about eight sentinels because Morpheus was still inside the Matrix. Well, one gun misfired and Forrest was killed. After that, Morpheus didn't trust the turrets and decided that we hide from sentinels as much as possible and try to only use the EMP."
"I'm sorry." Neo placed his hand over Trinity's, gripping it tightly. Trinity glanced down at his hand before interlacing their fingers together.
"I didn't know him that well. It seems that as the years since I'd been freed grew longer, I became more and more detached from the crew. I separated myself, using my higher rank as a smokescreen for the truth." Trinity's eyes locked with Neo's as she began to finally open up.
"What truth?" Neo asked carefully, hoping he wouldn't scare her away from talking about her past.
"That I was afraid that every new crewmember could be the One and that my strength as a soldier would crumble due to some fucked up prophecy saying I'd love him. I was afraid because I didn't want to meet him and love him because I was told it would happen. I wanted to love him not for his title, but for his humanity. I was afraid because when you came along, I did fall in love with you- against all promises I had made about not succumbing to such a feminine emotion."
"It's not an emotion specified to either sex, Trinity. It's not really an emotion at all actually." Neo replied, love entwined with each word.
"Then what is it?" Trinity asked, confusion gracing her face.
Neo sighed before answering. "You can't stop love from taking control of you; it's not some subject where you can draw a line down the middle of the page. It's not that simple. It's not complicated either. Rather, it's a feeling, and the only thing you can do is let it be felt."
"I want to feel it, but-we're soldiers. We shouldn't be-" Trinity's argument was cut short when Neo covered her lips with his own.
Gasping in surprise, Trinity felt Neo's tongue touch her bottom lip- as if tasting it- before retreating back to his mouth. Trinity's struggle ended when Neo broke away enough to speak, but close enough for the breath from his words to tickle her cheek. "Stop fighting. You can be both a soldier and a woman." Trinity's eyes closed as Neo's lips again touched hers, sending warmth shooting through her entire body. God how she wanted to stop fighting, and Neo was giving a moving defense with his mouth at the moment...Trinity's thoughts slipped through her mind, not really being acknowledged as she experienced the full range of sensations kissing the mouth of the man she loved could generate from her. Nipping at his lower lip to end the kiss, Trinity pulled back, slightly breathless.
"Whoa." Trinity smiled softly at Neo's comment.
"Exactly what I was thinking." Trinity's eyes suddenly became wider as she realized just how long she'd been in Neo's room. "Oh shit, I need to go up to the core- Morpheus needed help rewiring the computers! I'll-I'll be back later." Trinity quickly stood, mad at her forgetfulness.
"With dinner?" Neo asked with a tinge of sarcasm.
Trinity turned to give him a look before responding, "Another special of the day."
"Ooooh, I can't wait."