Chapter 84: the pLan
They were in his office. 37 stood at his computer, trying to boot it up (it had decided it was going to be slow). L sat in the desk chair, holding her injured hand. She was turning the chair from side to side, looking rather bored, though she said nothing of the sort. Instead, she complained about Riku.
37 politely tuned her out.
"Sir."
37 glanced up. Tulip stood in the doorway.
"He's acting up again," Tulip said, rather simply.
37 rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the computer. "I don't see why you're bothering me with this," he muttered. "Why don't you go tell Saix?"
"Saix told me to tell you," Tulip replied.
37 groaned and rubbed his head. "I don't know what he expects me to do about this. I'm no good with-"
"I'll take care of it!" L exclaimed, hopping to her feet.
"No," 37 told her simply, throwing a look over his shoulder at her.
She made a face. "Why not?" she whined.
"Because you're just going to start chucking lightning at him the moment he stops listening to you," 37 replied. He drummed his fingers on the desk, a tad annoyed. His computer was being ridiculously slow.
"I do need to work on my lightning technique…" L muttered, thoughtfully. "Considering my manipulation isn't as good as I thought it was… Riku should've stayed knocked out for at least a half hour…"
"Even so, I'm not sure I want you doing anything until your hand is fixed," 37 said. He let out a small sigh of relief when his computer finally loaded, and quickly pulled up the Repair Program.
L rolled her eyes. "I'll down a potion. That'll fix it."
"The answer is still no," 37 sighed. "You're going to end up throwing lightning, and I'm sure that Saix isn't going to be happy if-"
"Saix doesn't have a heart to be unhappy with!" L retorted. "And it's his fault for keeping that stupid-"
"You might want to watch what you say," 37 warned, throwing another look at her. "If Saix finds out I told you about him…"
L quickly closed her mouth.
"Saix would like to speak with you, sir," Tulip said, very simply.
37 groaned. He wasn't really in the mood to speak with Saix at the moment. The last raid had gone pretty terribly, and most of it was his fault. Plus, there were plenty of other problems that weren't getting solved.
That issue with Joseph…
The other issue that Joseph might be the solution to.
The fact Saix wasn't very happy that he might need Joseph's help.
The fact the Organization wasn't happy due to their lack of a Keyblade Wielder.
The Rebellion.
Riku.
The disruption on this side of things, ever since about half the Larxene Replicas decided they were going to be jealous of, or at least work up a strong dislike towards, L.
L herself could be considered an issue…
No, 37 told himself. The issue is how everyone regards the two of us. Therefore, I can be considered an issue, too.
The two of us…
Just another reason I don't want to talk to Saix right now.
He may not actually say anything, but I know he disapproves…
His discomfort on the matter must have shown in some way, because L placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know you don't want to talk to him," she breathed in his ear. "But you need to remember the plan."
Of course.
The plan.
He had nearly forgotten.
"Right," he said, nodding slightly. "I'll go talk to him in a minute. First, we should fix your hand."
She made a face.
He threw a glance at her, slightly annoyed. However… only slightly.
"I'll… be going… then…" Tulip said slowly. And, saying no more, he headed out, closing the door behind him.
L watched him go, a small smile growing on her face. "You know," she said after a moment. "We did a pretty good job Rewriting him. I wouldn't assume he used to be as awkward as he was, looking at him now."
She laughed then, sounding absolutely thrilled.
"Just imagine what we could do to Namine, then, when we Rewrite her!" she exclaimed. "It would be so-"
"Dear," 37 interrupted. "You're speaking as if we're going to be Rewriting her soon; I haven't even run this by Saix yet."
"Oh please," she scoffed. "We don't need Saix's permission!"
He sighed.
She had a point.
He hadn't needed Saix permission for other things…
However…
"We've still got to worry about Riku," he pointed out.
She shrugged. "Details," she muttered.
He laughed.
"Here, let me see your hand," he said.
She sighed and held her injured hand out to him. He took it, gently, and then carefully specified what he wanted the Repair Program to fix, so that he wouldn't hurt her. Once he had done that, he hit the ENTER key on the computer.
Her hand glowed blue.
Then it flashed red.
37 frowned, staring for a second in disbelief. He hit ENTER again.
He got the same results.
A window popped up on the computer.
"ERROR!" it read. "NO DATA MATCHES. REPAIR COULD NOT BE COMPLETED."
"What's going on?" L demanded, slightly angry. Her hand was beginning to hurt again.
"It's not working," 37 muttered.
"Yes, I can see that," she replied bitterly. "Do you have any idea why?"
"No," he sighed, entering a few commands on the computer. "It told me there were no Data matches, but that can't be right." He entered another command. "Unless… my computer's been disconnected from the Database somehow, which is unlikely." He groaned and rubbed his head, waiting for his computer to pull something up. He absolutely hated slow computers. "Maybe if we were to try from a different computer…" he muttered.
"We don't have time for that," L told him. "I'll just down a potion, like I said. You need to go talk to Saix!"
He sighed. "Got it," he muttered. And, even though it killed him to do so, he turned away from his computer and started for the door.
L caught him by the shoulder, stopping him.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
He turned to her, eyebrows raised.
She handed him his headset, frowning slightly. "You weren't going to forget it, were you?"
"Of course not," he replied, hastily putting it on.
She rolled her eyes, probably not believing him at all, and then sat back down in the chair. She picked up her walkie-talkie from the desk.
"Don't screw this up," she said into it, regarding 37 with a rather sharp look.
He smiled slightly.
"Wouldn't dream of it."