Sorry for the long absence. The IB does not treat students well. Many thanks to Shiroi for being my beta. Reviews are highly appreciated as always, have an idea for a chapter? Want to see Malik and Jensen in a particular situation? I'm open to suggestions! I hope you enjoy this one anyway.
The trip across the ocean was not the most comfortable. The VTOL was constructed with shorter ranges in mind, but could do the trip to Hengsha without too much fuss. Malik was accustomed to the rogue winds that battered the hull and made the plane sway worryingly, Adam however, was not. He had strapped himself in after the first winds had hit, it was only an hour later when Malik checked in with Adam, thinking he had been sleeping due to the dead silence, that she told him it was nothing to worry about and that she had done this several times before. Adam unbuckled himself with various grumbles whilst Malik laughed over the infolink. The rest of the flight was thankfully filled with conversation between the two Sarif employees.
"How am I supposed to find anything in that?"
Hengsha was something out of a film. Supernovas comprised of neon flared into the streets, blinding pedestrians at times. Ominous thudding and pulsing leaked from the various clubs on the corners of every second street. Alleyways and catwalks between the scavenged and mismatched buildings loomed like shapes cut out from the paintings of Picasso, uneven, jagged, at times threatening. The ceiling was also something else entirely. A city on top of another city, a decade ago that would be pure science-fiction. Right now, it was terrifyingly real. Small planes and the occasional VTOL slowly slid and crawled across the titanium shield between the rich and the poor like rain on the windows of a moving car. During these hours, when the sun shone sideways into lower Hengsha, many took to the rooftops to catch some healthy vitamin D. The golden blanket wrapped around the towers and the smaller skyscrapers of the blackened criminal empire, and many of the more good-hearted citizens of lower Hengsha, who had nowhere else to go. Nowhere but the unfinished coffin for a lesser loved city.
Malik was sitting alone atop the Hung Hua hotel, counting the the strobe lights on the passing pilots, knees to her chest, sitting on the ramp-way leading into her bird. For every flash, she imagined the note of a piano playing in her mind. The crisp, clean memory of a classical instrument distanced her from the synthetic sound that oozed out of every dimly lit doorway in this city. Faridah was the outsider, the onlooker from the sky even when she wasn't flying. Eventually, the trudging of augmented legs interrupted the little game Faridah had created for herself. A non-augmented ass flopped down on the ramp next to her with a weary sigh.
"Takeout?" Jensen offered the white box with black Chinese characters on it.
Malik hummed in an appreciative tone and gratefully grabbed the box from Adam's carbon fibre grasp without really looking at him.
Wasting no time, Malik wielded the pair of chopsticks like fine cursive writing, an art that many westerners have never bothered to master. Adam simply used a trusty fork to shovel food into his already munching mouth.
"Scho, how'd it go?" Faridah inquired with pieces of chicken dotting her words, as usual when they ate together.
"A few leads here and there, nothing solid yet." Jensen coolly answered, yet still positive.
"Atleasht you're poshitive, Sphy Boy."
"What can I say, you're rubbing off on me, Fly Girl." At that, they shared a synchronized smile. Adam's smile was more of a smirk though. If there was one thing Malik knew, was that you couldn't be picky when it came to Adam Jensen and facial expressions. A smirk might as well be a full-blown grin. There was something about it though, nowadays Malik felt as if he smirked more frequently, more genuinely, playfully, at her even. Wishful thinking perhaps, but she was positive about it.
And hot damn his glasses were sheathed.
The golden spores and dust from the Hengsha sun flooded the rotating circuitry in his eyes, illuminating them like yellow coils of light against the jade colour that looked surprisingly natural. The way they rotated and shifted seemingly imitated the flecks of sunlight that played on the green bottom of a shallow pool of crystal water. It was such a rare sight, Malik didn't care if she stared, this was fascinating as well as utterly gorgeous. Jensen waved his hand in front of the face of the pilot. She had stopped chewing, not something she does until she's absolutely finished with her food.
"Your eyes are incredible." She has never been so utterly honest, not in ages.
"They're not mine though."
She lays a hand on his shoulder. "They're a part of you, of course they're yours."
Adam looked at her, the soft clicking and shifting of his mechanical eyes giving the effect of someone tilting their head in thought.
"You really think of it like that?" Adam's voice took on a curious tone, wanting to see how Flygirl was thinking.
"They're physically and mentally grafted to you. Isn't that exactly like organic body parts? There's really nothing that great about denying what you are, Adam. You're human, like me. That's all that really matters, as long as this..." Malik pounded her fist on Jensen's chest, right where his heart was located.
"...Is always in the right spot, I for one, won't care how many augmented limbs you've got, and I know, that it's in the right spot. Always has been." Malik's smirk was a carbon copy of the one Jensen was quickly wearing out these days. Adam took Faridah's surrendered hand in his hand and looked at the conjunction of flesh and carbon fibre with a solemn look.
"Thanks Flygirl."
"Any time Spyboy."
"I'll remember it."
"Shut up and enjoy the sunset."
The orange accents of the VTOL slowly burned under the far-away gaze of the red sun, being slowly drowned by the hungry, cold hands of the ocean. The two operatives sat in the fire until it was purged by the silence of the stars, and the void that suspended them, framed by titanium and glass.