Author's Notes: Wow guys. We are at the (well… maybe) end of the happy stuff. Now, I have one other chapter planned to be short and kinda silly before all of the lead-in to the SAD. But I need to know if you guys think that it's kinda time to go, if you will. I may take it out because I've already gotten the feeling that the story needs to change as a better lead-in to the Roche fiasco but it's mostly up to you guys. If you think that the story needs to start transitioning (or you're getting sick of random fluffy crap) let me know and I'll make a decision from there. Thank you!
No Warning Really
19. Taking Flight
"Hey Rorschach," Dan looked up from the console, grinning almost playfully under the goggles and cowl, "I've been thinking about some things. I think you ought to learn how to fly Archie."
Rorschach raised an eyebrow, the action lost under shifting latex, "Must be joking."
Dan laughed, "No, I'm not! Think about it, what's gonna happen is one night I'm put out of commission for some reason or another and we need to haul ass outta there and you have no idea what to do? Can you see how that would be a problem?"
"Not flying your Owlship Daniel."
Dan's grin widened, "Why? You scared?" Rorschach trained a scornful glare at Dan as if to say, really? Dan shrugged, unimpressed, "I mean, I guess I can see why you'd be nervous. You should have told me you were afraid of--oof!" A purple-gloved hand jerked him out of his chair onto his feet and swiftly socked him in the arm. Rorschach let out a dissatisfied "Hrn" as he scooted the chair forward to bring the console to his reach.
"Ow!" Dan glared at him, feeling two parts amused, one part annoyed, "You sucker punched me!"
Rorschach turned sharply in the seat, mask scowling, "Going to teach me how to drive your stupid ship? Or you can keep whining. Your choice."
Dan snickered, amusement winning out, "Yeah, yeah I'm coming. And don't call Archie stupid, I'm sure he doesn't appreciate it."
Rorschach stared at him for a second before slowly turning back to the lighted buttons. He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "sorry." to the console and Daniel had to bite back a grin.
"Okay then," His voice strained with amusement, "Shall we?"
"Nrg." Seeing a nervous Rorschach was a beast rarely found in nature and was highly amusing to observe. But it would be cruel for even Daniel to tease him about it, so he was silent.
"All right. So right now Archie's in hover," his voice adopted a businesslike tone, "you can engage and disengage hover by pressing the yellow button there but- wait!"
Not waiting to listen to the rest of Dan's instruction, Rorschach punched the pulsing yellow button, causing Archie to drop into free fall.
"Augh!" Had this been any other situation, the amount of confusion and alarm in Rorschach's single non-word exclamation would have been hilarious. And it still was, a little bit, as Daniel lunged out of his seat and punched hard on the yellow button again. The sudden stop knocked Dan to his knees, but Rorschach, who had leapt to his feet sometime during the fall, had toppled over the left armrest to land in an undignified pile somewhere out of sight.
"Ror-Rorschach?" Dan wheezed, fighting for control between relief and hilarity, "You okay?"
He peeked over the side of the chair, not bothering to get off his aching knees just yet. The little vigilante was sprawled out on his back, arms outstretched and one foot caught up in the armrest. His hat had tilted over his eyes so that the brim rested on the tip of his nose, covering his eyes.
"Ennk."
It was the little "ennk" that did it for Daniel. The taller man slumped back to lean against the foot of the copilot's chair and positively howled with laughter. Rorschach clambered stiffly to his feet, white mask almost completely covered with black ink.
"Thank you Daniel, was very educational."
The way he mumbled that out, trying desperately to sound vaguely irritated and indifferent made Dan feel a little bad for laughing at him. Rorschach was surprisingly sensitive for being so insensitive. "Ah, no Rorschach… Come back. Look, it was my fault, I should have been clearer. You're doing fine."
Daniel could feel Rorschach's glare from under the heat-disturbed mask, "No lies Daniel. Don't need your platitude."
Dan sighed tiredly, climbing to his feet and walking over to where his partner sulked, "Man, leave it to you to suck the fun out of everything. I'm not lying to you. Really. I almost crashed into the Hudson my first time driving and I built the thing." Dan was going to say more, but suddenly the world lurched out from underneath him as a pinstriped leg swiftly kicked his feet out from underneath him. He fell with an "oomph!" and stars danced in front of his eyes. He blinked up at his partner's shifting visage which looked oddly smug.
"What'd you do that for, you crazy asshole?" Daniel demanded, confused.
"Balances," came the swift reply. Which in Dan's mental Rorschach-to-English dictionary meant, "that's what you get for laughing at me, you jerk." So Dan wasn't too annoyed.
"Whatever man." He pulled himself into a sitting position and Rorschach, to Dan's surprise, grabbed his arm and pulled him up the rest of the way; a silent non-apology, "Okay, so right now, I'm gonna tell you what everything does and then we're gonna put it to use."
Turns out, once Rorschach got his footing with the whole affair, he was a very fast learner. He remembered where all the controls were and readily repeated the functions back to Daniel when asked. His first real flight went well too. True, he had a tendency to go way too fast and an adult video store's billboard would never be the same again (secretly, Dan thought he did that on purpose), but by the end of the night, Daniel was ready to chalk it up as a success.
When it was time for Dan to drop Rorschach off in some dark alley or another, Rorschach shook his hand, almost shyly, with both his hands, "Thank you Daniel," he mumbled awkwardly, "Was very…" He paused, searching for the right word.
"Fun?" Dan supplied hopefully.
"Educational." Rorschach grunted, pulling away from the handshake.
Daniel grinned, "I had fun too."
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A/N: Yay! Rorschach knows how to drive the ship now!! Kind of. Haha. So yeah, like I said, let me know if you think that THE SAD needs to come now or how you think it's going so I can take that into account when making the ultimate decision. Thank you muchly for your support on this journey that's pretty much halfway over! :O