Clu had only done what he did best, back on the Grid. The same sort of tricks he'd pulled on the MCP, but bigger and better, since he wasn't all on his own, not distracted by other missions. He'd been fully free to be the biggest bug in his younger brother's code and had taken full advantage of it. And he'd enjoyed doing it too, both in terms of the satisfaction that came from helping those who needed it, and in satisfying the urge to cause mischief that lurked in the code of every hacker.
He'd been defiant when first hauled before his code brother, ready to face his fate again like he had at the hands of the MCP. But instead of torture, a swift deresolution, or recoding, he'd been met with a proposition. His code brother needed the hacker's skills to try and undo the miss he'd made of the system in his mad quest to wipe out the ISOs. In return Clu would see not only his life and code integrity spared, but have the chance to act as a counterbalance. To pull his code brother away from a decision tree that led inevitably to nothing but destruction for all involved. What had started as a reluctant alliance had become more familiar, the more his code brother started acting like an actual admin, rather than a poor copy of the MCP. And eventually, he wound up in his code brother's bed.
He honestly wasn't sure how much his code brother recalled of their first downcycle spent together. The admin had consumed enough high grade energy to kill a less durable program, enough that even the admin's systems rebelled and finally made him purge the worst of it. Not trusting anyone else to do so, he'd hauled his code brother's overcharged ass to bed and lay down with him, intending at first to stay only long enough to make sure he entered sleep mode safely. But instead, he'd ended up with his code brother drunkenly clinging to him, confessing things Clu knew he'd never say sober, and wanting to be touched. Held. Loved.
Already practically crackling with charge, it hadn't taken much effort to bring him to overload the first time; an overload that was probably at least a little painful judging by the amount of static Clu had picked up from it. The second was much gentler though, and by the third, when Clu finally found his own overload, his code brother actually dropped into sleep mode. And Clu, tired and still a bit concerned, had opted to just power down next to him, privately deciding to keep what had happened that night to himself unless his code-brother- and only his code brother- asked for details.
He never really had. But they began spending the downcycles together fairly regularly after that, sometimes interfacing, sometimes not. And he never again saw his code brother trying to drink himself into oblivion.
Their lives in the User world seemed so far removed from that downcycle. But in some ways they weren't Clu still found himself wanting to take care of his code brother. And his code brother still found himself wanting- and occasionally really needing- to be taken care of. And not just for reasons of biology.
And this game? Was the perfect chance to do that, in more ways than one.
"No more eggs," he agreed with a bit of a wry smile. Given what his own first attempt at eggs had produced, he doubted his former-bachelor character had done much better. And the consequences would be a bit more dramatic with a pregnant omega in the house.
He hadn't missed that gasp, and his smile turned a bit teasing as he shifted more deliberately against her. Fitting them a bit more snuggly together than was strictly necessary, in hopes of seeing what else might pull at her.
He took a long, innocent sip of his cocoa, using the time to consider his response. "They're both lovely," he said. "Maybe 'Sarah' for a first name, and 'Marie' for a middle name, since 'Maria' doesn't quite fit in the middle?" Still enough of a difference to dodge the most loaded of the implications its base name carried.
no subject
He'd been defiant when first hauled before his code brother, ready to face his fate again like he had at the hands of the MCP. But instead of torture, a swift deresolution, or recoding, he'd been met with a proposition. His code brother needed the hacker's skills to try and undo the miss he'd made of the system in his mad quest to wipe out the ISOs. In return Clu would see not only his life and code integrity spared, but have the chance to act as a counterbalance. To pull his code brother away from a decision tree that led inevitably to nothing but destruction for all involved. What had started as a reluctant alliance had become more familiar, the more his code brother started acting like an actual admin, rather than a poor copy of the MCP. And eventually, he wound up in his code brother's bed.
He honestly wasn't sure how much his code brother recalled of their first downcycle spent together. The admin had consumed enough high grade energy to kill a less durable program, enough that even the admin's systems rebelled and finally made him purge the worst of it. Not trusting anyone else to do so, he'd hauled his code brother's overcharged ass to bed and lay down with him, intending at first to stay only long enough to make sure he entered sleep mode safely. But instead, he'd ended up with his code brother drunkenly clinging to him, confessing things Clu knew he'd never say sober, and wanting to be touched. Held. Loved.
Already practically crackling with charge, it hadn't taken much effort to bring him to overload the first time; an overload that was probably at least a little painful judging by the amount of static Clu had picked up from it. The second was much gentler though, and by the third, when Clu finally found his own overload, his code brother actually dropped into sleep mode. And Clu, tired and still a bit concerned, had opted to just power down next to him, privately deciding to keep what had happened that night to himself unless his code-brother- and only his code brother- asked for details.
He never really had. But they began spending the downcycles together fairly regularly after that, sometimes interfacing, sometimes not. And he never again saw his code brother trying to drink himself into oblivion.
Their lives in the User world seemed so far removed from that downcycle. But in some ways they weren't Clu still found himself wanting to take care of his code brother. And his code brother still found himself wanting- and occasionally really needing- to be taken care of. And not just for reasons of biology.
And this game? Was the perfect chance to do that, in more ways than one.
"No more eggs," he agreed with a bit of a wry smile. Given what his own first attempt at eggs had produced, he doubted his former-bachelor character had done much better. And the consequences would be a bit more dramatic with a pregnant omega in the house.
He hadn't missed that gasp, and his smile turned a bit teasing as he shifted more deliberately against her. Fitting them a bit more snuggly together than was strictly necessary, in hopes of seeing what else might pull at her.
He took a long, innocent sip of his cocoa, using the time to consider his response. "They're both lovely," he said. "Maybe 'Sarah' for a first name, and 'Marie' for a middle name, since 'Maria' doesn't quite fit in the middle?" Still enough of a difference to dodge the most loaded of the implications its base name carried.