When Time Runs Backwards
Title: When Did It All Begin?
Rating: G
Summary: ...where it all began.
Previous Installments: Death Is Not The End, Payback, What's It Say?, Lazy Afternoon
It was not lust.
From Delta's perspective, there was no logic in such a primitive emotion. Reproduction was impossible, and he had no physical needs. From York's, it was simply not something he desired with another male figure. But contact, touch, just having another there beside him was something he had too long lived without. York wondered if 'platonic love affair' was an oxymoron so vast that it might create some new black hole and destroy a universe somewhere. But that was exactly what this was. Love - pure and simple and surprisingly uncomplicated.
He still remembered the first time he had seen Delta. Not Delta's armor, but Delta himself. It had shocked him, the face that looked back at him from inside his mind, but he had recognized him right away. There was no doubt that it had been Delta's face. It had just seemed so right.
York had reached out tentatively, believing until the last moment that his fingers would pass through Delta's face, and yet they did not. Beneath his hand he felt the warmth of flesh, the soft skin of his cheek. He had smiled for a moment, then collapsed into Delta's arms and cried for the first time in years.
He had never allowed himself to grieve over Carolina. Grief was a weakness he hadn't time for, but now it came spilling out and he could not stop it. Delta held him close as the stress cracked and gave way, letting emotions suppressed for far too long come to the surface. The pair sunk to the floor as great sobs wracked York's body. Now that it had started, there was a lot to get out.
It felt so good to just be held, to be safe in someone's arms and know he had nothing to fear. Delta - his only companion for years. He lived in his head but more than that, he understood him. He knew everything that he had been through. To York, he was not just some program, some AI. He had run to protect him, spent the last years on the run for one reason: he did not want to lose him.
I did not want to lose you either, York. Do you understand now? Do you understand why I could not let them take me out? It was not death that I feared.
"It's been so long, D. So long, alone."
You are not alone, York, Delta murmured softly, stroking his Agent's head to calm him. You have never been alone.
"You were wrong before," he said, his tears quieting a little. "This... this is exactly what I needed."
York finally succumbed to stress, grief and exhaustion. The weight he had carried alone for far too long was finally lifted, the burden shared at last. He felt safe, for the first time in ages, felt safe. For the first time in ages, he slept deep and untroubled.
It must be considered a logical possibility that given the complex and dynamic emotional needs of the human mind, Delta whispered to his sleeping York, that I would be wrong at some point. A soft smile touched his lips and he closed his eyes. He did not need sleep, but it was nice to shut down the extraneous processes from time to time and engage in the closest approximation he had to relaxation. He tightened his arms slightly around York and knew he was not alone either.
Rating: G
Summary: ...where it all began.
Previous Installments: Death Is Not The End, Payback, What's It Say?, Lazy Afternoon
It was not lust.
From Delta's perspective, there was no logic in such a primitive emotion. Reproduction was impossible, and he had no physical needs. From York's, it was simply not something he desired with another male figure. But contact, touch, just having another there beside him was something he had too long lived without. York wondered if 'platonic love affair' was an oxymoron so vast that it might create some new black hole and destroy a universe somewhere. But that was exactly what this was. Love - pure and simple and surprisingly uncomplicated.
He still remembered the first time he had seen Delta. Not Delta's armor, but Delta himself. It had shocked him, the face that looked back at him from inside his mind, but he had recognized him right away. There was no doubt that it had been Delta's face. It had just seemed so right.
York had reached out tentatively, believing until the last moment that his fingers would pass through Delta's face, and yet they did not. Beneath his hand he felt the warmth of flesh, the soft skin of his cheek. He had smiled for a moment, then collapsed into Delta's arms and cried for the first time in years.
He had never allowed himself to grieve over Carolina. Grief was a weakness he hadn't time for, but now it came spilling out and he could not stop it. Delta held him close as the stress cracked and gave way, letting emotions suppressed for far too long come to the surface. The pair sunk to the floor as great sobs wracked York's body. Now that it had started, there was a lot to get out.
It felt so good to just be held, to be safe in someone's arms and know he had nothing to fear. Delta - his only companion for years. He lived in his head but more than that, he understood him. He knew everything that he had been through. To York, he was not just some program, some AI. He had run to protect him, spent the last years on the run for one reason: he did not want to lose him.
I did not want to lose you either, York. Do you understand now? Do you understand why I could not let them take me out? It was not death that I feared.
"It's been so long, D. So long, alone."
You are not alone, York, Delta murmured softly, stroking his Agent's head to calm him. You have never been alone.
"You were wrong before," he said, his tears quieting a little. "This... this is exactly what I needed."
York finally succumbed to stress, grief and exhaustion. The weight he had carried alone for far too long was finally lifted, the burden shared at last. He felt safe, for the first time in ages, felt safe. For the first time in ages, he slept deep and untroubled.
It must be considered a logical possibility that given the complex and dynamic emotional needs of the human mind, Delta whispered to his sleeping York, that I would be wrong at some point. A soft smile touched his lips and he closed his eyes. He did not need sleep, but it was nice to shut down the extraneous processes from time to time and engage in the closest approximation he had to relaxation. He tightened his arms slightly around York and knew he was not alone either.