Dysfunctional -- Chapter 17

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Alec, Biggs, Renfro, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me.  No money is being made off of this fic.  I only own the original characters (X5-121, etc.).

121 sat on the roof of the building late one night a few weeks later, dangling her legs over the edge and looking out over the complex, smiling to herself.  I just love the view from here.  I can see so much of the place.  It’s really neat.  She zoomed in on some shapes in the distance and snorted.  Even the weird X7s.  Could those little freaks be any creepier?  I heard that the Wyoming and New York ones were a little less weird.  Lucky little bastards.  She looked up towards the roof access and a moment later, grinned and scrambled to her feet.  She met 511 halfway between the door and where she had been sitting and gave him a big hug.  “Welcome back, 511.  How did the mission go?”

“Went great,” 511 said.  “How have things been around here without my handsome face gracing the halls?”

121 laughed and ignored the slight blush on her cheeks.  “It hasn’t been too bad.  Fortunately, 908 seems to be going through a relatively good phase right now.  I mean, she’s still her bitchy self, but she hasn’t done anything major since she spent that week in Psy Ops eight months ago and she hasn’t gotten in trouble or at least been punished for it in the past five months.”  She grinned.  “You got lucky.  786 went into heat and for the I’ve-lost-count-how-many-ith time, she didn’t take herself to isolation when she started to feel the symptoms.  I think it was because 494 was called to sub for a trainer to teach a basic martial arts class to those little X8s so I was in charge for the time being and 786 still doesn’t take my leadership abilities too seriously.  I caught her as she was about to nail 584 from Unit 6 and I had them separated.”  She smirked.  “The fun part of that for me is that I got to threaten to send 786 to the brig the next time that she neglected to bring herself to isolation the next time she went into heat because this was a recurring pattern for her.  You should have seen the look on her face when 808 from Unit 6, 532, and those two guards took her off to isolation.  It was priceless.”

“You sure do love to tempt fate there, don’t you?” 511 teased.  “You’re always antagonizing 786 in one way or another.”

“Hey, this time not only was I allowed to do so, it was expected of me,” 121 said smugly.  They both laughed.  “I couldn’t help it if it was my duty as the ranking officer in the Unit present to discipline one of the soldiers under my command.  Military Protocol 101.”

“Where is it written that you have to enjoy it like that?” 511 wondered.

“Nowhere, but I think this would fall into the category of circumstance,” 121 said.  She sighed happily and looked back out into the distance.  “Does 494 know that you’re back from D.C.?”

“No, I went by our cells to drop off my stuff and in theory to go to sleep, but I didn’t see or hear either of you in your cells,” 511 replied.  “I thought that at least one of you would be up here so this was my second stop.”  He shrugged.  “No big deal.  If I don’t catch him before I go to sleep then I’ll see him first thing in the morning.”

“Okay,” 121 said.  She turned to look at 511 and once again, she felt that odd jolt when their eyes met.  She bit her lip and turned away, but 511 reached out and gently turned her around so that they were facing each other again.

“Actually, it’s probably just as well that I couldn’t find 494 and that you are the only one up here right now,” 511 said softly.  “I wanted to talk to you in private.”

121 felt her heartbeat speeding up.  “Oh?  What do you want to talk to me about, 511?”

“I…” 511 started to say, but what he had been planning on saying flew out of his mind and he just stared at 121 for several moments.  Forget words, he thought.  He leaned forward, reached up with one hand, and gently brought 121’s lips down upon his.  The kiss was long, slow, and sweet.  When the two of them finally parted, 121 looked at 511, her eyes wide.

“511,” she breathed.  She opened her mouth to say more, but she couldn’t.  She could barely form a coherent thought.  121 might have been a genetically engineered super soldier, but at that moment the only things that she was aware of were herself, 511, and just how right that kiss felt.

“Shhh,” 511 said, his voice still soft.  “You don’t have to say anything yet.”  He took a deep breath as he finally recalled what he had wanted to say to 121 before he’d kissed her.  “121, you know that you’ve been my other best friend for pretty much our whole lives.  You’re always there for me when I need you for anything.  You’ve made me laugh.  You…you’re just a wonderful woman.  Then that morning, the day before I left to go to Washington, D.C., I looked at you and something changed.  I saw you differently.  Maybe I’ve been seeing you differently all along, but I didn’t wake up to that fact until that one morning.  I don’t know, but I do know is that I spent every free moment that I had ever since trying to figure out what it all meant and I did.”  He gently caressed the side of 121’s face with one of his hands.  “I love you, 121, as more than a friend.  I’m honestly and completely in love with you.  Nobody has ever meant anything to me the way that you do.  Nobody.”

121’s eyes filled with tears of happiness.  “511, I…I feel…”  She couldn’t speak and took a moment to wipe the tears from her face and to try to get her thoughts together.  “I feel the same way.  I knew something was different that morning.  I couldn’t get it out of my head for these past few weeks.  I couldn’t get you out of my head for the last couple of weeks.  I love you, too.”  She leaned down and kissed him.  They wrapped their arms around each other, not breaking the kiss until they both had to breathe again several minutes later.  They stood there smiling at each other and they went over to the edge of the roof and sat down and looked out together.

“This is absolutely insane, but I absolutely love the fact that it’s insane,” 511 said.  “You and me, two genetically engineered soldiers that the general public has no clue exist, in love.  This definitely won’t be a conventional relationship.”

121 grinned.  “Good thing that neither of us are conventional people.”

“The best thing,” 511 agreed.  “Can you imagine what the rest of our unit, except for 494 of course, would and will say if and possibly when they find out about you and me?”

“That’ll be funny,” 121 said.  She laughed.  “I can see it now.  786 and 714 will definitely make some snide comments, 295 will bitch and moan about how this goes against more or less every single rule in the book, and 908…I’m not sure exactly what we’d get from her, but it’ll be either amusing, infuriating, or both.  I’m willing to bet both.  We should keep this bit of info between us, 494, and probably 849 and 228 for the time being.”

“Good call on all fronts,” 511 agreed.  “494 will be happy for us.  Absolutely.”

“He will, no doubt,” 121 said.  “He could tell that something was up at breakfast that morning.  If anything, we’ll probably get at least one ‘I told you so’ out of him followed by at least one ‘violence doesn’t solve anything, 121’ after I give him the requisite smack upside the head.”  She smiled.  “849 and 228 will also be happy for us.”

“They will be,” 511 echoed.  He smiled.  “I’m happy for us, too.”

121 smiled brightly at him.  “So am I.”