Active Time

It was rare that both X and Zero were both in the same place at the same time, these days. It wasn't that they weren't often together, but that time was spent fighting together, regenerating and being repaired together, or sitting on each other's Tag Assist list, with one of them restless at the base and the other risking their life in the field. Anything like privacy was nearly unheard of; the Hunters remained short on staff and the Federation stretched them even thinner with draconic rules and regulations about active time.

War machines simply weren't supposed to have personal lives, and senior-level Maverick Hunters such as X and Zero weren't even supposed to be activated until an incident of a certain level occurred, because of their deadly capacity... but, being Reploids all, no Hunter really agreed with that and so, sometimes, little white lies were told...

~ ~ ~

Zero jolted in his recharger, snapping out of idle when he felt vital energy coiling into his systems, flooding up his sub-tanks and priming his body for conflict. A mission... At least the Federation wasn't going to send him out half-starved this time. He blinked as he scanned the mission data that was filling his senses alongside the power. A real clusterfuck, it sounded like, and the 17th was calling for hardcore backup.

Which was just the sort of situation that really needed a certain red monster's special touch... Zero chuckled, grinning ferally as his body unraveled into long strings of green DNA, flowing across the world. What'd you get yourself into now, X?


~ ~ ~

Hunters were much, much smarter than the computers that managed them. As long as they were careful, the Hunters could work the system. It'd been started by X's subcommander Mercury, who'd managed to slip the Federation leash long enough to get in three hours of personal time with the subcommander of the 0th, May (there were already jokes about the subcommanders following the commanders a little too closely) and X, after he caught them at it, had ripped them a new one for thirty minutes, as was his duty- and then spent another thirty minutes working out how they could do it better.

It was just a matter of convincing the dispatching AI, and Mercury'd found the loophole - it was all about registered specialties. Every Hunter's special skills and techniques had been carefully labeled, monitored, dissected and approved- but once they were approved for active time Hunters weren't to be interfered with until the battle was complete and the Mavericks were demolished.

So, if one Reploid wanted to see his girlfriend from another unit, he simply claimed that he desperately needed assistance from a Hunter of her particular specialty- and the commanders were careful to manage their staff rosters on a rotation that just happened to make it so that so that there were never any two units with the same specialty available at the same time. They jokingly called it the "social calendar", and it ensured that everyone, eventually, had at least a sliver of time to exist just for themselves...

It was true that the 17th felt they needed a berserker to deal with this particular Maverick, and Zero's stats fit the bill. X had already tested the enemy, coming off just bad enough for wear that he could justify a support call, and the unit was still within acceptable active time use for a Maverick of this type.

But it was also their turn on the calendar. When Zero materialized, strong blue arms swept around him, and he was fiercely embraced.

A-ha, so that's what that insane mission spec was about... "How long do we have?" the red Hunter whispered, eyes widening in eagerness.

"Maybe an hour. C'mon." X kissed the side of his partner's throat and tugged Zero backward into the shadows.

~ ~ ~

They'd scurried off to an abandoned room a bit south of their starting position; one of the Maverick's armories, picked bare by the 17th and now dark and hollow, with empty weapon racks lining the walls. There was just barely enough light to see by, and the chamber was chill and airless, a place where nothing good had ever happened.

"Boy, you pick the nicest places, don't you?" Zero drawled to X, grinning as he backed into one of those racks and almost-lazily tilted his head back, surveying. Looked strong enough... he raised his arms above his head and pointedly stroked a finger along one of the rack bars before he gripped them tightly with both hands. His eyes glinted wicked blue; he rocked his hips toward X, coyly. "What do you think? Been a while..."

X stared as Zero swayed along the rack, greedy brightness in his gaze- then he began to grin as he caught the implication. He traced the red Hunter's body with his eyes, the way his body rose and fell with his breathing, strands of his pale blond hair curled around one hip- oh, THAT was something to file in permanent recall... "I definitely think so," he murmured, smile spreading. Of course, doing this was crazy, risking things like this was crazy, but... he wanted this, needed this...

There was a breath, and they stared intently at each other, systems shifting in preparation- then X air-dashed into Zero, and caught the red Hunter's thick wrists in his own hands, pinning them firmly in place against the bars. Zero grunted softly and writhed, testing X's hold. The blue Hunter felt blood rushing to his head, gritted his teeth. No, he wasn't going to let Zero slip loose so easily- he redoubled his grip, feeling the pulse of Zero's artificial blood thundering beneath his skin, beneath his fingers. Their eyes never came apart, but X's gaze was as firm as his grip, and Zero began to breathe harder, in dark anticipation.

He hooked his foot around the back of X's left ankle and carressed it, brushing his lips over X's just to tease him, "Someone's in a mood, I see." He purred, "I think I like it."

"Masochist," X let out a sharp breath, not hiding the shiver Zero's tone sent down his spine. But god, if Zero wasn't looking absolutely edible, stretched out like that... He shifted his weight against the other Hunter, pressing a hand to the base of Zero's spine: "Be good and don't move your hands, then. I like them right where they are."

The red terror bared his teeth in a nasty smile. "Since when does a Hunter like me listen to a Maverick like you?"

X's eyes began to gleam, That game? I can do that... and his body shifted. Zero startled, recognizing the colors of the Shotgun Ice. X pulled back enough to take careful aim and fired two short blasts from his buster arm that encased Zero's wrists and fingers in a thick layer of ice, freezing them to the metal rack. "Since you were careless enough to let me catch you, I think. Now, Hunter, let's see some of that armor off you."

"Make me," Zero spat, raising his head to glower. His hands were frozen and his fingers were going numb, but he'd never felt more potently alive; X was so good at this... He pushed at X with his pelvis to throw him off. "You'll have to crack it off with your bare hands."

X let out a breathless gasp - Zero never looked more beautiful than when he was defiant. He snatched quickly at Zero's shoulder, drawing away the Saber from its storage slot and ever-so-casually flicking it on with his thumb. The green blade snapped on, and after pretending to study the familiar weapon carefully, X leveled the tip just beneath Zero's chin at the line where his jaw joined his throat. "I said, pop the armor, Hunter. Now."

The icy chill of the Saber's power was enough to sear, though X was handling it deftly enough that it never quite touched his skin. Zero clamped his lower lip in his teeth and, snarling, sent his system the command to power down. There was a momentary flare as his default armor faded back into energy and recoiled into storage in his body, leaving him shuddering in a conductive-mesh grey and black bodysuit. Black lines of pressure sensitive interface conduit ran down his thighs and across Zero's chest, a web that outlined and defined his slim shape. His armor was nearly half his bulk; without it, he wasn't much larger than a tall human, and he glared at X, wondering just how far the other Hunter was going to take it tonight. Don't wuss out on me now.

"Okay, so, I'm naked," Zero taunted. "Big deal. Anybody can get this far. That doesn't make you special."

X's eyes narrowed. He withdrew the Saber, turning it off and tucking its hilt at his waist, then reached out and ran his finger down one of the conductive lines across Zero's chest- watching with pleasure as the blond gasped, then arched his back.

"You were saying?" X smirked, snatching Zero's chin and kissing him abruptly. He attacked again, stroking both of the major pressure-lines on Zero's chest with the pads of his thumbs, slowly...

White fire burned through the former Maverick, and he cried out under X's mouth. X pushed closer, nudging between Zero's legs and running his hands along the conduits flowing down Zero's broad back to the base of his spine. Zero shrieked again, and X drew back to savor the blond's exquisite struggling. He knew he was flushed as well, giddy with the feel of Zero's powerful frame captive beneath him. That body that was beginning to pulse with energy in his senses, and his own was a low, thrumming ache now- they were getting closer...

"I'm special enough to make you scream," X murmured, tilting his head. Placing a series of deft, almost immaterial kisses down the side of Zero's throat, he decided to shift to another level of cruelty- one more refined and graceful but no less wicked. To touch, almost, but not quite...

Zero growled savagely, jerked his arms, his unbound hair spilling over his shoulders, but even with his armor gone, the thick ice still held firm across his wrists. "Untie me. Hh. Dammit, X...!"

X struggled not to laugh at the desperation that was rising up in the former Maverick's face- it wouldn't have been fair. "No. Be quiet." He pressed his hand over Zero's mouth to stifle further complaints, and went on teasing- barely there kisses, narrow bursts of heated breath touching here and there, grazing his teeth just so over the conduit line on Zero's shoulder. X toyed with Zero's body until he felt something resonate, a deep secret signal-pulse thrown out of Zero's body that his own seized on, and rebounded, and drew down into his cells; a rush of desire spiralled rapidly from the base of his back and rose through his spine as everything in him shifted, just so. It was X's turn to gasp.

They were ready. Zero sensed it too; the air had become magnetic, charged up by their bodies shifting into higher gear. X drew his hand back from Zero's mouth, took his head between his palms, and their foreheads touched as they gasped together.

"Ready?" X whispered.

Zero's eyes were translucent crystal, staring- aching - into the other world that was rising in his mind... "Fuck yeah."

Then, once more, they kissed- but this kiss was utterly unlike those that had come before. As their lips met, as they cried out softly across each other's tongues, secret connections flared into life beneath their skin. Data and potent chemicals moved across their mouths, X releasing, Zero receiving, his body performing rapid alchemy to complete and unleash back into their bodies a cocktail of neurochemical fire that elevated their awareness...

The pleasure of it was far beyond human words or human concepts; it was something unique, a nameless Reploid secret. Absolute synchronization, total dissolve, a miracle... It was over almost instantly; it lasted a million years. And when they unraveled into themselves again, became aware of their bodies again, they were both wild-eyed and shaking, grinning in terror and awe and flushed with pleasure.

"...holy shit," Zero broke the silence with an awed whisper. He felt utterly invigorated, revitalized. He dropped his arms around X and hugged him ferociously- the ice had evaporated from the force of their interfacing- and nudged the blue Maverick Hunter with his nose. "X...?"

X surfaced more slowly, a little dizzy, a lot contented. He exhaled against Zero, sated. "...Yes, Zero?"

"...How much time do we have left?"

A sly smile grew by degrees on X's mouth. "Time enough for my turn."