Chapter Text
The ring closed, and the storm was literally at their backs. Crypto jabbed the syringe into his wrist, healing the damage from both the fog and the battle they barely survived. He cast a glance to his teammate, but Bangalore was alternating between healing up and yelling at Mirage in the comms. The fool followed them until he wasn't, turning tail back further into the storm.
"I swear, if you went back for more of the loot-"
"I d-didn't!" Mirage called back indignantly, pain lace in his voice.
"Hurry up and get out here then. Ring's gonna get you the longer you stay in there." Bangalore said sternly.
"Almost there!" Mirage retorted. There was a sudden gush from the geyser behind them, and Crypto looked up to see the trail of smoke gliding towards them. Mirage tucked into himself, heels skidding along the ground as he stumbled. "See, I-I made it!" he grinned, but he remained bent in on himself, arms folded.
The brief flash of concern on Bangalore's face hardened as she tossed a medkit to his feet. "Get healed up. You do something like that again, we're leaving your sorry ass behind, got it?"
"You wouldn't really leave me?" Mirage asked, but laughed nervously when the woman scowled at him. "Right, got it!"
"I expected this from the rookie, so shape up, Witt." Bangalore said, and she made for one of the houses nearby.
"Did you see something shiny and it distracted you?" Crypto asked.
Mirage huffed. "No, even I wouldn't go back into the storm for loot. That thing hurts." he grimaced. "I went back because you forgot this little guy." he opened his arms, and the drone shook itself before gliding back to Crypto's side.
He glanced from the bot to Mirage, before he closed his eyes and counted back from ten. Of course Mirage would have done something so nic-dumb. "I can recall my drone." he said slowly.
"H-hey, I know that! It's just," Mirage glanced away, "it was caught between the cave wall and a deathbox. I didn't know if you could recall it then, and Doc gets damaged by the storm, so I-" he shrugged, shoulders tensing -"I just f-fi-figured your drone was the same."
The annoyance towards Mirage fizzled out, replaced with a sudden warmth which made that irritation turn inward. "It was still a foolish thing to do."
Mirage shrugged as he picked up the medkit. "That drone means a lot to you, I didn't want to see you moping."
"I don't mope." Crypto retorted. He turned away when his lips twitched, and he stamped down on the smile before it formed. "Bangalore is right; lag and we're leaving you behind."
"You're welcome!"
-
It was Mirage's fault he was in this situation, as it always seemed to be. It happened the next night, with Crypto up late and his fingers typing briskly at the keyboard. His search finally yielded something. Just a small set of encrypted files, but it was a start. He left the decryption to its work as a knock came from the front door. It was easy enough to guess who it was.
"Hey, Cryptkeeper, are you doing anything tonight?" Crypto slammed the door shut for that alone, and a round of frantic knocking rang on the other side. "I-it was a joke! You know I think you're cool and hot!"
"How can I be cool and hot?" he asked.
"You know what I mean!" Mirage said, then asked, "Please, open the door? How can you hate this face?"
"Easily." Crypto retorted, but he opened the door a sliver. "What do you want?"
"To watch X-Files, remember? You, ah, said okay yesterday but never got back to me on when." Mirage rubbed the back of his neck.
Perhaps it was amusement, or just the satisfaction of getting something done here, but Crypto had a few hours to spare now. "Yes, tonight would be fine." his fingers tightened on his door. "Not here though."
Mirage blinked, his expression surprised but it quickly shifted into an excited grin. "Great, we can watch it in my room. I'll make the popcorn!"
Crypto shut the door as Mirage hurried back down the hall, and he picked up the case for Season 1. His drone unlatched from it's docking station, and he let out a soft, derisive scoff. "What am I doing?" There was no answer, but he could analyze this for longer than it deserved.
It was just a few hours. Between two...friends, watching a show and eating popcorn. He'd go on, but he won't.
'Better to just get this over with.' he thought, and locked the door behind him, drone by his side and ever alert. It didn't stop even when Crypto reached Mirage's room, and it immediately zoomed inside before the door was fully opened.
Mirage jumped back and stared wide-eyed after the bot. "Uh, okay then." he said, brow furrowed. Then he plastered on a smile, which turned a bit stilted. "Y-you really like wearing your game outfit, huh?"
It never escaped Crypto's notice that outside of the arena, not everyone seemed to keep their guard up. Which was stupid. "I am prepared."
"Yeah, because we'll really have a game this late." Mirage retorted. "It's like, even when you're doing fun stuff you're always...on. Just being really serious."
"With you around, someone should be." he retorted.
Mirage grinned and stepped aside. "I don't need to be serious, I'm just that ch-charn-good. I'm just that good. Got to be for the cameras." he winked at the drone, which was hovering just to the side of the couch. "They're always watching."
'Yes, they are.' Crypto thought darkly. He stepped just inside the dorm, but no further. Mirage stared at him, incomprehension on his face. "I'll close the door." he finally muttered.
Blinking, Mirage's brows furrowed again. The he just shrugged. "Sure, fine."
After kicking the door shut, Crypto made for the sofa with a furtive gaze on Mirage who was putting too much butter on the popcorn. "Isn't that enough?"
"Never too much of a good thing." Mirage said. Rather than sitting down, he switched the bowl for the DVD case. It was only the instinct not to drop the dish that Crypto didn't lash out at the man for the sudden move. "So, you want to watch the whole thing from the begin-ben-start or you're favourite episode?"
"My favorite isn't in the first season." he replied.
"Well, mine's the pilot. Can't go wrong with where it all started." Mirage grinned. He paused after grabbing the remote, and glanced at the light switch. "You okay watching it with the lights off?"
"You think I'm afraid of the dark?" Crypto asked.
Mirage's expression scrunched. "I just figured you spent your nights in the dark hunched over your computer doing...whatever you do."
"Whatever I do?" Crypto repeated, and couldn't quite keep himself from being insulted by that generic term. "And what is it you do?"
Mirage's reaction was not...well what he expected. The man's face lit up, and hurried to sit on the couch with a grin in place. "A lot! I own my own bar on Solace now, but I'm also an engineer because I loved the Holo-Pilot tech and I learned e-everything I could, and me and my mom would spend a lot of time going over it." His chest puffed up. "She gave me the tech I use in the games and told me to follow my dreams so here I am!" he flourished his arms. "I tinker around with my gear when it gets damaged and do a decent job, but she's probably the best engineer, like, ever."
Crypto couldn't say anything, he was literally speechless. Every taunt he'd been about to make with assuming Mirage's whole retort to be along the lines of looking for fame evaporated. All he heard was the love, and joy, and happiness in Mirage's voice and the sheer pride and adoration on his face.
Something hollow settled in him, a gnawing he knew would take over if he let it. So he didn't. "Ya. Turn off the lights if you want, but we're just wasting time talking now."
There was a long pause from Mirage, which he refused to acknowledge. Then the man huffed and slipped off the sofa. "Fine."
Crypto didn't glance away from the blank television screen, the blue light of it growing even harsher from the loss of light. The silence lasted just a bit too long. "Is the pilot your favourite because you're one of those people who think Mulder and Scully make a nice couple?"
"And you don't?" Crypto was a bit insulted because that's what he expected Mirage's earlier reaction to be. "I don't think we can be friends anymore."
"Promise?"
Mirage's silence stretched on, before he crossed his arms and leaned back against the couch, going through the main menu screen. "Just for that, I take it back. I'll be such a good friend you'll be like, my best friend or something."
"I fail to see the threat to anything other than my patience." he said.
Mirage frowned indignantly. "You don't get to hold the popcorn anymore." His mouth was in a thin line, but his cheeks were puffed up. The glow of the television only made the redness in his face stand out more. It was cute.
Everything screeched to a halt. Mirage stopped reaching for the bowl, and Crypto thought for a moment he'd pulled the exact same stunt the man had.
"I-is there something on my face?" Mirage asked. "Y-you're kind of just...staring."
Mouth set in a firm line, Crypto leaned forward. Mirage's face flushed a deeper shade of red. "Your hair product smells bad and it's giving me a headache."
Mirage's face turned red for an entirely different reason. He sputtered and pulled away. "You jerk! It does not!" he sat as far away as he could on the couch though, arms crossed and gaze set on the screen as the episode started.
Crypto set the bowl between them, as if that would widen the distance. It didn't help.
-
There were many, many reasons not to like Mirage, valid reasons which weren't just excuses. The man was loud, he talked too much, he was cocky, thought his jokes were actually funny and just a fool. A...a sweet, patient, considerate, sincere fool.
And he was too, if Crypto thought keeping Mirage at anything more than arm's length and behind a brick wall was a good idea.
Things were getting muddied, and complicated, and distracting. The diastrous consequences is what made the decision for him. A line, a thing set in stone to keep them both from going too far, needed to be drawn.
Perhaps if he were one to appreciate irony right now, Crypto might be amused to find Mirage in the kitchen like that night which seemed so far away. Rather than drinking away his embarassment, Mirage was standing at the counter drawing circles with his finger, while a pot on the stove began to steam.
"Mirage."
The man stiffened, blinking at him. "Oh, hi. If-"
"Don't talk." Crypto just wanted to get this over with. For once, Mirage stayed silent. Good, it would be easier to say this. "I will keep it brief. This...friendship must have set boundaries. It would be better for us both to remain professional while on the same team, and that any further...hanging-out not be in our rooms."
Mirage blinked again. "Okay..." he said slowly, brow furrowed. "Though you should probably-"
"I'm not done." he said and Mirage stopped talking. Crypto stepped up to the counter, standing opposite to the other man. "There should have been a line from the beginning, to prevent any...complications. And we both need to keep it that way." He just wanted to know. "Starting after this."
Crypto reached forward to grasp the back of Elliott's neck, and pulled him down to close the distance between them. Warm lips found his, and he pressed their mouths harder together. Was he doing this right? Was this a bad idea after all? (Of course it was). Why wasn't Elliott doing anything?
Then he was gone.
Crypto slammed his hands onto the counter to steady himself. He stared at the space where a man once stood, and for one ridiculous moment he panicked they must have caught onto him. His gaze caught the smoky blue wisps fading away, and his cheeks flared red with shame, embarrassment, anger or some combination of all three.
Footsteps hurried down the hall, and Mirage gasped like he ran a marathon into the kitchen. "The pot's boiling already?" Then he caught sight of Crypto, and blinked a few times. "Ah, hey there. You want to stick around and help me cook dinner for everyone?"
Crypto's lips slowly curled into a sneer. "You idiot." he snapped, and stalked out of the room.
For once, he wasn't sure which of them that retort was directed at.