Chapter Text
“Absolutely not.” Cypher stared, frowning at the engineer beside him.
“Cypher! Come onnnnn~” Killjoy whined slightly.
“Killjoy, firstly, you know I rarely take off my mask anyway, and two, I’d rather be working on my cams than go to a party.”
“But it’s Sage’s birthday! Even Viper and Reyna are coming! Think about that, REYNA; the complete hermit that also… may... or may not want to kill me ok maybe don’t think about Reyna.”
It was 2am. Cypher and Killjoy were in their usual work mode and the late night paved the way for some rather interesting conversations. Like how Sage’s birthday was this Saturday. And how everyone was planning a party for her. And how Killjoy made the wonderful suggestion for Cypher to come join without his mask on for a change.
“It’ll take more than that to persuade me, little engineer.” Cypher turned his attention back to his cams and cyber cages.
“I mean, it’s not like everyone hasn’t seen your face before. It’s a party, you’re supposed to let loose and relax.” Killjoy tilted her head into the space between Cypher's face and his tech, grinning. “I know, that time was an accident, but Phoenix didn’t mean to fry the circuit that activates your mask…”
“But that doesn’t mean everyone has seen my face.”
“So? Come onnnnn, Aamirrrrrr.”
It was then that Cypher put his work down, propping his face on his hand, and smirked at her.
“You gotta do better than that to convince me, Anna.”
Killjoy sputtered at the audacity of this man. He was going to come, but he wanted to make her work for it.
“You fox!” was all Killjoy could blurt out in response.
Cypher barked out a laugh.
The German returned to sitting down normally, pouting, but continuing her endeavours to convince him anyway.
“You… can get blackmail material? I mean, if you think about all the dumb things you’ll see when half of Protocol is tipsy…”
“Hmmm…” Cypher made a big act out of his thinking, stroking his goatee and furrowing his brows as if deep in thought.
“ Mein Gott , Cypher! I know you’ll be coming anyway so stop this!”
That coaxed another laugh out of the Moroccan man.
“Yes, yes. I’ll be going. I’d just look suspicious being the only one missing anyway, especially since our two resident hermits are going to be there.”
“See? Was that so hard?” Killjoy laughed, exasperated.
“It was entertaining.” Cypher chuckled.
“Excuse me?!”
For a short while, Cypher sat there playfully fending off the light punches that Killjoy threw at him, laughing. The excitement wore off, and they both stopped to catch their breath. Cypher thought about it for a short while, and perhaps he was just weak to Killjoy, but he ultimately decided to agree to the little engineer’s pleas.
“I’ll come without my mask on.”
“Wait what?”
“Oh, nothing, I didn’t say anything.” He played dumb and tilted his head to the side, whistling.
“I heard that, Cypher! You can’t back out of it now!” Killjoy leaped out of her seat and ran to aggressively point at one of her bots. “My bot has that on recording now! Proof!”
“Secretly recording me, tsk tsk.”
“You know it’s just my standard security measures!”
The two continued their banter as they normally did while working late into the night before Killjoy ultimately passed out again from lack of sleep. Cypher stared at the sleeping figure for a while, a smile creeping onto his face. He let out a sigh and set his work down before lifting Killjoy into a princess carry and taking her back to her room for the 3rd time in a row this week.
He soon reached her room and gently lay her on the bed, pried her shoes and jacket off, and covered her with a blanket.
"Seriously, you let your guard down around me too easily."
Cypher smiled a sad little smile, glancing at the younger girl one last time before leaving to return to his own room.
He didn't know why he gave in so easily when she asked for him to go as "Aamir", instead of the masked "Cypher". Realizing that he was getting soft, Cypher mildly regretted agreeing to it, but he wouldn't hear the end of it if he backed out of it.
'Well, I guess I'll remain as inconspicuous as I can.' He thought to himself
He would come to realize that staying inconspicuous with Killjoy at a party was impossible. And he wouldn't mind it one bit.