Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Korsica and Chai are doing their usual sparring matches, after the defeat of Kale Vandelay 7 months ago. Both of them started to regularly spar three times a week after Chai growing too restless not fighting(and no it wasn’t that Chai needed babysitting(ok, maybe after the three weeks where he attacked most combat robots on sight he needed some exercise(who can blame the guy, they almost killed him))) and Korsica offered to spar with him because as she put it ‘more combat exercise never hurt anyone’ for which Peppermint and Macaron were grateful. So now in the middle of their sparring Korsica winds up to do a low swipe, left foot placed in front of her with a stomp then right foot and a swipe that dragged on the floor. Korsica was sure that would get Chai, it was a new move that she never used just to surprise him, and then he jumped avoiding the sweep. Retaliating he swung overhead, Korsica had barely a second to block it with her  batons, thankfully for her and her head(it still hurt from time to time) she managed to do it. They jumped away from each other

When Korsica's alarm started beeping, that meant their spar ended.

“Gotta give it to ya’ Korsica, that new move was pretty good, it almost hit me” Chai said with his usual overconfident demeanor, arms behind his head and all.

Korsica furrowed her brows “Actually Chai, how did you manage to avoid it? Since I never used it before, how did you know to jump?” Korsica asked with genuine curiosity.

That prompted Chai to put his hand on his chin “I don’t know how to describe it.” Chai sat down, legs crossed “I think I just felt the beat of your attack?” He said not completely sure of his answer.

Korsica cocked her  head to the side with a question mark appearing beside her head “You felt the beat of my attack?” She looked at Chai with his face showing he’s unsure “Could you describe it in more detail.” she sat next to Chai

Chai closed his eyes and started to think harder, Korsica could swear that smoke started to come out of his ears “Okay!” He exclaimed startling Korsika  “I think I got it!” he stood up “So you know how when you walk it has to be in a certain rhythm so you don’t fall right?” Korsika nodded, not really getting it. “Everything is tied to some rhythm, whenever it's breathing, sprinting or attacking, I can feel it all.” She looked a little baffled at his statement ‘fell it all’? How could someone do that?

Korsica stood up “And how exactly does it ‘fell’? Korsica asked curiously as she couldn't comprehend how feeling the rhythm of everything would work.

Chai crouched while thinking “It’s really hard to describe.” He stroked his chin “Like everything just belongs, I guess?” That picked her curiosity even more, she gestured for him to go on “Like everything just works together to make the beat. Like a symphony, there are many different instruments but they work in tandem creating beautiful music.” He fell on his back with hands behind his head. “Yeah, something like that.” He pointed a finger gun at her.

Korsica was deep in thought trying to imagine how that would feel but alas she couldn’t. The things that Chai describes are very hard to put into thought without experience. “I would like to try it, sounds very interesting, maybe it could even help me with taking on unexpected attacks just like you did during our spar.” She plopped next to Chai and put her hand on her cheek.

“Maybe you could?” His question put her out of the loop.

 She looked at him “How?” Korsica asked genuinely.

Chai changed his position from lying to sitting. “We could plug a cable to my mp3.player and your implants couldn’t we?” She looked at him for a few seconds before snapping out of it.

“You really think that would work” she stood up going to her desk.

Chai also stood up”I mean it syncs up with my arm so why shouldn’t it with you?” He blurted, not really thinking about the logistics of his core being made around his player.

Korsica rummaged through her desk looking for something. “I would like to test this theory of yours but i don’t have anything that could plug me into your player” She sat in her chair.

Chai started thinking again(Incredible I know)”Maybe Macaron could do something about it, not like making one cable would be hard for him right?” he asked

Korsica thought for about five seconds exactly” We should ask him,” she declared. “After work” She added

Chai was excited at the thought of someone understanding him and this ‘beat’ of his so he bolted right out of her office. “See you at the hideout!” He shouted

With that Korsica went back to her work with curiosity still in her.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Korsica’s shift finally ended and she’s on her way to the hideout. Along the way she helped some SCR-UB units after they got stuck, before she reached the hideout.

There she could see Chai bouncing at the walls from the excitement and Macaron findling with his tablet. Mac spotted her and ceased whatever he was doing. ”Oh! Korsica, good to see you!” He went to his table and retrieved the cable. “Chai told me that you wanted to connect to his player” He handed her the cable. “Miraculously Zanzo had a whole box of random cables in his old office.” 

Korsica took a look at it and then at chai then shook her head thinking about it, there’s no telling what will happen when she plugs into the player but she can’t back out now. “Let’s try this Chai.” That made him stop and plant himself right next to Korsica. He pulled his shirt and revealed his core with mp3.player inside, Chai opened the case and let her plug the cable into it. 

Korsica took a deep breath before plugging it into her implant and then… nothing really happened. She did feel a little different but nothing substantial. Until Peppermint made her way into the hideout and Korsica could feel ‘the beat’ of her walking. “Hey guys what are yo-” Peppermint then looked at Chai and Korsica baffled. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” She screamed

“Uh, making Korsica feel the beat?” Chai said, trying to see if he could defend himself from Peppermint's upcoming attack. Unfortunately for him she still smacked the back of his head

She turned to Macaron. “Why didn’t you stop it?” Peppermint asked Macaron

and then turned to Korsica. “And why did you agree to his dumbass plan?!” She threw her arms in the air. “For all we know you could contract his dumbassery!” Chai cried with a ‘hey!’

Korsica was baffled as to why Peppermint was so against the idea. “For the record I was the one that wanted to do this.” Korsica explained. Peppermint was flabbergasted

“Why?” Was all she could choke out

Korsica didn’t know. “I was just curious, I guess?” She shrugged. “And it’s not like me being plugged to Chai’s player is doing anything, so at least we know that it doesn't work on anyone else but Chai.” Korsica unplugged herself from Chai

Then started to leave the hideout “It’s really late so I have to go, it was nice seeing you Macaron and especially you Peppermint!” Korsica beamed at Peppermint.

Peppermint blushed. “Ah! Yes i-it was good to s-see you too” She stammered a little.

Korsica left the hideout while snapping her fingers to the beat unconsciously.

Chapter Text

It has been three days since Korsica plugged herself to Chai’s mp3.Player and since then she couldn’t get any work done. She just can’t get herself to focus for longer than 10 minutes, that never happened before. There is an itch that she just can’t scratch, she tried to sleep more to see if it was the lack of sleep and the answer was no. Then she tried to drink some energy drink, maybe this could help her but only made things worse and again it was a bust. Now she’s trying to just will herself to do work and even pinches or slaps herself to focus but that just makes her frustrated. She lets out a growl and plops her hands down, she can’t work like this, if this continues either she’s gonna get suspended or fired.(She knows that they wouldn’t do that, not Roxanne and especially not Peppermint, she would do everything she can to help her or anyone really, that is what she likes so much about her.) Not being able to focus, Korsica rummages through her drawer looking for anything that might help her, she spots a pendrive with ‘KRS’ scribbled on it that lays there, she picks it up and sees that on the other side is a purple sticker sticker in the shape of cat head with white ‘P’. She picks it up and remembers that it was a birthday present from Chai, a playlist with music to help her work that he picked himself and he assured her that there were no trojans or other viruses, it even has Peppermint’s stamp of approval. She forgot about it because there was never a need for music, she always did her job in silence but seeing that she can’t work anyway right now she gives it a try, maybe it would help who knows she’s out of options anyway. So she plugs the pendrive in and starts the playlist, it was some energetic jazz from what she could tell. So she started working again trying to see if it helped and by some miracle it did, her fingers were flying on the keyboard she even somehow drank her coffee to beat, in fact she did her usual work in half the time that she normally finishes. Since she finished her paperwork for the day there was no point in sitting inside her office, so she got up and started wandering around the island looking for things to do or people to help. Korsica toured half the island before her shift ended, in that time she restarted at least five generators, helped TEC-78 fix three nodes(why do these things break so often?) and stopped six fights from happening around campus. All the while the itch has returned annoyingly and wouldn’t leave, sometimes it would lessen when in more industrial places or with more people, places that had a lot of moving parts. On her way to the hideout she spotted two VAS-ER units that walked opposite to her, they greeted her she greeted them but something caught her attention, their footsteps were synced with the beeping light on the walls and that thing that moved up and down [I have no idea what is that, i mean the green things on the walls], then one of them bumped into a wall in sync with the cylinder and the other one smacked him on the head also in sync. She was to be frank quite freaked by this, why did they move in sync with the wall cylinder? Then she remembered what Chai told her about ‘the beat’ and everything moving in sync, is she experiencing it? Or is it just a coincidence? With that question she moves onward to the hideout while snapping her fingers absentmindedly.

Korsica arrived at the hideout and spotted that no one was there, not expecting the place to be empty, she plopped on the couch and pulled out her phone to pass the time. 15 minutes later Peppermint  entered the room

“Aaaaah!” She stretched “Finally done with the meetings!” Peppermint was doing various meetings for 8 hours straight and was almost completely drained. She then spotted a red ponytail protruding from the couch. “Korsica are you here?”

 Korsica stood up. “Oh you’re finally here, I was waiting for you” A slight blush appeared on Peppermint’s face

Peppermint put a strand of her hair behind her ear “O-OH! Really?” Her blush became more visible.  She coughed into her fist trying to recover her composure. “Good to hear, is there any reason you were waiting for me?” She hoped that Korsica wanted to spend time with her. Alone. Peppermint started to look like Tomato-mint.

Korsica stand next to Peppermint. “Actually” She grabbed her chin and looked up. “Since I plugged myself into Chai's player there is some itch that I can’t scratch that hinders my work and I have no clue how to deal with it. I thought that maybe you could help me figure something out.” She then looked at Peppermint’s face.

Peppermint was furious, did she say something wrong? “Pepperm-” Korsica was cut off by Peppermint going to Macaron’s punching and kicking it with a roundhouse.

She then started punching while screaming. “CHAI! YOU FUCKING IDIOT!” That startled Korsica, she didn’t expect Peppermint to burst into anger. Her eyes went big when Peppermint pulled out her double barrel Shotgun

“WOAH, WOAH! Peppermint calm down!” Korsica puts her hand on Peppermint’s shoulder. Peppermint then looks at Korsica and is regretting her outburst because Korsica saw an unsightly side of hers.

Peppermint then starts to breathe in and out to calm herself while Korsica holds her shoulder. “Sorry for that outburst Korsica, I had a long day and then hearing that because of Chai you can’t do your work pushed the line.” Peppermint looked very apologetic while staring at the floor. Now Korsica probably thinks that she is some maniac, she’s so stupid. But instead of leaving her Korsica shook her shoulder for attention.

And looked at her face. “Peppermint I understand, there are some days that just suck so bad that it’s extremely easy to snap.” Korsica led Peppermint to the couch and sat there with her. “And believe me, I had days like that very often while I worked under Kale. He really was a shitty boss and the rest of the heads weren’t that much better. But what matters is that you don’t beat yourself up over it and apologize if you hurt someone.” Korsica gave Peppermint the most reassuring smile that she could.

Peppermint blushed. “Thank you” she whispered

Korsica still smiling. “No problem, I’ll always help when I can, it is part of my job after all.” Korsica let go of Peppermint’s shoulder and made herself comfortable on the couch while giving Peppermint time to cool off. 

After a minute Peppermint stood up and reached her hand to Korsica. “Come on Korsica, I still have to help you” From Korsica’s view Peppermint looked literally illuminated with her smile, like a godsend. 

Korsica smiled and took her hand. “I’m gonna take you up on that.” She stood up. Peppermint made her way towards her computer, and sat down, swiveled her chair to face Korsica.

She leaned towards the chief of security “So what seems to be the problem?” Korsica took a deep breath and started to explain how since she connected herself to chai’s player she had some strange itch at the back of her head while Peppermint listened with undivided attention.

“-and after that I played some music and that helped. And being in areas where a lot of sounds can be heard also helps. "She strokes her chin “Maybe connecting to Chai’s player could help?”

The young will-be CEO shakes her head. “I don’t really think that would help, that itch happened in the first place because of the music player didn’t it?” Peppermint did the matpat pose. “I think we should wait around one week to see if it will disappear and if not, You-” Peppermint points her finger at Korsica “-will take a sick leave and I will try to help as much as I can, probably bring CNMN along.” The head Security started Chuckling.

Then looked into Peppermint’s eyes with a wide smile. “Fine, fine, If in a week the itch won’t disappear then I will take a vacation and spend it with you alone.” The young hacker's ears started to redden and she averted her gaze from Korsica.

Then Peppermint blurted. “It won’t be just us alone!” Arms outstretched in defense. “I mean if you want it could be only two of us.” Peppermint said, hunched a little and touched the tips of her pointing fingers together.

Korsica put her hand on Peppermint’s shoulder. “Just the two of us, Promise!” She gave the young will-be CEO a wide smile while cocking her head.

Peppermint's face was so red it couldn’t be more, and showed Korsica out through the doors of the hideout while quickly saying. “goodtoseeyoubye!”

Korsica stood outside the hideout for a few seconds before bursting into laughter, it was so much fun teasing Peppermint, after this whole ordeal she’s gonna take her on a date. So The chief of security made her way to her apartment while snapping her fingers to the beat on the way.