[RL following on from this]

[nonesodangerous]

Tieria awoke. Not with a start, but with a simple snapping open of the eyes.

Darkness. He'd been dreaming, but even with the lack of visual input, the memory of the dream started to fade quickly. It hadn't been good. He wondered what a good dream was, sometimes. But wondering like that again could wait for another time, a time when he knew where he was and what was going on.

It wasn't just the dream that he was finding hard to remember - the day before only existed as fragments in his memory.

The school.

The mansion.

Exia.

...Setsuna F. Seiei.

Something stirred beside him in the pitch black night, and Tieria reached out to grab it.

Comments

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

The hand suddenly clamping onto his upper arm was more than enough to wake Setsuna up. The sudden physical contact sent his heart rate racing and he drew a sharp intake of breath, acting on reflex as he sat up abruptly, managing to locate the other body in his bed even through the darkness. He wrenched his arm out of the person's grip, rolling sideways to pin them to the bed. His hands wrapped around their throat as a warning; he wasn't squeezing too hard (yet), but it would definitely be uncomfortable.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

Being both taller and heavier than his assailant didn't prevent Tieria from being pushed down onto the bed. After all, the element of surprise was always extremely effective when used properly.

Although he wasn't being choked, the hands around his throat and body on top of his were definitely making breathing a little more difficult for Tieria. He scrabbled at the arms holding him down, and thrashed his legs.

"Get... off me," he hissed out, trying to buck the person off.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna tensed as the body underneath him began to struggle and tightened his grip, applying more pressure to the person's throat. He was shaking and breathing heavily, not yet realising that he actually knew who this person was.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

The increase in force meant that it was only a few whistling gasps of air that were managing to get into Tieria's lungs. Going for the arms wasn't working, so Tieria reached higher, and buried his fingers in thick, curly hair. He grabbed a handful and wrenched down towards the empty bedspace beside him, as hard and as fast as he could.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna hissed and winced as he was roughly pulled sideways, his hands losing their hold. He wasn't going to just give it up though, and even as he fell back onto the bed he kicked out with his right foot sharply. His brain was still telling him this was a dangerous situation and he wanted to get the attacker away from him.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

Tieria coughed harshly as his breathing capacity was restored. He tried to turn the tables by climbing on top, but was kicked away. His hand still firmly gripping the person's hair, Tieria took the next logical step. He made a fist with his left hand, and swung for the jaw.

He'd never been very good at close quarters combat, and this was no exception. Tieria was actually somewhat scared of the loss of control.

"How dare you try and kill me," he managed to squeak out, throat still burning. "Do you even know who I am?"

He yanked on the hair in his grip. "Do you?!"

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Although he usually managed to refrain from making any noise, he couldn't help but cry out when a fist connected squarely with his jaw. He brought his arms up to protect his face from any further punches, only to be dragged several inches across the bed by his hair.

He was about to retaliate, had curled his own fingers into a fist, when his brain finally registered the person speaking. That voice...

"T-Tieria Erde?!"

He winced again, his head was really starting to hurt.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"...Setsuna F. Seiei."

Tieria released his grip and fell back onto the bed, exhausted by both the struggle and the realization that it had been pointless. He reached up to gently stroke the sore flesh where Setsuna's hands had dug in, and coughed again.

"You didn't have to choke me."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Ignoring the pain in both his head and face, Setsuna took advantage of his sudden freedom and pushed himself into a sitting position, shuffling backwards and away from Tieria. He knew now he wasn't really in any danger, but he still felt safer having that extra distance between him and Tieria, no matter how small it was.

"..."

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

Lying still in the darkness, Tieria broke the silence. He knew he was in a bed (With Setsuna. Again. Fantastic.) but he didn't know where, or why, or what those vaguely soft things that were digging into his shoulder were.

"Where are we?"

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna's heartbeat had slowed to a more normal rate now and he drew his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs.

"Tamaki Suou's mansion."

Having got over the shock of unexpectedly waking up with someone in his bed, Setsuna's mind was now racing as he tried to make sense of it all. Tieria and he had woken up in the same bed numerous times, and it was always for the same reason, so he realised immediately it was because of a virus. His expression remained impassive as he thought back over the previous day's events.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"Oh," he said, and then realizing that really, that didn't explain anything, "do you live here too, then?"

He wished that Setsuna would turn the light on soon. He hated not being able to see.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna kind of wanted the light on too, but the lamp was on the bedside table on Tieria's side, and he didn't fancy leaning over him to switch it on.

"Yes."

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"What happened? I don't remember enough."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Tieria couldn't see him, but Setsuna looked down at his knees anyway, as though he were avoiding Tieria's eyes. This was about to get so awkward.

"... There was another virus."

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"What kind?" asked Tieria, but he had a sickly feeling that he already knew. He felt something digging into his side, and wriggled around in an attempt to get more comfortable. Something fell onto the floor with a soft thump.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

"..."

Setsuna hesitated before answering, not sure how Tieria would react.

"Same as last year."

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

There was a long silence, and eventually:

"We didn't engage in sexual intercourse, did we?"

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna... really didn't have an answer to that. He stared at Tieria through the darkness, wondering where he could have got that idea from.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

...that silence wasn't encouraging.

"Did we?"

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

"No. Don't you think we'd remember if we'd done. That?!"

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Tieria said sullenly, Setsuna's tone making him feel embarassed. "I hardly remember anything, and we are in your bed."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

"You fell asleep in Exia's cockpit, I thought a bed would be more comfortable."

Of course in hindsight he realised it would perhaps have been less awkward to put Tieria in one of the guest rooms (and it defintely would have prevented their little fight and therefore the bruises), but last night he had wanted to be near Tieria.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"...I was in Exia's cockpit?"

He dimly remembered, now that Setsuna had mentioned it. But the details were still extremely fuzzy. All that came back to him strongly was an overwhelming sense of loss.

Something irritated his face, and when he reached to brush it away, his fingers came away wet.

"Why...?"

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

He hugged his knees closer to his chest and frowned.

"We were looking at the damage done to it."

Any minute now Tieria would remember all the details. What then? Would he insist on leaving? Setsuna didn't feel like he'd been asleep for long, it was probably only the early hours of the morning still. Where would Tieria go? Having said that, the situation was probably about to come very awkward, so he would probably have to take Tieria to a guest room, at least.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

It all started to come back to him. His visit to the club as Ila, the way they'd snuck off and then been rudely interrupted, the silent limo ride back to the mansion, Exia...

And everything in between.

It was like the virus that created families, in a way, in the sense that there was a horrible clash of memories that were somehow both true and untrue at the same time. He now knew for a fact that yesterday he, Tieria Erde, had been in love with Setsuna F. Seiei. There was no doubt. And yet now, it was a memory, and those feelings were no longer present.

There was something there, of course, but it was a meager mixture of respect, pride and camaraderie. A little trust, too. It was the beginnings of a decent friendship, perhaps, but it certainly wasn't love.

But it was hard to forget the love that had burned inside of him a short time ago, or the joy of being reunited, or the crushing sorrow of realizing that those few hours were all they had.

Tieria felt sick. Because he did love someone, and for an entire day, he had forgotten that fact and given his love to somebody else.

This was worse than last time, in all the ways possible. The love had been deeper, fiercer. The stakes had been higher - the disguise and deception was now potentially ruined, and neither of them could protect the other with an honest lack of knowledge of location. The aftermath was harder, because they were friends. They couldn't just shun each other for the forseeable future.

Tieria rolled over, and buried his face into the pillow.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna sat completely still, not breaking the silence. The fact that Tieria wasn't saying anything pretty much implied he had worked out exactly what the virus was and what had happened yesterday, and Setsuna wasn't really sure how he felt about that. Although he knew how strongly he had felt about Tieria mere hours before, that emotion was now alien to him and he couldn't recall what it was like to want so desperately to be with someone.

He heard the rustle of the duvet as Tieria rolled over and frowned, crawling round him to get to the other side of the bed. He made sure to give him a wide berth though, just in case, and reached across to the bedside unit to turn the lamp on. He winced as the sudden brightness hurt his eyes and turned his face away, in doing so catching sight of the stuffed toy that had been knocked to the floor. Not saying anything, he reached down to retrieve the cuddly robot, then sat back up, leaning back against the headboard again. He looked down at Tieria with an indescribable expression, idly turned the stuffed toy over in his hands.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

Tieria heard the click, and turned his head to see what it was. Oh, the light.

He noticed without much interest that Setsuna's room was very richly decorated, and that the peculiar objects that littered the bed were more soft toys. Clearly, Tamaki Suou must have thought that Setsuna was deprived of a very necessary comfort.

It was good to know that somebody had taken Setsuna in, even if the person in question was somewhat bizarre. What mattered was that Tamaki was two things: firstly, a good person, one that saw nothing wrong with doing everything in his power to protect and care for his friend, even going as far as to house a Gundam. And secondly, he was mildly stupid. Which was extremely useful, as it meant that he probably wouldn't think too hard on the morality of their past actions.

"You did well," Tieria muttered.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

"...?"

He sent Tieria a questioning look, not realising quite what he meant. The words themselves could be taken as congratulatory, but that didn't make sense. What had Setsuna done to deserve that? Besides, it wasn't like Tieria to compliment him.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

Tieria didn't feel like clarifying. He picked up the nearest soft toy, and examined it.

It was some sort of feline, and somewhat larger than some of the other toys. Its messy dark fur and slightly vexed expression seemed to embody its current owner rather well.

The red bow around its neck was squint, so Tieria re-tied it.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna watched Tieria silently; of course the fact that the stuffed toy was like a cat version of himself didn't even occur to him, it was just another toy in hundreds of others he'd managed to accumulate.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"Do you think the community's choices are random, or selected with intent?" Tieria asked abruptly, while he attempted to do smooth down the cat's messy fur, not really paying attention to his own actions.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna remained quiet while he thought about his answer. It was an interesting question; his first thought would be that they were random but then, why was it that he was continually paired up with Tieria, regardless of what the virus was? And if it wasn't random, then that would imply that someone was trying to tell them something.

"I don't know," he eventually replied, watching Tieria's hands.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

The fur seemed to resist any sort of change from the pale fingers that threaded through it, so Tieria gave up, and simply held onto it.

"It's something to think about, I suppose."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

"If it's not random, should we be worried?"

The question was partly musing aloud, partly aimed at Tieria; he wasn't sure if the other boy would actually know the answer, or even if there was an answer.

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"That depends," Tieria answered, "on what it actually means. Why does it keep selecting us to be 'put together'? What possible reason could it have?"

He rested his head on top of the cat's. "It's not like it could be trying to breed us, I mean, it wouldn't be physically possible."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

"... What?"

That thought hadn't even occured to Setsuna.

"Why would it...?"

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"It's the most logical reason for putting together two people romantically again and again, isn't it? It is almost like it's hoping something will happen with enough prompting."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna glared down at the stuffed robot, mulling that over. It didn't make much sense, not really, but at the same time... it kind of did.

"How could an internet community 'hope' for anything?"

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

How can a supercomputer hope for world peace? thought Tieria, as he stuffed the cat back onto the pile of soft toys.

"I don't know," he said. "It's something beyond a simple community, anyway."

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

That was a good point. "Yeah."

He sent Tieria a sideways glance. "Let's just hope that's not what it 'wants'."

[nonesodangerous.livejournal.com]

"What it wants doesn't matter. We'll find a way to stop the viruses, one day."

Tieria said this without any hint of uncertainty, but the truth was, he didn't honestly believe he could accomplish such a feat without Veda's help.

[doomedyouth00.livejournal.com]

Setsuna drew his legs up again and rested his chin on his knees, then winced when even the slight pressure made his bruised jaw twinge. "The sooner the better."