amicably_absent | (no subject)

(no subject)

Glitch took the morning to go over the maps and listen to the instructions on how to get there. He had a written list even, and DG wrote "List in pocket" on his hand to make sure he didn't forget.

He set out at eleven to get there by twelve thirty. One of the maids was conscripted to tail him at a discreet distance to make sure he didn't get too lost, and to put him back on track if he wasn't going to get there in time.

The instructions were fairly basic. Out the gate. Down the main road to the second major intersection. Go East until you see the big tin star sign.

It was marked and signposted.

At twelve twenty, the maid led Glitch out of petstore where he had managed to get distracted from what he as doing and took him back to the police headquarters, pointing it out to him and gently pushing him in the right direction.

At twelve thirty five, Glitch came in, navigating through the crowds of shouting people and trying to peek over to them to see if Wyatt's around. "Cain?"

Someone pushes him aside. "Citizens before headcases!"

"Watch it, that's Adviser Ambrose from the palace," someone else hisses. "The Queen's personal adviser."

"Master Ambrose?" Someone else says. "From the paper?"

Glitch wasn't sure what was worse. Being an anonymous headcase or a well known one. "Cain!"

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Glitch tugs his coat around him a bit more, his casual one because he prefers a bit of anonymity wandering around town. He takes his cup of tea, sipping it and setting it aside. "Have you..."

There's flickers, something that he can't remember but wants to be remembered. "I don't know. If you have, I can't remember it. She... There's a connection here. I know there is. But I don't know what." He sighs slightly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, Sweetheart. I told you about her, but not much. We were in your lab at the Tower, and I'd brought you coffee. It was before the surgery, and we talked about all kinds of things anyhow."

He remembers it so clearly, that he doesn't mind that Glitch doesn't. They were looking at Glitch's brain. At Ambrose, and Glitch needed cheering up. They'd started talking about brain reinsertion, and zippers and somehow glided onto the subject of pet names.

Zipper-head. Adorable. Sweetheart.

"I used to call her Adorable." He smiles. "But she hated it."

"Oh... I didn't go well just before the surgery. I stressed a lot. It caused a lot of bad glitches." He doesn't feel as bad now for not remembering anything.

"But she hated it," he echoes at the same moment Wyatt says it. "Huh. I guess I do remember something."

He slides his hand across the table, palm up in invitation and encouragement. "I told you what she was like, mostly. Strong, upright, cheeky...that she wouldn't hesitate to set you straight, and then some.

"I was a young man when we met for the first time. I hadn't lived here long, and I was aspiring to graduate at the top of my class so one of the senior officers would notice and remember me. I'd wanted to become a Tin Man since I was a little boy, and I wasn't gonna stop trying 'til I was."

"Her bread would put hair on your chest," he says suddenly. He looks at Wyatt, sliding his hand into Wyatt's and squeezing it lightly, holding hands. "Was that you said that? About her?"

His breath catches in his chest as something tells him no, he never said that. But, he supposes, maybe he doesn't remember correctly. He could've sworn he never told Glitch, that he never got around to it before he glitched, and it was just easier to talk about other things... Or to sit in comfortable silence, enjoying their coffee.

"I'm...not sure." He squeezes Glitch's hand in response, to show it's fine, it isn't a bad sort of tension rippling through him. It could be a very good sort. It could be Glitch remembering something else.

"I was her standing joke, with her father. She worked at her parents' bakery... She made savory types of bread, her dad was more of a pastry chef. They'd exchange banter with each other and the guests, argue about which kind of bread required more skill..."

Glitch smiles slightly and raises Wyatt's hand to kiss the knuckles one by one. "I think you said that... maybe?" He isn't sure now, he's starting to over think it and the memories aren't clear and aren't getting any clearer.

He picks up the roll, taking a bite from it. "This is good too, though."

He nods, deciding once again that it's easier to just drop it. He must be remembering wrong. He must have told Glitch, maybe during one of their many hours of just talking. It was her standing joke, why wouldn't he have told Glitch about it when he told him other things? He drops his hand with a smile for the open display of affection that he could very gladly get used to, thank you very much.

"Yeah." He tucks in, but his brain keeps buzzing with rational lines of thought. "I think this used to be the Butcher's shop back in the day. I'm not sure. Almost everything's changed since then."

"I wouldn't remember even if it hadn't been." He smiles and takes another bite, chewing slowly.

"I think maybe I used to wander Central City a lot. Sometimes my feet move me without me knowing and it feels familiar, but it takes me somewhere I don't remember."

He nods, then has a sip of water. "Maybe you met her, some time or another." He smiles, quite liking the idea. "Maybe she gave you that line about real bread and pastries. I don't see why not, she did with almost everyone."

He ducks his head, something like a shy grin on his lips. Old times making themselves remembered all over again.

"I was so crestfallen when I found out it wasn't something she said just to me."

"But at least there were other things she said just to you," Glitch says with a smile, brushing curls out of his face. "Do you think I met her before, then? I mean... I might've. I studied here, you know, it's how I-"

He pauses.

He can't remember. "Never mind." He sips his tea.

"Of course there was," he grins, looking up again. "But I was very young, and so very deeply in love. All the air went right out of me."

But that was another time, entirely. "If you studied here, I'm sure you did. Their bakery was right on Main Street, you couldn't have missed it. She worked there since she was a kid, and her parents had kept it open forever and a day."

"My family weren't from here, we lived out-" Out where? There were fields. And there was a lake, maybe, or was that a river?

"We didn't live here. I know that. We came here. And we used to-"

He trails off again, gaze distant. "I could kill for a good explanation of moratanium physics without referencing Eikstark."

Family... Touchy subject. Wyatt knows that from relatively recent experience. He chews through his bite of sandwich, swallows, then shrugs. "What's your beef with Eikstark?"

"He was a plagiarist, a fraud and ignorant." Glitch is completely unaware of the conversation hop that just happened, pressing on blindly. "He also used to penalise me in his classes for contradicting him."

"That doesn't sound like good teaching to me." He frowns, remembering faint little slips of aggravated conversations about teachers. Everyone's had one of those horrid people who shouldn't be teaching anyone about anything, in at least one class.

"So what, he had enough influence for people to ignore his plagiarizing other scientists?"

"He tried to pass off one of my papers as his own research. People said it was just old age and slipping mind and the like. Evil, old sod." He scowls.

He looks out the window, brushing his curls back again.

He hides his smile behind another sip of water, not too secretly proud, because he can imagine pretty well how things went down.

"But you fought him tooth and nail, didn't you."

"I got him fired. Sorry, encouraged into retirement. I taught him not to pick on the students." He looks smug and eats more of his roll. "I saw some cake in the cabinet we should try."

"Apology accepted." He grins, deciding against making a comment about his frail political sensibilities. The patrons are having a hard time figuring them out as it is without Wyatt giving them a run for their money.

"As long as it isn't marzipan, I'm all for cake." But first, food. Not that there's many bites left of his sandwich, but he's trying to keep pace with Glitch.

"It looks light. Sponge and cream and something else." He finishes off his roll; between student years, work and surviving, he eats fast.

He starts back on his tea. "How long until you need to go back?"

He checks his pocket watch, puts it back in his pocket. "About thirty minutes. I have time for cake and a walk back to the station. Unless you'd like me to follow you home?"

Not that anyone will dare say much if he's running a few minutes late, he works enough overtime already as it is.

"No, I can make my own way back. Eventually." He smiles. "I'll get there eventually. I need to learn it on my own. I'll remember it eventually."

I'm going to get us some cake, okay?"

"Sure. One day at a time." He nods, throwing the last bit of sandwich into his mouth. "Go ahead. And a coffee for me, would you?"

"We can share a piece of cake?" Glitch has troubles with large meals. He wanders up to the counter, ordering a coffee for Wyatt, another tea for him and the slice of bee sting cake.