Week 52: Moving On Up

Silvia loosened her grip on Hugo once the laughter had subsided, although she didn't let go of him altogether. "Cybernetics. Cybernetics are going to be so useful...I can probably afford the entire Anascan catalogue now. I could really have done with some night vision back there and..." a thought suddenly struck her and her cheeks began heating up in a manner that was becoming all too familiar as her mind started producing images she wasn't entirely comfortable with. "Wait...why do you want a four-person bed?"

Hugo removed his arm from around Silvia's shoulders to better look at her, eyes bright. "All that time in the free states and you never saw a fed bed? They're like this big." He gestured with his hands to display something at would just barely have contained his whole body. "I've been sleeping a beds that I can't even roll in. And hard, too. I hear in the EI, they have beds so soft you just siiiiink into them, they wrap around you like you're being held by clouds. Warm, too, like water. Yeah, yeah. One of them."

There was a little pause was he considered this, and his smile broadened. "And, it'll be good when I get someone to share it, too."

At Hugo's words, Silvia flushed even brighter and looked aside, awkwardly, in a manner that even Hugo might well be able to interpret if he realised (Lying and Acting is a fail by 5). "Er...ah, yes, of course. That...that would be...good, yes. Yes. And the bed, yes, that would be good too." She paused, looking down with her ears flaming. "Have you...got any ideas who that might be?" she asked, hesitantly.

Hugo, failing any sort of meaningful roll, was looking happily ahead of them as they entered the street and began walking the city. He shrugged, still smiling. His voice was louder outside, in fast and deep Spanish. "I don't know, picarita. It'd have to be fairly unconventional, what with my girlfriend and all." He chuckled again, hand absentmindedly reaching to touch his polychromatic gun. "But I figure a nice big bed could at least fit three of us. Maybe more."

It was probably a good thing that Hugo was looking the other way, as Silvia's face passed through several different, and very interesting, expressions, all illuminated in bright red. "You...er...your gun is your girlfriend?" she finally managed, in a slightly strangled voice. "I...I mean...I heard stories about WF Agents in South America...I always thought they were just stories..." She hesitated for a moment. "I mean...they usually ended...unpleasantly. I mean...I heard about this one WF woman who had a plasma cannon, and was doing...things with it and...they ended up scraping her off the walls. Of the next building. Or so they said. I assumed they were joking..." Her voice tailed off slightly and she gave Hugo a worried look.

Hugo's eyebrows raised, and he looked down at Silvia, mouth open. After a few moments, he laughed low and almost.. dirtily. "Well, that story is probably a joke. Any nuke would know to take precautions, especially with plasma. Unless she needed live ammo, but.. It seems.. disrespectful somehow. Maybe if she trusted her gun enough.." Hugo seemed to weigh the details of the story very carefully before shrugging, looking around the open city thoughtfully. "No, Una and I have a mostly nonsexual relationship. She doesn't like that kind of stuff much, anyway. Much more interested in combat." He gave the gun another pat; he was trying hard to avoid holding her while he talking about her, as his hands kept twitching for his weapon. "..We do cuddle, though." His voice warmed up considerably, and he sounded a little shy. "..And we are in love."

Silvia was looking more and more worried and nonplussed as the conversation went on, as though she wasn't sure that what she was hearing was real, and really hoped it wasn't. She had encountered a few WF Agents in South America, but usually from a distance. And there were all those rumours and jokes about them and their guns, and apparently they were never allowed to have sex...

"You're...in love?" she managed, her voice slightly flat. "With...your gun?"

"Well, uh.. Yeah. And her name's Una, by the way." He didn't seem to notice or care about Silvia's flat tone. "I don't really know what else to call it. I was just doing some R&D QA, tried out a bunch of galvanic weapons, they were my specialty, working with AMS. They tried a bunch of different things, and they were all fun and all, but when I saw her.. The world stopped. I realized I had found a.. perfect fit. Even when she was so new, unfinished, she never hurt me. Love bites, maybe, but she never failed the way some guns did. All I wanted was to be with her, and hold her. She felt so natural in my arms. And when they closed down the extra heavy department, before she even got a name, when they opted for weapons without discharges, when they wanted to destroy her... We left. I had to. Steal her or lose her."

Hugo, despite his dark skin, visibly colored a little. He spoke about his gun, Una, so sweetly. "I don't know what else to call it. I mean, I dated a little, but never felt anything like.. like that. About anything. Never.. wanted anyone like that. Needed like that. Or felt so.. protective when I found out they were gonna take her. It must be love at first sight. What else would make me feel so?"

Silvia had been listening to all of this with a peculiar mixture of horror, disbelief and thoughtfulness. If it wasn't Hugo, this would probably have been very interesting, but since it was...

"Isn't it a very odd...relationship?" she tried. "I mean...it's a gun. It can't really...talk back to you or anything." She was very carefully thinking her way through each sentence before she said it, desperately hoping to avoid her usual conversational missteps. "Can't really...respond. Or...am I missing something?"

"Art and music can't respond, but they still have.. something. Some.. soul," he sighed, frowning a little. He looked a little sad, and his normal cheery nature seemed... muted. "I mean, yes. She doesn't.. talk. But I feel like.. I know what she's thinking." His hands were holding the shape of his gun in the air, obviously imagining having her in his arms when carrying her on the street would be impractical. "I feel like she's.. more. Nothing has ever been so dear to me."

He stole a small look at Silvia. He wasn't defensive, really, but he seemed a little put out y her responses. "There's a reason nukes like to hang out with other nukes. They get this stuff."

"I...it just seems...so unusual," Silvia said, her eyes drifting to the floor. "I mean, I've done a lot of art and I've never been quite so...connected as you seem to be. It's just so...different." She sighed and raised her head. "I'm sorry. I'm sounding really...insensitive, I guess. Let's just...keep moving. Shinobu'll be waiting for us." With that, she started walking again, her face turned away from Hugo. All the enthusiasm that had been there at the thought of moving house seemed to have disappeared, and she was keeping ahead of the nuke.

Hugo let Silvia walk ahead for a little bit, thinking to himself. However, it wasn't more than a minute before he easily caught up. "Hey, picara.. Don't worry. You didn't say anything bad. I know not everyone gets what we do. I wouldn't change it. Being a nuke is rewarding, even if people don't get us. We're weird, is all. And what you said, it's good. I need to be aware of trying to explain this to other people. She's only been in my life a year, and I never really needed to.. talk about it before."

He smiled a little, and nudged Silvia with the restrained gentleness that was present in every one of his movements. "Hey picarita bonita, I know walking is good, but what do you think about getting a car. A new one. I never had one before."

Silvia nodded at Hugo's speech to her, although she couldn't quite bring herself to reply. At his comments about a car, though, her face took on a slightly startled expression.

"I...I never thought about that. I haven't driven a car for...well, a long time. I've probably forgotten how to. I've just got so used to walking everywhere...it might be nice, yes. Would make a change."

Hugo nodded a little, smile returning. "I mean, just from getting from home," And he smiled a little more at the world 'home', "To here, it would cut times down. The only vehicles I drove were all big clunky things, like my dad's truck or my aunt's station wagon that she used to ship dirt. I don't even know what I would do in something fast. I mean, I walked around most this week, and Seoul's pretty big. It'd take like, an hour and a half to get from where our place is to the Sagittar dojo I found, and after getting the crap beaten out of me I don't think I'd want to walk it, even if I am an agent." He smiled more about him getting beaten up, jovially discussing his own abuse, looking down at ehr while grinning to see if it got the little rogue to smile at least a little.

Silvia did indeed smile, although it was a little thin and wan. "You do martial arts? I always meant to try and learn some, but I never managed it. I do meditation, and I can fight, so I thought it might be a good thing to try, but Shinjitsu wanted me to focus on tactical weapons." She shrugged. "I mean, I don't mind - I'm good with them - but I always kind of regretted not trying it."

Hugo laughed, low in his throat. "I don't do martial arts, not really. I'm okay with a knife and better with a gun, but I wanted to try it myself. See how I could learn better. I went to an Ai Jinn dojo but uh.. They didn't like me much." He laughed again. "You could come with me to the Sagittar place. They seemed accepting enough, and you learn real faster with masters so good there. They'll beat us up good." He grinned widely while looking around the streets for signs of potential conflict before turning back to Silvia. "But I bet you would be good at it. You're fast. And probably better at picking it up then I'll be. I can't imagine I'll be popular there."

For a moment, there was a flash of eagerness again. "You think I'd be good? I mean, I'm only okay at regular combat. And...well, I'm sure you'll get along fine. At least at the Sagittar place. I mean, a regular Ai-Jinn place..." she tailed off. "Well, I don't know exactly how bad it would be, exactly, but I can't imagine it would be good. I...I really need to catch up with what's been going on. But yes, we should go." She smiled. "It would be good."

Hugo nodded, eagerly. "Of course. I've seen you move; you'll be great. Er, with a bit of training." The last bit was teasing, and affectionate. "So.. Maybe next week? No, the week after. Week after that? Next week I might get more cybernetics, and there's Mandarin class. I mean, the chip, it's good and all, but I wanted to learn, and my classmates are pretty nice. Been a long time since I had actual homework. But yes, we can go. Unless something comes up." He shook his head, aware he was rambling a little, and ran his hand along his hair before reaching back to make sure Una was there. "And what are you gonna do, besides get cybernetics and eventually go to the dojo with me?"