The computer program

11. New vessel

Hashirama searched me up after a lecture with another professor.

I was talking to my friends as I walked out of the lecture theatre when I bumped into him, waiting for me outside.

He wasn't even discrete about it. He stood there, clad in immaculate trousers and a shirt, his hair down, arms crossed. As I saw him, my heart leapt to my throat and I felt all sorts of different things.

The first feeling was excitement. There was no denying it; I was still not only insanely attracted to the man, but also in love.

Then, there was guilt. Why was I still attracted and in love with a man that had harmed me and, most importantly, Tobirama?

Lastly, there was worry. Had anything happened with Tobirama? Was he okay?

"Walk with me", Hashirama said, turning around and started walking. When he noticed I didn't follow, he turned round, looked at me. "Come", he demanded.

"We'll see you around", my one of my friends said, sensing I needed to deal with this alone to which I was thankful, and the group left me.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" I asked, genuinely wondering if he was. "I'm not your dog."

"Please, don't swear at me", Hashirama said flatly.

"I'm allowed to swear however much I fucking want. And if you don't want to deal with anyone swearing at you, feel free to fucking leave."

Hashirama looked at me for a while as if contemplating whether he should take the bait or not. Then, he apparently chose to change tactics because he sighed and walked towards me instead.

"Look, Izuna, I don't want to fight you. Come with me to my lab." He put his finger beneath my chin. I jerked a little. "Please."

It was this final detail that did it for me. Not that he was putting his finger beneath my chin, but the fact that he offered to take me to his lab. I wanted to see how he housed Tobirama. It was suddenly insane to me that Tobirama was living in his fucking lab. I decided to offer them both to have Tobirama crash at my place. My place was tiny, but it must be better than a lab, surely.

But as we entered the former familiar room where the computer who had once been Tobirama's only outsource stood, I stepped backwards.

"What did you do to him?" I asked, my voice dark with worry.

"Oh, that?" Hashirama slung a casual look behind him to a chair where Tobirama sat, leaning back, looking unconscious. "He's just sleeping."

"Does he need to sleep?" I asked darkly.

"Well, yes", Hashirama said flatly. "He processes huge amounts of data, so two hours each day to synchronise the main computer with the chip in Hermes' body."

"I will wake him up now and he can have a nap later", I said.

"No", Hashirama said blandly. "It's an artificial sleep. I press a button, so it won't work you just waking him up. Besides, if we wake him up now, he will be physically very tired. You will do him harm."

I didn't even consider the fact that he was lying, using the knowledge that hurting Tobirama was the last thing on Earth I wanted to do. I still crossed my arms, not liking this. It felt intrusive to have a conversation when someone you liked was sleeping in the same room.

"What did you want?" I asked, quite unkindly.

"Izuna..." Hashirama scratched his head, and I realised I'd never seen him so insecure before. "I want to apologise." I gaped. Whatever I had expected, it wasn't this. I had expected him to ask me for another favour, perhaps, but not apologise. "I really, really miss you."