Surviving - Efficiency (a 'For Every Action, A Reaction' side story)

[churbooseanon]

Summary: Delta and Miles discuss furniture arrangements and standards of efficiency.

This also takes place right after the first two stories. Just me indulging in a recent desire to play more with Delta and York’s relationship. Possibly even inspired by a conversation last night with a very amazing person who should know who they are and hey look what I did.

Surviving - Efficiency (a 'For Every Action, A Reaction' side story)

Um… Miles…

He had actually made it halfway to the kitchen and the blessed gurgling of the first pot of coffee from their brand new used coffee maker. The air was already beautifully perfumed with the scent of brewing beans, a bitter, dusty scent that was absolutely inferior to even the worst kinds they had on the MoI, and Delta had to go and ruin it. Didn’t the AI understand just how much he needed that damn coffee? He could taste it on his tongue, scalding hot in a way that the coffee shop down the street didn’t dare serve because society had gotten right back to litigious with the war over.

Amazing how long the solidarity of humanity had lasted.

Yeah, D? He didn’t bother to hide the annoyance in his mental voice, and he knew that Delta would know exactly why he felt it. Well, if he didn’t he would quickly, it was too simple for them to cross their barriers these days. They were separate out of courtesy more than anything.

Did Nicolas not ask you to get the table placed while he was out talking with David?

Which is exactly what we just finished doing.

I believe you may have misunderstood the instructions you were given.

Miles sighed and glanced back over his shoulder at the table centered in what passed as their ‘living room.’ Until now they’d been using it for their bed, preferring the proper, smaller room meant for the bed for storing their armor. Eventually, they had all agreed, they would move the bed in there as well, but seeing as their nods toward furniture and comfort had been the mattress alone, none of them had cared much for it yet.

Still, there had been plenty of room left over, and Miles had been quite happy to arrange their brand new, old square coffee table in what basically amounted to the middle of the room.

What the hell, D? It’s in a good place. We can sit around it when we eat.

Would it not be a more efficient use of space to place the edge against the wall, or perhaps move it to the corner.

All Miles could do was gape at the table, which in his vision had Delta standing on it. Granted no one else would be able to see the small, green, armor clad AI. Delta had developed a habit of integrating his preferred visual form into the visual data from Miles’s eyes. Even without the holoprojectors of his armor and the speakers to boot, Miles always had a little glowing green man somewhere around him.

It’s not about efficiency, D.

With the current placement of the item, you will be required to move the table at least twice a week for space for Sunday’s sparring sessions. In addition to that all residents will be forced to alter their foot traffic patterns to avoid the obstruction, resulting in a marked increase in distance one must travel between the bathroom and the kitchen.

It’s not about efficiency, D!

It is also entirely possible that…

“It’s not about efficiency, Delta!”

It was the mixture of actually shouting and a mental prod at Delta that kept the AI from rebutting for a long moment. With a sigh Miles returned his attention to the kitchen and the beckoning scent of coffee.

He even made it to the pot before he felt Delta cautiously prodding at the edges of his mind, searching for something. It wouldn’t have been hard for the AI to just reach into Miles’s head and figure out just what he was looking for, but Delta was nothing if not polite, and he wouldn’t cross the lines they had set for themselves without permission. And they both knew Miles wasn’t in the mood to give it right then. His focus was on fishing one of the new mugs out of the box on the counter and waiting while the coffee finished brewing.

York…

The AI defaulting to his Project Freelancer codename halted Miles with his hand on the way to the coffee pot.

Yeah?

I… Do not understand why my suggestion that a more efficient layout would be so offensive to you.

With a sigh Miles grabbed the carafe and poured himself a full mug, leaving just enough room to scoop two spoonfuls of sugar in to sweeten it up a bit. Coffee prepared, Miles moved to a bare stretch of counter and levered himself up to sit on the edge. After a long sip that let him revel in the heat and loathe the flavor even as he blessed his access to it, Miles organized his thoughts to answer.

What we’re aiming for here isn’t an attempt to make this place feel… like a base. Bases want efficiency. The Mother of Invention wanted efficiency. The UNSC loves efficiency. But this? This place isn’t meant for any of that, D. This is supposed to be…

A resting point? Delta suggested.

Yes and no. Resting point makes it sound like we don’t mean to be here long.

But Sigma and…

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Miles repeated as he often had these last two weeks. But here, this place, it’s more than that. It’s our space. It’s a place to recover and grow. It’s… a home. Homes aren’t about logic and efficiency, Delta. They’re about feeling comfortable and welcome and loved just by stepping through a door. It’s about that warmth I get in my stomach when I enter and David is here, smiling happily up at me.

Delta didn’t respond for a bit, just sat back to try and process all of this information in the way he always did. Miles felt the calculations in the well worn channels of his mind, and he didn’t reach for them. It was easy to fall into them these days. Had been so much easier since he had fully given himself over to Delta not once, but twice. He wouldn’t say he felt smarter now, but he knew that he could do things that he never had been able to before Delta, or even a month back.

It is about the sense of belonging, love and family, Delta observed just after Miles had another sip.

When you put it that way, yeah. That’s exactly what it’s about.

And with each thing you acquire and place, each material possession that is meant either for form or function, you hope to achieve a more complete sense of connection with your new status in the world, and with your partners.

I…

I can understand this sentiment, Miles. There is a part of me that wishes I could achieve something similar with the other pieces of my full self.

Miles carefully set his cup aside and when he felt Delta settle down more firmly into his nerves, felt the AI come completely into his body, Miles wrapped his arms across his chest and squeezed. It was the closest thing to physical comfort he could offer the other being within himself.

They stayed there in silence for a while, Miles’s arms wrapped around himself and Delta, and neither of them spoke. They were there, coffee mug abandoned and cold by their thigh when the door opened and David and Nic came in, both wearing smiles.

“We’re home,” David called, crossing immediately to Miles to press their lips together.

“Yeah,” Miles responded when David pulled back, and he could feel Delta speaking beside him, sharing his voice. “Welcome home.”

“You should have come with us,” Nic added from where he was leaning against the fridge. There was a flash of purple behind his eyes. “We all would have liked that.”

“Next time,” Miles promised, and he smiled when he felt Delta leap at the idea. “Next time, I promise.”

Home is as much the people as the place, Delta decided as Nic strode across the kitchen toward them.

It is. But you’ve got a lot of time to learn that, D. We all do.

For the first time he felt Delta actively linger in his nerves as Nic kissed Miles, full and deep, before taking his hand and coaxing him from the counter. Nor did the AI flee as he followed Nic toward the mattress where David was already waiting for them. Something in him didn’t move to ask Delta for privacy. Instead as he found himself pushed down onto the mattress he clung to Delta’s unique burn in his nerves and held him there.

After all, he was as much a part of this relationship as Miles was.

Thank you, Delta whispered, his voice barely there.

You so much as hint at efficiency, I will pull you for a week.

Then thought was replaced by Nic’s hands and David’s lips and neither Miles nor Delta cared in the slightest.