Work Text:
2205 hours, local time
Cass walked quickly down the corridor, their stolen lab coat just slightly too small around their shoulders, wrinkling their nose as they felt the pull of it as they moved. That was fine. Keeping a stiff posture probably helped them stay in character and undercover. They wouldn’t be wearing it for much longer anyway. They just had to get to the elevator and get out. Easy.
They glanced over their shoulder. The corridor, as might be expected from the late hour and the skeleton staffed office, was empty. There, Cass told themselves, see? Easy.
A simple job, for once. Create cover identity, a new hire labtech, done. Clock in for a week to establish cover while locating the drive they’d been hired to find, done. Consistently stay late at work in order to create a routine and not arouse security's suspicions, done. Use credentials from the lab tech cover to get into the office during a time without a lot of witnesses, done. Coordinate taking the drive with AuDy waiting out from and with Mako erasing of the footage of them over the past week and their cover identity, done. Well, mostly done, providing Mako had done his part. He usually had, so they felt safe mentally ticking it off.
They couldn’t check either - the last round of lab security doors were set with something that would have fried their comms so they’d gone in without them. They’d find out how everything had gone for the others once they got to the elevator, anyway. If Mako was there, then it was done. If the elevator was insead empty or filled with armed guards then, well, that would be a strong sign that the other part of the plan had gone awry.
But, well. Hopefully not.
They rounded the last corner, the elevator in sight. No guards and, even better, no coworkers. The presence of Mako was hard enough to explain to more everyday people at the best of times and if they weren’t quick enough Mako was likely to make up a cover story for how they knew one another, the more embarrassing for Cass the better. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen right now. Hopefully they would get in, and Mako would be there, and they both get out. Cass let out a breath, trying to seem as relaxed and casual as possible as they pressed the button for the elevator.
The doors opened. No guards, no coworkers: good, great even. No Mako: potentially not great. Potentially a sign of disaster, if not for them then at least for Mako, wherever he was, and potentially for Aria and AuDy as well.
Cass frowned, glancing over their shoulder. It wasn’t like they could wait, they didn’t even know where he was right now. They just had to assume that if Mako wasn’t there that he’d found himself another exit. He was good at that after all. Bad at following a plan, often on purpose, but good at improvising when plans went awry.
Not that they'd be telling him that. They didn't want to encourage him to add any more improvisations than he already did.
They stepped inside. The lights of the elevator hummed above them. The door stayed open. Cass frowned.
“ Psst !” came Mako’s voice above them.
Cass looked up. “What-”
“Don’t look at me!” hissed Mako’s voice from the ceiling. “Press the close door button!”
Cass pressed the button and then, when the doors still didn’t close, pressed it again. The doors gave a little groan as they closed, the elevator jerking slightly before it began to move. A ceiling panel above them fell to the floor with a loud bang , Mako dropping down after it.
“I thought you were supposed to be in the elevator?” said Cass.
“Well I was on it,” said Mako, “that’s close enough, right? Plus, I was, uh- The elevator system was a little different than I thought it’d be, so I had to improvise our exit a little.”
Cass narrowed their eyes. “Improvise how ?”
“Nothing major,” said Mako, waving a hand. “Just taking a different back door to the system. No big deal.”
“As long as it doesn’t affect our exit,” said Cass.
“Of course it won’t,” said Mako. “It’s gonna be-”
The elevator jerked again, shuddering to a stop.
“Uh,” said Mako. “Okay, so maybe that line of code was more load bearing than I thought.”
“ Mako ,” said Cass.
They hoped he was too distracted to hear the sudden strain in their voice - they were fine riding in elevators, they were fine in any small space, as long as that small space was temporary. This did not seem as though it would be as temporary as they would have liked.
“No, it's okay, it's fine,” said Mako. “Let me just-”
“Just what?” said Cass. “Fix the elevator?”
“I'll call Aria,” said Mako.
“Call AuDy,” said Cass.
“I'm calling Aria,” said Mako, waving a hand. “Here I'll put her on speaker-”
Cass wrinkled their nose. They hated talking on speaker phones, something about the quality of the sound reminding them of too many long-distance family meetings.
“Hey Mako,” said Aria. “Ready for pickup?”
“Uh, not exactly,” said Mako. “I might actually need you to maybe do something? I mean, we’re fine, we're not hurt, we're just kind of stuck.”
Aria paused. “Okay… Stuck how?”
“Mako broke the elevator,” said Cass.
“I didn't break the elevator,” said Mako.
“Okay,” said Cass, “then why isn't it moving?”
“Because I-” Mako wrinkled his nose. “Okay, so I maybe took out something I should have left in-”
Panic started to rise up in Cass’ chest. “You took something out ?”
“Of the code, not like- The physical elevator has the same amount of pieces it's always had, I swear,” said Mako.
“I find that less than reassuring, coming from you,” said Cass.
“It should be!” said Mako. “It's- Look, okay, Aria I need you to go down to the basement and reboot the elevator’s computer. You can’t miss it, it’s as big as AuDy.”
“Me?” said Aria.
“Yeah,” said Mako. “It's so simple, it's just like one console, turn it off, wait thirty seconds, turn it back on again.”
“And that'll be enough to fix it?” said Cass.
“Should be,” said Mako.
“ Should be?” said Cass, adding as much incredulity to their tone as they could to cover their rising panic.
Mako, as he often was, was unaffected by their tone. “Yeah. Should be.”
“Where in the basement is it?” said Aria.
“Couple right turns, couple left, you can't miss it,” said Mako.
“Mako-” said Aria warningly.
“Look, it's too annoying to tell you over the phone, just bring AuDy with you, they know the layout,” said Mako.
“It's probably a good idea to go in with backup anyway,” said Cass.
“I guess, but security’s already taken care of,” said Mako.
“By who?” said Cass.
“Me,” said Mako, pointing to his chest.
“Definitely bring AuDy with you,” said Cass.
“Wow,” said Mako. “What did I do?”
Cass gestured around them. “Guess.”
“Oh I stall out one elevator one time-” said Mako.
“Okay well I'm gonna go,” said Aria. “I'll call you when we're at the terminal. Try not to kill each other. Or do anything else you can't take back.”
There was a faint beep as the line disconnected. Cass pressed their lips together, sketching out what they remembered of the blueprints of the basement levels of the facility, estimating time, estimating security. There'd probably still be some around, Mako was more likely to just avoid or bamboozle them than kill them-
Mako was staring at them. Cass blinked at him.
“What?”
“Nothing,” said Mako. He shifted his feet, fingers flexing. “So.”
Cass leaned back against the elevator wall. “So.”
“Want to play twenty questions?” asked Mako.
“No,” said Cass.
“How do you know we haven't started playing it already?” said Mako.
“Twenty questions is not a game where you just ask me twenty inane questions,” said Cass.
“What if I promise to only ask you Interesting questions?” said Mako.
“ No ,” said Cass.
“Fine,” said Mako, throwing up his hands. “I guess we'll just stand here in silence.”
“Sounds great,” said Cass.
2216 hours, local time
“So…” said Mako, “seen any good movies lately?”
He'd moved to sit on the floor. Cass was still standing. One of them had to be ready to go if something happened. It helped them feel like they'd be getting out of there soon, any minute. Any time now, Aria would call.
Cass sighed.
“Come on,” said Mako, “you really want to sit in silence for the next like three hours or whatever?”
“It’s not going to take Aria and AuDy three hours,” said Cass. They paused. “And you’d know if I’d seen a good movie. You'd know if I'd seen any movie. We live on the same ship. You see me every day.”
“I don’t know what you’re doing off by yourself,” said Mako. “You hang out in your room a lot.”
“Sleeping,” said Cass.
Mako made a face. “Wow. Thrilling.” He paused. “If you sleep that much then how come you seem so tired all the time?”
“Because I’m older than you,” said Cass.
“Not that much older,” said Mako.
“Enough to feel it,” said Cass. “Can we not talk about this?”
“About what? Your age?” said Mako. “I wouldn't stress about it, I mean, you really don't look that old. Like you look younger than you are, I mean. You look good.”
“How old do you think I- Actually, you know what, don't answer that,” said Cass.
“Well okay, but I think you'd probably be flattered,” said Mako.
“I doubt it,” said Cass. “Young people overestimate.”
“Young- wait, how young do you think I am?” said Mako. “Because, I'm, y’know, old enough to do whatever.”
“Yeah that's not really making me change my estimation,” said Cass.
“That's because you never do,” said Mako. “You get all set in stone about everything.”
“And you aren't set enough,” said Cass, irritation starting to cover their slowly rising panic. “That's why we're stuck here instead of en route to the drop off point right now.”
Mako huffed a breath, crossing his arms over his chest. “Whatever.”
“Very mature,” said Cass.
2235 hours, local time
Mako had been rifling through his jacket pockets, the sound increasingly irritating. Cass watched as he fished out yet another gum wrapper, twisting it around the others.
“Will you stop that?” said Cass. “We're supposed get out clean, no trace evidence.”
“Relax,” said Mako. “I'll take it with me when we go.”
Cass huffed a breath.
“Well you won't let me do anything else!” said Mako. “I'm not a- I'm not a guy who can just sit perfectly still, okay, I gotta move, and if I can't move , then I gotta talk, and you won't let me talk so-”
“Okay, alright,” said Cass. “Twenty questions.”
Mako beamed up at them. “Really?”
“If it'll stop you from leaving garbage everywhere,” said Cass.
“I wasn't, but okay,” said Mako. “You go first. Ask me anything, I'm an open book.”
2238 hours, local time
“Cass,” said Mako, his voice bordering on a whine.
He nudged their shoe with his foot. They were sitting across from him now, their legs out in front of them. Not because they were tired, just- Well. It felt strange to keep looming over Mako, especially for such an interrogation-based game. And sitting down did make the space feel a little larger.
“I'm thinking,” said Cass.
“It’s- Look, maybe I'll go first,” said Mako.
“No, I've almost got it,” said Cass. “I just don't want to ask you something I already know, just- Give me a minute.”
2251 hours, local time
“Okay,” said Cass. “First question-”
Mako rolled over onto his stomach where he was now lying on the elevator floor. “ Finally. ”
Cass glared at him, clearing their throat. “What is your favourite colour?”
Mako blinked at them. “Seriously?”
“You have to answer the question,” said Cass. “You can't answer a question with a question, that's against the rules.”
“I wasn't- Just- You had that whole time, and that's what you came up with?” said Mako.
“Again, that's another question,” said Cass. “Are you sure you know how to play?”
“One question at a time,” said Mako. “And I just cannot believe-” Mako's comm beeped and Mako immediately answered it. “Aria you are not gonna believe this.”
“Unless it is about the computer terminal it can wait,” said AuDy.
“Oh, hey,” said Mako. “Any trouble down there?”
“Personnel was easily disposed of,” said AuDy.
“Sounds like someone might be leaving trace evidence,” said Mako.
Cass pinched the bridge of their nose. “Are you both unharmed?”
“We're fine,” said Aria. “Just, we probably need to do this fast.”
“Fast I can do,” said Mako. “Okay, listen up, listen close-”
2256 hours, local time
Cass stumbled slightly out of the elevator, almost putting their hand on the wall to steady themselves before they thought of the fingerprints it might leave behind. Mako's arms came around their waist, steadying them enough that they didn't fall.
“Wow,” said Mako, “some ride, huh?”
“Let's just get out of here,” said Cass.
“I just mean, y’know, most people have to pay Joiepark prices for a rush like that,” said Mako.
“I wouldn't,” said Cass. They stepped away, catching Mako's sleeve to pull him along behind them. “Let's get out of here before you decide to go on another joyride.”
“Nah,” said Mako. “I kind of hate elevators.”
Cass blinked down at him. “You do?”
“Yeah,” said Mako. He made a face. “Riding one up and down’s not so bad, but that long- It's a confined spaces thing, y’know?”
Cass pressed their lips together, holding back the sudden urge to laugh.
“What?” said Mako.
“Nothing,” said Cass. “Come on. The sooner we get to the drop off, the sooner we can get home.”