Title: "Infecten – stage 3 – Overflow"

Author: Nemesi.

Fandom: (MMBN)

Genre: Romance. Humour.

Word Count: 1831.

Characters: Rockman (Megaman), Blues (Protoman).

Rating: PG-13 for implied… activity of the most pleasurable kind between two male Navis. X3;;;;

Disclaimer: , its characters, places and themes belong to Capcom, Shogakukan, ShoPro, TV Tokio, etc.. No copyright infringement is intended.

Warnings: Shounen-ai. Fluffy stuff between Navis. Also, (and I claim ownership on this idea) Navi-preg. Severe OOC, but for this stage, it was done on purpose. Un-betaed.

A/N: Overflow - the stage in which symptoms become more pronounced.

Summary: Months upon months in this relationship, a child on its way, and that was the first time the "L" word was ever uttered between them.

Rockman, usually, was one happy Navi. It took little to please him and much to enrage him. He was naturally inclined to forgive, and readily forgot the wrongs inflicted upon him. It was only rarely that Rockman was not a happy Navi. And when that happened, a dozen or so viruses paid the expenses.

Per second.

One dozen viruses per second.

At the very least.

But as rare as the sight of an unhappy Rockman was, there are taped records of it, honest. On the other hand, an unhappy, grumbling Rockman with tears in his eyes, a sting in his palm where he'd slapped Blues and his face the colour of strawberries was an novelty. Still virus-deadly, but a novelty nonetheless.

Presently, the severely unhappy Navi was stomping along the net — tears, sting and all — navigating across corrupted areas, firing at random viruses that were unfortunate enough to cross his path, and generally being grumpy.

Mentally, he was having a private conversation with himself, in which he was told to stop acting childish, to which he replied that the strain of carrying the new Navi in his PET was getting to him. He was told that Rockman didn't cry, and he agreed, pointing out that he was not the crying type, he was the killing viruses type, and that he even had one Big Bad Black Wolf in his bounty list to prove his might, whatever Blues might say on the matter.

At this point in time the voice in his mind tutted, put its palm to its cheek (Yeah, he'd got very bodily voices in his head, thankyouverymuch) and shook its head ruefully. It reminded him that Blues had just wanted to help, and reproached Rockman for socking his boyfriend.

Funny how the rest of Rockman's brain went immediately silent, at that comment. His body froze on the spot, as realization sunk to fill the sudden silence. Now that he thought about it… right before he had stomped away in a huff… hadn't he introduced his palm to Blues's cheek…? And we're talking about a pretty intimate introduction, here. Fierce and fast and accompanied by no words or explanation to assuage the sting.

Rockman swirled immediately around, ready to fly back home like the wind and with a string of apologies already on his tongue. However, his mad dash was cut short before it even began. Turning, he slammed nose-first right into…

"…Blues?"

"About time you stopped."

Rockman grew pink at the remark. Meanwhile, some very un-Blues thoughts popped up inside Blues's head, each concerning the levels of cute a blushing Rockman could reach.

Not that Blues would ever refer to anything as "cute", mind you. At least not out loud. But he was an honest enough Navi to realize the truth of the matter: Rockman's picture must have been in the dictionary right beside the word 'cute'. And this allowed himself the usage, if only in the privacy of his own mind.

He caught Rockman's hand, which was fluttering agitatedly in the vicinity of his face, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Blues, I'm sorry I hit you! I don't know what came over me, I just…"

"Hush now." Short words, but not unkind. "It's all right."

"No, it's not!" And here Rockman stopped, sniffling. He pressed his lips together, and searched Blues's face with eyes that were dewed with tears. "I didn't mean to get so upset, I didn't mean to hit you, I didn't mean to leave like that, I didn't mean to…"

"I'm fine, and so are you. This is all that matters."

"Truly?"

"Truly."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"You aren't angry?" Rockman's puppy dog look only needed the addition of a waggling tail to get perfect. Blues gave his head a small shake.

"I am not. Though I wonder why you were …"

Ouch. Blues regretted his comment the exact moment it left his mouth. He distinctly saw a vein pop on Rockman's forehead. With a mental sigh, he steeled himself for the upcoming cataclysm.

3…

2…

1…

"Why?" Rockman exploded, right on clue. "You wonder why? With what you said back there, you're lucky I stopped myself after one single slap!" which, for the record, had stung like crazy. Rockman's hand still throbbed from the impact with the helmet.

"What did I say that was so horrible?"

Rockman made a sound of great, great dismay.

"You said I'm weak!"

"I did no such thing."

"Did too! You said: give me all of Rockman's cases, since he can't handle them!"

"No. I merely suggested you take some time off your job as Net-Saviour."

"See? You don't trust me!" Rockman threw his hands in the air. "You think I'm weak! You think I'm an idiot who can't do his own work!"

"I think you are a Navi who's experiencing severe mood swings…"

"I'm not!" Going from being angry to small and trembling and kittenish in 0.1 seconds, which proved Blues's point majorly.

"…whose power levels are halved and constantly fluctuating…"

Insert a pout here.

"…and whom I can't afford to lose."

Rockman's face was such a medley of reds, it looked like a peony in bloom. Scratch that, a whole bush of peonies in bloom. That had to be about The Most Romantic Thing Blues had ever told him.

…and there weren't devices around to record it! Damn!

"So…" Rockman clasped his hands behind his back, began to draw bashful circles on the floor with his foot. He looked up at Blues through his lashes, and gave him the warmest, most brilliant smile in history. "…you don't think I'm weak?"

"On the contrary. I know you're powerful."

"And I'm not stupid?"

"Naïve and foolishly brave, but never stupid."

"You were just worrying about me?"

Blues heaved the sigh of all sighs and asked:

"When ever have I done anything but, since I've known you?" throwing in an eyebrow hoist for added effect, but alas! the visor kinda ruined his effort.

Rockman blushed. Translated from Blues to English, that last, seemingly innocent phrase actually meant: 'You've always been important to me, even from the very start, and I need to keep you safe, Rock', endearment and emphasis included.

Which only made Rockman feel guiltier about the slap.

"Oh, BLUES!" was about all the warning the other Navi got before he was latched upon, tackled to the ground and squeezed like a teddy bear. "I love you too!"

Now please take a moment to notice that, months upon months in this relationship, a child on its way, and thatwas the first time the "L" word was ever uttered between them. Knowing Blues and his less-than-average emotional response, one would expect him to go ramrod stiff at the revelation. And yet, the one who was instantly turned into stone was Rockman himself.

Now why, in the name of whoever was appropriate to call upon here, did he go and say that? It was obvious they weren't ready, it was obvious Blues would think him foolish, and naïve, and childish, and he just had to go and add that little "too" at the end, didn't he? That made things soooooooo much worse, it actually implied that Rockman presumed to know Blues's feelings better than Blues himself, when there hadn't been any hin-but right when he was on the verge of going system error, Rockman felt Blues's arms go around him. His head was tucked gently under Blues's chin.

"I know."

Soft. Gentle. Perhaps a little knowing. Not shocked in the slightest but rather… relieved? No. Blues's voice actually vibrated with something akin to amusement, as if he'd been running bets on when Rockman would say it.

Rockman had to remind himself that there were things that Blues would never do, that having fun at his expenses was one them, and that he'd be really sorry if he did sock Blues right that very instant. His hand could take only so much abuse, after all.

Then it clicked. Rockman was getting better at the task of translating Blues to common language, but he was still new at it, so sue him for not realizing it sooner. The words "I know," said with that inflection, that small, imperceptible lilt at the end and the hesitation at the beginning was a book case of: "I thought you'd never tell me."

Turned out he really was relieved.

"Blues…"

"Me too."

Which was one of Blues's roundabout ways to say "I love you" without actually saying the words out loud. Thinking back, it wasn't even his first try at it. It was surely part of what promised to be a long string, though.

As for Rockman's reaction to that, you know by know what it could've been.

Yup.

His face took on the most interesting shades of red. His core began misfiring like woah, giving out a jumble of mixed signals, so that Rockman was torn between laughing and crying and blushing (more) and talking and hiding and… well, and napping and recharging, but those were the child's subroutines speaking, so they don't count.

He froze – fatal-error like froze – unable to speak, unable to move, to breathe, processing speed raising steadily, generating heat. Luckily for them both, Blues knew the One And Only Patented Way To Snap Rockman Out of Feedback Loop Errors.

He reversed their positions, pinned Rockman to the ground, cradled the back of his head and pressed their mouths together.

It worked like a charm.

Only, maybe a little too well?

A whole lot of time later, Blues buried his face in the crook of Rockman's neck – a neck that would have been deliciously flushed and moist with sweat, had they been human – and pressed his lips there.

"Are you aware that if you upload yourself to your PET now, our child will probably be completed?"

Rockman hummed an agreement, still lost somewhere above the rainbow where all was light and candyfloss, and oh-so-sweet sparks of purple electricity ran across his body. The notion of never coming back from such heights played at the back of his mind for a loooooooong while. Once he regained enough sense to process Blues's words though, he stiffened.

Blues smiled – and let me tell you in all honesty: when he does that, without his visor, hair spilling like a silver halo around his face, he really is breathtaking, no doubts there.

Once Rockman was done with his statue impersonation, he sagged back like a boneless thing. He took a few deep, calming breaths, then said…

"Airisu."

Blues didn't lose one beat.

"Axl."

"What? No way! You know I like Airisu better."

"Mh. We'll name him Axl."

"Airisu."

"Axl."

"Airisu."

"Axl."

"Airisu."

"Axl."

"And who says we're getting a boy?"

"Says the source code."

"Well, I still like Airisu better."

"Axl."

"Airisu."

"Axl."

"A-I-R-I-S-U!"

And so on and so forth, until drastic measures had to be taken, and the chance of Airisu/Axl being completed as soon as Rockman went back to his PET reached a brilliant 100 percent.

- Stage cleared.

On to the next? (y/n)

1: Airisu: Japanese spelling of Iris. There's a character by the same name in the Rockman X series.

Axl: There's a character by the same name in the Rockman X series.