Justice and Her Boys

Chapter Six

Mew felt a little self-conscious waiting outside Gulf's front door. He hadn't been back in a while; he was still feeling guilty that the mob boss had managed to get away with hurting Gulf. In fact, he wasn't sure if he could actually ring the doorbell. Luckily, he was saved from his emotional turmoil when the door was opened from the inside.

"Oh, Mew! Here to see Gulf?"

Mew was a little shocked to see Boun's charming grin. He thought that Gulf's friends would be annoyed with him, but Boun actually seemed happy to see him.

"Uh, yeah," Mew replied hesitantly as Boun dragged him into the apartment.

"You're lucky. Gulf decided to work on building some tech thing today and he didn't have enough space in his room. He's commandeered the dining table."

"Oh okay, I'll go see him."

Mew started to walk away towards where Gulf was but then paused to ask, "Lucky?"

"If Gulf was upstairs in his room, knee-deep in a project, he would probably not even notice your existence. He becomes so hyper-focused. Sometimes Pavel has to physically drag him out for food."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Ah, that's just Gulf," Boun dismissed Mew's concern, grabbing his jacket.

"Are you going out?"

"Yep."

Boun turned to smirk at Mew to make a teasing comment before he walked out the door.

"It'll just be you and Gulf. Alone."

"Boun!" Mew yelled, stepping towards the man threateningly.

"Gotta go, Mew. I have my own cutie to seduce," Boun laughed, sending Mew a quick wink before he ran out.

Mew was embarrassed. Did all of Gulf's friends notice his attraction to Gulf? Had they told Gulf? With a reddening blush, Mew collected his courage and went to find his crush.

Gulf was getting more and more annoyed with his project. He may be a skilled hacker, but he was not so great at constructing things. However, J had said that she needed him to get into a system that was air-gapped, meaning that you couldn't hack in from outside, you have to directly access the system. Unfortunately, security was apparently also tight in the building with the system with people being searched before they could enter. No electronic devices were allowed. So, Gulf needed to be able to quickly construct this rudimentary machine after conning his way into the building. If it took too long for him to build it, he might get caught. The machine would connect the system to wireless signals so that Gulf could hack into it from his laptop outside the building.

"Damn it," Gulf cursed as he nearly burnt his fingers for the umpteenth time.

The distraction brought some of his awareness of his surroundings back and he could hear slow footsteps heading his way.

"I can't do this, Boun. It's driving me crazy," Gulf whined, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"Uh, Gulf?"

Gulf jumped at the voice that was most definitely not Boun's, almost falling of his seat. He had assumed that the person in the room was Boun because he had been sure that Boun was the only other one home. Spinning, Gulf lurched to his feet, a little unsteady as he had been sitting for a long time.

"Mew! When did you get here?"

Mew was a bit worried about Gulf. The man seemed pale and was swaying on his feet. Before Mew could think through his actions, he rushed over to gently take Gulf's arms to hold him upright.

"Just now. When did you last eat or drink something?"

"I'm not sure. I was busy with my project."

Mew glanced at the table behind Gulf. It was covered in wires, small pieces of metal, circuits, and things that Mew had no idea what they were. There was a small soldering iron resting in front of where Gulf had been sitting. It appeared to be smouldering the things close to it. Did Gulf leave that on?! Mew quickly leaned over to turn it off and moved it to cool down away from things that could catch fire.

"Be careful, Gulf," Mew murmured concerned.

"I forgot. Thanks, Mew."

Mew huffed a sigh, "You're lucky I was here. You could have burned the place down."

Gulf giggled at Mew's stern tone, patting his arm.

"What? Did I say something funny?"

"You just reminded me of Justice when she's not lost in a project of her own. She's kind of a hypocrite," Gulf paused, frowning, "Is anyone else here?"

"Uh, no. Boun just left."

Gulf didn't say anything to that, just allowing himself to be guided to the kitchen by Mew.

"Here. Drink and eat," Mew ordered, handing Gulf a glass of water and a sandwich.

"Thanks," Gulf whispered, taking a bite before curving his lips to give Mew a smile with his mouth full.

Mew's heart thumped painfully in his chest at the adorableness of that action. Gulf kind of looked like a chipmunk with his cheeks puffed out full of food. On anyone else it might have appeared weird but on Gulf? It was one of the cutest things Mew had ever seen.

After swallowing Gulf asked, "Did Boun say where he was going?"

Mew's face immediately flushed causing Gulf to raise an eyebrow at him.

"He, uh, said something about, uh, seducing a cutie," Mew mumbled, avoiding Gulf's eyes.

Gulf could clearly see that Mew was embarrassed and it amused him to see the older man, the tough cop this way.

"Did he tease you or something?" Gulf chuckled, poking one of Mew's red cheeks.

Mew nodded, turning away. He got himself a glass of water as an excuse to hide from Gulf's smiling eyes.

"Mmm, we could get him back, if you want?" Gulf murmured, following Mew, not allowing him to retreat and rested his head on Mew's shoulder.

"How?" Mew croaked, quickly taking a sip of water.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Boun said he was going to bring his, um, cutie back here after dinner. So, we can get him back then?"

Mew smirked, glancing down at Gulf, "Sounds good."