[PRP] Bugged by Bugs

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya plopped down on a bench with a sigh of relief. Another class with Aulus was over and the informant was pleased to notice that his depth perception exercises with himself seemed to have been paying off gradually. He'd also managed to do some swimming as of late, as recommended by Aulus, though it certainly wasn't one of his favorite exercises.

For now, parkour was out of the picture. By reading up on a few things, he'd learned that his mind could possibly eventually adapt and compensate for only having one working eye, allowing him to go back to free-running again. Until then, though, he'd try playing it safe.

Grabbing his bottle of water, he drank greedily while looking about for Tambrey. When he'd seen her before class, the thought occurred to him to ask her what he could about Gaia, or at least KO, but class had started too soon and he hadn't gotten the chance. Maybe if she wasn't busy now, he could catch her before she left. Also, he could have been wrong but he thought he'd seen by her uniform that she'd been promoted. If so, he intended to congratulate her properly.  

[TawnyAngel]

Another class over, and successfully over so far as he could tell.

Once the mats were cleared and most people started leaving Aulus lent back against a convenient wall and opened up the screen on his arm to take down some notes; KO had turned up, recalcitrant but passable in the exercises; Quickstrike was brash and cocky still, needed bringing down a few pegs; one newly promoted grunt who was sodding terrified and needed support....

Oh and look who was left when he had finished the notes! Tambery - of course she was still here, he'd not doubted it - and Izaya.

Aulus pushed off the wall and sauntered towards the trainee, stretching out a few muscles as he went. "Okay either you want to talk to one of us or you're eyeing one of us up. Tambery has a boyfriend and you're not my type so in the former instance speak - trainee - and in the latter run along will you?" Aulus stretched again, cracked his neck, and then went back to typing away on his prosthetic arm. As it happened he was actually texting Tambery. The message read;

<>  

[Gwennythe]

'Aw. He's not so bad...' came the reply from Tambrey; accompanied by a '(•ө•)' that had likely been selected by Turing, her Porygon-Z that tended to hang out on her virtual devices.

And then she was curious.

First she lingered, glancing over, and then decided just to wander over, with a pleasant smile and a;
"Hello, good class!"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The black-haired man looked up, unable to suppress a smile and a soft chuckle at Aulus' first sentence to him. "I love how you're so confident that I can only be here for one of two things. Do you really find me so predictable?" He put his bottle of water down, moving his arms behind him to grip the back of the bench and support the rest of his upper body as he leaned on them in a casual posture. "I don't know how you can be so sure about me, an acquaintance, when you don't even know what your 'type' really is. Maybe you should think twice about saying I'm not it." He grinned wider. "As for Tam-chii's boyfriend - "

But 'Tam-chii' had suddenly decided to join the guys and address Izaya. Beaming at her, he shifted to sit up. "Hi~ You think so? Agent Aulus here suggested I do some swimming, so if there's been any improvement in my performance, we have him to thank. Then again, I suppose it is his class." Pushing himself to his feet, he pat the Rocket woman on the shoulder. "I see you've been promoted since I last saw you. Congratulations. Is it Elite Agent, now?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus shrugged expressively. "I thought they were pretty broad categories but feel free to enlighten me if I'm wrong... You could also enlighten me about what you mean by me not knowing my type? Why the heck would I not know that?" Sometimes Izaya really did baffle him which was probably part of the point, the important thing was not to let it get under his skin.

When Izaya moved on to complimenting Tambery much as Aulus had been fully intending to remain pretty deadpan throughout this little encounter he couldn't help but crack a bit of a smile and put in; "Hell yeah it is!" A very much deserved promotion! It was bittersweet though; Tambery deserved to be recognised for her hard work, her intelligence, for everything she'd done and he was happy but.... But she wasn't his partner anymore.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey tilted her head curiously- there had clearly been a shift in the conversation which, she supposed, she must have interrupted, and thus felt a little bit guilty for, but kept her smile anyway, especially as she was congratulated for her promotion.

"Sorry if I interrupted. Thank you, though; yes it is now." She nodded, confirming it, even as Aulus did. The scientist gave a quick glance, almost puzzled- like she was looking for or trying to work something out, to Aulus, but it was only fleeting, and then seemed content to return to what she'd said before.
"That was good advice then; swimming's a fun thing for exercise."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Because you can't know what you like the most or don't like for certain unless you've tried everything, right?" he asked Aulus. "Or have you tried everything?"

He giggled softly and shook his head at Tambrey, raising his palms. "No, no, you're not interrupting anything important. I'm glad for you. Your partner seems to be as well. Unless it's ex-partner, now." Izaya paused, realizing that if that was true, this would be the second time Aulus lost a partner to a promotion. That couldn't have been easy for the agent.

Time for a subject change. "So, um...how are your lives outside of work? Please tell me you still have some. How is Rory-kun, Tam-chii? And...uh...how's it going with Claire?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus opened his mouth to reply to Izaya but then closed it again when he realised he had no idea how to address the sheer level of prat-ery that was spewing forth. "Have you ever tried having contact with the reality that most people inhabit?" he asked eventually. "It's worth a try, I hear. I say this especially because you're asking me about Claire in the same context as Rory?" Aulus snorted and shook his head. "We split up years ago, I would have thought an informant such as yourself would know something like that!" It wasn't like they'd advertised or made a big deal of it or anything but he was still pretty surprised Izaya didn't know... unless he was messing with him, again. Probably that actually thinking about it.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey looked between them; it still seemed like she'd interrupted something, sort of, that was still kind of 'half going-on', even so.
She smiled though, as Izaya reached a logical conclusion, and shook her head.

"Officially 'ex', I suppose, but, um, we'll always have each other's backs, so I can't say we're really 'ex-partners' except by the definition of rank dynamics... Uh, well. As long as Aulus agrees with that, of course." She explained, sounding like she'd given the subject some thought in case it was brought up like this.

"My life is... uh, busier again. Promotions come with extra work attached, more responsibilities, but, um, Rory seems to be fine..." She trailed off to let Aulus handle the question regarding Claire, adopting a vaguely puzzled expression; apparently also wondering at Izaya's not knowing, but, then, she supposed, Izaya wasn't someone Aulus would likely tell very much too after all... The question of asking how Izaya was, in return, was frozen on the tip of her tongue, waiting for a more suitable and congenial moment in the conversation; stowed away to the side of her mind while she was distracted by the current little revelation regarding something Izaya... had either forgotten about or truly didn't know...  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The man in the trainee uniform snorted and crossed both his legs and arms, sitting up with some indignance at Aulus' statement regarding his profession. "Well excuse me for not being up-to-date with every aspect of your personal life. I was under the impression that was the last thing you wanted, so I stay out of your business for a time and now I'm getting critisized as an informant for doing so? How's that for gratitude? And here all I was trying to do was make polite conversation. No matter what, I just can't seem to win."

He closed his eyes and shook his head, clicking his tongue in mild annoyance. "For your information, my abilities as an informant have been severely limited as I spent the last several months imprisoned in the brig and a good chunk of time prior to that in a Camphoreon prison cell. I haven't exactly caught up with everything yet, so I'd appreciate it if you'd cut me some slack for asking."

Altering his expression into a polite smile for Tambrey, Izaya turned back to the elite agent. "Hopefully you'll still be able to find time for each other. I hear that the higher up in rank you are, the busier you are. I still don't think I've seen hide nor hair of Agent Aulus' last partner-slash-best friend since he was promoted to the head of his department. But again, I've been detained, so maybe they broke up years ago, too, and I just wasn't aware."

He nodded in understanding as the scientist mentioned her new duties and responsibilities as well as her boyfriend. "Just 'fine', eh? Not being swept off your feet or fighting down Butterfree in your stomach when you think of him?" Izaya teased the woman lightly with a small grin. "Or are you the one who does the sweeping of him off his feet?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Broke up? Broke up? Ugh! Izaya was trying to rile him, the nasty little s**t. Aulus shot the informant a poisonous look and half opened his mouth to snap but caught himself before he spoke; no, no he wasn't going to give the b*****d the satisfaction. He didn't see much of Alex anymore though, not as much as he'd like, Izaya was right about that. Was the same going to happen to Tambery? Were they destined to drift apart?

Gripping onto what his partner had said instead Aulus turned to her and gave a decisive nod. "Right, that's a given," he agreed aloud and found himself flashing her a brief smile too despite the dampening effect Izaya's presence had on his general disposition. "You're not getting rid of me that easily," he added with a snort of amusement, because Izaya was here and he didn't want to go too sincere. She wasn't though, he didn't want to... he didn't want to lose her.

"Anyway," Aulus then turned back to Izaya and shrugged, "it's no skin off my nose if you remember my relationships or not really - or what smart comments you might have to make about them - I just assumed you knew." No, Izaya couldn't win with him or at least was going to find it very difficult to do so.... But he couldn't help a little grin at Izaya's last comment. "I think you'd be better at the sweeping Tambery, you could probably sling him over your shoulder if you wanted to."  

[Gwennythe]

So there was... definitely a little bit of venom, to put it lightly, between the pair of them apparently.
She could sort of pinpoint why, Tambrey thought, but she honestly suspected, at least on some level, there was a bit of a misunderstanding between trainee and agent.

Still, it was for Aulus and Izaya to work it out rather than her business to poke her nose in. It didn't seem like the pair were irreconcilable.

Choosing to breeze past the somewhat interestingly placed? timed? mention of Hayes, though she had to admit it wasn't really out of context, Tambrey smiled back and rolled her shoulders in an easy shrug.

"Um. That's definitely true. More to do. More bureaucracy, really, but it's nice to have the freedom to pursue more advanced work, and easier access to resources to do so. Um, when there's time, of course." Even then, though, she supposed, a fair bit of starting those projects fell into 'delegation' sometimes already.
"I'm, uh, in the labs here though, unless I'm in the field. Elite Hayes' skills are fairly different to what I do. Different people need him," She smiled "but I'm most useful operating from here."

She couldn't help but grin, the awkwardness of the comment and question, and the commitment to some kind of answer washed away by the avenue Aulus had provided.
"I probably could!" She found herself sounding a tiny bit surprised, even in amusement, at the semblance of truth it held; she couldn't deny that after years of training now, she could -certainly- hold her own.
"Uh, but, Rory's fine, yes." It wasn't quite an answer to what had actually been asked, but after the brief detour, and the realisation that she hadn't answered, it was what came to her mind...

... And there was the moment the frozen question had been seeking.
"Um, what about you? Doing okay?" She asked, happy to have gotten to it fairly soon rather than have it get stuck mired as the conversation moved about.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Catching the poisonous look from Aulus, Izaya blinked, clearly taken aback by the other man's reaction. What was he scowling about now? The thing about Hayes? The black-haired man had thought the agent had gotten over taken offense to anything he said, let alone a little indirect teasing in the form of suggestive word choice. Maybe Aulus was just extra sensitive at the moment because Tambrey was present. But then, why? How strange.

Stranger still was the scarred Rocket's sudden change from his sour demeanor to playful when he told Tambrey she wouldn't be rid of him that easily. Izaya was starting to feel queasy because this pattern was beginning to remind him of something. Ugh...but surely even Aulus had to be more self-aware than to be that transparent about his feelings. Right?

"Very well. I'll be sure to be more perceptive of such things in the future so as not to disappoint," the labeled traitor told his karate teacher with a sardonic smile. He had to try very hard to keep up that smile when said teacher continued with his response to Tambrey building off what Izaya had said. Inwardly, he wanted to retch.

It was like watching a kid doing his utmost to be a teacher's pet - only Aulus was the kid and Tambrey was the teacher. And Izaya suspected Aulus wasn't attempting to win Tambrey's favor for quite the same reason as a student might. It really did look like he was being that transparent about his feelings after all. In Aulus' defense, though, the informant supposed that people in love were notorious for being obscenely oblivious - even in comparison to other mental conditions that caused horrible impairments of judgement. That didn't make him feel any less disgusted, however.

But is it really disgust? Or jealousy? a little voice at the back of his mind questioned. He ignored it and opened his mouth instead, which was what he usually did when in doubt.

"Ooh, I see. I'd ask the nature of said advanced work, but I highly doubt I have the clearance to inquire about such things, much less know," he chuckled in response to Tambrey's words. "It's reassuring that we'll still likely know where to find you despite your promotion, though."

Izaya might have chosen to dwell more on the subject of Rory and Tambrey's opinion of him but for a couple of things. One, he didn't want to give Aulus more of a chance to subtly flirt, because whether that was the man's intention or not, Izaya didn't know how much more he could stomach. And two, the question posed to him.

Doing okay? Was he doing okay? It was an innocent enough question, but with all he'd been through as of late, his mind blanked. How the hell was he supposed to answer something like that? Was she just asking to be polite, or did she really want to know? He doubted it was the latter. And yet...something about Tambrey had always struck Izaya as so...sincere and genuine. He couldn't just lie to her.

His smile tightened and twitched at the corners from the strain of the effort used to keep it on his face. "Ah, well...I've been better," he admitted, extending his arms as if to show off his trainee uniform. "Actually, I've been doing a great deal to improve. Not just physically with karate or swimming; I've actually been trying to train and work with my pokemon better."

He tapped an index finger to his cheek. "Speakng of...I've been meaning to ask you two higher-ups. How do each of you deal with your trouble-makers? You know, the more problematic of your pocket monsters? Any tips or advice? Stories to share?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Oh now what? What was with the surprised look? Izaya had been trying to rile him right? Aulus frowned slightly - a frown, not a scowl - as he weighed the informant's comments up again. It had to have been a deliberate dig, right? But Izaya's reaction, his words and that sardonic smile.... Okay what if he was mistaken, what could Izaya have meant by it? At best it was an unkind joke but if that was all it was then was it a problem? Really? Argh! Why did this little prat have to be so damn frustrating? He couldn't figure him or his motives out so how was he supposed to know how to act?

Still, it seemed like Izaya was leaving personal stuff behind for now so perhaps he should too? Nonchalant right? Like Izaya hadn't got to him and completely confused him. Tambrey's apparently genuine concern for Izaya's well-being was another confusing thing, did she actually care? It seemed like she did but he couldn't imagine why.

"Mmh, difficult how?" Aulus asked, frowning thoughtfully as he ran through a mental list of his team and indeed others he worked with regularly. "Are we talking the ones who'd take your arm off given half a chance? Ones that'd rather just goof off? Ones that think they know better than you, when they don't? Because my answer for each of those is pretty different. For the first example, when I first got my Sylveon I had to start off by teaching him that when he tried to strangle me he went straight back into his pokeball. Discord, my Serperior, needed... still needs firm handling to keep him on task, a bit of carrot offered and stick waved there. My Absol always thinks she knows best but she'll usually listen to me all the same unless she's really convinced she knows something I don't," Aulus shrugged slightly, "and sometimes she's right, sometimes she's wrong but on the whole I'd rather keep the independent streak... not that I think I could actually get rid of it even if I tried. Then you get the ones that just plain don't like fighting such as Paul...." He'd kind of started rambling, hadn't he? Aulus frowned slightly and shook his head. "But I could go on for a long time. Why do you ask? Casual conversation, or do you have a problem pokemon?"  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey gave a shrug and an apologetic smile- she was pretty sure Izaya wouldn't have clearance, certainly, but she was also somewhat aware, regarding even the things she could talk about, that a lot of it was likely to be boring or perhaps entirely unintelligible in some cases, without a working knowledge of the science to start with.

Apparently Tambrey did actually want to know, and rather did care; she listened and nodded as Izaya explained that he was trying to improve both himself and his pokémon.

Like Aulus, she found herself asking for specifics, though, when it came to trouble-makers.
"Um. Trouble-makers? Well, uh..." She trailed off and nodded along with Aulus' answer as he stated he'd have variable answers depending on the kind of trouble-maker.
"Neph could, uh, be called a trouble pokémon sometimes," the scientist pointed at a particular pokéball "but um, so could Millicent or Franklin for different reasons." She agreed, and waited for Izaya to answer.