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Krispin owned a battered old streambike, painted silver with slick stripes of green down each side. It was parked out the front of the building, and Jintesh chuckled at the sight of it.

"You really have a thing for silver, don't you?"

"Yep. Just like you have a thing for black." Krispin grinned as he hopped onto the bike, tapping something on the display panel in front of him. "Get on, already! We've got a whole day to waste!" Jintesh climbed on behind Krispin, trying to get comfortable without getting too close. Krispin was busy tying his hair back out of the way.

"Aren't you s'posed to wear helmets or something on these things?"

"Are you kidding?" Krispin favoured him with an incredulous glance. "Like they'd enforce that anyway. They hate streamriders. If we kill ourselves falling off, they'd probably be glad. Now hold on!"

Jin realised that if he was going to stay on this thing more than five seconds after it started moving, he was going to have to wrap his arms around Krispin's waist and cling very tightly to him. Not an idea he relished, but then he didn't relish falling off, either. So he slid his arms around Krispin and tried to ignore the twist of longing in his stomach.

He forgot those feelings rather quickly, though, when they took off. Streamriders did indeed have an unfortunate reputation, and Krispin certainly lived up to it. After the first few moments of near blinding speed and some wild dodging around the more sedate drivers on the roads, Jin suffered an insane desire to bury his head in Krispin's shoulder and not look up again until they stopped. He resisted it, though; he didn't want to do anything that might make Krispin think less of him. So he screwed up his eyes and tried to ignore just how close Krispin took corners, or how little space he left between himself and the vehicles he was weaving between.

After a good ten minutes of speeding, he slowly stopped squinting and shivering and realised that it wasn't so bad, after all. Despite how reckless it looked, they hadn't come even remotely close to crashing, and he could tell from Krispin's alertness that he was very aware of everything else on the road around him. He was careful; he was just aggressive as hell. Jintesh sat up a little and let the wind rush through his hair and roar across his ears, and decided that he could get to like this.

It was right about then that Krispin skidded the streambike, pulling a tight corner and coming to a sudden stop outside a rundown little building in the middle of a busy district. Krispin powered down the bike and peered over his shoulder at Jintesh.

"Whatcha think, Tesh?" he asked, amusement in his eyes.

"You're fucking insane. And it was fun." Jin let go of Krispin, almost regretfully. It had been comforting, being so close to him, even if it did nasty things to his head.

"I'm impressed. Most people are gibbering by now." Krispin jumped down off the bike and pulled his hair free again. "C'mon, time to start the day."

"Where are we?"

"Breakfast! That's where. Best way to begin things is to eat. And this is the best place to get breakfast in the whole city."

The inside of the building was as rundown as the outside, but the atmosphere wasn't one of disuse. It was cozy in there; the tables and chairs mismatched and sagging but comfortable, the floor scuffed and worn but clean, and the people scruffy and poorly dressed but bright and friendly. And Krispin was right, it was the best place to get breakfast in the whole city.

At Krispin's urging he ordered a big breakfast, instead of just the grain he normally started his day with, and he was glad he had. He was used to eating the substandard pre-cooked food that the corporations mass produced, because he was too lazy to cook for himself, and compared to that, this food was divine. He dug in and was three quarters of the way finished before he realised that Krispin was watching him.

"What?" he wondered, feeling suddenly paranoid.

"You're really enjoying that, aren't you? Don't you ever eat decent food?"

"Not really." He shrugged. "I don't like going out."

"Yeah, that seems like you." Krispin grinned. "You should get out more, Tesh. It's fun."

"Don't like people," he replied shortly, stuffing another forkful of omelette into his mouth. Then he realised how that must sound. "I mean.." Krispin cut him off with a laugh.

"I know what you mean. I agree. But going out is fun, all the same." He paused, then brushed back his hair, mismatched eyes regarding Jin seriously. "At least, if you've got someone to hang with. You should come out with us. We always have a good time."

"I'm pretty awful company." Jin swallowed the last of his food, pushing his plate away. Krispin laughed again. "What? What's so funny about that?" But the boy was shaking his head.

"Don't worry. You finished? There's still plenty to do."

Still wondering what was so funny, Jintesh followed Krispin to the main counter and watched silently as he pulled out his charge-chip and let the man waiting there hook it up to the console long enough to charge his account.

"Thanks, Krispin. See you later!" The man gave them a wave as they headed out of the building, and Krispin waved back.

"You come here a lot, huh?" Jin asked as they climbed back onto the streambike.

"Sure, pretty much every day. I hate cooking." Krispin powered up the bike and started tying back his hair. "You like games, right Tesh?" Jin nodded his head. "You ever been to MeshRealm?"

"Never heard of it."

"Good." Krispin grinned at him and spun the bike out into traffic.

MeshRealm was much higher in the city than the old diner had been, and Jintesh stared out over the blinking lights of the lower buildings as they climbed the steep streets into the richer areas above. He didn't come up this high very often, except when he was going to the bridge. This was the kind of area his boss wanted him to move to. He stared at all the uniform, sterile-looking buildings they were speeding past. Well, the view to down below might be nice, but he'd be damned if he was going to live somewhere so lacking in personality.

Finally Krispin stopped the bike in front of a huge, brightly lit building with the word 'MeshRealm' spanning the top of it in obnoxious blinking red neon.

"It looks tacky, but wait'll you get inside." Krispin slid off the bike and grabbed Jintesh's hand, dragging him towards the building. Jin kept up, but this time he didn't take his hand away from Krispin's. He was already twisted with desires from having to practically hug Krispin through the entire bike ride, he might as well just give in and enjoy the contact. After all, this day was probably going to be the best he got when it came to Krispin.

A gruff man at the door took Krispin's charge-chip for a moment, charging his account for both of them, and then returned it and opened the door. Inside was nothing like Jintesh had ever seen. A turmoil of coloured lights span wildly above, splashing across his face one moment, leaving him in darkness the next. The thumping music was almost deafening, and random yells and shrieks from here and there were even louder. He stared around him at all the bizarre looking machines and the people hooked up to them, or inside them, or running from one to the other.

"Wha..?" He couldn't come up with anything more coherent. When Krispin had mentioned games, he'd thought of the old games parlours that were scattered here and there down in the lower areas. They were amusing for a little while, but they couldn't compare to the kind of games that you could find in the cyberlooms, and not many people played them anymore. This, though.. this was more like the looms, if those machines with the kits on them were any indication, and some of the machines seemed to have entire bodykits. He'd never thought he'd ever see a bodykit outside of data-conference reports.

"You like?" Krispin face was lit up, both by excitement and by the insane lights above them. "This is how the rich and lazy spend their money, Tesh! They create all sorts of new ways to waste their lives playing games. The bigger, the better, the more realistic it is, they more they like it. Wait'll you try out a bodykit, you'll think you're in heaven."

Jintesh gaped some more, and Krispin giggled. "C'mon, loomspinner, this is your kind of place."

Krispin first dragged him to one of the games with a normal kit. He protested; he was dying to try out a bodykit. But Krispin assured him he had to see the normal types first.

"It's not like spinning from home, Tesh. Trust me. You've gotta try this first and see just how much better this is. Then you can appreciate the bodykits even more."

So he gave in, and Krispin and he hooked up to a basic shooting game together. And once he was in there, he understood what Krispin meant. As he wove his ship through the maze of levels, and fired on the enemy ships pouring down to destroy him, he was aware of how much more real this felt. He couldn't put his finger on any one detail, but somehow this was just so much more intense than spinning from home. He didn't know how they did it, but he could understand why -- after all, anyone could hook up to the looms from home. If the quality had been the same, what would've been the point to coming here?

They played long and hard, but Krispin was better at this type of game than he, and he was the first to run out of lives. He didn't pull the plug until Krispin had died as well, though; he wanted to revel in the different feel of this kind of spinning. Not to mention watching Krispin play. He was as deft with his gameplaying as he was with his streambike.

When the game was over and they'd disconnected, he turned to face Krispin, his eyes wide.

"I told you, didn't I? It's unreal." The boy was grinning brightly at him.

"Yeah.. how do they manage it?"

"Not a clue. But who cares? It rocks. You wanna try a bodykit?"

"Absolutely!" Jintesh headed for the nearest one, and Krispin chased after him with a laugh.

They waited impatiently for the current players to finish, and then Krispin showed him how to put on the bodykit.

"Strap those together around your shoulders, yep. And your waist. Now, look. They mold to your body, see?" Krispin was right. The strange material was shrinking to take into account how much thinner he was than the previous wearer. He shivered as it pressed up against his skin, and looked over at Krispin. It seemed weird, seeing him so covered up; normally he exposed so much skin. Krispin gave him the thumbs up and pointed to the headgear next to him.

"Hook up, Tesh!" Krispin was already pulling on his own headgear, and Jintesh followed suit. He activated the connection and suddenly he was inside the game. Completely inside it. He could feel everything. He experimented, moving around, feeling the wind on his body, the touch of strange clothing that the character he controlled was wearing, the roughness of rock beneath his feet.. it was amazing. He turned to see Krispin standing next to him; or rather, a character that represented Krispin.

"Isn't this awesome?" The character had Krispin's voice and grin, certainly. "Check it out, this is a fighting game. When we go over that hill, all these guys with swords are going to attack us and we have to kill them. And the best thing is, you get to feel everything except the pain of being hit. So you can fight all you like and never get hurt." Krispin drew a sword that he was carrying, and pointed to the sword hanging from Jintesh's belt. "C'mon, let's have some fun!"

Jin drew his sword and followed Krispin over the hill. He could hardly believe how real this felt; it was more exhilarating than anything he'd done in a long, long time. He was so amazed by this other world he was in that he almost forgot about the men with swords until they were practically on top of him. But he reacted in time to only get hit across the shoulder, and the blow registered as nothing more than a slight cold touch. He began to grin. This was going to be fun.

They played for hours. He dragged Krispin to every single game that had a bodykit, and then they went back and played the best ones again. And again. He was addicted. But finally his stomach began to protest loudly, and he realised that it was late afternoon already.

"Shit! How long have we been here?" he exclaimed in disbelief. Krispin began to giggle.

"I told you this was your kind of place, Tesh. You should see your eyes. They're all glowing like a little kid having the best birthday of his life."

Jintesh felt a blush creeping to his cheeks, and he stuck his tongue out at Krispin in an effort to hide it. "It's the lights, they're confusing you," he replied, and then added, "I'm hungry." He was hungry, but it was also an effective topic changer. He couldn't tell whether Krispin's laughter was kind or not, and he didn't want to think about it. He'd had fun so far today, just like Krispin had said he would, but he'd been so entranced by this place that he'd managed to forget how Krispin made him feel, for the most part. Now, he was reminded of it, and it made him nervous all over again.

"So can you bear to leave the games and come have something to eat with me, then?" Krispin attempted a long-suffering look, but it was so overdone that Jintesh couldn't help but laugh.

"I think I can manage it. I hope you know somewhere good to eat."

"Trust me, Tesh, I know all the best places." Krispin headed back outside to the streambike, and Jin gave MeshRealm one last longing look before following. He'd have to come back here. A lot.

Krispin took him to a place not far from MeshRealm, a place that only did takeaway food, and assured him that he knew somewhere good to sit and eat. They both ordered large meals; it had been a long time since breakfast. Krispin tucked the bag containing their food into a side compartment of the bike, and then they were back on the road again, heading up higher still; past even the richest neighbourhoods where people owned entire houses to themselves, past the corporation buildings, right up to the crossbridges that spanned the very peak of the city. Krispin pulled the bike over near where the roads met, and grinned over his shoulder at Jintesh.

"Nice view, don'tcha think?"

Jintesh nodded as he stared down, way down to the city vanishing into darkness below them, and out, out to where the city sprawled in every direction around them, obscured by clouds that seemed to be at the same height they were.

"Are we as high as the clouds?" he asked in wonder, and Krispin nodded.

"Higher than some. And y'know? No-one ever comes up here. I don't know why they built the crossbridges at all 'cause they never get used. Well, except by me." Krispin climbed off the bike, and pulled their food out of the compartment. "Dinner? We can sit on the edge over here.. the view is great to look at while you eat."

Jintesh followed him over to the edge, and they sat next to each other, legs dangling between the bars of the safety rail that ran along the side of the bridge.

"So why do you come up here?" he asked as Krispin unwrapped their food. The boy paused, then passed him his tray.

"It's nice up here. Relaxing. I like the view. And we're so high up. It tastes different, did you notice? The air." Krispin opened his tray and snapped the top off his drink. "It's my place. No-one else's. I come here to get away from everyone." Then he grinned suddenly. "Is that answer enough for you? Eat your dinner."

Jintesh nodded and began to eat, silently contemplating Krispin's words. They both ate slowly, transfixed by the view, and by the shifting clouds that swirled above and around them. Jintesh finished first, and pushed his tray to one side.

"Krispin?"

"Yeah?" Krispin glanced at him briefly as he finished the last of his food.

"If this is your place and no-one else's, why did you bring me here?"

Krispin tossed his tray to one side and then turned his attention to Jintesh, a small smile on his face. "You really think, don't you? Most people don't bother. They just nod and smile."

"Yeah, I know."

"Why'd I bring you up here? I like you, Tesh. You're different. You're not like anyone else I know. I wanted to share something with you that no-one else knew about.. or would care about, either. You understand why I like it here, don't you?" Jintesh nodded dumbly, still trying to process the rest of Krispin's words. "Same way you like that bridge you always go to." Krispin grinned at him, then turned to stare at the clouds again. Jintesh sat still, disbelief washing over him. Krispin liked him? Enough to share something so special with him?

"What, you just gonna sit there and look stupid? Tell me what you're thinking." Krispin peeked at him out of the corner of his eye. He was still grinning.

"I.." Jin tried to think of something intelligent to say. "So I'm not just boredom relief?" Krispin burst out laughing and blinked at him with wide, incredulous eyes.

"Boredom relief? Where the hell'd you get that idea? No, wait. Don't tell me, I remember now." Krispin shook his head, and laughed again. "I went to a lot of effort to find you, Tesh. Don't think less of yourself by thinking I'd do that for just anyone." Krispin sat still a moment, letting Jintesh think about those words as well, and then he got to his feet and scrambled up on top of the railing.

"Krispin!" Jintesh jumped to his feet as well. "Be careful.." He tried not to think about how far down it was to fall.

"Don't worry about me," Krispin reassured him, feet planted firmly on the wide railing, his back to Jin. He spread his arms wide and stared up at the sky. "Isn't it a beautiful night?"

Jintesh stared at him, standing up there, and closed his mouth on his first reply -- 'not as beautiful as you' -- because of how stupid and cliche it sounded. But it was true; at that moment Krispin was much more beautiful than anything else, his bare legs smooth and steady, his slender arms and elegant fingers reaching to the sky above, his long beautiful hair tumbling back in wild waves to his waist, his eyes closed, and his face calm and happy, reflecting the dim glow of the clouds. Jin swallowed hard. People weren't meant to be that beautiful.

Krispin glanced back at him. "Catch!" he said suddenly, his voice teasing, and let himself fall backwards off the railing, towards Jintesh. With a yelp, Jin skidded forwards, arms out, and caught him awkwardly, more with his body than his arms. The added weight unbalanced him and he staggered, but Krispin twisted around in his grasp and grabbed him, steadying him.

With that movement, Krispin's face was suddenly in close proximity with his own, and he swallowed again. Their gazes met, and he stared at those gorgeous mismatched eyes. He felt Krispin's breath on his cheek. "Tesh, that was an awful catch." A small smile played at the edges of his lips.

"... sorry," Jintesh managed, feeling lightheaded. Krispin wasn't letting go of him, and wasn't moving away, so Jin stayed where he was, his arms still clumsily holding the boy.

"That's okay. So long as you make it up to me." Krispin's smile was widening.

"How?"

"Mm. Let's see." Krispin smirked at him, and then Jintesh found himself being kissed, those smirking lips touching his, pressing against his, harder than the tiny kiss Krispin had given him the night before. His eyes widened in surprise, and then closed almost of their own accord as he returned the kiss and his stomach did wild somersaults. His memory of the sweet taste of those lips had been correct, and he tasted them again, and more, as Krispin's tongue slid into his mouth, teasing, exploring. Then it was gone again, and Krispin's teeth gently nipped on his lower lip as Krispin pulled away slightly.

"That's a good start," Krispin whispered, breath feathering his cheek again. Jintesh opened his eyes slowly, taking a deep breath. His mind was spinning, trying to grasp the wonderful and yet terrifying idea that Krispin seemed to be feeling the same sort of things he was.

"Krispin, I.. damn.." he raised his hand, reaching to almost touch Krispin's face, then pulled it back and ran it through his own spiky hair instead. Krispin reached up, echoing the movement, entangling his fingers in Jin's hair, and Jin closed his eyes again. "Krispin, you have the most godawful effect on me." It was easier saying things with his eyes closed.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Krispin asked softly, still playing with his hair. Jintesh considered it. He thought about all the paranoia and nervousness and agony his mind was putting itself through over this. And then he thought about Krispin's laugh, and how beautiful he looked standing up on that railing, and how his lips had tasted.

"I think it's a good thing," he said, opening his eyes. "But it scares me." Krispin trailed his fingers down from Jin's hair and caressed his cheek.

"Don't be scared of me, Tesh. I'm about as harmless as they come." He offered a mischievous grin that said otherwise, and Jin couldn't help but grin back. Then he pulled out of Krispin's grasp, away from those teasing fingers, and fished in his coat pocket for his cigarettes. He wasn't going to be held responsible for what he did to Krispin if he stayed that close to him any longer; it was too much for his hormones. A nicotine fix would be a good distraction right about now. He pulled out his cigarettes, but Krispin reached out and stopped him before he could open the packet.

"Hey, I still owe you one, remember? Let me just find 'em." Krispin darted over to his streambike and rifled around in the compartments, coming up successful after several tries. "Here we go! Debt repayed." He tossed a cigarette to Jintesh, who caught it and lit it, and then he lit one himself. Together they leaned against the railing and stared down at the city, smoking silently. The sky was almost dark now, with nightfall, and the city lights were much brighter, flashing at them from below.

"I should get you home soon. It's getting past your bedtime." Krispin winked at Jintesh.

"Can I ask you one more thing first?" Jin replied as he flicked his cigarette butt over the edge, briefly hoping it landed on some deserving bastard.

"Sure, anything."

"What did I say that was so funny this morning? Over breakfast?" He folded his arms and turned his curious gaze on Krispin, only to find him laughing again. "What, damnit!?" Krispin was laughing too hard to answer straight away, but finally he calmed down enough to talk.

"Are you still worrying about that, Tesh? Man." Krispin took a last drag from his cigarette and tossed the butt over the railing.

"Yeah, so tell me."

"It was funny. All you kept giving me were these short, sharp, disdainful answers. It was just so.. you." Krispin shrugged, then grinned. "You have such a low opinion of yourself, Tesh. You really gotta do something about that."

Jintesh could only shrug back at him. "Force of habit." Well, at least he knew now what was so funny. He supposed it had been rather typical of him. He was just so used to defending himself against attachment; it was instinctive now on his part to try and force people away from him.

"A habit I'll have to break, I think." Krispin beamed, looking very sure of himself and his ability to do just that. "Shall we head back?"

"Alright." Jin was loathe to leave, for fear that everything that had happened today would suddenly mean nothing once tomorrow came. But he was also tired; he wasn't used to people, and he wasn't used to spiraling through so many different emotional extremes in one day. Both things wore him out easily, and he stifled a yawn.

"What was that about your bedtime?" Krispin giggled and jumped onto the streambike. Jintesh climbed on after him, and this time he didn't feel so wary about wrapping his arms around Krispin's waist, holding on tight.

"Time to fly!" Krispin powered up the bike, and with a delighted yell, he sent it roaring down one of the crossbridges, headed back to the city below them.