#(phenix data)

The man was lying on the grey couch in the room he would come to call his lab in the future, his black loosely knitted sleeveless vest falling at the side and barely touching the floor; his left arm outstretched above him and holding a book, which didn’t fit the male’s image at all with its bright and pinkish cover. His eyes looked tired, the white of them slowly transforming onto red, the skin under them showing how the male had skipped a day or two of sleep. His right arm was tucked under his head, sometimes coming out to change the page of the book, or to fix the black rimmed glasses slipping on his nose.

Damian didn’t like wearing glasses, but with his eyes like this, or rather his state, he preferred avoiding putting on his lenses. “So, are we funding your reading nights?” a hoarse male’s voice disturbed the young male, indicating him that he was no longer alone. “Kinda?” the youngster replied in his own childish way, closing the manga book and sitting on the couch. He reached to the side, to leave the book in the pile (which was not exactly small), and stood up to greet the elder male properly. As he walked to him, he subconsciously pulled his black sleeves up, showing the colorful wired bracelet that was a present from his current companion.

“Sometimes we wonder why did we choose you.” the man breathed out when the two shook hands, at which Damian simply laughed. “Because I am rather handsome and extremely smart?”. At those words the man took a bit of time to stare at Damian, then chuckled and shook his head. “We’re still debating the handsome part.”

The black haired youngster laughed off the response and moved to the desk, which even if still not used properly looked overly chaotic with even more manga books scattered on it, different diagrams that were printed, and some more sheets of paper with incoherent for just everyone data on them. There were a few disks, quite the handful of flash drives, three screens along the wooden desk’s length, and two folders lying over the keyboard. One red and one blue. Damian picked up the folders and walked back to the man, handing them to him. “The red is what you asked for, the blue is all the administrative details.”

“This.” the grey haired man started, taking the folders and using them to tap with them the top of Damian’s head. “Is why we choose you, mainly.” 

“I know.” the youngster replied, giving a faint hint of a smile and looking down at the floor. It was because of that he knew. Of course he knew. You create one grand thing and everyone is after you and that creation of yours. At least with them Damian knew his creation will be safe.

“You don’t look serious, but you are.” the old man’s eyes pierced Damian, causing the young hacker to feel shivers all over his body. “Will a week be enough?” he then spoke again at which Damian just nodded, his hand moving to fix his glasses in vain hope that the rims will hide his black circles at least a bit. They knew his means and were understanding enough to give his body time to recover after every assignment. “Get some sleep, Mr. Jones.”

“I will... after I finish my ‘book’.”

The male leaned back in his chair, his concentration being at the top as he listened to the other end's words. It was really late for him to be having this call, but there was no other way for him to have it, when the other party was in another continent and the talk was essential to have. It concerned ASH, and the maintenance around it while he was gone. Apparently there was a minor problem with the air conditioning of the storage and the big heats the past two weeks, but there was nothing to worry about and no data loss.

"So, all is good, nothing was deleted?" he asked again, his tone even and his usually southern draw accent vanished into thin air. The other end confirmed that there was no data loss and that had the blond hacker sigh in relief and place his free hand over his tattooed neck. It's not like he didn't safe guard himself and backed up all the data in another place, but he still worried that there will be some changed made into his project. After all he left it in the hands of the American Government, and they were going to be in charge of the transfer too... of course because they were afraid the hacker would leak one or two of their dirty secrets. It was amusing how a few hires of a hooker can work so great in his favor.

"You know what to do before the transfer, right?... Yes, you save the data, you turn off the system how I told you, then you unplug them in the order I left. yes, the blue sheet. ... Yes." a deep, annoyed sigh followed his lips and Damian turned around in his chair, standing abruptly and loving to the bookshelf he had occupied and that was piled with more of a folders and sheets than with books. "How the fuck did you lose it?" he asked, pulling out one of the folders and opening it up to be met with a pale blue sheet, equal to the one that the other person lost. "Your— ... Okay, okay. Don't worry, I have a copy of it. I will fax it to you later. Yes, just— don't lose it again, I want ASH in Korea as soon as possible, okay?"

He looked at the writing on the paper he had to fax to the boy on the other end and kept on listening to the apologies. It was not such a big problem that he lost it, he just hoped that the young kid, who was currently a second or third year in university and Damian met once he got back to it, was not put under pressure from the government to postpone the sending so they can crack the program. Which was not going to happen anytime soon, because they needed a code and Damian was the only one who could write it. No one else could manage to figure it out, because it was not something people just guess. "Jason, you do know I am scarier than them, right? ... Okay, good. Send ASH as soon as possible, I found where to place it. ... Yes, thank you, you too. Heard from you later."