Series: Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future

Title: Genius Heart

Author: ZelgadisGreywood

zelgadisgreywood@chez-vrolet.net

Genre: Slash (shonen-ai)

Rating: PG-13 for peril

Pairing: Edison/Bryce

POV: Bryce Lynch

Synopsis: Bryce's thoughts during the Security Systems episode of Max Headroom while he and Edison are in the thermal testing chamber.


Genius Heart
by ZelgadisGreywood

I've never been so scared. Why would I be? I've never faced death before today. It's not something a boy not yet twenty thinks of. Teenagers such as I are supposed to be immortal.

Yes, I'm a teenager. Sixteen, so I'm legally a man, but in the eyes of so many I'm still a kid. I guess that's why he never notices how I look at him. To him I'm only a good friend. But I wish I were more.

It's so cold in here, my death is approaching more and more rapidly as the temperature lowers even further. I wish I hadn't said all that about challenging God. How vain could I be? Vain enough to think I'd ever have a chance at sharing a life or at least a bed with Edison Carter? Still, he is holding me right now, so I can at least have this moment, though I know he's only doing it to keep me warm. Or does he feel the same way about me? Surely he must know that trying to keep me warm while we're being slowly murdered in here is pointless. It's not going to get any warmer until our killers turn the heat back up, and they won't do that until we're dead.

So maybe Edison does love me after all. It's a shame we won't get to share our lives, but at least we can share our deaths. The cold is beyond painful now, can't think anymore. Can only feel. Feel the pressure of his arms around me, even though the cold and numbness in my body and mind prevent me from feeling the actual sensation of his touch. It's almost over now, just another minute and I'll pass out. I don't know if he's still awake himself or if he already passed out. I'm Too cold to make sense of anything any more. My mind is going now. I can hear a sort of clicking noise. There's warmth now, is this what death feels like? It's not so bad. I thought it would be far worse. Hold on. My skin is still cold. I certainly didn't go to Hell, and I don't think the ground is this hard in Heaven. We've been rescued! We're going to be alright. He'll probably want to do more interviews. He's a true reporter, right down to the bone. I just want to get home, curl up under a thousand down comforters, in his arms, and spend as much time snuggled against him getting my body temperature back up as I did having it brought down. I want him to make love to me. It's not something I normally think about anyone, but we just shared a near-death experience, and there's nothing more intimate that can ever be shared than that. Not even sex. Though given the option of dying with him and making love with him, I'd prefer the latter. Neither is going to happen now. When we get back, he'll be hers again.

I suppose he was hers in that chamber as well. But at least, for that one brief moment, he was holding me.