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The first time she’d noticed anything amiss, it was when she had been speaking with Mouse. He was still as joyful, playful and wordy as he was the first time he’d stepped foot on the Nebuchadnezzar several years ago, and even if the others all rolled their eyes at his constant offers for testing of his programs, it was undoubtedly charming.
They were like a big family, all of them. She’d been sitting in the main room one day, speaking to him. He was rambling off again happily, grinning at her. She responded in short, clipped words, but still with an undercurrent of fondness. Switch passed by, and rolled their eyes at something Mouse said.
Then Trinity’d reached forward, pulling open a drawer, sifting through the discs he stored his programs in. In the corner of her eye she saw Mouse go completely rigid, and his mouth fell shut and his eyes wide open. He never had that good of a poker face.
She picked out a newer, much less battered disc than the rest. “You wrote something new?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. That was strange— Mouse usually loved to share and babble and boast about any new program he wrote, even if they were of the more dubious kind, he would endlessly promote it.
Mouse cheeks exploded in red. He tried to snatch the disk, but Trinity was faster than him and raised it out of his reach. She was nowhere near as fast as she was in the Matrix, but still a lot more alert than laid back Mouse.
“ Hey! Listen, Trinity, my programs are like my babies. You touch one of them without my explicit permission, and then I’ll go berserk and start rampaging over everything. You know, like that one epic monster movie? Godzilla. Did you ever watch Godzilla?” He rattled off, but Trinity just smiled slyly at him and moved the disc out of his reach again as he swiped at it again. Even his ears were becoming red now. It was quite cute, really. He was hiding something.
“What is this?” She asked, eyeing the disc. They never labelled anything, as only Tank was expected to familiarise himself with these. And Tank could sniff out a specific disc in a pool of discs.
“Look, if you want to run one of my programs, you can go do your crazy 10 hour long practices in my agent training program, or you can stop denying yourself of your impulses and let me arrange you a private meeting with the woman in the red dress, no charge needed. You know what? She’s gotten some upgrades recently. You would like them, I’m sure.”
“She has?” Trinity asked, raising another eyebrow. She hadn’t heard him peddle that. “You’re avoiding the question.”
“No no no, I’m not. Oh, dang it, Trin, just gimme!” He jumped up and made a big swing, which still missed, his fingers only barely skimming the disc. Trinity bit her lip to keep back laughter.
“Run the program for me,” She offered. Mouse’s eyes bulged out of his head. “No way!” He barked.
“Why? What don’t you want me to see?” She asked. “It’s private!” Mouse snapped, jumping up and down like he was stuck on a trampoline. Trinity really did laugh at that.
She turned it over to the side and saw three extremely faint letters carved into the side, that she would have missed had it not been for the way the lighting hit it as she held it up. “What’s that? M-E… Zero…”
“ Holyshitgivemethat!” Mouse squeaked, like an actual mouse, and grabbed at it with two hands. Trinity turned and blocked him with her back. She squinted her eyes. “Wait. N-E-Zero… Hold on. N-E-O? Neo?”
“ Fuck!” Mouse exploded, and finally wrenched it away from Trinity’s hands, loosened from shock. Trinity didn’t feel that much like laughing now. “Mouse, what is that?”
“Absolutely nothing! It’s one of those… you know, programs that has everything the body needs. You wouldn’t like it anyway, you never even bothered to run my red dress program even once. That hurt, you know. She wouldn’t like being turned down.”
“Mouse, tell me what it is or I will show this to Morpheus,” Trinity said flatly, “Writing a program involving a real person without their consent is illegal.”
“Wait…” She said, processing Mouse’s words and body language. A program that has everything the body needs , he’d said, and it didn’t have the desperation of a lie, more like a half truth. A program… that had everything the body needed… and the name of a crewmate carved into the side of the casing.
“ Mouse. ” Trinity gaped at him, eyes wide as saucers. Mouse hugged the disc close to his chest, exploding into a litany of gibberish. “I can explain, I can explain! It’s not like I got bored of the woman in the red dress, you know, she’s wonderful, just, I have very diverse tastes! And the new guy… Neo, I mean, he’s just… He looks real nice, you know? He acts real nice too. You can’t blame me! To deny our human impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human!”
“Mouse,” Trinity groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, “You need to delete that.”
“I will, I will, scout’s honour! I was just… I just wanted to see if I could do it, you know. And actually, I think I did a pretty good job. His program doesn’t seem out of character at all.”
“And you know….” Mouse leaned in, whispering under his breath. “I’ve seen the way you treat him. If you want… before I delete it.. I can arrange a much more personalised milieu.”
Trinity groaned, and hoped she wasn’t blushing.
Tank was starting to get Neo’s breakfast for him, every morning. He’d ask if he’d slept well, and no matter what Neo’s reply was, Tank would reply with a cheeky grin and some smart remark, his specialty.
At this point she and Tank had almost an understanding. Tank took care of Neo’s breakfast, and she took care of Neo’s dinner. Oh, god, it would have been utterly embarrassing, had they not both been under an unspoken oath to never ever talk about it.
It was like they were babying him. How could they not? He looked like some newborn puppy. Fluffy hair, docile dark eyes, he was a sadists’ walking wet dream. Trinity wanted to close him away from the world and protect him. She wanted to take care of his every need, as stupid as that sounded. Even she wanted to hit her head into a wall every time she thought of him that way.
And then Tank was taking Neo away often, asking if he wanted to load the jump program again, or if he wanted to train. Neo would look at him with those guileless eyes that made Trinity’s heart skip a beat, and nod, carefully finishing his slop. At the end of every last gulp his mouth would scrunch up slightly in distaste, and Tank would always laugh at this fact.
It could have been ignored. Whatever his intentions were behind the everyday serving of morning slop, she didn’t know fully. Of course there was a suspicion, a suspicion that his intentions were the same as hers. But she never asked, so she didn’t know, and that saved her a lot of mental anguish.
But she was slipping into the main room one day, completely quiet, and she saw Neo laying in a chair, not strapped down but jacked in. He was downloading combat moves again. Then Neo’s eyes flew open and his fingers fluttered on the armrest, letting out an orgasmic gasping sigh that sent a jolt of electricity through her. Despite the distraction deep in her gut, she didn’t miss the way Tank’s eyes darkened, the way his smile grew a little wider.
She turned and slinked away, Neo’s little sound replaying in her head again and again. It was none of her business; and Trinity couldn’t call him out on it, because that would make her a hypocrite. At the very least, Tank wasn’t doing any illegal business.
Neo was staring at Dozer again, a cute little frown on his face. He definitely thought he was being subtle.
Dozer raised an eyebrow, and finally spoke on it. “....Yeah, Neo?” He turned to the other.
“Oh…” Neo said, softly, a little wide eyed. “Sorry. Just… I know you’re a Zion-born, but I can’t…”
“Ah,” Dozer said, dryly amused. “It’s the holes, huh. The lack of it.”
“Yeah,” Neo said, a little timidly, but he didn’t turn his head away. “Sorry for staring.”
“Hey, don’t be sorry,” Dozer said, seeming to take pity on him. “You wanna compare?”
Trinity’s eyebrow hit the ceiling at that. Dozer was a bit of a recluse; he would never offer something like that unless…
“Sure.” Neo said, easily, and stretched out his arm to match Dozer’s outstretched one. Then he pulled back his sleeve. His arm was far skinnier than that of Dozer’s. “Huh…. You would have had a hole right here.” Neo said, and pointed to a point on Dozer’s sculpted arm.
“Yup,” Dozer replied easily, then curled his arm into a flex, making the muscles bulge. Trinity’s other eyebrow went all the way up to the ceiling of the tunnel.
“Glad I don’t have holes, though. Seems like it would make all this less impressive,” He said, and flexed even harder. He was definitely showing off. Trying to impress someone. Neo grinned at what he said, and nodded. Good lord, Trinity would never be able to look at Dozer the same again.
Trinity had gripping doubts.
“You know… Morpheus…” She started, standing in front of him in a secluded room far from the rest of the ship’s main rooms, blue and red wires hanging from the ceiling. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“Yes?” Morpheus said, furrowing his eyebrows. It wasn’t judging, though, that much Trinity knew. It was concern. Morpheus was too good of a man.
“Do you… have you noticed… the way everyone is treating him?”
“Ah, Neo?” He looked much more relieved now. “Of course. They care for him in their own ways,” Morpheus smiled like a proud mother, “They accept him. I believe, Trinity. I believe we have found the right One, after all this time.”
“Of course,” Trinity said, clutching her sweater. But there was a glaring hole in those words: Their captain may have been a believer, but so many others on this ship were not. What did that mean for her, in regard to what The Oracle had told her?
“He is easy to love,” Morpheus said, a bit too soft, a bit too genuine. Trinity’s eyes widened, and so did Morpheus. He had said too much.
“....Trinity…” Morpheus began, his cheeks darkening. Trinity wanted to get out of here. Oh, god. Oh, god. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Trinity hurriedly said. But Morpheus continued on, still trying to justify himself.
“I spent so many years looking for him, Trinity. I dedicated my life to him. And now… he is here. In the flesh. You understand, Trinity.”
“Yes,” She said, her hands shaking, “I do.”
Cypher was jealous, she knew. He could see through her so well, and she hated that he could. You like him, don’t you? You like watching him. And Cypher had a nickname for him, Dorothy. He had a nickname for her, as well. Trin. It made her wonder.
Hey, uh… You want a drink? He was mouthing at Neo, who looked at him with deep brown pools of never ending warmth that sucked you right in, A little piece of advice, and then, sweet dreams.
Trinity swallowed. He was looking at him the same way he looked at her. Jealousy, malice, want. She didn’t know if she was grateful someone was keeping his attention off her, or if she was worried for Neo.
“.... Switch .” Trinity said flatly, disbelievingly.
Switch whirled on her. “I don’t have to explain myself to you, Trinity.”
Trinity shook her head. She wasn’t going to talk about this any further.
"Apoc?" Trinity's jaw was on the floor.
"What can I say? He's cute." Apoc shrugs, unapologetic.
"Where's Dozer's new batch of moonshine." She says, feeling mentally damaged. Apoc points to the containers on the floor.
Everybody wanted a piece. And by everybody she meant everybody. Kid was absolutely over the moon for Neo, and Niobe spoke up for him against Locke too often and Locke fixed Neo with an icy stare too many times like he just wanted to look and Roland grumbled about Neo and pretty and prophecy so much under his breath as if it was all he wanted to talk about.
Wherever she looked, she could catch someone looking at Neo the wrong way, whether it be Mifune or Bane or Zee or, hell, even Cas, who was looking for someone to fill the hole in her heart that Dozer had left. When Link joined their crew he spent too much time marvelling over Neo’s incredible feats, so much so that Neo would sometimes get even embarrassed beyond his usual denying of praise, cheeks darkening, and Link would just go on and on about fucking Superman.
Control greeted their ship terribly warmly if it was Neo who was helping her take over the communications while she focused on driving. The priestesses gave Neo extra bread than needed. Everybody loved him.
Don’t even get her started on the common people. Neo had likely never gotten so many offers of sex flung his way his entire life, by both men and women and people who were neither. They knew Trinity was his permanent lover, but that didn’t stop them, because to Zionites nothing was ever permanent. Things were fleeting, and they had to seize the best of it.
People revered him. Loved him. They wrote long winding heartfelt letters that they left at her and Neo’s door. They tried to trick him into doing things like kissing them to cure illnesses and curry favour from him. People competed over who could leave the most or biggest gifts at their door. People swarmed him at the market, on the way to the toilet, on the way to the ships. Zion loved Neo.
And this was what Trinity thought: they could all respectfully fuck off. Neo was hers, and she didn’t share, and she was tired of people asking if she did. That sweet piece of ass? Hers. All hers. No need to ask twice; the answer would be the same.
She amped up her game. Glared at anybody who came too close. Slid a possessive hand over Neo’s waist at times, gripping hard, or slipping Neo’s hand around her own waist. A hand here, a hand there. She had to show all of them: Neo was rightfully hers.
But it wasn’t completely obvious. She wasn’t outright hostile. She wasn’t snobbish. It was a delicate balance. She did it only when she had to, and subtly enough that her and her opposer knew what she meant, but no one else. But any time any idiot came too close to the sun, she’d let loose all hell. She wrapped Neo up in bright yellow 'keep out' tape, shooing off unwanted attention.
And besides that, she had nothing to be worried about. Neo loved her, deeply and truly. It was in their code. They were destined. Neo had eyes for no one but her, and it was obvious by the way he was sometimes almost clueless to the moves made on him unless they were outright, and even when they were outright, he turned them down every time.
Because Neo loved Trinity, and Trinity loved Neo.
But damn if it didn’t make her childishly satisfied every time she sent someone running away with their tail between their legs, their lips meeting her fist instead of someone else’s lips they’d wanted to touch.