It was like a puzzle in his mind had suddenly set all the pieces in place, and Canaan almost laughed. Mission data and hacking, indeed. What was he doing; worrying about hackers? Canaan himself was the hacker, keeping the mission files out of knowledge of everyone, himself included.

"You know what, Captain," Canaan said after taking a deep breath. He sat up and looked at the other man, the normal calm expression having returned to his face. "Would it be too much to ask for you to remember to remove your disguise before we start doing this?"

"Hmm?" Jin looked up with the usual half-smile on his face. "Oh, you're right, of course," he then continued, appearing slightly embarrassed. He stood up and moved away to put the disguise he had been wearing away. With that, his voice also returned to normal. "Is this better? I should say that you certainly choose your moments to drop the act about not knowing me at all. Well," he mused. "Could be worse I suppose, there was that one time when you were..."

"Never mind that," the Realian cut in hastily. He had the idea Jin knew what was going on, but they never talked about it, and it was rare that any names were used before they got to this part of the mission.

Unfortunately, he had noticed that he had slight difficulties recovering the information after the conditions to unlock his memory were met. The condition itself was simple - follow his 'informant' to the exchange meeting, and recognize it was Jin. Until that point, Canaan tended to suspect his informant - but said informant here certainly wasn't the one who tampered with the mission data, since it was all Canaan's doing to cover his tracks. Perhaps it was a little pathetic of him, but he wasn't about to get caught sleeping with anyone on a regular basis.

Jin was right about the fact that Canaan had had instances with even worse timing to recover his memory, though. If he had normal emotions, it would probably have been pretty embarrassing, but lacking such feelings Canaan could only consider it to be a glitch.

So far, he hadn't managed to find a more reliable way for the memory recovery trigger except tying it to meeting Jin, and had to leave it as is for now. "Really, it's fine," he said, noticing the other man's questioning look. "Besides, it's better if you're in disguise when we meet, anyway. I'd like to keep the amount of people who know it's the two of us meeting as small as possible."

He wasn't suddenly so sure about how much the other man actually knew. The data he had on the meetings indicated he hadn't actually discussed the details with Jin before, which meant that unless the man had figured it out himself, he didn't know Canaan's reasons.

"I don't mind either way, Canaan," Jin said. "You really don't have to explain. This has worked so far, without us getting too deep about it, hasn't it?" He sat on the bed next to the Realian, appearing thoughtful. "I seem to have mixed enough reputation around town as is, so the disguise isn't a bad idea. Besides, it's not my place to ask why you choose to do what you do, although I have my suspicions."

As expected from someone who used to work for Helmer, Canaan thought to himself. He then shook his head. Whatever suspicions Jin had, or whatever he conclusions he had managed to draw so far, it was better if he knew the whole story. He didn't really know why he hadn't told Jin before, but now seemed like a good time to talk about it. Besides, he wanted to know what the man thought.

"I'd say this has gone on long enough that I might just as well confirm your suspicions about there being something going on," he said. "I encrypt the data about these meetings every time when I get back. Basically, I don't remember any of this until we meet again."

The other man smirked and gave him a knowing look. Canaan shrugged, still not sure how much Jin had figured out. "You can mostly guess why, I suppose," he explained. "While I doubt Representative Helmer would mind this at all, the higher-ups at Vector just might. I'm a highly customized military model, so I've figured the executives over there wouldn't really like the idea of a Realian of my level being off having an affair just because he feels like it. I'm supposed to be a model with suppressed emotions, after all."

Jin laughed a little. "I thought so. Well, there really is no way of knowing what they'd think if they found out their customized special Realian is off having a little affair." Canaan stared at him calmly, not really getting the fact that Jin was teasing him, so the man continued. "Ah. I suppose at this point I could point out that some ninety-nine percent of the time, you really do act like you have no emotions." He rubbed his chin and gave Canaan a look. "But there's that one percent, though, and I happen to like that one percent."

"If you say so," Canaan said. He wasn't absolutely sure what the other man was talking about, but it felt important, somehow. "There you have it, anyway" he continued. "Now that you know what's going on, what are you going to do? I can't exactly offer you much in return even if we keep this up, but if you're fine with things as they are now..."

There was something odd in the way the long-haired man looked at him, but again, Canaan couldn't tell what. "Didn't I already tell you?" Jin said with a hint of a smile. "Sometimes, just sometimes I get more than I bargained for. I'm not much of a gambler, but." He paused for a moment, leaning a little closer. "But, I'll take my one percent. Does this make good enough an answer for you?" He reached to touch Canaan's face and drew his fingertips over the Realian's skin. "This is working fine enough right now. We both know you're not in a position to attempt committing into anything deeper than this, and I..." He trailed off and looked serious for a moment before giving Canaan an awkward smile. "Well you know me. I'm completely useless when it comes to relationships, anyway."

Again, there was something in the way Jin spoke, and Canaan found himself disliking the fact that he couldn't really read into emotions very well, beyond clearly visible feelings. What he was currently dealing with was something he didn't seem to be able to figure out at all. "We're good, then," he said, just to try to shake off the awkwardness of the moment. "With whatever this is anyway," he pondered aloud. "I'm no expert on categorizing relationships."

Jin studied him for a bit. "Hmm. Well," he said. "You yourself called it something along the lines of 'highly advanced military grade Realian being off having an affair' and as I said, I really am useless, so," he concluded. "As an affair, or such? For a relationship term," he mused. "I suppose you could just say, it's complicated."

"If such a category exists, I suppose it works," Canaan replied. "As said, I don't really know much about relationships. Never had any, so I don't have any experience of what we're doing here. It's just that I..." He trailed off, thoughtful all of a sudden. "It's hard to describe, especially since I don't really know how humans view these things. Maybe it's just that I feel that I can't stay away from you." He looked at Jin and shrugged. "You can laugh if this makes no sense, since I have no idea if it does. The only logical explanation I came up with is that it might just be that data you got me stuck with, but beyond that..."

The long-haired man shook his head. "No, it makes sense, on some level," he said. "Is it odd if I'm glad to hear that?" He looked at the Realian with a gentle smile on his face, and Canaan made a mental note to look up some data on human feelings, because again, he couldn't figure Jin out at all, as much as he would've wanted to.

Before he had too much time to think about it, though, Jin interrupted him by standing up and turning to give him an odd look. "But there you go again. There's my one percent, at least, so I can say for certain that this is worth it. I feel relieved." He then appeared more serious. "Ah, speaking of the data," he said, changing the subject. "Any progress? I'm probably being hopeful by just asking, but..."

The Realian shrugged. "Not really. We tried it just the other week," he explained. "Unfortunately, it went exactly the same as always. I remember everything until that one point, then it goes blank." He shook his head. "The data's there, but there's just no way for me to access it. Sorry about that."

"No, don't apologize," Jin cut in. "It's my fault, anyway." He went thoughtful for a moment then just sighed. "I wish there was something that could be done about it. I also wish there was something else I could do to help the Lieutenant General, but I'm just a regular citizen now. Rejoining the military isn't something I could even consider, and it wouldn't make a difference either way. I suppose I'm a bit useless like this, but after everything that happened back then..."

There wasn't much Canaan could've said to that; he only really knew about military-related things, and he wasn't all that sure about what Jin did for living. Checking his data about it, it indicated that he had looked into it at some point and even asked a few times. Seeing what he had found and the replies Jin had given him had been different on all occasions, he could only draw the conclusion that the man switched jobs often. It didn't seem like this was a good time to start making suggestions or to start wondering about it, so he chose not to comment on the matter.

On human terms, the silence started to get awkward after a few minutes passed, though, Canaan observed. He didn't really mind, being a Realian, but he calculated that the other man would've preferred if they had moved on with the conversation. Jin was staring at the window and appearing thoughtful, and Canaan decided he had to say something. "Well, what's there to do, other than to keep trying," he said. "Who knows, maybe we'll figure it out one day and I can get the data."

His companion looked at him and gave him a bit of a smile, appearing a little more relaxed, and Canaan figured his attempt had worked. "Either way," he continued." That can't be done here, so we might just as well move on to more current matters."

"Current matters?" Jin stroked his chin and studied the Realian. "What would those be?"

"Well we could get back to this informant business here," Canaan explained. "Your end of the deal has been taken care of. I got my info, even if it seriously would just be easier to simply encrypt it and drop it off to Representative Helmer yourself." His commentary earned a smirk from the long-haired man, but he ignored it. "But there's my end of the bargain to fulfill. The services I'm expected to perform, and while you say you liked doing what you did earlier..."

Jin laughed. "I'm quite sure I told you already. Sure, I could sent the data... But if I did that, I wouldn't be receiving bonuses like meeting you here. I know it's against logic, but isn't that how this complicated relationship work. I send my contact request, you pick up the mission, we meet and you get my useless data." He looked outside again, appearing contemplative. It had gotten dark by now, Canaan observed as he watched the other man.

"Besides," the long-haired man added, "I don't really consider doing simple favors for my old commander as anything I require payment for, anyway. It's just that the way it's in the file, so you know what it's about and will pick up the mission, isn't it?" He smiled. "If you'd like to perform services, then I expect you to actually want to be doing it. It's not something you're required to do."

"I'm a Realian," Canaan replied with a smirk on his face. "I don't go against orders." Before Jin got the chance to comment on the matter, he continued. "And my mission orders say I sleep with the informant, which means I have no choice. How would you like to proceed?"

The other man studied him for a moment then appeared amused. "Oh, Canaan. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're serious, but this..." He trailed off and chuckled. "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you're hitting on me. Or perhaps I should say, you sure are giving me plenty of that one percent tonight."

"Come on. Would I have it in the mission file otherwise, if I didn't want to be doing it?" Canaan pointed out. "Besides, it's pretty rare for me to have jobs as enjoyable as this one, so might just as well go all the way." He stood up and took a few steps closer to the long-haired man then moved in to kiss him.