Title: Effort
Pairing: HyuKen
Related Chapter:45, 53, 57, 65, 71, 93, 106, 112, 136, 156, 178, 184, 237,
Word Count: 322

Ken’s main problem back in the days of Project Freelancer was that he didn’t put enough effort into the tasks he was given. In fact, the only reason he was considered to be one of the three strongest in the program was thanks to Leo and N forcing him to try harder. He had a natural talent when it came to shooting a gun and he relied too heavily on that.

It wasn’t until Hyuk came along that he started to try.

With Hyuk around, he couldn’t put all his faith on his ability to hit a target between the eyes with one shot. Firing the kill shot didn’t count for anything if his lacking got Hyuk hurt. Heck, if his foolishness cost him Hyuk, he would never forgive himself. His foolishness did end up costing him Hyuk, even if it was only for a little while. Actually, it almost cost him Hyuk once before, when the AI lost his robotic body.

He’d promised himself not to let that happen again, but it almost had because he was such a fool.

“Stop thinking about it,” Hyuk suddenly said, holo form popping up beside him, “I think you put enough effort into everything.”

“Not really,” Ken frowned, trying to repair his armour, “if I was better, those guys wouldn’t have gotten the drop on us. And they had an EMP device. If I took much longer, they would have set it off and……..you’d be gone.”

“Ken,” Hyuk sighed sadly before flashing the human what he hoped was a reassuring smile, “don’t push yourself so hard, I’m here to help you. I didn’t detect those guys either, not until they were right there on top of us.”

“I just,” Ken looked down, “I can’t lose you. not again. Not for good.”

“I know,” Hyuk nodded, wishing he had a solid form available so that he could hug Ken, “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

A/N: poor Ken. almost losing Hyuk again must really . in other news, guess who's laptop crashed this morning? yeah, i'm working off the family desktop now until i can either get it fixed or replaced.