A/N: Written back in the middle of January for tronkinkmeme (two prompts). Since then pieced together and revised.
The Latin in the title might be a bit off, but it's a reference to a non-existent Morrissey album and I just couldn't bring myself to abandon it.

Disclaimer: Characters not mine. No profit made.

Ludus Lumini

"You have to see it, man."

Alan allowed himself a small sigh as the Encom's new boss herded him in the direction of the laser bay.

The new boss being Kevin Flynn sporting a manic grin and a joyous twinkle in his eye. Alan reflected on the fragile mental health of the young and bright, especially when he remembered how Flynn would sometimes grin at him and say "I was there, Alan. You have to see it."

Alan would invariably ask him "Where?" and Kevin would just laugh: "Inside."

Alan could never quite work out what he meant, Flynn would wave it away and they'd get back to work, but today it looked like Flynn decided on finally showing Alan the 'it'. And apparently being the head of Encom gave him the right to empty the laser bay where Lora usually worked so now he and Alan were weaving their way through the maze of corridors and levels, right up to the laser terminal.

"Sit," Flynn ordered, still grinning.

Alan looked, somewhat doubtfully, at the chair before the computer terminal, but sat docilely enough. He decided it was better to humour Flynn for now.

"All right, what now?" Alan asked, resting his hands on his knees and glancing at the monitor.

"Now, my dear friend, you'll see the inside." Kevin leant over him and typed in a few commands. "When you get there, just wait for me." Flynn winked and stepped back.

Alan looked at him with a frown. "When I get—"

At that moment Alan heard the hum of the laser powering up. He didn't have time to do more than half-turn towards the source of the noise before he felt the odd sensation of being captured in the laser's beam. His fleeting thought that he should never turn his back to that blasted device, especially with Kevin Flynn around, fragmented and dispersed only to be reassembled a second later together with the end of his question.

"—where?" Alan opened his eyes and blinked in disbelief. What the hell was this? The laser bay disappeared as if it never existed and instead he was standing in some sort of small enclosed space.

He cautiously looked around: blue and yellow on black, and glowing lines everywhere. It was, frankly, surreal.

"Welcome to the Grid, user."

Alan turned around and faced Flynn. He would demand an explanation right this instant except that he pretty much lost the power of speech. His frown turned into a look of total incredulity as he caught the sight of what Flynn was wearing. The irritating smirk was still firmly in place, but Alan could only gape at the rest. He dragged his eyes from Flynn's feet, along the blue lines of circuitry embedded in the outfit, up to the top of Flynn's helmet-covered head.

Alan raised an eyebrow.

Flynn looked so smug it promptly irritated Alan once more, bringing his stunned impassivity to a more manageable level.

"Where are we?" Alan finally asked, still a little distracted by all that glowing.

"Remember when the Master Control Program finally crashed?" Flynn gave him a big grin and a clap on the back. Then muttered something about an identity disc.

Alan nodded, ignoring the 'disc' part of Flynn's mumblings and wondering what revelations were going to hit him now.

"That night I'd tried to get into the Encom's system from Lora's terminal and the next thing I knew I end up right here. Literally inside the system. The MCP had me playing games for a while and let me tell you, man, it's all way easier from the other side of the screen."

Flynn steered Alan towards the exit of their little enclosure.

"Wait." Alan stumbled with the realisation. "Are you saying we're actually inside a computer?"

They stepped outside and the vastness of the glowing landscape momentarily took Alan's breath away.

"That's how Lora's digitising laser works." Flynn took the view with a fond eye and then glanced at his friend. "Quite something, isn't it?"

Alan could only nod.

Kevin turned around and touched a panel right next to the still open exit of the portal. The panel receded and from the little cubical space popped out a short digital arm, dropping a small tablet onto Flynn's palm. On contact, it lit up and quickly formed five or six glowing rings around itself, simultaneously connecting them and creating a solid surface. Then the glow faded and Flynn held up the disc to Alan.

"A frisbee?" Alan's eyebrow was arched up again.

Flynn rolled his eyes. "Your disc," he said, clipping it to Alan's back. "You wouldn't believe how useful the little thing sometimes is."

To his own surprise, Alan actually felt the instance the disc connected - a momentary awareness of his memory expanding and then snapping back into place again.

"Ready to go sightseeing?" Kevin asked with an amused smile.

Alan, first shock finally behind him, answered with a grin, "You bet."

With a laugh, Flynn threw him a glowing orange stick. "Come on, I want you to meet someone."

He held another stick horizontally in front of him and Alan watched amazed as suddenly bright lines curved around him, crossing and connecting and closing Flynn in a... motorcycle. Or something very much like it. Neat trick; Alan copied Flynn's move. He was breifly surprised at the feeling of complete and total integration with the machine.

He glanced to his right - Flynn was speeding a little ahead of him and Alan was suddenly possessed by an impish urge to turn it into a race. Maybe it was the lingering sense of unreality, maybe the flat, empty landscape, but once Alan's competitive streak kicked in, he let it take over. He speeded up and before Flynn realised what exactly was happening, Alan was at least a length of the lightcycle ahead. Flynn kicked his own lightcycle into high gear and eventually managed to catch up, but was still beaten - fair and square - Alan reaching the City limits first.

Alan stopped before entering the City itself and clipped the baton to his leg, grinning from ear to ear. He hadn't this much fun since... well, a long time.

"Man, you're good." Flynn looked at his friend with an unusually calculating expression. Who would've thought the good old Alan had that in him? Maybe he and his program were more alike than he'd thought? That wouldn't be at all surprising and with Alan here, dressed like that, Flynn could almost believe he was looking at Tron.

Kevin shook his head.

"So," still grinning, Alan took a deep breath, a faint smell of ozone tickling his nose. "Who am I supposed to meet?"

Flynn turned, looking around, finally spotting a figure in the distance. It was quickly coming closer and Flynn threw a sideways glance at Alan, his smug grin coming back at full force.

"There he is." He waved his hand casually in the general direction of the newcomer. "Patrolling the City like a good security program should. And you just know he's the best." Flynn would pull off the casualness too if it wasn't for the little sly glances he kept shooting at Alan.

Alan looked back bewildered.

"Tron, long time, no see!" Flynn shouted.

At the name Alan looked sharply ahead. He couldn't make out the face yet, shadowed as it was by glowing blue circuitry of the figure's helmet. Alan squinted, automatically reaching up to adjust his glasses only to find them gone. Odd, he hadn't noticed that before. Well, if the laser digitised him fixing his eyesight along the way, he wasn't going to complain.

"Greetings, Flynn."

The figure came closer and Alan barely contained his exclamation of surprise. He supposed he did look poleaxed, though, jaw slack and mouth hanging slightly open.

"Indeed, it's been almost..." Tron's words trailed off as soon as his eyes rested on Flynn's companion.

"Alan, meet Tron." Flynn's lunatic grin was lost on both his friend and the program, as they gazed at each other. Tron's eyes, full of undisguised wonder, were nearly the size of his disc, while Alan, who managed to compose himself a little, stared fascinated, his eyes darting from Tron's face to the dots that formed T on his breastplate, and to the boots covered in circuitry.

Finally it was Tron who first overcame his stunned speechlessness.

"My User," he whispered and promptly fell to one knee in front of a greatly surprised Alan.

Flynn gawped at that too. Well, that was one strong reaction and how come no programs ever greeted him like that? He supposed, though, that he should cut Tron some slack. It was probably the greatest moment of Tron's entire existence - including his victory over the MCP - because, well, who wouldn't be thrilled at meeting his creator?

"It's a great honour to meet you, Alan_1." Tron bowed his head, looking for all the world like a knight paying honour to his king.

"No no, that's not necessary." Alan jolted into action at last. He had to admit to being quite flattered by such reverent attention, but it really embarassed the Hell out of him.

Alan cleared his throat awkwardly and seeing Tron had no intention to get up, he took him by the shoulders, trying to get the program to stand up. The circuits where his hands touched Tron's armour, pulsed bright blue before turning violet for a millisecond and Tron gasped slightly. He stood up, nevertheless.

"Yeah, that's better." Alan patted Tron distractedly watching the bright flares of the program's circuitry. There was something decidedly mesmerising about that.

"So, Tron—"

Both the program and his programmer started at Flynn's voice, Alan getting his hands off Tron with some reluctance.

"—anything interesting happened while I was away?"

Tron finally tore his gaze from his user.

"We are trying to get rid of the remnants of the Master Control Program and we're restructuring the Grid at a steady pace. There were three security breaches, quickly dealt with and the cause has been eliminated," Tron reported and blinked as if only now remembering something. "Oh, and Yori gathered some data she would like you to go over."

Flynn frowned slightly. "Now?"

"Preferably." Tron darted a surreptitious glance at Alan. It was difficult to rein in the impulse to stare at his user.

"Is it real important?" Flynn asked, frown deepening.

"I think so."

Flynn sighed and turned to Alan. "Sorry, man. I wanted to show you around, but I guess it'll have to wait."

"I can show Alan_1 around." The words were out of Tron's mouth before Kevin had time to quite finish the sentence. He was going to ask Tron to escort Alan back to the portal, but the eager look on the program's face made him reconsider. Plus, Tron's 'puppy eyes' took him somewhat by surprise.

"You sure?'

Tron nodded quickly.

"All right, then." Flynn reached for the lightcycle baton. "You guys will be OK here?"

"Sure," came from Alan and "Of course" from Tron.

Flynn blinked. Wow, Alan in stereo - that was a bit strange.

He threw the last amused glance at the pair. They looked almost like twins, except for slight differences in the pattern of the circuits covering their chests.

Tron was staring at Alan again. Kevin sighed.

"Tron, where is Yori?" he asked patiently but, man, he'd never seen Tron so distracted.

"Sector 4." With a slightly guilty expression, Tron jerked his head back to Flynn and soon both he and Alan watched as Flynn's lightcycle sped away. Then Tron turned only to encounter his user's gaze locked onto him.

"Would you like to see the City, Alan_1?" he asked, hoping that his nervousness wasn't too obvious. Or that his excitement at having Alan_1 finally to himself wasn't too evident (though he supposed his circuits flushing violet every time the user touched him kinda gave that one away). Or at least not too creepy.

"Sure." Alan lit up. Literally. His circuits glowed briefly a little brighter as he grinned at the prospect of exploring this strange new world. "Lead the way, Tron."

It was still a little strange to speak to an actual program he wrote, to see it - him - wearing Alan's own face and Alan suddenly realised it had just stopped being possible to see Tron as anything other than a real person. He knew that even when he was back safely behind his desk at Encom, every time he'd request access to Tron, he'd see the program as he was now - and that was definitely not just a bunch of instructions.

Alan eyed him curiously, eagerly studying the precise architecture of lines and angles on Tron's armour as he walked slightly behind the program. There was no other word for it: Tron was an amazing creation, cutting a truly striking figure, and Alan really didn't think he was blowing his own trumpet here. Or that he was being narcissistic.

He wasn't.

He just appreciated what he saw and false modesty simply wouldn't do. And sure, it still was a surreal experience to see his own coding walking there in front of him, but Alan loved every minute of it.

"I thought we could go to the Central Tower." Tron turned slightly to address Alan. "It offers a spectacular view of the City."

Alan stopped gawking at the fine details of circuitry on Tron's back and looked up to the program's face.

"Yeah, I'd like that." He smiled and turned to finally take a look at his surroundings.

They had just passed a couple of programs. Alan couldn't help but stare a little at the flowing cape the female one wore. Shimmering with light, it was quite spectacular itself.

Tron led Alan through a narrow alley and when they emerged, it was to a more open, circular space. It was beautiful. Well, maybe not to everyone, but the programmer in Alan couldn't ask for more. Such an aesthetic minimalism, Alan sighed contendedly and looked up at the dark not-quite-sky.

"Hey, what's that?" he asked, pointing to something that was flying their way and looking like a giant mosquito painted by a cubist on acid.

Tron looked as well and quickly reached for his disc.

"A cluster of corrupted data," he said and threw the disc, derezzing the bug. It fell apart in a shower of bright orange pixels that Alan watched speculatively.

The disc streaked back to Tron's hand and Alan blinked, the bright afterimage under his eyelids.

"Does it happen often?" he asked, nodding towards the place where the bug met its demise.

"Not anymore, although it did right after the MCP's destruction."

Alan nodded again. That's what he saw from his side of the screen too.

"We are currently restructuring the Grid," Tron explained further. "Flynn has some very interesting ideas about the upgrades as well. I'm sure he mentioned them to you." Tron glanced at his user, not wanting to bore him with the details of what surely Flynn and Alan_1 himself had come up with in the first place.

Alan shook his head. "Believe it or not, Tron, but Kevin Flynn doesn't really talk about this little side-project. Or if he does, it's not to me."

Tron looked at him, uncertain. Didn't the Users communicate with each other more efficiently than programs? It would be a great loss of creative potential if they didn't.

"But," Alan continued, "I guess that's just changed. Now that I saw all this, I'm not gonna just drop the matter and forget."

Alan narrowed his eyes. If Flynn was really thinking about keeping him away from the Grid now, he obviously had another think coming. Tron was his program and whatever upgrades he was going to receive, would be written by Alan himself. He set his jaw in a stubborn expression, only peripherally aware of his not wholly reasonable possessiveness.

"Does it mean you'll visit us again?" Tron glanced at Alan, hardly daring to hope.

"I think so. I'd like to come here from time to time." Alan had his eyes on the nearby buildings and so he missed the huge grin that blossomed on Tron's face.

"That's great news," the program said happily.

"Yeah?" Alan looked at Tron, somewhat surprised at his nearly ecstatic expression.

"Of course." Tron nodded. "Having a User among us would be a source of pride and joy for any system. And I must confess to a certain personal satisfaction that the User is you, Alan_1."

Alan flushed a little with embarrasment at Tron's words, but more at the adoring look the program sent him. He didn't really know what to say to that, so he opted for politeness. "Uh... Thank you."

And in an effort to deflect attention from himself, he added, "You know, there wasn't really any occasion to tell you this, but I was pretty impressed with how quickly you were able to defeat the MCP."

"Really?" It was Tron's turn to flush - his circuits becoming brighter. "I am glad you were satisfied with my performance."

No matter how much Tron wanted his user to praise him and think he was the best program ever written he had to give credit where it was due, though.

"Of course," he continued, "our victory over the MCP would be much more difficult, if not impossible, without Flynn. But thank you, Alan_1."

"You deserve it." Alan patted Tron's shoulder, the circuits lighting up under his palm again.

They reached the base of a tall structure and Tron announced, "Here we are."

He stepped onto a lightly coloured patch of floor, right next to the Tower's wall, and pulled Alan to stand close beside him.

"Don't move now," Tron said as the patch detached from the floor and began to rise towards the Tower's top.

Alan looked up and saw a dark sphere at the top of the Tower. He was pretty sure it wasn't just a decoration. As far as he observed, every detail of the City's architecture, no matter how seemingly insignificant, had some kind of purpose. That was nice.

He watched fascinated as with their approach a section of the sphere's bottom part opened, admitting them inside. When their "elevator" stopped moving and clicked into place, the lights inside the sphere came up and Alan saw that he and Tron were standing in a spacious room. Of which the most prominent feature seemed to be a huge window overlooking he City below.

Alan walked up to it and peered down - the view was magnificent. Beams of light and shapes outlined by colourful precise lines, all against a backdrop of soft darkness. Simple, yet beautiful.

"Do you like it?" Tron stood beside Alan, looking at the City below together with him.

"Oh yeah," Alan sighed. He noticed that the window didn't fog up with his breath. Although, perhaps, there was no reason to expect it to, even if the windowpane had been made of glass.

Alan touched the surface in front of him and it shimmered delicately with energy.

He glanced to his side, catching Tron watching him.

"You know," Alan said, returning the look and frowning in thought. "I have some ideas for the upgrades myself. And I'd like to start with you."

Tron's eyes widened as Alan stepped closer.

"I meant to do this earlier, but there was never enough time, especially recently. I thought about enhancing some of your functions and refining your code. There's this one part I should've rewritten earlier. It actually slows you down a little. I figure, since I'm here..."

Alan trailed off, while he looked at Tron speculatively, wondering how to go about rewriting that code. Normally he'd do it sitting at his computer terminal, but standing face to face with his program changed the situation rather drastically. Alan frowned again, thinking that going for Tron's disc was probably the best place to start.

Tron himself wasn't at that moment capable of doing much more than staring at his user in wonder. Alan_1 was going to touch him! Their usual communication through the I/O tower, however great and fulfilling, didn't even come close to this. This was so much more personal, so intimate. It would be terryfying to have his code laid bare like that before anyone else, but this was his user. He wrote Tron and Tron had absolute faith in his Creator. Whatever he intended to do, was definitely for the best.

If Tron had any need to breathe, he would be hyperventilating with excitement right now. As it was, he just turned his back to Alan.

"You can input the information directly to my disc," he said over his shoulder, congratualting himself silently on the fact that at least his voice didn't tremble. Not at all. Even when his coding was all aflutter.

Alan gnawed at his lip. "Don't you have to unclip it first?"

"Not necessarily." Tron shook his head. No way he was going to pass this up and experience the whole thing the traditional way. "Besides, the process will be faster."

Yeah, Alan thought so too. He stood for a moment, contemplating the disc and how to get it to open or, well, to get it to do anything that would allow him to input the instructions.

He raised his hand and, still deep in thought, absently tapped the central part. It surprised him by receding a little and Alan, not entirely sure but trusting his instinct, pushed it further.

It sank gently, Tron gasped and the disc opened.

"Oh..." Alan exhaled quietly as the code's holographic image unfurled before his eyes and glowed softly blue.

He spotted the part he was looking for almost immediately. The condensed, three-dimentional form sure beat scrolling up and down the lines of code.

Alan worked quickly, his fingers flying over the variables and commands, changing slightly some of them and some of the other leaving untouched.

Tron stood quietly, revelling in the feeling of his user's hands getting so intimately acquainted with Tron's very being.

"Oh, that's..." He blinked as he felt Alan write a few new subroutines. "Very useful. Excellent idea, Alan_1"

"Why, thank you." Alan smiled behind Tron's back.

Surreal didn't cover it.

He examined his work with a critical eye and added a couple of finishing touches.

"There, that should be it," he said and hit 'compile'.

The disc immediately closed in on itself and Tron collapsed backwards into Alan's arms.

"Oof." Alan managed to catch him before they both crashed to the floor, Alan bearing the brunt of their fall.

"Well," he remarked to himself after a moment, shifting Tron to lie across his lap. "That was a bit unexpected."

Hm, so this was what happened to a program during compilation. Interesting.

Alan scratched his head under the helmet, wondering how long it was gonna take for Tron to wake up. A moment in the real world would last considerably longer here and Alan just hoped it wouldn't last hours.

He took off his helmet and ran a hand through his hair. He studied the helmet's circuitry for a while, then discarded it and turned to his program. Now, here was something worth staring at.

The lines on Tron's armour glowed steady blue and Alan traced the outline of the circle on the breastplate with a questioning finger. The contour glowed a little brighter and Alan grinned. Neat.

He explored Tron's circuitry, pressing here, stroking there, watching the play of lights and wondering at the brief violet pulses that sometimes appeared amidst all the blue.

He was sorely tempted to take off Tron's helmet to see if his head was also covered in circuits or if he actually had hair. He wasn't sure, though, how it would affect the program's compilation, so he left it for the time being.

After another couple of minutes, during which Alan tilted Tron's head this way and that and wondered if he himself really looked like that while sleeping, Tron abruptly opened his eyes.

Alan jerked his hand away from the program's chin, startled by the sudden move, and for a moment they simply stared at each other. Then Tron blinked and sat up.

"Compilation successful. New code integrated." Tron flexed his fingers against the floor, feeling the pleasant hum of energy inside him. He was stronger, faster, strategy centre improved. And - he frowned, examining the new additions to his code - it seemed he was also quite capable of some fancy acrobatics. Excellent upgrades for a warrior.

Tron smiled delightedly. "Thank you, Alan_1."

Alan returned the smile, thinking it did wonderful things to Tron's face. No wonder Lora always told him he should smile more often.

Alan didn't have time to follow that - admittedly self-centred - thought because Tron in a move so fast Alan had barely time to blink, had him flat on his back. Again, though thankfully this time getting there wasn't that painful. The program hovered above him for a second and then swooped down, pressing his lips to Alan's.

Alan's eyes widened in shock. He attempted to sputter something, but what actually emerged was a weak "Nngh", so instead he opted for force giving Tron's shoulders a solid shove.

Tron immendiately backed away, looking at him with concern. "Is something wrong?"

"Wrong?" Alan was glad his voice remained fairly steady, considering the circumstances, and not even a trace of the hysterical pitch it wanted to climb could be heard. "You kiss me and ask me if something's wrong?" Alan stared at Tron in disbelief. His lips tingled slightly.

"I thought..." Tron bit his lip and retreated further. "Please, forgive me, Alan_1. I meant no offence. The... kiss—" he tried the unfamiliar word, glad in some small measure that he finally had a name for the act "—is an expression of affection between programs who are very close to each other. Since there is no closer connection than the one between a program and his user, I didn't think it would be inappropriate. Forgive my miscalculation."

Tron looked well and truly miserable, and even slightly afraid, and Alan immediately felt guilty. It wasn't the program's fault Alan didn't particularly liked being kissed by men. Not that he ever was. Or even wanted to be. All that free-love hippie culture thing had never appealed to him, even when he was growing up and was supposed to experiment.

Although out of innate and incurable honesty, he had to admit he rather liked Ziggy Stardust. Did that mean something?

Alan cleared his throat and glanced at Tron who was sitting with his head bowed down, lips forming a thin unhappy line.

All right, this wasn't the end of the world. Maybe programs didn't perceive gender quite the same way people did. Alan was a tolerant guy, he had a girlfriend, he could deal with Tron's displays of affection. If you considered someone your personal deity - as Tron seemed to consider him, and wasn't that a rather conceited thought? - you'd probably want to be as close to them as possible. Right?

Alan couldn't quite get his head around the concept, but he already made up his mind. He shifted a little closer and touched the program's forearm.

"It's OK, you didn't offend me. I was just surprised."

His user's touch jolted Tron out of the morbid thoughts of deresolution or very possible abandonment. Which would be even worse. He couldn't imagine the pain of being left behind, useless and no longer needed or wanted by his user.

Alan_1's words sounded encouraging, though, and Tron raised his head hesitantly, face still serious. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"Yeah, that's... OK." Alan frowned a little, wondering why he felt absolutely no relief at that. And it wasn't as if he didn't trust Tron.

Absent-mindedly, he ran his fingers along the circuits covering Tron's arm. When they flashed violet again, he finally remembered to ask. "Why do they change colour?"

Tron almost cringed. Or at least it looked like that. Alan was a bit taken aback by the reaction.

"It's... It's very nice when you stroke them like that."

Alan was sure that if Tron could blush his face would resemble a ripe tomato. He recognised the expression.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked, even though the answer only got him more curious. Just how many colours were there to see? Plus, he supposed he could do something nice for Tron after all that shoving. Assuming, of course, Tron didn't have anything against Alan, uh..., pawing him like that. It didn't look like he would object, though, especially after that kiss, but it was better - not to mention only polite - to ask.

"Um, no." Tron's voice was quietly awed. He watched his user's hand gliding over the circuits covering the inside of his forearm. They pulsed violet again, though this time the darker hue was slower to dissipate.

"Hm," Alan hummed to himself. It really was fascinating, watching what he could do to Tron.

He blinked, momentarily startled at the thought. Even as a kid he had never been the kind to pluck fly's wings and legs just to see what the insect would do. Now, the willingness to test and explore the program to his limits was slightly disconcerting.

Alan looked up to Tron's face, so much like his own. It was full of wonder and somehow innocent and Alan realised with relief that even in the throes of research he could never harm Tron. The program was his creation, his child— Well no, not a child. That would be a bit too creepy since Alan was currently playing with Tron's responses to his touch in a way that could only be described as teasing.

Alan flushed slightly at that, but didn't stop as he somehow felt neither embarrassed nor uncomfortable. He was just... curious and instead he watched wide-eyed as Tron's eyelids fluttered and his lips parted on a sigh.

He glanced down at their hands - the pulses of violet were beginning to appear more frequently.

On the next downward stroke, Tron caught Alan's hand.

"What...?" Alan started, slightly concerned that he did something wrong.

Tron shook his head, the twinkle in his eye no longer that innocent.

"I would like to return the gesture," he said and glided his finger along the glowing blue line on the inside of Alan's arm, up to the crook of it, and rubbed there.

Alan took a sharp breath. For such a small gesture, the effect sure was strong. Tron kept gently massaging the spot and inching a little higher and Alan shivered shocked as a spark of pure sexual energy shot right to his groin. Yeah, 'nice' was an understatement of the year.

Tron drank in his user's reactions, the program's eyes hungry and worshipful. Alan later decided that it was then that he completely lost any sense of propriety along with self-delusions that he didn't know exactly where this was going. It was just that nobody ever looked at him like Tron did, not even Lora, and it was a heady feeling. It was making him want to do things to Tron, making him want to appreciate him. Appreciate him very very thoroughly.

He moved closer to Tron, abandoning any pretence of personal space. He put his hand on the circuits covering Tron's torso, just under the circular emblem, and stroked there. Fingers splayed, each of them touched at least one blue line and when they did, the lines turned violet.

"Oh, my User." Tron's head dropped forward and rested on Alan's shoulder.

The program's hand sneaked around Alan's waist, caressing the circuits on his lower ribs and Alan couldn't supress a quiet moan. Christ, such a light, simple touch and he was practically panting. It had to be all that electricity - exposed circuits feeding sensations directly, it seemed, to his pleasure centres.

Alan buried his face into Tron's neck, his arms going around the program - one up to slide over the panels on Tron's back, touching the edge of his disc, the other going lower and pressing where a tailbone would be in a human.

Tron's reaction was instantaneous. He stiffened and his circuits flared violet, stronger than ever before. Then he took a hitching breath and got to his knees, hauling Alan up to kneel as well. They pressed their bodies together, arms around each other, Alan's hands never ceasing their caresses. He left one hand on Tron's lower back, sliding the other one down to the program's hip. He rested his palm there, the thumb massaging the short, curved circuit embedded near Tron's hipbone.

Alan watched mesmerised as the waves of violet pulsed steadily through Tron's every circuit. He barely noticed when Tron's hands slipped down to his waist and lower until he felt a finger pressing and rubbing his tailbone.

"Oh, God."

It was amazing, the feeling so intensely erotic Alan nearly whimpered. If he hadn't been so aroused, he might have found it strange - he'd never considered that particular spot on himself to be so insanely sensitive.

Alan realised he was about ten seconds from coming, his own circuits pulsing violet, and pressed his crotch to Tron's hip, grinding his hard-on against the program. Their circuits meshed, the pulses becoming perfectly synchronised, and while Alan panted and moaned into Tron's neck, he could feel the soft whisper of the program's lips moving over the skin of his own throat.

And then, to his utter surprise, he felt Tron's teeth closing over his earlobe and when he sucked gently, it was suddenly all over and Alan was coming harder than he could ever remember.

He managed to keep his eyes open and saw that Tron was right there with him, reaching his own release almost at the same moment, the lights of their circuits nearly blinding.

When Alan could breathe and move again, he slumped to the floor, taking Tron with him. The program sprawled over his user's chest, the glow of his and Alan's circuitry becoming softer and slowly turning blue again.

"Well, that was certainly something." Alan let out a breathy laugh, somehow failing to feel either embarrassed or horrified at what he'd just done. He might feel that and more later, but now he just floated on a cloud of a sort of happy amazement.

Tron, eyes heavy-lidded and a soft smile on his lips, propped himself on his elbows and looked at Alan. He'd never felt such profound joy, such contentment, as he did now, still so close to his user.

"Thank you, Alan_1," he murmured, the obvious just-got-laid vibe completely eclipsing his usual seriousness.

"You don't have to thank me." Alan watched Tron's face, marvellig at the expression. It was like looking into a mirror, except he never actually looked into one right after having sex. Wow. This wasn't too narcissistic, was it?

He touched Tron's chin with one finger and pushed himself up a little. Then it was only a matter of tilting his head and Alan's lips closed over the lips of his program.

Alan figured that after all this dry-humping a kiss couldn't hurt. In for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.

He licked the line of Tron's closed mouth, wanting to push his tongue inside and Tron, despite the pleasure he felt at that, jumped slightly - this wasn't how Yori did it. Was here more to this... kissing procedure?

"Easy," Alan soothed. "Open your mouth a little."

And when Tron obeyed, Alan slipped his tongue in. He tickled the inside of Tron's upper lip, then gently pushed further, past his teeth, to stroke Tron's tongue with his own.

Alan was curious about the taste, but soon discovered the program didn't really taste of anything. Well, it wasn't that surprising. After all, would a digitised orange still taste the same? He doubted it, but the thought brought to his mind the image of Lora. Funny, Alan didn't feel the accompanying guilt that he was cheating on her. Did this thing with Tron qualifiy as cheating anyway? He couldn't concentrate on the thought. Actually, he couldn't concentrate properly on anything other than the lapful of his own security program and the little needy noises Tron made. Or was it Alan himself? It didn't matter.

Alan licked the inside of Tron's mouth, encouraging the program's tongue to do some exploring of its own.

Tron reciprocated the caress, hesitantly at first, then with more confidence, letting his user's response guide him. It was... wonderful, this connection. He felt the wave of Alan_1's energy suffuse his whole code, right down to the most basic functions. It was perfect.

Tron moaned into Alan's mouth and Alan hummed in response, feeling their energies interface with each other, data flow synchronising. He drew slightly back then, finally needing a deeper breath. Tron's tongue darted out to give a last lick to Alan's lips, the circuits on both of them pulsing with the same rhythm again.

Alan briefly nuzzled Tron's cheek and sat up straighter. When they were no longer touching, the fog in his brain finally cleared up a little and with a squirm, he became aware that coming with his clothes on hadn't been such a great idea after all. Not that he could help it at the time, but still.

"Say," he grimaced slightly and glanced at Tron. "Is there some way to get out of this suit?"

Tron blinked, trying to process the prospective image of Alan_1 without his armour on.

"Y-yes," he finally stammered. He managed to get to his feet, praying his excitement wouldn't turn all his circuits violet again. Alan_1 might think Tron had a single-track logic centre.

"This way."

Tron reached down and grasped Alan's hand. When Alan stood up and found himself nose to nose with the program, their chests not even a millimetre apart, he grinned.

Tron's circuits blushed violet and Alan grinned wider.

Well, so much for not being too obvious, Tron thought resigned, but at least Alan_1 didn't seem to mind.

Tron led his user to the back of the room and pressed a panel on one of the walls. Alan still wondered how he knew where to look for it, since there was no clear delineation except the panel lighting up at Tron's touch, when he was enveloped in a cloud of shimmering light. When it faded Alan abruptly realised he was completely naked and since Tron stood right next to him - that he was quite naked too.

Normally Alan would feel at least a little self-conscious, but now he just gaped at his program. Tron's body was like an engineer's dream: the circuits, though fainter than the ones on his clothes, were perfectly visible and glowed the same soft blue.

Alan just had to touch them, he simply couldn't keep his hands to himself and trying to was probably a moot point by now. He reached out and traced the lines from Tron's shoulder, down to his chest, his fingertips brushing the vaguely star-shaped pattern on his pectoral muscles.

Tron had no nipples, Alan noticed, petting the circuits and watching them turn violet again as Tron shuddered happily.

He stroked lower, but stopped surprised, hand hovering over where a navel would be, because even lower the... things got a little strange. In his short time here, Alan got used to seeing Tron as basically human and his own mirror image at that, but this was something new.

Or rather wasn't.

To put it simply, Tron had no penis. Alan stared. In the back of his mind he knew it made sense - after all, why would a program need reproductive organs - but it was still a bit shocking to see.

Alan's hand uncertainly touched Tron's belly. There were two circuits on his groin: one more to the left, the other to the right, that converged into one, which went even lower...

Alan gulped, realising he really wanted to see where exactly it went. And, well, why not? His breath quickened and he licked his lips - those ice-blue lines on Tron's body looked very inviting.

He glanced up to the program's face and saw that Tron was doing his own staring. At Alan's own private parts.

Alan flushed slightly and glanced down just as Tron's hand closed over his half-hard dick.

"We seem to differ to some extent," Tron remarked, his face thoughtful, as he rubbed experimentally.

Alan gritted his teeth, trying to stifle a moan. The sight of the thin circuits running along Tron's fingers was unexpectedly arousing.

"Ooh," Tron made a sound at the back of his throat, watching with interest as Alan got harder. "What's this?" he finally asked.

Alan exhaled loudly, nostrils flaring, as Tron still moved his hand up and down, intent on getting himself familiarised with this particular part of his user.

"It's—" another deep breath "—a man's reproductive organ," Alan said in a rush, finally taking Tron's hand off himself. A few more strokes like that and Alan would be finished and that was not going to happen. Not yet.

"Reproductive organ," Tron assimilated the new data. "Reproducing what?"

"Um," Alan blinked. "New... users," he said at last, not certain he should go into the whole explaining right now.

"Ah." Tron's eyes showed his admiration for the concept. "I understand." He glanced down to commit the sight to his data banks.

Alan felt a little embarassed being subjected to such an intense scrutiny, so he did what he wanted to do in the first place: licked one glowing circuit - this one on Tron's hand Alan still held - hoping it would distract the program from his staring.

It worked beautifully - Tron's eyes widened and the rest of his circuitry flared violet.

"You like that?" Alan asked, lifting his eyebrows.

Tron nodded mutely so Alan proceeded to lick the program's palm, then up his arm to the shoulder. Up there, was a short looped circuit and Alan concentrated on it, licking it and sucking hungrily, causing another bright flash to shudder through the program.

He looked up to see Tron's head falling back, the expression on his face completely blissed out. Alan thought there was possibly something very vain, or maybe voyeuristic, in watching that and feeling more turned on than he could ever remember.

Alan chuckled quietly and laid his hands on Tron's shoulders, urging him to sit. Then he pushed the program gently backwards to lie on his back.

"What are you going to do?" Considering he was nearly limp with pleasure at having Alan_1 so close and doing such things to him, Tron was quite proud he managed a perfectly coherent question. His circuits flushed violet again when he felt Alan stretch on top of him. They were touching from shoulder to toe and Tron was sure he was soon going to overload and explode into million bits from this feeling alone.

"This," Alan said and licked down the circuits on Tron's chest.

"Oh, User." The program was helpless to stop his moan. With effort he managed to keep his eyes open and watched as Alan moved down his body, licking - it seemed - every circuit on the way.

Tron tentatively put his hand on Alan's head, his fingers slipping into his user's hair. Alan glanced up and smiled lopsidedly, his tongue caressing the pulsing violet lines just above the place where a navel would be.

Tron's back arched a little and his lips opened on a silent gasp, head falling back, as Alan went lower - the circuits there were extremely sensitive.

Alan paused for a moment, nuzzling the skin stretched over the program's hipbone. The skin, although lacking the pink tones, was very human-like: soft and delicate except, again, there was no taste. No salt from sweat, which apparently didn't exist in this world, no anything. There wasn't even any scent.

Alan smoothed his hand over Tron's ribs, causing another wave of violet, and felt Tron's fingers, still a little unsure, carding his hair. He licked his lips, eyeing the glowing lines and wondering if he was ready for the next step. He'd never really done that before, but the circuits under his cheek were warm and pulsing with energy and Alan was really really curious where this central one went...

And so he pushed himself slightly off the program, parted Tron's legs, bent down and put his tongue directly on the spot on Tron's groin, where the central circuit diverged at a sharp angle into two short lines.

A high sound emerged from the program's throat, the hand that had left Alan's head a moment before, came back to clutch at his hair.

"Oh, Alan_1." The 'one' was a drawn out moan, Tron's voice both shocked and full of obvious pleasure. His circuits blushed violently and he was pretty sure all of his higher functions had just gone offline as Alan tickled that spot with the tip of his tongue and then kissed it, sucking softly. Another shudder ran through the program and he thought that even if he was going to derezz from the imminent overload, it would be the most perfect deresolution ever.

Tron was vaguely aware that the thought made no sense, but any logic was well beyond his grasp right now because Alan_1 was licking down the circuit between Tron's legs and, oh dear User, nearing the auxiliary power input and Tron simply couldn't think at all. He'd never felt anything like that and nearly sobbed from the overwhelming sensation.

Alan paused again and stared curiously at the circuit before him. He'd thought it ran between Tron's legs and ended somewhere in the vicinity of the program's lower back, but that wasn't quite true. With Tron's legs over his shoulders and his nose practically buried in, well, Tron's ass, Alan saw that the circuit seemed to disappear inside the program. The point of entry and re-appearance being the program's... anus. Which he did have, apparently.

Alan found it a bit strange that Tron didn't possess any genitals, but did have an asshole. Unless, of course, it was actually something that only looked like that. He couldn't even begin to guess at its purpose.

The sphincter was clenched shut, the circuit forming seemingly one straight line, and with his face only inches away, Alan felt a small thrill at the thought of what he wanted - what he was going - to do. It certainly wasn't something he had ever thought he'd do, but here he was, about to commit the unspeakably illicit act of rimming. The fact that he was going to do it to another guy made the 'illicit' and especially the 'unspeakable' part doubly so.

Well, OK, Tron was not exactly a guy and Alan was still more curious than anything to see how the circuits down here were arranged, but the taboo of the whole thing made his heart beat faster in excitement.

Alan touched the sphincter with the tip of his tongue and gave it a soft, wet kiss. The central circuit glowed brightly violet and Tron nearly shouted, his legs jerking and heels digging into Alan's back.

Alan grinned to himself. Oh, this could be fun.

He lifted his head and looked at his program. Tron was biting his lip, eyes closed and all the circuits pulsing.

"Come on," Alan said, removing himself from between Tron's legs and circling his waist with one arm.

Tron's eyes snapped open as he was gently manoeuvred to lie on his stomach, and then up to kneel on all fours.

"Alan_1?" The haze of pleasure in Tron's head cleared up a little and he looked over his shoulder at his user. It was rather puzzling, this positioning, but Alan_1 was smiling at him so he surely knew what he was doing.

Tron waited, the delightful feeling of his user's hands stroking his back and lower, mingling with anticipation. He watched as Alan ran his hands admiringly over the lines of circuitry and felt pride that his user was so obviously pleased with what he saw.

A finger stroked briefly over the little hole of Tron's auxiliary power input and he whimpered, all the circuits flaring a darker shade of violet. Tron felt no shame in such an obvious display - it was all for Alan_1.

Alan met his program's eye and the user's smile widened. "I think you're going to like it."

Tron's eyes got huge as he saw Alan_1 bend down, obviously about to put his mouth down there, on that normally neglected part of Tron's anatomy.

He never thought much about his additional power input and couldn't even remember ever using it - and certainly never like this - so even though Alan touched him there already, the program was still shocked at the intensity of pleasure. He moaned and bucked under the hands and mouth and tongue of his user.

Alan huffed a quiet laugh against Tron's skin, loving his eager response. He swiped his tongue over the entire length of the central circuit up to where it diverged again at the point of Tron's tailbone. Then he concentrated on the little asshole, licking around it in circles, making it good and wet, and then tickling it with the point of his tongue.

He had never thought this sort of thing might be even remotely enjoyable, but Alan had to admit he did enjoy it quite a lot.

Yeah, the Grid was a remarkable place of discovery.

Tron, rocking slightly back and forth, head resting on his folded arms on the floor, was moaning almost constantly now, and his circuits flashed with bright violet colour. There was no doubt whatsoever that he was enjoying it too and that sent a sharp spike of arousal through Alan. He closed his eyes, the flashes of light still visible under his eyelids, and focussed on giving Tron as much pleasure as he could. He patiently licked over and around the tightly closed sphincter until it relaxed slightly and Alan experimentally pushed the very tip of his tongue inside.

Tron literally lit up, hands clawing the floor, moans sounding like he was repeating Alan's name over and over again.

Alan pushed his tongue deeper, enjoying how the central circuit was nearly bursting with energy under his caresses. It was intoxicating.

He pulled out and thoroughly licked Tron's asshole before pushing back in again. He started fucking Tron gently with his tongue - thought briefly about fucking him with something decidedly different, but it really was too soon, for both of them.

Alan was so turned on, though, that he couldn't wait anymore. His cock demanded attention right now so he took himself in hand and started stroking, his other hand still on Tron's ass, as he kept lapping at the relaxed hole, pushing his tongue in as far as he could.

Alan knew he was pretty close, could tell that Tron too didn't need much to come, so he didn't even attempt to be gentle with himself. He jerked off roughly and just as he felt the first signs of orgasm, he lifted his head and bit Tron on one asscheek.

The program shouted and came in a brilliant flash of violet, Alan's spunk spilling over his fingers and splattering on the floor the exact same moment.

Definitley some user/program thing, Alan thought dazed. He rested his cheek on Tron's lower back and just panted, feeling the warmth of the dimming circuits and his own last shivers subside.

Finally Tron fell gently to the floor, turning on his side, Alan following suit. He noticed the program's slightly stunned expression as Tron reached behind himself to rub at his bitten asscheek.

Alan's ears felt hot and he wondered if his blush was visible. Still slightly breathless, he smiled up at the program. "You OK there?"

"Y-yes," Tron stuttered a little. "I think so. Is this something Users often do?"

Alan buried his head against Tron's belly, grinning. "Only sometimes."

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Still no discernible smell and he was almost sorry about that.

He felt Tron's fingers stroking his hair.

"I guess we better move if we don't want somebody to walk in on us," Alan sighed.

"That's... probably a good idea." Tron reluctantly loosened his hold on his user and they both slowly got up.

xx xx xx

"So, how do you like the system? Tron took care of you? showed you around?" Flynn asked as he and Alan walked back to the portal.

Alan took a deep breath, hoping he managed to supress his blush.

"Yeah, he did." Alan exhaled. "Pretty impressive."

"It is, isn't it." Kevin was smiling proudly. "I thought about moving the laser from Encom's lab and the system onto a new mainframe. It's gonna be awesome, man."

Flynn talked on about Possibilities and Creation and New World - all in capital letters - and Alan thought he should establish rules now.

"I want to come here sometimes. Often," he added and winced. Was it saying too much?

"Sure, man." Flynn's grin was nearly blinding. It made Alan suspect Flynn showed him the Grid with the sole purpose of making Alan want to come back as often as he could. He knew Alan couldn't resist the challenge of it, the adventure. Damn it, it was sometimes uncanny - not to mention annoying - how well Kevin Flynn seemed to know him.

"We're gonna build the perfect system."

That they were, although at this point Alan was already happy with what he had - his own perfect program.