slt_archive | (no subject)

When you laugh.

[Rests light, light fingers just above the scar on his knee.]

I think . . . I know enough to start. But you'll need to come back in a week, or if anything's changed.

Ohh.

[oh I guess we're back to being embarrassed again]

Alright . . .

[Smooths her hand over the scar, her eyes . . . very distant, for a moment.]

[chances a look down . . . tilts his head curiously]

[There's just a hint of a shadow behind her . . . numbers and piano wire, keys rippling with sound and motion . . .]

[And it's gone, her fingers slipping away.]

Ready if I move?

[whoa . . .]

—huh?

Ah, yeah, I'm ready.

Then . . .

[Slips her legs from under his, catching his eyes before lowering his leg back down, letting it stretch out again.]

Okay?

[lets out a quiet sigh once it's straight, nods after a moment]

Okay.

[Nods, finally breaking contact with him to reach down for his A-T.]

[lifts his head a bit to watch]

You can get up if you like!

[Puts one on the bed, and the other on her lap, screwdrivers already in her hand.]

Oh.

[s-sits up, and. Tries to sit in a way that isn't as . . . yeah]

[Pauses to reach over for his shirt, holding it out to him.]

Here.

. . . thanks.

[tugs it on ._.]

[Goes back to his A-T as he does, disassembling first one pair, then the other with a single-minded focus, fingers tapping out bits of different beats almost unconsciously.]

[doesn't bother buttoning it back up for now, instead leaning closer just a bit to watch her]

[Even going at normal speed, both are nothing more but two neatly arranged patches of component parts in less than a minute.]

Some of these . . . really don't match at all, but I can still . . .

What do you mean, they don't match at all?

[Picks up a wheel core, a hint of that shadow starting to reform around them.]

Just like the best teams work together like the parts of an A-T, the parts . . . they all work together like a team. The more you ask from them, the more the parts need to 'fit'—they need to support each other's strengths, and their weaknesses, too.

[Her eyes are unfocused, flicking from part to part. Computations, tests, schematics are built, dismantled and rebuilt in the time it takes to pick one component over another, one screw from the rest.]

Heeeeh . . .

[watches for a moment] Those aren't my pair, so maybe that's why? They don't seem to fit right.

They aren't. They aren't even close.

Ikki-kun's A-T didn't use all top-line parts, or the even the best combinations. But their sound . . . that's the one you knew best. The one that worked with you through every battle . . . every trick, even each bit of practice. Those were the A-T that first let you fly.

Huh . . .

. . . I don't remember the first time.

I don't know it either. But your body remembers.

That's why . . . even if they're the right shoe size, these A-T won't feel like they 'fit'.

. . .

[gives his A-T a LOOK]

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