I enter my room with Corax on my shoulder and close the door behind me. Someone dropped off Cassie’s backpack, full of my missing parts, with Cassie’s romance and poetry books sitting on top.

  “Hopefully this should be easier than the bus.” I attempt a half hearted joke.

  Corax, as always, doesn’t respond. Instead, he steps off of my shoulder and glides to our bed. He begins piling all my sheets and pillows into his perfect nest. I know without asking that he wouldn’t want help. His nest has to be perfect, and I would only mess it up.

  A small envelope catches my attention out of the corner of my eye. Sitting in the center of my dresser is Kara’s letter. A gift she never wants me to open. I’m not sure how it got there, but it’s going to stay there.

  Next to the letter are my only other possessions, the small light Lucas handed to me, and the mp Cassie gave me.

  If Corax is working, I can too. I sit on the ground and begin to sort through my skin ptes. A few of them are actually unbroken, and are easy to reattach. It’s not much, but it makes me feel a little better.

  The rest of them I organize into a few piles, taking stock of how damaged each one is. I’m going to have to ask Sonia for help repairing them, but maybe I can take care of some of the less broken ones myself. If not, it could take days to fix me.

  I finish around the same time that Corax finally satisfied with his nest. I grab Cassie’s book from her bag and settle in for the night on the remaining space of my bed.

  “Hey Corax? Do you want me to read to you?” He’s lived through my memories of this book. I’d hate to leave him on a cliffhanger.

  Corax gives a single nod and settles down deep into his nest.

  I read to him quietly and slowly throughout the night, savoring every magic word. I hope I’m being quiet enough that Cassie can’t hear. She’d tell me if I was keeping her up, so I guess I’m doing fine.

  Morning comes far too quickly, threatening the end of my reading time.

  “I should go to Sonia before the compound gets too busy. You should probably come and get your wing looked at.” I tell Corax.

  “Ok.” He replies.

  I hold out my arm, letting him step up. He looks too cozy to just grab. He climbs up to my shoulder, and I sling Cassie’s backpack on my other.

  The compound is pretty empty. Just a few guards sit in the yard, still rubbing sleep from their eyes. They do a double take when I enter the yard. I can’t bme them, between my naked disaster of a body and Corax? I’d probably stare too. I just hope I look more together before all the scrappers get back from their current runs.

  I open the door to the garage, only to be assaulted with metal music bring far too loudly. How has she not damaged her hearing? Sonia is standing over her anvil, hammering a metal bar into shape.

  “Sonia!” I yell over the chaos.

  Only an instant ter the music ceases and Sonia stands up, wiping sweat from her brow.

  “I really hope the damage looks worse than it is. And that must be Corax.” She moves throughout the room, collecting a pile of tools. How can she already know what she needs?

  “It’s just my skin ptes. I think I can fix some of them, but most are beyond my knowledge.” I head to a nearby table, organizing each pte by how they’re broken, and how badly. “And Corax’s wing got damaged. We need that fixed too.”

  “Great. Give me a rundown.”

  “Pipe.” Corax answers.

  “Hit by a pipe or ran into a pipe?” Sonia asks for crification.

  Corax only waits, knowing Sonia can figure it out.

  “Guess it doesn’t matter. Does the bird have schematics?”

  “He has intricate clockwork internals. I saw him build it and I’m not exactly sure how it all works, but the wings aren’t very complex.”

  “I don’t want to know what that means. Put him on the table, we’ll start with him.”

  Corax flies on his own to a table in the middle of the room. Sonia flinches the moment he takes off, resting her hand on a rge metal tool. Only once she’s sure he’s not about to fly again does she rex. I ignore her panicking and walk over to Corax.

  “Is it ok if I disconnect your wing?” I ask him.

  Corax nods reluctantly.

  I pull a small plug, and his wing instantly goes limp. With just a few tools around I unhook a small tch, feeling a few gears slide out of position and freeing his wing from his body. The second his wing comes free, Corax climbs back onto my shoulder. He keeps a close eye on both Sonia and his limb, ready for anything.

  I begin taking apart his disconnected limb carefully, getting to the metal frame that got bent. By the time Sonia has collected her tools, I have his frame exposed.

  “So what are we looking at?” She asks, pcing her pile of tools on the table.

  “It got bent here, here, and here.”

  It’s very obvious that I didn’t have tools when I bent Corax’s wing back into shape. The frame is far from being ft, and hairline fractures snake through the entire structure.

  “I can fix that.” Sonia says confidently after only a few seconds of looking at it.

  She takes the frame over to her forge to do who knows what with. I wouldn’t have thought it’d be possible to repair, but I’m gd she knows what she’s doing.

  “So how’d you two meet?” Sonia asks.

  “Long story.” Corax responds, signaling he doesn’t want to talk about it.

  “How about we start working on some of the ptes?” I ask Corax. “Can you grab me that soldering iron, some pliers, and a screwdriver?”

  Corax immediately springs to work, carefully climbing down my half-exposed arm, and jumping onto the table. While he rummages through the pile of tools, I grab some of the easy to repair ptes. Once he delivers the tools we get to work.

  “I almost didn’t believe Silver when they told me you found another AI.” Sonia says over the sound of her ringing hammer. “What are the chances?”

  Is she suspicious or something? I guess I would be too in her position.

  “His feelings led him to me.” I answer.

  Her hammering stops.

  “What?” She asks without a hint of emotion.

  What does she mean what? I thought the answer was pretty clear.

  “I’m not sure I can expin it more. It’s something you have to experience to understand.”

  “You melded with a mind rip?” She finally looks up from her project, her eyes searching for something across my body.

  “I guess? Is that what it’s called when we live each other’s lives?”

  “What is wrong with you?” Sonia returns to her work.

  “Hey! What’s your problem?” Anger fres inside me. I’m not about to just sit here and let her insult Corax and I.

  Sonia doesn’t even acknowledge my outburst.

  “Sorry about her.” I tell Corax, loud enough that Sonia can hear.

  I dive back into my work. It’s slow going, but Corax and I make steady progress. Sonia works on the frame for an hour before returning to the table. She begins to try to put Corax’s wing back together, and Corax interrupts her.

  “No.”

  “What?” I’ve never heard anyone more annoyed than Sonia right now.

  “He wants me to put him back together. His design is too intricate, and if it’s not perfect it’ll bind.”

  “Fine.” Sonia throws her hands up and gets to work on my ptes.

  Putting Corax’s wing back together goes smoothly, and it’s not long before I have it reattached.

  “How does that feel? Any pain?”

  “Good.” Corax responds after a few careful test fps.

  “I’m so gd.”

  I return to working on my ptes. Sonia’s fingers fly across the mess I created, working way faster than I was able to. A crack disappears under one finger while another delicately bends metal back into shape.

  She works in silence, pretending Corax and I aren’t there. When she finishes with a pte, she slides it in my direction and returns to work.

  It’s weird not having her flooding me with questions, but I’m not about to apologize for yelling. She shouldn’t have insulted Corax.

  Even with Sonia being incredibly fast, it still takes hours to fix all my ptes. I slowly hide my shame with every repaired piece. I run my hands across my smooth, seamless skin.

  “Thank you.” Even if I’m still a little angry, I shouldn’t be rude.

  “Try not to get injured again. I can’t spend all day repairing you that often.”

  “I’ll try.” It’s not like I want to get injured. “Before I go, can you do anything for my hair?”

  “How is it attached?” Her eyes once again begin to dissect me.

  “There are small holes that you poke strands through and tie them into a mesh substrate.”

  “If you can get hair, yeah, that shouldn’t be too hard to fix.” The instant she gets her answer, her eyes snap to her next project.

  “Thanks again.” Corax and I let ourselves out.

  We spent most of the day in the workshop. When we finally leave, the sun is already nearing the horizon, and the compound is packed. A few scrapper cars are being unloaded in a flurry of motion. At least most people are too busy to notice Corax and I heading back to our room.

  “I imagine you want to rex?” I ask Corax when we enter my room.

  Instead of a response, he flies to his nest and settles in after just a few adjustments.

  “Alright, I need to go talk to Ivy, and then I’ll be back.” I walk over to him and give him a quick scratch on his head before heading back into the hallway.

  “Ivy?” I give a quiet knock on her door.

  Once again she comes out of Vince’s room instead, wearing a robe. Maybe I should just try Vince’s room first next time?

  “Yes?” Ivy asks.

  “I really want to fix my hair. Can you get me a wig I can destroy?”

  “I think we can do a little better than just some wig. I’m sure I can find someone who wants a haircut, and I think I have some red dye around here somewhere.”

  “No wait! I don’t want someone to lose their hair just to fix my mistake. I’ll just deal with it, it’s not that important anyway.”

  “Blue, has lying ever worked on me?” Ivy crosses her arms and cocks her head.

  “No.” I say quietly, shrinking under her gaze.

  “Rex.” Ivy walks up to me and ruffles my remaining hair. “I’m not going to force anyone to get a haircut. And if I can’t find anyone, I’m well overdue for one. Although I doubt I’ll be able to get my hair to your beautiful shade of red.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I’m aware. I’ll see you tomorrow Blue, Vince gets cranky if he doesn’t get enough sleep.” Ivy reopens Vince’s door.

  “Does he really?”

  Ivy only gives a shrug and a smile before disappearing back into Vince’s room.

  I follow her lead and head back into mine.

  “Want to finish our book, Corax?”

  JanePtinum