I step into my room. It doesn’t look like Corax has moved in the few hours I’ve been gone. I sit on the bed next to him and gently pce my hand on the small lump of sheets that is him.

  “How are you feeling?” I ask him as gently as I can.

  He shifts a small amount, just enough to let me know he’s listening.

  “Cassie’s surgery went well. Do you want to go see her?”

  “No.” His response is nearly inaudible.

  “Alright.” I begin to work on my hair once again. I feel bad leaving him alone for so long. I should go see Cassie again eventually, but I want to give him as much of my time as possible, Even if we aren’t talking.

  After a few minutes of silence I try talking to him again.

  “I’ve been working on this for a few hours, and I almost have one pte done. Do you want to see?”

  After a few seconds of silence the pile of sheets begins to shift. His head peaks back into existence. He takes a long look at the hair in my hands.

  “Slow.”

  “Yeah. It’s going to take a few days to finish.”

  “How help.” With a monumental effort he staggers out of the covers clinging to his metal feathers. He begins to walk over to me, barely able to stay standing.

  “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to.”

  “Quiet.” He responds. “How help.”

  “Alright.” I’m not actually sure how he could help. There’s no way he can tie hair into the substrate. Although, how different is his beak from tweezers? “If you can feed three strands through each hole that would help a ton.”

  Corax gets to work. He’s incredibly careful with every strand. He knows exactly how important this is to me.

  Grabbing exactly three hairs is nearly impossible for him, so I carefully spread bundles around him. That way all he has to do is to grab a bundle and feed it through. Luckily it’s not too hard for him to get the hair through the tiny holes. I’d hate to have to help, it’d just to make him frustrated.

  I can tell he’s still feeling awful. He’s moving so slowly that the work is going even slower than I was managing alone. That’s alright though. I’m sure once he’s feeling better we’ll be going faster. Plus, working together is much more enjoyable than working alone.

  We work in silence for a few minutes before I speak.

  “I really appreciate your help.” I tell him, trying to put as much sincerity into my voice as possible.

  “Faster?” He asks, reading my thoughts.

  “About the same.” That’s not a lie. It’s not that much slower with him. “But it’s much more enjoyable.”

  Corax doesn’t respond, instead he continues his work with no change. His body is as heavy as ever. Nothing is going to change until some other emotion becomes stronger than whatever he’s feeling now. I just have to hope I’m blunting his guilt to get him there sooner.

  After an hour of silent work, we’re interrupted by a knock on the door.

  “Blue?” Ivy’s voice comes just after the knock.

  Corax looks torn. He wants to continue working, but knows he can’t do it on his own.

  “Let’s take a break.” I stand up and give him a small pet on his head. I’m sure he would feel bad if he chose to stop, so instead I’ll make that decision for him. It should make things a little easier.

  Corax gives a reluctant nod and returns to his nest, however, he doesn’t bury himself under the covers. I guess that’s a sign he’s feeling a little better? Or at least he’s feeling less strongly.

  “Ivy?” I ask as I open the door. “Is everything alright?”

  “Everything’s fine.” She says in her calm voice. “Vince wanted you to know we got Cassie settled in her room.”

  “Oh, good. Should I go visit her?”

  “No, she crashed in the middle of demanding someone get Sonia to activate her arm.”

  That’s good. She probably needs her sleep.

  “Where is Vince anyway?” I ask her. I’m surprised he didn’t tell me himself.

  “Still with her. It’s going to be weeks before he leaves her alone.”

  “I’m gd she has someone keeping an eye on her.”

  “Mm hm. If you don’t need anything, I need to go train some kids.” She waits for an answer, as if she already knows I need something.

  “Oh, actually. Cassie thought writing or more drawing might help. Can I have one of those tablets?”

  Ivy raises an eyebrow at me, asking a silent question. Although I’m not sure exactly what the question is.

  “Sure. Give me a sec.” She eventually says. She turns to her right and disappears into her room.

  Only a few seconds ter she hands me a tablet and a drawing pen. It might be the same one I used st time, but there’s no way to be sure.

  “Have fun.” She gives a small wave and heads towards the staircase.

  “I’ll try.” I close the door and turn back to Corax.

  “Battery.” He tells me quietly.

  “Alright.” I’m surprised he didn’t ask for a recharge after flying. Although I guess he wasn’t in a position to ask at the time.

  I grab Lucas’ light and sit on the side of the bed. Corax climbs onto my p and flops over, giving me access to his breastpte. I carefully remove it, plug the light into me, and then hook the wires up to Corax’s exposed battery prongs. The sudden drop in avaible power tells me it’s working.

  While we wait for him to charge, I grab the tablet. A quick check of the files confirms that this is indeed the one I used yesterday.

  “Do you want to try drawing anything? Ivy made me draw this.” I pull up the image of Kara and Finn I drew, and hold it up for Corax to see.

  “No.” he responds.

  “Yeah, me either. I don’t think it helped anything.”

  Instead, I pull up a note app. A diary or journal may actually be very helpful. Cassie said I need to get my emotions out and onto a page. This is the best way to do that.

  I have the same problem that I had with art. I could generate a thousand pages of raw emotion instantly, but would that work? Maybe the simple act of typing is vital. A slow outlet of emotion rather than a single release all at once.

  There’s one st thing to figure out before I start. What do I even write about? Cassie’s poetry book was full of emotion I could take inspiration from, but I don’t think those are the emotions I need to deal with. Romance isn’t exactly my biggest concern right now.

  The only other reference I have is nonfiction, and that’s certainly not useful. Although making a copy of everything Finn put in my mind would probably be a good thing to give Silver.

  I guess it probably doesn’t matter what I write. I don’t need inspiration to write about my own experiences and how I feel about them. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or even how coherent it is. I’m not going to let anyone read it. Maybe Corax can, he lived it just like I did.

  I guess the only pce to start is at the beginning. It’s slow going with only one hand, but Corax charging is far more important.

  Only a few paragraphs in a bite on my thigh brings me back to reality. Only now do I notice the tears streaming from my eyes.

  “Sorry.” I set the tablet to my side and wipe the tears from my eyes. “I guess this means it’s working?”

  Corax does his best to shrug while upside down. He’s suddenly looking much better. I guess taking care of me snapped him out of his guilt? Assuming that’s what he was feeling in the first pce. Either way I think it’s better not to draw attention to it.

  “I think I’ll try writing something easier next time.” I tell him. “Just something nice and fun.”

  Corax nods in agreement.

  “Done.” He announces.

  “Ok.” I disconnect the wires from his battery and carefully reattach his chest.

  Corax pushes himself to his feet and grabs another few hairs.

  “Alright, we can work some more.”

  Corax is light on his feet as he works. I almost have trouble keeping up with him. Even though he’s a storm of movement, he’s still careful with each individual strand.

  “At this rate we'll be done soon.”

  Time flies by as Corax and I work. The sunlight streaming through the window slowly fades, and what feels like only a short time ter, returns. Throughout the night we finish repairing a third of my scalp, and we have no intention of slowing down.

  JanePtinum