Corax and I stay in our room for a long time. We finish my hair, and then begin switching between reading and writing every few minutes. A sandstorm outside begins, and then ends a few days ter.

  It’s nice being able to rex for so long.

  Ivy and Vince make sure to visit regurly, spending a few hours with us every day. I think they’re worried about me, but honestly, I feel great. I’m not sure if it’s because I can finally rex, or because of journaling. Probably both.

  The only time we have to leave our room is to let Corax fly and to ask Cassie for more books. It turns out even when I read slowly, reading all day gets through them pretty quickly.

  I get why Cassie told me to be so careful with that tattered book, It really was something special. I could see myself enjoying reading it several times, I haven't felt that about any other story.

  After a week of rexation a knock rings out from the door. It’s definitely not Ivy or Vince, it sounds too metallic. It can’t be Cassie, she shouldn’t be using her arm for anything right now. But who else could it be? There’s only one way to find out.

  “Come in.”

  Cassie opens the door. I should have guessed. She does have a habit of not doing what’s best for her.

  “Hey.” She gives a very careful, jerky wave with her arm.

  While reprogramming her hand, I went ahead and took some educated guesses at how the rest of her arm should have been wired up, I must have gotten some wrong.

  “I’m surprised to see you up this quickly.” I don’t want to tell her she really shouldn’t be, I’m sure Vince has told her enough. “Do you need help?”

  “Yeah.” She stands there uncharacteristically awkward. She really hates this.

  “Well, sit down.” I pat beside me, there’s plenty of space for her.

  “So,” she begins to make her way over. “Vince told me you had something installed?” She carefully sits down beside me.

  “Yeah.” I turn away from her and lift up my hair. It’ll hopefully make her more comfortable to know. “Just please don’t, unless it’s an emergency.”

  “I get it.” She sounds like she genuinely cares. “I’ve had someone take over my arm before.”

  “I still feel really bad about that.” It was a simir feeling to when I connected to the car. I was just excited to test out a new part of my body.

  “It’s fine.” She says dismissively. “At least you’ll only do it once.”

  “Yeah. Do you want me to get started?”

  “Go ahead.”

  I don’t actually have to take anything apart today. I discovered st time that there’s a small fp that can be released, giving me access to the arm’s data port. Not having to remove any parts will make it way easier to calibrate her entire arm at once.

  I plug in myself in, and the arm instantly becomes as if it’s my own. I can feel every small touch, every twitch of a servo. It’s no longer entirely Cassie’s, just as it’s not entirely mine. We share an intimate connection, we share our arm.

  “So what muscles did I get wrong?” I ask.

  “My bicep for one.”

  I feel the electrical signal from Cassie’s nerves an instant before our tricep moves. It only takes weaving a single thread of thought into our arm to fix it.

  “Ok. What next?”

  It turns out I also guessed wrong for seven out of the eight inputs in her arm. Oops.

  “Oh, there’s also an input for what looks like a gun in your arm? What do you want me to do with that?”

  “Just connect it to whatever.”

  I guess it wouldn’t be the first time she’s had to learn to use a new muscle. It looks like she’s already gotten the hang of using her finger joints independently.

  “Ok, done. Just don’t load it for a while.” The firing pin is already moving a small amount occasionally.

  “I’m not stupid.”

  “I know, I just meant, nevermind.” There’s nothing I can say to make this situation better. “If you want me to fix your entire arm, I need access to your shoulder. Your shirt is in the way.”

  Her face immediately goes red.

  “Fuck it, why not.” She doesn’t sound mad though, although I’m not sure exactly what emotion is in her voice.

  I unplug myself from her arm and she quickly takes her shirt off. My mind short circuits for a moment when I see her.

  I can see why humans cover up. She has so much muscle. Strong, and incredibly well defined abs. Her small breasts are contained by a sports bra.

  A fair number of scars crisscross across her body. I can’t even begin to guess the source for most of them. I think I understand what Ivy meant when she said I looked storied. I’d love to hear the story behind every one of these, if she’d be willing to share.

  Her new arm blends into her skin, extending a few inches beyond her shoulder. It doesn’t look like it’s ever intended to be removed.

  She’s just really pretty. The descriptions Finn put in my mind can’t even come close to comparing to her. Are other people this pretty?

  The memory of Ivy asking if I’d rather date boys or girls surfaces in my mind. I think I lied to her, the answer is definitely girls.

  “Are you just going to stare all day?” Her face is so red.

  “Sorry! I didn’t mean to!” My apology rushes out of my mouth.

  “Just start already.”

  “Ok. Sorry.” I plug myself back in before I can do something else wrong. “Can I touch you?”

  Cassie’s heart rate once again spikes and she lets out a loud cough.

  “Just do it.”

  I start with our wrist and work my way up, using a single finger, barely touching. Every sensation is shared between us, and a single touch is all it takes to recalibrate our arm. I don’t have easy access to the underside of our arm, so I take our hand gently in mine and lift.

  “So,” she breaks the silence with a shaky voice, refusing to look at me. “What have you been doing?”

  “Mostly reading, sorry if you’ve been able to hear.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “I also finished my hair, but I’m sure you saw that.”

  “I did. It looks nice by the way.” She adds quietly.

  “Thank you. Ivy styled it.” It doesn’t look much different than it looked before I ripped it all out. She mostly just evened out the lengths. “I’ve also been writing a journal in small bursts. I really think it’s helping. Thank you.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Cassie’s hand begins to clench and unclench rhythmically.

  “What’s wrong?” I stop tracing my way up our bicep.

  “It tickles.”

  “Oh!” I can’t exactly rete. I don’t think that’s a sensation I can feel. “Tell me if this helps.” I lower the sensitivity of our arm. It’ll make it a little harder to calibrate, but I’d hate to make her even more uncomfortable.

  I once again begin to gently move my finger across our arm.

  “Yeah, that’s better.” After a few seconds of silence Cassie continues talking. “Are you enjoying the books?”

  “Yeah. The really tattered one was my favorite. I could tell it’s special.”

  “Mm-hmm. It got me through a lot.”

  “Like what?” I ask.

  “Well, I really tched onto it when I was a kid. I even tried to get my dad to read it to me, before I realized how weird that is.” I can’t tell a single emotion she’s feeling. There are far too many yered on top of each other.

  “Oh. I’m so sorry.” Why did she let me read something that special to her? Any expnation I can think of has obvious problems. “I don’t have much from Kara, and nothing from anyone else.”

  “What were they like?” Cassie asks.

  Corax climbs from his bed and onto my shoulder, offering his support.

  “I’m not sure I actually remember. I only knew them for a few days. In fact, I’ve known Corax for longer, and not just because I lived his life. They mostly ripped any happy memories of them out of my mind in the dark.” It’s weird saying that out loud, but somewhat nice. It’s a simir feeling to writing.

  At least my tears aren’t of desperation right now.

  “Shit.” She actually looks at me, with a shared pain in her eyes. “That sucks.”

  She almost coaxes a ugh out of me, but there’s just too many emotions swirling around my head for it to come out.

  “Yeah, I guess it does.” I focus on our arm for a few seconds. “What about yours?”

  “I’d say they’re like any other parents, but you wouldn't, yeah.” She returns to paying attention to my barren walls. “I mostly took after Dad, no matter how much Mom hated it. He made sure I learned to fight, to cook, to survive. He was stern, sure, but also caring.”

  I know better than to mention the tears begging to spill over onto my bed.

  “Mom was too pure for this world. She spent every waking moment trying to make everyone in the vilge’s lives better. Took care of the other kids, helped keep the pce clean, made food for the old people.”

  “Did you get your cursing from your dad?”

  “No actually.” She gives a small chuckle. “He fucking hated swearing. I got that from Vince and some bitch we were traveling with.”

  “Really? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him curse.”

  “He was a different person back then. You really should make him share his story sometime.”

  “Ok, I will.”

  While we’ve talked I’ve worked my way up our arm. Everything up to, and including our shoulder is done, and the only part that remains is where our steel meets her flesh.

  “Hey, I’m going to have to work on the seam of your arm. Is it ok if I touch your skin?” There’s no practical difference between our arm and her skin, but I don’t want to accidentally cross some kind of boundary.

  “Just do what you need to.” I think she’s both tired of, and appreciative that I keep asking.

  “Ok.”

  I do my best to touch as little of her skin as I can regardless. Her heart rate once again begins to rise once I start to trace along the seam.

  The little bit I do touch is soft and warm, but I kill those thoughts. I’m just doing work. I shouldn’t let myself take advantage of this.

  Luckily it only takes a few seconds to calibrate that part of our arm and I can move on. I do one more pass, this one much quicker than the first. Somehow I missed a few pces once again.

  “Done.” I return our arm back to its starting sensitivity and I unplug myself, returning our arm to her. “Does that feel good?”

  “Yeah.” She runs her hand across her arm to check. When she tries to move her arm, her elbow contracts far harder than expected, smacking her in the face. “Ow! Fuck!” She screams while reeling back onto the bed.

  “Are you ok?” I yell and jump to my feet, unsure how to help.

  “I’m fucking fine.” She sits back up, a red welt already developing on her cheek.

  “What happened?”

  “It’s just sensitive. I’ll get used to it.”

  “I can fix that.” I offer.

  “No.” Cassie dismisses my idea immediately. “I need the speed.”

  “I can make it an exponential activation curve, where it’s easy to move slowly to give more control while still letting you access the entire range of power.”

  “No, that's awful.” Cassie says. “I tried that with my legs once, It’s too imprecise. When I’m moving fast is when I need the most control, not the least.”

  “Ok.” I guess that makes sense. “Just let me know if you change your mind.”

  “Sure.” Cassie stands up from the bed, throws her shirt back on, and walks to my door. “Thanks. For everything.” Cassie carefully opens my door with her artificial hand, only to be met with Vince on the other side.

  “Oh good, you’re here too. We need to have a group meeting.”

  JanePtinum