"I see how it fucking is. So, this the doc's new recruitment pitch, huh? Dontcha got some shit ya gotta threaten me with? Come on, lay it on me. Really, though, didn't think ya'd get coopted for being his little bitch. And who's this, hm? Bit too, eh, mousy for my taste if yer planning ta offer her to me as an incentive or somethin'."

He was smug. He was fucking unrepentant. And he was leering at Amelia.

I kinda, maybe, lost it.

I surged forward, my claws extending and sinking into his skin as I gripped his face. My jaws unhinged. Eldritch words tumbled out of me, accompanied by feelings and images burrowing into the listener's brain, all soaked with as much Essence as I could force into them.

"I ɘliʜw ϱniʜɈon oɈ bɘɔυbɘя ɘd lliw υoY .mɘʜɈ Ɉɒɘ oɈ υoჸ ɘɔяoʇ bnɒ Ɉυo ƨɘჸɘ яυoჸ ɘϱυoϱ oɈ ϱnioϱ mɒ I .ƨɘniɈƨɘɈni nwo яυoჸ ʜɈiw υoჸ ɘlϱnɒяɈƨ bnɒ nɘqo υoჸ яɒɘɈ oɈ ϱnioϱ mɒ I —"

"Adrian!"

Amelia's shout made me jump backwards. She was, thankfully, fine. My instinctual use of eldritch bullshit actually helped, for once. I had sunk all my words and Essence directly into the fucker, instead of letting Amelia catch some.

"You…" Looking back at said fucker, I resisted the urge to spit on him. Which, in my book, was a major achievement. "You fucking disgust me."

Not that I thought he could hear me at the moment. His ears were bleeding, he was choking and frothing at the mouth, and his eyes looked so bloodshot that they seemed to be on the verge of exploding. Oh, and his nose and lip were still bleeding, too. But whether that was partially due to brain damage, I couldn't rightly say.

I turned and marched right out of that room, pausing only to grab's Amelia's hand. If he died in there, then he died. Mela might not forgive me, but I was too angry to care either way.

I was halfway out the building when Amelia suddenly jerked her hand out of mine. The flash of pain and worry vanished almost immediately as she closed her arms around me.

"Shhh, it's okay. I promise it's going to be okay. I'm here for you, you know that?" she said softly.

Only then did I realize that I was shaking. Not shivering, not having hand tremors. Outright, violent, full-body shaking.

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered. "I could have hurt you, and I shouldn't have done that. And —"

She silenced me with a kiss.

"I told you it's fine. I know you wouldn't hurt me, Adrian. And you didn't. I'm not angry or disappointed or anything like that, I promise. Look at me, please?"

I did, because I didn't have it in me to deny her anything. Her eyes were shining with tears, both spilled and unshed, but she still gave me a quivering smile through it all. She was so utterly enchanting that all I could do was stare.

Then she blinked and looked away. The moment was broken, but that feeling of awe definitely still lingered in my chest.

"I love you, you know that?" I trailed my shaking hands over her cheeks, clumsily trying to wipe her tears away. "I don't know what I'd do without you. Die in some stupid way, probably. Or maybe start running and never stop. I'm so glad you decided to help a dumb slum kid. I can't even describe it. My life without you —"

"Stop," she pleaded, her cheeks on fire as she hurriedly blocked my mouth with her hand. "I love you too. And you're not the only one benefiting from this arrangement, mister."

I kissed her hand before gently tugging it away. "Oh? And how's that?"

"I'd still be stuck there without you, you know?" Her voice sank to a terrified whisper at the mere thought. "I'd be stuck, and I don't know how long I could have lasted there. I… Never mind. Even if you got me out and we parted ways, well… I don't know what I could have done. Probably figured out a way to secure passive income and stayed in my apartment forever, too terrified to go outside."

I stared into her lovely green eyes, the cog patterns barely visible due to her current settings. She looked so honest, so sincere, that saying anything against her claims seemed rude at best.

"Guess we're both kind of a mess." I chuckled quietly, trailing another kiss down her palm before pressing my lips against her wrist. "I'm just… I'm so happy I got to meet you, Amelia."

"Stop that, you! We're in the middle of our former enemies' HQ! There's people around!" She suddenly giggled, giving me her trademark mischievous grin. "But I'm glad we met, too. You know… when I first saw you, I thought you looked like a kid. All passed out, vulnerable, and sleeping."

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I blinked, shocked out of all the steamy, sad, loving, enraged thoughts I was having.

"Oi. That's not the kind of stuff I want to hear from you, dear."

She giggled harder, collapsing against me. "It's true! You still look pretty young when you're asleep, you know? Granted, that impression's definitely gone when you're awake nowadays."

"Hrm. I see how it is. Picking on me now, are we? Fine, but you do know I don't have to sleep in our bed tonight, right? The living room pit's perfectly comfy."

"Nooooo, I'm sorry?" She peeked up at me, a grin still on her lips, and I couldn't hold back the laughter. Or the need to lean down and kiss her.

Things were still a mess. Mela was out there somewhere. Her brother was possibly dead or dying. Amelia's father was still lurking in the background. We still had so much stuff we needed to do.

But right then and there, with Amelia in my arms? All of that didn't matter. So long as I had her next to me, everything seemed manageable.

Not easy. Never easy. But… manageable.

—

If Amelia hadn't kissed away my anger, I would have outright exploded as we ventured forth to check out the apartment address Patch had given up.

Why? Because the fucking place was just a couple streets away from our previous apartment. I had literally laid eyes on the building every morning when I woke up. It was hilariously stupid to expect that I could have known that somehow, but it still felt like I should have.

Mela had a special place in my heart. I didn't have a crush on her or anything. She was pretty, sure, and she liked to tease me, but our relationship simply wasn't like that.

If anything, she had slowly settled into some kind of big sister role in my head.

She had saved my life, secured me my place in the Kittens, looked after me, and trained me. She had helped me, with very few questions asked and absolutely no strings attached. Kept my secrets, trusted me…

…and I had fucked it all up by leading the good doctor straight to the Kittens' door.

That was another thing that tempered my anger, I guess. Sure, I could lie and bustle and misdirect if she ever asked me for my side of the story. But I knew I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do that. Not even if her brother hadn't told her a thing about what he'd done and why he'd done it.

Mela deserved the truth. And if she decided she hated me for it, then that was her right. I kind of hated myself a little for it anyway, so giving her the opportunity to agree with my assessment of myself was only fair.

I still hoped she wouldn't hate me enough to break off all ties between us, though.

"It's going to be fine." Amelia cut off my bleak musings, making me turn to her and quirk my eyebrow in disbelief. "It is! I mean, come on, what did you do? Join a group already planning to steal the cybernetics, that's what. The mess woulda happened either way. You were just trying to survive."

"Yeah, but… I could have told her. At any moment, I could have told her."

That's what was really eating away at me. Maybe I hadn't been sure-sure the chaos in the slums was because of the cybernetics. Maybe I'd been terrified and hoping it would all blow over. Maybe I'd even briefly convinced myself it had blown over. But I'd still stubbornly kept my secret.

"And if you had told her, then she might have ended up on my father's operating table, too," Amelia went on. "Besides, you couldn't have known what would happen. If her brother hadn't decided to fall in line with my father's demands, everything might have been okay."

It was a nice, convenient excuse. A bit too convenient for me to buy it, though. I just sighed and gave Amelia's hand a little squeeze, pairing it with a reassuring smile.

I couldn't stop worrying, but I could at least try to take the physical signs of it off my face.

We found the right megabuilding far too quickly. To my frustration, it was not, in fact, a visible den of evil and all things wrong with the world. It was kind of cozy, actually, a primarily residential complex with tons of family-friendly amenities. That made me scowl a little, but again, I had Amelia there to keep my mood up.

In this case, she did so by pointing out little details I missed, such as childcare and playground facilities. All the while sending me not-so-subtle hints that we could consider the building in the distant future when we might need those ourselves. That kept me blushing and flustered instead of annoyed and scared, at least for a little while.

As we approached apartment 532, though, those happier feelings died a swift death.

I just stared at the door for a long couple of minutes, hesitating to do anything. We had the ability to enter with no fuss. Mak had kept the key fob on him, probably because he didn't want the place registered directly to him, so we had simply taken it.

Actually, finding the right megabuilding and apartment would have been possible with that alone. Even without Patch's information. Not easy, and not quick, but I could have —

"You gonna open the door, ooooor…?"

Amelia's gently teasing voice snapped me out of my idle, purposefully distracting thoughts. I hesitated only for another second or two before finally lifting the fob and waving it over the reader built into the doorframe. It beeped as the door slid out of our way, blending seamlessly into the wall.

Just like the building itself, the first sight of the apartment was disappointing in its coziness and normalcy.

A large open-style living room spread out in front of us, well-furnished and homey, with a small kitchenette built into an alcove on the right. Hallways and doors led to a full kitchen, some kind of entertainment space, and a too-tidy bedroom.

Then the sound of something hitting a wall to our left made both of us jump. The voice that followed, though, sent odd fuzzies of both warmth and terror rising up within me.

"That you, you piece of shit? What's the big deal, eh? Gonna just leave me to starve now, is that it? I can't even fucking leave this room without your permission, and you just vanish on me?!"

She sounded… weak. Weak, angry, resigned, and so many other things that were distinctly not her.

Still, undeniably, that was Mela.

My feet moved on their own. I ventured straight into the apartment, then down the short hallway that led left and opened up into more rooms, tugging Amelia with me.

The second we turned the corner into the hallway, my eyes fell on her. She stood in a doorway, arms crossed. Despite the dark circles under her eyes and her overall disheveled state, her expression was livid and defiant.

She froze at the sight of us. Her eyes shot wide open as her stance stiffened further.

By some miracle, I was the one who broke the silence first.

"Hey, Mela… it's good to see you."

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