Alteea closed the thick book and set her palm on the cover. The lab hummed like it usually did. Low fans. Soft lights. One stubborn monitor blinking in the corner.

She rolled her shoulders and looked around. The Heart felt larger at night. Workbenches stretched longer. Cables made long lines on the floor. The pad where Feris had fallen kept its new crease. She told maintenance to leave it.

A scar belongs to the story.

"Writing in that old book again, huh?"

Alteea didn't even react. The door had sighed a second earlier, in perfect silence. Saffi stood in the dim hallway light, a small tray in her hands.

"This old book keeps me sane. And, what can I say? It makes me honest, for once" Alteea smiled.

"I brought peace offerings" Saffi lifted the tray. "Your favorite coffee. And pastry stuff that supposedly taste like sweet clouds. Kori recommended them"

"How's the subject?" Saffi asked, glancing at the empty ring where Feris had floated.

"First of all, it's not subject. It's more like... Patient. Second of all, she isn't floating anymore. Third of all, she probably hates me"

Saffi grinned and set the tray on a clean workbench. The only clean bench around. But even that one, without Raizen's orbit of parts, looked too wide. Too neat.

"It's... Too quiet without him" she sighed, then tried to pretend she hadn't.

"Ah" Alteea nodded. "Someone misses our storm with legs"

"That's not what I said-"

"You sighed between words" Alteea cut her off.

"I don't sigh" Saffi raised one brow. "I exhale with purpose"

Alteea hid a smile behind the cup and failed.

"Fine" Saffi admitted. "Maybe I miss... Yelling at him to stop touching things"

"That's a kind of missing. We should document it"

Saffi slid onto the stool beside her. You could barely hear faint noises in the distance, the Heart trying to sleep. The lab took its time at night.

"What did you get from the chunk?" Alteea asked.

Saffi's shoulders straightened. Work voice. Bright eyes.

"It doesn't just respond" she said. "It anticipates. I ping it - output jumps. Like the purity climbed a step and it's still undecided"

"Numbers" Alteea said.

"Two percent on first nudge" Saffi said. "One point five after. If I hold a narrow field around it, it gets… Playful. Overresponsive. Those luminite pieces you got from the mountain are... Playful, to say the least"

"Playful is a terrible word for rocks" Alteea laughed. "But accurate"

"I would've said violent" Saffi said. "But it isn't. Not yet"

"Good work. I'll do some research myself, later" Alteea's eyes filled with warmth for a second. "You're getting very annoying"

"Annoying how?"

"The kind that makes my job easier" Alteea said. "And then expects cookies"

"I accept coffee. You taught me well" Saffi stole a sip, slid the cup back, and kept a straight face. "Think it's safe to leave here overnight?"

"For a rock that acts like a cat" Alteea said. "Yeah, it won't grow legs and run away. I hope."

Silence reigned in the room for some moments. It felt like an eternity.

"It really is too quiet" Saffi whispered.

"Say his name"

Saffi squinted. "Whose?"

"The one who stacks manuals like walls and then climbs them. The one that won't let you sleep some nights, because he needs overlooking. Well, he needs it more than his inventions, at least."

"Raizen..." Saffi sighed. She looked away right after.

"Very good" Alteea said. "Use in a sentence"

"Stoopp..." Saffi groaned.

Alteea bumped her shoulder against Saffi's. "It's fine" she said. "He's a good one to miss"

"I don't miss him" Saffi tried. "I miss the noise. And the way he breaks clamps. And that time he asked if a wrench could be used as a spoon, because somehow he is lazy enough not to fetch a spoon, but patient enough to learn more machinery than I did in a couple of weeks."

"He did use that wrench as a spoon, after all. We learned important social limits that day"

Saffi laughed. The sound made the machines feel friendly for a second. She covered her mouth for no reason at all.

Saffi drifted to a shelf where Raizen had left a neat pile of odd parts weeks ago. He'd sorted by size and then ruined the order with a brilliant - or ridiculously stupid - reason. A few tags still clung to pieces in his tight, no nonsense handwriting.

"You didn't touch these" Saffi said.

"I'm sentimental when nobody's looking" Alteea said.

"You're sentimental when everybody's looking" Saffi said. "You just turn your head so we can't prove it"

"Write that in your diary" Alteea said.

"I don't keep one" Saffi said. "I keep explosions and their results"

"Healthy" Alteea sighed, thinking about all the days where she was stuck, having so much to say in her diary, that didn't even know how to start.

Saffi lifted a rounded gear. She held it up.

"Do you think he'll like the thing I made?" she asked, casual in a way that wasn't.

"What thing?"

"The harness brace" Saffi turned her eyes away. Again. "I refined the lock so it stops chewing belts. If he wants it. If he ever stops reading manuals long enough to remember he has a spine that shouldn't break"

"He'll like it" Alteea said. "He'll thank you badly and try to pay back in chores or something. He's unpredictable, but he never lets things unsolved. Especially when it's about him offering something. He'll even mop the ceiling if you ask nicely" Alteea said.

They let the quiet sit. Somewhere a relay clicked because relays love drama at night.

"How are you?" Alteea asked, and this time she meant Saffi.

"Me?"

"You. Sleep? Food? Feelings that don't belong in a blender?"

Saffi rolled the gear in her hands and set it down.

"I'm alright, i guess" the answer came. "A little wired. A little tired. Feeling a little weird..."

"Tomorrow I'll bring cookies. And I won't flirt with machines in front of Kori"

"You flirt with Kori"

"I flirt with everyone" Alteea snapped. "It keeps my heart strong!"

Saffi looked at the door, then at the ring, then at her shoes. She lifted her chin like a decision had found her.

"Think he's reading right now?" she asked.

"Yes" Alteea said. "He's reading three books and planning to stand without permission"

"Of course" Saffi laughed. "I can almost imagine it. But I'm glad he's okay"

"I know" Alteea said. "Me too"

Saffi picked up the tray. Only crumbs remained. The coffee had settled into a soft warmth. She offered the extra cup.

"For the road" she grinned.

"I live here" Alteea smiled, taking it anyway, because coffee was the elixir of not sleeping for her.

They walked to the door together. The lab watched and didn't mind being alone for a while. Saffi paused with her hand on the panel and glanced at the diary on the bench.

"What do you even write in there?" she asked.

"Everything I don't want the Council to edit" Alteea said.

"Oohh! Spicyy!"

"Sweet" Alteea corrected. "Now good night"

"Night. I mean... I know you won't sleep" Saffi said anyway.

The door slid shut. Somewhere, a boy who reads too much tried to stand, and a nurse told him to sit for the thirtieth time that day.

"Oh, Saffi... What do you even feel for him? Is it just... Empathy?" she told the room, and left one light on.

---

What is Empathy?

Is it just feeling the ache when someone else is inpain?

Or is it the quiet act of sitting beside it, even when you can't fix it?

Maybe it's not about staying, but about understanding. About hearing what isn't said, and holding what isn't yours to carry.

Is it what makes a human soldier pause before a strike?

What makes a healer smile after saving someone?

Is empathy weakness - or the proof that we still have something left to lose?

Maybe empathy is what fills the silence he leaves behind.

The way her chest tightens when he laughs through pain, or how she looks away when he smiles like everything's fine.

Is it wanting to reach him without crossing the line, to fix what isn't broken, to protect what he never asked for protection?

It's caring too much - and pretending it's just concern

Maybe it's the heartbeat we share with the world, the thread that keeps us from turning to stone.

Because sometimes… it's not courage that saves us.

It's the quiet, human instinct to reach into someone's darkness - and give them light.

Even if all that's left… are Gilded Ashes.

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