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“Seraphine!” Orianna ran through the doorway with her phone held out in front of her. “Look what I can do!” She nearly jumped into Seraphine’s lap in her rush to show her teammate what was on her phone screen.
“Oh! Hi, Ori.” Seraphine never failed to smile when Orianna was excited about something.
“My phone is asking me to prove that I am not a robot.” Orianna squatted down next to Seraphine’s chair so that the two girls were at the same height.
Seraphine examined the phone screen and saw that indeed it was asking Orianna to complete a captcha. She had to click on every square that had a car in it. Seraphine then turned her examination to Orianna’s face. She wasn’t the kind to smile widely or often, but right now she had on the silliest smile that Seraphine had ever seen her with. Seraphine’s mind short circuited for a moment looking at it.
“And I can do it! Watch!”
Seraphine reluctantly took her eyes off of Orianna’s face and watched her quickly tap on the blurry photos until they let her in. “Oh, wow! You can! That’s so cool, Ori!”
Orianna straightened her back and wiggled back and forth slightly as she stared at her phone for a few seconds. Then, she finally looked back at Seraphine. Her eyes went wide and she froze for a second, before saying, “I apologize for the interruption. You may resume whatever it is that you were doing.”
Seraphine laughed. “It’s no big deal, Ori! I’m always happy to chat! And actually, I think…” she trailed off as she turned back to her computer and clicked through a few menus. “Yeah! Look, I have to do a captcha too.”
“Oh!” Orianna raised her hand high.
“Yes, Orianna?” Seraphine giggled.
“May I do it for you?”
Seraphine couldn’t remember the last time she had smiled this much. Talking to Orianna was just so fun. “I would love that,” she said. Then, after a quick thought, added, “You know, I’ve always struggled with these things a bit.” Hopefully Orianna wouldn’t be able to see through her acting.
Orianna’s eyes went wide and she gasped slightly. Then, her expression dropped to one of complete sincerity. “Seraphine,” she announced, “with my newfound humanity, I would be honored to help you complete any captchas you come across. I understand how difficult they can be.”
Seraphine put her hands over her mouth and breathed in. “I think that might be the nicest thing anybody has ever told me, Orianna.” The light blush spreading across Orianna’s cheeks did not go unnoticed.
Orianna had a problem.
She understood that everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses, and she was perfectly willing to help others with whatever they struggle with, but Seraphine was suspiciously bad at completing captchas.
Of course, she was delighted to be able to help! But it felt like every one or two days, Seraphine would approach her or call her asking for help. Something was up, Orianna knew it, and, unfortunately, she had a guess as to what it was. There was only one reason why Seraphine would ask for so much help with captchas. Seraphine was secretly a robot. Orianna obviously had no issues with robots, and it wouldn’t change her feelings towards Seraphine at all, but honesty is an important aspect to any relationship.
Orianna knew that she wasn’t the best at understanding people, so she would need some help in her investigation. In order to properly gather her allies, she asked to speak with Xayah, alone, after a session of Star Guardian training.
Seraphine seemed confused at what Orianna and Xayah had to do, but Xayah was able to brush it off with a cool that impressed Orianna. She did feel bad about hiding her intentions from Seraphine, though. Seraphine was important to her, but that’s why she had to do this.
“You good, Ori? Xayah shifted her weight between her feet. “You seem a bit… off-put.”
“Xayah, can I trust you to keep a secret?”
Xayah pursed her lips and lowered her brow. “What’s this about?” she asked.
“I have reason to suspect that Seraphine may secretly be a robot.”
“You…” Xayah opened and closed her mouth a few times, then blinked and tilted her head. “Okay. Spill it.”
“Reason number one: Seraphine has become increasingly reliant on me to perform captchas for her. She is seemingly unable to complete them, at least, when I am available.
Reason number two: Upon my introduction to the team, Seraphine was immediately interested in me and my history of being a mechanical construct. Specifically, she was more interested in me than in you or Senna. It is probable that the source of this interest lies in a perceived common creation.
Reason number three: Seraphine has an innate affinity to electronics and certain types of mechanical technology. This is in spite of her well documented lack of knowledge in most other topics. One explanation for this affinity is a personal source of experience on the topic.”
Multiple different expressions crossed Xayah’s face in the time it took Orianna to present her reasoning, but Orianna was so focused on accurately conveying the facts of the situation that she didn’t take the time to decode them. Facial expressions were difficult.
Xayah stayed silent for a moment after Orianna finished speaking, obviously in shock that one of her teammates might have been concealing something so significant about themself. “You know what, Ori?” she finally said, “You’re right. We should check into that just to be sure. Actually,” she leaned in conspiratorially. “I think the other day I overheard her talking about being tired, and she said she needed to ‘recharge.’ Maybe you could look into that.”
The smirk on Xayah’s face wasn’t missed by Orianna, but she was uncertain how exactly to interpret it.
“Good job at practice today, by the way.”
“Thank you. You also did very well. I estimate that team cohesion increased by up to eight percent just today.”
“That’s always good to hear.”
Xayah then got the far-off look in her eyes that Orianna did know how to interpret. It meant ‘I’m thinking about Rakan, don’t talk to me.’ So Orianna didn’t. She knew that Xayah didn’t value small talk, so she didn’t worry about saying a goodbye before walking home.
“Ori Ori Ori!” Seraphine rushed over with her phone outstretched and an eager grin on her face. She looked down and shyly handed Orianna her phone, but her grin never faded.
Orianna was used to this routine. She would help her friend complete a captcha, Seraphine would be smiling a lot the whole time, and then she would receive a few ‘thank you’s as a reward. Seeing the smile on Seraphine’s face was enough of a reward by itself, but the thanks filled her with a strange feeling that Orianna wasn’t quite sure how to label. Whatever it was, it was certainly pleasant, and it made her want to do whatever she could to feel it again.
Seraphine was acting suspicious, though. She definitely acted differently around Orianna. Orianna knew this because whenever her and Seraphine were in the same room together, her eyes were constantly drawn to whatever Seraphine was doing. It was purely to collect data, her own personal feeling about how pleasant Seraphine is to watch had nothing to do with it. The important thing is that Seraphine treated Orianna differently, almost like she had a feverish interest in the girl. Orianna would get to the bottom of it today.
"Seraphine." Orianna made constant, unblinking eye contact while tightly gripping Seraphine's phone, finger held right above the 'submit' button for the captcha.
“Orianna?” Seraphine was suddenly unable to look at Orianna’s face under her unflinching gaze.
“May I ask you a serious question?”
“Of course!” Seraphine’s smile grew, but she still flushed every time she caught Orianna’s eyes.
Orianna paused for a moment to gather her words, then spit them out all at once. “Are you a constructed automaton?”
Seraphine tilted her head and smiled in a way that made Orianna’s heart skip a beat. “Umm.” She scrunched up her nose. “I don’t think so. Is there a reason you ask?”
“Affirmative. I noticed that your inability to successfully complete captchas matched with my own before becoming human. I also noticed that you had a unique interest in me, likely because of my background as a robot. I calculated a- “
Seraphine cut her off. “Ori, I’m not a robot. I- I-'' She chuckled slightly. “Here, feel my hand.” The blush on Seraphine’s cheeks threatened to spread across her whole face.
Orianna gasped and felt blood rising to her own cheeks as she held Seraphine’s soft, delicate hand in her own. It felt nice. She looked down at it and brushed her thumb over the back of Seraphine’s knuckles.
“See? I’m all skin, like a human.” She curled in on herself slightly and looked away. “And I don’t really struggle with the captchas, I just…” She tightly scrunched up her face, then let the tension go. “I just wanted the excuse to talk to you, even for just a few moments at a time. Sorry for confusing you.”
“Oh.” Was all Orianna could say, cherishing the warmth of Seraphine’s hand in her own.
“Heheh. It was pretty stupid of me, now that I really think of it. But you looked so happy every time…”
“Seraphine.” Orianna tilted her head up to look directly at Seraphine. She didn’t continue speaking until she had Seraphine’s eyes in her own. “Please do not call my friend stupid.”
Seraphine scoffed, then smiled with her whole face. Her eyes went wide and she said, “Ori, I l- “ before looking away and cutting herself off. “Thank you. I’ll try.”
Orianna tried to figure out what Seraphine meant to say, but wasn’t able to calculate any viable solutions. While thinking, however, she remembered something else she was confused about.
“If you aren’t a robot,” she asked. “Then why were you so interested in me?” Orianna felt Seraphine’s hand tense up in her own.
“Oh, uh,” Seraphine’s smile turned into a sheepish grin. “It’s silly.” She shook her head side to side. “Do you really want to know?”
Orianna was always interested in learning more about humans, so she nodded ‘yes’, taking cues from Seraphine’s confusing version of nonverbal communication.
“Ww~ell, It’s because you’re really pretty, and charming, and I’m really gay.” Seraphine pulled a section of her hair in front of her head in order to hide her face. She didn’t remove her hand from Orianna’s grasp.
“Oh.” Orianna’s mind struggled to process this new information. “So, you…” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Being a human is hard. Emotions are difficult.”
“You’re okay, Ori!” Seraphine still didn’t make eye contact, but she still managed a kind smile up at her friend. “You don’t have to reciprocate or anything. I just… like spending time with you.” Her shoulders sunk into herself slightly.
“I like you too, Seraphine.” Orianna opened her eyes. “I believe that this is what having a crush is?”
“Yeah! I, uh, I have a crush on you.” Seraphine chuckled to herself. “You got me.”
Orianna thought for a second, then asked, “How would I know if I have a crush?”
Seraphine swallowed. She felt Orianna’s fingers wrap more tightly around her hand. They had a soothing cold to them. “Well, let’s see. Usually when you have a crush on somebody, you can’t stop thinking about them. Everything they do is important to you.” Seraphine hid her face back behind her hair. “And you feel like you’d do anything to make them happy. Even give them a bunch of silly captchas to do.”
“Hm.” Orianna was lost in thought. After some time, she ventured, “I think that I might feel the same way.”
Seraphine perked up. “Oh? Are you sure, because I don’t want to rush you into anything!”
Orianna frowned. “I am very uncertain. Emotions are difficult. But, it makes me happy to hear that you were thinking of me. I did not have a name for this emotion I was feeling, but perhaps a crush is what it is.”
Seraphine was very careful with her motions. She carefully straightened herself to properly look at Orianna. “I don’t want to do anything that you aren’t interested in doing.”
“Affirmative.” Orianna nodded. “I think I would like to do something, however.” She was beginning to grow familiar with the burning in her cheeks. “If we were to test this hypothesis, would we then be girlfriends?”
The blush that was fading from Seraphine’s cheeks came back in full force. “Yes!” she squeaked. “We can definitely try being girlfriends!”
Orianna usually found smiling to be a chore. She knew when to put one on, and how to shape them for several different situations, but they never felt authentic. They always felt like a requirement for how she had to be seen. If she ever forgot to smile, people would ask why, so she learned to always be able to hide behind a quickly made smile. Right now, Orianna’s smile was not intentional in the slightest. It was built simply out of joy for seeing Seraphine, her girlfriend, standing in front of her. It was lopsided and messy but it was pure and whole. It was a subconscious reciprocation of the happiest smile she had ever seen, on the prettiest girl she knew.
“Ori, can I hug you?”
“Affirmative.”