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Zane sat in empty silence, almost dazed enough to not notice the approaching man who seemed to be analyzing him. The raven, despite no invitation to do so, took a place beside his friend, not planning to disrupt the silence that Zane had seemed to be engulfed by as he scanned his own hands. When he stopped, his form slouched slightly while he let out a sigh that told Cole his presence was noticed.
“Asked a question, you didn’t hear.” Cole spoke, breaking the unknown vow of silence.
“I heard you, I was just hoping you wouldn’t ask again.” Zane spoke softly as he stared into the atmosphere above the clouds. The moon captivating him as he wondered how distance can persuade the image to look different if they were any lower. Cole didn’t take the previous statement to indicate that he didn’t want his presence with him, so he stayed. He glanced over with tired eyes and soft gaze, trying to take in whatever Zane had been capturing on his hands.
“What’s so interestin’ ’bout yer hands?”
The Nindroid glanced over to Cole before looking back down to the topic.
“Sometimes I analyze myself to see if there’s any proof of life. I believe…” the pause was only for a few seconds and Cole stared as he waited for his friend to say anything else, if there had been anything to say.
“…if I stare long enough, I might convince myself that I’m human.”
Zane’s palms open, his eyes tracing over the intricate designs his creator made in them. Though, unlike real hands, they seem faded from the amount of time that had passed by. The labor and energy passed through ate away at the lines, but Zane refused to fix them. He hated the thought of preserving what made him feel like human instead of being. Cole couldn’t read that, though. Especially since it’d be so early.
“Yer lookin’ in the wrong place if you wanna find any proof of livin’.” Cole stated. He leaned back on his hands, facing the dark and cloud-filled sky as he spoke, not planning to elaborate any further.
The nindroid blinked as his gazed fixed up before turning his head in confusing to the raven.
“What do you mean?”
A silence was kept.
“…I mean, you have friends—family, love. You care for us. You help. You’re thoughtful, selfless…extremely selfless. You can be resentful, unfair…”
“I am…confused as to what any of this means, Cole.” He rested his hands and crossed them in a relaxed position as he leaned forward just a bit as his legs hung from the edge of the ship.
“It means you don’t need to be human to have what you already have.”
Zane felt his circuits mimic a skip in a heartbeat. Though he was a Nindroid, he almost felt like crying. Cole’s words mattered to him, deeply. He looked away from his friend, facing the endless sky once more as he etched the words in his memory.
“You don’t have to worry about havin’ flesh n’ bones to experience the real thing. Hell, you got some advantages over us, but that’s more of an…”upgraded” way of living.”
Zane chuckled as he let his head fall down. His cheeks revealing a fainted pink. The moment brought Zane back to when Cole had his own issues adjusting to the change of being a ghost. The loss of what he used to have—hugs, sparring matches, arm wrestling tournaments he was always bound to win—it gave Cole time to become more mentally aware of himself, something he wasn’t aware he needed as often as he did.