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Tessa flinched at the feeling of the cuff around her wrist. The metallic smell of dried blood and the harsh metal digging into her skin. Wait. Her skin? She didn't have skin. This thought was what grounded her and allowed her to fall back into the present moment. Tessa looked at the drone who had lightly wrapped her hand around her wrist. J looked at the former human with sympathy and sadness. If just holding onto her wrist had been enough to trigger a flashback, then who knows what the girl was feeling when the chain was put there. As Tessa fully came back to the present J interlocked their fingers, like she had done so many times before. But now it was different.
And it would never be quite the same.
Tessa looked up to see her Jaybird smiling lightly at her then looked back down to their interlocked fingers. J turned and lightly pulled Tessa along, the two drones easily falling into a steady walking pattern. It was weird this, walking along holding hands like they had done so many times before. Nothing had changed and yet everything had. J was a disassembly and much taller than worker drone Tessa. It was a tall body but a worker nonetheless.
J led them to a rocky outcrop of cliff, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the landscape amidst the snow.
“Hey Tess?” That nickname. The one only J was allowed to use. “Tell me a story about the stars,”
Tessa, in life as a human, had a great fondness for myths, fantasies and other tales of the supernatural. This had eventually lead to her telling J about them occasionally on a quiet evening. It had started off innocent with a “Hey can I tell you about…” insert whatever she wanted to talk about that time but soon J started to look forwards to Tessa’s random info dumps stories. After some time it had become habit to find a quiet place and for J to start with “Tell me a story about the stars,”.
A lot of the time, the stories weren’t about the stars but J welcomed them nonetheless..
For Tessa, that phrase brought back so much happiness. That someone wanted to hear what she was saying, that someone cared about her interests. That someone cared about her.
Tessa looked at the other drone then followed her gaze to the sky above.
“Once upon a time, I’d look up at the stars,” This story hadn’t started like they usually did but Tessa was now looking resolutely towards the sky as she found the words to continue, “And I’d think about how small and insignificant I was compared to them. Just a human in the vastness of the cosmos. But that was the old me..” She said, “Not anymore.”
J made a quiet hum of encouragement as she waited for Tessa to expand.
“Back at the manor I’d look at the stars and I’d feel small. Surrounded by all these big people, they made me feel small so I’d look at the stars. Didn’t make it better though. I’d look at them and feel smaller and it was worse.” Tessa glanced at J to see the other drone looking at her curiously but she carried on.
“I don’t feel like that anymore. I used to feel like a planet among stars. Like something too big to comprehend. But now… I feel like one of them. Like this is where I’m meant to be. Surrounded by my people. Well, drones. And sometimes, I looked up at them, at that north one there. I looked at it and I knew it would always lead me back to my Jaybird. And, looking at it now, nothing’s changed. I know it’ll always lead me to where I want to be. And where I want to be is with you.”
Tessa looked at J with an unreadable expression. “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world,” She quoted. “You’re my world, J. And I’ll be yours. Your star, your sun, your moon. Whatever you need me to be.”
“Can you just be here? For me?”
Tessa smiled. Soft and intimate. “Of course.” She shuffled over so she and J were sitting closer together and leaned against the taller drone. J stiffened, unused to the contact but quickly relaxed. Soon enough she practically melted onto Tessa.
“Thanks Boss.”
“Not your boss. Not anymore.”
“Thanks Tessa.”
Tessa was quickly falling asleep. “No prob, J. Love you.”
“L-love you too.”
And with that Tessa fell asleep. But not so soon to miss J’s words. She fell with them into a peaceful, dreamless slumber.