"How does that feel?"
Paninya tested the movement of her new arm. The rotation of her shoulder, the swing of the elbow joint, the flex of every finger... Everything moved smoothly, soundlessly. It felt strong too. She curled the metal fingers into a tight fist and could feel the strength that lay waiting in the steel and bearings. Now that the pain from having all of her nerve endings reattached was dying down to more of a tingle, it felt almost like having two normal arms again.
"It's amazing - it moves great!" she enthused, swinging her arm again. "It's the best I've had yet!"
She thought the praise would have at least brought a smile to her mechanic's tired face, after he'd stayed up all night working on her new limb, but Atticus was still scrutinising the automail with a frown lining his oil-smeared forehead. The grease from his fingers had also made it into his hair, causing the front to stand up in odd blonde spikes. "Well, that's good at least, but it still just doesn't look completely right. Sit here, let me take another look..."
"Huh?" Paninya gave him an incredulous look. "But it's perfect! Did you not just hear me?"
"Just humour me."
Paninya sighed and did as she was told. Atticus took her arm back into his hands and started inspecting the lines of steel again, which looked perfectly smooth to her. "What aren't you happy with? I told you it feels great - better than anything even Dominic has done for me."
"It still just isn't right aesthetically. Three's some rough edges at the elbow. See here? I can't let this look tacky in any way."
"Well, why not?" Atticus's style was very similar to Dominic's. Basic looking with the detail going into the machinery itself - the important part. Both men favoured practicality over aesthetics, so what was with the sudden perfectionism? Paninya said as much out loud. "I don't care how it looks, as long as it works, and you've never cared about that either. So why are you being so finicky?"
Atticus hurriedly busied himself with a sanding pad over the rough edges of her elbow that she couldn't even see and she realised it was because he was suddenly avoiding her gaze.
"Atti? Hellooo?" She waved her free hand in his face and forced him to look up. As he did, it became clear that a light blush had brought rosy pinpricks to his cheeks. "Hey... You're being weird. What's up?"
Still blushing, he replied, "I don't want my work to spoil you."
"Huh?" Paninya gave him a blank look, which had become quite customary for her as of late. But then Atticus had started trying to explain to her how mechanics worked whenever he gave her a tune up.
Atticus rolled deep blue eyes at her. Paninya was the kind of girl who really did make you spell it out for her. Couldn't she see why he needed to be completely satisfied? "The automail needs to be perfect because you're perfect."
"Oh..." This time it was Paninya's turn to blush, pink colouring her already dark skin.
Suddenly everything made sense. Why Atticus had always been happy to help with adjustments, but had never wanted to be the one to create automail for her from scratch. Why he'd always flapped that his work wasn't good enough and she should still keep going to Dominic. But she'd grown so accustomed to spending time with him in the shop. She'd loved going to him for her tune ups and not just because she was always more than satisfied with his work, which he really needed to be too. Had he never realised the reason why she'd wanted him to do her automail for her this time?
She smiled and reached out to muss his already untidy hair. "Then I don't know why you're worrying. Your automail's always perfect."