Their encounters after her "death" had always been cut short and a lot more awkward than they used to be. They both secretly hoped to get a chance to have a talk in private, just to catch up and whatnot. Instead of walking towards the control room, Rhys took a turn in the opposite direction. Sasha decided it was time to "break the ice".
"Hey, uh, Rhys?" She called, now standing in the doorway. He turned with a slow and surprised tone, but answered almost immediately.
"Um, yeah?"
"...Do you, er, need any help with anything, right now?" To his and her surprise, he actually needed it.
"Well, if you're not busy, I need a steady hand?"
"Sure, didn't plan anything." He lead her to his room, trying to contain being nervous. When they got there, Sasha was amazed by the amounts of small prototypes, tools and parts lying around. She was led over to an alcove-like area of the room, which had a table with a small rectanglular box on it. The box had smaller indents on it that appeared to be there for simple cosmetic effects.
"Alllriighty. What I need are basically third and fourth hands, not saying that's all you can be used for or anything-"
"Yeah yeah, got it. So I'll be using this wrench?" She held a wrench that was fairly just the closest tool to her.
"Nah, I would give the official name of what we need but honestly I don't know much about these tools either. I know what they look like, what they do, and that's about it." Rhys admitted.
"You have a lot of them..."
"Yep, suppose so... Hand me that one right there?" He made a gesture towards a weird looking screwdriver/plier combo. Sasha handed the tool to him and started a conversation.
"What's that gonna be?"
"Um, in short-it's supposed to be a surprise." Rhys said with a small grin while trying to screw in something on the object. Suddenly, he stopped and brought the box over to Sasha, tilting it at an angle.
"See this corner? I need to get that small bolt in, and trying to do so with a human arm and a robotic arm that you made with said singular human arm doesn't really end that well."
"Hmph, lemme get 'that tool'" She took the prism from him and started to tighten the bolt. Rhys inspected her work and was pretty grateful for such a small favor.
"Wow, uh. Thanks!"
"Was.. that all?"
"Mmmhm. Sorry, now that I say that out loud it doesn't sound that exciting."
"It's fine. Can I... stay for a bit?"
"S-Sure. I mean I have a pretty cool cushioned recliner over there if you want."
"Okay then. Do you wanna, I don't know.. Talk about some things?" She bursted out in a bit of a rush. It took Rhys by surprise, but he had to say yes, something inside of him wouldn't let him say no.
"Sure, Sasha. I need a break anyhow." She offered her seat, but Rhys stayed standing.
"Well, how's it been..?" He asked through his awkward tone.
"I've been good, good... How about you?"
"Me? Oh, uhm. Yeah, fine. Well, you know. I have a question that's been.. uh.. Rotting? In my head." They both probably knew what he was going to ask.
"Yep?"
"A-Are you- um.. Still... Into guns?"
"Rhys, one does not simply get over their near life-long obsession. Yes! But why?"
"No, particular reason..."
"Rhys..?"
"What?"
"Why did you ask that?"
"Mmmm. Reasons."
"Which are?" He let out a sigh, knowing Sasha she wouldn't give up any time soon.
"You, know that prism you just put a bolt into?"
"What about it?"
"Just.. Follow me." He started to walk, suddenly feeling bad for backing out of his actual question. He held the object out towards her. She took it and quickly examined it.
"You just gotta say 'Pretty please'" He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not saying that-not then and not now..."
"Ehh. You're no fun.. Press that button on the left side." She did so and it opened. They both grinned as she pulled a scope attachment with a red tint from it.
"Wow, this looks pretty cool, thanks Rhys!" She said excitedly.
"I hoped it would. So, that is that and-"
"Let's go test this thing out!" Before he knew it, she was rushing out of the doorway. He followed, struggling to locate where she went through the maze of Helios. The maze he'd navigate on a daily basis, only months ago. Eventually, he did find his way to where she went; an exploded hole in the complex that let the outside in.
"Lots of hanging objects there.. We wouldn't want to break anything-" Before he could finish, Sasha had already lit up a pole that was holding up debris of a wall, which immediately crashed down into a crater formed from the impact of Helios.
"O-Or just.. break.. everything."
"Hey, it's just gonna break after it rusts off anyways. The scope's nice, by the way! Thanks." She turned towards him with a smile.
"Oh, uh yeah. It's nothing. You know I'm not the best with guns, almost shot my hand off once trying to make it accurate enough. ...Okay maybe 3 times... Multiplied by 3-Okay so you're done here?"
"Uh... No. Rhys, how do you feel..." She rotated both of his arms upwards, and then placed her Atlas Silver in them.
"...about learning how to shoot?"
"You uh, you see, I've never been a shooter. Not a single steady hand, guns are heavy, and I... Umm... You're not letting me out of this, are you?"
"Nope. You gotta learn someday. It's.. dangerous out here. You know that."
"Yeah.. I guess.."
"Alright, so I'm mainly doing this because I don't wanna find you in a body bag in the desert with a hundred holes in you. We should probably work on holding it, for starters."
"Fine fine, but I really have no idea what to do with these. Is it like how it looks?" He made a stance like he was about to shoot.
"Sort of.. But you dont make your right arm look that locked. Let it relax, bend it down lower." Rhys adjusted his elbow down to his waist.
"Nooo. Come on, if you've seen someone shoot like that, there better have been a skag about to jump on their face." She walked to him and grabbed his arms to adjust them correctly. She stood back and crossed her arms, proud of her work.
"There we go.. Progress! Now let me see your aim?" Rhys closed his left eye and peeked through the scope. Now, even he was impressed that he's getting the job done well.
"Impressive... Well your head is titled too much to the side. Try moving closer to the gun, it won't backlash THAT much when you shoot. You'll just have to get used to the noi-" Sasha was taken by surprise by the sudden scream of a gunshot; she took her gun from Rhys and was crouched by the wall in the blink of an eye. He was holding his ears, a giveaway that the shot was from him.
"Oh my God, Rhys. The noise! You'll have to get used to the noise!" She brushed her pants off as she began to stand back up.
"My, uh, my bad! Didn't know the trigger was that sensitive. Are you o-okay..?" He reached an arm out to help her up, which reminded her about the awkward but caring salary man that she also cared (fairly) about. She grabbed his hand and pulled herself into his midsection while wrapping her other arm around him. Almost no hesitation faded over Rhys as he grabbed her with his free arm in return.
"I'm fine."
"That's good. Can I, uh.. Hold your rifle, again?"
"If you want to shoot some things, sure. If you want to randomly explode our ear drums again..? No."
"Hey, I apologized..."
"Alrighty then. Not a scratch, okay? On my gun, I mean. But feel free to shoot up anything Hyperion in sight, though." Sasha handed the Atlas Silver to Rhys, and he tried his best to replicate his previous stance.
"You appear to be still locking your arms, trainee." Sasha voluntarily adjusted his arms again. He began to engage some of the broken up former ceiling, causing some parts to collapse.
"Look at us, destroying my former company's property. Fun."
"Yeah, you know you have a decent shot. It's been fun, but I'm gonna have to take my Silver back now. Ammunition is not unlimited."
"Oh yeah, just... I wanna shoot something else, if that's okay?"
"Hard to put it down? Happens to me a lot, I guess I've influenced you. You get one more shot, so make it count." As soon as Rhys aimed, he felt a cold circular barrel being placed on his back. When he slightly moved his head, the weapon that belonged to the barrel clicked. He froze and dropped the Atlas Silver on the ground. He saw Sasha, whom appeared to be in a similar situation as he was, run over to pick the rifle up.
"You can't just drop this! It's a collectible, Rhys!" She turned to face him and her distressed face was now a look of relief
"God dammit Fi, don't do that!" Rhys was still frozen (from fear and subtle command from his 'captor') but when he heard Fiona chuckling his tense body eased.
"Yeah, please, like don't do that. I had a gun, you know!" He turned around and angrily glared at her.
"That you JUST learned how to use? Besides, you wouldn't pull the trigger." She raised an eyebrow to finish her 'boy, please' look.
"And lookie what I got, Sash." She extended her arms to show off her Roshambo and another sleeve pistol.
"Cooool! What does it do?"
"I'll show you." She picked a target and shot it with the new pistol which shot as fast as your trigger finger.
"Also cool, sis. Where'd you get it?" Rhys decided he should probably go, so he started to walk down the corridor, a little disappointed that his and Sasha's time was cut short, yet again. But then, a possible miracle happened.
"Oh, hey Rhys! I think you'll just love this." Fiona shouted back to him.
"Oh! How wonderful! What is it?"
"So-due to an undisclosed accident-Vaughn has alerted me to alert you that your room can't be.. used.. right now. It may have a huge hole in it from construction malfunctionings... So you have to sleep somewhere else."
"Well, that figures. Dammit..!" He punched the wall next to him, only damage being done was to his human nuckles.
"God dammit! That hurt. Not that unfortunate hole in my room, even though that hurts too, this hurts... a LOT more." He squeezed his hand and winced in pain. Sasha had walked towards him to help straighten his back.
"Don't get upset about it, I mean you can always crash with me." She said, taking both Rhys and Fiona by surprise.
"Well, that.. Is.. A-Awful nice of you, Sash. Why not?" Fiona shot an angry glare his way, but he pretended to not notice her death stare.
"It's.. Not dark out yet. Come on, Rhys. I'll get you settled in and whatnot." The two started down the halls, and Fiona turned to continue shooting up the broken Helios.
Their walk was mostly silence, but were sometimes interrupted by small conversations that ended as abruptly as they started. About half way to the room, one thing in particular was on Rhys' mind that he hesitantly decided it was time to tell her.
"Um... Sasha..."
"Yep?"
"This, um.. Probably won't mean much of anything to you, but it's something... Just something I've been curious about."
"Mmmhmm... Lemme hear it, 'cause now I'm intrigued." They both stopped in their tracks.
"So.. Remember: this is just curiosity at it's finest. And curiosity may kill the cat, but at least they have 9 lives..."
"Alright, out with it?"
"Well, it's just... You haven't.. Found... Anybody yet, have you? I think you know what I mean, because if you don't this may get a whole lot more uncomfortable."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. But you know, there is this one guy I've been thinking about, now that you mention it..."
"O-Oh. Uh... That's.." His gaze dropped to the floor, but she approached him and placed her hand in his.
"But I don't think you'll have to worry about 'him'." Sasha gave 'him' a friendly grin, he exchanged a smile back.
"We should.. Get going. The night's still young."