The story takes place some months before the UR-1 incident. 5 chapters are planned.
Major pairings: Metis/Aura (allusions to Aura's feelings), and Simon/Athena (childhood friends).
The little Athena was sitting at the office of her mother, Dr. Metis Cykes, in the robotics lab. It was the beginning of the afternoon, and as always, the young girl liked to stay with her mom, though she didn't really discuss with her. She just needed to know that she was close to her. In fact, from Athena's perspective, Metis preferred to work on her robots with her partner, Aura Blackquill. The two women seemed to really love their work and their respective companies. Athena enjoyed Aura and tried her best to create some bonds with her, but her mom's colleague rather enjoyed Metis's presence. When Athena talked to Aura, she, of course, always responded to her but did her best to end the conversation. She couldn't help but avoid the girl, though she knew it was not really nice. Verily, Aura cared more than they all believed to Metis and the affection she had for her daughter made her annoyed, not to mention a little bit jealous. She needed more than respect from her coworker.
Athena's life was not really easy: she missed a lot of days in school because of her special ability, too strong to deal with on her own. She could hear people's hearts, and it became problematic when she needed to be outside: her "gift" was so pronounced with large groups of people around her that it became overload, and she didn't have the choice but to stay at the Space Center with her mom and Aura. Yet, they were not alone: the two partners have developed robots, especially Clonco and Ponco, two robots "with a heart", as it was written in the name of their project. Aura handled the engineering of the machines while Metis built their "brains". Those robots were close to Athena, so she talked a lot to them when her mother was busy elsewhere: they were like others members of her family to her. The young girl didn't really know the difference between a robot and a human.
Athena didn't have many friends, except Juniper Woods, whom she got along well. However, because of all her problems, she couldn't see her a lot so it was Junie –like she used to call her- who came to the Cosmos Space Center occasionally to play with her.
That's because of her hearing ability that her mother created heavy pink headphones as a part of her research, to reduce the noise around Athena so she could live an easier life and meet the outside world. Nevertheless, Athena didn't understand it that way: she hated to wear them, unaware that it was to help her. The relation between mother and daughter wasn't really the most beautiful ever known, so the young girl didn't understand the reality behind every action of her mother. In fact, she was not very happy of her life: she tended to believe that she was a guinea pig for Metis's researches. Those headphones, Athena was wearing them often, but only because it was supposed to be "necessary", like her mother told her many times.
Today, Aura did not come to the lab so Athena was alone with her mother. The little girl wondered why Metis's coworker was absent: that's not like her.
"Mom? Why is Aura absent today?" asked the child, sitting at an office.
"She will come soon. This morning, she went to see her little brother, Simon, because he wanted to learn psychology from me: we're going to meet this afternoon. I think they will be there in less than fifteen minutes." answered Metis.
Leaving her chair, Athena came next to her mother: what she said piqued her curiosity.
"Really? Is he nice? I always wanted to meet someone else in here! Is he going to play with me?" said the little girl, with stars in her eyes. Maybe it was her chance to grow happier in this place, if she started to see someone else. Maybe this person will be really nice with her, listening to what she wanted to say, or why not, playing with her? Athena was asking herself about a lot of things like that, hoping that future student of her mother –Simon- will not disappoint her.
"I guess he could play with you sometimes, Athena. But only when his work of the day will be done, of course. Anyway, they won't be long, so wait a little more, darling."
Athena agreed and returned near the office, where she was drawing to pass the time: on her paper were represented the two robots, Clonco and Ponco, smiling with her between us. It was a childish drawing, but for an eleven-year-old girl, she drew rather well.
When she was almost done with the colors on Ponco, someone knocked on the door of the lab. She startled and turned to face the door. Aura entered first, smiling as ever but this time, she wasn't alone, as announced by her mother lately. A man, very tall, black-haired and also wearing black was following her. Athena was watching him carefully, though she was feeling uncomfortable. She didn't expect him to look like that: he was very intimidating –albeit handsome. The young girl was staring at the man in black, unable to say a single word. Finally, it is Aura who introduced them all.
"Metis and Athena, this is Simon, my little brother. Don't pay attention to his appearance, he's not as scary as he seems." said the purple-haired woman with a smirk.
"It's very nice to finally meet you, Dr. Cykes." he continued kindly, then bowed his head to Metis. Next, he faced the little Athena. "I suppose it is you, Athena. Nice to meet you, too." he said, his smile widening. He knelt before her and stroked slowly her head. It was his way to greet her. Athena grinned shyly to Simon, still intimidated by him.
"Well Simon, let's start, shall we? Come with me to the psychology lab, we must prepare ourselves to begin." declared suddenly Metis, smiling. She was near the door, holding some documents and ready to go in the next room.
"Oh, yes, of course, Dr. Cykes." Simon rose and left the room, following Metis to the other lab.
Now, the two were alone in the robotic lab. Athena didn't know what to do next: she finished her drawing, and she knew that Aura would not want to speak or to play with her.
"Miss Aura?" she started, kindly. "Are you gonna continue with the building of the robots today, like mom did earlier?"
"Yeah, I'm quite late today because of my brother. I didn't mean to introduce him today –we initially planned to do it later, and I lost a lot of time because of that. So, well, I think I'm going back to work, yes." answered Simon's sister. Aura seemed to be the exact opposite of her brother: she was always cheerful, smiling, had strong relations to others. On the contrary, "the man in black" –that's what Athena was thinking about him- was pretty withdrawn, and Metis's daughter didn't believe him to become a close friend to her. Maybe she was wrong? Anyway, she was ready to speak with him once he will be over with her mom.
"Why don't you go in the psychology lab, to see what Metis is teaching to Simon?" offered Aura, in order to be alone in the robotics lab so she could work without being disturbed.
"Okay!" smiled Athena, and before Aura could say a word, the girl quickly took her drawing with her pencils which were on the table, and left the room.
She entered in the lab without knocking on the door: fortunately, she wasn't disturbing anyone.
"Oh, hey, Athena. Are you bored?" asked Metis. "You want to stay with us?"
"Yes. I was embarrassed to follow you two, but Aura told me I could, so…" said Athena.
"No problem, you can draw in this room too, if you don't want to be alone." proposed the woman, seeing that her child was holding a notebook with some pencils.
Athena, glad to be with her mother and Simon so she could watch what they were doing, sat at a table and turned a page of her notebook. She started drawing her mother, a smile on her lips.
Suddenly, the two robots she lived with, Clonco and Ponco entered the lab too. As the two things never saw Simon, they started to move around him, asking questions, both at the same time. However, it was Ponco who spoke the loudest.
"Hello! Hello! Who are you? Are you a friend? A stranger? We don't know youuuu! Who are you? Please tell us your name!" was yelling the little Ponco, the older of the two robots.
"Calm down, you two. That man is Aura's brother." started Metis.
"Um, yes, I'm his little brother. My name is Simon Blackquill; I'm starting studying psychology under Dr. Cykes. Nice to meet you, I suppose…?" said Simon, somehow embarrassed: he knew that his sister was working in order to elaborate robots, but he did not expect to meet them. He didn't even know what to say.
"Loading… Registering data… Complete! Hello, Mr. Simon!" answered cheerfully the little Ponco, soon imitated by her "brother" Clonco. Athena used to believe they were brother and sister, something that her mother enjoyed.
As soon as Clonco left the lab, Ponco came next to Athena. The robot usually tended to refer to Athena as her friend, and shared a bond with her.
"Miss Athena, do you enjoy yourself? Can I help you with something?" asked Ponco: she always wanted to help people around her, it made her happy.
"No, I'm fine, thank you! Look, I'm drawing Mama Metis." began the little girl. She took her drawing and showed it to the robot. It wasn't finished yet, but Metis was easily recognizable.
"It's a beautiful drawing! Mama Metis, look, please, come and look!" insisted Ponco, moving its arms through the air like she was used to when she was happy.
"Yeah, it's as pretty as always. But don't disturb me anymore until I'm finished with Simon, please. We need to concentrate for analytical psychology." said Athena's mother, looking with a stealthy glance.
Athena felt upset because once again, her mother didn't seem to really care about what she was doing. She was thinking that maybe, she annoyed her. It was true that Mrs. Cykes and Simon started working but sometimes, she was feeling lonely and nobody wanted to talk with her.
Afterwards, Ponco left the lab to travel around the Space Center, in case somebody required assistance.
When it was almost 4:00 PM, Athena was still drawing. She was practically finished with the third one: she represented Aura, this time. She thought it was one of her best drawings, though she didn't know if she was going to show it to Mrs. Blackquill or not.
"Well, Simon, I think we're done for today. You're a very promising student," said suddenly Metis while she was putting away some papers. "And I hope you agree with what we planned."
"Yes. It sounds great to me. Again, I thank you very much for your help, I would not want to take too much of your time."
"There's no need for thanking me every time, you know. It's only natural. Aura didn't lie, you're really good." grinned Dr. Cykes.
Simon smiled to Metis, picking up his stuff. When he was ready to go, Athena yelled his name.
"Simon! Wait!" Athena grabbed his arm as he was about to pass the door of the lab. "I… Um… I wanted you to stay a bit more…" she said, shyly and stuttering. She didn't know how to ask what she wanted and there was a good reason for it: Athena was not the kind of person to make friends easily since she was pretty shy with strangers.
"Ha ha, I think my daughter likes you quite well." laughed Metis. "If you don't mind, you could stay a little longer at the Space Center. I believe Athena will be happy with that."
"Oh, why not? I don't have a lot of work lately, so there's no reason to disagree with your proposal." Simon found Athena rather cute and nice. He understood that she wanted to be his friend. Though he never had a strong relation with children, Athena seemed to be a very intelligent and mature girl beyond her years.
"I myself am going to go back to work with Aura. See you tomorrow, Simon." Metis greeted him one last time and left the lab, leaving Simon and Athena alone. The woman knew that Simon will take care of her daughter and besides, Athena was clever enough to stay on her own.
"Thank you for staying with me… I felt very alone this afternoon, y'know." said Athena, with tears in her eyes.
"That much? Does it happen often?" Simon sat on a chair and pointed the other chair in front of him, inviting her to sit down too, so she did the same.
"Well… My mom is pretty busy with, er, your sister. She doesn't have much time to spend with me. She always works so hard in her researches…"
"Did you already talk to her about that? Maybe she doesn't know what you really think."
"I-I'm afraid to do it. I end up thinking I'm wrong, but sometimes I can't help but believe she don't love me."
Athena only knew Simon for 3 hours, but she already felt safe with him. He was listening to her and seemed to understand what she's been through.
"You don't have to worry, Athena." he finally smiled. "I do believe Dr. Cykes is working hard to help you. These headphones, she made them for you, did she not?"
"I hate them, you know. They hurt my head, and it's not pretty. Yet I feel much better when I wear them, because I cannot hear people's voices anymore."
"You see? Even if you don't like it, your mom did them to make your life easier. I believe that she suffered to see you suffer too." he said, calmly. Athena listened closely to his words; it was like if he had some sort of control over her, he was the first one she had listened to since ages.
"Listen, Athena." Simon resumed. "If you don't mind, I think I will stay with you as much as I can, after my everyday appointments with your mother."
"Oh… Really? You'll do that for me? I don't want to be a bore… Anyway, how are your days organized?"
"Well, I will come to the lab at 2:00 PM, except on weekends. My meetings with Dr. Cykes will last approximatively two hours. I'm a prosecutor since one year, so I don't have a lot of work yet. I'm still a rookie." he laughed by the use of this word. "Furthermore, there are no trials the afternoons, except for some rare cases. I'll be there as much as possible. Promise." he smiled to her, and she smiled too. A big and genuine smile, rarely seen before.
"Thank you so much, Simon! I'm already starting to feel much better." she said with a joyful face.
"So I'm glad too." Looking around him, he was suddenly surprised by the displayed time on the clock of the lab. "Well, I'm going to leave. I have a case to work on, currently. I'll see you on Monday, okay?" he got out of the chair, come closer to Athena and ran his fingers through her hair, to say goodbye.
We were Friday, so she'll have to wait three days to see Simon again.
"Such a short time, knowing how much I'm going to see him now."
