The old mansion looked just as he had left it.

Ambrose and Yinn came to a stop in the shadow of the sprawling structure, the advisor looking upon the old house with a melancholy gaze. Yinn was openly curious, gaping open mouthed once he realized that this was their destination. "This is your old home, Ambrose? It's.. huge!"

"My grandfather needed plenty of space." The advisor said, letting himself drink in the sight of the familiar place. "It was much smaller at first, yet when he began to expand his operations, he had some additions built into the house to accommodate his needs."

"How are we going to get in? There are metal plates over everything."

Sure enough, the front door of the mansion and all of the windows were covered by what appeared to be metal plates. Ambrose could see a trace of a burn on the plate blocking the door, only able to assume that someone must have come along and tried to melt their way through with some heating device. He nodded. "They're there for security. Grandfather installed them during one of the first Great Wars of the O.Z., to keep invaders from trying to get in. Nothing will remove them but the password."

He approached the archway, coming to stand in front of the plated door. As Yinn looked on, Ambrose slid his fingers lightly down the metal surface, before the tips of his fingers sank into some tiny indentation. A small panel of the plate slid open to unveil a small block of letters assorted randomly together. Ambrose put his left hand over the top of the letters, fingers dancing as he pressed them one at a time. "Saladin. Paracelsus. Lambertine. Evagne. Smith."

"What does that stand for?" Yinn asked.

Ambrose chuckled. "Distant relation. Hold on." Quickly drawing back his hand, the advisor urged Yinn back down off the porch, putting some distance between them and the house as the system began to respond to the inputted password. The metal plates began to draw back from the windows around the mansion, hinges having been hidden that let them fold together at either side. It happened with the front door as well, the metal segments coming to rest at either side of the archway.

Yinn laughed in amazement, watching the spectacle. "That was an amazing trick! Are you sure that your grandfather was not a mystic?"

"No." Ambrose shook his head, picking his cases back up as he strode towards the door. "We're not a magic sort of family. We can't do magic -- but we can make it. Scientists just use a different method to get the same result."

"I am humbled by your science. It is very fascinating to me."

Ambrose pushed open the front door, finding the air inside to be stagnant from lack of circulation. He walked in slowly, eyes looking everywhere around him, touched immediately with a sense of nostalgia as he said softly, "Mind that you don't step on the black square there. It's another security device."

Yinn jumped far away from that indicated square, having been about to approach it in his curiosity. The young man then moved close to Ambrose, lingering near the man's elbow as if he thought it would be safer to keep nearby. "What is it that you came here for, Ambrose?"

"Some momentos that I left behind." The advisor answered as they walked further into the parlor. "Things that weren't important to me the first time I left here. Things that I find myself wanting, now that my heart is a little warmer than it used to be."

Ambrose set his cases down, kneeling as he opened them both up. One of them was full with his clothes which he had brought for the journey. The other one was empty, aside from a few of his work tools. "I was going to bring more cases so that I could transport everything, but Cain wouldn't let me. I'll have to fit it all in these."

"I'll help you carry whatever you need." Yinn promised him, sliding his pack off his shoulders to the floor. "Where do we begin?"

"The lab." Ambrose murmured, before rising to lead the young man down a dark corridor nearby, in the direction of his grandfather's old work room.

"Wow..."

Yinn stopped inside of the opened door, eyes wide as he tried to capture the scope of the laboratory. It stretched up two full stories of the house itself, with ladders and a spiral staircase leading up to a second landing high over their heads. There were no walls here, though this must have taken up an entire wing, only support posts here and there to keep the structure sound.

Ambrose was not affected by any sense of wonder, it seemed. He moved forward without measuring the place too much, quite deliberate in where he was going. The advisor hurried up the staircase for that second level. When he spoke down to Yinn, his voice echoed many times over in the wide space. "This was my grandfather's lab, library, study and living space. Much of his research is still here. I hope to take it back with me to Central, to see if there aren't some useful bits. Feel free to walk around while I grab them -- just try not to touch anything."

"Okay!" Yinn shouted up, wincing at the distortion the space gave his voice. He watched Ambrose step onto the second level, beginning to search through the tall bookshelves that were built into the walls overhead. Then, looking away, Yinn moved cautiously forward, too curious to remain in one spot, considering the sheer oddity of this room.

There were large mysterious mounds hidden underneath large cloths, giving tantalizing glimpses of some scientific monstrosity. Models of strange things dangled from the ceiling, Yinn ducking carefully down under them as he passed by. Beneath the web of dust which coated everything, he saw little metal devices placed here and there, not able to judge if they were completed bits, or unfinished projects, complex as they were.

Yinn caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. Frowning, he moved in that direction, after a backward glance confirmed to him that Ambrose was still up the stairs. He moved soundlessly forward, prowling to try and catch sight of whatever that had been. Yinn tensed himself while behind the mass of one of the veiled machines, then jumped forward to try and catch it unawares.

It was only his reflection in a large mirror fixed to the wall. He let out a breath, smiling sheepishly at having been tricked by the illusion of his own movements. Yinn shook his head, his reflection mimicking the action, as he said to himself, "Jumping at your own shadow, fool."

He turned away from the mirror with a smirk, only to find himself eye to lense with some machine that had come to stand beside him. The pair of lenses were glowing red, which probably wasn't a good sign, as a metallic voice shrilled out of it, "Warning! Warning! Intruder!"

Yinn leapt backwards as two metallic arms swung up from either side of its body, the machine's three fingers pinching at the air to try and capture him. Backing up quickly, Yinn stared at the thing in alarm. It was repeating itself, louder now, as it began to roll towards him on small wheels underneath the bulk of its body. "Warning! Intruder! Warning!"

"Ambrose?!" Yinn wasted no more time, turning to flee back in the direction of the other man. He heard the advisor's steps coming hurriedly back down the stairs, running quickly towards that sound. A glance over his shoulder showed Yinn that the robot was giving chase, those red eyes glowing brightly, those grippers clapping open and shut in front of it. "Intruder! Warning!"

Yinn was relieved when Ambrose stepped into sight, the dark-haired man placing the stack of books in his arms down on the floor as Yinn ran up to him. The young man came to hide behind Ambrose, looking around him to the robot that was now rolling up to the both of them. "Intruders! Warning! Mansion Under Attack! Intruders!"

Ambrose snorted as the robot began to reach for him. One of his hands swung up, swatting the machine underneath those glowing red eyes, across its metallic nose. The robot's head dropped slightly forward, those reaching arms now coming up to its nose, as it droned out. "Ouch."

"Faulty hunk of junk. I'm not an intruder. It's me, Ambrose." The inventor glared at the robot.

"Master?" Red eyes shifted to the color of yellow, as the robot looked back up to the glowering man. "Identified: Ambrose Oswin Andersen, Master. Welcome Home, Master."

"Just call me 'Ambrose', please." The man pleaded, turning to gesture at Yinn. "This is my guest, Yinn. Apologize for scaring him like that."

The robot rolled back on its wheels, turning in sharp angles as it wheeled its way over behind Yinn, both metal arms swinging up again, in something like an embrace of the young man's legs. It hung its head again, droning out, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry."

Yinn looked uncomfortably over towards Ambrose as he found himself getting hugged by a robot. The advisor shrugged dismissively, before addressing the machine again. "Could you kindly assist us? I am gathering some of Grandfather's books to take back to my new home."

"Grandfather. Identified: Garland Gail Andersen. Affirmative." The robot pinched the books on the floor in one hand, stacking them up to balance on an arm for transport. "Command: Assist Master Ambrose, Guest Yinn. Acknowledged. Beginning Mansion Staff Program."

"No, no." Ambrose shook his head, hands waving in the air in front of him. "I don't need the whole house being woken up. You can help us just fi--" He sighed, hands dropping to his sides as there were sounds all throughout the house, echoing mechanical voices coming from all directions.

"Systems Online."

Yinn gave Ambrose a questioning look, the advisor's face wryly miserable. "Well. Looks like you're going to meet the staff, Yinn. I apologize in advance."

The one set of tracks quickly turned into two. Cain was confused by this, wondering who might have joined Ambrose. He'd initially thought that perhaps someone might have kidnapped the advisor, but the tracks told him otherwise. It was Ambrose's usual careless walk. They were heading back towards the south.

Cain touched his fingers to one of Ambrose's footprints there in the soil, frowning to himself. The headcase had eluded him yet again. However, it did not seem that he had been walking as hurriedly this time, considering the length of the strides between those prints. Ambrose was finally moving at a reasonable pace. It would be easier for Cain to catch up to him now.

The law man rose up from where he'd been kneeling, duster sweeping around his legs as he twisted in the direction of the tracks. Cain paused as he caught sight of a small wooden board, a grave marker, just to the side of the abandoned cabin. Blue eyes studied it, remembering when he had come upon the one with Adora's name etched into the wood. He shook his head quickly to scatter that line of thought. It was Ambrose that he needed to find, and shake some sense into the headcase.

"Grandfather was rather adamant about not having people in the house." Ambrose explained with a grunt, as he stretched up on the toes of his shoes to unlodge one of the smaller robotic creatures from where it had wedged itself into the chandalier in the entryway. He shook it a few times, so that its tiny wings spread back out, before the mechanic creature went sputtering off through the air. "So he had an entire staff of machines which he had built himself. He figured that they would bother him less than humans would, asking questions about his work and such. They're nowhere near as impressive as the Milltown residents, but they were good for the technology of their time."

Yinn looked over at the other man from within a circle of the service robots which matched the one who had surprised them in the laboratory. "How many of these things are there?"

"A dozen or so." Ambrose waved the robots back away from where they had clustered around Yinn, snapping out at them, "He doesn't need anything right now, for the second time! Go clean something!"

Five robots responded with a chorus of "Affirmative", before they spun around to wheel themselves into opposite directions. Ambrose suddenly felt incredibly weary of this idea. "There are six of the service 'bots, which you saw. Three of the flying ones, mostly designed for dusting cobwebs and washing windows."

"What about the other three?" Yinn asked, when the other man had turned away without telling him about the others.

Ambrose was reluctant to answer, glancing to Yinn over his shoulder. "Well.. Hopefully the service 'bot didn't engage their programming. They were difficult to handle, if I remember right. Come upstairs with me."

Yinn did not need to be asked twice. He wasn't going to be left alone in this house of bizarre creatures. The last thing he needed was to start getting hugged again by all of them. Yinn hurried up behind Ambrose, the two of them heading up the winding white stairwell to the second story of the residential section of the mansion. Ambrose backtracked a few times along the corridors, as though he'd forgotten where he was going, which made Yinn a little nervous. The last thing they needed was to get lost in here.

Ambrose finally pushed open a door, smiling faintly. "Ah ha. Here it is."

They came into a room that was full of boxes from floor to ceiling, stacked neatly. Each was labeled with careful black letters, but Yinn couldn't decipher what the code of them meant. Ambrose seemed to understand what the cryptic words meant, his finger sliding down over each of the boxes in search of the one he'd been trying to find. Hovering in front of one particular box, he nodded. "Help me get this one out. We'll have to take the upper boxes down to get to it."

"How are we going to do that? It is far too high to reach them without some kind of ladder." Yinn pointed out, frowning up at the box wedged against the ceiling. There was at least four feet between them.

"Good question." Ambrose sighed, dropping his head defeatedly. "I guess there's no avoiding it. I'm going to have to wake up Yonsil. He's the only one tall enough to reach. You stay here, and I'll be right back." The advisor headed for the door, pausing with his hand on the knob. He considered it, then gestured towards the lock. "You might want to secure this behind me, or else the service 'bots will find their way up here through the Bot Elevation Tubes."

Yinn hurriedly turned the lock as soon as the door was shut, blowing out a deep breath. What had he gotten himself into?

The room was eerily quiet, Yinn able to hear only the sounds of his breath as he stood there waiting for Ambrose to return with 'Yonsil', whatever that was. It was unnerving him, all this silence. He was used to at least hearing the sounds of the wilderness outside, but this room had no windows. Yinn heard some of the mechanical robots wheeling past the door, glad that he'd taken Ambrose's suggestion to lock it.

He was startled when there was abruptly a knock on the door. Yinn shot up to his feet, figuring that it was Ambrose returning from his task. Releasing the lock, the young man cracked open the door to peer outside. "Ambrose?"

There was no one standing outside in the hallway. Yinn frowned to discover that, opening the door a bit further as he stuck his head out to look left and right down the corridor. He knew that he hadn't imagined the knock. So what had caused it?

A soft whirring noises sounded from above his head. Swallowing thickly, Yinn reluctantly lifted his eyes up towards the ceiling. At that instant, something dropped from above, landing on his head. Yinn gave a hoarse cry of alarm, scrambling backwards as he reached desperately for it, prying it from the top of his head.

The little robot was no bigger than his shoe, its spindly little limbs flailing like a trapped insect where it found itself being held between Yinn's hands. Then it began to speak, a loud shrill sound, in some language that the young man couldn't comprehend. "Le chat mange un poisson! Usted cerraría por favor la ventana?"

Yinn felt his face twisting in fear and confusion, dropping the robot onto the floor in front of him as he went to retreat back into the room. The only thing that stopped him was when he heard a woman's voice speaking.

"You should be careful about throwing him. He's more delicate than he seems."

Turning, Yinn looked in the direction of the voice, blinking in amazement.

A woman had come around the corner. He did not think that anyone else had been inside the house! She looked like something out of a painting. Her face was very delicate, beautiful in a fey sort of way. Yinn saw that her hair shimmered like gold where it was swept up into ornate hairpins, ringlets falling down over the woman's shoulders, caressing the burgundy velvet of a fine period dress that reminded him of how Ambrose dressed. As Yinn watched, she bent down to where the little robot was on the floor, picking it up carefully.

"Do you live here? I came here with Ambrose -- he didn't tell me that anyone else would be around."

"Master Ambrose brought you? He is here, then?" She rose, her movements seeming stiff, as if she were unused to making them. Her head tilted to the side with a soft jerk, as she absently brushed the small robot off. "That would explain the commotion. What is your name?"

"I'm Yinn." He gestured to himself, watching her curiously. While she was pretty, there was something strange about her manner. Her voice was pleasant, but it lacked any sort of vitality.

"Yinn. Welcome to our home." She responded, nodding formally. The robot was held up in her hands, its limbs dangling. "You have met Gidget, I see. Gidget was constructed to educate Master Ambrose. He is too curious for his own good at times."

The robot in her hands twitched at her words. "Amerei un'altra fetta della torta."

Yinn smiled faintly. "And what is your name, dear lady?"

Her green eyes blinked at him twice, before focusing directly back upon Yinn. "I am Anasia. I was created by Master Garland."

"Wait -- you're a robot?"

He studied her more closely, trying to see if this were true. Upon closer examination, Yinn saw that her green eyes were indeed false, blinking rhythmically in the mockery of human behavior. There were no lines on her face to indicate age. And the reason that her hair was shining like gold was because it WAS gold -- fine strands of it. Her jerky motions became more apparent to him now that he knew the truth, her head cocking sharply back the other direction. "Affirmative. Does this displease you, Guest Yinn?"

"Well, I mean.. no. You can't help that you're a robot." Yinn couldn't take his eyes off of her, astonished.

"Ah. I see that you've met the other two." Ambrose spoke up from further down the hallway, coming up to where Yinn and Anasia stood. The advisor smiled faintly as he glanced to the robot woman, saying quietly, "Hello, Anasia. You're looking well."

"Master Ambrose. Thank you." Anasia's head bowed, lady-like. "I came to collect Gidget. He was curious about Guest Yinn."

"Können Sie mich auf die Bibliothek verweisen?" The little robot spouted.

"I'll bet." Ambrose murmured sheepishly, as he jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. "Sorry it took so long, but Yonsil here was hiding a bit too well."

Yinn looked in that direction, seeing quite a sight coming down the hallway behind Ambrose. This creature was made up entirely of spindly limbs, like some metal spider crawling down the hallway on four legs. Once it reached where they stood, it unfurled up from those front legs, straightening to its full height, which had its metal head bent at an awkward angle from the ceiling, despite that Yinn estimated them to be about fourteen feet high. "Where is this box of yours, Big Nose?"

"Ambrose." The inventor said at a growl. Apparently this was not the first time the robot had addressed him by that other name. "My name is Ambrose. If you can't say it, then just settle for 'Hey, You', or something at least more dignified than a reference to my prominent feature." He reached up to touch his nose with a frown.

Yonsil blinked in a way that indicated to Yinn that the robot creature wasn't phased. Ambrose sighed, gesturing into the storage room. "Please unstack the boxes in the middle row on the left side of the room for me. I have something I need to get out of them."

They all watched as the mechanical beast named Yonsil scrabbled into the room to carry out Ambrose's order. The robot placed the boxes carefully down on the floor, including the one which the inventor had been hoping to access. His head spun competely around to look at them, yellow eyes blinking. "That is what you wanted, yes?"

"Yes, thank you." Ambrose nodded politely, stepping back into the room. Yinn did not think that there would be much room, considering how much space the machine took up. He saw Yonsil contorting the joints of his body, bending back into that spidery shape. Then the machine was scaling up the walls, limbs spread out where the machine loomed over them from the ceiling. It made Yinn incredibly nervous to go inside, despite the fact that Ambrose seemed unbothered.

The inventor knelt down on the floor beside the box, carefully pulling off the top of it. He peered down into the opening, Yinn seeing him smile sweetly at whatever was within. That won over the young man's curiosity, and he came in, with a few upward glances to the robot hanging above his head. "What do you have there, Ambrose?"

"These things belonged to my mother." The man answered quietly, as he reached into the box, touching his fingers carefully to the contents. Yinn was able to see a variety of items inside, some small trinkets and combs, little painted portraits, and what appeared to be a few folded dresses. Ambrose had pulled up the corner of one of those garments, drawing it close to his face in order to touch his cheek to the fabric. "I can't believe that I actually left them behind when I left. Seems criminal now."

Yinn gingerly picked up one of the tiny portraits, studying the face of the woman in the picture. Something about her looked familiar. He looked away from the little picture towards where Anasia stood nearby, the robotic woman seeming unbothered by being forgotten in their distraction. "Hey.. This woman looks like Anasia."

"Actually, Anasia looks like this woman." Ambrose corrected him, angling his head to eye the portrait. "That's a portrait of my mother. Grandfather designed Anasia in her image. It was his most thoughtful present to me. Anasia was built to be a caretaker, companion, friend. He made her to look like my mother, in order to make her familiar to me."

"That was very nice of him." Yinn remarked, as he placed the picture back into the box.

Ambrose shrugged. "I suppose. It was an effort for him to compensate for everything that he wasn't willing to provide me." One of the service robots came wheeling into the room, Ambrose gesturing to the box. "Kindly take this downstairs. I will be taking it with me."

"Affirmitive." The robot responded, before it gripped hold of the box, wheeling it away balanced upon its uplifted arms.

"Anything else?" Yinn looked around them, wondering what else Ambrose might need.

"I can't think of anything. The things from my grandfather's lab, the box with my mother's things -- that should about cover it. Everything else I can leave here for safekeeping."

They left the room together, heading for the stairs. Anasia was walking silently behind them, with tiny Gidget still in her hands. It made Yinn keep glancing back towards her. At least Yonsil had remained behind. The oversized creature creeped him out considerably.

Downstairs, they heard a sudden cocaphony of noise, as a chorus of robotic voices began to shriek out. "Intruder! Intruder! Mansion under attack! Intruder!"

Ambrose scowled, stopping at the top of the stairs. "What in nine hells are they carrying on about now?"

Yinn shook his head quickly, before they heard a few sharp pops from down in the entryway. One of those robotic voices lurched to silence. The young man tensed himself, prepared to go down there and begin fighting. At his side, though, Ambrose sighed in frustration.

"Cain."

Out of all the scenarios Cain had anticipated upon locating the advisor, this definitely fell beyond his scope of imagining. The law man had followed the tracks right in through the front door of the sprawling mansion, and had let himself in. He had been able to confirm that Ambrose was here because of the familiar luggage cases opened up on the floor. "Ambrose?"

His voice ricocheted back to him from all directions of the silent place. There was no immediate answer. Cain frowned to himself, looking to the corridors and stairwell that wound up from his spot, wondering which direction he should go to start finding Ambrose. Judging by how big the place looked from the outside, Cain thought that it would be easy for him to get lost. So he decided to wait for Ambrose to return for his luggage.

Then the things came. The robot things, with their glowing red eyes and piercing voices. "Intruder! Intruder!"

Cain retreated back a few steps as they approached him, counting four of these wicked looking beasts. He could only guess that these things were attacking. Reaching to his holster, the law man swept out his gun, firing a couple bullets into one of the closer robots. It jerked to a stop, sparks flying out of it where the rounds had pierced. These things were fortunately not impervious to bullets, for which Cain was very thankful.

He prepared to fire off a couple more bullets into another one before a familiar voice shouted at him over the noise of the shrieking robots. "Cain! Stop shooting my robots! Robots! Cease offense!"

The robots immediately stopped, their arms dropping to their sides. Cain's blue eyes blinked at them, not having expected that to work. He then turned his head towards the stairs, to find an angry brunette glaring down at him. Ambrose had his hands planted on his hips, a man that Cain did not recognize standing beside him, and some other pretty blond behind the pair.

"That's one heck a greeting, Ambrose." Cain managed, before holstering his gun. "You normally send these things to welcome guests?"

"Only the unwelcome ones." The man snapped, as he came down the stairs. Cain saw that the other two stayed behind, allowing Ambrose to approach the blond all by himself. The advisor glowered up to Cain when he stopped in front of the tin man. "I thought that I told you not to follow me."

"I figured that you were just being dramatic. Or idiotic." Shrugging, Cain met that glower with his own. "What possessed you to go running off like that? You could have gotten hurt, or kidnapped, or eaten by wild beasts in the forest."

"Believe it or not, Mister Cain, I can take care of myself just fine." Ambrose turned slightly, waving a hand towards the stairs. The young man blinked, before heading in their direction. Cain eyed the man with a frown. What was Ambrose doing with him? He watched as the advisor put a hand on the young man's shoulder, comfortably easy, which Cain did not like at all. His mind whispered to him that he should pull his gun out again. Cain tried to ignore the urge.

"Cain, this is Yinn. Yinn, this is Cain." The advisor muttered, introducing them without much enthusiasm, considering that he was still mad at Cain. "Yinn, why don't you give Cain here a proper introduction?"

The one called Yinn arched an eyebrow towards Ambrose, before taking measure of Cain with his slanted eyes. "This is the friend that you are having the awkward time with, right?"

"Yes." Ambrose nodded, before turning away from the pair with a frown.

Suddenly, the law man wasn't sure if he wanted to know what Yinn's 'proper introduction' involved. There was no time for him to ask, however, as Cain found his right arm being snatched up in the young man's hands. He blinked in surprise as he found himself being rolled forward, flipped over the man's left hip in one smooth move. Cain hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of him, as he grunted in pain.

Ambrose and Yinn peered down at the blond on the floor, the advisor nodding in satisfaction. "That'll do. If you can't guess from this demonstration, Cain, Yinn is the one who taught me those nifty little fighting skills from my wandering days."

Cain grated out. "Oh, kid. You don't know how bad I owe you for teaching him that stuff.."

Once Cain was able to get himself up off the floor, he snatched hold of Ambrose's arm, dragging the inventor towards the opened door of the mansion. Yinn watched them go, as he decided that it was probably best not to involve himself in their dispute.

Ambrose was stubbornly dragging his feet the entire time, though Cain's strength proved more effective. He released the advisor once they were outside, not wanting to stay in there where maniacal robots might attack. "We need to talk, you and I."

"Why? I think that I made myself rather clear in my letter."

"Because you didn't give me a chance to defend myself. You should have stayed, so we could have had this talk back in the cabin, instead of me having to track you clear across this side of the realm."

Ambrose shook his head. "I couldn't stay there. How do you think it felt to me, being in your old home, with all your memories distracting you? You need to work it out without my interference, Cain. I know better than most what it's like to be overwhelmed by memories."

The law man sighed, lifting his hands up into the air. "Would you just shut up for a minute, Ambrose, and let me talk?"

His demand had the advisor glaring at him, but at least Ambrose went silent. Cain shuffled his feet around on the ground, squinting up into the sky as he composed his thoughts. "Look, no one ever said that this was going to be easy. You and I, we're trying to figure out who we are, now that our lives have begun again. It's going to be complicated. Yes, we're going to argue. Yes, we are both going to occasionally be unable to stand each other. But the way I see it, we have two ways that we can go."

"What ways are those?" Ambrose asked quietly, not having heard Cain speak half this much in one breath before. It made him interested in what the tin man had to say.

"Either we can continue as we are, stumbling over each other as we go, or we can take the steps that we need to in order to get past all these problems. You told me that you wanted to wait for me to make a decision -- well, here I am, Ambrose. I left that cabin and came running after you. I could have stayed there, but for some stupid reason I decided that memories weren't half as important to me as a pain-in-the-ass former zipperhead. So I made my decision. I took that step forward. Now.. are you going to do the same, and accept the fact that you're stuck with a man who can't completely forget his past, or did I just waste a trip?"

The advisor blinked at him, speechless. Ambrose shook himself in order to recovery, breathing out, "I don't think I've ever heard you give such a long speech before, Cain."

"You never let me get a word in." Cain pointed out. "So, what's your answer, Ambrose?"

"I'm just not used to all of this, Cain. This.. this..." He trailed off, words failing him for a change, hand gesturing through the air as he tried to search for what he meant.

"This 'being in love' thing?" Cain prompted him, an eyebrow raising.

"Yes." Ambrose nodded, shaking his head with a heavy sigh. "It's more complicated than I thought it would be. I can design an entire mechanical empire, realign the moons and stars, probably even raise the dead if I commited to the project, but I am scared to death about how to handle being in love with someone." A hand raised to his hair, tangling through his curls.

"It's not like you're alone in this, Ambrose. We're kind of in this together." Cain gestured between the two of them.

"I know that. I just.." He just what? What was it that he was trying to say? Ambrose thought about what as at the core of the issue, in order to bring that up and make himself sound more justified in his concerns. He quickly came up with something. "Like, for example? DG and Jeb are getting married, and I'm confident that they started things a while after we did, but you haven't even.. I mean, you haven't even told me.." Ambrose shook his head, losing his nerve. "Nevermind. You're right, Cain. I'm being unreasonably difficult about all of this. I promise that I will try to let it go."

Cain mumbled something unintelligible, eyes dropping to the tops of his boots as he scuffed one of them against the grass. That made the advisor frown, leaning closer. "What was that?"

"I said 'I love you'." The law man repeated gruffly, blue eyes peeking up at the other man from under the shadow of his hat. "You're difficult, dramatic, stubborn, impetuous, absolutely crazy, hopelessly careless on occasion, and most of the time I can't figure out whether I want to strangle you or shut up that mouth with a kiss, but I love you."

Ambrose drew himself up, trying not to look too offended by Cain's analysis of his character, as he muttered sourly. "Yes, well.. You're difficult, stubborn, inelegant, mean, stoic at the worst times, annoying at others, and half the time I can't decide if I want to break your ribs or tear your clothes off, but I love you, too."

"Then have we settled this?" Cain asked tentatively.

The advisor nodded, mouth shaping a bright smile. "I think we have, Mister Cain. Now let's get back to the business of gathering my things so that we can get out of here."

"What about the cabin? I'll need to return there in order to get the work done on it."

They started to walk back into the house together, shoulders brushing, as Ambrose was reminded of the tin man's project at his old home. The advisor brought a hand up to his chin as he thought on that matter, before saying lightly, "Well.. It just so happens that I might have an idea on how to get your cabin fixed up while we return to Central."

"How?" Cain looked to the other man, watching as Ambrose's face split into a grin. He followed the line of the man's gaze, to where the robots were clustered around Yinn, waiting for commands. The law man snorted. "Yeah. I think giving these things something to do would be a far better solution."