This is the first of a couple extra chapters I have planned that take place at various points in time after the story. You can think of them as real epilogues, or if you want they can be "Non canon" what if tales. I leave it in your hands, but I did my best to make them realistically fit with the story wherever possible. I hope you enjoy, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of it.

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EXTRA CHAPTER #1

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Heavy boots clomped through a dense underbrush. Every step threw up blades of grass and dust, accompanied by another dull thud. Occasionally, a grunt of effort, annoyed-sounding and disgruntled. The metallic whine of a sword rang out, followed by a thick crunch and a sigh of relief.

9S stared past the thicket he'd just hewn to pieces with his sword, then wrenched it free of the tree it'd carved a wedge into. Finally, a clearing. He'd been worried that he would never see the sun again. Thankfully, it seemed he wasn't going to end up like that other body of his that he'd found. Not today, anyway- although the hour was technically still young.

He stepped into the clearing with curious eyes. More crumbled stone ruins, covered in thick vines and moss. He'd never been this far into the forest in his life... or maybe he had, just not in THIS life. He stood far outside of YoRHa's operational zone, not like it mattered anymore. It was just him and miles of uncharted territory.

Staring skyward at the tall pillars and the half-of-a-structure, 9S wondered if he could scale them to get a better vantage point. Uncharted territory for YoRHa really meant uncharted- he had no hyper-detailed three dimensional map to rely on anymore. Only vague topographical shapes. It made sense, really; the Bunker never moved and neither did Earth, so outside of a little cone directly below, they were practically blind.

He suppressed a snicker. 'Heh. Blind.'

Grunting with effort, he pulled himself up to the first story of the pile of rubble that was once a building. There was no telling what it used to be, it was surely thousands of years old by this point. No furnishing, no windows or wood or metal, just cold stone and ghosts of the past. Not literal ghosts of course, 9S was relatively certain they didn't exist.

Relatively.

Thankfully the half of the building with a stairwell was the part still standing, and with a little bit of parkour on his part he'd reached the top floor in no time. There he could peer out over the edge, above the treeline, and scout for... something. Anything, really. He hesitated to say he was lost, but his prospects certainly weren't looking up at the moment.

Miles of trees in all directions, spanning on nearly to the horizon. He followed each edge of the roof, wary of the sharp drop-off, slowly observing the sights in hopes of any sign of civilization. Hell, even another structure like the one he now stood atop. All he needed was three clear open points and then he could finely triangulate his position. Nothing to the East. Nothing to the West. He'd come from the South...

Due north, he spotted something that piqued his interest. In the distance, between a relatively thin cluster of trees, wispy black smoke rose between leaves and branches. Reaching toward the sky like an outstretched claw, the dark cloud waved and shuddered in the light breeze. 9S stood for a moment and watched it wobble, blinking at it in an attempt to remember its position, and then began his descent.

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Naturally, it was approximately an hour later before he'd wormed his way through the trees and come upon his destination. When he was with YoRHa, he'd always relied on being able to search for any information he could possibly desire. He was always told he was one of their best, a top scanner. Better than anyone in his production run. And yet, without their insanely deep knowledge of the entire universe, he was like a lost child. Thankfully he probably wasn't the only YoRHa unit currently feeling that way.

There was a rustle of leaves as he approached the source of the smoke. Probably just the breeze, but it still made the micro-fibers on the back of his neck prickle at the thought of it being something else. He honestly had no idea what he was going to find in this little hovel between cliffs- he knew what he sought, but had basically lost hope of finding it long ago. At another rustle, this one definitely harsher, he drew his sword.

It was a panic instinct, really. This post-YoRHa world had so far been like the wild damn west, whatever that was. Some human civilization a very, very long time ago. He only knew a little about it, but a key factor in early human history was how lawless it all was. The induction of a new society, in a new era, on a new planet. The similarities weren't lost on him.

His left hand gripped the handle tight as he rolled his shoulder. He hadn't been attacked yet, not since leaving the Bunker, but it had to be coming. The past week or so had been hectic, but he'd been trying to stay out of it all. He did his bidding and surely more than one unit wanted his head for it. Better to stay hidden for the time being, until enough time had passed that nobody knew it was he who'd ushered in this so-called wild west 2.0.

Wild west version 2? Wild west v2? Wild West: The Revenge. Wild w-

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden arm stretching out of a nearby bush. 9S cried out as the wayward hand gripped his blade and gave it a yank, pulling it from his hand and him through the shrub along with it. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tumbled through twigs and greenery, rollling a few times once he'd broken free of the bush and then coming to a particularly embarrassing stop.

Immediately he was on his feet, pushing up into a combat pose and ready to fight with his fists should the need arise. His sword had been stolen and now it was time to fight for his life. He grimaced, staring hard at his opponent, pushing his heels into the dirt and ready to spring forward like a cat should they use his own weapon against him.

Instead, the hilt was offered back to him, his new foe's hand still gripping it by the blade.

"What the hell?" A2 grunted, impatiently waiting for him to take it.

9S dropped his fighting stance as his eyebrows rose. It was her. It really, really was. Her flowing white hair was draped over her shoulders like a curtain, perfectly framing her annoyed expression. She had one hand at her side in a fist, the other still curled around his sword. He stood awkwardly rigid, unsure of what to say.

"Uh..." He began. Not a strong start.

"Are you gonna take the thing or not?" She offered it to him again, staring down at it to direct his attention toward it. 9S reached up and grabbed it with his left hand, sheathing it behind him backwards as usual. It vanished in a puff of yellow and white cubes, leaving him scratching the back of his neck with one gloved hand.

"Uh..." He said again. "Hi, A2."

Immediately she scoffed. "What are you doing here? Thought I told you to get lost." Right to the point as usual.

9S recalled their last meeting very clearly, and how she'd yanked out his heart and stepped on it with those pointy heels. He was still pretty sore about it, but he didn't blame her for it anymore. After all, now he knew exactly how she felt every single day. He knew what it was like to live her life, and it made him feel bad for filing her under the 'hate' category.

For the moment, he ignored her question. There was certainly enough time to talk about that little situation later. He watched as she turned from him and went back to her meager campfire without awaiting a response. She sank to the ground opposite him, crossing her legs and scooting a bit closer. He watched her skin, her eyes light up beyond the fire now separating them.

She didn't seem to mind his presence or that he hadn't answered, so he instead walked around the fire to stand a slightly more comfortable distance away. Only then did he notice what she was actually doing.

Any illusion of beauty on her features was shattered as she raised the makeshift kebab to her mouth and took a particularly angry bite of the roasted whatever she'd been grilling on the fire. It seemed to be a squirrel of some kind, but 9S had never seen a roasted squirrel before that he could recall. Without the fur it looked a bit more like a small alien.

A2 looked like a hungry bear, chomping open-mouthed on the creature's exposed meaty parts. How she had any kind of appetite at all was beyond him, but the ability to stomach eating a woodland creature made him all the more confused.

"You know we're... not supposed to eat, right?" He said, staring at her wannabe spear.

She grunted. "Maybe you're not," she said with her mouth full of chewed-up squirrel. "I can eat just fine."

He blinked at her, not really comprehending what she'd just said. "What... happens to the food matter?"

She furrowed her brow. "What do you think happens?"

9S instinctively made a disgruntled face. "Oh."

"And anyway, you didn't answer me." A2 said, returning her attention to the fire and her meal. "Not really grasping the 'you're gonna get us both killed' thing or what?"

He was surprised she remembered what she'd said. He certainly did too. 9S was unsure of how to begin. There was so much to tell her, so much that'd happened. He'd fulfilled his promise. Maybe not in the way he'd originally intended, but even still, YoRHa was no longer an issue. How could he even start to explain that to her, though?

He sighed. "Y'know how you said that I should find you if YoRHa ever gives up looking for me?"

She squinted at him. "Uh, yeah?"

He nodded. "Well... they did. Sort of."

"The hell does that mean?" A2 grumbled, incredulous.

"I... kinda sorta dismantled their whole operation from the inside and threw the entire organization into chaos while also removing the only bargaining chip they had so that now everybody knows the truth about YoRHa and has no reason to trust them anymore which means that there's no more chain of command to send people after rogue androids like you and me."

A2's frown and squint both deepened. "What?"

"What, what?"

"Say all that crap again, but slower." She grunted.

And so, 9S took a seat next to her by the fire and began his story from the moment she left his company. He couldn't help but notice a satisfied smirk on her face when he told her of how he brutalized 2B. He still had no idea what happened to her- although he hadn't done much searching. He sort of hoped she was still alive given that his whole plan to destroy YoRHa hadn't actually worked out. But the chances certainly were unfairly slim.

He told her of the fights he'd been in, his struggle to survive, his final act of revenge against YoRHa, and how without her guidance he'd never even have made it to the Bunker alive in the first place.

When he finished, he noticed she hadn't spoken a word the entire time. To be fair, it was a lot to take in, but it seemed a bit unnatural for her to remain in complete silence. She was still munching on the remains of her meal as she put on a contemplative face.

Then she snorted. "Yeah, right."

9S sputtered. "Wh-What! But it's all true! I did!"

"You seriously want me to believe you made it back to their crummy little space station? What do you take me for, an idiot?"

With a frustrated frown, 9S gently raised his right arm to her eye level. Immediately her darkly amused expression turned to one of what could possibly be described as stupefaction.

"Huh." She said, eyeing his still basically perfect, pristine scanner model arm. "Shit."

"See? I'm not lying." He too was staring at his arm, still occasionally having a hard time believing it himself of late.

Now A2 wore a squinted face of scrutiny. "And you... didn't destroy the Bunker?"

He shook his head, lowering his arm into his lap. "I was going to, really I was... but..."

"You wussed out." She completed his sentence for him.

He frowned. "That's... not what I was gonna say, but also not totally incorrect."

"Why? You seemed pretty sure last time we talked about it." A2 folded her arms, doing her best to look acusative instead of inquisitive.

9S heaved a deep sigh. "It's complicated. I had some time to think it over when I got there and all that killing just didn't seem right anymore."

She nodded, pretending to mull that over for a moment. "Alright," she continued, "then why not?"

"I just had a change of heart, that's all. Is that really so hard to believe?"

"Yes," she replied immediately. "Something made you change your mind or else there'd still be a big-ass pile of scrap floating up there with you on it."

9S threw up his hands. "Look, I didn't really come here to be cross-examined, okay?"

A2 scoffed. "Then why DID you come here?"

That caught him off guard. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well... Y'know, for you."

She pursed her lips, squinting at him once more. As if it were just a lie. As if she'd never heard something so ridiculous. As if the concept of someone coming to see her because they felt like it was completely foreign to her.

"What?" She said flatly.

9S just shrugged. "You told me to."

A2 rolled her head along with her eyes. "I know I did, but I didn't think you'd actually do it!"

Now it was his turn to be incredulous. "Why not? You saved me."

"Did the whole 'I don't run with other people' thing mean nothing to you?"

"You seemed fine with it at the time." 9S was genuinely confused now. It looked to him as if she was split in two on the inside, where half of her wanted to see him again and the other wished he'd died on the Bunker.

"Okay, let me clear the air for you then." She gestured in his direction. "Whether you got rid of YoRHa or not, I still don't want to pal around with you."

9S shook his head. "Oh, I didn't expect you to do that-"

"Then why... did you... come here!?" She leaned in his direction with emphasis on each word.

"I dunno, I thought we could be friends!" He replied defensively. "I just figured we could talk because there's nothing to be afraid of anymore, y'know?"

A2 scoffed at that. "Nothing to be afraid of, my ass. You don't know the half of what there is to fear out there, kid."

He asked the obvious question. "What do you mean?"

She gave him a disgruntled look. "I dunno if you remember, but there's still an army of machines running around trying to end android-kind. YoRHa sucks shit, but they were the only defense against them."

"That's not true," 9S interjected, "the machines were against YoRHa, not androids in general."

"Oh, well that explains why they suddenly stopped eating people and all went away, never to return."

He furrowed his brow. "Eating people?"

"Jeez, I dunno where you've been but you must've had your head in the damn sand or something." A2 gestured to the open air. "Yes, eating people, stealing their black boxes. They're all heading to the desert for some reason and it's probably to build some ugly android machine horror-show."

"That sounds bad." 9S murmured.

"Yeah, no shit."

He was rubbing his chin now. "Well... Maybe it's not the end for YoRHa. Maybe having their secrets out in the open will change the way they do things. There surely aren't enough flight units for EVERY android to leave the Bunker."

"I thought your whole plan was to get rid of them."

"It was, at first! But then..." He exhaled, ran a hand through his hair. "But then I thought about how many of them have no idea what's going on up there behind the scenes. You've gotta understand that, right?"

"Sure, but do you really think anyone with enough sense to care is gonna voluntarily stick around?"

9S' shoulders slumped. "No, but maybe whoever's left to fight will be more organized. That's what I'm hoping, anyway."

"You'd better hope." She grunted. "One of us may as well."

They were quiet for the time being after that. This was not at all going as 9S had hoped, although she had posed an interesting question. Why HAD he returned to her? Until very recently he was sure he wasn't even going to leave the Bunker, and now that he had, he was a bit confused. A2 obviously still desired companionship, but continued to enjoy constantly reminding him of how much that wasn't the case.

In truth, he didn't know what she wanted. Nor did he know what he wanted himself, really. There was nothing more for him to do now besides show up at her doorstep. The lack of constant adrenaline and stress had left him feeling a bit lost. She was right that the long war was far from over, but the short-term problem had been solved. And if he was now a wanderer, why not wander back to A2's side?

But maybe that was what bothered her. The knowledge that everybody, every YoRHa android, was now like her... it was surely a lot to take in. Perhaps she just needed time to comprehend it. She probably would continue to complain if he stuck around, but the desire to stumble along behind someone again had left him feeling a bit nostalgic.

And it wasn't like she was actually going to tell him to buzz off... in less kind words, of course. He disliked preying on her weaknesses in that way, but she simply didn't have it in her. As much as she didn't want to admit it, he could tell she was enjoying having someone to talk to just by her sarcasm. If she were genuinely upset by his presence, there would probably have been more curse words.

"God damn shit." A2 grumbled from his right. Speak of the devil.

"What's that?" 9S asked, coming out of his haze.

A2 had a not entirely small cracked bit of hard rubber flesh between her pointer finger and thumb. She sneered at it as she gave it a squeeze, watching it squish a little.

"Ugh." She said, tossing it into the grass and returning to scratching at the spot on her upper leg where it'd come from. He leaned a little closer to see what she was doing, and his eyebrows rose as she dug in her fingernails to yank off another torn bit of skin.

"Hey, uh..." He cleared his throat. "You shouldn't do that."

"No shit." She said, not even looking at him as she angled her leg to get a better look at the seam.

"Why... are you doing that?" He asked, attempting to steer the conversation towards 'don't remove your skin from your bones'.

She cocked her head in his direction. "Have you ever been gored by a boar before? It tends to leave your skin a bit shredded."

9S blinked at her. "You were... gored ...by a boar? When?"

She nodded at her makeshift kebab. "We were hunting the same prey." Without another word she returned to what 9S could now see was a deep dent in her external armor. It hadn't been pierced, but it certainly looked like it hurt.

9S cleared his throat again. "Well, uh, you probably shouldn't take off your skin. I imagine it's kinda hard to find first-generation YoRHa parts to replace it with these days."

Her response was deadpan as ever. "It's my skin, I'll get rid of it if I want, thanks."

When she went back to it, however, trying to tug at a small island of flesh amidst an ocean of black rubber, he reached out and caught her wrist with his hand. 9S was unsure why he'd done it- it was mostly out of reflex. Perhaps a protective instinct, or maybe just a desire to avoid having to see an android deglove themselves.

He expected a backhand or a shove to be coming his way, but instead she was just staring at his hand. They both were. A2's fingers were splayed in an open claw- not gripped too tight, but enough that she couldn't easily tug herself free of his grasp. Her bangs fell over her eyes as she leaned a little bit inward, her face suddenly becoming very sullen. Immediately 9S was afraid he had made a grievous mistake.

"You can let go of my hand any time, y'know." She murmured relatively softly.

He smiled a little despite the fear collecting in his throat. "Depends on if you're going to go right back to what you were doing."

"I planned on it." She said, eyes flicking in his direction. But then they widened a little for a reason he could not comprehend, and quickly returned to his clenched fist.

He couldn't think of anything to say to that.

When he didn't move to let her go, A2 wrenched her arm out of his grasp quickly and sharply before letting it settle across her thigh. "Where's your stupid blindfold, anyway?" She mumbled in her most grumpy voice.

"My what?" 9S instinctively touched a hand to the side of his head. "Oh! Oh, yeah, that." It was only the ten thousandth time he'd forgotten that he hadn't bothered putting his visor back on before leaving his room on the Bunker. Strangely, he felt no different without it. It was as if it never mattered more than what it symbolized. Funny how that worked.

He couldn't help but notice that A2 hadn't gone back to picking at her skin. She was just staring into the fire, which had dwindled significantly now, casting a warm red over them both to contrast with the dark green shade of the forest. 9S looked up at the thin gathering of branches above them, casting sunlight through only in scattered beams. It was so strangely peaceful. The forest hadn't changed at all since the last time he had visited, but it still felt so different.

"Sooooo," 9S began, not sure of what else to say at this point, "are you going to tell me about yourself?"

Immediately she was back at full capacity. "Christ, I KNEW you were gonna bring that up. I KNEW it. Ugh!"

But it had been an honest question. "Is that a 'no' then?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean, it's a 'no'! I mean... I'm not gonna tell you shit."

"Uh... Okay."

Only a few seconds passed before A2 threw up her hands. "Fine! I'll tell you my shitty life story. I did say I'd tell you and all..."

9S nodded silently.

"God damn stupid idiot..." She grumbled, and 9S assumed that this time she meant herself.

She didn't get far into her story of the first machine war and Pearl Harbor before 9S realized he'd already heard it- or, rather, read it. Her retelling of the events was as cold and clinical as the data logs about the subject he'd once brushed up on. At first she described the setting to him: Ohau Island, Mt. Ka'ala, and of course Pearl Harbor. It was as if she were reading from a dictionary or maybe a travel guide. Sure, what a scenic place, come and bring your family- except for the machines equipped with rockets and anti-air missiles. Her teeth grit a little as she described the mission itself.

He soon regretted asking as he watched her bangs fall further over her face. Malice lined her features as she described the hasty touchdown that resulted in the death of most of her squad. He sat in silence as she grew more frustrated, obviously trying to avoid describing the survivors of the descent. He knew there were at least four of them, though A2 was the only one that'd been named in the documents. As she recounted the group's pitiful attempt to storm the not-so-metaphorical gates, he noticed just how different from 2B she really was. He could see it in her grit teeth. Her clenched fists, and wrinkled nose. 2B could never have shown such raw emotion. A2 was seething with pain and it was evident on her every feature.

He was brought out of the yarn she was spinning when she fell silent for a moment, now staring at her knees. She was seemingly involuntarily hugging her legs to her body, still staring into the fire with a nihilistic frown weighing down her face.

"Is... that all?" He spurned her to go on. She'd kind of stopped in the middle so he assumed not, but her sudden silence was making him feel a bit awkward.

"No." She grunted. "This next part fucking sucks."

"Oh. Y-You don't have to tell me if it's too hard to think about."

She rolled her eyes. "Christ, you're so pathetic. You let me get 3/4ths of the way through these stupid memories and NOW you want me to stop?"

"I... I guess not." He mumbled. Obviously she knew she was making him feel bad, but he had a feeling he was making her feel worse by having to recall all this in the first place.

"Did your stupid data logs say I had a grandmother?" She turned her head in his direction, eyes half-lidded and expression disgruntled.

What a strange question. "Uh... no?"

She turned away from him once more. "Yeah, well my memories say I had one. I don't really care about them, but someone else sure as hell did."

9S was confused. "Who? Someone on your squad?"

A2 scoffed with disdain. "Of course someone on my squad. Probably the best of all of us."

"Who was it? How many of you were there?" 9S' voice was unsteady. He was obviously straying into dangerous territory now.

"Does it really matter?" She snapped. "I'm not gonna tell you their goddamn life stories."

But then she squeezed her eyes shut and laid her forehead on her knees. She curled up a bit tighter then.

"Number F-" She grit her teeth. "It was Number Four."

9S' face lit up at that. "I know a soldier with personality number four, he's a scanner like me."

She turned to face him once more, head still resting on her knees. "A what..? Oh. Yeah. Probably better off that way, she sucked as a combat unit." But as she said the harsh words, the smallest of smiles tinged her lips. Maybe a fleeting memory she didn't feel like sharing.

"The only reason I'm still here right now," she continued, "is because of Number Four. Without her, I wouldn't have made it out of that hellhole."

"And Anemone?"

"She has her own shit to deal with." A2 grunted. "Listen, all you need to know is that everyone I cared about has been dead for a long time and it was everyone's fault but ours."

"You say that like it doesn't bother you any."

She gave him a frustrated leer. "What are you, a damn therapist?"

9S shrugged. "I'm just saying... do you really not care about all this?"

"Of course I care!" She abruptly shouted, her pent up friction finally exploding out of her. "It's the only thing I have left to care about, you idiot! Outside of this stupid shit I've got nothing!"

"I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't mean to what?! You didn't mean to upset me? You didn't mean to make me relive it all over again?" She clenched her fists somehow even tighter. "All this horrible shit that's happened to you and you STILL don't get it! There is nothing but misery in this stupid world and no amount of clasping hands and praying it goes away is gonna do anything!"

She flinched hard as his hand gingerly came to a rest on her shoulder. It was of course trembling, but the gesture was what got her attention.

"I do get it." He said, concern lining his features. A2 met his gaze for a mere second and then looked away again, still fuming. Why did his stupid eyes have to be the same color as hers?

"Then just fuck off like everyone else." A2 muttered, pulling her legs in until she sat in a near fetal position. "None of it matters anymore now that YoRHa is gone. Nothing."

He ignored her. "I know what it's like to feel like your memories are meaningless." And boy, wasn't that the truth. He likely knew it better than she did at this point.

She chuckled dryly. "Yeah, I'll bet. Funny thing is, they ARE meaningless. We're the idiots who give them meaning."

"Is there really anything wrong with that?" 9S asked, gently rubbing his thumb back and forth. Her posture hadn't relaxed any, but she didn't seem as if she were about to grab his arm and suplex him any time soon.

She put a hand over her upper stomach, where the nuclear fusion reactor that powered her entire being sat chugging away. "No. Without that I'd have died a long time ago."

"I didn't mean to upset you." 9S said in his calmest voice. "Honest."

"How kind of you." She replied, shaking her head slightly. He couldn't read her expression through the tangles of snow-white hair, but he could tell she was still grimacing.

"Can I stick around?" He asked in earnest. He'd gotten what he technically came for- the promise of her life story. He wanted to know who A2 really was, and now he was fully aware and had seen the brunt of it. If she wanted him to leave now, he would. Of course, he wouldn't be happy about it, but the choice was no longer in his hands as far as he minded.

A2 raised her head, chin once again taking its spot on her knees. The fire was simply embers now, charred sticks burning dark red among a circle of ashes.

"Well... Now you know too much, so if you fuck off, I'll have to kill you." She grumbled.

He exhaled through his nose. "Yeah. Funny."

"Wasn't a joke."

He smiled softly. "Believe me, I'm sure it wasn't."

She picked up her stick and started to poke at the fire pit aimlesly, watching the embers rise and twist in the light breeze. "I bet humans were pretty stupid anyway."

9S gingerly dropped his hand from her shoulder and scooted a few paces closer on his rear. He joined in watching her snub out the last little bits of flame.

He shrugged, leaning his head toward her idly. "They didn't have a master server containing every bit of knowledge of every aspect of the universe."

She raised her eyebrows, expression bored and plain. "Neither does YoRHa anymore."

9S squinted as an ember passed near his face. "Well, it's still up there, but I doubt the network is going to be connected for much longer."

"End of an era."

"Yup."

9S turned his head toward the sky again before continuing. "I wonder what's gonna happen now. I guess YoRHa does still exist, but what good are they without their control, y'know?"

"They're just soldiers like everyone else now." She was idly doodling in the ashes with her stick now, tracing lines to nowhere and doing meaningless circles.

"It is nice that everyone's on even ground. It's relieving, in a way."

Now it was A2's turn to say "Yup."

She looked up from her doodling to see that 9S was staring awkwardly at her. Obviously he hadn't gotten a good enough look and was trying to ogle while she was distracted by her art. Shameful of him, really.

A2 wanted to frown in comparison to the pleasant smirk he wore, or maybe hit him with the stick, but she did neither. Instead she met his gaze with a look she attempted to keep totally neutral in every way.

"Maybe now you can teach me to be right handed again." He said with that dopey idiot grin still on his face.

And boy, he must have been feeling brave to the point of that idiocy at that moment, as he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder again, this time with much more self-assurance. A2 suddenly sensed her cheeks getting warm- a sensation she hadn't felt in how long, she couldn't remember.

With her free hand, the one not gently twirling her paintbrush, she slowly and cautiously reached up and placed her palm atop his knuckles. They both turned their attention back to the dwindling fire then, sat in silence as they watched the last little embers of the past finally simmer and die.

For the first time in a very, very long time, A2 was fighting the urge to smile.