Heavy In Your Arms by Florence + the Machine

By the time I had finished washing all of the chiral tar and blood from my hair, Fragile had cleaned up the tar and blood from the room. She even restocked the cryptobiotes. I put on another set of clean clothes, laying down on the bed. Fragile laid down next to me, putting her arm on me. "I'll be here the whole night. Just try to sleep."

I nodded, closing my eyes. With Fragile there, I fell asleep easily.

In the morning, Fragile was still there, asleep. I got up, careful not to disturb her, and put on some shoes and a jacket. I needed a walk outside. It was still early, the air was heavy with frost. But it wasn't tainted by Timefall. I inhaled deeply. It smelled clean, fresh. I started walking down the path on the hill until I came to the river. I found a decently comfortable looking rock and sat down, watching the water as it ran. The tension in my shoulders began to relax. I didn't have to work as hard to keep other people out if they weren't around. There was only one person I could still feel. Sam. He was walking closer.

I turned to see him at the top of the hill. He hadn't noticed that I had seen him yet. He was trying to navigate the rocky path without falling flat on his face. "Early riser?" I asked once he was on safe ground. I dipped my boot into the water.

"Usually," he admitted. I moved over on the rock so he could sit beside me. He hesitated before sitting, careful not to touch me.

"You don't have to be afraid to touch me," I said softly. "I'm sorry I was so rough yesterday. I couldn't control it."

"Oh, no, it's not," he sighed but didn't relax. "It's not you, it's me. I don't...like...touching people." I looked at him curiously. "I have aphenphosmphobia."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said quietly. He shook his head, relaxing slightly.

"They're taking Lou to fix him. They said he's veered too far into the realm of the living because he bonded with me."

"That's ridiculous," I scoffed.

"Apparently it makes him function less. I still need him."

"It's still ridiculous. That seems like a design flaw to even allow that to destroy the integrity of the product."

"You can fill out a complaint form with Bridges inside," he said, pointing up at the facility, his eyes dancing with humor. I stared before laughing, nearly falling into the river.

"Sam Porter Bridges. Was that humor?"

He grinned, fully relaxing and leaning back to look up at the sky. We sat there in silence a bit longer before deciding to go back in when the sun broke through the mist. I grabbed some breakfast for Fragile and I and returned to my room while Sam began looking through his orders. Fragile was just getting out of the shower when I returned. She inhaled, smelling the warm food as soon as I entered.

"You're a wonderful human," she smiled. We sat on the bed, eating, and casually chatting to catch up about life since we had seen each other last. We had essentially been doing the same things. Work, work, and more work. After we were done, she offered to take the plates back to the cafeteria on her way out. I hugged her goodbye before she left. As I was checking my emails, a knock at the door startled me.

"Come in," I said, skimming the subjects to see if there was anything urgent needing my attention. There was one from Die-Hardman. I opened it without turning to see who was coming in the room.

"I see Die-Hardman didn't bother to ask," Sam said. I frowned as I turned to him.

"Guess I'll be your BB until Lou's feeling better."

"I'm sure you can talk your way out of it."

"No, Higgs won't come up in the mountains. He's a baby about the cold. Besides, you can't see BTs and I can." He hesitated. "I'm fine. It'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Sam, I'm never sure about anything anymore. I just do them and see what happens."

He looked like he couldn't work out if I was joking or serious.

"I'm serious."

"Well, I guess that works out for me then."

"I guess so. Just give me a few minutes to get ready. I'll meet you upstairs."

He nodded before leaving me alone in the room. I still felt uneasy being alone in here. I shook the thought from my head, heading across the room to the protective suit hanging behind some glass. I put it on, followed by my boots, and put some hair ties around my wrist in case I needed to put my hair up.

When I came up the platform elevator, I found Sam waiting by the delivery terminal. He looked like he was carrying entirely too much.

"Do you want help?"

"No," he grunted. "I'm fine."

I stared at him for a few seconds, allowing him to go by me. Once I was sure he was too focused on trying to not fall down the ramp out of the facility, I took one of the packages from him and put it on my back. He turned around to protest.

"I'll just keep stealing it back if you take it back," I informed him stubbornly. He grunted, looking disgruntled, and shifted his weight before continuing up the hill. That's what I thought.

"So where are we going?"

"The Roboticist," Sam replied, sounding less strained than I would have thought. I pulled up the map on my cufflink and let out a low whistle.

"She's all the way out there, huh?"

Sam didn't reply but continued pressing forward. We made pretty decent progress before some ominous looking clouds started to roll in. Our hoods automatically deployed as it began to snow. We exchanged glances before continuing forward. Before we got very far, our batteries went offline, taking several seconds to come back. Sam pushed ahead before they came back before stopping. I continued in front of him, dropping to a crouch and scanning the horizon. It was difficult to see in the snow but it looked clear.

And then I saw them. A line of BTs around some buildings that were part of a voidout at some point in time. I held up my hand for Sam to stop. He flicked his cufflink open, readying the chiral end to cut some cords if need be. I held up five fingers, looking at him to make sure he was paying attention. He was. I flicked my cufflink open, readying the chiral end. Slowly I began to creep forward, motioning for Sam to stay behind me. When we were close enough, I pointed to him and then pointed forward before covering my mouth and nose to hold my breath. He nodded, doing the same and creeping forward while I targeted the BT beside the one he was going for. In unison, we slashed through the air with the chiral coated cufflink end. The BTs we released let out a shriek, dissolving as they released into the air.

Sam grabbed the chiral crystals that appeared as I kept watch. None of the other BTs were moving. So they're stationary, not the sentient kind. Good. We continued the process until we found a timefall shelter near the outskirts that we took refuge in. It deployed some container repair spray, our hoods retracting. I took the time to stretch, trying to ease the adrenaline tension in my muscles. Sam took the time to inspect the sky while I did so.

"Looks like it'll clear up soon."

"There were a lot of them. More than I've seen in a while."

"Die-Hardman said that it'll be worse the further west I go."

"It's hard to imagine anything can be worse than it already is."

"Always manages to be worse." I said nothing, watching as the snow finally stopped and the sun began to peak through the clouds. "C'mon, let's get it done."

I nodded, following Sam as he began scaling up some rocks nearby. Thankfully we didn't run into any other BTs or fall down the mountain.

"Should be just up ahead," Sam pointed. I nodded, a bit out of breath. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just not used to this," I said, gesturing vaguely everywhere. He chuckled.

"I've walked up worse." Without waiting for a reply, he began to scale up some more rocks, shooting me a grin as he did so.

"You little fucker," I muttered under my breath, following the path he had taken. Until I got up to the last part. I was too short to reach where had had climbed up onto flat ground. I looked around, trying to figure out where I could climb up. There wasn't really a good spot for me to keep my footing and pull myself up...and going back wasn't an option. I'll just have to try and jump. I took a deep breath, held it, and pushed up off of the rocks beneath my feed. I didn't make it.

Before I fell, Sam's hand grabbed my arm. I grabbed his other hand as he pulled me to my feet. He immediately let go once I was safe.

"You okay?" he asked, eyeing me without making eye contact.

"Yeah, thanks to you," I nodded, swallowing hard and looking behind me at the mountain I almost fell down. My voice didn't hide the adrenaline and fear causing a slight shake in my hands.

"Well, we're here." He took the cargo I was carrying, holding it in his hand. "There's a hot spring around the corner over there. Why don't you go rest in it while I take care of this?"

"That's not a bad idea." I trudged through the snow, making my way to the hot spring nearby. I set my cargo carrier on the ground, placing my clothes on top, and crawled into the hot water before me.

"Oh, it's perfect," I cooed, running my hands through the hot spring before me and turning to face Higgs with a grin on my face. There was a gentle smile on his face.

"I thought you'd like it," he replied, closing the gap between us and nuzzling my neck.

"How did you find it?" I asked, putting my head on his chest.

"I know you like them, so I asked around until someone's directions actually panned out."

I chuckled, stepping away and unzipping my suit. Higgs followed my lead, allowing me to pull him into the hot spring with me. A rare moment alone to relax without needing to worry about anything.

I shook that memory away, ignoring the twinge of pain it caused in my chest, staring at the steaming, still water before me. Higgs hadn't always been the way that he is. Unstable, yes, but not...cruel. I don't know what happened to change him into the way that he is now. The more powerful he became, the more people with DOOMS he met, the more harsh his words and actions became. Whether or not he ever loved me is something I still haven't figured out. I shivered. It's all hard to think about.

Sam cleared his throat behind me. I turned to find him covering his eyes. What a gentleman.

"You can uncover your eyes, Sam. I'm covered," I assured him.

He hesitated before lowering his hand, still avoiding looking at me. I turned around, splashing water up onto my neck.

"Well, are you getting in? It's just a hot spring and clearly you're one of the last gentlemen alive." I shot a teasing smile over my shoulder, which made him relax. I closed my eyes, giving him a sense of privacy. He settled into the hotspring on the side furthest from me.

"This is nice," he admitted.

"Isn't it? The mountains are beautiful when we aren't climbing them." He followed my gaze. Several minutes of silence passed before he broke it with a sigh.

"Lou would love this."

"The BBs can use hot springs? Don't they have to stay in their case?"

"Well yeah, but I always bring Lou in with me."

"That's sweet."