Shay didn't sleep well that night.

It was probably from the excitement of having another person there, finally!

(Okay, well, Marek kind of counted. He supposed he should say another human being.)

Not only that, but it was a maiden- like he'd only heard about in storybooks and fairytales that the computer would tell him- and... well, Shay wasn't going to lie to himself, she was pretty easy on the eyes.

Her head is quite large for her body, brain-Marek responded.

Oh hush. Not like you are the fairest of them all, brain-computer snipped back.

Okay, part of the reason he wasn't sleeping well was the fact that he was dealing with this fantastic internal monologue from what he'd heard called the angel and the devil on his shoulder.

(Monologue? Was that right when there were two of them?)

(And which one was the devil?)

Vella was fascinating, even though he knew little to nothing about her.

He'd spotted her staring out the window at the foggy forest, up at the sky at his snoozing 'father' (the Moon, while usually pretty vigilant about keeping an eye on Shay, seemed to be fairly tired sometimes, and would often doze off.)

(Not that Shay minded. It was nice to not feel under surveillance all the time.)

She seemed enchanted by everything, even startled at the teleporters. She'd even gotten their names.

Shay had never realized they had names.

It made him wonder... were there other beings on the ship with names? Marek, of course, was a given, but he'd never considered the idea that the teleporters could have names.

Did the computer have a name?

Of course, she always asked him to call her (it) Mom, and Dad for the moon. But he always brushed it off and tried his best to ignore it.

Of course you should ignore it, brain-Marek chided him. She's a computer. You cannot mix your own parents up for a computer.

But where are your parents? brain-computer argued in return.

Shay, whose eyes had started to drift shut, both from exhaustion and from the lull of his brain sniping at each other, was startled awake at that thought.

Where were his parents?

He'd... actually never really thought about it. After all, for as long as he could remember, he'd had the computer and her programs and robots and Marek on the side.

And, well... Marek was kind of like a father figure, in a way... but it was a very detached way.

Sure, Marek called him 'young cub' a lot, but... no, there was a distinct memory, one that he found with surprising ease when he took the time to cast his mind that bit further back. Of being called 'son' (sun?) by...

Don't be ridiculous, brain-Marek scoffed. No one's even here to call you son.

That's not true, brain-computer snapped back.

"Guys, would you shut up?" Shay whisper-snapped at them.

Sorry, sweetie.

Brain-Marek just grunted as Shay desperately tried to grab for that train of thought, only to find it had long departed.

And unlike the tiny kiddie train, he wasn't going to be able to get it back that easily.


"Wow. You look terrible."

Vella clapped her hands over her mouth a second later, but Shay didn't hold it against her- he probably did look sleep-deprived.

He'd stayed up later than usual to try to chase the thought back down, but of course it never came back and he just ended up being exhausted when the computer arrived (and gasped, horrified at the bags under his eyes and trying to baby him with the shower until he hastily escaped, his face practically gleaming from the moisturizing routine the computer had just tried to force onto him.)

(Though, he had to admit, his face did feel very smooth.)

"Yeah. I kinda do." He yawned, scrubbing an eye. "You look like you slept alright, though..."

His eyes trailed- the tattered bottom of her dress hung to her upper thighs, but one particularly ragged, stubborn bit reached her knees.

How sloppy, brain-Marek sniped.

Shut up, brain-computer scolded back.

"Um... do you need a change of clothes?"

Vella smoothed at the tattered edges, as if only just realizing how ragged they were. "Uh, I'm good. Thanks, though."

Shay nodded- oddly, the ragged hem suited her. Maybe she thought the same and just wanted to keep the dress.

"Uh... what do you want for breakfast?" he asked, more out of courtesy than anything else. Part of him half-expected the computer to offer Vella the three cereal boxes, but she was being oddly quiet this morning.

It, brain-Marek corrected him.

Those aren't my pronouns, brain-computer snipped back.

Vella scratched her cheek, twisting her lips to the side as she considered.

"Um... do you want cupcakes?"

Shay blinked.

"Cupcakes?"

"Yeah. If you have the ingredients here, I can make some cupcakes."

The computer's face flickered in the window. "Ooh, that sounds tasty," she said, almost weirdly chirpily. "But that might be too much sugar for Shay..."

"I'll forgo the ice cream mission today, if that would help," Shay muttered, scrubbing his eyelids. God, his eyes were heavy. And he never really liked the ice-cream mission anyway.

That's not true, brain-computer argued, you used to love it.

The first one or two times, not the six thousand incidents after it, brain-Marek groaned.

"Oh, well, in that case... I think we should have some flour and things in a cupboard somewhere," the computer mused, looking around a little as if trying to locate the phantom cupboard and pulling Shay's attention away from the confusing back-and-forth his brain was currently having.

Shay found his voice a moment later. "Uh... I have nothing against cupcakes, but first, what are cupcakes?"

Vella half-froze, one foot lifted off the carpet to make her way to the hypothetical cupboard with the hypothetical ingredients.

After a moment, she turned to face him. "You don't know what cupcakes are?" she asked, big brown eyes blinking twice.

Shay shrugged, his face oddly warm- he felt almost embarrassed. "Um... no? I've never had them."

She thinks you're an idiot, brain-Marek hissed. What idiot hasn't had cupcakes?

You don't know what they are either. We're part of Shay's subconscious, silly, brain-computer responded.

A brief pause.

Shut up.

"Have you ever had a cake?" Vella asked, though he could tell it wasn't disbelief or dismay or even disappointment that she was asking- more like she was grasping for something to better explain the concept of a cupcake to him.

Shay shook his head; before pausing and shrugging a bit. "I mean... I've had cake-flavored nutritional paste."

"It's sugar-free, too!" said the computer, brightly.

Vella scratched her chin slightly, considering that. "Well... the flavor's about the same, then, just... not the shape... or... the sugar-free part, unless you specifically make one... or... I don't know. Let's try making cupcakes," she said, after a couple more seconds of struggling with the explanation.

"Uh... sure," Shay replied, after a long moment of considering. After all, it was much better than being given the same three cereals he'd had since he was 9, and the computer was being weirdly pliable about the suggestion.

Vella smiled.

He'd seen her smile a couple times the day before, pleasantly enough but mostly polite. Like it was a courtesy for her to nod and smile and pretend she understood what on earth was happening.

But something about her small, genuine little smile was warm, like freshly baked bread pulled out of an oven.

(a vague memory of watching the oven, eyes wide, and the scent of warm bread, and reaching up to someone as bright as the sun trying to get at it)

The left corner of Vella's mouth crooked up a bit higher than the other half, and her nose would give a slight wrinkle when she smiled.

Pretty, brain-computer stated.

Pretty, brain-Marek grudgingly agreed.

"Great! Let me go look for those ingredients, and then we can get started. Though I don't think we can do icing," and Vella was already searching the small kitchen, "or at least not the red icing that Rocky likes so much..."

Shay decided to wait until she was less focused to try to ask her who Rocky was or what icing was.