Peeking open from a new sound entering the morning's vacuum of silence, discerning the slow plod of bare feet on carpet, Sam's profile entered her sight in a heading toward the living room window.

"Morning."

"Mm."

Squinting from his barely audible mumble, unfurling from a meditative posture, Quorra's lips parted to speak regarding his much-delayed rise from bed, only to hesitate. Noticing the approach of Marvin, a reliably spirit-raising member of the household, the canine ambled near and sat beside Sam, nudging his leg and wiggling his stubby rear appendage in greeting.

"Hey buddy."

Quorra learned early on that Sam would become inexplicably withdrawn on certain days, his eyes revealing grief that his voice was reluctant to convey. She knew why, (mostly) and had seen much of it firsthand, having spent much of the intervening cycles - years - beside the man who had unintentionally left Sam behind in his childhood. Both of them had then bore witness to the creator's self-destructive end, to consume CLU and to ensure their departure at the cost of his existence. By that point, the whole outside world had already decided Kevin Flynn was gone. Now, both his progeny and prodigy knew irrefutably that he was truly gone.

Finally rising to her feet in a forward lean, socks audibly dragging through the floor fibers to be heard, Quorra cautiously orbited towards Sam's shadowed profile. Hands raising, palms spreading onto the small of his back and pressing into the wrinkles of his shirt, her digits preened the folds as they progressed around his sides. Linking together in front of his stomach, she then pressed fully into his backside, molding her bodily geography into his. Rising onto her toes, setting her chin on his shoulder in a well-practiced greeting, she lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Hey."

"Hi."

Looking on to the same view through the window that kept his gaze, she eyed the lower clouds - Fog - that had descended upon the horizon, obscuring a once-visible mountain looming behind the cityscape.

"Doing okay?"

It didn't matter that Sam was physically taller than her. She awaited his inevitable response, perched on her feet, for as long as it took.

"Could be better."

Considering, and then disposing of a number of sympathetic messages to say, she resigned to the simplest and truest statements her heart could offer.

"I'm here for you... If you need it."

"I know."

"I love you."

Leaning back into her, feeling her arms tighten more, his chest deflated through his nose, surrendering to her embrace.

"Love you too."

Nuzzling Sam's neck with a concealed flutter, she lowered flat and held him for an increasingly longer duration, her brow resting in the valley between his shoulder blades. Whenever he seemed weakened, with or without any physical effort, she shored him up with her own abundant strength and soothing rapport. It often reminded her of when she was found by the creator, on the brink of her own end. Back then, Kevin Flynn supported her and tended to her when she was damaged or distraught, talking to her regardless of coherence or condition. Now, she could do the same for Sam, as often as he ever needed.

Strength of form, and strength of mind.

Fists clenched, absent of energy-powered batons and discs in her grasp, Quorra lurched forward and delivered several sequential hits into the suspended punching bag in the corner of the living room. Halting it's returning sway with her forearm, squeezing fingerless gloves protecting her knuckles, she glared at the cylindrical target that had recently returned from an unseen storage unit.

Humans are fighters, and I am too. All those cycles of practice... And here we are.

Striking the heavy bag in another volley of moves, prancing back and kicking it with a rise of her knee, she remained balanced on her other foot, garnering Sam's returning attention in a twist of his stool seat by the kitchen. Settling back onto both legs, she leaned aside, smiling with interest from his fully attuned observance.

"Kicking ass, miss warrior?"

Brow quirking from the statement, she brought her gloved fingers together in intersection.

"Getting back into old routines."

"I can tell."

"Some ongoing adjustment, but going well."

"You've sparred with other people, right? Not just programs."

Her chin rose from his question, distinctly recollecting a series of digital brawls of increasing danger.

"I have."

Sinking down onto his feet with a plop, pulling his shirt up and off and tossing it aside onto the couch, the fit and sturdy-framed male ambled near with a growing smile.

"Think you can take me?"

Blinking, and then turning her head with narrowing eyes as he brought his arms up into view, held ready in front of his pectoral muscle, her bosom thrummed in escalation as she stepped aside to open carpet, finding him matching her movement equally. Sizing up her boyfriend as a strong and moderately able opponent, she aligned into a rigid and ready stance even as he kept moving in a bouncy prance on alternating feet. Tensing as he lurched nearer in a test, her fiercely blue irides widened, and in an instant, she blocked an actual throw in a concise deflection, eliciting a distinct exhale from Sam. Attempting another, with her dodging just as easily, her nose flared with excitement, gauging the speed of his inbound arms with each consecutive cancellation. Then with one step back, luring him closer, she clutched hold of his arriving arm and continued his momentum, coiling lower in a twist and heaving him up and over her back.

"Whoa-kay!"

Rolling his mass into a sprawl onto the carpet and rattling the contents of the coffee table near from his landing, Quorra relinquished his limb and pounced onto him in a turn, pinning him beneath folded arms and her thoroughly seated rear. Sinking lower and parking just above his nose, her dark locks threatened to tickle his startled albeit amused expression.

"Does that answer your question?"

"G-Guess so."

Eying his features, smiling regardless of his swift and thorough disabling, his shirtless abdomen heaving in breath beneath herself, she sank onto his seemingly awaiting lips. Feeling labored breath puff back and forth from their noses, settling into a comfortable alignment amid heavy and sweat-laden kissing, her braced arms unraveled, hands clasping around the breadth of his shoulders instead. Finding Sam's fingers drifting along her bare back, prying at the bottom hem of her sports bra in the midst of a tongue-touching battle for supremacy, Quorra then paused as a very actively intaking nose began sniffing at her ear through her hair. Prying free of their moist collision, a glance aside revealed the black-and-white presence of a curious Marvin as he began licking Sam's bare shoulder, and she grinned as Sam's chest bounced beneath hers in laughter.

"Marv, buddy, come on."

"You must taste good."

"Do I?"

Flitting back to the handsome and hot-breathed male beneath, Quorra nudged his nose, her brow settling to rest on his in a flattening, arching in a rearward stretch of legs as he squeezed her bottom with both hands.

"You dooo."

Perched together in side by side leans on a concrete wall bordering their narrow upper-story patio, audience to a heavy and humid rainfall descending upon their condominium and other residential structures adjacent, Quorra looked on through draining streams and breeze-blown curtains of rainwater to flashes of discharges - Lightning - errantly reaching across the black void. Wearing Sam's previously discarded shirt and not much else, she glanced aside to her shirtless partner in question, first to his messy hair, and then to the puff of smoke seeping from his lips. Finding him offering the small object producing the fragrant vapor, she gingerly brought the electronic vaporizer to her lips, pulling a controlled inhale through the curious and crackling object.

This is one of those nights.

Releasing the cool and possibly melon-flavored cloud into the breeze beyond, she rolled the tube in her fingers.

If we had more of those lights like we do in the nook...

Taking another battery-powered drag, savoring the cool taste lingering on her palate, she tingled from a louder rumble of thunder booming through the wet noise.

...It'd look just like it.

Squinting toward Sam, offering him the vaporizer back, he plucked it from her opening palm, only to keep hold of it in his coiling grasp.

"Sam."

"Sup."

"Did you used to do martial arts?"

"No."

"Oh. Earlier you looked like you were ready to fight, so I assumed."

"Well, okay. A while ago I used to do fights, but nothing like you've been doing."

"Boxing?"

"Sort of. Not in classes like you've done."

Eying the male as he took a lengthy drag of the fruity nicotine cartridge, wisps of vapor issued from his nostrils like that of a dragon.

"So... Street fighting, maybe?"

Squinting into the moisture-laden gloom beyond, he adjusted his posture in the intervening roar of downpour.

"Yeah, that. Like I said... Was a while ago."

"But you still know how to fight because of it."

Peeping towards Quorra, inspecting her dimly lit and teasingly fit flank, punctuated by a barely-covered rump, he twisted in a realignment of his lean, mostly to admire the scenery.

"Helped keep me from getting derezzed a few times. Got me in more trouble other times."

Landing her chin onto a propped forearm, Quorra alternated between Sam's lightning-lit silhouette and the pixelated glow of streetlamps further below.

"Hard to believe someone as nice and quiet as you would go out and fight people."

"It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for."

Listening to a seep of a sigh, amid several other passive sounds elicited by computer usage, Quorra turned over her shoulder, attention severed from the novel in her lap. Eying a still-and-seated Sam, in the same chair and posture for over an hour now in the midst of another studious session of browsing through on-screen imagery, Quorra finally closed the book after placing a bookmark, rolling over on the bean bag and slumping onto her bosom, arms draping over the edge. Brow quirking from his still-laser-focused attention, she then shoved herself upright, crawling up and off the squishy seat to her feet. Meandering behind his chair, placing the novel flat onto an open bookshelf opposite, she then discreetly observed the screen, discerning various images of automobiles listed on a continuously scrolling page.

Cars...?

Padding closer, appearing by his shoulder and entering his peripheral view, he flitted toward her arrival and her ever-curious ocean-colored irides.

"Shopping?"

"Looking for a car. Used."

Thought so. "Why used?"

"Saves money."

"Oh. Why a car?"

Tilting back in the chair, setting his phone aside after sending a message, Sam popped several knuckles in alternating bends.

"Riding a motorcycle in snow is not great. I usually try to avoid going anywhere when it does."

"Snow? Here?"

"In about two months, yes."

Blinking with genuine surprise, the dark-haired young woman produced a marvelously youthful smile.

"I can't wait to see that."

"You will. It snows a lot here. But by then we'll be ready."

"Because you're getting a car."

"Yup."

"Okay."

Rising upright again, she plopped her palm into his hair, capturing tufts between her digits.

"If you avoid snow... What did you do during the previous instance?"

Humming from the prompt and the pleasant drags of her fingertips along his scalp, Sam crossed his legs beneath the desk in relaxation.

"I rented cars."

"Rented?"

"Paying, for temporary usage."

"You can do that with a car?"

"Or truck, or whatever. Lots to choose from these days."

Seeing a gleam in her eye with a peek, his brow quirked.

"...They have to return undamaged."

"I don't damage things."

"...And refueled."

"I can do that... If you pay for it."

Finding her unable to resist a cheeky grin afterward, a chuckle arose from her sweetly voiced offer.

"If I'm buying, I'm riding shotgun, speed racer."

"When can I open my eyes?"

"In just a moment."

Leading Quorra along by her hand through the concrete garage beneath their home, Sam tapped a button on a key fob in his pocket, and the distinctively friendly chime of unlocking echoed through the stark and chilly space.

"Okay. Now you can."

Allowing light back into her receptors, Quorra was then greeted by the silvery-grey contours and curves of a sedan, and she looked back and forth at her boyfriend and the vehicle in front of them, seemingly awaiting his verification.

"Made up my mind."

"Had a feeling." Mostly because you kept looking at it online.

"Check it out."

Relinquishing hand-holds, she began into the first of several orbits around the parked car, wide eyes taking in the detail of the four-wheeled vehicle that was apparently now in their possession.

"Legacy... Spec, B."

"Like it?"

"Do you?"

"Wouldn't have bought it if I didn't."

Smiling from his remark, she pried one of the rear doors open, peeking into the interior, nose wrinkling from a waft of cleaned seat fabric. Peeking back over the door, she rested her chin atop the window pane.

"Have you driven it?"

"Drove it here."

"How is it?"

"Fun. Gets up and goes pretty quick."

Seeing a returning gleam illuminate her features, Sam began around the front end, pulling open the driver-side door.

"Can we go somewhere in it?"

"I was hoping you'd ask."

"Is that a yes?"

"Hop in the front."

Whirling around the door and shoving it closed, she sidled into the front beside a now-seated Sam, looking all around the dimming interior.

"You know what... Are you hungry?"

Blinking amid her bloom of excitement, Quorra's vision narrowed.

"I could be hungry."

"I am. Chinese sound good?"

"Ooh. Yes."

"Okay. Dine-in or takeout?"

"Can we eat there?"

"Yup."

Twisting a key into the ignition, the car shuddered to life in a healthy rumble and calmed to a steady hum, and warm air crept into the cabin space from forward vents. Mimicking his draw of an available seatbelt after a slight delay, her vision followed his hand's movement to the central knob, pulling it down to the left. With a spooling of the engine, the car crept forward into an immediate turn, and a cessation of noise ensued as the knob was pushed forward. With an idling coast through a parking lot, and a turn onto a public street, the motions were repeated albeit with more haste, and the car steadily gained speed amid their forward heading.

"Its different without wind in your face."

"Until you open the windows."

Inspecting the transparent surface beside, her attention returned to his jostling arm between after the car lurched in a distinct and abrupt shudder, fascinated regardless by the sight of Sam actively piloting something much larger than his motorcycle.

"Still getting the shifting down."

"Isn't it similar to your Ducati?"

"Similar in having a clutch, maybe. Car transmissions are way more involved than a motorcycle."

Feeling herself sink back into the seat fabric from lateral forces of acceleration, Quorra leaned closer over the console, eying the gauge cluster behind the steering wheel.

"Feels fast!"

"It is."

Sipping from a glass of water between forkfuls of crispy and well-sauced chicken, Sam kept the pool of iced liquid against his upper lip, smiling from the sight of a partition of sauteed onion speared on the chopstick sitting idle in Quorra's hand. Seeing her eyes devouring lines of printed text on the sedan's user manual, slender fingers turning pages with precise passes, he glanced aside to the front of the vehicle in question, parked just outside of the restaurant window.

"There's so many components."

Swallowing the arctic wash warming in his cheeks, his attention returned to his girlfriend across, seeing her polar-blue irides focused on him as she chewed on the now-absent vegetable.

"Lots of pieces come together to make up our cars."

"I'm glad they tell you how to service everything... I'd be lost otherwise."

"Should pop the hood."

"The front cover?"

"Yup. Engine bay."

"Okay."

"Best way to get properly acquainted is to inspect it... Eyes and hands."

Resting her chin on her uprighted arm, she squinted at the nearer headlight, reminiscent of a large narrow eye.

"I will do that."

Imagining Quorra bent over the front fender, with grime on her arms and a socket wrench in hand, a grunt of amusement coincided with a perk of interest on his brow.

"I think you should... Maybe turn a wrench or two."

"There's service intervals listed in here."

"Well if you're up for D-I-Y, oil changes are doable at home. Rotate the tires here and there... Stuff like that."

"Says it should be taken to the dealer's ship, for servicing."

Spearing and chomping another mouthful of dinner, Sam patiently nodded.

"For major work... Or if you're not sure or don't have the tools or time."

"You have tools, and I have time."

"There you go."

"I'm not sure, though."

"Welp, poke around a little. Knowing you, you'll have things figured out pretty soon."

Beaming from his casual admittance of her quick learning, Quorra relinquished her digits from the booklet, bringing them to the chaos of the Asian entree strewn across her plate.

"Maybe."

"No maybe. Probably."

Smiling from his playful insistence, attempting to pluck a noodle-laden chunk of beef from a puddle of sauce, a breath puffed from her nose amid the failing effort.

Might understand the car before I understand why people eat with these sticks...

Leaning back into the passenger seat from a lateral pull of acceleration, Sam diligently observed the movement of the shifting knob in Quorra's grasp, listening to the fading hum of lowering RPMs.

"Soo, you don't have to move it that quickly."

"I don't want it to stall."

"That's not what causes that. You can shift quick, but..."

"But, what?"

Looking ahead as the car drew to another halt on the vacant top of a parking garage, Sam hummed with amusement, trying not to laugh as the sedan shuddered and shut off entirely.

"Damn!"

"Clutch pedal needs to be used with stopping too... Its tricky."

Grinning as Quorra's nose wrinkled, she turned the key in the ignition, only to frown when the car remained silent.

"...Still in gear."

"You can't turn it on?"

"Not like that. We want the car to be stopped when the engine starts."

Pulling the ratcheting parking brake lever back, Quorra then nudged the shift lever forward to Park, and with a resumption of ignition twisting, sighed as the car came back to life.

"Okay."

Grasping the leather-lined knob in her palm, she then paused as Sam's hand curled around her knuckles in a gentle clasp. Flitting toward the ever-patient male seated beside, the sunrise smile she adored returned to his cheek and lips.

"You're doing great."

"Thank you... I just feel like it shouldn't be this challenging."

"Well, this is a system you have to practice with a lot."

"Clearly."

"I had to learn what you're doing, years ago."

"It looks so natural when you drive."

"That's what experience looks like. I'm not perfect at it... Nobody really is. You can be good with controlling one car, and then when you get in another... Whole different animal."

Peeking toward the illuminated gauge cluster beyond the steering wheel, Quorra opened her fingers, allowing his between.

"I'll get it."

"Yep. Then you'll have to get used to driving among a million other cars in traffic."

"Oh."

"In due time."

Turning into a parking spot and illuminating the concrete behind with a crimson glow of brake lights, Quorra exhaled discreetly as the sedan ceased rolling, its engine still purring from the highs and lows of a commute for foodstuffs. Having delivered Sam and herself home from another short-distance journey across a highly unpredictable system, she reached for the ignition with a delay arising from Sam's swift exit through the door beside. Twisting the keys down and then out, silencing the vehicle, her opposite digits pried up a narrow sprung lever on the floor, and the trunk swung upon in short order just beyond the rear windshield. Looking down at the shifting knob that had previously defied her intended inputs weeks prior, her attention then flitted aside when the trunk lid dropped shut in a muffled slam, seeing Sam's silhouette appear at the window beside.

Prying open the door and being greeted with a wash of cool evening air, turning and then settling her crossing arms onto her knees, she tilted her head from Sam's quirked brow and bag-laden arms.

"Ahm, you coming inside too?"

"I am."

"Just checking."

"Can I drive you to work? Tomorrow? Encom?"

Bags lowering, Sam adjusted his stature, his expression clearly illustrating such a consideration.

"Probably."

"I drove fine earlier. I think."

"You did. You've been doing better each time."

"Sooo... Can I try a longer drive? Downtown?"

Entranced by the innocent query, and partly from her still-lengthening hair teasingly parting around her eye, the male crossed his arms, bags shuffling together from the motion.

"I mean... You can, as long as nothing occurs."

"Okay."

"No matter what, you still need a license though. In case something does happen."

"Something."

Nodding from her echo, her hair tossed as she eyed him more intently, seeking clarification.

"Helps avoid issues with the law. Considering how fast both of us like to go on wheels... Can't have you be pulled over and caught without one... Nothing but bad news after that."

Smiling guiltily from the implications of so-easily-done speeding, she rose to her feet and pulled the driver's door shut, only to brush up closer to Sam, offloading one arm of groceries onto her own limb with precise and personal shuffles along his sturdy and long-sleeved forearm.

"Thank yoouuu..."

"Who says I'll get pulled over?"

"Or rear-end someone."

"Or that. No crashes."

"Well, we can try our best, but roads are a crazy open forum. Total chaos."

"I've seen. Just got to pay attention everywhere."

"Which you do, which is why I'm willing to have you drive me. One way, for starters."

"Aw. If I do fine on the way there, I want to drive back too."

"We'll see."

Locking the sedan with several taps on the key remote, both Quorra and Sam proceeded toward the structure's elevator entrance distant.

"Doing some things in repetition invites problems... Authorities notice things and sooner or later, they'll getcha."

"Clearly you're implying to not get caught."

"That. Once you're licensed, maybe insured, then we're better off."

"All these steps... Just to drive around."

Nudging closer with his shoulder, playfully bumping into his girlfriend mid-stride, Sam cheekily eyed her outward sway from a faux recoil.

"Those steps cover our butts."

Seeing her eyes flit down to the muscle region mentioned, coincidentally mirroring what Sam was already inspecting, Quorra then turned her pathing closer and bumped him back with a distinct collision of her hip, finding her boyfriend's frame hardly derailed from his plod.

"Our butts are covered."

"Most of the time."

Drawing to a halt together, Sam nudged the Up button on the elevator control with the outward bulge of a grocery bag, and after the resultant pause and changing of a digital number from seventeen to eighteen, a sigh seeped from his lungs, eliciting an unseen grin from the young woman beside.

"Gonna be here a little bit."

Leaning closer and landing her cheekbone against his jacketed shoulder, her eyelids lowered with elation regardless.

"That's fine."

Stirring from the waterfall of hair on his shoulder and the bloom of warmth and her pleasant scent, Sam turned and lowered his nose into her scalp beside, eyes closing with a rise of heartbeat as the elevator continued to rise higher in floor numerals.

Yes. I can wait for a lot... When you're here and near.

Quorra later learned firsthand why Sam chided the slowness of bureaucratic institutions, and that the official rules of the road were far more convoluted than he had explained. She also learned why the department offered more than one attempt to pass The Test.

Receiving the little plastic card a short time later, she smiled each time she read the name printed onto it, with Flynn seated just to the right of her own grid-given moniker.

Encom Tower; Monday, 8:23p.m.

Swiping feather-light fingertips across the large screen of a tablet device, legs folded onto the black fabric of a couch, and a heavy coat enveloping nearly all of her frontal half, Quorra sat quietly in an upper-story lounge. Browsing idly through a downloaded manual for Sam's Ducati, listening distractedly to the echo of various voices speaking in turn down a hallway further, her inputs on the tablet slowed to a near-halt each time Sam's distinct inflections wandered down the dark passage.

Shareholders... And as a Flynn, Sam is the biggest, and best.

Tapping on an icon depicting a cloud, an application booted and immediately localized, depicting a forecast of weather to come. Finding animated snowflakes falling behind the various numbers listed beneath each day of the week, Quorra squinted, heart thrumming at the '90%' emblazoned beneath Tuesday.

Ninety percent, of snow, tomorrow?

Vision flitting up in a start from a passionate splutter of speech, distinctly from her boyfriend's throat and heart, Quorra then glanced toward the dark windows beyond her opposite shoulder, with countless city lights illuminating the otherwise dark lounge decor with surface reflections.

Down to thirty-four degrees maximum...!

Lips pursing, arms shifting closer and pushing the unzipped halves of the coat together in a cozy shuffle, her heart beat amid the fuzzy warmth in her bosom and her cheeks.

Not going anywhere... Just going to, um, let it snow.

Flynn Residence; Tuesday, 9:47a.m.

This is definitely snow.

Repeating the bundled seating of the night before, buried in the folds of a large blanket instead of Sam's winter coat, Quorra tucked a mug of tea against her parting lip, savoring the distinct herbal flavoring on her palate. Lowering the mug toward the arm of the couch, with the cup passing across a thoroughly zonked Marvin in her lap, she swallowed, looking on at the ensuing storm of white descending upon the urban landscape beyond, veiling it in a fog of mystery and bright haze. Recalling her singular barefoot steps onto the snow-laden deck half an hour earlier, toes curling from the pink-coloring sensation pricking her skin, her head reclined back onto the cushion behind.

Definitely cold too.

Rolling aside from Sam's re-entry into the living room, continuing a fervent pacing around the apartment's carpeting, tracing what was surmised to be an invisible racecourse, she observed his motions ensuing amid a phone call.

"...Welp, I'm not making it in, and frankly, the others shouldn't bother. Already have three inches. What? Nah. Reschedule, and... Yup. I'll pick a day when the roads are plowed. Alright. Seeya."

Mouth curling with amusement from one fragmented side of a phone conversation, she observed his taps on his smartphone as he neared from the shadowed hallway. Glancing up, noticing Quorra's patient observation of all that comprised him, his pause faltered into a smile from the bundled babe just beyond, easily luring him closer.

"Now that that's done... Hi."

Planting his palms around her settled locks of hair and kissing her forehead with a sink, he leaned aside and took hold of her free hand peeking free from the blanket's depths.

"What's the news?"

"Cancelled today's meeting. Not going anywhere today considering the weather."

"Oh."

"They'll survive, and we will because we're not driving in this mess."

"Is the snow that bad?"

"Cranks the road chaos up to eleven."

"The Legacy would be fine, right? All-wheel-drive?"

"Maybe."

"It's rated for snow conditions."

"Yeah, well, snow or not..."

Following Sam's drawl and his meander around the furniture, Marvin's head rose from his slumber as the couch sank from Sam's descent.

"...I'm not about to be stuck out there, when I could be here."

Working his way underneath her blanket with several scoots, snuggling closer together and meeting her own bodily adjustments as they molded together into a comfortable combination, he then set his smartphone onto Marvin's black belly fur, its screen tilted up toward Quorra.

"Music?"

"I might."

"Your turn, DJ."

Smiling, an elated breath issued from her nose as his forearm wound around her shirt, tucking gingerly beneath her bosom and tightening securely, their eyes drawn together to the white bloom and gloom beyond the living room window once more.

"Now that I'm not going anywhere... We should go outside later."

"Into this snow?"

"Weren't you going to?"

Reading her consideration of entering such cold material and atmosphere as it occurred, Sam simply remained smiling as she hesitantly nodded.

"I am now."