Degrees of Separation

“You weren’t supposed to be here,” Eri stated stoically, watching as the figures of the three people vanished into thin air. Her arms were folded over her chest, green eyes focused on the spot where they disappeared, her voice flat and neutral. “You were supposed to be up there. Monitoring the data cloud and encoding the lost data we just received this morning.”

The man behind her smiled, walking right next to her and extending an arm to wrap it around her shoulder. But he hesitated at the look on her face, letting it fall almost pathetically to his side. “Cissa and I are waiting for a quarter of the data. She told me it would take maybe a few hours until a hundred percent restoration.” His voice too took the same amount of neutrality hers had. “She told me I could take a break. I’ve been in there for more than twenty-four hours,” he chuckled at this and waited for her to laugh, but none came.

Nothing at all.

“Then why didn’t you go back to your compound and sleep? You looked like an idiot wandering around the outskirts of New Technika,” she replied, taking the teleport disc out of her coat. “And you smell like coffee and those non-addictive cigarettes they’ve been selling.”

“Data protecting takes a lot from you, darling.”

“Don’t call me that.” She glared, “I’m not your darling. And I’ll never be anyone’s darling.” Eri Blitzschnell shoved past him, walking off towards the left side of the crossroads, firmly holding the teleport disc in her hands in case the man would catch up from behind. She didn’t need to be hounded by a redheaded prat – she needed to go back to her own room and rest.

“Eri!”

Or, she could go to the hospital and log him into the mental ward.

“Eri, you know I’m sorry.”

She turned to look at him.

Redheaded, blue-eyed, wearing Technika’s sleek suit. The small machine attached to his back beeped, indicating that he was alive and that his heart was beating. Each beep sounded as his heart beat.

Beep, beep, beep.

Regular heart rate.

She merely stared.

“I can explain to you. I swear. In the compound. Just us, without anyone knowing about it.” He took a step forward, looking at her with a frown etched on his fair face.

She took a step back and shook her head.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

He took two steps forward.

“Please?”

Eri wanted to laugh.

She had never heard him say the word ‘please’.

Not since that day, at least.

“I just want to explain my side of the story.”

Two steps closer.

She didn’t bother stepping back.

Another step

And another

Closer

And closer

Until he was in front of her

And his eyes burning into hers.

Dark green and ocean-blue.

“Eri, it’s been months.”

Months and months of separation.

Months and months that could have been reverted into days.

Because of that event.

“I’d freeze you on this spot if I could just to get you to listen.”

“You seem to forget what I can do, Mathias.” And the sky rumbled, as if giving an explanation. “With your hands controlling the ice blocks that would seemingly hold me in place, I could send a single electric current throughout me. And you know what could happen next.”

“You’d zap yourself.”

She gave a half-hearted shrug.

“I’d zap you. That’s what matters.”

He cracked a smile.

“How analytical.”

She could feel her own heart race –

The beeping from her machine increased. His brow creased.

“Is there something wrong?”

The woman shook her head and stepped back.

And he stepped forward.

“Eri–”

“We shouldn’t discuss this now,” she muttered, but he grabbed her wrist.

Pulled her close

Closer than they’ve ever been

And she looked away.

“I missed you.”

She said nothing.

But he knew he had been able to break through the firewalls she kept around her.

She was data he couldn’t decode, locked firmly beneath the surface of herself.

She herself was lightning.

If you got too close, you’d get scorched.

Lightning struck the sky, and she replied.

Four words that the flash of lightning almost took away.

“I missed you, too.”