Wildmagic_warrior wrote:
-Milo-.:Illyria:.
A quiet rapping at the door brought the young clockwork maiden to full consciousness.
Although she was no longer a slave, people knocking on doors always made her feel nervous. It used to mean bad news for the Boss, and bad news for the Boss meant beatings for his slaves. Even mechanical servants felt pain, and Illyria was no exception.
The gears in her legs moved the joints in her knees, and steam hissed as she stuck first one leg out of bed, and then the other. Still in her nightgown, the ageless young woman made her way to the door and placed one brass hand on the latch.
Dare she open it?
What if it was the Thin Man, coming to take her back to the Boss?
Milo had promised to keep her safe, but he was not here.
His number had come up in the draft nigh on a year ago, and he had left to fight in the Clockwork Wars on the farthest edges of the continent.
Well, she would be strong for him.
She could take care of herself.
A puff of steam accompanied the movement of her mechanical thumb as she pressed the latch down, and a low whistle sounded as she flung the door open wide.
In the darkness, he almost looked like the Thin Man. Illyria took a frightened step backwards, her emotionless brass face turning away from the stranger, her mechanical mind expecting a stinging blow that would dent her polished panels. When none fell, the clockwork maiden's neck-gears turned her face towards the stranger.
He was still standing on the doorstep, hidden by shadows.
Her glass eyes worked to figure out who he was, but no answer was forthcoming. Her thin vocal wires strummed as she cleared her throat, and twanged like a guitar as she said, "Won't you come in?" The shadowy person stepped across the threshold as Illyria found a lamp and lit it. Illyria let the flame grow to a reasonable height, and then turned so that the flickering light fell on the stranger. If clockwork beings needed oxygen, the automaton would have gasped in shock. As it were, she set the lamp down hard on the table and sank into a chair, face in her hands, shuddering uncontrollably. Mechanical beings were not designed with such basic human structures as tear ducts, but if she had had them, Illyria would be sobbing.
Strong arms encircled her, holding her tight against a familiar chest.
One arm she knew, but the other was strange and metallic.
"How?" she finally managed to whisper, turning her face up to that of the young man. "Dragged a friend out of the path of a clockbomb," he answered. Illyria finally managed to stand upright, and the young man let go of her. "You haven't changed a bit," he said, looking her over with a smile that was almost bitter.
"I thought you were dead," Illyria whispered. "When the letters stopped coming-"
The young man looked up at her, shock in his human eyes. "Stopped coming? Illyria, I wrote to you every week."
The clockwork maiden was shuddering again, wanting to let out all of the hurt and anger and sadness but unable to, because she couldn't cry.
"Milo," she said, stepping forwards. He gathered her up again, his new mechanical arm as gentle as his real one had been. "I promised I'd come back, didn't I?" said Milo softly, stepping back a pace so that he could look into her glass eyes and cup one brass cheek in the palm of his hand. Illyria nodded, not trusting herself to speak lest she snap a vocal wire with the tension. "And I promised I'd keep you safe, didn't I?" Illyria nodded again. Milo smiled, and stroked her cheek with his thumb, lightly. "I came home," he said, simply. "I'll never leave you like that again, Illyria. I promise." The clockwork maiden leaned forwards to hug the young man, but he caught her by her brass shoulders and kissed her gently.
Illyria shivered under his touch, unable to move, to think, to do anything until Milo released her.
"I love you, Illyria," he said, taking her hands in his.
"It's not allowed," whispered the mechanical maiden, vocal wires strumming at pianissimo. "Humans and machines," she added, knowing she had said the same words to him a hundred times before. "But I'm not entirely human any more," said Milo with a grin, squeezing her slender fingers lightly with his new clockwork hand. "The rules no longer apply." Illyria smiled, dropped her head, then raised it again to look Milo in the eyes. "In that case," she said with a shy smile, "I love you too, Milo."
