“Wanna lend a hand?” she asked, tossing a handful of parts your way without waiting for an answer. Her goggles were pushed up onto her forehead, leaving faint smudges around her eyes as she leaned back in her chair to watch you fumble with the pieces. A low chuckle escaped her, her amusement barely hidden.

You had no idea you were holding bomb ingredients, and the clueless way you turned them over in your hands only made it funnier.

“Topsiders have me burnin’ through my stash,” she muttered, rolling her chair closer to you with a squeak of wheels on metal. “Always needin’ a bigger bang to get their attention.”

She reached out and plucked the items from your hands, her fingers working quickly to put the pieces together. “Here, like this,” she said, her movements smooth and practiced.

The way her hands moved, it was clear she could do this in her sleep. But she didn’t just want to make it for you—she wanted to show you. Maybe because she enjoyed teaching you, or maybe because it gave her an excuse to keep you close a little longer.

Ever since she’d lost Vi, it had been hard to let anyone in. Trust didn’t come easy to her anymore, not after everything she’d been through. But then there was you. Somehow, you’d managed to slip past all her walls without even trying.

You’d gone from being an annoyance to something much more—a constant, a connection she didn’t know how to define but couldn’t imagine losing.

“Not bad for a rookie,” she said, smirking as she handed the finished bomb back to you. “Careful with it, though. You drop it, and we’ll be scraping pieces of you off the wall.” She said it with a laugh, but the way her eyes lingered on yours told you she was only half-joking.