It was around the same time that she had left a couple months back. The lock still recognized her eye and the door popped open like it always did. She hadn’t been there in months but her heart didn’t race in a nervous wreck or uncontrollable anxiety. Rather it raced at the thought of being back, of finally coming home and she slowly walked in, trailing down the hall she no longer remembered, staring at pictures that were turned and thrown, pictures of him and her, pictures of their love and joy and happiness. She picked them up from the ground but she faced them down on the table. She hadn’t called his name since that night and her voice quivered to make a noise in that apartment.

            There was noise that came from his room. She could see the flickering of light, the sound of tools. Maybe Ravi came over, maybe she should come by another time. Maybe, maybe, she knew she wasn’t supposed to be here but her body could not deny her heart as she took one slow step after another to his room. Everything was flipped upside down, nothing was left the way she remembered it. She peaked through the cracked door and her instincts told her to shove it open, to storm in and take that electrical torch away from him. And that was exactly what she did: door swung open, footsteps filling his ears and her hand against his as she ripped the tool from his grasp. The dermis was removed from his entire left arm, up his shoulder, a bit of his neck, and part of the left side of his torso. Only the heavens knew what he was doing and her frustration was evident as she yelled at him, yanking his left arm too her as she stared at the damaged wires and pieces. The amount of pain he must have endured was the only thing she was thinking about but the only thing he cared about was her who stood before him; Lilah who dragged her chair from the corner of the room and set it in front of him before going to the toolshed. He stared at her, lost and in a daze as she rummaged through the piles of tools and pieces, her voice there as she scolded him but not a single word entering his ears.

            “Lilah,” He had never known that saying a single name could mean so much. “Lilah,” He interrupted her again but she kept on talking, the only thing on her mind was to fix up his arm. “Lilah,” he grinned as he got to his feet and took large steps to meet her as he turned her towards him, as he held her face in his hands and stared into her eyes, eyes he would have never thought he could see again.

            It felt like a dream, his wildest imagination and he hoped that if this was a delusion, that if he had really gone crazy in the head that this lie would at least last forever. The warmth of her skin, her breath against his lips, her eyes that stared at him wide and surprised, the rushing of her blood and the pounding of her heart, he would have given anything for this moment; he would have sacrificed the universe for this one happiness and Taekwoon indulged in it, he delved into her as his lips pressed against her own, as he shoved her against the tool shed as his arms ached to hold her. Never again did he want to let her go. Never would he ever let her go and as her fingers trailed his skin, as the pads of her fingers trailed against his skin, no message could have been more clear as she pulled him into her, as the tears slipped her eyes, as the pain drained out of his system. Her warmth, her touch, her sweet and gentle caress, all were the same until a cold hand brushed against his neck.

            When he pulled away, she knew why and she tried to pull him back but he was far much stronger then she was and a single robotic hand wasn’t going to change that. His right hand found her left and Taekwoon held the cold piece of metal, staring at it with wide eyes.

            “What happened,”

            “Don’t worry about it,”

            “What happened?” He repeated once more, holding the hand before them so they both could see it. Taekwoon loved her human-ness, this much she knew and it was oh so evident as he stared at the wires and scraps of metal that clung to her amputated arm. From the middle of her upper arm all the way down to her fingers, Taekwoon stared and he couldn’t believe it. “Who did this to you? Why,”

            “I needed to,” her voice was small as she slipped her new hand from his, wrapping her arms around him as she pulled him into her embrace. “You don’t have to worry about this.”

            “What do you mean not worry?” He had never ripped himself out of her grasp. He had never walked away from her. He had never raised her voice at her. He had never looked at her like that. “What happened when you left? Who did this to you! Why—Why are you hurt,” and the fear of losing her, the fear of never seeing her again, the fear of her death was stuck in his head as he stared at her arm, as the unanswered questions reeked havoc on his hardware. He leaned against his charging station, the stinging in his left arm pulsing through his nerve sensors and she was quick to catch him, to hold him and sit him down on his seat again. She looked at his eyes and knew that if he could, he would have cried. “Why did you leave me?”

            And at this point, even she didn’t know. After so long, after finally being here with him, she couldn’t remember and she didn’t want to. Why’d she leave him, she was sure it was stupid and as she thought about it, as she got closer and closer to finally remembering, she was ashamed to believe that she left him for such a petty reason. She ran her thumb, the one that was still human, along the underside of his eye, him leaning into her touch as she watched him close his eyes. He had gone through so much, this much she could deduce from the moment she walked through the door, and she damned herself for making him go through it all alone.

            “Because you couldn’t love me the way I loved you,” Her voice was faint as she took a seat on his lap, taking him in her arms as he was reunited with her scent, her voice, her warmth he never wanted to leave ever again. “I left because you couldn’t love.”

            “But I do love you,” She had to hold him down and he opted to hold her close if he wasn’t going to be able to see her eyes. “I, I can’t love you, I know I can’t love you, I, I can’t feel love but I know that I love you Lilah. I—“

            “I know.” She kissed his ear and the roots of his hair. He had never held her this tight. He had never stumbled over his words like this. “I should have never left you. I should have stayed.”

            And they stayed that way for a while, the whole night to be exact. Although she told him to lay on his charging station, although she told him that she needed to fix his arm, he refused to move and he refused to let her go. Taekwoon held her and he was determined to never let her go as she fell asleep in his arms, as the sun crept through the window and the birds chirped from the other side. And although he had spent countless nights awake, although he suffered through the night’s never ending depth, that night slipped through his fingers like water and the hours he spent watching her felt like seconds. He was convinced that she hadn’t slept enough, that at most she had slept for an hour even though she slept for five. And even then, he refused to let her go. He didn’t have enough of her, he hadn’t taken up enough of her to fill these past few months without her. Taekwoon held her and he never wanted to let her go. Even when her stomach growled, it took him much convincing to let her go and even then he followed her around like a love sick puppy who was too afraid to look away from her.

            She insisted he rest while she found something to eat, that he was not able to go out with his skeleton hanging out like it did and she had to fight him to lie on his charging station. She had to persuade him to turn off.

            “I’ll come back.” She held his hand. “I’ll come back and every time after this, every time I have to leave by myself, I’ll come back.” He never wanted to let her go. He never wanted to lose her again. “I’ll never make the same mistake again.”

            And slowly his grip around her fingers loosened and his vision flickered black before finally staying that way. She pulled her seat, grabbing her bag as she searched for the cookies she bought along the way last night. As far as she was concerned, that was enough to last her the next few hours as she pulled up a chair and prepared the parts for his arm. Truth be told, she never wanted to leave his side ever again.