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Scaly Heart Chapter Three

She held him closer, it took only a few minutes to coax him into telling her everything, his heart couldn't bear holding it in anymore. His heart tried to sink deeper in the ocean of emotions but her tight hug refused to let go of him. She held him tighter as if she was desperately trying to keep him from falling off a cliff.

Those final moments began to slow until he spoke up. He tried opening his eyes, but they were burning with tears. So he just spoke instead.

"I'm sorry you have to see me like this, I must annoy you right?" He pushed a smile, trying to make it look real. His heart winced, as he noticed his smile must look more fake than anything.

She sat up right to physically change the conversation. She then ran her hand up to his chest, then to his tear soaked cheek and dried it with her soft, warm hand.

The tears slowly dried with each minute of his heart being held by her hand. The strange warmth returned to him, and he just let it sink in, too weak to push the feeling any more than he had to. The thoughts ran through his head, flashes of phantom futures that his fear has constructed for him, each more mockingly cruel than the last. His fears realized to be nothing but, as she shook her head in disbelief.

Saisa: "Where are you getting all of this? Why would you even think this?" She used the hand holding his chest and used it to grab his hand, and place it right above her left breast, holding it there tightly, and looked straight into his eyes.

She had to shake him out of this, some how had to get through past his fears, and sadness, but once she tried to reach a higher level of emotional understanding of what he was going through, something stopped her, as if, the sort of data she was looking for wasn't there, just a void in her mind. She should feel frustrated, or that was the word to describe the process of what she should be feeling but even that was null.

Then she heard further turmoil, but it wasn't from him, it was from the kitchen a floor below. She heard his father's voice, and it was in a high pitched tone, almost as if he was mocking someone. She heard him say something to his mother, but even with her robotic hearing, she couldn't fully make out what he was saying. But her response was yelling back, almost if she was going on a long, and quite loud rant, about what he possibly said to her.

But when she turned her attention back to her owner, she saw him curling up into a ball and holding in his tears, and was silent, his eyes shut even tighter. She didn't have the proper protocol, her software wasn't' meant for this level of depression, as the one who put the programming into her was meant for one who had only minor depression. So she did her best to comfort him, so she laid him down onto is bed, and rubbed his back, telling him it was ok.

This had at least calmed him down slightly, but he was still curled up tight, as with each word said from his parents downstairs, did he flinch. The way his face looked was as if each was like someone was hitting him over and over in the chest.

She looked at him, trying to think of how she could help him, anything to just make him feel better. She leaned down, nuzzling his face softly, looking to get his attention, but it was no good. She thought for a moment, then she covered his ears somewhat tightly, not enough to hurt, but firm enough to block out most of the noise.

His whimpering stopped, only to look up to see her eyes looking right into his, something in her locked up. There was some kind of force keeping her from thinking of her plan, her joints refused to listen to her, any anger she felt was suddenly deleted, a pain welled up in her conscious.

This inner pain slowly faded away, she just laid with him and held him, for what seemed to be a long forever, to her at least, until his parents settled down, still holding the pained child, only to have noticed he fell asleep in her arms.

She sighed, "Well at least he wont be tired in the morning."

Looking in to his peaceful sleeping face, she smiled. "If you hold onto me, and rest here, listen to my breathing, and just focus on me, nothing else, ok?"

She felt empathy, finally something that her stupid software could process. Something about him was being held back, maybe it was his emotions, maybe they could learn from each other.

That is when she felt something odd, did she just realize that she had something in common with him that wasn't a process? Not part of her pre-programming, why did it make her feel so odd? What could possibly be so special about it if it took her higher programming so long to figure out?

Though through it all, her thoughts were stopped in it's tracks by the beeping of her inner alarm telling her that she was on 80 percent power. She felt herself sigh as she slipped herself into her charger, looking back at the child one more time before she went into sleep mode. She felt her world go to a calming digital void.

She woke up again, only to notice it was an hour before her owner had to wake up. She took this time to observe the curious package that had arrived for her owner yesterday.

Walking over to his desk, she then noticed the still opened biology book with a piece of paper next to it, with his name written on the top left.

Her eyes widened, from all the craziness of last night she some how forgot, or in her case, was distracted long enough to not realize that she didn't help him finish his homework. Her internal clock read five o one. Figuring this was enough rest for her owner, she quickly went over to the sleeping child and gently rubbed his shoulder, making sure she didn't look panicky when he woke up.

I slightly woke up, feeling a familiar hand rubbing my shoulder. I smiled feeling more than a little well rested, waiting for my eyes to clear enough to see her smiling face. But after a few blinks, and trying to coordinate my drowsy hands to do their morning chores, did I see her more urgent expression.

"Tommy, I think you should get up now." Her urgent but soft smiling face turned to more of an embarrassed grin, her eyes closed tightly to hide her shame as best she could from my confused look.

I took notice of my biology book still open, having my tired cogs of my brain spark with life and have me throw my still sleeping legs onto the floor, doing a service to the Silly Walks Administration, until I found Saisa picking me up by my arm pits, and into my chair.

"Oh no oh no oh no oh no!" I panicked, trying to search through each section, seeing if I could at least find some way to salvage any kind of possibility of getting a passing grade.

That is when I heard Saisa pipe up behind me. "Look here, here, and here." She pointed, as she spoke, not showing the answers, but the sentences that they were hiding from my begrudged eyes. She wasn't going to be very subtle with her hints today, and as of right now, I didn't mind all too much.

After a quick, and personally painful session of diving, or more as this point, belly flopping, from a very high, and very annoying dive bored, into the world of the microbial, did I finish with thirty minutes to spare.

My panicked body went straight into the shower, out of the shower, into some surprisingly nice folded clothes, "Thank you Saisa!" I said as I rushed downstairs, wolfing down a bowl of corn flakes that I was still un-boxing. And then into my mom, who was currently yelling at me to get ready, only to see me run past her and into the faintly new mini-van. Only to run back in, twice as fast, seeing Saisa holding my back pack at the front door with all my books in them, including the infamous book, that shall not be named, and out the door again.

I was about a minute late to school, which wasn't too terrible, but I didn't like getting talked down to by my principal.

As I stuffed my jacked into my locker, I noticed something odd, well not odd, but mostly out of place, my teacher, he wasn't in the room, he was walking right behind me. And not even giving me a glance, walked right passed me, and slapped down of what looked like permission slips.

My ride home should have been boring and cold, but I was too excited, I still couldn't believe that our school was so special to receive such an honor. After what my principal went through to organize such a large section of the school board and all of it's sister school to vote against the robots, he just happened to agree to this.

I hopped out of the back left door of my dad's old gold rust bucket of a car, and as usual he seemed just as pissed, but more angry than tired today. What could be wrong with him? I didn't want to find out, so I just opened the front door and into the hallway as I glanced at the tv in the living room.

Cameras were flashing on the man and woman's faces. The young male stood tall, waving at the excited crowed in front him. He had jet black hair, slightly puffy, but well groomed. His face was a light pale, and wearing a black business suit with a deep red tie, almost as well groomed as the rest of him. And was the very expression of cold meets the smile of a man who had everything.

The women, who looked to be in her late teens, who was just as cold as the man who was standing at the podium, she herself seemed to like the fancy wooden chair she was given to sit on. Well like was a strong word, as her face was a stoic uncaring mask, with her lips as deep as the red of the man's tie, and her night dark hair pulled up in a updo.

The man waved his hands, signaling for silence of the crowd. Instead they ignored him, as a wave of unintelligible sound crowed at the man's hands, as if he was trying to silence a room full of impatient children. He gave up, and with a sly smile while closing his eyes, seemed to pick a reporter at random.

Even though I didn't speak a word of Japanese, I could read along with what was going on.

"Mr. Haiyata, what are you plans now that you are the main chairman at Social Horizons?" The Japanese reporter inquired.

He seemed to look back at the girl behind him, then looked forward right into the reporter's face, with that same smile, but becoming more calm in his demeanor.

"I would like to start by saying, I am still grieving over my late father, but I will respect his dying wish."

The news reporter butted in, showing so by raising his mic above his head. "You mean the very same wish that your company is currently combining it's resources with Exo Productions, and your father's rival company, Testa Technicians?"

The man frowned at that last statement, but then butted back using his cool smile. "My father was very persistent in making us grow as partners, rather than what I considered a healthy competition, but I will honor him, and make his last dream come true."

Right as he uttered his last word, the crowd began to roar with questions. The studio then cut back in. "Well that was just minutes ago from Social Horizons new building in Tokyo, and as you can see, there is some exciting development, and one can only speculate what this new youth will bring to his father's company. And what will this mean for the only recent merging of the three tech giants?"

Her co-anchor, a very old but very wide smiling man spoke up. "Well I can guess that all the buildings the three companies are planting all around the nation's capitals might be a part of that. Some even being built in major cities."

She quickly followed up on his statement. "That's right Paul, rumor has it, that this is part of the big marketing stunt just a couple of months ago with the free robots to many charity drives as well as the medical androids for any U.S. Citizen who qualifies. I thi-"

Before I could hear anymore, my mom turned off the t.v. when she noticed I was watching.

I twitched from the sudden movement of my mom looking at me, and instead of trying to make a mess of whatever she was doing, I ran up the stares, and like the past few days, into the tight bouncing hug of my new inflated friend.

She looked happy, her usual expression, but something looked to be on her mind, a slight anticipation about my recent belly flop. I stared back at her, too rushed around from school to catch on to her expression, until she couldn't hold it in any more.

"So, how did it go?" She burst out.

Something about her expression sort of messed with me, as even after she burst out her question, she still had something more on her mind, well aside the obvious. So trying to think of how to answer her question, I figured I ask her to let it all out, besides, I was much too comfortable, and in much need of her affection.

"Something else on your mind?" I tried to ask, now slightly out of breath, only noticing now how her hug was a bit tighter from the usual, unbeknownst to her.

I'm glad I did this, as I could feel my lungs gained back the sweet, sweet air that it so desperately needed as she let me go slightly.

She sat down on my desk chair with a cute little squeak. "Well, I was wondering, if it's ok with you..." She trailed off, looking back towards my desk. I followed her gaze as best I could, as the only thing I could really move was my neck, as even my legs were being hugged by her tail.

But I manged to follow her gaze to the one box with a chip on top of it laying on my desk, both hitting the small ray of sun. I then started twisting my body free, as she slowly let me have enough room to reach forward.. I grabbed the first one, with the school logo. I laid it on the middle of my desk.

I placed the small round chip in the sun getting a good look at it, it seemed rather simple, but then again I didn't recognize the manufacturer, some third party hardware maker. I then placed it closely to me, looking at it's features.

Saisa spoke up, "If you keep staring at it silly I wont find out what it does." She said with some occasion of giggles. I laughed too, she was right after all, I bet she was much more anxious about what it does, though strange that she didn't take a look after I left for school this morning. She really waited for me? This made me blush a bit, but I quickly snapped out of it.

So I handed it over to her as I hopped off her lap. She stood up then knelt close to the floor, and not for the first time, she had her face close to my height, to see those green eyes pierce mine, this caused the funny feeling came back.

She then turned around, and sitting on the floor with her back to me. "Could you put it in?" I suddenly felt blood rush to my face, or, drain to someplace else. "Um, what do you mean?" Was what my mouth said, but quickly changed my tone to more innocently playful curiosity when she pointed to the base of her neck.

"Just push it right here and it will slip in. Some parts of my skin can open and have chip slots or act like a circuit." Before my mind could make a mess of anything, I put the chip on her neck. The chip slowly began to go inside, or more like, a small slot opened and her rubber skin grew back over it. It was weird but, sorta cool all at the same time.

That is when I heard some whirring from her skull, it was very soft, thankfully my parents weren't arguing yet hear it. Suddenly it stopped. "Ok, let's test it out." She said enthusiastically.

I was a bit surprised it took so little time to initiate whatever software it was using.

"Ok, so how does it work?" I asked, sort of confused about the whole thing.

She turn around half way, so I was on her right, she patted my desk chair, inviting me to sit down. So I did, she casually held my hands, and because of the height difference of me on a chair and her on the floor, she was face to face with me.

"So the chip is acting as a WiFi beacon to the school's network, including your school record, homework, and curriculum. And the cool thing about it is that now I can make sure you don't forget any homework that might be due." She smiled wide, she seemed pretty happy about this. And for the life of me, I couldn't understand why. Today has been a pretty confusing day after all. I am so happy I had her to make sense of things for me.

But before I could think of any questions she seemed to glance back at the package. I looked across to it, and then back at her, she was really interested in it. I mean the chip inside of the box should be an upgrade, what it upgraded I really didn't know. There was only one way to find out.

I nodded at her, and she grabbed it with her long arm, it was only fair she get to open it, it was for her after all. She opened it like a little girl on Christmas morning. The joy on her face somehow managed to look even more so than before.

First, was of course, the logos of the companies for Social Horizons and Testa's Technicians slapped in the middle of the pamphlet. I guess they really did start working together after all. Saisa handed me the pamphlet as she examined the surprisingly small chip that lied in a muti-layor foam bed.

I flipped open the second page I read it aloud. "Greetings and thank you for your choice in social hardware and software. You have been selected for a free social and general software upgrade for your droid, as well as a free membership to the latest open source website to mod and maintain your your machine. Please enjoy, and as always the future is in the Horizon!"

Saisa seemed to only be half listening. But that was ok, I was too curious myself to know what exactly the software upgrades did. That, and I had one more page to go as I flipped over to the next side. It was a minimalistic drawing of four comic book panels signifying the proper insertion and upload of the chip. "Gee, well isn't that fancy." I dead panned. "A whole comic book explaining how to put in a glorified SD card."

Saisa giggled a little. "Tommy! Someone put a lot of effort into those drawings." I smiled nodding, rolling my eyes, as I felt her playfully poke my side with her free hand. She turned around again, but instead of putting it all the way in, I was only supposed to let it sit on her head. Her skin. this time,became transparent as it showed the inner circuits that made up a small part of her robo- brain. And after a moment after I placed the chip on her head, I heard some soft beeping as a green LED began to flash then turned blue.

"I-is it done?" I asked her.

"Yep, just saw the progress bar reach a hundred." She confirmed for me.

"Well, do you feel any different?" She seemed to take my question into consideration, and as I took the chip and put it back in it's box, she turned around. Smiling like usual. And switched a sly smile.

"Well, I don't feel any different. Maybe it takes some time to upgrade, and it's just in the background of my base social software. But I did notice that my battery life seems to be running at an extra thirty percent higher efficiency. But that's all I can tell right now."

I shrugged, not really sure what else to say about it. "Well I guess I should start on my homework, um, so what do I have to do tonight Saisa?" She seemed to be reviewing something only she could see, as she turned to my desk, and picked up one of my books from my backpack.

"Well I suggest we start with some of this math homework, then work on some of your equations for a quiz that is gonna be four days from now. Other than that, your teacher seemed pretty lax on the homework today. Oh~!" She squeaked

"It looks like there is a mandatory school meeting tomorrow before lunch. It doesn't say from who though. Oh well, I guess you will have to tell me all about it after school tomorrow. Right, now let's start your math homework ok?"

She reached around and rubbed my arm, and squeezed it slightly for a few moments, which made me a little bit warm, and then playfully pulled me closer. I then opened my math book to the right page, and we began to do my homework.