We must work together for a better future

Franziska watched as the man started working on her laptop. She sat down on a chair that was standing around, crossing her arms and legs, waiting and watching Mr. Ainsworth’s face as he was operating her laptop.

“Yes, I use Windows”, she replied when he asked about her OS. “Is that good or bad?” She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“Good! Windows is much easier for me to fix, so this should be fixed in no time, ma’am” he concluded as he proceeded to make all the necessary to activate safe, which Jayce figured it wouldn’t take much longer.

Yuffie sighed as she knew the guy didn’t mean anything about her hometown however she was always touchy about it. She looked at him.

“It’s alright.” She regained her stature. “I know you didn’t. Sorry I snapped at ya… It’s just, difficult you know? It’s hard growing up unwanted.”

She looked at him, as he was rather odd for not backing off when he had the chance. Though she didn’t hate it, in fact she was interested it by. She looked at him with a serious expression however still smiling.

“Hey… want to try spray painting?” She offered him the can. “I mean it, it helps.”

Recieving the can was the least he could do after upsetting the poor girl, and so he did. But spray painting private property was still wrong, and Jayce wished to cheer her up someway.

“It’s okay —   I’ve been there, myself. I hope I didn’t make you feel so bad.” He just couldn’t stop apologizing. What kind of a gentleman could make a girl feel like that, anyways?

But a gentleman could make someone laugh.

“It’s seems Yuffie —   “ without much thinking, he sprayed the paint across her both her clothes and his out of his own goffiness and the fact he wasn’t quite sure how spray can actually worked. “You’re under attack.”   

Kurogane patiently answered all of his fellow student’s questions about his hand; that he had been working on it since last summer, and that it was funded by research funds because he agreed to publish a paper about this when it reached some kind of alpha build state. The genuine interest of the other guy got even the normally rather tight-lipped Kurogane to talk about details, and soon enough, Kurogane took the hand from the working table and connected it to his stump to show off how it worked in action.

“Don’t worry”, he said. “Name’s Kurogane. You’re interested in robotics?” He reached out with the prosthetic to shake Jayce’s hand - to show off how he could adjust the strength of his grip with it now.

“Actually, yeah. I’m a huge fan of technology.” he explained, as he shaked Kurogane’s robotic hand. And boy, was it true. Since Jayce was a little boy, he’d grow loving science and technological advance and how far it’d take the world and lives of millions of persons. 

“oh, right! sorry, i’m kinda…not good with conversation,” she explained, a little embarrassed. but he didn’t seem to make it that big of a deal, so she relaxed a bit. “i’m an art major. and i’m a freshman, and i’m almost 19! and…i really like drawing the ocean. is that good? should i say more?”

she grinned at him a little sheepishly. namine really wasn’t much of the talkative type, so her information about herself was a little limited. but she was trying. it wasn’t that she was afraid to open up to jayce, it just was that she wasn’t very used to it. but she felt like she did a pretty good job.

“oh, it’s pretty close! see it up there?”

namine pointed to the building not too far from the pair, off in the distance up ahead. they were nearly there.

“It’s okay, not everyone’s the same, right?” Another pat on Namine’s head should make her feel at ease, he thought. He tried to not get too touchy, though, seeing as he was just meeting this new girl and didn’t wish to make her feel uncomfortable. “I think you’re fine for now! I’d like to see your artwork someday.” 

His eyes looked at the direction the blonde had pointed towards to. In fact, the building was so close that he was getting really, really excited. Jayce hoped to get a good look at the sky and so, he began walking faster.

“Come on, this is going to be fun!” the young man exclaimed excitedly as he entered  the observatory and without much thinking grabbed Namine’s wrist as they approached the telescope. “Oh — “ He quickly let go of the girl. “I... I’m sorry. I got excited” A cough. “Why don’t you take a look first? I mean, I don’t see more people here, and the sky is clear enough.”

Kurogane was lately making progress with his robotic hand prosthesis. It had been slow in the beginning - building a working prototype, getting all the basics right, finding out how to connect it to the muscles on his stump to pick up the movements - but once that had been done, and he was now finetuning, things progressed way faster. It was still kinda clunky, the movements often not as fluid as he liked, and slow, but he was actually able to correct the firmness of the grip by now, his newest addition to the hand’s functioning.

He was working on the hand at the engineering lab, rewiring the input cables that picked up the muscle movements to send them on to the hand to process, since he had noticed that the thumb sometimes didn’t respond properly, when another student approached him and looked over his shoulder at his robotic hand.

Hearing the genuine approval in the man’s voice, Kurogane turned around to look up at him with a smirk. “Thanks”, he said. “If all goes well, I hope it’ll enable me to hold my Kendo sword with two hands on the next tournament.”

Wait, two hands? A closer look and he realized this guy was missing his left hand, but decided to not make much of a statement about it. “Ah, I see” he nodded. “It sure seems to be going smoothly!” When he was a kid, Jayce always wanted to create something, a robot, even. He was planning on working on it  anytime soon, and wanted to talk to another fellow about the subject.

“Say, about this prothesis,” he began with geniune wonder about this project “how long have you been working on this? I’d like to ask some questions about it!” 

It’s FLIRTY FRIDAY!

“It wouldn’t be the first school that gave up on me.” Yuffie said. “It sure as hell won’t be the last.”

Yuffie listened to him mention his hometown. She stopped smirking as she thought of her hometown as well. It bothered her though when Jayce believed she didn’t grow up around shady people. Hell, the only people Yuffie actually spoke with were shady folk.

“You don’t know anything about me.” Yuffie snapped. “You think it’s easy being me? You think that being surrounded by shifty people is something I ain’t used to? You think it’s easy to know that the only way to even let the world know you are still breathing is by spray painting these walls?”

Yuffie noticed her voice had risen very angrily. She sighed, trying to calm down. It wasn’t Jayce’s fault that he didn’t know about her past. Yuffie didn’t tell much people in general. She looked over at him.

“And you don’t need to be worrying about me.” Yuffie’s voice calmed down. “I don’t need anyone’s pity.”

Looks like you are incapable of dealing with this kind of stuff the diplomatic way, Jayce,  he thought. He was the kind of people that’d would take action, and by action it meant as in physical action, as the young man wasn’t one of letting people speak if he didn’t feel like they deserved to. And now he was seeing a different light of the people he’d belittle. Because he wasn’t perfect. And neither was her. And it felt weird. 

“Look —  “ he felt outright awkward, hand behing his head as he tried to get closer to Yuffie. “ I didn’t mean to make you feel bad and —   uh — “  He couldn’t help but wonder, how was Yuffie’s hometown like? Did it got better, like his did? How was it? Did she hated it or loved it just like him? He couldn’t know, seeing as he was just getting to know her and in a bad context, too. Jayce couldn’t have guessed that what would he normally consider a rule enforcing action would take such a sudden turn. 

Damn it. 

“I get what you mean. My hometown wasn’t ideal, either. I’m, uh, sorry to make feel bad.” Swallowing his pride —  and by extension, his decent sized ego  —   was difficult enough. Getting the right words was a whole new challenge. “I’m sorry I misjudged you so quickly. Even so, I do wish the best for you and your education.” Smooth.

“oh, no! I’m just kind of quiet by nature. I was really interested in what you had to say.”

namine offered him a kind smile. a little giggle escaped her as he patted her head. contrary to popular belief, the tiny artist sort of loved it when people acted like a sort of older sibling around her. she could definitely see jayce as the big brother type, and the little pat on the head had just sealed the deal. he was kind, and obviously a good person all around, and amazingly, he didn’t make her nervous.

“really?” she inquired, a little surprised. “oh, thank you. you’re very nice too. but…what do you want to hear about me?”

normally she wasn’t one to spare details about her life unless the situation really called for it, so with the sudden request she was a little baffled at what exactly he was expecting her to say.

“I don’t know. You could start by your major or something” he chuckled. “Or your grade.You know, basic stuff! I mean, we’re getting along just fine right now so I figured I could get to know you.” 

Jayce wasn’t the kind of people to make other  uncomfortable —  that’s it until someone brings up anything he’s really passionate about. And specially women, and specially someone like Namine —  too sweet, and also too pure, to put in a way. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he even made her feel weird around him, which was the exact opposite.

“It has just happened this morning. Otherwise, I would have seeked for help earlier”, Franziska replied. “I have a pen drive with me.”

She handed it over, eyeing the man as he was operating her laptop.

“So, what is your diagnosis?”, she asked, crossing her arms.

“Good.” He grabbed the pendrive from Franziska’s hands and put it on the  side of his desk, left hand on his head. “Well, good thing is that you came here as soon as possible, otherwise I don’t think this will get any better.” 

 Jayce put the same hand on his chin while working. He just activated the Safe Mode, and now he could try to get the files from the computer, but he had yet to find the problem with the laptop.