#a pairing

She needn't have to worry: Jess had come back with a detailed exposition of how the liquid had transformed into mercury and gold, silver and gold under the light where the darkened splotches of what Jess had referred to as blood - quite quickly if Lena had any say about it-, had started to oxidize. Jess had given back the two glass pieces, allowing Lena to pocket it and pretending to look away in polite indifference when the brunette had stared back at her notes her presence forgotten, fingers extending and curling as she had tried to unfreeze from the nerves of what the next step of her discovery would led her to.

Jess had left then, the next few days spent trying to discern if the woman had been indeed correct on her assessment of blood being the liquid within: it behaved very similarly, after all, but there was something about the way it kept on not quite drying, on the way it shimmered beyond the gold-like reflections, the way it had hissed when Lena had decided to use different minerals powdered and mixed with oils to allow the viscosity to contract enough.  She had settled for something that felt blood-like but alien enough for her to think on what substance from within earth would replicate blood so perfectly and yet not be it. 

She considered a taste test but decided against it, curious and feverish but not blind to the risks. Not yet, anyway. The lack of sleep would eventually bring her closer to a stupid stupor. But she did not feel like sleeping when her study of the vial could be pushed ever forward.

On the eve of the sixth day she felt that she hit enough of a halt for her to turn towards the one who had given her the liquid and so she had, carefully, waited for her brother's visit as he would be bound to. 

Lex was smart. Smarter than the usual noble and Lena had known her fare share of those: brains completely emaciated of any deeper thought than what was not how to amass more power than the one that stood in front of them. He, however, was prideful enough for her to be able to utilize him. Not much, but enough. Enough to list with a subtly laden drowsy tone what very little she had been able to study from the liquid and fall silent with perfect posture and eagle-like eyes when Lex had shot back how it was not enough nor what he had asked her to do.

"I asked you to replicate it Lena."

Lena's fingers extended, soft pain shooting through her fingers as she pressed them softly against her sides, soft voice with a lilt he did not have and eyes strong enough to pierce through glass.

"If I had more of the substance, brother... as it is I can solely do very little studies on it."

Lex had narrowed her eyes at her, Lena had merely exhaled and waited. 

Lex was smart but wanted the piece of his puzzle, the new pretty object to show as if one more trophy. Lena did not truly care much what he would do with the replica of the liquid -if she got around doing such a thing-. The ability of studying something she did not understand, however, felt as if being pulled into the orbit of the sun the liquid seemed so fond off.

Not like Lena shared the same need. Or interest, for that matter. The Sun had already been studied and whilst she suspected that some of the numbers and theories of how its orbit worked could be improved, nothing already studied would hold her mind's attention  more than the trinkets and games her brother would be able to procure with his incessant need of control and destruction.

Lena was not naive; she knew how dark her brother's heart was. She despised him for it. She also wanted her own toys, however. And such, in need of more, she waited for Lex to make his mind up whether to give in on what she had not requested but obviously wanted.

"I will bring you to it" And Lena noticed the way he gnawed on the pronoun, as if still deciding if it was indeed the one that needed to be used. "So you can take more samples."

Lena nodded, the dotting sister, and waited for him to leave.  Candle light returning and silence enveloping her once more as Lex left,  Lena went back to the wooden table where beakers and copper awaited for her. She felt a thrumming inside her chest, one that made her tap her fingertips against the surface of table; waiting, nervous, a thousand options running through her mind. 

---------------- "It" had a face.

Golden glow and closed eyes, ethereal on the way it floated a few centimeters away from the ceiling, rattling shackles around well-toned arms and legs but not quite weighing the body down. 

"We initially put it down-below but the lack of light was not working in our favor" Lex had offered per Lena's questions and the brunette felt nerves tensing her muscles as she kept on studying the figure, fascinated by the way it seemed to float softly, alongside the sun's own journey, perfectly keeping itself propped against it. "So we decided to use the old greenhouse"

Gauze covered the windows of the the building, smartly distributed to obstruct the view from outside by creating shadows that did not really allow for a deeper look into what was being kept into the otherwise empty and abandoned place. Lena had the vague memory of someone who might have liked to be called 'mom' by her if a different life had unraveled, enjoying the smell of roses and lilies. She had not quite gotten the reason beyond the inner and human necessity for beauty and so, with her departure, and her own inability to fully distinguish between loss and sadness and words that could not be quantified,  the few seeds that had been deposited had long-since perished. 

The lack of flowers was not what now enticed her, however, but Lex's new... Guest.

She noticed how easy she had humanized the one in front of her. Despite her obvious lack of humanity, of course. Or how would she be able to float if it was not due to a lack of a soul? 

The question opened up new paths on what she had envisioned. She wanted to start the next phase as quickly as possible and considered requesting a more thorough first study once Lex stopped his own grandiose monologue on how he had managed to secure... her. 

Lena took a few steps forward towards the floating figure, eyes fixed on the other's closed eyelids, on the way they moved, thin skin trembling against quickly moving eyes. She locked onto the muscles, on the way they seemed to not react against the weight of the chains.

"We could not pierce it skin. We needed a couple of trials." Lex's voice was filled with that dark glee Lena remembered, the one that made her innards curdle.  "How did you do it?" She asked, still eyeing the floating creature, she settled on that descriptor, as lacking as she felt it was.  "Will show it to you, after you tell me more of your theories."