#killigon

She grabbed the tweezers and held his face still, “Hold still, krasotka.”

She made the face that most women use when putting on eyeliner or mascara and Killian watched as she began placing layers of metal and tech into his otherwise numb eye socket. She was gentle, but still firm. She didn’t want any of his skin moving out of place as she arranged each little circuit.

They were both quiet, not saying a word as she worked on his face. He couldn’t feel anything, the burns deep in his face and the only sense was of Rogon’s rough touch against some more tender wounds. Her hand rested on one side of his face, holding him still even if he said he would comply. As her left hand placed circuits and plates of sheet metal into his eyeless socket, her right hand kept a firm hold on his scarred face. She stroked the wounds, even if she knew he couldnt feel her.

She promised she would fix that, and she never went back on her promises. Besides, neural nets were easy to come by, at least in her market.

Rogon connected wires and plates, her pointed tongue sticking out between her sharp teeth as she placed each little piece. He loved her thinking face. Her tongue never seemed to fit in her mouth, and would get stuck between her oh so sharp teeth often.

Killian knew what market she worked for, or at least pretended to work for. And even if all the other upgrade junkies had fancy tech and extreme modifications to their bodies, none were as seamless as Rogon’s. It was almost as if she was born as she was.

He would never ask, he found it rude, but he wondered if she was even human. Or if she never has been.

Their silence was caught in the ambience of light clinks and scrapes of thin metal. Her green eyes flickered like wild embers as she focused and pressed gently on one piece.

Rogon leant back and went for the case.

There, in the little black box, was what made Killian swallow.

It was a white orb, with a semi translucent glossy case around it. It was seamless, perfectly round and satisfying to look at. It reminded him of those Fushigi balls that was advertised on tv, but probably could have actually levitated, unlike that magicians trick.

His mouth went dry. Did it stay that white?

Rogon looked up at him as she polished the orb even more. “Don’t worry,” she knew what and why his skin prickled for, and lightly smirked, “it’ll look good.”

She spun around to face him again and licked her lips, which he noticed she had been biting.

“I save all the good shit for myself,” she said. “I know my biotech, unlike those upgrade junkies.” He knew he heard her say that before.

He looked to the floor and sighed. She stopped and looked away sadly. They still hadn’t talked about. About....

She shook her head, breathed in, and brought his gaze back to hers with a gentle hand.

“It’s a new model,” she said. “Fresh out of testing. It’s magnetic, so you don’t have to worry about time wasting connections.”

She carefully placed the shiny orb into his eye socket, a puff of air brushing against the parts of his brow he could still feel. “I told you,” he mumbled, “I don’t want a glass eye.”

“It’s not glass, dummy,” she scoffed, “it’s...I’m not sure about the specifics. It’s high tech.”

“Oh is it now?”

“Shut up,” she snorted and brought his face closer. Rogon wiped down the eye socket once more and slowly pushed the orb into place. It was snug, incredibly snug. 

Rogon reached for the case once more and brought out a card with small indents in it. She showed it to the orb.

In a flash, he had dual vision, but instead of being two parts of the same image, he was currently looking at a startup screen in his left eye. He jolted and she took out a screen from behind her.

She scooted next to him, thighs pressing against his, and showed him the screen. “Gotta calibrate it first,” she said. “You only have to do this once. If it ever gets knocked out of focus, it should just refocus itself. Just blink a few times.”

With a few simple clicks, and a very quick line of light in his good eye, he could see the other half of the room.

He blinked. He expected to hear the optic move, like in movies, but everything was quiet. It was smooth, and even though he did not feel skin move, the optic did mimic a blink. He sighed, this time, in relief.

Rogon’s jaw locked as she moved to his left side once again. He watched her press more sheets of metal onto his face and around his ear. His hearing cleared up, now less fuzzy and muffled. With a hiss of air, the ear completely covered the burnt remains of his own.

She sat back and took his hand in hers. “So, how’s it feel?”

“Like...like I never lost it.” He breathed.

She smiled and reached for the nearest mirror. “You should be able to access the administrator program through the ear piece,” she explained. “Then you can toggle on and off the scanners.”

He took it from her hand and raised it.

He cringed at his reflection. His skin warped and bubbled, still, but now the bare bone and tendons were covered by metal sheets, filling in some spaces. The new eye gave him some comfort, but that was where it settled for him. His eye looked...just as it had before. Instead of the plain glossy white surface, he could see his own iris, his pupil, just as they had been. An icy blue color, matching his true eye exactly.

His blood ran cold. And his eye did the same.

His anxiety had caused his optic color to change from blue to stark white.

“Shit, I forgot to mention that,” Rogon facepalmed. “The optic may react to stress.” She looked away and crossed her arms, hair flaring in nervousness.

He brushed his face. Echoes of explosions and flashes of light and screams replayed behind his eyelid. He squeezed his eye shut. He couldn’t see out of his other eye, even if he had no way to close it.

Rogon wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

“Kills...I-”

He stopped her.

They sat in silence, and he could feel her talons stretch and scratch his back.

She wouldn’t tell him how she felt. He was more important than her. Even if her own hidden arm was burning and searing in heat, she would not bring it up. Even if, in her mind, she was replaying not one, but two scenes, she would not bring it up.

He was more important than her.

—

Welp...since he’s one of 4 characters I heavily ship Rogon with, I wrote out the little outline I had for this scene

I might write out more, this is fun!