A Break

Two days had passed since they'd visited Minerva's place. The storm had picked up in intensity since then. Rain pattered on the shop's roof as low-lying areas flooded. Despite the weather though, Zephyr's work troubleshooting the VR pod's software had made progress.

He'd finally figured out what'd been wrong: an issue with some corrupted program files and a handful of functions that were accessing memory they shouldn't have been.

Zephyr wiped sweat from his brow.

A part of him wished that he could've used his digital assistant, Sif, to handle all the monotonous stuff, but he didn't want to leave anything to chance.

Not that it mattered anymore. The ordeal was over now.

Zephyr leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles. He'd been sitting in the same spot all night so far.

He glanced at the clock on his computer screen. 5:30 AM. The sun wasn't due to start rising for at least another hour or so—not that he would even be able to see it with the storm. It was a strange sensation though, being alert at such an ungodly hour, but his body was accustomed to the late hours.

"!" Or that was what he'd thought before he tried standing up.

Crap.

His legs wobbled underneath him, his head swam, and his vision blurred. He was forced to grab onto the edge of the workbench to keep himself steady.

"…Okay, yeah, maybe I should take a break."

He hobbled over to the living room couch and plopped himself down.

"Yeah… that's better." He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing his head to stop spinning.

Once his dizziness had subsided, he opened them again and stared up at the ceiling. He just sat there for a little while listening to the howling winds until he remembered he still couldn't rest completely yet.

He turned toward the staircase—more specifically, the second floor where his office was. He needed to go over a crap-ton of paperwork. He'd put it off since Audra had arrived, but he couldn't ignore it for any longer, even with his body telling him that sleep was a better option.

He stood, rubbing his temples, then headed upstairs to his office. There, stacked neatly atop his desk, were a powered off tablet and dozens of papers—some of them were invoices from clients and suppliers, others were bills and contracts.

His eyes scanned the pile, and a sense of dread washed over him as he noted some of the red numbers. He'd taken a cursory glance at the stack earlier, but looking at things more seriously now, he could see just how bad things really were.

"Damn it." He shook his head. He hadn't even begun looking at everything on his tablet yet, and that was where a majority of the paperwork would be.

He pulled out the chair from his desk and picked up the first sheet on the top of the stack. It was an invoice for one of his clients.

Before he could start sorting through the rest of it though, the sound of footsteps from the stairs caught his attention. Zephyr turned to look behind him.

"Zeph? The heck are you doing?"

Audra stood in the doorway dressed in little more than a sleep shirt that stretched past her thighs. Her cybernetics were a lot more visible than usual, and the dim lights of the hallway reflected off their artificial surfaces.

It looked like both her left arm and right leg were fully mechanical. He'd suspected the arm to be, but he hadn't thought the latter would be too.

"Hey," he said groggily. "I'm just doing some paperwork. What about you? Why are you awake, and how come you aren't wearing pants?"

"I had to use the bathroom," she replied, rubbing her eyes like it was no issue at all. "And I am wearing pants. They're just a little short."

He sighed, mentally making a note to himself. He'd have to ask Minerva to take her shopping later.

Audra walked up curiously, and her eyes widened.

"The heck is all this? I get you like to do stuff the old-fashioned way, but there's like an entire tree's worth of paper here."

She reached around him and picked one of the invoices up. "Hold on, you only charged this guy 3,000 dollars for a mini-car? That's like nothing! How can you make a profit like that?"

Zephyr deflated as she began to rummage around, unable to stop her at this point.

"You talking about Elliot's job? He's a single dad that's going through college. That mini-car was the only way he could drop his kid off and get to his classes on time. Besides, it's a pretty simple thing to build."

"A car, simple to build? Are you delirious?"

Audra shook her head before snatching up another form.

"What about this one? 8,000 dollars for a drone that was custom-made for agricultural use? It says that it can do everything from planting, to harvesting, to crop maintenance. How is that even remotely close to being enough?"

He plucked it from her hands and tried to hide the figures.

"Trust me, I made plenty off of that sale. Besides, that one was for Kerri. She was having issues with her usual supplier at the time."

Audra tapped her finger on the desk. Its bionics thud loudly against the wood as thunder rumbled.

"Look, I don't know too much about drone pricing, but even I know that stuff like that goes for 70,000 dollars. Minimum. You're giving stuff away!"

"I'm not. Also I'm not in it for the money."

"You're a business, aren't you?"

He scratched his head.

"Look, no one else was able or willing to help these people out."

She immediately crossed her arms.

"And what about helping yourself? What happens when you run out of money? Didn't you say you weren't in the best financial situation?"

"I'll find a way to make it work." Zephyr argued, his voice steady. "Besides, this is what I want to do. I don't want to spend my entire life trying to squeeze as much profit as I can."

Audra didn't respond to that. Instead, she just stared at him. and her eyes narrowed slightly.

"I've just made up my mind. I'm staying here permanently."

"W-wait… what did you say?"

"You heard me."

She hmped to make a point, though he could see the embarrassment on her face.

"I'm staying here with you, Zeph. You obviously need the help. I'm not going to let you run yourself into the ground like this."

"B-but you said you were just going to stay here until you figured out where to go—"

"And I have. This is the place where I want to be right now. Okay?"

He hesitated for a moment as his brain fizzled.

"Um, alright. I did say I wasn't going to be the one to kick you out."

"Good." She gave him a satisfied smile. "Now… can I ask you to do something for me?"

"Depends on what it is," Zephyr said, still reeling from the onslaught.

"Please get some rest. You're too exhausted to function."

"But I've still got so much work to do—"

"Go. To. Bed."

She emphasized each word, pointing towards the door.

Audra could be stubborn at times, and he definitely didn't have the energy to fight it right now.

Zephyr sighed, giving in to her demands.

"Fine, I'll get some rest. Are you happy now?"

"Yes. Very," Audra replied smugly.

Zephyr rolled his eyes, standing up to stretch. He could feel his muscles aching in protest, and his joints cracked as he moved.

"Come on, old man," she teased. "Or do you need me to help you down the stairs?"

"You're hilarious."

"I know I am. But seriously, you look like you're about to pass out. Now scoot!"

"Relax. I'm going."

He walked down into the hallway shaking his head. He made a pit stop at the bathroom to brush his teeth, but right after he went to the living room and plopped himself down on the couch.

"Good night, Zeph," Audra called out.

"Night, Audra," he mumbled back, closing his eyes and letting his exhaustion overtake him.

Nostalgia flickered before he faded out amidst the sound of raindrops.

It'd been a while since someone had scolded him to bed like that.