“Argh, c’mon!” Struggling, no matter how hard I squeeze, the sack of flour just slips from my grasp by the time I lift it. I’m grateful when Salka comes over and grabs it for me. “Where to boss?”

  Rolling my eyes at the name, I point up to another shelf. “Up there, please.”

  “On it.” With hardly a grunt of effort, she places it up, the plop of its weight sending some flour that settled into my face, making me cough.

  Yuna already learned to avoid that, so I didn’t think to warn Sal.

  “Sorry, you alright?” Nodding, I head back to the kitchen and take a sip of water, enjoying the cool drink going down. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Glad I’ve got you around for these things.”

  “It ain’t much. I do wonder though, how’d you run this place alone?”

  Sighing, I run a hand through my hair. “Slowly on days like this. All heavy bags went to the floor, which is a bad idea when it comes to keeping pests from getting a home in here. I’d rather just have plastic containers down there, not paper bags. Honestly, I considered implants, but don’t know enough.”

  Salka’s ears perk up at that, sitting on the counter. “Oh really? What kinds of implants exactly?”

  “Well… some arm ones to move heavier things, and maybe eye ones to scan customers and remember their usual orders. Or just automate keeping track of who to check.”

  Nodding with a look of thought, she puts a hand on her chin… before speaking. “Yeah, that’s not bad. The arms would take a day, prolly a bit expensive, but be very effective. No water issues or anything, obviously, it’d just make you stronger. Wouldn’t help your height though.”

  Glaring at her, she chuckles and moves on. “Anyways, the eyes would be more expensive, that’d take a couple months of your savings.”

  “That much?!” Suddenly, I'm glad I didn’t try and get those.

  “I mean, it ain’t that much compared to others.”

  Staring at her, I sigh and cross my arms. “How much does yours cost?”

  A little surprised, she looks up in thought.

  For an awfully long time…

  …

  “Is it that bad?”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Huh? Oh, well considering just my current equipped ones, not the blades I had removed, it’s…. Maybe five years of your savings.”

  Eyes widening, I stare at her. “H-how…?”

  Lost in thought, she just continues on. “Of course, that’s considering my spine implant and my holodeck, which are both top notch, and the neko upgrades were all just as high quality. If we include my old carver blades, it’d be closer to six or seven years.”

  “...Sal you have a problem.”

  “What?! I didn’t pay for most of it! The government did!”

  “Sal you’re a metal head.”

  “I am not! I just enjoy the benefits of the craft, and it’s nice having these things I can do others can't!"

  …

  “Okay, fine, just a little.”

  “I thought so. Now… I do sorta have one question. When they upgrade your eyes, how do they do that? Like, how do you install metal into your eyes?” As I start cooking dinner, I wait for her answer…

  Seeing her confused look, I almost ask again, before she answers. “They don’t.”

  “Huh?”

  Chuckling, she goes and grabs ingredients for me. “They don’t, they just replace your eyes with the implants. It’s honestly only bad the first time, you feel blind despite having vision for a week.”

  I almost drop my knife, spinning to look at her. “Waitwaitwait, they scoop out your eyes?!”

  “Correct. Usually when knocked out.”

  “And then they just…?”

  Starting to cook again, she shrugs. “Then they put a new port in the sockets to connect new eyes to, and connect them. Then future eye changes are as simple as buying them and getting a steelhand to plug in the new one.”

  Shuddering at the thought, I try to focus on my cooking, trying to not imagine it.

  “The weirdest part is when they take them out future times. It doesn’t hurt, but you can see from their hand until they connect the new eye, and for a bit you’re just blind.”

  Feeling my fur stand on end, I nearly hit her with the spatula. “Don’t give me so much detail! That’s just freaky!”

  Laughing, she nods. “Fine fine, just wanted to explain it to someone. I’ve done it like three times now.”

  “Weird…” “Eh.”

  …

  “Random question, how’re you liking your tail? I never really… asked.”

  Putting the food in the oven for me while I wash my hands, she speaks. “It’s nice, honestly. Got better at hiding my emotions, so now it’s just a fluffy limb. Plus… it lets me wrap mine around yours, and that’s oddly really nice to do.”

  Chuckling, I sit down and shake my head, enjoying the warmth from the oven. “It isn’t odd, it’s normal. It’s something we do when close to someone, since we’re so vulnerable like that. Sorta like kissing or something.”

  “Ah… that makes sense.” Sitting next to me, she wraps her tail around mine, before I lean against her side and purr. “Love you.”

  “Love you too, Lumi.” Feeling her pat my head, I melt into her side, pretty content with how things are now.

  I just wish Yuna was here with us to enjoy it. To feel her in the comfortable silence, she’d prolly break it with some joke.

  Hope she’s safe out there.

  ___

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