A Tinker's Job

Chapter 8

"where is he?!"

you groaned at the impact, your robot coming to your aid and making angry noises at the person who came barging into your house, then scurried away to find something to protect itself with. 

"good evening to you too, kaveh."

"{name}, did al haitham come by recently?"

you sat up, dusting your clothes off. "he did, and he even slept over because he didn't want to deal with you." realization struck you, "wait, why are you in the city? weren't you in the desert on a building project?"

"you see," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "i forgot to grab my bag of tools. and someone locked me out of his house. i was just trying to find him."

"aaaand," you drawled. "why come to my house?"

"because he always talks about you at home," he groaned. "so i figured that he'd be here."

you nodded, "well, i can tell you he isn't here." he opened his mouth to talk before you interrupted, "and i'm not hiding him either." he tried again, "and i don't have a spare key."

"damn it," he cried. "do you have any tools i could borrow?"

"depends," you hummed. "what did you need?"

"i need a compass to use for my sketches and some spare rulers," he thought aloud. "seeing as you're my favorite engineer and person to bother, you have them right?"

you sighed, "yes, i have them. follow me."

you brought him to your other room that was an inventor's dream – lined with tools and all sorts of devices with lamps and a large table in the middle covered with blueprints. "it's not exactly clean," you apologized. "but, here we go." you reached into a tool box, grabbing a compass and rulers of varying sizes. "how are these?"

"perfect! thank you {name}," he said gratefully, hugging you. "man you really are a lifesaver!

"alright get off," you said playfully. "you still have a project to do."

"o-oh right," he came to his senses. "and sorry for sumpter-dozing you earlier. i didn't mean to."

"it's alright," you said. "have a safe trip."

"thank you!"

he left in a hurry, running out the front door with the new materials he required. you ran after him, opening the door and yelling at him, "RETURN THOSE WHEN YOU GET BACK!"

"OKAY!"

you sighed and closed the door, turning to your robot that came back holding a pillow in its arms. "let's head to bed."

it nodded, running to the bedroom to make itself comfortable while you got yourself ready for bed. the morning came sooner than you thought, stretching your arms above your head and checking on your bruise. it seemed to get better, however you didn't want to do too much work on the project before al haitham and cyno were ready to execute their plan.

"oh right," you mumbled. "the handkerchief."

you checked the table, grabbed scaramouche's handkerchief and packed it in your bag before you forgot. then, you re-dressed your bandage in order to make sure it healed faster. after getting ready, you kissed your robot on the head and headed outside, walking past the market to the secret laboratory that was hidden among the foliage. when you walked inside, scaramouche was waiting for you at the top, seemingly talking to someone. you quirked a brow, placing your bag down and making your presence known.

"good morning," you called up.

scaramouche simply nodded, "{name}."

then, the person next to him turned to you. a mask adorned his face, hiding his eyes from view. he had blue hair that was messily styled, two strands framing his face. his figure was tall, very tall, practically looming over scaramouche. he waved down to you, zipping down the tri clover down to you and walked towards where you stood, scaramouche following suit.