Sarina finds herself in the laboratory yet again, adding a few more emotions to her ever expanding list. She can hear the sounds of everyday life going on outside Donatello's scientific haven, making her smile lightly. The lair is vibrant and full of life. It pleases her.
Her friend works nearby, alternating between his microscope and his computer. She glances up at him just as she's adding a curve to the "g" in laughter, when her hand freezes. Donatello is standing up now, his body curved over top of the table with one eye closed as he peers into the microscope. His large fingers deftly adjust the slide beneath, his tongue just poking out from between his lips. His arms shift, falling back to the sides of the machine, and for a split second Sarina wishes that those hands were touching her sides instead.
Her entire face bursts with heat and she has to forcibly stifle a choking noise. With a quick twist of her hips, her office chair swivels away from him and she is free to stare at the floor in disbelief. Her heart pounds and her stomach flutters and lurches as if she's swallowed a multitude of tiny butterflies. She keeps her hand firmly clapped over her mouth as she tries to steady her breathing and rid herself of the fuzz invading her brain.
"Sarina, I've got training right away. Do you want to observe?" Donatello asks, making her heart perk up and start racing away from her yet again.
"No," she says, getting to her feet with such a force that her chair rolls away, bangs into the lab table, then tips over. She doesn't dare look at him. "Something has come up. I will watch another time," she says in a rush.
She strides from the lab without another word, leaving Donatello behind amongst his own confusion. The cyborg can see that his brothers have already gone into the dojo for a quick, evening training session. She whirls around and makes a beeline for the hallway, where she locates her bedroom and goes inside.
Destiny is already there, her earbuds in and a book on her lap. Sarina flops onto her mattress and stares aimlessly at the ceiling, her mind whirring and clanking and churning. Destiny slowly looks up from her book, reaching up to remove a single earbud.
"You okay?" she asks.
Sarina exhales heavily and lets her eyes fall shut. She can faintly hear Destiny's music trickling from her earbuds, adding soft voices to the tense atmosphere.
"Leave my heart open, but it stays right here in its cage..."
"I...fear I may be coming down with something," she whispers, her hand moving to clench over her chest. "Perhaps a fever or a virus of some kind?"
Destiny's eyebrows lift and her ears perk. She pauses her music and tugs out her remaining earbud as she bookmarks her page and sets it aside all in a few quick motions. She crawls to the edge of her bed and flops onto her stomach, gazing down at Sarina with no small amount of concern.
"You can get sick?" she asks.
"It is very rare, but yes," Sarina answers. "My immune system is far more advanced than others, plus my hardware is always kept up to date. That is why I am concerned." She stops, sucking in a sharp breath. "I am dying."
"Okay, woah, calm down," Destiny says, raising her hand. "You're not dying."
"Are you positive?" Sarina demands. She sits up and snatches Destiny's hand, bringing it to her forehead and pressing the palm solidly against her skin. "I am burning up inside and I think I have developed a heart murmur. Surely, this is the end of my lifespan." She allows Destiny's hand to fall, but still holds it gently as she stares off into space. "I am so young..."
"Sarina, you're a perfectly normal temperature," Destiny repeats. She pulls her hand away and folds her arms beneath her chin. "Maybe backtrack and tell me when you started feeling sick."
YOU ARE READING
Emotionless Mutation (Book Three)
Fanfiction"However, you say I am human in a sense, that my body is simply fused with the robot that I have been raised to believe I am. Could you teach me...emotion?" The Kraang tried to take over the city of New York twice, and only once did they succeed. Th...
