Thank you for waiting.

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Uh-huh? Go on, I'm listening."

"We traveled in the transportation tubes, and when I saw the city for the first time, I began dancing. I remember it to have been a magical place." She sat back down again. "I am not old, Ali. Only a week. But the city no longer brings me joy. Nothing has changed. It looks identical. But I no longer feel like dancing when I see it." She waited a few seconds. "Ali, you are wrong. I am no different from anyone else. I was told to act pleasant when I was created – it's in my design, but aside from that, I am no different from anyone else. I want to go home to Yenri, but Yenri is no longer here, and I have no home to go to, and so I do not know why I need to continue anymore."

He sat down next to her, crossing his legs. "I wasn't done, you know."

"Hmm?"

"Flor, you're a fun person to be around. I mean, accordion? What? Like, who does that? All those other joshu out there, they're not like you. You're special. I mean it. You don't think you are, but you are, okay? At least to me."

"But who are you?"

"Ali."

"What does your opinion mean?"

"As much as you want it to mean."

She frowned. "And what does my opinion mean?"

He froze, trying to think of a good response. "I... uh... What... What do you feel like it means?"

"Me. I am a piece of paper in a library, sitting next to infinite other ones. I sit there until I am destroyed, like..." she thought of Beryl and Eloise and decided not to finish that sentence. Her hands were feeling shaky. "I am worthless. That is what it means to not be real."

"You're pretty real to me, Flor."

"But who are you?"

He laughed a little. "Will you just let me compliment you?"

"No. No I will not. You're... You're in my head, it feels." She stood up. "None of this makes any sense. I-I feel sick, Ali. I'm beginning to feel suspicious that none of this is real. This?" She pointed at the city below them, "I don't know what that is. It's all I know, but it's not all I know, because everything I know was fed into me when I was being created, and I can't tell you if it was put there to make me act a certain way, or-"

"-Flor, hey, whoa, whoa, stop it, okay? You're thinking into this way too much. You're fine."

"No, I'm not fine!"

Ali took a deep breath, letting it out sharply. "I love you, okay? Flor, I love you. I can't stop thinking about you. You're the world to me, alright? You're cute, and you're talented, and you need a lot of love, and I want to be there for you, okay? Why do you think I want to work to get you a package so we can keep talking? I mean... You're the most freaking beautiful girl I have ever met, and-"

"Ali..." she whispered.

"-And I'd give up the world if you could be my girlfriend, okay? I'd get a job. I'd do it for you. You're all I want."

Tears were starting to sharply appear on Flor's eyes as her frown began to sour. "You don't know who I am, Wallace. I don't know what it means to be cute, or talented, and... and... you keep looking at this body like it's mine! Ali, I wish... I wish that Natsuki Yamada girl was still alive so she could be your girlfriend, but she's dead now, just like Yenri, and I'm stuck looking like her, so s-stop loving a dead girl, a-and... and..."

"I don't care what you look like, I want you." And at that, he stepped forward, gently placing his hands around her waist. He pulled her up towards him, and their chests touched as he let his lips contact hers.