The Fire Underneath of Things - 27

~1061

Grey

It was finally Tuesday. Grey turned the scrying sphere over and over in his hand as he sat on the edge of his bed. He was nervous, but committed. Today was the day he’d finally finish his project and ask Ivy out. He sighed and flopped back on his back. Yesterday she had come in and he hadn’t even been there. What must she think of him? A lazy slacker? The truth was, Grey had been wandering around Hazel’s Hill, trying to find Strix. He’d had no luck and had received a lot of glares from the witches in town. It was obvious he didn’t fit in. He was hoping he’d be able to resolve the Strix situation to calm his nerves before asking Ivy out, but it just wasn’t to be.

After a few minutes more lying on the bed, Grey steeled himself and readied himself for the day. When he left his little corner of the Workshop, Grey caught a whiff of sizzling bacon mixing with the usual smell of sawdust, paint, and various metals and chemicals. He approached the Workshop’s little kitchen to find Alder cooking up some bacon and eggs and humming to himself.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Grey asked, suspicious.

“I’m just glad to be alive, I suppose,” Alder said, smiling broadly at Grey. He shoved a plate heaped with steaming bacon and eggs at Grey. “Eat this. You need more protein. You’re always so skinny!”

Grey wolfed down the breakfast. It had been a very long time since Alder had cooked them breakfast. Most of the time Grey ate nothing in the mornings, but recently, on days he was really hungry, he’d break into a bakery and pilfer one of their pastries while walking home from lamp-extinguishing. After Grey finished his plate, he grunted in satisfaction. The breakfast had been one of the best he’d ever had. “Thanks, Alder.”

“You’re welcome, Grey.”

Alder and Grey worked all day on Alder’s crazy project. Grey knew it would never work, but he humored the old man, still grateful for a wonderful breakfast. He also hoped being good would give him good luck for later in the day when Ivy showed up. As usual, around late afternoon, Alder gave some excuse for why he couldn’t work anymore.

“Got a crick in my back. I’ll let you keep going on your own. Say hi to Nikki and Ivy for me!” Alder walked away, a hand resting against the small of his back.

Grey wondered briefly if Alder purposefully left him alone most evenings. He never seemed to have back issues or letters to send during the day. Not that Grey was complaining. He had work to do. He pulled out the machine he had been working on, the one with little spindles, almost like Gidgit, but more precise. Now, he had added a sort of vambrace fitted to his forearm so he could wear the machine comfortably. The machine almost looked like an animatronic arm with long, spindly fingers that could move and bend intricately based on tiny finger movement. It was a thing of beauty, and it was almost complete. All Grey needed to do was add a base for the scrying sphere, then pop in the sphere itself.

He hadn’t been sure what the exact proportions of the sphere would be, otherwise he would already have started on the base. As it was, it took a while to get the base to the exact right shape to fit snugly onto the machine. Ivy arrived just as Grey finally secured the base.

“Hi Grey,” she said with a bright smile. “Nikki will be along soon. She’s bickering with a buyer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Grey, suddenly nervous. Instead of meeting her eye, he focused all his attention on ensuring the base was firmly in place.

“Is that the machine you had me work on that one time?” Ivy asked, coming closer to inspect it.

“Yeah.” Grey’s grip tightened on the machine. So she recognized it. Back when she had helped work on it, it had been a mess of teeny tiny parts. What would she think of it now?

“Oh Grey, it’s beautiful.” She put out one of her graceful fingers to touch one of the spindles.

Grey flushed with pride. “Do you want to, um, finish it? There’s only one piece left.” He held up the scrying sphere and gestured to the base.

“Are you sure you want me to? I’ll probably screw it up.”

“Of course I want you to. And I don’t think you could really screw it up. You just have to pop this sphere into the base, and it’ll hold like a charm.” He offered her the sphere that reflected the whole room, making it seem like he and Ivy were on their own separate little planet that he could hold in one hand.

“Alright,” she said, and gently took the sphere out of his hand. Her fingers brushed against his palm, sending a tingle up his arm. She pressed the sphere against the base until it popped into place. “Was that okay?” She asked, looking up at Grey.

“You were perfect,” he said, before raising his machine to his face to check if the base was hugging the sphere as snugly as he had intended. It was. “Perfect,” he repeated.

“So, I asked you this before and you said it didn’t do anything yet. But now that it’s finished, can you tell me what it does?” Ivy asked.

Grey looked at her out of the corner of his eye and gave her what he hoped was a mischievous smile. “Why don’t I show you what it does say, Friday night? Maybe after some dinner?”

Ivy looked very surprised. “Grey, is this… are you asking me on a date?”

“If I was, would you say yes?” He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice, but he wasn’t entirely sure he was succeeding.

Ivy was silent for what seemed to Grey like eternity. He stomach dropped. How could he be so stupid? She hated him. Thought he was disgusting. Only put up with him because she actually fell for Alder’s craziness. She probably loathed him ever since they first met.

“Yeah, it sounds like fun,” Ivy finally said.

“What?”

“I said yeah. Let’s do it.”

And Grey’s heart soared.

--

A/N: Btw, this is a vambrace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vambrace

If anyone knows a more common term for that same thing, lemme know.

edit: duuude look at this cool one: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3910755270_6a4b93fc8b.jpg it's got like, a light on the end of it. So steampunk :o