B U D D I N G R O M A N C E
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Location: Jericho
Day: November 24th, 2044
Time: 10:00 pm

The next day, Starling decided she would visit and help out at Jericho (either that or go stir crazy), and was glad as she had found her friends, Willow, Farrah, Molly and Carl.

She and Carl were assigned to get more water for the few residence living there, when another power outage happened, caused by a storm, making Starling slid down and hug her knees to her chest.
"Hey, you ok?" KABOOM! Starling jumped at the sound and shook her head towards Carl.
"You scared of thunder and lighting?" Starling nodded.
"It's ok. It'll be over soon." Carl explained as she glanced at the door and frowned. It was locked. They were stuck there for the time being.
"Want to talk to get your mind off of it?" Carl suggested quietly.
"Yeah- ow!" Starling winced, attempted to stand up, but scraped her hand.
"Let me look at it. We should have a first aid in here." Carl suggested, standing up to get it, making Starling blink at his kindness.
"Thank you." Starling said, as Carl fixed her hand.
"You're welcome." He replied with a smile, making Starling heart beat rapidly. What is happening?! What is my heart doing?! What is this feeling?! Starling asked herself, panicking inside her head, when Carl interrupted.
"You ok?"
"Uh... well, sort of. Y'know with the storm and all." Starling said looking away, making him frown, but he didn't ask her anymore questions, sitting on the other side, making Starling calmer than before. KABOOM! She jumped, her brief moment of peace shattered.
"Hey, hey, hey! It's ok. I'm right here. We're safe." Carl explained in whispers trying to calm her down. Starling then turned to him.
"Distract me." She blurted out.
"How?" Carl asked calmly.
"I don't know. Tell me a story, talk about someone!! Anything, just please distract-" her sentence was interrupted by Carl kissing. Starling blinked for a moment, but then relaxed. It was short, but it at least distracted her.
"Did that work?" Carl asked hesitantly as he pulled away.
"Yes. I think it did." Starling replied a little frazzled. A few moments of awkward silence followed, not neither of them didn't like it, they just... didn't know what to say or do after. They were designed in a factory after all, made to compute and filled with ones and zeroes. They didn't know much about love.

Starling glanced at Carl nervously, and then crawled over the short distance and kissed his cheek, making him blush a bright blue.
"Thank you." Starling explained with a kind smile.
"Aww! How cute!" Starling and Carl jumped, not realizing that Carl's sister opened the door.
"I... how long have you been standing there?" Starling stammered.
"I just saw you kiss my brother on the cheek. Don't worry, you're secret is safe with me." Willow explained with a wink and giggle.
"Thanks sis." Carl replied, glancing from the floor to Willow several times out of nervousness.
"Now, let's get that water. Shall we?" Willow explained nonchalantly, moving past them, as though the incident with the storm didn't happen.

Location: Rupert and Crystal's Apartment
Time: 1:00 pm

Starling returned back to her temporary home to find Crystal feeding Poppy and Pippa.
"Hey, I'm home. Where's Rupert?"
"He, uh, he had to go to the construction sight to fix something at the house he's helping build." Crystal explained, a bit distracted by feeding her two precious birds. Rupert now worked in construction after androids could get jobs, he's been doing it since June.
"Ok. Can we talk?" Starling asked hesitantly, and Crystal nodded.
"Spoiled little things." Crystal muttered, speaking of her two birds as she sat down.
"So, what is it that you want to talk about?"
"I uh... Ottavia talked about this in our session. She said that I should talk to you about... well. You like birds right?" Starling asked with gleaming eyes.
"Yes of course. What bird would you like to know about?" Crystal explained with a giggle.
"Well, I guess," Starling looked down at herself, "starlings?" Crystal smiled and nodded to her, grabbing a small book that was about every bird known to man. Crystal flipped through several pages until she found the section on starlings.
"Well come on! Sit down next to me!!" Crystal urges Starling, tapping a spot next to her on the white couch. Starling hesitates but then sits next to her, as Crystal begins to read about Starlings.
"Wait... Crystal? How did you and Rupert meet?" Starling asked, surprising herself that she was even asking the question. Crystal blinked, but then smiled.
"Well... I met him in Jericho. I noticed he'd leave periodically, and I'd find him outside feeding pigeons, so I decided to talk to him, and we'll, obviously we both loved birds so we had that bond. To put it bluntly, I was smitten." Starling giggled, and Crystal smiled at her.
"Now, may I continue reading about starlings?" Crystal asked as Starling's eyes lit up as she nodded.

S E V E N H O U R S L A T E R...

At 7 pm, Rupert returned to the apartment from work, and smiled. Crystal and Starling were sleeping on the couch. He picked up the book about birds from Crystal's hands carefully, put a blanket over them and kissed Crystal's forehead making her smile before feeding Poppy and Pippa and heading to bed.

Author's Notes

The next chapter will be the last. Hope you all enjoyed, even if Carl and Starling being a couple came out of nowhere😂
We reached #5 on Rupert and #6 on Detroit: Become Human!!! Yeah🎉
Bye!
BatgirlGeek❤️