Void pressed her palm against the cold metal frame of the laser cutter's enclosure, the chill biting into her skin through the thin fabric of her sleeve. The edges were still a little rough - she hadn't bothered to buff them out-but inside, the airflow moved like water, like thought. Precision carved through entropy. She traced one seam with her thumb, grounding herself in the craftsmanship, in the logic she could control.
Behind her, she could feel Keira's gaze - not casual, not idle, but intent. Like she was reading a schematic through Void's posture alone. Like she was waiting to see if Void would explain, or even impress. It wasn't judgement - it was curiosity, sharp and electric. The kind that hunted not for flaws, but for brilliance. For someone who could match the weight of her chaos with quiet skill.
"Alright," Void said, her voice measured but laced with that dry edge she always kept as armor. "Here's the deal with the airflow." She flicked off a few screws, lifting the side panel to reveal her handiwork - a patchwork of 3D-printed ducts, repurposed fans, and makeshift mounts. "Stock fans pull air in at a diagonal, which creates turbulence around the lens. Heat pockets form and wreck the cut precision, especially on longer jobs."
Keira crouched low, elbows resting on her knees, eyes glued to the network of tubes and vents like she was tracing a blood vessel map. "So, you reroute the intake to balance the pressure, right? Triple splitter duct?"
Void nodded, appreciating the fact that Keira wasn't just playing dumb to flirt. "Exactly. The three-vent splitter distributes airflow evenly across the chamber, maintaining negative pressure near the intake. Exhaust is pulled out through dual drone-fan turbines I scavenged from a busted surveillance quad. It increases air velocity, reduces thermal buildup, and keeps the laser stable during long runs."
Keira let out a muted, low whistle, visibly impressed. "You turned a budget hobby cutter into a goddamn stealth drone."
"Not quite stealth," Void said, smirking, "but close enough to keep the neighbors from complaining about noise."
The playful glint in Keira's emerald eyes deepened. "You talk tech like a fucking poet. Like... You're spitting sonnets about fluid dynamics and thermal dissipation."
Void chuckled despite herself. "Poetry's just compressed code with feeling. You're not so different."
Keira flashed a sly grin, pointing at herself. "Trust me, no code you've ever written is as fucked up as this gal right here."
Void's eyes traced Keira's silhouette, a study in contradictions burning vivid in the low light. She was built like a reinforced glass cannon; a bitch on the outside, likely a softie on the inside. Much like Void. Five foot seven of lean muscle and dangerous curves, a strong, formidable frame capable of caving your skull in just as much as it was of gentle touch. Her movements were bold but deliberate, like a knife edge sliding through silk, never wasted nor hurried. Every step she took spoke of battles fought and won - both in the workshop and the wild spaces beyond.
That scarlet hair, wild and untamed, spilled down her shoulders like a molten river of fire, catching stray rays of Void's LED lighting system and bending them into sparks. It framed a face crowned by sharp cheekbones and those deep green eyes that held storms - eyes that didn't just see you but carved you open, fierce and knowing. The eyeliner slashed outward in angry, precise wings, the shape of a challenge and an invitation tangled into one, as if daring the world to blink first.
Then there was the curve of her collarbone, leading down to the soft swell of her cleavage, hinted at beneath the open collar of her shirt - just enough to suggest, never to show. It was the kind of subtle invitation that threw promises without speaking, a quiet rebellion wrapped in skin that felt like the edge of a flame - warm and dangerous, impossible to ignore. The way the light caught there made Void's breath hitch, a flicker of heat she tried to smother but - despite her best efforts - couldn't.
Her hands told stories, too - calloused but careful, nails painted with a black-red gloss that caught light like blood pooling beneath glass. On her right middle finger, a silver pentagram ring glinted - small but fierce, a talisman against dullness, a claim staked in shadow. Those hands, capable of dismantling machines and piecing them back together, also traced invisible maps of longing and defiance in the air.
Keira carried herself like a poem written in muscle and fire, a living, breathing electric pulse that both threatened and soothed. To look at her was to read a love story laced with sharp edges and soft curves, a bold declaration inked across skin and bone. And in that glance, Void felt the pull of a storm she didn't know if she was ready to weather, but was already drawn toward: reckless and undeniable.
Keira tilted her head ever so slightly, and for a split-second, her gaze met Void's like a fuse catching a spark. Void hadn't realized how long she'd been staring until Keira shifted her weight just enough to draw the eye downward again - casual, like she knew exactly what she was doing.
And of course, she did.
"You gonna keep staring like that," Keira murmured, a smirk blooming slow across her lips, "or are you trying to memorize my chest for when the lights go out?"
Void blinked hard, caught like a glitching routine, and heat flared in her cheeks before she could stamp it down. She opened her mouth to shoot something back, sharp and clever, but her mind was still trying to reboot.
Keira's grin widened, lazy and wolfish. "It's okay," she said, running a thumb along the edge of her pentagram ring, "I'd stare too if I were you."
Void turned away abruptly, jaw tight, grabbing the nearest spool of filament off the bench like it was suddenly the most important thing in the world. "Fuck off," she muttered, not quite able to keep the smile from tugging at her lips.
Behind her, Keira just chuckled - low and pleased, the kind of sound that curled around the ribs and made itself at home.
Void looked at her smartwatch. The time was 3:14 AM.
"Pi o'clock," she murmured, more to the glowing display than to Keira, but her voice carried - a little too casual.
Keira, standing by the workbench, cocked her head like a predator catching movement in its periphery. "Looking to run your hands over a smooth curve right now?" She turned, eyes gleaming, mouth tugging into a crooked, knowing grin. "What's next, Void? Gonna tell me how well I integrate into your system?"
Void raised her finger, trying to look for a comeback she didn't quite have.
Keira chuckled low, walking past her just close enough to brush shoulders. "Mm. Thought so. You keep throwing out numbers like that and I might start thinking you're trying to calculate our yield point."
Keira stretched her arms over her head, spine arching in a lazy flex, her silhouette carved in the flickering LED haze - equal parts threat and invitation. "Guess we're just two tragic bitches caught in the same sleepless loop," she drawled, eyes half-lidded. "Wired and weird. Real poetic shit."
Void's smile curled sideways, feeling her snark subsystem finally rebooted. "You want a coffee," she said, tilting her head just enough to let the remark land, "or are you running purely on the butterflies in your stomach?"
That hit something.
Keira paused mid-stretch, eyes flicking to her - but she didn't flinch. Didn't blink. Just grinned. "Damn," she purred, voice low and dangerous. "You trying to beat me at my own game?"
Void arched a brow. "Maybe I already did."
Keira let out a low laugh, stepping closer. "Alright, domestic sounds hot. I'm in."
Void turned toward the door. "Don't trash my workshop while I'm gone."
"No promises," Keira sang after her, already eyeing the LED lighting control panel mounted discreetly on the far wall.
As Void disappeared down the hall, the smell of ground beans faintly drifting back, Keira padded over to the panel, brushing aside a loose ribbon cable. Her fingers danced across the controls with muscle memory precision. The light flow sequence - a gentle pulse from magenta to violet - shifted gradually. Keira adjusted the hue curve, letting it melt deeper, angrier. Purple into red. Less dreamy, more blood heat. She muttered under her breath, amused, "Might as well match the mood. Pink's a bit too... polite." What she didn't realize was that, with that one change, she'd just erased one of the last traces of Aura still clinging to the room.
Void stood in the cramped kitchen, the sputter of the ancient coffee machine filling the quiet space between her thoughts. She'd already decided on black, strong - no sugar. The best fix, like clean code or a bodge wire: minimal fuss, maximum effect. She liked her coffee like she liked her problems - straightforward enough to bite back but never complicated.
Her fingers tapped the counter idly as she waited, the familiar bitterness of coffee grounds and burnt beans teasing at her senses. The steam curled up like a ghost in the dim light, and her mind slipped again to Dee - how different she was from Keira, how gentle, slow and hesitant she was, like a fragile melody played on loop. Like Aura, but without her signature deliberation. Dee's patience was a weight that settled softly on Void's chest, comforting but heavy. And here she was, brewing something quick, sharp, and loud, just like Keira.
Void snapped back into reality, chasing the thought away. She couldn't let herself spiral - not tonight. The clink of the mug on the counter helped her get back to her senses, the rich aroma filling the room. She wrapped her hands around the warm ceramic, the heat seeping into her palms, grounding her.
Maybe coffee, like people, wasn't about complexity. Perhaps the best solutions were the easiest ones - no mystery, no slow burn. Just bold, direct, and exactly what you needed to keep going. She cupped the mug tighter and turned back to the room, ready to see if she'd guessed Keira right.
When she stepped back, carrying two steaming mugs, she paused just inside the doorway. The lighting had shifted - deep violet melting into a hungry red that traced the sharp planes of Keira's cheekbones like the flush after a dare - bold, alive, and impossible to ignore.
Void's brow twitched, a sly smile tugging at her lips.
"Touch my RGB settings again and I might have to recalibrate your face," she said, voice dry but amused, the kind of warning only a sapphic tech witch could deliver.
"Relax," Keira replied, smooth and playful. "That pink of yours was a bit too tame for us. Needed something with more... voltage."
Void handed Keira one of the mugs filled with bitter, brain-tricking substance, fingers brushing hers. "Didn't ask how you take it. Just made a guess."
Keira brought the mug up slowly, lips brushing the rim like she was savoring a secret. Her eyes flickered wide for a moment, that brief crack in the armor, before she masked it with a slow, deliberate murmur. "Black. Like my eyeliner and sense of life expectancy." Her voice was low, almost a dare, heavy with that reckless kind of confidence that pulled you in and told you to fuck off at the same time.
She took another long sip, then set the mug down with a muted thud. "Strong. No sugar. Burned just right." Her gaze locked onto Void's, sharp and sizing her up, a smirk teasing the corner of her mouth. "Damn. Either I'm easy to read, or you're freakishly good at guessing."
Void leaned against the doorframe, raising her own mug. "I'm just observant."
"Or maybe," Keira said, voice slow and laced with heat, "you're already inside my head."
Void laughed into her coffee, but didn't deny it.
"Know anything about cyberpunks?" Void asked, wiping coffee stains off her fingers as she leaned back against the workbench, her voice casual but testing.
Keira took a slow sip, eyes narrowing slightly with a grin. "You mean the glossy Corpo fantasy or the real shit? The edgerunners?"
Void smirked. "Didn't think you'd go for the chrome-and-leather aesthetic."
Keira scoffed. "Please. I wish I could see Night City with my own eyes one day instead of being stuck in this shithole of ours. Still wondering how Silverhand pulled off that nuke back in '23." She traced a finger along a scratch in the table. "Style's one thing. Survival against those who try to fuck you over... Another."
Void nodded, tapping her nail against her mug. "Yeah. It's always been about resistance. About breaking the rules because the rules were written for a system designed to choke you. Shame Johnny never survived the event."
Keira glanced sideways, something sparking in her expression. "Thought you'd say that." She paused. "You ever listen to their songs? I mean, SAMURAI?"
Void blinked. "Wait, you actually dig SAMURAI?"
"Bitch. You say you're observant, yet you failed to notice this while ogling my tits?" Keira tapped the faded logo on her tank top, then leaned in like she was about to confess something filthy. "That shit's religion. Every song's a protest. A middle finger wrapped in distortion." She tilted her head, eyes flicking over Void. "Figured you'd vibe with that."
Void held her stare for a tad longer than necessary. "Didn't really peg you for someone who bleeds on beat."
Keira smirked, sipping again. "Stick around. I'm full of easter-eggs waiting to be discovered."
Before Void could roll her eyes or throw another barb, Keira reached over and plucked her phone off the edge of the bench without a word - just grabbed it as if she'd done it a thousand times. Void blinked, halfway to protest, but Keira was already tapping the screen, and then-
Click.
"2013," Keira said, like it wasn't a fucking shot in the dark. "Cute. Emo girl origins?"
Void stared. "How the hell did you-"
Keira shrugged, thumbing open Spotify with the proficiency of someone who owned the damn device. "Lucky guess. Or... maybe you're not as hard to read as you think."
She scrolled, tapped, and let the low, fuzzy buzz of Morro Rock Radio flood the room: half-grime, half-nostalgia, full synthlines bleeding into overdriven riffs. Void hated how good it sounded with Keira in the room. It matched too well. Like the place had been waiting for this exact wavelength to shake the dust off.
And somehow, they clicked. Coffee mugs forgotten. The bench became a war zone of parts - LED strips, broken sensors, a half-functional motion tracker Void had forgotten she even owned. Keira picked through it all like a magpie with a multitool, occasionally tossing parts over her shoulder, other times rewiring things just for the hell of it. Void found herself explaining things she hadn't said aloud in months - fan curves, thermal thresholds, modded firmware she wasn't supposed to have anymore.
At some point, Keira set up a sound-reactive LED loop just to see if it could sync to Morro Rock's basslines. It did. Badly. FFT she applied to the waveform captured from the microphone wasn't smoothed out enough. They laughed until Keira nearly dropped a soldering iron on her leg.
By the time the tracklist had looped twice and the last dregs of coffee were long cold, Void finally noticed the clock again.
"Shit. It's five."
Keira, hunched over a box of resistors like it was treasure, blinked slowly. "And?"
Void rubbed her temples. "And I need sleep before I start thinking my printer is talking to me in binary again."
She expected a smirk, a goodbye, maybe a flirty line tossed over Keira's shoulder as she left. Instead, Keira wandered over to the bed and just... Planted herself. No hesitation. No ask. She lay back like she belonged there, boots already kicked off, arms stretched over her head with a yawn that somehow made her even more infuriating.
Void stood frozen for a moment, halfway between protest and fascination.
Keira cracked one eye open. "What? You think I'm gonna walk home after soldering with no ventilation for hours? Girlie, I'm like two volts away from hallucinating."
Void exhaled through her nose, then shrugged and dropped beside her without another word.
The bed dipped under her weight, and then Keira rolled slightly, lazy and warm, draping an arm over Void's chest like it was the most natural thing in the world. Her palm rested just above Void's heart. Steady. Claiming.
"You know," she whispered, voice softer now, almost shy in its sincerity, "I've crashed on floors that felt less like home than this."
Void didn't answer immediately. She just stared at the ceiling, at the slow swirl of red-violet light still flowing along the edges of the room.
"Wired... And weird..." Void mumbled, her voice slurred with sleep, the words trailing off as her eyes finally gave in.
Keira shifted closer, resting her cheek against Void's shoulder, her breath warm against skin. "...and connected," she whispered, barely audible, like the last thought before a dream. And then she, too, let go.
Outside, the first light of dawn crept over the edge of the skyline, turning the smog gold.
Inside, two sleepless souls finally let themselves rest.