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In sleep, so often did Jonny's lashes flutter alongside the ticking of her heart. There, within the dark of her room, a flicking tail joined the sequence—just the tip. For, if more was to move, it would depart from where it brushed through hairs on Jonny's chest; instead, the bulk of Lyric's tail dipped from flesh to laze upon metal, sinking and rising a few more times where its length crossed indents made by screws.
Heart, lashes, tail.
Around the chain dividing Jonny's heart in two, Lyric curled their paws. Spindly digits hardly managed to wrap the full width of a link's thinnest portion.
Such metal was surely sturdier than their bones.
Even at rest, the chain rattled. Connections clattered softly with the movement of her breath—far less steady than her mechanical heartbeats.
With a poorly, obliviously placed exhale, unknowingly mated with a tiny twitch, a hair slipped into Lyric's nose, and they sneezed.
Their squeak was swallowed by the room's expanse. Somewhere distant, a meow responded in kind. Not quite communication, acknowledgment fit their exchange better.
By Lyric's itching button nose, their eyes blinked. They were—comparatively—big, certainly beady, but not freshly-woken. Under weighted lids, they simply watched.
A sniff, a shuffle, and they pressed their cheek deeper into the breast lipping Jonny's heart—their pillow of choice. Whiskers tickled where metal met flesh, near-iridescent. They looked as if bundles had been fashioned of translucent silver and placed upon their cheeks.
They needed no blanket; a wagging tale had cast aside the ones they had long ago.
If either was cold, they didn't show it.
Another nuzzle, simply for the sake of it, spurred by the motor that was a purr in Lyric's throat. This time, it pushed up the edge of their muzzle.
Pointed teeth poked their blunt sides into skin, not dissimilar to those that refused to go back into Jonny's mouth after a particularly aggressive snore.
Matching.
As a word, the thought didn’t enter Lyric’s sleep-addled mind; instead, warmth bloomed inside their rib cage, beside their ever-indecisive heart.
They might not have had the thin sheen of drool which pooled from Jonny’s lips, through her patchy beard, to puddle upon the pillowcase, yet their eyes wet similarly.
Overwhelmed—from what? They didn’t exactly know.
Everything, assumedly.
It was the good manner of overwhelm, where lying still became impossible and they fantasized about transforming into something a bit less material. Perhaps a nice cloud might let them slip though metal so that they could live in the beautiful contraption beneath their body.
Aware that she wouldn’t wake, Lyric nibbled at the flesh before them—to work through the electric ache in their nerves. With their claws, they fidgeted, unable to scratch the chain.
Jonny hardly stirred.
The hair along her forearm prickled and settled again.
Lyric’s eyes followed the movement, or, at the very least, that which was in their view: the arm folded across her front. Her other rested by her side, out of sight, beyond where they could see without lifting their head.
No, the comfort of their bed was far too great to dare think there might be a downside. Had their back not been bracketed by Jonny’s breast, they might have raised their hackles at such a concept.
Instead, they kept nibbling.
Soon, the brief growl which bubbled in Jonny’s throat smoothed into a purr, only to be occasionally interrupted by sputtering chokes on her own spit.
Accustomed to her nightly noises, Lyric’s ears didn’t so much as acknowledge it. Pinned, their ears were intent upon her ticking. In another situation, it might have resembled aggression, rather than the will to once more memorize a sound they’d dedicated many mortal lifetimes to.
Tick, flutter, flick: they knew it all well—by heart, even.
Closing their eyes, they let the chorus consume them. In nothing, it echoed through their ears to wrap around their sluggish mind and diffuse into their bloodstream.
The two were not one, yet they were something fairly close.
Ticking floated through their veins. Immortality hugged their lungs; gears pressed a kiss to their heart.
By her breath, Jonny rocked Lyric into a restful sleep.
By their dreams, Lyric continued to watch.