Steamwork Neela
The burrito lost about half its filling halfway to Echran's mouth, splattering sauce and beef bits all over the floor and on his socks. His little whirring companion came rushing to the spot, readily sucking in the stuff with its tongue exactly as if licking it off the carpet. Echran put down his untouched snack on the desk, bending down slightly to pet Spark on the head. "Thanks again, little guy", he praised the dog in a small voice. The puppy lowered its ears of steel and closed its eyes of carnelian, making squeaky noises with each wag of its tail.Echran's grandfather had only let him keep the dog because Echran insisted its only purpose was cleaning. With only the two of them living there, the house was sure to be downright filthy and crowded with metal scraps all the time, so the old man couldn't really argue. And that way, Echran also managed to get away with finally keeping a pet, even if he had had to build one himself.
Just as Echran was thinking of him, Mr. Omehia's bald head protruded from the stairs, followed by his thin shoulders and narrow torso and finally ending in his seemingly fragile ankles as they reached the top step and headed to Echran's worktable by one side of the attic. Glancing up from his grandpa's buckled shoes, Echran noticed he was still dressed in that old-fashioned cotton shirt he had been wearing all week, its sleeves bearing very recent stains of something very black which looked like engine oil.
Echran wondered if that's how he would look in a few decades: old, cranky and with never-fading oil stains on his clothes.
Frankly, right now he only wished he could keep from losing the hair.
"Quit staring at my head, boy!" his grandpa snapped, waking Echran from his reverie and startling Spark away. "Get your smartie phone and call your little lady over for dinner. It's getting dark, and all I've eaten today was a bunch of peanuts I found in the freezer."
"Papa, you can't make Ayu come over every time you're hungry. She is not a delivery girl." He meant it seriously, but still couldn't suppress a grin. Echran knew that deep down, his grandpa just really liked Ayume and wanted her over for a meal. But the old guy was also very practical, so why not make the most of the trip and have her come over with a huge bag of junk food? "Besides, she can't come," he went on, more seriously now, turning to face his work on the desk. "I haven't finished her gift yet."
Mr. Omehia sniggered, also looking at the gears and wires finally coming together on the table. "By the time you finish that junk, she'll have got sick of you already." He lifted the instrument to level with his eyes, carefully yet lightly, contrasting with the weak appearance of his hands. He called it junk, but it was still a fruit of hard work, and there was nothing the man valued more than the work put into a good machine. "I don't get what she sees in you, anyway. Should have left you a year ago and saved herself the trouble."
"It might be she's worried we'll starve if she doesn't come over every once in a while", Echran smirked. With a sigh, he gave up protesting and stood up from the chair, not without some difficulty (he had been in that position all day, and his joints didn't appreciate that very much). "Alright, I'll call her. But", he added pointly, which promptly got his grandfather's attention. "only if you take a good bath and throw those clothes in with the rest of the heavy laundry."
Papa gave him a wide grin that bared all his teeth, all yellowed bones and metal. "You can put this little trash of yours in my cabinet before she arrives," he offered bluntly, as if this was also some kind of deal. "And have her bring whatever dessert she wants, too. Dinner is all on me."
Echran snorted. "Yeah, sure, just go to the bathroom." His grandpa laid the unfinished engine back on the table with the same carefulness as he had raised it, still grinning as his grandson gestured for him to leave, "I won't let Ayu see you like that, and geez, be sure to get rid of the smell!"
The old man left without another word, practically skipping down the steps. Echran drew in a breath and looked around for his phone, but Spark was already on it: it ran to Ecrhan's side immediately after Mr. Omehia disappeared downstairs, holding his smartie phone in between its titanium teeth. Echran kneeled down to fetch them up in his arms, both the phone and the dog.
"So you want to see her, too?" He scratched the puppy's chin as if it weren't made of cold metal, its tail wagging and squeaking against Echran's chest. "You really are a good boy."
