"You'll forget me too,"

'What should I even reply to this?' Lupin thought, "I won't. I got a good memory,"
She laughed, "Of course, so hey, how did you come to the future?"

'Oh yeah,'

"Some weird lightning fell on me, so here I am, stuck in the future,"
"Then, who was that girl with you?"

'Alright, lemme put it to my advantage,'
"...My girlfriend," Lupin said.

"Oh...I kinda killed her," Veronique said
"Kinda? You mutilated her,"
"I'm really sorry,"
"You're horrible, I will never forgive you,"

"I'm sorry...If there's anything that I can make up with, how much money will it take to fix it?"
"I don't want money,"
"Then?"
He looked into her eyes, "I want you to take her place,"

'Wait–I sound like such a fucking asshole–'

"I mean–"
"Got it, I'll help you find the time machine," She said.
"That's not what I meant!"
'She's oblivious!'

She threw a stick at him, "Stay here. If you move, I'll kill you," She flew away. He looked at the stick and it glowed orange. It kept his surroundings warm and he slept peacefully on the warm steel floor of that tower.

She flew towards the Mechapolis tower and landed on X's worktable. He looked at her, "Oh hello, Veronique,"
She smiled, "X," He reached her and kissed her gently. She looked into his blue eyes and touched his hair. He slapped her hand, "How many times have I told you not to touch my hair?"

"Sorry," He moved his hands up her stomach to her breasts. She moaned, "The stars look pretty tonight, don't they?"

"Hmm? Yeah, whatever,"
"Do you like the sky?"
"Don't give a damn about the fucking sky,"
"Okay..." She looked down his shoulder.

'I hate this,'

Next morning, Lupin saw her before him with a small cube in her hand, "You want food?"
"Yes," He said.
She kept the cube down and it opened into five plates filled with five meals of a full course meal.

Lupin ate heartily. She smiled as she looked at him eat.
"Hey, do you want to go out?" She asked.
"Where we gonna go?"

She threw a pair of boots before him, "Put these on,"
Lupin wore them and stood up. They were unusually light, "Now?"
"Tap your right toes on the floor,"

He did that and the boots gave off fire from their sole, "WHAT THE FUCK–"
Veronique pushed him down the tower, he went down in circles.

He jumped down and grabbed her hands. She pulled him towards her and hugged him. She pressed her feet on a wall, pushed herself against the wall like a spring and went in a different direction.

She looked down at the city beneath her, "How does it look?"
"I'm scared of heights,"
"Oh bullshit! Look! Floatators,"

She pointed at some robots floating in the sky, she jumped on them as if they were floating stairs and threw a cube in the sky.

It spread out into a skateboard and she landed on it, "Hop on," She told Lupin. She took him down the market. Standing behind her, he got reminded of Slaine. He missed his friends already.

He ate at a roadside stall,

"This tastes good, what is this?"
"Rat meat,"
Lupin puked instantly, "WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Oh, you wanna some stasth?"
"And what is that?"
"Eggs and frog meat,"

"I'm a vegan now,"
"What's that?"
"...Seriously? You guys only eat meat?"
"Yeah? Is that bad?"

The radio played songs he had never heard. Half of the population was robots. Bright lights covered the sky, he couldn't see a single star.

There were people of different ethnicities and sexuality, all living together in harmony. New York streets never felt so alive. The fashion was completely different, the food was different, he saw robot pet shops.

"You can keep robots as pets?"
"Oh, you wanna see?"
They showed them a robot dog that could clean the place and functioned on electric batteries that could be charged like cellphones.

At night, they both sat on the same steel tower, looking at the sky.
"The stars are so pretty tonight,"
Lupin looked at the dark sky, "I can't see shit, there are no stars,"

"Yes, there are. We just can't see them, but they are still there so I can compliment them,"
"You know, I really wanna show you a sky full of stars," Lupin said, "By the way, the city looks pretty from up here,"

"Yeah, ever since we found Kasternergy, the entire world is shining with lights. There is no shortage of electricity,"
"Kasternergy? What is that?"
"Oh–" She hesitated, "It's just an energy source,"

"I see," Lupin said.
"I'll go back now, take care. Sleep well," She flew away. And Lupin looked down at the city. He soon went to sleep too. Next day, she was there again with his breakfast.

She'd take him to different places of the future every day. Lupin didn't hate that. It had been a while since he had a good time. At night, they would fly back to that tower and sit there, staring at the dark sky, talking for hours.

A week had passed and this routine still didn't seem tiresome to any of them. Lupin liked listening to her, her talking about her thoughts.

And slowly, he started talking too; about medicine, building machines, software, hacking, drugs, everything good and bad.

With her, it could never be a small talk. They talked about atoms, death, aliens, magic, intellect, the meaning of life, faraway galaxies, music that made them feel different, memories, their favourite place on Earth, their favourite scents, the lies they had told, their flaws, their childhood, what kept them up at night, their fears.

It was as if the past was talking to the future. None of them understood each other, the obscurity of each other's worlds, the history or the advancements, but they felt a connection, and that kept them together. In her, he found peace.

In him, she found a home.

"When I was a teenager, I liked a girl, and I thought it was mutual. She gave me signals like those," Lupin said, "But then I got into drugs and ran from home, I didn't see her for two years. After two years, I returned, my parents were happy to see me again. I thought she would be too.

But, when I saw her, holding hands with some other guy, it just completely broke me. When our eyes met, she ignored me and just walked past me. I was hurt but I just got over it in a month," He chuckled, "I guess...She doesn't like me anymore."

"I like you," Veronique said, "I like people with depth, who speak in emotions from a twisted mind. You say things that leave me thinking, I never met someone who can have raw conversations as effortlessly as me. Until we talked.

I like your inadvertent smile, that isn't intended to impress me like it was before. I like you when you are real, Lupin,"

That made him weak.

He had completely forgotten what he was there for.

"Besides," She said, "Not like I have a good relationship. I don't even know if X loves me,"

"Oh yeah, tell me about you guys. Where did you meet him?"
"In a prison,"

-To be continued

Slaine ||Lupin
5500 Rebellion