She woke up to find Add already awake and working. Well no, he probably hadn't even gone to sleep last night. They had returned to his house and continued the rest of their day just as they had started it by coexisting in relative silence. There had been small talk here and there, but Add had gotten immersed in his work thanks to the break he took. (Y/n) had passed the time by looking through his old prototype sketches and handing Add anything he asked for in between. It was the part where she fell asleep that she didn't quite remember.

        (Y/n) sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Good morning, Add." A layer of two blankets fell down from her shoulders.

        "Took you long enough to wake up," Add said without looking up from his book. "Here, take a look at this." He passed her a new sketch.

        "You want me to use my brain this early in the morning?" she complained.

        "It's almost nine." Add met her gaze with narrowed eyes. "Just look at it. It's a new model. I figured out all of the math for the improvements last night."

        (Y/n) accepted the draft of the new weapon and scanned over the intricately drawn details on the paper. "Looks great. Uh, but why show it to me? I don't really understand anything other than that it's kind of pretty," she spoke with an awkward laugh.

        "You were looking at the old ones yesterday." Add's brows furrowed. "I thought you'd want to see this one too. Guess I was wrong." The disappointment in his voice had (y/n) immediately shaking her head.

        "No, no you were right! I did want to see it! I just thought you wanted me to help. I can, but I wouldn't even know where to start. I barely got past the first three pages of that quantum mechanics book yesterday, and this looks far more complicated than that." Add stiffled a laugh. "What? I'm not a genius. That's your job. You're the smartest person I know too." She smiled at the smirk he attempted to hide. "I don't know what I'm going to do today, but I do know about you. I have a feeling that you're going to just be bored all day."

        "Bored? What brought you to that outrageous conclusion?"

        (Y/n) held the new draft out and pointed at the tiny cat drawing that she spotted in the bottom corner hidden in the many notes scribbled around the page.

        "G-Give me that!" Add took the sketch back and put it aside. "I am not bored. I'm conducting the research necessary to make sure that my dynamos' remodeling goes smoothly. It has nothing to do with drawings or being bored," he insisted. (Y/n) fought hard not to giggle at him, but her efforts failed. Add's ears were tinted in a rosey color to contrast with the scowl that he wore on his face while looking down into his book.

        "Right, well I'm about to go out for a run. Want to come? The weather is supposed to be nice even though it's been getting colder again lately."

        "No way. I'm not getting myself sweaty just to satisfy your urge for entertainment," Add replied.

        "Okay, stay inside all day. Fine with me. It really is fun if you change your mind."

        "I won't. You'll never find me and running in the same sentence. What do you even find so fun about it?"

        "I was a mail carrier back when I lived in my village." (Y/n) fondly remembered how fun it had been to parkour through the neighborhood and time her deliveries. The people themselves didn't care for her too much, but it had never been about them. "Nothing felt better than the wind whipping past when you get up to a high enough speed. It took me a while to get used to going so fast without tripping or hitting anything." Even now she remembered the first time she hit her head on a branch and cried the whole day. She grimaced at the thought. "Whenever I came back home, my father would teach me whatever combat skills I asked about. I wasn't very good at using a bow though. Still can't."

        Add looked up from his book with an eyebrow raised. "You're an elf that can't use a bow?"

        "Hey, not all elves use bows!! Seriously, what's with humans and assuming elves have to know how to use a bow? And I'm half elf! Half!" (Y/n) crossed her arms and pouted. "My father was a swordsman anyway. He could have just been teaching me the wrong way. I do know how to throw knives though. Humans are just too quick to think of a bow when they see and elf. It's a shame really."

        "You don't want to be called an elf, but then you talk about humans as if you aren't one. Make up your mind already. It's confusing." Add scratched his head while (y/n) gave his words some thought.

        "I told you, it's complicated. I'll go into more detail about it some other time. Just try to avoid leaving off the half. It kind of bothers me." She didn't like either side due to her past experiences. Being in between two different species sometimes left her conflicted about her own identity. "It's not really that important. I'm me. That's all there is to it."

        "Yet you cover your ears with a cloak."

        "Oh come on, Add. You aren't fooling me with that eye patch either. There's no way it hasn't healed by now, so what are you still wearing it for?" That kept him quiet for a second. His hand went up to touch the eyepatch. "Um, you aren't actually still hurt are you?" (Y/n) watched him unconsciously trace the magenta line that ran down from his covered eye. She had always wondered if that was a birthmark, a scar, or a tattoo, but she never dared to ask.

        "There's nothing wrong with it. I just prefer not to use it unless I have to." Add closed his book and activated his dynamos. "My eye's current state is a side effect from the chip that my father implanted in me when he did his experiments to turn me into a living weapon. The scar is from Dynamo. When we first met, he forced a download of information into my head and nearly short circuited my entire brain," he began to explain as he removed the eye patch.

        Just as he had claimed, his eye was perfectly fine. Add lifted part of his bangs aside to allow her to get a good look at it. What (y/n) hadn't expected was the slight glowing of his iris. The pupil was not normal either, being shaped exactly like the symbol that (y/n) had seen on all Add's clothes, dynamos, and even his drafts.

        "Does it really fascinate you that much?" Add asked without breaking eye contact. Unbeknownst to the girl, he was taking a closer look at her by using their current situation as a cover.

        "Your eye is beautiful, Add. Both of them are." She didn't know what else to say.

        "Is that so?" The rosey tint returned to his ears, this time spreading to his face.

        "But...your father did that to you," (y/n) realized. "You must hate that eye because of what he did."

        "I don't hate it. It comes with power that I wouldn't have otherwise. The chip implant is part of what connects me to my dynamos. I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the modifications at all. I want to obtain my strength my own way, so I try not to use it. That and..." He finally looked away from her, suddenly very self aware of himself. "It's just a little unsightly like my scar." (Y/n) briefly thought back to the marking around the boy's neck that was hidden well by his high collared shirt. "Some people fear what is different while others use that difference as an excuse for weakness. I am not weak."

        "So then you don't mind me staring?"

        "Do you mind when others stare at your ears?" he answered with a question. (Y/n) decided not to reply to him. The answer was yes, she did mind, but if she told Add that he'd probably just put his eyepatch back on without ever giving it another thought.

        "If I stop wearing my hood, will you stop wearing your eyepatch?" she wondered.

        "Why do you want to keep seeing it so badly?" He let go of his hair and let it hang down over his eye. "I told you, it's unsightly." He was already preparing to cover it back up again anyway, (y/n) realized.

        "And I told you it's beautiful. You make your choice. It's not my place to tell you what to do with your body. I just think having both your eyes visible just makes you seem..." she couldn't find the word she wanted to say. "More attractive." Huh? That couldn't be it. Why did she think that?? "Cooler. It makes you seem cooler," she decided to say. "But has he always been like this?" she wondered. Even with his eyepatch back in place and his bangs partially covering it, she could still see what stood out about him. It was like someone had permanently flipped a switch in her brain somewhere. "And I haven't even noticed before now. How did he get away with this for so long?!"

        Add picked up his book again, and opened it back to the page he had been reading without the use of a bookmark. With his focus back on its pages, he didn't appear to take notice of (y/n)'s blank stare. She was baffled at how she could no longer see the Add she once knew sitting in front of her. He was still himself, but it was her view that had changed and it had her questioning things.
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I'm going to hope that I'm not lying when I say Dynamo gave Add his line scar. I've believed that for so long that it may as well be a fact to me. Until next time you incredible readers!