CyberVirus

Chapter Six

          The sounds of beeping, the whirring of fans, the heavy click of turnstiles constantly moving in a steady rhythm. Even with the echo of the station, it was far from empty. A collection of bustling noises of androids coming and going was consistent here, It felt like a little too much, and humid. I wanted to take off my jacket, but I knew better.

          My fingers clung to Rui's silky sleeve, my heart was thrumming in my ears like a fast paced drum. I hadn't been to a station like this in a while, it was overwhelming. My eyes remained focused on the ground, I could feel the faint throb of a headache coming on as the intercom sounded, a robotic voice announcing the arrival of a train.

          We were at a ticket counter, Rui was paying, obviously. I could only faintly hear his voice through the noise. I had to admit, despite being one of the most dangerously confusing people left on the planet, his presence was quite soothing. Well, it could have just been because he was actually human and everything else around me wasn't. I was a little intrigued with how calmly he went about purchasing tickets. Humans aren't allowed to travel between sectors, so the fact that he wasn't even wearing a hood while doing this was certainly nerve-racking. Regardless, I still trusted him.

          My eyes traced the lines of the tile beneath my feet, spacing out a little to distract myself. I frowned behind the shelter of the mask. I didn't used to have these anxiety problems, yet I couldn't place when they'd started, either. It was disappointing more than upsetting, really.

          I jumped when the feeling of Rui's hand met the top of my head. My heart had stopped for a hot moment.

          "Zoning out aren't you...~?" I could spot the glimmer of a teasing smile in those pale ochre eyes of his. His voice droned out a bit at the end as if he were going to say my name, but thought better of it given our circumstance. I shot him a grumpy glare. "Anywho~ I got the tickets, we need to go head over there now so that we have time to get snacks~" Rui continued with a cheery chirp in his voice, holding up the two beige tickets in the other hand that I wasn't clinging to like a lost child, delicately waving the tickets back and forth.

          I glanced at the android behind the counter, then back at Rui again. I nodded to affirm his instruction, remaining silent as I tried to manage that shaky feeling going through my body at the moment. Rui gingerly pulled me along, slipping past the crowd. The hall was about as wide as a normal school gym, the lights overhead a bright yellow that was almost off-putting, a delicate buzzing radiating off of each rectangular light. Each footstep we took bounced off the walls in an echo, a few lit-up billboards built into the smooth, polished walls. There were hardly noticeable, dirty stains at the bottom of the wall, specifically the line in which the wall met the floor.

          "You okay..?" Rui glanced at me with a look of concern as we continued weaving through the crowd of metal-headed humanoids.

          His voice made my heart jump; my head spun a little more and my breathing grew heavier. I nodded curtly, not wanting to address the subject anymore. He gave me another look of worry before tearing his gaze away from me again.

          We reached the first set of turnstiles, the silvery bar greeted us with a small glare from the overhead lights. Rui motioned me forward to go first, which, understandable considering that he had both of the tickets. We had to wait behind a few other androids first. Although there were many lanes, all of them were equally as full, so we had walked into the line that had the least amount of androids. The loud noises all around my head were still bothering me.

          When it reached for our time to pass, I watched the little screen on the side as Rui's gloved hand slid the ticket over the sensor. The light turned green. I pushed the bar slightly, making sure not to put too much force, I made that mistake one too many times when I was younger. It clicked into place, and I was on the other side.

          There was less of a crowd here. A couple feet forward was a large board that held a map, pointing to each station. I stepped out of the way, tapping my foot impatiently as I waited for Rui to reach the other side.

Click.

          I immediately looked up to meet his eyes, watching him take the first few steps shortly after before following close behind. I watched him slip the tickets into his pocket.

          "Which station are we going to?" I asked just to clarify.

          "Wha?"

          "Which station are we going to??" I raised my voice a little more so that he could hear me.

          Based on what I could remember from when I'd looked at tickets to sector 8, it should be station E.

          "C" his answer surprised me a little. That was pretty far off from what I'd remembered. Maybe I'd looked at the wrong route. Or maybe I was just mixing things up.

          I didn't question him, looking up at the map to see where station C was.

          "We go right," I pointed put.

          "Oh, yeah, thanks, I spaced out a little, fufu~ you and me both now, hm~?" Rui thanked with a light-hearted comment, tilting his head a little to the side.

          I wanted to laugh, but the most he got was a quirk of my lip into a smirk; one in which he couldn't even see because of the mask.

         I was about to walk off to the right when I'd felt Rui's hand slip into mine. I blinked a couple of times, feeling myself puff up almost like a distressed cat. I had held my breath for some reason. His hand was slightly bigger than mine. It felt...weird, how his fingertips subtly grazed my knuckles. I kept walking, not wanting to freeze-up for too long to make it weird. I was avoiding looking at Rui the whole time, I couldn't muster the courage to look up at him.

          I hadn't realized it before, no thanks to my heart racing just as fast as before, but I didn't feel as anxious as I did earlier. I stuck close to his side as we walked, part of me wanting to get close enough to hide our hands as if it'd do something, as if someone was watching, or as if it were even a big deal to begin with. Which it wasn't.

          I liked it though. It was comforting, warm, too. I pursed my lips together, feeling a burning embarrassment on my face.

          "...thanks." I murmured, somewhat hoping he wouldn't hear.

          He gently squeezed my hand.

"Any time,"