The Soulmate Curse

Tenacity - Part 3

"You're home early," said Finn when Zhen walked into the apartment. "I thought you'd be here later tonight."

Zhen had been planning to arrive later, but she'd become impatient. She'd wanted to see Finn.  A Strong enough feeling to persuade her to leave home an hour or so after they left the park at midday, despite Akemi's classic disappointed look. She'd found the apartment door wide open and so were all the windows. Finn was affixing a smoking bundle of herbs onto the autonomous vacuum cleaner. She stood up and Zhen watched the robot move away, trailing the smoke around the apartment's common areas. Finn looked a little guilty, but also slightly embarrassed. Zhen just smiled.

"It's been a rough week," Finn was explaining, wiping her palms on her jeans. "The whole place felt a little... I just wanted to fix... change the energies... um, I hope you don't mind?"

"I never mind you doing your witchy things," said Zhen, dropping her bags and taking a seat on one of the kitchen island bar stools just as the vacuum cleaner slid by. This was a new herb bundle. It had basil in it. And was that thyme? It smelt divine. "I actually find it fascinating."

"You do?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," said Zhen, leaning back onto the counter and facing Finn. "How are you both a witch and a scientist?"

"Well," said Finn. "Mechatronic design is about working with electronic and digital systems. Witchcraft is about working with natural and wild systems. Basically, the same thing."

Zhen laughed. "You are an interesting human being, Finnegan Darrow."

Finn laughed too, but her face quickly turned solemn.

"Zhen, I'm sorry about the whole almost being kidnapped thing," she said, dead serious. "I didn't know it would get this far."

"That's okay. You were right," said Zhen. "If MechSoft is so confident that their case is rock solid, why did they come after you? It's a little suspicious."

"You believe me?"

"I believe in you," Zhen explained. "In your capabilities. You see the world in a completely different way from anyone I know. You see dots where I see none and patterns that connect them. If you think that there's something odd about this case, there's a good chance you might be right."

"Thank you, Zhen," she said. Her eyes shone with unshed tears, which made Zhen feel bad. She hadn't wanted to make her cry.

"So, are you going to teach me how to hex and spell people, or not?" said Zhen, jumping of the bar stool and rubbing her hands together maniacally.

Finn laughed and shook her head.

Zhen straightened her posture and became serious. She had to set some boundaries. "You know I can't help you or be involved in any of this serial killer stuff, right?"

"Right," Finn agreed. "I wouldn't dream of taking away anything from you, Zhen. Especially not your chance at exploring the stars."

"Good," said Zhen with a smile. "Now, show me to your witchy cauldron."

"That's an absolutely non-PC stereotype, you know," Finn said laughing.

"Well, if I'm not going to learn any witchy secrets from you this afternoon," said Zhen. "Then maybe you can help me build something new for Joe."

"Who's Joe?"

"The gorgeous ginger boy who lives in the lobby."

"That cat? You're the one who brought him back from the shelter? And you made all those toys for him?"

"Of course," said Zhen with a shrug. "So, do you want to help me drive the RA to sheer madness?"

"Um, yeah!"