Heart of Titanium

July 7th, 2044

Cherise sat outside on a bench, looking up at the cloudy, but also beautiful sky. She closes her eyes as the snow falls on her visor, it melting and running down the nanotech surface.

"It just feels so wrong..." Cherise says to herself. "I can feel it...but...its a different type of feel. Almost like a...phantom limb sense. The feeling is there...but you can tell its not truly there..."

She hangs her head low as she looks at her paws and paw pads, then turns them around to look at her beautiful white and grey fur, feeling up the back of her head to her ears.

"If only I were born human...maybe even gone to the same school as Bryson once did...he wouldn't have had to lose so much just because of me. Its so unfair to him..." she said, as she put her head in her paws.

"Over a month living here...and yet I still just..." she started tearing up, the guilt over pressuring her, like twenty tons being dropped on her.

"I...." she said, between sobs and hicks, "I'm so sorry, Bryson...I didn't want any of this to happen-"

All of a sudden her visor went black as she collapsed on the ground, Bryson still inside and unaware. Her eyes all of a sudden opened, and she was back at the room she saw in her childhood. 

The poster on the wall, a giant metal door, and her caretaker...right there in front of her. His voice seemed clouded and distorted almost like his voice, but then, she saw the caretaker hold up a picture. 

She slowly grabbed the picture, her paws being smaller as she was younger, and looked at it carefully. A young boy was in the picture, smiling towards the picture taker, holding a screwdriver and an old looking PC. 

Her ears perk up at the caretaker's voice. "This kid is very special to me. He's kind, smart, but very protective." The voice said chuckling.

Cherise looks deep in the photo as she can be seen wide-eyed, and smiling, already crushing on the boy. She turns the picture around and sees, 'August 13th, 2032. Bryson's first PC!' She froze as she tried to say, "This looks like-" but then, she heard a voice.

"Cherise. Cherise. CHERISE!"

Cherise's heartrate increased as she was pulled back from her memory and her visor came back on, snapping awake as Bryce was right above her, "Oh, thank god! What happened?" Bryce said, holding her up and hugging her tightly. 

She was still processing what had just happened as she pulled from the hug to look at Bryce in the eyes, still in his arms. "I have to tell you something."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bryce is seen sitting with her at the table as his hand in through his hair, listening and processing her new found memory. "So...you saw a picture of me? When I was a kid?

"First of all things, why were you out there all alone? If you needed alone time I totally get it, but just be sure to let me know next time. If they found us they could've taken you without me even knowing."

She nodded in agreement, "I-I'll try to be more communicative on that...I promise." She said, her voice still shaky.

Bryce smiles as he sighs and gets up from the table, going towards the couch and patting down. "C'mere, goof." He said.

Cherise slowly walks to him, her tail swishing with her hip movement, effortlessly swinging side-to-side. Instead of sitting beside him, she lifts on leg over and sits in his lap, her knees on the cushions and her hugging him tight, her muzzle buried in his neck. "Heh...someone likes this cuddle position, hm?" he said, rubbing her back and tail.