-Mary-

It was an odd feeling, Mary thought as she and her father walked to Alan’s house. On one hand, she was scared and worried for her family and what would happen to them, and on the other she was excited to be able to spend so much time with her best friend. If she thought of it as a extra-length sleep over, it didn’t feel so bad. Still, her face was still red from crying earlier that morning and she wished that things could have been different.

Alan had a nice house, Mary had always admired it when she had visited, and she also liked that Alan never commented on her’s when he visited Mary. She had lost a lot of friends because they looked down at her home, and her mother and father, with contempt. And, although she would never admit this, Alan was something of a gentlemen. At the door he smoothly took her bags from her and guided her to his, now their, room.

They had even purchased a bed for her! Sometimes, the kindness of this family overwhelmed her…

“Hey, everything is going to turn out fine.” Alan had come up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “My father said that he could recommend your dad for a training course in Steam Mechanics. There are plenty of jobs in that field now that automata are so common.”

“That can take years…” Mary whispered, trying not to cry. “Before that…”

Alan put his hands on both her shoulders and turned her around to look at him, “Before that we don’t mind giving you a hand, Lord knows your family has done the same for us over the years.”

“But we haven’t done anything…” Mary mumbled, avoiding his eyes.

“My father never required your dad to stay late so many nights you know,” Alan said gently. “Nor did he expect your father to risk himself when that boiler was about to blow. Your dad saved my father’s life, and put in extra effort every day he worked, this is the least we can do to repay the favors.”

“Thank you Alan,” Mary hugged him tightly. “You always know what to say to cheer me up.”

Alan had turned red and was stuttering and sputtering and, unbeknownst to Mary, in the middle of a crisis as he tried to figure out where to put his hands.

“Well, almost always.” Mary giggled as she seperated and watched him continue to stammer, “You really do need to toughen up if that knocked the wind out of you Alan.”

“It wasn’t because… I’m not… You just…” Alan continued to fail at a coherent sentence and Mary laughed and smiled at the sight. Even when he couldn’t say anything, he did manage to cheer up anyways!