Nick smiles, his ears becoming red. He'd never been called sweet before. And he was extremely grateful she said she'd actually come back to visit. "It's not quite an apartment or anything, but...it's my home." He blushes a little more before adding, "You're welcome here any time you want."

A few strands of hair have fallen in front of his eyes, but he doesn't blow it out of the way this time, seeing if Allison will fix it for him. "What would you like to do now?"

Nick grins slightly, a shimmer in his eyes of mischief, and something else not as easily identifiable, not shying away from her hand. He was slightly red, but less so than he had been most of the night, "You've already touched my face once, it's alright if you want to again."

His voice is calm and reassuring, which surprises him, because he was sure Allison could hear his heartbeat. He didn't quite know where the moment was going, but he did nothing to stop it.

Nick's face reddens at Alli's touch. When she rests her hand down by her side again, he releases the breath he didn't know he was holding. He smiles shyly. "See? That wasn't"t so bad."

He rubs the back of his neck, sighing reluctantly, "I hate to say it, but it's kinda late, isn't it? It's not that I want you to leave, it's the polar opposite, but, you know...sleep and stuff..." Nick looks a little downcast, but his eyes are hopeful, "Maybe we can get ice cream sometime soon?"

Nick smiles shyly. "I don't sleep very much, so it doesn't bother me, but it was -you- I was thinking about. And I think it was very worth it too." He blushes at the last statement.

Nick imitates Alli's slow smile. He says wryly, "I miiiight be able to do that."

He obviously debates in his head for a moment, then shyly holds out his hand for her to take. If she took it, he would lead her at a slow pace through the maze of machinery in the warehouse, and he would remain quiet, thinking over their afternoon. He would then smile a little, just the idea of the memory as a whole making him grin.

Nick smiles at her first remark. "Thank you too, Alli. It's been really fun, ai'm sorry to see you go..."

Nick had almost completely forgotten about the coat, and he took it, swinging it over one shoulder. He could immediately sense Alli's pleasant scent on the coat. He murmurs, "Thanks," distracted by the smell.

He feels a small tug on his heart as he goes to open the door for her. 'You'll see her soon,' he told himself in his head, 'You'll see her soon.'

He looks up at her, "Do you need help getting home? Or can you manage?"

Nick copies Allison's soft hug, closing his eyes, attempting to memorize the feeling he gets from being that close to her, but it sadly ends long before he wants it to. He opens his eyes as she says goodnight, and he smiles. "...G'night, Alli." At her gesture and silent message he grins more easily, and nods with a slight blush.

Nick had expected Alli to walk home, but when the ground opens and she is flung high into the air, he is quite awed. After what appeared to be a sqpfe landing on the nearby building, Allison waves, and he returns the gesture. When she jumps again, now noticing her excited whooping and hollering, and he grins, shaking his head slightly. She just kept surprising him.

He stays outside in the cool air until he cannot see her, and then enters back into the warehouse. He sets the door to allow Allison entrance into the building, and then turns, sauntering back into the depths of his complex.

He smiler. Nick already looked forward to seeing her again.

Alli hadn't exactly 'followed' Nick. They'd walked unhurriedly together, side-by-side, talking and enjoying each other's company. She couldn't explain just how valuable the silences in between the words were-- comfortable silence was rare, and having a person with whom she could just be quiet sometimes was thrilling. She grows even more relaxed as she and Nick are surrounded by the metal and concrete of Ironport, the echoes of so much metal making her footsteps more sure, raising her confidence by miles.

She'd pursed her lips a little at his question, then shakes her head in the negative, explaining shyly, "Nah-- I was home-schooled, or, sometimes a special teacher who worked with blind people would come help me. I..." She actually sounds a bit regretful, now, "...I actually sometimes wish I COULD have gone to a regular school, y'know? I feel like... being an only kid, and then being blind of top of that isolated me... a lot. So, when I-- when you--" She clears her throat a little, inadvertently squeezing his hand a bit harder. "I think that's why I haven't been as good at this as I could maybe have been?"

After a pause, she reiterates quietly, shyly, "...So no, I've never been to a dance. ...I thought you didn't dance, though. Have [i]you[/i] been to one?"

Alli listens with every sense of empathy, nodding her understanding. As they reach Nick's door, she pauses, smiling shyly up at him. Her face never loses it's blush entirely when she's with him-- it just varies between pink and red-- as it does now.

"Hah-- I knew you could! Stuff like the w-waltz is just math anyway..."

Alli smiles a but more, admitting, "I never danced not because I didn't have rhythm or anything, but because I was always nervous to run into someone. ... I think it's cool that you can, and if you'd lead, I bet you I could follow. Yeah... yeah we can. Any time! It's not like we've got reputations to maintain or anything!"

She giggles wickedly, then says, contemplating the door, "Take me to your microwave?" and giggles a little harder.

Allison steps into the building in front of Nick, then waits. "Oh Christ--you don't know where it is? Or are you teasing me and you're gonna make me work for my dinner? "

Already though something is happening to her eyes-- under the clody blue iris... are her pupils dilating and constricting?...

To Alli's senses, it appears as if distant objects become clearer, shifting from foreground to background as she looks 'through' the machinery in the capacity that she can, searching.

Alli is tense as they wander in, expecting at any second to be swept off her own feet, or to have Maddie tackle Nick out of her hand.

they make it to the kitchen unmolested though, and she stands in the middle of both rooms with her left hand out, turning her customary slow circles.

She then gives Nick a sly smile, tossing her backpack on the counter and digging out her food. "Knew you were playing me for a fool..." she says amusedly as her food goes into the microwave and it hums to life. Don't suppose you can cook?"

Alli had just taken her food from the microwave when Maddie's humming caught her ear. Without making it super obvious, she casually steps a little further away from Nick, making it look instead like she's giving him room to heat up his own dinner-- but in fact was getting out of the way just in time for Maddie to bum rush the boy.

She bites her lip with a grin, the somewhat gloriously greasy paper bag in her hand giving off a heat that's nothing in comparison to her face. She answers Maddies questions as fast as she asks them, though, showing remarkable constitution in the face of the energy-draining enthusiasm, "Yes. Yes. Yes. I like it more than I've liked any gift I've ever gotten!"

Alli pauses at this far more blatant comment and compliment about her appearance. Her free hand lifts and touches her own face by reflex. After a brief, but visible swallow, her voice comes out much quieter, though the bemused smile is still on her face-- "...That's... that's really nice to know." She addresses her comment to Maddie, though her cloudy eyes are shifted over to look at Nick, "I think Master Ridley's pretty attractive, too, y'know. That's sort of how it works, when you like somebody."

Alli laughs, sitting down at the table across from Nick and opening her bag to lay out a Bacon Burger, fries, and the last few gulps of her soda. She sighs at the aroma of the bacon and nibbles a fry, saying to Maddie, again while looking at Nick. "Well I also think he's smart and nice."

When Maddie whispers, Alli whispers back, "I dunno how [I]you[/I] know that, but I do know that, too." She flicks Nick another 'glance', smiles, and takes a bite of her burger. Apparently she's doing okay with Maddie's comments so far-- it feels like teasing, sort of, but the things she's actually saying keep her face in that constantly flushed state.

Allison is singularly intent on her own burger, her eyes half closed. She heaves a pleasant sigh, popping a few fries into her mouth and washing down with a sip of soda.

She peeks open one eye and laughs at Nick's face, grinning. "I know it's horrible for us, but junk food is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Just-- Don't use that as an excuse to feed it to me all the time or I'll get diabetes or something. Maybe we should do salads next time?" She teases, munching.

Alli shakes her head and smiles as Maddie exits. "Ridiculous yeah, but she's got somr really interesting stuff to say."

She considers Nick across the table as she fibishes off her burger, and asks suddenly, very quietly, "You have nightmares. Was your dream... was your dream about me okay?"

Alli looks immediately contrite, groping across the table for his hand, holding it with tightly laced fingers despite grease or foodstuffs.

"I'm sorry-- I just... I just hoped I hadn't done anything to make that part of your life weirder. I only want..." she pauses, swallows visibly, then continues with a blush and an honest tone, "I only want to be a source of-- of good things. I won't ask about it anymore..."

She looks away, but doesn't let go his hand.

Alli blushes, closes her eyes at his touch of her face. There's something about hands that she'll always be attached to, and her face feels as if Nick's hand has left an imprint in her skin. She can remember every finger...

A bit dazed, and certainly feeling light-headed with the reverse of emotion, she asks, "Anything? Oh, then... Do you wanna be my boyfriend?"

Hearing herself, her eyes snap open and she stares across the table in suddenly mute shock. She gulps and her stomach turns over, but she doesn't take it back. She feels electric with that mixture of terror and blind anticipation, her pulse faintly visible, racing in her throat.

There follows perhaps the first of their genuinely [i]un[/i]comfortable silences just then, each looking across the table at the other with an almost identical expression of mingled fear and eagerness...

Then Alli sputters a nervous little laugh, and squeezes Nick's hand, hard. Unable to hide behind her hair, it's obvious as her expression changes, losing the terror and swinging entirely to giddy happiness.

"...I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't want to. Duh." She giggles a bit more freely, and says more clearly, firmly-- "Yes. Definitely. I wasn't planning on 'seeing' anybody else, anyway." Her smile turns to a bit of a grin, feeling the easiness start coming back to her words.

Alli tucked both lips into her mouth, willing herself not to laugh-- it made perfect sense to her, but it was obvious that he meant it to be funny--

She can't help it, slumping in her chair and fizzing mirthfully for a few moments. She sticks her tongue out at Nick impudently over the table. "Now 'see' here! I'll 'see' whoever I want to 'see'! I just don't wanna 'see' anybody else but you, so there!" She retorts, trying very hard not to laugh [i]as[/i] she's saying it, and failing miserably. She has to wonder at what point Levi will pop in, too, and start correcting grammar.

"M-Me too!"

Alli, positively [i]giddy[/i] at this shiny new prospect, not to mention a great deal of energy having recently been well fed, is easily tugged out of the chair, following Nick wherever he wanted her to go.

She laughs breathlessly, replying, "Uhm, yeah! Why not! I have some good songs on my phone-- unless you had one in mind?"

Alli pauses near the table, does her customary 360 spin, smiling happily. "Alright... But you have to promise you won't get mad if I step on your feet or something."

She digs her iPhone out of her pocket and feels around on the table for the dock, marking it with her fingers. She then says placidly to her phone, "Media Player. Shostakovich, Dmitri, Waltz No. 2. Play."

She quickly sticks the iPhone onto the dock and the resulting music would play through whatever speakers were in the room. It's a very easily recognizeable and quite famous classical waltz piece, set at a moderate tempo. Alli steps back to set herself in front of Nick, holding up her arms expectantly, blushing-- but with excitement and anticipation more than embarrassment at the fact that she has the song on her playlist. "Go ahead and put me wherever I need to be. I'm a puppet. Boop boop!"

Alli had been elated at first, but standing very close with her hand on his shoulder-- she drops immediately back into a shy demeanor, swallowing compulsively and going quite red as he touches her waist. His hand cant be THAT warm, can it? Or maybe that's her?...

She's so distracted she almost misses the first step, and scrabbles to keep up. After that first mishap she studiously watches his feet for a few tries-- then shakes her hair back and looks him in the face for the next few, feeling herself speed up to the actual tempo. A bright smile breaks on her face as she realizes she's doing it!

Alli seems delighted-- not just with her ability to dance, herself, but to see Nick just let go. She is easy to lead, following the push and pull of Nick's hands with great sensitivity.

As he pulls her closer, she tightens her hold on his hand and shoulder, bodies touching from necessity. The music swells to a full symphonic crescendo that makes Alli want to laugh-- feeling like it made her emotions swell up, too, cresting like a wave of happiness. She manages to hold it in, but barely,, smiling with giddy eyes..

Alli laughs, feeling the centrifical force swinging her around Nick like a planet held in orbit by a sun.

She looks him right in the eyes, then leans her head forward to touch her temple to his cheek as the music comes to an abrupt but predictable close. Standing still 'in hold', she says softly into the warm silence afterward, "It was the best. I loved it..."

Alli wraps her arms around Nick as far as they'll go, then, nuzzling her face into his shoulder and breathing deeply a few times.

"Thank you. .." she breathes emotionally, muffled in his shirt. "You've taken all the things that are important to me and given me stuff that's even better... it sounds cheesy but, I can see because of you..." he'd be able to [I]feel[/I] her smile against his shoulder, arms squeezing tighter, gripping handfuls of the back of his shirt.

"Thank you so much, Nick!..."

Alli-- [i]prickles[/i] at Nick's response, the little hairs at the back of her neck tickling, her skin tightening, rippling once so that she squeezes him, then eases her arms to a more gentle hold. She takes a little breath, surprised, at Nick's affectionate kiss, as he'd probably had to nudge some of her hair out of the way with his nose-- Her blush makes her neck feel hot, and she's [i]sure[/i] she can still feel right where it'd been...

Gradually Alli's fingers ease their tight grip on the back of Nick's shirt, probably leaving it wrinkled beyond reason, but she doesn't seem to notice. Her hands rest flat on the small of his lower back, and she starts to ease away slowly, feeling the gradual return of her shyness telling her maybe this was supposed to feel more awkward than it did-- reminding her of the unknown whereabouts of Nick's robot family... And yet, she moves really, really slowly, reluctance in every motion, the way she sighs a little as she takes just one step back, her hands still on his own back.

"Yeah, definitely..." Alli smiles with a little nod.

She turns her head for a moment, looking at the entrance into this room for a moment, straining her senses to hear over the hum of machinery, to 'see' through the ranks of servers and machines...

She couldn't say why she'd picked just then-- but maybe it had something to do with not sensing Maddie, Levi or Alex in the near vicinity. Whatever made her do it, she then turns back toward Nick and lifts up on the balls of her feet, making her sneakers squeak, and quickly jerks a hand up to the back of his neck. Before he can think to respond, Alli had closed her eyes, brushed her nose by Nick's and kissed him quickly on the lips. Dropping away just as quickly, feeling rubbery-legged and light-headed, she lowers her chin and smiles at her feet, her heart kicking her in the ribs with enough force that she's sure they'll break.

Alli had narrowly avoided losing her own senses, through some miracle of science she doesn't understand. She had forgotten to take her hand away from Nick's neck, and quickly does it now, returning it to his lower back with a quiet clearing of her throat. She smiles a bit crookedly, gradually lifting her head to look up at him again, in her fashion-- and then gets stuck staring at him at very close range again, her breath caught in her throat.

She inadvertently tucks her lower lip into her mouth, nibbles it for a moment, then shakes her head quickly once or twice. "Oh! Ah-- no, I don't have to, yet-- I don't really have a curfew o-or anything anymore, I just.. I--... I just [i]wanted to[/i]..." she finishes meekly, looking shy-- but strangely exhilirated. What was she thinking?! As if thinking had anything to do with it-- she's as emotional as Nick probably is intelligent, and obviously isn't all that shy about expressing it.

Alli discovers then that there's a huge difference between being the one giving, and the one receiving, in situations like this.

Usually when she closes her eyes, her 'vision' dims substantially but doesn't go fully away. This time, she swears she'd stopped breathing entirely, and when her eyes closed, her vision had gone completely, entirely white, from edge to edge. It was like looking at the sun too long, a weird luminescence that lingers behind the eyes when a camera flashes... And yet, all her other senses seemed hyper-aware. She'd heard every breath Nick took, felt every millisecond of contact, had heard his breath catch-- even the infinitesimally small sound it made when he pulled back again. She could trace the path his fingers took when they came away from her cheek...

Perhaps surprisingly, a bewildered, breathless laugh comes out of her mouth just then, and she leans her own head down, unceremoniously thunking her forehead against Nick's chin and just letting it sit there. She feels remarkably-- [i]heavy[/i] for a second or two, as she murmurs with bewildered amazement, even a little bit of amusement, "So that's what it felt like?... Jesus [i]Christ[/i], Nick-- did you see stars and almost blank out, too?"

She colors deeply, her face very hot, but the giddiness of a reciprocated kiss is too much to keep her embarrassed for long, and she makes another breathless sound of amusement at both of them. "[i]Jeez[/i]... We're so hopeless..."

Alli feels Nick's laugh disturbing her hair, and grins a little, retorting in the semi-rhetorical, "Yeah, well... who needs drugs, when that's what [i]that[/i] feels like?"

She simply stands there for a long moment in Nick's arms, feeling very warm and safe, before an amusing thought crosses her mind. "...Are your bots going to be okay with--... this?" She asks curiously. "I mean, I think Maddie will be okay with it, I just--" She sounds truly amused now, "I just don't wanna bother your bot family? I dunno how to say it without sounding really weird..."

Only just now is Alli's heart rate starting to become a bit more normal, her breath slowing, coming down off the awesome high that was just a minute ago.

Alli huffs a quiet, amused sound, unable not to wonder what Nick will actually [i]tell[/i] his little bot family about her.

Her heart gives a squeeze at his somewhat drowsy-sounding, rambling thanks. She stretches out her hand and reaches for his, taking it and lacing up their fingers, taking a step back, and finally-- but very kindly-- stepping out of the fragile intimacy bubble they'd created. "You're welcome," she says with the utmost sincerity, and just a little hint of amusement in her face. "Thank [i]you[/i] for 'seeing' me that way too, and not just a 'blind' person, an isolated person, a meta, somebody who lost their parents... It means an awful lot to me, too, y'know..."

She starts to tug on his hand, backing up a step, then two, towing him along. "...I know you don't sleep a lot, or you don't really like to-- but you should probably walk me to the door or something before you fall asleep standing up," she suggests with a half-smile.

Allison laughs at Nick's hopeful question. "I freaking hope so! I'd do this every day if I could!" She's flushed with happiness, and nudges him gently, in no hurry at all, walking slowly. Sge smiles crookedly and tucks his hair behind an ear again.

"Cheeky little... I am gonna buy you some hair gel like, tomorrow. "

Alli smiles with a bit of her accustomed shyness, and as they reach the door, pauses. She reaches up and takes the single bobby pin out of her hair, letting the lock it had held back fall into her own eyes with a bigger smile.

"It's okay, you can keep this instead," she says, closing her fist over the little bobby pin-- and then quickly reaching up to hook it into the collar of Nick's shirt where he can't readily see it just yet-- he'll find out later that she'd exerted her power over it and bent the pin into a cute heart shape, that while meaningful, has rendered the pin pretty much useless for it's original function.

She reaches for the door, beckoning him outside with her, with her chin, "C'mon. I'll make a fun exit like I did last time," she promises with a little laugh.

Alli doesn't leave immediately though-- she [i]did[/i] promise, after all!

She reaches around Nick to close the door behind him, then edges them out of the direct lamplight over the door, just outside the circle of it. Darkness has almost no effect on her anymore, and it's sort of a-- a trust exercise, maybe? To see if he'd be comfortable letting her lead [i]him[/i] around? They might have to practice that if they're going to be working together, too...

Alli takes Nick's hand then, and puts it on her jaw without saying anything, though it's obvious she's smiling broadly. She leaves his hand there and slips her own under his hair at the back of his neck-- are her fingers shaking a little?-- and lifts up on her toes a little with a squeak of her sneakers, pulling his head down to kiss him goodnight in the dark.

A short while later, Alli draws Nick along with her, taking slow steps backward out of the darkness and toward the light cast by one of the curved lamps. She pauses at the edge of the circle of light, warring with herself in her head. She wanted to stay-- not for any lewd or lascivious reason. Just... because this felt more like home than the place she had to go back to. Still, one didnt stay overnight with a guy and not incur sone pretty lewd speculation and gossip.

She hadn't wanted to leave, but in the interest of sparing both of them more social torture than they already receive... she whispers in a strained, reluctant voice, "Yes. I have to..."

Alli slides her hand from Nick's, leaving him just outside the circle of light,, and takes two slow, backward steps into the light. Her hand lifts up-- and in a bizzarely beautiful motion the lamp bends like a heavy-blossomed flower, the pole snugging itself into her palm, stark and cold. "Goodnight, Nick..." she says softly, and just as she smiles a little-- the lamp abruptly straightens up with such force as to send Alli soaring almost straight upward onto the roof. The clatter of her footsteps is slow at first, then quickens to a trot. Eventually, her silhouette can be seen flitting through pools of lamplight in the distance to the north.

Allison made it home purely out of reflex. She hadn't stopped at her warehouse, like she'd done for the last nine months, but had continued mindlessly a few miles further north to a quiet, unassuming suburban home. She had opened the door without a key, feeling the tumblers slide into place under the power of her hand.

Inside was a light coat of dust, the water and electricity having been turned off a year or so ago... but the darkness is no barrier, and in a sort of trance she had kicked off her sneakers and padded down the unused hall to the bedroom at the end on the left. She had just enough energy to climb into the still-made bad without undressing and pull the covers up around her before-- Alli fell asleep in her own bed, in the childhood home she hadn't been to since her parents death.

Allison had had a bit more... startling of an awakening. She had slept the sleep of the dead, only-- she had dreamed copiously. She rarely dreams, because dreams are usually visual-- and what would Alli dream about, without much of a visual to speak of? Aside from that unusual phenomenon, she woke to the definite feel of sunlight on her face. ...Her warehouse had no windows in the room where she slept.

She jerked upright, gasping thickly, and clutching a familiar blanket to her chest with both hands. She knew immediately what she'd done, where she was... but the fact that in her emotional state she had managed to get herself back to her vacant family home in the middle of the night-- it left her shaking with reaction. She hadn't cried for her loss in months, numb to it, turning away from it. But waking up in that place with it's memories and ghosts, Alli had unexpectedly wept, wept bitterly, for the things she could never have again. It was the main reason she didn't live here, anymore...

She'd gotten control of herself though, and had searched the room... and then the hallway, the front room-- but hadn't found any of her things. Where in Hell was her backpack? The fact that her phone was missing was even more terrifying-- it was her lifeline. She didn't even have a clue what time it was, without it, except to know that the sun was up. A brief panic grips her-- what if she'd dropped it along the way?

But... Alli remembers with a suddenness that makes her have to lean against the front door for support-- dancing. She'd been dancing with Nick, last night, and her iPhone was on the speaker dock... She'd never taken it back, and her backpack was probably there, too. She'd just have to go get them...

That makes Alli think about last night, and she puts her face in her hands, sitting down with her back against the door for a long few minutes, blushing fit to make her hair fall out. Oh -Christ-...

Finally, she decides there's no help for it, and gets up, casting a desultory 'look' around the all too familiar front room, she lets herself back out into the-- morning, yes it's still before noon, anyway-- and closes the door behind her, wondering if she'll ever come back to this house again.

And wondering in a slightly more bemused fashion if Nick has anything to eat. Maybe she should stop by her other place, first, change her clothes... Yeah, that'd be a good plan.

Alli had forced herself to stop by her own, more northerly warehouse 'home', and had sped her way through a shower, wolfed down half a granola bar she'd left near her bed without tasting it. She had stalled a moment, holding the shirt she'd worn yesterday for some reason, just-- breathing--... then had remembered that she was in a hurry. Though not exactly WHY she was in a hurry.

Black jeans are jumped into, a navy blue tank top with a pattern of big, black roses through it is pulled on over her head. She braids most of her still-damp hair, though most of the somewhat shorter, piece-y chunks around her face remaining rebelliously loose. She hasn't got time to fight with it today-- though again, she doesn't know why she's rushing. She hasn't taken off the bracelet or the chains round her neck, and her Converse are ever with her. She'd reached for her phone-- before remembering that it was the reason she was going over to Nick's place.

Nick's place. She pauses, very still, and lets a blush come over her face, then slowly pass. Well... Everything else she would have grabbed is there-- so she left the place, and tried not to -run- back to Nick's, sternly making herself walk. When she finally gets there, she hesitates, then reaches for the door handle, and the automated voice greets her after a second or two, "Welcome, Allison". She slips inside, closing the door behind her.

Alli smothers an immediate sense of laughter, feeling a sudden [i]settling[/i], an upwelling of happiness and a little mischief. As she contemplates how best to interrupt Nick, Maddie cartwheels into view, and Alli has a brief moment to wonder about the nickname. She blushes slightly and rubs the back of her neck under the dark braid.

"Hi Maddie. That's really sweet of him! Hold on a sec, okay?"

Alli searches the machines around her with her eyes, 'looking' through things, 'looking' for where the music is coming from... She then ducks off to one side, regardless of if Maddie follows her or not, and finds the controls for the music. She then ticks the song over abruptly, listens for two or three seconds, ticks the song over again... and does this several times, noticing they're all Avenge Sevenfold songs. She gets to the one she wants pretty quickly, and lets the song keep playing this time-- Almost Easy. She smothers a laugh and plays air guitar in a controlled way, suggesting she may actually know the chords somehow, and sings as she waits for some response to her messing with the music,

"I'm not insane, I'm not insane! I'm not insane I'm noooot! Come back to me, it's al-most ea-sy!"

Alli laughs at Nick's arrival, the two of them jamming in utterly ridiculous fashion until the song finishes. It feels totally... normal, to be weird, here. Nobody cares except them, and they're comfortable enough with each other to actually think the awkwardness in the other is actually a good thing. That's an exhilirating feeling in and of itself.

Alli's a bit breathless when the song finishes, the locks of hair left loose around her face needing to be pushed behind her ears. She grins at Nick and reaches to take back the backpack, her fingers brushing his familiarly. She opens it, digs out the phone, and pushes the phone into her pocket where it belongs. She'd felt uncomfortable without it there...

"Merci, monsieur! And no, that's the only French I know." She giggles, chewing her lower lip through her grin and slinging the light backpack over one shoulder. She 'examines' Nick, wondering if he'd had the time to change his own clothes-- and what he'd been up to before she'd gotten there, but not quite ready to ask aloud yet.

Alli can tell that Nick has changed his clothes, that his shirt is collared, probably buttoning down the front as most collared shirts are wont to do... and can see that her reshaped bobby pin is tucked onto one side of the collar of the shirt...

She smiles a bit more warmly at the smoothing back of her hair. "It's cool-- you were jamming! Maddie met me at the door anyway." Her face becomes quite curious. "...Your suit, huh? If I would've known, I would've brought some crappier clothes--... Did you want some help?"

"I want," Alli had said quietly, and followed behind Nick, blushing.

She laughs a little at his question about Maddie, thinking back. "She called me Kittycat, and said that you missed me, and were wearing my bobby pin. I thought you'd put it in your hair..." She laughs a little harder at the thought and the resulting mental image.

Alli then turns her attetion to the machine and it's wire husk, her eyes very interested, thoughtful. The thing was a rainbow-colored skein to her 'vision', several fundamental metals-- copper, tin, lead-- readily visible in the wires.

Alli had watched with every evidence of amusement, giggling behind hands she suddenly clapped to her mouth. She reaches up and deftly plucks the pin from his hair, shaking her head, and tucks it back into the collar of his shirt-- at the back this time, unapologetically brushing the back of his neck with her fingers as she does so.

What Nick types into the terminal is beyond her ability to 'see' or understand, but she's certainly able to 'see' the mechanical arms making measurements. She listens with half an ear to Nick, tilting her head slowly further and further to one side, watching the arms move, letting her eyes adjust to the various colors... It's so freaking great being in here, surrounded by the echoes of so many metals that things are crystal clear...

Alli blinks a little, coming out of her half-trance and scampering over to have a 'look' at what Nick has designed so far for himself. While the actual -workings- of the thing are far beyond her ability to understand and utilize, the basic shape of it, how the cables and wires connect is all very reasonable and clear. She gives Nick a 'look' over her shoulder, lips slightly pursed.

"Metal is my thing, Nick. I promise I won't break it-- even if it's fragile. And even if I did, I could fix it, y'know?" She picks up each piece in turn, running an exquisitely light touch with her fingertips over the inner and outer pieces, over every cable, how the pieces connect...

"...It's going to be pretty awesome..." she says at one point, sounding remarkably serene.

Alli laughs a little, stepping back almost reluctantly from the prototype and nodding, tucking her hair behind her ear again out of habit.

"Of course I want to see! If I'm gonna be your sidekick, I have to know what you can do!"

Alli takes a step back, and slowly circles Nick while he talks-- watching his face, firstly, and smiling to see his expression become excited... But then, holding out her left hand, wrist ringed with the new bracelet, with a very surprised look on her face, mouth slightly open.

"Oh..." she said faintly, canting her head to one side, then the other, cloudy blue eyes round and wide. "I... I don't usually see the -energy- in things like this... excited atoms-- hmm!" They way he'd explained it made sense to Alli, no extremely complicated terms or concepts. She sucks in a breath, and makes an impressed noise at the impression of energy above his palm.

"It's... what color is it to you? Is it the color of apples?" she asks suddenly, as if it's important to her. She'd drawn a little closer, but still remains at arms length, trying to sense if there is a lot of radiant heat coming from the little orb-- if it was, after all, like making a small sun.

Probably to Nick's surprise, Alli bites her lip firmly-- and moisture gathers on her lower eyelids with an upsurge of emotion strong enough to make her heart squeeze.

"Oh... that's so cool--... I can 'see' the same color as you..." It's such a simple thing, but she's never really been sure if a color she 'sees' is the same color for anyone else, having so few memories from her toddler years of objects to which she can compare. She doesn't want to stop looking, watching for another moment as the light-- she's actually 'seeing' [i]light[/i]!-- flickers and moves subtly...

Alli turns aside abruptly, lifting her hands to rub the backs of her wrists across her eyes, making an embarrassed little chuckle of a sound. "S-sorry... it's a weird day, I-- I didn't exactly go home last night..." she mumbles by way of excusing herself long enough to get herself under control.