Kiana doesn’t even have to see the glaring expression on Caelius’s face to know how much she hates the airport. It’s a dangerous place for a person like her to be, and not just because she’s made of metal and wires. With the help of an old colleague, she was granted amnesty by the American Cybernetics Association-- but just because she’s not on anyone’s hit list anymore doesn’t mean she’s any less wary about her surroundings. Nevertheless, she hoists her duffel bag further up her shoulder and they trudge through the humidity to the rental car.

Kiana keeps the dialogue few and far between as she runs through her story and commits it to memory. I’m the eldest of four siblings. I majored in mechanical engineering at USC. I’m thinking of going to grad school. I work as a bionics technician and tester in Los Angeles.

The first and last sentences are the only ones that are vaguely true; she’s fixed her arm a dozen times, and helped Caelius repair herself even more. Sometimes, her roommate feels more like a project car than a pretty girl. Still, Kiana knows how to fix things. Hopefully, whatever reaction she gets from her family, she can fix that, too.

She presses her palms into the steering wheel and takes a deep breath. “There are some things you should probably know before we get there,” she begins.

“I know. I won’t tell any stories or anything that could get you in trouble,” Caelius interrupts. “I’m good at improvising if you need me to. I could say I’m an art teacher in Burbank and make it sound real. I’ll even throw in a story about my cheating fiancé to make it more interesting.”

She can’t help but smile again, but it’s gone as fast as it appears. Kiana turns the key in the ignition and starts the drive to keep her hands and feet occupied. “Yeah, of course, but not just that. When I lived in Beaufort, my world was small. Same people, same families, same money getting passed around in a circle. I came out to LA because I wanted a bigger world. One where nobody expected me to take on any family mantles or estates or anything.”

“Is this your way of telling me that you’re from a conservative family?”

She’d keel over with a holler if she wasn’t driving. “God, no. All I’m saying is that here, I’m ‘the Lennox daughter’. The girl who went off to chase her USC dreams and got the degree to prove it. But that’s not me. I’m not the person they want me to be, and I’m okay with that. They’ll find out soon enough.” She offers Caelius a bright smile, ensuring that she means what she says. “Still, don’t embarrass me. My mom can be a little… snobby sometimes.”

“I guess that’s where you get it from, then.”

She punches her companion in the arm with a laugh before pressing a button on the center console and turning on the radio. Quiet pop tunes swell up into the air through the cracked open windows as Kiana makes turns through the greenery of the East Coast. If there’s anything to miss, it’s that.

After winding through the trees some more, she slows to a stop at a metal gate that Caelius eyes with confusion. It’s no less than ten feet tall and she can’t see anything beyond the path that continues on the other side. Kiana’s nervousness stems from the impending family reunion, not this painfully ominous gate tucked away in the trees, so Caelius leans back in her seat and lets go of the concern.

“Who is it?” the intercom chimes. 

Kiana merely leans her head out of the window before she’s met with a joyful scream and the screeching sound of the gate opening. At the very least, it’s a good thing that someone’s excited to see her. She hopes that the excitement lasts.

Dense forest gives way to a wide open acre of land, rich with earthly life. A large house sits near the back of the clearing, but hardly even takes up the whole thing; vast expanses of green grass and a few, singular trees decorate the yard. To the right, a smaller building-- presumably a guest house. Caelius tries to contain the bewilderment, but Kiana doesn’t even need to take her eyes off the road to read her.

“I won’t make you stay in the guest house if you don’t want to,” she mentions. “It gets lonely over there. It’s nice if you want to get away from the hellspawn you call siblings, though.”

“You came to LA, smoggy and busy and crime-y LA, and you left this?”

Kiana sighs. “This is a lot more complicated than a pretty estate in the trees. Remember, don’t embarrass me, don’t spill any beans, and don’t believe anything my brothers tell you about me. They’re lying.” The suggestion of a smile crosses her face when their gazes meet.

To Caelius, she’s Kiana. To the PTA parents and the business owners, she’s The Lennox Daughter. The testament to everything her parents have built. Kiana doesn’t feel any claim to it-- her home is in LA, in a two-bedroom apartment with a robot girl who’s just as much of an adrenaline junkie as she is. But, if just for a couple days, she can be The Lennox Daughter. That’s the only way that she can manage to keep this shady deal from happening.

A young teenage boy practically rips the door handle off once the car is parked at the end of the driveway. No older than sixteen with skin that’s not much darker than Kiana’s own, he practically towers over his sister and scoops her up in a hug. She does her best to keep his grip off her right arm so he can’t feel the cold stiffness beneath her sleeve. 

“Easy, Isaac! I assume that was you, screaming over the intercom?” she says once he sets her back down.

Isaac scoffs. “Me? Hell no. That was--”

“Well, I’ll be damned!” A slightly older young man throws himself down the steps of the front porch. He gingerly tries to balance his careful barefoot steps while tying his locs back with a hairtie, which is an awfully clumsy sight. Kiana wouldn’t expect any less from her brothers.

“...Hendrick.”

“You look worse for wear,” he says with an embrace. “Why the hell didn’t you tell anybody you were coming?”

“It was kind of unplanned,” she says, carefully putting distance between her and her brothers. Their eyes snap up to the other side of the car curiously when Caelius climbs out, but their smiles stay. Kiana swoops around to the passenger side and rests a hand on Caelius’s shoulder, pushing her forward the way that a child holds a toy up to the class for show and tell. The nervousness in her grip is hard to miss.

“Caelius, these are my brothers, Isaac and Hendrick. My sister Vivian is probably inside, but you won’t see much of her,” she explains, gesturing across from her.

“Vivi is about as thirteen as it gets,” Hendrick says, “but she might like you.”

Isaac reaches out a hand to shake. Just as Kiana starts wondering if he can tell that Caelius is more machine than woman, she dismisses it. She doesn’t need to be that paranoid.

“Cool name,” he mentions.

“Picked it myself,” she returns with a smug grin. “Technically, Charlotte Caelius. But no one calls me Charlotte.”

He furrows his brow for a moment at the first comment, but lets go of the concern quickly. “Momma sure as hell will. She doesn’t really do formal names. Hurry in, before she yells at me for leaving the door open and letting all the ‘good air’ out of the house.”

The boys hurry back up the steps and disappear through the door. Caelius shrugs. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“My brothers are fine. It’s my parents and my sister that’ll make me run the gauntlet,” Kiana answers, pulling the gloves farther over her hands. She can’t wear them forever, so that’ll have to be the first news that gets broken. She keeps her heart in her chest and the bile out of her throat before following Isaac and Hendrick into the kitchen, with Caelius trailing close behind.