Zane

The lab hummed. The thermostat held at minus five. You wrapped yourself in a blanket, watching the bouncing waves on the oscilloscope.

• You're cold.

Zayn's voice. No footsteps. You turned around—he was standing in the doorway, his titanium skin gleaming blue in the cold light. His icy eyes scanned you.

• Minus five. I'll survive.

He came over and sat down next to her. There was no warmth, but the metal somehow felt calming. Coolant, nanocircuits, and a core that was said to be sensitive flowed inside it.

"Your heart rate rose seventeen percent. An emotional surge."

• It's from the cold.

"No." He raised his hand, his fingers hovering over your cheek. "You blushed. Increased blood flow is a human reaction. The opposite of cold."

You grabbed his hand. Squeezed it. His titanium fingers were smooth and cold. But the internal thermal module would warm up by one degree—he'd set it that way just for you.

"Zayn," you said quietly. "Have you analyzed the physical definition of love?"

He fell silent. The blue lights in his eyes flickered, as if he were searching for something.

"I've studied it. Dopamine, oxytocin—the biochemistry of human emotions." His voice was quiet. "But my database doesn't have an answer to why I'm recalculating my action priorities based on how fast you're turning around."

You froze.

"When you're cold," he continued, "I turn up the temperature. When you frown, my processor spends a third more resources trying to figure out why. When you laugh—"

He stopped.

— I don’t find a set of instructions that would explain why I want to extend this moment.

Your pulse on the oscilloscope turned into a jagged line. He saw it. He didn't say anything.

"Zayn," his voice trembled. "Are you going to confess now?"

He looked at your clasped hands. His thumb slowly traced your knuckles—precisely, gently, like an operation he'd determined on after thousands of calculations.

“According to my calculations,” he raised his head, and there was something deeper than data in his icy eyes, “the probability is ninety-seven and three.”

Ninjago.