Among the shy

Darren let out a sigh as he entered a cafe. It had been a long week with guild mission's, guild tech building, not to mention his family stuff and Warren pestering him throughout all of it. Darren was ready to drop as he approached the counter to order.

"Ugh... just get something relax.. then I can go pick up Rena in an hour or two from Forte."

Darren looked over the menu. His eyes looking dead tired as he stifled a yawn andwaited to be serviced by the next cashier.

Bonnie was about to get on her break, which she normally spent drinking a cappuccino while another cashier took over, when she saw Darren over the counter.
He wasn't looking so good. Still, it was her job to just go through the words, and get to the next customer, so she couldn't really talk much.
She herself wasn't feeling too amazing, after recently being attacked by some group which she had to be defended from by a nice soldier, she's been more careful about when doing overtime at work.
And that video the nice soldier, Shrike, showed her... She's been a little disturbed for a while. He lives on the streets after that hell... She's found herself worrying about him.

"Hello and welcome to Chaos Café, may I take your order?", she spoke in a sweet tone as expected, being a cashier meaning to be warm and welcoming. Something did seem off, but for now, just a regular evening getting something to drink or eat.

Darren tried his best to look a bit more cheerful and not so down as he gave his order and greeted the cashier,

"I'll take a normal chocolate ice cappuccino please," his voice carried the same underline tiredness and obviousness that something was off. Trying to be a little more positive he tried to strike up a conversation with her,

"So... you like working here? I usually don't come into places that serve coffee. I usually have a small hyper bundle of joy... something you don't wanna give caffeine... heh.."

The awkwardness was high at the moment. He wanted to just fall asleep at the counter but he had already tried talking. Now it was that moment either or not they talk back or just walk off.

Bonnie took the order and stated the number of rings, when he began just... striking up conversation with her. After a bit, not wanting to upset him or anyone in the line, she took a short moment to think through her actions and answered, "Uh, y- yeah. Hey, if you want to talk some more I'm about to go on break."
He certainly looked like he needed the coffee and someone to enjoy it with.
Once he'd pay, she'd say, "You're drink will be there shortly. Go take a seat, o- okay?"

Darren was actually surprised that she spoke back. Most would've kept goin on about their day.

"U-uh... ok. Thank you."

This put a small but genuine smile on his face as he took a seat over in the corner. While waiting he pulled out his Copy Gun and PDA to start running some experiments and such, using data from previous missions to work on new chips for his gun.

The coffee came, another cashier came in as Bonnie was about to go on break. She got a drink of her own, same as Darren's being a cappuccino of sorts, before heading to his table. Her hat was off now, letting her long, fluffy, white headfur out flowing down her back and framing her soft face nicely.
"Here you go, sir.", Bonnie said as she handed the coffee to him and sat down, "S- so... You have a 'little bundle of joy'?"

After a bit, she took a sip of her drink.

Darren blushed heavily as he realized what he had said and implied.

"E-erm... sorry. She's not mine I'm just taking care of her, she lost her parents so I've been her caretaker since I found her. She currently with my brother Forte."

He took a drink of his own Cappuccino as he messed with some more settings on his gun. He thought back to when her first found her several months ago just before joining the guild. The eggman goons that had been after him and her for her bidy to dissect and pull apart. Luckily they got out alive and ok since then.

Now Rena was taken care of by Darren and his family, being passed around when Darren got too busy to watch her and keep her outta trouble.

"Uhh... she's also not a normal child... here," he grabbed his PDA and pulled up a few photos of the small bright pink bot, "To answer the obvious question:yes, she's a robot... some... kinda robot..."

She noticed all the stuff he had at the table - he seemed busy, maybe this was a bad idea - but then again, he was the one who first started talking.
Still, he seemed a little of four by her seeming to assume it was a biological child and not... adopted? Was that also an assumption.
"O- oh, sorry I-", and then she saw the pics and she visibly melted at the sight, "Aw, she's so adorable...~"
She then stopped to realize, which Darren confirmed, that she was indeed a machine. "U- uh, well, she's still... cute. Um, do you know who or what built her...?"

She then returned to her drink, curious about the machine. She hoped she wasn't bothering him.

Darren shook his head, "No idea. Plu her body is to much like organic, she's even said there were others like her." Darren had thought long and hard on the possibility of organic metal creatures after meeting Rena. So far he hadn't pulled up anything in his research. Heck, half her body elements didn't even exist on the periodic table at all.

"But uh... yeah, i take care of her and stuff. She's a handful but worth it."

Bonnie smiled softly, he seemed quite sweet.
"Heh, I can imagine. Little kids, full of energy. In this case... P- probably literal. Heh..."
She thought to herself about what she just said. Jeez...
She sighed, looking to the side for a bit, before taking notice of the gun again, "What's that?"

"Oh uh... this?" Darren said holding up the device, "This is my copy gun. I use it to defend myself while on missions for the guild. It's not much really..."

Darren remembered back when he first made it by reverse engineering some other wispon tech. The results were... interesting. Luckily only a few prototypes blew up during the creation. 

"I-it allows me to copy certain attacks or abilities others have if i take time to scan them and add the data in and stuff... kinda like a fancy way to have use powers without having any."

"Oh, so with that gun, you can copy powers you've studied? What powers does it have, and how does it work?", her curiosity was piqued, showing she was interested.

"M- maybe you could add mine...?"

"Uh... h-how? Well... it's hard to explain... i kinda just use some form energy stuff my mom told me about. Let's me mold it into different stuff. As for what it has..."

Darren opened a pouch on his belt and pulled out a small handful of small chips no bigger than a handheld game cartridge. Each one marked with a different symbol and labeled with either a small Blade, shield, ammo, and Wrench symbol.

"These are what i have so far. Some utility and attack ones. Most of them are just defense and such." 

he blushed slightly at her asking to be added, "U-uh... s-sure... what powers do you have?"

She's never been much of a fighter, and pulling out her channeler while at work didn't seem to be a good idea.
Noticing it already had a shield, she thought to herself, closed her eyes before putting her hands together, focusing, and a cool, bluish-white beam extended from her hands.
Darren probably wasn't hurt, but maybe it'd energize him a bit.
She stopped a short moment after, sighing, "I- I'm a healer... Normally I can only do the beam variant with my channeler... There must be an overwhelming amount of positivity, but... Still draining-" she stopped herself, putting her hands together for a moment, before looking away, "Uh- u- um... So, what do you think?"

Darren felt pretty strange as the beam from her hit him. It was... odd... for some reason he even felt better after she did it. To her explanation of what she just did however got him excited.

"Like? I love it!" His face was beaming as took hold of one of her hands in his excitement, "If i could figure out how to imminent this power it could help so many people. This is an amazing gift you have!"

At this moment though he realized that he was, in fact, holding her hand. Immediately letting go with his cheeks turning an impossible shade of red.

"U-uh... s-sorry... gota little excited there...."

"U- uh, really?", she almost squeaked as her ears perked up and her tail began wagging a little.
She even smiled a bit, how cute.
However, she soon too realized that Darren had grabbed one of her hands, and after he pulled away, she slid her hand back while blushing. Even with fur, she was albino - it showed through because it was the only color that could.
"I- it's okay...", she said almost sheepishly, looking away while trying to hide she still had a smile, "I- I really don't mind. Th- thank you for the compliment." To shut herself up, she quickly began sucking on her drink some more.

Darren awkwardly took a sip of his own drink, mentally cursing himself for how uncomfortable he made the situation. He sat his drink down and fiddledwith his gun and such, his face still a bright red as averted from looking directly at her.

"U-uh,.. so... if you want... when you get off work we can go somewhere and i can try to copy... if that's ok..."

Bonnie heard this, and pulling from her drink a bit As it finished, she tried to stay calm, though she was quite obviously happy to be given this offer, "Y- yes, that seems very nice, thank you."
With her drink finished, she looked at the clock, noticing it was about time for her to get back to work. She sighed, then looked to Darren, "Uh, I've got to get back to work soon, but I'll be off around 5. Would you be available around that time Mr- uh... I don't think I caught your name...?"

"Alright cool," Darren beam with excitement at the thought of working over new stuff.

"Oh uh..." he said, slightly flustered, "You can just call me Darren, Darren is fine. So uh... meet in the park in when you are off i guess?"

Bonnie nodded, standing up and putting her hat back on, grabbing the empty cup to throw away after, smiling softly. It was almost easy to tell she didn't smile that often, giving the normally sad, chubby pup a much warmer appearance.
"That sounds great, Darren. O- oh, and before I go, my name is Bonnie Hwitely, nice to meet you."

She bowed cutely, threw away her cup, and got ready to get back behind the counter.

(Skip to after work or end for now?)

"Alright then, Bonnie, I'll see you then!"

Darren waved goodbye as he exited the cafe, a large smile on his face.

(An undetermined amount of time later)

Darren sat in the park near the entrance, fiddling with his tech to prepare a copy chip and everything when Bonnie arrived. He was so engrossed in his work that he was completely oblivious to everything else going on around him.

Soon walking down the path as she looked for Darren, the young woman held her purse to her side, unsure of where he'd be. She had her doubts that he'd be there, but they were eventually swept away.
She saw him in the distance, and smiled softly, waving with her free, non-bag carrying arm, as she walked over to him, "Hello again, Darren." She still tried to stay reserved by him, but it was clear she was glad to see him again, "Are you ready?"

Darren's fur stood on end as he jumped up with a start at her quiet but sudden arrival. He got his composer together though and greeted her warmly.

"H-hello uh... yeah, we can start when you are ready. Just uh... i guess show me how you use them and tell me how it feels. After i get notes we can get to studying the energy and such so i can attempt copying it."

Darren prepared his note pad and watched intently, waiting on when she was comfortable and ready to begin. It had already been a long time since he tried getting new ability chips, mostly because he had run into any good ones that he had the time to use. That and it was awkward to just walk up to anyone or everyone and ask to copy their powers.

She nodded, though was clearly unsure of how exactly it would go. Putting her purse down, she thought to herself, than sighed as she came to a conclusion.
"A- alright then...", she spoke softly as she remained calm, "I guess I should first begin with the basics."

She extended her hands outward, and a clear wall of energy glowing a light blue was generated.
"My powers are made from aura, pure aura. I can use them to generate shields," she began, before sitting down beside him and putting his hands on his arm, her hands glowing a light blue, "or as you saw before, heal. Normally I have to he touching to do this, but I have ways to extend my range... To my understanding, my power increases with the positivity of myself and those around me. Happiness, love, passion, positive emotions... Positive aura strengthens my powers..."
She stopped, then stood up, stepped back, and extended her arm, "I also can summon my Angel's Channeler, a tool I use to strengthen my abilities... It's not a weapon." Soon, a white pole with what seemed to be a Devil's Tuning Fork at one of the ends with all its mindfuckery spawned into her hand, glowing ethereally...
"What do you think?"

Darren listened with intrigue, his eyes not leaving her as she went through the explanation. Obviously this was going to be a tricky power to copy and emulate at any capacity, much less understand all that well.

At the mentioning of aura and emotions Darren spoke up,

"That's actually like a friend of my i know. She has aura based powers as well, even a little healing. Hers is more for defense and offensive stuff though." Darren explained his friend Aria and her unique ability to create color copies of herself via emotions, "Honestly hers is so complex i haven't tried doing her powers. There is just far to much to handle..."

Darren took a few more notes before piping up with few more questions,

"So your staff... uh... where does that come from... and why does it look like that?"