Kealey felt the slight drop in Shin’s mood and her brows drew together in a small frown. That hadn’t been the intention at all. Then again, most people probably didn’t casually drop references to house fires in normal conversation. Shin seemed to realize this, though, and Kealey almost smiled at his conscious effort to swing his emotions. This was some of what was so great about Shin…he thought about what she was feeling, even if it was an echo from him.

Back to the bulbasaur Kealey went, working on getting the body pieces cut out and pinned together. Once that was finished they could move to the sewing machine. Kealey was just about to ask Shin if he’d ever used a sewing machine before when he offered to loan her some of the books that had been lost in the fire. She grinned and nodded her head, ”That would be great, Shin.” she said, sifting through their pile of scraps for pieces to make into bulbasaur’s spots.

He was reading Atlas Shrugged. Kealey had heard of it, and it was well known as a college reading list favorite. She hmmmm’d thoughtfully, then shrugged her shoulders, ”I haven’t read that one.” He said he didn’t love it yet and that it was probably more well suited for Aurum.

”Does that mean it’s philosophical and lawyerly, or grumpy and aging?” she said with a chuckle, mind going back to the birthday party they’d attended at Chuck E. Cheese.

Peeking over at the fabric Shin was working on, Kealey looked back towards her desk, the next question she‘d thought of coming back to mind, ”Have you ever used a sewing machine?”

Shin arched an eyebrow, and let out a small laugh. "Uh. No. It means the book is a mystery to me... and you know how Aurum loves mysteries." He loved them a lot. Shin had caught him reading Agatha Christie on break. He'd even spotted him reading The Sign of Four. "It's a book report for college. It's strange. I'm great in my math and science classes, but throw literature my way, and I can't find the point. Literature and history... shudder. I... might need help." A laugh.

He eyed the sewing machine as she asked him if he had ever sewn. Shin shook his head. "I've knitted, but I haven't sewn. Is it hard?"

”Ahhh…well, I suppose it would make sense for him to like mysteries.” Kealey said with the teasing glint still in her eye. Shin went on to talk about school a little and Kealey listened attentively as she finished pinning. Science and math…two things that made Kealey shudder. She’d never had the talent…or the attention span for either of those things. It was probably a good thing Shin liked math though…it would help him with his powers…and inevitably his costuming skills.

Kealey didn’t know why, but it came as a bit of a surprise that literature and history were troublesome for Shin. He did work in a book store. Reading something you wanted to read and reading something you had to read were two different things entirely, though. He said he might need help.

Kealey thought for a moment, staring off at the wall, before she looked back at Shin, ” Hmmm. Maybe we could work something out. Did you know that I spend an insane amount of time measuring things during the school year?” she said, ”If I had someone who could help me speed that process up, I’d probably have plenty of time to help with proofreading and book discussions. I’m useless for History though…” she admitted honestly.

Shin admitted with equal candor that he’d never sewn before, though he knew how to knit. Huh. That was interesting too. Kealey knew all the basic stitches, but knitting was another thing she’d never had talent…or attention span for. Sewing simply yielded much faster results. Was it difficult?

”Ummm sometimes it’s difficult. I’ll show you how it works on this one, then let you try on the next. “ the blond said, rising from the floor and gathering the pinned pieces and the pins. Then it was over to her desk and the sewing machine.

”First, I’ll tell you about all the parts.” This was going to be a bit of a crash course, Kealey couldn’t help but thing as she started going through the individual parts of the machine with Shin and explaining their purposes. They didn’t have time for sewing straight lines on paper though. They had an army to make.

An insane time measuring things? Did she?

Well, yeah. He could help with that. "So... I'd help you measure things, and you'd help me work on my book reports?" He clarified. Shin held his chin thoughtfully, thinking aloud. "... Well, I do have that 'perfect measurement' skill, and the speed with math... hmm... it's a date." He smiled at her. That was decided, then.

He could probably get Aurum to help him with history. He could also suffer through it. That'd be fun.

As would learning to sew.

Shin moved to hover over her by her sewing machine. He listened and watched carefully.

It really was a lot to learn so fast. He bobbed his head as he followed along. The machinations of the machine were intriguing. How'd it do that thing where it dropped a thread, then pulled it up again, through the next hole? And how many patterns were there? What was the science behind each stitch? The math?

"So confusing," He commented.

Shanks and bobbins and eyes, oh my...

Kealey nodded to Shin’s clarification, and she could feel him mulling things over. Not that “mulling” was necessarily a feeling, more of a conglomeration of emotions that generally indicated it. Then he was verbally weighing, Kealey didn’t interrupt, just continued nodding her head at appropriate points. Yes, he did have that perfect measurement talent, and yes he was very quick with math. It would make things far easier on Kealey, who sometimes was scatterbrained enough to struggle.

It was decided and Kealey grinned, giving a final nod for good measure. ”That it is.” she agreed, then it was on to the sewing.

Shin was listening closely to the mechanics of the sewing machine as Kealey showed him the bobbin, the spool thread, the foot, the needle and how to thread the whole thing. It was very important, the threading, if done wrong the stitching would simply unravel once the sewing was finished.

Shin said it was all so confusing and Kealey looked up and over her shoulder to where he was hovering. Yup. He was confused. She smiled. ”That’s just me rambling about the mechanics. It’s really much more simple to run than it sounds. Here’s the foot pedal.” she pointed out, tapping it with her foot. She put the body pieces on the machine, ”You’ll want to make your seam about 1/8 of an inch from the edge of the material to make sure there’s no holes. Now…you just go…not too fast or you’ll end up with a mess, or so slow you eliminate the purpose of using the machine.” she said, applying gentle pressure to the pedal and watching as the needed whirred in and out of the fabric.

Down the side of the body she went, then around the back legs, then up the other side. The front would stay open for now, until the other pieces she’d made for the head and jaw could be finished. ”You always work inside out, that way when you flip everything, the messy part of the seams don’t show.”

Reaching the end of the second side, Kealey stopped the machine and glanced over her shoulder again, ”When you reach the end and you’re ready to snip the thread, you want to go back over your stitches the other direction. That’s similar to knotting if you were sewing by hand.” she looked back to the machine, did what she’d just explained, then cut the excess thread, holding up the half-finished bulbasaur body.

”See, simple! Do you want me to pin the pieces of the bulb together so you can try?”

He was lucky he absorbed knowledge like a sponge, because everything Kealey said sounded difficult. A lot of it was common sense, too. That was the most difficult thing of all to master!

So, wait. He had to plan ahead? Difficult!

She finished off, telling him it was simple. "If you say so," He smiled sweetly. "Sure... lesse here..." After she set him up, he tried his best to do what she'd taught him.

He didn't quite manage it.

"Uh..." Shin looked up at her, embarassed. "Is there a reset button here?"

Hmmm. There was a little doubt creeping into Shin’s emotions. He was willing to try, though, and Kealey wasn’t going to get in his way. Shin could make triangle shard things with his mind that had taken practice and it had probably taken a few failures. Learning to sew on a sewing machine would be similar.

Shin sat down when she moved, and he sewed. Or something like that. Kealey had to hide her slight smile when he asked if there was a reset button. The bulbasaur had come out looking slightly less than bulbasaur’ish.

”No need to be embarrassed. You have no idea how long it took me to properly learn to work one of these things. And there is a reset button….” she said, leaning around him to pull open one of the drawers in her desk. It took a few moments for her to reach in and dig around and find what she was looking for, but when she did, Kealey brandished it with a grin.

”It’s called a seam ripper.” Kealey held the handle out towards Shin and nodded towards the bulbasaur, ”Just take the stitches out and try again.”

Shin held the Bulbasaur up helplessly. "Can you do it? I dunno how to work a 'seamripper'." It sounded dangerous.

As Kealey took the Bulbasaur and got to work undoing what evils he had wrought, Shin turned back to the sewing machine, examining it throughfully. He held his chin and pondered. Pondered thoroughly. Pondered thoughtfully. Pondered until he felt he could ponder no more. He took note of every part of the machine and how it worked, measured his understandings of the device against what Kealey had told him, and reached a conclusion.

Shin looked to Kealey as she finished up the 'seamripping'. "I can do this," He said. "Give me the Bulbasaur, and let's try this again..."

”Sure I can do it, watch though in case you ever need to do it.” the blond said, taking the bulbasaur pelt and going to work on the seams. It was a simple matter of using the tool to cut the thread then using one’s fingers to pull the extra little pieces out so they weren’t in the way the next time you tried to sew.

Shin was concentrating, Kealey looked up to find him staring at the sewing machine and grinned again, going back to work on the stitches already in the fabric. Not wanting to risk breaking his concentration, she didn’t say anything and simply finished her work.

Just as she was about to speak, Shin announced that he could do this. No, that he would do this. He asked for the bulbasaur, and Kealey handed it over.

”Sure you can. Shin…you can build things with your mind.” Kealey grinned encouragingly.

Shin snatched the Bulbasaur away with a bold grin, spinning back to the sewing machine like a man possessed. He got to work.

His brow crinkled and his tongue jutted from in-between his teeth as he focused, eying the line the machine was sewing, measuring and planning, sliding the bulbasaur under the punch. Seconds turned to minutes... time passed, but as he worked, everything seemed slow.

More time passed. Shin passed off the White Tuxedo Shin plushie to Kealey with a smile. They'd finished the Bulbasaur. They'd finished the Shin. He'd gotten better with the sewing machine. He was feeling proud.

"What do you think?" He asked her, hands on his hips.

Now that was more like it, Kealey thought as Shin snatched the bulbasaur away and got down to business. He was confident, and Kealey found herself humming as she watched him work. Soon bulbasaur was finished and handed over and Kealey went to work on the detail pieces. She sewed the bulb to the back of the body by hand, then went to work on the slightly more elaborate pieces of the face and eyes. Soon he was finished and they went to work on the Tuxedo Shin doll.

That went even more quickly than the bulbasaur ultimately had, and soon Shin was snipping the final threads on the little doll and handing it over. He asked what she thought, and Kealey couldn’t help but laugh with slightly unabashed delight, ”I think that I’ll have to be careful what all I teach you. Otherwise you’re going to make me look bad at what’s supposed to be my hidden talent.”

She stopped and shook her head slightly, grinning. ”You’re a quick learner. I think these look fantastic.”

She held the dolls out, one in each hand, ”What do you think?”

>> ”I think that I’ll have to be careful what all I teach you. Otherwise you’re going to make me look bad at what’s supposed to be my hidden talent.”

Shin beamed. He was pleased. She said he was a quick learner, and he had to remind her. "I couldn't have done it without you." She'd been just as important. One had to really know what they were talking about to break it down and teach it to others. Without her help, he would have been lost.

She held the dolls out for him, and he didn't have to give them a second appraisal. "I think they'll do the trick," He smiled. "Now... on to the next soldiers in the army..."

With that, Shin turned back towards the sewing machine. He rolled up his sleeves. It was time to get to work.

((Camera fades out, focusing on Shin's determined face Thread, end.))