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It was easy for Calhoun to forget about Brad when she was fighting cy-bugs. She could kill them with a sadistic glee only she could muster, blasting every last one she saw and barely saving any for the First-person Shooter. It was a coping mechanism. It was pathetic.
One week she spent shooting and killing cy-bugs, over and over again; one week she spent lying to herself. Oh yes, she knew she was a program, a string of binary with a pre-decided back story, but it didn't make it hurt any less.
In fact it hurt worse.
Just as she was ruminating on death and back stories, HE came bounding into her life, all wide smile and Southern manners.
"Your face is so hi-def...," he had commented, awed by her graphics. So what? Her graphics may be hi-def but her heart was 8-bit, broken squares forming a whole picture.
He was different, innocent, naïve. He knew nothing about the cy-bugs or the horrors of war, ETERNAL war.
And yet...he brought forth a flurry of emotions, ones she had thought she had buried a long time ago. Peace, comfort, happiness, joy. All for one little Good Guy, one protagonist who had literally jumped into her life.
Chasing the escaped cy-bug was an easy task, mindless and properly within her programming; falling in love with Fix-It Felix was another story entirely.
He took it all from her: her brutal nature and violent tendencies, her bitter outlook and sharp tongue, the foul language and rough-and-tumble feel about her. He accepted her, no matter what.
And sure, being called "ma'am" was not new to her as her men called her that all the time, but the absolute reverence he put into that word was astounding.
It hurt though, looking at him and remembering Brad. She couldn't help but run away from him and those feelings, to hightail it as far as she could from the man that made her HAPPY.
Foolish. Childish. Cowardly.
She rectified her mistake eventually, kissing him, marrying him; however, the damage left by her programming remained even after their nuptials, haunting her until he embraced her and kissed her on the cheek softly, whispering her name in reverence.
It was easy for Calhoun to forget about Brad so long as Felix would be by her side.