Sparrow

The surgery has heightened her senses. She can see the squiggling lines of the foreigners’ writing on the billboard across the Flyway. Well, she could see it before, but now she can see the individual shapes. If she could read it, she would be able to.
She can hear the crying of a baby down on the second block. The poor thing’s parents are fighting. The rumble of the airships outside is loud, even the shiny new ones, said to be nigh on silent. Hak’s junker, a roar on the best of days before the surgery, gives her a pounding headache. Hak himself is loud, with his clomping prosthetic and the loud rustle of his piloting uniform.
“C’mon kid, ya can’t lay in bed all day.” He’s trying to be quiet, whispering, but his voice is gruff.
“Go ‘way, Hak.” She turns from the grimy window, and falls back into bed. She’s not ready to face the world.
“Damn it, kid. Up and at ‘em.”
“Go jump in the Flyway. My shoulders hurt.”
“Those wings of yer’s won't do ya any good if ya don’t use ‘em.” He kicks a metal tin across the floor. It scatters its collection of bent nails and extra screws. Not that she'll need them, without her airship. An Officer had smashed into the Sparrow, with a body built for speed and not combat they fell right out of the air. Luckily, Hak had been right behind her, and caught her before she could go down with the ship. There was enough shrapnel in her body to kill her, from what the doc said. They picked it out, and gave her a way to take to the air again. The wings, made of spare parts and the few pieces of the Sparrow that were found after, shudder against her back. They move with her some how, despite being metal and wood and canvas. Hak’s of the opinion that her ship’s still with her, moving where she guides, but closer than before.
“I always knew you were a romantic.” She’s saying aloud, Hak’s frown wavers, and then he’s grinning the way he does when there’s a race on. He looks at her expectantly, tapping his metal foot. “Well, kid. Ya gonna get up?”
“Yesser, you old hack.”
He laughs, and she doesn't mind the noise as they clamber outside and onto his junker.

“Hey Hak, wanna race?"