Tits, I instructed myself, quickly looking down to prevent my core from flaring up with hurt. I turned my pain sensors off completely, finding certain relief in that. And yet, my memory replayed Sera’s words unprompted, and I didn’t seem to be able to switch off the recording.
It’s a fucking machine. Who cares? Fucking machine.
She grabbed her clothes and slid the shower door open wide enough for her hand to stick out. I took the clothes, and she disappeared inside, engaging the lock this time. The glass turned milky white, and I busied myself with the washer. Soon, her clothes went through a quick hypoallergenic cleaning cycle, and I stood by, sorting through my memories and putting the useless ones into less accessible, remote compartments of my memory.
A fucking machine. Who cares?
Charlie’s algorithm tried to turn on, sensing something it was programmed to detect, and I shut it off and blocked it from engaging unprompted. The memories were put away, and a blissful silence filled my mind.
Done.I was numb, I was coherent, and it was enough.
When Sera emerged from the shower wrapped tightly in a towel, my pleasure sensors did not engage. I kept my cameras trained elsewhere, tracking her movements with peripheral vision. She refused to look at me, too.
The printer pinged, informing us her clothes were done. I handed them to her wordlessly, and she thanked me without looking my way. Her cheeks were red from the hot shower, and she smelled like lily of the valley. I reprogrammed my smell sensor to its previous setting that detected dangerous scents but nothing else.
And now, I couldn’t smell her anymore.
She dressed in the privacy of the shower cubicle, then spent eleven minutes blow drying her hair. The printer pinged again, and I took out a large, gray, waterproof backpack.
“The washing cycle will end in twelve minutes,” I said when she was done and just stood in front of the mirror, swaying gently. “I suggest we get you food and come back here after you eat.”
She nodded her assent and I left first, scanning the corridor outside. I was already connected to the security cameras installed in the common areas, and detected only a few other hotel residents that my systems flagged as harmless. And yet, examining everything in person was necessary. Cameras could be avoided.
When it was finally time to go to bed, I led my swaying principal down the corridor with the sleeping pods. They were built like large drawers, four placed one above another in neat stacks, and Sera’s was a top one. She looked up with heavy-lidded eyes when I opened it, blinking helplessly. Heaving a sigh, she grabbed onto the handy steps installed on the side to make the upper bunks accessible.
“I’ll never be able to sleep in there,” she muttered, pulling herself onto the first step with visible effort.
Before I knew what I was doing, my hands were on her waist, and I lifted her until she was on the right level, crawling into her sleeping drawer.
“Warn me next time,” she grumbled, slowly moving deeper inside.
There wasn’t enough space for her to sit up, and she lay down with a frustrated huff. The pod was filled with a mattress and bedding, and two tiny shelves on each side. It was basically a king-sized bed contained from all sides. I grabbed onto the open ledge and pulled myself up, crawling in behind her.
“No, come on,” she whined when I made my way in, lying next to her on my side. The door clicked shut, and I got busy weaving my own security code into the lock.
There was just enough room for us both to fit in here, but my knees had to be bent, and that meant we touched. I warmed my armor at once so as not to make her uncomfortable, and she released a sound akin to a sob, though her eyes were dry, her expression slack from exhaustion.
“I go where you go,” I reminded her, a stubborn sort of rigidity sprawling in my core.
Call me a machine all you want. I’ll do my job even if you hate me.
The collar pinged, and I slapped it with code, thwarting a hot, angry sensation in my core. To help myself stop feeling it, I looked down at her tits, increasing my pleasure sensors’ sensitivity until I hummed with a tingly sort of anticipation. Sera was very close, and her body heat permeated through my armor. My calves were tangled with hers, my knee snug and tingly under the weight of her leg.
“Clanker, please,” she breathed, her voice plaintive and childlike. I focused my entire attention on the way she felt to avoid reacting emotionally to her tone and words. “It’s claustrophobic enough without you in here. I can’t stop thinking that I’ll run out of air. There isn’t even a window. It’s like a coffin.”
“All the more reason for me to be here with you,” I said. “I will monitor the air flow and react at once if anything goes wrong. I can also reassure you or play you a lullaby.”
Or give you an orgasm.I didn’t say it, already knowing what she would reply. I quickly packaged the memory of her saying Iwasn’t her type and put it away with the other one so my collar wouldn’t react.
“Why would you even want to?” she asked, her voice dropping to a tired murmur. Her heart rate slowed, and her breathing deepened. “It’s not your job to help me sleep. You are… So stupid… But nice. And… weird. I don’t trust you. I don’t…”
She released a slow breath through her mouth. Her eyes were closed. I waited for twelve minutes, then slowly put my arm around her, radiating enough heat to make her comfortable.
Sera said she didn’t trust me, but she had no trouble sleeping by my side. I opened my enormousBro Signallibrary and read while my sensors hummed with an exciting urgency I wasn’t allowed to act on.
Chapter 8
Sera
