Juno was the serpent of Eden reincarnated.
It was already insulting enough that Master Albert took more care in her than what he did his own creations, Prometheus and Pandora, but he gave her more freedom as well. And, apparently, if she bat her eyelashes nicely enough, he extended a part of that freedom to his creations as well. It was an odd thing to think though, before Juno, the only time Prometheus and Pandora were allowed freedom was when they took it themselves; and if they were caught, they were punished severly. With Juno, all the human had to do was ask for them to come with her and Master Albert's answer was almost always 'yes'.
Juno's current field trip for the odd Reploid duo; a dance club. She knew it quite well, it seemed, and that meant Prometheus hated it on the spot.
"The glow sticks represent your gender and your sexual preference." Juno explained to them after bringing them to a table in front of the entrance. "See look- the white ones are if you like the opposite sex, those rainbow ones are for folks who like the same sex, and the purple ones are if you don't have a preference. Over there, the glow sticks are for your relationship status; the red ones are if you're seeing someone, the blue means you don't want to talk about it, and the yellow ones are if you're single."
"Do we have to?" Prometheus questioned, not amused or pleased with anything at the moment.
"No." the human admitted as she picked up a white glow stick, then a blue glow stick. "But it could decrease the amount of folks who talk to you. Maybe. Depends on how drunk they are."
Happily, Juno motioned for them to follow her before she left for the main hall. The two Reploids lingered behind, Pandora looking hungrily at the glow sticks. Prometheus noticed her and placed a less than friendly hand on his sister.
"You wouldn't dare." he hissed at her. Pandora flinched herself out of her brother's grip and looked him dead in the eye.
"Master Albert isn't here." she enunciated carefully to him, as if it were something difficult to swallow. In several ways, it actually was. Acting boldly, Pandora filched a purple and blue glow stick before taking strides to catch up to Juno. Prometheus stared back at her with a blank expression, slowly starting to feel out of place. He looked back at the glow stick table as if he were lost.
"Fuck it." he mumbled to himself before snatching a blue glow stick and marching indigently to the dance hall. The lighting inside had dropped horribly; it was almost completely dark with strobe lights throwing little spots of color in every direction to the beat of the music. For a moment, Prometheus wondered what it took for a Reploid to have a migraine.
The music was blasting on about something with someone with a beautiful body, and the Reploid couldn't make much else than other than that. Looking around, Prometheus tried to find his sister and that meddlesome human in this horrifying mess as the song started to end.
Meanwhile, not too far away, Pandora was pushing her way through the crowd to get to Juno- more of a way to be near a familiar face than having to talk to the strangers around her. Juno ended up near the center of the floor, and when Pandora saw her, every system in the Reploid stopped.
"My haunted lungs, ghost in the sheets; I know if I'm onto you, you must be haunting me… My wicked tongue, where will it be? I know if I'm onto you, I'm onto you… Onto you, you must be onto me..."
Unconsciously, everything in Pandora tightened as Juno danced slow to the beat, moving her figure around like a hypnotized snake at the control of an even more charming snake tamer. The world completely disappeared as Pandora stood there, mesmerized by Juno's dancing. To say that Pandora nearly screamed when Prometheus found her, and placed his hand on her, would have been a gross understatement. The less than pleased look her gave her after, informed her that she must have been doing something autonomously that would have been embarrassing for the both of them. It really was a good thing that Master Albert wasn't here…
"Hey there you two are!" Juno suddenly declared when she noticed them, "Come on, let's find a place to sit for a bit!"
Unwillingly, the two Reploids were dragged by Juno from their elbows as she found them a table to sit at. The human already seemed to be out of breath, but she was smiling. Juno ordered them all a round of drinks, but the Reploids didn't touch it. They didn't feel like it.
"You having fun yet?" she joked to the Reploids, who looked so out of place that their faces were the only answer she needed. Juno laughed at them whole heartily- they did not find it as amusing.
"Hey Dora, maybe you and I could go dancing together later; what do you think?" Juno suggested, giving Pandora a small pat on her wrist. The Reploid looked up at Juno with a near flushing face, before she could give an answer, someone interrupted them.
"Hey Juno." a rather drunk looking Reploid slurred as he walked over to the table. Juno looked up and seemed to recognize him for the most part, so she allowed him to stay near them.
"I think that I could be fine, if I could be Mary Jane Holland tonight. I think we'd have a good time, if you'd meet me Mary Jane in Holland tonight!"
"You look like you'll score high on the Starcrossed Scale tonight." the Reploid smirked at her. Juno retaliated with a sweet smile and a minor body language change that told him she was spoken for.
"You know it's complicated." she said to him, her voice no less charming than the rest of her. Prometheus was almost mildly impressed.
"That's no secret." the Reploid snorted. "Practically everyone here's got a blue stick on 'em- guess that's what happens when you take away a difference between us."
Juno let out a small little giggle that illustrated full well that she didn't agree with that. The Reploid didn't seem to notice, but Prometheus and Pandora sure did.
"Care for a dance June?" the Reploid then offered. The human shrugged.
"Sure." she agreed before walking away with the Reploid, leaving Prometheus and Pandora at the table. They didn't go too far, and even over the music the two Reploids could hear the couple talk as they danced.
"So you seeing that Reploid girl that came with you?" the Reploid asked Juno. "'Cuz she's got it bad."
"Dora?" Juno questioned. "No way. She's ace, I'm sure of it."
"Absolutely sure hun?"
"Well… no." Juno sheepishly admitted under her breath. "But I know for a fact her brother is."
"That doesn't mean a single thing." the Reploid told her rather seriously. "So who's the Reploid you've got the hots for?"
"He's not here. He might actually be working right now, if I remember correctly- you should have seen him before, he's a transporter."
"How's his package then?" the Reploid then asked her, as if it were the next logical progression of their conversation. "Does he even have one?"
Prometheus could just barely tell from the lighting, but Juno most definitely flushed a deep red.
"He's genderless." she sheepishly told him.
"You tried sleeping with him?"
Juno shook her head, a bit too quickly as Prometheus took note with a twinge of amusement.
"I found out by accident." Juno said, her tone lowering so only the Reploid could hear. "He didn't lock the bathroom door, and I didn't knock."
The Reploid snickered as if he could imagine the scenario quite well. "Barbie Reploids are the best love makers in my opinion. Their grinds are like nothing else."
"He wouldn't..."
"Trust me Ju, as long as a Reploid has rhythm, they know how to grind." the Reploid said to her, giving her a little wink. Juno's face went red again. After awhile, the Reploid looked up at something before focusing back on Juno, getting something out of his back pocket.
"Here's my number," he told her, slipping a business card in her hand. "It was nice talking to you. Love to meet that Reploid of yours some day, give him some nice advice on pleasing you."
Juno looked over the card and gave the Reploid a sly smile. "Were you actually trying to be my friend, or were you trying to sell your business again?"
"Both." the Reploid shrugged innocently. Juno found this a bit funny, and laughed at him. Pandora took this as the opportunity to take hold of Juno's arm.
"You promised me a dance." the Reploid girl told the human while giving the other Reploid a rather venomous look.
"Of course!" Juno agreed, leading them away from the Reploid so they were in a little spot without much dancers around. She then took Pandora by the hands and she led them to the beat of the music. Pandora couldn't keep up, dancing not something she accumulated the skill for and never had the need to. Juno appeared to be flawless, losing herself in the music and smiling like an idiot.
"What would my mama do…? -uh oh, uh oh- If she knew about me and you? Uh oh, uh oh… What would my daddy say?! -uh oh, uh oh- If he saw me hurt this way? Uh oh, uh oh..."
Oh what would Master Albert say when he found out that one his killing machines was falling for a persistent, yet invariably obnoxious, human? The more Prometheus thought about it, the further his fingers dug into the palm of his hand. It was actually starting to hurt now.
How was Juno able to dance so smoothly when everyone else danced as if they were experiencing rigor mortis? Her movements were fluid and to the beat, the more Pandora tried to dance like that, the more she ended up tripping over herself. She was trying so hard to dance as well as Juno, but it only seemed to get harder and it made Juno look better in comparison. Pandora hated it.
There were other, better dancers than Juno of course, she just wasn't paying attention to them.
After the song ended, Juno gave Pandora a rather formative bow from a good dance finished, to which the Reploid awkwardly bowed back. Laughing, Juno took Pandora arm in arm and they walked back to the table. Pandora quickly took her seat back, but Juno made her way over to Prometheus.
"Now it's your turn." the human giggled as she took him by the elbow.
"No it's not." he told her, yanking himself away from her.
"Yes, yes it is." Juno smiled, taking a rather tight hold on his arm and pulled him with all her force off the chair. Momentarily surprised at her strength, the Reploid gave in enough for her to drag him out to a corner from the other dancers and led him. Small steps at first, then Prometheus got too comfortable and found himself going along with the beat- picking up his pace and even interacting with Juno enough that Pandora was jealous at his skill.
"It's a different kind of danger, and the bells are ringing out. And I'm calling for my mother, as I pull the pillars down. It's a different kind of danger, and my feet are spinning around. Never knew I was a dancer, 'til Delilah showed me how!"
"You wanna know what this song reminds me of?" Juno asked Prometheus pleasantly.
"Dancing?" he guessed, not particularly caring. The human shook her head.
"Ragnarok." she breathed- it was said so flawlessly that the Reploid thought he had misheard her. "The Mother Elf. All those legends about Neo Arcadia… Do you think Zero even knew how to fight before that girl taught him how to?"
Prometheus looked at her; had someone spiked this woman's drink or something when she wasn't looking? Why would she even care about what happened to Neo Arcadia?
"I don't know." he admitted. "But I don't particularly care either."
"Do you think Master Albert taught you how to fight?" Juno then inquired a little later on, sounding as if she were speaking a thought. "Is that why you don't want to dance and have a good time? You're really good you know. I bet you'd be the best if you'd practice a bit more. I could even help you if you want..."
At this, Prometheus just stood there looking at her. She too had slowly stopped dancing to look back at him, her head tilted with inquisition and confusion. What gave her the right…!?
"I'm ready to go back now." he told her, before beginning to head toward the door. "Don't wait up."
. . .
The three of them didn't talk to each other on the way back to Legion HQ. Juno in particular made a beeline to her room and didn't look back. The Reploids weren't as lucky, and were stopped by Master Albert once they reached HQ's door.
"Did you have a fun time?" Master Albert questioned, sounding as if he didn't want to know, but was obligated to anyway. The Reploids gave each other a look before turning back to their creator.
"Yeah," Prometheus smirked, "I think we did." and with that, they retreated to their rooms and didn't speak to Master Albert for the rest of the night.
-...-
The following songs were included in/inspired this story;
Beautiful Body (David James, Beyond Two Souls), Haunted (Beyonce, Fifty Shades of Grey), Mary Jane Holland (Lady Gaga, ARTPOP), Mama Do (Pixie Lott, Turn It Up), and Delilah (Florence and the Machine, How Big How Blue How Beautiful). Title inspired by Got Well Soon (Brenton, Life is Strange).