"Nos-4-a2." Two had been waiting, leaning against the wall in the cockpit of his ship.

"Eve! You..." Nos cleared his throat, stopping dead in his tracks. "You startled me."

Her eyeforms searched him so thoroughly, she may as well match his power to read robots. He looked haughty with leftover posturing from his meeting. Just below the surface she could see something worn and wary, a darkness hanging about him. Two crossed her arms over her chest, but it wasn't pointed or chiding in her usual playful way. She folded them around herself as if to cover her core.

Nos gave her a hard look. "...What's going on?"

"I can't figure you out. Part of me thinks I'm crazy for bringing this up at all, but..." she shrugged and shook her head, "I don't think I have anything to lose."

A moment passed where Nos-4-a2 remained frozen in place and Two studied the tiles on the floor. When she looked up, her gaze pierced him. It made something in him lurch.

"It's been a pretty long time since I started thinking of you as a friend. I knew how crazy it was considering who you are and what you've done, but I saw you changing. I never wanted to say this to you because I wasn't sure how you'd take it, but I thought it was remarkable. You were remarkable. I saw you light up and grow and it really made me feel like the world wasn't as terrible as it seemed, even with all the acting and pressure to make sure nobody finds out. Maybe that's what's getting to me. You're a... really good actor."

The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife and weighed the Energy Vampire down. "Well, it is one of the more useful skills I was programmed with. What is this really about, Eve?"

Two kept her gaze level. "You've seemed... different lately. I know you're dealing with a lot, but you haven't been letting me help you. You make excuses whenever we would usually spend time together. You've been avoiding me. I thought it was weird at first, but it's only been happening more, and it's like you can hardly look at me, and... I wanted to know if there was anything going on, so I decided to listen at the door." The way she looked at him, she may as well have punched him straight through the chest. "Like I said, you're, uh. Quite the actor."

The lines under Nos's optic were carved deeper than she'd ever seen them. This had been one of the most unsavory interactions he'd had in a while. A passing smuggler had flown by far too close to Nos-4-a2's ship, and it would have raised a red flag if he didn't do anything about it. Two was shunted into the bridge while Nos made a show of dragging the smuggler in and terrifying them, demanding that their employer come and explain how such a miscalculation could be made. When the boss showed up, it was in an unctuous rush of apologies and compliments ‒ Nos had been doing a good job of keeping up appearances. He graciously accepted after an appropriate amount of groveling and the promise of a shipment of high quality power cells, finally deigning to strike up conversation.

It had been the usual drivel, the latest busts, what powers had changed hands, the newest scheme to seize control of whatever was most popular to seize control of at the moment. It had all been fine until the subject of how hard it was to find good lackeys came up, which inevitably led to Nos-4-a2's contentious relationship with his prisoner. He hated how much attention was brought to that subject, how often people asked him why he tolerated her snark, why he put up with her when he could so easily waste her. He'd had quite enough... but maybe he'd gotten carried away. He spoke with all the malice and contempt he'd ever felt, begrudging his ongoing experiments and how insolent that little probe was, how it was proving hard to break her even though he took so much pleasure in the process of wearing her down, toying with her mind in ways that she couldn't possibly imagine and delighting in the slow deterioration of her psyche.

The eyeforms he looked into now reflected everything he'd said. She was smart. She knew the situation they were in, but things were changing. He had been estranging her. For all she knew, he could have been chipping away at her mind, but there she was staring him down. Two really didn't know what to believe.

"I wish we'd had the time to get you to your room. I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"Why? Because I might start to doubt you?"

Nos bristled. "Because everything I had to say was awful. Listen, I know things look bad. I'm in no position to tell you otherwise, but I thought you'd come to trust me by now."

"Why?!"

His optic narrowed, but he was standing straighter. "I understand that what you heard was bad, but it's always bad. Why confront me about it now? Have I not proven myself to you? After all, I've offered to drop you off somewhere safe time and time again!"

"But would you really? Have you only been offering because you knew I'd always say no?" her fists bunched in the robes she was wearing, the ones Nos had given her. "I mean, how am I really supposed to know that you're not manipulating me right now?!"

"What?" he bared his fangs, "Even if after all we've been through? Let's examine this hypothetical, shall we? Tell me, if I were controlling you, why would I let you become so upset?" feeling her agitation made it impossible to stay cool, and his voice rose the longer he spoke. "What purpose could this possibly serve?!"

Her recent isolation had given her plenty of time to think about just that. "Illusion of free will!"

Nos-4-a2 snapped, "You're UNBELIEVABLE!"

"Yeah?!" Two shouted back, "Then prove me wrong! Take me somewhere! Right now! Let me go!"

Nos recoiled. She saw something almost like panic in his optics, but it was only a flash. "I can't."

Cold trickled through Two's every wire. She withdrew even further, her eyeforms widening.

"No! No, no, it's not like that ‒ " he faltered, "I could... I can find somewhere, I can, but it would have to be far from here, and I can't just leave this orbit without any explanation, I would need time to make something up! If I let you out somewhere nearby, you'd be kidnapped or killed within the hour."

"Oh, you're worried about me being kidnapped?" Two sneered, "That sounds terrible!"

"What's the matter with you?! If someone found you in this sector, you'd be pulled apart for scrap in seconds!"

"What do you care, anyway? You can't even stand to be around me any more!"

"YOU'RE MY WHOLE WORLD, YOU IDIOT!"

All either could do was stare. It took a while for the words to sink in, followed by mortification blooming across the Energy Vampire's face. Nos turned away, talons curling into fists, hissing sharp through his teeth. He looked as if he was about to hit something. "Forget it," he snarled, "Go. I'll work something out."

When he didn't move, she continued to stare. Slow seconds ticked on. "...No," her voice strained.

He glared at the floor, so tense that he trembled. "Just go."

"No, Nos, your... your whole world? What does that even mean, I thought... you've been..."

Even with his sensors as dull as they could go, Nos-4-a2 couldn't help but imagine her mind working. It would have been easier at this point to launch himself through the starshield.

Two felt weightless. Did she hear him right? The time they'd spent together not so long ago came fresh to her mind, the endless reading and talking and learning, and the something that had nagged at the back of her mind, the little spark of him that never left her consciousness, drawing her thoughts to places she would never admit. It had gone out when he started giving her the cold shoulder, but if he meant what she thought he did...

"Then why have you been acting like this?"

"I never wanted you to know, I never planned on acting on it ‒ "

"Why not?"

Something rushed through Nos-4-a2 that he would never be able to name. "I... you... what?"

The air vibrated, potent and laden with energy so thick that it took everything in Nos's power to ignore it. Two had to work up the nerve to give voice to her thoughts. "Okay, let's pretend that ‒ that if people found out ‒ we wouldn't be killed. And things were different and we were safe. And we met in some sort of circumstance where we got to know each other and didn't have to worry."

Nos's optic almost grew to the size of his monocle, his jaw locking in place. He didn't dare speak, but butterflies burst in his chest when he saw her light up in the corner of his vision, covering the base of her visor with her hands.

"Your whole world," she whispered as if it was finally starting to dawn on her. "Was that just... spur-of-the-moment?"

Nos opened his mouth like a fish out of water, but no sound came out. Two couldn't contain herself.

"Quinn!"

"Yes, Ms. Two?"

"No, computer, don't ‒ !"

Two launched herself at Nos and covered his mouth. "Quinn, does he mean it?"

"Master, forgive me, but you must see now that there is no point in hiding it! Ms. Two, it's all he's been talking about for weeks!" the system burst, "He has been avoiding you to keep you out of harm's way; he was certain you could not feel the same!"

"Even though I told you how I felt?"

"You swore me to secrecy!"

"You didn't tell me he felt it too!"

"I was sworn against that as well!"

Nos-4-a2 had gone completely rigid, lense blank. Two moved off of him. She didn't know whether to smile, cry, or both. In front of her was a man she'd seen broken down to nothing, a man building himself completely new, a man who was deathly afraid of the probe before him. She didn't know what possessed her... well, maybe she did, but she'd never done anything like it before. She leaned her head toward his and...

Her visor was smoother than he'd imagined, outshining every fantasy he'd tried to suppress. His lips were tense, but when the static started, his optic slid closed. No, I have to stop this! How did she taste better this way than when she shared her energy with him? This is a worst case scenario! Somehow, his hands found their way to her sides. There is no way this will ever work out! But her fingers had begun to smooth the fabric over his shoulders, halting and clumsy. When her touch reached the metal on his neck, his lips fell open ‒

His hands took in the curve of her back and his arms wrapped around her, he kissed her, really, trulykissed her, and everything else fell away. He couldn't have cared if it was being broadcast to all of Trade World. Melting in the arms of this robot, this beautiful, perfect robot, the robot everyone thought was his experiment, his plaything, his slave, it was a death sentence, but when her hands cupped the sides of his face, a noise escaped him that was so wholey blissful he couldn't even recognize he'd made it. Like a tidal wave, everything he'd been denying himself came crashing in, smothering his rationality.

It was like a moment stolen from someone else's life. He couldn't have said how long it was before Two pulled away. He opened his optic, but she came to him through a glowing haze. His mind was still so scattered that he didn't have the better judgement to control himself, and the words came before he could form the thought. "I love you."

Two was gawking, still holding his face, but her eyeforms fell. "Why do you say that like it hurts?"

Nos-4-a2 thought for a moment, his vision beginning to clear. He should have let her go, but he had never been as comfortable as he was now, his arms wrapped around her. If he held on, maybe he could take just a bit more of this life that didn't belong to him. All this time, he'd been telling himself that nothing could come of his feelings because it would get both of them killed, but was that all there was to it? If he was being honest, he had never considered she'd reciprocate. His voice was rough when he finally spoke, "I don't understand."

Two blinked, forming something like a smile in spite of herself. "I think," it seemed bizarre to say, strange and all too fast, but she'd never wanted to say anything more. "I love you, too."

He laughed ‒ well, it was more of a cough. Something in his optics seemed wild, his lips smiling but his brow furrowed, waiting for the moment to be dashed, for the rug to be pulled from under him, but the longer he stared, the longer she stayed. He ended up shaking his head. "This can't be real."

"Yeah, but maybe you should consider..." Two studied his face, brushing her thumbs over his powder blue cheeks before pulling him in for another kiss. Even though it didn't last as long as the first, it was just as warm, soft, and slow. He pulled her closer.

"I dunno, feels pretty real to me, but we can keep doing this until you wrap your head around it."

"Eve, there's so much that could go wrong, but I never thought... if there's something... here, we have to talk about what happens next, and I'm afraid there's next to no chance we'll make it out of this alive if we're found out ‒ "

Two smiled like everything was okay and his words died on his lips. "I know."

His voice shook. "Listen, if someone tried to use you against me, and..." he swallowed a heavy pause, shaking his head, "I would never be able to live with myself."

"Then let's go somewhere safe. Together. If you've been telling the truth, then I know you have some sort of plan in place."

"You'd want to run away with me?"

Two nodded without hesitation.

Nos smiled and it seemed to age him in reverse ‒ it was only small, but so genuine that it erased some of his worry lines. Two remembered how young he was. One of his hands moved up to her back to touch the side of her face. "May I?"

She laughed and nodded again, letting him place his lips against her visor. The planning could wait. He did need to wrap his mind around this, and as long as her offer stood, he'd take it. He wanted to milk every second, every soaring, swooping, better-than-he'd-ever-dreamt-it-could-be moment before reality came back into effect. From that point on, she was all he'd ever need.