AN: This chapter takes place right after "Chapter 117: Love will find a way" in my main story.
Time: Year 2188, right after the corresponding chapter in the main story.
Place: The ICA station, Matt's lab.
Characters: Dex and Matt Cyco.
Matt dragged Dex to his private lab, pulling most of the relevant information about the unexpected project out of him on the way. Dex gave him a summary of what he'd done and assured him that nobody would take his new body away from them. More than anything, Matt had been worried about that.
Once inside the lab Matt locked the door and engaged the full privacy mode. The room was huge and Matt had everything he could possibly need in it to never leave, even though he also had a private apartment on the planet's surface to go home to every night. In this lab a prominent spot was dedicated to an asari-developed capsule for full immersion, in which he spent most of his working hours analyzing data and collecting intel. The brand new, custom-built, sleek and gorgeous capsule was the pinnacle of modern technology and his pride and joy. Around it stood several workbenches and shelves with various tools and unfinished tinker projects. Next to them was a medical table, on which Matt often tweaked his own implants, of which he had over a hundred. The whole setup was a technician's wet dream.
The other half of the big room was taken up by living quarters with a big bed, a decadent bathroom, an entertainment center, a kitchen and a long, narrow pool to do laps in. Last year, when the station was being outfitted, Jo allowed all the instructors to order whatever they wanted and needed. When Matt had showed her the bill for his lab, she'd signed it without even a blink. Dex had teased: "Isn't it nice to have friends in high places?" But Matt thought it was just like Jo. All the instructors got the same treatment. There was one single branch at the Academy that had cost almost nothing to outfit. It was Leadership. When it came to her own classes, Jo was content with chairs, tables and a vid screen. She needed nothing else to teach, she'd said. To Matt, that showed Jo's character to the core. In all the years he'd known her, she would always make sure that her people had everything they could possibly want and need. But for herself she wouldn't bother. To indulge in some extravagance – the thought wouldn't even occur to her. Even the fish tank on the Normandy had been put there without her consent. Personally, Matt liked that in a leader and respected her all the more for it.
Despite having this beautiful private space Matt still preferred to use the common gym and pool. For some reason his charming personality and uncompromising work attitude kept visitors at bay and if he wanted to meet other people, he had to physically leave his cave. During his time being locked up in the bunker on Earth he had learned the value of company. Now that he was free to come and go as he pleased, he made a point to socialize.
He walked every day to the cafeteria to sit with his co-workers and recruits, he spent some evenings at The Bar every week, he took walks around the Atrium among the trees and little fountains, and at the end of the work day he made a point of going home. He owned a condominium suite in one of the tallest towers in the capital city, a beautiful place where he also made a point of not having a work station. He could separate his job and his private space now and he chose to do it. Only someone who had spent about a decade as a prisoner in one way or another could understand the freedom of that choice.
Today Matt didn't think of freedom or choices. The only thing he was aware of was the warm hand in his. Once they were alone Matt whirled around and stopped to look at Dex with all the attention he deserved.
Matt took a good look at what he was now working with. Being rather tall himself at 194cm, he had to look pretty far down to meet the young man's gaze. Dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, white skin that had never seen the sun, thin body that had never done any work, gentle skin on small, girlish hands. The body had been completely unused in any way. That created a whole lot of questions in Matt's mind.
"Do your clothes chaff?" He asked. "Your shoes must feel like torture devices. Come and sit," he guided Dex to the med table.
"How did you know?!" Dex exclaimed, properly surprised. Once seated, he quickly bent down to unbuckle the boots and to toe them off.
"I've been human a lot longer than you," Matt smiled. He took a chair for himself and brought it closer to sit right in front of Dex. "I know what it's like to wear unfamiliar clothes, and new shoes are always stiff for a few days. I can imagine that the skin on the soles of your feet is as soft as on your face right now, it's bound to be irritated. Don't worry, your feet and your hands will toughen up with time and you'll feel less in them. That's a good thing."
"Matty," Dex began, but Matt interrupted him forcefully:
"Dex, I'll lay down the law now and you can take it or leave it, but I will have it no other way. Trust me, I have your best interest at heart, no matter how harsh this will sound to you. First of all: yes, I know exactly that when you got yourself a body you were thinking of sex with me. And you want to jump right into it, preferably here and now. But I'm telling you: that is not going to happen. This is your first day in a human body, all your senses are different, and since the body is brand new everything feels even more intense to you than it would to a regular human. You can barely handle wearing shoes, you definitely couldn't handle an orgasm, trust me. So rule number one is: no sexual activity until you learn how to handle your body."
"But…" Dex protested, but Matt's serious face made him shut up and nod.
"Second: it takes babies several years to learn their body's functions, sensitivity and capabilities. I assume it'll take you less time, since you already know how to walk and talk… How did you learn that, by the way?"
"Downloaded the program from Link."
"God, who knew that when Jo put Link into her brain, she would create an invaluable source of intel like that?" Matt was still impressed by that particular twist in Jo's adventures. "So you learned from Link how to operate a human body. Did you also learn how to take care of it?"
"Food, sleep, exercise, exposure to elements, medical specifications – yes, I got all that."
"The knowledge. What you lack is the practice. You'll learn soon enough what 'forgetting' means. A little example: your skin is constantly telling you that you're wearing a shirt. But I bet that after only a few hours of being awake you've already forgotten about that fact. If you think about it, you remember, and you feel the shirt against your skin. But if you're not thinking about it, the brain will simply ignore the intel the skin is sending to it, basically forgetting about it. The brain will turn off everything unimportant. And sometimes you get so occupied that other things get forgotten as well. For example: aren't you hungry?"
Dex's eyes widened when he realized that Matt was right. He was terribly hungry. Right on cue his stomach growled.
"Case in point," Matt nodded and got up to go to the mini-kitchen. He brought back a sandwich for Dex. "So back to the second rule: humans have a daily routine. You have to learn how to follow it and take care of your body properly. Among other things it'll include good food and suitable exercise. You desperately need to put some meat on these bones."
"Why," Dex mumbled around the sandwich. "You think I'm too skinny?"
"Man, you look like a skeleton," Matt chuckled. He watched Dex eat with interest. What was it like, experiencing tastes and textures for the first time?
"This sandwich tastes fantastic!" Dex said, as if he'd heard his thoughts. "Incredible. So many flavours at once…"
"Did you eat anything at all since you woke up in this body?"
"Oh, yeah, after I powered up Link took me to have my hair cut and then we stopped at a little café near the docks. I had cereal and a cup of coffee."
"How did you like the coffee?"
"It's an acquired taste," Dex scrunched his nose in distaste. "I haven't acquired it yet."
Matt laughed: "Yeah, lots of people react that way."
"So, you don't like skinny guys?" Dex looked up flirtatiously.
"It doesn't matter what kind of 'guys' I may or may not like. I like you, and this is your body now. That means I like it."
"That doesn't exactly answer my question," Dex insisted. "Are you even remotely attracted to me now? Please, be as brutally honest as you can. I need to know the truth."
Matt bit down on the inside of his lips.
"If I were to be honest, I would prefer someone who looked healthier than a skeleton, yes. It's not your fault and I promise you, with proper care you'll see vast improvement within a week already." Matt said, perfectly aware that he was avoiding the question about his attraction. Dex noticed and gave him a pointed look. "If I were to be brutally honest, though, I would say that you've found a very attractive body, and there is only one concern I have. You look very young. It's not a flaw or a bad thing! It's just… Dex, you look barely legal. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with robbing the cradle like that."
Confusion marked the younger man's face and Dex's voice sounded from the speakers in the ceiling:
"Wow, I never realized what 'jumble of thoughts' actually meant. Organic functions are weird."
"Yeah. But you'll get used to it, I hope," Matt promised.
"So you're saying I'm too young," Dex continued speaking through his new body. "What can I do? Change my appearance somehow? Maybe dress differently or grow a beard…"
"Stop, please. There is nothing you can do about the fact that this body is 18 years old. Don't try. You could just mess things up in your eagerness. Dex, trust me: youth is the only flaw that disappears on its own with time. All I'm saying is that I'll probably be more attracted to you in a decade than I am now."
"Does that mean we won't touch for a decade?!" Dex exclaimed in horror.
"No, that's not what I mean. But that brings me back to the rules I was laying down. Dex, it's not just this body that's very young. The most important reason why I won't touch you yet is because you're not used to human emotions. Your virtual emotions will not help you here. We humans take decades to learn how to recognize and deal with what we feel. Our hormones make us feel wild things sometimes and we all learn how to handle that without becoming dangerous to ourselves or to others. One of the main reasons why it's illegal to seduce a minor is because a child isn't mature enough to cope with the sexual act, and Dex, emotionally you're a newborn baby right now. You may have all the information, but you have no idea how your new body will react to different stimuli. You need to toughen up your spirit as well as your skin before I would consider you a legal adult. I'm doing it for your own good, can you trust me on that?"
"Yes," Dex said instantly. "I always trust you, Matty. And I know you're right: you've been human a lot longer than me, you know what you're talking about."
"I'm glad you understand."
"How long?" Dex sounded pleading now.
"I'm afraid there is no way to tell. I'll give you some advice now which is very difficult to follow, especially for someone like you, who is used to a synthetic's speed. It's one of the hardest things for us, humans, to learn: you must have patience. An organic's life moves at a very different speed than an AI's. We don't measure nanoseconds, but whole minutes, hours, days. We spent half of our lives asleep. Eating and showering takes time. Physically moving our bodies somewhere takes time. And then there is this joy of doing nothing at all, now and then. You're used to a different pace, but if you want to keep this body for many years, you'll have to learn a human's pace, too. And that takes time."
"What you're saying is that nothing is going to happen between us for the foreseeable future," Dex summed up the rules. "Hm. I think I have more intimacy with you as an AI."
"Only for now," Matt grinned. "We need to do this right. But the rewards will be worth it, I promise."
They regarded each other in silence, exploring this new sensation of physically being next to each other.
"Dex, I just told you many things, but there is still one more that I haven't said yet, but I really need to."
"Oh?"
"You surprised the fuck out of me, but I'm very, very glad that you did this. I would probably never have dared to suggest it, myself. I thought about it, but saying it out loud would have sounded like I wanted to change you, turn you into something you're not, or that I was missing something in our relationship… You took that choice away from me and I'm infinitely relieved that you did. And now that you're here, all gorgeous and intriguing, I'm letting you know that you're mine. I'm a jealous lover and I won't let anyone else touch you, not even as an experiment. If you wanted to make experiences with other people, it's too late for that now. I'm never letting you go."
Dex's eyes filled with tears and he lifted one hand to claw at his chest, overcome by all the unfamiliar emotions.
"I…" He swallowed hard and nodded: "I accept."
Matt smiled. He reached out and took Dex's hand into his. Then he slowly and gently ran his fingertips over the soft skin of the young man's lower arm. Dex gasped and shuddered from the intensity of the sensation.
"And that's just one of the easily accessible sensitive spots on your body," Matt grinned at the reaction. Dex swayed, probably imagining how intense other sensations would be.
"Will you show me more?" He whispered and Matt nodded:
"I will show you everything with time."
