Ash had a near eidetic memory—everything she ever witnessed, she never forgot. And yet, she could hardly remember the last five minutes as she and Mathias had rushed from the streets of the city back to the tower.

She decided to replay tonight's events in her mind, trying to plot out exactly what had happened; first, they'd fought outside the bar. Tensions had still been high after nearly dying, and it was no surprise that their emotions finally reached the breaking point.

She'd broken down into tears, and he'd comforted her. Then, he'd finally said what she'd wanted to hear for three years. Three long, goddamn years.

"All I care about … is you, Ash. I love you."

They'd hugged, and gone back into the bar. The tension had melted between them like a glacier, its ice turning into a warm flood that washed over them, and they had quickly gone from one extreme to another. He'd downed several beers, and so had she—she'd giggled as his better judgement began to wane, and his hand had started to flirtatiously venture up her thigh as the night went on. At first, she'd playfully swatted it away. But before long, her own inhibitions had deteriorated and she made no more attempts to stop him.

The bartender had narrowed his eyes at them in disapproval, shouting for them to 'get a room.' And so, with a knowing glance at one another, they'd decided to do exactly that.

And that concluded her reflection of how they'd progressed from fighting in the snow to him pushing her up against the wall of his room, his breath heavy in her face and his eyes only inches from hers.

She could see her own optics in the reflection of his irises, their lightning-blue glow making his emerald orbs spark with a sort of electricity that made her synthetic heart race and incited heat in several different locations on her body.

"I love you," he repeated, and she clenched her hands into fists at the sound. God, had she waited so long to hear that.

"And I love you," she said back breathlessly, and she meant it. She'd told him before she wasn't sure she even had the physical capability to feel love—well, she was damned sure now. Some might argue that, as an Exo, all she felt were artificial synapses firing with positive feedback and simulated endorphins. Maybe in the end, they were right; if everything could be boiled down to chemicals for humans, love being nothing more than the right combination of hormones, endorphins, and oxytocin, then her love was no more than electrical impulses and binary outputs.

But that didn't make it any less real.

Her heart, synthetic as it might be, was beating with the same ferocity as anyone else's. Her chest heaved with excitement and anticipation and wonder like anyone else's in her position would. And she would gladly die for this man in an instant if it came down to it, she'd die a thousand meaningless deaths for him if it meant that no undeserved harm would ever come to him.

So yeah, she loved him—and damn anyone who would say otherwise.

They stood frozen in place now, her back still against the wall and him still looming in front of her. Their aggressiveness had seemingly been put on pause as both waited to see what the other would do now that they'd reached this point. They weren't dumb, they both knew the implications of what either was or wasn't going to happen in the next few minutes—and it all would be decided by what came next.

Slowly, a drunken smile came over him. "Stop me if you've heard this one; a human and an exo walk into a bar—"

Ash placed her hands around the back of his neck and pulled him towards her, pressing her lips against his and instantly shutting him up. She was not about to let him ruin all of this with a stupid, goddamn joke.

She hadn't expected their mouths to be as compatible as they were, hers being made of carbon fiber and his of malleable flesh. But there was a tenderness to their kiss, a warm emanation of acceptance and love that made her melt with delight, her metal skin becoming soft putty in his hands.

After a few moments, she felt a wet presence poking through his mouth and into hers. Without hesitation, she granted it access; his tongue invaded her maw eagerly, running itself along the roof of her mouth and sending a tingle of excitement through her that she wanted very much to reciprocate.

She pushed her own carbon-weave tongue against his, relishing in the taste of his saliva in her mouth. Gently, the two of them began to step away from the wall and gradually move towards his bed in the center of the room, their lips still locked and their tongues still dancing with one another unseen.

Finally, as they hit the edge of the mattress, she broke the kiss and inhaled sharply. She wasn't sure whether she was out of breath from the anticipation of what was happening, or simply because she hadn't been able to breathe for half a minute—whatever the reason, she was looking forward to becoming breathless several more times tonight.

With her right hand, she placed her palm flat against the center of his sternum and pushed him. Already unsteady, the Hunter fell onto his back on the bed.

"I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of … er, experience with exos," he interjected from his spot on the bed. "I just mean to say that I guess I'm not sure exactly … I know you have lungs and nerves and whatnot, but just how anatomically functional are you?"

"In every way," she answered simply, reaching up and beginning to undress herself. First came her jacket, an article which she shed with no small amount of haste. But once it was gone and her undershirt had been revealed, Mathias held up a hand to stop her.

She obliged, though more out of confusion than anything else. Did he not want this? But a moment later, she watched as he stifled a snicker and covered his mouth with one hand to stem the flow of laughter.

"I didn't realize you were such a fan of Cal, Ash."

With even more confusion, she looked down and realized with dismay that she was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the cartoon caricature of 'Calvin the Cabal', the titular character of a series of comics in the city meant to poke fun at humanity's enemy. Rather than the fearsome and violent appearance most associated with the Cabal, Calvin had large eyes and a sweet smile with blushed cheeks. He was, for as much as a cartoon likeness of a Cabal could be, cute.

She groaned. "It was a gift from Aria! I couldn't just throw it out." She was not going to mention the fact that, although she detested the art on the front, the shirt was also insanely comfortable.

He tilted his head at it, still smiling. "Well, now I know what I'm going to be getting you for the Dawning this year."

That smile faded however, as she decided to put an end to his smartass remarks by grabbing the edges of her shirt, and lifting up until it came over her head. Tossing it to one side, she placed one hand on her hip and held the other down at her side. "You want to keep talking? Go ahead, I can wait."

He swallowed hard. "No, no I think I'm good now. Floor's all yours."

A sultry smile came over her features. "That's what I thought."

Still, she stood there for a few moments longer, granting him an excellent view of her newly-bare torso. This wasn't the first time he'd seen her 'naked', but the last time had been under … well, less than ideal circumstances. Who would have thought that after three years, she would have wanted him to see her like this?

And she did—she loved how his eyes roamed over her form, admiring her white and black plating. How they trailed from the dark accents of her carbon stomach up to the underside of her breasts before finally drinking in the full sight of her firm tits. Experimentally, she lifted her hands up and cupped a boob in each, lifting them up ever so slightly and squeezing them with just enough pressure to leave faint marks of her fingertips.

He just stared with a half-open jaw, not even bothering to hide his astonishment. He also was failing to hide something else, as it turned out, her eyes catching sight of a small bulge rising beneath his pants.

She clambered onto the bed, and began crawling over him until her face hung just a few inches above his, placing her knees on either side of his waist. The two of them stared at one another wordlessly for a few moments—then, she broke the tension.

"Do me a favor?"

He nodded, almost imperceptibly. "Anything."

"Hold these for me."

His hands rose up from his side, grabbing her tits eagerly and eliciting a soft sigh from her. She adored the feeling of his callused hands on her chest, closing her eyes and simply enjoying the sensation of his fingers kneading the pliable carbon of her 'skin' as he fondled her.

But she didn't expect him to do all of the work, far from it. While he had his fun, she used her now-free hands to reach down between her legs and work on undoing his belt. After a few moments, she heard the faint clink of metal as her hand accomplished its mission, and then set about on stage two.

Retreating from him (and earning a somewhat reluctant expression on his part as she took her breasts with her), she placed both hands on his waistband and began to tug downwards. There was a brief moment of resistance as they became caught on that same bulge from earlier, but then they came free. Only a pair of briefs stood between her and the target she sought to reach, its fabric now stretched upward due to his arousal.

Like a child on the morning of the Dawning, she could not help but let a small noise of glee escape her as she unwrapped her present. Performing the same motion as she just had with his jeans, she pulled his boxers away and finally revealed his unrestricted erection.

Mathias waited for a few moments, his dick throbbing idly down below. He raised an eyebrow at Ash, noticing her staring at it blankly. "Not to sound impatient, but are you just going to look at that all night?"

Her optics winked out for a moment, an exo's version of blinking, and then she turned back towards him with a somewhat embarrassed expression. "Sorry, I … I, uh, zoned out for a moment there."

She was having a hard time describing exactly how the sight of his manhood had momentarily rendered her speechless—she'd thought about this moment, fantasized about it (and had more than one amazing dream about it), but seeing his six-inch cock just waiting for her like that had nearly shut down her higher thinking.

Maybe she needed to shut down her higher thinking. Right now, she was much more interested in what was below.

Without further waiting, she scooted forward and placed her tits around his shaft. He grunted from the new sensation, leaning his head back as she began to move them up and down. It wasn't like human skin—her breasts were far softer than he would have thought, but their surface was made of some kind of blend of metallic elements. The result was a firm, but malleable material akin to gelatinous silicone, and damn did it feel good. She was also exuding heat from her core, a side-effect of her own arousal, and that meant that there was essentially a pair of soft, warm cushions running themselves up and down his dick.

Ash watched with satisfaction as he lost himself in the midst of his pleasure, leaning his head back onto the bed and just letting her do what she wished. She was more than happy to comply, continuing to titfuck him with no sign of stopping anytime soon—

She gasped from a light twinge of pain on her right breast, and looked to see him gently pinching her nipple between his fingers. Though she was sure she'd felt a bit of pain, she was surprised to realize that she felt far more enjoyment. For now, she gave no protest, and allowed his hand to play with her while she—

Fuck!

He'd pinched the other one now, with just a tad more force than he'd done the other. She inhaled sharply—the feeling had driven her body mad. Her lust deepended, and she felt a wetness growing between her legs, unseen by him.

She looked down, and saw a few beads of milky white droplets emerging from the tip of his penis. Encouraged by the sight, she began to increase her pace—

Without warning, she felt him pull away from her. She looked at him confusedly before she felt his hands grab underneath her armpits, and lift her up. She was only there for a moment before she was tossed onto the bed unceremoniously, only furthering her confusion. Lying on her back, she lifted her head and saw him standing there at the foot of the bed, yanking his upper garments off now too.

"Sex is all about give and take, Ash," he explained to her, tossing aside his shirt and standing fully-naked before her.

"Were you not enjoying it?" she asked, tilting her head.

"No, I was—I was enjoying it very much—but that's the point. It wouldn't be polite if I didn't let you enjoy this too."

She gave a small hum. "I am enjoying this."

"Well, I think you're going to enjoy this a lot more."

Just as she'd done earlier, he fiddled with the buttons on her pants and pulled them apart. Pulling on the khaki fabric, he eased them off of her legs until she was bare, save for a pair of thin panties. He could see a damp spot soaking through the white fabric, and—

Staring at what he'd just noticed, he looked up towards her face, completely at a loss for words. Her expression became one of chagrin, and she hastily shrugged from her current position. "They were another gift from Aria?"

"Tell Aria that she's no longer allowed to shop for you," he muttered, the likeness of Cal the Cabal staring back at him yet again, though this time from a far less innocent location.

Ignoring the brand image on the front, he moved forward with his original plan. Locking his gaze with Ash, he stared into her eyes as he lowered his mouth to the hem of her panties, and bit it. Tugging it with his teeth, he began to slowly perform the task of pulling it away from her hips and down her legs.

She, ever the impatient one, lifted her legs up and bent her knees to help him. Once he'd gotten them past the joint, it was an easy trip. Sliding them past her feet, he grabbed them from his mouth and set them aside on the floor. She remained there, keeping her legs up and knees bent to hide her nethers.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Do I need a password?"

She chuckled. "No—I just thought you might want to savor this."

Gently, she eased her legs apart and unfurled them. He watched as the rest of her nude form was exposed, her legs spread to give him as good of a view as she could manage. Like the rest of her, her ass and thighs were covered in white and black plating, various seams and lines drawn in them to signify different segments of her 'skin', and every so often, like with her toes, he could see the machinery and metallic skeleton beneath that allowed her to move with such dexterity.

He marvelled at all of her; the simple fact of the matter was that she was a work of art. Nearly every inch of her had been sculpted from metal, alloys, or rubber—and yet, she was more beautiful to him than any other woman he'd ever seen.

He bent low, examining his prey. Ash was right, she was anatomically correct in every way. Her pussy loomed before him, though much neater (if that was the word to use) than any organic woman's; there were no rough bumps or nubs of skin, no hair to be seen—just her smooth, synthetic mound. Unlike her legs, her vagina was entirely a cyan color, one that matched the glow of her eyes.

"God, you're hot."

He hadn't meant to say that aloud, but it seemed to have slipped out regardless. She wasn't complaining, however, beaming at him with a satisfied smile. "You really think so?"

He raised his brows. "Don't tell me you don't?"

She shrugged from her current position. "Beauty is a concept handled differently by exos. Sure, there's different plate designs you can add, maybe change the color of your optics …

Ash sighed with just a small amount of forlornness. "But after a while, you start to see what everyone else sees … just metal."

He shook his head disbelievingly. "Ash, that's just not true."

"You don't have to pretend, I know I don't have the same physical appeal as a human or awoken—"

"Ash, you are by far the most attractive woman I've ever met."

She narrowed her optics in confusion. "I don't see how that's possible."

"Because attraction is more than something skin-deep," he told her. "I told you before—I love you for you. Your strengths, your flaws, it's all part of what makes you ... you."

She fell silent, her eyes practically twinkling as he declared his affection.

"You're brave, strong, and really damn stubborn at times," he said with a laugh. "And yeah, you're an exo. That's just as much a part of you as anything else, and I wouldn't dare change it. There's no one I'd rather be able to call my best friend."

She said nothing for a few moments, simply staring back at him with her optics as they glowed in the dimly lit room. Finally, she smiled lovingly at him. "Sorry, I was just making sure that I stored this in my permanent memory-banks; this is one memory I want to cherish forever."

He grinned. "You might want to keep recording. "

Before she could ask what he meant by that, he opened his mouth and pressed it against her mound.

The reaction was instantaneous—she arched her back at the sudden contact, gasping loudly with a volume that made her reach up and slap a hand over her mouth. She lifted her head up from where she lay and looked down at him with wide optics.

"Holy shit."

If that was how she reacted to just a kiss, then she was a lot closer than he'd thought. Sure enough, as he pulled his head back, he could see her labia becoming slick with a clear, light-blue fluid, one that he could taste on his lips. It reminded him faintly of mint and rubber, with just a dash of sweetness.

Moving his head back into place, the real work began. He dragged his tongue up her slit, trailing it between the folds of her lips slowly and placing his right hand above her sex. With his thumb, he gently reached down below her hood and began massaging her clitoris. She moaned from his touch, either unable to hold her pleasure in or too lost in bliss to care.

He lapped at her pussy as it continued to secrete lubricant, drinking it in with the thirst of a man in the desert. As he did so, one of her hands found its way onto his head and began running itself through his hair. The other moved to her breast where she began playing with her own nipple, squeezing and tugging at it while he worked.

He forged ahead, stiffening his tongue and extending it into the vagina itself. That dragged an even louder moan out of her, one which she was no longer able to silence as her hands were otherwise preoccupied.

It was quite tight, her artificial muscles squeezing in on all sides, and warm with her internal heat like her tits. He had no issue with wriggling his tongue around to give himself a bit of room to work with. He could taste the lining of her inner walls, totally covered and moistened with the same liquid as the outside, and swirled his tongue around to coat it in as much of the stuff as possible.

Her moans became whines of elation as she edged closer and closer to release. "Mathias, p-please …"

He decided to stop teasing her and give her what she was asking for. Retracting his tongue from her hole, she was about to protest when his tongue ran itself over her clit. Her back arched again, her legs involuntarily trying to come together. He didn't allow it, grabbing each of them in his hands and forcing them apart further while he focused on his task. Licking the small nub of synthetic flesh, he covered its wetness with his own, letting his spit mix with her lubricant as his tongue rubbed itself up against her clit in an ever-increasing pace—

She swore she saw stars as she finally spilled over the edge and began to climax. Her body jerked and writhed without control, her pelvis bucking in place as she came into his mouth. There was an electric tingling that ran all along her spine and forced her hips to gyrate, grinding her mound into his tongue further as her body pursued the source of her pleasure. He obliged, and placed his mouth over her pussy as his tongue shot inside her again, and she threw her head back with a cry as she rode out the second wave of her orgasm. Her juices began to seep out of her, but they weren't there for long before he lapped them up.

Finally, the room came into view once more as her head cleared enough for her to understand what had just happened. He stood back up to his full height, smiling at her with lips that were ever so slightly colored blue from her discharge. "Something to say?"

"Fuck me."

The words had tumbled out of her mouth faster than she could think them, but she'd meant it. She had to have him right now, she couldn't bear the thought of waiting any longer to join her body with his.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he could sense her impatience and a mischievous glint manifested in his eyes. In truth, that could probably sum up the entirety of their friendship—an impatient, blunt-spoken Titan and a smartass Hunter who dreamt of new ways to tease her.

"Sorry, I don't think I quite caught that."

She flared her optics at him, but he was not intimidated in the slightest. They both wanted this badly, but he knew he could outlast her when it came to prolonging it. With a groan, she fed his stupid desire to taunt her. "I said, fuck me."

"Still seems like kind of a vague command, could you be a bit more specific?"

He was maddening, and she swore she'd get him back for this later—but right now, she could focus on one thing and one thing only. Rising from her spot on the bed, she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down on top of her before he could resist, then locked her gaze with his in as dangerous of an expression as she could muster.

"I need to feel you inside me right now."

His eyes gleamed with anticipation. "Copy that."

He moved his hips forward to align with hers, felt his skin brush against metal and silicone. Her nethers were radiating heat like a furnace now, and he basked in the warmth—it wasn't uncomfortable, quite the opposite. Lining himself up with her opening, he rubbed the tip of his dick along her folds, and then upon her clitoris. Though she shuddered at the touch, her eyes quite clearly expressed that this was not what she wanted. "For the love of the Traveler, stop teasing me and—!"

She was silenced by a sudden sensation of fullness as he slammed his cock into her opening. She trilled happily, currently unable to form words—the man she called her best friend, the one she'd grown to love over three years was now balls-deep inside of her. There were few other feelings that she could equate with the sheer euphoria of feeling her vaginal walls clench around his shaft, the friction of his skin against hers as he thrust in and out of her, and the sight of his face overcome with pleasure just a foot away from hers. Reaching her hand around the back of his head, she forced him down to her level and placed her mouth against his. He reciprocated eagerly, kissing her lips with a ferocity that was only matched by the aggressive pace of his member sliding about in her pussy. She could taste some of her own cum on his lips from when he'd gone down on her, and she had to admit that it turned her on.

"A-Ash …"

Hearing him say her name through his heavy breathing drove her wild. She relished every last part about all of this; the sound of his skin slapping wetly against hers as his sweat met her lubricant, the smell of his exertion and her own fluids filling up the room, the feel of his bare chest pressing up against her own, her tits squished between the two of them … it all served to heighten her arousal, and she could feel her climax approaching once more.

"D-Don't stop," she ordered him, her voice thick with lust and desire. Their lips met once more, pressing up against each other as his tongue penetrated the sanctity of her mouth and darted towards the back of her throat. She pictured that image in her head, his wet tongue filling up one hole while his manhood filled the other, and she could no longer hold back.

"I'm g-gonna cum, I-I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna c-cum—!"

Her voice hitched as she found release, her second orgasm even more intense than the first. It was like waves of electricity arcing from her lower region up through her spine, and then all throughout her limbs. Then, the process reversed and she could feel the immense buildup of pleasure that had accumulated over the course of their session channel itself into that same point as she came, her walls squeezing tightly around his shaft.

"Ah, ah, AH—!"

The feeling of fullness inside her was immense; a fair bit of liquid seeped out from her slit, but the vast majority of her fluids remained trapped inside, blocked from escaping by his member. As she continued to rock in place due to her orgasm, he kept thrusting as he neared his own. He could feel it now, the rising pressure in his loins as his body prepared to ejaculate.

"A-Ash, I'm a-about to—"

"I-Inside," she murmured breathlessly, unable to say much more than that. "P-Please—"

With a final thrust, he felt himself reach climax. She could feel it too, and wrapped her legs around his back to pull him deeper into her as she screamed with ecstasy. His cock throbbed inside of her, pulsing as he unleashed his load. Strands of a thick, warm cum shot deep into her pussy, splashing against her cervix and filling her up with his love.

Finally, it seemed that he was spent. He fell on top of her, tiredly kissing her with a smile as she did the same.

"That … that was …"

"Long overdue?" she suggested, laughing lightly as she did so.

He snickered back. "Yeah, I suppose it was."

She shifted her body slightly, feeling him slide out of her with a squick as she moved and rolled the two of them over. Now, she lay on top of him rather than the other way around.

"Well," she said, a glint in her optics not unlike the one he'd had earlier, "I guess that just means we're going to have to make up for lost time."

And with that, the two of them kissed with the passion of lost souls that had found their other half.

This was a lot of fun to write, and I hope I did justice to these characters! If any of you are interested, I'm available for commissions, so don't hesitate to DM me and ask if you have something you'd like me to write!