12.
"Try this!"
"Nines, I'm so full."
"It's just a little." He pushes the meat towards me. "You said you like boar meat, so what about this?"
"What is it?"
"Moose!"
I push his hand away and he averts his gaze, dropping his hand.
"Okay. If you really don't want to." He sits back on his haunches. "But if you get hungry again, can you try it?"
Today Nines is very interested in eating. Androids are capable of it, but they stick to basic rations sorted together by Command. They can taste, but not to the degree humans can, and eating is more for fun than for necessities sake.
I need to eat in order to live.
He has given me every vegetable I've ever come across. Lately he has been "cooking" meat. His pod has been teaching him a wide range of culinary practices and he's getting good at preparing food.
He takes a bite of the meat and chews thoughtfully.
"Do you like it?" I ask.
He swallows and wipes his mouth with his sleeve. "I don't know. It's got a funny texture, but it's not bad." He holds it out to me again. "Your tastebuds are natural. I wanna know if you like it."
My laugh is strained. "Does it matter?"
"Yeah, because then I can bring moose meat instead of boar meat. I want to know which you like better."
"Um, well, I really like boar meat."
"Can't you just have a taste?"
"Nines, I'm so full, you're gonna kill me."
He laughs and lays down in the grass next to me. He pulls at the meat with his gloved hands. "What does it feel like to be 'full'?"
"Like my stomach is gonna pop open."
"That's morbid."
"I also feel very sleepy. I don't wanna move." I flop down next to him. "I want to sleep."
"Sleep, then."
I shut my eyes. It's bright out and the sun highlights my eyelids red. Nines shuffles in the grass and I peek an eye open. He has rolled onto his side and is nibbling at the meat, but not eating it. And he calls me a squirrel. He told me I have childish tendencies, but so does he. I flick his forehead and he moves back.
"What?"
He's so at ease, but I have to tell him. "I saw 2B."
"You did?"
"She came to pick up a fuel filter from Pascal."
"I see. Yeah, she doesn't let me visit the village. Makes excuses, like '9S, you'll just get distracted and try to hack the machines' like she believes I get possessed by an uncontrollable hacking urge every time I see a docile machine."
"Hacking?"
"It's nothing." He heaves a sigh. "Did she stay long?"
"Yes."
He frowns.
"She saw me. Pascal didn't bother to hide me, and . . ."
He sits up on one elbow, alert.
"She knows you come here." I keep my voice steady as to not alarm him. "It's okay." I think. "She said Command hasn't caught on, or something."
"She's . . . she's okay with it?"
I circle my hand. "Well, she was pretty grudging. She asked me to order you to stay away."
He presses his forehead into the grass. "Oh." He sounds hollow.
"Nines?"
He clutches his jacket at his chest.
"Are you all right?"
"It's hard to breathe."
I sit up and touch his shoulder. "Are you malfunctioning?"
He shakes his head.
He's afraid, maybe?
But I said she wasn't going to do anything. She said Command was unaware. That's good, isn't it?
Should I distract him?
"2B is almost painfully pretty." I keep my tone lighthearted. "I couldn't stop staring at her. How do you focus on anything with her around?"
He hesitates and his gaze flicks up to meet mine. "She's mine, Ribbon."
I pause. "Yours?"
He nods and rolls onto his back. "Yeah, my partner."
"Okay." I make myself smile. "I know."
He links his hands behind his head.
I watch the side of his face. He doesn't always wear his visor with me, and I like the times he doesn't because I like his eyes. After the first time I saw them, I borrowed Margot's piece of glass and looked at my own eyes. Studied them, transfixed, for a long time. My eyes are brown with gold flecks and a weird, grayish colour near the pupils. Nines' eyes are way more vibrant—blue and endless, layered and sharp.
When he wears his visor, it's sometimes like talking to a stranger.
I reach around his head and tug at the tie. "Take this off."
He nudges my hand away. "Why?"
I reach again but he doesn't stop me this time. I pull it off and lay it next to us. "Tell me about you and 2B."
"What do you mean?"
"You said she's 'yours'. I don't understand that."
His shrug is stiff. "I just meant she's my partner."
I pull at the grass, contemplative. "The way you said that, Nines, was kinda posse—"
"Say, Ribbon?" He has that fake innocence in his voice again.
"Yeah?"
"When 2B talks to you, does she act kind of like me?" He lifts a hand and spreads his fingers, wiggling them.
"What do you mean? She's totally different." If 2B came at me with Nines' playfulness and curiosity I'd have a heart attack.
"I mean, is she taken by you? As an android to a human?"
"Well, I guess. I mean, she has that 'honour' vibe you mentioned." She's way better at keeping herself in check than he is, though.
He laughs. "I hate that."
"Huh?"
He drops his hand. "I'm glad she doesn't take me along to the village with her. I don't want to see her look at anyone like that, even if he's a human and it's just that insuppressible, innate thing we feel."
Oh. I know this. I know this!
I shoot upright, unable to inhibit the bolt of realization. "This is the first time I've encountered this!"
He blinks at me like I've lost my mind.
"You're jealous!"
He slaps a hand to his face. "Ribb, you are so annoying sometimes."
"What?" I pull at his arm. "That's mean!"
"Don't just exclaim that with a stupid grin on your face!" He gets up fast, grabbing my arm and twisting me around in a quick motion. I'm on my stomach, and he's pushing me into the ground. "Eat grass."
I laugh and scream as he wrestles my face down.
"You said you're full but you seem to really, really want to eat grass."
"No, I don't." I struggle, feeble and pointless since he's an android and literally impossible to overpower. "I don't." I'm laughing so hard it hurts to talk. "Please don't be mean."
"Nom, nom." He must think that's what eating sounds like?
He finally lets go and I pant on the ground.
He lays back down beside me as if nothing happened. "Anyway, 2B and I are partners, is all."
"Clearly." I roll onto my side, shielding my face from the sun, which has found a nice spot between two trees to pour into my eyes.
We lapse into a silence.
He shuts his eyes and I resist the urge to poke him to startle him. He looks peaceful again, so I should leave him be, even though he did just attack me. I shouldn't think of petty revenge, especially since it won't end well for me in the, well, end.
I want to tap my toes against his boots or pull at his hair or drizzle grass onto his nose. Anything. Maybe it's because he—and 2B—are the only androids I've met, the only things close to humans, but I always want physical contact. Nines does it too. We're always pulling at each other. Well, I pull, and he pushes. But we're always brushing or drifting or playing. I'm not sure why Nines does it, but I think I do it because I've been starved from that kind of contact for my whole life.
Humans, according to the literature and according to my own actions, are affectionate. Touching has been proven to increase a human's mood and well-being.
When I do it too much, Nines gets funny, though. He withdraws. Is it because he doesn't think he's "worthy" of that type of treatment from a human?
"Nines." My voice is smooth. I'll keep enforcing it then, until he's used to it. "Can you play with my hair?"
He opens his eyes and he turns his head to face me. "Acting like a kid again?"
"Huh?" My neck heats up. "I just like it. It feels nice." I don't like when he thinks I'm childish. I want to impress him after all. How can a child impress anyone?
He makes a thinking noise.
"Please? I like when you touch me." I shuffle closer.
He laughs, abrupt and loud. "Ribb, you talk like a human lover sometimes."
I do? "Like about mating and stuff?" When have I ever done that?
"No. You say things that the YoHRa androids wouldn't be caught dead saying—not that they can talk if they are dead, but you get it, right? You talk like I'm precious to you." He grins. "It's really embarrassing."
"But you're smiling."
"Well, a human talking to an android like that is unheard of."
"Really?"
"We literally exist for humans. Of course we'd be happy when one looks at us like an equal." He flinches. "Oh, I didn't mean to imply I'm an equal. I know I'm—"
"Didn't we already make a promise to be friends?" I laugh. "Of course we're the same!"
He drapes an arm over his face. "We aren't, Ribb."
I kick my feet against the grass. "It's not a bad thing, is it? When I say stuff that makes you embarrassed?"
He looks away and shakes his head.
"Do you want 2B to talk to you like I do?"
"What kinda question—?" His cheeks colour. "I'd die of shock if 2B did."
That again. I remember him bending over—You're going to kill me.
"You want her to say embarrassing stuff to you?"
He laughs and rubs his cheek. "Quit it. I don't know."
He's really flustered. I'm transfixed. So, it isn't just me he gets like that about?
"I don't know." He looks away, pulling his knees up.
Well, if he looks that happy thinking about it, he definitely wants her to. Maybe I won't call him out in case he attacks me again.
He jerks, sudden. He sits up, grabs the visor, and ties it over his head. "Oh, yes. I'm here, 2B. Yes, I'm here. I was just—washing my face?" His voice piques at the end. "Yes, washing machine oil off my face. I killed an oily one?" He drops his face into his hands. "I'll be there in a sec."
I sit up and he glances at me.
"Guess she knows where I actually am, doesn't she?"
"Maybe."
He makes a dismayed noise. "At best, I'll have to put up with her glaring at me and giving me the silent treatment. At worst, she's going to throttle me."
We share a grin.
He gets up, bops me on the head, and runs off.
I'm giddy after he leaves, and I stay in the clearing a little longer. When I'm ready to leave, I get up and brush off grass stains, and then head into the forest.
There's a dead rabbit on the path, looking oddly thin as if it has been drained. Probably Margot's—hobbies.
But I'm in such a good mood I don't care.
The sun hides behind clouds to make an iron sky. Nines' hair whips about his head from a tumultuous burst of wind as he holds out the ribbon to me.
It's cold out, that day.
The day everything changes.
AN: :O
Wait, the plot wants to move on from lovey dovey fluffy wuffy? :O
:O
PS: Lurkers, let me know how I'm doing!