Hey guys! So, there's a section with some implied sexy stuff but I did a fade-to-black kind of thing since two of the chapters already thus far contain smut.
I just want to clarify that Walter did lose his hand on Origae-6 – everything that happened in the film happened, up until the switchover between Walter and David. Daniels gave Walter a replacement hand on their arrival to Origae-6; there were spare parts or maybe someone made one.
Hope you enjoy!
It was still early in the evening when Daniels entered the bedroom after her shower and found him on the bed, reading a book on plants; she couldn't help but grin to herself as she moved to climb into bed beside him, heart growing warm at the sight of him. He looked up as she settled beside him, a smile lighting up his features. "Did you have a relaxing shower, Danny?"
"Yeah, it was great," She affirmed, resting her head on his shoulder and looking at the page he was studying. "Orchis Italia?"
"They were most commonly found in the Mediterranean," Walter informed her. "Usually their colouring was purple, and it preferred partial shade and low nutrient soil."
Daniels looked at the picture of the plant in the book and bit her lip to contain a laugh. "It looks like a naked guy."
"Yes, it does," He agreed, somewhat amused. "In fact, one of its other names was the 'naked man orchid' because of the labellum of each flower that mimicked the shape of a naked male; another name for it was the 'Italian orchid'."
"It's kinda anatomically correct," She mused, pointing to a part of the picture. "That would be a big dick for its size though – I mean, if that were a life-size man, its cock would be down to its kneecaps."
"It varies from flower-to-flower," He stated, though he was smiling too. "But that's an intriguing way of looking at it, I suppose. It would be interesting to see if it could grow here, under the conditions of Origae-6, but we didn't bring seeds for this particular plant."
It didn't escape Walter's notice that Daniels' hand drifted down to his thigh, squeezing gently. "It would have been hilarious to walk around and see flowers shaped like naked men," She chuckled softly. "But probably distracting too – it'd probably make people think about sex or something, seeing that."
"Are you thinking about sexual activity, having seen a picture of it?" He asked seriously.
She laughed now, properly, and leaned in closer. "Honestly? Yeah, I am – but I was thinking about sex before I even got in the shower."
"I see. So," His voice dropped slightly to a tone that made a coil of arousal spiral through her. "I am right in assuming that you would like to have sex tonight?"
"Well, I'd have put it in a more romantic way," Daniels huffed good-naturedly, and her hand was now drifting over to his crotch. "But yeah, you're right in assuming that…only if you're not too busy studying your plants, that is."
Walter tilted his head at her teasing tone, slowly closing his book and moving to put it down on the table beside the bed. "I'm certainly not too busy studying plants – I would much rather study you."
"Oh God," She laughed, wrinkling her nose as she cupped his face with her free hand. "That's an awful pick-up line – did you hear that from Tennessee?"
"Yes. I won't use it again."
"Yeah, please don't."
And then she closed the distance between them with a kiss, her hands carding through his hair; she groaned when his tongue slipped into her mouth, his hands gripping her hips. Wasting no time, she pulled at his hoodie to urge him to move over her, letting her legs fall open so he could fit between them; according to previous data, her tugging at his clothing indicated that she wished for him to remove it, and so he hurriedly lifted the garment over his head alongside his t-shirt before leaning down once more to kiss her.
"Fuck," Daniels murmured against his mouth, hands running over his bare skin; his entire body was warm beneath her fingertips, so incredibly human and real.
Walter pressed a series of kisses to her throat, keeping his eyes open and on her. "May I undress you, Danny?" He asked, voice soft.
"You better," She joked breathlessly.
Immediately he removed the cotton shirt she wore to bed, lifting it over her head and throwing it aside; he would retrieve it later, once their activities were finished – humans weren't fond of stopping during sexual intercourse to pick up clothing, as he had discovered. She had worn no bra underneath, and now she was left in a pair of boxer shorts that he realized belonged to him.
"This is mine," He stated, rather matter-of-fact as he brushed his fingers over the waistband.
Daniels grinned, eyes shining. "Yeah, it is – is that a problem?"
"No," Walter said seriously. "I have found that I enjoy the sight of you in my clothes, though I'm unable to say why exactly. In any case, I'm going to remove them – is that acceptable?"
"More than acceptable," She agreed fondly, and she wriggled slightly as he pushed the underwear down her legs.
There was no more talk of underwear or plants, the two of them soon rather occupied with something much more exciting.
To say that she was surprised to find a child in the terraforming area of the colony was an understatement; when Daniels had approached one of the vehicles and seen a small head just barely visible through the window, she'd been both bewildered and taken aback because usually children didn't come anywhere near the terraforming equipment – it was usually classed as too dangerous for them.
The child was a little girl, who smiled nervously at the sight of an adult and cautiously opened the door to step out. "I'm-I'm sorry, Miss Daniels," She said politely – her voice was tinged with worry too – as her short legs struggled to reach the step down. "I know 'm not supposed to be in here, but the boys were laughing at me 'cause I said I wanna be a terraforming-person when I grow up – they said it's not what girls do."
Surprise fading, Daniels grinned and offered the girl her hand. "Don't listen to them – tell them from me that girls are better at terraforming, and I'm the expert so I know." For some reason, she couldn't remember the girl's name – she never could differentiate between the children in the colony for some reason, their names and faces mixing up most of the time. "So… You want to go into terraforming?"
"Uh-huh!" The girl said excitedly, taking the woman's hand and jumping down. "My daddy said that it means growing food and making sure everything can live properly, so I wanna do that…I used to want to be a fairy princess, but then I learnt about terraforming, and it's way cooler."
She wasn't sure she'd define terraforming as 'cool', but it made her chuckle all the same. "I see. Well, you're welcome to ask me any questions about it whenever you want – if there's one thing I know anything about, it's terraforming."
The child looked thrilled. "That's so awesome! You're really cool, Miss Daniels, you know that? Some people say you and Mr Walter are weird, but I think you're both pretty great for grown-ups!"
It didn't surprise Daniels that this little girl knew Walter – all of the children in the colony knew Walter, of course. "You like Walter, huh? Yeah, he's really great-"
"Walter is amazing," The girl breathed, lighting up. "He tells the best stories, and he plays games with us, and he knows everything – he's so smart and kind and awesome! Everyone likes Walter!
Hearing the girl talk about her lover so excitedly made Daniels' heart warm in her chest, a rather ridiculous grin on her face. How could Walter not see how much the children on Origae-6 adored him? It was so painfully obvious that they loved him, any idiot could have seen it – he wasn't an idiot, and yet he didn't see it. It was upsetting that his own view of himself seemed to be so low that he couldn't even realize the obvious – whoever had programmed that into him back on Earth deserved a swift kick up the ass, at the very least.
Brushing that thought aside, she found herself focusing on the chattering girl instead; at least the topic of conversation was one she could actually understand and contribute to, and it didn't take long for her to grow comfortable talking about terraforming to the small girl.
Usually Walter arrived to work earlier than Daniels, setting things up for the day ahead whilst the humans slowly started on their own tasks for the day, still groggy and tired; however, his lover had set out early in order to check on various pieces of equipment. Her sleep had been disturbed by what appeared to be strange dreams, he'd noticed, and so it hadn't been surprising that she'd been up early and excused herself after breakfast. He wished he could help, more than anything, but he didn't know what he could possibly do – he had already asked her what her dreams were about, but she'd denied to answer them.
The terraforming area appeared to be empty when he got there that morning, whistling to himself quietly and studying the various items of machinery; everything seemed to be in order, untouched since the previous day when they'd been used, and everything looked perfectly safe for use. He would be sure to keep alert, however, just in case of a malfunction – for safety.
Two voices reached him after a few minutes, and Walter ceased whistling immediately; judging by the pitch and tone, one of the voices was a child. Silently moving closer, he recognized the child's voice to be that of a little girl named Bella, aged seven years and ten months old; he registered the second voice immediately, and he grinned – he would recognize Daniels' voice anywhere.
"…So I was in charge of all the food we grew when we first got here," He heard his lover explain slowly; most adults were condescending with children, but she didn't seem to be as she spoke. "I'm still in charge of making sure we grow enough food, and with making sure the environments around the colony are safe for habitation."
"That's so cool!" Bella said in awe; he could now see them behind a truck of some kind. "You're the reason everyone got to eat and why everyone's alive, right? 'Cause you were the captain on the ship too!"
"Well…sort of. I mean, I was captain for most of the journey," Daniels stated carefully, deciding it was best not to mention what happened to the other captains. "But I was asleep for most of it; the real one you should be thanking is Walter. He kept all of us alive, doing checks on everyone's sleep pods and making sure the ship was on course – we'd have gotten nowhere without him."
While flattered, Walter couldn't help but muse that she was speaking far too kindly about him; it had been his duty to look after the crew and colonists, and it had been a day-to-day routine that a human would have found tedious. Even so, Bella sounded impressed when she spoke. "Walter's so amazing – he's the best, 'cause he plays with us and remembers everything! I love playing rounders with him, 'cause he always gives out chocolates to everyone at the end."
Not wanting to alert them to his presence or interrupt their conversation, Walter took a small look around the truck; he was aware that some of the other colonists had started to wander over so as to start work, but he couldn't help himself. Daniels was crouching so that she and the child in front of her were eye-level, grinning and chuckling as they talked; Bella looked ecstatic to be talking to her, bouncing on the balls of her feet and clapping her hands together. It was rare that Daniels interacted with the children who inhabited the colony: she had always insisted that she was 'awful' with kids, that she was sure they wouldn't want to be around her anyway – but she had been wrong, he now concluded, because Bella couldn't have been more thrilled.
As he watched them, he couldn't help but think about what Daniels had said nearly a month ago; she had been so passionate when asking him about the embryos, and it was clearly something she very much about. He had told her that he'd think about her proposal, and he had been thinking; she hadn't brought the subject up again since, knowing he would come to her when he had thought it through properly, and he had found himself grateful for that because he didn't know where to stand on the matter. There was no previous data as to how a synthetic would behave in a parental role – the Walter model came in a 'Manny' unit, but that was hardly the same thing as being a full-time parent – and so it was impossible to estimate as to how he would feel or behave towards a child. Granted, he enjoyed the company of all of the children on Origae-6, but it wasn't the same.
Daniels gave a quiet laugh as Bella held her hand up for a high-five, and she complied immediately; she would make a rather sufficient mother, he thought in an almost absent-minded way, and he could almost envision her with a child of her own. She had said once that she didn't feel like she would be a good mother, but he had to disagree.
Watching them, Walter found it surprisingly easy to come to a conclusion on what to do.
They had been curled up in bed, Daniels wrapped around her lover while he read a book with one hand silently; she had felt calm, safe and warm with him, and ready to drift off when she heard his voice in the darkness.
"You were right," Walter said softly. "I have considered what you said, and I've made my decision… I would like for us to have a baby, should you still agree."
She jolted up to look at him, mouth falling open in astonishment; suddenly she felt completely awake. "What? Say that again." When he looked confused, her mouth curled into a smile. "I wanna hear you say it again – just so I know it's for real."
"I said that you were right," He repeated, more firmly this time. "I have thought and considered the arguments you gave, and come to the conclusion that I would like for us to have a baby, should you still want to."
Walter had barely finished his sentence before Daniels was kissing him, a jubilant laugh bubbling out of her and against his mouth as they held each other. "You want this?" She questioned when she separated for air, hardly daring to believe it. "You do actually want this? You're not just saying it to make me happy or anything?"
"I don't often want things," He mused seriously. "But this is something I've decided – realized – I want, yes."
Suddenly his lover was kissing him again, joyful and looking somewhat close to tears – he assumed the tears were of the happy kind, given that this was good news. "I love you," She muttered breathlessly, her hands roaming over his body. "We're gonna do this…we're actually gonna do this."
As her hands pulled at his shirt, Walter tilted his head at her, expression bemused. "I'm assuming the reason you want intercourse is celebratory – I cannot actually impregnate you."
"Yes, it's to celebrate," Daniels huffed fondly, unable to stop herself from grinning. "Having said that…wouldn't hurt to try the natural way anyway, right?"
IT'S HAPPENING GUYS!
I hope you're all enjoying it so far – it's about to get SUPER angsty and then SUPER fluffy, so prepare yourselves! :D