Chapter Six: Parked
Max smiled, lifting a hand in greeting as he approached Alia, who stood at their preplanned meeting spot in front of the bus station. "Hey! Am I late?"
"Not at all," she replied. "I got here a little early myself."
"You look fantastic," he said. "It looks like you're wearing the outfit from Ginny's place, but…something's different."
"It's-"
"Hold on," he interrupted with a hand. "Let me try to figure it out."
"Okay." She then spent the next minute blushing self-consciously as he looked her up and down.
Finally, his gaze settled on her hair. "Hey, you're wearing a bow, aren't you?"
She absently reached up to touch the white decoration that Palette had tied in her hair that morning. "Is it okay? Do you like it?"
"I love it!" he exclaimed. "Your hair normally looks awesome, but the bow…I don't know, it adds something to it, somehow."
"It was Palette's idea," Alia admitted as they headed toward their stop. "She came up with the idea, but I'm the one who picked this bow."
"See? You have an instinct about your beauty, and you went with it," he said, giving her a sidelong smile.
"Th-Thank you," she blushed.
"So, are there any rides you want to go on in particular? Or anything we should stay away from?"
She enjoyed the feeling of her hair waving as she shook her head. "I don't know yet; I've never been to an amusement park before."
"Seriously? Huh," he grunted as they boarded the bus. "Now that you mention it, it's been a few years since I've been to one myself."
"Why is that?"
He shrugged as they took their seats. "I dunno. I think it's because I got so caught up in my studies. They're their own kind of fun, you know?"
She'd never thought of it that way and admitted as such. "Now that I look back upon it, research was pretty fun."
"You see?" he said with a grin.
She couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm before turning more serious. "Listen, Max; are you okay after…you know, then?"
She didn't mean to take his smile away, but it faded nonetheless. "For the most part, yeah. I think the main thing is that I'd never seen anyone die before, so…it was kinda shocking."
"I'm so sorry you had to deal with that."
She was relieved to see his smile return. "I think, all things considered, I'm fine. Honestly, I'm surprised I did as well as I did. I mean, Zero and the gang do this for a living, and I'm just some guy who plays with knives."
"I wouldn't call them 'knives'," she said, remembering his weapons of choice. "Where did you get your swords, anyway? Did someone custom-build them for you?"
"Yeah; I did," he said proudly. "I read up on the tech and made them myself." His eyes lost focus at the memories. "It took about…two years? Two-and-a-half?" He looked back at her. "It took a really long time."
She giggled again as the bus came to a stop. "We've got a while before it's our stop," he noted as more people boarded the bus.
"It's getting pretty crowded," Alia noted as even more people got on.
Max suddenly got to his feet. "Here, ma'am; you can sit here," he said indicating his former seat to an elderly woman.
"Thank you, young man," she rasped as she hobbled over to the couple. He then helped her into the seat next to Alia. "Oh, it's not as easy to get around as it used to."
"Do you live far from the bus station?" Max asked.
She fixed him with her gaze. "At my age, I live too far from everything. Now, it looks like you're on a date with this lovely young lady, so you don't need to bother yourself with this old relic."
"Relics are valuable, ma'am," Max countered as politely as he could. "Relics can reveal great knowledge and wisdom about our past, which can help us with the present as well as the future. They're treasures."
The elderly woman stared up at him for several seconds in disbelief. Then, her lower lip started to quiver as she reached into her purse.
"Ma'am?" Alia asked, worried. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, sweetheart," she replied as she dabbed at her eyes. "I just haven't heard such beautiful words spoken in such a long time. Thank you, young man."
Max ducked his head meekly. "I-I'm glad if I've brightened your day."
"Oh, you have," the senior said as Alia studied him fondly.
They came to the next stop, and the woman started to her feet. Max immediately offered his hand, which she gratefully took. "Wherever you're going, you two have a lovely time," she said just before getting off the bus.
"That was really sweet of you," Alia said as he reclaimed his former seat.
"She was someone's grandmother," he said, shrugging. "And someone's mother, someone's wife and maybe someone's sister." He smiled over at her. "Each of us has value, you know?"
Alia found herself smiling at him in spite of the optical lubricant threatening to overflow.
"Ugh, finally!" Max grunted, stretching as they stood outside the entrance to the amusement park. "I should've stood for more of the trip; my joints are a little stiff."
"That was uncomfortable after a while," Alia agreed. "I'm glad to be on my feet again."
"Well, we're young," he remarked. "We're not supposed to be sitting around all the time."
She smiled, slightly relieved that he didn't know what part of her job entailed.
"So, let's go!" He got out the tickets and held out his hand. "If you're okay with it…"
She studied his hand briefly before taking it in her own. "I'm okay with it."
He led her up to the ticket booth and took care of entry. "So, what do you want to do first?" he asked as they passed through the turnstiles, entering the park proper.
"I'm…not sure. Like I said, I've never been to one of these before."
He pointed up to a bridge they were about to pass under. "Well, there's a train that runs around the whole park; we could ride that first, and you could see if anything catches your eye. To be honest, most of the rides are forms of merry-go-rounds and roller coasters. You…know what those are, right?"
She was about to lightly scold him for teasing her, but when she saw the awkward expression on his face, she realized that he was being serious. She had said she'd never been to an amusement park, after all… "I…I know what those are, yes."
"Okay. Just…wanted to be sure."
She smiled affectionately at him, pleasantly surprised by his attention to detail as well as his concern for her. "Thanks, Max. I think that's a great idea…the train, I mean."
"The train? Oh! Right, this way then." He gently tugged on her hand, eventually leading her to a hut, in front of which was a decent-sized line. "It not as bad as it looks," he said reassuringly. "Last I knew, they ran two trains, ten minutes apart, and they're pretty long."
"That's…good," she replied, unsure of what else to say.
It wasn't long until the next train arrived and, even though there were a lot of people ahead of them, they were on their way relatively quickly.
"Hey, they have a treehouse!" he exclaimed, pointing to a large tree with what appeared to be small huts dotting its massive branches. "I wonder when they put that in? I wonder if that's a real tree or a fake?"
"Do you want to find out?" Alia asked, her eyes twinkling at his enthusiasm.
"Absolutely! Loved them when I was a kid!"
'Kid'? Alia's smile faltered at the known yet unfamiliar word. Max was a kid at one time? Maybe he'd been upgraded several time?
The ride eventually ended, and a sobered Alia followed her date through the exit gate. "Sh-Shall we go to the treehouse?" she suggested, still trying to ignore a nagging feeling.
"Only if you don't have any preferences right now," he said easily. "I don't want this to be just about me, after all."
"Th-Thanks."
He simply smiled and extended his hand in response. She briefly studied it again, and somehow it looked…different.
"Everything okay?"
She shook her head, and finally managed to ignore her concerns as she matched his infectious smile. "Y-Yeah. Sorry, I had something on my mind."
"Well, let's make today about having fun, okay?" he said, his smile never wavering. "We'll have plenty of time to worry about stuff later."
The last of her unease disappeared, a smile growing as she accepted his hand. "Okay."
"Whoa, this is amazing…" Max breathed as they looked out one of the windows of the highest hut in the treehouse. "I think we're even higher than we were in the train!"
Alia smiled fondly at his happy expression as he gazed out over the park. "I think you're right."
He caught her looking at him, and his smile broadened. "Are you doing okay up here? You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
"No, I'm not," she told him.
His smile faded as he reached out toward her face, and she could see an intensity in his eyes, and she found herself hoping…wondering if he was going to try to kiss her. She didn't flinch as the palm of his hand touched her cheek and, without even meaning to, she increased the sensitivity in that area…and her eyes widened slightly as she detected a pulse. While reploid power cycles were similar to those in humans, and the newer models had a synthetic circulatory system, there was no mistaking the pattern of a human heartbeat.
"You're so beautiful…" she heard him say, and her focus shifted in time to see his face moving towards hers…but instead of angling his head to kiss her lips he moved to the side, and she felt a gentle pressure on her other cheek. The sensation overwhelmed her sensory inputs, causing her body to reroute power from her optical sensors to compensate, and her eyes closed...
It also rerouted power from her lower extremities, and her knees buckled. "Whoa!" Max yelled, quickly grabbing his date before she could hit the floor. "Are you okay?"
Power suddenly restored, her eyes opened and her legs worked to restore her balance. "Y-Yeah…I…I wasn't expecting that."
"I'm sorry," he said with a look of genuine regret. "I lost my head there for a minute. Do…Do you want to go home?"
"N-No…" she said weakly. In spite of her passive scan results… "I…I liked it."
"Next time I'll ask; I should have asked in the first place. Sorry about that."
"I-It's okay," she said, laying a hand on his face and trying to ignore the pulse that she couldn't help but detect.
"Well, what's next?" he asked, still excited but somewhat subdued. "You humored me; do you have anything you want to do?"
"Could we get something to eat?" she asked. "I've heard about fair food, but…"
"…you've never had any before 'cause you've never been to an amusement park," he finished for her with a lopsided grin. "Sure, let's go."
She wrung her hands as she followed him to the food court. What if Max was human? What was she supposed to do? She cursed her own stupidity. Granted, neither of them had been forthcoming about their natures but, in hindsight, she could see the signs that he wasn't a reploid. Had she been ignoring them? And if so, why?
"Are you sure you're okay?" She looked up to find him studying her face. "I'm not the best at reading people – yet – but you're acting really nervous or something. Did I say something stupid and you're just being too polite to call me on it? You can shoot me straight, you know; I don't learn from mistakes I don't know about."
"No, it's…" Caught off-guard, she wasn't sure what to say. "Let's…just get lunch, okay? Please?"
"O-Of course. What would you like to try?"
"Th-Their corn dogs, please."
"Two? Three?"
"T-Two?"
He nodded while studying her. "Okay, but after this we're going to talk. You don't look like you're having fun, and I want to know why. If there's something I can do to help, I want to do it." He gestured to a picnic table off in the distance, near a large, shady tree. "Why don't you head over there and give yourself a chance to cool off, get your thoughts together." He studied her a moment longer, then sighed. "Look, I don't mean to sound demanding about this, but whatever it is seems to be really bothering you."
"Y-You're right, Max," she admitted. "I'll be waiting for you over there."
"See you in a few," he said with a wink and a smile.
As she made her way over to the table, she allowed her eye lubricant to overflow, not that she could stop it at that point. After all, humans never got into intimate relationships with reploids on any kind of regular or extended basis. In the past, every human-reploid relationship ended up with the human using, and eventually mistreating, the artificial lifeform. "I know Max isn't like other people," she said as she hugged herself, "but how would he react to finding out I'm…not human?"
Her anxiety spiked as she saw him approaching with a couple of white bags. "Two corn dogs," he announced as he placed a bag in front of her, drawing a hesitant smile from her. "And…two corn dogs," he said as he sat down with the other bag.
"Do…Do you like them, too?" she asked.
"They're not my favorite food," he admitted, "but…I like them, and I wanted to share the experience with you. Mustard? Catsup?" he asked, pulling several small packets out of his bag.
"No thank you." Under the circumstances, Alia wasn't sure her material processing plant would be able to handle anything unusual.
"So…" Max started after taking a couple of bites from his corn dog, "what's bothering my lovely research partner?"
Her chewing slowed, followed by a swallow and a sigh. "Max? I have a question, but I don't know how it's going to sound."
"Hit me," he said with a lopsided grin. "I've told you; you can shoot me straight."
"You have, that's true. It's just that…I'm afraid."
"Hey," he said, covering her hand. "We're here for each other, right? That's what we agreed to about two weeks ago, right?"
"Y-Yeah," she replied, shuddering at the pulse in his hand that thundered through her sensors. She took a deep breath. "Max? Are you…human?"
He sputtered, almost losing his bite of corn dog. "Am I human?" he managed after swallowing. "Well, yeah. Why? Whoa, Alia, what's wrong?"
Alia's reactor had suddenly accelerated in response to distress impulses from several parts of her body, causing her to tremble. "Max? I'm…I'm…"
"You're…?" he said encouragingly.
"I'm so sorry, Max," she said as her optical lubricant began to overflow again. "I'm…I'm a reploid."
It was as though time had stopped at Max's immediate location. The only sign that time was still flowing was the occasional blink as he stared at her.
"I wasn't trying to keep it from you; it just never came up and I thought you were a reploid until you kissed me, and…" Alia knew that she sounded pathetic, but she also knew that she had never been so horribly mistaken before.
Max finally started moving again, slowly chewing and swallowing his food. "So…you're a reploid…?"
She nodded shamefully.
"Could…I see some proof?"
From his tone she could tell he was numb with shock, and she extended her arm and pulled up the sleeve. She then executed the internal command to pop open one of the panels on her arm, revealing the circuitry and endoskeleton
within.
"That's…yeah…" he murmured as he stared at her arm. "Looks so real…"
"I'm so sorry, Max," she lamented as she closed the panel again. "I really wasn't trying to deceive you."
He suddenly barked a laugh. "You? Deceive me? Of course not. God, I am so stupid…"
"M-Max?"
"I mean, all the signs were right there, right?" He scoffed as he looked away. "You work at Maverick Hunter Headquarters, you dress differently than most women… I am such a dumbass…"
"No, you're not; both of us made assumptions about the other, and I'm sorry."
"Me, too," he said, stuffing the uneaten part of his meal back in the bag. "I can't eat while stupid."
She couldn't help but giggle at his remark. "I feel kinda dumb, too."
Her words drew his gaze and he stared at her again, for an uncomfortable length of time. "I need to go," he finally said. "I have some thinking to do."
"I understand," she said quietly. "I can find my way home."
"No, I'll see you home," he said, getting to his feet. "That's the right thing to do."
She got up as well and, as they headed to the exit, she took her proper place, one step behind and to the left side of the human.
"…a-and then he took me home, bid me good-night, and then left."
"Oh no, Alia; I'm so sorry," Palette said softly as she lay a hand on her friend's shoulder. As usual, they were in the Rec Room. "I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner."
"I didn't either," Layer lamented. "I ended up with the impression that he was a reploid, so…" she trailed off as she shook her head sadly.
"Do you think he's going to break up with you?" Palette asked carefully.
"Probably," the blonde navigator said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You know how relationships between reploids and humans have gone in the past."
"I hope he'll still accept you," Palette said consolingly as she drew her friend into a hug. "You've said that he's different than any human or reploid you've ever met."
"True," Alia said heavily. "I just don't know if his 'difference' will be able to handle something like this."
"I hope so," Layer said as she laid a hand on her senior's knee.
Alia rose from her seat. "I'm going to turn in early; after today, I need a little more recharge time than usual."
Alia's friends accompanied her to her room, Layer with a hand on her shoulder, Palette with one on her back.
"Good night," Layer greeted. "And I hope this is resolved quickly for you."
"Me too," Palette added.
"Thanks." Alia waved as she passed through the door to her room, hearing it close behind her. She would turn in early, as she said, but there was something she needed to do first. She headed over to the couch, threw herself on it, and allowed herself to cry.