Chapter 3:
Dinner with Ryu
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Warning: Some references to mature themes in this chapter. If you're under eighteen, or if you're offended by mature humor, or your mother is looking over your shoulder, or you have a jealous significant other, then jump to the next chapter RIGHT NOW!
Oh, that's right, I haven't finished Chapter 4 yet.
Um, okay, in that case, just wait until I've posted the fourth chapter, then jump to it.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
:P
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Later that night, two people walked through the door of Mayumi's apartment building. One, of course, was Mayumi. The other was a brown-haired young man in gray slacks and a turtleneck by the name of Ryu Takara, Mayumi's boyfriend.
"So anyway, I tell him to go to sleep, and he practically drops on his face! I mean, I know he's just a persocom, but I really felt sorry for him."
"So? I mean, you didn't let him sleep in your bed, did you?"
Mayumi blushed. "Hey! What kind of girl do you think I am? For your information, I had him sleep on the floor in his pajamas."
"Good. 'Cause I was gonna say, it took me nearly three months to get that far with you."
"Oh, come on! A healhy relationship is about more than just sex."
"Yeah, but sex helps, too," Ryu replied, pulling Mayumi toward him and giving her a long, intense kiss.
"Ryuuuu!" Mayumi whined teasingly. "At least wait until we're inside!"
So saying, she fished out her keys, opened the door ...
And stopped in her tracks.
The lights of her apartment were off, but the space was illuminated by dozens of scented candles - candles Mayumi usually used when she was soaking in the bathtub. The kitchen table was set for two, and somewhere, Mayumi's stereo was playing a soft, quiet melody.
And there, of course, standing in front of the doorway, was Ran, dressed in his black slacks, white shirt, black blazer and tie, smiling pleasantly at the two lovebirds.
"Good evening!" he said. "Miss Mayumi, may I assume that this is the 'boyfriend' you mentioned earlier?"
"I ... uh ... yeah, this is Ryu. Ryu, meet Ran."
The tall, blue-eyed persocom gave a formal bow. "Nice to meet you," he said to Ryu.
"Whoa, cool!" Ryu exclaimed, looking Ran over. "Mayumi, this is your new persocom?" As Ran straightened up, Ryu walked around him, as though admiring a car in a showroom. "Man! This guy's, like, top of the line!" To Ran, he asked, "Can you really cook?"
"Yes. I'm designed and programmed for multiple functions, particularly domestic duties. And, of course, I can learn new skills if need be."
Ryu whistled. "Un. Be. Lievable. Mayumi, you've gotta write some major thank-you notes to your friends, 'cause he's awesome!"
Actually, Mayumi was a little relieved. A part of her had been worried that Ryu might start feeling jealous that she had another "man" around the apartment, but Ryu seemed genuinely happy - heck, ecstatic - about her new persocom.
"Ran, what is all this?" she asked, gesturing at the candles scattered around the room.
"I ran a search this morning on 'romance' just after you left. I downloaded some movies, scanned a few texts on the subject, and concluded that subdued lighting, perfumes and soft music function as effective aphrodesiacs. I hope you don't mind that I took some liberties with your things?"
"I ... um ... no! Of course not," she said, still in shock. Then she slapped a smile on her face, realizing that she was acting like a dope in front of both her boyfriend and her persocom. "Thanks a lot, big guy. This is great."
Ran smiled - Mayumi was amazed at just how genuine his expression seemed - and bowed. "Thank you, Miss. As I've said, I'm programmed--"
"--to be as useful as possible, in as many ways as possible," she finished for him, her grin growing wider. "And I'm really grateful that you follow your program so well. Thanks, Ran."
"My pleasure. By the way, did you happen to bring what you wanted for dinner?"
Mayumi suddenly remembered the big white plastic bag of food she'd picked up that afternoon and handed it to Ran. "Yeah, thanks. Ryu said he wanted some dim sum, so I picked up a kit and all the ingredients. The directions are right here on the back."
"Ah. Thank you very much, Miss. Since it says that the dumplings will take approximately twenty minutes to cook, why don't you two sit down at the table? I think you mentioned that you and Ryu had some studying to do?"
Mayumi blushed - usually, her evenings with Ryu tended to be less about school than about each other, and she already felt pretty confident that she could ace the test on Wednesday. "Er, actually, Ran, we won't be studying tonight. Ryu's just here for a ... social visit."
Ran's brow furrowed for a moment - her comment just now conflicted sharply with what she had told him that morning - but in the end, he shrugged it off. Whatever Mayumi wanted to do with her time was fine with him, as long as it didn't involve any unsafe or unhealthy activities. "Well then, once I finish preparing the dumplings, why don't we play a game of koi-koi while we're waiting for them to cook?"
"Fine by me," Ryu said. "I've always wondered how well a persocom would do at playing cards."
Mayumi looked at him, then at Ran. Koi-koi was a fairly complex game, and even though she kept an old deck on the shelf of her closet, she had never been very good at it. Ryu, of course, was a gaming fanatic, and on the rare occasions when she accepted a challenge from him, her boyfriend would always come out on top - sometimes literally, if they were both in the mood.
Then a thought occurred to her. "How about this: the one with the highest score wins, and the winner gets a kiss on the lips."
Ryu grinned at her, and Ran just stood there looking perplexed. "Sounds like a nice incentive," Ryu said. "You're on!"
"Of course she is," Ran replied. "From what I can tell, it's impossible to turn a human off without breaking them."
Mayumi rolled her eyes melodramatically. "Ran, what did I tell you about figures of speech?"
"That 'lighten up' means not to take something seriously. Why? Did you use one just now?"
She groaned. Oh, I give up. "Never mind, Ran. Why don't you get dinner started, then we can all play cards?"
"Certainly, Miss," he said, then headed over to the kitchen counter.
Mayumi and Ryu watched for a few moments as the big, broad-shouldered persocom assembled their meal. With the rapid thuk-thuk-thukking as he chopped vegetables, the way he mixed the ingredients like a high-speed egg-beater, and the way he measured out spices with scale-like accuracy, watching him was like watching an episode of Iron Chef run at ridiculously high speed. Was this what it was like when he made breakfast? Mayumi wondered. Jeez, he's fast!
After about a minute, Ran took off Mayumi's pink Hello Kitty apron and folded it back into its drawer. "There!" he proclaimed, looking pleased with himself. "Now we can start the game!"
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About fifteen minutes later, the game was going much differently than Mayumi had expected. She was losing, of course, but that was really the whole idea. Then again, she supposed that it would have been nice to make Ryu be the one who kissed her.
Unfortunately, the other half of her plan seemed to be going awry. Ryu had ninety points, but Ran had somehow racked up a whopping one hundred and fifty.
Looking at it objectively, Mayumi realized that she should have expected this. Like most card games, koi-koi relied partly on luck of the draw, but what one did with the cards they were dealt was determined by certain logical rules. Ryu was clever and experienced, but once Ran had read the rule book, he had obviously figured out some kind of winning system, and now he was beating the pants off her boyfriend.
I've got to see how he does with Strip Poker, she mused. It would be interesting to see Ryu playing cards in his briefs...
Then she realized the state of undress she would be in long before that ever happened, and tossed out the idea.
Finally, all of the cards were used up, and Ryu flopped back in his chair. "Aw, nuts! I can't believe you pulled that off, man."
"It was simple, really," Ran replied, gathering the cards back up "Once you understand the rules, the rest just falls into place." Once the deck was packed again, he looked up at Mayumi. "Now, you mentioned giving something called a 'kiss on the lips' to the winner?"
Uh-oh. "Er ... yeah, I did, didn't I?"
"Well, I believe I am the winner. Am I right that a kiss on the lips involves pressing one's lips to somebody else's?"
Oh, man. Maybe it was a bad idea to have him look up romance this morning ... "Um, yeah, Ran, that's right."
Ryu let out a laugh. "Ooh, boy, this is gonna be interesting!" he cackled.
"Oh, be quiet," Mayumi said. Still, it was a little reassuring to see her boyfriend was actually looking forward to watching the kiss.
Of course, it's not like I'm really kissing another guy, she thought as she got up and walked over to her persocom. Ran's just a big computer, after all. Yeah, he looks cute, but it's not like he's going to start going ga-ga over me.
With that in mind, she leaned down and gave him a kiss.
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Ran had touched things before. Even though he had only been online for thirty-five hours, nine minutes and fifty-seven-point-four seconds so far, his tactile sensors had been stimulated in thousands of different ways by objects of various kinds.
But this was different.
When Mayumi's lips touched his, it was like nothing he had ever experienced. Not just because of the physical sensation - the flesh of her lips didn't feel much different from the soft dough he had shaped for her dinner that evening, aside from the fact that it was warm - but the reaction that washed through his consciousness was ... intense. Strange, illogical, irrational thoughts raced through his head, none of which he could understand.
It was as though he had been seeing the world in black and white, and suddenly, Mayumi had just shown him a rainbow.
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Ran's lips felt different from what Mayumi had expected. Being a machine, she had expected them to be cold, either too hard like teflon or too soft like silicone.
Instead, they felt almost ... real.
As she pulled away, she noticed that Ran's eyes were wider than usual.
No.
Way.
He couldn't be ...?
Then Ran blinked and shook his head. "Ah. That was ... interesting," he said. "Since you and Ryu are romantically involved, I assume that you two do things like that often?"
Suddenly, Mayumi felt Ryu's arm around her shoulders. "All that and more, my mechanical friend," he said, running a hand through Mayumi's hair. "In fact, if you were ... 'anatomically correct,' you might just be able to understand some of the things Mayumi and I are planning to do tonight."
"Actually, I am. What sorts of things?" Ran asked innocently, his head tilted to one side.
"Aha! Mayumi, you she-devil! I'm just gonna have to unplug your big friend here before he starts competing for your affections!" Ryu laughed
"Ran! Ryu! Stop it!" Mayumi whined - partly in jest, but partly because she was seriously freaked out. Anatomically correct! Ran was designed for ... those kinds of things? They sure didn't have that on the display case! "Actually, Ryu, I'm feeling a little beat. I'm not really in the mood right now. Maybe Friday night?"
Ryu looked a little disappointed, but shrugged. "Okay," he said. "Thanks for dinner, Mayumi."
"You're, uh, welcome," she said, thinking that it was Ran who deserved the credit.
Ryu gave her a peck on the cheek, then walked out and started heading home.
And then there were only Mayumi and Ran, the girl and her persocom, both of whom had some very serious questions on their minds.
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