Alice and The Android

"That sounds good."

"Well, I wake up, take a morning run..shower--"

"You can get wet?"

"Yes. I can be fully submerged in water."

"Can you..drown?"

He chuckles, "No. I cannot drown. I don't need air."

"That's amazing." She says slightly awed, "So..theoretically could you live your entire life underwater?" That gave him a pause but eventually, he shrugged.

"Theoretically, yes, but I imagine that would be very lonely."

"You get lonely?"

"Doesn't everyone?"

She frowns, "Yes but..." he smiles at her like they're in on the same secret.

He ignored her, "After my shower, I finally eat and no, it is not necessary to eat but I can eat and I have a digestive system that disintegrates anything I do eat. I have taste receptors. So while I don't need to, I want to." She wonders how many times he's had to explain this to a client.

Alice was not a scientist nor an engineer, she had no idea how a piece of technology could taste but she nodded anyway.

"Then, if I'm not working, we'll just say this is my day off, I will either go visit friends or do an activity." Friends..he had friends. "After that, I will come home," Where was his home? Did he live in The Den? "And I will usually read or watch something before going to bed."

Ren's life sounded simple. Simple but nice.

"That sounds...very peaceful," she says.

He nods, "Yes."

"Do you live here?" she asks.

He shakes his head, "No. I have a regular apartment unit. I am paid credits for my time here at The Den." Alice's eyes widened at that. He lived like a person. He looked like a person. He acted like a person. Doesn't that make him one? Or is this just an extraordinarily sophisticated list of code? Maybe he was lying. Maybe this was the backstory they created him with. She hadn't gotten to customize his backstory...

"That's all very interesting." she says, "You have friends? Are they androids like you?"

"Most of them, yes. I have very few human friends."

"Why is that?"

He smiled but she couldn't understand what was so amusing.

Finally, he shrugged, "It is just how things have turned out."

"Do you enjoy your job?"

"I..." he paused, "do you?" he asked.

She shrugged as well. "It's work. It pays for the bills." Ren nodded.

"That is what I think as well."

That made Alice's stomach twist. So he would just tolerate tonight? The way Alice understood how androids work was that they had a natural favor for their purpose but now this android was personally telling her he did not enjoy his work but merely did it because it was what he was paid to do.

"Do you get treated well here?" she asked a little quieter.

"Very well," he says.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Tell me more." Alice wanted him to elaborate. She wanted to make sure this man wasn't being treated like some Sector 2 low-class gigolo.

"Well," he seemed to shift positions, then he looked at the bed. "Come lay down with me then I'll tell you." he bargained which shocked her. She didn't know he was allowed to do that. But I guess he didn't owe her anything from his personal life.

She nodded without hesitation, crawling further onto the bed and laying against the headboard. He did the same, one arm thrown over her shoulder and pulling him into her side which made her heart race, and the other doing that same circling motion he was doing on the back of her hand the whole time they spoke. She wanted to know more about an--this android's life.

"Let's see," he says, clicking his tongue. He raises a finger. "I get 60% of the profits The Den makes off my clients." Alice's eyes widened at that. "I'm allowed to reject clients if I don't feel comfortable or attracted to them."

"Attracted?" she asks, "How do you know you're attracted to something?" she asks. He was a robot. He couldn't feel at least, not in the way she could.

"How do you know?"

She thought about that, "I just know.."

"Precisely." he says, "I just know."

Her lips thinned and cheeks flushed as she had two realizations. The one that made her blush was that he specifically accepted her as his client because he was attracted to her.

"Keep going..what else."

"I get maintenance insurance." he then says and she laughs.

"You're kidding" he got health insurance for robots? It was both hilarious and sad that something like that existed.

She was beginning to get more and more comfortable with Ren as he spoke, telling her about all the benefits he received from working at The Den. She even found herself subtly cuddling into him as she listened to him. At some point, she even started to rest her head on his shoulder.

Alice only noticed that when his hand had started to play with her hair. She shivered. This was all very...intimate. She had expected something a lot more primitive. She guessed this was what her money was paying for.

He felt so real and from what he was telling her, (if he wasn't lying) by all means she would consider this artificial man a real one.

She understood now why the Android Protectant Program existed. They discussed android rights with both the human and alien commanders of Omega Station.

"Alice?"

She refocused on him, "Yes?"

He smiled, "Should we get started now that we know each other better?" Alice looks him in the eyes nervously.

"Maybe we can talk some more?" She asked.

He nodded, "We can do that." he murmured, he stroked her scalp, "We can just talk all night if that's what you want." Alice leaned into his touch, sighing softly.

She wanted to take him up on that offer and back out of her birthday goal.

"Today's my birthday.." she says loosely, moving further into his body.

He looked down at her, "Happy birthday Alice."

"Thank you, Ren."

He shifted, turning towards her further, his hand moved from her scalp to her cheek. Stroking it with his thumb and her eyes widened. "Tell me more."

"More?"

"About you.."

"Oh."

She swallowed, and shrugged, getting distracted by his touch. "I'm uhm, 30...single obviously, you already know I'm a PA. What else can I tell you?"

Ren laughed, "I'm sure you're more interesting than that."

Ouch.

"Not really.." she muttered.

"No?"

"No."

"You're single? How many boyfriends have you had?" he asked, trying to dig out more from her. "Who was your first love?"

Her brows rose, "My first love huh?" she paused, "Well, I've had about..5 boyfriends? All of them lasted longer than a year." Until they realized she wasn't going to put out. "As for my first love--" Alice had to think long and hard about that.

Her first love.

She didn't really have one?

If she had, she wouldn't be a virgin anymore, she would have found that one person who she could relax with and trust to take care of her and not make fun of her for her inexperience. She wouldn't be here at all.

"I don't think I've had one yet," she replied, soft and honest.

"Me neither." he sympathizes like he understands.

She didn't want to comment on the fact that of course, he had not had his first love yet. He was a robot. He might feel things like attraction and be capable of taste, but she did not think that meant he could love. She did not think a machine was capable of that. However, she didn't want to hurt his 'feelings.'

His thumb began to trace over her bottom lip and her eyes were falling heavy.

"What did you wish for on your birthday today Alice?" he asks.

Her eyes open back up, and she flushes. "I can't tell you."

"No?"

"No. It's bad luck." She lies. An old earth superstition.

He raises a brow, "Are you religious?"

"No."

He hummed, "But you believe in superstition?"

"Don't you?" she asks.

"No," he says almost automatically. "I do not believe in something that cannot be proved."

She laughed softly, "I forget you're just a piece of machinery." she said lightly, but she realized she'd offended him when his eyes narrowed and that wonderful stroking he'd been stopped.

His eyes slightly narrowed. They both went silent and it felt wrong and awkward. She had been getting along with him so well and she just ruined it.

"I-I mean..." she tried to backpedal but well, what she said is the truth. He was a machine. She looks into his...annoyed? Eyes but failed to come up with a better response before asking, "What do you consider yourself." she asks.

"I am not just a piece of technology," he said and she heard an undercurrent of irritation in his voice. "I am a highly competent, highly sophisticated, adaptable piece of tech." he explains, then takes a breath, "I can adapt just as quickly, if not quicker than a human which is what humans are known for no?"

"Uh...I guess?" She didn't know what humans were 'known' for to androids but to the intergalactic community, they were known as barbaric warmongers. But she didn't think that's what they were talking about here. "You can't feel it though, I think that's what makes humanoid species so special."

Air whistled between his perfect teeth and she knew she said the wrong thing.

"I feel," he says defensively. "I witness a situation and react"

"That's not what feeling is." she says lightly, "Feeling is...I don't know. Inherent. They can't be programmed in. You might be a good mimic but I don't think you feel emotion." She didn't know why she was debating with this android. Why she was pushing him further and further in the way as his...anger rose?

"I feel, I can tell you what I'm feeling now."

"What?" she asks softly. "What are you feeling?"

"Inhuman."

"You are inhuman."

"You know what I mean. You're making me feel like I'm not a person. That I am...just a tool." This seemed to weigh heavily on him and it was clear this was not just a one-off conversation but a hardcore belief of his.

"I..." she's at a loss for words. "I'm sorry." she tries. Cringing when she realizes how disingenuous that sounds. "I didn't mean to make you think that. I think you're a person in a way..." she murmurs.

He seemed to relax, "you do?"

"You have free will don't you? No one has to constantly reprogram their movements throughout the day. You can think and do things because of all the information that has been given to you...that's what people do."

"Yes." he agrees, seeming to get less stiff as she kept talking. "Yes." he repeated softly, "You understand."

"I think I do." she says, "But technically speaking, you are a machine," she says, trying to correct her previous statement. "You're made of wires and circuitry."

"And you're made of bone and marrow, but I don't see how that means anything." she sighs in response. He taps her cheek, "Explain it to me, tell me why you think that makes me less of a person."

"I didn't say that"

"No. But that's what you meant."

"I-" She's at a loss for words. Why did this matter? This isn't what they were here for. She didn't need to do whatever they were doing. "I don't have a good argument for you, I'm not an engineer," she murmurs

"And yet."

"Why do you care?" Can he even do that or was his technical procedure to be argumentative to keep her talking? They certainly weren't connecting...

Or were they?

"Wouldn't you care if some species told you that you weren't what you know you are." he asks then continues before letting her respond, "Wouldn't you want to prove them wrong, especially if you like this person."

Alice's eyes widen and she swallows.

He liked her.

Or so he says.

"You keep comparing yourself to me."

"We are alike," he says, stubbornly.

"Not in the way you think."

"You're wrong."

She sighs, "Maybe."

Wearing her down seemed to please this android immensely. He had gone back to absentmindedly stroke her skin. She was not winning this argument but she wasn't very sure if she cared about that before.

"You said you had few human friends," she says wearily. "Why is that?"

"I'm only friends with people who consider me a real person." Oh.

That was... really fucking sad.

"Do you consider me a friend? I think you're a real person."

He stares at her for a few seconds, his thumb returned to her bottom lip, this time tugging it down slightly. He could slip his thumb into her mouth if she parted her teeth ever so slightly.

"No. No, I don't," he spoke quietly.

Ouch.

She tried not to feel hurt by that. She was just his client after all. She nodded. She wanted to be hurt but he was so damn distracting.

"Do you still want to talk?" he murmured.

Did she?

"I want to tell you something first..." she says nervously.

That seemed to catch his interest, and he nodded. "Go on."

"I...so the reason I'm here--" she started. Rambling a bit about how it was her birthday and how she just turned 30 today she thought this would be a good solution to her problem--" I've never had sex before." she admitted quietly.

She expected this android to laugh at her, or look at her like she was undesirable but he didn't.

"You are?" he asked gently, "You came here so you could lose your virginity?"

"Yeah.."

"You mean, you came to me because you want me to deflower you?" she shivered at his words.

"Y-yes..."

There was a distinct hunger in his eyes that shocked her. She didn't feel ashamed, she felt wanted. This was not the reaction she had been expecting. Questions about why she waited so long? Yes. Indifference? Maybe. But not...Hunger.

He licked at his lips. "Have you kissed before?" he asked and she looked aghast.

"Of course!" she said and he laughed, "Of course I-I have...I've just never gone...well I've

never done anything that involved me taking my clothes off."

He seemed amused by that, "There's a lot you can do without taking your clothes off Alice." her brows crinkled.

"I've only kissed. I've made out with men. I've had a boyfriend, several like I told you."

"Uh huh." he nodded but his mind seemed to be somewhere else. "Alice..."

"Yes?"

"I've been waiting to see what you've got hidden under that damned robe for a full hour now..."

Her cheeks heated, and she squirmed. Her lace lingerie. She had forgotten all about it.

"Uhm..."

"Alice," he said, stroking her face, coaxing her. "Are you ready?"

"Maybe?"

"I need a yes Alice," he says seriously.

She could see that he meant it.

She nodded slightly dazed, "Yes Ren."

The man practically lunged for her. She yelped as he flung himself atop her, her eyes widened and she couldn't help but giggle when he placed her arms spread out like a starfish. He looked back into her eyes.

"Yes?"

She nodded. "Yes."

He opened the robe and sucked in a breath.

"Oh Alice," he said, his eyes slightly widened and lips parted. His hands hovered above her like he didn't know where to touch first. She bit her lip.

Waiting, wanting, needing. She needed him. She wanted him to just do whatever he was going to do because at this point just straddling her hips and staring enraptured by her breasts made her feel good. She needed him to keep touching her.

"I expected them to be small..." he murmured, taking a cupful of her tits with one hand, she breathed out in a whoosh. "This is better," he remarks.

His other hand slipped a finger under the strap of the white bralette and it snapped back against her shoulder. She let out another breath.

"This is nice. Pretty." He said, "Do you want me to take it off?" He asked on tenterhooks. His eyes flitted from her bralette to her face. Up and down, up and down, she could tell when he spotted her nipple in the almost see-through fabric because his eyes stayed there for a long time before he looked back to her face.

"Eventually."

"Thank god." he groaned and she curled her lip into a smile.

"I thought you said you weren't religious?"

"I'm not but maybe for you"

That made her fully smile. He was charming. She could give him that. Alice had to remind herself that this was not as real as she'd like it to be. That she paid him a hefty sum--60% of which would land right into his pocket--to be here, doing this.

He certainly didn't look like he was just tolerating her like she had previously worried.

His thumb with the hand cupping her breast circled her hardened nipple and she sighed in contentment. This was the second time she had let someone do this before. Her very last boyfriend before she swore them off.

His other thumb was tracing the band of her bralette.

He slipped his hand underneath the fabric, watching her face carefully as she did it.

"Yes?"

"Yes." she breathed out.

"Fuck." he murmured, squeezing her breast, she shivered and he circled her nipple. Skin to skin. His other hand went underneath the bralette and she moaned softly and he massaged her breasts, groping her.

"Take it off please," she asked softly.

He laughed bewildered, "Please? You're going to beg me?" he asked, "you don't have to beg me for anything Alice, I should be begging you."

She had no clue how to respond to that.

He was really very good with his words. He made this experience feel a lot more intimate than it probably was. It made her...trust him. Other than the fact he was a professional. He was also giving her a lot of control with him asking if what he did was okay. She liked that. It made her feel safe.

The white lace bralette didn't have a clip so he pulled it over her head and tossed it to the side.

He stared at her bare breasts for a long while and she felt embarrassed about how they pointed in opposite directions from her chest. She moved to cover them but he shook his head.

"Don't do that." he said, then backtracked, "No, actually do it. Touch your tits for me Alice." her eyes widened and her stomach curled. In a good way for the first time.

"How should I...?"

"Whatever feels good," he said, already moving his hands to touch other parts of her body now that she had agreed to take care of her breasts.

He watched her avidly, his eyes flicking between her breasts and face, it seemed he couldn't make up his mind on which he wanted to see. Alice sighed and started to gently stroke her nails over her right breast.

Alice didn't have too much sensitivity in her breasts but doing it in front of someone made it far more exciting for her. She liked Ren's rapt gaze. She gave her breasts a squeeze on both sides then mimicked the way he had circled her nipple. Touching the sides then rubbing the tips.

"Mhm.." he nodded, "Like that." he encouraged and she swallowed.

While she did that, he began to run his hands all over her. He ran a hand down the valley between her breasts, then her ribcage and her soft belly last. It made her feel ticklish, she squirmed a bit but he didn't seem to mind.

As she circled her nipples he stroked her thighs and instinctually she let them fall open. His eyes snapped up to hers and he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her thong that he hadn't even gotten the chance to appreciate.

"Yes," she said a bit breathless before he inevitably asked himself.

He nodded eagerly and began pulling them down. She lifted her hips and then bent her knees when they got stuck because she was lying down. He slipped them off one ankle, then the neck, and tossed it wherever her bra had ended up. She was completely naked now.

"Beautiful," he murmurs.

"You..you have to say that," she said, slightly panting out of arousal. She was getting turned on by just his long drawn-out looks. He shook his head.

"I don't." he says, "I could say nothing and skip straight to eating your pussy." he says. Her eyes widened.

"Huh?"

"I do that sometimes. When I'm strapped for credits and need to take on an extra client or two who isn't my type."

"Ren..." she said, breathy. "Don't say that, it's rude."

"Sorry." he looked up at her, "But you are beautiful."

She nodded slightly, "Thank you."

"Mhm.." he hummed, then spread her thighs apart, "Sweet too, you're sweet." he says, "My sweet girl.." the words come out in a gentle purr and his eyes widened when he watched a clear bead of slick drip down her pussy to her ass.