[ closed ]

[androit]

WHO Will Vega, Jr (androit), Ash Starmer 2.0 (subroutined).
WHAT One of Junior's friends is getting fed-up with his lack of action on his real life crush, so Junior finds an outlet on his doorstep.
WHEN idk just barely after Junior moves back home, like he's 26 or something
WHERE Junior's hometown! Somewhere convenient!
WHY why not, I ask you

When Junior had been talking with an old friend after meeting up to catch up on lost times, he hadn't expected the conversation to go the way it had. Making life artificially was illegal, highly so and for good reason with all the things you could do before it was born, but approximating it had apparently become the new craze of all the top researchers. Joking around that Junior needed something to work his energy out on before he could calm down and just talk to Felix about Real Life Important Things (Such As Love) was all well and good, but a cyborg? Well, android. Except not that either, because those terms had already been adopted from the popular lexicon for other things. This was just... a doll, of sorts.

Not that it made it any less weird. Times were crazy and Junior wasn't sure he felt like keeping up.

What he hadn't expected was for his friend to go through with it, actually make up an order and have it sent to his apartment above Buns 'N Roses like it was a candygram or an express-shipped package. This was... not quite a person, but close enough to be weird. Huh. Standing in the doorway and looking at the redhead on the other side, there wasn't a lot he could say.

"You're, um... Justin sent you?"

Comments

[subroutined]

"I'll be docked," Ash protested, but he made no move to break contact. He was a living contradiction, for a certain definition of the word living, anyway. "Employees who break curfew are shut down and taken off rotation until their probationary period is up." And really that was only important for one reason. "I won't be able to call you."

[androit]

Junior was silent at that, simply breathing for a long few moments before he breathed in deep and pulled away with a smile. "Can't have that," he said, and it was both a tease and an honest statement. He moved his hand up to run it through Ash's hair, mussing it just a little more before combing it back to flatten it down, and gave an encouraging smile.

"Go back and call me when you get the chance," he said, this one much more of a suggestion even in tone. What Ash actually wanted to do when he had free time, or if he even did anything at all, was up to him. That was something Junior was very careful to overstate, trying to let him know that Junior wanted what Ash wanted. Even if that turned out to be Ash wanting what Junior wanted. It was a start, and would be a choice of his own. "Sound good?"

[subroutined]

A memory was pulled up. Hashtag #TBT, Throwback Thursday. A photo of a young human Ash, hair being ruffled by someone whose face isn't in frame. Ash smiled. He didn't often feel connected to the memories that formed the basis of his personality, but in this moment, he did.

He leant in and pressed another short kiss to Junior's lips before walking past him to gather his clothes from the floor. "Sounds perfect." And it did, for any given definition of the term 'perfect.'