Si-C
A story (C) 2004 by ZUSTARA ORUR. Contact address: zustara@hotmail.com 2.0 May not be redistributed, commercial use prohibited!
Please see chapter 1 for standard disclaimer blurb and such.
Thanks a lot, you guys who wrote me about the previous chapters! It's immensely appreciated.
20 - Simon's thoughts.
Brian had seen romantic moments in movies and on the vid, of course. It hadn't interested him much in the past, it had just seemed kind of messy in a way, even yucky. Now he was rather eager to try all the things he'd seen. When a man was with a woman on the vid, they both enjoyed it when the man touched the woman's breasts, played with and even suckled her nipples. Simon didn't have any breasts of course, but he had a set of nipples. They were much like his own regarding size and general appearance, only darker in color. He tried an experimental touch, brushed his hands across the smooth circle of skin, then ran his fingers lightly around them without actually touching the nipple itself. Another soft touch revealed a change. Simon's nipples had stiffened, their sensitivity had increased. When Brian's mouth attached itself to one of them he was rewarded with a long sigh in response. He sucked with his mouth, not hard, just a little. Massaged the deep-brown, awesomely textured circle with the tip of his tongue, hearing Simon's breath becoming ragged and excited. The other boy's hands were all over Brian, leaving no spot they could reach untouched. They probed gently, figuring out the most sensitive spots on the other boy's body as Brian licked and kissed all over his chest. It was wonderful, and the other boy hoped it would last forever, but soon Simon's chronometer signalled they were getting tardy. The small robot found it uncharacteristically difficult to make sure Brian's parents' instructions were followed, but a positron potential was building to uncomfortable levels in his brain, forcing Simon to react. He changed his intimate stroking of Brian's young boy body into tickles. At first, Brian perservered, continuing to stimulate the other boy, but it became increasingly difficult to keep it up!
After less than fifteen seconds, the pale-skinned boy found it impossible to keep the mirth inside him anymore, and he literally exploded into an incredible fit of laughter. Still he tried to keep it up, hugging Simon tight, grinding his penis into the other boy as hard as he could. The other boy was merciless however, keeping up the tickles even though he didn't really want to! Brian soon collapsed under the onslaught, laughing so hard he was running out of air! When Simon figured he had the situation under control, he relaxed and slipped out from under the other boy, giving him a nice kiss and a grab at a buttcheek while he was at it.
Brian recovered quickly, but when he had control of his senses and body again he felt Simon toss his clothes back at him. He was still fully erect and sat on his bed with legs spread wide, grinning. Simon smiled too and pattered over to him and quickly sat down right next to the other boy. He cupped one of his hands over Brian's erection and gave him a kiss. "Time to get dressed, my..." He hesitated, and the other boy looked back with both curious and pleasure-filled eyes. "My friend...", Simon finished simply. He felt confused. He didn't simply express a STATE of confusion, something he had almost become used to since coming into the care of his young master, but true confusion. He'd been programmed to help and please his master, and to take satisfaction in doing so. But now he noticed it didn't simply end there. He felt he WANTED to please Brian, in every way possible. Needed it. And when he succeeded, he didn't simply feel satisfaction from the knowledge he was fulfilling his purpose. It was something else, something deeper, more fundamental.
He wanted to speak about this with his young master. He was programmed to seek advice from humans on things he did not understand, to ask for guidance and help on how to behave in new situations so he wouldn't mess things up by mistake. Yet he found he could not speak of this with Brian, for reasons that defied all logic! Simon tried to rationalize it by convincing himself it was the first law interfering again, that he risked causing harm to his young master. But deep inside himself, he knew that was not true. The three laws permeated every fibre of his being. His brain was designed in such a way that even if it suffered the most catastrophic failure, the most severe damage, it would still cease to function altogether before it would allow any action to even come close to violate the three laws.
No, it was something else alright. Something much simpler than even the pretty clear-cut three laws. Simon was being shy. Scared, even! And it was things he wasn't supposed to be! The small robot didn't know it was those feelings he experienced, he didn't know what label to attach to them. It simply registred as an inability to speak about that subject due to severe hesitation, even refusal of his body to articulate those words! It registred as a distinct lack of motor control when thinking about Brian in THAT particular way, or sometimes, even when looking at him. He became clumsy, shaky. Weak. But he also felt a great warmness inside at those instances. Somewhere in his chest in particular, around his heart it felt like... A great warmness, and a need to smile like a crazy fool.
The moments when he felt that way were occuring with greater and greater frequency. Simon was afraid he might be suffering a malfunction. A positronic imbalance perhaps, some sort of cascade failure in his pathways that had been triggered by some minute, yet fatal manufacturing defect that had passed through all the quality controls undetected. It was so unlikely it was almost impossible to imagine, but Simon still worried. Something had to be wrong with him! He knew that if he truly believed he was malfunctioning, he had to report it. He had to be deactivated, taken back to be examined. Yet, he chose to say nothing...
"Hey!" Simon felt someone shaking him. "Daydreamer, wake up!" It was Brian, Simon noticed. His young master had almost finished dressing and was sitting with his hands on Simon's shoulders, a big friendly grin on his face. Simon felt he too had a weird smile on his face, a big happy smile he could not even begin to find the reason for. "Now it's YOU who's going to make us get late!"
Simon giggled and tried to hide the fact he'd been drifting off, studying his master with such intensity he'd lost track of everything except watching the young child's form as he dressed himself. Again Simon found himself wondering if he was malfunctioning or not, but for some irrational reason decided that if he was, it did not matter. It was better this way. He was...
He was happy.
21 - I want to ride my bicycle...
"You're blaming ME?", he yelled at the other boy. "No way!" Simon jumped out of Brian's bed and tried to dress himself as quickly as he could. Of course, all his clothes conspired against him. He almost put on his underwear the wrong way first try, his left sock got stuck on his big toe, the sleeves of his blue shirt tangled themselves up, even his jeans would not cooperate with him, both boy-legs wishing to go down the same pant leg! Brian was laughing SO hard, and Simon was too. Maybe that was why the clothes seemed to have taken on a life of their own all of a sudden!
FINALLY both boys had dressed themselves, and then they ran downstairs to have breakfast with great enthusiasm. One parent shot the other a quick look asking, 'Now?'. The gave a gentle head-shake in return, telling, 'Not now. He's too happy.'
"Why, you sure seem to be in a pleasant mood today", Mr. Fitzgerald said in a good-natured manner to his son. "We heard you two cackling like madmen in your room all the way down to the kitchen." Then he got a peculiar, almost teasing look on his face. "What's wrong?"
Brian looked at his father, smiling lightly in reply to the question he'd been asked. Knowing his father was teasing him and ignoring it on purpose. "Dad, I want to get a bike for Simon today. So we can go places and do stuff together, you know?", he said instead.
Mr. Fitzgerald smiled slightly. "I see. Well, I think that can be arranged", he said, feeling in an unusually good mood himself for some reason. Then he peered at his son. "If you two promise to behave...", he added with a wink.
After breakfast the family members helped each other clear away the remains, then the boys went upstairs again, taking care of their oral hygiene and such. Mrs. Fitzgerald had given Brian a license to skip his morning shower since he'd had a bath the day before. To be truthful, she was glad because of that, since at times it could be a real bother to get her son to go stand under the flow of water for even a short period of time.
Parents finished cleaning up the kitchen and soon the boys were back downstairs again, fresh and presentable even to a foreign dignitary (they had even water-combed their hair; both of the boys thought the other looked really cute!). "Dad! Please, can we go now?", Brian said, looking at his father with big-eyed enthusiasm.
Both parents chuckled. It was a far cry from how their son used to behave. They hadn't gotten used to it, but in all it was a welcome change. They hoped Brian had enough sense not to get overly attached to a robot though, they were going to have a talk with their son about that when they'd gathered enough courage. For now however, they were still happy and satisfied that Brian was happy.
Five minutes later the whole Fitzgerald family, with their recent addition, packed themselves into their car and were heading down into the city. Magcars were safe, quiet and clean, and besides, traffic was light on a sunday. The magcar quickly reached a top speed of over 300 kilometers per hour on the elevated expressway, guidance and traffic control was all handled by the on-board positronic brain and two-way communications with the central coordination system. The car's brain was of course much less sophisticated than Simon's, but it still implemented the three laws of robotics of course, all ground cars did. It guaranteed there hadn't been a single vehicle-related fatality in almost a century, and very few accidents overall.
Brian knew a good bicycle store, after giving the car the approximate location (near the silverspring park, across from Mr. Godfrey's pretzels stand) it automatically referenced the exact address and steered off the expressway, taking city streets to the correct destination. Total travel time was only a few minutes.
The pace of the city was even more laid-back and relaxed than usual. People were strolling about without apparant aim, with no immediate worries on their minds, simply experiencing the warm and lovely day. Some walked around either just to stretch their legs or do some light shopping, others sat at their favorite café, either enjoying solitude (perhaps with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate or a capuccino or such), or in the company of good friends. The streets that in years long gone had been filled with heavy steel boxes standing almost bumper to bumper spewing cancerous petrol fumes had been narrowed down to give way for greenery, bicycle lanes and walkways.
The car stopped outside the bike shop to let its passengers off, then steered away into a nearby underground parking garage until called for. Brian almost dragged Simon inside, the two kids first to get through the front doors. It was a boy's delight, shining bicycles parading down the walls of the large store. There were all kinds of bikes available, from sleek street-racers to powerful MTBs, from beginner models to those meant for long-distance travel and capable of carrying large packing bags and everything else inbetween. Parents lead big-eyed children on from those sections towards equipment designed for mere mortals. Somewhere along the way, a helpful sales clerk had joined the small party and was providing useful information on suitable models.
"This one is our last one", the clerk explained to the parents. "It's on sale. It came out last year, but don't let that scare you, it's virtually only the colors that differs from this year's version. It has weatherproofed anti-lock disc brakes, strong yet feather-weight aluminum alloy frame, fully suspended of course. You also have maintenance-free ceramic wheel bearings and encapsulated shaft drive with a hub-mounted manual or automatic twelve-gear system with torque sensor and a speed limiter as standard. Very reliable, keeps your kid safe in those steep down-hills. Solid-state front and rear lights and 100% rust-proof of course, though on-board computer is optional. Carbon fibre re-inforced, puncture-proof and tubeless tires and low-inertia composite material wheels... What more can you ask for?"
Brian looked at Simon with a big grin. It even had the right color! Metallic-blue. The other boy nodded happily, that was The Bike, they both knew!
"What's the warranty and service plan?", Brian's mother asked. The sales person replied, regurgitating those boring details. All the kids needed to know was, the bike looked awesome. Brian took Simon's hand again, wanting to feel the other boy close to him.
A humanoid robot helper packed the bike up in its transport container (which was surprisingly compact, all things considered), and helped to get it stowed into the magcar. Assembly was quick and easy once they'd got it back home again, Mr. Fitzgerald doing most of the work, while the kids did their best to help and basically kid around by nicking tools and parts when Brian's father needed them. Mr. Fitzgerald only growled a little at them though and reminded them the quicker he got finished the quicker they could zoom off on new adventures together.