“Hmm…” Ivan scratched his chin a bit as I reloaded my shot gun, with poisoned cartridges. I rubbed the shimmery powder along the silver bullets, before pushing them in the two slots, “plastic pencil case.”
I was silent for a moment, then, “If opponent is inexperienced, drop down, trip opponent, then use pencil case to suffocate them. If experienced, swiftly cut neck with knife at an angle, kick up and hit the side of their head to fracture. Once they're down, dislodge their arms so they can't attack back, break their legs then use pencil case to shove down their throat. If they take too long, snap their neck.”
Ivan nods, then, “Paper clip.”
I chuckle, “Easy, get legs around waist, hug neck with one arm and pull out one end of the paperclip to stab throat with the other. Hold their head up so they bleed faster, and if possible, get them upside-down.”
“Sick dude, you need to teach that to me next time.” He sits with his legs wide open as if he was comfortable with me, and while that was practically fine with me, I decided it would be funny to fling a pocket knife at his crotch. The knife sped spinning in the air and landed right between his legs, just barely knicking his jeans. I snickered a bit as he sat there paralyzed for a moment.
“Eh…?” He muttered and gave a concerned expression. He slowly looked down, petrified to see what was a centimeter away from his balls. He looked like he was practically screaming on the inside, staring at the switchblade with severe intensity, as if he saw his life flash before his very eyes. It was humorous to watch, and I started laughing a bit, but Valerya came up behind me and smacked the back of my head. I turn to her swiftly in anger, but she gave a snotty expression, putting her nose up in the air and knitting her eyebrows together as if she was irritated.
“Boys are annoying.” She simply said. Valerya doesn't say much, but when she does say something, it's honest and wise. Ivan raises his lip in disgust and hunches his shoulders, and it pisses him off because she's right.
“Well, so are girls.” Ivan retorts and is delivered with a deathly glare from my sister.
“You're both annoying.” I intervene their little petty argument and stab the cutting board in front of me with the knife I just sharpened. Tired of standing, I stretch my arms up in the kitchen, curing the creaking joints in my machine body. I slouch my shoulders and rub the back of my neck, moving around the bar and into the living room where Ivan was. I took the chair beside the couch the Ivan was currently sitting on. I open my legs and relax my arms in between my legs, letting my head fall back.
Upon noticing my exhaustion, Ivan kicked my knee, “When was the last time you shut down?”
“Three months.” I reply, closing my eyes.
“Ago? Jesus Christ, Ethan.” Ivan scratches the back of his head and leans over to me to slide his finger across a touchpad on the back of my neck that stimulates a shut down on my mind. My body leans forward automatically because of it, my head drops and my torso stiffens so I don't fall forward. My eyes drop to a dead black as I power down, and the last thing I hear is Ivan humming the Windows shutting down jingle. I'm silent after the clunk of my body leaning forward. Ivan leans back into the couch and Valerya retreats back into the bedroom. He stares at me for a long time, probably thinking about drawing on my face with a pen, but he leans back over to me, close to my face that's faced down towards the ground. He tilts his head a bit to get a better view of my face, I suppose, because then he lifted his hands, gently tapping the underside of my chin and taking it between his thumb and his finger. He tilts my head up to better see my face, his eyes stare into my blank ones, filled with an emptiness, when I'm sleeping, I'm practically an empty shell apart from my human brain accessed in my head, all of my combat memory is stored in a card in the back of my head, kind of like a smart phone. He hovers over my face, his mouth practically millimeters away from my own, and he drags his tongue across his lips like he'll kiss me, but he shuts his eyes with guilt and instead rubs his cheek against mine.
Ivan whispers, “You don't know,” In my ear, “but I want you to.”
I have a moment before I shut down completely, like a process where everything is uploaded back down onto my card, but I can't move and I can't normally process my surroundings. My senses are all gone except touch and hearing. Those are the last to download, the first is sight and current memories. Usually, he does this if I shut down in front of him. It doesn't bother me much as long as he doesn't hurt my shell or anything, but it is concerning because of this personal, emotional problem he has with me that might disrupt his work. It doesn't bother me as long as he doesn't get in my way, it doesn't bother me because I can't be bothered. There's no guilt, there's no heart wrenching agony, there's no mutual feelings. I only look at him as a business companion, nothing else, but Ivan is human, he has feelings, emotions, problems, biology. Ivan's gone through things like a first love, puberty, hormones, maybe even regret and pain. This person in front of my robotic body is feeling negative things like angst, sadness, and frustration, but also lovely things like warmth against my cool skin, a thrilling heartbeat, thumping fast in his chest full of love, a dangerous sexual desire that burns in his stomach like a forest fire, and most of all, a gentle compassion for someone, a motivation that gets him going. So maybe his unconditional, not-so-secret love for me isn't all bad and concerning.
Ivan falls back against the couch and wipes his eyes before Valerya walks back into the kitchen. She knows, and he knows she knows. She knows that Ivan is madly in love with me, and she knows he isn't just pining after my ass. He truly and seriously loves me in agony, but it's unspoken.
“Ethan will be dropping into town for groceries tomorrow. You should go with him.” She hints, but doesn't look directly at him, “He probably wouldn't tell you so…”
Ivan smiles a bit and rests his elbow on the back of the couch, “Yeah uh, sure.”
ns 15.158.61.47da2
