I lay considering my panties, a weird enough thing for early in the morning, but extra odd at the moment given they were hanging off one of the storage shelving units, presently being illuminated in a beam of sunlight that came through one of the small windows. I knew Anna was less restrained with my store-bought clothes, but that’s kind of impressive.
Wait, is that one of my socks?
Sure enough, one of the thigh-highs was neatly over the dragon that hung in the middle of the ceiling. I spent the next few moments trying to figure out how she managed that act. I don’t really remember at which point she took those off me, I know it wasn’t immediately, but the rest of the night was a bit of a blur and she had gone at my clothes in phases. Maybe it’s being too much of a dead fish on my part, but Anna really seemed to enjoy undressing me and I was more than willing to indulge her.
Anna had woken up as I came to temperature, but she fell back asleep mumbling and pulling herself closer to me. I hope she didn’t regret sleeping on such a hard surface, but I do love how it feels to have her wrapped over me like this. I didn’t exactly fall asleep again, but I also didn’t try to stay coherent either, just letting myself enjoy the indeterminate time that followed.
I was brought out of my fugue when I felt her tracing the lines of my face.
“Morning Anna…” I mumbled.
“Good morning, Sam.” She answered, her gentle explorations continuing. After a couple of moments, she paused to touch a couple of spots of skin near the line she had been following. “I can see the hint of injuries in your skin, were they from the kidnapping?”
“Yeah. Lilly assures me I could get rid of them, but it seemed a bit weird to follow her suggestion.”
“Oh?”
“Uh, peel that panel off and replace it.”
Anna lifted herself up a bit to look at me startled while blinking. “Ew, wouldn’t that hurt?” She asked after a shudder once what I had said sunk in.
“Probably not? I don’t really feel skin damage, but it seems a bit too fucked up to peel like a quarter of my face off for a little dot or two.” I answered while sticking my tongue out in disgust, I guess Lilly found my rather human reaction to the concept amusing from what I felt over the repair bus.
“Ha, it’s not really noticeable anyway.”
We lay there for quite a while as she continued to trace the fine lines of shiny metal dividing panels of my skin. “Some of these don’t entirely make sense.” She commented eventually while examining one on my ribcage. “Your chest doesn’t expand and contract with your breathing, so what motion is here?”
“I think some of them have to be for aesthetic reasons,” I said while touching one near my right eye. “You can tell they didn’t break the skin for every one of the panels otherwise my face would be shiny all over, plus it can flex and stretch enough for my expressions to not look too weird.”
“Mmmm, well they are very cute.” She then kissed one just under my breast causing me to shiver a little. “Your expressions are adorable too.” She said looking toward my face with a slightly teasing grin.
“Ahh, I’m glad you like them…” I mumbled back. “I still can’t believe you would be attracted to how I look.”
“Sam, as far as I’m concerned, you’re like my wildest dream made reality.” She declared, then blushed. “Er, appearance-wise.” She rushed out prompting me to cock an eyebrow back at her, I was out of it but not enough to miss the implication. Electing not to answer the implied question as her blush deepened, she instead started on a related topic. “I don’t really know which I realized first, being attracted to girls or, uh, I dunno the best word attracted to mechanical beings? I’ve seen robosexual but that might be because of a joke.”
“I expect it’s literally that.” I suggested. “Even if futurama made that joke, I bet people in whatever community exists have elected to embrace it.”
She shrugged after pulling herself up the bed to lay her head next to mine while I spoke. “Either way, at some point I put two and two together in high school.” She continued before pausing with a sheepish grin. “I never really sought out a community if there is one, I mostly just consumed whatever books, manga, anime or whatever that I found.” She coughed. “And er, saved searches on certain websites that may or may not be hentai orientated.”
I laughed. “Did it come before or after cosplay?”
“Pretty sure after.” She admitted, she started absent-mindedly stroking her fingers through my open shoulder joint, which made it difficult to pay attention when she began speaking again. “I used to do a bigger variety of characters before, although it’s not like I only do robots and cyborgs these days either-“ She made a vague gesture at the dragon, either ignoring or not noticing the thigh-high over it, I really need to ask her about what the dragon was for at some point but I wasn’t going to interrupt her chain of thought. “It wasn’t really like I wanted to actually be them, it’s more that I obsessed over some of the characters so much I couldn’t not try to replicate them in real life.”
She had a somewhat wistful expression on her face. “Honestly it’s probably what drove my desire to get better, a lot of my old stuff was pretty crappy, and I felt I needed to be able to deliver what I imagined them to look like.” She smiled at me, which when combined with her touch sent sparks through my mind. “I mentioned this isn’t the first time I’ve done Alita, right? I keep on revisiting characters like that to see if I can do it better, it’s an awesome feeling to see myself improve even if there’s still an endless road ahead of me.”
It's hot as hell to see her passionate about something like she clearly is for her cosplay, I couldn’t resist reaching out to kiss her when she paused somewhat uncertainly after her explanation. Reaching up to cup her face one-handed to avoid pinching her fingers still in my other shoulder.
“What prompted that?” She asked smiling after I pulled away.
“Everything!” I answered with a grin. “Do I need a specific reason?”
“Nope!” She confirmed. Then paused in a way I was starting to recognize as heralding a random thought she had, whatever it was started her into a giggling fit for a moment before she let me in on what it was. “What about furries? I know there are some changees who are remarkably like anthropomorphic animals, do you think any of them have gotten together with someone because of it?”
Something jumped out of gear in my head and free-spun for a moment before clunking back and I started to giggle myself. “I’m sure it’s happened, it’s a big world out there. Oh, what about the other way, remember the squirrel person clash? There were a few thousand of them, one of them had to have been a furry.”
“There’s got to be like some furry out there who changed into something that that was like opposite to their fursona.” Anna suggested. “Fuck that must suck, like a cruel joke from the universe.”
We managed to waste a bunch more time giggling and considering what other things like that might have been affected by changees.
“Don’t a bunch of porn sites have changee sections now?” She asked at one point. “How does that work out?”
“Honestly, I don’t really remember, most of my memories of that stuff kinda dropped out of my head without the… context associated with them.” I answered with a shrug, somewhat more serious about the subject. “If it’s like anything else in that industry it’s probably exploitative unless it’s on something like OnlyFans or whatever.”
She nodded then got an uncertain expression. “Er, have you been ok with what we have been doing, like last night? I know we’ve talked about you not really having that set of feelings, but I’ve kinda gotten caught up in it, I probably should have asked how you were earlier.”
I smiled while rolling onto my side so I could hug her. “It’s been wonderful, I definitely experience it differently from you, but I’m glad you showed me how enjoyable it can be anyway.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Well, I’m always down for another round.” She murmured speculatively.
-------
“Hey Master… mm, Anna.” I said after trying again, my upper torso lying partially on the bed.
“…yes Sam?” She responded after a moment.
“I think you might have to bring me breakfast.” I admitted guiltily while dropping my head to the discarded duvet. “I don’t think I have enough fuel left to go anywhere.”
I heard her sit up on the bed suddenly. “Are you ok? Are you out?” She asked concerned, her exhaustion forgotten.
“Oh no, I’m good for a bit here. I’m just low enough that I probably couldn’t clean up or anything. Sorry.”
“Ha, that’s ok, let me get you something.” I smiled as she leaned over to kiss me on the side of my head, I heard her scuffling around nearby before ascending the stairs.
I spent the next few minutes enduring the closest thing to hunger I had felt up to this point, I am pretty sure they are warning messages or something and that they felt a bit like how my question chains presented themselves. Just sort at the edge of my awareness and needling me with the threat of running out, I knew what they were saying but not really as text or something like a HUD message in a video game. I am pretty sure they were there for a while before now; I was just too distracted to notice. Lilly confirmed it with amusement over the repair bus, my repair buddies apparently had complete access to the same information. None of them would answer any questions about what other stuff they had been aware of, I got an impression of Lilly’s amusement growing though.
Great, there’s an internal peanut gallery for my life. At least they are nice?
Further embarrassment was interrupted by Anna returning down the stairs.
“Here.” I sat up a touch jerkily as I took the oversize mug she offered me and began to sip at it gratefully. “Are you sure you’re ok? You’re not moving right.” She asked worry in her voice.
“Yes, very low.” I answered in a clipped voice lacking its usual range of notes. “Smooth motions more energy.” I don’t think my response reassured her any, so I just focused on getting the food into me.
I felt some of the internal complaints go away as the kerosene reached whatever my guts were, and a few moments later my burners opened back up as my bunkers saw input. “Ahhh, that’s better.” I stretched my free arm out and did my normal smooth if noisy movements. “See? All good.”
“Do you need water too?”
“Not right now, I seem to be able to reclaim a lot of the water I use.” I answered after taking another sip of the kerosine. ”Peter thought that it might be part of some method of scavenging the thermal energy in the steam or something. I guess in some ways I am kind of the opposite of a human diet-wise, I burn fuel much faster than I lose water.”
“Huh, that’s cool.” She said while sitting down on the bed beside me as I finished the mug off.
I reached out to place the mug on her desk, while bringing my arm back I laid it across her legs than pulled myself into a hug around her bathrobe-covered hips. “Thanks Anna.”
“Anytime, Sam.“ She answered while running a hand through my hair.
I was correct in my guess that Anna would be interested in my hygiene needs, she even offered to help. I am not sure it actually made cleaning my joints any faster as I got quite distracted, but hey it felt nice and we weren’t in a rush.
----------------------------------------
“Do you mind if I eat this?” I asked loudly to be heard over the power tool Anna was using while holding up a small off-cut of wood. We were working on cutting out all the wooden components of my prop gun, luckily enough it was a wonderful day out so working in her otherwise empty driveway was a great change of pace.
“Sure, it’s small and probably not going to be useful for anything else.” She said with a shrug having paused with the jigsaw to answer.
I slipped up my dust mask for a second to toss it in my mouth then dropped it back down. We had discovered I got what sounded like hiccups if any fine wood dust got into my airways, and as amusing as Anna found the sound it was distracting enough to warrant the mask. Looking back down at the small piece of wood in my hand I considered the next component to cut out then picked up the fretsaw, I am remarkably good at smooth cuts with this thing, so I got to do all the small detail work while Anna was getting the big pieces done.
Fortunately, there weren’t actually that many distinct wooden pieces that were going into the gun, as most of the smallest or fiddly bits would be plastic. She had the 3D printer running for days already, so assuming it went together like her CAD work said it should we might be able to get it at least roughly together today. I was starting to feel the deadline given all we had left time-wise was next weekend and whatever spare time we could grab in the weekdays between school and my work. She would be using some of that time on her own costume too, so I was getting pretty antsy, but she didn’t seem too concerned.
“We are well into the kinds of stuff I have done lots of, so I have a pretty good idea of how long it will take even if I had to do both of our props. Honestly, it doesn’t even look like we are going to need to pull any all-nighters, it’s definitely tight but we can do it.” She answered confidently while sanding a bevel on a small panel then paused. “Wait can you stay up? You seem to have a pretty good sleep schedule, and I don’t know if that’s something you have to do.”
“I expect I could, but Lilly and the others would get really mad at me.” I answered with a guilty smile. “They spend the time when I’m asleep inspecting and doing any preventative maintenance I need, when I’ve talked to her before it sounds like they can be at it all night. It’s not like they can unhook stuff while I’m active after all.” I explained while adjusting the position of the Dremel in my lap. I had been working on applying the barrel fluting before I had stopped to talk to her, Anna had left it to me after discovering how I could get a perfectly straight line while free-handing.
She nodded, placing the piece in the completed pile beside her. Then she looked at me for a long moment while considering something. “You know, with that apron and short skirt it doesn’t look like you’re wearing anything under it all.” She declared with an approving nod.
“I will happily wear only the apron if you want.” I teased back. “But maybe not in the driveway.”
She giggled and went for another piece. “Some of my friends still don’t believe you’re real you know.” She mentioned off-hand while working her way through the inside curve of a small lever with a piece of sandpaper on a narrow tool. “They don’t use Facebook and we haven’t taken pictures together or anything, so they’ve been calling you my American girlfriend.”
I laughed. “Well, I’m happy to change that.”
“I almost want to leave it as a surprise.” She admitted looking up with a mischievous tone through the dust mask. “Some of them will be at the con, and I bet they will be shocked both at me actually having a girlfriend again and you know, you.”
“Oh my, you want to keep me a secret?” I asked in mock outrage, then chuckled. “I’m happy either way, I'm not going to govern how you interact with your friends, I’m not that clingy. Although maybe we should get some pictures together, if nothing else, I’ve never done that before.” I admitted steaming up a bit.
“Hell yeah, we can!” She said, apparently not the least bit concerned about my lack of experience.
She jumped up before shoving her stool next to mine, the piece she had started on forgotten. She plonked herself next to me before pulling me close with one arm and getting her phone out with the other.
I almost dropped the Dremal in haste as I reached up to pull my mask down. She flipped hers off with a practiced motion, phone in hand then took a couple of pictures of us before I could do anything but an awkward smile. “Oh, I think I’m covered in sawdust.” I mumbled looking down afterward while trying to brush it off, even if it was too late.
“That only makes it better!” Anna chirped before showing me the picture when I looked up again. “It shows it’s not just a setup, see?”
OK, yeah, the picture didn’t look bad, but I was a bit too distracted by how happy she looked to pay that much attention to it. “I’m glad you like it.” I said leaning up to give her a peck on the cheek, her phone clicked again startling me and causing me to steam up a bit again. “Oh!”
“Hah, now that’s even better!” She declared before turning and hugging me tightly, phone against my shoulder. I accepted the offered kiss, still embarrassed but far too infatuated to hold back. It was a chaste one, but wonderful and I got to follow it up by resting my head against her neck. I think her phone went again at some point, but I was way past caring by that point.
A minute or two later I roused myself when she suggested we get back to it.
We managed to get the prop gun mostly built by the time we called it quits that evening, some of the pieces she had printed over the week still needed cleaning up, but she wasn’t too worried about that. It would probably be at least partially disassembled again to make it easier to work on, but we had wanted to see it as far together as we could get it tonight.
“I’ll prime it before next weekend, so we have a full day to devote to painting and finishing work.” She said while considering it sitting on her workbench, it was so large a significant proportion of the barrel hung out into the room. “Are you sure the weight is fine though?” She asked hesitantly. “I can’t imagine carrying that for anything but a few minutes.”
“For sure.” I said scooping it up by the top handle one-handed and swinging it around as if making use of the glaive blade, before smiling at her. “Light as a feather.”
“Fuck that’s cool as hell.” She said grinning. “I’m glad I over-engineered the grips on that thing!”
“Sure feels solid.” I confirmed while placing it back on the desk, then chuckled. “Gonna have to careful not to hit someone with it.”
She nodded. “Hopefully security doesn’t mind it, should be fine though given some of the things I’ve brought or seen.”
I didn’t need to go immediately so we spent a bit of time cuddling on the couch upstairs, when I was lucid we chatted about the logistics of getting to the con. “So do you wear it there then?” I mumbled feeling like she’d already answered the question before.
“Depends a bit since I take the train, some of the costumes wouldn’t really stand up to be sat on for while like that but others require too much work to get on to do in a little change room there.” I felt her shrug around me. “People will look at you a bit funny on the train, if they take notice of you that is, but most people don’t bother you or are actively positive about it.”
“Heh, that matches my experience with just my normal appearance.”
“Right, ah sorry about that.” She apologized while getting a bit flustered.
“Anna it’s fine, I’m pretty used to it at this point.” I chuckled a little groggily, and I felt myself slipping again. “Almost wonder if people will take less notice of me in cosplay…”
I somehow managed to get back home and into my own bed that night, although I might not have if it were not for obligations tomorrow.