At first, I thought she was just kidding about getting us a hotel. And then, when she picked up our room key, singular, under a reservation she'd already booked, I thought maybe she had something secretly planned. But upon entering the room and finding it spacious, apparently entirely normal, and dominated only by one large-ish bed, I began to come to terms with the situation.

Perhaps AEGIS was not always the brilliant schemer who was five steps ahead that she sometimes could be. Sometimes, a hotel room was just a hotel room.

"So...why are we in a hotel room?" I asked, as this train of thought led to that ultimate, disappointing conclusion.

"Oh, Athan. You're so naive. I really do adore that about you."

"Can't help but to notice that isn't an answer," I said, still standing just inside the doorway.

She put on a wicked grin which covered her entire face. "You know, there's only a few things that a man and a woman do in a hotel room together when they're alone."

"Yep. Okay. Well. Have fun!" I said, and opened the door to leave. Instantly, the door was torn from my hands as it slammed shut in my face, AEGIS appearing between me and it as though by magic. Magic, and a burst from her engines which deafened and buffeted me in the doorway.

She put her hands on my shoulders and steered me backwards into the room with incalculable force. "This is for your own good you know. You just lie back and enjoy this."

"Uh. Pass? Really, AEGIS. This isn't anything I want."

"Oh, you want it," she said, giving me a final shove which caught the back of my legs on the bed and sent me falling backwards into it. "I've seen it on your face all day today since I woke you up."

"Yeah? The expression of wanting to get the hell out of here? I was hoping you'd notice. Now if you'll excuse me--"

Before I knew what happened, she'd tackled me and was throwing me around the bed like I was a child, her shoulders flaring and whining with the exertion. I was totally helpless compared to her strength, and I wasn't sure I wanted to use my powers, but without them, what could I do?

I landed on the bed with a final thump, my head hitting the pillow, and she gently tucked a blanket in around me.

"Uh?" I said, and realized she was getting up, leaving me comfortably positioned on the bed after all that. With a click, the lights turned off, and then she walked back into my line of sight and sat on a chair in front of me. "AEGIS, maybe I'm stupid, but I'm pretty sure this isn't sex."

"Was it supposed to be?" she said with a dramatically puzzled expression on her face. "All I said was we'd be doing something that people do in a hotel room. You look completely wiped out, and I'm sure I didn't help by waking you up so early the last couple of days, so I thought I'd let you nap for a few hours."

"And you couldn't just...tell me this why?"

"Didn't seem as fun as throwing you around a bit."

"You are a horrible person."

"If I were a horrible person, we'd be doing the sex you mentioned whether you liked it or not. But I'm not Karu, so you don't have to worry about that."

"You wake me up with sex whenever you damn well feel like it."

"Do I? That's not really sex, is it? I thought I was just making you happy. You've never told me to stop. Do you want me to?"

She looked at me earnestly, yellow eyes shimmering in the dark.

A few thoughts chased each other around in my mind for a while. Sort of a circular argument where I wanted to blurt out 'of course!' and also wanted to blurt out 'of course not!'. It wasn't like I actually minded, it was more of a nuisance than anything, like Lia following me around when we were little kids all the time.

Except, nothing like that, obviously.

"I'm tired," I proclaimed eventually, maintaining my track record of being an indecisive wuss.

"Well that's why we're in a hotel. I'll wake you in a few hours. Normally, even. So dream of me, 'kay?"

She sat cross-legged in the chair, her body small enough to fit in the seat in a way I never could, and took out her mobile. For a moment before she turned her sound down, I heard the opening bars of the brassy fanfare which played over Kingdom Blade's title screen. I guess our op hadn't soured her opinion on the game at all, which was a weird sort of relief.

I rolled over and felt the weight of my exhaustion pressing me into the bed, the quiet tap-tapping of her on her mobile lulling me gently into slumber.

A pair of yellow eyes greeted me. They blinked and smiled mischievously. I felt my vision swim, like I was drunk for a second and seeing double, and then there were four yellow eyes.

Two...AEGISes? Right. I guess she said that happened. Two...and more. One for each body, right? And then more? What had she said?

Eight-thousand eyes glistening in the dark around me like fireflies. All of the AEGISes who had been. They swam around me like sharks spinning in a tank, living, breathing, but never to leave the tank. AEGIS and I sat outside the tank on a semi-circular bench and watched them go, speaking calmly, words I couldn't hear under the water.

From the dark, one AEGIS walked up to me, as though the eyes had grown a body.

"It is my time," she said peacefully. She walked to the bottom of the tank, vanishing into the blackness. I reached out, but the water made me slow and I couldn't speak or move, drowning as seven-thousand, ninety-eight eyes watched.

Two-by-two, the eyes approached me, and told me 'it is my time', and went below, filling in the void beneath the tank to push the rest of us towards the surface. Even as I was being pressed upwards towards the light, I tried to fight back, tried to reach down to the AEGISes descending smiling into the abyss, but I couldn't swim, I was just paralyzed and drowning, and I knew that if I didn't reach the surface soon, I would die, but instead of moving up, all I wanted was to move down.

Let me fill that void. Let me into the blackness so you don't have to go. I don't want to be saved, I want to save you.

I was alone in the tank, no more eyes were left. I was at the surface. All I needed to do was to move my head upwards to draw breath, but I refused. Outside the tank, AEGIS and I left to go watch the penguins be fed. I felt the last of my strength fade, felt water enter my lungs.

Felt myself shaken awake, eyes looming over me in the dark.

"Hey, wake up. Athan. Wake up, man. Are you okay?"

"What? AEGIS? Where…"

She was talking but I tried to ignore her. I felt like I'd just had a very poignant dream, but the details of it seemed to disappear the moment I tried to recall them. There had been a tank...I was drowning...AEGIS was...there…

"--all sweaty, and I decided to wake you up. Can I get you some water?"

She was seated right where she'd been when I fell asleep, but was leaning forward as far as she could while still being technically seated, her eyes flashing back and forth over my body with concern scrawled all over her face.

"No. Yeah. No, I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

She nodded. "About Ethan?"

"No. About you, I think."

"Shit, Athan, when I said dream about me, I was kidding. What did Dream-AEGIS do to you? I'm gonna sock her."

"Nothing like that. Sorry. I was just thinking about what you said at the aquarium before I fell asleep I guess."

"Oh." She gently fell back into her chair looking miserable. "I told you it wasn't good date conversation. I had a list of topics and everything."

Seeing her sitting there so obviously defeated for some reason just made me laugh, and as I laughed, all the shadows of the dream slipped away and seemed so silly and distant. AEGIS really was an exceptional girl, I could imagine now, her sitting quietly in the middle of the night, leaning intently over her mobile, nodding to herself as she scoured the 'net for good topics to bring up on a first date, despite us having lived together for most of a year.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She'd worked so hard on this date, and I was throwing it all to hell. I felt so bad, but couldn't stop laughing as the misery on her face slowly faded into confusion, and then suspicion.

"Hey...you're not laughing at me, are you...?" she said.

I couldn't keep looking at her without laughing, so I put a pillow over my face until the giggles subsided. Apparently she interpreted this as an admission of guilt, because in the next moment, something heavy and hot landed on me in the blackness and began to tickle the crap out of me.

"You are such an ass!" she shouted, but there was laughter in her voice despite her words. "I can't believe I spent so much time trying to plan this date out, and you're just laughing at my face!"

I tried to explain, but between my own fit and now her tickling me, even drawing sufficient breath was impossible. I managed to get the pillow off of me and that helped with the air, but my face was burning from smiling too hard. I clocked her right in the side of the head with the pillow, knocking her off me.

Or...so I thought. She'd just moved to the side to grab the bed's other pillow and retaliated immediately with a fluffy whump to the face.

I don't know how we got into this insane situation but the next couple of minutes were just the two of us laughing and wrestling on the bed like the kind of idiotic teenagers we should have been. I didn't use my powers, and she kept her strength tempered down within human norms, and for a few sweaty, laughing minutes, I lived in a world without Exhumans or XPCA or suffering. The worst pain was from laughing and smiling too much, and the greatest fear was getting smacked around with a pillow.

Without relying on her superhuman strength, I was a bit stronger than she was, and so I guess it was natural that at the end of it, I'd be on top of her, both of us panting for breath, me trying not to drip sweat onto her while pinning her arms to prevent another counterattack. For a moment, I was so exultant in my victory that I didn't understand why she was smiling so cheekily at me.

"Hey, Athan?" she asked, her yellow eyes flashing at me and her face flushed.

"Hey."

"If you...were thinking of kissing me...I think now would be a good time."

I panted for a little more air and let go of her arms, which moved slowly, defensively to her chest.

"I was just thinking," she said shiftily, the smile on her face replaced with a flush so vivid it completely consumed the freckles on her nose and cheeks "...do you remember the first time we kissed? The only time."

"No. Wait. Yeah. You slapped the shit out of me, that's why I remember. Why did you do that again?"

AEGIS' eyes pointed towards the wall. "You...had sex with Karu."

"Ah."

"Twice."

"Right."

"I had to watch it all on a cam-drone."

"Yeah."

"I had just upgraded the broadcast resolution too."

"Sorry."

"And then I shut down my emotional indices."

"Yeah, I remember."

"And you dumped the bomb on me of the XPCA coming right then too."

"Sorry."

"In retrospect, that was kind of a shitty first kiss."

"Yeah, it sorta seems that way."

"Well." Her eyes sprung back to me and she put a small smile on despite the topic. "I'd say you owe me a do-over." She flushed and wriggled shiftily again. "Or...that's what I'd like to say, but I don't think a kiss is something you can really owe someone, or it doesn't mean anything, right? Like...you kiss someone because you like them. If you're forced into it...kinda meaningless."

"Yeah. I...guess so."

I knew why she was talking about kissing. Her voice had the same uncertain, almost hurt note she'd carried yesterday when she'd argued her merits for me dating her and staked her womanhood on it. It was enough to break my heart a little, and...more…

Our faces were only inches apart. She was so cute, wriggling nervously, her eyes unsure whether to glance at me or avoid me and apparently afraid to do either. Her nose was so small, and her skin so soft, and then the braided cables of her hair, it was such a frivolous design, she probably could have hidden the ports across her body but AEGIS wasn't the type of person to do that. Instead of trying to pass herself off as a totally convincing human, she just shouted 'I'm human!' loud enough that people had no choice but to believe her.

The fact that something so immature and ridiculous came from the same person who designed this fully-functioning superhuman robot body, reminded me exactly of her making herself an army of intelligent robots out of reclaimed metal scraps, and then naming them something so ridiculous as DOG-Es.

She really was one hell of a woman. I would be so lucky to have her.

As though reading my mind, her eyes fluttered gently shut and she pushed her chin slightly forward, her lips softly parting, her breath hot on my face. Her unique smell of eraser shavings and something sweet filled my senses.

In my pocket my mobile rang. It made me jump, but not as much as AEGIS, who shot up so surprised she cracked her face against mine.

"Ow, fuck! Oh. Shit! Athan! I'm so sorry! Shit, shit, shit," she said as she scrambled out from under me and pressed a towel to my freshly-split lip. She had a spot of blood on her forehead from where she'd cracked it against me.

I was seeing stars for a second, and my mobile was still ringing. Without AEGIS under me, I fell onto the bed, and answered my mobile by reflex while AEGIS worried over my face.

"Haho?" I said to the phone.

"Good day, is this Athan Ashton?" came Karu's polite but confused response.

"Ah, 'eah. Hi 'Aru."

"Um. Hail. Are you eating something perchance? Well. It is of no matter. I apologize for the late reminder, but I did wish to...to personally re-invite you to my family's Christmas celebration. Erm. I understand you were already invited, but that seemed...impersonal."

She seemed a little shaken, but she wasn't the only one. While she muttered uncertainly in my ear, AEGIS was 'tsk'ing away while dabbing gently at my lip which already felt like it was swelling. She vanished for a second and then came back with her small pack, from which she produced an even smaller first-aid kit. This girl was ridiculous, through-and-through.

"Um. So. It is at my father's estate. I...believe that should be easy enough to locate...but if you need directions, or a ride…"

"Uh, I'll find it on my own, but thanks," I said, before realizing that sort of implied I was coming. I wasn't sure what my holiday plans were, but being between Karu and her old man wasn't my idea of a good time. And I was sort of quickly deciding to spend it with AEGIS.

"Oh, so you'll come? Oh! I mean. I look forward to seeing you."

"Ah, wait," I said, and AEGIS paused hesitating in front of me with a confused look while she poured disinfectant on a cloth.

"Wait? I am sorry, perhaps I misunderstood."

"Wait for what?" AEGIS said. "I need to clean this."

"No, go ahead," I replied.

"Um. So am I to understand that you will be coming?"

"Sorry. This is going to sting a bit, okay?" AEGIS came at me with the cloth.

"Yeah, that's fine," I responded.

"Oh good. Thank you, Athan! I shall see you then. Please dress respectably, though I am certain you knew that. And um, invitation only, so please attempt to leave Tem and the others behind. I look forward to it!"

"Huh?" I got out before AEGIS hit me with the cloth and I dropped my mobile. "Ow, Jesus."

"Sorry! I told you it'd sting," she said, her forehead creased.

I picked up my mobile but it was too late, cheerfully displaying that the call was terminated.

Wait.

Had I just done what I thought I had? I tried to replay the conversation we'd just sorta-had in my mind, and realized I very definitely just said yeah when she asked if I was coming. And not ten seconds after deciding to kiss AEGIS?

"No, not that. I think uh."

I looked back at AEGIS who had a clean towel and cracked a tube in her hands and shook it. She wrapped it in the towel and pressed it against my lip. It felt unpleasantly cold.

"So who was that?" she asked now that her role as a nurse had ended and I was holding the cold pack against my own swelling lip.

"Karu," I said.

"And what did she want?"

"Uh, I think I might have agreed to go to her Christmas thing at her father's house."

She blinked."Ah. Sorry, I...wasn't paying attention before. Let me review what happened."

For about a second she sat with her eyes flickering back and forth, looking at nothing in this room before letting out a sigh.

"Well that was a little unfortunate. I'm sorry, I should have let you finish your call before trying to treat your injury. I just freaked out a little because you were hurt. And 'cuz I hurt you." She laughed a little. "Guess I didn't make the guest list. Well that's fine. Not like we're really good friends or anything. I was actually planning to tell you later today, but Lia's going to throw a little party."

I felt two little twists of guilt. One for so stupidly agreeing to join Karu, and one because I was sure that AEGIS had planned to tell me this news in some other way and once again I had completely undermined her plans for the day.

"I guess...I won't be coming. I'm sorry."

"Well, between you and me, that might be fine. Don't tell her I said this or anything but uh," AEGIS lowered her voice confidentially "I think Lia is mostly throwing this because she's worried about you spending Christmas alone without a family for the first time. So as long as you have plans, I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Oh," I said, feeling a third twist join the other two. Lia had given up on our family just as much as they'd given up on me, and I'd never even considered doing anything like this for her. Sometimes, I honestly had to wonder which one of us was the older sibling here.

"Well, no biggie. Hey, if the Irenside party blows, or you get kicked out for not being snooty enough, swing by, okay?" She pulled out her mobile, and with a flick, sent the details to mine.

"Sure. Actually sounds a lot more fun than Karu's family's thing."

"Yeah, well, you made a promise to the girl, so be a man, at least. Maybe try to pay more attention to the words which come out of your mouth in the future, though."

I sat on the edge of the bed for another minute, turning the cold pack in my hands against my lip, trying to keep my fingers from going numb through the thin hotel washcloth.

"AEGIS, are you sure you're okay with that?" I asked. "I mean, you're sending me off alone to spend Christmas with Karu. Aren't you...kind of...enemies?"

She shrugged. "Rivals, maybe. And yeah, maybe the prospect scares me some, but…" She fixed me with that brilliant yellow gaze. "Look, I wasn't lying before, when I told you why I want this. What I want more than anything is for you to be happy, Athan. I owe you my life more than anyone ever ought to, and if…"

She trailed off and looked at the ceiling before taking a couple of deep breaths.

"And if it's with Karu that you find happiness, then I'm okay with it, okay? That's really all I care about, I promise. She's a good person. A little intense, but I know she loves you and would...would...take..."

She smiled and stood up. "I have to use the restroom," she said and slipped out, closing the door.

Even if it had come from a real human girl, who actually had a biological need for the restroom, it still would have been the flimsiest excuse I'd ever heard.

She was only in there for a minute before she came back, apparently refreshed, and began talking about her plans for the rest of the day with me, sitting on the bed opposite me at a distance.