A Love Most Robotic

by Silas Vale

  Blake was definitely not a modest girl, but she had standards. She'd throw any asshole out to the wolves if she figured out he'd done something that she didn't like.

  "Maybe at the football game. I'll reject him out on the field. Think that's good?"

  The two of them had begun walking towards their apartment, with a skip in Blake's step.

  She'd had a good day.

  "Ooh, that's good." Willow nodded in agreement, looking over at her best friend as they walked along the sidewalk. "Embarrass him in front of most of the campus? Sounds like a good idea to me." She knew the turnout for those football games, and she knew that having something like that happen would crush even the strongest of egos. It was hard to recover when there were hundreds of people laughing at you.

  It was quiet for a little while, and Willow enjoyed it. The streets of Vancouver seldom were.

  "I'm gonna get changed when we get back to the apartment, and then we can walk over to the diner." She carried her binder under one arm. "I'm getting sick of wearing skinny jeans."

  "Ooh, can I watch?" Blake asked, batting her eyelashes and winking at her. She was a very flirtatious woman, regardless of who she was talking to, and Willow had gotten used to it.

  Sometimes, though, it was hard to distinguish her jokes from her desperate sexual desires.

  Blake was a very sexual person.

  "So how was your date? The nerd scare you off?"

  "He has an entire underground laboratory." Willow spoke after a moment, a slight grin coming to her face. "It's huge. He's already finished our entire project, and we're working on actually testing his theory to see if it works. We're trying to cure cancer, Blake." Blake was one of the few who got to see the more mellow, science-loving side of Willow. She did, after all, have to deal with Willow building things in their kitchen.

  "He's cured Malaria." That was impressive, and Blake couldn't deny that. "And he has a fucking cage you can sit in like god damn Nikola Tesla and watch thousands of volts of electricity in the room around you. It's like being in the middle of a lightning storm."

  She had evidently had a good time.

  Blake's eyes widened as she spoke, but in the end, she didn't give off the expected reaction.

  She sighed, and put her head in her hands.

  "You can't actually like hanging out with him, Willow. Haven't you heard the rumors about him?"

  Oh?

  "… What rumors?" Willow frowned slightly, looking towards Blake.

  She hadn't actually heard anything about the kid. In fact, before she had been properly introduced to him, he was no more than some random person on campus to her. Some nobody who asked too many questions and someone she would never know the name of during her time in school. That had changed, and she was somewhat worried if not intrigued.

  "What have you heard about him?" She asked. "If it's anything bad, I doubt it's true. He's a pretty cool guy, honestly."

  Blake looked at her with a bit of a frown on her face. "Willow… I've heard he experiments on animals and stuff. I've also heard that he gets human test subjects to participate in his weird experiments, without telling them what's going on."

  They reached the apartment building and walked in through the front doors.

  "I've also heard… Well, I've heard there's something wrong with him. Like a disease or something, but he won't answer when anybody asks him about it. Everyone suspects there's something wrong with his brain, and that's why he never talks to anyone."

  Blake seemed very nervous about Nych.

  Willow frowned slightly, thinking of their interactions earlier that day. For the most part, he had seemed… Normal. He was on the same par as her with an unhealthy obsession with science, but other than that, she hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

  … Had she been wrong?

  "I… I don't think I saw anything like that there, though." She shook her head, walking towards the elevator so they could get up to their floor. "The only living things I saw in there were mosquitoes, but that makes sense considering he was engineering a cure for Malaria. And I mean, who gives a flying fuck about those little bastards anyways?" She rolled her eyes, but then sobered up once again. "… I'll be careful, don't worry." She lightly bumped Blake with her shoulder. "You know I'm tough as hell. If he tries anything, I'll crush his balls so hard he won't be sitting straight for the next year."

  "Or maybe… Maybe you wanna ride those balls."

  Blake's mouth fell open after saying those words as she looked to Willow, surprise lacing her eyes before she fell into a bout of nearly hysterical laughter. "Oh my God, you like him, don't you? You have a thing for him! That's why you're defending him!"

  Blake pulled her keys from her purse, but she was laughing all the while, and it took her a bit to get the door open.

  "I can't believe the first person you wanna fuck is the college weirdo."

  "Oh my god." Willow scoffed, face-palming and sighing as she dragged her hand down her face. "He's nice, but not fuck material." She stepped inside the apartment, throwing her binder onto a nearby couch and kicking her shoes off before she walked further into the apartment. "I also like having access to a private underground laboratory that's bigger than a football field, and somewhere I can take some of my equipment."

  Blake would be happy about that. It was kind of clogging parts of their apartment.

  She shrugged, pulling her hair from its bun and letting the wild orange curls free. Her hair went down to her waist. There was no telling how the hell she was able to take such good care of it. It was a monstrosity.

  "Oh, you know that's a downright lie. He might be weird, but I'll give you the fact that he's attractive. Those eyes? Have you ever seen eyes like that? They're such a weird color, I'm almost tempted to say they're fake. But… I really don't think so."

  She smiled, following Willow to her room.

  "You should ask him next time for me. If they're natural, he really won the genetics game. If I wanted to fuck another goth, and wasn't kinda scared of the kid… Well, I'd go for it."

  Of course she would. She was Blake.

  "I'm putting money on it right now. A hundred bucks. He takes your virginity."

  "You'll give me a hundred bucks if he takes my virginity? Sounds like a deal." She raised an eyebrow, snickering to herself, as that obviously wasn’t what Blake meant. She eventually walked into her room. It was a bit of a mess, robotics parts scattered about and blueprints pinned to the wall in random places. They were all pieces of her crowning achievement, which was sitting on the dresser in her room. It was an arm. A fully functioning robotic prosthetic arm.

  She hadn't told anyone other than Blake yet. She wanted to patent the design and make it widely available to amputees who needed it. She was working on replacements for other limbs as well.

  She pulled off her jeans, walking around in a t-shirt and underwear as she dug through her dresser. "I gotta say, it's tempting if you're the one giving me money."

  Blake, although tempted, stayed out of Willow's room while she changed.

  "Haha, very funny. You think I'm joking? I'll bet you a hundred dollars that he's the one you fuck first, and if you cave and actually bang him, you owe me a hundred. If I'm wrong, and you fuck someone else, I'll give you a hundred."

  Would she take that?

  It would be interesting. They were nowhere near that close yet, but… Nych was definitely the most interesting man in the school.

  "What if I don't fuck anybody?" She pulled on a pair of sweatpants, and took her bra off under her shirt and tossed it to the side as she grabbed a hoodie off of her bed and put it on. She wasn't planning on looking nice. She was planning on going to that diner, eating a shitty burger and a bunch of french fries, and probably watching movies on the TV in her room until she passed out later that night.

  Good priorities.

  "I'm gonna be celibate." She smirked, walking out of her room. "I'm a nun, now. God bless you, you slutty bitch."

  Blake
groaned, banging her head against the wall.

  "God, you're hopeless. Are you taking the bet or not?"

  She looked her up and down when she came out of her room, and didn't comment on her outfit. The two of them had very different styles, and they had learned to never criticize the other person's. It just never ended well.

  "Because I could really use a hundred bucks right now."

  "Does it look like I have a hundred bucks?" Willow quirked an eyebrow, walking over to the door and slipping her shoes back on. She was hungry. She hadn't eaten since breakfast, and she was starting to get a little wobbly on her feet. She needed to eat sooner rather than later. "We'll see. Come on, get your ass in gear. I want a burger and I'll be damned if you’re gonna stop me from getting it."

  She grabbed her keys and her wallet, and opened the door to their apartment to step outside.

  She mulled over what Blake had told her earlier. Perhaps she'd have to talk to Nych about it the next day. She was never one to keep things quiet anyways.

  Turning lead into gold

  "Willow! Good afternoon."

  Nych seemed to be in a much different mood than the day previous. He had walked up to her at the beginning of class, a smile on his face. "I already signed us out with the professor. Are you ready to go?"

  The day before, he'd been much more… Sulky.

  Willow's dinner with Blake had been rather uneventful; she still hadn’t answered her question about the bet, and eventually, Blake just gave up asking. They'd fallen asleep watching some dumb horror movie together.

  Nych smiled at her, awaiting her response.

  Perhaps he was just more comfortable around her.

  Willow perked up somewhat when she heard his voice, lifting her head and staring at him for a moment. Her hair was down that day, and everyone could truly see the volume it had. "Oh. Hi." She lifted up her binder, standing up as she looked over at him. "Yeah. I'm ready to go." She noticed the change in attitude, and was somewhat happy to see it. He certainly looked like he was in a good mood.

  She'd have to ask him about the rumors.

  She tucked her hair behind her ears. "You look… Excited." She tilted her head to the side, smirking somewhat. "Is there a reason for that?"

  He immediately toned down the excitement, but the smile remained on his face.

  "Oh, it's nothing. It's just… I got some personal good news today, and it was something that I didn't expect. I won't bother you with it, though. Let's go! We need to start building tiny robots today."

  He opened the door to the classroom for her and followed her out into the hallway, walking alongside her.

  "So what about you? How was your dinner?"

  "It was nice." She shrugged, glancing back at him and slowing her pace somewhat as she waited for him to catch up to her. "I dunno. It's a shitty old twenty-four-hour diner, but they have damn good food. It's where we go if we're hungry at three in the morning or hungover as fuck at five." She smirked slightly, shrugging her shoulders as they walked through the campus. She was more at ease with him, she noticed.

  It was just something about his presence. She wasn't sure what, but it relaxed her.

  "How was your night?" She asked after a second. "You make it home okay?"

  "Oh, uhh…" He seemed to shy away at that question, but eventually he answered.

  "I got jumped, but it's okay. I don't usually carry money with me anymore because the same guys usually wait around near my apartment. I'm fine, though. Only a few bumps and bruises this time."

  That… That was really sad.

  He went through that every day?

  "But the diner sounds great! You should show me where it is sometime."

  "Hold on." She stopped, turning towards him and narrowing her eyes. "You got jumped? Jesus- are you okay?" She furrowed her brows, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking him up and down. "Does this happen all the time? Why haven't you called the cops? Fuck, Nych." She sighed, taking a deep breath to steady herself and simmer down the anger boiling in her chest. She was quick to fight, and often threw punches without thinking of the consequences.

  She put her hand to his chin, tilting his head from side to side to check for any injuries. When she found none, she relaxed slightly (aiming for the face was a scummy move, though one she was guilty of) and let out a small noise of disapproval.

  "I'm walking you home." She said after a moment. "If those guys want to fuck with you, then they can get through me. I'll grind their asses to a pulp."

  "No, Willow, I- It's fine. People have very strong opinions about me, and no one really likes me that much. I've gotten used to it, and they don't do much damage anywhere that's noticeable."

  It was at that moment that he lifted his shirt, and oh, those guys were assholes.

  There were bruises lining the entirety of his stomach, as well as right on his kidneys, which could honestly kill someone. He let his shirt fall, and smiled a little smile. "I don't need you to walk me home, it's okay. You have other plans, and I understand."

  He wasn't used to anyone offering him any kind of assistance.

  Her lips parted in shock, and she stared at his stomach for a second or two before she looked up at him. "No, Nych. It's not okay." Her hand moved down to take his, and she gave it a squeeze and stared into his eyes to hold his attention. Her eyes were piercing, but… Soft. She seemed genuinely worried for him. "Those are serious bruises. I've been in a lot of fights, but I've never had anything that bad before. That's not okay."

  She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and steadying herself.

  "From now on." She opened them again, and released his hand. "If anyone gives you trouble, you tell me. And I'm walking you home tonight. And the next night, too. Until those dickheads get it in their head to leave you alone."

  His eyes flicked around the hallway, and when he found it empty besides the two of them, he sighed.

  "Why do you care?"

  Damn. That wasn't a direction anyone expected that to go.

  "Why don't you care about being seen with me? You must have heard all of the things going around about me. Hell, I've heard before that I've killed a man, which was definitely a surprise from my perspective. So why don’t you care?"

  He stared her down, his arms instinctively wrapping around his bruised stomach.

  "Why do you care what happens to me, Willow Grace? I'm just another kid in your class."

  She hesitated, not really expecting that kind of response from him. "No, you listen to me." She narrowed her eyes somewhat, shaking her head. "Of course I care! I'm not some heartless bitch, you know. You're cool, Nych. You cured malaria and can control thousands of volts of electricity at once. That is so God damned amazing, you know that, right?"

  This wasn’t something he’d heard before.

  "You are literally the most fascinating and interesting person I've ever had the chance to talk to." She simmered down somewhat, withdrawing herself and speaking with more elegance and class. "And even if I didn't like you, it is wrong that these things are happening to you."

  She held out a hand for him. "You're my friend now. I'm going to look after you like I do with Blake and all of my other friends."

  No. No, no, no, no, he wasn't supposed to have friends. Not with his…

  "I… I…" He was absolutely stunned for words. He didn't know what to say. She was a party girl, extremely popular, and well-known throughout the school. She was also brilliant, knew what he was talking about when he spoke about his projects, and was overall just… Fun to be with.

  So why was he hesitating?

  "I… Thank you." He just seemed to… Break. He crumbled in upon himself and took her hand, but didn't cry in the slightest. He let his arm leave his stomach, and it became obvious that guarding it was a very defensive move that he often had to make.

  "But… You really don't have to walk me home. It's nowhere near where you live, I don't want to burden you."

  She squeezed his hand gently, frowning as she looke
d down at him. She knew this was all probably hard for him, and she waited a moment before she spoke again. "No. I'm going to." Her voice was soft and gentle, and she pinned her binder between her thighs to free up her other arm. She gently put her fingers beneath his chin, tilting his head upwards so she could look him in the eye. Her touch was so gentle, so soft…

  "I'm not going to let those guys, or anyone else, hurt you." Her voice was sure. "I can take them. I've won almost every fight I've ever been in. And you're with me now, which means nobody gets to pick on you apart from me." She smirked ever so slightly, before it faded.

  She was going to protect him. Someone like him didn't deserve to be treated like this.

  "I just… I don't want to see anything happen to either of us, and they carry guns, and when it's just me they don't do anything really rough. But if you're there, they'll feel threatened, because there's three of them and there'll be two of us, and that's closer to their numbers, and they'll pull their guns out…"

  He recoiled, shaking slightly as they continued to walk toward the lab.

  "Please, just let me keep doing this. Everything is okay right now."

  Right now.

  "No, Nych. It's not." She pulled her binder into her arms and walked after him. "I refuse to let them keep beating you. They're going to wind up killing you." She sighed, shaking her head as she looked down at the ground. "I'm walking you home tonight. Either that, or you're sleeping on the couch at my place. Blake can suck it up, because I'm not letting them get in another beating on you. No way in hell."

  She was awfully stubborn.

  "We're calling the cops." She said after a moment. "We can make an anonymous report. But we're getting their sorry asses tossed in jail."

  He sighed, looking back to her with pain in his eyes.

  "If I sleep on your couch tonight, will you not call the cops?"

  His plea was so heartfelt, but… Why? Why wouldn't he want the asshats who beat on him to go to jail? Especially since they most likely didn't have permits for the guns they carried, and that was illegal in Canada.

  "I just… Please? I can't explain why, but… Do this for me, alright?"

  She stared at him for a couple seconds, and furrowed her brows. She wasn't sure why he was so defensive about this, but if it was what he wanted, then…