Chapter Eighteen Aaron

Aaron quickly paces back down the hall to his apartment. He knows the others are early, but he still doesn’t want to be the one holding things up. While he’s unlocking his apartment door, he leans back to see if he can get another glance at Valerie in her sexy outfit, she’s so gorgeous. He can still see half of her around the corner while she’s waiting for the elevator to come back up. The whole back of her shirt is open and he can’t look away.

Before he steps inside, she catches him watching her and steps out into the hall. He freezes inside, blushing. He can hear her shuffling down the hallway to his apartment. When she finds him still in the doorway, she puts her hands on him, spreads them across his shoulders, and runs them around the back of his neck, pulling him in up against her.

When he reaches for the light switch, she bats his hand away. He really gets the point when she wraps one of her legs around the back of his thighs and presses her pelvis against his. Throwing all prudence out the window, he grabs ahold of her ass with his hands, almost lifting her up off the floor. By the sound of her breath, it was the right move to make.

Their tongues grab ahold of each other and lock the two of them in some kind of spontaneous crazed lust. Every bit wanting to take her in the back room and throw her down on his bed, he still has enough sense to not get carried away. They simply don’t have the time. He loosens his posture a little bit and slows them down to a still wanton, but moderated exchange of pent up desire. Before completely ruining her lipstick, she releases her hold on him and drops back down on both feet.

“Now hurry up and get dressed. I’ve brought someone important for you to meet.”

Since she told him to hurry up, he takes the opportunity to take his shirt off in front of her. By the time he makes it through the bedroom door, he has his belt off too. He knows she’s still watching. He’d be able to hear her if she moved even an inch.

“Is it from someone from work?” She doesn’t answer. He doesn’t want to give himself away either, so he doesn’t ask again.

In the elevator, Five and Mikel are standing in the back, facing straight forward, while Clarice is at the front, watching the console. She notices that Valerie hasn’t called the elevator back upstairs herself, so she’s waiting to send it to the sixth floor as soon as they get off on the second.

Mikel is looking down at Five out of the corner of his eye. He’s thinking of testing her, but does not want to risk causing a scene in front of Clarice. It’s difficult for him to simply let her stand there like all of her troubles are simply over now, cause they aren’t. If there’s anything he can do to ruin her night, he’s gonna try it.

He can’t believe Valerie made a robot that looks like her own sister, and then dresses it up in her clothes too. It’s like some kind of sick surrogate or something. It wouldn’t surprise him if she coos to the thing by Clarice’s name in private. He won’t stand for it. All he can think of is grabbing Five’s ass and squeezing it real hard while Clarice isn’t looking. The damn thing is a piece of equipment and it needs to be reminded of that. He’s pretty sure that wouldn’t even mean anything to the dumb robot, but it would be fun finding out.

He doesn’t really know what Ray did to get his arm broken, but it makes him wonder if it might’ve been something similar. He did mention doing something lude back at the bar. He quietly snickers while remembering what Ray said. That would teach it. He grumpily admits to himself that doing anything physical would not be worth ruining the night over. He certainly doesn’t want Clarice to catch him doing something like that on top of possibly getting hospitalized. Maybe he might get away with saying he accidentally mixed the two of them up. He’ll have to get drunk first.

The whole situation aggravates the hell out of him, having the fucking robot standing there alongside him like he’s been neutered. It’s like it’s mocking him with its natural little smile. He hates it. He imagines himself having a lighter and managing to catch Five’s clothes on fire without anyone noticing. He smiles as he thinks of her running out across the floor, engulfed in flames. She’d burn like a lamp.

When the doors open, Clarice leads them past the bar and into to the back corner of the lounge where they usually sit, in the big wrap around booth. The attendant robot, whom they call Les, promptly comes over and asks what it can get them. Clarice asks for two pomegranate martinis to start with. It’s her and Valerie’s traditional starter, while Mikel typically asks for a whiskey sour. Without Valerie there to tell her, Five waffles on what she can have, so he interrupts her.

“The little lady will have a tall glass of hot piss, if you have any.”

Clarice jabs him in the ribs with her small pointy elbow, and not nicely. “There’ll be no more of that, thank you.” She pretends to not notice him still chuckling as he paws at his side.

Five is a little bit shaken by the way he’s still trying to treat her, but she refuses to show it. She looks him in the eyes, considering what to say to him. She wants to ask him how Ray is doing, but she doesn’t. she knows her voice will be shaky. “I’ll just have a glass of water, with ice please.”

Clarice is a little bit surprised with Five’s resolve. Valerie had not said much about her projects, but she can see that this one is clearly quite something. “Oh, and could you put it in a pretty glass for her please Les. Thank you.” She waits for Les to leave before starting up conversation with her.

“So you drink Water? Sorry if I’m being intrusive. I’m just curious.”

“It’s ok. But yes, I can drink water, or even a number of things actually. I kind of have a physiology all of my own. The water mostly just bathes my heat exchanger, but it also does things like wet my eyes and mouth.” She leans forward so that she can see her eyes more closely. I even breathe air like you do, for my battery.

“Wow. You know, for a second, when I first saw you, I though Valeire had found some kind of long lost twin of mine or something, but then I remembered her saying that we looked alike, it’s incredible. I can’t tell the difference. You look so perfect.”

Mikel takes advantage of the topic to tease her again. “Yep, they can even cry too. Does it all the damn time too, when it suits er.”

He means to remind Five of her friend, and it does kick her down pretty hard. It takes her a while before she can look up from the table again. She won’t cry in front of him. She won’t even look at him now. Clarice is nice though, like Aaron, and she wants her to be her friend too.

“I like to eat the ice too, cause then I can do that while other people are eating. Then I don’t have to just sit and watch. It’s weird.”

Clarice reaches across the table to hold her hand for a moment and gives her a comforting smile. She can tell Five is a little down. Mikel takes the hint to not cause any more disruptions. When the robot comes back with their drinks, he remembers what Aaron had ordered last time. He goes ahead and requests a long island for him. If he’s going to be forced to listen to Five yammer on all night, he’s gonna get blasted, and he’s not going to do it alone either.

By the looks of what Valerie is wearing, Aaron knows he’s going to have to step it up this time, at least as well as he can. Trying to hurry along, he yanks his shoes and pants off and starts snatching things out of his closet. He lays a few random items on his bed. Starting with a sports jacket, he works his way down. It’s a tan one that came with a vest. He tosses the vest aside and holds the jacket out at arm’s length, to make sure it’s in good order. He ironed it the last time he hung it up over a year ago, and it still looks pretty straight.

Underneath, he settles on a nice white button up shirt, so he can match with Valerie a little. It’s not a formal dress shirt, but it’s at least stylish. He leaves the top two buttons undone, for a more casual look. His newest pair of dark blue jeans are really his only option for going with the jacket. All his pairs of slacks are a little sad from work.

The only shoes he really has that’ll go with any of it are his leather derby boots. He’d made himself a special heavy leather belt for dressing up as well, sadly, he hasn’t had the opportunity to wear it much yet. The buckle is made out of a rectangular pice of salvaged tantalum from the robot that Runner’s brain came from.

He grabs his shoes, and takes them over to the edge of the bed to put them on. Out of his peripheral vision, he notices some movement in the other room. It’s Valerie, she’s been stretched out on his couch watching him the whole time. He hadn’t noticed her there in the dark, resting her chin on her crossed wrists. He forgot that she hadn’t left.

He tries to hide his pleased smirk while tying up one of his boots. When he looks up for her again. She’s standing in the bedroom doorway, leaning her shoulder against the side jamb. She looks so damn hot with one arm reaching up to the top of the frame. He wonders if she’s intentionally posing in such a sexy way, or if she’s just naturally so alluring. He can feel his heart rate increase during each and every dirty thought that crosses his mind.

Trying to keep himself from getting too excited, he bends back over to lace up his other boot. By the way she was looking at him, he half expects her to jump on top of him at any moment. He can feel the heat coming up out of the collar of his shirt already. When she steps over to him, he holds his breath.

While he slowly looks up, she moves in even closer, straddling one of his knees between hers. While undoing another button on his shirt, she asks him if he has everything he needs. He so badly wants to answer with something that’ll get her to lift her skirt up, but he doesn’t. He’s never been that guy. He thinks about baseball for a moment, before standing up and taking her hand.

Neither of them bother saying much to one another on their way to the elevator. Their bodies have said enough already. Surely at the very next chance they have to be alone, things are going to get down-right out of hand. When the elevator doors open, she spins around and pulls him in with her by the waist of his pants.

On the second floor, he spots the others in the back and takes Valerie’s hand in his on their way over. Clarice is giving them a look, as if she knows what they were up to. He’s smart enough to not wipe at his mouth though. There’s no way he has lipstick on his face. Valerie checks herself with a small makeup mirror really quick and gives him a glance too, just to be sure. By the looks of it, she must’ve learned how to hold that straight face of hers from having Clarice for a sister.

The serving robot sets one last drink on the table and then Mikel slides it over to him when he moves for Five’s side of the booth. The two of them look at one another with big smiles that they can hardly disguise as only being cordial. He’s impressed with her for not using his name, even now that he’s standing in front of her.

He’ll be looking for the right moment to let Valerie know they’ve previously met, so that the pressure is not hanging over Five any longer. When Valerie introduces them to one another, they shake hands with big smiles. He winks at her, not caring if Valerie notices him do it.

“It’s a pleasure having you here tonight Five. By any chance, are you related to these two? You look like you might be. The three of you are all quite beautiful.”

Five’s smile is ridiculous and she can hardly sit still with happiness. “No… I’m not, but I would like to think of them as my sisters.” Mikel’s eye rolling has no effect on her happiness this time.

It is obvious Valerie thinks there’s something amiss now. When she looks at him, her eyes flick open only a noticeable amount more, and her lips are pressed together. He doesn’t mean to intentionally keep secrets from her, but she’s the one who started the whole non-disclosure mess. He’ll fess up to it all soon enough anyway. She turns from him and immediately addresses Five, to get things rolling.

“Five, tell us what you think of Welan city so far, since you’ve been out on the town for almost a week by now.” She avoids acknowledging that she’s a robot who’s been held inside of Werker her whole life. She can’t just assume Aaron knows, and he’s at least pretending not to.

“Well, I suppose I should start with how much bigger the city is than I could’ve ever imagined. It was frightening at first. When I grasped how big the world really is, I suppose I ended up feeling quite alone.”

Clarice was not expecting her story to start out on a sad note. “What do you mean alone, you had Valerie, and Mikel? Don’t you…” When she sees how Five looks at Mikel, it dawns on her that things might not have been so campy between them. She’s caught off guard by where things are tuning to. By the look of the others, things have gotten real all of a sudden.

“My friend, or my sister, I could say, who I was brought up with, was gunned down and thrown in the garbage last week. And then, after that… I was sent out on my own too, like one of those people you call rats.” She glares at Mikel and then watches it dawn on Clarice what part he and Ray had to play in it all. “Eventually I built up the courage to reach out to someone. I’d watched them for a while first, and felt that they were the kind of person I might be able to trust, like Valerie.”

“Who’d you meet Five?” Valerie presses the question with a flat tone, expecting the truth from her this time.

She avoids looking directly at Aaron, trying to not give him away. She promised to not, even if Valerie gets upset with her. She doesn’t have to answer to her anymore. “When I met him, he was working with a bunch of other robots. Heck, he was even riding one around on the street. He looked like he’d know exactly what was going on.” She glances over at Aaron, getting a nod that it’s ok to say now. “It was Aaron.”

Valerie pretty much knew, but it was just too much of a coincidence. “Son of a bitch. I knew you’d get nosy Aaron.”

He immediately holds his hands up, in denial. “Nope. No I did not. She came and found me, I swear it. I knew who she was, but I respected your position on this. I did not seek her out.”

Five remembers jumping off the roof to get away from him the first time. She was so skittish. “He’s telling the truth.” She looks at Mikel this time, then back to Valerie. “Turns out, it’s a small world after all. Aaron told me what happened to Five-One, what he saw. Turns out, some people are just plain bad.”

Mikel won’t take this bulshit any longer. She’s the fucking monster, not him. The next time they’re alone, he’s going to stomp her pretty little face right off her skull. Maybe the others will remember what she is underneath then.

“Five-One was nuts, and fucking dangerous! Cry me a fake little river you plastic brat! We put er down by protocol.” When his outburst is over, he looks around at all the disappointed faces at the table. He’s still defiant. “You watch your back around this one. She’s no sheep under there.” He pulls at his own face, mocking her, as if it were fake too.

Five’s eyes well up and her fists clench. She wants to smack the smug look right off his face. She has to fight every muscle in her body to stay put. Instead, she decides to prod at him, like he does everyone else.

“So after I chose my place in this world, I went back to Werker, to face my judgement.” She sits back and folds her arms. “That’s when I went ahead and broke Ray’s arm in half.” Sher stares Mikel down this time. “Do not attempt to take my life again.”

Everyone’s jaws have dropped at her drawing such a line in the sand. Aaron, trying to hold in a laugh, ends up blowing half a mouthful of drink back into his glass. Hoping he didn’t overstep on such a touchy subject, he looks over at Mikel, ready to apologize. Surprisingly he has a rather stunned look on his face too. Having been spanked, he can only cross his arms in amusement.

Aaron hopes to god Five doesn’t say anything about who told her to defend herself like that. He’s so proud of her for standing her ground like she did though, and with such spunk too. Clarice is just about lost as to what’s going on between all of them. She puts both palms on the table and leans in to peer at Five, as if she’s second guessing whether she’s actually a robot or not.

“Now wait a minute. Forgive me if I’m a little uncultured in all this, but what kind of robot are you exactly?” She turns her attention to Valerie, who she expects to reprimand Five’s behavior. “I can see that she was clearly made to assimilate, but I hope you didn’t program her to behave like…”

Valerie lifts her eyebrows. “Like a real person, like the way we act?” She looks over at Mikel and cocks her head. He knows what she means. “The Five-Series are not what ny of you think they are. They were not made to do our bidding.” She looks down at her glass, obviously in deep contemplation. She still hasn’t really accepted the truth of it herself yet.

“Well?” Clarice is not satisfied.

Aaron looks at her as well, having thought that the secrecy between them was finally over with. She completely dodges answering what both he and Clarice are now very fixated by. She merely looks up at him and puts her hand on his. “Aaron, I’m really glad it was you that she met. She’s been through a lot, and you must’ve been a true friend to her when she needed it the most.”

“To be honest, I thought it was really something, to find out that you were the Dr. Morgan she revered so much. You’ve always been her light in the darkness. The last thing she ever wanted to do was go back to Werker, but she did it for you.”

If Mikel weren’t there to keep the mood resentful, he figures she would surely have been tearing up by now. He can see that she truly does love Five and it’s wonderful to see it. He turns his hand over and holds onto hers while at the same time reaching around Five’s shoulders and pulling her into a side-long hug.

With them being all emotional, even Mikel seem to soften up by some small degree. Even though he kind of is, no one singles him out as being the bad guy, and that helps in not making him especially resentful of Five. He looks to almost be at the point of apologizing, but he surely won’t.

He grew up with people just like Mikel, and knows the type well enough. That deep-rooted hate of robots is not something that he’ll probably ever get over. He can only pity the man for it. Sometimes he wonders how his own life would’ve turned out to be like if he hadn’t been sent away from his own community. He unnoticeably shakes his head in consideration that he could’ve turned out just like Mikel.

When they finish their third round of drinks, he gets up and stretches out, prompting everyone else to get up as well. They’ve got a good pre-funk going and are ready to move on. Valerie is still quite emotional and has to give Five a big hug as soon as they’re all slid out of the booth. Wary of Mikel’s true disposition, he keeps an eye on him, trying to get a read on who he really is. It’s easy enough to see there’s bad blood between him and Five, and the attention she’s getting is only making it worse.

They planned to move on to another place for more drinks, but hadn’t discussed where yet. Before Clarice even speaks, Valerie murmurs to him where she knows damn well her sister will want to go. He knows the place. It’s a bit louder than either of them would prefer, and kind of a meat market, but is still quite a place. It’d be something for Five to experience. Clarice is already starting to dance in circles just thinking of it.

“Let’s go to Saturn!”

Mikel slaps his hand on his face immediately. It makes for a good laugh. He’s way too much of a honkie for such a place, but there’s no way he’ll say no to Clarice. Especially after he’s been an ass so far. She grabs Five’s wrist and raises it up in the air.

“Who wants to be the designated driver! We’re gonna get so shitty tonight!”

Aaron looks sympathetically at Five. She looks a little bit bewildered. For one, she’s perplexed by what Clarice is doing, and getting shitty probably doesn’t sound all that good to her, not knowing any better. He puts his hand on her shoulder and gives her an encouraging nod.

“It’ll be fun Five, I promise. And, guess what? I’ll teach you how to drive. How about that?” That perks her up.

They all head to the elevator and straight down to the garage. Even though they can all fit in Mikel’s big truck, they decide to take Clarice’s small electric sedan. It’ll be a better car for Five to learn on. Mikel, Clarice, and Valerie all cram into the back while he sits up front with her.

By the time they get into downtown, Five is already doing a great job of driving. He only has to explain the rules of the road to her once, and she gets it. She’s staying calm and paying attention to instruction well. He can tell that she’s taking her role very seriously, constantly checking her mirrors for other cars around her, and all while keeping up on what they are talking about in the back. As soon as the towering night club comes into sight, he points it out to her, explaining where she’ll need to go to park. The closer they get to the shimmering building, the more excited she gets.

Saturn is one of the biggest clubs on the entire continent. It has become one of the more well-known tourist attractions of Welan city. The place is massive, having four separate suspended dance floors, all seeming to float out in the middle of six different balconies that completely surround them. Every floor has its own outer-space themed bar on it. The entire place is a wild cosmic world of colorful lights in a polished black background. It never seems to matter if it’s Monday night or Friday night, the place is always packed with locals and tourists. It’s pretty much a non-stop metal concert every day of the week. The only thing that worries him is what she might see in there. It’s really a place for the jaded.

So that the others don’t hear him. He turns the music up a little louder, keeps his voice low, and leans in toward her. He doesn’t want to sound like he disapproves. “Five, this place we’re going to, it might be… misleading.”

“I’m not sure what you mean? What’s in there? Is it bad?” Simply by the sound of his voice, she can tell what he’s getting at.

He looks behind himself to see if any of the others heard her, luckily they didn’t. “This place is not where you’ll see people, or the use of robots, being represented in the best light. Remember how there are robotic women, like you, but not really like you?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok… so they are going to be naked and… doing things without knowing any better. There is going to be a lot of sexuality there. I just don’t want you to feel that it’s normal behavior, cause it’s not.”

“K, like you said, they’re just doing what they’ve been told. It’s not like they know.

“Right, but I just don’t want you to think that people do this with robots all the time. Things are gonna be kind of different here.”

“It’s not just gonna be robots doing things either is it.” She says it for him, knowing where he is going with things.

He sighs. “Right, so you’ll probably be seeing some different things tonight. Remember how I explained to you that you were beautiful, and what that meant? Well, here, you will see the effects of desire on people, but in a much bigger way.”

Her eyebrows turn down, but not in a disgruntled way. “I think I understand.” She has somewhat of an idea what he’s talking about, and it makes her a little nervous. For some reason, it makes her think of Five-One again, and how they felt connected to one another. She wishes they could get through all of this together.

After finding a spot in the almost completely full parkade, they all take the skywalk across to the much showier third level entrance. The tall prism shaped black-glass building has a holograph of rings encircling it, like the planet Saturn. The rings don’t circle it horizontally, but do so vertically, all the way over the top of the building. It can be seen from miles away.

One of the fun parts about the place is walking through the belt of light on the way into the building. With Valerie and Clarice in the lead, the bouncers wave their whole group through without looking at anyone’s ID’s. On their way through the entrance, Clarice mentions that she reserved a spot for them in the deep-space lounge on the fourth floor. When they are inside, she points up to it and continues leading them up the broad curving stairs going around and up to each level.

While they walk around the fourth floor balcony, even he has a hard time keeping his eyes from wandering where they shouldn’t be going. Not only are there completely naked and real looking robots on the main stages, but there are numerous and also nearly naked people amongst them too. Many of them have glowing paint markings all over themselves and are clearly tripping out. He has forgotten just how raw the place can be.

Five is looking back and forth between him and the dancers with wide eyes. The scene is still a bit much, even after he warned her. Something about it has unleashed another spell of feelings in her. It’s a strange and deep wanting that she could not have expected. It is not quite envy, but she finds herself desiring what they have. It is just like he said with people, but she doesn’t understand how it could be happening to her. She feels herself wanting to touch the skin and feel the flesh of bodies. She dreads that there is something absurdly wrong with herself and she will not dare ask, not this time.

The music is too loud for her to hear anything Aaron is saying. All she can do is shrug with her palms facing up. Right now, she doesn’t care if her mind is shorting out or what. She is pretty sure that he want she is feeling is probably going to consume her by the end of the night, but she has no intentions of holding it back. She has to have it, and in a bad way.

The quieter personal lounge areas like the one Clarice reserved, are all neatly nestled inside of large individual glass domes. They are dimly lit, plush, and private. The opening rims of the glass orbs emit vibrant colored light collected from all around them. As soon as they walk in through the small entrance to theirs, the noise level drops considerably. The moment they are all seated in the full-circle couch area, two alluring AMF robots join them. One is a fairly new model, while the other is a series older.

The one with darker, bluish-green, and sparkly skin is wearing only a pair of black panties. It’s breasts are quite a bit larger than her own and are absolutely distracting. The other, which is a little less realistic, is wearing some kind of a glossy black skin tight body suit. The one in black takes their drink orders and the other offers to dance for them up on the center table, if they would like.

Five is absolutely enthralled. She looks the robot’s glossy metallic skinned body up and down and even absent-mindedly slides her hand down the back of its thigh when it walks past her. “I want to see her dance!”

Mikel does not want anything to do with it and sternly objects. “No, but thank you. We will pass this time. These girls here will have our full attention for the rest of the night.”

For once, Aaron can agree with the man. If he were not here with Valerie, he might have partaken, but not this time. When Five looks at him with objection, expecting him to reconsider for her, he leans over to her and explains.

“It wouldn’t be proper to have a woman dance for us while we have our girlfriends with us.”

“Why not, look at her, she is beautiful right?”

“Yes she is Five…” He looks at her questionably, before remembering that she is not human, no matter how convincing her appearance is. “I would not have a female robot entertain us in front of Valerie and Clarice for the same reason they would not have a male robot dance in front of Mikel and myself.” He squints at her, wondering if she knows the difference. He gets the feeling that she very well might.

Five’s eyes double in size again. “We can get a male robot!”

Mikel overhears her and sits up straight. “Please god no.”

He speaks directly into her ear this time. “Men, such as Mikel and I, are the opposite of attracted to other men. The same for Valerie and Clarice with other women. That’s why we didn’t have mega-tits over there dance in front of them. I’ll try to explain it better some other time.”

Once their drinks are brought in, Valerie cues Five into elaborating more on her time outside of Werker. He is definitely interested in that. He’s been looking forward to hearing her side of the altercation with Ray all damn night it seems. As soon as Five mentions his Runner though, the topic is completely derailed. Everyone’s attention shifts towards his machine and what all he has done to it.

He has always intended on keeping the modifications rather secretive, being that they are illegal, but he feels comfortable enough with them to say. It’s really quite a passion of his, so he is at least enthusiastic to chat about it. The only thing that makes him apprehensive is talking about it in front of Mikel. After how he has treated Five and her friend, he doesn’t feel like he can really trust him. The man has no personal reasons to tattle on him, but still.

After they’ve all had plenty more to drink over a few hours, they are a bit more boisterous and even almost give in to letting Five have the robot dance for her. Instead, they all go down to the second level platform to have a go at it themselves. It’s the most popular floor because it’s the biggest one, and there are more waterfalls of sparkling light flowing from the top ones down onto it. The top floor is just as spectacular, but it’s much more of a younger scene, not quite for them.

This is certainly not the first time he’s been on these dance floors, but it has been quite a while. He imagines looking at it from Five’s perspective. With her there, he really sees just how truly venereal everything is. It’s not that he is pious himself by any means, but he can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for her, as a friend, or almost even a daughter. She is so innocent, and he couldn’t stomach anything happening to her.

He can’t believe, of all the places his life could have led him, he is there with Valerie. She is so damn bewitching, he can hardly accept the reality of it. Somehow, while amongst all the rampant sexual wildness of the place, the two of them are able to keep themselves from getting carried away with themselves in front of the others. There is a laser focus between them as they soak up one another’s body language. Even amongst the masses of others, they are seemingly alone in the void of their connection.

It’s not another hour before they are letting go of their inhibitions and feeling each other up in ways that could only be condoned in such a place. Carnal thoughts that he has never before considered are stampeding through his mind right now. As if she can see those desires right through his eyes, she presses her body against his in every lustful way she can. At one point, he even finds himself tasting the sweat on her neck. It is almost as if she has drugged him and taken over control.

Being the only one in the group that is single, Five has no problem accumulating a plethora of men around her, none whom have any clue she is not human. Even other women vying for her start flocking about. She is all over the map, attracting everything living and mechanical to her. She quickly picks up on how the other female robots have been dancing. The way she runs her hands up and down her body is even able to distract him from Valerie a few times, and she notices.

The two of them keep an eye on her out of the corners of their eyes while they dance. Five is down low again, straightening back up with her hands grasping along the insides of her legs from her ankles all the way up to her neck. Her back is arched, her chest is out, and her chin is up. Each time the lights flash, it’s like is being posed in stop-motion. When she grasps at her breasts this time, Valerie bites his ear to remind him of where he should be looking. She discreetly presses her hand against his crotch and promises him things.

Inevitably, two guys end up getting into a territorial altercation and nearly knock Five over. Before he and Valerie can intervene, Five takes care of it on her own. Within one flash of the light, she has both of them on the ground. Completely embarrassed, they quickly make themselves scarce. It is other women and robots that she focusses her attention on from there on. He can tell she is enjoying herself in ways that he couldn’t have expected she could, but she remains responsible with her curiosities. She keeps anyone from getting too much of a feel of her, or taking too much of one herself.

After two-o-clock comes and goes, Mikel and Clarice are surprisingly the first ones to call it quits. At the beginning of the night, Valerie had already told him that she was going to spend the night with her sister. Mikel apparently also has plans of his own to go and check on Ray in the morning. Their purses and his jacket are all still up in their private booth, so they meet back up there. While they all get ready to leave, Valerie leans in close to him to discuss the nights sleeping arrangements.

“I know I said that I was going to stay with Clarice tonight, but… I would feel bad ditching out on her after begging her to stay with me.”

Her lips are so close to his face that he can feel her hot breath on his face. “Hey, it’s alright. It’d be nice of you to spend some time with her while you can. We’ve got plenty of time to make up for it. I promise.”

“What are we going to do with Five, I can’t take her back to Werker.”

“Well, I was going to head to the woods tomorrow. I was kind of hoping I could take her along, to show her the real world, outside of this place. Any chance you would come along?” He scratches at the back of his neck, hoping she might consider it.

“Really? You want to take Five with you?” Her voice is mildly condescending, but noticeable.

He knows what she means. Five is a Werker prototype, not his pal. “I know, I know. I just… she is a real friend Valerie, I can’t go back on that.”

“I know. It’s just that I was gonna show her around the city tomorrow. I wanted to show her the metropolis, to impress her.”

“Hmm.” He holds his chin for a second. “How about we let her pick, kind of a little wager?”

“Ok, I’ll bite. We’ll see who she wants to spend the night with. If she follows me down my end of the hall, the city, you, the forest.”

“Ok, but no saying anything to her. It’s gonna be weird, but she’ll have to choose one or the other.”

“Deal.”

After Five drives them all back to the apartment complex, the four of them head to the elevator while Mikel heads to his own truck still parked in the garage. When the elevator doors open on the sixth floor, he gives Valerie a kiss good night. They confidently head in opposite directions down the hall at the same time, and without saying anything to Five, as agreed.

Five stands alone in the hall for a moment, waiting for someone to instruct her. Neither of them even so much as look back at her. After looking both ways a few times, she ultimately trots down the hall after Aaron. At his door, she looks down the hall to Valerie to see if she will even look her way, but she doesn’t. Only when Valerie reaches her own apartment door with Clarice does she glance back. She bids them good night and steps through her door.

He invites Five in and makes a comfortable place for her to stay on his couch. “Valerie thought it would be nice for the two of us to catch up. She didn’t want you to feel left out while she spends some time with with her sister. Since I don’t suspect you really sleep at all, and I kind of need to tonight, I can leave the television on for you, if you’d like.”

“No, I don’t really want the TV on. Can I leave the blinds open? I can actually sleep if I want, but only if I don’t have anything to think about.”

He can tell she’s got a lot to think about. She's a little fidgety and sad again. “I’ll just plug in over at the desk and... I’ll be fine.”

“Alright. Well, if you still need to talk Five, I’m here for you.”

He wishes he could just sit with her all night and try to make her feel better, but it’s not the time for that. She looks like she could use some time alone. If he could only tell her that time would help, but for her, he's pretty sure it won’t.

Before going to bed, he stands a ways back in the darkness of his bedroom doorway watching her. She just stands at the window, staring down at the street. When she reaches up to wipe her face, it’s about all he can take. He finally lays down to stare at the ceiling wishing he could do something for her. He has finally found the one person that he has needed his whole life and yet Five has lost hers.