Humans are kind of scary when they sleep. Sure I’ve seen everyone sleep before, but I’ve never actually paid close attention to them. Cassie is breathing so slowly that I’m genuinely worried she’s not getting enough oxygen sometimes. I have to wait a few tense seconds before seeing the subtle rise and fall of her bed sheet just to make sure she’s still breathing.

  The worst part is that she tosses and turns all night. It surprises me every time, I think she’s finally woken up, but no, she just settles back into a new position. How can anyone feel refreshed when they move so much at night?

  She does look incredibly peaceful in between the scares though. I never realized how much tension lives in her face until I can compare it with her completely rexed self.

  I wonder if I would look the same? How much worry do I carry through every moment of my life? Is it reflected on my face? Would I look peaceful if I could sleep, or if I was dead? I’d probably just look like a no-longer-animated mannequin. Maybe that tension is proof of my sentience, and I should be gd I carry it through my life.

  My thoughts are interrupted by Cassie shifting once again. I should probably end that line of thinking while I still can. There’s no telling where it would lead, but I can guarantee it’s nowhere good.

  I try to return to my book, but Cassie’s shifting becomes more frequent. She turns constantly, as if every position she finds herself in is uncomfortable. Should I wake her? Ivy never did this, but she’s probably not an average sleeper, from what I remember she never once moved. Maybe humans just do this? I don’t know.

  Her shifting only gets worse, culminating in her thrashing against her bnket and throwing it off her. Her face is dotted with sweat and tears run down her face. That’s definitely not normal.

  “Cassie?” I whisper quietly. It’s probably better to gently bring her out of whatever nightmare she’s in.

  Of course, my gentle word has no effect. Maybe I should reach out and pull her ear like Corax does for me? No, that’s maybe the dumbest thought I’ve ever had.

  “Cassie?” I say a little louder, still to no response. Her thrashing doesn’t settle down even the smallest amount.

  I reach out and y my hand on her shoulder. Her eyes fly open, filled with panic and fear. She draws her knife and starts to ssh wildly at me.

  I remove all limits on my mind, and time slows as I trace the path of the knife. I’m not going to be fast enough to stop it, but I can make sure it doesn’t do much damage. I move my torso a fraction of an inch to ensure it’ll impact the direct center of one of my skin ptes. Based on the speed and the fact she’s using her organic hand, it shouldn’t have enough force to make it through the aluminum base of the pte. All that’s left to do is turn off the nerves around the impact site and wait.

  I watch it tear through my shirt, Kara’s st gift. It carves through the thin silicone covering that is my skin, and leaves a small groove embedded in the aluminum.

  She drops the knife just after impact, and it buries itself in one of the endless pillows. Far too many emotions flood her face for me to tell what any of them are, although I think I can guess a few.

  She grabs two handfuls of my shirt and hides her face in my stomach. She begins to bawl a horrible primal cry. It’s so loud I’d be amazed if Vince and Ivy don’t wake up from it.

  “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” She begins to repeat the same apologies through shuddering breaths. Only about half of her words are even understandable.

  “It’s ok.” I pull her closer and wrap my arms around her, letting her bury her face in my shoulder. It helped so much when she did it for me, it’s the least I can do. “You didn’t hurt me.” I tentatively reactivate the nerves beneath the wound. They have a small amount of pressure on them, but it’s easy to recalibrate and account for it. “You didn’t even do any damage.”

  Though her crying doesn’t slow, she does let her hand drift down my body towards the wound. She reaches through the broken shirt and her hand recoils when she feels the gash in my skin.

  “I’m so sorry.” She begins to apologize even harder.

  “Cassie, it’s ok.” I reassure her. “You didn’t damage any of my internals. It’s no worse than a small scratch.”

  She tilts her head to the side and brings her fingers up in front of her eyes, I think to check for blood. She runs her thumb across her fingertips, as if she’s confirming what her eyes are seeing is correct. Or maybe she can’t see through the tears in her eyes. She pulls back just an inch to gnce at the gash through my shirt. Her hands still clutch my shirt tightly, as if she’s afraid I might vanish at any moment.

  She gives a small, shaky nod, apparently satisfied with whatever she was looking for. Her head returns to my shoulder. Although her tears and apologies continue to rain down on me, they begin to slow.

  I continue to whisper reassurances to her the whole time. It takes over 15 minutes for her to recover her composure.

  “Sorry.” She says with something approaching her normal voice. She grabs a bnket to wipe away a mixture of tears, sweat, and snot. My shirt is covered in a lot of fluids, but I don’t really care. I can wash it ter.

  “It’s ok.” I say one st time. “Was that a nightmare?”

  Cassie nods.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.

  “I’d rather take a shower.” She picks at the drenched shirt pstered to her body. “You should get one too.”

  “I’ve never had one before.” I know the basics, but a step by step manual wasn’t high on Finn’s priority to put in my head. Although I guess I don’t have to worry about bacteria, there’s no need to figure out how to use soap. I can probably just stand under the water for a little bit.

  “Fix that.” She stands up and heads to the door. Her entire half of the bed is damp. That’s a lot of water for her to lose, she really needs to replenish that.

  Once I hear the water begin to run I stand up and head into the living room alone. Corax remains resting in his nest. Nobody else is out here, maybe Ivy and Vince did sleep through it. Or maybe Ivy could hear our conversation and thought that I had it under control.

  I hit the button on the intercom by the front door.

  “How can I help you?” Even this early in the morning, the voice that comes through is awake and alert.

  “I’d like to order room service.” I respond.

  “Certainly, how can I help you?”

  “Can you please bring up a gallon of water and something salty and simple.” Sweating releases salt, she’s going to need to replenish that too.

  “Of course, water and crackers will be delivered in just a few moments. Do you need anything else?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Sure enough, almost exactly 60 seconds ter a quiet knock comes from the front door. I open the door to an organic human holding a tray. He holds it out to me and gives a deep bow.

  “Thank you.” I say as I take the ptter.

  “Of course.” He reaches in and closes the door for me without standing up.

  I’d be so much more comfortable if they just acted like normal humans. I don’t need, or want anyone to close the door for me.

  I pce the tray on the table and remove the cover. Close to a hundred crackers have been artfully id out on a pte, along with a few rge gsses of water. I set them out on the table and head towards the bathroom door.

  “Hey Cassie? I-”

  “I heard.” She cuts me off. “Thanks.” She adds barely loud enough to hear over the water.

  Would she be more comfortable if she thinks I didn’t hear that? Maybe. I head back to my room and return to my book.

  Only a few minutes ter Cassie knocks on my door once again. I open it. She’s put on some new comfortable clothes.

  “What are you still doing in here?” She asks, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

  “Reading?” Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to try to shower as soon as she got out? Or should I have waited in the living room for her to eat?

  “It’s disgusting in here.” She says. “You can read in my room, if you want. After you get clean.” Whatever confidence she had disappears right at the end.

  “Ok, I guess.” It’s not like I really mind it. Sure the moisture on my chest is a little annoying, but it’s not that bad. I grab my backpack of books and Corax flies to my shoulder.

  “And toss your clothes out the door when you shower, they need washed.” With that she turns towards the table full of food.

  If it’ll make her feel better, I can do that. The cut in my skin makes things a little awkward, if water gets between the skin and aluminum yers it’s never going to dry.

  “Do you have any tape?” I ask after her.

  “What do you? Ah, right.” She heads into her room, and only a few seconds ter, tosses a roll of tape to me.

  “Thank you.”

  Corax flies to the table with Cassie before I can enter the bathroom. His insides are so complex, even the smallest bit of rust could lock up entire parts of his body.

  I peel off my shirt and pants, leave them just outside the door, and close it behind me.

  Now, how do I shower? First things first, I tape my cut skin closed, and reinforce a few of the less perfect seams on my body. Once I’m sure I’m waterproof, I turn on the water as cold as it will go and step into the icy stream.

  I can’t believe how nice this feels. I focus the entirety of my mind on the feeling of water running down my skin and the cold slowly creeping into me. I can run my mind as fast as possible in here and still not even begin to get warm.

  Near limitless processing power is avaible to me, and every thread is dedicated to enjoying this feeling.

  If I spent every moment of the rest of my life in this shower, I think I would finally be happy. That’s a dangerous thought, it’s far too temping to follow through on. Plus using that much water would be incredibly wasteful. I set a five-minute timer in my mind until I force myself to turn off the water.

  As much as I hate to, I follow through on my self imposed limit. If I give myself a single extension I’m just going to keep adding more time. I grab a fluffy towel, do my best to dry off both my skin and hair, and open the door.

  Cassie is still finishing her meal when I step out, with Corax resting on the table. She turns her head towards me and begins to speak.

  “How was-” She coughs a few times as she chokes on a cracker when she sees me. She recovers only a moment ter, before I get the chance to panic. “Put on some clothes.” She turns her head away to hide her red cheeks.

  That’s a weird reaction. I get why humans would react that way to another human, but me? I’m just an AI, and none of the scientists ever did anything like that. My body doesn’t even look all that feminine, Kara couldn’t change that much.

  I put my clothes back on, feeling much more comfortable being covered. How is it possible to have cleaned them that quickly? They even repaired the gash Cassie made, and it’s impossible to see where the repair is. If I hadn’t worn these clothes for 40 years I wouldn’t believe they were mine. They feel exactly right though, just another extension of my body.

  “Come on.” Cassie stands up without looking at me and Corax jumps to her shoulder. She flinches just a bit, but tries not to let it show.

  If they could clean my clothes so quickly, why didn’t Cassie just ask them to clean my sheets? Or even just removed them and let me sit on the empty mattress? I guess it doesn’t matter.

  I follow her into her room and she colpses into bed. Within seconds, she’s cozy under the bnkets, and I sit on the very edge of the bed.

  Her bedroom is nearly identical to mine, except she’s spread a few clothes, books, and tools across every surface in the room.

  “At least get comfortable.” She says with her back to me.

  I pull my legs onto the bed and rest my back against the headboard. Corax sits atop the headboard, just over my shoulder to keep an eye on the both of us.

  “What should I do if you have another nightmare?” I ask. Me being here to wake her up is the only possible reason I can think of for her to ask me to be here.

  “I won’t.” She says confidently. “But if I do, just poke me with a big stick.”

  “Ok.”

  Cassie faces away from me while she falls asleep, and only once her breathing slows does the red leave her cheeks.

  JanePtinum