"The feet are very interestingly designed."
"I think it's meant to be like a cheetah. Their claws stay out to keep traction with the ground when they run. Stops them from slipping."
"Oh! Makes sense. It's cute, to think of it as paws."
I slid my hands under her shirt. She reflexively flinched away from the coldness of my steel nails. Removing my hands as suddenly as if I touched a hot stove, I apologised, feeling the chill of embarrassment surge through me. She shook her head reassuringly. Taking my hand, she placed it back onto her waist, ran her thumb over my knuckles, and relaxed into the touch. "It's alright, Jack. You won't hurt me."
I smiled and lifted her shirt, exposing her stomach. I lowered my head to press my lips to her skin. The cool metal brushed against her, causing her to chuckle and squirm from the tickling sensation. I kissed her a few times before grazing my bared lower teeth across her flesh, biting softly. "I missed you," I confessed, without moving my mouth. The sound came through speakers in my chin - always the case, I had barely functional vocal chords, but the usual instinctive lip-syncing made that pretty inconspicuous. She laughed, "I always forget you can do that. I missed you too - We always do." I heard her breath hitch as I continued to press the steel against her bare skin. I felt the phantom sensation of my throat tightening as if to cry, though I produced no tears.
I propped myself up to look her in the eyes again. After hearing the bed creak a little too perilously under my hand, I reconsidered this arrangement. "Shit, I forgot how dense this thing is. I'm like a tank" I groaned. So much for the intimate moment. "Hold on..." I heaved myself up and I flipped over onto my back, reversing our positions. I made sure to support Rose's body against me the whole way. She yelped and giggled from the swift change in position, now finding herself sitting atop me with her knees either side of my waist.
"It's waterproof, right? Your body, I mean. I don't want to cause any damage..." Her eyes roamed up and down my torso as she spoke, before settling on my lips. Or lip, would be more accurate.
"I don't think you're gonna have much effect on it, Rose." I chuckled. "I'm not so delicate you know. Hey, I'll forward you the bill from the engineering guys if you do break their pretty war machine."
That reassured her somewhat. She gave a quiet scoff in reply before she started to brush her fingertips gently against the carbon steel plates that protected my chest, the twisting strands of my synthetic muscles, and the metal supports, familiarising herself with something she had never seen before.
It was brand new to her, mostly, I had always been fitted with my civilian body (a near-perfect recreation of a human body, save for extra upkeep and makeup) before I took any commercial flights back to New Zealand. It was far too much bother otherwise - not with security, surprisingly, my military clearance took care of that. Frankly, I was just frightening to the public. Or, sometimes, perhaps worse, absolutely fascinating. These reactions weren't exactly something you wanted to deal with when you're only trying to fly home. It took so much effort by a team to refit my combat body that Rose just never got to see it in person. She knew what I looked like, of course, we video-called each other when we could, but otherwise?
A few days ago, I figured the public knowledge of cyborgs had reached a decent level: it was pretty commonplace to see at least a few of us out there now, mechanical forms visible instead of concealed under synthetic skin or clothing. This custom-made skin cost a fortune per square inch due to the high-level craftsmanship required to essentially build a human being from scratch. Although it began to come down in price as the number of cyborgs in society increased, it was certainly a difficult thing to cover financially without the 'benefits' offered by military contracts. That's what kept people on the battlefield. It was used for two reasons: our own comfort, and that of civilians. Some cyborgs were made cyborgs against their will just as I was, they missed their original bodies immensely and wished to 'pass' as a human among others, retaining their old form via cybernetics that looked indistinguishable enough; others simply wished to avoid the looks, questions, and discrimination that a clearly inhuman form attracted in public. I received the go-ahead to catch a flight home in my combat body, and after an uneventful trip I greeted Rose that way. I remember how she, to my delight, almost swooned in the doorway, how she wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me close, greeting me with an almost-whispered, "Hello, handsome."
She caressed my sides, my abdominal muscles, my hips, before meeting my eyes. "How do you feel about the cybernetics? I've never really asked you before."
"You trying to be a therapist on me?"
"No! I'm just curious. You don't have to tell me." she giggled.
"Hmm." I nuzzled against her neck while I considered, "It's just something I needed to get used to. There's no going back after all." I paused for a moment, "...how do you feel about it?"
She leant forward from her position straddling my hips to plant a kiss on my collarbone, or whatever the equivalent was.
"I love you no matter how you look, Jack." She punctuated her sentence with another sincere kiss, this time on the hard load-bearing strand in place of neck muscle, "You're still you, I know your soul's in there. That's the Jack I fell in love with." She returned to her original spot to better look me in the eye, "...besides, to be honest, I... really like you like this."
I quirked an eyebrow light-heartedly, "You do? Having to work in this doesn't make it seem so sexy to me."
"I know that... Come on Jack, let me show you how I feel about you." she ran the tips of her fingers across a slightly marred patch of metal armour, waiting for my response. I let out a content sigh, resigning, and sunk down onto the mattress.
Rose swallowed in anticipation. She took my clawed hand and lifted it up to her lips to kiss each joint softly, trailing more up my forearm, thoroughly appreciating each individual texture of my exoskeleton. With a final squeeze of my hand, she let go, and lowered her head once more. This time electing to drag her teeth and tongue over the various bumps and grooves of my neck. I did have tactile sensation throughout this body, but it was dulled compared to a more human-like form when it came to subtle touches like this. I could feel the varying pressures and tingling that followed her exploration, though, coupled with arousal from the intimate scenario. I let out a wavering exhale, "Oh, Rose..."
Humming quietly in acknowledgement, she moved to brush her lips across my metal jaw. Then down once more to my throat where she began to lick and suck firmly, as if attempting to create a hickey. A sign that she had been there - that I was hers. I heard the faint sound of my internal cooling system kicking in. Rose cupped my exposed jaw, running her thumb across the steel skeleton that composed it. Her thumb ventured higher, tracing the lines where my flesh yielded to machinery. She brought another hand to my face and pressed gently between my real and synthetic teeth, gently coaxing me to open my mouth. I did, gingerly, and she ran the tip of her finger over my lower teeth. It was a strange experience, a little like being at the world's best dentist appointment, but oddly romantic.
Rose looked intensely focused as she advanced, now dancing her fingers across the grooves and hinges in my lower jaw. She opened my mouth a little wider and touched my tongue. It wasn't real anymore, a fabrication of a tongue manufactured in a similar way to the parts of my other body. I could still taste somewhat - I could certainly taste the sharp flavour of hand sanitiser soaked into her skin - but an interesting difference was that I produced considerably less saliva than a normal human being. Certainly helped in this scenario, so I wouldn't be drooling all over her fingers. The situation was odd, undeniably, but it made me feel much closer to her. I felt safe with her, and I knew she felt safe with me. I was showing vulnerability and trust and she the same: I trusted her enough to lay still and bare myself for this exploration while she trusted me not to panic or bite down on her fingers like a bear trap. An image of the plover and the crocodile crossed my mind.
Her fingers left my jaws and she gave a look of satisfaction, prompting me to close my mouth again. She moved to meet my eyes momentarily before her gaze dropped to my lips. Her eyebrows knitted together in concern, "You're sure it's okay to kiss you, right, Jack?" I exhaled nervously. "I think so. If you don't like it we can stop, don't worry."
She moved her face closer. I noted the sensation of her breath against me: I could only feel the warmth and condensation on my skin. Then, she pressed her lips against mine, somewhat hesitantly. We paused for a moment, eyed closed, before she moved her hand from my jaw to the back of my head to thread into my hair. I'd never kissed someone like this before. I'd always done it with two lips, all my skin - synthetic or not - and all of my sensory nerves connected. I wasn't sure what it was like on her side, but feeling her lips pressed against such opposite materials, her tongue slipping into my mouth just barely, and her teeth knocking against my lower set with a click before she settled on latching tenderly onto my upper lip, it was perfect, intoxicating. Then, we separated, foreheads touching and breath hurried through giddy chuckles.
"Was it alright?" I breathed.
"Incredible," she broke away to grin and avert her eyes, "Feels like a first kiss, in a way."
Rose continued, "Thank you for doing this for me, Jack. I know it's not easy. I've never seen you as less for this, not at all."
I moved my hand to stroke her face, feeling the heat of her cheeks gradually warm up my thumb. "I know, hon."
"I don't think I'll ever get used to how pale you go when you're blushing," she remarked lightheartedly, looking down at me with curiosity. When I became a cyborg, my blood was replaced with a specialised substance that was white in colour. I could still blush where my real (above my mandible) or false skin was; since the blood below the surface wasn't red, instead of pink I went a deathly white.
I smiled in response and reached out to touch her face again. "I'm pretty tired out from the flight. Would you stay with me until I fall asleep? I missed having you beside me."
She turned to look at the clock at our bedside. It was just reaching midday. John wouldn't need picking up from his after-school club until early evening, and I needed all the sleep I could get before he realised I was home and jumped all over me. "Of course. You get some rest... I'll set an alarm," Rose moved closer to my side, nestling her head against my clavicle, letting me wrap an arm around her shoulder.
I pulled the top blanket off the bottom half of the bed and threw it over us. Napping like this didn't bother me, but I worried about Rose. I wasn't exactly the most cuddly like this. I imagine the experience would be like trying to snuggle up with your car's combustion engine.
I buried my nose in her hair. I absent-mindedly took in the faint, familiar, scent of her usual shampoo. "Are you sure you're comfortable?"
"Always," she murmured, rubbing her cheek against the unyielding material that made up my chest, just as if snuggling into a warm pillow.
My heart flipped in my chest. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I closed my eyes and mumbled sleepily: "I love you."