Chapter Text
He had fallen asleep against me a while ago. His braids out of their normal bun so that I could rest my chin atop of his. As an android, I still slept- even dreamed sometimes. However, it was for a few hours at most. Louis needs at least eight and a half to function at maximum capacity, and now and then I let it go on longer. Even if he grumbles about letting him sleep his day off, that first moment when those bronze and silver eyes open. The soft swirl sound as the pupil comes into focus. Eyes are not supposed to make sound, but Louis were nearly fifteen years old. They had minimum maintenance, but as long as they were functional, I found it quite cute. I don’t think he even hears it.
At first, I imagined this to be quite boring. To just sit, in the low light of my room listening to very human breathing disrupting the usual silence that accompanies me. Yet, I find it quite addicting. To see him relax against me after straining against sleep- his words swirling and sentences starting to lack any sense or continuity. The human skin that before the meeting in the coffee shop, I cursed, feeling his warm skin pulsing against my own. The subtle shifting that comes with mundane sleeping patterns of humans, and yet it was far from mundane to me. “I love you,” I whisper to him, Louis too deep in sleep to hear. Not that, by now, I had never said it to him. I had. However, the first time I had the ‘courage’ if it could even be called that was a moment like this. When he was sleeping, and I was so entrapped and let the words bubble out as they had wanted to. Damn android pride. “Nnn lo-uve...too,” a sleepy mumbled came that nearly made me jump. Sleep talking was still one I had to get used to, all the same my face split into a smile as I drew him closer.
Louis cursed softly as awareness started to spread throughout his mind. It drew him from the sleeping world and into one that felt he had been apart from for too long. “I told you, to wake me if I fell asleep,” he mumbled sleepily. Bronze staring into metallic purple Iris, playfully smacking the other’s fleshing shoulder as he rolled to get out of the bed. Only to feel strong, unyielding arms draw him back into the tempting bed. A bed that he is pretty sure Quarum bought right before Louis ever came over, with Louis in mind.
“You don’t sleep long enough on your own,” the android’s voice replied, lips kissing behind the sleepy male’s ear. “I like spending waking time with you, I don’t get many days off,” he argued, though at this point half heartedly as he leaned back against the other. Sleep wanting to capture him once more as he breathed out, relaxing and comfortable. Barely being able to blink it away before feeling cool lips kissing his forehead. Chrome colored hair tickling his face, making him laugh a little. Slowly, he managed to get out of the bed. He stretched and wandered over to Quaram’s couch where his mending supplies had been left out.
They used to go out constantly to meet, but now he felt comfortable to stay at Quarum’s on his days off. It was nice and quiet, and besides he was able to give Quarum money to purchase fabric exclusive for androids- that he then used to mend into illegal modified clothing for the richer humans. The only catch, was that he had to keep it at Quarum’s. He played with fire all of his life by tailoring clothes like this, but to be caught with restricted fabric at the checkpoints or a random home check would be horrid. Besides, it gave him even more of an excuse to come see the other. He would argue, that being around Quarum helped stimulate his productivity by being calm and happy. Not to mention, the abundance of time to create countless amounts of money. He could only do smaller pieces at the moment. Lingerie, underwear, tank tops, and perhaps a few pairs of pants- he had to fit his clothes plus whatever he was bringing. What helped was leaving his clothing at his boyfriends, but appearing as if his bag was with his clothes.
At first, he was nervous about using this time to do his side work. That Quarum would worry he was just using him for access, but everytime he would bring it up he would be hushed.
“I like watching you work, and I like helping,” Not that the android had the nimble fingers to stitch very well. Louis had tried to teach his boyfriend with scarps, but the other got frustrated easily. So instead, Louis sat back against the arm of the couch, Quarum joining him, and laying his feet on his lap.
Those wonderful hands would massage his legs and feet. Sometimes they would chat, and sometime it would be silent. And yet, it was wonderful. Now that Quarum was only required half days at class, every three days it had opened up a lot off his time. He had passed a rather large test that allowed this, it deemed him competent to opt out of several different classes to pursue a career early. Not that he knew what he wanted to do, so he was putting more food on the table and a little more money in his family’s pocket from picking up more customers who loved elite clothing.
“Do you want to move in,”
At first, Louis questioned if he had even really heard the voice, uncharacteristically soft and almost inaudible. His hands never stopped on the fabric in his hand. Dark, but dull crimson cloth stitching strips of metallic raspberry with white threading into it. The black needle moving and forming neart x’s into the strip and clothe. “I do, but what makes you ask,” he questioned, his voice shaking- almost relapsing into his stutter. After being with Quarum for nearly a year and half now- he had learned to get the answer out first then reservations. Otherwise the other took the answer as a negative. A rather typical trait to get used to, but one that Louis did not mind. His bronze eyes moving up to look at the iris colored ones. The other’s lips twitched into an almost smile, but it was usually a sign that the other was emberassed. Indescribable human emotion. Not because he could not find the words, but the Android always seemed shocked when it over took him. At least, that is how it came off to Louis.
“It’s going to sound..stupid,” Quarum muttered taking a deep breath he did not even need.
“Quarum, I am sure it won’t,”
“But it will.. I, I find it strange now. In my home when you are not here. It doesn't feel comforting. It feels like a neutral space rather than one that I am to inhabit and relax in, to exist in,”
“It doesn’t feel like home,” Louis summed up, a small smile coming onto his lips. Not because he wanted Quarum to feel uncomfortable, but the fact the other was actually able to express such human emotion with little shame. Not that he wanted his boyfriend to be human, he still was saving for more modifications himself. But the shame, the shame in parts of an android being human thus being android- that had been a bitter pill to swallow in the relationship. One that Louis was having to swallow less and less as the other accepted that parts of him were human, that he was in love with a human even if he was modified one.
“Yes…. And I was thinking logically as well. You have always talked about wanting to move out to make more room in the house for your family, and wanting to live among Androids. You have also said, that you wanted to spend more time with me. I could help with the added transportation, but my company was opening for more humans cycling. But we both know, that they are looking for certain street addresses. So… yes I would like you to live with me,” Quarum’s eyes were searching over him, trying to read any uncertainty, but all Louis could do was smile and put the cloth off to the side. His lips met Quarum’s and kissed him. Even with the morning breath he had meant to go rid off.
“Those are all good points, but you didn’t need them to get me to say yes,” Louis whispered to the other.
Three months passed and both Quarum and Louis lived in the same apartment, modifications had been made to suite a human. Louis had even applied to the company and been accepted with the lower position of essentially a secretary.
Many (Androids) felt the position was redundant- to log all off the information by hand and catalog it in paper. A waste of resources, an annoyance to have humans in a rightfully Android company. However, Louis hardly cared. He did his job, and he did so well. The paycheck easily updated his eyes. Green-yellow replaced his previously bronze. A color match of his pre surgery photo. His mother had sobbed when he walked in and surprised her with them. The younger siblings had their own rooms, and their first modifications.
Considering Quarum took care of the supplies now, any money Louis made with his clothing ‘business’ and half of his career work went into a caretaking fund for his family. The house had already been nearly paid off between his parents and extended family’s incomes along with his illegal activities.
But best of all, after he said his goodbyes on his daily trips to see his family after clothing deliveries, he would skate home to his boyfriend. Quarum would home nearly the same time from work. They also matched days off now, and would go about the town. The dirty looks slid off of their backs rather easily, looks that before killed Louis and made Quarum unsettled. They would hold hands, they would kiss, and they would go home together.
Because they were not going anywhere, not from one another and not from the melded world they were creating.