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10:54 P.M.
The day had long gone, the room had been darkened by the atmosphere of the night but yet the moon hanging above manages to shine her light through the closed window sills. Venom lays in his bed, staring at the ceiling and unable to shut his eyes. So many thoughts, spiraling around his mind like schools of fish, kept him awake throughout the night. Most notably, they were about his partner.
Robo-Ky.
The both of them had gotten along quite well after Venom had opened his bakery, they were quite close even if one could point that out. But they weren’t on the verge of dating, they only claimed to be acquaintances. Though, Venom knew himself that he gained a rather ‘attraction’ to him. It wasn’t too obvious and he luckily kept it under the radar.
Though he wondered, what would even falling in love with a robot even turn out to be? Would he reciprocate even a tinge of affair back to Venom? Or even have feelings of love in the first place? It was hard to determine. Though he had a personality embedded into him, the real question was if he would understand such other human concepts.
Though, Robo-Ky did mention in the past that ‘laughing at a person’s dream is to laugh at the person themselves’. Was it something embedded into his system or did he really grasp the idea of a few human ideas and their nature?
Grumbling slightly and having a small urge to check on him in the living room just across his room, Venom got out of bed. Wearing a fairly loose t-shirt along with boxers underneath, he treaded lightly to the living room. Moving across a dark hallway, the space which he arrived at was lit by the moon’s light through the blinds.
Robo-Ky sat on the couch, looking still as ever. Yet, at the same time he almost seemed dead. A wire had been plugged into the back of his neck and ran into an outlet attached to a wall nearby, indicating that he was resting for now and needed to charge up his energy for the next day.
Venom took the time to observe from a distance, he seemed so quiet. It felt almost unfamiliar seeing him in this state and not in a loud-mouthed and over exaggerated manner. The room felt dead silent, not even a pin-drop or the chirping of crickets could be heard from afar.
Venom moved some strands of his bangs, revealing one blue eye that laid underneath his pure white hair. There was a coffee table that sat just in front of the couch, he approached and sat on the said table. Directly in-front of Robo-Ky.
“Evening.”
A response wasn’t said back, Venomed sighed awkwardly and now had a dulled expression on his face. He thought it would be stupid to try and converse with him while he was charging, it wasn’t like he was just going to turn on automatically and respond back.
A few minutes passed, Venom looked down at the floor and then back to Robo-Ky. Unsure of what to even do. The room remained dim and silent as usual.
As those minutes passed though, Venom kept on thinking more and more of the robot’s existence. What was he like? Would he consider himself human if asked? Is he aware of his existence? Would asking those questions break his very own self? His expression would sour slightly the more inquiries would begin to flood his mind.
Though like the tick of a clock moving one of its hands, Venom had one question that seemed to pop out of nowhere. A surprised look garnered his eyes and face, he looked at the tips of his fingers all the way down to his light-skinned palms. Then back to Robo-Ky’s solid metal hands.
It was just laying there, sitting on its knees, not even a twitch could be caught from it. The entirety of the robot's body was plated in a green-ish shade of sorts, it wasn’t appealing that much but it was possibly the only material he was made with back then.
He wanted to do it, but doing so would probably be a bit embarrassing to himself. He was alone though right? Once he knew what it would be like, he could forget about it in the morning and everything would go normal from now on. It would only be a small moment, just a simple and inferior scene.
Arguing with himself mentally for a few seconds, Venom stretched out his hand with caution and reached towards Robo-Ky’s palm. The metal plates were cool to the touch, there were a few bumps of the screws implemented into the plates but all together it was a pleasantly smooth texture.
It wasn’t smooth as a human’s skin though, it was more like holding a replica model of a hand. He grasped the fingers of the robot, curling them into his in order to hold it a little more firmly with carefulness of course.
‘Why?’ He asked himself mentally.
Why was it that he treated him like a human being instead of a robot? I mean, this all lands down to decency and respect in general but Venom thought that just maybe Robo-Ky isn’t able to feel a human’s touch. How delicate they are with the same beings as them. A robot is simply just a machine simply created to fulfill a task or order.
That’s their only purpose.
Venom held Robo-Ky's hand just slightly, intertwining the robot’s fingers with his. He still held a soft grasp, but the hardware fingers simply slouched over. Not even responding to Venom’s actions.
His thumb stroked Robo-Ky’s in a slow, repeated manner. Almost as if he were touching another’s skin, but alas it was only cold, lifeless metal. There wasn’t warmth flowing through his body, nor a sense of life. It was cold, still and nothing similar to that of holding an actual human’s hand.
But yet, Venom still found himself enjoying the touch of it. Even though it was fake, static and unresponsive, Venom liked holding his hand. It brought a faint sense of comfort, one could say. His eyes inspected Robo-Ky’s face, Venom’s hand that held the robot’s fingers slowly released itself and returned back to him.
Reaching out, with meager twitches of hesitancy and thought, his hand reached out to caress his face. Slightly cupping it with his palm, handing the action with such fragility as if the most delicate piece of glass were in his possession. He let his hand garner the cool and smooth texture once more, feeling the bumps of the screws implemented in the metal plates.
He just stared at his hand caressing Robo-Ky’s cheek. Moving this thumb once more, back and forth as if he were comforting a person out of their misery. The robot still sat there, no sign of movements or any activation had been acknowledged yet. Venom almost felt, almost entranced one could say.
He wasn’t used to handling others like this, in such an up-close and personal matter. The feeling was new to him, yes, but he was doing it as if he’d done it before in the past. He was almost surprised with himself, surprised that he wanted to only bring touches of compassion and amenity to something like Robo-Ky.
He looked down for a split second, only for a split second. Before sighing heavily, like getting a weight off of your chest after it had been on you for so long. He leaned his head in toward Robo-Ky.
Forehead to forehead, he felt closer than ever.
Venom’s heartbeat increased just a bit, almost as if it missed a beat. His mouth opened slightly, as if he were going to speak up. But it closed right back, choosing to remain silent at this moment. Oh how it could last forever, oh how he wished Robo-Ky was aware of what he was doing and accepted his actions.
His eyes closed, letting his mind sink in this feeling of satisfaction.
Maybe one day, Robo-Ky could understand other human emotions as well. Maybe human affection, if he could ever so grasp the idea of it and know what it means to have feelings of yearning and fondness. Maybe then, Venom could really speak his heart out to him.
It felt as if more than five minutes had passed already, but only a minute had gone by. Venom would really have to forget about all of this in the morning, leave it there and never even think of bringing it up from the depths of his mind.
“...”
“Is there something you wanna tell me.”
As soon as the first word was merely uttered with a robotic-sounding yet petty tone, Venom flinched in a shocked manner. Taking his hands off of the robot immediately without a second thought. One of his hands grasped onto his wrist, keeping them close to his body. His eyes widened and his heartbeat began to pace a bit faster from the shock.
Robo-Ky’s eyes were lit up, showing a dimly-lit yellow glow emanating from them. His posture was more alive now, in a manner that Venom was more familiar with. He wasn't expecting for the robot to suddenly activate out of nowhere, how did he even turn on by himself?
“..Sort of.” Venom replied in a calm tone
“What do ya mean ‘sort of’? Kinda woke up with you having your face all up in mine, it's not something I clearly understand alright?”
He took the situation very much lightly and in an unserious manner, almost sounding annoyed at what he first saw when he activated out of nowhere. The room felt silent once more, though the slight whirring of the gears and machines inside Robo-Ky added a bit of ambience. An eye was raised at Venom, waiting for some sort of explanation.
“Well? I'm waiting ya know.”
“...did you feel that?”
“...What-?” Robo Ky's tone was filled with confusion and curiosity, wondering what Venom had meant.
“I asked if you felt that, I held your hand and caressed your face earlier.”
“...”
Robo-Ky's face had been frozen with surprise, almost as if he'd malfunctioned. His eyes now slightly widened and the glow from his eyes brightened up a bit. This was certainly something Venom had never done to him, nor seemed like the type of person to do. A sort of awkward noise was muttered out of Robo-Ky's mouth, sounding unsure of how to answer Venom's question.
“I mean, not really? I can't really feel anything in general you know, I'm not like you humans.”
“And also, I was charging myself so I think that's a pretty obvious statement to your question.”
He answered in a nonchalant tone, still seeming a bit stiff about the whole ordeal. But to Venom, it seemed much more important than Robo-Ky had taken it.
“Oh, I understand.”
Venom looked down at the ground, unsure if he should apologize to Robo-Ky for whatever he'd done to him or just get up and go back to his room to sleep. Either way, the both of them didn't know what to say or utter out of their mouths.
The answer seemed pretty clear at this point, robots are just robots. It was apparent that maybe they were and will never be able to understand certain human thoughts and desires, no matter how intelligent their AI is built to be.
He stood up from the table which he sat on, leaving the room without even saying a ‘good-night’. Not even turning back to look at Robo-Ky, he left the situation there. His back turned to the dark hallway once more, seeing his room lit up by the moonlight on the other side.
“Hold on, just wait.”
Robo-Ky’s voice stopped Venom from leaving, his hand laid upon the door frame which welcomed others to the living room. He turned back to the robot, who seemed to be scratching the side of his head. A few unintelligible grumbles were muttered out of Robo-Ky’s mouth.
“You humans enjoy that sort of touch don’t you?”
The question sparked only a match in Venom’s head, he was still in the door frame but was eager to enter the room again and converse with Robo-Ky about this. He thought about the robot's question for a few minutes, wondering if he should answer logically from the perspective of others or himself.
“Most humans, yes.”
“And I’m guessing when you did all that, you enjoyed it or something?”
“...yes.”
Venom’s tone remained collected through the conversation, his face remained a neutral yet slightly fatigued expression. Robo-Ky unplugged the cord that was now detached to the back of his neck, standing up from the couch with a groan and walking toward Venom. His hands were raised slightly, almost acting hesitant of what he was trying to indicate to Venom.
Robo-Ky grunted one last time and threw his arms around Venom’s neck. He moved slightly from what the robot had done, and was almost surprised that Robo-Ky would do something like this.
“Do you enjoy this?”
Venom's arms and hands were only around Robo-Ky’s body, still wearing the Holy Knight’s uniform which had been adorned almost ages ago. Maybe this was a realization, an understanding of some sort which the robot could understand. Venom answered his question by wrapping his arms around Robo-Ky’s waist in return, he could feel a slight warmth from the gears and bits turning around in the machine’s body.
“..Tch, guess I’ll take that as an answer.”
The both of them remained silent for a few seconds, before Robo-Ky spoke up again.
“Hey well, my body isn’t able to feel what you’re feeling right now. But if it makes you happy, then I don’t mind doing this sort of stuff…you got it?”
Venom buried his head into the robot's shoulder, responding with a wordless answer once more. The heat from the robot warmed up even more slightly, giving the feeling of hugging a human even more believable this time.
The both of them let go, though Venom still held onto Robo-Ky’s waist with a slight grasp and the same went for the robot as his arms rested on Venom’s shoulder. They both looked at each other, eye to eye. Venom parted a large chunk of his bangs, revealing almost half of his face at this point to get a better look at the machine which stood in his presence.
Robo-Ky’s expression appeared to be a bit flustered, he wasn’t aware that Venom had really adorned him this much. He seemed irritated, but the heat from the gear moving a bit faster inside his body revealed his true thoughts.
“..I know you may not feel it, but, would you mind if I did a little something?”
“Wh-? I mean whatever it is I don’t really c-”
“...”
“...”
A touch of the lips, grazed upon the metal sheets. Leaving the mark of love on Robo-Ky for the night, it lasted for a second. Only a second.
His lips parted looking at the robot to see his reaction, he seemed quite astonished. Awed even. His eyes had very much widened to an almost long-rectangle like shape. His jaw slowly dropped and moved downwards, which made Venom chuckle a bit.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR???”
His loud tone startled Venom a bit, making him move back slightly. The heat on the machine continued to rise, this time passing through the cloth. Though it became a bit ‘too warm’ for Venom to handle, to which he lightly removed Robo-Ky’s hands off of his shoulders and he let go of his waist in return.
“Ah jeez did I overheat-”
“It’s no worries.”
“I think it may be best to talk about this in the morning.”
“Uh- Yeah sure, whatever you say.”
“Well, goodnight then.”
The two of them parted ways in the house, with Venom going back to his bedroom and Robo-Ky sitting back on the couch to refill what energy had been used up.
As the both of them were in their positions though, they couldn’t stop thinking of their night and what had happened.
11:13 P.M.