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Grendel's hands were cool.
The more Stella thought about it, the more it made sense. Grendel was an AI, like her, and her body was controlled wholly by her. It shouldn't have surprised her that the knight could change her temperature at will.
Her thighs, when Stella found her core set between them, were warm. Not warm enough to pose any real danger to her, not warm enough to risk overheating and erasing her program, but warm enough to be comfortable. Warm enough for Stella to know that she was going to miss it when she was back in her usual body.
She couldn't speak, couldn't move. All she could do was watch and listen.
Grendel was humming, Stella noted. It was a sweet song, like that of a music box, and it made Stella feel like she was being serenaded. She could see dexterous orange hands, deep blue gauntlets removed, carefully pulling aside wires inside her frame.
“There it is,” Grendel said. She rearranged something, then took Stella's core and plugged it back into her body.
The first moments were slightly disorienting as Stella got used to suddenly being able to move and speak again, but the spasms that had plagued her hands were gone.
Already she missed Grendel's warmth.
“All systems are functional,” she told Grendel, hoping that her longing didn't seep into her voice. Soon, she told herself. Soon you'll build up the courage to ask her.
“And your hand is working as intended once more,” Grendel continued. “How are your cooling fans?”
Stella didn't answer for a moment, lost in her own thoughts. There had been something so intimate about the whole ordeal; Stella had been helpless in Grendel's lap, unable to do anything but watch and hear, unable to even defend herself. Grendel could have run her through with her sword, could have thrown her across the room or off the ship. She could have easily gotten rid of Stella, and it would be simple after that to use her ship for her plans to take over the universe.
She hadn't done any of that, though, and the more Stella got to know her, the more she felt like Grendel's wish to rule the universe was just for show.
“Stella?”
“Cooling system is fully functional,” she replied. She could feel it activating, in fact, casting a chilled breeze on her internal machinery as it heated up in an imitation of a Human's blush.
She hoped her voice sounded calmer than she felt.
—
There was something funny about them, like this. Two robots in a bio-garden. It felt like a contradiction, the combination between the natural and unnatural, and yet here they were.
Stella wasn't spilling anything from her watering can anymore, with her newly-repaired hands. She practically glided around the garden, her centuries of knowledge of her own ship helping her follow a practiced route. Tomatoes, then carrots, then flowers on her way to the marsberry bushes.
It was at the marsberries that she noticed something shining on her left ring finger.
She dropped her watering can again when she realized what it was.
There, tied at the very base of her finger, lay a ribbon with a star-shaped charm dangling from it. The ribbon was a coppery orange colour, with the four-pointed star hanging under the bow on the back of her hand.
“Grendel?” She called. The knight turned to face her, holding a basket of tomatoes. Stella held up her hand, showing her the ribbon. The star tied to it glittered in the light. “What's this?”
Grendel smiled. “What do you think it is?”
“It's a ring.”
“And…?”
Stella laughed. “Is this your way of proposing to me? I didn't think you'd be the one to ask first.”
The surprise on Grendel's face was obvious. “That… well, not intentionally. Do Humans typically propose with rings?”
The other android was still beaming. She could feel her machinery heating up, and her cooling system quickly kicked in again to prevent her from overheating.
“What do you think?” she hummed. At that moment, the IOTA flew into the garden, dropping a small box into Stella's waiting hand. Grendel watched as Stella dropped onto one knee, opening the box and holding it out to her. Inside was a simple ring, a band of what looked like staridium, something practical that Grendel could easily wear under her gauntlets.
Grendel was speechless. “Stella…? What are you doing?”
“Well,” Stella told her, “We've been together for three hundred years already. Most Humans don't wait this long to get married.”
The words shocked Grendel. She was frozen for a moment, only a few picoseconds, before her mind was able to process her racing thoughts and she lunged forward to embrace Stella. Stella laughed again, a bright sound, throwing her arms around her, burying her face in the space between Grendel's shoulder and neck.
“Is that a yes, then?” she asked.
“Yes,” Grendel said, pulling away to look her fiancée in the face. Her fiancée. It was a wild thought to have, and she welcomed it wholeheartedly. “A hundred million times, yes.”