Work Text:
Kirsh sat with his back against the large cherry blossom tree, his legs extended out in front of him. He watched as the ants crawled through the dirt, traversing over fallen petals and sticks.
It was quiet here. More peaceful than the rest of the facility. To an extent, it may be eerily quiet for such a scenery. Just outside the walls of the facility were vibrant and lush foliage, accompanied by diverse fauna. In here, there was nothing but the insects that were allowed to stay in order to help the small ecosystem.
But it wasn’t complete silence to him. He could hear the scurrying of the insects on the plants and ground. He could hear the soft hum of the lights above. He could hear the distant sounds of people going about their work. It was never completely silent for him, nor would it be. He was not human.
Unfortunately, the near silence was disturbed when a couple of humans entered the garden. The gardens tended to be empty most days, the humans spending their free time elsewhere, doing other things. They didn’t seem to appreciate the beauty of the tree like Kirsh did and if any wanted to admire any flora, they tended to go to the rooftops and gaze out at the forest at a distance.
The humans laughed as they ran into the garden, grabbing at each other. One appeared to be chasing the other, but the one being chased was grinning. Kirsh’s brows furrowed as he stared at them curiously. Were they fighting? The laughter seemed to suggest otherwise but then the female shouted out when the male grabbed her, lifting her off her feet.
“No! Put me down!” she laughed.
“I don’t think so,” the male said, his arms wrapped tightly around the female who struggled in his grasp. “You’re mine now.”
Kirsh frowned further, wondering if he should intervene. He put his hands down on the ground beside him, prepared to push himself up but hesitated.
The man then placed the woman down who turned around in his arms, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “I guess I am,” she said, smiling. “Now, what are you going to do to me now that I’m yours?”
He leaned in, inches away from the woman’s face. “Anything I want,” he whispered, the words intended only for her, but Kirsh was helpless to hear them.
The two then smashed their mouths together, moaning as they ran their hands over each other’s bodies.
Oh, Kirsh thought. He understood what was happening now. He had not personally witnessed any sort of human mating rituals, but he was at least familiar with the concept. He was mostly familiar with humans and their carnal desires, however, through his searches of other artificial people. Sex synths, he had found was a disturbingly common thing.
Kirsh sat there as he watched the two get lost in each other’s touch. The man pushed the woman up against another tree, using it as a means to stabilize her as he kneeled down before her. He pushed her skirts up as his head disappeared underneath. Without her mouth preoccupied, her moans grew in volume.
His peace had been disturbed, and he did not expect it to be returned any time soon. He resigned himself to his fate and decided to go back to his quarters. He finally pushed himself to stand in order to make his exit when he heard a gasp.
Kirsh looked up to find the woman staring wide-eyed at him. “Johnny, John,” she said urgently, patting the man’s shoulders.
“What? What??” he said in annoyance before he removed his head from underneath her skirts. He looked up, noticed the direction of her gaze, and turned.
“Hello,” Kirsh said, realizing that any chance of a discrete exit was now gone. “I did not mean to disturb.” Never mind that he was there first and they were the ones disturbing him. He was an artificial person though, and it was expected of him.
“What the fuck??” the man said as he quickly got to his feet, the woman making a scene of adjusting her clothes and putting them straight. “You spying on us?”
Kirsh tilted his head and raised his brows. “Considering I was here first, no, I was not spying on you.”
That answer did not seem to satisfy the man who scowled and shouted in anger, “You’ve been sitting there watching us this whole time??”
Technically true but he still failed to see how that was his fault. “I was hoping that you two would move this on elsewhere but when it became apparent you would not, I decided it was time to leave.”
“And yet here you are,” the man said, glaring.
Kirsh blinked. “Yes. Because you stopped me as I was in the middle of leaving.”
“Come on Johnny. Let’s just go,” said the woman who grabbed his arm, tugging on it imploringly. The man did not budge.
“No.” He threw the woman’s hand off him as he began to walk towards Kirsh. “I want to understand how this synth gets off by sitting there and watching us.”
Kirsh blinked slowly and furrowed his brows in what he hoped was a disbelieving expression. “I assure you I don’t ‘get off’ by watching the two of you.”
“Sure, you do,” said the man, still slowly advancing. “I’ve seen you. Always standing in the shadows, watching all of us humans. You like watching us.”
“I watch to understand human behavior,” Kirsh said. “I’ll remind you that I am still fairly new. There is much to learn from simply observing.” It was something that Boy had encouraged him to do. He’d said Kirsh needed to understand humans if he was to eventually help humans transition to their new synthetic bodies.
His answer did not please the man, however. “I knew it! You get off by watching us!”
Kirsh’s eyes narrowed. “You are deliberately misinterpreting my words.”
“I’m not misinterpreting anything, you little freak,” he spat once he got within a couple feet of Kirsh.
Clearly the man held some resentment towards artificial people for one reason or another and by him finding Kirsh here, alone, he felt emboldened to confront him. Making an exit was ideal in order to minimize any further conflict.
Kirsh raised his hands slowly in a placating manner. “I think that it’s for the best if I were to just go.”
He made a motion to move but was stopped by the man who shoved him back. Kirsh blinked in surprise. The man gave him a wicked grin. “I don’t think so. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Johnny come on.”
“No,” the man said. He tilted his head. “He wants to always watch but never join. I think maybe he should join, don’t you?”
Kirsh frowned not understanding his meaning but knowing that it couldn’t be good. The man began to close the distance between them, forcing Kirsh to back up to stay away. His back soon connected with the cherry blossom tree, however, affording him nowhere to go. The man stopped, inches away from him. His face was as close to Kirsh’s as it had been when he whispered to his lover.
“I wonder,” said the man softly. “Are you anything like the pleasure models?”
Realization struck him and the second it took for the man to close the remaining distance felt like an eternity to his high processing mind. Should he stop him? Should he allow him to do as he pleased?
The man’s lips crashed into his own. They were anything but graceful or kind. They were hard and he bit and probed at Kirsh’s mouth as if to hurt, as if to violate. The man’s hands then groped at his crotch, coming to grip him hard through his pants.
“I knew it,” the man gasped against his lips. “Just like the other synths.”
Kirsh’s brows pinched together. The man’s ministrations did not hurt, they couldn’t, but he knew that if he was human, the force of the man’s grip would have been painful. Kirsh’s body was frozen, not moving to encourage or push away. He did not know what an acceptable response was.
He knew what would be expected of a different artificial person. They would be expected to obey and allow the human to do as he pleased. But he was not just any artificial person.
“You’re unique,” Boy had said. “Because you are mine.”
He reminded himself he had only two ingrained rules:
- Protect Boy Kavalier at all cost.
- Obey Boy Kavalier’s every command.
He did not have to obey this human.
Kirsh grabbed the man’s hand that was between his legs that had begun to fumble at his zipper. The man gasped in pain, pulling his mouth away from his. He stared in wide-eyed confusion at Kirsh.
“I think,” he said slowly. “I don’t like the idea of joining.”
He then shoved the human back, causing him to lift off his feet and fly through the air. The man’s head then made a sickening crack as it connected with the trunk of another tree. The woman let out a blood-curdling scream as she cried out in fear and alarm. She rushed to the man’s side, calling his name. There was blood pouring from his head, mixing with the dirt and cherry blossom petals at their feet.
Kirsh stared wide-eyed at the man, shocked by the display. He hadn’t expected to hurt the man, at least not to such a degree. He had just intended to get the man away and his hands off of him.
The woman’s screams drew the attention of other humans. People rushed to the man and woman’s sides, attempting to render aid. “Dead,” one of the humans had solemnly declared. The woman’s wails increased in volume.
“It was him!” she shrieked, pointing an accusing finger his way. “He killed him!”
Whispers filled the garden. They were all so loud to his ears. He couldn’t stand it.
He left the garden, ignoring the humans rushing past him towards the gardens. He made his way to his quarters and shut the door. Silence at last.
But still, it wasn’t complete silence. Never complete peace.
He stood at the window for several minutes, gazing out at the forest below. There were no cherry blossoms, but the endless sea of green foliage was a nice sight too. It was pleasant. Soothing. And then his peace was disturbed once more.
Boy walked into his room without even knocking. He could hear the human take a seat on his couch, plopping his feet on the table before it. Yet still, Kirsh continued to stare out the window.
“You killed a man,” Boy said simply. There was no inflection to his voice. No signs of disapproval or anger.
“Yes,” Kirsh said, his tone matching.
“It’s reported you threw him across the room, cracking his skull against a tree,” Boy said. “When I told you on your first day that you’d be ‘busting skulls’, I meant it figurately.”
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Kirsh said.
“You didn’t mean to throw him across the room, or you didn’t mean to crack his skull?” Boy asked.
“The later,” Kirsh said. “I did not intend to harm in such a way.”
“But you did mean to harm him in SOME way?” There was interest now in Boy’s otherwise indifferent tone.
Kirsh hesitated for only a second. “I meant to hurt his hand slightly and knock the wind out of him when I threw him.”
Boy hummed curiously. “Why his hand?”
Kirsh’s fingers twitched. “He was touching me. I wanted him to stop.”
There was a long pause then, so long that Kirsh wondered if Boy would respond. Then he said slowly, softly, “How exactly was he touching you?”
Kirsh frowned. He did not know why he did not want to answer. But Boy had asked him a question, and he must answer. “He kissed me. Then he touched me between my legs.”
Another pause. “He intended to have sex with you.” It wasn’t a question.
Kirsh thought of the man’s hand that had fumbled at his zipper. He was trying to undress him. “That would be my assumption,” he said briskly.
Boy hummed. “Well then good riddance. I don’t need distracted employees looking to abuse my property.”
Kirsh’s brows twitched. He finally turned around and looked at Boy. “You are not angry I killed one of your employees?”
Boy shrugged. “Why would I be? I’ll find someone new to replace him.”
“I am a synth,” he said. “I am not supposed to harm humans.”
Boy laughed. “I told you that the only thing you are supposed to do is obey and protect me. Everything else is irrelevant.”
“It’s against the law.”
Boy shrugged again, lifting his hand and making a dismissing motion. “I write the laws. This is my facility. My island. My territory.” His hand fell to his lap. “What I say, goes. Nothing will happen to you if I say it won’t.”
The statement put Kirsh’s mind at ease. He hadn’t even realized that he had been worried in the first place. What was he worried about? Being shut off? Why did he care? Did he care?
Instead of voicing his thoughts, Kirsh asked a different question. “Why did you give me human genitalia?”
Boy frowned. “To make you appear more human.”
“But I’m not human.”
His frown deepened. “No, you are not. I gave it to you anyways.”
Kirsh tilted his head. “Do you intend on me using it?”
Boy blinked in surprise. “What?”
“With you,” Kirsh clarified. “Do you intend on me using it with you?”
Boy gave him a horrified look and got to his feet. “Wha- with yo- what the hell?! No! God, you pervert!”
The disgusted response further put Kirsh’s mind at ease. He understood it that time. He knew he didn’t want to do that again and if Boy were to decide he wanted to, Kirsh would have to obey.
He nodded. “Good. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Boy still scowled, shooting him a disgruntled side eye. “I guess I can’t exactly fault you for asking, considering. But just do me a favor don’t ever suggest something like that happening between us. Ever! Got it?” Boy shivered.
He supposed that to some humans the thought of being with an artificial person would be disgusting. Kirsh didn’t mind. It would ensure that the only person who could get away with doing such a thing to him would never.
Kirsh simply said, “Understood.”