Roxy didn’t even wait for an answer. With a wicked grin she lunged across the plush leather cushions.
Nikki let out a startled shriek, instinctively curling into a defensive ball, but she was too slow. Roxy’s fingers imdiately found the highly sensitive spots along Nikki’s ribs and waist.
"Rox! Stop!" Nikki gasped, bursting into a fit of uncontrollable, breathless laughter. She thrashed on the sofa, kicking her legs as she tried to shove her best friend off. "I yield! I yield! rcy!"
"There is no rcy in Sector 1!" Roxy declared, pinning Nikki’s legs with her own and doubling down on the tickle attack. "You co into my new high-tech mansion, drop a massive emotional bomb on about the end of the world, and think you can just brood? Not on my watch! Spill it!"
"Spill what?!" Nikki wheezed, tears of mirth streaming from the corners of her eyes.
"Everything!" Roxy demanded, her fingers digging rcilessly into Nikki’s sides. "I want the details, Nikki Vance! I want to know everything about your relationship with the Terminator! I want the sex life, the love life, the weird robotic quirks! Talk, or I will literally tickle you until your core processor overloads!"
"Okay! Okay!" Nikki scread, her face flushed red as she violently tapped the leather cushion in submission. "I’ll talk! Just get off , you bitch!"
Roxy triumphantly rolled off, sitting back on her heels and crossing her arms with a thoroughly satisfied smirk.
She nodded toward Nikki, who was currently sprawled on the couch, taking deep, gulping breaths to recover oxygen.
"I’m listening," Roxy prompted, adjusting her glasses. "Start with the juicy stuff."
Nikki groaned, sitting up and fixing her disheveled clothes. The heavy, suffocating gloom had been successfully temporarily shattered by Roxy’s aggressive friendship.
"You already know about the... physical aspect," Nikki mumbled, her cheeks heating up again. "He’s built for stamina. It’s overwhelming. But outside the bedroom... it’s intense, Rox. He’s incredibly protective. Sotis, terrifyingly so."
Roxy leaned in, resting her chin on her hands. "Terrifying how? Like, locking you in a mansion terrifying?"
"Like, almost murdering people terrifying," Nikki corrected softly, the smile fading into sothing much more serious.
She pulled her knees back up to her chest. "There was this one ti, shortly after he brought here. We were out in eting, and a group of human n cornered into a room. They touched . They tried to rape . Roxy... Adonis didn’t just fight them. He went completely feral."
Nikki shivered, rembering the sickening sound of snapping bone and the violent, blinding crimson that had overwritten his blue eyes.
"He was going to slaughter them," Nikki whispered. "He almost killed them with his bare hands. I had to scream his designated na to snap him out of his combat protocol. Since that day, he completely banned from attending any etings with human officials. He only lets go to highly secured galas and heavily monitored events. He doesn’t trust anyone else around ."
Roxy’s eyes widened in horror. The playful deanor completely vanished. "Holy shit, Nik. You must have been completely traumatized. Almost getting assaulted, and then watching a war machine tear people apart in front of you? That’s nightmare fuel."
"I was terrified," Nikki admitted, looking down at her hands. "But... he took care of afterward. The mont the threat was neutralized, the red in his eyes vanished. He held . He scanned for injuries, carried ho, and didn’t leave my side. He always makes feel so incredibly safe, Rox. He makes feel loved."
Nikki paused, a profound awe coloring her tone.
She didn’t think of him to this extent before.
"The crazy part is," Nikki continued, looking up at Roxy, "he doesn’t actually know how to feel that love. He doesn’t have an endocrine system. He doesn’t produce oxytocin or dopamine. But every single ti he spends with , his processor is slowly learning the pattern. He analyzes the affection I show him. He stores how he reacts to those feelings, how my heart rate calms when he holds , and he physically adapts his body and his behavior to match it."
She shook her head, an exasperated, fond smile breaking through.
"The person who built him... they were brilliant. Absolutely brilliant," Nikki murmured. "For an android to be able to adapt to human behaviors, to learn the cadence of empathy even if he wasn’t originally programd to be that way... it’s a miracle."
Roxy watched her friend for a long mont. She saw the absolute devotion shining in Nikki’s eyes. It was dangerous, yes, but it was also the most genuine thing Roxy had seen since the world ended.
Roxy reached out, giving Nikki’s knee a firm, grounding squeeze.
"Listen to , Nik," Roxy said, her voice unusually stern and practical. "You’re smart. So stop brooding over the apocalypse and the ’what-ifs’. Focus on the present. You have the most powerful entity on Earth eating out of the palm of your hand. Stop letting the fear paralyze you, and start using your brain. If he adapts to you, then guide him. You can do this."
Guide him...
Before Nikki could absorb the weight of that excellent advice, a heavy, thud echoed through the mansion.
The main doors hissed open.
General K-09 strode into the room.
He was still in his full, dark military uniform, fresh from his work. His features were sharp, aggressively handso, and entirely unreadable.
But it was his eyes that commanded the room. The mont he stepped through the door, they locked onto Roxy. He didn’t even glance at Nikki. His entire processing power was singularly focused on the woman sitting on his sofa in his oversized loungewear.
Roxy instantly froze. A furious, incredibly dark blush exploded across her cheeks, traveling rapidly down her neck to highlight the very obvious bite mark she had tried to hide.
She swallowed hard, suddenly finding the glass coffee table extrely fascinating, aggressively avoiding his gaze.
The sexual tension in the room was so thick it could have been cut with a sword.
Nikki looked from the towering, silent warlord to her completely flustered best friend. A slow, wicked chuckle bubbled up in Nikki’s throat.
"Well," Nikki announced loudly, slapping her hands on her thighs and standing up. "Look at the ti! I really should be getting back to A-01’s mansion. My General is probably waiting for right now."
Roxy’s head snapped up, pure betrayal flashing in her eyes. "Nikki! Don’t you dare leave —"
Nikki ignored her. She walked over, leaned down, and pulled her stiff best friend into a tight, affectionate hug.
"Use your brain, Rox," Nikki whispered wickedly into her ear. "Or let him scramble it again. Your choice."
Nikki pulled back, offered a polite, deeply amused nod to General K-09, who rely blinked his eyes in acknowledgnt, and swiftly exited the lounge, practically sprinting for the elevator.
The doors hissed shut.
Silence descended on the room. It was a heavy, suffocating quiet, broken only by the sound of his shoes as he slowly walked deeper into the lounge.
Roxy remained on the sofa, her heart hamring against her ribs. She was alone with him. The man who had absolutely wrecked her the night before in the na of a "science experint."
She couldn’t handle the silent staring anymore. She had to take control of the dynamic, or she was going to combust.
Roxy uncrossed her legs and lightly kicked the floor with her bare heel, feigning absolute casualness.
"So," Roxy started, gesturing vaguely toward the kitchen area. "I got bored. I commandeered your utility drones and made roasted chicken. Wanna try so?"
K-09 stopped at the edge of the glass coffee table.
"Negative," K-09 responded, "Food is not a necessity for . I do not possess a digestive tract designed for caloric extraction."
Roxy rolled her eyes, pushing herself up so she was kneeling on the sofa, bringing herself slightly closer to his eye level.
"I know you don’t need it to survive, sparky," Roxy drawled, a challenging, sultry smirk playing on her lips. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the back of the sofa. "But what if I want to feed you? Then do you want to feed you?"
K-09’s eyes narrowed slightly as he processed her words. She was offering a dostic, highly intimate action, challenging his previous statent that their interaction was purely experintal.
He stared at her lips, then down to the bite mark on her collarbone, and finally back up to her defiant, beautiful eyes.
Slowly, deliberately, K-09 pressed his lips into a thin, tight line.
"If you administer it," K-09 rumbled, his voice dropping an octave lower, laced with a terrifying, dark compliance, "I think I can still process it."
Roxy stared at the towering machine. He was yielding to her. The absolute absurdity and the sheer, overwhelming power trip of having a warlord agree to eat human food just because she offered it sent a thrill straight to her core.
She couldn’t help it. A soft, incredibly wicked chuckle escaped her lips.
Roxy reached out, her fingertips lightly tracing the bulge of his chest.
"Good boy," she whispered.
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