The Sea, the Sky and their Opperator

Chapter 19

Lucien sat in the spartan room. The abandoned building gave everything a haughty and cold feel, which Lucien liked, especially now when he felt cold inside. He had no idea why he wanted to cry so badly. He fought off the tears with everything he had, curling his mind into a little ball that could ignore pain, but it wasn't enough. A black hole was inside him, sucking everything with it leaving only sadness.

Edward Maskit's face would surface from the edges of the black hole, breaking his defenses again and again, give more to the black hole.

Audrey walked in, cool and confident as always. She before the bed, startled by the sniveling figure of Lucien. She paused, her head to a side.

'So you're human at last. I assumed you were before, but I'd never seen that part of you.' She with an unaffected whisper.

Lucien moved away from her, ashamed.

She stepped around the bed so that she stood in front of him again. 'I've been wondering when you'd become human.' She leaned down, her mulberry eyes fathomless.

Lucien couldn't bare those eyes, similar but alien to Caspian's friend. Even that thought caused tears to escape him. He tried to blink it away, but he didn't work.

'Fuck off. I'm a fucking robot, you're a robot. We're all fucking emotionless, humanless robots. We don't need emotions!'

Audrey, her long sheet of deep red hair, hair she took effort to dye as a way of keeping her individuality, sighed and straightened. 'If that's true, why are you grieving now, Lucien? What destroyed your iron will?'

Lucien cursed himself, and her. Of course she'd know it was grief not something else. It was her gift, like keen eyesight was his and hearing was -

He steeled himself against her inevitable manipulations, finally finding a way to control him. He'd seen it too many times on others to doubt the truth. He didn't want to think about why that truth hurt so much right now. The knowledge hadn't hurt in the past.

Audrey waited patiently, not moving a muscle under her figure hugging maroon dress. She watched passively, a smooth eyebrow raised, reading him as well as he himelf.

Lucien relented, wanting the ordeal passed. 'I watched Caspian's Dad get attacked and did nothing to help him. And then, he forgave me. He kept talking about how much he loved Cas-' Lucien took a deep breath, desperate to hold onto his tenuous control.

Unexpectedly, Audrey sat down and took Lucien's hand. She petted it slowly. Lucien could only watch.

Audrey, not looking him in the eye, gently touched his cheek, taking away some of his tears. She looked at the water with curiosity. 'It's hard to see, but your tears are slightly pink like mine. I wonder if it's a design flaw?'

Lucien, distracted from his sadness, watched her with confusion. 'How much have you cried to see a detail like that, Audrey? When?'

Adrey smiled ironically, still not meeting his black gaze. 'It's been hard pretending to be an unfeeling android all the time. I still miss my family...but you needed an android, and I am an android, so I did my best when I was with you. I didn't want you to disregard me like the others. That's hard too, sometimes.'

Lucien, shocked, could only stare at her calm face. He looked away, uncomfortable with the vision of himself that she offered. He was cold, controlling, just like his father.

How could she not hate me?

'I...didn't know,' Lucien muttered his forehead on his arms which were wrapped around his knees. 'I guess I just assumed we were the same, felt the same, wanted the same.'