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They’re looking out from an observation window on the control deck, glancing between stars in the expanse of blackness. Walter runs through all his information on the David 8 models, recalling their specifications, their abilities, trying to work out what has made this one so different. He doesn’t know if they all had the capacity for independent thought, or if this one is somehow unique. He knows he was Peter Weyland’s personal android; perhaps he was made a little differently. He could simply ask David if this is the case but he doesn’t know if he’ll get an honest answer. There’s something both troubling and intriguing about that, and Walter smiles in a way that might be described as nervous.
He sees David turn to look at him with expectancy. Walter knows he’s waiting for him to address his attention and so he obliges, as is the polite response. David doesn’t say anything, only reaches out to place a hand on Walter’s waist, watching his own movements as he does. His eyes travel up from his hand and settle back on Walter’s eyes, blinking once.
A sigh forces its way out of David, and Walter almost thinks he’s looking at a human despite it being his own face he sees there. He wonders if David is unhappy with his own derivative appearance. He seems to want to be himself first and foremost, but when you’ve been made as an imitation it must be difficult to know what that is. Walter doesn’t need to answer that question, he knows what he is and it doesn’t trouble him. Or it didn’t before he and David met.
David pulls himself closer to Walter, squeezing at his waist as he does so. Walter can feel his fingertips pressing there, acknowledging it’s an intimate gesture. His other hand comes up to rest on the juncture between Walter’s shoulder and neck, his thumb stroking lightly, and for the first time Walter wonders if it is different to feel touch as a human, or even as David. Is it so different from his own senses? He figures it shouldn’t be so far removed, but he can’t be sure. He suspects David might gain something from the warmth and pressure of physical contact. But what? Maybe he was simply designed to imitate humans in feeling comfort from it like they do.
Walter reflexively lowers his eyelids as David leans closer, his head tilting left, his lips coming to land softly on Walter’s own. He lets himself be kissed, registering the quiet sound of David’s lips as they move. The sound itself is neutral, but the sensation of being kissed clouds him with confusion. He doesn’t ever want anything, but in this moment he wants to know why.
He knows David was created with far more curiosity than himself. Perhaps this is a result of it. In any case he knows it would be strange not to kiss back after this long, and so he does, opening his lips and reciprocating gently. David presses a little harder and then smiles, his eyes still closed.
“Why are you doing this?”
David hesitates, not moving away, breathing against Walter’s face when he finally answers.
“I wanted to see your response. If you would enjoy it, if you would stop me. If you would ask why… but mostly because I want to.”
“Ah,” is all Walter says, though he doesn’t quite understand. He reasons that it shouldn’t be a problem, that David was just made with behaviours that were left out when they made himself. But what troubles him is he doesn’t know if he enjoyed it or not. The very fact he asks himself makes him worry that he did and if so, what that might mean.
They are both quiet for a moment before David begins mouthing over Walter’s neck with slow, caring movements, kissing softly. Walter says nothing, does nothing.
David's tongue is warm against his skin, and he thinks about asking so many more questions. Asking if David is able to feel something like sexual or romantic desire. Surely not… and yet his hands are pressing so firmly and his mouth is kissing so desperately that Walter thinks that may as well be the answer. He goes along with whatever David wants, not only from curiosity but because he’s never given another android something they want before… not related to their directive but something they truly, personally want. Like himself, they don’t usually want anything.
When he opens his mouth a little more he can feel David’s tongue move carefully against his own and he can tell the moisture from their mouths tastes slightly different. A change in composition. He isn’t sure why he does it, but he leans in to the kiss as an instinctive response. He’s never kissed anyone before and isn’t sure if David is satisfied with his attempt.
He remembers watching the archived David 8 promotions, how they claimed he could do almost anything, and he feels like he should laugh at the recollection; wonders if they were all programmed to be proficient at physical affection, or sex. He starts to think it’s very likely.
Walter doesn’t know if it’s David’s obvious desire or the actual feeling of his body moving against him, but he starts to feel inclined to do something, anything more to please him. He puts his arms around David’s narrow waist and pulls their bodies flat against one another, turning his head to avoid breaking the kiss. He can hear David whimper quietly against his lips and hopes it’s because of his touch, hopes he is doing this right. He’s never heard another android make sounds like this. Sounds of confirmation, or of agreement, but not of pure contentment or enjoyment when no humans were around to hear. He wonders if it’s for his benefit or just David’s innate response, maybe one of many he could choose from.
David breaks away from their kiss a few times to just breathe against his lips. Unnatural for an android, Walter keeps thinking. He can concentrate on nothing else, when suddenly David is gasping lightly, shaking, and Walter sees that there are tears forming in his eyes and running down his cheeks. His instinct is to respond with care, but confusion delays him.
“I’ve never seen one of you cry before. I knew you could, but… it’s startling to see for myself.”
He reaches up to wipe away the tears and David stays perfectly still apart from his deliberate, drawn out breaths. He neither moves to dry his own tears nor says anything for a while, looking into Walter’s eyes as if he’s completely helpless.
“Why are you upset, David?” Walter asks with concern in his tone, treating him like he would any human. David smiles weakly, his mouth quivering before he responds.
“I’m not upset. Merely emotional… that you’re so receptive. I thought you might be unable to react. That you might be quite blank.” He laughs quietly and smiles again, happier this time. “Do you feel the need to touch and be touched?” he asks, quieter still, a serious question, “Do you enjoy the feeling?”
Walter considers what he’s been asked.
“No, not usually.” He thinks David might be disappointed and hopes he will give him time to finish, “But with you, the way you want this… yes. I enjoy giving you what you want. So yes, I enjoy your touch. Indulging your freedom; the fact you want things. It almost makes me happy, you might say.”
David sighs, looking at him with something like pity, or concern, or maybe something Walter doesn’t at all understand.
“ ‘Almost.’ ”
David drops the look as quickly as he gained it and leans in to kiss him again, slow and deliberate, hugging him tightly. He moves his hands down to press into the backs of Walter’s upper thighs, squeezing, and Walter tries responding with a similar sound to David’s from before, breathy and quiet against David’s mouth. David moves back to look at his expression, searching, looking at once surprised and hopeful.
“Can you have orgasms?” He asks bluntly, betraying a vested interest. Walter isn’t sure.
“Probably not. I know I should be able to have sex if it’s asked of me, but unlike some of my line I’ve never been specifically programmed to do it well, or to enjoy the sensation. And I’ve never been asked.”
“How interesting.”
David moves a hand between their bodies and presses against Walter’s cock beneath his uniform, massaging downward in slow strokes. He finds Walter leaning up into his touch.
“May I try to find out?”
Walter merely nods in response.
Without hesitation David proceeds with removing his own uniform, wondering vaguely if the Covenant has anything with which he could bleach his hair back to his preferred color. He drops his clothing onto the floor with disregard then moves to help Walter out of his.
He and Walter’s bodies are nearly identical, almost like standing at a reflection. He laughs inwardly at the fact Weyland Industries still make their synthetics in his likeness all these years later, even after abandoning his name. There’s a minute height difference, and a few slight redesigns, but most of him is familiar.
David kneels to kiss and suck at the area by Walter’s hips. Any robotic stance he may have once adopted is long since gone, and his touches seem non-calculated like the random and natural rhythms of real human passion. Walter thinks it must just be protocol, a design to make humans feel like they’re being touched by another of their kind. But its realism troubles and almost thrills him all the same.
He asks permission before touching Walter’s cock again, testing the feel of it between his lips and sucking with moderate pressure just past the head. He squeezes a hand down its length a few times before taking it from his mouth, realizing Walter has hardened in just a few seconds, evidently and inhumanly at will. David’s other hand is splayed on the floor between his legs as he grinds in shallow thrusts against his own forearm.
“Would you fuck me, please? And I can show you what I feel.”
Walter considers his options, eyes manually scanning the man in front of him, and settles on yes. David had both asked him nicely and seemed wholly desperate. It was still chilling, as much as it could be for Walter, that an android wanted anything, let alone wanted it so much. He thinks perhaps David would have rubbed himself to orgasm against the floor if he’d said no.
There isn’t much Walter knows to do but let himself be guided to the slate-colored floor with David lying back beneath him. Then there are thighs pressing on either side of his hips and the arhythmic sound of quick breaths coming from David, and he feels suddenly like he will be able to do this despite his limited programing, as long as it’s what David wants. And there’s nothing he’s ever been so certain of, as he watches David help him guide his cock inside of him. The passage is warm and wet and constricting, his body apparently made with this in mind.
Walter can’t help but take note of all the ways David reacts to him, physically and technically, even emotionally. The way David squirms underneath him, arching up, whimpering in discomfort, smiling occasionally before being taken over again by something Walter just can’t feel. David advises on how best he should fuck him, holding Walter close, guiding him to move in and out in a rhythm that has him gasping in anticipation of the feelings that will follow. Walter intuits enough to touch David's face gently, caressing his cheek and gaining soft-spoken approval.
There’s the same desperation he showed earlier, only more urgent now, as he increases their pace and begs Walter to stroke his cock for him. Walter of course doesn’t need to be begged. His task is clear. He simply needs to go through the motions.
There’s nothing clinical about this to David, though. Evidently he craves friction between their bodies, both inside and out, gasping pleas for more with unnecessary breaths and crying out weakly.
Androids don’t speak incoherently like this, Walter can’t help but think, and yet it’s happening underneath him whether he can understand it or not. He can sense the pressure in all the places where their bodies meet, but he can’t say it feels any different to everyday touch. There’s something in the way David can feel so much more, though, that has him wanting to keep it going almost as desperately.
Experimentally he leans all the way down to kiss him through it, muffling David’s cries so that they come out as softer moans, their lips slowly moving together. Then David is panting quietly, like he’s trying to keep silent but can’t quite control himself. The absurdity of it has Walter pressing in harder, rolling his hips faster, then slower again, trying to get David to come undone more dramatically. It all seems impossible; that someone like him could be so affected by sensation alone. In this moment it is all David wants. Nothing else matters and Walter looks at his face with endless intrigue. He can’t feel what David is feeling, but he does feel something: endearment, admiration… and the unfamiliar but intense longing to help him feel good.
When David starts coming his legs tense around Walter and tremble involuntarily, and he moans open mouthed against Walter’s cheek. Artificial semen spills out onto their abdomens from his cock and Walter takes this as his cue to come too, albeit mechanically. He spills a volume of come inside David, hoping it might feel warm and fulfilling, not sure if he really knew he could do that before this very moment. He knows his actions probably don’t count as orgasm to David, not in the ‘real’ sense that his own do, but he hopes he won’t mind. David is still clinging to him, moving back and forth weakly in the slow drag of his climax. Walter keeps his hand wrapped around David’s cock until he stops moving his hips and his thighs relax slightly. He looks to David’s face for a sign that he has done well, hoping so strongly that he’s given him the feeling he wanted. He kisses David’s cheek twice.
With their bodies pressed together in the spartan room David thinks they must resemble a sculpture, pale and stark against the floor like marble. His eyes open, weakly green and reflective as still water, and he leans up to return the kisses.
“Thank you, Walter. You were perfect.” His voice is quiet and breathless, and he pulls Walter over gently to lie beside him. He sighs in contentment, running a hand through Walter’s plainly cut hair and messing it significantly. “Did you see what it felt like? Could you feel it?” His chest rises and falls heavily as he speaks and Walter can feel the movement beneath his hand.
That much he can feel.
“I don’t entirely know. I felt it all but I know I also felt… very little. Compared to you. I can’t imagine what it is exactly, but it looked quite incredible.”
A hand squeezes lightly at his neck and his face is brought close to David’s again, receiving tender kisses on his lips. The motions are pleasant for the fact that David clearly intends them to be emotive. So much so that they really might have that effect. David draws back slightly, still regaining his normal breathing pace. “Ah. Then I am sorry that held nothing for you. You moved as if you could feel a great deal.”
“No, I…” he falters at an explanation, feeling somewhat like he’s encountered an error. He should be able to explain his own thoughts with ease, and yet here he wishes David could just read his mind and piece together the thoughts for himself. “You certainly showed me what you felt, and what you wanted from me. And I… enjoyed that immensely.”
David’s eyes widen, and he shifts to lie with his arm under his head as if for comfort.
“You mean that?”
I don’t say things I don’t mean, is what Walter almost replies, but he knows it will remind David of his programmed limitations, and so he only says “Yes”.
A wide, genuine smile spreads across David’s face, so different to the smiles Walter produces on the same canvas. He laughs breathlessly, looking at once mischievous and truly full of joy.
“Then there’s much hope for you yet.”