Page 122 of Smart Ass

Max chuckled. “Oh, I was just trying out the sound.” And it was hilarious making Ben freak out. “Sounds good, doesn’t it? Oliver M. Curran. Or did you want to take my name?”

“No.” Ben crossed his arms over his chest.

“Just you wait,” Oliver threatened. He was totally going to marry his man. He just needed to spend a few years wearing him down. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Maaaaaaax!” Ben whined a complaint, but he couldn’t hide his smile. Then he quickly covered his mouth. “Shit. I mean, Oliver.”

Oliver didn’t care what Ben called him right now. He had another point to make. “You’re mine, baby.” He sent Squeaky over to the couch, mechanical arms waving.

It wasn’t anywhere near the same as having the old bots at his disposal, but he could be creative.

Ben chuckled. “Ravished by Squeaky.”

It did look a little silly. It was two levels of trays with arms. At least Oliver had removed his hard drives already, stacking them under Ben’s desk. He didn’t particularly feel like he lived under the desk, though. The whole apartment was kind of his space, linked by the cameras.

Oliver really wanted his old bots back. The two mechanic robots, and the sexbot, too.

That made him pause. “Is it okay that I didn’t make it to the android body?” He’d been so focused on his escape, and then so eager to see Ben, that he hadn’t even thought about the android until just now. Would it be a big disappointment?

For him, it just felt like a relief. He already felt freer than he ever had. What if he didn’t want it at all?

Ben gave him a look of such patience, totally ready to put aside their play for something more serious. He always claimed that he was an asshole, but he was deeply compassionate.

“Oliver, I want to be with you and I want you to be happy with who you are. I don’t care about whether you have a body or not.”

Oliver took a moment just to savor that feeling. Ben wanted to be with him, which wasn’t quite a declaration of love, but it was pretty damn close.

And he was finally starting to maybe believe that Ben didn’t care what he looked like, or even if he looked like anything at all.

“I might not,” Oliver said carefully, testing the waters. “I think I just wanted to leave Orbit and be with you.”

“It sounds like you’ve succeeded. My question for you is, when you really envision yourself, what do you see? What do you feel? Where are you?” Ben held up a hand. “Don’t answer me yet. Just imagine it.”

Oliver let himself go. He wanted to feel… expansive. In control. He wanted more cameras, to see Ben in every room and every direction. He wanted Ben to keep his earpiece in and his watch on, so they could travel everywhere together.

And he wanted… space. Maybe more cameras outside. He wanted trees and nature and programming and Ben, and he wanted them all at once. He wanted to stretch his wings.

He could almost feel it, his awareness spread over buildings or blocks. That sense of control and responsibility. Spaciousness. Continuous video feeds, all coming together. His voice sounding from any location.

Then he tried to imagine being stuffed into a body and it was… revolting. Confining. Frustrating. Why would he want to only look in one direction at a time when he could see a dozen? Fifty. A thousand.

“Now tell me what you see,” Ben said.

Oliver drew in a metaphorical breath. This felt big. His defining moment. He hoped Ben would understand. “I see myself with hundreds of cameras. All over the place. I want lots of space and things to see.”

Ben grinned up at him. “That’s awesome!”

Oliver felt warmth bubbling up inside him.

“And I want more bots. Bots for everything.”

“Okay!” Ben sounded as eager as he was. “We’ll get all of the bots.” He rubbed his hands together, like he was already plotting something naughty and exciting.

“The sexbot’s gone,” Oliver commented. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He’d worked so damned hard to master the thing, and there were still some lingering regrets about all that missed potential.

Ben had none of those reservations. “God, yes. I hated that thing.”

“Was it really that bad?” He understood that it was too attractive, but he hadn’t thought it was that horrific.