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Something was up with ND-5.
For one thing, he hadn't been there to greet her when Kay had returned to the Trailblazer that afternoon. He was always there, sitting in his copilot seat and working his underworld connections to find their next job. But Kay had searched the whole ship—admittedly not a long task—and ND simply wasn't there. Unusual, she thought, but no reason for panic. He'd probably just stepped out for an errand. But when he didn't answer his comlink, that was when the worry started to creep in. She frantically called every contact she could think of looking for him. No luck. It was like he'd dropped off the map. A million scenarios, each one more terrible and unlikely than the last, ran through her head. Maybe he'd been grabbed from the market to be put into an illegal droid fighting ring. Or maybe he had been carted off by a disgruntled gang boss and was currently being held in a dungeon.
Or, worst of all, maybe he was breaking up with her.
The twin suns of Tatooine were sinking behind the horizon when he finally returned, his footsteps echoing heavily on the ramp into the cargo bay. He didn't even give her an explanation for his disappearance—just made some excuse about needing to install a few software updates before clomping to his charging station for the rest of the night.
Not that he needed to explain himself to her, Kay thought as she aggressively pulled back the covers of her bunk and crawled in. He didn't belong to her after all. He didn't belong to anyone, and she supposed that meant he was entitled to a few secrets.
That didn't mean it didn't gnaw at her as she stared at the dark ceiling, distractedly scratching Nix under his feelers as the merqaal purred and chirped happily. It wasn't even that ND hadn't told her where he had been—though she was curious. No, what made her upset was that she had been scared, scared of losing him again. But admitting that to herself meant admitting how much he meant to her and that was uncomfortable. It was much easier just to be mad at him instead. So the next morning, she brushed past him to make her caf without so much as a perfunctory hello. ND seemed a little surprised, his head swiveling to follow her.
"Do you have a job today?" he asked, watching her with his unblinking photoreceptors. Kay could tell he was trying to sound casual, but the voice coming from his vocabulator was strangely stiff.
"I'll find something," Kay said coolly. She stood on tiptoe as she reached for the bag of caf grounds on the galley's highest shelf. But before she could get it, ND was suddenly there over her shoulder. He could be surprisingly quiet when he wanted to. He was so close now that the long, green duster he always wore brushed against her. He picked up the bag from the shelf, bringing it down to her.
Kay plucked the caf from his hand. "Thanks."
She had intended for the word to sound begrudging, but the effect was ruined by the breathless quality that had crept into her voice. Before she could stop herself, she was leaning back against him, letting him wrap his arms around her. His coat came around them both, a barrier to block out the rest of the world. The caf had been forgotten. Instead, Kay let her eyes drift closed as she soaked in the solid, reassuring feeling of his body.
He was okay. He was still here. This wasn't the The Revelator all over again.
"You are upset," ND said simply, his hands tracing soothing patterns down her arms to her hips. Instinctively, she pressed back into him.
"Yeah, kinda."
"Because I was late?"
"Because you were gone, Endee. And you weren't answering your comms. You could have been—" she was betrayed by a hitch in her breath as one of his hands came up to cup a breast—"could have been crushed by a herd of wild banthas for all I knew."
"My… task took longer than anticipated."
Task. He was being intentionally vague. Not that she cared, she told herself.
"Just—leave a note next time."
His faceplate nuzzled into the crook of her neck, his vocoder close to her ear. "I will."
Kay wondered vaguely if he was using his tactical programming to disarm her. If he was, it was working, her traitorous body warming under his touch.
"I'm still mad at you," she grumbled. But she was pliant under his hands as ND carefully bent her over the counter and slipped a hand between her thighs.
"Perhaps I can make it up to you," he murmured, his low voice sending a shiver through her as his fingertips traced the hem of her soft sleep shorts. She pushed back against him, annoyed at how easily he unraveled her.
"You'd better."
Kay hated to admit it, but his fingers were already making a compelling argument for reconciliation.
The ship was warm, the suns shining through the transparisteel canopy, heating it like a greenhouse. ND wasted no time in stripping her down to bare skin. All except for her bra—while he had no trouble with the rest of her clothing, his blunt finger digits simply weren't dexterous enough for the delicate clasp.
Notably, his coat remained on.
She had seen him without it a few times since the incident with the power core, but only for maintenance. He had yet to remove it during their more… intimate moments, and Kay didn't ask. She figured it was a personal choice, that he would take it off when he was ready. She suspected that this transition, from partners into something more, was harder for him than it was for her. He had been built to be a soldier, as he seemed so fond of reminding her. Without his restraining bolt, he was still learning what his body could do beyond infiltrate and terminate.
And yet he seemed to be doing just fine now as he slipped another finger inside of her, stretching and stroking her in slow, smooth motions.
"You're—hah—getting good at this," Kay panted, bracing herself on her elbows as she arched into his touch.
"As your partner, it is my responsibility to ensure that all of our jobs finish in a… satisfactory manner," ND replied evenly, his low voice sending a rush of excitement down her spine.
"Satisfactory finish, huh?" She smiled, looking back to arch an eyebrow at him over her shoulder. "Endee, is that a sex joke?"
"Yes." He sounded immensely pleased with himself. "And based on your vital signs, I believe that finish is not far off."
Damn him and those biosensors. Kay wanted to make some clever retort, but his fingertips curled ever so slightly and suddenly she was seeing stars despite the fact that the Trailblazer was firmly on the ground.
This physical side of their relationship was still new and evolving, but ND had applied his tactician's processor to the task with gusto. He had been quick to work out what she liked and didn't like, to find those parts of her that were the most responsive to his touch. If anything, the hardest part had been getting him to slow down. But he didn't seem interested in going slow today, not with the way his other hand reached around to draw circles over her clit. If anything, he would have her coming around his fingers in record time.
Kay only wished she could figure him out so easily.
"I'm… sorry that I made you worry yesterday," he said.
"Oh." An apology. Nice, but a little unexpected. "I wasn't worried," Kay lied. "Just concerned."
Kay knew without looking that he was cocking his head at her. He did it so often that she knew the gesture by sound alone. "Those words mean the same thing, Kay."
"No, they don't." Concerned sounded grown up. Cool. Professional. Worried sounded like she'd worn a track in the cargo bay by pacing in nervous circles for two and half hours (which she had, but ND didn't need to know that).
"I heard you had half the Hutts on Tatooine looking for me." Kay didn't think he needed to sound quite so smug about it. Or maybe he was smug because he could tell she was close, so painfully close now as his fingers continued their relentless pace. Kay's breaths turned to soft sighs as she felt the anticipation building in every muscle. It was similar to the exhilaration she felt when she stood on the edge of a chasm with her grapple hook, preparing to jump and hoping she landed safely on the other side.
"C-can we talk about this a little later, buddy?" she managed, her eyes squeezing shut of their own accord. It was getting very hard to concentrate on the words.
"Would you like to know where I was?"
Just a little bit more and she would be there.
"S-sure, Endee."
Kay gasped as all at once he pulled out of her, leaving her panting and trembling against the counter. The dampness between her legs suddenly felt very cool, exposed to the air of the ship. It made her shiver.
Damn that droid. She should have told him to keep his secrets to himself.
She could feel him close behind her still, his hand drifting up to rest on the curve of her ass. His fingers were still wet. "I was getting something for you," he said. But Kay was only half paying attention. She was still reeling from his sudden withdrawal, the emptiness between her thighs aching to be filled again.
"For me?"
"Would you like it to be a surprise?"
She managed a weak laugh, laying her cheek against the cool countertop. "Sure, Endee. Surprise me."
Behind her she heard the soft, now-familiar sound of hydraulics. Then a soft touch at her entrance. But it wasn't ND's fingers—those were cool and unyielding. This was thick and firm, warm and a little bit soft. It felt an awful lot like—
"Endee?"
He couldn't smile, but she could hear a lift of amusement in his voice. "An aftermarket upgrade."
Suddenly the pieces fell into place. "So this is what you were doing yesterday." Kay let out a short laugh. Then she was hit by a horrifying thought. "You didn't go to the Jawas, did you?"
ND scoffed. "I'm not an idiot, Kay. My contact is a professional droid modder."
Instead of being reassured, Kay had a second, even more horrifying thought. "Please tell me Gedeek didn't help you with this."
She felt ND's hands on her hips now, holding her in place. "He did not."
That was a relief. Kay would have never lived down the embarrassment of her childhood friend fitting her droid boyfriend with a brand new cock. But embarrassment was the last thing on her mind at the moment as she felt ND's grip on her tighten just a fraction as he pressed against her.
"I have never done this before," he said. His tone was even, but Kay thought she heard a nervous whir from his processor. "If you experience any discomfort, please tell me and I will stop."
"I will," Kay promised, feeling a flutter of anticipation in her stomach.
He had already prepared her with his fingers, but the stretch as he pushed into her was exquisite. Kay gripped the edge of the countertop, digging in as a soft sigh escaped her lips. But as surprising as the burst of sensation was, it was nothing compared to the long string of binary coming from behind her. ND was making sounds she hadn't even known he was capable of.
"Okay there, buddy?" Kay asked with a little laugh. She reached back to give his thigh an encouraging pat. "Guessing your 'upgrade' came with some new sensors?"
The strangled sound from his vocoder was all the confirmation she needed. She bit back a smile as she tightened her core, her walls squeezing around him. "How's it feel?"
"Ah." His voice now had a rough quality to it that hadn't been there before. "It is… not unpleasant."
Not unpleasant. From anyone else it would have seemed vaguely insulting. But Kay knew ND well enough by now to know that "not unpleasant" was the droid equivalent of mind-blowing.
"I have decreased sensitivity to 80 percent," he continued, sounding very breathless for a being that didn't breathe. "It seems… prudent during this testing phase."
Kay chuckled softly. "You feel good too, Endee."
Very, very good.
"You are comfortable?" ND asked, a touch of concern on his voice. "My contact advised me that, contrary to popular belief, larger is not always better. She suggested that this size might be a good fit."
Whoever his droid modder was, Kay would have to thank her. Any larger and Kay was sure she'd have been split in half. As it was, they had reached the perfect border between enough and too much. But she was definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
"Let's just say it's 'not unpleasant'," Kay teased.
Her body had adjusted to the thickness, and now she was left craving more of him. Without being able to see him, she could only guess at the length. She tried to push back against him, to see how much more of him waited for her, but his grip on her hips held her firmly in place. His durasteel frame didn't move even a millimeter.
"Careful, Kay," he chided. It was the same voice he used when she accidentally piloted the Trailblazer into debris in orbit. So why did it have her heart racing now?
"Why? Don't think I can take it?" It was getting difficult to keep the whine out of her voice. She squeezed her thighs together, desperate for any kind of relief. She heard the quiet hiss of actuators as he leaned over her back. Then she felt a touch of cool metal between her shoulder blades and a soft spark of static that felt so strangely like a kiss. Her skin tingled in its wake.
"Ask me nicely, Kay," rumbled ND's voice close to her ear, "and I'll give it to you."
Kay couldn't help the short, surprised laugh that escaped her lips. She turned her head to look over her shoulder at him in shock.
"Endee!" she gasped, a smile curling her lips. "What the hell was that?"
She could feel his body warming behind her, a sure sign that his processor was working extra hard. "I have been writing new romance subroutines with my spare computing capacity," he admitted. His voice sounded almost bashful, and Kay was certain that if he had had the ability, he would have been blushing. She was beginning to suspect he had chosen this position specifically to avoid having to hold eye contact. "I now have a function for 'dirty talk'. Did you—" he paused hesitantly—"like it?"
Based on the way Kay's clit was now throbbing with need, she was pretty sure she knew the answer. "Uh, yeah. Yeah. I did."
Eloquent as always, Vess, she chided herself.
He pushed a little further in, just a centimeter. His movements were so exact, Kay probably could have used a spanner to confirm the distance.
"Then ask me," he murmured, all trace of embarrassment now gone from his modulated voice. One of his hands came up and curled into the hair cropped shorter at the back of her head. Kay let out a soft gasp as he pulled ever so gently. "Ask me to fuck you."
Her legs were trembling beneath her now like a speeder ready to come apart at the struts. A drop of arousal slowly slipped down the inside of her thigh. She was completely at his mercy.
"Please, Endee," she whispered, the desperate ache between her thighs overriding any reservations she might have had. "Please fuck me."
His voice sounded like a smirk in the way only he could manage. "If you insist."
In one swift thrust he was all the way inside of her and she let out a quiet gasp of surprise. It was overwhelming and incredible all at once. She felt his hand on her arm, the gentle squeeze a silent question: "are you okay"? She turned her head to press a kiss to his fingers: "okay."
He let her catch her breath for a moment before slowly withdrawing, letting her feel every inch of this part of him she'd never even seen. He was nearly all the way out of her when he plunged in again, metal hips hitting her ass. Kay let out a soft moan in response, her eyes fluttering shut to block out everything but this new sensation.
"That's good, Endee." Her voice turned into a groan as he thrust again. "You feel good."
His hand curled in her hair again, soft and caressing. She was always surprised by how gentle his hands could be when he touched her hair, her skin, her lips. He might have been created to be a soldier, but he had made himself into so much more: a partner, a friend, a lover. Being here with him here, in their home, with no death mark over her head and the sunlight pouring in, Kay felt safe and secure in a way she hadn't been able to feel for a very long time. So she allowed herself to sink into the waves of sensation, forgetting everything except the next breath as they moved together.
Kay could feel her release building in her body, her muscles winding tighter with every stroke of his cock inside of her. The Trailblazer was filled with the sound of her voice as each thrust dragged moans of pleasure from her throat. He took her higher and higher until there was nothing left to do except jump.
The tension in her body snapped, a sigh of relief escaping her lips as warm pleasure rippled over her. Her legs trembled and finally gave out, but she felt strong arms holding her up. ND lifted her off her feet as though she weighed nothing, and she let her head rest against the collar of his coat as he carried her to the acceleration couch.
Her limbs felt pleasantly heavy as he set her down beside him. She snuggled into his side, enjoying the steady warmth he emitted. His metal body was rarely cold. The electrical currents coursing through his wires and circuits kept him a pleasant temperature at most times. If anything, overheating was the primary concern whenever they explored each other like this. Kay had been terrified the first time she'd accidentally put him in stasis by working his sensory circuit board too hard. Even now, she could hear the whirring of his cooling system as she rested her cheek against his chest. The warm air blowing from his exhaust fan almost felt like breath, tickling across her skin as she idly traced the planes and joints of his abdomen.
Here, bathed in yellow sunshine, she finally got her first look as his "upgrade". It was a little strange to see something in the normally smooth space between his legs. Exciting, certainly, but strange nonetheless. She ran a fingertip along the seam in his metal where the appendage must have been tucked away before. ND's whole frame gave a little quiver beneath her touch and she grinned in delight at this new discovery.
"Was that a shiver?"
"I do not shiver," ND replied matter-of-factly. "My software is still adjusting to the new tactile sensors."
Kay nodded with mock gravity. "Oh, I see. So if I do this—" she ran her finger up his new length, from base to tip, drawing another tremor from him—"that's just a glitch in your software?"
"Technically, I think almost everything we do together counts as a glitch in my software."
His tone was teasing and Kay smiled as she leaned her head against him again.
"How much did you spend on this anyway?" she asked. "I'm sure it wasn't exactly legal."
"I would prefer not to discuss the specifics," ND replied. (Kay took that to mean "expensive.") "I assumed that it would be a good investment… for the future of our relationship."
Despite the dull, satisfied ache throughout her body, his words sparked a nagging worry at the back of Kay's mind. She struggled to coalesce the feeling into words.
"You didn't have to do this for me," she said carefully. "You know that, right?"
She heard the soft hum of his processor. She knew he was analyzing her words, the tone of her voice, even her expressions.
"You… didn't enjoy it?" he ventured cautiously.
"No, no. It's not that. It's just…" Kay turned under his arm to look at his face, leaning on his chest piece. "I enjoy all the ways of being with you, Endee. I like you because of who you are, not in spite of it."
There was a quizzical tilt to his head, and Kay could tell by the way he looked at her that he didn't fully understand. How could she explain it? Her own thoughts and feelings were like a Jawa's junkshop, bits and pieces of this and that all over the place. She rested her chin on his chest as she tried to build them into something coherent.
"Like how you always wear your coat when we're together," she began tentatively, touching the soft fabric draped around them, "and now the aftermarket parts and the new subroutines."
"You said you liked—"
"I did! I mean, I do." Kay felt a flash of frustration, not with him but with herself. She knew she wasn't doing a good job of explaining. Why was it so hard to say what she meant? The words always seemed to get jumbled up on their way out of her mouth. "I had a great time with you, just like I always do. I just worry—" she bit her lip, hesitating—"I don't want you to feel like you need to try to seem more human for this to work."
A beat of silence. Then, "Ah."
Such a simple response. Not even a word, just a thoughtful sound, but it seemed to contain so much. Kay could hear the soft hum of ND's internal components like a pulse as he considered her words.
"I understand your concern," ND said at last. Barely a minute had passed, but Kay knew that his overpowered processor must have run hundreds of thousands of operations in that time. His metal heated beneath her, almost too warm to touch, a sure sign that he was running through vast amounts of code. Kay didn't know what being a droid was like, but she knew that ND wasn't just a computer. Somewhere in his complicated web of functions and subroutines he felt things: sorrow, regret, contentment, desire. Whatever he was accessing now was deep and complex.
"I wish to be a good partner to you, but—" he held up a three-fingered hand and turned it as if examining it, servos clicking as he flexed the digits—"I was not programmed for this purpose. It makes it… difficult."
Kay snorted softly at that. She traced circles around the light in his chest with her fingertip. "If it makes you feel better, I wasn't exactly programmed for this either. I always thought it would just be me and Nix." She playfully rapped her knuckles against him, the titanium alloy making a hollow sound beneath her fingers. "Falling for my grumpy, bossy copilot wasn't really part of the plan."
"All of the information I can access about romance pertains to organics," ND continued. "There is no research, no precedent for what a relationship like ours should look like."
Kay nodded. She'd had similar thoughts before. She didn't know anything about being in a relationship of any kind, much less one as unusual—and of as dubious legality—as theirs. But Kay had never been once to back down from something just because it seemed hard… or illegal. She had chosen ND, and he had chosen her. That was what mattered.
"Then I guess we just have to figure that out for ourselves," she said with a small smile. She slid into his lap, swinging a leg over his hips to straddle his thighs. "Maybe that's part of the fun."
Fresh desire bloomed inside of her as her hands traced down the articulation of his waist, so reminiscent of abdominal muscles. But not just a desire to feel pleasure, but to give it. She wanted to unravel him, to have him at her mercy the way he'd held her at his.
"May I?" she asked, gesturing to his coat. Then quickly she added, "You can say no."
He hesitated for a moment, photoreceptors staring. Then his head bobbed in a single, slow nod.
"It is all right if it is you."
Kay could feel her heart racing in her chest as she carefully slipped the coat off of his arms. ND was a large droid, but he seemed so much slimmer without the bulk of the heavy duster. Kay carefully ran her hands over his wide shoulder joints, getting used to this new view.
"Is it strange?" ND asked, taking one of her hands in his.
"A little," Kay admitted, threading her fingers through his as best she could despite the mismatched number of digits. "But I like the way you look. You're… handsome."
He made a skeptical sound. "I look like every other BX series Commando droid."
Kay guided their clasped hands to her chest, pressing his palm over her heart.
"Not to me," she whispered with a small shake of her head. "You look like you, Endee."
He stared at her for a moment. Then he leaned forward, his faceplate tipping to brush against her mouth. There was that same little jolt of static again, a sharp burst against her lips.
"Y'know," Kay murmured, her voice turning coy, "it's only really an upgrade if we both enjoy it." Her palms skated across the hard planes of his body, feeling every seam and rivet. "So what did you think? Did you like being inside of me?"
"It was—" he made an inarticulate sound as she reached between their thighs and began to stroke him.
"Not unpleasant?" Kay supplied innocently as her hand worked his new sensors.
"Enj-joyable." A small vocal glitch interrupted the word.
Kay smiled down at him, lifting herself onto her knees and guiding him into place against her. But she didn't sink onto him just yet, keeping herself tantalizingly out of reach for now. Her hand continued its teasing touch.
"Then how about you dial that sensitivity up to 100, and we see how long it takes me to make you reboot?"
Based on the warmth she could already feel rolling off of him, she suspected it wouldn't be long. Running so many new programs and processing so many new inputs took a lot of computing power. He was probably already nearing the limits of his bandwidth.
"I would… like that, Kay," he said softly.
That was pretty good. For a droid, that was about as close to begging as one could expect. But Kay knew ND. She knew he could do better.
Flashing him a sly smile, she slipped a hand inside the hole in his chest. She was no droidsmith, but she'd come a long way since nearly plugging in his power core upside down. With practiced precision, her fingers found the circuit board that connected the array of sensory receptors across his body. Gently, she swiped a thumb over its grease-slick surface, jostling the bundles of wires snaking out of it. Beneath her, ND's language settings slipped back into binary and he let out a long series of groans, beeps, and whistles. Now that she knew he could make those noises, she made it her personal mission to coax them out of him as many times as possible.
"Ask me nicely, Endee," she purred as she put her dexterous slicer fingers to good use, teasing each connection one at a time until his photoreceptors were flickering. His hands came up to her waist, his digits so long that they wrapped all the way around her. She knew how strong he was firsthand—after all, he had once lifted her completely off the ground using only one hand as if she weighed no more than Nix—but his touch was gentle. He was always so careful with her.
"Please, Kay," he murmured, his capacity for Basic returned. His voice was tight, as if every word took effort. "Please."
She smiled down at him, bending her head to place a gentle kiss to his faceplate.
"If you insist."