Annihilation

The Art of Feeling

Genesis raised her brows at A's unexpected surprise. He had come forth with a whole bouquet of actual flowers- which were hard to come by- and held them out towards her as soon as she walked out of her bedroom door.

She carefully took the flowers and inhaled them, marveling at the beautiful bright color.

"These are what humans call 'roses'. Back then it was customary for a man to gift a woman flowers. It was said to make women happy."

A had a plan to get Genesis's mind off of her friend and forget the whole thing as much as possible. He was going to woo her, and hope that she would slowly let go of her eagerness to be around Cerci. He only wondered if she would catch on.

Genesis lifted her gaze up at him, smothering the lower half of her face in the flowers as she tried to giggle as quietly as she could.

"That's very nice of you. But you didn't have to do this. I know you're just trying to be nice after..." her face started to slowly fall, but A immediately cut in.

"Genesis. There is a place I want to show you, if you will allow me to."

That seemed to have worked, and her curiosity peaked as her eyes glistened with excitement. A was momentarily caught off guard by how sweet she looked, and it caused him to internally struggle with continuing forward.

"It is a bit far from here, my dear. I promise it is worth it."

Genesis's past worries and insecurities about A seemed to vanish in an instant as she nodded rather happily. She felt as if her dreams were finally coming to life and brought the bouquet inside her room.

"Are you sure? As far as I know you said you couldn't."

A could tell he was being teased, and a somewhat long forgotten playfulness rose up inside him. He rested against her doorframe, looking down at the blushing woman as she shyly stared back at him.

"It does not hurt to try something new. I can even show you quite a few things I have stored down here." He tapped his crotch, causing Genesis's eyes to widen. She quickly whirled away and immediately slid the door shut before her face betrayed every emotion she was feeling.

A wide smile creeped upon her face, and she quickly responded, "I'll be out in a bit!" before disappearing into her closet. A stood where he last was, a little taken aback by how abruptly she had vanished. He wondered if he had come off too strong and made his way over to the kitchen.

Things seemed a lot neater than before, and he even noticed Genesis had fully stocked up on her energy ball. She most likely did it for him, so he could come back and recharge whenever he dropped by. He felt upset he hadn't noticed it before.

The small, familiar squeak of an animal captured the robot's attention, and he turned in time to see his pet Chun scraping at a window nearby. The big rat seemed eager to get back outside, as if he was fed up with being indoors all the time. A didn't know whether he should open the window or not. He felt if he did, he would never see his furry friend again. Somehow, that brought the machine to feel some type of way he did not like.

It was a foreign feeling. An emotion he didn't want his system to learn of or get familiar with.... but it was something he could not ignore.

A carefully walked towards Chun, who now turned to look up at him with pleading, large eyes. The robot knelt down, carefully caressing the top of the rat's head with the side of his finger as he looked outside. There were stairs and plenty of space for the animal to safely make it back down- but it made him uncomfortable.

"Are you sure?" A questioned the little being, who placed a tiny paw on his finger, as if letting him know his response.

Almost trembling, the robot stood up and pressed a small digital pad next to the window. It deactivated the invisible force field shielding the inside from the outside, and thus allowing Chun to finally be free.

As A watched his friend hop onto the outer world and vanish down an alley below, whatever he was feeling began to grow more prominent. His armor kept getting heavier and heavier, until he had to sit down to get a hold of himself.

A quickly did an internal scan, trying to find what was going on so he could fix it. He failed to uncover anything, however, and was close to walking out the door to search for Chun until he noticed her.

"How do I look?"

It was Genesis, wearing a beautiful purple dress that glistened underneath the lights above them. Despite how simple it was as well as her hair and makeup, he couldn't help but notice just how brightly she glowed. Her light pink lips stretched out into a smile, expressing so much kindness and sincerity. A slowly started to realize exactly what was happening to him.

It was like a disease that had been growing the last couple of weeks and was starting to cloud his vision. He finally knew why Genesis had taken him in so easily despite him thinking it was rather stupid and not well thought out. He knew why he felt protective of her and Chun- why he felt like he was being dismantled from the inside when he freed him and how complete he suddenly became gazing upon her.

Emotions. A was starting to feel. And it wasn't just anger anymore. It was other ones- happiness, sadness...love?

"You look like you have descended from the heavens," The robot finally responded as he approached the woman, gently offering her his arm. The two stared at each other for a short instance, but to them it felt like ages.

Words were spoken without anything being said, and the two unlikely pair exited the apartment.