Tangible (Yandere Elijah Kamski x Reader)

Two

The rumble of the engine filled the interior of the moving van. In the backseat were the pair of siblings, one dozing off with headphones on, and the other busily typing away on his laptop.

The excitement of having just graduated was still buzzing around Eli's head, but he knew that he needed to put all of his efforts into making the move work out for all of them. It had taken half a year to convince their mother to pick up everything and move to a new city.

Ironically, you had also helped to convince her.

"So what are you calling this thing again? Something... Life?" Gavin piped up, having somehow jolted himself awake, sitting upright and pulling the headphones off.

"CyberLife." The still-taller brother didn't look away from the screen.

".... what are you working on now?"

"--uhhhh--" The laptop was shut immediately, pink dusting his cheeks before he could stop it. "...... um... I... was..."

"Mom, I think Elijah's trying to look up some weird cyber-porn shit," Gavin teased, snickering when he earned himself a punch on the arm.

"Nice try, Gav," she replied from the passenger seat. "Between the two of you, you'd be the one to look that up, not Elijah."

"Oh, come on!!" Properly sulking now, gray eyes glared out the window as his brother opened the laptop again. "... seriously, what are you working on?"

[Elijah is using my voice to test how an android might appear physically with it.]

Your words came right out of the laptop speakers; Eli had long ago stopped trying to shut devices off when he realized you could remind him to charge them. Plus he enjoyed having you around, speaking from any electronic device you could access.

Scooting closer, both teens gazed at the screen. There was no visual prototype of an android, not yet, but there was a blank, blue screen. "I think she needs a face, dude," Gav piped up.

"Ha ha, very funny. Do you have any idea how tough it is to actually create someone who looks like they'd have that particular voice? Especially when Vi's been around for awhile?"

"No, but you're the genius," was the response. Sighing and crossing his arms, the shorter sibling added, "The longer this goes on, the more you turn into Tony Stark. If you end up a billionaire, I'm gonna be pissed."

"Not too sure I wanna be Iron Man, but okay."

[Are you going to call me JARVIS, Gavin?]

Both males sat bolt upright, staring at the laptop. Nothing had appeared, no, but that wasn't the concern.

You were laughing.

[ 01010110 01001001 ]

"Hey, Eli. You're getting money for this shit, right?"

Blinking behind his glasses, Elijah nodded. "Yeah, I get grant money every year. As long as I can show that I've made progress and stuff, I mean. Why?"

With a wide, vague gesture to the lot, Gavin gave his brother a pointed look. "This is where you're building CyberLife? It's a shithole."

"Look, it was cheap, okay? Damn. They don't consider me an adult yet, surprise surprise. But give me five years and this shithole's gonna be the most advanced shithole you'll ever see."

Groaning, the younger of the two rubbed his face. "I'm not as smart as you, man. I'd help if I could, though, honest. I'm just..."

"I get it." Eli crossed his arms, watching the construction from the other side of the fence. It was all being paid for by Colbridge, on the expectation that Elijah managed to create an android as he wanted to. "We literally dropped everything to move to fucking Michigan. I know. You think I don't have that weighing me down already?"