Bearer of Names

“Seriously though,” she began, tilting her head back to look at Ada upside-down, “I’m glad you're taking good care of yourself. The ping times between your brain and limbs mean your wiring’s in good condition, your processor temps are nice and low, no slowdowns or loose joints or anything.”

“As much as I’d like to have you take me apart every few days, I’ve… made peace with still needing to maintain myself.” She met Cherise’s gaze, her own eyes soft and wistful, a warm, emotional smile playing across her lips. “You’re partially to thank for that, you know.”

“Sure helps to have such a pretty girl doing the maintaining, huh?” Ada rolled her eyes, shoving one padded paw over the other cat’s citrus-shaded snout. Cherise flailed her arms a bit, almost losing balance in her reclined chair, giggling muffled until she could pry herself free.

“This ‘s gotta be easier than going to a doctor, right? That’s one actual improvement, is you don’t gotta wait for an appointment and then wait for test results and then wait for everything to heal.”

“Augh, don’t I know it. I’ve seen enough doctors for all nine lifetimes, at this point; I think I’d be sick of them even if they’d somehow miraculously fixed everything wrong with my old self.” Cherise raised an eyebrow at her again, this time less amused and more chiding. “...My old body,” she corrected herself.

“There we go.” She planted a peck on the back of Ada’s hand, now resting on her shoulder.

“Honestly, all the waiting wasn’t even the worst part,” the nyandroid continued. “It was the fact that after all that waiting, they sometimes didn’t even find anything.You we're lucky if they believed you that there was even a problem to begin with.” Cherise glanced up again as Ada sighed, frustration evidently fresher than she’d like it to be. Her shoulders sagged; if she had anything to rest an elbow on, it was clear she’d be resting her cheek on one paw.

“At least now you got all these sensors to just tell you which pieces are acting up.”

“Yeah… It was always easiest when the problem was just there, you know? Visible. Not something like chronic pain, that could literally be hiding anywhere, even in my head.” She grimaced. “Like, going to the dentist was always fine, because they could just look at my teeth, and if there was a problem, they could see it. The absolute most they’d have to do was an x-ray, and then that let them see it! Problem solved! It was just… easier than anything else.”

“Huh.” Cherise cocked her head to one side. “D’you… you still need dental checkups?”

“Hm?”

“Since you still eat and everything.”

“Oh! Um…” She cupped her chin with her free paw. “They certainly need less care than they used to. It’s not like I can develop cavities anymore, or get food poisoning. They did give me this mouth spray with silver in it, since silver-treated metal kills bacteria.”

“You still digest stuff though, right? Your body makes that glowy blue multipurpose goop.”

“It does, but that works the same as any other lubricant or coolant. As long as there’s some iodine mixed in when I—we,” she corrected herself, preemptively petting her partner, “replace it, I don’t get gummed up with. Like. Algae.” Her face curled with disgust, a shiver that could be measured in a precise number of Hertz rolling through her.

“Do you want me to take a look? Make sure nothing’s getting worn down?”

“I doubt you’ll find anything, but I wouldn’t say no to you poking around some more…”

Cherise let out a cocky little “heh” as she hopped out of her chair and clambered back on, kneeling in the seat to bring herself to Adelaide’s lofty eye level. She planted a kiss on her pillowy lips, hearing the faint whirring of her fans as a touch of color rose on her own cheeks.

“Open wide~.”

Ada obliged, offering a playful “ahhh” as she lolled out her tongue for Cherise’s expert eyes. Her mouth was faintly lit from within, the perfect surface of her marble-white teeth cast in faint azure from the coolant that flowed through hundreds of thousands of artificial capillaries. Each of them came to a uniform, crisp point, without a single chip, crack, or scuff in sight; as Cherise guided her jaw shut with a paw gently raised to her chin, she saw that they were cut to fit together nigh-perfectly, meshing together like the teeth of a gear, with just enough space between them not to grind.

The robot’s tongue was articulated like a metal hose, powered by opposing contractible cables beneath dozens of delicate, thin plates linked together for flexibility. It was nothing like Cherise’s own tongue, perfectly, almost hypnotically smooth, and shiny from the polish of the metal rather than from spit-slickness. When she looked close, she could see Adelaide’s digital analogues for taste buds: electrodes the size of a pin’s head dotted the metal like the magnetic snaps of a socket less charger, measuring the flow of electricity through whatever Ada ate to check for saltiness, acidity, and alkalinity. The only thing they couldn’t sense was sweetness, but the lack of current was itself a sign of sugar. From what Ada said about the throat spray, the current probably helped kick off more silver ions, giving her a self-cleaning mechanism that sounded as potent as natural saliva! She blushed as she imagined Ada licking her wounds after a particularly rough night in bed…

“So, uh,” she blurted out, pulling herself back to reality, “what’re these… made of?”

“They’re a high-hardness ceramic! You can kinda see just from looking around in there that they went all-out trying new materials with me,” she bashfully added.

“Wrow…” Cherise gingerly reached a digit into Ada’s maw, tracing a pawpad along the edge of one of her teeth. She looked utterly engrossed, the way she always did when she had the opportunity to fiddle with something complex and unfamiliar (and shiny)... though Ada noticed that her eyes were shiftier than they usually were. While normally, the organic catgirl forgot to make eye contact while rifling through her mechanical innards out of sheer excitement, right now it felt like she was actively avoiding meeting Ada’s gaze. Instead of even glancing six inches up to look her in the eye, she looked downward whenever her eyes wandered; ironic, since she was acting almost like she was politely looking away as someone changed their clothes in front of her. Ada recognized this tendency of hers, too. It was exactly like when she’d huff and turn away, hiding the red tint beneath her fur from herself or from Nutmeg whenever she wanted to save face.

“Is something the matter, sweetheart?” she cooed, setting Cherise’ ears straight upright. Their eyes finally connected, and Adelaide saw plain as day what she already knew.

“Ah, ha, you know how I am when I get a closer look at your systems,” she excused herself.

“Oh?” Ada continued. “Would you like to hear the specs, then? Since you seem so interested.”

“Uh… sure, babe.” Her ears flattened slightly, and her eyes began to flee from Ada’s again.

“In addition to their coating scoring greater than nine on the Mohs’ Hardness Scale,” she began, speaking unimpeded through her speakers even with Cherise’s hand in her mouth, “which, by the way, means that a diamond-tipped machining tool was needed to cut and form them…”

With every word, she watched as her girlfriend’s shoulders climbed higher and higher around her cheeks, shrinking away in the vain hope of being even a tiny bit less transparent.

“...They have a value of about 45 on the Rockwell Hardness C Scale!” She adjusted her jaw so that the tip of one digit was riiiiight between her upper and lower canines, barely grazing the fur. “Which places their strength at around that of steel, and holds an edge just as well~.” She watched the poor thing fixate on her fingertip, stock-still, fur fluffing out with anticipation.

“Would you like to know the force ratings for the servos that operate my jaw?” With that, Cherise yanked her hand back, clutching it to her chest as though she was afraid Ada might snatch something from her.

“I, uh—wow,” she stammered, eyes widening as Adelaide leaned down until the two cats were nose-to-nose.

“Impressed yet~?”

“...Maybe.”

“You’re not as coy as you think you are, you know.”

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?” She crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks, either unaware that it made her reddened face even more obvious, or simply hoping that Ada wouldn’t notice.

“I can tell you want more than just statistics, dear,” she purred. “I think you’d like a demonstration.” Cherise was silent, looking almost like she was trying to win a staring contest. Ada, of course, had no need to blink first. “You don’t have to say it out loud… I know it’s hard for you to ask for things. It’s usually a competition, at least when it comes to you and Nutmeg.” She slid down from the exam table, standing over Cherise, resting her paws on her knees—half to remain at eye level, half to emphasize just how much she towered over her.

“So I won’t make you. You can just let me show it to you. Firsthand.” She reached out to tilt Cherise’s chin up, gently forcing her to face her. She wanted to keep her from hiding while she gave permission, if not a confession. “How does that sound?”

Cherise hemmed, almost whining, while she considered it. Her body was tense; she was clearly holding her breath. Eventually, she relented. She didn’t even nod. She simply let her shoulders down and tilted her head to the side, stretching out her neck for Adelaide to do with as she pleased.

“That’s a good girl,” she reassured her, voice dripping with honey.

Although Ada didn’t strictly breathe, Cherise still shivered as she drew near. Static electricity radiating from the metal in her mouth, from the plush cover that shuffled over her frame all day; gentle, warm air from her cooling fans. All of it teased at her fur, building up her anticipation for the moment that her robotic tongue lapped against her neck, ruffling it up as Adelaide gently tended to her, relaxed her, played with her food. It was one thing to see how smooth it was with her eyes, even touch it with her fingers; it was another entirely to feel it glide through her fur, not a single strand catching on any of the tiny joints, cool and firm on one of the most sensitive parts of her body.

She whimpered as she felt the cool, porcelain-like surface of Adelaide’s teeth draw near, and nearly yipped when she felt their points press gently into her skin. A low chuckle drifted from Ada’s speakers, followed by a “there, there” as the motors in her temples began to emit an almost-hydraulic hum. Her paws slid up and down Cherise’s back, briefly lifting her shirt or poking down into her collar to dig into her fur, claws extended to carefully drag them against her.

Her jaws slowly closed, millimeter by millimeter, sinking further into muscle and sinew, teasing the soft flesh around Cherise’s jugular, an inexorable clamp driven forward with absolutely unwavering precision. Her skin stretched, tightened, and still Ada’s teeth only pressed deeper, hovering just before its breaking point. Cherise squirmed, writhed, twitched, her body responding to the frantic activity in her overwhelmed brain, straining against Ada’s ironclad, unflinching embrace, until finally all the loose skin and fur around her neck had been pulled tight between her girlfriend’s jaws and her muscles went completely slack.

Ada giggled again, straightening herself out and taking her scruffed prey with her. She cradled Cherise as she held her in her mouth like a misbehaving kitten, listening as her breathing shallowed, quickened, unable to stretch her chest enough to get the air she so desperately needed in her ecstasy.

“MMMmmnnnnhhhnnhaaaahhhnnn…” God, Adelaide just couldn’t get enough of how she sounded when she was close. She dug in her claws more forcefully, one paw claiming the bundle of nerves at the base of Cherise’s tail, the other reasserting her dominion over the base of her neck, and:

“MMMYYAAAAAAHHHNNNNNN~!!!!!”

“Theeeeere we go, there we go…” Ada purred.

“MMhhHNNn, mmmMHAAAHHh…”

“That’s a good kitten…”

“Mmmmrrrrrrmmmmyou’re the worst…”

“Am I? You sounded quite like you were enjoying yourself. Feels like it, too,” she prodded, dragging one paw pad along Cherise’s freshly-stained bulge.

“HhhHHEey!! I’m sensitive still!!”

“Oh, I can tell~.” Ada released her grip on Cherise’s neck, allowing her to stretch and regain her bearings (when she wasn’t interrupting her with a few more gentle nibbles).

“Pfffbbbbtt.” Cherise huffed again, though she was unable to cross her arms, pinned to her sides as they were.Adelaide kissed her on the forehead, then on the lips, and Cherise’s purring quickly drowned out any of her remaining characteristic stubbornness.

“Are you at least gonna put me down, now?”

“Certainly! I’ll be sure to lay you gently in your bed after we get you cleaned up.”

“Mrrrrmmgghghgh.” Cherise buried her face in Ada’s chest as she carried her off to the bathroom, knowing full well (and not being able to do a thing about it) that all those sophisticated sensors told her just how much her cheeks burned at the thought of having Ada take care of her. Whatever. She nursed her freshly-wrung ego by insisting that Ada owed her that much—she was gonna have this hickey for at least a month, so the least she could do was tend to the wound.