In the end, she forced him into a navy button-up and a pair of deep teal shorts and a matching bowtie, thinking the whole time about how much she felt like she was dressing a toddler. As soon as he had all the buttons done right, he practically fell back down the stairs in his hurry to make it to the kitchen before Darwin showed up.
Amanda made it to the kitchen a full thirty seconds later to find Asteri draining a pot of noodles and Fletcher sucking the daylights out of a relaxant cell, another clutched in his hand.
“Hey, slow down. Do you think that’s a good idea?” Amanda asked.
Fletcher pulled the cell out of his mouth with a pop and crackle of static. “No, nothing about this is good, but the least I can do is clear my mind a little.”
“Isn’t that the opposite of what relaxants do?”
“Not when you’re this stressed,” Fletcher said before stuffing the second cell into his mouth. “It’s just bringing me down to normal. You know, it’s almost making me feel like I just woke up from a good night’s rest. Everything’s shitty, but in a fresh kind of way,” he glared toward the chef, “Not that it’s doing anything to make me less mad at you, Ace.”
Before anyone had a chance to respond, Fletcher sucked a sharp breath into his ventilation system, biting down so hard onto his battery that it almost burst.
“What?” Asteri looked over her shoulder at him.
“He’s here. At the gate,” Fletcher rasped, swaying where he stood and grabbing the counter to steady himself. His anger couldn’t do anything to save him now. His only hope was to survive the night without making a fool of himself. “Quinn, it looks like we’re in a cave, could you turn on some more lights?”
“Oh, of course, my lord.”
When Fletcher didn’t respond to Quinn’s snark, Asteri stopped what she was doing. He gnawed at the empty battery as if it was the only thing keeping him sane. Asteri thought for a moment before putting her spoon down and moving to Fletcher’s side. “Hey, man, it’s gonna be alright ‒ ”
As she reached her hand toward his shoulder, he flinched away. “Don’t. I just need to let the relaxant kick in,” he narrowed his eyeforms at her, “And if you say anything to Darwin about what I told you guys ‒ ”
“No, I promise, I would never! I just wanted to help, and I swear I think this is the best thing for you. If you don’t feel better once you see him, I’ll take the fall and tell him I invited him without asking you.”
“Don’t do that, I don’t want him to wonder why I invited you two over without him in the first place.”
“I can make up a reason if you need me to. If you change your mind, just, uh... tap your finger three times.”
“Are you sure? That might be too subtle. Why don’t I just wait for a lull in the conversation and call your dad to ask him why he made you this way?”
They were interrupted by a sharp knock and the sound of the front door opening. Fletcher scrambled to throw the empty relaxant cells under the sink and stood so stiff he grew three inches.
“Anybody home?” Darwin sang.
“We’re in the kitchen,” Amanda called.
The door closed with a heavy click. After some shuffling, the Android stepped into the kitchen. His brother’s ratty baseball cap sat backwards on his head, he wore a thick maroon sweater hand-knitted by his father that looked irresistibly plush, and he carried a tote bag on his arm. His face lit up and Fletcher thought the ground might fall out from under him.
“Fletcher!” Darwin crossed the room in three gargantuan strides before pulling the hybrid into a one-armed hug, holding his bag out at arm’s length. Fletcher hugged him back reflexively ‒ the sweater was every bit as plush as it looked. “It’s been too long, man, you look great! I mean... exhausted, but great. You have to tell me what you’ve been working on!”
Fletcher froze. He’d been telling everyone he couldn’t come out because he was working on a sensitive experiment that required around-the-clock attention, but he’d never actually given any thought to what that experiment should be. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and gave the first excuse he could think of. “It’s so good to see you, too, Win. I mean, it’s pretty boring stuff, I’ll tell you later, but I thought for now we could just... catch up? I’ve really missed you guys.”
Darwin gave him a big squeeze before letting go. “Sounds perfect, even though I’m sure nothing you’ve ever worked on has been ‘boring.’ So much has been happening that I’ve wanted to tell you about! Guys, he doesn’t even know about Mateo and Gigi yet!”
The sisters beamed as Amanda laughed, “You haven’t talked in that long?”
“What’s going on with little Matty?” Fletcher asked.
Darwin swung his tote onto the counter and puffed out his chest. “He’s not so little any more! Gigi’s pregnant!”
Fletcher gaped. “Oh my god, you’re going to be a great uncle?”
Darwin laughed from deep in his speakers. “And from the youngest of my nieces and nephews! He and Gigi just found an apartment in the city, they’re so excited!”
Whether it was the relaxants kicking in or the balm of finally talking to his best friend, Fletcher’s crippling stress melted to a fluttering nervousness. When Asteri finished making dinner, the group moved to the courtyard. The sisters sat on one of the benches around the central fountain and the boys sat on the concrete ledge around the fountain so the pairs faced each other. It was so easy to fall into their normal laughter and discussion. How could Fletcher have let all this time pass without talking to them? Catching up on everyone’s lives made him feel almost like a stranger, especially as he had nothing to contribute ‒ in all their lost time, he’d only been stewing in anxiety and trying to distract himself with media. Still, he managed to dodge questions about his supposed experiment while still staying engaged in the conversation. It wasn’t hard with everything else they had to talk about.
The time flew by, and before Fletcher knew it, the girls had long finished their second helpings and were beginning to yawn. Something like resolve crept out of nowhere and constricted his chest. He ran cold in an intangible way, but... for a moment, everything stopped. After all this time, he was finally here, sitting right next to Darwin. It became a painful wait for a pause in the conversation before he finally interjected, “Say, when do you guys have to wake up tomorrow morning? I feel bad keeping you up if you need to get home.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Amanda waved her hand, “It’s not like we’re going to pass up an opportunity to get together after all this time.”
“Actually,” Asteri nudged the Human, “Mandy, don’t you remember? We switched shifts with the opening crew tomorrow!”
Amanda opened her mouth to say something, but a hard look from the Android made a light come on in her eyes. “Oh, you’re totally right! I almost forgot. Fletcher, are you sure you don’t mind if we head out?”
Four different things tried to leave Fletcher’s speakers at once, resulting in a strangled sort of, “Naaawwww.” He cleared his throat and followed, “We’ll get together again soon! Do you need any help wrapping up all the leftovers?”
“No, we can handle it, and if we need it we’ll ask Quinn for help. Don’t get up on our account,” Amanda grinned.
Fletcher rocked back on his hands, leaning over the trickling water.
“If you’re getting tired, I can head out, too,” Darwin offered.
Fletcher’s grip tightened on the concrete, but he tried to cover it by rocking forward. “I mean, I won’t keep you if you need to get home, but there is something I’d like to talk to you about if you wouldn’t mind sticking around.”
The yellow blocks that were Darwin’s eyeforms turned into the sweetest smiling crescents. Fletcher couldn’t help smiling back, feeling like he was staring into the sun. He laughed when Darwin slung his arm around his shoulders, “I was hoping I could stay! I’ve missed you too much to want to leave yet.” Fletcher was struck again by how plush Darwin’s sweater was. He could imagine putting his arm around Darwin in return, resting his head on his chest and just staying there, laughing at nothing under the stars in the rippling light of the fountain ‒
“We’ll see you guys soon!”
“Uh... yeah! Yeah, drive safe!” Fletcher waved. They all exchanged salutations until the women walked through the french doors that lead back into the entry hall toward the kitchen.
“Hey, Win, do you want to take a walk?”
Darwin let his arm slide off Fletcher’s shoulders. “Sure, it’s such a nice night. You finally gonna tell me about your experiment?”
The hybrid stood, stretching his arms above his head and taking a deep breath into his ventilation system. The stretch extended all the way through his body until he was on his tiptoes before he released and let his arms swing down to his sides. “Yeah. There’s a... a lot to it. Let’s walk and talk.”
Fletcher silently celebrated that his knees weren’t shaking and lead Darwin to the opposite side of the courtyard from the entry hall, opening a similar set of french doors into the darkened library. Darwin followed close behind, just as comfortable in this home as if it were his own, and they made their way through the bookshelves to a small door that opened to the gardens around the back of the house. Their shoes crunched onto the gravel footpath, joining the serenade of distant windchimes and fountains. Light came from solar lanterns on either side of the path and strings in some of the trees. Fletcher waited until they made it through the hedges and into rows of rose bushes and arches covered in climbing roses and fairy lights. The path wound through the bushes, a breeze sweeping through that set off a series of Fletcher’s chemical receptors that soothed him like little else could. The sensory programming he’d inherited from his mother had just as much of an influence on his mind as it did on hers, activating wonderful reward programming to be near thriving, pollinating flowers. Fletcher slowed his pace and closed his eyeforms, savoring the scented breeze while it lasted and listening to Darwin’s footsteps as he matched his gait.
The breeze faded. His eyeforms opened. “...There was no experiment.”
“Oh,” Darwin continued to match his step. “You know, I, uh... kinda figured.”
Fletcher’s eyeforms flicked over. “Really?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything incase, you know, there was, but... something felt off whenever I called you. It seemed like you were dealing with something. Not like a project, but something personal. I didn’t want to push you so I let it be, but if it’s out in the open now, I just want to say that... I’m here. For anything. You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, but if there’s any way I can help, I’d do it in an instant.”
When Darwin paused, Fletcher just watched his profile, power surging in his chest.
“I don’t want to pressure you into telling me anything you don’t want to,” he finally continued, “I totally understand there are some things that you just need to face by yourself or with your family. I won’t take it the wrong way if you need to deal with something without me, and... I get why you felt the need to make up an experiment. Just... I hope you know that we don’t need to share everything to be us,” Darwin said, crossing his arms, “It sounds cornier out loud. I hope that makes some sense.”
“No, it ‒ yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I just can’t tell if that makes this easier or harder.”
“You don’t need to do anything.”
“But I do,” Fletcher smiled, though it came off more like a grimace, and clasped his hands behind his back. “This is only hard because I don’t want to mess anything up. I’m afraid if I don’t say anything, I might regret it, and that would... I don’t really know, but I think it’s too late for me to turn back at this point. I’m not asking anything of you ‒ it’s important to me that you know that.”
Darwin nodded, emitting an emotional wavelength that prickled Fletcher’s sensors. The Energy Vampire closed his mind as much as he could.
“Alright. I think you remember a while back when I broke up with, uh... Ripley,” decades later, the name still tasted bad in his mouth, “I was sure that I just wasn’t cut out for romance, and realizing that was really freeing. I made it clear that I was only ever looking for casual partners and I started having a lot of fun, and I stopped worrying, and... maybe I kind of stopped thinking about romance as an option for me at all? You, uh, you can imagine my surprise,” Fletcher laughed, “when I realized I was having romantic feelings again.”
Darwin’s eyeforms swelled. “For real? Can I ask who it’s for?”
Fletcher stopped, soaking in an image he would remember for the rest of his life. Darwin slowed before turning back as well, allowing Fletcher to take in his curious expression, the sparkling lights reflecting off his metal, the form of the friend he’d grown up with and who knew him better than anyone else. No words came. He was frozen. He was staring. His mind shut down.
Fletcher felt like he was watching from outside his body as realization dawned on Darwin’s face.
“Oh... wait, do you mean,” Darwin paused and pointed at himself. He thought for a while before managing, “Me?”
Fletcher’s voice came out dry. “Listen, I just needed to get it off my chest. I hate keeping things from you, and now that it’s out there I can move on, and... uh... yeah. Yes. That’s it.”
Darwin ran his hand from the top of his hat to the back of his neck. “So... first ‒ as weird as this may be ‒ I have to say that I’m relieved. I was scared you had some sort of terminal virus.”
Fletcher laughed in spite of himself.
“Second,” Darwin turned to continue their walk, “I’m... well, I really wasn’t expecting this. Do you mean you want to... to try, like, being together? As a couple?”
Something tore around inside of Fletcher. He convinced himself to follow Darwin, scrutinizing a loose strand of yarn on his sweater. “I don’t know, I... maybe? It’s been so long since I even thought I could, and I... haven’t really thought of that? I mean, it’s more like I’ve tried not to think about it, all that matters to me is that we’re still friends. But I guess I ‒ if I thought it couldn’t amount to anything, I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.”
Darwin didn’t say anything for longer than Fletcher thought he could handle. The crunching of gravel was deafening. “We’ve talked about this before, Fletcher. If you wanted me to stop being friends with you, you’d have to murder someone in cold blood, nothing less.”
Warmth flooded the hybrid’s circuits.
“But... what’s changed?” Darwin formed the words slowly, “I mean, I know so much has changed since the last time we talked about this, and... well, I have to say that 30 year old me would be losing his mind if he was in my place right now, but what’s happened to make you feel like this?”
Fletcher shook his head. “I really don’t know. I’ve been racking my mind for weeks trying to figure that out, and I just... can’t. Can I ask how present-day you feels about this?”
The white robot crossed his arms. “You mean you can’t, uh, tell?”
Fletcher let out a long breath. “Right, I ‒ I don’t want to pressure you, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t’ve asked. I’m actually blocking my sensors.”
“It’s alright,” Darwin shrugged, “I think... I’m still pretty shocked. On the surface, you know I’ve always found you attractive, and if we’re being honest, I don’t think being a couple would change anything drastic outside of our physical relationship. I... can’t say I would feel comfortable with anything like that yet.”
“O-of course,” Fletcher sputtered, putting out his hands.
“But what if ‒ just to figure things out ‒ maybe we start trying new things? Like, do stuff that we’ve never done before.”
Fletcher stopped again. “Do you mean,” he had to think about it a few times before finishing, “like dating?”
Darwin took a last, slow step before turning on his heel to face Fletcher. His eyeforms were gleaming. “Like dating,” he hummed, “It can be easy and casual, right? If nothing comes of it, we’ll find out together and things will go back to the way they were. And if there’s something more to find... we can.”
Fletcher hugged himself loosely and let out a shaky laugh, feeling a weight lift off his chest that had been there for over a month. “If that’s something you’d be open to, I... I think I’d really like that.”
Darwin laughed in response and took a step toward Fletcher to close the gap between them, pulling him into a hug. He tucked his head down and murmured, “I’m happy as long as you’re in my life, Fletch. The rest is just details.”
Fletcher’s visor stung as he buried his face against Darwin’s shoulder. “I feel so stupid. I can’t believe how scared I was to tell you.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it! I know how hard it must have been for you to come to this realization at all, and confessing your feelings to the hottest guy you know is never easy!” he pulled his head back to smile coyly into Fletcher’s visor, “As someone who’s been in your shoes, I’m happy with the way the tables have turned.”
Every time he laughed from that moment on, Fletcher felt even lighter. They spent the rest of the night deciding what they wanted to do for their first date. Admittedly, whatever they settled on was something that Fletcher would struggle to remember later in life, but the warmth of that first night never left him.
