At the End
Mar. 6th, 2011 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acquiescenceTitle: At the End
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
acquiescence_
Artist:pandora_gold
Word Count: ~ 8,800
Rating: NC-17
Notes: Sort of a combination of Terminator and AI
Characters/Pairings: Kris/Adam, with a brief appearance by Allison
Summary: The day the world ended. It came without warning and without even the chance of stopping it, no matter how much people tried. And they did try, even when it was obvious it was all for naught, it was clear they weren't going to be able to stop this, but people still fought - it was part of the human condition, stubborn right until the end, even when there is no escape in sight.
A/N: Written for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
kradamreversebb.
The amount of fail involved in creating this story is pretty epic. I loved, no adored the original art prompt and I really wanted to claim it, without realizing just how insane life would get these last few months. I'm pretty pleased with the final results, and the art thatpandora_gold created is just so fabulous, I hope the story that it inspired lives up to it just a little bit. So tell her how amazing it is because .. yeah wow, and then you can come back and see what I've made of it.
Master Post | Art Post
April 21, 2048.
The day the world ended. It came without warning and without even the chance of stopping it, no matter how much people tried. And they did try, even when it was obvious it was all for naught, it was clear they weren't going to be able to stop this, but people still fought - it was part of the human condition, stubborn right until the end, even when there is no escape in sight. It had been like that since the dawn of time, man continually pushing past their supposed bounds, seeing where the line had been drawn and reaching for the point just beyond it.
It was how they'd gotten into that situation in the first place after all - putting themselves in a place where their destruction became inevitable. They'd finally found the pinnacle of human creation and reached past it. It wasn't enough to have broken the ability to clone, or to engineer humans before they were born, they needed more than that.
The first fully functional and aware artificial intelligence was created May 8th 2024, huge bounding leaps had been made in the years previous, starting with toys for children in the early part of the 21st century then advancements on the sort of robots used in factories making conditions safer for workers, soon it was all about trying to creating something sophisticated enough to do the jobs humans did but without the chance of error. Remove humans from the equation entirely, save lives, save millions in insurance settlements, save children. It was all about the new and amazing world they'd create when they could insure that people would no longer be hurt by human error.
It was all supposed to help humans, to keep them safe from harm, to remove the human behind the wheel - to stop so many needless accidents.
No one thought it would be their end.
March 14, 2047
Kris was twenty-six when the accident happened. He had his whole life ahead of him, or so they said, but then who didn't have their whole lives ahead of them when they were that young? Only people who weren't planning on living past their next birthday. Kris had plans though, he was gonna get married, he was gonna be somebody, finally get his music heard and get signed to some label and make that whole stupid move out to LA worth while.
He had plans, and then came the accident.
It was just an ordinary day really, nothing special. Kris didn't have any plans beyond taking around a few demo chips, try and get people to listen, book him in a few clubs, even those really trashy clubs if it meant getting paid.
It was just a normal day, like any other. Kris walking down the street, rather than catching a transport to make the trip faster - he didn't have any other plans for the afternoon, and he never minded walking. People thought he was strange, people who had grown up there in LA, you didn't walk there. But Kris wasn't from LA, he'd only been there about a year, working off and on in clubs, occasionally catching a temp job when he really needed the money, and just trying his best to get himself noticed.
He was from a small town though, back in Arkansas, where they didn't have transports on every street corner. Or any of the other scary amazing things LA had to offer.
His parents had been worried about him coming in the first place, about how he'd deal with the city, and the people who lived there. You always heard stories about LA, about California really - it had always been a place for the insane, or so they said back home. Kris didn't really believe it.
Oh, he'd seen more than his fair share of insanity since he moved in to his tiny, closet sized apartment, people pissing in the halls, and people having sex in alley ways, and - well there were a lot of things he'd seen, and he would probably never forget a lot of them, but that wasn't really the point. It would be worth it in the end, when he finally got that big break he was waiting for and things started going his way. He just had to hold out until then, and it wouldn't be staying up late listening to Spanish comms through the walls, and transport sirens wailing in the middle of the night. It'd be his own home, huge and far away from all of this.
This would only be a memory.
Maybe if he'd taken transport that day he would have been okay, or maybe he'd have been on the transport that went haywire and he wouldn't be here at all. Either way Kris would always wonder if he'd taken a few minutes to catch one of the transports, just a few credits, he could have spared them, he didn't need to eat that much anyway, maybe things would have turned out differently.
It all happened so fast, it wasn't supposed to happen at all, that was part of the reason for the whole automated transport system, so there weren't accidents like this anymore, but like any system it wasn't perfect. One of the transport cars missed its turn, just kept right on going and smashed into a store front. Kris was lucky really, he could have been just one hundred yards closer and he'd have been caught between the transport and the building.
As it was, he got caught in the wreckage, there was smoke and fire everywhere, people screaming, crying for help, broken bits of metal and stone littered the sidewalk and the street. Or so Kris was told, he wasn't really in any sort of condition to have seen any of the aftermath himself. He saw a vid once, though he turned it off just a few seconds in, just seeing it bringing back the sound of screaming, wrenching metal that was buried somewhere deep in the back of his mind, pulling it kicking and screaming toward the surface no matter how he tried to fight against it.
"You really are very lucky, Mr. Allen." Kris had heard all the doctors say that, he was very lucky. There had only been a handful of survivors that day. Only the people who hadn't been on the transport car, others, like Kris, who had chosen to forgo the convenience of the transport and instead walked to their destinations. "Your injuries could have been much worse; I foresee a full recovery for you."
Now that was the part where Kris really did feel lucky. He could have been like the others who had made it through the incident, only to be told they'd never walk again, at least not under their own power. There were options of course, robotic arms, legs, spinal columns if you were lucky, hell even synthetic organs now.
Kris couldn't have afforded any of it even if he wanted to. So he was damn lucky that the doctors thought he could recover fully from this without the help of mechanical prosthesis. It was a relief and yet, when Kris saw the realty of it, being confined to a wheel chair, unable to do anything - he almost thought it would have been better if he had been killed in that accident. His hands didn't work quite right, and forget about his legs, at least for another six months while the bones healed and even then it would take time to get back the same range of motion he had before. And that was still a generous guess by the doctors. He might never be able to really walk again.
"You ought to look into some help, when you go home." The doctors had told him, just a few days before he was going to be discharged. The city had foot the bill for his treatment, thanks to the accident; it kept them from talking about it, sharing their stories with the media - the way so many people wanted them too. Kris was too grateful not to have to resort to some back alley doc that he couldn't make himself say no to the offer he'd been given. No matter how much some part of him said he should. He couldn't have afforded anything like this, but even the city's generosity had its limits.
Kris still needed help; he was in no condition to take care of himself. Going home was not an option; he hadn't even told his family about the accident, there was no way he was going back there to let them see how he'd failed. To confirm all their suspicions about the city. No Kris could do this, he'd figure it out.
March 26th 2047
Allison was a god send in those first few days he was back, he didn't think he would have survived without her there to help him with ... well everything really. It was an adventure just getting back to his apartment from the hospital. He could have taken a transport - knew that he probably should, he'd have to get over that at some point and yet he couldn't seem to make himself do it. So they'd walked, or rather Allison had walked and he'd been pushed, and eventually they had made it, though Allison begged him never to make her do anything like that ever again. It was a promise Kris felt pretty sure he could keep.
"Hey, we should go out today." Allison said, sticking her head around the small divide that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. Kris was ignoring the flickering image from the holo-screen, so it was no great hardship for him to turn his gaze to Allison, her bright colorful hair sticking up at crazy angles since they'd only just gotten up. "You need some more eggs and milk, and I just need to get out."
Kris would have liked to stay a shut in; he could do that, well he could pretend to do that. He'd have to figure out something eventually though. The small amount of money he'd gotten from the settlement with the city was hardly going to be enough to pay for him to take up a life of a hermit, no matter how much he might have liked to.
"Fine," He sighed but smiled at her none the less. He couldn't deny Allison anything, she was too much like a little sister for him to even try, plus he wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't punch him if he tried it - wheelchair or not. "So where are we going?"
He heard her happy squeal from the kitchen when he agreed to go out and she bounced out with a plate of toast for them to share. Kris snatched a piece from the top of the pile, which thankfully didn't look too burnt and began munching quietly while Allison regaled him with her plans for the afternoon. Something about a dress she saw in a shop that she just had to have, and a music store she thought Kris would like, and a few other places, he ended up tuning her out and she was happy to keep up his side of the conversation without his help or input.
That was part of the reason he loved Allison so much. She never pushed too much.
"Oh my god, Kris!" Allison stopped them right in the middle of the sidewalk, Kris still not over the transport phobia, "Look!" She pointed toward a window front.
"No way, Alli." Kris said all ready shaking his head, no way were they going in there.
"But Kris, it's perfect." She pushed, looking at him pleadingly. "I mean I'm going to have to go home eventually, and you're still going to need help, and I know you can't afford one of the newer models, but look, all you have to do is change the programming and it's fine." She said pointing to a sign that talked about refurbished AI models, less than half the price of the newer models that were out.
Truthfully, Kris thought the whole thing was kind of creepy. It was one thing to have a robot that actually looked like a robot, it was something else entirely to have a robot that walked and talked and did everything a human did. Why not just make some friends. It was free and about a million times less seedy.
"Kristopher." Allison's voice pulled him out of his musings; she never used his full name, unless of course it was serious. Though god, she could not be seriously suggesting he get an AI to help take care of him when she had to leave next week.
"Alli." He pleaded.
"Let's just go in, you can look around, see what the have, and if they even have anything that will work. And then you can whine at me, okay?" He wasn't getting out of this, Kris knew all ready and so he nodded in a resigned kind of way.
He really hadn't planned on getting anything, he swore up and down when Allison took him in the shop that they were just going to look and that was it, convinced there was no way any of that would be for him. But not five seconds inside, they were approached by a man who smiled and greeted them, asked if there was anything he could show them while they were there. He was nice, tall - but then even Allison was tall when he was stuck in that chair, so Kris might not have been the best judge of height at that particular moment, dark hair so artfully arranged Kris had trouble believing anyone would take that much time on their hair just to come to work in a place like this. He was easy to talk to though, charming and he had a great smile. Kris liked him almost instantly.
"Ah I see you've met Adam," Another man approached them; he looked much more like he'd belonged there in that shop. "He's a special one, companion AI."
Kris was startled, Adam wasn't human? That was ... well he didn't know what that was. He hadn't even been able to tell - which, he was told was the entire point of it, but it was unnerving. Adam moved, walked, talked, hell he even breathed like a normal person would. Kris couldn't find the point where he could distinguish between programming and machinery. He didn't know how he felt about that.
Allison was the one who talked to the shop owner, Kris ended up talking with Adam. He wheeled himself away from the owner and Adam just followed like he was ready to finish their conversation - though it hadn't actually been a real conversation. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-eight." Kris frowned, he looked twenty-eight, but then you never could tell with a robot.
"How old are you really?"
"Twenty-eight." Adam said again, a little slower this time, quirking his head at Kris like maybe he was a little slow on the uptake. A damn AI was not supposed to be looking at him like he was crazy, that was not how these things were supposed to work.
"How long have you been here?" Kris asked, deciding it was best to leave that question for another time.
"A few months," Adam shrugged, like it was unimportant really and maybe it was.
"What am I supposed to do with him?" Kris hissed as they left the shop, Adam following behind, holding a bag of paperwork and some programming updates to be sure he'd be able to handle helping Kris out after Allison left.
"Talk to him, watch TV with him, I dunno, maybe you two have some things in common." She suggested, ignoring the way Kris was silently, or maybe not so silently, fuming at her.
"In common?" He squeaked. "Excuse me? You cannot be serious."
"Why not?"
"He's - and I'm ... god dammit Allison you know why not!" Kris really didn't want to be talking about this in the middle of the street, especially not with Adam walking just a few paces behind them, he'd apparently caught on to the idea that Kris was less than pleased with the current situation and was giving them a little space to talk it out. Kris didn't understand how that worked, he was just supposed to be a collection of wires and computer chips and metal - but he understood them, understood Kris' frustration, and his anger and saw that it might be a good idea to give him a little space to get all of this out of his system before they made it back to his apartment and then there really wouldn't be enough room for Kris to rant without feeling like even more of a dick for talking about how he didn't want Adam even though he was right fucking there.
"You need him, Kris." Allison reminded him. "You need someone who can help you out, and he can do that, and you're going to need some company when I'm gone, and I mean I hate to say it, but you're kind of a baby. You wouldn't survive five minutes without me." Kris opened his mouth to protest but she plowed right over him. "Just give him a chance okay, he can help, and you seemed to like him before you realized he was AI, so just... maybe think of him as a person instead if that'll help."
Kris sighed and nodded, he didn't know the exact point where he'd lost control over his life, but it was there somewhere and Allison was taking full advantage of that fact. And she wasn't going to had the controls back over to him when she was finished, no she'd be leaving him in the hopefully capable hands of Adam.
Things were kind of tense the first few days after Allison left. Kris wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with Adam, it felt wrong to just treat him like a piece of machinery, though he was - and he didn't know how he felt about just treating him like another person. A friend just there to help him out.
It was on the third night, after Kris had done everything he could for the last several days to keep himself from needing any help from Adam. So maybe his buttons were done up lopsided, and maybe his hair was a wreck, and maybe he'd very nearly fallen flat on his face as he got out of bed that morning he told himself it was worth it, he wouldn't be able to take care of himself at any point if he was always expecting Adam to be there to help him out.
He was laying in bed, wishing that Allison was there, or at the very least that he could bring her up on a holo-call but that would mean getting out of bed, and Kris just didn't have it in him to get up and go back out into the living room to see Adam sitting on the couch, watching the holo-screen just keeping himself occupied while Kris slept just to complain to Allison. What was worth getting out of bed over was the sound of a guitar. His guitar - he could hear the way the notes on the D string were always flat - he'd needed to fix that for a while now, he just hadn't gotten around to it, his hands not quite up to the sort of dexterity he'd need to really be able to play again.
But someone was playing.
He wheeled himself back out only to find Adam sitting on the couch, where he'd thought he'd be, though the holo-screen wasn't on. No the music he heard had come from Adam. It was simple of course, a song anyone could pick off on the strings if given enough time to fiddle around with a guitar - but Kris wasn't sure AI was even supposed to do things like that. Was that part of Adam's programming? He hadn't thought it was, not according to the packet of information they'd got that first day and Allison made him read, and Adam had been there all the while offering helpful tips and pointers the whole time, like it didn't bother him that they were talking about the wiring and lines of code that made up his entire existence.
"Are you supposed to be doing that?" Kris asked, watching Adam's fingers move clumsily over the strings.
"What do you mean?" For someone who knew he was AI Adam was exceedingly dense about what that meant, Kris almost wondered if he did it on purpose. He wouldn't be surprised; he'd be the guy who finally ended up with AI in his home only to have it give him a hard time.
"Are you … do you know how to play?"
"No."
"So what are you doing?"
Adam shrugged, "Just playing around, they only show ridiculous commercials on late at night, for stuff no one needs, there's only so many times I can watch an ad for a robotic watch dog." He gave Kris a wry smile.
"Oh yeah, I know that one." Kris huffed a short laugh despite himself, humming the little familiar jingle that went along with the ad, Adam joined in and they both grinned when it was finished.
"Can you play?" Adam asked him.
"I used to, but since the accident..." It was Kris' turn to shrug as he held up his hand to show Adam the way his fingers wouldn't curl just right anymore. In time, the doctors had said, and it had only been a few weeks, but Kris was eager to get back to normal. To put his life back together. "I think I have some vids around here actually." Or the demo chips, he still had several of those, but the vids were better - at least he thought so. There was just something about seeing a person play that made the whole experience of hearing their music better.
Eventually with a little rummaging around through old chips and disks Kris came up victorious, popping the vid in to the reader and closing his eyes when he came up on the holo-screen. It was one thing for Adam to watch him play, but Kris had never been able to get used to the idea of seeing himself playing. It was like he became someone else, and he knew what that felt like in his mind, to get lost in the music and just feel it and go with it - but to actually see it happen was something he hadn't ever been able to really get a handle on.
"Wow." Adam said when the final chord had been taken over by the sound of cheers and clapping. It had been one of the last performances he did back in Conway, his friends and family had all been there to support him and cheer him on. It had been a pretty great night. "Will you be able to play again?" Adam asked.
"I dunno, the doctors said maybe, if the healing goes right."
Adam seemed to consider him for a long moment, and Kris couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under that gaze as he wondered what Adam was thinking. "You need to let me help you." Adam said finally. "That's what I'm for, right? To help you?" Ah, so he did know, and all those questions beating around the bush were on purpose.
"Well, that's what Allison thinks."
"But I should, you need help. I mean that's pretty obvious."
"Hey!"
"Oh stop it, Kristopher."
His eyes widened when Adam used his full name, he was going to murder Allison the next time she came to visit.
October 27th 2047
After that it got easier, Kris grudgingly let Adam help. And his actually started getting better, in parts. He'd be able to get out of bed with no help, he could flex his fingers without any pain, he even managed to stand for a full minute before his legs decided that was a really terrible idea. It was all coming in parts. And he thought maybe the doctors hadn't just been taking it easy on him, maybe he really would get better.
He had to make a few changes of course. Since he wasn't playing and mobility was still an issue, and he wasn't having Adam push him every where, Kris managed to find himself a job he could do from the apartment, writing songs - it wasn't him singing them, but someone was and that had to count for something. Though Adam still insisted he leave from time to time.
And why exactly Kris let himself be bullied around by AI he never could say, it was just, Adam looked at him with these big wide eyes and Kris couldn't say no to him. Sometimes he really hated Adam.
But most of the time he was just really glad for his company.
About seven months after Adam came to stay with him, Kris was able to ditch the chair completely. He still had a bit of a limp, but after all those months in that damn chair; he'd take the limp and be glad for it. It meant his legs were working, it meant he could stand on his own without feeling like he was constantly getting ready to fall over.
There may have been a cane for a few weeks, but the looks Adam gave him, just brief ones over the edge of whatever new book he was reading, or side long glances when Kris passed him by on the way to the kitchen or something - well the cane had to go.
His hands took longer to work their way back to their previous state. And even then it felt a bit like he had arthritis, the way his fingers ached all the way down to the bone when he used his hands for too long. Just typing or even holding a fork that wasn't strapped to his hand, but he pushed through it, determined on getting that back too.
"So," Adam started one night, while they were sitting together, some stupid movie on that neither one of them were really watching. "Since you're getting around on your own now, and it looks like things are going back to normal for you, does that mean I'll be going soon?" Adam asked. His tone sounded light, easy, non-committal, but Adam rarely ever said anything that didn't have some sort of tone to it. Whether it was some new song he was just so excited by, or if he was getting after Kris for leaving his socks in the middle of the living room floor - Kris almost swore Adam had been talking to his mother when he did that.
"What?" He hadn't actually considered that before, well maybe in the beginning, when he'd been against the whole idea of Adam in the first place. "No, no I mean … I mean unless you want to go somewhere?" It shouldn't have been a question, but apparently it was. Seven months with AI and suddenly Kris was attached, what the hell did that say about him? Probably less about him and more about Adam and the sudden look of relief that crossed his face.
"No, not really. I just … I wasn't sure."
"Did that happen before?" Kris asked him, he'd never really talked about Adam actually being AI, it was a truth that they both knew, but one they ignored for the most part. It occasionally came up, Adam needing updates for his software, the way he spent his evenings watching infomercials, or reading every book in Kris' apartment until he'd just had to get a library card so he and Adam could get more books, because apparently his collection was pitifully small. But still, they didn't talk about it, Adam was just Adam, he was Kris' friend, who occasionally helped him out when he needed it.
"Yeah. A few times."
Kris had a hard time believing anyone would want to get rid of Adam; he was a companion AI after all. But then there were newer models, with shiny new features, all sorts of things to make them that much more appealing, and maybe he could see why some people would do that. But then he thought those people were idiots so it didn't matter much.
"I'd like it if you stayed." Kris smiled, and Adam turned and smiled too.
"I like it here, with you."
Kris rolled his eyes. "I all ready said I'm not gonna kick you out, you don't have to say things like that."
"Yes," Adam said, startling Kris by just how adamant he seemed suddenly. "I do. I know you didn't want me, that Allison made you, I just … I like it here, I like you."
"I like you too, Adam." He wanted to say that he hadn't meant what he said in the beginning, but that would have been a lie, he really hadn't wanted Adam and now sitting here with him in the dark, the only light coming from the flickering of the holo-screen he couldn't imagine not wanting Adam.
April 21, 2048
It was the newer models, one of the new features that came with the redesign had been a chip that could communicate with the central AI hub, it made all updates to software automatic, it took care of all the little hassles that came along with the older models. Things people no longer wanted to deal with.
It was supposed to streamline the process, so you never even really had to be aware of the fact that you were living with something that wasn't human. Because that sort of thing was important to some people.
Everyone upgraded, they turned in their old models and got the new shiny version complete with all the new features and things to discover. The models rolled off the line in February, and by April there was one in almost every home across the country - to say nothing of the models overseas.
It was also extremely helpful when the central AI decided that instead of completing their original program design it would write a new one.
The end came fast for so many, no one ever expected the AI they let willingly into their own homes. No one expected the AI they had watching over their children, feeding their pets, taking care of their lawns, the AI they had put all of their trust into was what had been the end of them.
"Kris!" Adam was there in his room, in the dark and Kris wasn't sure what was happening, he blinked slowly, trying to understand. "Come on, Kris we gotta go." Adam sounded worried, upset … no frantic? Could he actually be frantic?
"What's up?" Kris asked his voice slurred, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he tried to put all of this together.
"We gotta go, Kris." Adam said again rummaging through Kris' draws, throwing clothes at him, and stuffing other things into a bag, he was moving faster than Kris had ever seen him before. Normally Adam was laid back, relaxed, easy. Sprawling on the sofa like he owned it, working his way into Kris' space like he didn't have any idea about personal boundaries, which Kris knew for a fact he did.
"Slow down, what's going on?" Kris was still just sitting there in bed, holding a bundle of wadded up clothes not entirely sure what he was supposed to do with any of this.
"Get up, get dressed, find your shoes – something sturdy, I'll explain while you're doing that." Adam said still poking around in his drawers and then moving on to his closet. "Just … please Kris."
It was then that he heard the shouting, what sounded like shots – but that… surely not.
Adam explained it to him while Kris got dressed with shaking hands and fingers that just didn't seem to want to work no matter how hard he tried, fumbling over buttons until Adam was there batting his hands away and finishing it for him. Telling him about the update, what was going on just outside the door, why they couldn't stay, what they were going to do now.
"But you…" Kris trailed off looking up at Adam, standing over him hands still on his shirt. He didn't know when he'd stopped thinking of Adam as just AI, as the help Allison had told him he needed, but standing there with him that night, with the sound of sirens and what Kris thought might be distant explosions, Kris knew.
"Kris, look at me." Adam's voice was calm, far calmer than Kris felt, and he latched on to that. "I'm fine; I just need to get you out of here." Kris nodded dumbly, if there was ever a time not to trust AI this was it, and yet Kris couldn't help but trust Adam when he told him he'd keep him safe.
Some small quiet part of Kris' mind said that if this hadn't been life or death, if people weren't being killed in their homes that night it might have been kind of cool, ducking around corners and sticking to shadows with Adam, after they'd left his apartment. Ever a child, Kris was reminded of the old James Bond movies, relics from the past now, and very nearly long forgotten, but he'd loved them as a boy. Maybe it was just something to take his mind off the very real danger they now found themselves, in or maybe it was something else all together, but Kris heard the theme song in his head, lips moving silently as he sang along do-do-do and so on.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit." Adam swore pressing Kris into a niche in an alley, the sound of feet approaching them, steady and even, with all the precision of … well of someone like Adam. But not really like Adam, Adam was there with him now, breath warm against Kris' neck as he pressed him into the dark, body covering his own shielding him from view.
"You." Kris' blood ran cold at the sound of an unfamiliar voice, hard and emotionless – so unlike the smooth tones Adam normally used. "Identification number."
"Companion Model 269 Alpha 845-34-65789." Adam's tone wasn't right, his face smoothed into even lines, his eyes suddenly lacking any of the warmth Kris was so used to seeing there, even in the dark he could feel its absence, or perhaps especially because of the dark.
"All Companion Models are to report to the Central Processing Hub for reprogramming, comply."
"Comply." Adam echoed, but he didn't move, didn't turn from where he still pressed Kris into the dark, didn't simply turn and leave him there to report for reprogramming the way he'd been told. Kris' heart was beating in his ears, loud enough that he was sure the other AI ought to hear him, it was too loud.
"Comply." It's not a question, it's a statement, an order – and one Adam needed to follow. Shit.
He turned then, still shielding Kris as best he could with his body, and a little help from the shadows. Kris held his breath, praying to god that this would work, that Adam could just leave and the other AI would leave and he'd be okay.
Only thing never seemed to work out quite so simply. Adam didn't just leave, he should have left, Kris was saying it again and again in his mind, just leave, just go, I'll be all right. It was too bad they'd never come up with a new mindreading update – that would have been helpful at that moment, never mind the obvious flaw in that logic. Kris was too busy freaking out to worry about things like logic.
Adam moved first, part of Kris thought this was it, he'd move and the other AI would see him and that would be it. But Adam didn't move in the way Kris thought he would. He was fast, faster than Kris had ever seen him before. Striking without warning and without holding anything back. It had been easy to forget what Adam was, to see him as just a friend, a roommate maybe, possibly more on the nights Kris drank too much and his mind got away from him, but always human. Now though, seeing how quickly he moved – the way he hit the other AI, swinging out with deadly force, enough that a single blow would have killed any human.
It wasn't quite so quick with the AI, it wasn't as fast, not expecting noncompliance apparently, Adam had the advantage at least for the moment. When the other AI began to fight back Kris could see that wasn't actually the case. He'd had the element of surprise, if you could really surprise a machine, the other was a newer model, more updates, better grade of metal for the skeleton, the tissue better quality as well, taking more force to break and tear the way Adam's seemed to do far more easily.
"Adam!" It was stupid, should have stayed quiet. The other AI distracted by the sound of Kris' voice started toward him like Adam meant nothing. Like killing Kris, killing humans was of a higher priority than noncompliant AI. It was all the time Adam needed though, getting behind the other AI he got his hands around his neck and twisted.
So much of the fighting ought to have killed Adam, ought to have killed the other AI, but even with it's head twisted at an unnatural angle the other AI was still moving, slower now, more sluggish, arms outreached for Kris, Adam's arms still around it's neck twisting further, the sound of wrenching metal filled the alley way, someone would hear, someone would come and find them. Kris didn't know what to do; this was going to be it. He was going to be killed and Adam … Adam would be what? Reprogrammed? Broken down for parts? Maybe just destroyed all together.
Kris pressed himself as far back into that little hole in the wall as he could, curled in on himself and closed his eyes tight. He'd always imagined himself to be the type who could face death head on, and yet here he was – and he couldn't do it. He tried to block out the sound too, anything to keep himself from hearing the end coming. But it did, a giant cracking sound – someone would hear it, Kris just knew.
But death didn't come; it was Adam, his hands on Kris' shoulders shaking him his voice high and tight. "Kris, are you all right? Kris look at me." He gave him a shake, with none of the strength Kris had just seen on display. Only then did he open his eyes, Adam was standing there, real and whole – or at least not in sparking pieces the way the other AI was.
"I – You…" Kris didn't know what to say, there was something he should say, something and yet he couldn't find it. Instead without thinking his hand went to the back of Adam's neck, curling against the warm skin there and pulled him down. Or pulled and Adam let him. Kris leaned up on his toes and mashed their lips together. Hard and desperate and saying everything he didn't know how to say with words right then. He was panting when they pulled back, adrenaline still high in his system. "I thought I was going to lose you."
"Going to take a lot more than one bot to stop me." Adam said, all cocky swagger back as he grinned at Kris. The moment didn't last though. Adam caught Kris' hand and pulled him down the alley. "Someone will have heard that, we need to keep moving."
It took them hours. Kris always knew LA was big, but it seemed endless as they ducked down dark streets and avoided anyone, human or not. Though there were very few humans left, running scared through the streets calling for help where there was none to be found. The sun had just started to crest over the horizon when they made it to the outskirts of the city, still in the surrounding area, still too many people to really be safe, but they were out of the worst of it.
Adam let them slow their pace, just briefly. Just so Kris could catch his breath.
May 1st 2048
Blue eyes blink up at Kris, followed immediately by a warm smile pulling on the corners of Adam's mouth. "Morning." Adam still didn't sleep, but he stayed with Kris through the nights now. Once they made it out of LA, into less populated parts of the state they'd been able to stop – breaking into homes along the way, all abandoned, avoiding the ones where it was obvious what had happened inside. They were in a borrowed bed that morning. Warm and safe for now, though no where was really safe anymore. "All right?" He asked. "Do you need anything? Water, they had some Advil, even some prescription meds." It was a rare fine, but Kris didn't care about meds right then. Any issues he was having were minor. He was much more interested in Adam then.
Kris was pulling him up for a kiss before Adam could continue to give him a run down of the various loot they'd gotten when they chose this house out of the small subdivision the night before. "I'm fine." Kris murmured against Adam's lips.
He turned toward Adam to give them both better access, pushing a hand under the blankets they had pulled up tight around them in the night to press against Adam's back, warm and solid beneath his finger tips.
"Kristopher." Adam stopped him with an easy hand against Kris' chest, not insistent, not yet at least but enough to still him for a moment. "I'm supposed to be taking care of you, not … this."
Kris rolled his eyes and pulled at Adam again, kissing him with purpose this time his tongue working its way into Adam's mouth. "You are, just … this is good right? You like this?" It had just sort of happened that first night they found a bed, Kris hadn't been able to sleep and Adam didn't want to leave him alone, even if he was just in the next room. It had been easy, natural almost, and yet Kris couldn't help but wonder.
"I do, Kris. You have no idea." Kris thought he probably did but he didn't need to push it, he just knew he wanted Adam, this connection – it helped, keep him sane, it focused him at the end of the day, let him drift off into dreamless sleep rather than spend his nights tossing and turning as he worried over his friends and family. They heard about pockets of resistance, people and even AI standing up against the Central Hub, but no one Kris knew for certain. He told himself they were all right, he'd see them again. But now he focused on Adam.
"I'm not going to break, Adam."
But Adam was looking at with wide earnest eyes. "You have no idea just how fragile you are, Kris. How easily I could break you."
The amount of fear and doubt in Adam's tone was enough to have Kris kissing him again, "It's fine Adam, we've done this before." He reminded him. .
He went slow though, giving Adam time to stop them, not that he really needed time but it was all relative. He caught Adam's wrist and pulled his hand down pressing his palm over his crotch, his hips rolling up pressing against him.
Adam groaned at the contact, and despite his hesitation, it really only took a few minutes of slow lingering kisses and the rocking of his hips before Adam was pushing his hand beneath the fabric of Kris' boxers, wrapping warm fingers around his cock.
Kris bit his lip gasping. "Yeah, just like that, see it's fine Adam, god yeah it's fine."
Adam was still looking doubtful, something that was just not right considering the way he slowly twisted his wrist making it hard for Kris to even pay attention to the way he was waffling over this. Still he let his eyes travel down the length of Kris' body, from his open panting mouth down the line of his throat to his chest and all the way down to the place where his hand disappeared beneath worn fabric. "Just fine?" He asked.
"Do not start quibbling over word choices now, Adam." Kris ground out, though there was no heat behind the words.
Adam licked his lips then, a small teasing sort of grin on his face and he kissed Kris before he could keep throwing out warnings about the right time and place to give him a hard time, which was probably better for them both because then Adam would have to point out that he was in fact giving Kris a hard time just not with his words – and then Kris would have to groan and really Kris was far more happy to be kissing Adam than laughing at some stupid joke. Adam's kiss was harder than the previous ones, tongue darting out to lick at Kris's lips. "We'll see what we can do about making this great instead of just fine" Another kiss, Kris suspected it was to keep him from replying, but when Adam twisted his wrist like that he found it very difficult to care for the reason.
Kris pushes his hands under Adam's shirt again, seeking out warm smooth skin, greedily soaking up the sensation and working his way upward, shirt riding higher with each minute.
Adam made a noise of protest while his shirt was pulled over his head without warning. "Kristopher, you really –" But Kris didn't have time for hesitation. If that night in LA had taught him nothing, it was that hesitation would get you killed, it stole valuable seconds and minutes from your life. Minutes and seconds he could be touching Adam, and Adam could be touching him and that was just unforgivable.
"I'm serious, Adam, this is good, I want this and if you don't fuck me within the next five minutes I will never forgive you," Kris told him firmly, they could argue the various merits of fucking in abandoned houses with AI roaming the streets another day, maybe later that same day if he knew Adam, but right now he wanted this. He hooked a thumb in the waste of his boxers attempting to wiggle out of them and push them down at the same time, though it's difficult as he tried to keep his movements minimal so Adam wouldn't suddenly stop touching him, even if it was just to help.
Thankfully Adam seemed to get the idea, using his free hand to help Kris get his boxers off, all without ever faltering in his rhythm. It could have been something in his programming, a part of what made him AI – that he could give an amazing hand job all without breaking concentration, but oh god fuck, Kris just really didn't care what it was that made Adam so amazing, so long as he didn't stop.
Kris was lost in a spiral of oh fuck want there yes please Adam and was hardly aware enough to have tracked Adam's progress as he worked his way down the line of his throat, nipping and pressing kisses into the hollow of his throat and down to his chest, taking time to bite at a nipple and sooth his tongue over it a moment later when the action drew a cry from Kris.
He looked down to where Adam had made his way to his stomach, tongue tracing smooth lines and circles as he continued his path down. "God you're perfect."
Adam stopped then with the kisses, but his hand didn't stop, which was entirely unfair. If Adam could look so utterly disarmed by something Kris said it seemed like he should have faltered just a little. "No, if I were perfect you and I would not be here now." The implication in his words is obvious, if Adam were perfect he'd have joined the newer models, he'd have been reprogrammed, he'd be back in LA and Kris – well Kris wouldn't have had this chance to see Adam like this.
Kris's hand slid around the back of Adam's neck into the short hairs there, rapidly approaching the edge far faster than he's ready for. He tangled his fingers into Adam's hair and pulled, dragging him back up and kissing him.
"You are perfect." Kris said firmly. "How There is no way you could be anything else – this, us -" He gasped as Adam's free hand dipped between his spread thighs to press at his entrance. "Fuck, it couldn't have happened if you weren't exactly what I needed."
"You humans," Adam murmured shaking his head as he nuzzled in against Kris' shoulder, "You're so stupid, it's no wonder we'll never be as good as you." And then he was moving, settling himself between Kris' thighs, pulling him up to get the angle right.
They go slow, just one finger to start, thankfully someone left some lube in one of the bedside drawers, they'll take it with them along with various other sundry items they find in the house, but right then Kris wasn't thinking of what they could take, the things that might help them he was thinking about Adam, Adam spreading him open, Adam taking care of him, Adam inside him, fuck, fuck, fuck Adam.
"Wait- Ah, Adam wait." Kris gasped, arching up wrapping his fingers around the back of Adam's neck pulling him closer. "I want to help." He reached blindly for Adam, but Adam caught his wrist before he could do anything, pressing it to the bed above Kris' head.
"Just stay like this, okay baby? Can you do that for me?" Adam's voice was lower, dropped in pitch and god if Kris wasn't going to end it all just listening to him talk suddenly.
"Adam." He whined.
"I've got you. Just let me, I've got you baby." Kris couldn't do anything but believe Adam, and he nodded frantic, arching his hips begging wordlessly until Adam finally finally was there pushing into him.
"Oh fuck – god, Adam." Kris didn't know if he was really supposed to keep his hand where Adam had put it, but fuck if he was going to be able to do that. He caught Adam's shoulder gripping tight as he was filled in one long motion.
Kris' ability to talk, and Adam's desire to say anything, pretty much ended right there for a while, grunts and moans and wet slapping sounds filling the around them as Adam's hips thrust forward again and again, filling Kris just right and god he could stay like this forever.
He is struck briefly by what Adam had said, he'd seen it for himself – how powerful Adam was, and yet there he was with him in bed, and the pain Adam could so easily cause him was the furthest thing from his mind. Adam was amazing and Kris didn't know how he could have ever wanted anything else.
When he came it was sudden and without warning, Adam jerking him through it until he was a boneless heap on the bed. It didn't take long for Adam either, he loved this feeling, laying in bed Adam rocking into him, until he was gasping for air and filling him.
The wonders of modern technology.
They lay like that longer than they probably should, wrapped up in one another, just the quiet sound of their breathing filling the room now. It's warm and comfortable and Kris didn't want to leave. He didn't want to go back out into that world that was falling apart. He wanted more of this, these quiet moments where he felt safe and taken care of.
November 24th 2056
No one ever sees the end coming, that's probably why everyone was always constantly looking over their shoulder before. Waiting for the day when their end would come. Those years after Judgment Day were hard, harder than anything Kris could have ever imagined living through before.
They found the resistance though, small pockets of humans and AI working together, trying to take back their world.
It was a fight every day to stay alive, but it was one Kris joined gladly with Adam by his side.
Master Post | Art Post
Author:
acquiescence_Artist:
pandora_goldWord Count: ~ 8,800
Rating: NC-17
Notes: Sort of a combination of Terminator and AI
Characters/Pairings: Kris/Adam, with a brief appearance by Allison
Summary: The day the world ended. It came without warning and without even the chance of stopping it, no matter how much people tried. And they did try, even when it was obvious it was all for naught, it was clear they weren't going to be able to stop this, but people still fought - it was part of the human condition, stubborn right until the end, even when there is no escape in sight.
A/N: Written for the
kradamreversebb. The amount of fail involved in creating this story is pretty epic. I loved, no adored the original art prompt and I really wanted to claim it, without realizing just how insane life would get these last few months. I'm pretty pleased with the final results, and the art that
pandora_gold created is just so fabulous, I hope the story that it inspired lives up to it just a little bit. So tell her how amazing it is because .. yeah wow, and then you can come back and see what I've made of it. Master Post | Art Post
April 21, 2048.
The day the world ended. It came without warning and without even the chance of stopping it, no matter how much people tried. And they did try, even when it was obvious it was all for naught, it was clear they weren't going to be able to stop this, but people still fought - it was part of the human condition, stubborn right until the end, even when there is no escape in sight. It had been like that since the dawn of time, man continually pushing past their supposed bounds, seeing where the line had been drawn and reaching for the point just beyond it.
It was how they'd gotten into that situation in the first place after all - putting themselves in a place where their destruction became inevitable. They'd finally found the pinnacle of human creation and reached past it. It wasn't enough to have broken the ability to clone, or to engineer humans before they were born, they needed more than that.
The first fully functional and aware artificial intelligence was created May 8th 2024, huge bounding leaps had been made in the years previous, starting with toys for children in the early part of the 21st century then advancements on the sort of robots used in factories making conditions safer for workers, soon it was all about trying to creating something sophisticated enough to do the jobs humans did but without the chance of error. Remove humans from the equation entirely, save lives, save millions in insurance settlements, save children. It was all about the new and amazing world they'd create when they could insure that people would no longer be hurt by human error.
It was all supposed to help humans, to keep them safe from harm, to remove the human behind the wheel - to stop so many needless accidents.
No one thought it would be their end.
March 14, 2047
Kris was twenty-six when the accident happened. He had his whole life ahead of him, or so they said, but then who didn't have their whole lives ahead of them when they were that young? Only people who weren't planning on living past their next birthday. Kris had plans though, he was gonna get married, he was gonna be somebody, finally get his music heard and get signed to some label and make that whole stupid move out to LA worth while.
He had plans, and then came the accident.
It was just an ordinary day really, nothing special. Kris didn't have any plans beyond taking around a few demo chips, try and get people to listen, book him in a few clubs, even those really trashy clubs if it meant getting paid.
It was just a normal day, like any other. Kris walking down the street, rather than catching a transport to make the trip faster - he didn't have any other plans for the afternoon, and he never minded walking. People thought he was strange, people who had grown up there in LA, you didn't walk there. But Kris wasn't from LA, he'd only been there about a year, working off and on in clubs, occasionally catching a temp job when he really needed the money, and just trying his best to get himself noticed.
He was from a small town though, back in Arkansas, where they didn't have transports on every street corner. Or any of the other scary amazing things LA had to offer.
His parents had been worried about him coming in the first place, about how he'd deal with the city, and the people who lived there. You always heard stories about LA, about California really - it had always been a place for the insane, or so they said back home. Kris didn't really believe it.
Oh, he'd seen more than his fair share of insanity since he moved in to his tiny, closet sized apartment, people pissing in the halls, and people having sex in alley ways, and - well there were a lot of things he'd seen, and he would probably never forget a lot of them, but that wasn't really the point. It would be worth it in the end, when he finally got that big break he was waiting for and things started going his way. He just had to hold out until then, and it wouldn't be staying up late listening to Spanish comms through the walls, and transport sirens wailing in the middle of the night. It'd be his own home, huge and far away from all of this.
This would only be a memory.
Maybe if he'd taken transport that day he would have been okay, or maybe he'd have been on the transport that went haywire and he wouldn't be here at all. Either way Kris would always wonder if he'd taken a few minutes to catch one of the transports, just a few credits, he could have spared them, he didn't need to eat that much anyway, maybe things would have turned out differently.
It all happened so fast, it wasn't supposed to happen at all, that was part of the reason for the whole automated transport system, so there weren't accidents like this anymore, but like any system it wasn't perfect. One of the transport cars missed its turn, just kept right on going and smashed into a store front. Kris was lucky really, he could have been just one hundred yards closer and he'd have been caught between the transport and the building.
As it was, he got caught in the wreckage, there was smoke and fire everywhere, people screaming, crying for help, broken bits of metal and stone littered the sidewalk and the street. Or so Kris was told, he wasn't really in any sort of condition to have seen any of the aftermath himself. He saw a vid once, though he turned it off just a few seconds in, just seeing it bringing back the sound of screaming, wrenching metal that was buried somewhere deep in the back of his mind, pulling it kicking and screaming toward the surface no matter how he tried to fight against it.
"You really are very lucky, Mr. Allen." Kris had heard all the doctors say that, he was very lucky. There had only been a handful of survivors that day. Only the people who hadn't been on the transport car, others, like Kris, who had chosen to forgo the convenience of the transport and instead walked to their destinations. "Your injuries could have been much worse; I foresee a full recovery for you."
Now that was the part where Kris really did feel lucky. He could have been like the others who had made it through the incident, only to be told they'd never walk again, at least not under their own power. There were options of course, robotic arms, legs, spinal columns if you were lucky, hell even synthetic organs now.
Kris couldn't have afforded any of it even if he wanted to. So he was damn lucky that the doctors thought he could recover fully from this without the help of mechanical prosthesis. It was a relief and yet, when Kris saw the realty of it, being confined to a wheel chair, unable to do anything - he almost thought it would have been better if he had been killed in that accident. His hands didn't work quite right, and forget about his legs, at least for another six months while the bones healed and even then it would take time to get back the same range of motion he had before. And that was still a generous guess by the doctors. He might never be able to really walk again.
"You ought to look into some help, when you go home." The doctors had told him, just a few days before he was going to be discharged. The city had foot the bill for his treatment, thanks to the accident; it kept them from talking about it, sharing their stories with the media - the way so many people wanted them too. Kris was too grateful not to have to resort to some back alley doc that he couldn't make himself say no to the offer he'd been given. No matter how much some part of him said he should. He couldn't have afforded anything like this, but even the city's generosity had its limits.
Kris still needed help; he was in no condition to take care of himself. Going home was not an option; he hadn't even told his family about the accident, there was no way he was going back there to let them see how he'd failed. To confirm all their suspicions about the city. No Kris could do this, he'd figure it out.
March 26th 2047
Allison was a god send in those first few days he was back, he didn't think he would have survived without her there to help him with ... well everything really. It was an adventure just getting back to his apartment from the hospital. He could have taken a transport - knew that he probably should, he'd have to get over that at some point and yet he couldn't seem to make himself do it. So they'd walked, or rather Allison had walked and he'd been pushed, and eventually they had made it, though Allison begged him never to make her do anything like that ever again. It was a promise Kris felt pretty sure he could keep.
"Hey, we should go out today." Allison said, sticking her head around the small divide that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. Kris was ignoring the flickering image from the holo-screen, so it was no great hardship for him to turn his gaze to Allison, her bright colorful hair sticking up at crazy angles since they'd only just gotten up. "You need some more eggs and milk, and I just need to get out."
Kris would have liked to stay a shut in; he could do that, well he could pretend to do that. He'd have to figure out something eventually though. The small amount of money he'd gotten from the settlement with the city was hardly going to be enough to pay for him to take up a life of a hermit, no matter how much he might have liked to.
"Fine," He sighed but smiled at her none the less. He couldn't deny Allison anything, she was too much like a little sister for him to even try, plus he wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't punch him if he tried it - wheelchair or not. "So where are we going?"
He heard her happy squeal from the kitchen when he agreed to go out and she bounced out with a plate of toast for them to share. Kris snatched a piece from the top of the pile, which thankfully didn't look too burnt and began munching quietly while Allison regaled him with her plans for the afternoon. Something about a dress she saw in a shop that she just had to have, and a music store she thought Kris would like, and a few other places, he ended up tuning her out and she was happy to keep up his side of the conversation without his help or input.
That was part of the reason he loved Allison so much. She never pushed too much.
"Oh my god, Kris!" Allison stopped them right in the middle of the sidewalk, Kris still not over the transport phobia, "Look!" She pointed toward a window front.
"No way, Alli." Kris said all ready shaking his head, no way were they going in there.
"But Kris, it's perfect." She pushed, looking at him pleadingly. "I mean I'm going to have to go home eventually, and you're still going to need help, and I know you can't afford one of the newer models, but look, all you have to do is change the programming and it's fine." She said pointing to a sign that talked about refurbished AI models, less than half the price of the newer models that were out.
Truthfully, Kris thought the whole thing was kind of creepy. It was one thing to have a robot that actually looked like a robot, it was something else entirely to have a robot that walked and talked and did everything a human did. Why not just make some friends. It was free and about a million times less seedy.
"Kristopher." Allison's voice pulled him out of his musings; she never used his full name, unless of course it was serious. Though god, she could not be seriously suggesting he get an AI to help take care of him when she had to leave next week.
"Alli." He pleaded.
"Let's just go in, you can look around, see what the have, and if they even have anything that will work. And then you can whine at me, okay?" He wasn't getting out of this, Kris knew all ready and so he nodded in a resigned kind of way.
He really hadn't planned on getting anything, he swore up and down when Allison took him in the shop that they were just going to look and that was it, convinced there was no way any of that would be for him. But not five seconds inside, they were approached by a man who smiled and greeted them, asked if there was anything he could show them while they were there. He was nice, tall - but then even Allison was tall when he was stuck in that chair, so Kris might not have been the best judge of height at that particular moment, dark hair so artfully arranged Kris had trouble believing anyone would take that much time on their hair just to come to work in a place like this. He was easy to talk to though, charming and he had a great smile. Kris liked him almost instantly.
"Ah I see you've met Adam," Another man approached them; he looked much more like he'd belonged there in that shop. "He's a special one, companion AI."
Kris was startled, Adam wasn't human? That was ... well he didn't know what that was. He hadn't even been able to tell - which, he was told was the entire point of it, but it was unnerving. Adam moved, walked, talked, hell he even breathed like a normal person would. Kris couldn't find the point where he could distinguish between programming and machinery. He didn't know how he felt about that.
Allison was the one who talked to the shop owner, Kris ended up talking with Adam. He wheeled himself away from the owner and Adam just followed like he was ready to finish their conversation - though it hadn't actually been a real conversation. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-eight." Kris frowned, he looked twenty-eight, but then you never could tell with a robot.
"How old are you really?"
"Twenty-eight." Adam said again, a little slower this time, quirking his head at Kris like maybe he was a little slow on the uptake. A damn AI was not supposed to be looking at him like he was crazy, that was not how these things were supposed to work.
"How long have you been here?" Kris asked, deciding it was best to leave that question for another time.
"A few months," Adam shrugged, like it was unimportant really and maybe it was.
"What am I supposed to do with him?" Kris hissed as they left the shop, Adam following behind, holding a bag of paperwork and some programming updates to be sure he'd be able to handle helping Kris out after Allison left.
"Talk to him, watch TV with him, I dunno, maybe you two have some things in common." She suggested, ignoring the way Kris was silently, or maybe not so silently, fuming at her.
"In common?" He squeaked. "Excuse me? You cannot be serious."
"Why not?"
"He's - and I'm ... god dammit Allison you know why not!" Kris really didn't want to be talking about this in the middle of the street, especially not with Adam walking just a few paces behind them, he'd apparently caught on to the idea that Kris was less than pleased with the current situation and was giving them a little space to talk it out. Kris didn't understand how that worked, he was just supposed to be a collection of wires and computer chips and metal - but he understood them, understood Kris' frustration, and his anger and saw that it might be a good idea to give him a little space to get all of this out of his system before they made it back to his apartment and then there really wouldn't be enough room for Kris to rant without feeling like even more of a dick for talking about how he didn't want Adam even though he was right fucking there.
"You need him, Kris." Allison reminded him. "You need someone who can help you out, and he can do that, and you're going to need some company when I'm gone, and I mean I hate to say it, but you're kind of a baby. You wouldn't survive five minutes without me." Kris opened his mouth to protest but she plowed right over him. "Just give him a chance okay, he can help, and you seemed to like him before you realized he was AI, so just... maybe think of him as a person instead if that'll help."
Kris sighed and nodded, he didn't know the exact point where he'd lost control over his life, but it was there somewhere and Allison was taking full advantage of that fact. And she wasn't going to had the controls back over to him when she was finished, no she'd be leaving him in the hopefully capable hands of Adam.
Things were kind of tense the first few days after Allison left. Kris wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with Adam, it felt wrong to just treat him like a piece of machinery, though he was - and he didn't know how he felt about just treating him like another person. A friend just there to help him out.
It was on the third night, after Kris had done everything he could for the last several days to keep himself from needing any help from Adam. So maybe his buttons were done up lopsided, and maybe his hair was a wreck, and maybe he'd very nearly fallen flat on his face as he got out of bed that morning he told himself it was worth it, he wouldn't be able to take care of himself at any point if he was always expecting Adam to be there to help him out.
He was laying in bed, wishing that Allison was there, or at the very least that he could bring her up on a holo-call but that would mean getting out of bed, and Kris just didn't have it in him to get up and go back out into the living room to see Adam sitting on the couch, watching the holo-screen just keeping himself occupied while Kris slept just to complain to Allison. What was worth getting out of bed over was the sound of a guitar. His guitar - he could hear the way the notes on the D string were always flat - he'd needed to fix that for a while now, he just hadn't gotten around to it, his hands not quite up to the sort of dexterity he'd need to really be able to play again.
But someone was playing.
He wheeled himself back out only to find Adam sitting on the couch, where he'd thought he'd be, though the holo-screen wasn't on. No the music he heard had come from Adam. It was simple of course, a song anyone could pick off on the strings if given enough time to fiddle around with a guitar - but Kris wasn't sure AI was even supposed to do things like that. Was that part of Adam's programming? He hadn't thought it was, not according to the packet of information they'd got that first day and Allison made him read, and Adam had been there all the while offering helpful tips and pointers the whole time, like it didn't bother him that they were talking about the wiring and lines of code that made up his entire existence.
"Are you supposed to be doing that?" Kris asked, watching Adam's fingers move clumsily over the strings.
"What do you mean?" For someone who knew he was AI Adam was exceedingly dense about what that meant, Kris almost wondered if he did it on purpose. He wouldn't be surprised; he'd be the guy who finally ended up with AI in his home only to have it give him a hard time.
"Are you … do you know how to play?"
"No."
"So what are you doing?"
Adam shrugged, "Just playing around, they only show ridiculous commercials on late at night, for stuff no one needs, there's only so many times I can watch an ad for a robotic watch dog." He gave Kris a wry smile.
"Oh yeah, I know that one." Kris huffed a short laugh despite himself, humming the little familiar jingle that went along with the ad, Adam joined in and they both grinned when it was finished.
"Can you play?" Adam asked him.
"I used to, but since the accident..." It was Kris' turn to shrug as he held up his hand to show Adam the way his fingers wouldn't curl just right anymore. In time, the doctors had said, and it had only been a few weeks, but Kris was eager to get back to normal. To put his life back together. "I think I have some vids around here actually." Or the demo chips, he still had several of those, but the vids were better - at least he thought so. There was just something about seeing a person play that made the whole experience of hearing their music better.
Eventually with a little rummaging around through old chips and disks Kris came up victorious, popping the vid in to the reader and closing his eyes when he came up on the holo-screen. It was one thing for Adam to watch him play, but Kris had never been able to get used to the idea of seeing himself playing. It was like he became someone else, and he knew what that felt like in his mind, to get lost in the music and just feel it and go with it - but to actually see it happen was something he hadn't ever been able to really get a handle on.
"Wow." Adam said when the final chord had been taken over by the sound of cheers and clapping. It had been one of the last performances he did back in Conway, his friends and family had all been there to support him and cheer him on. It had been a pretty great night. "Will you be able to play again?" Adam asked.
"I dunno, the doctors said maybe, if the healing goes right."
Adam seemed to consider him for a long moment, and Kris couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under that gaze as he wondered what Adam was thinking. "You need to let me help you." Adam said finally. "That's what I'm for, right? To help you?" Ah, so he did know, and all those questions beating around the bush were on purpose.
"Well, that's what Allison thinks."
"But I should, you need help. I mean that's pretty obvious."
"Hey!"
"Oh stop it, Kristopher."
His eyes widened when Adam used his full name, he was going to murder Allison the next time she came to visit.
October 27th 2047
After that it got easier, Kris grudgingly let Adam help. And his actually started getting better, in parts. He'd be able to get out of bed with no help, he could flex his fingers without any pain, he even managed to stand for a full minute before his legs decided that was a really terrible idea. It was all coming in parts. And he thought maybe the doctors hadn't just been taking it easy on him, maybe he really would get better.
He had to make a few changes of course. Since he wasn't playing and mobility was still an issue, and he wasn't having Adam push him every where, Kris managed to find himself a job he could do from the apartment, writing songs - it wasn't him singing them, but someone was and that had to count for something. Though Adam still insisted he leave from time to time.
And why exactly Kris let himself be bullied around by AI he never could say, it was just, Adam looked at him with these big wide eyes and Kris couldn't say no to him. Sometimes he really hated Adam.
But most of the time he was just really glad for his company.
About seven months after Adam came to stay with him, Kris was able to ditch the chair completely. He still had a bit of a limp, but after all those months in that damn chair; he'd take the limp and be glad for it. It meant his legs were working, it meant he could stand on his own without feeling like he was constantly getting ready to fall over.
There may have been a cane for a few weeks, but the looks Adam gave him, just brief ones over the edge of whatever new book he was reading, or side long glances when Kris passed him by on the way to the kitchen or something - well the cane had to go.
His hands took longer to work their way back to their previous state. And even then it felt a bit like he had arthritis, the way his fingers ached all the way down to the bone when he used his hands for too long. Just typing or even holding a fork that wasn't strapped to his hand, but he pushed through it, determined on getting that back too.
"So," Adam started one night, while they were sitting together, some stupid movie on that neither one of them were really watching. "Since you're getting around on your own now, and it looks like things are going back to normal for you, does that mean I'll be going soon?" Adam asked. His tone sounded light, easy, non-committal, but Adam rarely ever said anything that didn't have some sort of tone to it. Whether it was some new song he was just so excited by, or if he was getting after Kris for leaving his socks in the middle of the living room floor - Kris almost swore Adam had been talking to his mother when he did that.
"What?" He hadn't actually considered that before, well maybe in the beginning, when he'd been against the whole idea of Adam in the first place. "No, no I mean … I mean unless you want to go somewhere?" It shouldn't have been a question, but apparently it was. Seven months with AI and suddenly Kris was attached, what the hell did that say about him? Probably less about him and more about Adam and the sudden look of relief that crossed his face.
"No, not really. I just … I wasn't sure."
"Did that happen before?" Kris asked him, he'd never really talked about Adam actually being AI, it was a truth that they both knew, but one they ignored for the most part. It occasionally came up, Adam needing updates for his software, the way he spent his evenings watching infomercials, or reading every book in Kris' apartment until he'd just had to get a library card so he and Adam could get more books, because apparently his collection was pitifully small. But still, they didn't talk about it, Adam was just Adam, he was Kris' friend, who occasionally helped him out when he needed it.
"Yeah. A few times."
Kris had a hard time believing anyone would want to get rid of Adam; he was a companion AI after all. But then there were newer models, with shiny new features, all sorts of things to make them that much more appealing, and maybe he could see why some people would do that. But then he thought those people were idiots so it didn't matter much.
"I'd like it if you stayed." Kris smiled, and Adam turned and smiled too.
"I like it here, with you."
Kris rolled his eyes. "I all ready said I'm not gonna kick you out, you don't have to say things like that."
"Yes," Adam said, startling Kris by just how adamant he seemed suddenly. "I do. I know you didn't want me, that Allison made you, I just … I like it here, I like you."
"I like you too, Adam." He wanted to say that he hadn't meant what he said in the beginning, but that would have been a lie, he really hadn't wanted Adam and now sitting here with him in the dark, the only light coming from the flickering of the holo-screen he couldn't imagine not wanting Adam.
April 21, 2048
It was the newer models, one of the new features that came with the redesign had been a chip that could communicate with the central AI hub, it made all updates to software automatic, it took care of all the little hassles that came along with the older models. Things people no longer wanted to deal with.
It was supposed to streamline the process, so you never even really had to be aware of the fact that you were living with something that wasn't human. Because that sort of thing was important to some people.
Everyone upgraded, they turned in their old models and got the new shiny version complete with all the new features and things to discover. The models rolled off the line in February, and by April there was one in almost every home across the country - to say nothing of the models overseas.
It was also extremely helpful when the central AI decided that instead of completing their original program design it would write a new one.
The end came fast for so many, no one ever expected the AI they let willingly into their own homes. No one expected the AI they had watching over their children, feeding their pets, taking care of their lawns, the AI they had put all of their trust into was what had been the end of them.
"Kris!" Adam was there in his room, in the dark and Kris wasn't sure what was happening, he blinked slowly, trying to understand. "Come on, Kris we gotta go." Adam sounded worried, upset … no frantic? Could he actually be frantic?
"What's up?" Kris asked his voice slurred, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he tried to put all of this together.
"We gotta go, Kris." Adam said again rummaging through Kris' draws, throwing clothes at him, and stuffing other things into a bag, he was moving faster than Kris had ever seen him before. Normally Adam was laid back, relaxed, easy. Sprawling on the sofa like he owned it, working his way into Kris' space like he didn't have any idea about personal boundaries, which Kris knew for a fact he did.
"Slow down, what's going on?" Kris was still just sitting there in bed, holding a bundle of wadded up clothes not entirely sure what he was supposed to do with any of this.
"Get up, get dressed, find your shoes – something sturdy, I'll explain while you're doing that." Adam said still poking around in his drawers and then moving on to his closet. "Just … please Kris."
It was then that he heard the shouting, what sounded like shots – but that… surely not.
Adam explained it to him while Kris got dressed with shaking hands and fingers that just didn't seem to want to work no matter how hard he tried, fumbling over buttons until Adam was there batting his hands away and finishing it for him. Telling him about the update, what was going on just outside the door, why they couldn't stay, what they were going to do now.
"But you…" Kris trailed off looking up at Adam, standing over him hands still on his shirt. He didn't know when he'd stopped thinking of Adam as just AI, as the help Allison had told him he needed, but standing there with him that night, with the sound of sirens and what Kris thought might be distant explosions, Kris knew.
"Kris, look at me." Adam's voice was calm, far calmer than Kris felt, and he latched on to that. "I'm fine; I just need to get you out of here." Kris nodded dumbly, if there was ever a time not to trust AI this was it, and yet Kris couldn't help but trust Adam when he told him he'd keep him safe.
Some small quiet part of Kris' mind said that if this hadn't been life or death, if people weren't being killed in their homes that night it might have been kind of cool, ducking around corners and sticking to shadows with Adam, after they'd left his apartment. Ever a child, Kris was reminded of the old James Bond movies, relics from the past now, and very nearly long forgotten, but he'd loved them as a boy. Maybe it was just something to take his mind off the very real danger they now found themselves, in or maybe it was something else all together, but Kris heard the theme song in his head, lips moving silently as he sang along do-do-do and so on.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit." Adam swore pressing Kris into a niche in an alley, the sound of feet approaching them, steady and even, with all the precision of … well of someone like Adam. But not really like Adam, Adam was there with him now, breath warm against Kris' neck as he pressed him into the dark, body covering his own shielding him from view.
"You." Kris' blood ran cold at the sound of an unfamiliar voice, hard and emotionless – so unlike the smooth tones Adam normally used. "Identification number."
"Companion Model 269 Alpha 845-34-65789." Adam's tone wasn't right, his face smoothed into even lines, his eyes suddenly lacking any of the warmth Kris was so used to seeing there, even in the dark he could feel its absence, or perhaps especially because of the dark.
"All Companion Models are to report to the Central Processing Hub for reprogramming, comply."
"Comply." Adam echoed, but he didn't move, didn't turn from where he still pressed Kris into the dark, didn't simply turn and leave him there to report for reprogramming the way he'd been told. Kris' heart was beating in his ears, loud enough that he was sure the other AI ought to hear him, it was too loud.
"Comply." It's not a question, it's a statement, an order – and one Adam needed to follow. Shit.
He turned then, still shielding Kris as best he could with his body, and a little help from the shadows. Kris held his breath, praying to god that this would work, that Adam could just leave and the other AI would leave and he'd be okay.
Only thing never seemed to work out quite so simply. Adam didn't just leave, he should have left, Kris was saying it again and again in his mind, just leave, just go, I'll be all right. It was too bad they'd never come up with a new mindreading update – that would have been helpful at that moment, never mind the obvious flaw in that logic. Kris was too busy freaking out to worry about things like logic.
Adam moved first, part of Kris thought this was it, he'd move and the other AI would see him and that would be it. But Adam didn't move in the way Kris thought he would. He was fast, faster than Kris had ever seen him before. Striking without warning and without holding anything back. It had been easy to forget what Adam was, to see him as just a friend, a roommate maybe, possibly more on the nights Kris drank too much and his mind got away from him, but always human. Now though, seeing how quickly he moved – the way he hit the other AI, swinging out with deadly force, enough that a single blow would have killed any human.
It wasn't quite so quick with the AI, it wasn't as fast, not expecting noncompliance apparently, Adam had the advantage at least for the moment. When the other AI began to fight back Kris could see that wasn't actually the case. He'd had the element of surprise, if you could really surprise a machine, the other was a newer model, more updates, better grade of metal for the skeleton, the tissue better quality as well, taking more force to break and tear the way Adam's seemed to do far more easily.
"Adam!" It was stupid, should have stayed quiet. The other AI distracted by the sound of Kris' voice started toward him like Adam meant nothing. Like killing Kris, killing humans was of a higher priority than noncompliant AI. It was all the time Adam needed though, getting behind the other AI he got his hands around his neck and twisted.
So much of the fighting ought to have killed Adam, ought to have killed the other AI, but even with it's head twisted at an unnatural angle the other AI was still moving, slower now, more sluggish, arms outreached for Kris, Adam's arms still around it's neck twisting further, the sound of wrenching metal filled the alley way, someone would hear, someone would come and find them. Kris didn't know what to do; this was going to be it. He was going to be killed and Adam … Adam would be what? Reprogrammed? Broken down for parts? Maybe just destroyed all together.
Kris pressed himself as far back into that little hole in the wall as he could, curled in on himself and closed his eyes tight. He'd always imagined himself to be the type who could face death head on, and yet here he was – and he couldn't do it. He tried to block out the sound too, anything to keep himself from hearing the end coming. But it did, a giant cracking sound – someone would hear it, Kris just knew.
But death didn't come; it was Adam, his hands on Kris' shoulders shaking him his voice high and tight. "Kris, are you all right? Kris look at me." He gave him a shake, with none of the strength Kris had just seen on display. Only then did he open his eyes, Adam was standing there, real and whole – or at least not in sparking pieces the way the other AI was.
"I – You…" Kris didn't know what to say, there was something he should say, something and yet he couldn't find it. Instead without thinking his hand went to the back of Adam's neck, curling against the warm skin there and pulled him down. Or pulled and Adam let him. Kris leaned up on his toes and mashed their lips together. Hard and desperate and saying everything he didn't know how to say with words right then. He was panting when they pulled back, adrenaline still high in his system. "I thought I was going to lose you."
"Going to take a lot more than one bot to stop me." Adam said, all cocky swagger back as he grinned at Kris. The moment didn't last though. Adam caught Kris' hand and pulled him down the alley. "Someone will have heard that, we need to keep moving."
It took them hours. Kris always knew LA was big, but it seemed endless as they ducked down dark streets and avoided anyone, human or not. Though there were very few humans left, running scared through the streets calling for help where there was none to be found. The sun had just started to crest over the horizon when they made it to the outskirts of the city, still in the surrounding area, still too many people to really be safe, but they were out of the worst of it.
Adam let them slow their pace, just briefly. Just so Kris could catch his breath.
May 1st 2048
Blue eyes blink up at Kris, followed immediately by a warm smile pulling on the corners of Adam's mouth. "Morning." Adam still didn't sleep, but he stayed with Kris through the nights now. Once they made it out of LA, into less populated parts of the state they'd been able to stop – breaking into homes along the way, all abandoned, avoiding the ones where it was obvious what had happened inside. They were in a borrowed bed that morning. Warm and safe for now, though no where was really safe anymore. "All right?" He asked. "Do you need anything? Water, they had some Advil, even some prescription meds." It was a rare fine, but Kris didn't care about meds right then. Any issues he was having were minor. He was much more interested in Adam then.
Kris was pulling him up for a kiss before Adam could continue to give him a run down of the various loot they'd gotten when they chose this house out of the small subdivision the night before. "I'm fine." Kris murmured against Adam's lips.
He turned toward Adam to give them both better access, pushing a hand under the blankets they had pulled up tight around them in the night to press against Adam's back, warm and solid beneath his finger tips.
"Kristopher." Adam stopped him with an easy hand against Kris' chest, not insistent, not yet at least but enough to still him for a moment. "I'm supposed to be taking care of you, not … this."
Kris rolled his eyes and pulled at Adam again, kissing him with purpose this time his tongue working its way into Adam's mouth. "You are, just … this is good right? You like this?" It had just sort of happened that first night they found a bed, Kris hadn't been able to sleep and Adam didn't want to leave him alone, even if he was just in the next room. It had been easy, natural almost, and yet Kris couldn't help but wonder.
"I do, Kris. You have no idea." Kris thought he probably did but he didn't need to push it, he just knew he wanted Adam, this connection – it helped, keep him sane, it focused him at the end of the day, let him drift off into dreamless sleep rather than spend his nights tossing and turning as he worried over his friends and family. They heard about pockets of resistance, people and even AI standing up against the Central Hub, but no one Kris knew for certain. He told himself they were all right, he'd see them again. But now he focused on Adam.
"I'm not going to break, Adam."
But Adam was looking at with wide earnest eyes. "You have no idea just how fragile you are, Kris. How easily I could break you."
The amount of fear and doubt in Adam's tone was enough to have Kris kissing him again, "It's fine Adam, we've done this before." He reminded him. .
He went slow though, giving Adam time to stop them, not that he really needed time but it was all relative. He caught Adam's wrist and pulled his hand down pressing his palm over his crotch, his hips rolling up pressing against him.
Adam groaned at the contact, and despite his hesitation, it really only took a few minutes of slow lingering kisses and the rocking of his hips before Adam was pushing his hand beneath the fabric of Kris' boxers, wrapping warm fingers around his cock.
Kris bit his lip gasping. "Yeah, just like that, see it's fine Adam, god yeah it's fine."
Adam was still looking doubtful, something that was just not right considering the way he slowly twisted his wrist making it hard for Kris to even pay attention to the way he was waffling over this. Still he let his eyes travel down the length of Kris' body, from his open panting mouth down the line of his throat to his chest and all the way down to the place where his hand disappeared beneath worn fabric. "Just fine?" He asked.
"Do not start quibbling over word choices now, Adam." Kris ground out, though there was no heat behind the words.
Adam licked his lips then, a small teasing sort of grin on his face and he kissed Kris before he could keep throwing out warnings about the right time and place to give him a hard time, which was probably better for them both because then Adam would have to point out that he was in fact giving Kris a hard time just not with his words – and then Kris would have to groan and really Kris was far more happy to be kissing Adam than laughing at some stupid joke. Adam's kiss was harder than the previous ones, tongue darting out to lick at Kris's lips. "We'll see what we can do about making this great instead of just fine" Another kiss, Kris suspected it was to keep him from replying, but when Adam twisted his wrist like that he found it very difficult to care for the reason.
Kris pushes his hands under Adam's shirt again, seeking out warm smooth skin, greedily soaking up the sensation and working his way upward, shirt riding higher with each minute.
Adam made a noise of protest while his shirt was pulled over his head without warning. "Kristopher, you really –" But Kris didn't have time for hesitation. If that night in LA had taught him nothing, it was that hesitation would get you killed, it stole valuable seconds and minutes from your life. Minutes and seconds he could be touching Adam, and Adam could be touching him and that was just unforgivable.
"I'm serious, Adam, this is good, I want this and if you don't fuck me within the next five minutes I will never forgive you," Kris told him firmly, they could argue the various merits of fucking in abandoned houses with AI roaming the streets another day, maybe later that same day if he knew Adam, but right now he wanted this. He hooked a thumb in the waste of his boxers attempting to wiggle out of them and push them down at the same time, though it's difficult as he tried to keep his movements minimal so Adam wouldn't suddenly stop touching him, even if it was just to help.
Thankfully Adam seemed to get the idea, using his free hand to help Kris get his boxers off, all without ever faltering in his rhythm. It could have been something in his programming, a part of what made him AI – that he could give an amazing hand job all without breaking concentration, but oh god fuck, Kris just really didn't care what it was that made Adam so amazing, so long as he didn't stop.
Kris was lost in a spiral of oh fuck want there yes please Adam and was hardly aware enough to have tracked Adam's progress as he worked his way down the line of his throat, nipping and pressing kisses into the hollow of his throat and down to his chest, taking time to bite at a nipple and sooth his tongue over it a moment later when the action drew a cry from Kris.
He looked down to where Adam had made his way to his stomach, tongue tracing smooth lines and circles as he continued his path down. "God you're perfect."
Adam stopped then with the kisses, but his hand didn't stop, which was entirely unfair. If Adam could look so utterly disarmed by something Kris said it seemed like he should have faltered just a little. "No, if I were perfect you and I would not be here now." The implication in his words is obvious, if Adam were perfect he'd have joined the newer models, he'd have been reprogrammed, he'd be back in LA and Kris – well Kris wouldn't have had this chance to see Adam like this.
Kris's hand slid around the back of Adam's neck into the short hairs there, rapidly approaching the edge far faster than he's ready for. He tangled his fingers into Adam's hair and pulled, dragging him back up and kissing him.
"You are perfect." Kris said firmly. "How There is no way you could be anything else – this, us -" He gasped as Adam's free hand dipped between his spread thighs to press at his entrance. "Fuck, it couldn't have happened if you weren't exactly what I needed."
"You humans," Adam murmured shaking his head as he nuzzled in against Kris' shoulder, "You're so stupid, it's no wonder we'll never be as good as you." And then he was moving, settling himself between Kris' thighs, pulling him up to get the angle right.
They go slow, just one finger to start, thankfully someone left some lube in one of the bedside drawers, they'll take it with them along with various other sundry items they find in the house, but right then Kris wasn't thinking of what they could take, the things that might help them he was thinking about Adam, Adam spreading him open, Adam taking care of him, Adam inside him, fuck, fuck, fuck Adam.
"Wait- Ah, Adam wait." Kris gasped, arching up wrapping his fingers around the back of Adam's neck pulling him closer. "I want to help." He reached blindly for Adam, but Adam caught his wrist before he could do anything, pressing it to the bed above Kris' head.
"Just stay like this, okay baby? Can you do that for me?" Adam's voice was lower, dropped in pitch and god if Kris wasn't going to end it all just listening to him talk suddenly.
"Adam." He whined.
"I've got you. Just let me, I've got you baby." Kris couldn't do anything but believe Adam, and he nodded frantic, arching his hips begging wordlessly until Adam finally finally was there pushing into him.
"Oh fuck – god, Adam." Kris didn't know if he was really supposed to keep his hand where Adam had put it, but fuck if he was going to be able to do that. He caught Adam's shoulder gripping tight as he was filled in one long motion.
Kris' ability to talk, and Adam's desire to say anything, pretty much ended right there for a while, grunts and moans and wet slapping sounds filling the around them as Adam's hips thrust forward again and again, filling Kris just right and god he could stay like this forever.
He is struck briefly by what Adam had said, he'd seen it for himself – how powerful Adam was, and yet there he was with him in bed, and the pain Adam could so easily cause him was the furthest thing from his mind. Adam was amazing and Kris didn't know how he could have ever wanted anything else.
When he came it was sudden and without warning, Adam jerking him through it until he was a boneless heap on the bed. It didn't take long for Adam either, he loved this feeling, laying in bed Adam rocking into him, until he was gasping for air and filling him.
The wonders of modern technology.
They lay like that longer than they probably should, wrapped up in one another, just the quiet sound of their breathing filling the room now. It's warm and comfortable and Kris didn't want to leave. He didn't want to go back out into that world that was falling apart. He wanted more of this, these quiet moments where he felt safe and taken care of.
November 24th 2056
No one ever sees the end coming, that's probably why everyone was always constantly looking over their shoulder before. Waiting for the day when their end would come. Those years after Judgment Day were hard, harder than anything Kris could have ever imagined living through before.
They found the resistance though, small pockets of humans and AI working together, trying to take back their world.
It was a fight every day to stay alive, but it was one Kris joined gladly with Adam by his side.