I spent most of the night awake, enjoying my time. Jason stayed up with me for awhile and we sat together on the couch. I spent that bit of time laying against him as we chatted about what had gone on, and our plans for the next day. I wanted the touch, the connection with someone that physical contact provided.

I wasn't sure why I desired that feeling, but it was massively comforting, just contact. The warmth of him pressed against me made me relax fully, the conversation was much the same. Jason had a lot to say about art. He spoke about the different styles, themes, and techniques. I knew and understood little of the details, but it was obvious that he loved it.

Eventually Jason nodded off to sleep. He looked so peaceful, so happy leaned into the cushions of the couch his friends had set up. I wondered if he'd gotten his bed completely back in order, but it seemed inappropriate to check, or to wake him. On a whim I covered him in a blanket I found and went to reading.

There were a number of old books strewn about the warehouse. While digital books were more common nowadays there was a strong stream of people who liked the feeling and smell of paper. I had to say that I wholeheartedly agreed. I picked some fantasy novel of the shelf and flipped through it, taking my time to try and imagine the scenes it painted as the slightly rough pages flipped past my fingers. Before long I'd finished it, and I went on to another, then another. Even reading slowly my speed was quite a bit faster than most humans, and I had hours of nothing to do.

Karl was the first to awaken, stumbling downstairs looking thoroughly sleepy.

"Coffee?"

"Yes, please."

I tossed a bit in an old fashioned French Press and let him get his bearings as it brewed.

"You're up early," I said as he sat down in what served as the dining room.

"Always," he spoke as he poured himself a drink and grabbed up some leftovers from last night's dinner.

"Big plans?"

"Aye, I'm going out to try and buy some things. Anything you need, or think we might?"

"Raw materials, of any kind, as much as you can get."

"Okay... why?"

"Because a lot of the factories lost their workers or decided that they maybe didn't like the way things currently are. Raw materials may be hard to come by soon, food too. Get all you can carry in bulk."

"Oh... oh shit, I hadn't thought of that." His eyes got big, as he pictured some of the ramifications.

"You aren't the only one who didn't. There are also likely quite a lot of people who did realize the implications days ago, so there may be slim pickings. Take weapons if you can and have them."

He gave me a look. "You know it might be a good idea if you..."

"No, if I go along it's likely to lead to questions that we don't want. Or hostility from humans, which I don't want. It's best if the group is all one or the other, and going alone is a bad idea."

"Fair enough, fair enough. What's it like out there?"

"It was tense on our way in. Nothing too bad, or unavoidable. There were police androids still enforcing some kind of order, though who knows if that's still going on."

"Will they bother us?"

"I don't think so. They didn't seem hostile to us, mostly told us to go home. I think you'll be okay so long as you aren't causing trouble."

He set about planning out the route he and a couple of others would be taking as the rest of the crew came downstairs. Abbey stopped and poked Jason awake before coming to sit beside me at the table.

"So, what's the plan for today?"

"I think Jason's showing me some basic art stuff this morning. Mind showing me how you do your lamps in the afternoon?"

"Of course, after lunch then? I'll get my tools and stuff together." She had put together a small plate of fruit and was munching as Karl cajoled Sarah and Jo into joining his outing.

After breakfast Jason and I went and got out some of his equipment. He had a small digital pad and brush, which would sort of mimic real paint. We used this because it was less messy and didn't use anything that couldn't be almost instantly replaced.

"Slowly, focus on your movements. If you make a mistake, just work it into the work, trying to cover it has never worked for me." He gave advice as he ran me through basic brush strokes.

After a time he moved behind and held onto my hand as he led me through making a painting. It was corny, like something out of an old piece of media. There were a few images of men showing women how to shoot pool that the position reminded me of and I nearly laughed. We both knew that this wasn't really helpful, but we both sort of enjoyed it. Well, at least I did.

Within a few hours I had a sort of poor painting of a landscape. A very, very rough landscape. I had the advantage of being able to picture it in my mind clearly, but was horribly handicapped by the fact that I had almost no experience expressing thing in any hard media at all. Honestly it looked kinda terrible, but I learned some from the experience. Jason decided to have the local printer make a hard copy for me, to save it for posterity or something.

Lunch was a rather informal affair. We had sandwiches and a few pieces of fruit. I found that I was quite fond of cherries, but could do without most citrus, the sour was a bit off putting. Alley showed me how to tie a knot in the stems with my tongue, a rather fun trick, if a bit flirty.

After enjoying our sustenance we went up to her workspace so she could show me some of her lamp designs. She tried to show me basic electronics but I knew enough to run simple repairs on myself, which was more than she did. I also had a set of tools hidden in one of my body's compartments for emergency repairs, but I choose to keep that fact to myself.

The more interesting thing was how she would find pieces and just work them together. Half of her materials were scrap or pieces of wood she'd picked up from various locations, and with a variety of tools added in places for the wire. She carved and drilled, following patterns that I didn't see at first to run lights and power through items that had never been made for it. That done she would bring them to life with color and patterns.

Again I felt a bit inadequate. I was unsure how she saw where she wanted things to go, but she was quite supportive. The whole process took much longer than Jason's, but she also added paint and the like to some of it. A few of her pieces that she'd been working on looked almost organic, and I learned that that was part of her specialty, things that mimicked nature. The trick to making little silicone mushrooms was revealed as well, and we worked to make me a small side lamp form a piece of faux wood that looked like something out of an enchanted forest.

She used a different painting method than Jason had shown me, layering things to make it look quite realistic. That done I programmed up the lights for it, rather than her generally more static lights I did a little shimmering effect. It was subtle, but the brightness and color changed ever so slightly back and forth. It looked truly organic. The programming for it was also hilariously easy.

We continued like that until the time for dinner approached. Karl and the others had come back with a huge haul and were putting everything away as I slipped into the kitchen. I was on cooking duty, something I could revel in. As I chopped and fried meeting out almost exact portions for everyone based on a number of factors I smiled, a pan fried faux chicken breast with greens and a potato each. The plates came out quickly and we went over our days as we chowed down.

Karl and co. had not had any real problems, but had had one heck of a time trying to get all the stuff they bought back to the warehouse. Paying for things had only been achieved because the group kept a bit of hard cash on hand, something that people were still able to take with most of the banks out of communication. They had gotten both art supplies, as well as gardening and raw printer materials, loaded into small carts and pulled home. Both Sarah and Jo were giving him angry looks at the sheer quantity he'd got.

After our art lesson Jason had gone back to finishing up his room, declaring that it was not in a passable state as he slumped in mild exhaustion at the table. Abbey reported our success on the lamp project before she went to do dishes, her current job on the chore roster.

Once all the work was done games of various sorts were played. A few printed out board games, along with some card games. I was apparently no fun to play cards with, as I counted cards almost by instinct. The math was painfully simple, I don't know why the rest of them weren't.

Around ten or so everyone started departing for their various rooms. I watched as the sisters headed off first, followed by Karl. Abbey hung around talking for a bit after that before she too went to rest. Finally Jason headed up to his room, I briefly considered going back to reading for the night.

There was something else I wanted though. Something I was deeply curious about. So a few minutes after he left, I headed up to his door and knocked.

"Can I come in?"

"Um? Yeah, it's open."

I slipped past the door, closing it behind me as I came inside. Jason stood by his bed in nothing but his boxers, looking at me with a rather surprised expression.

"What's..." He began as I reached down, grabbing the hem of my shirt and pulling it up and over, before tossing it to the side.

"I'm curious, see there's something I've never done, that I was designed for. I want to know how it feels."

His eyes were as big as saucers as I slipped the hem of the pants over, letting them fall around my ankles and stepping out. For what might be only the second time I stood before him, nude as the day I was made.

"But um..."

"If you don't want to?" I looked back towards the pile of my clothing.

"I do, it's just..."

I stepped closer to him. "Just what? You want to, I want to, I don't see the problem."

"You want to?"

"When I had no choice you spent your time offering me one. Now I'm making a choice." I was near to him now, looking up into his eyes as I spoke.

His hands slowly reached out, settling on my hips as he held me, my own resting on his forearms. The muscle he'd built rippled as we leaned in and kissed, our pressing against each other as we met. The very sensation sent shivers all along my body. This felt good. There was so much closeness, so much emotion, I wanted all of it as I leaned into him, tasting his lips and tongue.