78
The vessel was made of dwarven glass, so it wouldn’t shatter if Milo dropped it. But he was careful anyway.
He’d cut a line from Selma’s ear down to her shoulder and another across to the other shoulder, splitting the golemflesh apart and peeling it back in flaps to explode the workings of her neck.
Holding the flaps back would stop the golemskin from knitting itself back together while he worked.
The first time he’d had to cut into one of his golems, he’d felt nervous. But now he felt like a surgeon and didn’t think twice.
He found a small recess just under Selma’s left ear, and it was there that he planned to set the glass orb. There was some tubing so she could peel back her ear and refill the vessel whenever it needed it. But she’d need to be cut open to remove it and clean it.
Something he’d do during maintenance.
The basic idea of it intrigued him. The vessel would store perfume and then, at regular intervals, it would open some of the pores under her ear to let the scent drift around her.
The pores would then close so the perfume didn’t evaporate too quickly.
With Tania and Mila, those pores would also close when they were in camouflage mode. That would stop any smell from wafting around and alerting anyone to their presence.
In theory.
He’d already installed the nest of padded struts which would hold the vessel in place, and as he carefully aligned it, he worked to snap three small clips around it so it wouldn’t move around.
Selma lay on the slab, humming softly.
Her smile was almost radiant and made him want to smile back at her.
“Do you really like my perfume, Milo?”
He nodded, concentrating on working the tubes through the complex twist of cabling neatly running beside the vessel. “Sure. It smells nice.”
He hadn’t picked the rose one.
Instead, he’d chosen a different floral scent which he assured her was more delicate.
“It suits you,” he told her for about the hundredth time.
“I’m glad.” Selma sighed softly, trying not to move. “I know you think it’s silly. But everyone sort of thinks I’m a bit like a guy, ya know? I wanna be like a girl.”
His gaze drifted up and down her body and he gave her a steady stare. “Selma, no one thinks you’re a guy. I don’t see how they could.”
“Aww.” She shivered a little. “But you know what I mean. I got a big sword. I’m a bit of a ditz, I know. But I wanted ya to know I can be a delicate little flower, too.”
That made him chuckle so sharply that he almost choked.
Because she was sort of right.
She towered over him, and most of the other students, at nearly seven feet.
And while she wasn’t thick with muscle, she was still as powerfully built as a leopard. He could see why some people might think she was intimidating.
If he hadn’t built her himself, he might have felt the same.
Leaning in, he pulled his goggles down so their magnifying lenses could help him with the tiny screws he used to pin the clamps down. He worked slowly. He didn’t want to drop one of the screws and then have to search around her neck for it.
The mess of cables, gears, and other workings would make that job a nightmare.
It should’ve been a fairly simple, if fiddly, job. His mind would normally drift away like it normally did when he was concentrating.
But it wasn’t so easy when she was staring openly at him.
And not just blankly.
Her eyes traced his features, and her smile changed often depending on her thoughts. He didn’t know exactly what she was thinking, but it was making his ears hot and he kept glancing up and meeting her eyes.
Which only made her smile more.
She liked it when he looked at her.
And liked it more when he paid attention to her. Times like this when he was working on her were a thrill to the golem girl.
“Can I ask why you all wanted perfume?”
“It was Tania’s idea,” Selma replied.
“I guessed that much,” he said drily, working another screw in place.
“She read about it in a book. Humans often relate smells to things. Apparently it’s good for memory.”
Milo thought about that.
“She might be right,” he allowed. “But you all smell of things I’d associate with you anyway. Like shampoo and soap.”
“Yeah, but we share those,” Selma said. “And Mila thought maybe we all smelled the same, kinda. So, Tania suggested perfume. Because they’re all different. If we each got one, you’d relate it to us, right? So, it’d be something special.”
He paused, holding the screw in one hand and the screwdriver in the other.
“You really did all this just for me?”
“Naw.” Selma couldn’t shake her head, but he could see she wanted to. “It’s for us. Milo, we all wanna feel special, ya know? A girl likes to feel special. Like there’s something different about us that’s just us.”
“You’re all different to me,” he said slowly. “I don’t think of you as the same.”
“Humans have five senses,” she said, clearly influenced by Tania’s logic. “We want to be different for each of those.”
He smiled at her. “Including taste?”
“Yes,” she said, making him gulp as he realized she meant it. “We’ll talk about that later.”
“Right.” He pushed that thought aside as something he really didn’t want to think about.
But he did think about the kiss he’d shared with Selma.
The taste of her tongue.
Had it been the same as Tania’s and Mila’s?
No. No, it had been different. They all ate different things. And though their internal cleaning systems used the same fluids, there would always be slight traces left in their mouths.
The engineer in him started thinking about that more, while the human in him told him to turn his mind back to other more comfortable things to think about or he’d end up thinking about other parts of their body.
And then it would be hard to finish his work.
With a slight shake of his head, he put the last screw in place. As he tightened it, she smiled again. “Is it nearly done?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I just need to add a few welds. Just to be sure.”
“Okay.” She pursed her lips. “Milo?”
“Hmm?”
“Tania said I should get more clothes. She said wearing my armor all the time isn’t good.” Her fingers curled nervously. “What kinda clothes do ya like?”
“Clothes?”
“Yeah. You know. Things a gal wears…”
He rolled his eyes at the sarcasm. “I know that much.” He shook his head. “But I guess I’m used to seeing you in your, umm, armor.”
“Then maybe she’s right.” Selma gave him a thoughtful look. “She said it’s good to mix things up. It makes you think about us more.”
“Maybe you should just be yourself.”
“She said that, too, but it’s hard,” she complained. “I don’t know what to wear. I mean, I got the Academy uniform, but it itches. She said I should buy a dress, but I don’t know what looks good on me, see?”
He put the screwdriver down. “What is it you want me to do to help?”
“Can you come with me when I go shopping?”
“To get clothes?” The thought kind of terrified him. The time it took them to shop for things was enough to have him shuffling home like a zombie afterwards.
“Yeah,” she gave him a crooked grin. “And then maybe we can get ice cream?”
“Alright,” he said, hoping he didn’t regret it. “When I’ve done Mila’s perfume implant, you can arrange something.”
Her legs twitched happily as she let out a giggle. “Thanks, Milo! I know it might be boring, but I just wanna feel special, ya know?”
That made his ear hurt.
He looked down at her and shook his head. “Selma, you are special,” he said, a bit gruffly. “Why would you think you aren’t?”
“Well…” She closed her eyes. “You ain’t even tried to do to me what you did to Tania.”
“Wait. She told you about that?”
“Of course. We’re sisters. We tell each other everything. There ain’t no lies between us, Milo.”
“Right.”
“I’d let ya, ya know.”
He took a deep breath. Reached out and picked up the soldering iron while scooping up the solder. He flicked its switch.
His mouth felt dry.
But sweat trickled down his armpits like sharp itchy needles.
The invitation hovered in the air between them like a bright light which was blinding him. He blinked it away and shook his head.
He sighed.
“Don’t move,” he said at last, hunching over her open neck. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things. “This is delicate.”
Her eyes were filled with mischief and humor.
“I know I am, Milo. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“Shh. Busy.”