22. Volt
Volt
Volt stood outside Wallace’s apartment complex and looked up. And up.
He hadn’t checked out the streetview in advance because he had a pretty good sense of downtown geography, and it hadn’t occurred to him when he already knew where to go.
But the graceful building, with its curvy flow of windows, was even more upscale than he’d expected.
There was a lit-up awning over the door and a tuxedo-clad porter standing just inside the glossy lobby.
He could see more staff inside. They were… a lot.
So were the marble floors and fountains he could see past the wall-to-ceiling glass on the first floor. It looked like a luxury hotel, but a quick check showed that it was all private residences, and the price tag on a two-bedroom apartment that was showing right now made his eyes water.
Was this why Wallace had been so weird about inviting him over? Wallace had put it off for a week, and then another week. It went on much longer than he’d originally said, with his lies growing increasingly transparent, and Volt growing increasingly anxious.
But he was suddenly eager to have Volt come over tonight.
Volt was wearing jeans and a nice sweater, since it went with the style that Wallace tended toward on their weekends together, but now he was worried that he wasn’t even dressed nicely enough to walk into the lobby.
Even worse, would they recognize him as a sexbot and think he was an escort of some kind? He’d brought Wallace both a lush bouquet of flowers and a small pot of pansies, but would that make it better or worse?
He took a minute to check them over, making sure that the flowers were absolutely perfect.
The bouquet burst with reds, oranges, and yellows.
He’d been drawn to the bright sunflowers, elegant lilies, voluptuous peonies, and playful snapdragons with springs of lavender and some other buoyant greenery making it lush and full.
The pansies, on their fragile stems with bright faces of purple and yellow, were almost overshadowed and for a minute he doubted his choices.
Pansies were Wallace’s signature flower now, and they should shine.
But they would last weeks longer, maybe even months inside and protected from the elements with the right lighting.
His fingers itched to dig into the soil, finding them the perfect spot and getting their watering schedule perfectly timed.
Perhaps he could come over to Wallace’s apartment and take care of them?
It was a silly thought, but good for relaxing his mind from the apprehension of Wallace’s mysterious secrets about his apartment and the news that Volt wanted to share.
Volt noted the time, and though all of those thoughts had passed in only seconds, he was still a couple minutes late after a delay on the subway. He couldn’t stand outside and dither. So… better to head on in.
He swallowed and squared his shoulders, reminded suddenly of an adorable hamster who had stood across the street from Prism, wavering nervously just like this.
The thought brought a smile to his face.
He was visiting his boyfriend. His adorable little hamster. Who had invited him here for a special evening together. Everything would be fine.
It was just that the sight of all this opulence made him wonder if he knew his baby boy as well as he thought he did.
Installing the updates on Prism’s sexbot inventory was one thing, and Volt was eternally grateful. But he was suddenly reminded that Wallace could have bought a whole new fleet of them.
Sometimes, when Wallace wasn’t there, Volt went back and forth in his mind between imagining the sweet relief it would be to ask Wallace to pay off Prism’s debts—he was almost sure Wallace would do it—and the guilt of using his boyfriend that way.
Or maybe he was just nervous about the other thing he’d been wanting to tell his boyfriend, and Wallace’s squirrely awkwardness about inviting him over was making him see things that weren’t there.
The porter nodded at Volt as he stepped up to the door, so that was good. The security guard asked his name, and he tried not to shift from foot to foot as she called up to Wallace’s apartment.
Wallace sent down his approval, but the guard still had him place his palm on the security scanner.
Was that even legal? He supposed that if you had enough money, it probably was.
A quick online search showed that fingerprint scans could be requested on private property as long as they were stored confidentially.
Which, now that he thought about it, might not be a bad idea for Prism, as they still hadn’t figured out who was behind the periodic attacks. It could be a client just as well as a stranger.
He could see the guard’s eyes shift when his prints revealed him as an android.
It had been law for over sixty years—soon after the first time a spark was convicted of a crime—that all androids had to be built with unique prints, and that if they ever got their hands replaced, their new prints had to be registered.
Even non-humanoid robots like chefbots received fingerprints on their major appendages, each with their own identifying patterns.
The patterns weren’t human-like, either, with the classic arch, loop, or whorl designs.
Instead, Orbit used wavy lines that ran from the heel of the palm to the fingertips, while Axis used a radiating X-like pattern.
A sophisticated scanner like this one could match Volt’s prints to his identity, but anyone looking closely at his hand would already know that he wasn’t human.
He vaguely agreed with it, given that non-sentient androids could be programmed to commit crimes just as easily as they could be programmed to teach children or hoe potatoes, and also because it had cleared more sparks of crimes than got them convicted.
It was still one more thing that set him apart.
The guard kept her disdain silent, but she treated him differently after the scan. Even dressed as he was, in low-key clothing that a few minutes ago he’d thought wasn’t good enough, she probably assumed he was an escort.
Well, nothing to be done about that now.
He had permission to be here, so he strode toward the elevators, projecting more confidence than he felt.
He knew that Wallace was wealthy, but every time he stepped into Wallace’s world, it was a new revelation of what that meant for his boyfriend on a daily basis.
When they went on their delightful walks in the park or slept in Volt’s little room with the pink canopy bed that he’d so lovingly bought, Wallace was slumming it.
Volt rode the elevator, fortunately not up to the penthouse, and got out on the twenty-fourth floor.
Wallace stood in a doorway off to the left, holding it open with his body and twisting his hands as he waited for Volt to come to him.
And for a moment, Volt’s breath caught, and all other thoughts fled.
Wallace was wearing soft blue lounge pants, in some silky fabric that gave the casualwear a gently feminine allure.
They clung to his thighs and fluttered about his calves.
On top was an over-large white sweater, not quite long enough to be a dress, but giving the suggestion of it.
The wide neck looked like Volt could pull it down to reveal plenty of creamy skin beneath.
This was a new side of Wallace. A new level of confidence and trust.
Especially with his pale blue eyeshadow and adorable goatee.
He was fucking gorgeous.
Volt grinned as he strode down the hallway. Was this why Wallace had been so awkward about inviting him over? Of course, his little hamster would be nervous, showing off his home for the first time. And his cute, cozy new clothing.
Volt was certain Wallace had never worn this soft, feminine attire for anyone else, which made Volt a very, very lucky spark.
“Hello, creampuff,” Volt greeted him with a kiss. “I got these for you.” He handed Wallace the bouquet and the potted pansies.
“Hi, Daddy,” Wallace whispered, melting against him even with both hands full.
His beautiful baby girl. Every time that he held him, it was like coming home. He ushered them into the apartment and swung the door closed behind him.
“How’s Magnolia doing?” Wallace asked as they broke apart, making him fall in love all over again.
“She’s well. The doctor thinks that she finally kicked the pneumonia, and she came down to the kitchen to eat again today.” The pneumonia came and went, the product of an elderly immune system and her frail lungs not being strong enough to fully expand all the time.
“Oh, that’s wonderful news.”
Wallace had started visiting her on his own when Volt was busy, and while he was still a little shy around her vivacious teasing, he was starting to tease back. They’d even had a “girls night,” though Magnolia had fallen asleep halfway through.
Volt just had to remember those charming moments as he took in the apartment that probably cost more than the entire Prism building and several of the bots inside.
They drifted from the foyer into the living room, and Wallace dashed off to put the flowers away. At first, all that Volt could see was dollar signs. That view was worth a literal fortune. The kitchen could have come from a magazine.
Then he really looked.
The walls were a cool gray, setting off the sharp black coffee table and matching end tables.
The monochrome theme extended across the couch, the throw rug, and even the art on the walls.
The kitchen was the same gray marble with black cabinets so smooth that they almost looked like another wall.
Everything was masculine, hard, and cold.
It screamed wealth… and probably misery for his baby.