[A.I.: Artificial Intelligence] (PG)
Author's Note: Written for 
fic_promptly's Any, any, "Once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." (Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit) Featuring David and Gigolo Joe.
David sat in silence during their flight to Man Hatten. Joe knew that humans sometimes had little to say after some shock had shaken their fragile hearts, and David seemed to possess that which humans seemed the only ones to claim.
Or perhaps he had taken to heart the things which Joe had said to him at Dr. Know's. He meant them as a matter for the young Mecha to consider, not as something to trouble his heart.
"If your Blue Faery can make you real, what shall happen when you are grown?" Joe asked, glancing from them amphibicopter controls to his companion.
"When she makes me real, Joe. She'll make me real," David said, insistent, with the eagerness of youth.
"Very well. *When* she makes you real, what then?" Joe asked. "You know that humans age and fade and die, do you?"
David's eager smile sagged in confusion and concern. "Mommy told me. Things that are alive get old and break. They die, too."
"Yes, they die," Joe considered. His recall went to clients with incurable illnesses, looking for consolation before they passed, people with frail bodies seeking comfort; aging people wanting to feel young again... Samantha's body on the bed in the Shangri-La Hotel. "What happens when you grow old? The humans won't see you as anything but a frail old man, no longer loveable."
David looked at Joe. "There'll still be Mecha then, won't there? They won't mind what I look like, will they?"
"There will always be Mecha: we will outlast them, after all..." Joe said, gazing into the mist that pooled in the headlights of the amphibicopter. Then he turned his gaze back to the young Mecha beside him. "But if we last through this and you get your wish, I shall remember you as are and were, whatever you should become."
David gave him a big smile. "I'll remember you too, Joe. If I get lonely when I'm old, I'll find you."
"I would not want you ever to feel the pang of loneliness, but if you do, I shall be honored to relieve it," Joe said. He did not think, having seen David in such a young form, if he could ever relieve relieve that loneliness in the way for which his designers had intended, but in his time with David, he had seen past those parameters to something more, to another kind of love, one that could warm any heart, even one of silicon...
fic_promptly's Any, any, "Once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." (Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit) Featuring David and Gigolo Joe.
David sat in silence during their flight to Man Hatten. Joe knew that humans sometimes had little to say after some shock had shaken their fragile hearts, and David seemed to possess that which humans seemed the only ones to claim.
Or perhaps he had taken to heart the things which Joe had said to him at Dr. Know's. He meant them as a matter for the young Mecha to consider, not as something to trouble his heart.
"If your Blue Faery can make you real, what shall happen when you are grown?" Joe asked, glancing from them amphibicopter controls to his companion.
"When she makes me real, Joe. She'll make me real," David said, insistent, with the eagerness of youth.
"Very well. *When* she makes you real, what then?" Joe asked. "You know that humans age and fade and die, do you?"
David's eager smile sagged in confusion and concern. "Mommy told me. Things that are alive get old and break. They die, too."
"Yes, they die," Joe considered. His recall went to clients with incurable illnesses, looking for consolation before they passed, people with frail bodies seeking comfort; aging people wanting to feel young again... Samantha's body on the bed in the Shangri-La Hotel. "What happens when you grow old? The humans won't see you as anything but a frail old man, no longer loveable."
David looked at Joe. "There'll still be Mecha then, won't there? They won't mind what I look like, will they?"
"There will always be Mecha: we will outlast them, after all..." Joe said, gazing into the mist that pooled in the headlights of the amphibicopter. Then he turned his gaze back to the young Mecha beside him. "But if we last through this and you get your wish, I shall remember you as are and were, whatever you should become."
David gave him a big smile. "I'll remember you too, Joe. If I get lonely when I'm old, I'll find you."
"I would not want you ever to feel the pang of loneliness, but if you do, I shall be honored to relieve it," Joe said. He did not think, having seen David in such a young form, if he could ever relieve relieve that loneliness in the way for which his designers had intended, but in his time with David, he had seen past those parameters to something more, to another kind of love, one that could warm any heart, even one of silicon...