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I felt strangely at peace. It was weird not to feel uncomfortable about this, like I usually felt about all interactions with humans involving… you know. Do I have to say it? Ugh, fine. Feelings.
It did feel awkward the last time I talked to Mensah about staying with ART. I wasn’t sure what she would think about it or how to put it all in words. Now that feeling was gone. Maybe because I was finally sure what I wanted to do.
Mensah was looking somewhere to my right where one of my drones floated in the air. She was always so mindful of me. Me, on the contrary, I was looking at her from all possible angles. I had several drones and all of ART’s cameras in this room on her. Somehow it still wasn’t enough, so I shifted my eyes from the wall to her, too. I captured her every detail, from the light brown hair curling on her head, to the laughter lines on her face, and the calm and sure way she held herself, even if she was still troubled by the traumatic experiences GrayCris put her through.
I would see her again, but I didn’t know when, so I made sure to save this image in my permanent storage. I had a special folder where I kept files on all of my humans. (I would never admit it to anyone, though.) (ART knew, but mercifully didn’t comment, so I suspected it had a folder like that, too.)
I said, “I would like to hug you.”
She turned her head to look at my face and blinked. For 3.4 seconds, she didn’t say anything. I took that time to go through hundreds of contingency plans for what to say to take my words back, just in case.
I had only ever offered to hug her in her moments of distress. She hadn’t taken me up on the offer the last time, claiming it was because I didn’t care for it. I still didn’t, not like humans did. I lie a lot, but when I told her it wasn’t terrible, it was half a joke, but half a truth.
This time it wasn’t about her leaning on me. I thought she would get it.
Finally, her face melted into a smile. She asked, “Are you sure? Didn’t Pin-Lee put a no-hugging clause in your contract?”
“She did. But that was for the survey and it has long ended.”
Then I took a step towards her and I hugged her. I felt ART peek curiously over my shoulder in my feed as I registered all the sensations of my body into a special log. Her warmth. Her small frame hiding an unshakable strength. Her hands wrapped around me lightly, without squeezing too hard. The same hands that had pulled me up from the ground when she should’ve left me to die and that had clutched my jacket when I guided her out of captivity.
I let the hug last for 4.6 seconds before I pulled away.
It really wasn’t terrible. I could even call it nice. And the thing I liked most about hugs was that she had no way of seeing what my face was doing at that moment.
“Be safe,” she said.
Everyone kept saying this to me lately. I didn’t think I would ever get used to it, but I also had never expected myself to offer a non-first aid hug before, so who knows. I didn’t plan on getting myself killed, deleted, or whatever else was possible for SecUnits, before I saw her again.
“You too. See you,” I said.
“See you,” she replied.