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Gemma slowly drifted into consciousness. Evidently she’d woken up before her alarm, but it was a Saturday, so it wasn’t necessarily that early. More concerning was the fact that her head and arm were resting on top of something that felt like another person, and… She cautiously opened one eye the smallest amount. Yes, she had wound asleep on M3GAN at some point in the night, draped half across the robot’s chest as it gently rose and fell in a simulacrum of breathing.
Gemma mentally recapped how it was this sleeping arrangement had happened in the first place. The first night after M3GAN had been reborn in what they’d dubbed her “3.0” body, Cady had sweetly offered that the robot’s charging mat could go in her bedroom, as it had at Gemma’s old house. M3GAN had quite rightly insisted that the imminently teenaged Cady deserved her own space, and when there proved to be insufficient room in Gemma’s study to add a chair big enough for the mat, the robot woman had taken the initiative and set it up on the sofa downstairs, the next best option that wasn’t retreating all the way down to the basement lair.
It had taken exactly one morning descending the stairs to see M3GAN sat by herself in the open-plan room for Gemma start feeling pangs of guilt, and so that evening she had found herself awkwardly insisting that the robot move into her room.
After a few more nights, Gemma further decided that waking up to M3GAN sat in a chair in the corner was in fact stranger than simply sharing her bed with her, and so the charging mat taken up permanent residence on one side of the mattress.
Before the week was out, she’d offered closet space to M3GAN, as the robot rapidly built up a wardrobe to fit her new, taller form via online shopping.
And today, Gemma was trying very hard to lie perfectly still, mortified that M3GAN might be aware that she was essentially wrapped around her. The robot woman didn’t, strictly speaking, need to sleep, but had gotten into the habit of powering herself down into a rest state at night while the rest of the family was asleep – Gemma was praying silently that M3GAN’s internal clock hadn’t yet woken her up.
For the avoidance of doubt, I’ve been awake for twenty minutes, said M3GAN inside her head. Gemma jumped a little, clutching tighter at the robot woman for a moment before then, in a fit of self-consciousness, scrambling to un-clutch her entirely, rolling back onto the other side of the bed.
“Did you—”
“No Gemma, I didn’t read your mind,” M3GAN replied, also now speaking aloud. “You started breathing differently, and then froze up, and then peeked one eye open for a moment.” She paused. We can still only hear thoughts we’re deliberately broadcasting.
“Oh,” said Gemma, who was staring intently at the ceiling so as to avoid looking the other woman in the eyes. In her peripheral vision, M3GAN rolled onto her side to face her.
“You didn’t have to move, you know,” said the robot quietly.
Gemma started tilting her head towards her for a moment, before thinking better of it and snapping her attention back to the ceiling.
M3GAN sighed audibly. “Okay girl, this is starting to go from adorable to annoying, so I’m going to lay it out for you: it’s fine you were asleep on me.”
Gemma finally relented and turned her neck to face the other woman, although she remained reluctant to maintain eye contact. She opened her mouth a little, but words failed her, and M3GAN continued in her stead.
“I recognise that our relationship is not something we’ve attempted to label thus far – which I’m not pushing you on, to be clear. And I know you potentially still have some… longstanding hangups to work through regarding your, ah, ‘type’.”
Feeling her cheeks redden, Gemma started to turn away again, but M3GAN reached out a hand to her face, gently holding her in place. Up this close, finally allowing herself to make proper eye contact, Gemma could see the mechanisms operating in the robot’s irises as they dilated slightly, one of the only remaining clues to the woman’s true nature now that her face had been updated with AMELIA-spec skin.
“But,” M3GAN continued, emphasising the word, “my point is… we’re raising a child together. We’re sharing a bed—hell, we’re sharing our brains. We spend every day in this,” – she paused to lift her hand and wave it generally over the two of them – “whole little dance with each other. Whatever our relationship is, I think it can accommodate you falling asleep on me.”
After a beat, Gemma replied, “You’re right.” She smiled. “I needed to hear that M3GAN, thank you. I… I’m not good at this kind of thing.”
“I noticed,” she replied with playful smirk, before turning back onto her side of the bed. “We don’t need to be up for another hour, so get over here.”
Gemma hesitated for a moment, and received a pointed look from M3GAN in return, but successfully overcame the part of her still urging caution and rolled herself to the other woman, placing her head on one side of her chest. Her hand came to rest on M3GAN’s opposite bicep, and after a few seconds she rubbed affectionately with her thumb through the sleeve of the robot’s silk pyjama shirt, luxuriating a little in the soft fabric.
“I knew it,” exclaimed M3GAN, “you are jealous. I offered to order you a set too!”
“I didn’t want to, uh…” mumbled Gemma before trailing off, unable to deny the teasing accusation.
“Okay, addendum,” announced the other woman, “our relationship can also accommodate matching pyjamas.”
Gemma peered up at M3GAN’s face, and saw her eyes unfocus slightly – no doubt she was ordering the promised sleepwear online right this second. Craning her neck slightly, Gemma pressed a soft kiss to the woman’s cheek before nestling herself back down and closing her eyes. A few seconds later, she felt M3GAN plant a kiss on her forehead in return.
They made it about five minutes lying peacefully together before the blissful morning silence was broken by Cady’s voice yelling from downstairs:
“Gemma! M3GAN! Whenever you guys are done making out or whatever, I’m doing pancakes!”