Chapter 4

After we cleared the air of our feelings of brotherly love towards one another – even if it was a tad awkward – the two of us just stayed in for the rest of the day and crawled into bed when the time came. Riley was still charging in the corner of the room, working on repairs to himself. I couldn’t see how far his skin extended over the “wound” since the table blocked my view of him. I slept that night with my back against the wall with Jesse pressed up next to me. He still was feeling a little down I gathered, as I didn’t invite him that close to me. All he did was lift my arm and draped it over his stomach without even a word. The moment my hand felt his soft tummy, I could feel his breathing slow and become rhythmic.

When I awoke the next morning, I found that we had shifted in the middle of the night at least once. Jesse lay on top of me, still sleeping away, his peaceful breathing tickling my right shoulder. He squirmed a bit and in my waking haze I felt a pleasurable jolt rock my body. As I started to wake up more, I realized there was a big problem we each had. It was trapped between our bodies and Jesse’s moving around started to become a bit… pronounced. Fully waking up, I realized he must be having some sort of sexy dream as the longer I lay there, the more urgent his hips pushing into mine became. And the more urgent he got, the more urgent I got. My breathing started to hitch as I stifled a low groan. I needed to stop this; it wasn’t right even if it was totally an accident. I groaned the moment I felt his member sidle up next to mine. It felt so good. I heard Jesse moan lightly into my ear. Sexy images flitted through my mind like a fast moving holo reel.

With a surge of willpower, I flipped Jesse onto his back and leapt from the bed.

My near-frantic breathing slowly brought Jesse out along with the sudden loss of my body heat to help keep his exposed, vulnerable body warm. “Wha…?” he mumbled as he rolled over. He rubbed his eyes slowly and looked up at me, his green eyes questioning. Those same eyes slowly traced down my naked chest and to my somewhat threadbare underwear. Both of us reacted at the same time. Feeling his eyes on the protruding cloth of fabric made me blush heavily, the florid tone also finding its way onto Jesse’s skin. My hands blocked his view of my crotch as his eyes filtered down to his own, his blush deepening. “Uh… Tr-Travis?” he asked meekly.

“Um… it’s, it’s all good. You were… just dreaming and using… uh, using my body to help… um, ‘things’ along.”

“Oh no…” Jesse groaned loudly into his hands, burying his face away. “Was I really…?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry for the, um, abrupt wake-up but something was about to happen that we’d both probably regret.” I started battling the embarrassment away, being the big brother meant I had to be the bigger man in the situation. It was totally innocent. Sure, it was a bit weird to have my twelve year-old brother rutting away… no! I derailed that train of thought and shunted it out the nearest mental airlock. Unsure which way Jesse would swing emotionally after this revelation, I had to be ready for him to either become nonplussed over it or freak out completely.

“Ugh, I really need to have some privacy once in a while to, um, relieve my tension.” A very nervous giggle slipped from his mouth as Jesse pulled his hands away from his face. I saw a small smirk forming. Good, he’s not going to obsess over this. I shouldn’t either, I thought to myself. Best to just discuss it and then move on from here. Hmm… this whole encounter reminded me of another brotherly duty I probably should perform.

“Hey, Jess?”

“Yeah?” He looked up at me, the smirk faded into his normal expression of waiting.

“Did either Mom or Dad ever get to have that talk with you yet? You know, the very embarrassing one where they talk about sex and shit?”

Jesse tinged a bit once more. “Um, actually no. They didn’t.”

“Any… experiences, generally speaking, that I should be aware of?” I raised my eyebrow reproachfully. “Only reason I’m asking is because of what almost happened here.”

His blush deepened. “Not anything remotely exciting, I guess. Just me and a friend from school talked about sex and who was hot in the class.” He shrugged, almost telling me he wanted the subject changed. I couldn’t even if I wanted to drop it like it was a burning meteorite. So I gave him the shortened version Dad gave me last year, when I was about Jesse’s age, maybe a bit older. I talked about all sorts of things, like general ideas of how to ask someone out or gauge if there was enough interest to even warrant such an action.

“Don’t forget,” I finished up, wanting this horrid business done with. I mean, who talks with their kid brother about having sex like this? Especially after when said younger brother started humping the hell out of his older brother not twenty minutes ago? “While most of your attention will probably still come from the few girls on the station, don’t be surprised if you find some of the guys hitting on you as well. There are some out there that would rather be alone until the day they die than even think about going to bed sexually with another male. But then there are others that, while they would prefer the company of a lady, aren’t opposed to settling with a friend or whatever.”

“So you’re saying that I might end up marrying a boy?” Jesse said, slightly aghast. “I-I mean… I kinda remember hearing about that in school, but we didn’t cover the reasoning why – we kinda pulled ourselves out at around that time.”

I heard some faint sounds emanating from the corner where Riley slept. I wanted to cover that part of nasty history with Jesse, just so he’d understand why there were so few females out there in the various space stations and even back on Earth if we ever visited the home world. From last count in the census database, only about fifteen percent of the few thousand that resided in Jupiter Station were female. It had fallen over the years I had gone over the data at about one percent a year at least. The rest, of course were male. Even so, given the huge disparity towards any sort of heterosexual coupling there were still the few fundamentalists out there that made things hell for the guys that chose to either embrace what was once called the “gay lifestyle” or were one of the supposedly lucky ones with the disposition already a part of their very being.

Both of us turned towards Riley as his eyes slowly fluttered open. At first the boy had that look of pure fear I saw the first time he woke up in front of me. But then, as I guessed his short-term memory reasserted itself, he settled a bit. His eyes scanned the small room briefly before he saw both Jesse and me with slowly wilting hard-ons. He started to speak but opted instead to step out from behind the table and into the open.

Both Jesse and I gasped when we saw him. No trace of any gaps in his skin showed, only pale, unblemished softness covering that sturdy metallic frame of his. His organ jiggled a bit as he stopped just in front of us. Longer than I intended, I stared at his rather impressive looking equipment before reluctantly dragging my eyes back up to his face. A small smile greeted me.

“How was your rest?” The question sounded almost that of a human but wasn’t quite there yet. A marked improvement from last night. “Was it adequate?”

“We slept fine, Riley,” I said, definitely leaving out the part with me and Jesse almost having sex together. No matter how innocent, trusting, or even naïve this bot might be, I didn’t need to him to accidentally blurt it out to Kevin or especially Zane. “Now, let’s see if any of my clothes will fit your body.”

I stepped over to the closet again. I scooped up the shirt I tossed him last night and scouted around for one of my few sets of clothes. The only thing I hadn’t asked from Kevin was using his replicator to fashion Jesse or I any extra sets of clothes or seeing if they had any extra lying about. I glanced at my brother for a moment as I stepped away from the small storage space. I hoped his growth spurt would hold off just a bit longer. I was due for mine any day now and, while I desperately wanted to get taller, I also dreaded it. It meant yet another thing both of us would have to worry about – new clothes.

“Do you know how to dress like a human?” Jesse asked Riley. My brother absentmindedly kicked his feet some as his feet dangled just a bit from the floor as he perched on the edge of the bed.

“I am capable of that task,” Riley said as he started to demonstrate. The underwear and shorts were fine and a part of me missed having him stand around naked. I wasn’t sure why I was thinking that but ignored it some as he pulled the shirt on. I glanced over at him and something seemed a bit off.

I stepped over to him and glanced at the collar of the shirt. The front collar sat higher on him than the collar on the back. I nodded to myself. “Ah, close Riley. You put the shirt on backwards. You gotta flip it around.”

The boy robot looked a bit confused as he tried to think his way out of his predicament. His arms moved about a little mechanically in several different ways. It just looked like he couldn’t grasp the knowledge he wanted. He frowned deeply. “I am unfamiliar with the procedure.” It almost looked like he wanted to cry in apparent frustration. I smiled sympathetically at him.

“It’s okay, Riley,” I said quietly, hoping to ease his apparent distress. “All you gotta do is this.” I grabbed his right arm and brought it to the sleeve on his left arm. “Now, grab the hemmed edge here.” His fingers wrapped themselves into the fabric. “Now pull your left arm back through the sleeve. Like putting it on but in reverse.” A small brightening of understanding in his eyes flashed in the corner of mine. Once his arm was through and now out of the sleeve, I then walked him the rest of the way through it and in no time, the tee sat on his frame properly.

“Thank you for your assistance!” Riley hugged me tightly to him and it felt wonderful. It almost reminded me of a time when Kevin… I shook my head.

“It’s not a big deal, Riley,” I said trying to downplay the event. “I’d loan you a pair of shoes for your feet but I only have the one pair.” I turned to Jesse. “Maybe we’ll have to make a trip to see Kevin again and see if he can spare some clothes or the power to replicate some for all of us.”

Jesse shrugged. “Might be a good idea.” I saw a twinge of relief cross his face and it made me think.

“You sound happy about that, bro. If I remember, you hated trying on new clothes.”

A moment of guilt washed onto his face. “I-I… I haven’t been telling you Trav because I know you have a lot of stuff on your mind.” He half-shrugged. “I… I think I’m getting taller. None of my stuff fits right on me anymore. A-And my shoes are starting to hurt my feet.”

“You should’ve told me sooner, Jess!” I suddenly shouted. “Now I have to make sure to keep your new sizes in mind as time goes on!”

Jesse became agitated and defensive. “See?! This is why I didn’t want to tell you! You get all pissy about something that is so simple!”

“Simple?! How is it simple to get you new clothes when we have no money?! Don’t you remember all the shit I’ve had to steal just to keep us alive?!” I couldn’t believe how utterly uncomplicated Jesse made things out to be! Here he sits and still thinks that I could just make clothes appear out of thin air, just like that!

Jesse shot up and stood in front of me. “Don’t you dare remind me of that! I’m the one that had to save your ass from jail the last time! Or did you forget that when–” His angry look shifted into concern and his eyes weren’t boring holes into mine any longer, glancing behind me. It forced me to turn around and I didn’t like what I saw. Riley was huddled in the corner where he, well, slept last night. I could see his body shaking and all my anger towards Jesse evaporated for the time being.

“Riley?” I asked softly, hoping to coax a response from our new friend. I wanted to chuckle at my calling Riley a friend, like he’s a human male child. But… couldn’t he be a friend? Is friendship only a human trait or could this bot learn to think of me and Jesse as his friends? I couldn’t answer that question and decided to file it away for later. Now I had to help a cowering bot that sat curled up in the corner, afraid for some reason. “Riley… what’s wrong?”

“Sc-Scared!” he blubbered and I reeled from the admission as if he punched me. So… I guess he actually can feel things. I would have to be careful about how we treated him then, if he was actually this sensitive towards things. Jesse as well. “No anger!”

Confused, I asked, “Anger? What about it? Are you… are you angry too?” I swallowed. I wouldn’t want to see what a bot could do if it ever got angry. I shook my head, though. He wasn’t angry given his stance. He couldn’t be, well, not really. “Or… are you talking about me and Jess shouting at one another?”

“No shouting!” Riley said forcefully. “Shouting bad!”

“We’re not shouting anymore,” Jesse said just as softly as I was speaking. We both modulated our voices to keep them soft and calm sounding. “We… we didn’t mean to scare you Riley. We really didn’t. We’re sorry for doing that.”

Slowly our friend stopped shaking and peeked over at the two of us. I tried to smile comfortingly, but I wasn’t sure I pulled it off. “N…No more anger?”

“No more anger, Riley.” I took a tentative step towards him. “Can I help you to your feet?” He relaxed a bit more and uncurled himself. Slowly, he reached out a slightly shaky hand to me. I grasped it gently and pulled him back upright. And before I knew it, he once again wrapped his arms around me.

“Please refrain from… from… combat?” Riley pushed me back and I saw the frustration there along with his confusion. “Error – feuding?”

“We were fighting, Riley,” Jesse said as he stepped closer to the two of us and put a hand on his arm. “We’re sorry if we scared you.” A slight giggle slipped from my brother’s lips. “Me and Trav are too much alike sometimes. We sometimes press each other’s buttons too easily and we can… get out of hand. Drove Mom and Dad nuts all the time.”

“Yeah.”

“You have buttons?” Riley asked, his eyes widening some. He lifted his shirt and pointed to his realistic-looking nipples. “Are these your buttons?” I chuckled a bit.

“It’s an expression, Riley. No, we don’t have physical buttons to be pressed.” I helped Riley to lower his shirt back down. “What that means is that, since we’re so similar in personality, we accidentally say or do things that get us angry faster than normal otherwise.”

I don’t think he quite got it but slowly our new friend nodded anyway. “Understood.”

“Jesse, why don’t you take Riley down to F level and get in touch with either Julian or Kevin about getting us some new clothes. All three of us.” I faced my brother, all traces of our anger completely gone. “Do you know my sizes?”

“Um, not really,” he admitted.

“Well, right now I’m about a twenty-four by twenty-four for the pants, but you might want to go up a size for me – I think I’ll be getting taller soon myself.” I grimaced at him. “Always having to start things before me, eh little brother?”

He smirked. “Of course.”

“Make sure you introduce Riley to Kevin if even for a moment. They met last night but Riley wasn’t really all there, if you know my meaning. Try not to let Zane see you, otherwise he might do something bad.” I turned to Riley. “How are the memory core repairs going?”

“Unknown,” Riley said with a shrug. “Minimal repairs completed to the memory core. Restored approximately five percent of lost memory.”

“Is that how your speech improved overnight?” I was honestly curious about it. “I mean, you spoke fine last night, but this morning you’re talking with less… technical terms and more, uh, ‘normal’ speech.”

“Language subsystem part of damaged memory core area. Partial restoration occurred last night.” The bot’s eyebrows furrowed a bit, almost like it seemed a little hurt at what I was saying.

“It wasn’t meant as an insult, Riley. I’m just not used to hearing anyone talk like you.” I pulled him into a hug. “I don’t care how you talk – I like you regardless.”

“Yeah!” Jesse semi-shouted. “It’s actually kinda neat hearing some of those words again. It makes me think a bit more and that’s never a bad thing.” I laughed a bit and Riley’s frown faded into a small smirk.

The promenade didn’t seem as busy today as it did a few days ago. That’s because of it being a weekday most of the station’s crew was back at work. It’d be a bit harder to score a decent meal, but there was still enough stew in the cooling unit along with the rolls to last at most a couple more days. Maybe less with Riley around. It never hurt to stock up if I could. I might strike out when we really needed the food – best to have a steady supply while we had full bellies.

Security seemed a tad tighter around the periphery which struck me as odd. I never saw security as tight as I did then. Then again there really hasn’t been a need for it before. I heard about a fight breaking out here on one of the two days I wasn’t here actively trying to “hunt” for food, so the beefed up presence probably stems either from the actual event or even the rumor of such an event. I rolled my eyes, sensing a particular person’s hand in this.

I felt pinpricks of doubt creep into my head and I did my best to ignore it – can’t be getting second thoughts when it came time to slip a few things discreetly away. My eyes scanned the promenade for the busy merchants – ones that might not notice a small kid like me. But each stand really only had a few customers at most, making my theft art a bit trickier. I’ve done it with less people in the marketplace before, but it heightens the anxiety levels up more without the added comfort a really busy time provides.

I kept my eyes alert, making sure as few people felt my presence as possible. Since I now had to steal for three, I tried to see where I could get the most things with the fewest swipes of my hand. Then my thoughts drifted to Riley. About how perfect his face actually looked. How… how cute his face looked when he actually smiled. I felt myself smiling at the memory. I tried to shake the thoughts from my head but they returned viciously. Especially images of his ample penis. And then… I remembered him saying it being there mainly for aesthetics, but also… also it could be used for sex. Just the thought of his body performing things I only dreamed of… I blushed. Hard. Just as hard as my own penis felt in my shorts.

Now’s not the time for fantasizing, I scolded myself. I couldn’t even be sure if Riley would be interested. Even if he is a bot, I’m not quite sure what his purpose is. What he was created for. Was it just an experiment like I thought, to see if the creator could replicate human feelings and emotions in a mechanized shell? I shuddered at the thought – the description sounded too cold for someone like Riley. But even if the ideal situation presents itself, would I accept?

I’m not sure.

I managed to score a few things that could help us last another day within a rather short window. Figuring it to be it for the time I spent there, I started over towards a different grate from last time. I never liked to walk the corridors with stolen food – any security personnel could ask to see a receipt at any point in egress from the promenade to their quarters. I just didn’t want to take the chance as I could easily get to our new quarters without taking a single walkway. I saw the grate in sight, sitting slightly off the wall so I could easily slide it away. Just as I stepped out of the designated shopping area, I felt a heavy hand land on my shoulders.

“Well, well, well,” an all-too-familiar voice said, cold as the void outside the station. “Looks like I caught me a thief. One that I’m all too familiar with.” I stared straight ahead, afraid to acknowledge the truth that stood behind me. With some hidden gesture on his part, two other guards stepped forward. “Take all these things back to their proper owners. Hartwell and I are overdue for a long … chat.” All I could think about as the chief of security escorted me towards his personal domain was Jesse. Even thoughts of Riley, while fleeting, drowned in the deep concern I felt for Jesse. I swallowed. Hard. What was going to happen to me? And because of that…

What was going to happen to my baby brother?