My body is made of metal so surely, I am closer to a rocket than a bird.

As a rocket, life is easy. You only have to keep being a rocket and do what a rocket does - fly into space and then safely land again. A rocket doesn’t have to think for itself, because someone else is the pilot.

I wouldn't be sad about being a rocket.

But then I looked at all the other rockets and realized that I wasn't as nice as them. There were many different rockets and I couldn't help comparing.

A rocket doesn't compare itself to other rockets.

 

 

---

 

 

"Jongdae."

Warm, plush, comfortable. Lying in bed was the best feeling in the world. Sleeping was the best feeling in the world.

"Jongdae."

Waking up and having to get up immediately was one of the worst ways to start the day.

"Jongdae, you're awake. You missed your alarm."

Jongdae grunted, turned to the side and embraced his second, wonderfully cool cushion.

"Five more minutes."

"Should I set you another alarm?"

Jongdae hummed noncommittally. To be honest, his workplace could it with the early shifts.

"Jongdae, I have a question."

"Mmmhwhat."

"What exactly is love?"

Alright, maybe this was the worst way to start into the day.

 "Not now, Soo..."

"Love is not now?"

It certainly isn't, Jongdae wanted to reply, but that would only lead them further down a rabbit hole of misunderstandings.

With a huff, he turned towards Kyungsoo, squinting up at the android sitting beside his bed. He looked awake, unruffled and just overall annoyingly perfect.

"Love is a bodily reaction made by hormones and biology and - not really , just other stuff that's hard to understand. It developed over time to make people wanna reproduce efficiently and stick together afterwards," he rattled down sleepily. Deep down, he already knew he there was no more sleep in it for him. He simply refused to accept it, though. Just a little longer he, thought, rubbing his eyes.

Just a little longer.

"Okay."

Jongdae yawned. He was getting the hang of giving simple explanations.

"But what is it?"

Or not.

"I see its origin and function, but how does it play out?"

"Your vocab seems to be growing," Jongdae mumbled instead of answering from top to bottom, feeling the pleasant pull in his muscles.

"That's because it is. Do you not know the answer to that question?"

Jongdae let out an exasperated, dragged out "aaaah", ruffling Kyungsoo's hair and then sitting up.

"You're the worst alarm clock ever and you’ve got no snooze function at all!" He complained, but there was a hint of a smile on his face.

"Why do I have to snooze? You should be the one snoozing. And-"

"Yes, yes, answer the question, I get it," Jongdae brushed him off, feeling more and more like an answering machine.

"Love expresses itself in deep, binding affection that you feel towards another being," Jongdae dutifully replied as he switched off the snooze function of his actual alarm clock. "Your brain gets...tricked or something, and you're made available to that person. Like, you don't really see their flaws and have the urge to appease to them...objective perception! That was the term I'm looking for. It screws with your objective perception."

"Oh. That sounds bad," Kyungsoo commented guilelessly. Jongdae snorted.

"Well. It's okay. It also feels good, so there's a bit of a reward for all the hassle."

"In what way does it feel good?" Kyungsoo prodded without missing a beat, but Jongdae brought an end to the question and answer game. It was still too early.

"You know, some people - and I'm including myself in this," he began, finally getting up to grab a fresh pair of socks and underwear, "are not ready to have a meaningful conversation right after they’ve just woken up. Unlike your super android mind, my inferior human brain needs some time to boot and reassemble everything."

He tugged a shirt off the back of his chair, doing his best to ignore Kyungsoo's skeptical stare.

"But 'reproduction' works just fine in the morning? You have strange priorities." 

Jongdae instinctively covered his morning wood,  then decided to toss his shirt at Kyungsoo instead.

"You ," he whined half-heartedly and fled to the shower before Kyungsoo could throw  another innuendo at him. At this point, he was surely doing it on purpose – just because it ticked Jongdae off.

Jongdae fleetingly thought that even if the opportunity presented itself, he'd probably not be able to have in his own apartment without Kyungsoo peeking inside and asking about the exact components of lube.

That thought was sad enough to take care of his morning wood.

 

---

 

That friend was supposedly an expert when it came to androids, and apparently, he'd be discreet, too. When it came to androids, the profession of a general doctor was very rare - instead, there were a dozen specialized professions that Jongdae couldn't tell apart (he really had to work on curing his own ignorance).

Wu  Yifan was not a doctor, but an analyst  - someone who could read an android's settings and evaluate them. Jongdae wondered how close he and Jongin were, if he was willing to take a look at an unregistered android  It was a little risky, but they couldn't draw this out forever. They had to know more about Kyungsoo and his specifications. The idea of Jongdae accidentally hurting Kyungsoo or exposing him to something he reacted badly to was awful. The one of Kyungsoo suddenly malfunctioning or shutting down was even worse. No, they had to do this. Kyungsoo shared his sentiment; and for once, they seemed to operate in perfect harmony, driven by a mix of anticipation and nervousness.

They'd been told to come in after three, which meant that Jongdae could enjoy a nice, long nap after work before even thinking of getting ready. Sadly, Kyungsoo was not entirely exhausted and seemed to have used the time to drive himself a little crazy. The entire way to the store he listed terrifying accidents that had happened in the past.

"Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo, stop," Jongdae finally interfered as they exited the subway station.

"You should never look up stuff like that online, that's basic knowledge."

"Why? Because it affects our will to take risks?" Kyungsoo asked, walking very closely next to Jongdae. He always did that, as if he was afraid of getting lost. Jongdae sighed.

"Mostly because it'll drive you insane. You could get a bruise from bumping into a table and the internet would tell you it's likely a terminal illness."

"So you're saying it's all lies?"

Jongdae snorted at his naivety, and made a mental note to teach him more about the internet.

"No, I'm saying that these cases are all highly unlikely and seeing them instead of the majority of unproblematic cases makes you feel paranoid."

"Oh. So you think..." Kyungsoo began, lowering his voice unsurely, "that visiting a shop will be fine?"

Jongdae assured him of that, even when he felt a little nervous himself. Especially seeing the very much official-looking building a while later. The place looked clean in every sense of the word, with informative posters hanging on the high windows and obscuring most of what lay behind. For some reason, he'd expected something a little less.... nice. Which was ridiculous, of course, because he wouldn't like for a shady person to look at Kyungsoo, but-

"Are we gonna go in? We're late by a few minutes already," Kyungsoo predictably informed him, and Jongdae grabbed his hand and marched towards the entrance. It did an astounding job at silencing Kyungsoo, who gently squeezed his hand back. It felt almost nostalgic, remembering Jongdae of how he had led him out of the club.

"It's closed," Kyungsoo mumbled, but Jongdae was already ringing the doorbell. For a few, long seconds they stood there, staring at closed blinds, when the door opened and they were met with the sight of a broad chest.

"Good day. You're Jongin's friend?"

Jongdae looked up and absently noticed Kyungsoo doing the same.

"Y-yes," Jongdae muttered, momentarily stunned by the presence of someone even taller than Chanyeol. "I'm Jongdae."

He offered his hand to shake, which led to the android doctor taking it with a hand so huge Jongdae wasn't sure whether to be attracted or terrified. Maybe a bit of both. Bad combination.

"Nice to meet you. I'm-"

"Tall."

The analyst looked over at Kyungsoo, looking almost amused.

"You're," he began, but then thought otherwise and stepped aside. "Come in first."

Kyungsoo was still squeezing his hand as they stepped inside. It looked like a regular office room at first sight and so far, the doctor stuck out the most. His voice was even deeper than Kyungsoo's, Jongdae dimly noted. In contrast to his intimidating appearance, he wore a fluffy, blue pullover that actually calmed Jongdae a bit. Maybe he wore it on purpose. Maybe he also wore those really thick, silly-looking bracelets and the showy wrist watch on purpose.

"Let's have a seat," analyst Wu said calmly, and they both followed his instructions like nervous kids, quickly taking a seat at one end of the low table in the right corner of the room. The analyst took a seat across from them, gesturing at the clean glasses being put face down on a tablet.

"Help yourselves if you're thirsty. So, I'm Wu Yifan. Please call me Yifan. I'm a coding analyst specialized on AI's."

"I'm Jongdae," Jongdae repeated, simply because he didn't know what to say. "The guy who found an android and took him home."

He looked at Kyungsoo, who was still staring at Yifan with wide eyes. The silent call to action worked.

"I'm Kyungsoo, the android who was taken home," he stated, and he'd never sounded so mechanic before. Then he added, "man, you are really tall. Men and Women must love you."

Jongdae's smile stayed all the same, but he bit his lips as he stared ahead, not wanting to be responsible for anything that left Kyungsoo's unfiltered mouth.

To his surprise, a grin tugged at Wu Yifan's lips and he didn't seem annoyed at all when addressing Kyungsoo.

"Not nearly as much as you probably think," he brushed him off, and now his entire attention lay on the little android, who was currently squeezing Jongdae's fingers very hard under the table.

"So, Kyungsoo, what brings you here?" he asked, not unkindly.

"Nothing," came the immediate reply.

"He's nervous," Jongdae explained, but Yifan barely paid attention to him.

"Nothing?" he repeated, and Kyungsoo nodded.

"There's no information on me, and that is a big safety hazard, for both Jongdae and me."

"You seem very nervous," the analyst stated, and Kyungsoo actually shrugged.

"Well. I don't know what’s expecting me in terms of the examination. I might also get arrested and give Jongdae trouble. And also I don't want him to be disappointed if it's revealed that I'm a crappy android."

Jongdae blinked, but it simply wasn't his time to speak up, seeing as the two were entirely excluding him at the moment. Even so, Kyungsoo was still holding his hand under the table.

"You think you might be...crappy?" Yifan repeated, obviously unhappy about using such a crude word in a professional setting. Kyungsoo made a doubtful, drawn out 'eh' sound, complete with an unsure hand gesture, and Yifan snorted, his hand flying up to his mouth.

"I'm. Sorry," he quickly said, but now Jongdae was sort of grinning, as well, and Kyungsoo looked between them, awkward and unsure.

"You're really something. I see what Jongin meant when he described you as unique."

Kyungsoo wasn't so easily convinced.

"Unique good or unique bad?"

"Let's find out," Yifan said as he got to his feet. "Can't be that bad though, from the looks of it."

They followed Yifan into the back room, with Kyungsoo stage-whispering to Jongdae.

"Did he just hit on me?"

Jongdae wanted to cry a little.

"No. No, he did not," he stage-whispered back with utter certainty. Well, at least the hot android doctor hadn't been an option in the first place - or else Jongdae might be sad about Kyungsoo so thoroughly burning all the bridges before Jongdae had even thought of building them. But no, hot android doctor was already taken - moments ago, Jongdae had recognized one of his tacky bracelets to be the same, colorful bear bracelet Jongin wore as well.

Jongdae felt a little cheated. Jongin, who was always quiet about his private life and acted as nothing but nondescript, secretly had a thing going with a guy who wasn't only highly educated, but also steaming hot. It made Jongdae feel like a random side character in a movie. He'd probably missed the moment to blankly look into the camera, just reflecting on the unfairness of life.

"Kyungsoo, please take a seat over there."

Jongdae was ripped out of his thoughts by a tug on his hand. He looked down and at Kyungsoo, who was also staring at their hands, unwilling to let go. Jongdae pulled away first.

"It will be fine," he reassured him, and while Kyungsoo looked tempted to give him a sassy remark, he didn't. Jongdae pulled out one of the simple chairs and sat in Kyungsoo's line of vision, really just two or three steps away.

While Yifan bustled around to flick switches and switch on screens and machines, Jongdae took a further look at the room. It still looked squeaky clean and professional, and less terrifying than an actual doctor's office - though that was entirely subjective, since what might be terrifying to him and to an android could be very different. Jongdae didn't know what to make of all these cables and screens showing numbers, so he could only sit back and have faith in the analyst. Who was finally taking a seat as well, next to Kyungsoo.

"Alright. You see all these little stickers here?" he asked. They both followed his loosely pointing finger to see stickers indeed, all small and golden.

"Take a good look, cause that's what official ones look like. They act as a certificate for me and my methods and machinery to be clean and trustworthy," Yifan explained calmly, almost routinely. He must have a lot of first time patients.

"Never allow anyone to take a look at your insides and programming if you don't see those stickers taped to the machines. That's very important to guarantee a clean procedure and to keep you safe and healthy. Humans wouldn't trust a doctor operating from his backyard, either. You got that?"

He looked at both of them, and prompted to react, Jongdae nodded quickly. It made sense. No shabby basement tinkering on such a complex, fragile creature.

Yifan seemed content with them just accepting the information. He shifted in his seat and reached for a compact-looking instrument.

"Good. Now let me explain to you what I'm going to do. I'll connect this device to you, and connect you to this machine here, simply for data transfer."

Kyungsoo nodded again, looking a little wary, but ultimately compliant. "I'll warn you ahead of time if I think you'll feel anything, so as not to alarm you. First, we have to connect you."

Kyungsoo naturally lifted his shirt over his head, and Jongdae feared another social misstep coming on, but Yifan wasn't perturbed and simply offered him to place the shirt on a nearby stool.

That's right, he had seen a movie before where an android needed to be...plugged in. Was the term plugged in offensive? That android had his docking point around the neck, though, and he hadn't seen anything like it on Kyungsoo.

"Where is your access point for technical support, do you know that?"

Yifan's questions were precise, leaving no room for hilarious misunderstandings. Jongdae was impressed.

Kyungsoo thought about it for a while, then pointed to his right side.

 "Sounds about right. That's a very common area."

Jongdae would have liked to question the validity of android information he'd gotten from the movies, but he was currently too spooked to do so – because Kyungsoo had lifted his arm and Yifan fiddled around with something he couldn't see,  only to roll away a bit of Kyungsoo's skin. Below, there was a blank, clean-looking hatch, and yes, this was low-key terrifying to Jongdae.

Kyungsoo didn't seem scared at all, just mildly interested. The hatch was opened, revealing three connection points, and then Yifan was holding up a little cube-like thing for Kyungsoo to see.

"I'll plug this into the main port. It will feel foreign, but not harmful."

"Okay."

Jongdae craned his neck to see, but there was nothing spectacular going on. The device was plugged in, the little device in Yifan's hands lit up, and after a few seconds of the analyst staring at incoming numbers, he declared it was safe to connect him to the bigger machine, as well.

"This will be tiring, but I don't think it will last long. Please don't reject the device, if you can."

If he was human, maybe Kyungsoo's eyes would glaze over now, or he'd grow weak. Jongdae had seen Kyungsoo in his exhausted states, however, and wasn't surprised to see him becoming very still, conserving energy and finally closing his eyes, to blank out the immense, perpetual input he was exposed to. The machine purred very silently, steadily, and numbers kept flooding the screen. Yifan sat very still, but when he spoke, it was aimed at Jongdae.

"Where did you find him?"

"Uh. A night club," Jongdae admitted. "We, uh, we think he was abandoned shortly after he was booted. He's kinda unworldly."

Yifan hummed.

"You do know that it's dangerous to associate with seemingly stray androids?"

There it was, the long overdue scolding.

"Yes, I do."

"Finding a true stray like this one seems to be, is extremely rare. Most of them have a history, just like humans. Only that their history can be kept from them. They could one day snap, and steal or murder, just like programmed, and no one would see it coming, neither you nor the android themself."

"So you're saying that we should just let stray androids rot on the streets?" Jongdae asked, a little unhappy with the inhuman treatment, even though that was kind of expected. Yifan looked at him, and there was kindness in his eyes.

"Most of these androids would not even mind. But you're right of course, when you think that they deserve better. Just like a human, an android is inherently innocent at first. You cannot blame them for what was brought upon them, but unlike us, they can rarely actively seek anyone out. Still, you mustn't forget that we shouldn't feel entitled to force us on them. As long as they pose no active threat, we have no right to tinker with unclaimed androids. And even when they have a human guardian, it depends."

"That's really complicated..." Jongdae trailed off, and Yifan nodded.

"It is. It's not something average people even know about."

"Then what was I supposed to do?"

Yifan made another thoughtful hum.

"Usually, if you see an android you suspect in need of help, you contact the police, and they'll take a look."

"And then he gets stuffed in some orphanage for androids," Jongdae stated rather than asked.

"That would be nicer than facility work, but yeah. It's not easy for a stray. Lucky for him that it was you who found him, right?"

Judging by the other's soft expression, Jongdae suspected the analyst to be a bleeding heart, under all that tough-looking exterior. Maybe he and Jongin suited each other well, after all.

"I'm done," Kyungsoo said, and they both turned to him.

"Great. You feel alright?" Yifan asked, and his whole demeanour seemed to have molten from perfectly professional to very casual in just a few minutes.

"Yes. It was really weird."

While Yifan scrolled the numbers and statistics, pulling things across his screen, Kyungsoo sought out Jongdae immediately, who shot him an encouraging smile.

Kyungsoo smiled back. It was really rare, to see him actually smiling. It made Jongdae's heart twitch.

"Okay. So far, everything looks good. I'll only need a few minutes," the analyst distractedly announced, and Jongdae was quite frankly happy they didn't have to return another day. They spent the waiting time in silence, careful not to disturb the analyst reading out the data.

Kyungsoo stared at the numbers, which Jongdae had all-too soon given up on (they made just about as much sense to him as letters in a soup did), and so he passed the time looking at nothing in particular, musing about what it must be like, to be a stray android.

They knew Yifan was done when he casually sank into a chair, facing them.

"Okay. This is a rough analysis now, just an overview," he announced, body turned towards the screen as he pointed at the overall collection of colorful charts. Jongdae sat up a little straighter, bracing himself for whatever was awaiting him.

"Overall, everything looks fine. There's one big issue though."

They both stared at him in new-found nervousness. Yifan gestured at a line that was entirely too small for Jongdae to read.

"He has no inbuilt restrictions. No basic laws or moral, just nothing."

"Do I need them?" Kyungsoo asked. Yifan didn't seem annoyed by the question (which was probably better than the 'And that is bad why?' that had been resting on Jongdae's tongue).

"Have you ever heard the story of the android and the paper clips?"

They hadn't. Yifan wasn't surprised.

"It's an easy little tale to demonstrate the importance of basic restrictions," he began, leaning against the backrest of his chair. "Imagine an android with no personality or character, a blank sheet awaiting an instruction. And you tell this android that for some reason, you need it to produce paper clips."

"Paper clips," Jongdae echoed.

"Yes. Just paper clips. As many as possible, by all means possible. What do you think would happen?"

"He'd... build a ridiculously large factory dedicated to paper clips?" Jongdae asked, and Yifan nodded.

"And then?"

And then?

Jongdae looked at Kyungsoo, whose gears were obviously ticking.

"He'd build a lot of factories?" he tried, and Yifan bit back a smile.

"Yes. But why stop there? When to stop? The android would soon realize that humans could create more paper clips for it, and in order to maximize the results, it will force them to do so. Humans, machines, maybe even other androids. It wouldn't stop until the whole world was simply dedicated to making paper clips. People would live in poverty, since they'd make paper clips instead of caring for general needs. And if the android managed to branch out into the universe, it would."

"That's ridiculous," Kyungsoo stated, and Yifan shot him an interested look.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because if all humans are enslaved and all forests burnt down, there will be no more paper and no more use of paper clips."

"The android wasn't told what to produce them for, and simply to produce them. It doesn't care whether they are used or not."

Kyungsoo scrunched his brows together and looked overall skeptical.

"Still," he began.

"Still?"

"It doesn't seem... right."

It felt like Yifan was coaxing something big out of Kyungsoo, and while Jongdae had no idea what was going on, he paid close attention.

"Do you think the android is at fault?"

"What? No. It simply did what it was told to. The instruction was simply stupid," Kyungsoo said almost petulantly, defending an inexisting android with an obsession for paper clips.

"That's right," Yifan agreed easily. "There were no restrictions or limitations. It had no sense of moral or ethics, as per human understanding. That's why every artificial intelligence needs to be provided with a thorough, moral code. Think of it as an extended version of the three robotic's laws."

"But what makes me different from that android? If I have no sense of moral or ethics, I should share its sentiments, right?"

Yifan seemed happy about the question, pointing at Kyungsoo as he nodded.

"Yeah. You should, that's right. But you are more than a blank sheet, you're a more modern model working on basic logic. You may have neither restrictions nor a key motivation given to you, but you spent a lot of time around humans, and learnt their customs and ethics by observation."

"Sometimes more and sometimes less successful," Jongdae mumbled, and the analyst shook his head.

"They may be rough around the edges, but the core construct is there. Again, you're both very lucky. It could have developed in a very different way altogether. I do see that your values are very -oriented. In fact, I first assumed you were an android made for ion."

Jongdae was way more shocked than Kyungsoo, who only tilted his head in question.

"Is that bad?"

"No," Yifan freely said (while Jongdae begged to differ), "but you're not. They really didn't feed you with anything to work with, so you made it along as you went and adapted to your environment. I'm sure you'll have no trouble adapting to other areas as well, though you might want to give it some time. You're medium-built in terms of materials and intelligence."

"So I'm not smart?" Kyungsoo asked, and for the first time, there was something akin to disappointment in the way he said it.

"You're not dumb. You're not a supercomputer, either. But I wouldn't be too concerned about that," Yifan added in a pacifying tone, "medium-builts get along with humans much better than the upper class. Or rather, humans get along better with medium-builts. Their limitations make them more accessible, while these type of androids feel less estranged by humans."

"Oh. Okay. Sounds reasonable."

Jongdae nodded, as if his head wasn't buzzing with all the new information. Yifan patted his own thighs before getting to his feet.

"I'll still provide you with the basic restrictions I told you about," he announced. "It's sort of my duty, since it's illegal to be without them. But there's really nothing to worry about - I doubt you will feel much of a difference."

"Okay," Kyungsoo easily offered, and then he looked at Jongdae as if confirming whether his choice was acceptable. Which was silly, of course, since this was about him, and demanding Kyungsoo to stay without the set of rules that made him more of a legal android would be nothing but selfish and stupid. Still, Kyungsoo valued his opinion, and that was flattering.

 

---

 

Jongdae left the office not too long after, with a handful of brochures stuffed into his bag and a groggy android holding his hand.

"I'm tired," he remarked unnecessarily.

"I know," Jongdae replied.

"We'll go straight home so you can get some rest."

Yifan had told them that while the restrictions shouldn't be noticeable in his behaviour, adapting to them might take a few hours and be very consuming.

Indeed Kyungsoo was still very quiet when they entered the apartment, and Jongdae ushered him off to lay down and not worry about anything at all. He tried to do somewhat the same, but worries on how to have Kyungsoo legally registered without any repercussions were still gnawing at him. Yifan had given him a few informative brochures and scribbled the names of some internet addresses on them, which Jongdae was very grateful for. He'd have to check them out as soon as possible. Maybe later, in bed.

He had to give up on that plan when he padded to his room, a wet towel around his neck, only to find Kyungsoo sitting with his back leaned against Jongdae's door, blocking the way.

"Are you okay? Are you feeling strange, after all?" Jongdae immediately asked, and before he could get to his knees, the android looked up.

"I'm just tired. Can I sleep with you?"

"Huh?" Jongdae asked, clearly taken aback.

"Can I sleep with you?" Kyungsoo repeated, even mirroring the intonation. He really was a little out of it.

"Of course," Jongdae hurried to reply. "Just sleeping though."

"Just sleeping," Kyungsoo repeated, and this kind of behaviour really did worry Jongdae, who quickly got ready for bed, and then stripped Kyungsoo out of his clothes to put a pajama on him. They slipped under the covers, and while Jongdae couldn't remember the last time he had been in bed with another person, this really wasn't the time for silly thoughts. Without hesitation, he drew him in for a hug, even though he wasn't sure whether Kyungsoo would appreciate the gesture. It was a strange, foreign feeling - not only to lie next to someone, but also the way Kyungsoo felt in his arms. He was very solid and hard, but also warm. Hopefully not too warm.

"This is nice," Kyungsoo said quietly into the darkness.

"Yeah? That's good to hear," Jongdae replied softly, unconsciously nosing around Kyungsoo's hair. It smelled like his own shampoo.

"I know you can't save me from most of potential threats," Kyungsoo stated, and Jongdae huffed out a small laugh. "But you can save me from a few of them, and that makes me feel safe. Thank you."

Ignoring his pounding heart, Jongdae hugged him a little tighter and pressed a kiss to his hair.

He didn't bother replying, seeing as Kyungsoo had gone to sleep only seconds after.