Please read the author note at the end.

“Taekwoon-ah?”

The muffled voice broke through Taekwoon’s sensors, the whir of his system restarting blurring out the words. A crack of light broke into his vision. With a couple of blinks, his lenses focused, a blinding white light above him. His head hurt like hell. What happened? 

He tried to sit up, but a pair of hands held him back.

“Just stay laying down.”

He blinked again, focusing this time on the person beside him. He hummed, his eyes fluttering as he took in Hakyeon’s worried expression. A sharp pain shot through his head again, and he only later noticed the twinge was back. He groaned.

“W-what?” He said, his voice cracking slightly, “What happened?”

Hakyeon smiled softly, “your, ah, your system shut down, but I still haven’t figured out why. You’ve been out for a day.”

A day? How was that possible? 

He couldn’t remember a thing, it was just darkness. A darker and deeper void than any type of sleep.

“How… is that possible? I can’t just… shut off,” Taekwoon rasped, his voice still gruff.

It was true; it was virtually impossible for him, or any android to shut themselves off. The furthest they could power down was to shut off all systems except for their backup sensory network. Even in the case of a complete battery drain, there were three back up batteries, as well as a constant solar charge. Only a termination could shut down every system.

He tried to sit up again, his head feeling considerably clearer, but Hakyeon pushed him back down.

“Stay,” he ordered. Taekwoon huffed at him. He watched Hakyeon pick up his tablet out of the corner of his eye, careful not to turn his head. It was stupid, he felt fine.

“I ran some tests while you were out but, I really can’t find anything. What do you remember?” Hakyeon asked.

“I, um,” Taekwoon started, trying to remember. All his system recorded was noise, so much noise. He could barely remember the moments before he out, all the noise and red blurring together. But he did remember one thing, clearer than anything else. The sting of his skin slapping against Hakyeon’s imprinted in his nerves. It felt so ingrained he lifted his hand to check for damage, a scar. There was nothing.

“What?”

Hakyeon touched his fingers to Taekwoon’s hand, trying to see what he was looking at. Taekwoon snatched his hand away.

“It’s nothing.”

The mechanic frowned.

“What’s going on Taekwoon?”

What was going on? Honestly, he hadn’t a clue. He felt different, wrong. His entire body felt shifted, jilted out of place. It was as though all of his cells had been moved to a more shaky position. He felt so unstable. His mind was a mess; the data spread everywhere, worse than what it would be after an examination. It was like a tornado had whipped through his files, scattering them like flimsy paper. His hands were shaking so violently he had to place them under his body. But the tremors only spread to the rest of his body. His chest felt tight.

“I feel so… strange, Hakyeon,” the android spoke softly, a frown pinching at his brow, “I don’t understand.”

“Maybe your systems being overworked, you’ve just come out of a major shut down, don’t move so much.”

Taekwoon shook his head slowly.

“That’s not it, I’m running fine. It isn’t my system, i-it’s… I don’t understand.”

The feeling was so… internal. It filled all of him, from his toes to his fingertips. It was like nothing else he knew, but could only imagine it was what pain was like for humans. So overwhelming and unstoppable. Because as hard as he tried, he couldn’t push it aside. It clogged up his entire mind.

His eye roamed the room as he tried to understand, until something caught his gaze. On the wall across from where he sat hung a framed document. The document was fairly simple, a shiny silver crest stamped beside ‘Masters in Robotics Engineering’ printed in black. But what held Taekwoon’s attention were the few undoubtedly familiar lines at the bottom. Words that were seared into his memory from day one. 

The three laws.

The words had always had diamond tough edges to Taekwoon, unyielding and ultimately binding. When seeing them they would snap into place, aligning perfectly with everything Taekwoon knew. But something was different this time.

Taekwoon frowned as he stared at the words. They seemed wrong. They were almost… softer, frazzled around the edges like they’d been worn out. He made a small noise of confusion, blinking to look at the words again. 

It was all wrong.

The sting in his hand resurfaced, burning him and he flinched, looking down at his palm again. And something clicked.

“Hakyeon…” he barely whispered, lifting his head shakily to look at the worried engineer, “…I broke a law.”

Hakyeon looked at him, even more confused than before, and shook his head slightly.

“What are you talking about?”

Taekwoon could barely articulate the words in his own head, let alone say them out loud. His mind dodged around the clear fact that Taekwoon had hit Hakyeon, and the seemingly unbreakable laws had simply let him. There’d been no resistance in the action, and it scared Taekwoon beyond belief.

Slowly he sat up, wincing at the aches all over his body, and looked up at Hakyeon,

“I… I hit you Hakyeon,” he whispered and his voice was thick with horror. Hakyeon blinked at him, obviously trying to remember. Taekwoon knew the act would probably have been insignificant to Hakyeon, but to him it was earth shattering.

“I hit you when we fought. You tried to touch your hand to my shoulder and I hit it away,” he could barely raise his voice above an inoffensive whisper.

Hakyeon squinted and looked at his hand, “but… you can’t do that.”

“I did.”

Hakyeon let out a long breath, staring at Taekwoon in disbelief. And Taekwoon could understand the feeling. The laws were unbreakable, he knew that, they constantly surrounded him like a hard shell. But now it was soft, pliable, and Taekwoon knew if he really wanted to, he could push aside those laws and hurt Hakyeon, and it terrified him.

“That’s… incredible,” a giddy smile rose to Hakyeon’s face, and he grabbed Taekwoon’s hand, “try it again.”

The words raised hairs all over Taekwoon’s body, and gasped softly, “no.”

“Oh please,” Hakyeon whined and Taekwoon wasn’t sure he understood the situation, “I need to understand this Taekwoon.”

“No,” Taekwoon said firmly, “I can’t hurt you.”

“You won’t, I promise. I couldn’t even remember you hitting me before, it’ll be fine,” Hakyeon moved closer and held Taekwoon’s face in his hands, the android vaguely noticing a slight increase in his heart rate, “please? For me?”

And Taekwoon actually considered if. He closed his eyes with a huff and leant his cheek into Hakyeon’s palm, the touch comforting him as he mulled it over.

“As long as it’s only small,” he hummed softly, eyes still closed, “I’m afraid I will hurt you.”

“You’re afraid?” Hakyeon seemed bemused, “that’s… new.”

Taekwoon cocked his head, “yes, I suppose that’s true.”

As something with a purely rational mind, fear wasn’t something Taekwoon felt as a rule. But there he was, worry flooding his mind. He didn’t understand the new development and that brought doubts. He couldn’t know whether he could control his own strength now.

Hakyeon held out his arm, “ok here, hit me.”

Taekwoon’s throat tightened and he looked down at Hakyeon’s waiting arm, calculating the least painful spot he could do it, and he heard Hakyeon chuckle.

“Don’t worry about me,” a reassuring smile spread on his face, but it softened when he saw the worry evident on Taekwoon’s face, “you can just pinch me if it’s easier.”

The idea comforted Taekwoon a little, something which he could have more control over, so slowly he nodded, looking back at Hakyeon. He let out a shaky breath and reached out for his arm, softly placing his palm over Hakyeon’s soft skin. 

He loved the feeling of Hakyeon’s skin. It was so smooth and alive, so different from his own, though only his sensors could really feel the contrast between it and his own synthetic skin. He didn’t feel right marking something so beautiful.

“Here,” Hakyeon murmured, moving Taekwoon’s fingers and giving him an encouraging nod, “see if you can do it.”

With a shuddering breath Taekwoon nodded and looked down at the expanse of tan skin beneath his fingers. His joints felt still and unwilling to move, though he couldn’t tell whether it was the laws or his own anxiety anymore. Regulating his breathing was becoming difficult. Ever so slowly he let his fingers pinch together, only lightly holding the skin between them. It felt so wrong. 

He could barely tell himself to press down harder, anxiety rising in his throat at the mere thought. But still, it was so different from before, where such thoughts would simply have been blocked. Without those walls in his mind he felt a mess.

“Just press down Taekwoon, you can do it,” Hakyeon’s soft voice reassured him, and he took a deep breath and squeezed his fingers. 

He jerked at the feeling of Hakyeon’s skin squeeze between his fingers. He could feel every small shift in the membrane and then a sudden jolt of energy to the spot. Taekwoon gasped at it, the way that energy coursed under Hakyeon’s skin sending a jolt up his own arm. Energy sizzled through his body in a rush.

“Ack,” Hakyeon hissed, brushing Taekwoon’s hand away, but the grin on his face was unmistakable.

“Oh my god,” Taekwoon gasped, scrambling backwards, away from what he’d just done. It terrified him, knowing what had happened last time. But his alarms stayed eerily quiet, only the buzz of thoughts and energy filling his mind.

“Oh my ing god,” was Hakyeon’s response, “this is incredible!” his hands reacted out to hold Taekwoon’s shoulders and he beamed at him. He looked radiant and Taekwoon all but sighed at the sight of his ecstatic. Hakyeon really was beautiful.

“It is,” Taekwoon whispered, leaning forward with a heavy breath. The corners of his mouth twitched and turned upwards just slightly, all on their own. Hakyeon huffed a laugh at something and wrapped his arms around Taekwoon, something he’d never done before. Taekwoon’s chest tightened almost painfully, the small twinge he’d grown accustom to having grown into his entire chest, and his face soften. He couldn’t understand the feeling at all.

“I’m sorry I-I can’t do that again Hakyeon,” the android breathed against his neck, confusion lacing his abnormally unsteady voice. It’s wrong, something in his mind said, a voice he’d never heard before. Was it his own?

“It’s ok don’t worry I won’t make you,” Hakyeon’s hand came up comb fingers through Taekwoon’s hair, “You should rest, you’ve been through a lot today. I can try give you a system clean to help if you’d like.”

Fingers continued to comb soothingly through Taekwoon’s hair and he nodded against his neck, breathing in slowly. He noted idly how much he liked Hakyeon’s scent. It was earthy with hints of the Jasmine scented soap he loved to use, but overall it was incredibly human. He’d always known the smell, but had never smelt it up so close. It made him wonder what he smelt like. Did Hakyeon like his scent?

The arms around him gave one final squeeze and let go, Hakyeon moving away to gather some materials, and Taekwoon felt a pang in his stomach at the loss of pressure around him. He watched Hakyeon move about tiredly, the energy drain finally hitting. He liked the idea of a system clean and recharge.

“Here,” Hakyeon said with a soft smile, touching a tiny chip softly at the base of Taekwoon’s skull, and he felt his the soothing wash of the cleanse take over his mind, “just lay down and rest, I’ll come back when it’s finished.”

Taekwoon nodded tiredly, smiling back at Hakyeon reflexly, and he let himself lay back down on the table. System cleanses always made him drowsy. His eye lids drooped as he accessed his sleep mode, his system slowly powering down one section at a time. Hakyeon was still smiling that soft smile at him, and his last thought before his system reverted to sleep mode was in wonder over how pretty Hakyeon’s smile was.

—

 ‘Your heart will tighten in that delicious squeeze and you’ll catch yourself smiling all the time for all kinds of ridiculous reasons.’

Those words must have etched themselves into Taekwoon’s mind from the times he’d read them over and over. He’d abandoned his regular reading of medical journals or novels to pour himself into the words, to obsess over them, analyse them over and over. They intrigued him, but mostly they confused him because he found he could related to them. Taekwoon had never thought he’d relate to anything written in a teen magazine article titled Ten Ways to Know You Have a Crush.

A crush, it seemed from Taekwoon’s research, was someone you were romantically interested in, and he really wasn’t sure how that term sat with him. He’d just wanted to find more information on his recent symptoms, but this had been far from what he’d expected. Having a so called ‘crush’ was so outside anything he knew he wasn’t sure how to react to it. It scared him a little.

There were thousands of similar articles, most of them now saved to his hard drive. He’d read them over and over but still felt just as confused as he had to begin with.

With a sigh he minimised the windows, shelving those thoughts for later. 

Hakyeon was at work again, promising to be as quick as possible so that he could further comb through Taekwoon’s coding. He’d spent days trying to find some fault or break in the texts that could have cause the sudden absence of Taekwoon’s laws, but so far everything seemed completely normal. It was arduous, he could tell, watching Hakyeon sitting for hours scanning over the hundreds upon thousand lines of code on a screen while Taekwoon sat beside him and waited. Of course he’d run his own checks, but Hakyeon was nothing but thorough. But he still felt terrible that this problem was taking up so much of Hakyeon’s time when he had so much work to do. Let a lone the stacks of paperwork which still needed to be filled out for Taekwoon’s check up.

Hakyeon did, however, look very cute doing it. His glasses perched on his scrunched up nose as he analysed each line. Taekwoon didn’t know why he’d never noticed it before.

A/N: hello I'm back with more of this fic. Unfotunately I've been very unmotivated to write so I haven't been working on this for a significant amount of time. This chapter is the last of what I have fully and consistently written out, the rest is random scenes I never pieced together. This doesn't mean I won't ever update this story again, but the likelihood is pretty low at this point. I hope you've enjoyed what's been posted so far at least, thank you so much for reading ♥

ps: I'm happy to answer questions about the rest of this story on my ask.fm if anyone has them