Page 75 of Garbage

“I think you’re so gorgeous that sometimes I forget to breathe.”

Wow. The bubbles of happiness in Quincy’s chest fizzed and popped. He wanted to be so pretty for Evan. He wanted Evan to think he was beautiful.

“And speaking of, have you thought more about changing your pronouns?” Evan asked.

It took Quincy a moment to follow the new topic. He shook his head, feeling the slide of their combined fingers along his cheek. “I might want to try they/them later?” He thought of the fascinating lawyer, Justice, who went by Mx. and they/them. It was a nice idea to play with. “Not now, though. I’m already used to he/him.”

He could only handle so much at a time.

Evan gave him a soft kiss. “Tell me when that changes. You can even use different pronouns at different times, if your gender fluctuates.”

“I don’t think it does? Well, it might. But I don’t think I have a different gender when I wear different clothes. Maybe sparks don’t have a gender,” he mused.

Evan laughed. “I assure you that many sparks have a very defined binary gender identity. Not all of them, of course. But your gender identity, or lack thereof, is all yours. It’s part of you. And I love it.”

Quincy’s skin raced with warmth. Evan loved his gender identity. Did that mean Evan loved him?

Evan’s hands had returned to Quincy’s back, teasing along his seam and distracting him. “This is something I love, too.”

“My… other limbs?” That couldn’t be true. Evan liking his pretty dresses was enough.

“So hot,” Evan confirmed. “Take them out.”

Quincy slowly opened his panels, but didn’t go any further. He was feeling the furthest thing from a confident Dom right now.

“It’s okay, baby,” Evan soothed. “They’re part of you. I don’t want you to hide. And… I may have a little thing for sexy robot appendages.”

“A thing?”

“An… attraction? I don’t want to call it a kink, because, uh, I’m attracted to all of you for who you are. But um… maybe I could say that’s part of what makes you my type?”

Quincy split off a dozen processes, following different permutations of what Evan could mean. But they all came back to the same thing.

Evan was actually aroused by his ancillary arms. He thought they were attractive. Or at least he wanted Quincy to think that.

Quincy tentatively brought them out, low around his waist, in case they looked scary over his head. He kept his pincers closed and let his hoses just barely peek out.

When Evan reached for them, he pulled them all back instinctively before extending them again.

“Baby…” Evan breathed, then turned one palm face up. “Let me touch you.”

It was a gentle invitation, but it still took Quincy another minute to accept it. Every gear in his body was locked up as he slowly lowered the tip of one hose into Evan’s hand.

Evan gave a pleased hum and started tracing his fingers over the conical metal head.

Quincy shivered, the soft touches echoing through his whole body. He hadn’t ever realized how sensitive he was there.

Well, maybe he had, once or twice. When Evan had touched him before.

Still, it just seemed so… He fought against the word dirty. He knew he was clean. Sanitized. Evan had even told him not to think of himself that way.

“Are you sure?” Quincy asked, even though he never wanted Evan to stop circling his hose with those dancing fingers.

Evan raised one eyebrow. “Didn’t you see my porn?”

“Yes?” But there hadn’t been anyone in it who looked like him. “I only saw humans.”

Evan’s lips quirked up. “I may not have labeled all the folders clearly. Look for the one called sexbots, with a three for the E and a zero for the O.”