The young man lightly opened the door of the fifth laboratory and looked into the narrow crack. He examined the floor, walls, ceiling, but did not notice anything suspicious or dangerous."Ash, are you there?" Nick took a few cautious steps, listening to the sounds surrounding him, but everything around was suspiciously quiet.
"Ashley, Armand said that I have to give you this... oh s.h.i.t!" the young man nearly dropped the bundle from his hands when he walked around the shelving with various details, and his eyes fell on the stranger who was looking at him point blank.
"Hi. I"m looking for Ashley, have you not seen her?"
The girl slammed her eyes, tilted her head to the side, and smiled.
Nick smiled back, but the longer he looked at this lady, the more she gave him gooseb.u.mps. "Um, I"m sorry, I don"t know what your name is. You"re new?" The young man turned away and his gaze began to roam the walls, but he distinctly felt that this stranger had her eyes fixed on him, trying to make a hole in his back.
"I"ll probably stop by a little later," he turned to leave and again almost dropped the bundle when Ashley appeared right behind him, "d.a.m.n, you scared me! Couldn"t you just come up like a normal person?!"
"Oh! My detail!" the girl cried out joyfully, ignoring the grumbling of her friend, unfolded the bundle and took out a small metal object that looked like a microprocessor.
"What is it? Isn"t that the thing that was in old computers?"
"Yeah, it is the one!" Ashley approached the girl, corrected something behind her, and stroked her head. Nick looked at this strange interaction with suspicion, something was clearly wrong with this stranger.
"Good morning, young master. Would you like a cup of coffee?" said the lady in a bewitching voice with a charming smile on her face.
Nick opened his mouth to answer something, but his jaw only silently walked up and down. Was Ashley inspired by such role-playing games?
"Well, I knew that there wasn"t enough power capacity," the girl said with annoyance when her companion"s face froze with a strange grimace.
"Power capacity?... S-stop! Is that a robot?!" Nick cried out in surprise, even louder than he expected.
"Yeah, cool, huh? Nick, please meet, my development is the New Artificial Non-human Creature. In short, please meet Nancy! Tdam!"
"Ah ha ha ha," a burst of hysterical laughter flew from the lips of a young man, he was already afraid to imagine how Ashley was going to test this inhuman creature, as he knew for sure who she was going to test it on.
Ashley didn"t notice the drops of sweat on Nick"s forehead and his slightly pale face, and continued her speech with enthusiasm, "She still has a limited set of functions, but I think a couple of weeks is enough for you to give me an account of its functioning."
"W-Wait, Ash, do you want this thing to live at my place for two weeks?!"
"Yes, but what, you have problems?" Ashley innocently patted her eyelashes, not understanding the confusion of the young man.
"Listen, I already have your Alice, you can"t even imagine how boring she is."
"She is not boring, maybe a little pedantic."
"Okay, pedantic it is," Nick realized in his twenty years that it"s better to agree with a woman in a dispute, "And your h.e.l.lish alarm clock. Can you turn off this f.u.c.king mosquito function? Because of it, I almost broke my neck today!"
"You need to get up on time, then the alarm clock won"t make it to mosquito function," Ashley frowned, if not for her alarm clock, designed specifically for Nick, he would have appeared at the base only for lunch.
"I agree, you"re right. It"s my fault. But this... Your... Well... "
"Nancy."
"G.o.d, Ash, I won"t be able to fall asleep if she"s at my place!" Nick looked imploringly at the girl, he was even afraid to imagine what awaited him if this robot was with him under one roof.
"Tsk, to fall asleep or not - these are your problems. But she will wake you up in time and act as a personal butler," Ashley straightened Nancy"s long black hair, her brown eyes closed as soon as the girl turned off the power.
"Butler? Where did such a crazy idea come to your head?!"
"Ah, this is what Kaname suggested. He told me that in childhood he saw some kind of cartoon. It was called either a gray butler, or a black butler. There was such a cool character. Imagine if you are suddenly attacked by Marcus" subordinates, Nancy will be like bam! Bam! And everyone is defeated! Look, I even built an exoskeleton into her!"
Ashley pulled up her robot jacket, and Nick reflexively closed his eyes so as not to see this horror. To his relief, under the clothes of the robot, there was nothing, khem, provocative.
He mentally cursed Kaname, the Ashley nano-development a.s.sistant, if not for his talk about some butler, Ashley would never have thought of such a thing in her life.
Although... Knowing Ashley... No, Nick had no chance against this restless girl.
"Hey, what"s with your hand?" she drew attention to several abrasions on the young man"s hand, and after she noticed a couple more on his face, "Did you fight?!"
Nick said nothing and looked innocently at the ceiling.
"G.o.d, and why are you always cruising for a bruising?" Ashley grabbed his arm and dragged him to her desk, she opened one of the drawers, took out a band-aid and a disinfector from there, and began to treat the wounds.
"I don"t want you to work with Mitch.e.l.l in the same laboratory, I don"t like him," Nick obediently leaned on the edge of the table and watched with attention as the girl rubbed his hand with alcohol and attached the patch.
"I agree that he is sometimes arrogant, but he is one of the best engineers at the base. You already know that we do not have enough personnel. What reasons can I have for removing him from joint projects?"
"Then tell him that you are my girlfriend."
"What?" Ashley"s hand froze in the air without bringing a tampon with an antiseptic to Nick"s cheek.
"I"m jealous. I do not want him to think that he has any chances. Auch!"
The girl forcefully pressed the tampon to Nick"s wound and the guy"s face wrinkled, "Again you are thinking about some stupid things," she focused all her attention on the little abrasion and ignored Nick"s gaze.
The young man grabbed Ashley by the waist with one hand and hugged her, the girl shuddered in surprise and tried to break free, but Nick strengthened his grip and pressed her closer, there was not even a centimeter of s.p.a.ce between them.
"Do you even think what you"re doing?!" Ashley hissed and already forgot what she was doing before. Nick"s touch caused her such a strange wave of sensations, which she did not experience with anyone else.
"Ash, you know that I love-"
"Stop!" the girl covered his mouth with her palm so that he could not finish his sentence.
Nick squeezed her slightly trembling fingers with his other hand and put the girl"s palm on his chest, "Do you feel how fast it is knocking, only from the fact that you are nearby? You feel how each cell of your skin becomes ten times more sensitive, should we touch each other, mmm?" He clasped a girl"s cheek and raised her face to look in her eyes,
"Ashley, you know that in this world there is only one partner for me and that is you." The girl felt the guy"s fingers dig into her skin as if he wanted her to become even closer. Nick lowered his head, his forehead touched the girl"s forehead, and whispered, "I love you."
Ashley opened her mouth, but the words stuck inside, unable to break out. When the young man"s lips touched her lips slightly, she closed her eyes and turned away.
"Let me go," her voice was barely audible, but Nick heard her.
"Why?"
"Now is not the time for such things, Sean."
Nick chuckled, but did not let the girl out of his hands, "Do you know that you call me by name only when you are angry with me? Tell me, I did something that offended you, so are you pushing me away? Explain that to me and I"ll fix it."
Ashley grabbed the guy"s hand and freed herself from his arms, "You will be late for your procedure. I have to work."
Nick realized that she didn"t want to continue this conversation, and getting her to do it was a pointless task, "Do you know what day tomorrow is?"
"Thursday," Ashley grunted in response, avoiding the young man"s gaze.
"Tomorrow is Christmas."
"Ahh... Christmas..."
Many of them have already forgotten about this holiday, as it was a family holiday, and the concept of a family disappeared many years ago. But for Ashley, it was a special day of the year, as Nick always had a little celebration for her and gave her some stupid gifts. For the last three years, along with gifts, he had been confessing his feelings to her and trying to get an answer, but the girl could not respond to his request.
Ashley turned away, but the next second the guy"s hand grabbed her waist, her back rested on his chest, Nick"s second hand slipped into the front pocket of the girl"s trousers, his fingers were too close to her secret female places.
"Y-you! What are you doing?!"
Nick pulled his hand out of Ashley"s pocket and waved a bunch of keys in front of her eyes, "I wanted to borrow your bike for a while, do you mind?"
Although his question was innocent, seductive sparks shone in the eyes of the young man. "And yes, I hope I will get my answer tomorrow," Nick whispered in a magical voice, kissed Ashley in the neck and left the laboratory with a contented smile.
The girl grabbed the back of the chair with both hands and exhaled, her heart was beating faster than usual, her cheeks were flushed. She held a hand to her neck. Where his lips touched her, her skin was still wet, "Silly Sean."