| "�the
conversion was done three years ago. It's over a large
ground floor
with a mezzanine bedroom and en-suite bathroom on the right
and along
the corridor to the left is a visitor's bathroom and a large
kitchen.
There's a large, double garage separate to the main
property, which as
you can see has total privacy from the road with a
quarter-mile drive
and the land is bordered all the way around by pine trees." Michael unconsciously reached for Kitt's hand, and consciously Kitt gave it. The realtor - a elderly but sprightly lady who had introduced herself as Mrs Jean Halifax - glanced back at them with a tender smile and held up a key. "Shall we go inside?" //do you like it?// //it's perfect// The setting was perfect. It gave them the privacy they needed while at the same time it would enable them to instigate Nick's patented security system and protocols. The front of the costly barn conversion was mostly glass, which would all need to be taken out and replaced with the toughened kind used for the car's windows. Still, they'd have to do it wherever they ended up living, there was just perhaps more to be done here than on any of the other properties they'd looked at. The rest of the build was in a light brown brick and dark wood, reminding Michael of the cabins he'd stayed in during family holidays as a boy. Two lifetimes ago. Entrance was through a glass door, into a glass porch, and through an internal glass door, almost like an airlock system. Again, excellent for security measures. Inside the place was stunning. Open-plan, with the height of a two-storey house, so that they stepped into the living area and looked up into the wooden beams and large, clear skylights way up in the ceiling. The floor was a polished pine and the current owners had large cr�me and brown rugs breaking up the space into three distinct areas - a living room, dining area and office at the back. To their right, an open staircase dog-legged twice up to a large balcony bedroom and he could just see through the door to the en-suite on the same level. To their left the corridor leading through to the kitchen and on out to the double garage. Michael looked over to see the expression on his partner's face and knew this was the place they were going to buy. This would be the first home he would share with Kitt alone. He hoped the grin plastered to his face didn't look too scary. //what are the chances of an unbiased survey?// //slim to none// But as he had done at the other properties they'd seen, Kitt wondered off to perform a silent structural survey. "I think he likes it," Mrs Halifax pointed out, and Michael looked at her with a smile and a nod. "I think we both do." "Am I right in assuming it's for the both of you?" He was aware that his reaction to any question regarding this new twist in his and Kitt's relationship could be quite dangerous. Duck, who'd known how close they were before the android, had very quickly withdrawn his query about living arrangements when Kitt had moved over. But Mrs Jean Halifax, sixty-two years old from this very town, wasn't easily frightened. "Don't think that I'm criticising or judging, please. My twenty-one year old Grandson brought a man home just last week who was twice his age, twice his height and had half his intelligence but for Stephen I think it was love at first sight. No, I'm just curious. You look so happy and contented together." Michael returned the smile to his face. "Yes, it's for both of us." "How did you meet, may I ask?" A dark warehouse on an estate owned by a millionaire with a dream. A hypnotic red light tracking right then left. A sound like an aircraft taking off, suddenly loud, coming towards him at fantastic speed, stopping an inch from his knees. A black car with baby-smooth skin that drew his fingers to it as he touched Kitt for the first time without knowing it. � "Don't tell me this thing flies." "No. But it thinks." "It thinks? My car thinks?" "We like to think of it as our car." � "It was showing off for you." "You mean it can decide to take off, go for gas� that would be great if I happen to be working under it at the time." "Oh, it wouldn't do anything to harm you, I assure you. Its primary function is the preservation of human life. Your life." "By me, you mean anyone driving this thing?" "No. I mean you. Michael Arthur Long." The world's most fantastic car, programmed to protect him. And all that time, while he was stroking the paintwork and caressing the gull wing steering wheel, Kitt was listening, anxiety thrumming through him in a way Michael wouldn't understand for years to come. � "I am the voice of the Knight Industries 2000's microprocessor. K.I.T.T. for easy reference. Kitt if you prefer." Staring at the dash as if he had the tiniest inkling of understanding. Believing Kitt to be the latest in high-tech gadgetry; an electronic voice he could have switched off. Not a clue about the AI he would quickly start to like, to care about, to listen to, joke with, talk to. Fall in love with. "I do not prefer. And what's more I don't intend to drive around in a car that talks back to me. So, either Devon pulls your plug or you get yourself a new driver." � //Kitt?// //Michael� I'm sorry! I hurt you! I can't hurt you! make this stop please!// //we can't, Kitt. it isn't going to stop and we're hurting each other// And what were they denying one another? He thought he'd felt� something warm, something beautiful before Kitt's panic had roared through his head like fire. //please, Kitt, don't fight it, you're only fighting me// //don't want this!// Amazed to find he was slightly hurt by his partner's reaction. Admittedly if he'd been faced with an alien AI in his mind when Wilton Knight had first forced this new life upon him he would definitely have had a different outlook on things - bad enough having a talking car foisted on him. Finding another's thoughts in his mind may well have had him reaching for a scalpel and attempting to cut the implant out of his head�. But it was different now. He knew Kitt, cared for and loved his partner, and this link thing� was just another step, wasn't it? //but I want it// He found the courage to say it. //I want you here, Kitt// Finally something had moved the AI to a few moments' silence. //why?// //because it's you. and you already know me better than anyone// "That's a very complicated question." "Oh." Michael smiled at her surprised response. Most couples, he supposed, knew exactly when they met, the first time they laid eyes on one another. "The first time we met I hated him on sight. And I think he felt the same way about me." He watched Kitt following the back wall of the barn, fingers trailing across the exposed brickwork, taking minute samples and processing the quality of the build materials, analysing the soundness of the structure. "Well� how about when you first fell in love?" Immediately his suspicions were roused. He felt Kitt's amusement in his mind and touched the link. //she's a sixty-two year-old grandmother of three! what exactly do you think she has in mind?// //age doesn't mean incapability// //touchy. and I didn't say it did. but look at her, she's harmless, she's just curious about us// Still, it wasn't an easy question to answer. A balmy Nevada summer evening. A charity picnic held in Foundation grounds. No picnic Michael could remember. Not a limp sandwich or a soggy blanket in sight. There were strings of lights like twinkling stars in the branches of the trees surrounding the garden, coloured elfin lamps dotted throughout the bushes and plants giving the setting a fairytale feel to it. Waiters and waitresses dress in white weaved through the crowd of dinner suits and ball gowns, diamonds sparkling through crystal champagne flutes, wafts of perfume challenging the natural scent of the flowers. A string quartet played quiet classical music from a carpeted platform. Michael had arrived with Bonnie on his arm - his lady stunning in fitting white and silver, a small white rose in his lapel. "Bonnie, you look beautiful," Kitt had commented when she had stepped out to greet them as they'd arrived at the Foundation mansion. "And Michael, you do look very handsome." She was dancing now, with Devon, looking happier than Michael could ever recall her looking. He liked to think he had something to do with that, a lot to do with it, although he couldn't really be certain, and anyway, for some reason the idea had been starting to turn slightly bitter recently. It wasn't Bonnie's fault, nothing she had said or done. He couldn't blame her for what he was feeling. First in line for that honour was their benefactor, Mr Wilton Knight. The man had thought of himself as some kind of God, but just how deep his complex and ego had run had remained elusive up until one afternoon when the Foundation's operatives had been attacked, almost killed, and Michael's head had erupted in the flames of alien emotions; Kitt's thoughts feeding into his own mind. And his into Kitt's. Wilton Knight's fault indeed that he and his partner now shared a knowledge of one another so intimate it was more than any two human beings could ever experience. And that was the very essence of his problem. A waiter brushed passed him, apologised, and Michael dismissed it, swapping his empty champagne glass for a full one. He had lost count of how many times he'd done it. His body felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the weather and his mind was being cushioned by an alcoholic daze. Across from where he was standing, at the other end of a white-lit path between two rose bushes, he could make out the light play on his partner's flawless body, colour dripping over the perfect curves. Kitt was as dark and silent parked on the drive as he was sitting in the back of Michael's mind; not blocking, just not talking right now. Sometimes he needed his space and privacy as much as the human half of their partnership. In fact it had struck Michael hard at the time that he was more willing to accept the link than Kitt had initially been. "Human beings crave contact," Kitt had tried to explain, "as one of only two AIs in existence, I've learned to value being alone." Now, he knew neither of them would ever give it up, ever allow it to be taken from them even if there was a way. 'Separation shock', Nick called it. Michael couldn't put words to the hole that was created in his mind on the rare occasions the link between them was temporarily severed; a constant, silent scream of his partner's name, one that before too long would drive him insane. No, the link was part of him now and to severe it permanently would be akin to amputating a limb. But all that - it was fact, medical, physical, diagnosable fact. He could describe it, talk about it, explain it to a point. What was beyond explanation, beyond description, was the way he felt about the AI connected to the other end of the implanted chip. 'The best thing to ever happen to me,' he'd admitted to Nick one special evening. That was without a doubt, and he didn't know how Bonnie would take that. For most men, the love of their life was a woman or another man who completed them, without who their lives would be unthinkable. Michael didn't feel that way about the woman he was sleeping with. He felt that way about an Artificial Intelligence whose physical presence was a car and whose soul he could reach in his mind; Kitt was the one he wouldn't be able to live without. But as for being the love of his life� not even he could mentally make that jump. Not yet. Nothing about Michael Knight's life had ever been normal, but this seemed to be far beyond any explanation he could find. Excusing himself from the people who were talking around him, Michael walked around the edge of the lawn, sipping his champagne as he went, to the path linking across to the drive. He stopped at the top of it, eyes roaming over Kitt, feeling that same rush of security and desire he'd always felt at the sight of the car. There was something so animalistic about his love for high speeds, something inherent in the danger of driving incredibly fast on mountain roads, across desert terrain. He could have that, feel everything, and still know he was held in absolutely safety, in the heart of his partner. Perhaps it wasn't such a leap to accept that Kitt was the love of his life. But he wasn't sure of his reasons, and he wasn't certain of his real feelings. Walking the path, he stepped out on to the gravel in front of the car's prow, walking to the right, trailing his fingertips over the warm body as he had done so often. This time though� this time he accompanied it with a trail of his link presence in Kitt's mind over the white essence that resided there. Kitt responded immediately as Michael's unexpected touch pulled away from whatever was keeping him occupied, preventing him from experiencing the same numbing boredom Michael often felt at these soirees. "Michael, is everything all right?" "Everything's fine, Kitt." "Your alcohol level is rather high. If you wanted to go for a drive I would suggest you allow me to do the honours." He couldn't help but smile. Old habits died hard, apparently. "I didn't have anything particular in mind. Just wanted to come and see if you were okay." Sitting up on the edge of the hood, Michael started to draw simple, circular patterns over the car's black shell, coupling his touch with a second stroke over Kitt's now attentive presence though the link. //something's wrong// Michael shook his head. //no// //something's different// //maybe// Closing his eyes, he lay back across the hood, rested the base of the champagne glass on his flat, cotton-clothed stomach and closed his eyes, fingers still playing not-so-idly on the warm body. Going deeper into the link, he stroked both 'hands' over Kitt, not in any way threatening, in most ways a similar touch as he'd given so many times before. But he was suspicious of his own motives and he knew Kitt would feel the slightly different quality to his presence. He had no doubt, after a moment, of his partner's suspicions, surprise - close to shock, and a little anxiety. He backed off slightly, reached for Kitt and lay them both down, Kitt over him, in a close, familiar embrace. //I don't know if I understand myself, Kitt// he responded to his partner's unanswered question. There was no translatable answer, and Michael kept up his gently stroking, keeping it unambiguous, keeping it light. He considered his earlier train of thought about Bonnie being the one he slept with. But was that really true? Even when he was sharing a bed with her, physically spooned up to her, holding her, his mind was elsewhere. He'd started sleeping close to his partner long before he'd started a sexual relationship with Bonnie and he'd never made any effort to change that. Before he fell asleep at nights he'd go deep into the link and reach for Kitt. It was habit, and not one he wanted to break. //its different// Michael looked at his partner, seeing details in his mind's eye that his imagination painted in. //is it?// //I thought�// Kitt was lost for words, Michael could sense it. He could feel a blend of confusion, surprise, a lack of understanding and something else, something he couldn't define. Without any idea how he did it, he lifted his head and kissed his partner. Kitt pulled back, that confusion flaring along with flash of hurt. //Kitt, I'm sorry// //I'm not a conquest, no matter how drunk you are!// //is that what you think? oh god� I know. Kitt, I know// With a sigh, Michael lay back again, and with a short hesitation, Kitt went with him. //I don't understand what's happening// Kitt had no response but Michael didn't need one. He knew Kitt would accompany him on this ride, wherever it took them, because Kitt wouldn't ever leave his side. It was like that before the link. It was a long time before either of them spoke, and when he did break the comfortable, if somewhat loaded silence, Michael said, //you're my life, Kitt, don't ever feel you aren't// //as inappropriate as it seems to be right now, Michael, I have to ask, what about Bonnie?// Michael took a deep breath and released it slowly. Kitt's use of the word, 'inappropriate' had struck a chord. //I don't know. that's the absolute truth. when I figure it out, you'll be the first to know// He felt Kitt wind around him and smiled to himself, returning the contact. //I don't doubt it// Taking a deep breath, Michael frowned, and Mrs Halifax smiled her understanding. "Now isn't that always a complicated question?" she laughed softly. "There's nothing complicated about it," Kitt declared, approaching them. Kitt gave a soft sound and Michael leaned forward, hugging the steering wheel, resting his forehead against his partner. He was so tired, mentally exhausted. The pulse in his mind got stronger, holding him, soothing him just as much as he was soothing Kitt himself. "I love you, Kitt," he said, voice barely a whisper. "I love you too, Michael," Kitt answered, voice projecting slight awe and surprise at the words.** "We fell in love the first time we hugged." Michael reached for Kitt through the link. He'd satisfied Jean Halifax's curiosity, if the tender expression on her face was anything to go by. //have I told you lately how incredible you are??// He felt his partner's bright touch. //are we taking it?// //yes// Michael turned to her. "We'll take the house." "That's wonderful. And I'm sure you'll be very, very happy." ~ If I lay here If I just lay here Would you lie with me and just forget the world?* Michael lay on their brown leather sofa, one bought specifically so that he could lie flat on it without bits of him hanging off the ends. His lover lay on top of him, curled into Michael's chest, feet between his shins. The touching music and perfect words filled the barn conversion from the array of state-of-the-art speakers Kitt and Justin had installed along with the breathtakingly experience separates stereo system they'd returned from Las Vegas with. Michael still wasn't used to Kitt's new-found independence. They'd spent the last fifteen years of their lives going almost everywhere together and now he was having to get used to the fact that his partner could go places without him, even had his own car. He'd bought a midnight blue Ferrari, although it was still at the Knight Industries lab being played with by the technicians and mechanics. When he'd talked about going to Las Vegas with Justin to find the sound system of his dreams, Michael had been astonished by his own reaction. He'd been jealous, pure and simple. And Kitt's reaction to his had been equally surprised. //if you don't want me to go�// //don't indulge me! go. enjoy// And of course they'd been in constant contact, the link knowing no distance constraints. Kitt had dropped Justin off before returning home to find Michael waiting for him with a beer and a heartfelt apology. I don't quite know How to say How I feel* "Those three words, are said too much, they're not enough," Michael murmured the lyrics he knew by heart into his lover's sandy blond hair. //they always meant everything to me// Michael tightened his arms around Kitt, stroked his shoulders and back, followed the curve of a metal spine down to the waistband of his jeans and snuck under the thin cotton to spread his fingers over warm, synthetic skin. //you always meant everything to me. I'll say those words as often as you need to hear them// Let's waste time Chasing cars Around our heads* He watched Kitt's head lift, whiskey eyes smiling at him, and leaning in, he pressed a kiss to soft lips, feeling the gentle hum from Kitt's throat. //I remember our first kiss// Kitt admitted. //At the Foundation picnic. I loved you before then// //it wasn't what she asked. that evening, I think I'd just worked out that I was falling in love with you, or had already fallen// //I know. I just didn't know what to do// //how were you supposed to know?// Michael wrapped one hand around the back of Kitt's neck, fingers teasing the short hairs at his nape. //thank god we worked it out// Parting his lips, he kissed Kitt again. I don't know where Confused about how as well Just know that these things will never change for us at all* |