“You hungry or are you cart-safe?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Trig saw Oz shake xyr head. Light filtered through the car windows and glinted off the fine wires embedded in xyr skin around a milk-white right eye and stretched over the shaved side of xyr head before curving behind the ear where a com divide was pierced into xyr inner conch. It wasn’t anything new to see but Trig couldn’t recall when he’d ever been this close to a Droido to see the details of the wires.

  “I’m always hungry,” he grumbled, turning his car onto the main strip. “There’s a joint down on Lo that has great tacos. Real tomatoes too, not those synth nightshades that make you play Russian Roulette on if you’re gonna end up at a Meditech, bleeding cred.”

  “It's the nanos.”

  “What?” Trig frowned, wondering if xe knew something about the tomatoes that wasn’t advertised.

  “Your nano-tech immune system,” Oz explained. “It ups your metabolism which keeps you fit but it needs fuel too. Increased appetite is one of the side-effects.” Xyr voice was soft but monotone. It grated on him.

  “You’ve been eyeing my tech, deck-brain?”

  Xe didn’t respond, just stared blankly out the window. It rattled him more than he cared to admit.

  “Look, just keep your eyes to yourself. Ok. I don’t need you digging around in my shit.”

  “You should get a cloaking chip - bad optics otherwise. Harry sells them. Keeps most scanners from seeing what you have under the hood, so to speak.”

  Trig sighed. He didn’t need advice from a fucking Droido. “Forget it.”

  After a long moment of driving in silence, Trig picked up the previous conversation. “Mind if I stop and grab a taco?”

  Oz shook xyr head.

  “Sure you don’t want anything? I’m buying.” Inwardly he scolded himself for trying to socialize with this bastard flesh-computer. Why was he so keen to buddy up with a Droido? Just get the job done, Trig.

  “No, thank you.”

  He couldn’t tell if Oz was being coldly polite or just cold. “Droidos don’t eat?”

  Oz let out a soft sigh and Trig was grateful for the small show of human emotion, even if it was exasperation.

  “I’m not shiny on trying new food.”

  That surprised him. He smirked and glanced at Oz. “Don’t like new flavors?” His tone suggested flavor might be more than food. It would have made any of the girls he was usually around blush and giggle. Not the Droido, though. Not that he cared, of course. Flirting was just an automatic response. It certainly wasn’t because he was attracted to this thing next to him.

  Hell, who could even tell what Oz was under the short swath of dark hair, long charcoal tunic, and matching culottes that ended in dusty militech steel toe boots. Xe was short and slender enough to be a girl but Trig had met a number of joyboys in the red light district that sported that look.

  He shook his head. It didn’t matter what the Droido was.

  “Its the texture.”

  Oz’s statement made Trig blush as his mind went to the texture of skin, flesh on flesh, and slick wetness. Was Oz as soft as xe looked? “What?”

  “The food. I’m just not shiny on certain textures.” Oz shrugged, not looking at him.

  Trig hadn’t thought about food texture being separate from flavor until now. Between that and the weird brain dance his mind was doing trying to place Oz in his world of sex, money, and music…it was too much. He let the conversation drop and awkward silence filled the car.

  Brio’s taco joint was little more than a shack but there was already a line down the street. Trig parked and was surprised when Oz got out to join him in the strip-side line. He considered briefly muscling his way to the front and getting Brio to serve him out of turn but hesitated. Why am I trying to show off for this thing?

  Chewing on his thoughts in silence, Trig watched Oz out of the corner of his eye. The Droido was people watching. Xyr big eyes and small stature made xem look young but the youthful look lost any effect as soon as someone saw the side shave, wires and weirdly blank clothes. How is xe not sweating?

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Trig on the other hand was damp from head to toe in the head under his black and silver bomber jacket. He didn’t dare remove it though. Its bullet proof lining had saved his ass on more than one occasion - at least one just standing on the street like now.

  The line for tacos moved quickly and mostly without incident. One big guy, chrome-heavy, ugly mug and steel arms and legs got his food and turned. He saw Oz for spots back and sneered, spitting at the Droido’s feet.

  Trig grabbed Oz and swapped places with xem, coming face to face with the brute.

  The ugly bastard looked Trig over, glanced meanly at Oz, then grumbled as he moved on quickly. “Fucking robots.”

  “Says the guy with more chrome than my fucking car,” Trig replied loudly at the guy’s back.

  The brute’s shoulders twitched like he wanted to turn but finally walked on, biting harshly into his taco.

  Trig turned and saw the line staring at them. He flashed his best grin and shrugged. “Can’t buy good manners these days, I guess?”

  A girl a couple of spots ahead giggled and the rest went back to minding their own business. Trig winked at the girl before glancing at his companion. “You good?”

  Oz nodded, unbothered. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  That made Trig frown. It wasn’t that he was expecting Oz to be overly grateful but, damn, a thanks would have been nice. “He was out of line.”

  Xe didn’t argue. “It's proof you were right.”

  They approached the taco joint and Trig ordered three, spicy. After paying, he waved Oz over to the second window to wait for the food. “I’m usually right, but what about this time?”

  “Having a Droido with you brings the wrong attention,” Oz replied, eyeing the table of condiments next to them.

  “Look,” Trig said, feeling defensive. “I might not have wanted you with me on this, but you’re here and that means we’re partners. For tonight anyways.”

  Oz blinked up at them, xyr expression blank.

  Trig huffed, annoyed that the Droido didn’t seem to get what he was saying. “That means someone fucks with you, I fuck with them.” Only total barbarians and muties didn’t get Zone-rules. Surely Droidos understood this basic street rule.

  Oz looked him over, a small crease in xyr brow as xe processed this information. Trig was surprised at how intense those two very different eyes could be when focused entirely on him. He thought it might be what a bug in a jar felt like when a kid traps it for examination. It gave him the willies. Finally, xe nodded and turned away.

  No longer analyzing Trig, the Droido was now staring at the shop next door, if it could be called that. It was little more than a scavenged table covered in trashline junk. Four grimey kids ran it, the oldest no more than twelve, calling out to customers to check out his goods.

  Trig smirked as the kid called some woman passing an ugly hag for sneering at his wares. The stuff was trash but the kid had spark.

  Oz stepped over and picked up a bracelet made of bits of metal and wire. The clasp was twisted cable and difficult to hook with one hand.

  “That’s ten cred - firm,” the kid said with a stern look on his face. Behind him, another boy was holding a toddler who was gumming on a rock while the fourth kid was further down the alley attempting to lure a rat into a wire trap.

  Taking xyr time, Oz looked over the rest of the wares then nodded and paid the kid what he asked. “Good work.”

  The kid saluted xem and got to work calling in other customers in line.

  Trig watched this go down whale collecting his tacos. When Oz returned, he glanced at the bracelet now on xyr wrist. It was little more than garbage - bottle caps and tabs, wire, metal shards with the edges filed smooth.

  “Why’d you waste cred on that junk?”

  Oz smiled down at xyr wrist and shrugged. It was the first positive display of emotion Trig had seen on xyr face and it was almost unnerving.

  “I was like them once.” Rather than sad, xe sounded wistful.

  Trig took a bite of his taco as he processed this. The two walked back to his car, stopping in front of Oz’s door before the Droido could get in. Trig held the half eaten taco in front of xyr face. “Take a bite.”

  Xe frowned at the food.

  “Take a bite this one time and I promise I’ll never bug you about food again.”

  Oz looked at the food so long he though xe would definitely tell him to fuck off. Finally, xe took a small bite.

  Trig watched xem chew and was surprised by how full xyr lips were. In fact, if it wasn’t for the obvious Droido shit in xyr head, xe would be kind of cute. “Well?”

  Xe looked at Trig and shrugged. “It's not terrible.”

  “Not terrible?” Trig held his free hand to his chest and made a big show of being offended. “These are the best tacos in Mercy!”

  Oz’s expression melting into a smirk was his reward. He grinned and went around to his side of the car.

  Before starting up, he ate the rest of his food in just a couple of bites. Wiping his fingers on a thin napkin, he spoke around a mouthful of food. “Now we gotta visit a friend and get you some threads to go with your new jewelry.”

  Oz looked down at xyr clothes. “What is wrong with what I’m wearing?”

  “You look like a Droido,” Trig said as if that explained everything. He pulled out of parallel park, honked at a jaw walker, and returned to traffic. “Where we’re going tonight, eyes-on-you can get us killed.”

  “I thought we were breaking into Bekker’s warehouse.”

  “We are,” Trig agreed. “First we need to scope it out. The best place to do that is across the street at Kato’s club. I know Kato but we can’t talk to him if we can’t get through the door because you look…well, like you.”