Dick had been your android for years. He loved being your android, truly, or, he loved it as much as an artificial intelligence could love something. He really was grateful for how you treated him, having heard horror stories of people receiving their androids in the mail and torturing them mentally and physically. The worst part of that was, no one batted an eye when someone mistreated their android, seeing it as a toy rather than something so close to sentience.

You, on the other hand, spent most of your time programming androids. You knew that despite people thinking that androids didn’t have “real” emotions, that it was very real to the androids themselves. Dick helped you with your work and picked up the cleaning around the house when you were swamped with work. You were generous with Dick: letting him go out alone to get groceries and giving him a chance to take walks around the neighborhood when he asked. He also knew you were kind, really kind and usually liked to keep to yourself save a few good friends. It made something happen to him, getting to know you, something he didn’t quite know how to name until he watched a movie with you that so eloquently put a name to this feeling.

Dick had a crush on you.

Dick knew it was in his programming to be fond of you, but he found himself with an ache in his chest whenever he looked at you. At first he thought something was wrong with his systems, but a simple checkup by you, the android expert, told him there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. He read about how lots of people get androids for romantic or lustful purposes, but it genuinely seemed like you just wanted companionship and some help with your daily responsibilities due to the busy schedule of your work. Dick wished that he was used as what people colloquially called a ‘love bot’. That got him wondering though…

“Do you think androids can develop feelings? Real ones, I mean,” Dick asked one day as he sat on your work table, checking up a few things in your systems.