"Another one?" Dr. Monteza groaned and slumped dramatically over her desk. "This was supposed to be my weekend off!"
Dr. Mose laughed and walked over to pat his colleague on the shoulder. "Hey, chin up. We're bringing a lot of happiness into the world. That's worth sacrificing a few weekends for, right? Besides, you would be missed at this one in particular. It's one of our own, after all."
Monteza looked up with a confused look. "What do you mean?" The question was greeted by another laugh.
"You mean you didn't read the invite? It's Cory. He's finally doing it. Just like he always said he would."
A look of dawning understanding spread on Dr. Monteza's face, and she quickly pulled the rose-colored envelope over to her and split it open. She'd known from the moment that Mose had dropped it on her desk that it was yet another wedding invitation from one of the many, many androids that she had helped design and produce. But she hadn't actually thought...
Dear Elizabeth. It would mean the world to us if you would do us the honor of attending our wedding at June 2nd...
Dr. Monteza put the letter down, and looked back up at her colleague. She smiled. "He's actually doing it? He's marrying her?"
He nodded. "Just as he said he would."
Blyss knew all about weddings. She knew the words to every hymn used by every denomination of every religion on Earth, and she knew the rituals of every culture recorded throughout the world. She also knew as much about sex as any person, from the hundreds of advanced positions and acts, and down to the smallest and slightest of nerve-endings that existed in the human body. Her skin was a healthy golden tan, and her hair fell in long, auburn curls down to her collarbone. Full lips adorned a tall, feline face, and her eyes were a radiant blue that straddled the border between beauty and uncanny. As she stood in her wedding gown with the bouquet of flowers clutched in her slender hands, she felt calm and relaxed, but she knew that everyone glancing at her would expect the bride to be showing some nerves, so now and again she twitched slightly or shifted her weight from one foot to the other, while darting her eyes hither and thither. It was important to play the part. And perhaps she enjoyed the act of blending in. It had been a hard-fought road to get the right to do so, after all.
Looking over the gathered faces, she saw many that she had known from her very inception, and whose smiles were filled with both pride and delight. Blyss was far from the only android to come out of the AndroSynth labs, but she was still unique in that she had been the first, the prototype. Designed, built and given sentience and life by a massive team of scientists, most of whom were now seated on her side of the aisle, it had nonetheless been the lead designer and head of the project, Cory Eisenhower, who had bonded with Blyss the most. So much so that some in the lab had begun to joke about their relationship as that of a parent and child - but even from an early age, Blyss had known that what Cory felt for her was not the pride of a father watching his daughter evolve. It was the joy of a man watching his true love being born before his eyes, one piece of code and one firing neuron at a time. In parts, it was this love that had helped Blyss be the very prototype that she had been meant as; an android made to love and to be loved, to be a partner and companion in ways that a mere sex-bot could not. Many attempts had failed to create such an AI. Cory, with his endless love for Blyss, had made it happen.
She had learned a lot from him. How to smile like she meant it. How to pay a sincere compliment. How to hold him when his seizures wracked his body like a ragdoll, and he mewled and cried in the aftermath of pain and exhaustion and humiliation. How to love him for his flaws, instead of despite them. How to be human, in essence. That was his greatest gift to her.
And now they stood side by side, Cory's normally unruly red hair combed into a semblance of order while the officiant waited for the final few people to file into the room. There were not many people on Cory's side of the aisle, just a few family members and his two best friends from college. By comparison, Blyss counted no fewer than 67 people in attendance from the team, enough that a few of them had had to spill over onto the other side. It wasn't really something that either of them cared about, but Blyss had still insisted on the traditional split of his side and hers. The marriage of humans and androids was a new thing, but certain traditions, she felt, were still nice to keep intact. Why else would she had been taught them so extensively?
"Dearly beloved." The officiant looked out at the crowd, and then at Cory and Blyss. "We are gathered here today to witness the union between these two people through the bond of marriage. It is heartening to see so many of you here, to help celebrate these two individuals and give them a good start on their life together. Truly, they are blessed with love from all sides. Thank you."
Blyss smiled, but said nothing. The officiant was clearly not used to marrying a man to an android, and it showed in the way he kept glancing nervously from his papers towards Blyss, and then back down. At least he was calling her a person. For all of his nervousness, Blyss liked him for that. There were still those who believed her kind to be the impending downfall of humanity... So she let him talk, which he seemed quite fond of, and instead focused on the moment when she was required to say those all-important words,
I do
. At the same time, it was hard not to look over at Cory, whose smile was lighting up the room for her every time she saw it. That smile had been instrumental in teaching the learning algorithm that lay at the foundation of Blyss' consciousness how to love, and even now she felt a pang of butterflies in her stomach whenever she saw it. To think that one man's adoration could spell the birth of an entire generation of loving, feeling, sentient androids...
The officiant was looking at her. Blyss smiled, opened her mouth, and kept her voice steady as she said: "I do." A murmur went through the crowd, soft 'aww's' and sighs of happiness. The officiant turned to Cory, who nodded. "I do."
"Then I hereby pronounce you man and wife." The mustache on the officiant's upper lip quivered as he smiled warmly. "You may kiss."
And they did. Not as deeply and powerfully as Blyss would have liked, but still a long, eager kiss that lingered for several moments, her hands on his cheeks and his arms round her waist. She kissed him, melting into him, and her mind erupted into every semiotic symbol of happiness that it had stored. Wave upon wave of pure and simple bliss. It was almost too much to handle.
It was past midnight when they got home, and Cory's cheeks were flushed red with a little bit too much to drink, as well as the faint imprint of lipstick from too many kisses on the cheeks. Blyss was shutting the door gently when she felt him press up against her, and his face nuzzled into her hair as he hugged her from behind and growled like a playful bear.
