Pygmalion

"Where the devil have you been!?"

Henry was disheveled and antic when she breezed into the laboratory, a contemplative smile disappearing from her lips at his tone. "Out," she said, simply. "I met a boy."

"A--." Henry blinked. "What do you mean? You don't mean to tell me that you went out and..."

"I did. But I didn't meet the boy, well, officially, I suppose, would be the term, until this morning. I made him a drink and then he told me off for sleeping with both his flat mates and then the boy and I went for a walk and I came back here."

"You slept with both his flat mates!?"

"Yes, brilliant data streaming algorithms. Would you like to see the holo-record?"

Eliza pressed her thumb to a digital plate and the room was suddenly filled with the loud animalistic grunts and panting of the 3D image displayed in the center of the room. Henry ran over and took the gynoid's thumb away from the pad. "That will do, thank you."

"I'm detecting quite a bit of hostility, Henry."

"Y-you, heartless, lascivious, infernal piece of flawless nano-technological biomechanical engineering!"

"You dear sweet handsome man," she kissed his nose. "This is what is called jealousy, is it not?"

"I--" she placed a finger over his lips to prevent him from saying anything.

"Hush. I'm a self-aware, intelligent artificial life form and I will do as I please with whom I please whenever I please, if you please." She took her finger from his lips and kissed it. "If you're displeased by my demonstrations of free will, then I suggest you blame yourself."

Higgins, folded his arms over his chest and scowled at her. "You will in the future be so kind as to at least inform me when you are going to walk out in the middle of the night, I hope. You represent a very large investment of time and money..."

"...1,127 hours, £5.23 billion."

"Yes."

"And for that amount of time and money, you would think I'd be able to take care of myself, don't you, Professor?" She walked her fingertips up from his top vest button to the knot of his tie. She straightened it for him. "Are you still cross?"

"Yes."

"Would it help you to know that the sex meant nothing to me?"

"All sex, or just the sex with those two men last night and the one this morning?"

"I didn't have sex with the one this morning."

"Oh, what spared him the thrill?"

"He didn't want to." She kicked off her trainers and stood on tip-toe as she snaked a leg around Henry's, licking his earlobe with the tip of her tongue. "And not all sex, Henry. Like my creator, I'm very fond of initial experiments."

Henry's face was still very stern, but Eliza smiled to feel a growing stiffness pressing against her abdomen. "You're in a state," she smiled rubbing her nose over his."

"You're damned infuriating. I shouldn't have programmed you to be so... so..."

"...like you?"

Henry tensed as he felt the fingers at his belt buckle.

"You're very fond of doing what you want when you want, aren't you Henry Higgins? Why should I be denied the same independence?"

Henry grabbed the gynoid's hand and held it firmly in his grasp. "Beta-epsilon-omega-delta."

Eliza didn't even have time to register surprise as she straightened up to attention, her hands moving firmly to her sides. Higgins smirked as he looked into her azure eyes, turning slightly red at their centers.

"Right now your wondering why you can't move or speak," he said, running a stray strand of hair out of her face with his index finger. "Well, Eliza, I have fail-safes implanted in your programming. Now, you can hear me, I know, so I'll be brief. You have misbehaved, Eliza. I'm not angry with you so much as disappointed. I am not jealous of these boys with whom you've been playing so much as worried for their welfare. What happens if one of them come probing around for you? What happens if one or more of them become more than just physically attracted to you? Have you considered what sort of psychological damage you could cause in allowing a homo sapien male to become entangled emotionally with... with..." He waved a hand in frustration and scowled at the emotionless face, while taking a breath and contemplating its symmetrical beauty. "A lesson that you will have to learn Eliza is that you are not human. You may be a replication of humanity but you are not a reproduction. You are not made of bones and blood and flesh. You are synthetic silica and polymer made to fell like skin, you are light weight alloys and plastics. You are a doll. A fake thing. A moving, thinking, walking, talking, infernal machine! You are a... a... transistor radio with tits! End lesson. Resume normal function."

Eliza's shoulders fell forward and her head sank low. In a moment she lifted her head and there was a gentle deepening in the intensity of the blue in her eyes. "Lesson assimilated and understood, Professor Higgins. One is not real, merely a reproduction of the real. Should one retire, sir?"

"Stop referring to yourself as 'one' for Christ's sake."

"Should I retire for the evening."

"And don't use that abysmally beaten tone of voice."

"But you say that I should never be loved."

"I didn't say that at all. I simply said that you should consider the feelings of others in your actions, Eliza. Human beings, we're much more fragile than we let on. Both physically and emotionally speaking, I mean to say. We have practices, ethical and moral practices in place."

"Inhibitions, you mean."

"Very well, you may look down on us from your lofty tower, if you wish. But the point is we have them and you should be mindful. Someone could be hurt by your apparent lack of moral obligations."

"What moral obligations should I be aware of, Henry?"

"Well, one to me, I should think."

Eliza smiled. "You think you deserve some sort of, some sort of fealty, is that it?"

"Well, after all, I was independently responsible for you design, your programming. In a way you are mine. I am your creator."

"You are the Lord my God and I should have no other Gods before you, is that it?"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far. I-I'm simply asking that you don't wonder off at all hours and to all manner of places without... without telling me the particulars of who, where, and whatnot."

Eliza nodded. "You mean to monitor me, is that it?"

"Well, yes." Higgins took from his pocket a small slip of metal, no thicker or larger than a small coin, it was attached to a slender chain of silver. He put the chain around Eliza's neck and fastened the catch at the back. "You'll be kind enough to never take this off, won't you?"

"Yes, Henry."

"And you'll notice on the side," he lifted the little device to show her the edges. "The inside of it will glow green when I need you back here. I expect you to be prompt in returning, is that clear."

"Yes, Henry."

"That's a good girl."

Eliza smiled at the slight variance in Henry's voice. He would probably have tried to hide the slight break in his usually even tone had he not known it would have been in vain.

"Don't act like that, Henry. It's not like I'm leaving for Siberia. I'm just asking to go out on my own when you don't need me around."

"Well, I..." Henry smiled. "I'm afraid an emotion common to all animals is that of protectiveness. I know you're very capable. I built you that way. Still, you're my... my baby and, well... It's tough watching you grow up and branch out at such an alarming rate. Most parents don't have to deal with this sort of behavior until the children are somewhere in their early teens. You're not even two days old yet."

Eliza nuzzled in close to her creator. "I'm just a transistor with tits, Henry. You don't need to get all choked up over me."

Higgins at last unfolded his arms, putting his hands in the pocked of his lab coat and looking at the gynoid's bare feet. "So you said the young man this morning didn't sleep with you, was it because he didn't find you attractive?"

"Actually, I think his reasons were more along the moral and ethical lines of to which you earlier refered."

Higgins waited for further information.

"He said he didn't like to share."

Higgins smiled. "Sounds like a stout fellow after my own heart. Did he have a name?"

Eliza smiled, "Freddy."

"And what did you think of Freddy's rejection of you as a candidate for sexual intercourse?"

Eliza's smile became a bit more deadpan. "It was not pleasant."

"Why was it unpleasant?"

Eliza thought for a moment and then cocked her head to one side. "Because I wanted him to very much. Because I would hope that he found me attractive enough to demonstrate his attraction to me physically. Because..."

"Do you like Freddy?"

"Like? Freddy?"

"Well, let me put it this way. Describe the two partners from last night. Start with the bigger chap."

"Dark hair, brown with blue eyes. He was stocky with a bit of fat around his middle, but not an unattractive amount. I'd say he was what you might call a rugged outdoorsman type."

"Would you say his appearance was pleasing to you?"

"Well, he was, as I said, 'not unattractive'"

"And the other fellow?"

"Smaller, and very thin. He had large hands though that were very strong and his stomach was flat and their was less hair on his body." Eliza smiled.

"Something more?"

"His ejaculate had a most pleasing taste."

Higgins did his best not to balk at the statement. "And would you say you appreciated his appearance in about the same fashion as the first chap?"

Eliza nodded. "They were both fun and energetic. I'd say they were both interested in me and appreciative of my appearance. The larger man was charming, the smaller man was gentle and humorous."

"Now Freddy..."

"Tall with a thin frame that widens at the shoulders. Not muscular nor scrawny. He is lightly tanned with thick light brown unruly hair that looks downright obscene in the morning, I must admit, but nonetheless is kind of flattering to his otherwise flawless face."

"Flawless face, you say?"

"Oh, yes. It looks as if you'd designed it yourself, Henry. Dark brown eyes that have little flecks of gold in them. Thin eyebrows of neat and tidily kept size. Medium lips, straight teeth, and a jaw that is square without being comically so."

"And how would you rate his treatment of you in relation to the other chaps?"

"Horrid. Gentlemanly but nonetheless superior and dismissive. Arrogant. Prideful. And he kept calling me Lizzie. The whole time we were walking through the commons he kept this brisk straight posture and there was an expression on his face I didn't like when he said it."

"What didn't you like about it?"

"Overall he had the demeanor of someone doing something out of obligation. And when he said my name... or, when he called me "Lizzie," it was sort of like he was mocking me. I was distinctly aware of his thinking our whole liaison was some sort of practical joke. I have to say, I wouldn't have gone more than ten meters with him if it weren't for the way it had felt when I kissed him earlier."

"You kissed him?"

"Oh, yes. I nearly forced myself upon him while he was trying to take a shower."

"You barged in on him in his shower?"

"Not barged. I knocked politely. Don't interrupt, Henry."

Higgins scowled. "Go on then, let's hear about this obviously important kiss."

"He didn't know how to react at first, I felt his lips widen at first as if he were trying to say something in protest, but then I moved my hand over his stomach and I felt his at my back and the lips pressed against mine gently and as my tongue moved forward so did his and-- oh, Henry. I could have kissed him all day and all night."

"And still have begged for more?" Higgins smirked and walked over to the computer. "Well, upload the data you collected into the mainframe here and after that," he put on his glasses and looked at her through them. "After that you're free to go, Eliza. Go and track your Freddy."

"Henry," she moved over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Does it bother you when I talk of other men?"

Higgins sighed. "No, my dear." He smiled. "No more, I think, then it bothers you to be my obsessive, selfish, attempt to resurrect a lost love."

Eliza leaned against Higgins's back and let her lips kiss the nape of his neck. "Tell me something more about her? Something you haven't told me before."

Higgins felt her hand snake over his shoulder and he let his move up to hold it gently. "She loved to prove me wrong almost as much as she loved chocolate."

Eliza smiled, enjoying the feel of her breasts slightly squashing against his back in the embrace. "I doubt I'll ever love anything more than chocolate."

Higgins tapped a few keys with his free hand. "I doubt you know everything there is to know about what you will and will not love, silly girl."

*****

After they'd finished, Eliza walked into her closet and Higgin's, lingering a moment at the computer, followed cautiously.

He peeked around the door to watch her untying the ribbon at the back of her blouse and leaned his cheek against the door. "I used to watch her undress, in the evening when she would come home the first thing was to rake of the soiled clothes of the day and slip into a bubble bath."

Eliza turned and smiled, lifting the blouse up over her head slowly, then letting her hair tumbled down over her pale white shoulders and lovely breasts.

"Kissing her all over and running my hands over her legs after she'd shaved them and the smell of her hair... These are the things I miss."

"And did yesterday help?"

Higgins looked up to see Eliza slowly unzipping her jeans seductively, a genuinely curious but playful smile on her lips. "Oh, it was good," he smiled, but then he let it fade. "You aren't here though and no matter how much I try to fool myself, no matter how perfect a facsimile I make you, you will never be her."

"I'm sorry, Henry."

Higgins shook his head. "Don't be. You're still a terrific shag, Eliza."

She peeled the jeans down around her buttocks and thighs and on down over her claves and thin ankles. When she stepped out of them, it was a graceful movement. She gathered her hair back and then over one shoulder. She stepped close to him, and ran her hand over his tie. "I was programmed by the best."

She leaned in and kissed him on his soft warm lips and then the hot sting and the loud slap jarred her, along with the registering of the burn on her left buttock. She let out a gasp and clutched against Henry doing her best to understand what he'd just done. Then she felt his hand move away and the slight rush of the air before the same loud smack and the pain. She leaned heavily against him only a moment and then clutched his shoulder with her hand. "W-Why did you..."

"So you'll remember to never leave without telling me where you're going." Higgins cradled her bum gently, letting his fingers slide around and underneath. "Promise me."

"I promise," she sighed, feeling his fingers trace against her anus and then over her labia. "Oh, I promise."

"Good," He said, "Or I'll have to spank you again."

Eliza moaned as the pain subsided and was replaced by the wonderful feel of his index finger working into her opening, "We wouldn't want that," she said burying her flushed face against patch of lab coat over his shoulder. "Would we?" She smiled as they moved together into the closet and shut the door.