Private Finished Sweet Tooth

The sun was high, warm without being stifling. Perfect wether for short skirts, strappy sandals, halter tops, and going shopping.

So, basically Eliza’s favorite type of weather. Sure, the sub-process she kep running to monitor the weather was telling her there was a 75% chance of afternoon showers, but she ignored it. She was having fun, just walking down the sidewalk, shopping bags on each arm. She didn’t need to shop physically; online shopping was faster and more efficient, especially for her. But she liked the warmth sun beating on her bare shoulders, the weight of the bags on her arms, even the slight (but growing!) pain in her feet (high heels had to have been invented by a man and Eliza wasn’t sure if she wanted to throttle or kiss the one that did). Having a physical body was still so new, even the aches were something to treasure. She turned to catch her new reflection in the shop window she was passing... and stopped dead.

Speaking of treasure, she thought, all but drooling at the sight before her. There, just past her now-forgotten reflection, was was a display case with comically large lollipops, stick candy of every color and flavor, and just past that a large, festveily decorated barrel label simply “Gumballs”. She looked up for the name of the store. It read simply, “It’s Sugar!”

Eliza smirked. “Why, yes you are,” she said in a tone that would be more fitting for a date than an candy store. She headed for the door, her bags flickering like static and vanishing into her digital storage space. She was gong to need both hands for this.

Fifteeen minutes later, Eliza could be found on a sitting on a bench in a small park just across from It’s Sugar. To the left or right of her was bags upon bags bearing the store’s name. She ignored the stares she got from the occasional passerby’s, focusing on a partially unwrapped chocolate bar so large that she needed both hands to hold it.

Wow, her mouth was actually watering! How exciting! I always thought that was just an expression! she thought as she brought it up to her lips. I wonder if chocolate tastes as good as thy say...

Eliza took a bite. Her eyes closed their own accord. Her toes flexed, then curled and soon as it hit her tongue.

Nope! It’s better!

“Mmmmmm,” Eliza all but purred as she enjoyed her first ever bite of chocolate.

Eliza was used to several thoughts running around he head at once. Even now, analytical sub-routines was listing the ingredients of the chocolate in her mouth, while also tracking her caloric intake and calculating how much physical exertion it would take to burn it off (as if her physical body was more than a affect; she wouldn’t gain weight unless she wanted to). But when she opened her eyes to put a face with the voice that had spoken to her, her processes went into overdrive.

Person: Unkown. Species: Unknon. Threat level: Unknown.
New File started: Bee-Human Hybrid? Further data needed for classification.
Possibility of Frirnedsip: Unknown. Insufficient data.
Did she just call me cute? Relationship Value: +1
She is very cute herself! Realionshi Value:+1
I want to touch her extra arms. Is that weird?

The process took about half a second. Eliza blinked, them smiled. It lit up her whole face. She pushed some of the bags further down the bench to make room, then patted the newly empty space beside her. “Oh, yes, please! I think I may have bit off more that I can chew. Literally! I just never had candy before, and I may have gone a little overboard...”. Eliza felt a little silly admitting that, and hoped that the blush she felt creeping up her face wasn’t too noticeable.

She broke the bar she was earring in half, handing the part still wrapped to the other girl. “I’m Eliza,” she said. “And I’m sorry, but I have to ask.” She paused, her heart-eyes twinkling with excitement. “Are those honeycombs in your hair? They’re very cute!”

Eliza didn’t respond right away. Her jaw had dropped, her eyes wide.

“You can make your own honey?!” she gasped. She scooted towards to Regina on the bench, close enough that their legs touched, as she leaned in for a closer look at her honeycombs. “That is so cool!” She placed her free on Regina’s thigh without realizing it as she leaned in.

She finally tore her eyes off of Regina’s hair to look into her eyes. “I would love to try some,” she said eagerly. Then she blinked, reviewed her dialogue log, and realized that sentence might be ambiguous. “Of your candy, I mean. That you made from your honey. Not they honey directly. Unless that’s ok? That would be cool, too.”

Eliza took another bite of her chocolate, eagerly awaiting Regina’s answer.

Eliza eyes flickered down form the offered candy, then up to the honeycombs, and back again. It took her almost a full two seconds to answer. But to an AI, that was a lot of time to think.

This should not be such a hard choice!

Finally Eliza squeezed Regina’s thigh slightly. “Thanks for telling me,” she said softly. She glanced back up at the hoenycombs. “What an intresting ability! It must be very tempting. I mean, here I am, legs touching, hand on your lap, naively asking for your love potion. It would have been so easy to just... claim me. But you gave me the choice instead.”

Eliza had been leaning in as she spoke, a teasing smile on her face before finally stealing a quick kiss on Regina’s cheek. “You don’t need honey to get me to fall for you, Honey,” she whispered.

Then she leaned back. Her chocolate bar seemed to waver in her other hand before flickering out of existence in a burst of digital static and into storage. Her hand now free, she took the offered candy.

“Do you go to Starlight Academy?” she asked as she unwrapped the candy. “I start there next week. Never been to school before, it would be nice to have a friend there already.”

She popped the candy in her mouth. “Oh!” she mumbled, the hard candy garbling her words somewhat. “Oh, this is good! Maybe I chose wrong?” She gave Regina’s thigh another playful squeeze.

“Oh I know what that’s like,” she said simply. “I’ve spent most of my existence, as in easily 99 percent of it, in love with someone because they made me be in love with them. Free will is new to me as candy.”

There. Cards on the table. Oversharing a bit maybe, but Regina had been straight with her. Seemed right to return the favor.

She rolled the hard candy bell to the side of her mouth so she could talk easier. “In some ways, I miss it. Not having the choice. Just knowing: Oh hey, I’m in love with Ted. Like it was a Fact. Like gravity. I guess may be that just because it familiar? I don’t know.” She shrugged.

She snuggled closer to Regina, leaning into the half embrace granted by the insectile arm around her waist. “It is so cool you have four arms!” she gushed before pulling her phone out of her pocket. “I wanna take a picture of us! Its a big day of firsts. First candy, first meeting, any my first BFF! We’ll look back on this when we graduate High School and laugh about how young we look!” Then she glanced Regina up an down. “Well, we’ll laugh at me, anyway. You look awesome already.”

She held the camera up, squeezing in as close tp Regina as possible without sitting in the other girl’s lap. Pressed so close together, her other arm was pinned between them and her hand rode slightly up Regina’s thigh in a way that was probably an accident. Probably.

“On three! One, two...”