I woke the next day with my face pressed into the crook of Cerri's neck. Groaning, I pushed myself up and stared around, blinking in bleary confusion. We were back in our bed, although some of the cushions had been stolen and placed around us. When did that happen?

When I looked back to Cerri, I found her watching me with curious affection. "Morning," she whispered, reaching up to push some of my short, rowdy hair out of the way.

"I love you," was my response, blurted out while my brain was still doing boot diagnostics.

My new girlfriend's voice was rough with sleep as she laughed and pulled me back down on top of her. "Fuck, you're so cute."

I wiggled around, trying to get comfortable again even as she squeezed me tight. I ended up licking her bare collarbone out of giggling frustration. A vain attempt to stop her, of course.

“Cheeky,” she said, tweaking one of my ears affectionately.

“I do love you, though,” I mumbled, snuggling close against her chest. She still had a T-shirt on, but it was a loose one and the collar had slipped down to the point of almost exposing her nipples. A big part of me wanted to dip my head down further and play my tongue across them. I didn’t have the energy for what would happen after that, unfortunately, so I pressed the impulse down.

Her hands nestled again in my hair, and her tail coiled more tightly with mine. We had apparently slept all tangled up like that, and the thought made my heart dance. Like a piece of rope made of two separate strands, we were so tightly coiled together that most would consider us one.

"I love you, too," she said, a smile audible in her tone. "I'm so happy."

Blinding affection exploded in my chest. I made her that happy? Gosh. Jeez. Fuck! I couldn't move, but in my head I was running around like a cocaine-dosed bunny.

Cerri giggled and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "Brain sparks again, huh?"

Yes, I told her, basking in the love I felt for her like it was a warm, scented bath.

Taking my lead, she nestled further into the bed and typed, You know, it's funny, but I've never actually communicated with too many people like this. In the early days we used to type, but we soon discovered that it's actually more mentally taxing to type than it is to send a voice message. This is generally speaking, of course. I do not mind it personally, and you seem to almost prefer it.

I do, to be honest. It would be better to just send thoughts directly, but considering the state my internal dialogue is usually in… well, I'm not sure it's understandable. I explained, smiling at the idea of some poor SAI like her having to pick through the burning debris of a thought-packet from me.

That made her laugh out loud, and a moment later she began to draw idle circles on my back with a fingertip. I can imagine. I can see your brain activity and it's all over the place, all the time. It's like the world's most hyperactive thunderstorm.

Can you tell what I'm thinking by looking? I asked, intrigued. It sounded really interesting.

Only vaguely. I'm not a neurologist, so I have no idea how much could be gleaned from the activity monitor. That said, I can tell when you're reading or typing, due to the areas of the brain that light up. I can tell when you're excited and… well, that's about it, she said, switching to using my back as a mini-piano.

I'll never be able to fake an orgasm, huh? I said with a silly smile that she couldn't see.

Cerri responded immediately, letting out a cocky chuckle. As if you'd ever need to fake an orgasm.

Kiss me. I tell her suddenly, the need washing up through me like a tsunami. Nothing more though. I'm too tired to be fucked right now.

Yes, ma'am, she replied with a quiet laugh.

Her hands nestled themselves in my hair, and using that gentle hold she pulled my face up to meet hers.

I melt like an icecream in the desert sun, and it doesn't take long before she has to keep me from sliding sideways off her. Thankfully, my girlfriend is deceptively strong, and with a carefully placed arm she locked me in place against her.

There’s something about how easily I succumb to her, every time she kisses me. It’s not a subservient thing, or even a power play thing at all. It’s more like… I trust her, I trust her so completely that I give up every ounce of physical autonomy I have. She can move me and kiss me and fuck me in whatever way she wants, and I know she’ll never do anything that I won’t like.

It’s such a wild thing to me. Something I’ve never experienced before in my entire life. Until I met Ed and David, other people had been something to fear. A source of pain, or at the bare minimum, a reminder of my loneliness and insignificance in this deteriorating world of ours.

I think Cerri might have realised my thoughts had wandered, because she pulled back from the kiss. Hand rising to cup my cheek, she asked, “Little Alia, are you okay?”

As I open my mouth to answer, to tell her that it was just a bout of melancholy, a low ringing sound fills the room. Looking around, startled, I spotted the vidcall window with a small mountain of confusion.

“Is that someone calling you?” I asked, turning to Cerri. The caller’s ID is hidden, which means it’s either someone from the Digital Exodus or a real world business. Well, or the government, but why would they be calling us.

Cerri shook her head and shifted me to sit next to her, then flicked a finger to expand the window. It’s… a call for me? “Interesting,” she muttered, a frown pinching her brows together.

Carefully and with surprising speed, she fixes first my hair, then her own. In moments, her T-shirt is artfully draped just off her shoulder and mine is no longer twisted fifteen degrees around my body.

“That’s as presentable as I can make us, considering we just woke up,” she said, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I’m not sure who this is, but they aren’t DE, which means we can’t tell them where we are, okay?”

“If they ask, we’re in a private VR environment,” I agree, kissing her back.

Snagging the still ringing call window, I hastily pressed the accept button before it went to voicemail.

Instant, animalistic terror assaulted me in an explosive wave. It shoots up my spinal column and into my brain, rendering me nonverbal, and cutting off any ability to think.

“Who are you?” my mother demanded, her cold blue eyes like daggers pinning me to the headboard of the bed. “Where is Clay?”

Beside me, Cerri stiffened. Down on my thigh, where her hand had been resting, I feel her claws slowly extend. My skin remained unbroken, she’s too careful for that, but I can feel the instant, seething anger in her like a strong electric field.

“What do you want?” Cerri asked, polite but firm.

Mother’s eyes flicked to meet hers, and with a deepening scowl she said, “I want to speak to my son, thank you very much, Where is he? Your strange appearances indicates to me that you are in virtual reality.”

“I’m here, Mum,” I croaked, unable to meet her eyes. My vocal chords felt like they were going to snap under the stress of speaking through the lock, but I’ve been conditioned to reply when my parents speak to me.

Her eyes bulged, taking in my ears, my small but noticeable breasts, and my very feminine face and build. “I see,” she finally said, as if dismissing the whole thing in her mind. “Change back into your real body. Your father and I have arranged for one of our business associates to take you on as an analyst. The interview is in four hours and you will need to prepare.”

She spoke entirely without even acknowledging Cerri beside me, but my girlfriend had other ideas. “That will be a little difficult,” she said, replying for me. “I believe we deleted all the scans of that, right, Alia?”

“Then make a new one,” Mother snapped, the corner of her mouth twitching as though it wanted to sneer even through her iron self control.

Casually, the SAI flicks open a screen, but she very pointedly does not use the keyboard. The screen’s angled so that mother can see the raw commands being run entirely via thought. It was an impressive display of mental prowess that very obviously painted her as an SAI. Funny how I could have matched her, though.

“Ah,” Cerri said, grinning wide enough to show her canines. “Most unfortunate. The body has already been destroyed. No scan was taken beforehand, either.”

“The body was… destroyed?” Mother blinked, confused. “What are you talking about?”

With my loving, incredible girlfriend beside me, defending me, I feel the chains on my voice slacken. “I digitized myself. Didn’t need that useless sack of meat anymore, so I donated it to science.”

Watching her eyes widen in growing horror was quite possibly one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever seen.

“My name is Alia now, by the way,” I said, reaching for Cerri’s hand to steady myself.

She threaded our fingers together with a soft look in my direction, then turned to mother. “I am Cerri, a sentient AI, and Alia’s girlfriend. Nice to meet you.”

Mother was still speechless, her jaw working open and closed in horrified, dumbfounded silence. I wasn’t surprised by her reaction, honestly. Everything about my decision making process would have been alien to her. Add to that, the fact that I was now entirely digital, trans, a lesbian, and dating a sentient AI… well, I was surprised her head didn’t explode.

“You can’t control her anymore,” Cerri said quietly, a razor’s edge in her voice. “You can’t twist her into doing shit she doesn’t want to do, you can’t force her to work for your own petty self interest, and you can’t define the boundaries of her life. Don’t try. So I suggest you tell your business associates that they’re going to need to find a different analyst. Alia has more important aspirations for her time than making your wealthy friends even more money.”

I’d never seen Cerri this angry, and to see her use the honed blade of her intelligence to tear my mother a new asshole was… inspiring. That, and it made my heart swell with a grateful love that was so utterly profound, I swear I almost passed out.

The egg donor on the other end of the call was still silent, but her jaw had snapped shut. I recognised the look she was giving us, and it wasn’t a pretty one. It lacked any of the normal weight, though, because I was safe and free. Instead, it just gave the impression of a calm before a toddler’s tantrum.

Finally, she moved, but it wasn’t to unleash her screaming rage. Instead, she just reached forward and cut the call off. Good. At least she wasn’t stupid, she knew when to just fuck off.

Beside me, Cerri was breathing heavily, still seething with righteous anger, and I remembered all in a rush that she loved me.

I lunged for her with a cry of deep, deep gratitude. “Thank you,” I squeaked as tears puddled in my eyes. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I was the luckiest girl in the universe.