Page 54 of Fembot
“No. No, please.” Winston slumped in Lucky’s arms, suddenly tired, hurt, devastated. “At least let me say goodbye.” Winston’s voice shook. This was the end of the road. If hecould have, he’d have rewound time and paused it upstairs while Lucky was still laying in his lap with Calvin curled into his side. He’d have stopped time and lived in the comfort of that moment.
Winston looked at Henry. “Please.”
Henry nodded and Winston, now free from Lucky’s arms, launched himself at Calvin. Calvin caught him and held him close. Winston squeezed him so tight that he’d have hurt anyone else, but Calvin merely squeezed him back.
“Thank you for the zoo. For everything.” Calvin kissed Winston’s cheek and pulled away.
Winston was too tired to fight him. Too defeated to keep going. He slumped against the wall and watched Calvin and Lucky embrace.
And then they broke apart, and Calvin closed the distance between himself and Henry. “I’m ready.”
Henry looked at Calvin and nodded. “I’m very sorry about the distress this has caused you. This was… unforeseen.”
“Get out,” Winston told him as he used the last of his strength to keep himself on his feet. “Just… get out.”
Henry nodded and put a hand on Calvin’s shoulder. He steered them around Winston and Lucky, unlocked the front door, and Winston watched them step through it. When the door swung shut behind them, Winston’s knees gave out and he slid to the floor.
His mind was an empty vessel. Nothing made sense. He had a bag of money and no boyfriend. He had Lucky, who dropped down next to him and gathered him close, letting Winston hide his face against Lucky’s chest. He had half a heart left. The other had been taken from him and was scheduled for destruction.
“Winnie, I’m sorry,” Lucky crooned in his ear. “I shouldn’t have let them take him, but he was going to ruin you. He was going to put you in prison. Put us in prison. And Calvin would be lost to us anyway.”
“We could have tried harder.” Winston sniffled.
“We didn’t have a choice.” Lucky stroked his fingers through Winston’s hair.
“There’s always a choice, and I think we chose wrong. We chose to let him go.”
“No, he chose to leave. He chose to protect us.”
“I love him.” Winston sniffled as the tears started over again.
“I know.” Lucky kissed the top of Winston’s head and tightened his embrace. “I do too.”
The room went still and silent except for the shuddering of Winston’s uneven breaths as he tried and failed over and over again to get himself under control.
“Let’s get you upstairs,” Lucky said after a while. Hours maybe. The light in the room had changed, and Winston became suddenly aware of every bone in his body, how much it ached, and how heavy it was.
He didn’t know how he was going to survive this.
But at least he didn’t have to go through it alone. The thought was dark, and shitty, and not very comforting because the last thing he ever wanted was for Lucky to hurt too. But he thought it anyway. All the way upstairs and into bed where Lucky put him. It stayed with him while Lucky carefully undressed them both and tucked them into bed.
“We should have run,” Winston said, closing his eyes.
“We did what Calvin wanted.” Lucky drew him close and held him tight, as if he were afraid someone would come for Winston next.
“But at what cost?”
Lucky didn’t answer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE_
ALL GOOD THINGS
Calvin followedthe man in the suit outside, leaving the only home he’d ever known. There would be no more trips to the zoo. No more adventures. No more nights spent wrapped around Winston or Lucky or sandwiched between them as they slept. Calvin would never be like them, but he… he loved them. He was going to miss them.
When they stepped out the door, different men, men in coveralls bearing the same logo as his charging station, grabbed him. They were rough with him, yanking his arms behind his back with force that would’ve hurt a human.
But Calvin wasn’t human.
