Which Flesh is Your Flesh?

Chapter 9

Something had shifted after Iguazu put his hand around Raven’s neck. He seemed to have realized Iguazu was still there inside his shell. The simple violence of the act revealed him as present, not just an empty hole where he’d once been. That didn’t mean that Raven had started treating him more carefully or anything though, he had just started telling Iguazu what was going to happen to him before he did it. He had made him outline and agree to a set of terms for Raven’s ownership of him. Iguazu didn’t care all that much, but Raven had stressed their importance.

“There need to be terms.” He had insisted with a tone of utmost solemnity. “I need you to understand what my expectations for you are, so that neither of us are surprised by how the other interprets the relationship.”

“You own me, what is there to misinterpret?”

“Can I loan you out to be a bitch for whoever wants to use you?” Iguazu had bristled at the question. “See, that’s why we’re talking about this now and not months into this.”

Iguazu had eventually agreed to allow Raven to loan him out for combat purposes, but that was only for practicality’s sake. Michigan would want him to return to his command from time to time. Even if he would never have Iguazu’s true loyalty, the illusion of it was important to maintain. However, outside of combat, he was Raven’s exclusively and completely. Raven could modify him whenever and however he wanted and he could fuck him whenever and however he wanted. Iguazu had insisted on no limits even after Raven had gone through scenarios in exhaustive detail hunting for a boundary he didn’t want broken. There was only one boundary that Iguazu wanted put in place, he was Raven’s and Raven’s alone. He had even refused Raven’s suggestion that he could let Carla look over and optimize his modifications. Iguazu wanted to be Raven’s project, no one else’s.

Once terms had been established though, it was like he had become a different person. He didn’t violate any of the scant boundaries Iguazu had set, but it also seemed like he had very little interest in holding himself back anymore. The minute after Raven had saved a recording of their list of terms, he had bent Iguazu over and fucked him for five hours straight. By the end of it he felt like he was catastrophically drunk, his brain so flooded with pleasure that he could barely think. Of course that wasn’t the end of it. He’d woken up the next morning, and every morning since, with his hole dripping with lube, staining the chrome between his legs. He knew what it meant, Raven was using him while he was asleep like a fucking cock sleeve. That first morning it had turned him on so much he went blind. His brain had been so overloaded he had lost connection to his cameras. Though the thrill wasn’t quite that intense anymore, it still had him fucking his hand every morning.

Most torturously though, Raven was never consistent. Some days he fucked Iguazu until he couldn’t stand, other days he didn’t touch him at all. He could end up just sitting around for hours at a time with nothing to do. That was when the boredom started to set in.

Despite Raven’s assurance that Iguazu could entertain himself, there wasn’t really much to do in his haunted house. There was no crew, Raven did all his own maintenance and repairs. Apparently it was to keep costs down, since he was only paying for materials and not labor, but that meant that there was no one besides Raven to talk to. The independent was working on a new AC at the moment so the conversation was often pretty one sided. Occasionally, he did hear a buzzing in his head, like somebody was saying something three rooms over that he couldn’t quite make out, but he never could find the source. Maybe this place really was haunted.

In terms of TV, Raven only had some recordings of ancient earth robot cartoons which despite his insistence that “This isn’t part of the UC timeline! You don’t need to watch any of the other series to understand this one!” Iguazu had no interest in watching. Michigan used to make them watch Macross Plus every time it was his turn to pick for their mandatory team building movie night and this seemed sort of similar. Raven even had the same speech about how ACs were created because humanity loved those old cartoons so much. Iguazu was pretty sure that was a net negative, but he didn’t want to spoil his fun.

At one point he had gotten so bored he’d found a bucket and a mop and started cleaning. Raven had nearly fallen from the scaffolding laughing at him, only stopping to ask him if he wanted a little black dress and a white apron.

Most of his time though, was spent trying to figure out his new limits. He could jump ludicrously high for one. That wasn’t a surprise, he’d seen how reverse joint ACs could move, it was how soft his landings were that really impressed him. His new knees absorbed shock so well that falling four meters felt like walking down a set of stairs. His lower jaw could still part like the mandibles of an insect. He hadn’t gotten a chance to check what the jaw strength of the riot model had been, but his new jaws could rend steel. His hands and arms were certainly stronger. He’d already had to replace a few door knobs that he’d grabbed too hard. Raven had DEFINITELY understated the combat readiness of the custom body he’d built him. Sure his chrome finish would probably get dinged up if he was in hand to hand combat, but they could always buff out the scratches.

“They”, he was already treating Raven’s presence as a constant in his life. Not that he didn’t want it to be. He had already helped Raven pick out a collar. It was more that there weren’t many people that were constants in his life. He had burned far too many bridges for that. Iguazu might have felt like shit about that, but it wasn’t like Raven wasn’t alone either. When he spoke over comms his mouth moved as if he was actually talking by force of habit. Sometimes Iguazu would see him talking alone, with his comms turned off, for hours. Iguazu had been lonely but he wasn’t talking to himself lonely.

Strangely though, he felt less lonely here with Raven on this empty base than he had on Balam’s constantly bustling one. Maybe it was because there were only two of them. He had Raven’s full attention; there was nothing to pull him away outside of the job. Of course since HEAD BRINGER was still wrecked, Iguazu didn’t have the job. He had nothing but Raven. Iguazu was starting to realize that he never had anything before Raven either. There had been nothing but a hunger deep in the pit of his stomach, a hunger that had only become more and more ravenous since Raven had taken him from Michigan and made him his.

“Iguazu!” He looked down to see Raven calling for him on the ground. The independent mercenary’s cameras swiveled, landing on his shape in the rafters. “Could you come down? I have something to show you.”

Iguazu smirked, deciding he wanted to show off a little. He let himself fall backwards, flipping over gracefully as he dove. His legs struck the ground softly, as if he was just getting out of bed.

“I’m glad you’re adjusting well.” Raven feigned indifference, but Iguazu could see the way his eye lit up like a little kid’s when he tested the limits of his body. He was Raven’s project after all. No matter how complicated his feelings towards Iguazu were, he was always excited to see how well his creation performed. The former Red Gun grinned smugly at Raven’s obvious enthusiasm. The independent pretended not to notice. “Come on,” He motioned for Iguazu to follow. “I think you’ll like it.”

Raven led him into the hangar of the base. It looked like he was done with the new AC he’d been working on. Like Iguazu it was bizarrely organic looking, though far more alien, with gill-like decorative ridges and an oddly long, flat head. Raven had painted it bright silver, with judiciously applied teal chrome highlights.

“What the hell is that?” Iguazu walked around the thing’s giant foot. It was high heeled, making the AC look like it was wearing boots.

“It’s Research Institute tech. I dragged it out of Watch Point Alpha piece by piece after our fight. It was designed to be an unmanned craft, but it didn’t take too much jury rigging to get it pilotable. Its systems aren’t designed for the limitations of human eyesight or reaction time though so it might’ve still been tricky to manage if you were unaugmented.”

Iguazu touched the steel of its leg, bright silver upon bright silver.

“What do you want to name him?” Raven asked.

Raven had a definite theme going on with his own AC names, and he and Volta had picked HEAD BRINGER and CANNON HEAD as a show of camaraderie during their 7 year hell. Iguazu thought about it for a moment.

“Anubis”

“The protector of tombs?” Raven shot him a crooked smile. “You’ve got a long way to go before you can live up to that one.”

“It’s aspirational.” He brushed his smooth fingers against Raven’s rough ones. The independent mercenary didn’t brush back. Instead he reached into one of the tool pouches of his exoskeleton.

“It came.” Raven didn’t have to clarify, Iguazu knew exactly what he meant. He kneeled.

Raven’s hands brushed the sides of his neck, lingering on the plates he had dented when he strangled him. Then he slid the soft, black leather collar around Iguazu’s neck. It rested heavily against the spot where his collar bone would have been, the weight of it comfortable like it had always been there. Raven threaded it deftly through its buckle and clasped it shut with his rough metal fingers. Then, he slipped two of them between the leather and Iguazu’s metal skin to make sure it wasn’t too tight. Not that it really mattered anymore, it wouldn’t choke or chafe him now.

“Comfortable?” Raven straightened the collar and clipped on a set of tags.

Iguazu just nodded, not trusting himself to speak when all he could think was FUCK ME FUCK ME FUCK ME.

“You think you’re ready to get back in the cockpit now?” Raven withdrew his hands, leaving Iguazu frustrated. He enjoyed toying with him like this, teasing him with casual intimacy before pulling away, never quite giving him enough. It was torture, but it made it so much better when Raven decided he had earned the right to get off.

“I think I’m ready.” Iguazu’s voice crackled with undisguised lust.

“Good. We should probably start you sparring hand to hand first. So you get used to the new AC and the new nerve connnections before you need to start worrying about weapons,” Raven replied, completely unmoved.

“How- how do I link up?” His ports weren’t where he was used to them being. Raven had moved them to his back so that they were closer to his brain, ensuring lower latency for his inputs.

“I’ll show you.”

Raven grabbed his hand, practically dragging him to the cockpit, that little kid glimmer in his eye again. He opened the back hatch and guided Iguazu inside. There wasn’t a pilot’s chair, but there was a bizarre almost motorcycle-like apparatus in the middle of the cockpit. He could see divots molded into the sides for his arms and legs and a medieval looking face rest studded with male connectors.

“One second.” Raven gently turned Iguazu’s face towards his own. He stared intently at him running his hand along the side of his face. Iguazu thought for a moment that he was going to kiss him, but then Raven’s fingers found a button behind his ear and his face plate popped open, baring his wires and muscular mechanisms to the world.

“Lie down on the interface.”

Raven rested a hand on the small of Iguazu’s back, coaxing him to lower his head into it. After a few seconds of shifting he felt the connectors slide into him with a soft click. Raven ran a hand down his back, seeming to have noticed that his fans sped up and apparently assuming it was out of fear.

“There’s a switch by your right hand.”

Raven bent down and ran his hand down Iguazu’s arm until he reached his fingers. Then, he carefully guided them until he could feel a thick toggle switch. He slid it between his fingers blindly feeling along the length of cold metal before he flipped it. A hutch lowered, pressing against his back and a jolt of electricity shot through him as it connected to his systems. His eyes opened again and he shivered at the strange feeling of having Raven standing inside him.

“It’s good right?” Raven laid his hand against the hutch. “I have it wired directly into your brain through the nerve link up in your cybernetics. It should feel like there’s no separation at all.”

There was no separation. He no longer thought of the part of him in the cockpit with detached disdain, it was a piece of this massive and beautiful new him that slotted perfectly in place. Iguazu was a complete being.

He felt Raven grab onto one of the safety handles of his cockpit as his whole body shuddered.

“That good huh?”

Iguazu could barely speak, his voice flooded with static.

“I’m happy.” He managed. That didn’t even begin to cover it, if his eyes could still shed tears he would be weeping. “I’m happy.”