To the casual observer, two people going into a bar wouldn't excite much interest, and this was exactly the impression Brian and Kayo wanted to give.

They’d been in a relationship for five years, and outside of Brian’s immediate family nobody knew of their rather special backgrounds. To most, they just seemed to be a happy couple.

Finding a table off to the side, they sat facing each other. Kayo crossed her legs, sat upright in the chair, with her elbows resting on the table. She was a striking woman, petite with clearly defined Japanese ancestry; wide eyes, a small nose, and cute lips.

Brian, by contrast, was bulky and leaned back into his seat, as if trying almost too hard to appear cool and alpha male-ish.

The barman wasn't known in these parts for waiting tables and shouted, “what’ll I get you, guvna.”

Kayo flashed him a smile, “a glass of white wine”

She never got drunk, but enjoyed the taste of wine much more than other beverages. She’d often wondered about that, was it part of her programming, or had she developed the taste independently. Her uncertainty about all of her interests and tastes had led to all sorts of depressions and feelings of inadequacy

Brian mitigated that somewhat, he appreciated her, spoke to her, held her and comforted her, and most importantly, listened to her. And he treated her as his goddess. She liked that very much; to be put on a pedestal. It was a form of validation in her eyes, that she was as desirable as a biowoman, and not just his sexual fantasy.

The barman smiled like a smitten teenager, and then glanced at Brian.

“A pint of your best,” squeaked Brian, rising to go to the bar to collect the glasses before the barman had a chance to get too close to Kayo. Brian really didn’t like when other men got too close in case they noticed anything or made any rude comment toward her. In his mind, what Kayo had to deal with was so much worse than his own transition.

Whispering so Kayo wouldn't hear, “do you recommend a quiet hotel in the area with views of the mountains, and maybe a bit of romance too?”

“It’s your anniversary, is it?” from the barman, whose bored demeanour had instantly become conspiratorial.

“Not quite, I've got a little something I want to ask her, and I thought it might be more romantic.”

The barman looked Brian directly in the eye, sizing him up, and appearing satisfied, he winked and leaned closer, “I can do you one better than that, I’ve got a little cottage down the road that’s decorated like it’s straight out of Elizabethan times. I’ll let you have it for the night on one condition.”

“What’s that, then?” asked Brian, sensing trouble.

“Oh, it’s nothing to be worried about,” hinted the barman ,”it’s just my wife is a bit of an old romantic herself, and she’d love it if you ask that question right here and let us all have a celebratory drink afterward. We don’t get a lot of call for opening the champagne, and bless her, she bought a couple of cases for our anniversary but then the weather turned bad and damned near destroyed the village. We were lucky to survive.”

“I see, well, it would be wonderful for Kayo to have that moment. She’s always wanted to be accepted,” confided Brian.

Once again, the barman looked hard into Brian’s eyes, “Ahh, you’ve both had a bit of bother, haven’t you? Well, listen here, it’s my bar, and if anyone says anything about you or your girlfriend they’ll be talking to my cricket bat quick smart.”

Brian laughed, a huge smile creeping up from cheek to cheek, “Kayo can certainly look after herself if it comes to that, but I think she’d like your suggestion very much. I'm Brian, by the way.”

“James is mine, and my wife is Betty. I’ll maybe tell her you’re both my guests before she comes out here, just so she doesn’t get startled mind you. We don’t get too many of your sort here, you know, but you’ll be welcome I can promise you.”

Brian’s nerves tingled; he was always very self-conscious when people brought up the subject of his transition, even obliquely like James had. It had been a struggle for acceptance, both personally, and by others. But James seemed to understand, and gently put a hand on Brian’s shoulder, “don’t you worry about a thing, lad. We’re all family here. You go and sweet talk your lady and I’ll get the glasses ready.”

Kayo had been pretending to study the décor, but had in fact heard every word said. She was very conscious that Brian’s humanity meant he needed to feel at times able to keep a secret from Kayo.

This was not part of her programming. It had all come to a head three years before, during a particularly stressful time for Brian. He’d finally had his top surgery but couldn’t go to the gym for several weeks. She remembered in a moment of self-doubt he’d yelled at her that she was just an android and would never know weakness.

That had hurt Kayo so much, considering the sentient bill of rights had been passed a few months before, freeing Kayo and allowing her to register as a sentient person.

They’d talked in the days after, and Brian had pleaded with her to stay. She’d agreed, on the condition he never said anything hurtful ever again. Privately she also decided to pretend that she wasn’t as capable. It just seemed diplomatic.

Of course that was all in the past, but as Brian made his way back to the table with their drinks, Kayo felt conflicted. She’d gained her independence and freedom, and she was happy in her relationship, but did she really want to become his again?

Brian put the glasses on the table, then did a strange impersonation of a grizzly bear stretching up to the ceiling before settling his frame back onto the chair. Leaning forward he gripped Kayo’s warm hands in his own, and gave a happy contented sigh.

They sipped their drinks, chatting aimlessly about the bar, before Brian finally seemed to be summoning up the courage to ask Kayo his question, “darling, how would you feel about staying in the area tonight? We could stay somewhere romantic and just forget about heading home straight away.”

Kayo didn't want to seem excited and suppressed that thought, instead answering, “OK!”

Excitement was an emotion she understood, but intuitively didn’t find useful. Now and again she’d pretend for Brian’s sake, but mostly she preferred to keep her emotions in check. Unlike biosentients, Kayo found it hard to control her emotions, almost as if there was an error in her coding that made them loop over and over.

She had plans to delve into her codebase and fix that, to try to be more human. Little did she know just how human her thoughts had become.

“Yes, the barman was telling me he’s got a cottage in the village that we could use for the night, and I thought you might enjoy the experience. We could sit out and watch the stars tonight,” continued Brian.

Of course, Brian wasn’t just thinking of looking at the stars, and since Kayo was as biologically complete as an android could be, there’d no doubt also be a need for his strap-on.

The music changed in the bar, from the high tempo rock the patrons seemed to prefer, to something a bit gentler. Brian thought he recognised Barry White, or one of that era’s crooners. Mind you, his musical tastes only extended as far as vocal trance, so he might have been completely wrong.

"You're the first, the last, my everything,
My first, my last, my everything,
And the answer to…”

It was cheesy, and in this bar seemed very out of place. Out of the corner of his eye, Brian saw a woman standing next to the barman. They were trying hard not to look in Brian and Kayo’s direction; and failing miserably.

The awkwardness of the situation seemed to permeate the salon as the patrons noticed something amiss. The hubbub of idle chatter diminished, and all eyes looked first at the bar, and then with dawning realisation, at the young couple against the wall.

Without thinking, Brian threw himself to his knees, spilling his drink across the table, and getting his pants soaked.

Guffaws of laughs resonated, and Kayo looked adoringly at her human lover. He could be so awkward.

Reaching into his pants pocket, Brian extracted his wallet and fumbled with the change pocket, bringing out first, some penny coins, a bit of fluff, and finally, a gold band with a small diamond delicately held in place by four small slivers of gold wire.

Looking at Kayo’s feet, and then at his hand, and finally, into her lap, “Kayo….”

She reached down gently. With her fingers under his chin, she applied the gentlest pressure till his eyes met hers.

“Ummm, see, the thing is, umm, we’ve been together for so long, and you’re perfect, I mean, perfect and beautiful, umm, and my life isn’t, but with you, well, umm,” and thrusting the ring into Kayo’s hand, finally blurted, “will you marry me?”

The bar fell into hushed silence, and Kayo knew that all eyes were on her. She ran a subroutine, looking for any hint of angry emotions in the room, making sure her and Brian were safe.

It had hardly taken her more than a split second, and she pondered Brian’s strange little speech. Her senses reported that he was in a state of extreme nervousness, almost desperation. She wondered if that was what love felt like for biosentients.

Replaying the last few years with Brian, she tried to be objective, to analyse her emotions logically. They stubbornly refused to be put into neat little boxes and Kayo suspected a programming error. She logged a request from another subroutine to debug the code she was running, and received “EXIT_SUCCESS” several thousand nanoseconds later.

In frustration, Kayo ran a prediction algorithm, would her future be optimal without Brian? Once again the code seemed to be damaged and gave an unsatisfactory response.

Brian shifted, imperceptibly slowly, drawing Kayo’s attention back to her biosentient boyfriend. His eyes were shining like a happy puppy, almost as if he could sense her next words.

“Yes,” was what she said.