Reclamation

Chapter 6

Joy woke up the next morning still curled up on Lockdown's chest, he had one hand resting over her while gently stroking her hair with his thumb. Lying stretched up across Lockdown's chest was Star with her head only inches from Joy's face, Lockdown was also petting her.

Joy lifted her head to look up at Lockdown, much to her surprise he didn't pull his hand away or even stop stroking her hair, "You know I'm starting to think those dogs aren't the only ones around here you have a soft spot for," she said.

Lockdown smiled at her, almost affectionately, she'd never seen him smile and it sent a flurry of butterflies through her stomach, then he said, "Well I always did like soft pets, you're all different types of soft," he said taking one of her hands between his fingers, "Slightly tougher, but still soft ridged skin of your palms and fingers, the softer skin of the backs of your hands and arms with its light hair, with even softer skin on the bottom of your arms," he said trailing his fingers up her arm to her head, "your soft hair, the coarser hair of your eyebrows, your lips-" he suddenly pulled his hand away from her face, "too bad you're such a pain in the aft, it would take more effort to properly train you than you're worth, and unlike the steeljaws you'd be pretty useless on my ship and I really don't need any more pets."

Joy propped her head on her hands as she looked up at his face, wondering for a moment if with such a sensitive sense of touch if he could feel how her heart was racing, then she finally said, "Kiss me again, then look me in the eyes and tell me I'm nothing more than a pet to you. I dare you."

Lockdown glared at her, "You are not manipulating me to do what you want again," he said scooping her up and setting her roughly on the ground.

"It was worth a try," Joy replied then groaned when she heard an engine heading up the driveway, "What time is it?"

"A little before 7:30, you're getting lazy," Lockdown told her.

"Great, only a few people know I'd be up this early," Joy said heading towards the barn door.

Joy stepped out of the barn and glared at Tim as he got out of his truck, "You know I do have an answering machine, you could leave a message and wait for me to call you back before you drive out here. What if I wasn't home?"

"You have no life, where else would you be?" Tim said.

"Tim, honey, favorite little brother of mine," Joy said walking over to him then whacking him upside the head playfully, "When was the last time I kicked your butt? Because apparently it's been too long."

"I'm your only little brother and last I recall I won the last fight," Tim replied.

"I highly doubt that," Joy said, then asked, "So what is it you needed so badly you had to drive all the way out here first thing in the morning?"

"You remember that video I showed you of the bots fighting the other day?" Tim asked.

"Of course," Joy replied.

"We just got in some more information on the bots in the video. That robot who's butt you liked, when I showed you the video you called him Lockdown, how did you know what his name was?" Tim asked.

Joy shrugged, "I don't know, I probably read something online about him," she replied, praying he wouldn't be able to tell she was lying.

"When we got the information in I checked, no one else had any idea what his name was, not even online."

"Maybe you missed something," Joy said as she started to walk past him towards the house, "have you had breakfast yet?"

"Part of my job is to keep track of what news stories are being reported by other stations and sites, I didn't miss anything," Tim said grabbing Joy's arm as she passed him.