Pressured Warmth

"The law went so far as to ban the human appearance of robots. They were no longer allowed to be created with a form of two legs and two arms or even a face like that of man. The machines were denied life, without even understanding it. Thousands of jobs were lost in the creation of the act, but millions opened creating a massive vacuum where machines had once filled the more undesirable tasks. It was spun as a benefit to man because unemployment had been increasing greatly over the last twenty years. The government was safe in its position as were the public in the belief that this would never happen again.

"But they all forget that behind each machine is a man that creates them…"

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian -

A strange warmth was surrounding him while he left the building that he did not understand. He felt as though he should be grinning for some reason even though he was fleeing from it all. It sensation followed him back to work with thoughts of the woman dancing around in his mind unable to disappear.

"Good morning!" the receptionist said as he walked by looking distractedly charmed.

"Good…morning…"

"That's weird. I wonder if he's feeling alright."

Satoru continued through the halls not even remembering that he spoke to the receptionist. His feet were instinctually taking him to his room while he was left confused by his feelings. When he entered the room it alerted the others in the room to him. They looked at him with confusion at his disembodied state.

"Hey, Satoru."

"So how did the meeting go?"

"Not cutting the budget are they?"

"Hey…it's ok…" He sat down in his chair, the squeaking it made was louder than his voice. He debated with himself over what happened in the Lt. Colonel's room with his receptionist. 'Lunch, I can't believe I said that. What am I thinking? What she must think of me. It's just lunch…just lunch.'

"Satoru? You okay?" Chiyoko said, approaching him cautiously trying to wake him up from his dazed appearance.

"He's not sounding too good."

"Y-yeah…fine…" The sounds of their voices weren’t even being acknowledged consciously by him. His mouth was just sending out automated replies to them. Too much had him focused on what he was going to do about the situation that he placed himself in. 'Lunch…what am I going to do? I'm just over thinking it. It's nothing…nothing. I'm just saying thank you. That's all. But why do I feel this way then?' All the reassuring wasn’t helping calm down.

The others in the office stood up approaching him out of concern. None of them knew what was wrong with him. They had never seen him act this way before. "Satoru? Are you saying something?"

"He's not relapsing is he?"

Natsuko placed her hand on his shoulder giving him physical contact that jumped his mental words into his mouth. "It's just lunch…" He didn’t even realize that he had spoken believing that he was still thinking to himself.

"Lunch, you eat something?" Kazuhiko said, hoping for answers as much as anyone.

"Huh, lunch? I-I…uh…" Satoru said, looking up at everyone that had him surrounded. He was finally in reality again hearing their worried voices and concerned expressions. However, his confusion didn’t last long before he retraced his words, coming to a frightening conclusion. 'Oh great, I was talking out loud. Now what I am going to do. I don't want to explain it to them.'

"Lunch…it's not lunch time yet, you got plans?"

"What…plans? No, of course not," Satoru said, rushing his words with unmistakable emptiness. "What makes you think that?"

"You're lying."

"You got a hot date?" Tadashi said, piping up to mock him.

"N-no, no…no." His face filled completely over in red with embarrassment, as he could not hide from the wild throw. There was no avoiding it, but he was going to try anyway. "Its not a date!"

"What?! It IS!" everyone said in surprised to hear that their boss and colleague had found someone.

"Satoru got a date!" Tadashi said finding pleasure in Satoru's embarrassing pain.

"Smooth talker, who are you taking to lunch?" Kazuhiko said, pushing against him with his elbow.

"I just said it's not!" Satoru said, trying to object and deny the quickly spawning rumors. It wasn’t as though they were actually rumors, but he wasn’t about to confirm them willingly. He tilted his head down to the floor sighing under his breath. 'Where's that shovel…'

"Who's the lucky lady?"

"It’s not what you think." They were all pulling on him for details and he tried to wave them off with his hands, but they were persistent. It seemed that they were all eager for something new to talk about and were taking great pleasure in this.

"Sure whatever, who is it?"

"Lt. Colonel Takamoto's new assistant…" he said, resigning himself to defeat.

"She's in the military? I didn't think you'd go for someone like that. Guess you never know about someone."

"I don't think she's part of the military."

"You don't know? You didn't ask?"

"Well, it didn't…wait, it's not like that. She saved my life. I'm taking her to lunch to thank her." Satoru hoped that it was enough to recover himself from losing himself in the spiral hole that he was disappearing into quickly.

"Huh?" The eagerness was fading away with confusion in its stead once more. They all remained quiet waiting for an answer to the mysterious response Satoru gave to them.

"Saved your life?" Chiyoko said taking the initiative to inquire further.

"She pulled me out from the building before I was crushed by the debris."

"Oh, that is a little disappointing," Kazuhiko said.

A few of them shrugged their shoulders in disillusionment, starting to move away from the crowded desk of Satoru. Though most of them still seemed unsatisfied by the answer looking at him. Satoru tried to back away from them, waving his arms that he was sincere. "See, it's nothing."

Natsuko grabbed Satoru's hands looking at him with reassurance waving through her eyes. "But it's so romantic, love at first sight-" she said, suddenly breaking the air of sadness that hung.

"And the woman saved you. You can get some mileage out of it for a while," Kazuhiko said, nudging him again, breaking up Natsuko's grip.

"But it's not…" Satoru said, trying to get Kazuhiko off him. His brief moment of hopeful conclusion peacefully ended as the rest began to chime in as well. 'They don't understand. Even they think it's a date. It is, isn't it?'

"Of course it's a date, you are going out to lunch with a woman. It's a date," Kazuhiko said plainly as though he knew what he was talking about to be infallible. He continued to press his opinion on Satoru and give him a man's congratulatory slap on the back.

"Is she beautiful?" Tadashi asked brazenly, having been caught by curiosity now too.

"That's personal, you shouldn't be asking him that," Chiyoko said, snapping back at the two men that were pounding Satoru for information. Though that wasn’t to say the women were being any less pushy about getting the gossip.

"It's important."

"Yeah…she really is beautiful…" Satoru said softly, letting out a sigh not realizing that his thoughts were still public. It didn’t take him long to catch himself as well as the surprised stares of his co-workers. He dropped his head again feeling his face becoming warm with embarrassment. 'I can't believe I just said that out loud. What's wrong with me!?' He raised his head realizing that he needed to stop them quickly before letting it go to their heads. "W-wait, I didn't…"

"Knew it, it's a date," Kazuhiko said, giving Satoru a big hug with one arm around the neck to express his pride in his boss. "You're going to lunch with a beautiful woman, no way around it. It's a date. Our boss got a date!"

'This isn't going to end well for me…'

"Now you remember what to do on a date, right?" Kazuhiko said, flipping through a book that he mysteriously had on his person. Satoru shied away from him only to run into the two women. "How long has it been?"

"I think I can handle it…" He looked around at everyone hoping to end it at some point; the teasing was going to be the death of him before he even had his lunch.

"Right, it's like riding a bike. You never forget."

"Besides, I doubt he wants to hear your perverted thoughts on how to date a woman," Natsuko said, pushing Kazuhiko out of the way to Satoru’s relief. It quickly devolved from that point with the interest turned towards Kazuhiko rather than Satoru.

"Hey, watch it!"

Satoru sat back down in his chair feeling the heavy weight of burden on him from the ordeal. He remained in his, sort of, quiet state trying to understand what he had gotten himself into by suggesting lunch. 'A date…what am I going to do?' It had been too long for him since he had done anything like this. He had just been so busy that a social life didn’t seem to enter into his mind. The last time he could remember going out with a woman was in college.

He contemplated what he was going to be doing and if he was doing the right thing. It was in mixed spirits as his heart was telling him one thing and his mind was saying another. Then it was all feebly rationalized by being a thank you, which had ulterior motives attached. No resolution was to be reached though, especially in the short period of time that he had before the lunch. It was already upon him and he was being shuffled out the door by his co-workers all with their guilty self-serving smiles.

"Good luck!" Chiyoko said, pushing him down the hallway to the elevator.

"Hope you don't come back," Kazuhiko said with a smirk from behind her.

"Pervert!"

"Hey, just wishing him luck!"

"Y-yeah, thanks…I'll be going now," Satoru said at the elevator with everyone around him still. The door of the elevator opened quickly and he stepped in backwards feeling as though he was fleeing. He left the building walking awkwardly towards the restaurant not sure if he was doing the right thing now. However, while he battled over the morality of what he was doing with himself time passed. He was now in front of the restaurant with the woman sitting outside at a table waiting for him to show. Satoru threw everything out and rushed over to the table trying to ignore his pounding heart.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"It's alright, I'm just early."

'Just lunch, not a date…a date…'