Iron Oxide

By Parallax
I never should have stopped that day. If I had just kept walking, my life would be so much simpler.

I walked by that old construction site every day. I had barely noticed it, it was just always there. Years ago the company footing the bill folded and whatever they were building never got finished. It just sat there, a rusting eyesore, ten stories tall with great heaps of garbage and scrap piled at its base. It was well known as a dangerous place. There was nothing but a short fence and a flimsy padlock to keep out ne’er-do-wells, which meant that druggies, vandals and looters were getting in constantly. Nobody was willing to foot the bill to either clean up the place or tear it down, so it just sat there, as an ugly memorial to a better economy. That night, as I was walking home, I heard something coming from behind the fence, a voice weakly crying out for help. I should have just kept walking. I should have just left and called the police. I should have known that anything that lay behind that fence was something I didn't want to get mixed up in. But, no, I had to play the hero.

The chain that normally held the flimsy gate shut was laying discarded on the ground in a heap, so I charged right on in. “Where are you?” I yelled. I snapped my fingers trying to summon up a little light. It was a basic spell, but I was always useless when it came to magic, so I couldn't even manage such a grade-level spell. Giving up, I instead fumbled through my pockets for my phone as I stumbled blindly through the construction site.

“I'm under here! Please help, I can't get out!” It was a woman's voice, coming from just a few feet to my left. I finally retrieved my phone and shined its light at the source of the voice. Whoever was there had gotten themselves trapped under a particularly sorry pile of scrap metal, too rusted and twisted for even the scavengers to bother stealing.

There was no way anyone could have got under there. I should have known that, but I was panicking. “Just stay calm, I'll get you out!” I shouted, setting down the phone to pull and pry at the twisted sheets of corrugated metal and bent rebar. Frantically I threw chunks of scrap off the pile until something shifted inside and the pile collapsed. “Are you alright?”

I saw someone weakly crawl out from under the pile, but it was too dark to see them clearly. “I think I'll be OK now. You saved me!” I saw a shadowy hand reaching out to me, so I bent down to help her up, but what I grabbed didn't feel like a hand. It was cold, rough, and not quite the right shape.

With my other hand I held up my phone, still with the light on, and pointed it at the “woman” I had rescued as she got to her feet. The figure that stood before me was almost seven feet tall and had a roughly humanoid shape but clearly wasn't a human. Far from it, her body was nothing but twisted, rusty metal bent into the rough shape of a woman. The hand I was holding was constructed of bent bolts and discarded washers somehow moving without any visible means of locomotion. I looked up at her face and she smiled down at me. Her face was like a sheet of metal hammered into the shape of a human head but with dreadlocks of bent rebar and glowing red coals for eyes. This woman was an elemental.

-

I woke up this morning as I often did, with as pair of glowing red eyes staring at me. “Oh, you're finally awake! I was getting tired of watching you sleep.” She said with a laugh. “Please stop watching me sleep. That's really creepy, you know.” “Well I wasn't here the whole night,” She said, “But I got tired of watching TV and surfing the internet, so I came in to check up on you. I worry about you, you know? It doesn't seem right to stay dormant like that for most of the night. How do you humans do it?” I sat up on the edge of the bed and rubbed my eyes. “It's natural. Pretty much all living things need sleep.” “I don't see why. It's a waste of time if you ask me.” She replied rudely, and I sighed.

A lot has changed in the month after that night at the construction site. Since I was the one who found her I felt, in a way, responsible, for her. Most people don't care much for elementals, they're considered a nuisance at best and a threat to public safety at worst. My conscience wouldn’t let me leave her out on the street, to be lost and homeless, so I offered to let her crash at my place while she got her bearings.

Ferrah, as she named herself, just kind of moved in, and the freeloader has since made no attempt to find a place of her own. Still, it's not all that bad. She's tried to stay out of trouble and even changed her appearance, in an attempt to look more “human”. Gone were the dreadlocks and rusty sheet metal she started out with. While her face remained mostly the same, aside from some literally painted-on lipstick, she now had frizzy hair made of fine steel wool, and a body mostly constructed of steel pipes bent into the rough shape of a human skeleton. Her hands were now an amalgamation of old tools like ratchets and sockets. Not pretty, but functional, and a hell of a lot better than the rusty fasteners she started out with. However, as a 7-foot-tall metal skeleton draped in an XL novelty T-shirt, she still looked rather odd, but her appearance was still a work in progress.

She stood up and walked over to the computer. “Look! While you were asleep, I found some guy selling a stainless steel sink on Craigslist, and he only wants five bucks! Can you believe it?” “Don't you already have two of those stacked up in the corner of the dining room?” “Yeah, but I like stainless steel, it tastes delicious, and besides, I have a special project in mind.” “What kind of project?” “I've got an idea for a new body shape I want to try.” “I see. Look, he's on the other side of town. I don't know if I want to go all the way over there...” “Too late. I already agreed to buy it while you were asleep.” “What did I tell you about spending money, that's not yours, I might add, while I'm sleeping?”

“Don't do it unless it's a really good deal?” I sighed. Yeah, that's probably something I said at some point. “Yeah, all right. I'll go get it for you.” She clapped her hands together excitedly, sparks flying from the clashing metal, and ran over to the bed. “Thank you, you're the greatest.” She kissed me on the cheek and ran out of the room. “I'll get your breakfast ready.”

I didn't recall her being affectionate like that before, I could only hope she didn't think I was her boyfriend or anything. Not that I disliked her, but I wasn't sure how I felt about dating outside my species. I could smell eggs frying in the kitchen so I hurriedly ran to the shower to avoid a cold breakfast. Ferrah didn't eat human food. She couldn't taste it nor digest it, but she could follow a recipe well enough to cook simple things. She liked to cook for me to try and repay me for letting her stay there while I tried to find her a job. Unfortunately, cooking seemed to be her only marketable skill, and there are few restaurants willing to hire an elemental cook, especially an iron elemental who's liable to get rust flakes everywhere.

“Bon appetit!” she said placed a plate of fried eggs and bacon in front of me as I sat down at the table. For her own breakfast, she hefted a sawed-off quarter of a steel sink basin onto the table with an impact that nearly spilled my juice, and she immediately began gnawing on it. As an elemental she was what she ate, or rather she eats what she is. Iron and steel were her bread and butter and she could (and would) eat anything with a high-enough iron content. Additionally, by eating different types of iron and steel Ferrah could control the shape of her body, to some extent.

The sound of metal scraping against metal filled the dining room as Ferrah ate. She ripped off strips of the hunk of steel and rolled it like a burrito before stuffing it into her mouth. “Please watch your manners.” I reminded her as I flicked a few little shards of metal that flew from her mouth off of my eggs.

“You're so demanding. The only reason I'm even sitting at the table and eating with my mouth is because I want to spend time with you.” She gave me a pouty look as she ripped off another strip of twisted steel. I tried not to think about it, but she must be crazy strong to be able to tear through a sheet of steel like paper. “Is this better?” She opened her mouth frighteningly wide, like a snake unhinging its jaw and shoved the entire roll in before closing her mouth to chew.

“A bit.” I said wincing. The sound of grinding metal coming from her mouth was sickening, but it wasn't as weird as watching her eat “the natural way”. Typically, if they're not trying to fit in with humans, elementals just incorporate new material into themselves directly. Watching Ferrah engulf a pile of corrugated metal like an amoeba really weirded me out. Anyways, if I didn't convince her to eat at the table with me, she'd spend the whole time staring at me, just watching me eat.

“So, we can go pick up that sink after breakfast, right?”

“Sure, but then I've got to go into work. You can ride over in the car with me.”

“But not get out, right?” She said sadly.

“I didn't say that, but you remember what happened last time, don't you?”

“Yeah.” her eyes dimmed. It hadn't been fun. There were harsh words, threats to call the cops, and at some point somebody threw a flowerpot. We didn't get that “tasty-looking” scrap and Ferrah spent three days trying to get dirt out of all of her joints. Unfortunately, most people were afraid of elementals, and most elementals have no love for humans, so relationships are strained at the best of times. I had never thought much about it until meeting Ferrah, but elementals, especially urban elementals have a hard life.

You see, elementals are fundamentally creatures of neglect. They are born in places where abandoned materials are found when free magic concentrations reach a certain level. However, there's actually a third component to the creation of an elemental: a mind. The mind of an elemental is formed from the unfulfilled desires and regrets left behind by living beings which leave an imprint in untapped magics. For this reason, elementals found out in the countryside and wild places of the world are often animalistic in form and mind, while those formed in cities and towns are normally more humanlike.

You can see how this all too often leads to tragedy. Typically, a newly made elemental isn't found by some good samaritan like myself. They lie trapped in their womb of detritus, scared and alone, their mind a fractured mess of old memories from a life they never lived. Those that manage to eat their way to freedom normally adjust poorly to life among humans. They harbor resentments from their past lives and bear grudges they scarcely understand. Even those who find success all too often fall to mortal vices, though I suppose humans aren't so different. However, the real difference lies in their inhuman strength. When it takes 35 cops and a team of the state's best wizards to arrest a 15-foot-tall man literally made of fire, it makes national news and leaves elementals with a bad reputation. Her face suddenly brightened, her eyes blazing back to life. “I almost forgot, some of the girls from the support group want to come over today. Is that all right?”

The local elementals have a support group where they get together and discuss issues affecting the elemental population and try to help the new-formed get on their feet. Ferrah had made a few friends at those meetings, and while I'm glad she's making friends and having a social life, they can be a bit annoying. They'd often invite themselves over in the middle of the night, get rowdy, and wouldn't let me sleep. Eventually we compromised that they'd come hang out while I was at work. “Sure. Just try not to make a mess. And tell Connie if she's going to smoke she has to do it outside.”

“You know what she's going to say, 'You let Noxie inside so why can-'”

“I don't care. Just make her go outside.”

“I'll try. Now let’s go get that sink!” She ran off to try and find some pants that would fit.

---

I got home that evening to find a short girl glaring down at me from the balcony of my apartment on the second floor. “You're a dick, you know. Why do I have to stand out here in this heat? You let Noxie inside.” She whined.

“I don't care Connie. Noxie can't help it. Besides, my place, my rules.” A dead pine elemental with a bad attitude, Connie was the oldest of Ferrah's friends. Her body appeared to be made of rough pine bark with a face of smooth wood and short, brown pine needle hair. I didn't like her much, but she was nice to Ferrah and treated her like a little sister.

“Whatever.” She tapped the cigarette on the edge of the railing. “Did you get shorter again? Looks like you can barely reach over the railing.”

“Fuck you, man. Don't kick me while I'm down.” She flipped me the bird.

Connie was a rare type of extra-pure elemental. She was specifically a dead-pine elemental instead of the more common general wood elemental. She was formed from a pile of discarded Christmas trees after the trash pickup was a week late, and she could only consume dead pine tree matter, which was often in short supply. Thankfully, her metabolism was slower than other elementals and she supplemented this by coating herself with foul-smelling preservative sprays. (The fact that her preservatives were also fire retardant, let her keep up her pack-a-day cigarette habit.) Still, as the year went on, her body would shrink as she lost material. By January she'd wind up looking like a perpetually angry bald toddler (Which I'm told is a quite an amusing sight), whereupon she'd gorge herself on discarded holiday decorations until she was a 20-foot tall monster.

“I'm only joking. I actually have something for you. I helped a friend of mine clear some brush last weekend and I saved some stuff you might want. Take a look in the back of my car before you leave.”

“Really. Thanks a lot!” Her expression softened and I waved to her as I went in and headed up the stairs.

Ferrah and her other two friends were seated on the couch watching Ferrah play a video game. “Hey, you're back.” She greeted me without looking up.

“Hey Jack, thanks for letting us hang out in your apartment again. I hope you don't mind that I helped myself to your phone book.” Said the girl to Ferrah's left. Calipa was a scrap paper elemental who looked like a paper-mache woman wearing fashionable clothes. In reality, the clothes were made of paper and part of her body. She liked brightly colored paper, newspapers, and hated rain. Water didn't hurt her, but it ruined whatever clothes/body shape she'd been working on, which she hated. I'd seen Calipa after getting caught in a rainstorm once. She was like some kind of slime creature, all sloughing pulp and dripping ink.

“No, that's what it's there for. Who uses phone books anyways?”

As I talked to Calipa, the third girl drifted upwards off the couch, rising leisurely through the air. Her body was a voluptuous feminine shape composed of pure, black smoke, so thick as to appear solid, with golden eyes that glowed softly like dying flashlights. I tried not to stare, though she was completely nude. She always kept herself dense enough to interact with objects, but wearing clothes is apparently tiring for those of the air elemental family, like Noxie the smog elemental.

“What do you think, do I smell good today, Jack?” I tried to dodge as she waved a smoky arm over my face, but I wasn't fast enough. I got a lungful of pungent smog infused with an obnoxious amount of either air freshener or perfume and immediately fell into a coughing fit. “Too much?” She asked.

“Yeah,” I choked out. “And it still doesn't change the fact that you're not exactly safe to breathe.” Noxie was obsessed with trying to find a way to make herself smell better, but it was futile when she was literally made of pollution.

“That's a shame. Your lungs felt so good too.” She said huskily.

“Come on, why do you always have to make it weird?”

“Because it's so fun to tease you.” She floated behind me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

Ferrah paused the game and looked over at us. “Hey, hands off my boyfriend, Noxie.”

“Boyfriend? I thought he was just your roommate. So you've caught meat fever like Calipa has, then?” Noxie giggled.

“Hey, leave me out of this.” Calipa turned to face Ferrah. “Actually, on a serious note, I might have found a job for you.”

“Yeah? what is it?” Ferrah replied. Bored of teasing me, Noxie drifted over to the balcony door and went outside to talk to Connie while Ferrah turned her attention to Calipa. “So, there's a position open at my boyfriend's company. It's not much, but they don't discriminate against elementals. It's mostly moving boxes and prepping things for shipping, and it's only minimum wage, but it is night shift, so that's a plus.”

“Yeah, it'll give me something to do other than sit around and watch infomercials all night long.” Ferrah said, warming up to the idea.

“Now they have a strict dress code, so we're going to have to go shopping for some new clothes for you. They're not going to let you show up to work in nothing but ripped shorts and a t-shirt that says 'You must be this tall to ride'.”

“But I like this shirt.”

“No buts. Tomorrow, you and I are going shopping, starting with interview clothes!”

“All right.” She sighed. A chime came from Calipa's purse and she quickly started digging through looking for her phone.

Ferrah turned back to me. “Oh! Hey, Jack! Take a look at this.” She held up her left arm for me to see. In place of her old hand there was now a gleaming gauntlet of steel. She wiggled her fingers, showing off their dexterity. “Pretty nice, right? I should be finished changing my shape by tomorrow morning.”

I was about to reply when I heard the sound of a sliding glass door opening. “Hey Calipa, your boyfriend's here.” Connie said.

“I know, he just texted me. You girls ready to go?” She said, dropping the phone back into her purse.

“Just let me finish this.” Connie hurriedly tried to finish her last cigarette.

“Let me have some more of that.” Toxie said and locked lips with Connie. Connie breathed smoke into Toxie's body that was briefly visible as white wisps before it mixed with her substance. “Mmmm that's good stuff. What brand did you say those were?”

“See you next time.” Calipa said as she led the group out to her boyfriend waiting outside. Her boyfriend was a human, just an ordinary guy. I'd never spoken to him much, but he seemed pretty normal. I'd always wondered how he wound up dating an elemental. Hell, I wondered how I wound up dating an elemental, as apparently I'm now Ferrah's boyfriend. What am I getting myself into?

---

That night, as I was lying in bed trying to sleep, I heard the TV turn off in the living room. Heavy footsteps approached my room and I heard the door quietly open. Ferrah closed the door behind her and sat down at my desk. I could see the glowing embers of her eyes watching me from across the room. “Jack, are you asleep yet?” she whispered quietly.

“Not yet. Do you need something?”

“No...” She hesitated. Her eyes looked away. “Actually, I need to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“Are we dating? I mean, do you think of me as a girlfriend?”

“I don't know.” I really didn't. I didn't have a good answer, but I had to say something. “I guess... I think of you as a roommate.”

“Oh. I see.” She said glumly. Wrong answer, I suppose. She stood up and left the room as quietly as she could.

I rolled over to face the wall. Would it even be right for me to be with her? I wasn't sure if she was attracted to me, or if was I just the first guy she met? I didn't even know if I was attracted to her. She had a cute face, I guess, but the rest of her body was just a jumble of junk in a mostly humanoid shape. I’d seen her naked, there wasn’t much there to that appealed to me. It’s not that I disliked her, though. Sure she didn’t pay rent, and she was a big eater, but I got along with Ferrah well enough. I wouldn't have let her stay as long as she had if we didn't.

Thoughts like those troubled my mind for a while, but at some point I must have drifted off to sleep.

--

“Why exactly am I here again?” I asked as we sat at the stoplight. On this fine, sunny day, I found myself playing chauffeur to Ferrah.

“Because I need to get to the mall to buy some new clothes. Since you don’t trust me with your credit card, and I can’t drive myself here, you have to tag along.” She said with a tone of annoyance in her voice. She was understandably a little cold to me this morning.

“Right, right.” The light turned green and I turned into the mall parking lot.

We passed by the entrance and Ferrah perked up. “Hey! There’s Calipa!” She waved to Calipa who was sitting on a bench near the entrance with her boyfriend. I parked and she jumped out of the car and took off running across the parking lot to greet her friend. She wrapped the paper girl in a steely embrace.

As I walked over to them I heard Calipa saying “Hey, not so tight. You’ll crinkle my dress.”

“Oh, sorry.” Ferrah let got and backed away sheepishly. The paper girl’s bright yellow dress was crumpled and wrinkled all over.

“No problem. Watch this.” Calipa closed her eyes in concentration for a second and her clothes smoothed themselves out, every wrinkle disappearing in seconds. She twirled around showing off her delicate paper dress, the lace trim sparkling in the sunlight.

“Show off.” Her boyfriend said as he stood up from the bench. He walked up to me and held out his hand. “Hey, I don’t think we’ve actually been introduced before. I’m Kyle.”

I shook his hand. “Jack. Sorry, I should have come down and said hello sometime instead of just watching you leave from the window.”

“Nah, it’s cool. Thanks for letting Calipa and her friends hang out at your place.”

“It’s no big deal. Hey why don’t we grab something to eat while the girls are shopping.”

“Good idea, they’d probably just be bored at the food court anyways.” He tapped Calipa on the shoulder to get her attention. “Hey, we’re going to grab a bite to eat, Is that alright with you, baby?” “Yeah, I’ll call you when we’re done. We’re going to head down to the little boutiques on the far side. The freaking racists in the designer clothing shop don’t let elementals in the changing room.”

“Didn’t they change their policy last year? I remember everyone being fired up about that.” I chimed in. It had made national news when they got taken to court over their changing room policies.

“Yeah, but the manager here’s a real bastard. He just waited till the uproar died down and put the “No elementals in changing rooms” signs back up. It’s not worth the hassle to argue, so I’ll just take my business elsewhere.” Kyle nodded his head in agreement. “Now let’s go get you something decent to wear to your interview.” And she grabbed Ferrah’s steel hand and pulled her inside.

-

As we walked towards the food court, I spotted a familiar bark-covered girl in a red uniform sitting down and reading a magazine at the cell phone accessory shack. “Hey, Connie! Is that a bald spot I see there?”

She dropped the magazine in shock and quickly clapped her hands to the back of her head. Realizing she had a full head of fresh green needles she stood up and whirled around to face me. “That’s not funny, Jack. You know I’m sensitive about my hair.”

“Sorry. You don't have anything to worry about, though. Your hair looks pretty good today.”

Her expression softened a bit. “You really think so?” She sighed. “Ah, I can’t stay mad at you. It’s thanks to you I’ve got hair that’ll last me until the holidays.”

“How’s business today?” Kyle asked.

“It sucks, as usual.” Connie said, leaning over the counter. “It’s been really slow today and these stupid gloves the company got me so I can use touch screens are way too big.” She pointed to a discarded pair of gloves sticking out from underneath the register. “Of course they took the measurements when I was bigger, so three months later when they finally come in, they don’t fit.” She sighed again. “I guess since you two are here, Ferrah and Calipa must be around somewhere. Tell them I said hi.”

“We will.” Kyle replied as we continued on to the food court.

-

We sat down with our food. I had the mediocre pizza and he chose the equally sub-par burger. “It’s nice to be able to eat with someone who appreciates real food once and a while.”

“If you can consider this real food.” I said dryly. I sopped up some of the sickly orange oil seeping out of the pepperoni on my pizza with a napkin. Definitely should have stuck with the cheese.

“Yeah, the food here’s not the greatest. Still, you know what I mean, right. I’ve been living with Calipa for two years and I still can’t get used to going grocery shopping at the stationary store. Construction paper’s expensive stuff, man.”

“I feel your pain. So how did you and Calipa meet?” I asked between bites of still-greasy pizza.

“Do you remember a few years back when all the city workers went on strike?”

“Yeah, it was a mess. Trash was piling up in the streets for a week.”

“That’s the one. Well, back then I was working at the city recycling center. I was just a part-timer so I didn’t think it was going to help me anyways, but I didn’t go in to work regardless.” He paused to take a bite of his burger. “Now I didn’t realize this at the time, but the magic dispersal crews are city employees as well, and they were on strike too. So when the end of the week rolled around elementals were coming out of the woodwork all over town. They say more elementals were formed that week than the rest of the year combined.”

“I see where this is going. So when you get back to work, there she was.” I guessed as I dumped a little more red pepper flakes on my second slice.

“Not quite. I didn’t find her. One of my coworkers, Jim, he was a real jerk, found her when he opened up the magazine container. Well, he kicked her out without a second thought.”

“Wow, just like that?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t exactly out of character for him. The next day it was raining like crazy. I still remember it like it was yesterday.” A wistful look came over his face. “As I was leaving I saw her huddled under a tree trying to keep dry. I offered her my umbrella and we talked for a while. Back then I was still living with my parents so I convinced my sister to let Calipa stay with her for a bit.” He chuckled. “It’s funny. She actually landed a full time job before I did. She got a job as a receptionist, yeah, pretty cliché, I know, and she moved into a place of her own. I thought I’d never see her again, but a week later she calls me up and asks me out on a date. A month after that I was moving into her apartment. It was crazy.” He laughed. “Now it’s your turn, how did you meet Ferrah?”

I told him about that night back at the construction site, and how she’d been staying with me since then. Just the short version. “Now she thinks we’re dating. I’m really not sure what to do.”

“I thought you and Ferrah were dating. You’re seriously not?” Kyle seemed genuinely surprised.

“Maybe we are and I’m the only one who doesn’t realize it. I just never really thought about it. Humans and elementals are just so different; I didn’t think it was possible for it to work out. Then again, you and Calipa make it work.”

“You’re right, humans and elementals are different, but we’re the same in a lot of ways. Even elementals want to be loved. And humans can be pretty different from one another too.” He scratched his head and picked at the last two fries on his plate. “Eh, I’ve never been great at putting this kind of stuff into words, but just don’t worry about all that stuff. Do whatever you feel like, man.”

We were interrupted by Kyle’s phone ringing. “Hey baby. Yeah, we’re just about done eating. You’re done shopping already? Sure we’ll come right over.” He hung up and turned to me. “They’re already done somehow. Let’s hurry up and get over there.”

--

Calipa greeted us at the door and led us back to the changing room. “We had to go to a few places before we found something in her size. She already picked something out, but she wanted you to see it, Jack.” She knocked on the wall of the changing room. “We’re all here. You ready?”

Ferrah’s voice came from inside. “One second. Ok, ready.” A steel hand pulled back the curtain and she stepped out. “Ta-dah! What do you think?”

“Woah.” I was stunned. She was dressed in pair of sharp-looking black pants with a matching jacket and a white blouse. Her steel cord hair had been braided and held in place with a clamp. She looked rather professional. Also, strangely enough, she seemed to really fill out the top. I really didn’t remember her being that stacked. I wasn’t losing my mind, something had definitely changed, as she was flat as a board just yesterday.

Calipa noticed as well “Hmm, maybe we’re not done yet. We might need to get you fitted for a bra before we leave.”

Ferrah blushed, her cheeks turning a rusty color. “Oh. You’re probably right.”

“We’ll get to that after bit.” Calipa changed the subject. “Now assuming you get the job, you can switch to more casual clothes later, but you need to dress sharp for the interview. Do you have a resume together?”

Kyle tapped me on the shoulder. “I’m guessing you don’t want to stick around for lingerie shopping.”

“Not particularly.” I replied.

“Let’s get out of here and go back to killing time. Calipa will call me when they’re done.” He said, and we wandered off while the girls discussed interview strategies.

I couldn't sleep that night. I just laid in my bed facing the wall trying and failing to clear my mind. I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear the door open. I jumped as cold steel touched my shoulder. “Shhhh. It's just me.” Ferrah said in a soothing voice as she laid down behind me and climbed under the sheets, wrapping a heavy arm around me.

“Ferrah, why are you in my bed?” I asked. She felt strangely warm against my body.

“Jack, I wanted to talk to you about something." She said. "What if, I don't want to be just roommates? What if... I want to be more than just friends?” I felt her body pressing against my back. It was solid and warm, and there were two distinct lumps. Right, I forgot she had breasts now.

“Do you even know what you're asking?” I turned to face her. Her glowing eyes were inches from my own, burning with a passion I hadn’t seen before.

“Of course I do. I want to be closer to you. I’ve been trying as hard as I can to improve myself. I’ve learned to cook, I’m getting a job so I can pay for my own food, and I’ve even tried to make myself more attractive for you.” She lifted the cover revealing her new body. While her left arm and shoulder remained a framework of pipes, the rest of her body was a smooth human-shaped frame of stainless steel with a brushed finish. A sliver of moonlight coming through the blinds glinted off of her metallic chest, which now featured sizeable breasts.

“What do you think? It’s close right?” She asked.

“Yeah. That’s… very realistic.” I was briefly dumbstruck. “Still, it’s not just that. I mean, I’ve never even thought about going out with an elemental before. I wouldn’t have any idea what I’m doing.” “And you think I do? I don’t know the first thing about relationships or romance. I’m just fumbling around in the dark, trying to make sense of the little bits and pieces of memories and experience in my head and hoping to fill in the gaps. I don’t actually know anything, but I want to learn, and if I can… I want to learn with you.”

I stayed silent, my thoughts racing and my heart pounding. Here she was pouring her heart out to me, and I couldn’t answer her. What could I say when I wasn’t even sure how I felt about her. Of course, Ferrah couldn’t see my inner struggle, and she took my silence as rejection. She furrowed her brow and the glow in her eyes dimmed to almost nothing.

“But… if you really don’t want to, I’ll understand. I get it. If you’re not into girls like me, then there’s nothing I can do about that.” The steel cables of her hair jingled as she sat up on the bed turning her back to me, the mattress tilted under her weight. “Ferrah, I…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I just couldn’t find the words. To tell the truth, I did find her new body attractive, but was I really that shallow? That I didn’t care about her until she rebuilt her entire body to be more attractive? I sat on the edge of the bed next to her.

Her voice shook a little as she spoke. “Connie told me a while back that I can live with her if I ever need to. I can move to her apartment as soon as I get a job, so I don’t have to keep being a burden to you. I’m grateful for all the help you’ve given me so far, but if you don’t feel the same way about me, I won’t tie you down any longer.”

I turned towards her. The dim moonlight reflected off of tears running down her face, and the red glow of her eyes flickered like a candle about to go out. In that moment, my heart made the decision my mind could not.

I reached out and pulled her into my arms. “You don’t have to leave. I do care for you, …. and I’m sorry I’ve been too dense to realize it.”

“You mean it? You’re not just saying that so I’ll stay and cook you breakfast, are you?” she said, pulling back a bit.

“Of course not, your cooking isn’t that good.”

“You jerk.” She said punching my shoulder playfully. (Although playfully for her was still hard enough to leave a bruise.)

“Look, I don’t know if things will work out. I’m fumbling around in the dark a bit myself, but I’m willing to give it a try. I’ll do my best, and that’s all I can really promise.”

Ferrah pulled me close. “That’s all I need.” She said, the fire coming back into her eyes.

I reached up and tried to wipe away her tears, but I just ended up smearing them and getting them all over my hands. Whatever she was crying, it wasn’t water. “Hmmm. Uh, what is this stuff?” I asked, trying to look at my hand in the dim light.

“Oh, sorry about that. It’s that lubricant oil I drink to keep my joints from making too much noise. It leaks out of my eyes when I get emotional. Let me go get a towel.” She stood up and grabbed a towel from the hall closet. I met her in the doorway as she was wiping off her face and offered it to me. “So, uh. What do we do now?” She asked as I wiped my hands.

“What do you mean?”

“I guess I really didn’t think this far ahead. We’re, um, officially ‘going out’ now, I guess. So, do you want to do something…”

“You come into my room in the middle of the night, and climb into my bed while completely naked, and now you’re shy?”

“I’m usually naked, there’s nothing strange about that. Though I suppose I really didn’t have much to hide before.” Ferrah mused.

“What do you want to do? We can do anything at all.”

She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me close. I could feel a strange warmth radiating out from her body. Farrah looked down into my eyes (I had almost forgotten she was a full head taller than me). “In that case, how about a kiss?”

“Sure.” We closed our eyes and it happened. Her mouth was a little cold and she tasted metallic (I don’t know what I expected).

She giggled. “You taste fleshy. I probably could have guessed that.” Ferrah stood there lost in thought for a few seconds. “Hmm… Oh, I know. I want to try something.” She kneeled in from of me. Her eyes blazed to life fixated on me, bright enough to bathe my cock in an orange glow. She cupped her smooth right hand around my shaft. “The only other time I’ve seen one of these is when I accidentally barged in on you in the shower that first morning.” She reminisced. Unfortunately, her metal fingers felt icy cold on my skin. I shrunk slightly at her touch. “What’s wrong?” She looked up at me. “It just takes some time.” I lied “You can keep going.”

“Right.” She began to play with my cock, rolling it through her long fingers. She gently cupped my balls with her left hand, causing me to wince. It wasn’t just the cold, though. I briefly flashed back to all the times I’d seen her crumple up quarter-inch-thick steel plates into a ball like they were aluminum foil. She could crush my junk to a pulp in a second. I shuddered at the thought.

“It’s so warm.” Ferrah cooed, her voice bringing me back to reality. She stared at my cock with wonder, fascinated by its texture and softness. I relaxed, Ferrah was clumsy at times, but she’d never do anything to hurt me (on purpose at least). I suppose I got used to the temperature of her hands, as I slowly grew hard in her grip.

“A human’s body is amazing.” She said nuzzling her face against my shaft. “How can you go from soft to hard like that?” She licked along the side of the shaft, from the base to the tip. It felt strange. Her tongue was made of dry unyielding iron, but it was absolutely smooth and she could move it and twist it in ways no human could. She licked around the head then extended her tongue out from her mouth. Longer, and longer, it coiled around my cock like a metal snake. It was a bizarre sight to see, but it felt incredible.

Ferrah carefully pulled her tongue back into her mouth and stood up to kiss me once more. “How was it? Did that feel good?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad.” She beamed with pride, her eyes glowing even more brightly. “Well, then, I think it’s time for the main event.” Ferrah laid down on the bed and spread her legs. In the dim light, I could see that her breasts weren’t the only new feature she’d acquired. “Alright, I’m ready. Let’s go for it.”

“Aren’t we moving a little bit fast here?” I asked as I walked over to her.

“Are we? This is how it goes in all the videos I’ve found.”

“Videos? Have you been watching porn while I’m asleep?”

“Maybe.” She said, refusing to look me in the eye. “Anyways, I’m ready if you are. Go ahead and stick it in.” She pointed towards her steel snatch.

I sighed. “You could try being a little more modest at least.” I climbed on top of her and placed my cock against her.

I hesitated, there was a strange warmth radiating out from her, the same warmth I’d felt all night. Something seemed a little off, but she was watching me impatiently and I didn’t want to leave her waiting any longer. I pushed aside my doubts, telling myself that this was probably just something that happens when she gets turned on. I pushed into her, and… nothing. I just couldn’t get in. It was like smashing my dick against a wall. There just wasn’t a hole, or at least there wasn’t one large enough for me to fit inside. “Ummm, Ferrah, hmmm…” I wasn’t sure of a tactful way to break it to her.

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. My body’s not very flexible.” She closed her eyes for a second and I heard a strange sound coming from inside her. It sounded like a mix of metal scraping on metal and water sloshing around. “OK, try it now.” I thrust forwards once more, slowly and carefully this time. It was a tight fit, but I managed to squeeze in. “I can feel you inside me. I’ve never felt anything like it before.” She said as though she was in a daze.

She was quite warm inside, but I kept pushing forwards, and the deeper I went, the hotter it got. Seriously, it was quite toasty inside her. Another inch and I was feeling uncomfortably warm. Another inch, and… instant regret. My dick is now burning. This was no longer sexy hot, this was “my dick feels like it’s literally on fire. FUCK GET ME OUT OF HERE” hot.

“Ow. Ow! OW! It’s hot! Way too hot! SHIT!” I began to panic, unable to keep a cool head when my other head was roasting.

A look of shocked realization crossed Ferrah’s face and she began panicking as well. “Oh fuck! I knew I shouldn’t have done that! What do I do?”

I frantically tried to extricate myself from her snatch, but my shaft had swelled up or something and I found myself stuck at the worst possible time. I pushed against her, frantically trying to get free to no avail. She grabbed my hips and tried to push me back, but I yelped in pain as her steel lips dug into my shaft.

“Shit, shit! Just hold on!” she said, closing her eyes tightly. Her pelvis split in half, practically exploding around my cock. I fell backwards, landing in a heap on the floor as hot water flowed out of her all over my bed.

“I’m so sorry. It seemed like a good idea at the time.” She said holding a cool towel on my aching dick. “I thought since my body was way too cold, so I’d just warm myself up with some boiling water first. I didn’t think it would stay that hot for so long. Please forgive me.” Tears of golden oil streamed down her face as she apologized over and over again.

“It’s ok. I’m sure no permanent damage was done.” I tried to reassure her (and myself as well to some extent). “Just calm down, let’s go to sleep for now, and we’ll try again tomorrow. We’ll just take things a bit more slowly for a while.”

“Alright.” Ferrah said sniffling as she shuffled off to the living room.

I laid down on my wet mattress and stared up at the ceiling. What have I gotten myself into now?