At Your Service

Summary: Set sometime after season one. Kovacs needs a place to hide. He gets more than he expected
Warning(s): Spoilers for season one of Altered Carbon; AU; explicit sexual content; references to violence and torture; some references to scars
Pairing: Takeshi Kovacs/Poe

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A kaleidoscope of colours surrounded him. Thoughts, feelings and sensations that he couldn’t feel with his physical body, but that hit him full force in his mind.

He’d been disembodied before, of course. His stack had been removed and downloaded multiple times over, in many different bodies. But this was different. He wasn’t being downloaded into another body and his stack wasn’t being put into storage, only to awaken in some other body on some other planet. No. This time, he was being downloaded into an AI system.

Kovacs had experienced a lot in the years he’d been alive for, but this was the first time he’d actually been inside an AI system. The physical discomfort had faded, but his surroundings were blurry. Bleeding into each other. It was almost like he felt when he was dreaming, but he had actual control over his body…or what passed for his body, here in Poe’s databanks.

“What the hell is this?” Kovacs muttered. At least, he was fairly sure he muttered the words out loud. They seemed to leave his lips and die in the air without reaching their destination.

“This is where I live.” Poe formed in front of him, looking no different than he did when they were outside the digital world. “Would you like me to change it to a more comfortable location for you?”

Kovacs looked around slowly as the walls around him dissolved away and reformed, so that it now looked like his hotel room. There was still the dreamlike quality to the walls; a sense that it could easily change at a moment’s notice.

Of course, he was used to having no stability and security in his life. At least here, he knew he was as safe as he could be. He wasn’t that worried about the body he’d left behind. After all, it was only a sleeve. And as far as he knew, it didn’t belong to anyone who would miss it. Not like the last body he’d been inside. The body that now belonged to its true inhabitant.

But when he looked down at himself, it was to see that he was still inside Ryker’s body.

“Your mind imagines you in the body that’s most familiar to you,” Poe explained, as if Kovacs’ expression had changed. As if he’d shown a hint of uncertainty that he wasn’t in his current body. “For right now, that body is Ryker’s. Perhaps it will change.”

“Can I change it?” Kovacs glanced towards the bed and walked over to sit on it. He could feel the mattress dip under his weight. When he put his hands down, he could feel the material under his palms. He could easily clench his fists and grip the blanket in both hands. Releasing it, he looked up at Poe. “Can I really feel this? Or is this all in my head?”

“What is reality but what you can imagine?” Poe walked over and sat down on the bed next to Kovacs. “You have imagined yourself in other places before. They have felt as real as the reality you’ve faced. This is no different.” He reached out and began to push aside Kovacs’ shirt.

“What are you doing?” Kovacs leaned back, glancing down at what Poe had just exposed. The scars that Poe had revealed didn’t belong to Ryker. The raised marks that marred his skin were all his own. Takeshi Kovacs.

Poe’s smile was gentle and open. “I’m taking care of you.”

“I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”

“Maybe not out there,” the AI agreed. “But you’re hiding out in here. From people who would harm you. Who have harmed you. I know how much pain and torture you’ve been through in your past. Please,” he paused, looking into Kovacs’ eyes, “allow me to give you something good while you are inside my data banks.”

Kovacs wasn’t used to trusting many people. His own sister had turned against him. And Ortega had been primarily driven by a need to see Ryker returned to her, even if she had developed feelings for him in the end. As for Quell…he was still searching for her; still hoping that he could follow whatever trail Rei had left behind. But Poe…he trusted the AI to protect him. To help him. To be his ally. Perhaps even to be his friend. And Poe was right: especially recently, he’d been attacked. Tortured. Manipulated. Had to sacrifice his own sister. Had to sacrifice a part of himself. He’d done the right thing, but it had come at too great a cost. Especially since he still had people coming after him, all so they could claim the bragging rights of having taken out an Envoy.

So he sat still. And he let Poe push his shirt aside. Pull it free of his body. And he closed his eyes as the AI’s warm hands began to rub down over his chest, towards his pants, touching scarred and smooth skin alike. Maybe he was only feeling this inside his mind, but it felt real enough on the form he was currently clothed in.

When he felt the gentle brush of lips against the raised edges of one scar, he opened his eyes and looked down at the dark head that was pressed against his chest. He took in a deep, shuddering breath and let it out slowly as the AI’s hands moved to the fastenings of his pants. Undid them and pushed them down, along with his underwear. Freed his member, already half-hard from the gentle touches and caresses and kisses.

Poe’s fingers closed around his member and Kovacs’ breath hitched. He tensed for a split second before he allowed his body to relax. Before he let his arousal come over him. One hand slowly came to rest on Poe’s head, wondering if it would pass through the dark hair. Or feel hard and firm, like the surface of the hotel.

Instead, soft strands tickled his palm. When Poe squeezed his member, Kovacs’ own fingers flexed in the AI’s hair. He groaned, head falling back when the AI began to kiss down his chest and then take his member into his warm mouth.

As Poe’s mouth worked on Kovacs’ member, his hands gently grasped Kovacs’ hips. Kovacs’ own hands clenched tighter in the AI’s hair as his release came over him gradually. His body shuddered and he let out a long, drawn-out groan.

Poe slowly pulled away from Kovacs and leaned up to brush their lips together in a light kiss. “Let me take care of you,” he said again. “Trust me to take care of you.”

Kovacs looked into Poe’s eyes for several long moments before, finally, he nodded…and then pulled Poe down onto the bed with him so he could return the kiss with interest.

The End