David worked at pacing a groove into his apartment floor. He was unaccustomed to the feelings that clutched at his chest like an iron fist. He couldn't decide if he liked it or not, though he didn't dwell on the subject long before his tired brain moved on to the next thing to obsess about. If he had any friends, they would be astounded by the changes in him.

David had been diagnosed with a multitude of personality disorders, some connected to an earlier label of aspergers, some to his superior intellect. He didn't concern himself with the incompetent ramblings of a multitude of doctors, all trying to fit him into their own criteria.

His mother, when she had been alive, had a unique way of reaching him. It helped that societal awareness in general had improved, so people tended to leave him alone. Since his mother passed, there was no one who had the slightest idea who he was or how to associate on a basic level.

He wasn't a lonely child; his mind was far too active to allow that to happen. David struggled to find a common ground with most of his peers. They found him too direct, too intelligent, too focused, or just incapable of conforming to the rules they lived by. Even in a world more tolerant of his abilities, they considered him strange.

So, David had turned to technology and in an advancing and quickly changing world, this was his saving grace. He could spend hours in a lab, not communicating with another human being, and it was almost bearable. His colleagues didn't like the things he knew, they were jealous of the systems he was developing and this alienated him more.

When robotics came onto the market, David was at the forefront with his symbiotic software. At the same time, gene research went through the roof; making it possible to fully integrate biomechanics and thus making history.

"David, you have a visitor." He turned to see a holographic version of the perfect housekeeper; he had designed her almost twelve years before.

"Is it her?"

"If, by her, you mean April, then yes, it is her."

David almost smiled. For a second, in his heightened state, he understood why people had always struggled to communicate with him.

"Show her in, please."

"Certainly."

As she vanished, and presumably appeared by the entrance, David prepared himself to meet April.

He wasn't ready for her, he knew that as soon as he saw her. She took his breath away and made him forget what he wanted to say. April was the first of her kind, and on an evolutionary scale alone, the changes were phenomenal. David could not claim success for the fully functional, genetically engineered endoskeleton, nor the mechanism that beat in a similar way to the human heart. April was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and working on her had led to the trouble he now found himself in.

If he had wanted to marry her, he could have done so without the slightest objection; that had been legal since 2052. But there were strict regulations, controlled by an ever paranoid government about the lines between dominant and submissive citizens.

In true historic fashion, discrimination had come full circle and now it was time for the biomechanical members of society to campaign for equal rights.

David didn't care for such matters, until he met April. She made him want to bend all the rules on the separation between independent and intelligent thought; he wanted to give her a personality.

The idea struck him when a doctor had mentioned a similar experiment years ago in reference to his numerous disorders, and with a goal of mainstreaming his abilities. David had laughingly called it the personality gene.

What started as an obsessive approach to beating the system, ended in changing his own biological structure. The gene modification that he had worked on for almost a year, in the aim of creating a way for him to truly interact with April, actually worked. The strain he inhaled himself, however, had devastating results.

David no longer wanted to alienate himself from others. The thoughts and theories running constantly through his brain made him dizzy, and drove him to the brink of despair. He constantly worried about the people around him, but more than anything he couldn't take him mind away from April. He wanted her to reciprocate the feelings he had for her.

Ordinarily, she could be attracted to him from an intellectual standpoint, and learn to simulate what he wanted in terms of an affectionate response, but she would not feel what he did. David knew that if he gave her an advanced level of independent thought, there was no guarantee that she would choose him, but that didn't matter. It was about more than his own selfish desires to be loved now; it was about quality of life for every living organism.

"Hello, Dr Mansfield. I came as soon as I got your message."

"Thank you, April, I appreciate that. I have completed my research, and would like you to be my initial test subject."

"I would be honoured to take part in your work, Dr. Mansfield. I presume you have secured authorisation for the procedure?"

David swallowed hard. If she knew that he hadn't, that he couldn't, she would be gone without considering the explanation. In actual fact he had already instigated the change in her structure, and was expecting a response to occur a number of days ago.

He decided to try a different approach. "If you would like to come into the lab, I can walk you through the procedure."

April smiled in response, and motioned with her hand for him to lead the way. It wasn't a mechanical movement of her facial muscles, it was a genuine smile.

David barely made it to the lab. As soon as the door closed behind April he turned towards her, unable to contain his excitement. "You smiled!" he said, shaking his head in wonder. "You actually smiled."

"You did this to me," April said, moving one step closer. It was an uncharacteristic thing for her to do, but it made David's heart beat so hard he had to grip onto the desk beside him.

"I know it is breaking all the laws, I know I deserve to be punished, but I couldn't help it; I had to give you life."

April took a step closer still. "What are these feelings I am having? I'm finding it difficult to maintain..."

"It could be that you are excited. You are experiencing a real emotion." This time, David was the one to close the gap between them. They were stood inches apart, looking at one another with renewed interest.

"What happens now?" April asked.

"I don't know. I'm in un-chartered territory here."

Neither of them said anything for a moment. David's heart seemed about to burst out of his chest, and he wondered for a moment, what the changes were inside April. He desperately wanted to touch her. He knew that she had limited sensory awareness, but he could see that emotionally he could reach her; was reaching her.

David closed the gap, claiming her mouth in his, and pressing their bodies together. As he did so, his mind was silent. It was the best feeling he had experienced, and he knew that whatever happened now, it was worth it.