It was a time in the future when humanoid robots had become common across the world. People could own robots with licence from the government and use them for various purposes.

The country where Akriti lived in had a guideline to differentiate between robots and humans- all the robots produced by various companies were bound to have icy white pupils.

Akriti was a college graduate recruited freshly by a robot making company to take care of the humanoids that participate in various fights.

It was her first day at work. After getting the robots ready for the day's show, she waited with bated breath to witness the first fight upclose.

The bell rang and the crowd cheered. Two very handsome humanoid robots entered the arena from opposite sides. The audience roared with excitement seeing their sleek moves, and applauded whenever the humanoid they had placed a bet on battered the opponent. Standing near the ring, Akriti was overwhelmed by the intensity of the fight.

Amidst the fight, one of the robots fell on its face in the ring infront of Akriti. Akriti looked at it with concern. Although she knew that the humanoids didn't feel any pain, their simulation of human behaviour and reaction was uncanny.

The robot named Veer 102 looked at Akriti. It stared at her for a moment and then a very subtle flirtatious blush trickled down besides his brimming corners of lips. She held her breath while being mesmerised by that expression. She knew that humanoids could very easily emulate humans. But she couldn't stop but wish that Veer 102 was a real human.

That day after the fight, on enquiring about Veer 102, she found out that it belonged to her company and that the owner, personally took care of it.

"Didn't you see his moves? It's definitely a costly one. It wins almost all the fights it goes for." A colleague told Akriti.

The next time she witnessed his fight, she could clearly discern that the robot looked for her in the crowd, as it stopped looking around once it spotted her. She felt an unexplainable thrill when his eyes met hers. This time it felt as if it was flustered on catching her gaze and hence quickly shifted away from her face.

In few more such events, Akriti felt him looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

What was all this? She had to know why she felt that way towards robot.

She snuck into its van when its attender was busy talking to someone.

The robot sat closing its eyes as if it had been snoozed. She touched its soldier, and it got reactivated. It looked blankly at Akriti. She observed him for sometime.

"You are a robot. It's for sure. Why do I feel this way about you?" She murmured. "I must be stupid to have fallen for a robot."

She sat beside him. Turning his head towards her, she lunged to kiss his lips but stopped midway and retreated.

"I must have really gone mad." She uttered to herself.

Just as she was thinking to leave, the robot's hands reached out to her face. It pulled her closer and kissed her passionately. His lips were tender and warm. Akriti kissed him back forgetting the world around her.

When the kiss broke, both were breathing heavily. He looked at her with longing.

"What did I do? Did I awaken a robot?" Akriti feared.

"Meet me at the Rahini market. At 7. The statue of lovers." Veer 102 said and asked her to leave the van. Akriti abided.

She waited for him at the decided spot that evening. A lot of theories ran in her head as she sighed in confusion.

A man in a hoodie with partially covered face stopped infront of her, blinking with his coal black eyes. "I am not a robot." He said.

Akriti's eyes widened with surprise.

"Veer 102. I am not a robot. My real name is Samit." He wishpered.

Akriti found herself thanking the universe.

They met in secret since that day. Their dates were always adventurous and exhilirating. Samit would hide his face in the crowd and only go fare faced for her in privacy. No one could see him as a laughing, feeling, eating and smiling human.

She was told that the fights Samit participated in were fake and scripted. Still she would clench her fist and scrunch her eyes whenever he got thrashed. She would fiddle jer toes anxiously. The anxiety would only go when she gets to hug him next. "I am so afraid. What if anyone discovers that you are not a robot? It's illegal to pose as one." She would say.

"Just a little longer. Let me gather enough money before quitting. What are you afraid of when the owner of the company is on our side." Samit would say.

It was one of those fidgety moments for Akriti when one of her friends lauded Samit saying, " Yes bro. Kill it like you killed your victims."

Akriti looked at her baffled.

"What! I got swayed by thought of the original killer." Her friend said.

Akriti was still confused.

"The serial killer, the robot's avatar is based on."

"What are you even trying to say?"

"Oh...seems you don't know. See the robot Veer 102. Doesn't he remind you of someone......Arrreee.....the notorious serial killer, Vijayanth. Drowned in sea last year."

It was a thunderbolt magnitude of a shock. Akriti searched the web for information, immediately. Her friend was right. The serial killer's face matched that of Samit's. Suddenly, she couldn't understand the world around her. Her thoughts were in shambles. She ran away as fast as she could to escape the chaos.

While in her bedroom, she went on staring at Samit's photo with a tumultus head. To purge the emotion swirling inside her she wrote on the web page, "Vijayanth is alive. I know him."

By the time she realised what she had done, the post was already permanent. It couldn't be undone. But thankfully, the id she had used was anonymous.

After that day, she never picked up Samit's calls. She didn't report to work. She stayed bottled up in her brother's apartment who was out of the country on a tour.

Nearly a month passed and she had to get out for a health check up. She hid her face and walked outdoor, wary of every passing pedestrian.

She came across a tunnel on her way. It was partially dark and secluded at that time of the day. She hastened her walk, to be out of that grim and submerging place.

Fretting on her feet, soon she saw all her fear being manifested infront of her. Just as she was about to exit the tunnel, Samit emerged in front of her from behind a pillar.

His eyes were menacing and foreign. His smirk was unforeseen. She felt as if she had never known this man infront of her.

"Did you really think I couldn't find you!" He scoffed and then grinned. "I have researched all about you. You are an ordinary chick. Now what doesn't make any sense is that you have the guts to challenge me."

Now he talked like a stranger too.

Like a mild spooky tale being unraveled to be actually violent, the next action of Samit juddered her to the bone. He started strangling her. Although she was previously afraid of him, some part of her always assured her that Samit wouldn't hurt her. But that hope seemed to be only a mirage now. His eyes and breath seemed more and more sinister as he stiffened his grip.

But then, a sudden blow sent him on a rollercoaster of disarrayed senses. And before he could recover, another punch shoved him to the floor of unconciousness. He vaguely saw a figure with his own face, before it fed and became a dream for him.

A man with Samit's face stood towering the unconcious body. He knelt and checked the man on the floor. And after making sure that he didn't need to land any more punches on him for now, he raised and rushed to Akriti, who stood gasping.

"Are you all right?" He enquired.

Akriti said nothing but her face asked a thousand questions.

Understanding her dillemma, the man clarified, "I am Samit. The man on the floor, is Vijayant, the serial killer. I had no idea I had picked the face of a serial killer."

His words didn't untangle her confusion, rather it fueled it.

"I will tell you everything later. Let's get out of here first." Samit said and led her to his van nearby.

Akriti had her doubts, but her feet followed him as they didn't feel threatened at all.

In the van, when they sat face to face, Akriti gathered her courage to put her questions into words. "Are you his twin?"

"No" Samit replied.

"No. I just chose his face."

"Are you a robot?"

"No."

"Who are you then?"

"Don't be scared when I reveal myself. I would never harm you or anybody else. Just know that.........I am what you might call a shapeshifter or a changeling."

"What do you mean?"

Right in front of her eyes, his face swelled like that of balloon and then  shrunk back to sculpt a face out of it. Akriti's flabberghasted mind couldn't discern at first that it was her own face. She moved back a little and noticed that his size and figure had also changed to match that of hers.

"I was born this way. I could change into whoever I saw. I have changed my faces so often since childhood that I don't even know what my real face was." Samit said. I don't have a face of my own. I just have a name. Samit. And I have super strength. The fights you see are real. I take on those robots with innovative fight moves. People are impressed thinking its a robot who has that ability. If they knew the truth, they would never accept me. Being a robot is the safest way to steal someone's face.......... I know its a bit too much to ask of you. But would you ever be able to look at me the way you used to?"

Three years later, Akriti and Samit are still commited, still having their wild dates, still in love and still experiencing the whirls of life together.