A/N: So this has been one reallllyyyyy long work in progress from God-knows-how-long ago...probably from when I first watched the movie about a few years ago. I think this idea sat in my journal of ideas for a while and then, when I finally decided to pull it out, it took me months to complete. Let's just say that my motivation to write anything lately has been severely lacking. It's quite depressing...but anyway, enjoy this multi-shot. It was gonna be a one-shot, but after word 11,205 I decided to break the instances into separate chapters.

It'll probably be updated once a day...maybe more if I'm impatient. I already have all 6 chapters made...

Reviews/feedback/comments/PM's are all welcome and wonderful!

First Time: Apples

The first time she said it, it was completely innocent.

They had just gotten back from ENCOM offices. Sam had let her drive his bike back to his flat that they now shared, and she took the liberty of going as fast and as far as she wanted, regardless of what Sam or the law said. She was still used to driving on the Grid where there were no rules, and the terrain was much more streamlined. Here, it was rough with hills and valleys; each turn brought new surprises, and Quorra loved it. She laughed all the way back to the flat, and after getting over his initial shock, so did Sam.

She dismounted gracefully, taking her helmet off and whipping her hair out of her face from where it was plastered down against the wind. They both walked in together, bags of groceries and new tech hanging from their wrists. They dumped their loot on the couch, not caring where they threw down their jackets or their shoes. They'd become comfortable around each other now that they were stuck with one another, at least until Sam figured how to break her existence to Alan or someone in the outside world. But, it wasn't an inconvenient arrangement. In fact, they both enjoyed each other's company. It sure beat the hell out of being alone, something she wasn't sure she could do, and something he didn't know if he could handle at the moment.

Sitting with her legs crossed on the wooden floors of the flat, she and Sam started picking through things. Quorra explained all the technical prototypes while Sam educated her in items of the human world, like laundry detergent and food. He held up an apple in front of her, and she took it in with curious eyes. She had seen Flynn eat things like this, but they were always dried, like they had been saved for a long time, not large and new like the thing in front of her.

"What is it?" she asked, taking it from Sam and inspecting it closely. "What does it do?"

"It's an apple," he told her, loving every minute of her confusion. He constantly had to remind himself that she was still an alien to this world. "You eat it and it gives you energy."

"You have to consume this to get the energy out? How does that work?"

"I don't know…" Sam said, exasperated by her questions, though he still laughed despite himself. "Didn't you and my dad eat on the Grid? You should know how it works."

"Unlike Flynn, I did not require this food to survive. All I need is to be attached to the Grid, and it supplies me with the energy necessary for function," she explained, as if it was obvious.

"But then what about dinner that one night?" he asked, his mind flitting to the semi-painful memory of eating around his father's table on the Grid, as if nothing had changed - like he hadn't been gone for damn near twenty years - and they were all gathered there for a Sunday-night meal. It disturbed him.

"I ate to be polite," she explained, though it didn't make anything any easier to wrap his head around. "I read in one of Flynn's books that it is deemed rude to reject the hospitality of your host."

"Quorra you really are something…" Sam mused, still incredulous. She smiled up at him, her whole look beaming.

"Thank you…I think…" She went back to fiddling with her gadgets, and Sam tossed the apple in the air before handing it back to Quorra.

"Well, you're not connected to the Grid now, so you might as well try to eat something."

She looked up at him, less than amused. "I assure you Sam, I feel fine. None of my systems are weakening nor is my brain ceasing to function."

"Still, just try it. You never know, you may actually like it."

She stared him down with her bright blue eyes, still slightly suspicious of the red fruit in front of her. He couldn't help but smile as she took it back into her hands, leaning close to it to smell it. And finally, she let herself take one big bite out of the shiny crimson skin. Her eyes widened as she chewed, taking another bite, and another. She looked like a kid in a candy shop.

"See, I told you that you'd like it," Sam laughed, grinning happily at her. "Come on, I've got more."

"More apples?" she asked with excitement.

"No, but I think you may like these other things too."

He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a variety of foods in so many different colors that it made her head spin. The colors of this world were all so new and exciting in so many shades and hues she never knew existed. It was still wondrous that something as simple as what humans ate could be just as beautiful.

Quorra tried food after food after food until she could no longer eat one more bite and Sam no longer had anything left in his fridge. It was worth it though, at least to Quorra. She promised him that she'd go get more in the morning, and leaned back on her stool, feeling more sluggish now that she had eaten than before.

"If this food is supposed to give energy, then why do I feel so slow?" she wondered, feeling drained and the exact opposite of energized.

"You have to give your body time to break it down...It's not an instant thing."

"Oh…well if I knew that then I wouldn't have wasted my time eating."

"It's not a waste of time. You need the energy to live. Besides, how else would you have figured out that you liked apples?"

"I really, realllyyy like apples," Quorra replied with a child's enthusiasm. "They were by far the most enticing of any of the foods I tried."

"So you love apples?" Sam concluded, laughing at her repetition.

"Love?" Quorra asked, not completely unfamiliar with the pretense of the word. She had read it before in some of Flynn's books, but was never able to fully comprehend the meaning of it. It didn't seem to have a real definition, nothing solid, all fleeting. It infuriated her, and her eyebrows knit themselves together in frustration, as if the word didn't sit well on her tongue.

"Love. You know, it's something that you like a lot, that you like above all other things."

"Hmm," Quorra thought, taking in the meaning and applying it to everything she knew. Apparently, according to Sam's definition, there were lots of things she loved. He could see her mind working up a storm inside her head, the wheels turning as she mulled everything over in that technical brain of hers.

"Yes, I love apples. I love a lot of things," she finally declared, as if making some groundbreaking statement like she thought everything was. "I love you Sam."

And that last part really did throw him through a loop. He straightened up from where he was sitting across from her at the bar of the kitchen, running his hands through his hair. He was just about flustered when he realized that she had taken his definition of love at face value, as she did with everything. She was boxing him in with fruit and the sunrise.

"No, loving people and loving apples is not the same thing. That's a different kind of love."

"Oh…can you explain the difference?" she asked, genuinely curious, but there was an uncharacteristic shyness to her tone that was not anything like her.

"Ah, it's…well…I don't know. I can't explain it. It's just different," he stuttered, now completely embarrassed and awkward, running his hands nervously down the back of his neck as he turned slightly away from her.

"So, I don't love you Sam?" she deduced from his silence and sudden change in behavior. She hadn't meant to upset him; she'd simply meant to pay him a compliment. She supposed she had simply misunderstood, like usual.

Her statement made him extremely relieved, and he nodded in agreement.

"No, you don't love me Quorra, I promise."