“Are you sure this is the one you want? She looks alright, but the model is a bit older by now already.” He gestured again, for the fiftieth time or so, towards the other boxes filled with robots lined up to their right. Honestly, to Joy they looked about the same. And on top of that, more expensive. Way more expensive. “These, however, are the new versions. They offer major improvements like over 264 facial expressions! The model you are looking at has ten…”

Honestly, Joy couldn’t care less about facial expressions or anything else superficial. Actually, everybody she knew had an older model. Very much older than any of these. Often without skin even. And even they did the job. So she was sure this… Irene 4.1, would do the job just as well. The job being just taking care of her place.

Joy had tried. Really. But her job was too demanding. When getting off work, she simply had no energy left. It was usually just food, shower, a show and bed. She didn’t have time for dishes. For cleaning. For laundry. Hell, even the food she had for dinner lately, consisted mostly out of frozen pre-made food. Alternatively, canned food. She wasn’t proud of it.

She was usually quite stubborn. Which showed in the fact that she had lived by herself for a total of three years. But she had finally caved. Because as stubborn as she was, she knew her friends had been right. She needed to stop living in the past and live in the present. The present with robots and other things she would have to get familiar with at some point for sure. “Really, this one is fine. I don’t need a lot.”

She could see the gears in his head turning for but a few moments longer. Desperately trying to come up with something. Anything. A sales pitch. But eventually he nodded. “Very well! Should you decide you are not happy with it, you can still get a replacement within the first 30 days after the purchase. Albeit with a fee, of course, we can still arrange a newer model for you then.

She nodded with a smile, fully knowing that if Irene 4.1 didn’t do the trick, there was no way she’d pay more for another robot. She had her limits.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“I think you chose well. Has all the necessary requirements but is not over-the-top fancy, you know?” Yeri was carefully taking the parts out of the box. It was maybe a little freaky considering the robot looked human. So having limbs being taken out one by one… Well, Joy felt weird about it.

She was happy she wasn’t the one having to do it. Even though the salesman had assured her it was all very simple, Joy was sure she would have ed it up somehow. She wasn’t good at this kind of stuff. Probably because she was so unfamiliar with it.

Luckily for her, her friend was an engineer. She was putting Irene 4.1 together confidently. She made it look so easy.

Quickly enough, there was a woman in front of her. Eyes closed. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that she seemed to be ‘wearing’ odd clothing, Joy wouldn’t have known it was a robot. Part of the robot’s bodice was made a dark gray, in a different material than the skin. To give the impression she was wearing some kind of swimming suit or something. Still, Joy couldn’t help but mentally roll her eyes at the fact that this robot even seemed to have s. Small, but there. And obviously not necessary for any of the tasks she was going to do. Besides, how ist was it that this cleaning robot was female to begin with?

“On the smaller side, isn’t she?” Yeri pondered out loud.

Joy hummed in agreement. “A lot of men prefer women smaller than them after all.”

Yeri chuckled, “true.” She turned to look at Joy, “so, shall we turn her on?”

“Uh… now?”

Yeri’s laugh echoed slightly in Joy’s small living area, “I imagine you didn’t buy her just for her pretty looks.”

Well… True, of course. Joy was just old school, really. And even if she had purchased her and made up her mind, she was still slightly scared to have this robot come to life in her home. She wasn’t too trusting of all this new technology, honestly.

Yeri didn’t wait for her response, reaching over Irene’s shoulder, her fingers disappearing in the robot’s neck, underneath realistic, dark hair. Joy almost got a heart attack when those eyes opened up.

She didn’t know what she had been expecting. Something that would make her seem more robotic. Unreal. Artificial colors perhaps. Instead, she just got warm brown. Familiar almost. So human.

“Good morning.”

Even her voice… Joy had expected a slight echo due to metal origin. A weird intonation. A pause between words. But… again. So very human. A little airy.

“Evidently her clock isn’t set correctly yet. Let’s get on that,” Yeri moved behind the woman now. The… robot. The latter’s eyes followed Yeri. “Are you my owner?”

The only thing Joy could remark was that she sounded maybe a little bit monotone. Then again, there were enough humans who did as well.

“Uh, no,” Yeri responded absently, obviously trying to figure out how to adjust the time. Joy couldn’t see what she was doing, but she had pushed Irene’s hair out of the way, working in her neck. Why did a robot even need hair?! “She is.” Yeri gestured her way and Joy felt trapped when those eyes were suddenly on herself. She was mute.

“Well, don’t be rude. Introduce yourself,” Yeri reprimanded and it took Joy a moment to realize she was in fact talking to her. So, was she supposed to handle Irene like a human? This was so weird. Honestly, joy had expected an… advanced vacuum cleaner? Something that just did her tasks and that was that. No conversation necessary.

“Uh, hi. I am joy. Your uh… owner.” Awkward. Like this, it almost felt like slavery.

“Nice to meet you Joy, I am Irene.” And that was apparently the end of their conversation. Nonetheless, brown eyes followed her as she hurriedly made her way over to Yeri.

Yeri seemed oblivious to how uncomfortable she was. She seemed very used to all of this. “Okay, so don’t forget all robots have machine learning nowadays. This mean they will only improve the more they do a task. They will learn from their mistakes. So don’t worry if she doesn’t do things perfectly right from the start. Also, you will have to give her clear instructions obviously, okay?”

“Yeah,” Joy nodded, wondering how clear her instructions would need to be exactly. She hadn’t realized she had signed up for being a babysitter?

“Okay, so why don’t you tell her to go charge?”

Joy blinked, “you just told her to, indirectly, no?” Still Irene was just staring at her. Not making any indication of going off to charge. “Besides, how does she even charge?”

Yeri sighed, “Joy, did you really do no research at all? You were established as her owner so she will only take commands from you unless told otherwise. And she will simply charge using a regular plug. You have plenty of those, right?”

Joy felt her cheeks heating up, not liking being called out by her friend. “Well, you know I’m no good with this. That’s why I wanted you to be here.”

“Right,” Yeri glanced at her watch, “I really need to get going though.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?”

Yeri frowned, “are you expecting me to move in or…?”

Joy rolled her eyes, “no. Fine. Just go then.” She would admit she wasn’t too keen on staying here by herself. With Irene… Why did she buy her again? She just scared the out of Joy at this point.

Yeri moved towards her, engulfing her into a hug, “don’t worry. It will be fine. Everything that’s new is a bit awkward at first.” She pulled back, shooting her friend a smile. She was right, of course.

Still, when Yeri was gone, she couldn’t deny the uncomfortable tension in her own home. Of course, Irene couldn’t feel it. By all means, she was a glorified computer. Only Joy actually knew what to do with computers.

“Please go charge, Irene,” she remembered Yeri’s words and hastily added, “in the pantry.” She probably should feel bad for pushing the robot into such a small room but she really wouldn’t be comfortable otherwise. She gestured towards the correct door, happy to find Irene nod. She didn’t seem to mind. She started moving immediately. Pretty robotically. Too composed to ever be human. Joy watched her disappear through the open door. She had half a mind to close the door behind her but managed to contain herself. Gosh, this had better not be this awkward for long. Hopefully there would be less and less talking involved over time.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Joy to her other side, feeling the warmth of the sun fall on her . One of her legs was still underneath the blanket, the other on top of it. The duvet was in between them, in between her arms as well. Like some kind of all engulfing hug. She took in a deep breath, reveling in the softness of the fabric against her skin. She didn’t feel like opening her eyes.

“Good morning.”

“Holy sh-!” Joy immediately sat up, her heart rapidly pounding in her chest at the unexpected sound. She automatically pulled the blanket up with her to cover her chest. Honestly, living alone for so long, Joy usually just slept in her underwear. It was simply more comfortable!

“What are you doing here?!”

The response came immediately, so very logically sounding too that Joy felt as if she was to blame. “You haven’t given me any orders, so I have been waiting here for you to wake up. I could tell by your breathing that you were awake.”

Joy blinked, both of her legs stretched out in front of her while her hands were still firmly clamped around the blanket. “How long have you been here exactly?”

“Since 4.23am. I was fully charged.”

Four am?! That was… ages ago! “You can’t just watch me while I sleep!” Joy felt herself getting upset. She quickly realized it was lost on Irene though. She didn’t look like she cared or like she even understood that Joy was upset in the first place.

“Then what shall I do?”

Joy took in a deep breath. Okay. She needed to get this in order for once and for all. “Wait outside. Of the room!” She quickly added the last part as Irene started moving. She could imagine the robot making her way to the street or something instead.

-

“-And laundry. Look at the labels and then sort them by the degrees they can be washed on, okay?” Honestly, Joy had never really cared about sorting by colour, so she couldn’t imagine why she’d make Irene do so. “Okay,” Irene repeated again, saving it all in her memory so easily.

“Then we have…” Joy glanced up at Irene staring at her intently. It made Joy wonder, “do you need any breaks or something?”

Irene shook her head, “no. I don’t get tired. My battery is built to last for three days. So if I charge during the night I will always be ready to support you.”

Support. As if Joy wasn’t literally going to make her do everything around here. And why shouldn’t she? She had paid for this robot, damnit.

“Okay, then I think this is it for now,” she said, as if she hadn’t just given a list of a million things to Irene just like that.

“I understand,” Irene merely responded. “Can I start?”

Joy nodded, “yeah, sure.”

Irene didn’t hesitate, immediately making her way over to the kitchen, pulling open the door under the sink to take out a bucket. Huh. Okay. If this went well, Joy could definitely get used to this.

-

She had been working for exactly two hours and thirty-nine minutes. She had made quite some progress in the website she was working on. Honestly, the guidelines she had been given by the client were… well, terrible to put it mildly! She had done her best to change their mind when they had explained what they had wanted. Without trying to use the words “ugly” and “horrendous”. Maybe she should have though, just to prove her point.

Anyway, she was doing all she could. Bending the guidelines, to make it at least slightly better. She couldn’t understand some of her clients, honestly. They came to her because she was good at what she did. But then, when it came down to it, they wouldn’t trust her years of experience in design. Pushing their ridiculously outdated ideas onto her. Frankly though, work was work. Money was money. So she did it all. All the hideous websites. She purposefully left them out of her portfolio though.

Another downside with these kind of jobs, was that she was distracted easily. Although to be fair, the clanging in the other room might have distracted her either way.

Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her and she pushed her chair back. She made her way over to the living area with open kitchen. About halfway through, she realized she was almost sneaking. In her own damn home. This robot…

The sight that greeted her, almost had her rush over in panic. There was an actual heap of bubbles coming out of the wash basin where Irene seemed to be doing the dishes. The woman… robot, seemed confused by the whole ordeal. As if she had never done the dishes before! Right… She probably hadn’t. But still…

What had Yeri said? Machine learning.

Joy felt herself calm down a bit. This was normal. Irene was learning.

And really… The longer she stared at the scene… at Irene’s obvious confusion even with that blank expression. Her hand sometimes waving around to try and get rid of the bubbles. The other hand obviously reaching in with a plate trying to find some water underneath the bubbles… Well, it was hilarious, honestly.

Joy couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her. The sound made Irene look up. She didn’t say anything, but Joy could clearly read the interest of her face. Her attention would shift again towards the dish she was holding, only to glance up again moments later, same curiosity still in her eyes. As if she simply couldn’t understand why Joy was just standing there. Laughing. As if she couldn’t possibly be laughing at her. She didn’t inquire even once though.

Joy continued watching her from her spot in the doorframe a while longer. Until Irene let the water run and managed to subdue most of the bubbles to go along down the drain. Joy eventually made her way over. “You used too much dish soap.”

Irene just looked at her and Joy momentarily bit the inside of her cheek. Yeri had said she would learn by herself but… Wouldn’t it be faster if Joy helped her out? Like… not doing it for her but, just giving her some tips.

Joy took a hold of the sponge Irene had only just put to the side. The robot stepped aside automatically, apparently understanding Joy was going to show her. Her eyes were following every action attentively.

Joy wet the sponge again under the faucet, before taking a hold of the dish soap and putting a few of the green drops upon the yellow sponge. She then ran it in between her hands, until it was soapy. “There, and then you can simply clean all the dishes like this, so you don’t need to have a whole basin full of water. Just use the sponge to soap and then rinse in the water basin. If you need more soap because you have a lot of dishes, just add some more soap to the sponge. Yeah?”

Irene stared at the sponge for but a second longer before her brown and very human eyes were upon Joy’s again. “Yes. I understand.” She blinked. Joy wondered if it was merely programmed to happen to make her seem more human. Or if there was an actual reason. Did it mean she was calibrating? Saving the information Joy had just shared with her? Gosh… That was ridiculous. But she couldn’t just ask. Hell, this was a robot. She probably wouldn’t even know herself.

Joy shook her head. More to herself than to Irene. “Well, I need to get back to work.” She parted her lips to thank Irene. Before she realized that was the robot’s entire purpose to begin with.

She really hoped she wouldn’t have to babysit it for too long. At least it wouldn’t be a full 18 years, she supposed. Joy doubted these things were even built to last that long. Wouldn’t make the company enough money, surely.

She sat back down in her office chair. Back to this ugly website. With fresh eyes, the colours looked even worse than they had before.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Granted, due to her work Joy hadn’t really seen Irene complete the other tasks. So, she couldn’t possibly say if other minor disasters had happened. Maybe Irene had fought with the vacuum cleaner?

Either way – there was no proof of battle at all. The place looked… well, clean. It was quite refreshing. Just what she needed after another day of hard work. Not to work even more. Just like in the morning though, Irene was just standing there now. Idle. Waiting for her. At least she seemed to have gotten the point Joy didn’t want her staring at her. So she seemed to be a quick study. Noted.

Nonetheless, she couldn’t get over Irene’s robot body. Not in a ert way or anything – but given she looked so human it was just uncomfortable to see her like this. “Don’t you have any clothes?” She knew it was a stupid question because she herself had actually unpacked her with Yeri. There had been no clothes for sure.

“The colored part on my body represents clothing to make humans less uncomfortable.” Well that was failing miserably. She was still a robot with s. For whatever reason. “I can see it does not. Is my shape not pleasing?”

Oh, Joy knew for sure she was not having that kind of conversation. “It’s just that it’s kind of frowned upon to walk around like that in society. Let me get you something.”

Irene followed behind her, but Joy didn’t mind. It might be easier. Her hands immediately reached towards the back of her drawer once she had pulled it open. The back mostly had stuff she hadn’t worn in ages. It was safe to say she wouldn’t really miss it. She got out a white shirt. It was quite big and had a logo from some company she didn’t know on it. She had gotten it on a technology event where she had been showcasing some project she had been working on in her previous job.

Either way, wasn’t like she was going to walk around wearing some random company’s logo… Irene could though? She handed the shirt to Irene, closing the ‘upper body’ drawer, as she liked to call it. She dropped to a squad next, opening her bottom drawer.

She let out a breath. Shirt was easy. Bottoms, however? Irene was nowhere near her own size. Such a slender robot. Joy pulled out a few pairs of pants, holding them out in front of her before quickly folding them up again. She supposed one of these days she should let Irene re-organize her drawers anyway.

She wasn’t proud of it, but eventually the best she could find even remotely close to Irene’s size, was a pair of pajama pants. She hadn’t slept in a legit pair of those in ages, so the ones she did actually still have, were from when she was still a few years younger. Not sure why she had kept them in the first place. Either way, they’d fit Irene, she was sure.

She closed the drawer, getting up again to find Irene just holding onto the shirt while staring at her. Joy would never get used to that, she was sure. She doubted Irene would ever learn to act casual.

“Here,” she said, handing the pair of pajama bottoms to Irene as well. “You can put them both on.”

Honestly, Joy knew it was ridiculous. She was playing dress-up with her cleaning robot, basically. But gosh, who would design a robot like this? The world was erted and she refused to be a part of it.

Irene didn’t question her. Of course, she didn’t. She probably wasn’t even capable of doing that. She put the clothes on. Shirt way too big. Pants fitting better than expected. Even if she did look like she just woke up. Apart from the ever-applied light make-up and her sleek and perfect hair. Joy realized that in this outfit, there was absolutely nothing to imply that Irene was not human. It was a little scary honestly.

Joy cleared , “you can go charge now. That was all.”

“It’s still early. Charging again now would not be optimal for my battery.”

Well… Then… “You can re-organize my drawers. So everything is clean and nicely folded.”

Honestly, her sentence ended up on a higher note, almost making it sound like a question. She wasn’t sure after all what Irene could do for her and what she couldn’t…

Just like any other time, Irene responded positive, “okay.” She waited for Joy to step aside before she knelt down and opened that bottom drawer again.

Joy almost felt bad. Irene looking so human was not a good thing. Made her feel like this was some kind of slavery or something. She cleared , leaving the room and the robot behind.

-

Of course, Irene returned way too soon after that. Joy had barely gotten her cup of noodles from the microwave. “I am done.”

Oh gosh. It was like Irene was a toddler! Joy turned, eyes still upon the cup, chopsticks poking into it.

“You know I can cook for you as well?”

Joy blinked. She did… in fact not know that. “What can you make?”

Irene rose her chin slightly. If she was a human, Joy would have said she looked proud or something. “I have a database of recipes. Probably everything you can think of in this moment.”

Well... That was certainly convenient. “So, you’re telling me that if I just put some groceries in the fridge, you can actually cook whatever I want?”

Irene hummed, “most likely. I can also do grocery shopping.”

Huh… Joy let her eyes roam over Irene’s… well, her own clothes. “No, that’s okay. You don’t need to go out.” A robot in pajamas. She was sure people would find it hilarious. Also, Irene had been expensive. She might get stolen. Or vandalized or something. No, no.

“Well, okay. That’s good to know for the future. For now uhm…” Joy rose her eyebrows, trying to come up with something. Anything. There was nothing though. She supposed it was still too early to charge since barely any time had passed.

“You can go to the pantry again. And wait there until you can charge.”

Irene once again merely turned, immediately following her commands. So weird.

As Joy sat in the couch to eat her noodles, she couldn’t help but shoot glances at the pantry door. As if Irene would suddenly come out of there, craving to kill humans or something. She knew she was being silly. But just… not being alone in her apartment? It was unfamiliar to her. And she didn’t like this unfamiliarity very much. It set her on edge. She was a little bit freaked out.

-

Somehow she had managed to concentrate on some tv-shows. She hadn’t put on a movie because it would be too long. Of course, the binge-watching totaled to an amount of time way longer than a movie would have been. Details.

Before going to her bedroom, however, she couldn’t quite contain her curiosity. Just a peak.

She had expected a buzzing or something. Kind of like a fridge? Just anything, really. But it was deadly quiet. She could only hear her own breathing. After a moment of hesitance, she switched on the light, coming to the conclusion that a robot could probably see just as well in the dark as in the light anyway.

It was quite a strange sight honestly. Looking like a human just standing there, with her eyes closed. Head slightly bowed forward. Joy took her time to study her. Trying to figure out if she was even aware of her presence. Was she awake? Could robots not be awake? Was she in standby?

Joy took a step to the side, her head angling to follow the electric cord that left the plug. Another strange thing. For some reason, Joy had expected a charging station or something. Even if she had unpacked this robot with Yeri and definitely would have noticed if there had in fact been a charging station. But charging this robot simply though a regular electricity plug? It just seemed… anti-climactic in a way? Too simple. Too normal.

Her eyes followed the chord along Irene’s legs and back. Up to her neck, where it seemed to be plugged into the… skin? Gosh, this was all such a strange concept! Joy reached out, her fingertips gently pushing Irene’s hair to the side. She supposed she should not be surprised to find it soft as silk. Maybe it was silk, after all. Who even knew?

The plug indeed just disappeared in the back of Irene’s neck. At least it looked like a fancy plug. Divided into three parts. The material finished in a shiny, black coating.

She allowed her fingertips to trace along the plug, along Irene’s neck. For some reason, since Irene looked so human, she had expected to feel skin. But she only got … something hard. It was strange. The texture felt much like skin. But there was, of course, just flesh missing underneath. As if it was just metal right underneath the skin. She supposed it made sense.

She wondered.

Joy pressed her lips together, pulling her hand away and allowing for Irene’s hair to come down again. She then allowed herself to touch the robot’s arm next. Maybe expecting this one to be soft. But the same was true here, just like her neck. Hard. Yet not cold. The material covering the metal at least making it feel room-temperature it seemed. She wondered if it was some kind of silicone. Maybe-

“Do you need me for something?”

! Joy jumped back in surprise. Finding Irene’s eyes had opened up and were staring right at her now. Her heart was beating rapidly and she unconsciously put her palm on top of her chest. “You scared me!”

Irene didn’t respond, just kept staring at her. Waiting for a response from her side apparently. “N-no. Sorry to disturb you.” What? Gosh. Irene wasn’t human. She didn’t need to apologize to her.

“Okay. See you tomorrow, Joy. Goodnight.”

“Yes, goodnight.” After she had responded, Irene’s eyes closed again. She wondered what she had done to activate Irene like that. Or was she always active? In that case, why hadn’t she said something earlier? Gosh, Joy felt weird now. As if she had accidentally violated Irene or something.

She let out a breath, flicking the light switch off again and actually closing the door behind her. Just in case.