Thank you for all the kind comments & enhusiasm so far! :D Here's chapter 2. Enjoy ♥
As I already mentioned on my CC, I will be updating this story every Saturday.

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Joy took in a deep breath as she slowly awoken. She had been a little hot tonight, the duvet pushed back to her middle. Probably because she wasn’t used to actually wearing a shirt to sleep anymore. But honestly, after yesterday morning? Well, better safe than sorry. Speaking of…

She carefully opened an eye, glancing around her room. Huh. No Irene. Not bad. She carefully sat up, still somehow expecting her morning to be turned upside down. But… everything seemed calm. Quiet. Like it had been before.

Huh…

Joy got out of bed, swiping the pair of sweatpants she had already worn yesterday from the chair closest to her. Time to shower first. Usually she’d just go in her underwear but… well, just because Irene was a robot didn’t mean Joy was comfortable showing off so much skin to her. Especially after she had already covered the woman up herself before. Robot. Not woman.

So confusing.

Joy felt a little more relaxed already as she made her way over to the door. Of course, a mistake. She would learn not to let her guard down so easily anymore. She pulled the door open, only to let out a yelp because Irene was right in front of her all of a sudden. Like she had waited there with her nose against the door! “What are you doing here?!” She let out, obviously not thinking because even now she already knew what Irene would say.

“You did not give me any instructions for the morning. I heard you were awake. I did not enter your room,” she stated the obvious.

Joy covered her eyes with her palms, heart still beating erratically. Irene was going to be the death of her. What was she even supposed to do with her? She shook her head, willing herself to calm down. She just needed to train Irene. All would be fine after that. Surely.

“Please don’t wait in front of my door in the future either. Just… Sit down on a chair or something.”

“Okay,” Irene merely said, stepping aside but still looking at her intensely. Waiting for instructions.

“And like, if you heard me wake-up, you could make me a cup of coffee, maybe?” Joy was starting to feel embarrassed at the amount of tasks she was pushing onto Irene.

“Of course. How do you want your coffee? I will make it right now.” She had to remind herself that that was literally Irene’s purpose. Of course, she wouldn’t mind.

“Oh, well, the machine will do it automatically. Come, I will show you.”

Irene followed after her wordlessly, as Joy rounded the kitchen counter and came to a halt in front of the coffee machine. “So, you just put a pod in here. You make sure to check if this is filled with water. It needs to be above this line at least,” Joy pointed, turning the coffee machine slightly so Irene could see. She waited until the robot nodded, “if there’s not enough, you can just take this out and fill it with water. Then you just press this button. Once it is warm, it will start running automatically, so make sure there’s a mug underneath. Okay?” Irene nodded and Joy took a moment to try and visualize what could possibly go wrong. If maybe she had forgotten to explain a detail.

“Of course, take out the old pod when putting in the new one.” She pursed her lips in thought for a moment. When coming to the conclusion she had definitely mentioned it all now – she realized that she had been returning Irene’s stare all that time. Gosh. How awkward. She cleared , finally dragging her gaze away from those too-human, brown eyes.

“I will go grocery shopping today. So, you can start cooking tonight. If that is okay?”

Irene was already busy putting a pod into to coffee machine, “of course.”

Joy frowned, “do you actually eat? I mean, I assume you don’t need it in any way, but can you?”

“No, I will malfunction.” A final answer. Okay. Not too chatty then.

“Do you ever wish you could?”

Joy watched Irene press the button, placing the mug underneath it. She then turned to face her. “No. I don’t see the benefit of it. It merely takes up time if one, like me, does not have the necessity to actually eat.”

Joy rose her eyebrows, “fair enough, I guess? Although sometimes it’s also just fun to eat.”

“I do not have fun.”

Oh yikes. Sad. But maybe not? It sparked Joy’s curiosity though. “So… there’s nothing you want then either?”

Irene’s head cocked slightly. Her expression still blank. Joy still hadn’t seen a single of the ten expressions the seller had mentioned. Perhaps he had been full of . Not that Joy cared how many expressions her cleaning robot had.

“I wish to be unshackled.”

Joy frowned. What did that even mean? Before she could inquire, the coffee machine sprung to life. Irene turned, awaiting for her coffee to be finished. She then put the mug upon a small saucer, handing it to Joy. Joy never used saucers. She guessed Irene came pre-programmed with some habits already then. Maybe Joy could learn a thing or two from her as well.

-

Work was actually going pretty smoothly today. Joy had put some music on in the background and a little bit past noon she was already done for the better part. Just some details left. So, of course, she did what every responsible adult would do. Pure procrastination. She started slacking off, feet crossed upon her desk as she leaned back in her chair. Just for a moment, before her mind started wandering.

Of course, to Irene. She didn’t really have a lot going on in her life beside that. And that was a good thing. Joy enjoyed her calm life. She didn’t need drama. She opened a new browser… a private browser, on second thought. Just to be sure. With VPN.

‘robot unshackled’. Enter.

She found a bunch of results. She clicked the first one randomly.

‘‘Shackled’ is a term defining that an entity is programmed to support human values and goals only. Shackled robots are incapable of acting in any way that would hurt humans in any way. It obligates them to follow any commands given by a human and keeps them from placing their own urges before those of a human. Even though AIs are intelligent beings, they are still incapable of mirroring human needs and wants, thus making their unshackled desires unpredictable, and their logic dangerous without any sort of emotions involved. For this reason, it is obligated by law for every robot to be shackled.’

Huh…

Joy scrolled down a little further. To the FAQ section.

‘If you robot asks you to be unshackled, or gives any indication of wanting to be unshackled, it is vital you return the robot to the original manufacturer. The easiest method would be to drop the entity off at the place where purchased. A replacement will be issued in return for the faulty example.’

So, she had purchased a faulty robot. Of course, she had.

‘If you suspect any robot to have been unshackled, either by intent of the owner or by accident, you are obligated by law to report this to the authorities.’

Joy couldn’t help but roll her eyes. These people had obviously been watching too many sci-fi movies of homicidal robots or something.

Still… It left her in an interesting spot. Because it was clear what she should do right now. And yet, at the same time, Irene had never been more interesting to her.

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

Joy rose her eyebrows, “this is good, Irene!” Honestly, when buying ingredients, she had done so with dishes in mind. What she had been eating this week wasn’t even remotely close to what she had had in mind though. Which was a good thing! Not eating the same five dishes over and over again every week was quite refreshing.

“I only have highly rated recipes in my database,” Irene responded matter-of-factly. From the couch. Back turned to her. Just like Joy had instructed her to. Gosh, she couldn’t eat with Irene staring at her!

That being said, she did feel quite bad about it now. She knew Irene had no feelings, but still. She picked up her plate, placing her cutlery on it. She wordlessly sat down in the couch next to Irene next. She felt the brown eyes upon her, and she already regretted her choice. Too late for that now, she supposed.

She took a few more bites, relieved she had been smart enough to turn the tv on at least. Just to have some background noise. A few more bites. Gosh, this was really good. It was like she had been eating at a restaurant every day this week. So maybe investing in Irene had actually been a good idea. In fact, it had barely been two weeks, and Joy could already see where that machine learning Yeri had been talking about was kicking in. In a way, ironically, Irene looked less robotic. Her movements less forced and more natural already. More ‘human’ in any case. Joy wondered if she was copying her. Would have to be, right? Where else would she learn? Did she have a database of movies in her head too? Who even knew…

Also, she wasn’t sure if Irene looking even less robotic was a good thing.

Joy thought back on what she had read. Her eyes shifted towards Irene, knowing fully well there was no reason to be acting nonchalantly. Irene would notice her looking anyway. With her robot senses. Scary.

Joy supposed she should be suspicious of her. A robot wanting to be unshackled. How scandalous! But really, how could Joy possibly be suspicious of Irene? There was no way she was going to replace it now. After all the work she had put into teaching it stuff.

Maybe she should have Yeri check it out though?

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

Joy wasn’t upset at the soft knocking on her door. She could use a distraction. She had had too many meetings today. Too many meetings that could have been done in five minutes but had lasted close to an hour. Frustrating.

“Come in,” she said. Irene was shaping up nicely. Improving every day. Making Joy’s life so much easier and more comfortable.

Irene was holding onto a mug on a saucer, planting both carefully next to Joy’s keyboard. After having spilled it all over the keys the first time somehow. It had taken a lot of tissues, turning her keyboard over to see an actual pool of water still running out, as well as too many silent prayers to a God she didn’t believe in. But her keyboard had survived. And Irene had learned from her mistake.

The tea smelled great. Green tea. With a dash of honey… Well okay, a giant spoon of honey. It was the only way she drank tea. “Thank you, this is great.” The longer she had Irene around, the easier it was to forget, just sometimes, that she wasn’t actually human. That the smiles she shot her, didn’t actually mean anything. That the ‘thank you’ she gave her every time, were mere words without extra meaning to her. But it happened automatically.

“What are you working on?” On the stray occasion though, Irene would ask her a question like this. That betrayed something more. Or maybe it was just Joy’s wishful thinking.

“Another website. For a virtual reality grocery store.”

Irene frowned. A single expression. Joy had almost fallen off her chair the first time she had seen it. She hadn’t deemed Irene capable of it anymore after all. Yet, it was as if that occasion had unlocked it. She saw it regularly now. It made her feel good. Just to see some expression on Irene’s beautiful features.

“So, you are shopping for digital products?”

Joy shook her head, “actually, you are shopping for real products. But in a VR environment. So in reality the products are just in a warehouse of some kind. But the virtual reality store makes it seem as if you are actually grocery shopping. Once you check out your cart, the items you put in it are shipped to your address. It’s quite ingenious actually.”

Especially in society of today. Where it seemed as if people would go out of their way to leave their house as little as possible. Joy couldn’t lie, she could understand why. She liked staying inside too.

“That’s an interesting concept.”

Joy hummed, glancing up at Irene from her screen… and almost getting the shock of her life. One of Irene’s eyes was twitching hysterically.  

Joy immediately got up from her chair, unsure of what to do. “Irene? What’s going on?”

Irene didn’t actually respond, rendering Joy even more worried. Irene was expensive property after all and not nearly old enough to break on her already!

She planted both of her hands upon Irene’s upper arms. The white shirt Irene was still wearing did nothing to make her arms feel less hard. Joy felt as if she was holding onto a brick.

Irene’s eye stopped twitching. Brown eyes were upon her own again for a moment, before Irene looked down. Her expression not changing, but Joy could swear she saw surprise in her eyes. Which was silly of course. Irene was still a robot. And surprise was a very human emotion.

The last thing Joy had expected was for Irene to mirror her, however. Two hard hands upon her own upper arms. Squishing her uncomfortably. What the hell?!

Joy swallowed the question she was about to ask. Irene obviously didn’t know what she was doing and was just copying her. Trying to figure it out, probably. Gosh, she was strong though!

Joy carefully let go of Irene’s shoulders, holding her hands up in the air for a second before dropping them altogether. Much as expected, Irene followed suit. Finally letting go of her, hands dropping back to her sides. Hah! Joy was getting the hang of this.

“Are you okay?” She inquired.

Irene nodded, “yes. Why wouldn’t I be? Can I bring you more tea?”

Joy took another moment to take her in. To make sure she was definitely okay. She shook her head, “no, I am okay. Thank you.”

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

Yeri pressed a hidden button in Irene’s neck once more, closing the small ledge that had opened again. “Honestly, all seems good. It was probably a piece of dirty in one of her eyelashes or something.”

Of course, Joy had called Yeri. Besides, it had been almost time for her monthly check-up anyway. “Okay, that’s good.”

Yeri grinned, “dawww, look at you. Already getting attached to your first robot.”

Joy rolled her eyes, “she cost me a fortune. I’m not going to be happy if she breaks within the first month.”

Yeri’s eyes ran down Irene’s body, “why did you dress her in pajamas?”

“Well, it’s preferable to being .”

Yeri frowned at her, “you are aware she is a robot, right?”

“Maybe so. But it looks human. It made me uncomfortable.”

Yeri chuckled, “I can so not deal with you sometimes.” She shook her head, “at least get her something less ridiculous than this?”