The android bounced through the tests that day. Jonghyun fretted that he’d drain his power too quickly if he kept this restless act up, but the robot proved him wrong as he remained on a constant high throughout the day. It was risky anyways; there was no telling how long it would take the bot to crash after the sun went down. Fortunately the room the doctor used for his tests was illuminated by a skylight, buying Taemin at least a little more time to be jittery.

The machine passed his kinetics tests easily; his inhuman mechanics didn’t completely limit him to the same physical stipulations that plagued even the most dedicated athletes.

“I’d like to see him race against that Choi kid,” Kibum had remarked to Jonghyun. The intern was known to be a dedicated competitor, though the doctor didn’t think it was fair to let their robot crush the kid’s competitive spirit.

Taemin had found the most difficulty in his balance. For weeks after being activated, his every step was hesitant and shaky. Even now he found himself just as clumsy as the humans; the doctor had already checked the imitation vestibular system in his ears without any reason to the poor coordination. Kibum chalked it up to human flaws, though that made even less sense. Taemin knew he still wasn’t quite human. He was steadily improving, though, now able to pass a drunkenness test and appear sober.

To be quite honest, neither Jonghyun nor Key knew if the robot could get drunk. His brain was a computer, but he still had a liver.

“I need to fix your voice if you’re going out in the world with Kibum and I,” It was so hard to tell the happy bot that he needed to be put under the scalpel again. Jonghyun on his lip as he fought to control his sympathy for his creation.

“We can power you off, if you’d like,” That was Key’s offer, but the skinny android looked even more terrified by that suggestion.

“Can’t you just turn off the pain?” Taemin’s voice clicked at the end, like a boy going through puberty.

The doctor gave a sad smile. “We can’t turn off your nervous system without turning off your brain,”

The bot gave a whirring sigh of defeat, subjecting himself to the discomfort.

Unable to fix the existing voice as it was, Jonghyun had been forced to simply create a new one. Kibum excused himself from the room the moment Taemin laid on the operating table. It was amazing that the co-creator of the robot was so squeamish and yet still able to put so much work into the creation of the machine. The poor intern Minho was stuck with assisting Jonghyun.

“It’ll hurt more this time,” the doctor warned the robot carefully as carefully placed electromagnets held the lanky bot still in preparation for the surgery. “I’m not just poking at it anymore, it’s coming out,”

Taemin just blinked nervously.

The scalpel bit into his throat again, and from the look on Minho’s face the robot knew he was bleeding a lot. The pain was delayed though it still hit him just as hard as the first time. With a gloved hand, Jonghyun reached inside his incision. Taemin wanted to flinch as he heard the first wire snap under the doctor’s tiny clippers.

“He’s pale,” the intern sounded astounded as he observed the android’s face. Taemin was too busy watching his own voice being lifted out of his body to give the comment a second thought. Of course he was pale; half of his blood was probably on his white t-shirt by now.

Jonghyun always looked tense when operating. His lips pressed firmly together in a tight line and his eyes never flickered or lost focus as he eased the new piece into the robot.

“Key did this the first time,” Taemin had never heard the doctor speak during surgery before. “He’s the one who’s good at electronics; I just put together the organic side of you,” Was this what happened when the doctor was panicked? The android couldn’t tell.

“The blue light faces toward you,” Kibum’s voice sounded shaky as he called directions from where he had reemerged into the room. “And the yellow wire can’t touch the blue one,”

Apparently, the squeamish technology master was pretty good at giving instructions to the nervous doctor and intern, because it wasn’t much longer before Jonghyun was stitching up the incision and wrapping the cut with tape and gauze.

“Wasn’t so bad, right?” Taemin sent a glare to the intern, who in retrospect was probably only trying to be friendly with his comment.

“It hurt a lot,” the robot’s eyes opened wider as he heard his own voice. It was so different! It wasn’t as deep as Minho’s or smooth as Jonhgyun’s, but it was clearly a human voice. It was unique to him. Taemin’s lips erupted in a happy smile as Kibum let out a whoop of joy at the success of his second voice box.

“Thank  you,” he smiled at his creators and the intern sincerely.

“It’s a good voice,” Jonghyun looked as pleased as ever.

“Can you please change your shirt now?” Kibum was still squeamish at the dark red stains on Taemin’s chest. “It’s really gross,”

One good shower and a new wardrobe from Key nearly made the robot forget about the dull ache in his throat. The cut was healing like a human—slowly—and Taemin was quickly growing irritated by the limited movement of his neck caused by the bandages. It hadn’t even been an hour since the surgery and the robot was ready to rip Jongyhun’s lovingly wrapped gauze off right then and there. Kibum was too clever for Taemin, however, and had sat his down in a chair, announcing that he’d need a haircut if he was going out into the world tonight.

“We shouldn’t have let it grow this long,” the diva plucked at a few long strands, making a face. “But Jonghyun wouldn’t believe it would actually grow back,”

Taemin’s hair was far past his shoulders. He ran a hand through it now, wondering how long it had been growing before he was activated. His synthetic memories of his creation process were limited by the doctor’s lazily written project notes.

Key set to work without bothering to ask how Taemin would like it cut; the android watched in horror as long locks fell from his head. It was strange to see what used to be a part of him sitting on the ground. In the last month the only thing that had been replaced other than his voicebox was a faulty hinge in his elbow, and he didn’t even like to associate that rusted piece of metal with the rest of his body.

“What about the color..?” Was Kibum talking to himself or to Taemin? The robot’s eyes flickered as he wondered whether he should respond or not. His dark hair was a normal color, right? Didn’t they want him to blend in? “What if we went red..?”

“Key, you can’t dye his hair red,” Jonghyun’s quick comment saved the bot’s hair color, at least for now. The stylist huffed in annoyance, focusing on the irregular rhythm of the clipping scissors.

It wasn’t long before Kibum was satisfied with his work, dusting stray hairs off the back of Taemin’s neck with a powdered towel. It would itch later, but the powder would at least hold it back until the machine’s next bath.

“Well? What do you think?” Key was grinning like a fat cat, obviously pleased with his work. Taemin’s face had been designed to look androgynously pretty, though both of his creators referred to him as male. The new haircut was much more flattering to a masculine persona; obviously longer on the top of his head than on the sides. It was handsome, and Kibum obviously had a little too much fun with teasing it up a bit with hair gel. Taemin doubted he’d spend much time replicating the hairstyle most mornings, it was hard enough to drag himself to the window some days.

“It’s pretty,” the robot smiled anyways, plucking at a stray hair nervously. “Thank you,”

“Change into this,” Kibum shoved a pile of clothes into the bot’s arms. “I’m not used to your new voice yet,” the human grinned at the android, avoiding the urge to ruffle his hair playfully and ruin his wonderful creation.

The robot wasn’t used to wearing so much color. Maybe it was only black skinny jeans and a printed tshirt, but it was dramatically different from his usual whitewashed wardrobe. Taemin admired the way he looked in the mirror, thinking he looked a little like an idol. Maybe Jonghyun and Kibum would let him play with makeup someday. Maybe they could give each other makeovers at their apartment! Was it like a sleepover? Taemin didn’t know, but he was excited to find out. It was becoming more real to him as the clock ticked by and his inventors further prepared him to be taken out into the world.

Jonghyun came back with a pair of black canvas shoes; apparently the doctor had some sort of fashion sense. Taemin fumbled with the laces, but the short human made no attempt to help him. The android wrinkled his nose in frustration as he messed up the knot for the fifth time.

“The bunny goes through the loop,” Key’s voice was overly patronizing as he returned with an extra jacket in his arms.

Taemin couldn’t help but shoot a glare at the sassy man before he finally got his first shoe tied. It wasn’t quite as long of an event for the second.

Taemin had Kibum’s spare jacket on as they left the building. Of course Taemin had seen pictures of the outside, but he was struck by the sheer massiveness and utter boringness of the building he had been created in. It was big and brick and inconspicuous. The robot huddled lower in the slightly too large jacket, feeling a little bit of resentment for what he could only call his birthplace. It looked evil, in a totally nonthreatening way if that made any sense. It was the exact type of unnoticeable building that was so common for mad scientists to create doomsday devices in from all of those movies. Taemin sincerely hoped he wasn’t made to destroy the planet.

Kibum had wrapped a scarf over the bandage on the robot’s neck. It wasn’t often that humans had throat surgery and were able to speak normally only hours after the adjustment. That was the goal of this outing, according to Jonghyun; to make Taemin into a passable human. He called it a social experiment.

“Are we there yet?” the bot was getting too comfortable talking with his new voice. He had been shy of the inhuman whirring before, rendering him shy of speaking aloud.

“We just got in the car,” You could almost hear the eye roll in Kibum’s voice.

“How far away is your apartment?”

“About twenty minutes,” Jonghyun was still more patience than his partner.

Taemin started a timer in his head.

The timer counts down. The trio drives.

“It’s been twenty minutes,”

“We’re almost there,”  

Key sighed in irritation. It was like having a small child with them.

When they finally pulled up to the lot, Taemin was bouncing excitedly in his seat.

“My god, you look like a college kid but you act like a five year old,” Kibum’s sharp comment made the android freeze, pursing his lips and trying to compose himself. He was technically a month old, but he knew he could not be considered a child.

There wasn’t much to unpack from the car; Taemin didn’t have any personal possessions to speak of. He could hear excited barking from inside the house though, and fought to keep himself looking calm despite the excited smile that splayed across his face. He was a robot; he wasn’t supposed to have out of control emotions like humans! Maybe Kibum had programmed him to be a little too realistic.

Entering the house, Key immediately dropped down to greet two adorable toy poodles. Both simultaneously yapped excitedly at Jonghyun and Kibum while nervously growling at the strange Taemin. Maybe it was his scent; the bot could only imagine that he must not smell like a regular human would.

Jonghyun had noticed the sluggish movement of Taemin’s steps before even the robot did. Bouncing around in the dark car for the ride home had drained his energy.

“We need to get you to sleep,” the doctor wrapped a strong arm around the skinny android’s shoulders. The bot just murmured softly in reply. It was weird seeing the short human out of his typical attire; but jeans and t-shirts seemed to fit him better than lab coats.

Leading the robot to the guest bedroom wasn’t a problem; he still had enough energy to support himself properly even if his dexterity was just about back to where it had been on day one. He stumbled often, but never fell. Taemin flopped onto the bed, not realizing how low he had let himself become.

The scientist smiled softly to himself as he removed the android’s shoes and placed them neatly near the closet.

“Kin’yu take my shirt off,” Taemin’s words were mumbled and slurred as he fought to stay awake just a little longer. “N’leave th’curt’ns open,”

Only having experience with drunken friends—Kibum—gave Jonghyun the ability to decipher what the robot had asked of him. He complied without embarrassment, helping the drained robot strip and settled himself in the bed so the sun would hit his skin as soon as it peeked through the window.

“Sleep tight,” The short man smiled at the half-conscious robot before exiting the bedroom and flipping off the lights.

Taemin couldn’t even remember falling asleep.