"Oh..." Hilde senses the awkward silence and shuts her mouth. The group is quiet as they watch the girl work on her tinkers, the only sound being the metal hitting the table and the hammering sounds coming from above and around their heads. "We're sorry to bother you. We'll stop bothering you now~."
Before she finishes her sentence, the girl lifts herself from the table and looks down at the trio. "Thank you for asking about my mom."
Tears well up in her eyes, and she looks away, sniffling as her chair rolls away to another workstation.
A long pause follows in the room.
Suddenly, the girl's chair stops rolling, and she stands up from it. Her eyes wander the room for a few seconds before focusing on the girls standing in the middle of the room.
"Do I know you?" she asks and wipes her tears.
"Uhh, no... We just met." Hilde replies.
The girl walks towards them, the metallic clink of the tools as her boots meet the floor echoing through the room.
"But you look familiar. I know everyone's faces." the girl says.
"Maybe because everyone looks different when they're disguised?" Annie suggests.
"No, I think you must be mistaken, or maybe I'm just too busy." she walks away. She picks up an iron tool on the table and turns toward Annie with it, pointing forward. The handle is round and smooth, as if it's been carved out of ivory.
She looks up at Annie. "You might want to watch where you're putting your feet."
Annie removes her feet, revealing a vent on the floor.
"It's pretty clever. It's designed for the ventilation system, but they still need to install a button. So, instead, they put a tiny switch underneath that controls the airflow."
"Huh... Well, that explains the weird sound when I bumped into it." Annie says and looks around the room. "Who's they...?"
"My friends!" she dramatically waves her hand to the line of robots near the windows.
There's one female and two males. They look somewhat alike, but there are differences as well. One is taller with blue skin and golden eyes, while another is shorter with brown hair and dark green eyes, with horns sprouting out of his head. He wears white overalls with holes in the elbows.
The female robot kind of looks like...
"Are... are you lonely?" Hilde stammers.
"NO!" the girl says, frolicking around the cluttered room. "They accompany me here every day, helping me fix stuff. Or sometimes they help me design new bots."
"That would explain all these little robots, huh?" Annie says, looking at one of the robotic toys she saw.
"You know how it is; it's hard to find something new to design, right?"
After talking a bit more, the robots lead them into three separate rooms. In one room, they see an empty couch and several computers and machines placed all around it, while in another, they see a pile of wooden boards resting next to a giant metal cabinet filled with all kinds of tools.
Finally, they enter the last room, which appears to be a living room. There are several couches, chairs, tables, a television, and even a fireplace. All the furniture in the room is old and covered in dust.
"Welcome to the living room." the girl gestures at the couch as if she's expecting them to sit down.
"Where are we supposed to sit?" Annie asks curiously.
"This is your sleeping quarters, so it's where you should sleep. I don't care who you are; you'll all be sleeping on these sofas." The girl answers.
They all nod and sit down. After that, a comfortable silence falls over the room as they stare at the television screen, which shows some old movies. They watch them silently with half of their attention on the TV.
"Keep the TV on when you're sleeping." The girl warns, causing the group to nod. After that, the girl begins working once again.
The boys decide to talk and chat about anything they could possibly discuss in this room full of old furniture and dusty screens.
There's also nothing that catches their interest. Their conversation seems to go on forever, and eventually, they fall asleep sitting on their places on the sofa.
The TV shows static as they sleep.
As they wake up, the TV switches back to the news channel. Horus is still sitting upright on the sofa with the blanket thrown over him. His arms are crossed over each other, his legs crossed with his feet pointed against the ground, and his chin rests on his wrists. On his chest, Hilde is lying on him, his hands are on the top of hers, and his arm has wrapped itself around her. They both look peaceful and calm, the TV in front of them flickering with images from the news.
Hilde starts moving around in her sleep and stretches her legs in front of him, waking him from his slumber.
As he wakes up, he moves his hands from his lap and wraps one around Hilde and the other around himself, pulling him closer, his body resting against hers.
"Morning." He whispers in her ear.
Hilde stirs and opens her eyes slowly. "Good morning, little boy~," she says softly.
A smile forms on Horus' lips, and he kisses her cheek.
She moves away from him quickly, like a frightened rabbit.
"Who told you you can do that!?" she stammers.
He smirks. "I thought you liked when I kissed you~?"
"Well, yes, I mean-" she trails off and covers her face as she shakes her head, "You can't kiss me now.
His smirk falls, and his eyes shift nervously back and forth between her and the TV. "Why?"
Hilde feels a little off, but she quickly puts it to the back of her mind, and she sighs.
"Because I need to go to work; our daughter will probably miss me if I stay here longer than necessary."
Horus nods solemnly and looks down, his fingers playing with the edge of his blanket.
"Come on, get up! I need to get ready; then we can go!"
Hilde is in her uniform. She's patting it down as a little girl is clinging to her pencil skirt.
"Mommy, are you going to work?" the little girl asks.
"Yes! Uh..."
"I'm Tanya!"
"Yes, little Tanya! I'll be back later."
Tanya is holding a little robot, its eyes glowing, as it sits next to her.
"Bye, mommy!"
"Don't worry, baby; your mommy will come home tonight."
"Okay." she smiles brightly.
Tanya goes to the little table and starts playing with her toy robots.
"And what do you have there, darling? Can I see?" Horus walks over to Tanya.
"These are my friends!" she says happily, showing off her friends to her father.
Horus laughs, ruffles her hair gently, and picks up the robot she made.
"Oh, wow! This one's cute!"
"Yeah, she's awesome!" Tanya agrees enthusiastically.
"What did you make him? Is he a friend?" he asks curiously.
"Oh yeah! This is Darlene. She's a super cool robot and the best friend ever~!"
"Can I play with her? What does she do?" he asks.
"She helps me make my other friends!"
Tanya is proud of her robotics, and she loves feeling parental love.