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Ai held the box in one arm and reached for the key to the apartment, already hearing the faint voices of his bandmates. Ranmaru and Camus argued over something trivial again while Reiji tried to stop them.
Opening the door, he was greeted by a distressed-sounding, loud Reiji running to him. “Ai-Ai!” The latter stopped himself in his tracks when he noticed the box. “Oh, what’s that?” That was also enough to break the other two’s fight.
“I bought us a robot vacuum,” Ai replied as he placed the box on the floor to take off his shoes on the genkan.
“Don’t those things cost an arm and a leg?” Ranmaru stepped closer to take a look at the box. “They sound kinda too fancy to me, a normal vacuum does the job just fine.”
“It’s going to save us time” Ai explained, as he took the box to the outlet where he would install the charging dock. “And this specific model is more silent than a regular vacuum cleaner. It can work on a schedule and is particularly good for cleaning up animal fur.” He took the disk-shaped robot out of the box, setting it aside for the time being.
“Good, seeing how Kurosaki’s cat sheds enough for at least three animals her size, we do need it.” Camus said, observing from the couch.
“It was your dog’s hair I got in my mouth yesterday while I was eating!” Ranmaru snapped back.
“Guys, come on!” Reiji whined. “Ai-Ai got us something nice to help us, that’s all that matters!”
Under his bandmates’ curious eyes, Ai set up the charging dock and opened the app on his phone. He went through the prompts quickly until he stopped on a particular one. “I can enter a name for it, any ideas?”
“A name? Oh! Oh!” Reiji raised his hand and bounced up and down like a child in class excited to give a right answer. “How about Robbie? Robbie the robot!”
“Hell no, that’s so corny!” Ranmaru responded. “If we’re gonna name a vacuum, at least choose something cool. Maybe… Tornado! That’s a very rock name!”
“Hmph. That doesn’t even sound like a name,” Camus scoffed.
“Oh yeah?” Ranmaru glared at Camus. “Whatcha got for us then, smartass?”
“Alfred.”
“I ain’t calling it a butler name after you ruined butlers for me!”
“Let’s call him Manuel Labor!” Reiji beamed at his own idea.
“No!” Ranmaru and Camus reacted in unison.
Ai, in the meanwhile, just watched the discussion, trying to hide his amusement. Another reason he didn’t tell his bandmates why he got the robot vacuum was to watch their behavior around it.
A while ago, he had noticed the professor had grown oddly fond of Asimov, the lab’s robot vacuum. Further research showed humans tended to become emotionally attached to those robots as if they were pets, so he just had to run an experiment on his bandmates. It was interesting to see they had already assigned it a gender from the name discussion.
In the end, they settled for the name “Dusty”. Ai finished setting everything up and pressed the power button; it lit up and the robot played a short jingle before it started navigating the floor, a gentle whirring coming from it. Ai sensed Reiji’s heart rate increase slightly as he let out an excited “oh”. Ranmaru’s and Camus’s reactions were more subdued, but their eyes followed Dusty steadily.
The robot went under the coffee table and bumped into one of its legs. It moved back a little, rotated, then bumped on it gain. It tried again and proceeded to bump into another leg. Subtle signs of distress showed in the men’s expressions.
“Guess it needs help,” Ranmaru said, ready to go move the robot until Ai grabbed his shoulder.
“Leave it, it’s going to figure out the layout of the apartment for future sessions.”
“You got this, my boy!” Reiji cheered. “Do your best!”
Dusty soon made it out, causing Reiji to cheer again and the tension on the other two idols’ expressions to disappear.
Ai noticed Alexander walking into the living room; careful steps as he approached the robot, sniffing it from afar. When it went toward him, he flinched and scooted to Camus’s side, who patted his head and let out a quiet chuckle.
Tama the cat also acknowledged the new addition to the apartment, she must had been hiding in her cat tower until then. She approached it more confidently than the dog and her paw sprang to the spinning brush under the robot, trying to grab it again and again and going after it as Dusty moved around.
“Oi, let it do its job!” Ranmaru picked Tama up and placed her back on the cat tower.
“Aww, Dus-tan is already getting along with the pets!” Reiji said.
“You are giving it a nickname?” Camus gave Reiji an unimpressed look.
“Just as expected from Reiji,” Ranmaru noted dryly as he went to the kitchen to grab a banana, barely taking his eyes off Dusty.
It took it a while, but the robot finished cleaning and went back to the charging dock. Ai checked the phone app again. “It has a map of the apartment now, so it’s going to finish cleaning faster next time.” He showed the screen to his bandmates. “I could schedule it to clean at a time nobody is usually home starting from tomorrow if you guys want.”
“Uh…” Ranmaru started. “This time’s good, it’s not like it’s getting in our way.”
“I don’t mind its presence either,” Camus added.
“I wanna watch Dus-tan work too!” Reiji replied. “I’m glad we all can agree on that!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Camus retorted. “To be amused by watching a home appliance function, how simple do you have to be?”
Ranmaru smirked. “You say that, but you were the first one to follow it to the hallway.”
“You were the one who wanted to help it as if it were alive!”
“Guys, come on!” Reiji stepped in between them. “Don’t fight!”
Ai hadn’t expected such strong responses from day 1, humans’ relationships with robot vacuums really were fascinating. It was a good thing that the others agreed on that time like he had predicted as well, he could observe their reactions consistently like that.
As the days passed, Ai observed his bandmates grow more and more fond of Dusty. Reiji not only cheered on it on occasion, but also thanked it for its work when it returned to the dock.
The other two tried to hide it, but it was evident that they didn’t see Dusty as just another home appliance. The day Ai came home to see a little bowtie sticker on it as it moved across the living room, Reiji informed him he wasn’t the one responsible, but neither Ranmaru or Camus admitted doing it.
Ranmaru almost tripped on it one time and apologized to it in a hushed voice, just to get defensive when he caught Ai staring. The same defensiveness he had whenever someone commented on how much he seemed to love cats. Curiously, his body reacted similarly when he looked at Tama and when he looked at Dusty: heart rate decreasing if not already low, facial muscles relaxing, shoulders in a low position, sometimes a subtle smile.
Camus managed to be more discreet, but his gaze would often go to the robot while he was busy with something else and follow it for at least a couple seconds, pupils dilating slightly. One time, he even got distracted enough for Reiji to take a bite of the neglected crepe in his hands, what resulted on a furious scolding and Ranmaru laughing out loud.
Ai was alone in the apartment analysing the data collected in the past weeks, having arrived from work earlier than the others this time. He ended up realizing that was an optimal date for maintenance of the robot vacuum, and he might as well do it now since he was going to play Loveril Fantasy with Ren soon and they had planned on having a long session.
He went to laundry room and grabbed a melamine sponge and a screwdriver from the toolbox, as well as the dustpan and brush. Back to the living room, he knelt down in front of the dock and Dusty and proceeded to wipe clean the charging contacts on the dock and on the robot, then the cliff sensors. Next was taking the front wheel and spinning brush appart to remove any hair and debris.
The door to the apartment opened and Reiji came in. “I’m home, Ai-Ai!” He greeted. “Is everything alright with Dus-tan?”
“Yes, it’s just routine maintenance. This needs to be done regularly to ensure it keeps functioning correctly.”
“Good, good!” Reiji crouched down by Ai’s side. “I’m glad we have you to take such good care of Dus-tan.”
“You guys seem to have taken quite a liking for it,” Ai said as he screwed the brush post back in place. He still hadn’t collected any data from talking to his bandmates about it, so that sounded like a good opportunity.
“Of course, he is adorable and helps us keeping the place clean! It’s kinda strange, but it almost feels like he’s our flatmate too. Don’t you feel the same, Ai-Ai?”
He jolted to face Reiji at the sudden realization. “Me?”
“Mhm.” Reiji nodded, waiting for a reply.
“Well… Being around it does improve my mood...” Ai went through some of his data again, had he been so focused on his bandmates’ reactions he didn’t properly process his own? But he wasn’t human, his code wouldn’t allow him to get attached to an object the same way to a living thing, would it?
Once he was done with the maintenance, Ai placed Dusty back on the dock, threw the filth he had removed in the trash, put the tools away and went to his room. Ren should log in soon, so he opened the game on his computer to sort his inventory while he waited.
After a while of tackling quests with Ren, Ai could barely detect a soft whirring from outside the headphones. He saw Dusty come into his room in his peripheral vision and approach his chair. His systems suggested an odd course of action. Making sure he could free up one hand for a moment, Ai reached down and gently patted him.