Chapter Text
The first thing Hoshi sees as he opened his eyes was a flood of bright white from both sides of his peripheral vision, obscuring the view of what’s in front of him for some time.
Natural light from the sun, Hoshi registers on his drive.
He looks at both his left and right side, squinting to see the sources from which the light has been coming from. He sees it indirectly coming in from outdoors, and the only thing separating the current space he is in from the outside was this clear panel that rose from the floor to the ceiling.
Glass walls, Hoshi then realizes.
“Does he already know the world or....”
Hearing the male voice before him made him look up front. He then now sees that there were actually two men, though the owner of the voice earlier is still unknown to him.
On his right, he sees a young man with a slim face, black hair obscuring a bit of his eyes from view. He had small eyes that formed into slits, and pointy ears that were also slightly pink on the tips. He also appears to have some sort of metal accessory hanging on the lobe of his ear. Ah, earrings, Hoshi thought.
Meanwhile the man next to him, with brown hair which fell from his scalp down to his temples in a soft wave, had sharper facial features than the other, along with his honed jaw and the moles splattered on his face which were hard to miss. He was looking down and Hoshi’s eyes followed his line of sight. He appears serious while he was looking down at a rectangular glass device that lit up as he tapped on it.
This is when Hoshi realizes that he was sitting on what he assumes is what they call a chair, while both of the men before him were sitting on the white marbled floor.
“Ah, yeah, I think so. Though they only know basic stuff? It says here... that we have to leave him for a bit to explore after we introduce ourselves and tell him about what we do and– yeah,” the one with brown hair said, a different voice from before. So now Hoshi confirms that the voice that he heard earlier was from the one with black hair.
“Okay, hmm... hello there, Hoshi. I am. Minghao,” the one with black hair– Minghao, said with prolonged pauses in between each word. The other man giggled at him and gently pushed his side. Minghao looked at him with an expression that Hoshi couldn’t decipher. Annoyance? But no, he didn’t look offended. He’ll research on it later.
“He can understand you pretty well Minghao, he is worth thousands for something,” the other replied with a smile. “Okay, hey Hoshi, I’m Jun. We’re your owners.”
Hoshi immediately understands what Jun, his owner, meant. Now everything makes a lot more sense.
“Yeah, so, me and Junnie bought you about a month ago, and now you finally came! We seriously needed a lot of help here, with me– gallery manager with a fashion brand, and Jun here, an industrial designer. So, we thought that we needed an assistant of sorts, someone who could help us with the house, as well as with our jobs.”
Hoshi completely understood everything that Minghao said, all the details already stored on his memory, though there was something that he didn’t quite understand.
“Junnie?” Hoshi finally asked with his head tilting slightly to the left. Jun was the name of the other, right? Why was he suddenly called Junnie?
“Oh,” Jun said with a smile directed to him, then to Minghao. “He calls me Junnie sometimes, it’s a nickname. You can just call me Jun though.”
“Yes, I’m the only one that can use Junnie,” Minghao added.
The two exchange glances at each other, their eyes full of something Hoshi doesn’t quite get. He will research on it later too.
“Okay so,” Jun started, his way of talking a bit hurried, which probably indicates that they have to catch something.” “It’s almost five now. We’re gonna go eat dinner, and we’ll be back later evening. You have the rest of the house to yourself, explore all you want. Feel at home and all. Just please don’t break anything, especially Minghao’s works.”
Hoshi replied with a nod and watched as they both stood up and gathered their belongings, namely the keys to the house, their wallets, and jackets. Hoshi makes a mental note to ask them when they get home later if they brought their things back safely and didn’t leave anything behind.
Soon, he was alone. He finally stood up for the first time, and scanned his surroundings, which he now registers as the living room of the house. He noticed a mirror on one of the corners of the room, tucked between two house plants (peace lilies, he takes note of) and a tall black metal lamp.
He took his time staring at the reflection before him, from his brown hair and slanted eyes, to how he was dressed in all white.
“So, this is what I look like.”
Eventually, it doesn’t take long before Minghao and Jun realize that Hoshi was being overworked, to the point that they had to charge Hoshi in the middle of the day since the nightly charge of eight hours maximum was no longer enough for a whole day of work.
Every day, either Hoshi was at home with Minghao who constantly asks for assistance when it comes to scheduling all his virtual meetings, as well as managing Minghao’s clothing line through his online store, or he was with Jun attending appointments left and right and meeting up with clients as they talk about product designs. To top it all off, Hoshi also had to tend the house whenever the couple are out or are too tired to clean and make meals for themselves.
Due to the hectic schedule that Hoshi had to endure every day, there were even times when he malfunctioned slightly, from forgeting a scheduled task that he had to do or he mistakenly reading the time five minutes late.
“We have to get another one,” Jun said one night while they were both settling down on their bed to sleep. They already left Hoshi charging away on his own room a few minutes earlier.
“Hmm, true,” Minghao replied with a sigh, moving closer and squeezing in between Jun’s arm and side, resting his head on the elder’s chest. “You’re paying.”
“Why me...” Jun whined as he drew out the e, pout evident in his voice.
“Your client accepted your draft earlier.”
“Well, you got another sculpture on your gallery last week.”
“That was last week.”
“Yeah, but still,” Jun looked down at Minghao with pleading eyes, earning a smile from his boyfriend.
And that is why Woozi arrives a few weeks later.
Days before, the couple already informed Hoshi of his new companion, saying that he would now have a friend to help him with all the work.
They set him up on the same time and room in which Hoshi first opened his eyes – late afternoon in the living room. Hoshi watched from a distance as Jun and Minghao took him out of the huge box that came on the mail earlier. He saw that his new friend was also dressed in all white, and noticed how he had a small mole below his left eye. Hoshi then remembers that the company where he came from liked to put small or unique details on their robots, such as his slanted eyes, and now the said mole on Woozi’s face. To make us more realistic, Hoshi thinks.
“Oh, they gave us a thank you card this time,” Jun said with a laugh and proceeded to read the words on the thick piece of paper out loud.
We would like to personally thank you for purchasing again.
As a sign of appreciation, we upgraded both of your robots, charge free!
We hope that through our services, we can make your own world grow.
Enjoy! Please inform us right away if you encounter any problem with Hoshi and Woozi.
“What was the next upgrade’s benefits though?” Minghao asked after Jun read the card.
“I think it has to do with speed? I’ve been able to gather data faster now since yesterday,” Hoshi speaks up from behind them, surprising the two for a brief moment.
They positioned Woozi to sit on a chair, and with a press of the power button below his nape, Woozi started to open his eyes slowly. Hoshi moved back and gave the couple space to talk with Woozi, like how they talked to him before.
“Hao, talk normally this time please,” Jun said in a quiet voice, to which Minghao looked at him with furrowed brows, but with a smirk on his lips. Sarcasm, Hoshi notes.
“Yes, funny,” Minghao replied before looking back at Woozi, who was carefully studying the room with wandering eyes. “Hey Woozi, I’m Minghao.”
After a few minutes of informing Woozi of their careers, as well as his own job here, Jun ended the conversation with introducing Hoshi.
“…and this, is Hoshi,” Jun said as he gestured for Hoshi to come closer. “He’s also like you. We got him about a month ago. But since he’s been having a hard time with all the job we give him, here you are.”
After that, this time Minghao was the one to inform Woozi of the couple’s brief trip outside. With that, the two gathered their things again, the scene very familiar to Hoshi.
As soon as Hoshi and Woozi heard the sound of the car engine get farther until it can no longer be heard, Woozi finally stood up and did the same thing Hoshi did, look at himself in the mirror on the corner of the room. Hoshi stood next to him and they examined each other’s features, taking in all the information they can see.
“Want to take a tour of the house? I can show you around,” Hoshi offered, staring straight into Woozi’s eyes on the mirror’s reflection.
“Sure,” Woozi answered, looking to his left to glance at Hoshi.
“Jun, no. We are not watching Star Wars again,”
“But please,” Jun pouted next to him. Even though Minghao’s eyes were fixed on the screen, he already knows that the other is looking at him with pleading eyes, those of which he cannot say no to. That’s also probably one of the reasons why Minghao kept looking at the screen. He didn’t want to be swayed by his boyfriend’s eyes again.
“No.”
“Minghao, don’t make me say it,” Jun warned, his arms already wrapping themselves on Minghao’s waist. He scooted closer, as if they already weren’t close enough.
“You know I don’t like being called that.”
“But babe,” Jun said with a smirk on his face. With this, Minghao’s eyes instantly met his, the younger’s eyes squinting with feigned annoyance.
“Ewww, I told you no pet names. They sound weird.”
“Baby, honey bunch, pumpkin pie, sweetie, my love, the love of my l—” Jun stopped abruptly when Minghao started hitting Jun’s head with a pillow.
“No, no, don’t. That’s it, I’m going upstairs. Good night,” Minghao said in the midst of his violence, proceeding to stand up from the couch. Jun pulled him back down with the grab of his hand, his arms rewrapping themselves on Minghao’s waist with ease. “Okay, okay. What do you wanna watch?”
As the two bickered on whether they should start a new show or watch an old movie, Hoshi was peeking from the wall dividing the living room from the dining room, curiosity getting the best of him and going from accidentally eavesdropping on the two while he was arranging the silverware, to purposefully listening in.
“Hi. What are you doing?” Woozi asked behind him.
“I’m just—gathering data, about their... routine,” Hoshi replied. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he was caught doing a crime. But listening wasn’t a crime, was it?
Woozi took a peek as well and looked at the couple, peacefully eating popcorn while watching something on the television, Minghao’s head resting on Jun’s.
“They look…” Woozi began, thinking of a word to best describe how their owners looked at the moment.
“Cute?” Hoshi offered. The current picture did fit the word cute.
“Yeah, yes. They look… cute. Humans always amazed me.”
And with that, Woozi walked out from the wall where they were peeking from and headed towards their shared bedroom, where they would be able to charge for the night. Woozi passed by the couple and told them he was already going to sleep, to which they replied with a good night.
As Hoshi was just about to go out of the dining room himself, he noticed that the two were holding hands, fingers intertwined and resting atop the pillow on Minghao’s lap.
Hoshi got the idea of anything that involved touching between humans, such as hugs for warmth, handshakes as a form of greeting, and even sexual intercourse as a way of procreating. But holding hands? He didn’t exactly know what it was specifically for. Was it for warmth as well? But holding hands sure won’t do much when someone’s freezing.
He dismissed his thoughts and went to say good night to the two, though Hoshi’s eyes still can’t help but glance at their hands for a moment before he left.