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You didn’t feel hungry…
You woke up this morning and didn’t feel hungry…
It was natural for you.
You haven’t felt the rumble of your stomach – the urge to eat something – in a few weeks now.
You aren’t concerned about it – you’ll eat later.
But your robotic roommates are worried about you, despite telling them you’re fine. But you can’t blame them. They were made to cater and look after children, so why wouldn’t they want to keep the ones in their care healthy?
But you had work to do. You needed to focus on that, you’ll eat later.
You weren’t hungry.
You walked downstairs and poured yourself a bowl of cereal. It was just routine; you couldn’t stop yourself. The first thing you always did on a morning was make yourself a bowl of cereal. You’ve been doing it since you were a kid.
You didn’t even process that you ate the cereal, only vaguely remembering the taste of milk in your mouth, and the crunch as you chewed.
You went back upstairs, not bothering to get out of your pyjamas. It’s not like you were leaving the house today.
You didn’t see Sun this morning, he was probably out for the day. He always took on the responsibility of going grocery shopping, even though the only one who needed food was you.
Thankfully, he was aware of your needs - your limited food palette. Unlike your parents, he would always buy things that you were familiar with. He would never cook you things that you didn’t want to eat.
Occasionally buying a new food or two, with the logic that if it was similar enough to something you already liked, you would hopefully like it too. Most of the time, this logic worked, helping you expand your tastes little, by little. Slowly building your list of safe foods.
As you entered your bedroom, you sat at your desk in front of your computer. You had work to do, and you were further behind than you would have liked. You had until the end of the month to get the project finished, but your brain kept procrastinating. Playing games with friends or scrolling through every video platform you had access to, in hopes to have something to do (that wasn’t your work) and waste the day away.
But you couldn’t do that anymore. The anxiety of not having the project done by the due date was gnawing at you. You decided to dedicate the entire day to getting work done. Not caring how much you got done, as long as it was enough to make you feel on top of it again.
You grabbed your headphones, connecting them to your phone. The cushioning around the earpieces blocked out the rest of the world as you started working. The only thing on your mind was doing your work and vibing to the music you selected.
There was a knock at your door. You pulled down your headphones and looked up from your computer.
Sun slowly came into your room and gave you a smile, but there was a slight nervousness behind it. “Hey, friend. Have you eaten anything today?” He asked softly, looking at the clock on the wall behind you. It was 4pm.
“Oh, yeah. I have.” You answered nonchalantly.
Sun fiddled with his fingers as he tilted his head slightly, rays shrinking into his faceplate a little. “What did you eat?”
“Cereal.”
He perked up, but in more of an anxious fashion than anything hopeful. “… That’s it?”
You shrunk in on yourself, knowing that you were failing to look after yourself. It felt like you were failing him too. “… Yeah… I’m just not hungry…”
Sun’s face scrunched up in worry, humans needed to eat at least three meals a day! He knew it was hard for you, how you would often forget when your mind was elsewhere. But he wanted to help. “… Okay friend… how about-”
He suddenly got a ping on his display. Low battery. He forgot to charge before going out today. Sun was too engrossed in trying to refill your fridge and shelves with your safe foods. Moon forgot as well, as he was busy keeping track of the list they made while Sun located and collected the goods.
You tilted your head slightly when he paused in his speech. But assumed he was talking to Moon, not realising the internal conflict he was having.
Sun continued where he left off after thinking of a compromise. “… Can you cook tonight, friend? I forgot to charge this morning…”
You nodded and smiled a little. “Sure, you get some rest.”
Sun wasn’t satisfied by your answer. His code from his daycare days demanded some sort of reassurance, like you were a child that he needed to make sure wouldn’t do something bad again. “Pinky promise?” He extended his pinky finger towards you.
You wrapped your comedically small pinky in comparison around his. “I promise.”
He smiled, his tiredness staring to show. “Thank you, friend!” He left your room, closing your door since you preferred it closed.
He trudged to his and Moon’s shared room and flopped onto the bed. He plugged himself into charge and sighed, staring up at the glow in the dark stickers that Moon decorated the ceiling with. The small stars and crescent moons all placed in a delicate pattern to fill the space in satisfying way. “Moon… I’m worried about them… they’re struggling to eat again…”
Moon hummed in their headspace. “Yeah… they’re probably just worried about their project. It’s been eating away at them for a few months now…”
Sun knew Moon had a point; you tended to get worse when you had something on your mind. It wasn’t a perfect pattern of behaviour, but they knew something was there.
“Sun, if we both go into rest mode, we’ll charge faster. We can check on them when we wake up.”
Sun nodded; your house didn’t get the influx of power that the Pizzaplex did. Charging, which would only take them an hour at most in the Plex, took several in their new home. It was something that bugged him at first, feeling like he wasn’t being productive. But Moon pointed out that they could have more time to themselves – work on hobbies while charging or get some actual rest that didn’t go by in the blink of an eye.
Moon powered down, so did Sun. But he was worried that you would forget again.
You got a surprising amount of work done today. It didn’t feel like much until you made a list of everything that was left to finish. It was less than you expected, and it made you feel good.
You decided to get up off your chair, your butt going numb from spending the entire day sat at your desk. While stretching, you glanced over at the clock.
9pm?!
You cursed yourself for letting the need for food slip by you again and headed downstairs.
You hadn’t eaten anything apart from the bowl of cereal you made this morning. It’s been roughly twelve hours since you ate. Sun would be upset if you broke the promise.
You walked aimlessly around the kitchen, opening cupboards and the fridge in search for something to eat. Sun, had in fact, went shopping. Everything filled to the brim with foods that had the furthest best before and due by dates he could find to reduce waste.
Your eyes scanned over everything you had. Dried pastas, tomato and carbonara sauces. Tins and bags of the few fruits and vegetables that you could stomach. Pies and pastries that didn’t make you want to keel over. The small selection of meats that didn’t make your jaw want to fall off from being too much texture and not enough flavour. All from your preferred brands. There were even your favourite ice creams in the freezer drawers.
A small part of you perished thinking about how much he must’ve spent to make sure you had options.
Everything was a food that you would eat without question, nothing that your brain would make you stare at in concern at or outright refuse.
But nothing was calling you. Nothing appealed to your stomach. Not demanding food because you weren’t hungry.
You sighed. “Just grab something easy to cook and cook it.” You thought.
You decided to just throw on some pasta. It would take roughly five to ten minutes, quick and easy.
You went to grab the pots for your hob and start to cook. But the drawer was empty. You walked towards the dishwasher, hoping they weren’t there.
The sight of dirty dishes greeted you, causing you to groan. It would take too long for the dishwasher to clean them, and the thought of doing it by hand made you shudder.
You gave up.
Making dinner tonight was too much of a hassle.
You went back upstairs, you good mood quashed as you accepted defeat.
This is the reason you were assigned a care bot. You couldn’t take care of yourself like a normal person.
It made you feel useless.
You decided to lay on your bed, grabbing your phone to find a distraction.
You noticed that a series that you were watching had a new episode release last night. A small smile crept onto your face as you started watching.
It was near midnight when Sun and Moon powered on, the lack of light forcing Moon to the front as their body adjusted for him, colours shifting as their eyes faded from blue to red.
Moon sat up and unplugged himself, he stared out the window as his limbs clicked from lack of movement. His celestial namesake was sitting proud in the sky – a full moon night.
He got changed out of Sun’s light blue t-shirt and baggy trousers, careful not to scuff the flower embroidery on the bottom of the legs.
He swapped Sun’s clothes for his own. A loose dark blue hoodie with yellow on the ends. The colours matched his night cap, and he liked that. Moon stared at the large patch of a crescent moon with stars surrounding it stitched onto the back.
It always brought a smile to his face, remembering how you took them out one day to not only get the clothes, but also things to decorate their room with. How he yearned to fill the empty space on the hoodie but found nothing. Only for you to surprise him with the large patch that you and Sun made him.
Moon slid on some black shorts and adjusted the hoodie. He then ventured out of his room and into yours, just across the hall. He knocked on the door and you answered. He was greeted with the sight of you curled up in the corner on your bed, having moved your pillows to lean against the wall so you didn’t hurt your back.
Your phone was in hand as you watched the series again. You decided the new episode was so good that you had to watch the entire series from the beginning again.
He smirked at the sight. “Watching stuff instead of sleeping again?”
You huffed and plopped your phone down on the bed. “Don’t talk to me about sleep schedules. Yours’ is non-existent!”
Moon chuckled; you did have a point. They only charged when they weren’t busy with something or were on low battery. He walked in and sat on the bed next to you. “Yeah, yeah. Smarty pants.” He gained a smirk from you with his comment.
Moon thought back to the reason he was in your room right now. Food. “Hey, did you manage to eat anything?”
Your smile faltered, shifting into a small frown as you bit your lip. “No…” You pulled your legs up to your chest and hugged them. “…I tried; I really did. But there were no clean pans, and then I just…”
Moon wrapped an arm around you, carefully pulling you to lean on him. “It’s alright. You tried, that’s what matters. But I can help you now.”
You nodded and snuggled into him a little, seeking the comfort. But you still felt bad.
It wasn’t like you couldn’t cook. You could and have before. It was just too much of a chore today.
Moon held you for a bit before going to move. He felt you hold him a little tighter and huffed. “You gonna make this difficult, aren’t you?”
You playfully huffed back. “But you’re comfy!” You jokingly whined.
Moon sighed and rolled his eyes. Before you could do anything, he swiftly scooped you up and over his shoulder. You yelped a little from the sudden movement. “Moon!”
He cackled and started carrying you downstairs. “What? I thought you said I was comfy~” He joked, knowing it would get some sort of reaction from you.
You tried to be annoyed in some way but just made a silly noise as the laugh you tried to hold in escaped out of your mouth, forcing your cheeks to deflate in the process.
The two of you filled the house with chuckles and giggles before he put you down in the kitchen. After being plopped onto your feet, Moon strided to the fridge and opened it. “So, you want something easy to cook, yes?”
You nodded, knowing what he was doing. Moon was going to find out what food you wanted by asking any question but that. Dancing around the problem to find the answer.
“And cooking on the hob is too difficult right now?” He looked at you, a small smile on his face, his hand hovering around the open fridge as he whittled down the options.
You nodded again.
“When you say easy to cook. Do you mean quick? Or low maintenance?” The options were getting smaller.
You thought about it for a moment. “Something quick.”
Moon continued to lower the options, he deduced that tonight’s food should be something that could be quickly tossed into the air fryer or oven. He soon came up with a meal plan, gathering the necessary items and put it all out on the table. “Will this be okay for dinner?”
You nodded, not against what he chose. The weight started to be lifted off your shoulders.
You helped Moon take out the portions of what you wanted and put it into the drawers of the air fryer. The whole meal would take twenty minutes total, with everything needing to be flipped halfway though.
You both went through the motions as your meal was ready before you knew it. Sitting at the table, you started to eat.
And for the first time in a while, you felt hungry.
Your stomach grumbled as you ate, and you felt relieved that you had the sensation of hunger again.
One you were finished, you put your plate and cutlery on the side. Moon approached you with an ice cream and a small tupperware box full of red grapes.
You smiled and took both as Moon guided you into the lounge and flicked on the TV. The bright light from the screen caused Sun’s rays to stick out one side of their face. Their colours blending into each other as their right eye turned blue.
Both of them were active at the same time – they were in Eclipse Mode. They shared their smile as they sat on the sofa next to you, you snuggled into them again as they flicked on a movie.
Part of Moon’s plan to distract you, getting you to eat without thinking about it. It worked in the cinemas with popcorn and this was no different.
The film started playing as Sun spoke. “I’m proud of you friend!” He wrapped one of their arms around you as you leant your head on their shoulder.
You licked up the ice cream on your lips and looked up at them. “You should be proud of Moon. He’s the one who got me to eat.”
Moon tutted at you, still smiling. “Not at all. You prepared the food with me even though you were struggling. We’re both proud.”
The three of you all settled into a comfortable silence and focused on the film. You continued to work through the ice cream before moving onto the tub of grapes.
You quietly sighed as your stomach slowly became satisfied with its sustenance.
You smiled at the fact that you were hungry. It may sound strange, but it was better than not feeling it and forgetting to eat.
You appreciated your friends as they showed that, no matter what you were going through, they would help you.
You snuggled into their side as your heart swelled at how much they cared.