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The bee had fallen from the skies a few weeks ago, squirming around on its barely-functioning legs for a few minutes before getting picked up and shoved into a pocket. Once the Silver Spider had gotten back to his hotel, he'd emptied his pockets, pouring the bee and half a dozen other things onto the small desk. It stayed there, and when Pedro was placed on the desk, he stayed there as well.
Pedro can tell the bee's not permanently broken, but its software is all messed up. This is not a bad thing, he presumes. If the bee does not have its software, it will not be malicious. It is also almost empty of charge, though. Pedro does not know how to charge the bee. He wants to, an irrational part in his tiny robot brain.
Pedro has a plan. He sends a text to the Silver Spider, which goes as follows;
"PEDRO THINKS IF THE SILVER SPIDER CHARGES THE BEE HE CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TECH. THIS IS BENEFICIAL FOR FUTURE ENCOUNTERS."
That'll do it. The Silver Spider is sure to find a way to charge the bee, and then do so, if Pedro asks.
When the Silver Spider packs up his things the following day, the bee is zipped tightly into the front pocket of the backpack, along with Pedro. The rest of the ex-contents of his pockets go into the bin. This means the Silver Spider is listening to Pedro's plan.
The bee and Pedro part ways in the factory, Pedro going in for small reworks, while someone else works on figuring out how to charge the bee. Pedro sits, hooked up to a wire that leads to a computer, and watches a mechanic poke at the mechanical bee.
It takes two days to find a way to charge the bee and proceed to do so, but now the bee and Pedro sit side-by-side on the shelf. No attempts at communicating have worked thus far, but as Pedro is a robot and does not get exhausted, he keeps trying.
Pedro and the bee are zipped back into the front pocket. The Silver Spider was advised against taking the bee, but did so anyways. This is good for Pedro, because he can continue try to communicate with the bee.
During the flight, the bag is jostled around quite a bit and Pedro accidentally pushes up against the bee. For the first time since the desk, the bee moves. Its legs twitch, much like a dying insect. Hopefully, the bee is not dying. It would be a waste of the hours of work put into trying to charge it, Pedro tells himself.
They are on another desk, in another hotel, in another country. The bee's legs-- four little, fragile things, seemingly only for show-- have been twitching at what seem to be random intervals. Pedro's attempts at communicating have not been successful thus far. He tries showing emotions on his little screen once more, a smile and then a frowny face. The wings flap, now. That's new.
A notification goes off on the Silver Spider's phone, charging on the edge of the desk. Pedro scuttles over to take a look, and sees it's an e-mail from the mechanics who work on the Silver Spider part of the factory.
The Silver Spider walks over to check it, and his face falls slightly when he reads it. "...seems to communicate with Morse Code buzzes..," Silver Spider mutters, eyes scanning the document attached to the e-mail. "...unit name: Z-0-3... It says the bee is not evil anymore. Is that true, Pedro?" Pedro sends his confirmation in a text message, to which the Silver Spider nods. "So we have another friend. Zoey. Sounds a bit like a bee, also." He nods again. "Maybe she can help. Bees are girls, aren't they?" Pedro sends another text, which is immediately swiped away. The Silver Spider doesn't actually care about the answer to his question, it seems.
Now that Pedro knows how the bee, Zoey, communicates, he can start to make actual efforts. Is it true you can understand this? He taps out the morse code on the desk with one of his legs. Zoey buzzes back, I can, then starts on such a rant it takes Pedro a second or two to translate and process it. It's a bit nonsensical, maybe a bedtime story for a child, a mess with mistaken buzzes, wrongly translated words, all things that are probably caused by the initial faulty software, or whatever may have caused it. Then, the bee promptly shuts off, red eyes turning black. The Silver Spider interrogates Pedro on What just happened, mate? and Pedro explains, then attempts to convince him to ask the mechanics how, exactly, they managed to charge the bee and if it's possible to do it here, and preferably now.
Two hours later, Zoey is charging again, they might have blown a fuse somewhere in the hotel, the Silver Spider is asleep and Pedro is keeping watch. His screen is lit a soft red-and-black, digital eyes blinking sleepily. The phone, on the nightstand, buzzes, and Pedro moves to put it on silent, as the Silver Spider must've forgotten to do so. Just as he starts moving, there are three short buzzes, and then Zoey starts talking.
What are you doing?
Putting the phone on silent. The Silver Spider needs to sleep properly during the weekend, Pedro explains.
Who is the Silver Spider? Zoey asks. Pedro points a leg to the bed, the boy sleeping there, curled up under the blanket.
Pedro is the Silver Spider's helper!
Pedro finishes his quest of putting the phone on silent, then returns to the desk. Both robots sit side by side for a while, silent but not awkward, as far as emotions go for tiny, bug-shaped robots.
It takes three hours for Zoey to fully charge with the makeshift charger, and after, Pedro does his best to disconnect her charger with his little spider legs. He manages, and after, Zoey announces she has a plan, then says nothing more. Her wings start buzzing, flitting, and finally, flapping like proper bees' wings. Zoey hovers a few inches above the desk, not nearly as much as a properly working bee robot might, but more than Pedro has seen of her before. He's... proud? He says so, and Zoey's red eyes glow brighter for a moment, lets out a happy sort of buzz.
They run about the desk almost the entire night, Zoey flying and Pedro scuttling, chasing like school kids playing tag, running their batteries low.
When the Silver Spider wakes up tomorrow, he'll see the two little robots curled around each other on the desk, and likely wonder what happened, how they ended up like that.
Pedro won't say.