ALUMINUM | lietbel

I. Package

.
.
.

Bright rays of sunlight shined through Natalia's white blindes. The annoying light ached her eyes open, causing her to sit up in her bed. Her whole body felt sleek and glossy like usual. Great. Night sweats again. Nothing ever seemed to help get rid of those stupid nightmares.

To get rid of the nasty feeling, Natalia headed out of her white, circular room and made her way to the bathroom for a quick shower. This was usually how her mornings have been for the past few years, ever since she moved out of her brother and sisters house.

Her older brother Ivan was always a quiet type of guy, usually keeping to himself - but had a monstrous temper underneath. The older sister on the other hand, Katyusha, was always a worrywart. Katyusha would work long hours day and night, and come back anxious about her two other siblings' health.

"You need to be more organized, like Ivan!" she one time said, which made Natalia's blood boil. It's not like she was disorganized on purpose, she just had more important priorities.

But moving into her own apartment definitely didn't help. Her clothes and food wrappers were littered all over the place, and as soon as the cleaning bots left her home, the place would become the same way it was before a day later. The smooth white walls of her cylinder shaped rooms would lose their shine, and dust collected everywhere. But that wasn't really important.

As soon as Natalia finished her shower and threw on a casual outfit, she went to the living room to find her TechMirror. Right as she stood in front of the mirror, an androgynous soft voice rang through it's slick, built-in speakers.

"Hello Natalia, how are you today?" it asked.
"I'm alright," she answered, her voice still hoarse from sleeping. "Is there anything on my calendar for today?".
"Doesn't seem like it, though you did miss a call from Ivan at 11:45 a.m."

Crap. She forgot she wasn't allowed to sleep past 1 p.m., even in her own home. She quickly pressed on the contacts link on the TechMirror and called her older brother back.

"Hello?" A male voice vibrated through the speakers - Ivan.
"You called?"
"Oh yeah, I was just worried about you recently and wanted to give you a little gift. Everyone's been getting one, so you'll recognize it right away."

Natalia went silent. A gift? She hadn't gotten one in a really long time.

"What is it? It better not be something stupid," she said sharply, not believing what she was hearing.
"Come on, you don't even know what it is. Think of it as a gift out of brotherly love." Ivan replied, trying to ease the tension rising from her voice.
"I don't want it!"
"You don't even know what it is yet!" he yelped back. "Anyways, I need to go right now, I'll call you later, ok?"
"Fine, bye," she replied back, quickly turning the call off as soon as she finished saying those two words.

Though she regretted it right after. She wanted to call and say sorry a million times. But she just felt so estranged from her siblings, and nothing ever sounded right when they conversed with each other.

Trying to forget about the call, Natalia went to the door, waiting for it to automatically slide open. And there it was: a long, glossy white box sitting in front her doorway with the words

"HESHbot"

sprawled in big letters. Underneath the large word were smaller letters that read,

"House and Exterior Side Helper bot"

Oh no. As if this day couldn't get any worse, now she had to deal with another being - a mechanical being.

"There is no way in hell he sent me this," she whispered under her breath. But he did, and she was angry at him for that. She went back to the TechMirror and quickly called him back.

"Why would you send me this?!" she yelled.
"Because you're lonely! And you need a bot to take care of your home, since you can't do it yourself." Ivan said, trying his best to not make his enraged sister worse.

Natalia went quiet. Lonely? There was no way she was lonely. There was no way in hell.

Her voice now calm, she spoke again, "I am perfectly capable of living on my own, Ivan. You don't need to worry about me,"
He sighed. "Just try it out for me, please?"
"...Fine, but don't be surprised if I don't like it," and after that, she hung up.

Natalia went back to the doorway to retrieve the box - which was surprisingly light - and placed it onto the floor in her living room. As she opened the lid on top, she stole one glance and jumped onto her wall. There's a fucking human in that box! she thought, terrified after seeing the top of the bot's brown hair. After calming down a few seconds later, she gained enough strength in her legs to crawl back to the box and look in the opening again.

"Um, hello?" Natalia called out, wondering how in the world this thing was supposed to work. Usually bots would automatically turn themselves on, like the TechMirror. But this one just wouldn't budge.

Just behind the bot's head was a pamphlet, which Natalia grabbed. It said that she was supposed to connect a wire into an outlet in the back of the HESHbot. Well that doesn't sound too hard, she thought.

She firmly grabbed the shoulders of the bot, gripped her legs around the box, and pulled as hard as she could. It wasn't heavy, it was just tall. Right as the bot was out of the box, Natalia froze as she looked at it. It appeared to be a young man - maybe around her age - with chin length toffee colored hair, soft creamy-tinted skin, and an innocent looking face. He was wearing a light brown t-shirt and pants. These peasant clothes ruined the beauty in his handsome face.

Handsome? Natalia slapped herself on the cheeks and tried to forget whatever she was thinking by looking for the charger. She found it taped to his leg, and after taking it off, plugged it to the wall. She then picked up the bot and propped it onto the wall, plugging the charger into it's back. It's eyes opened wide, and it's green irises glowed brightly. It looked around until it laid his eyes onto Natalia.

Their eyes were locked onto each other for a few seconds - which felt like minutes to Natalia - until it was cut off by the bot.

"Hello, I am Toris the HESHbot, also known as a House and Exterior Side Helper. Are you my human?" the bot asked, his voice sounding like a young man with what sounded like a robotic voice effect underneath.

Ivan is so fucking screwed, Natalia thought, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Uh, I guess you could say I'm your...human?" she answered, her voice sounding weary.

A warm smile drew on Toris' face, which made Natalia's heart drop. He's so innocent, she thought. Too innocent for her.

"Well now that you're awake, does that mean you're fully charged?" she asked, curious about how he sprung awake all of a sudden.

"No, it'll take about 2 hours for me to be fully charged. But don't worry, we can use this time to set me up. How about you tell me your name first, human?" Toris questioned, his voice sounding like a lullaby to Natalia's ears.

"My name is Natalia Arlovskaya," she replied.

Toris closed his eyes for a few seconds, and opened them back up again. It seemed like he was storing the new information he just learned.

"Naaataalee-a. Natalia. Pretty name." Toris said innocently, unaware of the effect of his words.

Natalia's heart felt warm, Why the hell am I feeling this way, he's just a some robot, she thought.

"I- thanks I guess. Come on, let's continue," she advised, trying to forget about what he said.

They spent the rest of the day talking and trading information. Then Natalia fell asleep on the living room floor, and Toris shut himself off while laying on the wall.

She didn't have a nightmare that night.

.
.
.