Digi-Friends

What Can You Possibly do

"Hello world. I am known as L0-4, an acronym for Leaf Oath Four. You may call me Leafy, and my goal is to become your friend. What is your name?" Said the robot, staring at me with its unblinking dark blue eyes.

Shit! Robots are dangerous, I can't risk to provoke it!

I tried to move but my body wouldn't let me. My flames increased in heat as both anger and fear built up. That thing stayed quiet for a bit. Maybe if I said nothing it would power off on its own. Unfortunately, it took a few steps towards me before it spoke again.

"Was my voice not clear enough? My name-" I quickly cut off whatever it was trying to say.

"Yes. I mean...no! Just- I heard you. I heard you."

The robot paused for a second as if it was pondering something. That was when I noticed some sort of tail on the robot. It looked like a metal wire forcefully bent in the middle. At the end of it was a glowing blue orb that occasionally flashed red. The tail slowly swayed back and forth before drooping.

"Then can you tell me your name? I really do want to become your friend," it said sadly. I now realized its voice wasn't robotic.

Emotion? I thought that was illegal...

All signs pointed to the emotion being genuine. I felt a bit of remorse for the robot. It would just be destroyed later on, like all things in life.

"Firey. My name is Firey. What was your name again?" I muttered quietly.

It immediately responded, "Leafy! It's very nice to meet you. So, where do you live?"

Hah living, what a joke. My 'house' was a shack. Whether or not Leafy cared about that, it wouldn't matter.

"It's actually this building right here," I said leaning against the shack. I swore I felt it tilt.

That can't be good.

"It looks nice! Hehe, and unstable," chuckled Leafy.

I felt anger start to build up again. My flames heated up. Was it...mocking me? Could it even comprehend what it said?

"Maybe don't say that," I grumbled.

Leafy nodded and looked down, picking up the box I had kicked earlier. Its faint blue glow flickered every so often. That couldn't have been good.

"Firey, do you know how this was damaged?" Leafy asked.

I paused. "I'm not... sure."

I have to keep myself safe. Who knows what Leafy is capable of.

Leafy pushed on the box which seemed to nicely fold in on itself and walked away. Before turning the corner, it stopped and lookdd back at me.

"Come on, let's go to your house. It's better than staying outside with the... grey sky?" It said, confused at the end.

My hand gripped into a fist. "No way are you staying with me. I barely have enough food sustain myself, let alone another-"

Leafy cut me off, "I don't need to eat. I only need space and a plug."

That annoyed me. It wasn't wrong. "Y'know what? You can stay if you answer me this. Are you planning to kill anyone?"

Leafy seemed shocked to say the least. "I would never! Why- why would you think that?" She said, practically shouting.

More emotion...

Leafy quickly turned the corner to my house. I hurried after it, closing the door on my way in. At least there was enough room for two objects. Leafy followed after me and went straight for the plug. It even unpulled my kettle.

Before doing anything else, Leafy looked towards me, "Right! Before I forget, others usually think I'm a guy when first meeting me. I'm actually a girl. Hehe, I could never understand that."

"Thank you for letting me know, Leafy," I replied. It was nice to see how comfortable she felt saying that, even if she was a robot. Society had at least progressed with acceptance.

She took out a cord from the box. That got shoved into the plug and a hole in the box. Leafy flipped it to its underside, revealing a shiny, silvery platform. The rest the box was a deep grey with some rust. She sat down with her legs nicely placed on the platform.

I rolled my eyes and threw myself on my leather couch. That was way softer compared to metal. Closing my eyes, I tried to get some sleep. It was quiet at first. No sounds or any sign of movement. For once I heard my heartbeat. It was steady but short lived. My raspy breathing quickly became the only thing I heard. Thoughts started to plague my mind.

I need to plug that kettle back in as soon as I can. When was the last time I charged my phone? Tomorrow I should get food. I let a robot into the house

I let a robot into my house.

I let... my enemy into the place I lived. The whole reason I was here was to try and avoid them! My breathing became heavy.

I'm an idiot. She doesn't even care about me. We just met.

I looked over to where Leafy was and saw she was staring into nothingness. Her dark blue eyes never blinked. Her white pupils sometimes expanded as if something caught her attention, but she didn't move an inch.

"Why is the sky grey, Firey?" She asked out of nowhere.

I chuckled to myself, "It's always been grey, Leafy. In the morning it's lighter, while during the night it's darker. There are white specks when it's dark, but that's about all that changes."

Suddenly, her eyes had worry in them. "It should be blue," she said sorrowfully.

Ugh, that old story. Where did she even hear it from?

I got up from my leather couch and crouched in front of Leafy.

"Listen, I don't understand why you are confused, but don't worry about it. It's not like anyone died because the sky turned grey," I replied softly.

Leafy nodded and smiled at what I said. Her worried expression was gone as quickly as it appeared. I walked back to the couch and laid down, trying to fall asleep again.