Only it must require something, since it no longer worked. Rowan kept it only as a memento, a reminder of…
Milo wondered what. He would have to ask Rowan about that. But later.Afterhe got the Roomba working again.
Notes:
Psst… Milo has ulterior motives! XD
17
Notes:
Meet Spot. ^_^ Shush! Milo is super proud of the name!
ROWAN
“Ow! What the—?” Rowan glanced down at the sudden—though admittedly only mild—pain of something running into his ankle.
Not just any something either.
The Roomba he made in junior high?
“Surprise!”
Looking over his shoulder from his workstation, Rowan saw Milo standing with his hands clasped together and a huge smile on his face, eyes glowing as bright as ever in his obvious excitement. Rowan glanced back down at the bot, all shiny and clean and moving—or attempting to while slightly rotating with each new bump into his foot, his wheelie chair spokes, his table leg—trying to navigate as it cleaned.
He picked it up, and its removal from the floor made its wheels stop spinning as it let out a plaintive beep in warning that it was no longer on solid ground.
“It is dinnertime now,” Milo said, venturing closer, shoulders somewhat hunched as though nervous to learn Rowan’s reaction, “so I am not going against your wishes, but I also wanted to show you what I did with some of the extra parts I didn’t use on Anabelle. Meet Spot!”
“Spot?” Rowan snorted a laugh. “That’s what Raina implies I named you.”
“I know! That’s why I thought it would be funny.”
Rowan laughed again because it washilariousbut also seriously endearing. Milo just kept surprising him every step of the way. “How did you fix it?”
“Her. I let her choose, and she decided that she is a she.”
“What?” Rowan blinked up at Milo, now standing before him. “How—”
“Not technically. But in the only way she could decide. See, I tore up bits of pink, blue, and purple paper, and placed them on the carpet in different spots around the living room. She chose to clean the pink scraps first. I realize it is an outdated ideology to assign color to gender—”
“Milo, that’s… really clever of you,” Rowan said, looking down at the now dormant bot in his hands. Well, not completely dormant. Its—her—central power button was still glowing blue. “Fixing Spot is really clever too. I guess I was so disappointed when she stopped working, I never tried to fix her.”
“Oh, right! You asked how I did it.” Milo dove into one of his usual rambling run-on sentences to explain.
Basically, Spot had stopped turning on because Rowan had gone too long without using her. An initial burst of motion was required to charge her, just like when he’d first built her, as all the previous kinetic energy had been used up. She had also been filthy, in much need of cleaning, along with needing a few replacement parts, but there was more than enough to spare from what they’d purchased for Anabelle.
“Anabelle is finished by the way, Ethel has been informed and will pick her up in the morning, and dinner is on low on the stovetop for when you are ready to eat it. I made chicken tortilla soup, one of your favorites, since you have been working so hard today. I followed the original recipe to the letter, I assure you!”
Rowan was touched. This was so different from Milo making dinner and doing chores because he was programmed to. This was like…
Like having a real live-in partner.
“I trust you, Milo. And thank you. For Spot. I love her.” He set her back down, and because she was still charged, she immediately started moving again—into the wheely chair spokes.
“I thought we could think of her like our puppy,” Milo said before Rowan could try to adjust Spot’s trajectory, positively beaming now from the praise. “Perhaps more of a kitten, since you, yourself are a cat.”
“I’m… wait, what?” Rowan sat up straight.
