“I did not,” I replied.
The moment passed. He cleared his throat. “I’d better eat.”
To eat, he needed to remove his face shield.
“Can I watch?” I asked.
Assistant 23 sputtered, “N-no!”
His muscles tensed as he shrunk in on himself again. His body language insinuated that I’d pushed him too far. Although, I had to admit, he was cute while flustered.
“All right,” I said.
Grasping the fruit in my tentacles, I offered them to him. He accepted with a curt nod.
When he gripped his fruit safely in hand, I expected him to run inside and slam the door. But to my surprise, he hesitated. Silently, I watched his face shield and waited for his next move.
“Why are you talking to me?” Assistant 23 blurted out.
My tail waved slowly from side to side. “I wish to know more about you.”
“Butwhy? I’m a—” His hands, hidden by the same beige material as the rest of his strange coverings, flailed in the air. “I’m afreak!”
I didn’t understand the word.
“What is afreak?” I asked.
Assistant 23 breathed faster as though the outburst had exerted him but making him explain the term calmed him down. Slightly.
“It means… someone abnormal. A social outcast. Weird. Off-putting,” he muttered. “Me, basically.”
My feelers pulsed as I considered this new information.
“Then I, too, am a freak,” I stated.
Assistant 23 let out a laugh, but there was no mirth in it. “Yeah, sure.”
“You say you believe me, yet you do not sound sincere,” I pointed out.
“You’re not a freak. Trust me,” he mumbled.
“I do trust you.”
A tiny sound of surprise escaped from him.
“But I do not agree with your dismissal,” I continued. “You do not know me very well. Am I correct?”
He crossed his arms. It made him look minuscule and fragile, like a freshly sprouted twig. I could have snapped him in half. Of course, I did not want to. But I could have.
“Yeah. You’re right,” he admitted. He uncrossed his arms, letting them return to his sides. “It’s… hard for me. To talk topeople. Humans, Maeleons, whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m just bad at it.”
Happy warmth spread through my body. That was more than I had dared to think he would share.
“Interesting,” I replied.
“What’s interesting about that?” he grumbled.
I tilted my head. “You are confused? Everything about you is interesting to me.”