WHTRJ Fic: The Visitor, a whatever happened to robot jones? fanfic

It was Robot's favorite part of the day. Lunch hour.

Not because he could break from the exhausting task of helping his reluctant classmates answer questions in class, nor because he got to shoot the breeze with his fellow rejects of student body popularity, but because this was the only period this semester he got to see Shannon Westerburg.

Unfortunately, Shannon didn't cherish the miracle that they even had the same lunch hour quite like the automaton did. Robot had at this point, in his second year attending Polyneux Middle School, and his second year having this crush on this girl, had come to accept that Shannon would never be quite as obsessed with him as he was with her-he having latched onto this girl because her high metal content was a source of comfort and familiarity to him in this all-human school. Though she had proven to be nice to him on the occasion, Shannon didn't seem to recognize Robot and his metallic content as her match in this big hectic match game known as junior high. Yet that didn't stop Robot from trying to win over her affection, bit by bit, over time. Just because it was love at first sight for him didn't mean it had to be for her. But he needed all the time that he could scrape with her, and this annoying institution of education that he didn't even need kept getting in the way. If he couldn't convince her to go out with him after school, and he could no longer tutor her at her home without bringing up past misadventures, then school was the only place that he could work on it.

It didn't help that even when they did see each other, it was in a crowded hallway or a loud cafeteria, right next to Robot's friends. Though part of him was grateful for the tips the boys gave him on how to deal with girls-Robot had never even noticed girls until Shannon and was therefore lost when it came to them-part of him was beginning to wish they would learn to stay away when he was attempting to court her. Their presence only made him more nervous. And that wasn't even getting started on how difficult it was to avoid Shannon's friends…

"Whatcha think, Robot?" ask Socks seemingly out of the blue.

Robot snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his name. "Huh? What?"

"We were talking about going to see that new Battlehammer 4-Trillion movie on Thursday," Socks repeated, "It's going to be non-stop action! In a distant future, hundreds of gross alien races beating the snot out of each other! All the guys in Fundamentals of Chemistry were talking about it."

Cubey snorted. "Yeah, all the nerds."

"Hey, there might even be some robot aliens in there," Mitch said.

"How interesting..." Robot replied, his gaze fixed on the cafeteria entrance.

"You don't sound too interested," said Mitch. Because he was one of Robot's closest friends, he could pick up on the slight variations of tone in his computerized voice, something that most people didn't seem to notice.

"That's because he's been thinking about Shannon again," Cubey said as he elbowed the electronic boy in the shoulder. "Hey, maybe you could ask Shannon to come with us!"

The suggestion made Robot wince. Asking Shannon to attend the screening of a new film sounded frightening enough, but to be accompanied by his friends, and made "kissy" faces at all night was downright terrifying.

"Nah, girls don't like action movies," Socks answered for him. "They like all those emotional, romancey films." He then laughed. "Robot, you're going to have to take her to Wings of My Heart or somethin' like that."

Though he'd never heard of the movie, in Robot's head, such a title brought about a vision of two smiling butterflies, one blue, one red, flying around a field in a dance-like formation, only to land on a big sunflower and begin to smooch. "Girl movie. Girl movie. Girl movie." the automaton uttered in horror.

The boys laughed at his response to the thought of asking Shannon to a chick-flick. None of them had a crush on a particular girl yet so badly that they might resort to such drastic measures to win her over. "Well, you should try to ask her to some movie," Mitch said at last. "What's the worst she could say?"

At that same moment, the lady in question stomped into the cafeteria, and made her presence known to everyone with just two words. "ROBOT JONES!"

While nearly everyone stopped eating to stare at the mistress of anger, the boys at the unofficially dubbed 'loser table' gulped for the little robot, who seemed to shrink even smaller with his name said in such fury. This was not how he anticipated his conversation with Shannon that day to start out. "Uh-oh," Robot moaned. "What have I done now?"

"I don't know, but she's coming this way!" Mitch pointed.

"Every man for himself!" Socks cried out, and the three humans dispersed at the speed of light.

"Huh?" Robot looked around the table and suddenly found himself alone, and vulnerable. Of all the times he wanted his friends gone when Shannon was near, now was not the time! Robot blinked up at the cyborg girl as she got within two inches of his face with what appeared to be a giant, red heart shaped card.

"What in the heck is this?" she demanded.

"Uh," he started, "I don't suppose you know human anatomy that well if you can't recognize that for being the symbolic representation of a human-"

"I know it's a heart, you nit-wit!" she spat at him. "I meant, what was this doing taped onto my locker?"

"But Shannon, I'd never leave notes of affection taped to your locker, or anywhere you pass," he said. "I prefer to deliver my gifts of affection personally!"

"Quit trying to act innocent! Your stupid card was blocking two other girls from getting into their lockers, and when I came up, the whole hallway was laughing at me. How am I going to explain this to the cheerleading squad?"

"Shannon, please," Robot pleaded with crossed claws, "I'd never try to embarrass you. Let me explain-"

The card was thrown flat against his face. "Take your stupid card back, and quit leaving me dumb little presents! First the Cupid doll on my desk in English, now this!"

"Cupid doll?" Robot asked, pulling the card down away from his face, "But I never-"

"Save it!" she said, at last turning on her heel and storming away, right out of the lunchroom. Robot made no effort to call after her, already embarrassed enough as the cafeteria began to chant and laugh at him for his supposedly uncontrollable gift giving. At once, Socks, Mitch and Cubey crawled out from their hiding spaces-Mitch and Cubey behind a pillar, Cubey in the garbage can-and made their way back to the losers' table. "Hey, uh, sorry about abandoning you like that, Robot," Cubey said, pulling a banana peel off of his shoulder.

"What was that all about?" Mitch asked.

"Shannon always acts like that when Robot gives her things," Socks said.

"But Socks Unit, I haven't given her anything!" Robot cried. "Not the card, and not the doll." He looked down at the big cardboard heart in his claws that read: To my special, special human, beep. Kissy Kissy face, beep. Love forever and ever, beep. Robot. Beep. "I don't even talk like this," he muttered, offended at how they stereotyped his speech.

"Well, then who's been leaving Shannon this stuff?" asked Socks.

Robot turned over the big card again, noticing the familiar marks on the edges that were certainly not done by his claws, but by crooked, despicably untrimmed fingernails, and suddenly his light bulb lit up. "Yogmans!"

"Those AV dorks? What would they do this for?"

"Seems a little out of their way to try and get your brain and all," Mitch noted.

"I'm not so sure," Robot said with narrow eyes. Just last October, the Yogmans had tried to trick Shannon with a fake metal arm into thinking Robot was getting fresh with her. This year they seemed to be as determined to prevent Shannon from liking Robot as they were with trying to capture his brain and keep it. Why was something he couldn't determine, but if they really were responsible for the cards and flowers, they must have had their reason. Were they really so personally annoyed with him now that they went out of their way to make him miserable? He supposed that that would be the definition of "Bullies", if his internal dictionary was correct.

"We gotta go find those dweebs and pound them like Garglebots versus the Mutants from Sector 7!" Cubey proclaimed, punching a fist into the palm on his opposite hand. "... OK, so I read the books..."

"Don't even bother," Robot sighed. "The damage has been done. Besides, even if they hadn't pulled this stunt, I don't think Shannon would have accepted my invitation, anyway. She usually never wants to see me between the 4th and 9th of the month."

All three boys looked at each other awkwardly, unsure if they should extend that train of thought. "Uh," Socks said, "What do you mean, the 4th and 9th of the month,' exactly?"

"Well, I just happened to notice a pattern where she becomes rather volatile during those days," Robot said, packing up his books and shoving his untouched oil can back into his sack. "Heaven knows why, but that's why I was hoping to have a nice conversation with her today, and make some progress towards her liking me, before I have to stay away from her for another week. I certainly wouldn't irritate her with unwanted presents when it's so close. " He looked to his friends. "You don't think she has to have monthly tune-ups like I do, do you?"

The boys all glanced at each other silently, before going red in the face and showing the signs of wanting to chuckle. "Gee, Robot," Socks said, stifling a snicker by coughing, "I don't know, but it's really… interesting…"

Mitch, who had retreated behind his own hands, tried to speak up. "Robot, I don't think it's you she's mad about at all."

"Oh, so you do think she has tune ups!" Robot said excitedly. "I do dread those as well! Oh, considering the pranks and that, I don't blame her in the least-"

"No, Robot," Cubey put a hand on Robot's shoulder. "It's not that. Shannon is-" he bit into his own knuckle.

"What are you dorks laughing at?"

The boys looked up and there stood Pam. Shannon's best friend, the girl usually never came their way unless she was looking for her skinny, prosthetically-assisted second-in-command. Instead of waiting for a response, she turned to Robot, assuming he'd tell her quickly what she needed to know.

"Robo-dork, have you seen Shannon around?"

"I did, Pam," Robot answered politely, ignoring Pam's insult. "I believe she took off in that direction," he pointed. "But I warn you, she looked… distressed." He didn't want to go into detail about the card. The last thing he wanted was for Pam to think Robot left the gifts and start yelling at him, too.

Pam put her hand on her hip and followed Robot's claw to the cafeteria entrance. "Ugh, what has gotten into her lately…?"

The boys instantly let loose with their giggles, their faces going redder. "Maybe it's a curse," Cubey suggested with a big grin.

"A curse?" Pam asked, her voice edging on annoyance.

"Yeah," Mitch snickered. "From Aunt Flo'."

All at once, the boys couldn't control it anymore. Their laughs rang out through the cafeteria and caused hoards of kids to look over at them once again.

Pam's mouth fell agape. "You… you…"

Unfortunately, the other kids were still looking when Pam, in a fit of rage, rose her fist in the air, and sent it slamming down on the table, cracking it in half between their seats. "You pigs!"

Now the boys were quiet. Even if she was a girl, Pam had a combination of fat and muscle that made her quite intimidating. While Robot watched in confusion, his human friends attempted to make up for their comments, least they end up like the table. "Now, take it easy, Pam," Socks, the often self-decided spokesman of the group, tried to coax her, "It was only a joke…"

"A joke?" she asked. "Do you think this is funny?" She pushed her nose right up against Cubey's and stared him in the eye. Sometimes the way she singled him out like that made it seem like she knew he had a crush on her, but only Cubey knew about his crush, and he didn't say a word about it. "Whenever a girl is upset, all you boys think is, 'Oh, it must be her period.' Well, I'm sick and tired of it! You invalidate our feelings with your sexist assumptions!"

Cubey tried not to blush as he spoke to her, too afraid to move an inch in either direction, in case she become physical. At last, she pulled her nose away, and Cubey, feeling lightheaded, fell out of his seat and onto the floor.

"Don't laugh at what you don't even understand!" the heavy girl threatened before storming off, grabbing some random girl she sometimes latched onto when Shannon was not around and leading her out of the cafeteria. Nearing the end of the hour, the kids in the cafeteria were beginning to pack up and grow louder, which made it easier for their attention to be turned away from the boys once more.

Feeling confident now that she was gone, Socks relaxed in his seat, "Pfft. What's there to understand?"

"The girl is nuts, dude," Mitch said flatly. "She makes a big deal about everything."

"I'm afraid I'm at a loss for further comment. What was she talking about?" Robot turned to his male companions. "What's a period?"

But before there was even time for someone to exhale, the bell rang, and the three boys shot out of their seats like it were the fire drill. "Sorry Robot, you're on your own with this one! Later!"

"But...!" Robot called after them, realizing right away that he would not see Socks, Mitch or Cubey again until tomorrow. That was their last hour together that day.

Very well. If his friends couldn't tell him, that's what his internal database was for. Robot conferred with his deep internal database often to try and translate human phrases and teenage lingo that he didn't know or wasn't informed about in his upper conscious. It took only a few seconds, but the results were usually quite helpful.

Checking memory banks… Definition not found.

Hmph, Robot thought. Well, I suppose I'll have to search for outside input...

"I don't see why this requires access to the major databases, Robot."

"Mom unit," Robot told his mother that evening, "I am quite worried about Shannon. If what's happening to her is as bad as Pam makes it out to be, I must conduct the proper research."

Mrs. Jones turned away from her home work station, a standing white computer with a large blue screen that lit up the front of the automatons in the dim living room light. "I don't know, Little Robot. Are you sure you're ready? It's quite a lot of information-"

"Mom, I'm a teenager now," he stressed, embarrassed that his mother still treated him like a child when it came to their most basic function as machines-absorbing information. "I can handle it. Trust me."

The pink, mature robot sighed. "Alright. I'll be in the kitchen fitting your father for a new exhaust pipe…"

With that, she rolled away into the brighter-lit kitchen, leaving Robot alone at his mother's computer. It was almost a right-of-passage to be able to browse unfiltered through his parents' back database. It held all the data they had collected over the years, plus a library of information shared by other units in the JNZ Corporation. Essentially, it was a private search engine before major corporations began creating them for the internet.

Robot climbed on top of a box so that he would not have to strain his extendable limbs. He figured his research could take a while. "Hmm…"

Robot clicked through pages after pages of information on curses, scanning them at a rapid rate in order to find the string of words that sounded familiar to that which he was exposed to today.

Eventually he found himself moving away from witches and Egyptian myth, and into the medical catalog. Robot used to browse through his mother's medical books sometimes. He used it to educate himself of the many and confusing inner workings of the human body when his internal database wasn't detailed enough. As it was, he wasn't really allowed to be looking through it—generally he wasn't aloud in his parents' room where the book was kept, so everything inside was off limits unless otherwise told, but he did sneak some peeks at it when they weren't home, anyway. The book had few if any illustrations, but it was packed with factual information, and helped him better understand things that the boys often talked about around him, like "pimples" and "boogers."

When he reached the illness section on the database, he stopped at the word he was looking for. "Let's see. Once a month, the human female..." He blushed harder than he ever had in his life as the screen displayed a rather graphic definition and, to make it worse, a black and white illustration. "Oh my…"

Since Robot was designed as a child unit, he was only programmed with information on human biology that a real sheltered child was expected to know appropriate for his age. Had he been tasked with studying senior level highschoolers, he might have been given the data to understand human reproductive related issues.

No wonder she was feeling so cruddy. What a curse indeed! "Poor Shannon." He had blamed the Yogmans for making her mad at him, but he had always held a slight grudge against Shannon for getting testy with him this time of the month. Now he felt sorry he could get so frustrated with her. "I should do something to make her feel better…"

The next day, he planned on apologizing to Shannon formally. Unfortunately for him, there was no sign of her. "Where is she?" Robot asked, tapping his foot as he stood by the losers' table in the cafeteria again with his friends.

"She didn't show up for my math class," Socks said. "Maybe she's sick."

"You can miss school for that?" Robot asked. "Oh, of course!" he slapped his forehead. "It's an illness!"

"Uh, Robot-"

"I'll go to her after school," he said, beginning to pace, "And I'll explain to her that the Yogmans were the ones who planted the card. Maybe, if I explain it to her calmly, she'll listen-"

"Robutt, that's not a real good idea," Socks began to say.

"Of course it is! See, it's not her fault after all! It's bigger than she can control."

Mitch snickered, and some of his milk came flowing out of his nose. Cubey laughed, and Mitch put a finger to his left nostril, then shot milk from his right nostril right onto Cubey's glasses.

Robot ignored them and continued explaining his plan to Socks. "You have pre-Algebra 2 with her, affirmative? Just tell me what McMcMc assigned today and I'll have an excuse to visit her."

Though he sounded confident when he was explaining the plan at school, as he rang on Shannon's doorbell that afternoon, Robot crossed his fingers. "She's not going to be mad anymore, she's not going to be mad anymore…"

With his eyes closed, Robot only heard the sound of the door open, and began to greet the person on the other side automatically. "Good afternoon Mrs. Wester-Shannon?"

It was in fact Shannon who opened the door. Robot had not been prepared for that. He had thought he would have a few more seconds to prepare himself. But Shannon seemed to be as surprised to see him as he was to see her. It seemed Robot's prayer had worked, because by her tone, Shannon appeared to have forgotten that she was mad at him yesterday. "Robot? What are you doing here?"

"H-hello Shannon," he said, stammering with the flowers, balloons and schoolbooks in his hand. "I-I wasn't expecting you to answer the door, what with your condition..."

The sound of vacuuming got louder from the inside as it moved closer to the living room and drowned out the end of his sentence. "Who's there' hon?" called out the voice of Mrs. Westerburg.

"It's Robot, mom," Shannon shouted back inside.

Robot peeked right of Shannon's shoulder curiously while her head was still turned. The sound of vacuuming began to move away. "Spring Cleaning?" Robot asked.

"Oh, yeah, just some last minute Spring Cleaning," she said, rubbing her neck.

"In your condition?"

The 'condition' part might have sounded odd to her if she wasn't so on edge. "Yeah. Mom let me stay home to take care of some stuff-" She rubbed her sweaty palms on her navy blue pants. Robot couldn't help but notice she came out in an interesting attire, her hair tied up in a loose ponytail, with a blue spaghetti string shirt stained under the arms with perspiration. "I just wasn't expecting company, or I would've showered. Wait, are those…?"

"Oh!" Robot nearly forgot he was holding them, and thrust them to her. "See, I came by to drop of your homework, and I uh…. wanted to make up for the 'gifts' that you think I left for you. I actually suspect the Yogmans were behind the whole thing. Funny that, huh?"

Shannon took the presents and rolled her eyes. "I thought I might have heard Lenny hissing-snickering in the hallway when he saw me right before I found the card, now that you mention it."

"So you believe me, then?" Robot said hopefully.

"Robot, I don't know what to say… " she looked over her gifts, flattered by the flowers and balloons, but a bit puzzled about why they all read Get Well Soon. Now that/i was more like a Robot Jones present. At any rate, he was giving her that expression that melted her heart. "This is really sweet. But it really isn't necessary," she said with a nervous smile.

Once he was more confident, he smiled. "Well, it's not just about the embarrassment of the presents. I wanted to give you something to make you feel better about..." He twisted his toe into the concrete. "You know… why you took the day off…."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? OH. You found out about it?" Shannon looked embarrassed, but only slightly, and glanced at the side of the house for a second. "I'm sorry, I had been putting off telling everybody," she pushed the balloons inside and played with the paper holding the bouquet together, "But since you know about it, I guess I'll have to explain to our friends when we get back to school."

Robot's face turned to horror. "You're going to tell everyone that you're menstruating?"

"That I'm-" she dropped the flowers. "WHAT?"

"Shannon?" her mother's voice called out again, before the vacuum cleaner was shut off. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing mom!" Shannon shouted inside. Despite her objection, Mrs. Westerburg appeared at the door, looking rather flustered in her regular day dress and apron, her hair standing on edge. "Oh, hi there, little Robot. I'm sorry, but Shannon can't come out to see you today. I'm sure Shannon already told you we're packing to move."

"You're MOVING?" Robot shouted, dropping the textbooks for Shannon onto the ground.

Shannon's mom sighed. "I know, we're all very upset, dear. Let Shannon tell you all about it." Her train of thought was cut off by the phone ringing inside the house. "Oh, I was expecting a call, I have to answer that. Excuse me, kids!"

She hurried back inside on her heels, leaving Shannon to face Robot's anger now.

"What did she mean you're moving? When were you going to tell us?" He was referring to his friends and her friends, such as Pam, who Robot somehow suspected didn't know about this either (he suspected Pam didn't have Shannon by the leash that the young amputee wanted her fat friend to believe). But what his heart was saying was, why didn't she tell him?

"I already told you," she said back defensively. "I didn't want to bring it up because…" she sighed. "It's complicated. There's a lot of factors involved. My grandad is closing up his pawn shop, and we're having to move somewhere closer to where mom can work-"

"So, that's why you've been so irritable lately?" he butted in.

"Yeah, it's been weighing on my mind for a while. So? And yet, you thought…" she put her hands up to her face, and, in the sheer hair-tearing frustration of it all, broke into a giggle. "You thought I was PMS-ing."

Though it was still humiliating to be so incorrect, Robot felt a twinge of relief to see her grin. "Well, uh, I could see how something like than can be a drag," he played with his claws. Then he forced a chuckle. "Of course, the shedding the lining of one's uterus could be quite—"

SLAM.

Robot cringed. "Unpleasant as well."

A few seconds later, Shannon reopened the door. Robot bit his lip, not knowing what to say. It was apparent to Shannon that he was aware that he still hadn't mastered appropriate human social conversation, but in that moment, she didn't have the sympathy to deal with it.

"I went too far again, didn't I?"

She pinched her fingers in front of him. "Just a little."

"I'm sorry," he said. He was so tired of having to say that.

She put a hand to her forehead. "Ugh… no, no Robot… I'm sorry, that was rude, what I just did." She lowered her hand and gestured at the inside of her house. "Do you want to come in or something?"

His eyes lit up. "Come into your house?"

"Yeah, if you can stand the mess," she shrugged, going inside before him. "Come on."

He followed her inside, slowly and cautiously. He was always somewhat more anxious as soon as he crossed the threshold into her actual home. It was hot outside, especially for May, but even hotter upstairs, with only one fan blowing in the hallway, and the only relief from the high temperature in Shannon's room was the window by her bed opened a crack.

Though the downstairs was rather orderly, with nearly everything but the furniture packed into tight boxes, Shannon's room looked lived in as a teenager's room with no intent on going anymore. And by lived in, disastrous. It was difficult for him to move two feet in her room without disturbing another pile on the floor.

It was the polar opposite of his room at home. He watched a poster droop off of the wall in the late afternoon heat, feeling a little claustrophobic. "Would it be socially unacceptable for me to offer my help?"

"Thanks, Robot, but I'm fine." She tossed various articles of clothing off of the floor and flung them into a dirty laundry basket in order to clear a narrow path to her bed. "Just relax."

To relax in that room was like asking a human to relax on a bed of nails. As if being in a girl's room alone wasn't stress for him, Robot's eyes continued to fall on her bed. Shannon's bed. The place where she laid her head down at night, the place where she dreamed all her dreams, whatever they may be—whoever they might be. His disk speed ran up just thinking about it.

"How the heck did that get in there?" Shannon asked herself with her head in the closet, across the foot of her bed, paying no mind to the anxious Robot, who was dying to begin asking questions. Where are you moving? How far away is that? Will you be switching schools? And dare he even think, Will I never see you again?

In a usual act of Shannon awkwardness, she climbed the wall with her feet like it were a cliff, using a cord sticking out of the wall as a runner, and began yanking it furiously. "What is this?"

While she was preoccupied with that, Robot's gaze trailed the room, and landed on a large piece of yellowed paper, rolled up and teetering on the edge of the bed. Figuring it qualified as 'making himself at home', he approached it, unrolled it, and gasped. Such harsh brush strokes, such rushed colors. Robot was captivated. He knew that Shannon often doodled on paper in class to ignore the teacher, as did Mitch sometimes and some other kids sometimes, but he never knew she was capable of anything so moving.

"I see you found my magnum opus," Shannon mutter behind his back, startling him.

He turned to face her, and held the piece out uncurled in front of him. "This is your greatest work!"

"You don't process sarcasm, do you?" With a mad thrust, Shannon tore the paper out of Robot's hands and clomped to the other side of the room with it.

"If you don't like it," he called after her, "Why have you kept it?"

She paused, thoughtfully, brushing some eraser shavings off of the paper. "To remind me, I guess," she said at last.

The girl on the paper had one large bulging eye, and was getting swept up in a storm of black paint, like it was trying to erase her from existence. "Who is she?" asked Robot.

"Oh, I don't remember what I was thinking about at the time," Shannon said under her breath.

"It's stunning, regardless" he said. Was that the appropriate word humans used to describe art that made them go still?

Shannon slowly shook her head, and before Robot realized what was happening, she was seized by rage. "No, no… no it's not! It's trash! It's garbage!" she yelled, ripping it in half.

"No, it's not! Stop!" Robot protested, leaping towards Shannon by the window to snatch it out of her hands, just carefully enough not to damage the two pieces of paper further. "It's beautiful!"

"Beautiful?" Shannon pointed at the ripped artwork in Robot's claws, "That cost me the blue ribbon at the art fair two years ago."

"Maybe so, but it is might be the most important piece of art I've ever see," Robot said with conviction.

"And why is that?"

"Because… because it's not like anything else.. It made me feel something…" he said. "Something I can't quite describe with ordinary language. Don't you create more stuff like this? I'd like to see it."

"Of course I don't. Everyone hated it. You should have seen the look on the judges faces when they saw it, talking about how disturbing it was. My brother asked me, "why can't I be normal and paint butterflies or tulips or something. Something girly and sweet and stupid."

"You mean this trashy wallpaper stuff ?" he said, referring to the poorly drawn series of Merigolds on the easel in the corner of the room, next to her bed. Robot shook his head. "I don't understand you sometimes, Shannon," he said, sounding defeated. "Why do you insist on doing everything the way everyone else does it?"

It wasn't just the art he was talking about, and he knew it. It was the way she talked, the way she walked, the entire way she behaved when she was around other people. Coming to her house that day just went to show what she was like when her defenses were down. There were two Shannon, and the one Robot wanted-the only one he could see himself making his girlfriend, was itching to crawl out from creepy but fascinating drawing in his hands.

"I don't know…" Shannon sighed, leaving the window and sitting down onto her bed. "Why can't I paint this stuff as good as everybody else can?"

Robot had his hands behind his back, shifting his weight on either foot thoughtfully. "Maybe it is because Merigolds and dancing butterflies is not what you want to paint."

She was quiet for a moment, letting that soak in, and then met his eyes. "That's the most sense you've ever made, Robot Jones."

He smiled.

They both looked at the picture again. But Robot was tired of beating around the bush. "Where are you going when you leave?"

"I don't know yet," she shrugged. "My mom is searching for a house. If we're lucky, maybe we'll only move across the state."

Robot grimaced. Delaware wasn't a large state by any means, but it would surely mean Shannon would be attending a different school. And considering their relationship was as rocky as ever, the likelihood of Robot making a decent excuse to visit her would be abysmally small. The frustration must have rubbed off on Shannon, who shot up again and began throwing unwanted toys from her childhood, and old, lonesome shoes, long without their mates, into the pit of her closet to make space as she stormed forward. "It seems like everything is out to get me."

Suddenly, a large roller skate-presumably the only one-fell down from her closet, rolled off a half-tilted shelf and hit Shannon smack on top of her head.

Robot cringed, but was relieved to see the blow didn't knock her out. He hurried over to the girl, who sank with her back against the wall to the floor. "Are you alright?"

The subtle kindness in his voice that only his closest friends could detect worked like sugar on her. "Ow… I've got such a headache. "

Robot frowned and held up a finger. "Be right back,"

He dashed out of her room at lightning speed, and returned faster than Shannon could stand back up. He bent down to her handed her a cold glass of water.

"Thanks," she said, gratefully taking the glass and a long sip, resentfully staring at the minefield she called a room. No wonder she was such a calamity case.

It was something he'd wanted to ask her for so long. He bit his tongue. He knew he was going to regret asking this later, but Robot was feeling particularly bold at the moment. "Shannon unit… do you think you'll be a mother someday?"

She spat out the water, leaning away from Robot's direction but still managing to mist his face with her spit. He wiped his face with a squeegee tool with the mildest look of disgust. "I'm sorry… what?"

Robot quickly turned away, fiddling with his fingers the way he did when he was nervous. "I just… I was just curious…"

"Where do you get off asking people about that?" she asked, looking annoyed again. "About periods and babies and whatever?"

"Forgive me, Shannon, but you're the only girl beside my mother who will talk to me."

She shook her head, which was still throbbing. "I don't know, Robot, I… well, yeah, I've thought about it… I mean, how can I not? All the girls at school talk about is who they're going to marry and how many kids they're going to have. If you heard how they talk about me at school… I doubt any guy would ever want to have any with me."

"You shouldn't talk about yourself like that," he said, sinking down on the floor with her. He could give her a thousand years to run through her mind every boy she could think of, but Robot knew she'd never see him standing there. Him and the love that was bearing into her eyes through the headlights he had for his own. What would it take for her to understand just how deeply he felt her, besides those three stupid, unspeakable words and a bunch of meaningless gifts?

She was tempted to call him out on his being weird, as she used to do, but she instead sighed. Something about his blurting of awkward statements was becoming more endearing to her the longer she knew him. Maybe it was just that thing about him that was so unique. "You really know how to get me thinking about things, Robot."

He smiled. "Shannon, anybody would be lucky to have you mother their child."

Shannon looked up from her lap. The pain in her head was starting to fade. "Coming from you, that's kinda sweet," she said with an awkward giggle.

A bundle of warmth was felt in Robot's chest. He felt accomplished by getting her to do something like giggling. He didn't care if the words were mushy. He was just glad to let them out from his heart and into the open at last.

The room had gone from warm to steamy, and the open window wasn't helping. The sunset of a beautiful day outside poured into her room, setting him aglow the way only a steel skinned boy with a glass brain could.

Perhaps she wasn't entirely clueless about what he was thinking after all. Shannon used the quiet moment to boomerang the question right back at him. "Have you thought about being a dad someday?"

His smile fell. How expressive he was that he didn't even need to speak. Was it so obvious that she had read his mind? "Me?" He lay a hand over his chest. "A father?" Ever since first imagining a half-robot child he and Shannon could bring into existence, the thought of babies made him sick. Though such a thing was not even possible, especially with his new understanding of human biology, it still haunted him whenever he thought about what future he and Shannon could possibly have together. "I don't think I'll ever be ready for that," he said, honestly.

"Ya sure?" she asked, "Because, well, I always thought you'd make a pretty great dad."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah, with how sensitive and thoughtful you are," she said, turning bright red. "Heck, you'd do better than me, anyway."

If he could cry, that would have been the tipping point. Instead, Robot's pupils wobbled before the girl. "Shannon, that may be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

He looked down. They were holding hands. All was quiet except for Shannon's mother downstairs, talking loudly over the phone. Only then did reality come sounding off like his internal alarm clock. The one that told him this moment was as close to Shannon as he was ever going to get. That he'd reached the end of their time together, and trying to extend it was only going to make it hurt worse to let her go. Maybe this move was the cold, hard sign that this relationship between him and her was never going to go anywhere…

"Shannon!" a muffled voice from downstairs shouted. Both teens ignored it.

Robot shook his head violently and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her close. "Shannon…"

"Yes?" she hushed back.

His voice was cracking. Every second more that he stared at her face. Her adorable face. "I don't want you to go. I…. I love..."

"Shannon!" an excited voice outside Shannon's door interrupted him. Mrs. Westerburg didn't even bother knocking before she flung it open, a big smile on her face. "Shannon, oh, great news!"

"Mom!" Shannon shouted as Robot violently retracted his arms and leaped backwards towards the other end of the room with a smack.

Even if he was a robot, Mrs. Westerburg normally might have had a comment about a boy being up in Shannon's room with the door closed, but she seemed to wrapped up in her excitement to scold them. "I just got off the phone with Herald Gomez at the dentist office on Kelly Street. He's willing to take me back as a receptionist!"

"But… that's only five blocks away," Shannon smiled, "Which means-!"

"We don't have to go anywhere!" She ran up and hugged her. "And you can stay here and finish school!"

The kindhearted mother was so overwhelmed with excitement, when she let go of Shannon, she grabbed Robot and hugged him, too, not caring about how sharp his corners were. Robot flushed. Shannon's mom was a rare adult who seemed more fond than impatient of the robot child. While Robot appreciated this, especially since it made the task of getting closer to Shannon herself that much easier, it was a bit embarrassing to have one of his friends' mom be so comfortable hugging him like that.

She quickly let go of her tight hold on the automaton and looked over at Shannon. "I'm going to call your Grandfather at the YMCA. He'll be thrilled! We were going to lose money if we had to sell the house for a new one, anyway." She looked at Robot once more. "I swear, you coming over was a miracle."

Robot pointed to his chest. "Me?"

Mrs. Westerburg dashed out of Shannon's room, leaving the teenagers alone once more. "So, uh," Robot started. "I guess you won't be leaving then."

Shannon tapped her finger on her lap nervously. "I… I guess not."

"And everything we just talked about…" Robot said, before stopping himself. It was one thing if it was likely this would be his last chance to visit Shannon before she was gone, that extremely personal conversation they just had just had would be forgivable. But now…

"Robot," Shannon turned towards him with a sober expression, lines under her eyes. "Let's never bring up what we just talked about."

"Affirmative," he agreed, almost feverishly. If word ever got out about the things he discussed with her… the touchy, girly, baby related things… he had a feeling that he'd never live it up. "Mum's the word."

Somehow it didn't feel appropriate to spend any more time in her room. He would see her tomorrow at school, in the cafeteria. She wasn't going anywhere. Their relationship would resume-him trailing her, her ignoring it. All as it should be.

Just as he opened the door, she spoke up once more. "And Robot…"

He turned around with wide, curious eyes.

"Thanks," she said, picking the bouquet off of the floor, "For the visit."

He grinned and nodded, before pulling the door shut, and letting himself out.

She went back up into her room, forgetting entirely about her chores for the moment, and sat on her floor, sniffing the flowers.

Outside, the realization didn't hit Robot, until he closed the door to her home, standing on her doorstep.

Shannon thinks I'd be a great dad.

A smile crossed his face. He didn't care if it made him crazy. Maybe it was still a long ways off, but the thought of having children of his own didn't scare him so badly anymore. In fact, for a moment or two there, it almost made him… excited. Even if things would resume to what they were, at least he would still see her. At least the girl he marveled at for being so different would still be there. And if fate would ever be so kind as to bring them closer together than they had been that afternoon, he didn't have to worry about their children anymore.

A block away, Robot stopped in his tracks, and began to run full speed back to the Westerburg house. He had a single burning question that needed to be answered:

Did she like action movies?

This fanfic is full of la fluffies. Straight up fluffs. Some of those in RJ club seemed to show interest in the RJxShannon pairing, so it was time I dedicated a one-shot to it. This one is based off of the drawing I attached with it. The idea of Robot trying to understand periods was too rich. I always wanted to see how believable a fanfic could be when it begins to touch on a rather adult subject. I also wanted to develop Shannon's character a bit more. Sorry if she seems OOC, but there's not much to her character as it is, and she leans to being a pretty complex character, the situation considered: Being an amputee and a nerd, having to cope with never being Beauty Queen, and trying to avoid Robot, who is even lower on the ladder than she is. She's fun to play around with. Maybe I'll try to eventually write a backstory for her accident. That sound be something. In the meantime, enjoy the loves.