It had all happened so fast, too fast for her. Her mother had continued talking to her and telling her things about the stranger, but she paid no attention to anything said. She just locked her eyes onto the strange person and acknowledged nothing else. Her mom had eventually stopped talking and hugged her goodbye, but that didn't seem to matter now. At that moment, the stranger was moving around their living room and cleaning it up. The being had started this right away when her mom had left, and not knowing what to do, XJ9 had sat herself down on the couch to watch.

She raced around to dust the shelves and pick up things as she went along. She hummed a little tune that XJ9 couldn't place. Although as she was thinking about it more, the stranger looked peaceful and comfortable, almost like she should be here. XJ9 shook her head, no no, that wasn't possible. It was her and her mom's house, no one else's. She crossed her arms in defiance at the thought and leaned back against the sofa. Suddenly said sofa was picked up, and she, along with it, was raised. She panicked for a moment and looked down just as the vacuum cleaner started. The stranger vacuumed below her before setting the couch down and moving onto the next thing nearby. How strange this person was. She didn't look like anyone XJ9 had ever seen before.

She was purple and a strangely familiar white color across her body. Her body itself was like a small smooth pentagon, making her shaped, unlike any other person she had yet to meet. Not to mention her legs, or lack thereof, where she instead had a large wheel at the bottom. She guessed that explained how the person was zooming around so fast. The person raced around the room one more time before suddenly stopping beside the couch where she sat.

"Whooo, oh am I glad to be done with that. I swear this place needed a good cleaning."

XJ9 started eerily at the being as she dusted herself off. She then did a sudden turn and was far too close for her liking.

"Oh, just let me get a look at you! I'm so excited to meet you!"

Hands were all over her then, wait, hands, yeah four hands to be exact. They seemed to pull and check at every section of her possible.

"Just as I thought, not only are you far more advanced, but you're also filthy. When was the last time you took a bath?"

A bath? What in the world was a bath? The stranger looked very serious about it, though, so XJ9 shrugged in response. The stranger rolled her eyes.

"Of course, leave it to Mother to overlook such a thing."

Mother?

"I understand that she gets all caught up in her work, and I admit you're not that dirty, so it probably didn't cross her mind to give you one, but still, proper hygiene is important."

She wagged one of her two fingers at XJ9's face in a lightly scolding way.

"I'm gonna let this slide since you're so young and because you're an absolute cutie, but not next time."

The cute compliment made her blush, but she was still baffled. She guessed it must have shown on her face because the other's face shifted to a quick realization.

"Where are my manners? A proper introduction should be in order."

She sucked her remaining cleaning supplies into her body, but not before quickly cleaning her hands and holding one out.

"Hello XJ9, I am XJ4. I'm here to keep an eye on you, keep the house in one piece, and spotless, might I add, and give our Mother peace of mind while she's gone."

Mother? There she was saying it again.

"I know she technically introduced us earlier, but I don't think you took that all in, did you?"

She shamefully looked down and shook her head no.

"Oh, sweetie, don't be upset. When meeting me, none of the others paid much attention to introductions and all. I can't blame them, though. Names aren't exactly the first thing on your mind when you meet someone like you."

Someone like you? The others? What in the world was this lady talking about? She looked down at her extended out hand and realized she had yet to shake it. XJ9 watched this XJ4 closely as she slowly stuck her hand out and took hold of hers. The handshake was short and light, but everything about it caught her attention. She had never seen or felt anything like this. Her mom's hands were warm, soft, almost light in a sense. XJ4's were nothing like this. Her hands were cold, a little rough, especially where little connecting lines meet, and felt a little heavier.

The differences aren't what worried her though, oh no, the similarities made her do a double-take. As their hands met, it all became so obvious—the exact shade of white across them, the connecting lines of the same size and pattern. Despite XJ4 only having two fingers and them being slimmer, they nearly matched otherwise. Their hands were closer than her and her mom's hands had ever been. Did that mean that her own were cold too? What did it mean in general?

"Well, now I hope we can get along with each other and have a good time."

XJ4 smiled brightly at XJ9, and she shot her a small smile back. She didn't know exactly what was going on and what these connections meant, but she'd figure it all out soon enough. At the moment, though, she decided she was content with just happily smiling with the other person. Well, until she was suddenly sprayed in the face by some liquid followed by cloth quickly running over her head.

"Sorry, I couldn't hold out any longer."

She tried to squirm away, but four arms wrapped around her to keep her still. XJ4 began talking about how filthy she was as the cloth was scrubbing her cheek. This was going to be an interesting few days, that was for sure. After finally being set free from XJ4's sudden cleaning attack, she found herself following her around. She watched her zoom around and clean the kitchen. She moved so fast and each action so smooth, as if she had done this a hundred times before. Maybe she had? Trying to unjumble their previous conversation, XJ9 let out a slight yawn. XJ4 quickly stopped cleaning and looked over to her.

"Oh my, look how late it's gotten!"

XJ9 looked around for a second. The only clock in the kitchen was facing her direction, so she had no clue how XJ4 knew the time.

"Come on, off to bed with you."

She set down the cloth she was scrubbing with and began to shoo XJ9 away and go up the stairs. She didn't know how XJ4 knew where her room was but chose to believe that sometimes her mother had shown or told her where it was. So she opened the door into her room and walked in as she plopped herself down on her bed. She might have gotten under the covers quickly if it wasn't for the fact that the other caught her attention.

XJ4 slowly rolled into the room, seeming to take it all in. The smile on her face was still there, but something about it had changed. She watched her slowly come towards her as her eyes scanned the room with something in those black eyes. Then, as her eyes looked around, she seemed to snap out of it when they landed on her. Yet, she still smiled at XJ9 as she peacefully came closer.

XJ9 laid back in the bed and was about to pull the cover-up when XJ4 stopped her hands. XJ4 ran her cool fingers over XJ9's own before letting go of them, and she pulled up the blanket to tuck her in. She was gentle, so very gentle with her in a different way from how her mom was. It was as if she had tucked her in a hundred times before or tucked someone else in that many times. She was nicely wrapped up, not too tight or too loose and she sleepy watched XJ4 gently tuck the extra lengths of the blanket into the bed below her.

She watched XJ4 gently plug her in and watched her pause for a second. Then, she looked down at her one more time before gently rubbing her head as her mom did for her.

"Goodnight 9. I'll see you in the morning."

She quietly rolled out of the room and shut the door so peacefully that there wasn't even a creak as it closed. XJ9 let out a yawn as her eyes grew heavier. She was so close to falling asleep, but she tried to hang on for just a little longer. Something was familiar about her, something that she couldn't quite place. She reminded her of someone, but who she didn't know. Yet, at the same time, as she closed her eyes, she could see it again in her mind. Her smile. What about her smile?

She was too tired from the stress for her to wake up and watch the monitor like usual. As a result, she missed whatever was coming on that night. Yet, that didn't seem to matter. As she was about to fall into sleep mode entirely, the mini realization of what it was finally hit her.

Huh, she didn't know smiles could be sad.

Author's Note- God, man. Where to begin? I know I practically disappeared off the face of the earth for a long time here. In all honestly, it was a number of things that caused me to stop writing for a while now. A general lack of interest in this story put me off for a bit and combine that with an extremely busy summer and college now, and well yeah. Still, that's not much of an excuse for me not to update and such. I hope you all like this little chapter of fluff and I'm gonna try to get back to updating more frequetnly. Please tell me what you think, and have a good day.

Thank you for reading!