"...Fletcher, you might want to finish your homework in your room."
"What? Why?" the fledgling looked up from his tablet. He had been puzzling over his reading comprehension quiz for over an hour and had sunken deep into the armchair at the end of the coffee table.
"Your mother's about to reach the gate, and it seems she's in a bad mood," Nos mumbled as he rose from his spot on the couch.
Fletcher squinted his eyeforms in concentration, straining his sensors. "I... I can't feel her..."
"No? You will soon. Let's get a move on, I expect she'll be here any minute," Nos began to move about the den, adjusting the thermostat, changing the channel to a music station, turning the lights up.
"But why should I go?" Fletcher grumbled.
Nos stopped fluffing the pillows so he could goad his son out of the air chair. "Trust me, little one, you'll be much more comfortable in your room. She'll need to let some steam off when she comes inside, and I'm sure you'll want to be out of her way. Now go, go!"
Nos straightened out the throw pillow that Fletcher had squashed as the fledgling took off down the bedroom hall. The front door opened, Two's electrical signature strengthening by the second. Nos barely dug the softest blanket out of the basket by the hearth before Two stormed into the room.
"You would not believe the garbage I just had to put up with!"
"Good evening, little dove, let me take that," Nos intercepted her as she veered toward the bedrooms, helping her out of her apron.
"In this day and age, it's disgusting to think there are still people around with a prejudice against robots! They had no problem with my landscaping when we were trading emails, but the second we meet in person ‒ "
"Hey! Hey," Nos took her shoulders in his hands, holding her so they faced each other. Her narrow eyeforms bored into his optics. "Let's get those wings out, release some of that pressure. You're fit to burst."
Two absentmindedly extended her wings, keeping them deactivated. Nos patted her back and steered her into the sofa, pulling the blanket around her back and rubbing it against the bases of her wings.
"I've been working on this project for two weeks!"
"I know, you stayed up all Tuesday night."
"I know! I can't remember the last time I worked so hard ‒ and this... this total geezer comes in and suddenly starts saying everything looks too 'stiff' and 'artificial!' Artificial! A garden!"
"Unbelievable."
"And of course he goes and tries to talk to the manager ‒ get this ‒ he wanted to talk to the actual designer!"
"Surely that didn't go over well?"
"No, Jenny let him have it and turned him away. Dare him to find someone else who'll work with him now though! Jen called all the other landscapers in town and tipped them off. Really, half of us are robots, he'll be lucky to find a place to buy fertilizer from now on. Still... that's so much work that I'm never going to get back!"
"If I weren't under constant watch, I'd track that guy down and really give him something to think about. There isn't another sentient being in any species who could rival your landscaping expertise."
Two had burrowed deep into the blanket by now, curling into Nos's side so her wing folded around his back. He had his arm around her, rubbing the membrane of her other wing between his fingers. Her electrical signature became calmer the longer she spoke, as if Nos were siphoning her agitation away. In truth, he was giving off a calming wavelength of his own to help bring her down.
"That's sweet of you, Nos."
"Now, are you sure you can't repurpose any of this work you've been doing?"
"I mean, it wouldn't be impossible, but his requests were so specific... I'm telling you, from now on I want to meet with my clients in person first!"
"You can keep a picture of me on your desk, too. I can have a nice, intimidating portrait done..."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but let's not get carried away. The last thing we need is for you to violate some part of your reform agreement," Two smirked. Nos grinned back ‒ he had made her smile. Mission accomplished.
"Even if something like that happened, I'm sure we'd find a way out just like before. There's nothing that can get between us Energy Vampires."
A pulse of blue light flashed through Two's cerulean wings. She leaned up so that the base of her visor touched his neck, kindling a static spark against his metal. "Thank you, Nos-4-a2."