The Heap home was a rather small residence. The home consisted of the ground floor, and the basement. On the ground floor was a living room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and two bedrooms. The basement was where Justin kept all of his mechanical tools, along with the workbench that Iris had stayed for the past four years. Naturally, she couldn't stay in the basement anymore. She needed a new place to stay.

That place ended up being Alex's room. Unlike her human friend, Iris couldn't sleep in a bed. So, Justin constructed her a pod to sleep in out of some scraps he had in the basement. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but Iris didn't mind. It was nice to know that he cared enough to make it for her.

As for her roommate… Alex was her friend, but there was one little thing that bugged her. Alex was a pack rat. Her side of the room was completely cluttered, while everything on Iris's side was neatly put away. If someone were to draw a chalk line in the middle of the room, there would be a perfect line to divide their sides of the room based off the mess. Iris guessed it must have been a habit she picked up from her father, because it wasn't just Alex's room. The house on a whole suffered from too much clutter. Just about every corner was filled with broken items salvaged from the junkyard.

During the first few months of her life with them, the problem never cleared up on it's own. So, Iris decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Don't you think we ought to do something about this mess?" Iris questioned, and gestured to their shared room.

Alex, who had been tinkering with an old radio on her bed, looked up from her project, and blinked. "What mess?"

"You're side of the room. It's a disaster!"

"It's an organized mess. I know where everything is."

"Really?" Iris raised a skeptical brow. "If that's true, then where is that old microwave you were working on last week?"

"It's… uh… it was on the desk."

"But you moved it after you started working on that radio."

"Come on, it's around here somewhere, I know it is!"

What followed was at least a half an hour or unsuccessful searching. Alex tore through the clutter in vein. No matter where she looked, she just couldn't find the microwave. How did something that big end up missing? It was the doing of nasty machine loving fairies, Alex decided.

"Maybe if you organized things better, you would be able to find it." Iris finally spoke up. She had watched her friend from her side of the room. Perhaps Alex would be willing to listen now. The human girl could be so stubborn sometimes.

"Fine." Alex sighed in defeat. "But I don't have to like it."

Iris smiled. "Let's get started, then."

…..

Digging through the mounds of Alex's belongings proved to be tedious work, but Iris wasn't alone in the task. The human girl sat next to her as they both attempted to organize things. At first, Iris thought it was just going to be some old mechanical tools, but it wasn't just old technology that littered the room. Iris came across t-shirts, jeans, and an old pair of socks. "You ought to use your closet for your clothes." Said the Reploid as she pulled out yet another article of clothing.

"Can't. It's full of old TVs." Alex smirked.

For a moment, Iris thought she was serious, but she had seen that look on her friend's face before. The Reploid wasn't as naive as she once had been. "Very funny, now put them away." She smiled as she pushed the clothing into her hands.

"Nag nag nag nag." She let out a sigh, and rose up to her feet to put her various clothes away.

Iris continued her attack on the clutter when something suddenly caught her eye. It was a thin, brown box. Curious, she reached out to snatch up the box, and opened it. Inside were spots of grease, and dried up old cheese. "W… what?" She blinked. Out of all the things she imagined finding, the last thing on her mind was an old pizza box. And it wasn't just a pizza box either, there was a rotten apple core, and a moldy half eaten sandwich. "Alex, why is there old food in here?" She questioned as she stared at the fuzzy bread.

"Hm?" Alex walked back over to her friend, and looked at the same sandwich. "Oh! I completely forgot about that! Sometimes I get too carried away when I'm working, and I just forget I was eating something. I usually don't remember till it starts to stink." She grinned.

"Ew! That's disgusting!" Iris shrieked in reply. Judging by how moldy the sandwich was, it had been in their room for at least a week. Now that was just gross.

"Oh, is that what you think?" A mischievous grin spread across Alex's features. Never a good sign. She suddenly snatched up the fuzzy green sandwich, and held it in front of her. "Well, this sandwich just loves you, Iris! But you had to hurt it's feelings, kiss and make up!"

"Eek! No!" Iris leapt up to her feet to escape the moldy thing. She darted to the other side of the room. "Just throw it away!" She pleaded to her friend, but it was all in vein. Alex crackled wickedly, and gave chase. Iris ran out of the room with her friend, and the old sandwich, hot on her heels.

It took a plunger, some old towels, and a glass of water for the pursuit to finally end, and for the two to finally get back to work.

…..

"There. Much better." Iris let out a breath. Now both sides of the room were clean.

"You know, it's probably not going to look like that next week." Alex said while sprawled on her now sheet less bed. When Iris found out the sheets hadn't been washed in a year, she ripped them off the bed, and dragged them to the laundry room.

"Well… just don't leave food in here anymore, and I'll be happy."

"Sure thing." Alex pushed herself up. "Speaking of food, I'm starving." She headed off to the kitchen, and Iris began to follow.

The Reploid instead stopped in the middle of the living room. This room was, if not more, cluttered than Alex's side of the room had once been. She frowned a bit. "Hey Alex, do you think we could clean up the living room?" Iris questioned.

"You're kidding, right?" The other girl shouted back from the kitchen.

"It won't take that long."

"Yeah it will! It's twice as bad as my side of the room. Besides, I hate cleaning."

"If we work together it'll go by quickly." A familiar old car pulled up into the driveway. "And it won't be just the two of us."

"Wait, what?"

Iris only giggled.

…..

When Justin came home from work that day, the last thing he expected to do was clean up the house. He rarely ever gave attention to such matters. As a result, he allowed the house fall to a dingy state. While he enjoyed cleaning as much as his daughter did, he agreed that Iris had a point, and something should be done about the mess. It was tedious work, but the problem would only get worse if ignored.

At the moment, Justin and Iris were sorting through boxes and piles of old things while Alex took anything technology related to the basement. Iris removed what looked like an old game system off a cardboard box, and placed it with the other electronics. There was writing on the system, but most of it had faded. Only a 'P' remained, but Iris decided it didn't really matter, and moved on to the cardboard box. What was in the box was a mystery to the Reploid, but he guess would be broken mp3 players, or hand held gaming devices. She pulled back the flaps, and blinked.

What was really in there caught her by surprise. Inside were old photo albums, dusty framed pictures, and smaller jewelry boxes. Carefully, Iris picked up a picture frame on the surface, and blew off the dust. A pair of striking green eyes met her own. A woman stared back at Iris. The woman was young with reddish brown hair, fair skin, and a smile. But those eyes got her attention the most. She had seen those eyes before.

They were the same as Alex's eyes.

"Justin… who is this?" Iris question, slightly unsure if this was something to bring up to him. The photo was hidden away for a reason, but she still found herself curious.

He turned her attention to the Reploid, and his eyes fell on the picture she held up. "Her name was Ashlynn." He answered. "She was my wife, and Alex's mother."

"Oh… what happened to her?" Iris bit down on her lip. She really shouldn't have asked that question. An old pain sprung up in Justin's eyes. A pain she dug up.

"She died."

"I- I'm so sorry." Iris said with a sympathetic voice. She didn't dare ask how Ashlynn died. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to lose someone. Alex never mentioned her mother, so she must have died when the girl was still too young to remember.

Justin didn't reply. He just looked away from the picture. He wasn't the type of man to openly display his feelings. But he did show the pain for that brief moment, Iris saw it. Iris watched him with concern for a moment, and then rose up to her feet. She walked over to the man, and placed her hand on his shoulder. At this moment, Iris found herself at a loss for words. What do you say to someone who lost the love of their life? What Justin lost was irreplaceable. The was not a thing that could heal that kind of pain.

Justin placed his hand over hers, but still looked away. "Can you… just put that back away for me?"

"Of course." Iris gave a nod, and walked back to the dusty box. She looked at the photo one last time, and sighed. The Heaps seemed like a plucky little family, but behind the mask was so much pain. Alex had her blood disease, and Justin lost his wife. Iris wanted to help them just like they had helped her, but what could she do? Their problems couldn't be fixed with some new parts of chips. Perhaps there was something she could do for them, but at the moment it was a mystery to her. Iris set the picture back into the box as gently as she could, and closed the box.

For now, the subject of Ashlynn would have to remain untouched. Iris hoped that one day Justin would be willing to talk about it with her. Talking about his deceased wife might help him heal.

…..

It was eleven thirty at night when the task was finally finished. The three now sat at the kitchen table, slumped in their chairs. Cleaning up the Heap household had been a more tiring job that Iris had originally imagined. All three of them felt quite exhausted, but especially Justin. He had been working the first half of the day, after all. If it wasn't for the pains of hunger that gnawed at his stomach, he would have retired to his room for the night.

He finally forced himself to stand back up, and walk over to the refrigerator. "I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's hungry." He pulled open the door, and peered inside. It must have been a long time since he went shopping, for there was hardly anything left inside. However, there were a few things left. "How about sandwiches? Those are quick." He looked back to the two girls, expecting them to nod in approval.

What he wasn't expecting was for his daughter to start laughing, and Iris to turn a little green.

…..

Authors notes

Sorry this chapter took so long. I hit a few blocks while writing this. I rewrote some scenes, but I'm still not totally happy with it.

I know this is starting off kind of slow, but I think it's important to build up a believable relationship between Iris and the Heaps. Bear with me guys, it'll be important later.

The next chapter will probably be another friendship building one, but I swear things will pick up soon.