Iris liked having long hair. Her long dark brown locks were quite pretty when taken care of properly. However, her hair always found a way to be a problem when she needed to get something done. Her attempts at tying it back were all in vein. Little pieces of hair always escaped any pony tail holder she used. It was such a bother at times.

This was one such time.

Out of curiosity, Iris had asked Alex to show her what she was working on. Her human friend was more than happy to oblige. This week's project was an old video game system. "With any luck, we'll be able to give this a test run by tomorrow." Grinned the girl as she worked. Iris sat across from Alex, and watched. The system wasn't a large project, so the Reploid had to lean forward to get a good look. Unfortunately, her hair slipped out of place, and fell right over the system. "I can't work through your hair, Iris." Alex said, now looking at her friend.

"Sorry." Iris quickly brushed her hair out of the way.

"Seems to never stay in place, does it?"

"You noticed?"

"That, and I used to wear my hair long. Mine's wasn't as long as yours is, but it still got in the way all the time." Alex said with a nod. "You could cut it."

"I'd rather not." Iris said as she held her hair. Alex let out a small laugh at how protective Iris became over her hair.

"Alright, if that's what you want, but it still gets in the way." She thought for a moment. If Iris didn't want to cut her hair, there had to be another way to keep it from getting all over the place. Alex smiled as an idea came to her. "Wait here." She said as she set the game system aside. As interested as she was in her new project, it could wait.

"Why?" Iris said as the human girl got up to fetch a hairbrush.

"I'm going to braid your hair." Alex sat back down behind Iris, and took out the low ponytail. Perhaps Iris's choice of style was to blame. For some reason Alex didn't understand, the Reploid liked to wear her ponytail at the midpoint of her hair. She had to admit, it was a cute style, but not very functional. With the holder out of the way, Alex began to brush the dark locks to remove any tangles, which there weren't many of. Iris took very good care of her hair.

"Where did you learn how to braid hair?" Iris asked out of curiosity. As far as she could tell, Alex didn't have very many friends. Her condition limited the activates that most humans were able to enjoy.

"My dad."

"He knows how to braid hair?" Iris looked back at her friend with surprise in her eyes. She wouldn't have guessed that Justin would know how to braid hair. Seemed a little too feminine for him.

"Yup. He used to braid my hair when I was little. He said that if he didn't, I would look like a wild beast by the end of the day." Alex said with a laugh. "I think he learned how because of my mom, but I'm not sure. He doesn't talk about her much."

"Oh…" There was a silent moment as Alex continued to weave the Reploid's long hair. Eventually, Iris broke the silence. "Do you ever miss her?"

"Sometimes, but… I never got the chance to get to know her, you know? It feels weird to miss someone I never knew, but I still do. I don't even remember what she looked like." Alex fell quiet for a moment, but soon spoke up with a question of her own. "How about you? Do you ever wonder what you're life was like?"

"Wondering about it won't bring back any of my memories." Iris answered. "But, I can't help it sometimes."

"Hmm." Alex bit her lip for a moment, and thought. "Well, dad and I did save your old memory chip."

"You did?" Iris looked back at her with surprise. "But, Justin said it was too damaged to get any data from it." She knew full well how badly damaged her systems had been. They were lucky to get her basic personality from the remains, but she always thought the memory chip was a lost cause.

"It was too damaged for the two of us to get anything from it, but maybe if we had help and better equipment, we could salvage something. Hold this." Alex passed the long, half braided locks to the Reploid, and once again rose up to her feet. She walked over to the semi cluttered desk (Iris still pushed her to keep things organized, but old habits died hard), and opened up a drawer. "Dad thought it was too damaged to save it, but I asked him to let me keep it." She pulled out a small, blackened chip from the drawer, and held it up for Iris to see.

"Why did you want to keep it?" Iris questioned, her eyes now on her old memory chip.

"Well… I thought you would want to hang onto it. If we ever got a chance to get some data from it, wouldn't you want to?"

"Yes, but…"

"But what?"

"What if I don't like what I see?" Iris's eyes now dropped to the floor. "How I… died… doesn't happen naturally. I don't know what happened to me, but I don't want to relive it."

"I know, but there had to have been good things in your old life, too. Things like old friends, or family." Iris began to look back to the chip. Alex took it as a sign that her mind was changing. "Maybe even a boyfriend." She added with a slight smirk.

"A- a what?" A light blush spread across Iris's pale skin. "No way! I couldn't have had a boyfriend. That's as likely as me being a Maverick Overlord!"

"Pfffha! You, a Maverick? Never!" Alex laughed at the idea. "It'd be like 'Look out for Iris, or she'll get you with her butterflies of doom!'"

"Don't forget the flower petals of destruction." Iris added in, now laughing along with her human friend. She was glad for the subject change. While Alex had a point about the good people she might have had in her former life, she doubted one of them was a boyfriend.

"Anyways, if we do get a chance to get a few of your memories back, do you want to?" Alex asked once she had caught her breath.

"…Alright." Iris answered after a moment.

"Don't worry, if I can, I'll view the memory first before I give it to. That way, I can give you a heads up."

"Thank you." Iris smiled at Alex.

"No problem. Now then, back to the task at hand." Alex took back the braid from Iris's hand, and continued where she had left off. When she finished, she tied it off with Iris's usual pony tail holder, and looked at her work. It was a little loose at the top, but it seemed fitting. "There, all done."

Iris stood, and walked over to the mirror. She turned half around to get a better look at her braided hair, and smiled. "I like it. Maybe I'll wear it like this more often."

…..

Authors Notes

Once again, this took forever to get out. Sorry about that guys, but the end of the school year was insane. I had a lot of projects to get done, but I'm out for summer. So, I should get more chapters out.