The robot's eye-lights blinked off obediently. As quiet as she could be, she knelt down and opened her box. Its contents were rather laughable: the daintily embroidered towel, a small handful of decorative soaps carved to look like flowers that had been a housewarming gift, and her coffee thermos, now filled with warm water. Hardly the sort of thing to combat oil stains, but she hadn't had the opportunity to shop for stronger cleaning agents yet. It would have to do.

"Hold still, please..."

The robot made no reaction as the towel first touched his limbs. Neither did he ask as to why his eyes had to be closed. In truth, she just didn't want to upset him.

If he couldn't even bear to step inside her own home... then watching her soil such a fresh, white towel on him would not help in the slightest.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" She wanted to make sure, especially with how much harder she was going to have to have to scrub.

"I am unable to feel pain, my lady. " Was the measured response. "Not from the outside world. You do not have to worry yourself on that front."

"You can't?" The EDWs were old models, but were they truly that old? "I mean... of course. That's...probably for the best, right?"

"That would depend on your opinion of what I should be used for."

“Huh?"

The robot's head sagged back as she moved to cleaning his chest area. "Do you wish for me to feel pain, my lady?"

Her blood ran cold. "What?"

The robot repeated his question. "Do you wish for me to feel pain, my lady? Because if you do, I am sorry to say that I will not be the correct model for you."

Her voice rose. "No, no! Of course not! Why would I ever want that?"

The robot twitched. "I...I only wish to make you aware of my limitations, my lady. I do not mean to imply..."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Another spasm. She quickly got to work on patting him dry, scared that perhaps the water in his system had started to create internal damage.

"Are you able to feel anything at all?" She said, realizing just too late how wrong that sounded. Her cheeks heated up. "Sorry. What I meant was..."

"I am capable of feeling tactile stimuli," the robot responded smoothly. "But i am, however incapable of assigning it a positive or a negative connotation."

"Wait... 'negative or positive?' Does that mean you can't feel comfort either?"

"It was unnecessary to my function. To ensure my cost would be affordable to the masses, the feature was cut."

"Oh." Now that was hard to imagine. Pain sensors were mainly to aid mechanics in finding and fixing mechanical malfunctions whenever they arose. True, comfort was technically a more useless function, but ever since the release of the OLI models, it had become such a staple feature that no one questioned it. "I'm sorry."

"It is all right, my lady. I cannot mourn a feature that I was never intended to have." The robot replied.

She worked on in silence, head heavy with thoughts. The towel was black with filth now; the soaps nothing but scraps. Still, the robot was clean now, and a roll of bandages she had salvaged from a first aid kit served to stifle the leaks, at least for the moment.

"I think you are ready to enter the house now." She said, rather proud of her efforts. "What do you say?"

"As my my lady wishes." The robot replied, although when she tried to pick him up, he requested instead to spareher back and allow him to crawl along next to her. When they reached the door, he opened it for her, using its longer arm stump to push down on the handle.

So, that's how he did it...

"Thank you." She said as she walked inside. The robot followed, and she gently pulled the door shut behind them both.

——————-

It had still not been ordered to reactivate its eyes. It hadn't needed them to navigate its way back to the door, but now...

Was it polite to ask? Would it be better so as to not risk bumping into anything and damaging her belongings?

It's decision was interrupted as the lady grabbed it and heaved upwards, leaving it sitting on a higher, elevated surface that sank down under its weight.

"You can just rest there for the moment." The lady said. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

My eyes open. A refuel. A purpose. But those were not existence-threatening requests. They were not polite enough to ask.

"I will be fine for the moment, my lady." It said truthfully. "Please attend to your needs."

"Alright...." The tone in her voice was still unhappy. Oh no... had it misread her intentions? Perhaps it should have asked, so that she would feel useful...

...but it was too late. She had walked away, and a far away door had slammed shut. It had failed once again. It had failed...it had failed...

It's limbs twitched at the fresh dose of disciplinary measures.