Chapter 4: The seeds of sweet disaster(2).

Reiner slowly opened his eyes, looking at his holographic alarm clock which showed quarter to nine. However, it wasn't the time that caught his attention. He jumped to his feet almost immediately, seeing someone in his room. He stared at Alice for a few seconds, before sighing, recalling the previous day. He quickly tried to regain his composure, then approached Alice, wearing one of her new outfits, as well as having her hair slightly damp. Reiner spoke awkwardly, trying to act as if nothing had happened. However, his alarm clock had completely disappeared, replaced by a shapeless mass of abysmal blackness. It seemed perpetually in motion, as it slowly contaminated its surroundings. Then the mass evaporated, as if it were a lie, leaving only Reiner's words to echo.

"Good morning Alice..."

"Good morning Reiner, did you sleep well?"

"Fine, but I asked you to stop being so formal with me..."

Alice took on an awkward expression as she heard the answer. Seeing this, Reiner said the first question that popped into his head in an awkward rush.

"Heum... Would you like some tea? That is...if the Synthetics are still built with a bio-generator in case of prolonged power failure...and then...aaah..."

Realizing the stupidity of his words, he opened his mouth to say something else, but Alice replied before a sound came out.

"Yes, we're always built that way to ward off any kind of eventuality, but as you-... As you already know, we consume a lot of energy and have a very large battery as a result. So this bio-generator remains rather inefficient, and requires a lot of organic matter to recharge us... We've even considered removing it to save materials, but that's never been put into practice."

"Really? They're not very efficient? but I've always been told that they are..."

Reiner replied, driven by curiosity.

"Well, we need two to three times as much food as a normal human, depending on our actions, to be able to function in total autonomy for 24 hours, so it's not very efficient compared to a lot of other things."

"It's not what I'd call not very efficient. In the early days, well before I was born, it took at least six to ten times the food consumed by a human for a day's autonomy..."

Reiner added, his voice weakening as he went on, then regaining strength as he changed the subject.

"Otherwise, today I was thinking of going to the store as there's not much left to eat...do you want to come with me?"

"Yes why not, but I don't really understand why you want to go with me?"

Alice retorted with slight surprise written all over her face.

"Actually it's for a simple reason, I'd also like to get on well with you because we're going to be living together for a while."

"Really?"

Alice retorted with a suspicious look.

"...And it's really boring to go alone..."

Reiner added, overwhelmed by Alice's look.

"You could at least have pretended, or tried..."

Alice sighed, shaking her head. She then left with an air of satisfaction, as she watched Reiner, whose face had turned scarlet, his mouth ajar. But just before she disappeared from Reiner's vision, she stopped, speaking with a mischievous smile.

"So when do we leave?"

"I was planning to leave in twenty or twenty-five minutes, just long enough to shower and get ready."

Alice smirked, before speaking in a confident voice, concealing her smile.

"Need any help?"

Reiner replied almost immediately as seriously and naturally as he could.

"Yeah, it's hard to scrub your back alone."

Alice then pouted as she said.

"You're no fun..."

"Bah what you got me right just before, so why shouldn't I be allowed to do the same to you?"

"Okay, I'll concede."

Alice agreed after thinking for a few seconds, then added.

"I'll get ready too."

"Okay."

Reiner replied as he pulled some clothes out of his closet, then headed for his bathroom, letting out a splash of water shortly after the door closed.

Once Reiner was out, he went into the kitchen to grab something to eat, then put on his coat. He then addressed Alice, who was watching television, her hair now dry, while wearing her blue dress.

"Have you changed?

"Yes, I'm ready, but aren't you wearing a lot of black?"

Alice asked, staring at Reiner's black outfit.

"I actually like this color, and I'm not good at picking out clothes."

"Black isn't..."

Alice was interrupted by Reiner before she could finish her sentence, letting Reiner say.

"It's a color."

After a quick sigh Alice replied while rising from the sofa.

"If you like...but hurry up, you're late..."

"I'm only two or three minutes late, and besides it's not like the store's going to close you know."

"And I don't count?"

Alice retorted with an indignant expression.

"Yeah, cans don't count."

Reiner smiled, heading out of the apartment towards his old car. Alice quickly followed, laughing softly at Reiner's bad joke.

Once in the car, Reiner stared at Alice and said with a teasing smile.

"I didn't know you were sensitive to that kind of humor."

"And I didn't know you were so antisocial."

Alice replied with the same smile as Reiner. Letting the two laugh for part of the way, exchanging a few more or less good jokes.

* * *

Once the journey was over, they arrived in front of a huge shopping mall bordered by various little alleyways, where unsold goods destroyed by the stores were sometimes stored. They were left to the mercy of the people living in the pitiful alleyways, hidden by the huge skyscrapers and shopping arcades, plus all manner of small stores grouped together in several skyscrapers. In one of the alleyways, a young child wearing only a torn piece of cloth clutching some credits and a bloody knife could be seen being mercilessly pummeled by two policemen, who were taking great pleasure in watching the boy's suffering expression. His wounds were beginning to accumulate, prompting Alice, who was staring off into the distance with Reiner, to whisper in a very slightly trembling voice.

"It's...it's horrible, we've got to go and help him..."

Reiner sighed in exasperation and disappointment, forcing himself to keep a calm expression despite the disgust forming on his face as he looked away.

"Sorry...there's...there's nothing we can do, otherwise we'll end up in the same situation as that child, or even worse, on top of being classed as criminals. There's nothing we can do, sorry, even if we call other policemen they'll just look away and laugh at us...I tried that when I was a kid..."

"But, we can't leave him like that, he'll end up dying poor guy!"

Alice retorted hastily, but Reiner whispered and grabbed her arm.

"I'm...sorry, but there's really nothing we can do, it's just the way it is..."

Reiner then headed for the shopping malls while Alice dragged her feet behind him, before finally giving up. Among this gallery, only one store had the luxury of having an entire building devoted to it, measuring forty meters longer than the one devoted to androids, and unsurprisingly with a sign similar to the previous clothing and android stores.

Once inside, the soothing music of the place left a bittersweet feeling in Alice and Reiner's chest, however, nothing could be changed. After passing through a small anti-theft device lining the front door, Alice and Reine found themselves facing a floor consisting of a huge camera-filled reception area. In addition, there were several charging stations for androids acting as security guards, or for self-service in exchange for financial compensation. Reiner mechanically made his way to a very large elevator on the right-hand side of the room, ignoring the even larger ones on the left, which had no buttons to call up and was surrounded by several anti-theft systems hanging from the walls, and pressed the button for the second floor.

The shock of the scene in the alley still weighed on Alice, lost in her internal reflections. However, when the elevator doors opened, the smell of fresh food contrasted violently with the suffocating atmosphere of the alleyways, causing Alice to shake her head. The only thing they could see as they stepped out of the elevator was a view filled with so many shelves overflowing with food that it was almost impossible to count them. Although it was all wrapped up in thick layers of plastic. But as they moved on, Alice couldn't contain her words any longer.

"What's going on out there...it's really horrible...I feel like we're living in two separate worlds...him and us..."

"I agree with you, but we can't change anything, we'll just end up in jail if we try anything..."

Alice sighed with resignation and disappointment, but when she saw Reiner's face, she tried awkwardly to change the subject.

"By the way, what do you want to buy?"

"Cheap stuff, a bit of meat, fish, pasta, rice, well that sort of thing, nothing exceptional. Anything in particular you'd like?"

Alice didn't even answer, just stared at Reine, then started laughing as if she'd heard the best joke in the world. Once she'd barely calmed down, and after seeing Reiner's confused appearance, she said to him.

"Reassure me, do you remember that I don't need to eat?"

Reiner flushed at the belated realization, then also tried to change the subject a little awkwardly, all the while clearing his throat.

"We'll go left and take two cadis and continue to the first aisle on the right, there should be rice there..."

"Say I'm curious, can I ask a question?"

Alice asked thoughtfully.

"Go ahead, I'll answer if I can."

"You said you met Clovis when he had just turned 18 and you were living with your brother, right?"

"Yes, approximately, why?"

"I was just wondering if he was a valuable friend to you because your expression seems to soften a little when you talk about him."

"Yes, I consider him a member of my family actually, and despite what he sometimes says he's helped me enormously. Without him, I might be out on the street, or dead in one of those derelict alleys...who knows...I might even have been in that poor kid's shoes..."

Reiner replied with a shrug, speaking lower and lower before adding.

"When I was feeling down, when I'd fallen out with my brother, when I realized I'd been used, and when I'd even lost my job, he was the one who lifted me up and made me hang on... You know how childish humans are: even when you've got a lot, you feel like you've got nothing, which was the case for me at the time."

Reiner then looked ahead, recalling old memories, while Alice, who had been listening in silence, nodded, charging the cadi. Everything Alice picked up turned black and shapeless, shaking intensely as she tried not to disappear, before returning to their original forms. Although this was clearly not normal, just like the last few times, nobody seemed to notice.

Reiner and Alice then made their way as if nothing had happened to other departments, talking about frivolous and uninteresting subjects, lulled by the soft retro-futuristic music that permeated the whole store.

After buying what Reiner needed and going to the checkouts on the left, close to a row of huge elevators, they went down to the second floor via the same huge elevators, where all the frozen and refrigerated food was stored, quickly taking what Reiner needed. But as they both had filled caddies and headed for the crates, Reiner asked.

"Is there anything in particular you want to do after this?"

"Not really, why?"

"Because I dragged you here, so I thought I should at least ask."

Reiner replied without too much expression.

"Well, you'd have to put everything away first before you could start talking about dating me."

Alice retorted, pointing to the cadis, as they were stuck in a small queue of two people despite the absurdly large number of self-checkouts available. Reiner squinted before saying.

"Who told you it was a date?"

Alice then laughed with half-closed eyes at Reiner's reaction, covering her mouth slightly.

* * *

As Reiner and Alice exited the store, they took a quick look at the alleyway, where only a small trace of blood remained, silently testifying to the brutality of the scene they had witnessed.

After unloading and stowing the cadis where they had been taken, and entering the car, Reiner turned on the radio to break the silence that was beginning to set in as he started the car.

"...finally. You're listening to XXXXX radio, so we'll leave you with the season's new hits! And this season's got us covered!"

The silence between Alice and Reiner lasted throughout the drive, with the only background music being music that only slightly fit the mood.

Once parked near Reiner's residence, the two began unloading the car, before Reiner started cooking something while asking Alice something strange.

"Do you think we can be considered friends?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Actually I don't really talk to many people except Clovis...so since we talk to each other a lot, well...even if we don't have much choice...well...I was wondering if we were friends or not..."

Reiner answered honestly, his face red with shame.

"You never had any other friends?"

"No...not really, as a kid I got picked on at school so I was always left alone..."

Reiner replied in a weak voice, while taking out a plate as Alice pondered, before nodding as she approached Reiner.

"I suppose you could call us friends, even if we haven't known each other long, there are some people you just click with straight away don't you think?"

Alice then shrugged as she spoke. Letting Reiner smile slightly before Alice added.

"You told me you were on the outs with your family. Wouldn't you like to go and see your brother sometime? Well, it's strange when you put it like that, but... Conflicts have to be settled at some point, don't you think?"

"Don't you think? Where did that come from...did you hear what Clovis had said?"

Reiner replied, visibly surprised.

"Clovis told you too?"

Reiner then realized his mistake, then thought for a few seconds before answering.

"Yes, before we saw you at the store...sorry if it sounded strange, I didn't really think before I spoke..."

"It's nothing, but you'd have to go and see him sometime if you don't want to stay on bad terms with him, and as we're friends don't you think I should at least help you a little, plus it's Sunday, and it's going to be 1pm soon so...to avoid always putting it off until tomorrow..."

Alice didn't finish her sentence, staring instead at Reiner, who looked calm on the surface. However, he began to speak softly, looking reluctant.

"Can't I go tomorrow?"

"No, you've already forgotten what I just said...? How long have you been telling yourself that?"

"Several months...well...years..."

"There, so you understand why I told you that"

"Yes, I understand why you're saying that, and I've already realized it thanks to Clovis...I'd already promised myself I'd go before long, and I'd also promised him on top of that...I might as well surprise him by really spanking him... I'll get ready after dinner to leave before my motivation runs out, I've already put it off a lot, however you're going to owe me a favor."

Said Reiner, staring at Alice, who replied with a slight smirk.

"If you want it that badly, you don't need a favor..."

"Nice innuendo, but it's no, I know you're not serious."

"You're really no fun, not even a little blush, and how do you know when I'm serious or not..."

"How do I? We haven't known each other long enough for that, even if you're programmed to quickly appreciate your owner you're still human...well no but almost...and then I have mostly a 50/50 chance."

Reiner shrugged as he began to eat. Shortly after finishing his meal, he started to get ready to go out, but Alice interrupted him, saying.

"I mean, maybe you'd make a better impression."

"I don't even know what he'd want..."

This left Alice sighing as Reiner prepared to leave. His heart was beating wildly, yet he'd just taken the first step.