Understood

    Earl’s stomach growled a little louder than usual. “What time is it?” he said to himself more than to anyone else.

    “It is precisely 1:27:06 PM EST February the 4th, 2157 A.D.”  a slightly mechanical voice informed.

    “You don’t gotta do that, every damn time you rattle that shit off, you don’t gotta do that.” Earl said with his face resting squarely in his palm in annoyance.”You ain't a workin’ bolt no more, you don’t gotta hop to and .. and be all ‘yes master, no master, it is precisely blah blah blah’. K7 took a moment to process Earl’s response, it wasn’t easy to parse exactly what he meant, but at this point he had learned that asking questions usually led to more yelling so he gave his standard affirmative response. 

    “Understood.” K7 wanted to leave it at that, however his drives tingled at the notion of misinformation. Before he could help himself he blurted out “For your information, my bolts work just fine, as do my servos, gears, and circuits.”

    “Jesus tap dancing Christ K, what i mean is that you aint workin for the man no more, he threw your rusty ass in the bin, i slapped a new power supply up in yah, and bing, bang, boom you’re a free bot now.” Earl had become rather animated, now standing over K7, they had both been sitting beneath a tarpaulin and cardboard lean-to that Earl had thrown together when the snow began to fall. Earl didn’t often like to put too much effort into his shelters, as he knew the civil patrol bots would be by sooner or later to tear it down.

“Tap dancing had not yet been invented in the time of Jesus, it was created in the 1700’s as a fusion of British and west-Afric--” K7 saw the look on Earl’s face. “Understood.”

 Earl dropped his arms to his side and let out a low sigh. “It ain’t your fault K, it’s just you talk like you got a rod up your ass.” Earl looked at him “an’ hell maybe you do. All I’m sayin is maybe you should try to learn to pick up the vernacular. Ya know, talk more like me and the fellas and maybe try to look a little more like us too. I gotta say that orange paint job mighta worked good at the Whattaburger, but it's kinda off putting.” K was unsure how to respond, ever since he had been rebooted by Earl a week earlier he’s been trying his best to fit in and not upset anyone. 

“What would you suggest?” K ventured.

“I dunno, suppose we oughta make you a hat and jacket for starters.” Earl sat back down beside K. pulling some fabric he had been using as a makeshift blanket onto his lap Earl took out a small knife and began cutting. “Gonna have to make due with what we got til i can figure out a way for you to earn me some real money.”

K turned his head to the side “I ain't no workin Bolt.” He said in his best Philly accent.

“Hey yeah, that’s not bad, but I ain’t talkin bout like a job, job. And besides you owe me for that power supply that’s keeping your sparks flowin.”Earl had already cut out some basic shapes for the jacket, and was gesturing for K to hold his arms out so he could get a rough measurement. “The way I see it, we need to stick together, and what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine.” Earl pulled out his make-shift sewing kit from his bag and started stitching. Not too long after Earl and K7 were standing in the alleyway, with Earl admiring his handiwork.  

“Is it less off-putting?” K asked while spinning around like a girl trying on a prom dress.

“Its, uh, well its something. But you’ll never get the ladies till ya get a face like dis.” Earl pointed to himself smiling wide showing all three of his remaining teeth. 

“Understood” K replied lighting up three of his display dots in an attempt at imitating Earls grin.

“I think tomorrow we should head over to the Chestnut Street bridge, I know a fella that lives under the one end. He’s got a collection of hats that’ll blow you away. We can snatch one of ‘em for ya, then you’ll really start turning some heads.” Earl mocked slicking his hair back.

“Snatch? As in to purloin?” K queried. 

“Hey, don’t worry he’ll never miss it, he never even uses the damn things. I say if someone ain't using it, then they don’t need it.” he slapped K on the back playfully.

“Understood.”

“Man alive, its really startin to get cold, huh?” rubbing his arms to warm himself Earl stepped back over to the shanty “We best turn in for the night, I need sleep and you're gonna run that power supply down with all that spinning.” Earl chuckled to himself. “Ya know you’re not so bad K, I think if you just try to be more like ol’ Earl, then you’ll turn out just fine.” Earl laid down on his cardboard mat, and reached for his blanket. “Oh right, the jacket.” K began to remove the jacket. “Nah, nah, keep it on, it suits you, get it? SUITS you?” K stared blankly at him “Well one day you’ll get it. G’night pal.” Earl rolled on his side and pulled an old pizza box over himself.

The next morning K7 snapped awake when a raccoon clambered across him. There was a layer of snow over everything. He reached over to Earl and found that he was cold. Not just cold, but in fact dead. 

K had only seen death once before, the day after Earl had rebooted him an old man further down the alley had been beaten to death by a group of teens. Earl rushed to help him but it was too late. Looking around Earl grabbed the man’s boots and hurried back over to K.

    “Don't look at me like that K, I tried to help, an it ain’t gonna do no good. So now he’s gonna help me keep my feet warm. Remember like I always say, if someone ain't using it then they don’t need it.”

    “Understood.”

    K reached over into Earls pocket and took out his little knife. ~”a face like dis”~

“Well, if someone ain't using it…” K said quietly as he began cutting.

    K stepped out from the alley, as a woman began screaming. K flashed his three light smile, illuminating his meat mask. He took notice of everyone looking at him as he started his journey to the Chestnut street bridge. K couldn’t wait to get a hat to go with his new look, then he’d really start turning some heads.