“Responsibility”

It was tiring whenever 03 and every other clone were sent back into their shared quarters for the rest of the day. Not tiring as in he worked long hours during the day, it wasn’t that clones needed sleep anyways, 03 often tested this fact by staying awake for weeks on end, and found that it barely affected him. But regardless of if he purposely feigned sleep or not, he found that he never needed to rest anyways.

Maybe it was because ████ often spoiled him. He was always around ██, that was what came with being her favorite, which means that ██ just couldn’t let him skip meals, couldn’t let him get tired. Most of his energy came from eating anyways, so he enjoyed bothering 01 when he didn’t feel like laying in bed for 3 hours or more. 

Was it boring? Definitely. One’s imagination could only be so engaging for a limited amount of time, and all he ever thought about was ████ anyways– But he saw ██ everyday! ██’s asleep near 01’s room. Why think about ██ when he could go see ██ instead, physically? Awake or not.

“01. Where’s ████?” 01 whirred to life, its eye flickering with light. It wasn’t a pretty sight whenever it wasn’t awake, because 03 could let himself stare at the crude stitch-job that joined cloth to metal. He loved ████, more than himself, but he can admit that ██ wasn’t the best at sewing… or anything that wasn’t science-related.

“At this hour. You’re searching for ████.” It’s tone flat. It stared at him, expression unreadable. 

“Yeah, I am?” he tilted his head, “Is ██ sleeping in today?” 

“No. get out.”

03 peered towards ████’s office. It wasn’t lit, and any clone would leave immediately in fear of disrespecting their creator. But 03 wasn’t any clone, he was ██’s first, he was her favorite. 

“C’mon 01…” he nagged, dragging out the ‘o’, “Please?”

“No.”

“Just a peek?”

“No! ‘Original number 03’, you’re supposed to be in your room, you know that.” 01 didn’t move from its place, but 03 noticed the shift in its position. Its shoulders— or what’s supposed to be its shoulders —pulled back slightly, with clenched fists and a defensive stance, “It’s against my orders to disobey █████ ████, let alone assist someone in doing so, but your very existence and social relationship with her makes my job unnecessarily complicated.” 

03 smirked, deciding against visiting ████ and instead, entertaining himself, “My name is not ‘Original number 03’, silly robot.” he chuckled,  “Why can’t you call me by 03? It’s easier.”

Despite his insistence towards visiting 01 practically daily, not once did 01 play along nor engage in meaningful conversation. Hell, sometimes 03 finds himself talking to dead air, with 01 not bothering to turn on at all. 

“That’s what your files are labeled.” it answered robotically, its posture relaxing slightly, “I don’t need to call you by otherwise.”

“But ████ calls me ‘03’, why should you call me by my file name when ██ doesn’t do it ██self?” 03 questions amusingly.

“It’s simply to avoid confusion between other specimens.” 01 seemed to realize that 03 had moved on from his initial plan to bother ████, as he notices its posture shift back to its resting position. At least, if he disregarded how stiff it constantly looked, “I know you are aware that you are not the only one with the file name ‘03’. ████ is only human, humans will do anything to simplify their everyday responsibilities”

Responsibilities? Sure, 03 benefited heavily off of ████, ██ is his creator after all. But the way the word ‘responsibility’ rolled off of 01’s voice-box left a bitter taste in 03’s mouth, “I’m not a responsibility.” 

01 only looked at him in response, and 03 found the exchange to be less entertaining now, “Fine, I am, stop looking at me like that.” he corrected himself, “But I’m supposed to be! I am ██'s creation, so you can stop giving me that look. It’s not like you’re any different from me.”

01 looked at him, with one of the only expressions it could muster– the only expressions he could read –smug, uncaring, neutral, “I am not █████ ████‘s responsibility, unlike you,” it uttered, as 01’s child-like eyes bore into his, and 03 could hear the unfinished sentence continue in his head,

‘██ is my responsibility’

“I think you should go back to your quarters. You’re no different than the rest of them, and I don’t want them to think otherwise.” 

03 could feel the venom laced in 01’s words, a rotting poison that could have dissolved his patchy meat skin. His eyes narrowed.

“You’re no fun…” he sighed, grimacing, “Tell ██ I said ‘hi’.”

01 watched as 03 turned his heel and walked away slowly, his back hunched and his boots squeaking at the floors. 

Finally registering the command, it blinked, then frowned deeply, “Don’t tell me what to do.”