Yaawwn...

When Heat started laughing as well Kalinka laughed even harder and did actually fall over. The game was completely forgotten in her giggles.

“I can imagine.” She let out more laughs before calming down. “A lot of your brothers don’t seem so scary when thinking of them failing to dance.”

She turned the TV as saw the game over screen. Looked like they would have to start a new game if they wanted to keep playing.

“Do you want to try another song?”

          Heat looked over at the screen, noticing the Game Over screen for himself.  “Oops-- looks like I took you down with me!” In more ways than one, he realized as he stood up straight and held out a hand to help her up as well.

Kalinka was a bit more graceful. It helped being an actual dancer even if it was a different style of dance. She was at least able to keep her balance during some of the more difficult moves.

That was until she got a good view of Heat’s flailing and laughed so hard she nearly fell over herself. Any tension left from his presence was evaporated as Kalinka tried to keep herself upright.

“Guess you weren’t built to be graceful.” She covered her mouth as she snorted again. “Sorry, I know you’re doing your best.”

          At her laugh, Heat couldn’t help but crack a smile himself. He remembered himself being embarrassing to watch, but maybe not this embarrassing... still, it was much more light-hearted than he was used to, and in her defense he WAS a combat model. Grace wasn’t really necessary when his main purpose was to rain fiery destruction on his enemies.

He laughed a bit himself, a slight blush spreading across his face. “I-it’s okay!  I didn’t remember myself being this bad at it!  For the record, some of my brothers are worse.”

“Yeah I’m not very good at making friends with other kids. The grown ups say it’s normal for kids as smart as me to have a hard time connecting with other kids but I don’t know why. I still like the same things other kids do, I just also like learning how robots work and take a lot of advanced classes.”

She realized that talking about not having many friends was making Heat uncomfortable and stopped, turning her attention back to the game.

“Sure, let’s play,” she scrolled down the list to songs before choosing one, “this one.

          Too smart for other kids?  Well... to be fair, Heat, once again, had little frame of reference. Kalinka seemed just right to him.

Shaking that thought out of his head with a side of ‘what are you doing’, he turns his attention to the song she picked. Sounded easy enough... How good was he at this game, again?  Out of the DWNs that were willing to play, anyway?  Well, better now than ever to find out, at least in comparison to a human girl. He put himself in the starting pose as it appeared on-screen.

When Heat left Kalinka stared at the door for a bit. He’d probably looked it behind him but a small part of her hoped that maybe he forgot. However, he did say he would be right back so she didn’t really have time to run even if the door was unlocked. Besides what would she do if she did get out? She didn’t know how to get out of the castle or where her family was. She’d probably get lost and caught by a Wilybot. It as probably best to wait for Heat to get back then to think of escaping right now.

She looked up hen the door opened and Heat came back inside. She then watched him set up the TV and game and listened to him tell her it about what they could do after the game.

“Ok, watching something to cool down after the game sounds nice.”

She got up from her seat and took her place next to Heat so they could start the game.

“Not really. I have it at home but my brothers don’t have that much time to play with me and I don’t have a lot of friends to invite over.”

          The screen for the console itself appeared before the title screen flashed its bright colours and music, brightly upbeat and exciting. Heat looked at her when she replied, an eyebrow lowering as his head tilted.

“Really?” Somehow -- he always imagined human childhood like a Disney show, strong social circles and eventful days; from school to home to everywhere else a kid could possibly go. Simple, but worthy of envy. Of course, that would only serve to add on the guilt if she had friends at home to worry that she was gone, their parents suddenly jolted into panic  ( especially with the declarations her father was forced to make). She hadn’t said much, but it was enough to jog his expectations. Maybe that only said something about how boring life normally was in this place.

Kalinka looked to Heat a bit shocked that he didn’t outright mock her for her taste in TV. He even knew stuff about the shows. She was so focused on this fact that she almost didn’t hear the list of video games he gave her.

At the mention of Just Dance she instantly perked up. That was one of the few video games she not only had played but also really enjoyed. She hadn’t expected the DWNs to have a game like that.

The image of the Wilybots she’d seen so far gathered around a TV and trying to mimic the movements of a character on screen was actually quite funny to her and she had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Once the giggles stopped threatening to come out she removed her hand and smiled to Heat.

“I like Just Dance, if that’s ok.”

         Kalinka's amusement didn't escape Heat's notice. Unoffended, he smiled. "Just Dance it is, then!  Uh... I will have to leave you here for a few minutes while I grab the game, but I'll be quick!"

Heat quickly re-armoured, leaving the room for a moment. Would anyone notice if he left the lock system disarmed? Again, nobody else was supposed to show up for a while... Deciding he didn't want to risk her running off or someone else's suspicion, he quickly locked the door, then broke out his Atomic Fire to fly to the living room. He grabbed the TV, system and game  ( he didn't realize until then that doing so was a bit on the tricky side, but thankfully the TV wasn't a big one ), and ran back as fast as his little robot legs could take him without burning anything. He counted himself just lucky he was able to dodge any visible eyes as he unlocked the door again and wiggled the knob open.

"I'm back!" He found an outlet and started setting up. "This TV also has Internet connection, so if you wanna watch something after, we can do that."

Remembering it would be easier to maneuver without his bulky zippo in the way, he once again de-armoured. It didn't take him long to finish plugging everything in, and he turned on the TV and system.

Kalinka tried not to feel too disappointed at the confirmation of not being able to see her family. She’d known that she wasn’t going to be able to see them but it still was upsetting.

The mention of TV and video games did help get her mind off it even if she was still unhappy. She thought of the shows she liked to watch, would Heat even like the same stuff she did?

“I like My Little Pony, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and Steven Universe. Uh those probably sound like dumb kids shows to you. We can play video games. Do you have any that aren’t scary or have a lot of guns in them? Papa says I’m not allowed to play those kinds of games.”

Kalinka felt her face heat up. She probably sounded like a boring little kid to Heat. Wait he was one of Dr. Wily’s robots why did she care what he thought of her? Still she watched tensely for his reaction.

          My Little Pony was gonna be a no-go for him, but the other two titles caught his attention, and he almost forgot that he wasn’t  ( presently )  at risk of his brothers making him the new Bubble  ( ... not that Bubble hadn’t learned to rebuff their mocking, anyway. With violence ). “I, um, I know a few of the songs from Steven Universe...”  Love Like You and Stronger Than You, in particular. He wouldn’t admit just yet that he liked them. “And I’ve heard a lot of good things about Star vs. the Forces of Evil?”

“For non-violent stuff we’ve got a few Nintendo games-- Mario, obviously. Uh, we’ve learned the hard way that there is nothing more deadly than playing Mario Party with other people in this fortress, though.” Amusement teases his face at that memory. So many explosions... “We’ve got some sports games, Just Dance, any of this sounding good to you?”

Kalinka’s eye widened in confusion. That was not what she’d expected from the DWN. None of the other Wilybots had ever offered to make things more comfortable for her, or really been nice to her at all. Mostly neutral if not out right mean.

Slowly she turned to face Heat again and saw that his face didn’t show any malice or deceit. He really seemed genuine in wanting to help her feel better.

She thought about his offer a bit. There was only one thing she really wanted but she knew that was probably not going to be given to her.

“You’re not going to let me see my Papa or brothers are you?”

It was clear from her tone it wasn’t really a question.

“I guess I’d like to do something instead of just sitting here by myself.”

          “Yeah, unfortunately, I’m not allowed to take you to them... the boss was pretty clear on that.”

The reasoning made enough sense-- the less they saw of Kalinka, the more worried and compliant they’d be. Even the girl herself seemed to understand this, from her tone... Were he in the same situation, at least he’d be able to bust himself out. Even if he was just a little kid ‘bot, he was also a very meticulously-programmed combat robot capable of destruction even with his hands tied and an inhibitor collar around his neck. But even minimum security, for a little girl?  Home Alone wasn’t exactly based on a true story.

“I’m not allowed to take you out of the room, either... but if I borrowed some stuff from my line’s living room, my brothers might not notice. Maybe.” He considered it a bit. “How much do you like video games?  Uh, TV?  Shows you like?”

Kalinka tensed at hearing the door open. It wasn’t a meal time so that could only mean that one of Wily’s robots had come to harasser her. She really hoped it wasn’t Snake this time. He was really creepy and had too many mean things to say.

She hesitantly looked over her shoulder to see the unarmored form of Heat smiling at her. She blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing right before slowly turning around to face him. She’d only interacted with the small robot a few times but he’d never come into her cell like this before.

At the question, however, she frowned and looked away.

“Don’t make fun of me.”

          It didn’t occur to him until she spoke up that his question was probably an insensitive one to a kidnapping victim-- and he tripped over himself as he replied. “A-ah, I didn’t mean to insult you!  Sorry!  I-I just meant--”

Well, this was already going great. Letting out a little breath, he reconsidered what to say before opening his mouth again. If they were going to be keeping the girl here against her will, the least they could do was make it comfortable  ( though he was sure certain brothers of his were making that tricky... ). Deciding what might be better, he tried again.

          Heat approached the door quietly. He knew none of his brothers were going to be in the room with their captive, the daughter of Dr. Wily’s new “partner”-- but he couldn’t help but be a bit nervous anyway. It wasn’t necessarily the furious glares of Dr. Cossack’s Robot Masters, though they certainly were scary. He figured it was just worry that his own brothers might judge or make fun of him for hanging out too much with the girl, or think he might have a crush on her.

Which couldn’t be true! He’d only just met her, he didn’t know her yet. She was cute, certainly, and... he was a little older than her, anyway! AI-wise! That’d be weird. So it couldn’t be that. Totally couldn’t.

He unlocked the security system and turned the handle, searching the room for her. She wasn’t hard to find, a head of pretty blonde hair and a warm red coat contrasting against the livable, but somewhat bland cell she was in. He scooted through the door, deactivating his helmet and zippo, and offering her a smile.

“Hi,” he said simply. “Uh, how are you feeling?”