Highstrung Robot

Chapter Four: Dangling by a String

"But...but..." She repeated, putting an even more pouty face on.

"Aww, my poor baby can't dress me up all nice." He cooed, teasing her. "It's such a shame."

"It is!" She exclaimed, frowning up at him. "What's so bad about a tie?"

"A lot of things are bad about a tie. I'm not wearing one." He deadpanned, dropping his hand from her face.

"Tell me why a tie is so bad." She replied, putting a hand on her hip.

"It doesn't matter because I'm not wearing one! Just make the shirt and pants that you are forcing me to wear and let's get ready to go force people into submission under my plans." Jake said with a slight cheerful tone to his voice.

"If you wear a tie, I'll actually let you do it and not smack you." She bargained.

"I'm not wearing a tie." He gave her a bored look, dragging his finger along the bed sheets, burning a line in them where his finger went.

"Don't burn my sheets!" She scolded, giving him a mad glare. She walked over to the machine, giving up on the tie and starting to cut the fabric. "Also, you have dress shoes right?"

"Probably." He shrugged, continuing to burn lines into the sheets, the ends hardening and turning black.

"Jake! Stop it!" She exclaimed, starting to stitch the pants.

"Why? It looks cool." He chuckled to himself, going to a different spot and burning letters into the sheets, slowly spelling out his name.

"Not on my sheets! Do it on your own!" She clicked her tongue, grabbing a big button and zipper from her bag.

"No, I like how it looks here better." He finished his name and looked at it satisfied. "I could make something cooler." He pondered, thinking about what to do next.

"Ugh..." She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she sewed.

Jake started dragging his finger along the sheets again, making random lines. "Don't worry, I can fix it. It's not hard to repair burnt sheets."

"Well thank god." She chuckled, moving her hands around to get the stitches at the right angles. "Okay, I'm gonna say something and don't take it the wrong way..."

"Hmm?" He asked as he continued to draw, accidentally starting a small fire but putting it out with his fingers.

"I need you to take off your shirt." She blurted out, her cheeks dusting pink.

Without hesitation, Jake stood up pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it on the bed behind him. He shook his hair out of his face as he waited for Adelaide to do what she needed to do.

She walked over to him with a measuring tape, wrapping it around his bare torso. She measured the inches, adding a few before writing it down on a sheet of paper.

"Why would I have taken that the wrong way? You said you need me to take my shirt off, not that you want me to." He stood still as she measured him, a tingling feeling going through his back as the cool tape measure touched his skin.

"Well yeah, but...I dunno..." She moved the tape up to his chest, measuring the area there.

"Did you say that because you want to see me shirtless? Is this what you've been wanting from me the entire time?" He teased, the ends of his lips curling upwards in amusement.

"Tch, no." She rolled her eyes, her blush becoming more apparent. "I've seen you shirtless before, it's not anything new to me."

"Yes, but maybe it's different this time. Maybe your thought's of me have changed, also changing how you look at me." Jake reached a hand up and brushed it along her cheek. "I mean, you are blushing." He pointed out, still greatly teasing her.