It was a quite small but considerable length of time that Nate had been staring, and beside this fact, his eyes remained dark, dull, and depressed of any bulging. Soon, though, he closed his eyes and then looked downward, rolling the pair of dice just once more. He fixed his gaze upon Halle, who stood behind him.

"Surprises aren't always nice, are they?" He stated.

"There were many more unpleasant ones, even in very recent memory."

"You're not wrong," he rolled again, only looking from the corner of his eye to determine what had been the result. A one and a six.

"But you're also not right, either." He turned his head back to where it had been from the beginning. He stared ahead.

"I only do preemptive moves when I find them necessary. I thought you would have trusted my judgement." She coolly reasoned. Anthony stood silent next to Stephen, who had a cup of coffee to occupy his mouth as his eyes devoured the tension provided by his coworker and employer.

"It hasn't wronged me gravely in the past, but that does not eliminate my discomfort now."

Halle sighed, then offered a subtly sympathetic gaze to the young lady sitting on her knees, across from herself and Nate.

The girl was in likeness to his age, but just about every phenotype in them were starkly contrasted with one another. Her posture was actually aligned properly, and she sat with her legs pressed together rather than in his odd style, but that in itself would be practical of just about anybody else; it made the girl wonder if he had some sort of handicap or defect that made him sit so oddly to her. Despite the gross discomfort she had been enduring, she remained with a calm exterior by being fascinated by the fortress of cards that consumed most of the space in the entire room. Halle had previously warned her that he would be rather unwelcoming, which she was fully and well prepared for; she had underestimated the woman's warrants of his habitual toy playing.

"I think she at least deserves a 'hello', Near."

The young man sighed, "Under this sudden situation I was a bit taken aback, but I'm sorry. Hello."

He extended his hand, which didn't appear from his white sleeve until it was outstretched all the way. The girl shook it with a ginger grasp. His hand had been cold to the touch, but she had actually expected that much.

"Do you find her a threat to security or yourself?" Rester asked from behind the girl.

"Not particularly."

"Then may we leave you two to be acquainted?"

He hadn't any time to properly respond to anybody before his associates vacated the room to isolate the young adults. Inevitably he looked at her again but with less intensity in his eyes after noticing her fidget with her hands. She stopped and looked at him as well. It would have been far to call him an albino. His hair went without saying- it was obviously and shockingly white, but his fair skin was absent of the exaggeration of the blood in his system with eyes that held no red tint in his sclera. She concluded that his hair had somehow lacked any melanin. He didn't seem to be the type to take the time to dye it, let alone something drastic like stark white.

With no real inclination to talk, Nate simply returned to his dice game. Repeatedly the girl watched as he rolled. His fingers released and clenched in fluid symmetry to his previous rolls.

"You're a detective, right?" She finally spoke.

"Yes."

"Then why haven't you asked why I was here?"

"Perhaps I decided it would have been too easy to figure it out by blatantly asking you, but that would just be more of a cover."

"Halle hired me to... live with you, basically. I do domestic chores, accompany you whenever needed, and within reason, do pretty much anything you ask me to do."

Nate was certain that Halle, Stephen, Anthony, and others worked with him specifically to do just about all of that. On a second consideration, he realized that the latter of the three was in his forties as the other two were in their thirties, and while they had professional obligations to him, maybe they didn't necessarily bear responsibility for his personal life. Still, to put such an intimate job into the hands of a stranger was terribly unorthodox with his line of thinking.

"I assume you're not originally from here?"

"No, I'm not. Believe it or not, though, I have a great aunt from Japan, so there's that."

"I believe you, I don't see why you would lie about that."

"Oh, okay... I like the robots."

He hadn't acknowledged her statement.

"Do you know why you were chosen for this job?" He rolled again.

"I was told that I had a pretty good background check and even a recommended by a mutual friend of myself and hers. She found me, and decided I was fit. I wasn't told much about you, but I certainly can guarantee you that whether you decide to keep me or not, I won't be a liability either way."

He didn't speak to her. She didn't feel insecurity for long, as he handed her a pair of her own dice.

"The objective is to roll as many pairs in a row as possible. I haven't beaten two yet."

The two rolled over and over, not once striking luck with a single pair. It grew monotonous for the girl quickly. Nate was content to continue his activity, but it was the first time in his life he could say he did this with another player. Without warning she removed one of his dice and one of her own, placing them to the side.

"Let's try the same concept, but you roll one and I roll one."

"Collaboration is your method?"

"It's better than playing on your own."

He decided to give her plan a try. Her thesis did not seem plausible, as they still lacked any pairs in their efforts. The girl thought to herself, and decided that if they did not make three matches in a row, she was not meant to take the responsibility for the young man's life, and she would leave upon losing. She sighed before rolling.

Two and two.

It was at least the first match, and it sparked their internal enthusiasm the tiniest bit. They rolled again.

Six and six.

She now paid attention, certain that the universe was giving her a heavy sign to prepare for a different course in her future than she would have ever considered only thirty hours ago. Quickly she blew into her clenched fist before rolling.

One and four.

The girl was actually disappointed. With no other option to explore, she decided that she had better begun to accept that she was wrong in believing that she had a place there. With accidental melancholy pouring into her face, she looked down to her empty lands upon her lap.

The sound of a click caused her to pick up her head.

One, in its original place, and one, just beside where the four was.

She looked up to him to find him picking up their dice and placing them next to the other ones. He rose with surprising efficiency and walked a few feet away, returning with robots. After placing three in a triangular formation, he offered her three as well. She took them, unsure of what to assume.

"You cheated."

He didn't disagree with her.

"So, I'm hired?"

"I would prefer if you stayed around for the time being."

She smiled, "Thank you, this is wonderful! I guess I'm moving in now?"

"Yes, that would be the pragmatic thing to do. For both the sake of our convenience and your safety, after all. And in that, I suggest we refrain from exchanging names, at least for now. I have no contempt in you, but I can't necessarily say that I trust you, either."

"I understand. But I'm lucky- I'm actually holding your toys. I was warned not to touch anything."

"Halle did not paint the friendliest picture of me, did she?"

"Nothing bad, just different. After all, we're strangers at this point, aren't we?"

"In a more practical sense, yes. But technically we are coworkers as well."

"Good point."

Their other coworkers looked at one another victoriously, optimism being their lens for things to come. As for Nate, he continued to look down so that she would not notice the tiniest tint upon his cheeks.