Aro was in the basement.

As always.

The cameras on the hallways had panned throughout and he contemplated asking Champion where the boys were when he saw no sign of them, but decided against it when he noticed Andy leaving the guest room more than once.

It seemed that all of them were in the guest room with the new manager. There were no cameras in the guestroom due to privacy and Aro grabbed a glass of water, eyes straining at the screen. What were they doing? This was a first for his team mates to be in one place, doing something to which Aro guessed... doing something together?

Were they watching a movie? Aro knew that was impossible. The guest room didn't have a big screen. The new manager did not bring a laptop. What was her name? Right, no one ever brought their real name within the confines of these walls.

The dim light of the basement flickered and Aro made a mental reminder to replace it. Back on screen, he saw the new manager walk towards the front door, exiting the house. Where was she going? Why did she have pigtails? It has been a while since Aro has seen a woman in pigtails.

Royal exited the guest room, Aro noticing how he had a skip in his step. Royal? The gloomy one out of all? Aro knew he was part of the team, but when he saw all of them exit the guest room, he felt a slight tinge of jealousy that none of them thought to ask him to follow.

Though the many times of rejection would be the cause – Aro turning down dinners and "time together" due to stress of delivering quality suits and gadgets. He was the intellectual one out of all them – he wasn't superhuman. He was just... human.

"New intruder, new intruder," the mechanical robot glided across the dark gray basement floor. The robot would always be (Aro considered his team mates more as colleagues) Aro's only friend. Aro was an outcast, the human everyone feared.

Jay wasn't afraid of him, and he was closest to Jay than to everyone else. Royal hated admitting it. Champion played it off as respect. Chester and Andy, being the young ones, reminded him that he scared them whenever they could.

"New intruder!"

"Beebo. I know you have access to the security cameras, but you can't see every stranger as an intruder."

The robot wheeled itself to Aro. It had gone through many changes over the years from size to system, to efficiency to the flexibility of each mode – Aro once made it human sized. But Beebo's smother mode, a mode you will learn of later, scared the rest and he downsized it to a knee-height robot.

"New intruder!" Beebo beeped and Aro's eyes twitched. He finally sat down, glancing once more at the security system before drumming his fingers on the table.

The manager entered the house, boxes of pizza in her arms as the rest of his teammates followed her like stray dogs attracted to food. They all settled in the living room and Aro found himself analyzing the situation.

Royal was right beside her, which was very uncharacteristic of Royal to be close to anyone. Chester was laughing. Jay was casually telling her a story, Aro knew that was what he was doing since he was gesticulating with both his shoulders and his arms. Andy was pointing to one of the slices.

When she had first arrived a few hours ago, Aro caught a glimpse of her through the cameras. He also also saw how Max and Champion were looking at her – this tiny female with pigtails. They had such hope in their eyes. She'd be the one who'd solve their problems.

Aro doubted it. He then saw her look up, her eyes falling on each security camera, trying to remember where it was positioned.

Aro took his eyes away from the screen as his stomach grumbled. He had skipped lunch yet again.

He made up his mind – he did not care about her or what she would try to do as long as she followed the rules.

One, he hoped she wouldn't get in his way.

Two, he wished she wasn't going to step foot into his basement.

Three, he prayed she wasn't the type to push him to eat his meals even though it would be written in the file Champion gave her.

Aro Johnson would be wrong on all three.

Aro Johnson

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