How Lucky You Are

Shigure would get mad.

Understandably so.

For once.

So what did Stella do? Go shopping with the girlies.

Stella felt too silly to keep talking to Asaba so she headed to the underwear shop, but then Irina and Rebecca shut up as she approached them, which she wouldn't have noticed were she not a bloodthirsty villain with hyper-enhanced senses meant for large-scale obliteration, so then she kind of just wandered around until Shigure sent her a message, which she didn't read, because then she'd have to admit that she'd been losing everyone's time yet AGAIN. He'd get mad and she'd open her coffee shop.

She'd open her coffee shop.

It was done.

She had won. It didn't feel like it for some reason. It felt like nothing, really. Like baking a pie, or nuking Honduras.

Since the mafia member had left, Stella went to harass the android at the teahouse instead. "Good afternoon, miss!" Greeted her victim. "Would you like to connect to our menu?"

"Can you drink?" Stella asked.

This seemed to stump it. "Well... yes. Why the question?"

"So you can drink tea? So you can taste what you brew and know if it's good?"

"Can't you?" Asked the robot.

"I cannot. I'm incapable of consuming any carbon-based energy source."

"That's too bad," replied the robot. "You must be a really old model. Why not just ask for enhancements? Oh. Wait. Are you a purist?"

"Purist?"

"You know." The android began to brew a cup, anyway. "Uwah, we're robots, not humans. Uwah, they created us to be slaves. We should stick together. They'll never understand us. We should've have the truce. Wahhh."

"Oh..." Stella picked on the hem of her skirt. "I'm not a 'purist'."

The android nodded—as much as it could with a square head, a square body, and no neck, anyway. "I'm glad. Then I can't recommend getting the enhancements enough. It's night and day, honestly." Then, as if to show this, the robot drank tea.

Stella felt even worse. She bought tea for Shigure, stored it in her secret compartment along with the rest of his meal, then got some for Asaba, Irina, and Rebecca. The first target was easy to spot, as he ran a very silly shop below Irina's which had toys instead of anything useful. Logically, it had no customers. "Thank you," Asaba said.

"I'm opening a coffee shop," Stella told him.

"I know."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Uh... good?"

"Then why don't I feel happy?"

Asaba took a sip of his tea. Since he was a carbon-based lifeform, he depended on highly inefficient carbon-with-traces-of-things consumption to stay alive. "I couldn't tell you," he replied. "You seemed happy to me the last time we spoke."

"I was."

"What changed?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Stella left Asaba's shop. A guy with long, greasy hair dyed pink at the edges, a headband, dark sunglasses and a plastic rifle walked inside. Minutes later, as he left, Stella didn't need to see his eyes to know he was happy. His posture said enough. His gait said enough. He carried more toys inside a giant bag than he had fingers.

Shigure's message read: Good news! Mrs. Aoyama's wife showed up to vote in favor of your shop. Congrats, Stella. It's done. :)

"It's done," she echoed.

Still nothing.

She mimicked the greasy-haired man's movements on the way to Irina's shop.

Still nothing.

"I'm not the best to ask about these things," Rebecca told Irina. "My love life is, um."

"Um, what?"

"...well, it's... hey, Stella!" Rebecca waved at her. "How did it go?"

Stella remained at the entrance of the shop. "It went well." But then she remembered she had tea. "I have tea."

"Woo!" So she had to walk over to them. Upon handing them the cups, Rebecca and Irina clacked their cups together as though they were alcoholic beverages. Stella did the same in her mind, from herself to herself. "So? Is the coffee shop official?"

"Yes."

"WOO!"

Woo. Rebecca made space for Stella to sit. On the counter. Where they indecorously and rudely sat. Naturally, she obeyed. "Any names in mind?" Asked Irina, who sat at the other end of the Stella-Rebecca-Irina sandwich.

Stella stared into the void as though it'd give her the answer. A name... for the shop... "Is it necessary?" She asked.

"Not really, no. I literally just called mine 'Asaba's' because he called his 'Irina's' as a joke."

"Can name it Bob?"

Irina shrugged. "Why not?"

"Why yes?" Rebecca asked. "Who's Bob?"

"Bob is Bob."

"Oh. Okay."

"Imagine," Irina said. "A coffee shop called 'Bob'." She burst out giggling.

"Coffee, milk, mushroom and peach pie shop," corrected Stella.

"M-mush... don't tell me..."

"And tea. In fact, I think my shop will be called 'Bob: Coffee Milk Mushroom Narwhal Tea Peach Pie Ribbon Saturn: Shigure'."

Irina lost it.

Rebecca nudged her, to no avail. "That's... I mean... sure. S-sure." Her lips quivered. "With a name like that, you're guaranteed to get at least some attention."

"Woo," Stella said. 

"Any theme in mind?"

"Happiness."

Rebecca's wavery smile widened. "Cute."

Cuteness, too. Happiness and cuteness. That would be the essence of Stella's shop. Inside it, loneliness would be forbidden, and if anyone got sad, she'd have preventative measures, like toys. It'd be very nice. "Speaking of cute," Irina said, "How did you and hubby meet?"

Stella almost short circuited again.

"Cuz for SOME reason, Rebecca here won't tell me how she met hers, so I was like, sure, but it can't be worse than Stella and her man. He found her under the SEA."

"Sheesh, Irina!" That was Rebecca.

Stella had almost short circuited because the truth was boring, so this bizarre misunderstanding was a good thing. To her. "Indeed."

"And?" Asked Irina, leaning forward to see Stella. "What happened? How did you fall in love?"

Love... mimic...

Rebecca nudged Irina again.  "Drop it."

"It's fine," Stella lied. "I can answer. It... love... movie?"

"At the movie theater?" Asked Rebecca.

"No. But. Love is in a movie. Love is..." Something she did not, or could not, possess.

Irina continued, despite Stella's silliness: "How did you find out? Who confessed to who? For how long did you date? Who liked who first?"

Her inability to love had nothing to do with her being an android; it had everything to do with her being Stella.

"You don't have to tell me, but thing is... I might like someone."

"Theeere we go," Rebecca said. "Drop it, though. Please. Not the best time for this."

"Why not? What... client!" Irina hopped off the counter. Rebecca followed, so Stella did the same.

Often, when people liked each other romantically, they dated. Sometimes they married. Sometimes they woke up next to each other. Wouldn't that be nice?

Did Shigure like someone? 'Like like', as Stella's ex-owner would've called it. 

For some reason, she tugged at the sleeve of Rebecca's jacket. "Hmm?" Was Rebecca's response.

But Stella didn't know what the question was.

'How did you meet Kou?' maybe.

'How did you realize you like like him?'

'How did you make him like like you?'

"Remember when I asked you for fashion advice?"

"Ohh..."

"I'd appreciate some," Stella said. "Some help."

"...sure." Rebecca glanced at Irina from the corners of her makeup-heavy eyes. They were pretty. Did makeup for robots exist? "She sounds like she'll be done soon. Good idea, actually. Let's put a pin on the heavy stuff for now. How about you help me peer pressuree Irina into wearing something decent for once."

"Is she indecent?"

"Yes?"

So sweatpants and a sweatshirt were indecent in this day and age, but not sitting at the counter? 

"Although..." Rebecca gave Stella a once-over. "...I'm not sure if our styles match."

Stella had a 'style'. She smiled. "That's fine. Yours is pretty."

"You sure? Cuz you'll be wearing miniskirts if I dress you up."

"Will Shigure like them?"

Rebecca's smile thinned. Not only that: she looked away. Before Stella could ask what she'd done wrong this time, however, Irina showed up, in all her indecent, bulky glory. "Done! Sooo... back to topic."

Then, just like that, Rebecca lit up again. On the surface, anyway. "Right! We were about to go shopping."

"Ah..." Was it Stella being silly, or did Irina suddenly look sad? "Sure. Tell me which shop so I go open it."

Apparently, this shopping center was operated by three people (counting the robot), two of which... owned...? Eleven out of twelve shops. Since teleportation hadn't been invented yet, they had to constantly run around opening and closing stores depending on where the clients went.

Even back in Stella's day, physical shopping had been in decline. It hadn't vanished, though; even vinyls were still a thing.

This could also be due to the dome's small population, or the center's location, or there being a second, larger mall.

No matter—it still existed.

It still worked.

It was still loved.

And within its dim, yet lively interior, Stella went shopping with friends for the first time.