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It was another one of Sebastian's late-night shifts, although for him and many others in this sad world, the concepts of "night" and "day" were steadily losing all meaning.
With only a vast, impenetrable void above to look up to, the division between the waking and sleeping hours had become slippery. The hours on the clocks were arbitrary symbols to the lamplighter now, devoid of meaning.
And he was certainly in no condition to read any clocks at the moment.
"Ow… Fhuuh…"
Sebastian was too tired to even swear. Only a weak, breathy groan escaped him. He was only vaguely aware that he had just tripped on his own feet and fallen onto the pavement, alone in a back alley of the crimson metropolis.
Somehow his mind resisted the urge to dissolve into dreamless sleep. Slowly he commanded his body to tear itself away from this comfortable, prostrate position. It was difficult. In the state he was in, even the cobblestones felt like a luxurious bed.
Every nerve in Sebastian's battered body ached in protest as he set his feet on the ground again. Somehow he remained standing. He was almost on autopilot now, relying on the muscle memory that his body had accumulated after several years in this line of work.
Can't stop now… his mind sleepily insisted to itself as he stifled a yawn. Seven — seventeen? — streets of lamps left…
Sebastian stood still, leaning on the pole he was going to use to refill those lamps. He failed to suppress his next yawn — long, deep, indulgent.
Drowsiness began to overtake him again, as though yawning had fatally cracked the disintegrating armor of his wakefulness.
Blinking his eyes, doing his damnedest to perceive the last few meters of the alley stretching endlessly ahead of him, Sebastian took a step forward.
Then another.
Then probably another, but he wasn't awake to tell.
The lamplighter flopped, almost face first, onto the ground once more, and this time he didn't have the strength to shake off the warm embrace of sleep.
He began to snore.
Sebastian didn't know that someone/something had found him sleeping on the ground — that they had picked him up ever so gently — that he was now surrounded by a throng of meowing little fuzzballs, keeping him company together with his rescuer.
A firm, warm hand was petting his hair, caressing his cheek.
A contented sigh, almost a purr, escaped him.
He snuggled deeper into the bubble of warmth enveloping him. He was as light as air now, floating in an ocean of purest silence. Senseless bliss…
Something was walking on him. Without waking, Sebastian groaned and shrugged, trying to banish the sensation.
The paws were marching up his forearm. He groaned again, and grimaced as he tried to shake off the creature disturbing him.
Then its moist, rough tongue licked his cheek.
His torpor broken, Sebastian had to move his arms around to shoo the thing away.
He opened his eyes, and saw that the creature was a stray cat, scurrying away from him and settling down to loaf on a different spot on the cobblestone, glowering at him like he'd offended it.
Sebastian then saw that there were more cats there, at least a dozen, all basking in the strange warmth that filled this alleyway.
He then looked up. The metallic face of a tall, person-shaped robot, aglow with red phosphor, looked back at him. Somehow, Sebastian could almost discern an expression of concern on its flat, stove-like visage.
"Wha-!"
The startled lamplighter leapt upwards and backwards, blushing so that the hue of his cheeks almost resembled that of his hair. Cats recoiled in alarm. The robot's hand was half-raised, as through it had just retracted it, mid-pat, from the back of someone who was curled up close beside it, resting their head on its lap.
[You're awake,] said the robot with a tone of cybernetic gentleness.
[I found you passed out on the ground in an alleyway nearby. You looked a bit uncomfortable sleeping on the ground, so I brought you back here, with the cats.]
His heart still racing, Sebastian's eyes darted around at his surroundings. He had never been in this alley before — it was a dead end, and therefore had no use as a shortcut — but he remembered petting a cat or two somewhere on a backstreet not far from here.
He looked again at the tall robot. The warmth here was emanating from its big stove of a head. A cat walked up to it, climbed up onto its lap; obligingly the robot began to pet it, and the animal mewed with satisfaction. Sebastian felt himself calming down.
The robot tilted its head slightly, apparently scrutinizing Sebastian's reactions.
[I hope I haven't made you uncomfortable?] It said earnestly. [I'm very sorry if I have — I thought you'd probably be more comfortable being here than just lying on the ground.]
Sebastian blushed anew.
"I- Uh, well, I… I'm not uncomfortable, thank you… It's been…uh…fine! Totally alright, I'm very grateful…"
For some reason he couldn't bring himself to look directly at the robot's face, despite it barely being a face at all. The mechanical being was more than anthropomorphic enough to fluster him with such closeness. The lamplighter's face felt warmer than the rest of his body. He coughed to dispel the awkwardness.
"I'm okay, thank you…" — then the primary preoccupation of his life forced its way back into the forefront of his mind — "How long have I been here?"
[In this alley? About two hours, 14 minutes.] Hearing that was enough to clear his mind of drowsiness entirely.
[That's nowhere near the eight hours that humans need in order to function. Shouldn't you return home and get more sleep?]
That was, Sebastian thought, out of the question. "Eight-hour sleep" had become a foreign concept to him long ago. But there was something, an empathetic tone, in the robot's question that made Sebastian hesitate for just a second. Even through its voice, this robot radiated warmth.
"…No, that's alright, I've gotta get back to work… Where's my lighting pole?"
He picked up the tool in question — the robot had probably brought it here along with him — and turned his gaze down the alley. If he hurried, he could refill all the lamps that needed refilling over yonder in no more than three hours. Maybe two. And he might run home and get a little shut-eye after that, if he could spare the time; far fewer hours than eight, if any.
"Thanks again, goodbye-!"
Sebastian had nearly run all the way down the alley before he remembered his manners. He turned back around to look at the giver of warmth and the cats crowded around it.
"Do you…have a name?"
He had met a few Tamed robots in his life; many had been named by people, while a few others had come up with their own names themselves.
[I am Kelvin.] The robot replied.
"I'm Sebastian. Nice to meet you."
[You can always come here to rest, if you'd like. The cats seem to like you.] The cat on Kelvin's lap yawned and began licking its paw.
[Don't forget to rest, Sebastian.]
The lamplighter couldn't help but smile a little. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could get an extra hour of sleep in tonight.
"I'll try. Thanks, Kelvin."
He waved goodbye, and Kelvin waved back, as he went running down the alley, off to light some more lamps.