When Are You Coming Home?

The apocalypse arrived. Pollution spread and monsters multiplied. Human civilization was shattered in an instant, and fewer than thirty percent of humanity remained, struggling to survive from day to day in fear and uncertainty.

One day, a message spread through the crowds.

There was an inn called "Sonetto." There were no monsters and no pollution there. For a little pre-apocalypse currency, you could buy yourself a safe place to stay.

The innkeeper was a mild-mannered man who smiled and said to every guest, "Welcome."

It was as if everything were still the way it had been before the collapse of order.

*

When Pei Xu was found, he was little more than a pile of scrap metal.

He gently showed his rescuer the parts of him that could still be dismantled and sold. But the other person poked and prodded at him like a little hamster, tapping and tinkering until, bit by bit, he was fixed. Then they gave him a name.

Pei Xu accepted the name, and accepted his new owner.

His owner told him that they ran an inn and needed a helper.

Pei Xu understood. He sat behind the front desk, smiling as he looked over the accounts, and waited for his owner to find suitable materials to replace his left leg.

Then, one day, his owner suddenly disappeared, leaving only a note that said, "Wait for me to come back."

Later, many people stumbled here, battered and disheveled, asking for a warm room, clean water, and food.

Pei Xu continued running the little three-story inn, smiling at each guest who arrived and saying, "Welcome."

As for the shadows that followed the guests...

No matter. Cleaning up trash was part of his job, too.

On a quiet, sunny day, Pei Xu set a bamboo chair in the inn's little courtyard and brewed a pot of aged tea. An old tape recorder played the crosstalk of the old world, stumbling and stuttering.

His unreliable left leg ached a little.

Pei Xu remembered a long time ago, when his owner couldn't bear to make him put weight on that leg, and would always kneel on top of him instead. Even when their legs trembled, they never put all their weight on him.

Pairs of birds flew across the sky. He was still waiting, but his owner still hadn't come back.

Widower-vibe, all-rounder robot top x obsessive bottom who'd crawl back even if he were shattered to pieces

A cozy, nontraditional apocalypse story about running a business

Theme: You must take your life into your own hands.