“Isn’t that good, Letty?” Sao repeated. “…Even if we don’t admit it, everyone wants someone to care for us. You probably aren’t considering the fact that possibly your other owners, after getting you, realized that they already had someone in their life to care for them and didn’t need you.”
Letty thought a moment then looked at Sao very seriously with his red eyes. “Is that true for you, too?”
“Huh?”
“Your brother.” Letty answered. “You already have someone to care for you. So, why do you need me?”
Sao opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when he saw that expression come onto Letty’s face. The look of deep sadness, hitting far more than just one thing.
“If I’m… just a hindrance to you, then I should go.”
“But… You aren’t.”
“You never wanted me, did you?”
“…” Sao couldn’t think of anything to say.
Letty nodded a bit. “I thought so. Imitation of human life is only pretty in stories and movies, and as dolls. It never would work out truly I guess.”
Sao looked up, just in time to see Letty’s eyes turn from red to solid black and then fall over to the side. “Letty? Letty! LETTY!!!” Sao reached over, shaking the other. “Letty! Wake up! Wake up! Letty!”
Sao was too busy shouting to hear the door of his apartment open. Letting herself in, Lena came over to look at Letty.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know!” Sao shouted. “He woke up, then we talked and then his eyes went black like that and he fell over!”
Lena pushed Sao away, looking him over. “Damn. I’ll have to reboot him before he terminates.”
She quickly undressed his upper half of his body, and waved a card over his belly button. A light triggered, and then a vertical line came up from Letty’s abdomen extending all the way to his collar bone. Once the line was solid, it extended into an I-shape and opened from the center.
Sao stared at the inner-workings. In the center of the ribs where the human heart would be was a glowing machine, a small thing that looked like a processor near it, and a bunch of other cables and cords connecting to an from multiple levels of memory boards.
“What is all that?” Sao asked.
Lena pointed to the glowing machine, “This is the Memory Disc. Basically. It hasn’t turned off yet, so let’s see what happened…” She pointed to a chipboard near the base of the ribs, “This is the Difference Engine. Everything looks fine.” On the opposite side the ribs she pointed to another board, “This is the Personality Capability…”
“So… what’s wrong?”
“It must be his A.I.E.”
“What?”
“Artificial Intelligence Engine,” Lena answered pulling out a cord from her purse. She plugged one in end to her P.D.A. and the other end to a socket below the belly button’s position.
Letty’s body shook and shivered.
“What’s happening?”
“It’s giving him a tickling sensation.” Lena answered. “Hold down his hands so he doesn’t pull out the cord.”
“What are you doing?” Sao asked, shifting onto his knees to hold down both of Letty’s arms.
“I’m scanning his A.I.E. to make sure everything’s fine.”
“Why?”
“Because, from the plant B. can initiate the E.T.P.”
“….Translation?”
“Emergency Termination Procedure.” Lena answered with a sigh. “He can fry the disc from the plant, and if that happens then Letty becomes nothing but trash.”
“Like I’ll let that happen!” Sao shouted.
Lena shrugged. “I’ll have to initiate the Ed Rec Program…”
“The what?”
“Educational Recovery Program. Ed Rec Pro for short.” Lena said, clicking away on her P.D.A. “It’s a program I’ve just recently finished. It overrides anything sent from the plant, and can stop the crucial joints of the machine if certain levels of emotion counts become too high. Like stress, sadness or anger.”
“What’ll it do to him?”
“He’ll basically faint much like a human would. Rest would be all he’d need to recover.” Lena continued, not looking to Sao. “It’s a pain to program it in manually to each Machine, but if we can successfully program it into the oldest operating Machine then the unknown hierarchy the Machines have networked between themselves will have this program sent to him.”
“So they’ll all have this… Safe-guard?”
“Yes.” Lena said. “I need a password to finalize it. Something only you would know.”
“Why do I have to name it?”
“Because he’s your machine, unless you don’t want him?”
“No! I want him.”
“Then give me a password to finish it.”
Sao thought a moment, then smiled, “Misty. Make it ‘Misty’.”
“Okay.” Lena typed it in and finished. A moment later, she turned off her P.D.A., then unplugged the cord from Letty. She pushed a button under a bit of the covering and the openings in the chest folded shut. The places where it had opened vanished like it was never there.
“Wow…” Sao stared, letting go of Letty’s arms slowly.
Lena sighed, standing up. “The other Machine’s will be returned by Sunday.”
“Huh?”
“We’re making sure they’re operating fine.” Lena explained, walking to the door. “Oh and, Mister Hishi.”
“What?”
She smiled to him, “You can have sex with him.”
“Wha… Wha… WHAT?!” Sao shouted to Lena as she left, closing the door behind her. Sao rushed over, locking it instantly. “That bitch picked my lock…”
“Hmn… Mister Hishi..?” Letty called from over by the sofa as he was sitting up slowly.
Sao walked back over to him. “Hey. I told you, it’s Sao.”
“And I told you- if you aren’t planning to keep me-”
“I am.”
Letty paused, staring up at Sao. The other just looked away, the blush fresh on his cheeks. “Y-you are…?”
“Yeah.” Sao nodded. “I’ve got to get to sleep and get to work tomorrow. You… You should, too.”
Letty stood up, “Uhm!”
Sao stopped at his bedroom door, turning to look at him.
“Uhm… Uh… Good night, Sao.” Letty smiled to him. “But… Should you be really going to work after just coming from the hospital?”
Sao shook his head, “No… But I have to live somehow.”
“I’ll take care of you, so just rest.”
“I didn’t ask you to…”
Letty smiled, “You don’t have to! I’m… Here for you for this reason.”
Sao stared at Letty for a moment. He lifted up his hand, signaling Letty to come over. When the Machine did, Sao grabbed Letty gently by one of the long red bangs by his chin and pulled him close.
Gently, Sao kissed Letty on the lips.
When Letty tried to pull away, Sao just wrapped his arm around his shoulders pulling them close.
“Le- Let go…” Letty said muffled.
Sao let go a second, “No.” And then pushed their lips together for another kiss.
Letty yelped a bit as Sao pulled the machine into his bedroom, to the bed and forced him to lay down and snuggle with him that night.
Whether it was the embarrassment he felt, or his heart beating so loudly, Sao and Letty didn’t get any sleep that night. The two spent the whole of the night snuggled together under the blankets, listening to Sao’s heart pound and pound away.
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