No Love (At All)
"Blues, due to your fooling around on your last mission, I've had to push an outrageous number of our missions to the next day. Do you understand the predicament you've gotten me into?"
"Yes, Enzan-sama."
"Of course you do. I taught you to observe. Obviously, your logic program or your own faulty AI must've messed up your processors."
"Of course, Enzan-sama. My sincerest apologies."
Blam. A hand slammed forcefully into the polished surface of a hard-wood desk. The sound reverberated throughout the room, drawing out the moment much longer than it had actually sustained.
"A simple apology will not do!" Enzan reprimanded, face drawn taught with a subtle rage. "I'll lose face to the entire Net Law Enforcement department. I had a requirement to fulfill, Blues!"
The boy's conversation was directed at nothing other than his computer screen. On the 36-inch monitor, a single window created a predatory jail around a respectfully-bowed crimson figure. Programs ran innocuously in the background, flitting around as if completely apathetic to their sentient brother-from-another-programmer's discomfort.
"…Perhaps there is something I can do in order amend my mistake, Enzan-sama?" Blues offered evenly, voice as indifferent as any other time he had ever dealt with this particular brand of fury. "Certainly I could make up a fraction of lost time if I began immediately." Silently, 'I have to get out of here right now.'
Enzan made a noncommittal noise of irritation before practically spitting, "No. The damage has already been done, Blues. Just finish your next task."
"Yes, Enzan-sama."
"And where did Rockman say he was going last you heard, Blues?"
Even behind the visor and helmet, Blues' barely-suppressed cringe was painfully obvious.
"ParkArea3, Enzan-sama," the navi replied lowly, baritone tones slightly- almost imperceptibly- higher than usual.
"Good." Malice was clearly defined on the boy's voice. "I'll need to have a talk with him. Dismissed, Blues."
"Yes, Enzan-sama." The "sama" was barely out in the air before Blues was out of there.
In a second- no, a millisecond- the red navi was safely out of reach of his raging operator. Enzan rarely reverted back to his "Holier-Than-Thou" outlook on navis nowadays, but there were times of stress and fatigue that made the boy snap whatever his sharp tongue felt like snapping.
All Blues could hope was that Rock wasn't deleted. It was something Enzan would sorely regret later in his life.
~x-X-x~
There was little to be said about a hot day on the net. Though navis couldn't feel heat directly, the outside temperature would more-often-than-not cause the cyber-world to overheat or sporadically dissolve into pixels for a second or two if things got too extreme. Therefore, the humans' virtual brethren feared the all-mighty hundred-degree terror that was known as a "summer noon"* just as much as humans themselves did.
Rockman was suspiciously unaffected by the extreme temperatures of that particular day as he hummed and made his way leisurely through ParkArea, all but oblivious to the proverbial meteor on a crash-course with his naïve self. A new package of battle-chips dangled limply in his arms (the real versions would come as a mail order addressed to the Hikari residence), newly-bought and immaculate.
His expression was a perfect blanket of serene contentment- not unlike the look on a fed lion's face. His steps had an enthusiastic spring to them that implied complete happiness.
That was the state he was caught in as a window opened up in front of him and frankly scared the living binary coding out of him.
"Hello, Rockman. I hope you've been having a good day." Enzan's grouchy tone of voice implied that he, in truth, hoped for the contrary.
The blue navi immediately froze and stopped his bouncy gait. Something was off with the situation.
"Eh-heh," Rockman started nervously. "Hi, Enzan. Yeah, it's been a pretty good day…" 'Don't. Make. One. False. Move,' he commanded himself stiffly in his mind.
"Ah, yes. Good, good," the boy replied nonchalantly, in an I-really-don't-care sort of way. "Would you care explaining why you were… oh, distracting my navi for the past three hours?" Ah. Accusations.
Rockman's stomach did a little back-flip. No matter what he said, he was doomed to whatever tongue-lashing Enzan had planned for him.
"Oh, that…" Rock chuckled, trying to buy himself time to concoct an explanation that wouldn't throw anybody under the bus. "Well… anou… that was kind of my fault." Anybody besides himself, that was. He was fair cannon- er… bus fodder. "You see, I was being a bit of a child this morning and Blues-kun-" Enzan's eye twitched at the honorific "-stopped me from completely destroying ACDC Area."
"That hardly explains-"
"Allow me to finish." Rock knew cutting Enzan off probably wouldn't help, but he just had to do it. "The whole reason I was throwing a tantrum was because today's my birthday and Netto wasn't paying attention to me-" the boy quirked an eyebrow "-and I kind of, sort of… started crying when I calmed down." Now, both eyebrows were quirked. "So Blues was trying to get me to stop crying and the only thing I could think about was how busy he always is, so I tried to get him to agree to a walk in the park if I stopped the water-works." Enzan's eyebrows were getting properly acquainted with his hairline. "He agreed, and he started talking about how he needed to get back to work, but I wouldn't let go of him until it was really, really, late. So it's my fault. I'm very sorry, Enzan."
Rock finished his little speech and stared at the open view-window in front of him with a look. He really hoped the look communicated the thoughts he wanted it to- namely, "Please don't delete Blues" and, above all, "Please don't delete me."
There was a heavy, fat, obese moment of silence. As in, it would've broken the scale that measured silent weighted…ness (that was a word, right?) if somebody tried weighing it.
"…Happy Birthday, Rockman," Enzan muttered before closing the window as quickly as he had opened it.
Rockman stared blankly at the spot where the window had been moments before. Even though he hadn't exactly expected Enzan to give him a birthday present (maybe Netto, but certainly not him), he was pretty sure whatever had just transpired counted as one.
Yes. By not deleting or outright obliterating him for whatever bad he had done (he still couldn't see anything wrong in getting Blues to relax for a bit), Enzan had given him a birthday present.
Rock didn't linger on it too long. He quickly beamed out of ParkArea, sim-sweating like crazy due to either the heat of the server or the close clash he had just experienced with Enzan- he couldn't tell which one.
End.
~x-X-x~
*= I live in California (specifically the bay area) nowadays. I don't get many of these anymore. I can say that I spent around a decade of my life in the scorched state known as Texas, so I do partially know the terror of heat.
A/N: Day 3 and the last of my birthday marathon endeavors! Same conditions, non-existent editing, and slap-dash nature as the other two. For specifics, read the Author's Note on Brotherly Love. Tomorrow's my first day of summer, so I'll probably abandon my marathon in favor of another project.
Again, feel free to hate on any typos or stuff like that. My marathon rules don't allow me to correct them after publishing.
Bye, and H.A.G.S.!