Kiku's fingers tapped on the keyboard at lightning-fast speed, glasses precariously set on the edge of his nose, yet he never dared to remove his fingers from the keyboard to fix them. The clock read 6 AM, and he vaguely wondered how bad his appearance was as he recalled not yet falling asleep. Still, his fingers clacked on, trying to finish one of the last few chapters of a fanfiction he had been working hard on.
Things were starting to wrap up in his story as the fans cried out for more on his blog. The main protagonist was finally getting over himself and realizing that what he truly wanted was to be with his boyfriend, yet his boyfriend was getting on a plane to go move halfway across the world with his uncle. Kiku was past seven thousand words at this point, in a part where the protagonist gets into a car accident on the way to the airport, but gets out and keeps running despite his injuries when-
Word 2024 has stopped responding
Wh-what?! No no no!
Close the program?
It was responding perfectly fine! How dare you stop working now?!
Still, the error box stayed up and had no signs of moving or recovering his unsaved work. With a shaking hand, he chose to close the program. Pulling the program back up, he found it hadn't recovered his work.
Now, under normal circumstances, Kiku may have reacted calmly by going to bed and treating himself to dango the next day, but that was seven thousand words and a night of work gone.
With an irritated screech, he slammed his chair back and stormed through the small apartment, knocking over three piles of manga on his way to the kitchen. Slamming cupboards and the fridge, he got himself a plate of sashimi and was just starting to stab at the raw fish with his chopsticks when there was a knock on his door.
His anger had partially deteriorated, but stayed evident as he put the plate down and strode over to the door, opening it. He was going to snap at whoever was there as though they had awoken him from his sleep, but stopped when he found himself in front of a towering box.
"Excuse me," said a delivery man, and Kiku got out of the way as the box was wheeled into his living room. "You're Honda Kiku, correct?"
"Ah…" Kiku's anger had disappeared to make way for curiosity. "Yes, that is me."
"I have a package from a Mr Wang Yao," The delivery man informed him. Of course it was from Kiku's brother. Only his brother would have the money enough for something this large. "Please sign here…"
After signing the paperwork and thanking the man softly, Kiku was left alone with the large box- crate rather. A note on the side was in his brother's handwriting.
I heard you needed a new computer. Love gēge
A computer? What computer was this big? And how was he supposed to open it?!
Kiku spent the next ten minutes struggling to get the thing open. He wasn't the strongest person in the world, and force didn't seem to help. Kiku was almost ready to give up and find a crowbar in the morning (or, afternoon, whenever he awoke), when he noticed his authentic katana sitting on the wall. It wasn't much use just sitting there, and it was made to fight opponents much more formidable than this wooden crate (though it was quite a formidable opponent to Kiku), so…
Within a few moments, he was hacking at the box somewhat clumsily, but stopped when he realized he could easily destroy something inside that way. So instead, he opted to pry open one side with the sword.
The side came falling down with a thud, and with it, a wave of packing peanuts.
Grumbling about how he'd have to clean it all up, Kiku set the sword back in its place, and carefully waded through the sea of white in order to get a good look at what it was.
Kiku froze when he saw a man. But not just any man. He was a very handsome man, standing tall and firm. His body was nicely toned and tanned (thankfully his… privates… were covered with boxers), and his face looked slightly youthful, with straight blonde locks parted to the side, except for one piece of hair that stuck almost straight up.
Kiku's face was a deep crimson as he took this all in, trying to understand why his brother had sent him a man in a box, when he noticed the lines going around this man's neck, down his torso, and around his arms and elbows and knees. His joints…. It was a robot.
Still, there was no denying Kiku felt embarrassed to be around such a handsome robot when Kiku himself was disheveled with his bloodshot eyes (from staring at the computer much too long) and messy hair and clothes.
Inching a bit closer, he now wondered how he would go about getting this robot out, when he noticed a tag wrapped around the robot's wrist, reading, "Hello! My name is Alfred!"
"Alfred?" Kiku asked curiously. It seemed to fit, somehow.
At his voice, there was a whirring, causing Kiku to stumble back in shock while the robot twitched and shifted, coming to life before the Japanese mans eyes.
The gentle hum of a motor played somewhere inside the robots body and his eyes, the most beautiful sky blue Kiku had ever seen, opened and shifted like a camera lens, until they locked on Kiku himself, who was somewhere between frightened and shocked.
When it stepped forwards, Kiku tried to step back, but instead found himself tripping over his coffee table. In a moment, Alfred was next to him, catching him before he could hit the ground.
Now holding Kiku in his arms, face a bit too close, a grin spread across Alfred's face.
"Hi there!" Alfred said in a slightly robotic voice, which was heavily accented in an American tone.
"H… hi…" Kiku responded, heart pounding and face again pure red. Something told him he wasn't going to get any sleep that night.
A/N: This is only a sort of… introduction. The following chapters will be longer, I assure you. This idea is inspired heavily on Chobits, but please don't expect all the details to follow that story. Also, the name is one that I struggled with for a while, so I apologize for the strangeness of it. Anyways, this is a story I've wanted to start for a while, and though I had hoped to finish my other (Ruler of the Future) first, I couldn't help at least getting one chapter out. It may be a bit before I get to chapter two, or I may just dive into it. Who knows. Either way, I hope you enjoy! This is going to be a mix of fluff and sadness, but nothing sexual. I'm sorry, I'm not good at writing that! I'll update as soon as I can! Thank you for reading!