A/N: This takes place after they deal with Megabyte somehow. I'll leave it up to your imagination how they managed that, I'm not interested in writing something about that right now. This is the first chapter of a series that I've got planned. Depends on the response how long it'll take, hope that doesn't sound too mean.
I know that in the Reboot world they have a separate time scheme, I just never figured out what it was. If anyone could enlighten me, I could make this thing more accurate.
Disclaimer: I don't own Reboot at all. All I'm doing is playing with these delightful characters. I named this chapter after a song by The Cure, I don't own that either.
To Wish Impossible Things
"I can't believe it, Bob's never messed up in a game like that before. He almost got us all nullified," Matrix said with anger lacing his voice as he roughly forced open the swing door of Dot's Diner that hit the other side of the wall with a loud thud. AndrAIa frowned at that as she followed him into the diner. Cecil looked up from cleaning his mugs and looked like he wanted to say something about the noise but remained silent. AndrAIa assumed this was because of what he was afraid of what a certain muscled Matrix would do.
"I know, lover," AndrAIa began after she remained silent, hoping that it would give him some time for his head to clear. She caught his violet and yellow eyes as she walked by his side. "But Bob's been acting very strangely lately, you should give him a break. I think something's been on his mind ever since we got rid of Megabyte."
"Megabyte," Matrix said with malice, sounding as if he was spitting something out from the bottom of his throat. He slid into the red plastic, cushioned booth, and AndrAIa grimaced as she saw his fist slam against the faux wooden table. "Don't tell me Bob still cares that he couldn't reprogram that damned virus. There was no way he'd have a chance, Megabyte almost infected the entire system! Why does Megabyte have to ruin everything?"
Okay, maybe mentioning Megabyte was a bad idea, AndrAIa thought as she slid into the booth after him.
"I think it'll take a long time adjusting before everyone can get over Megabyte and continue with their lives."
"Well, it shouldn't take this long. It's been months."
"So you're saying that you're already over everything that Megabyte's done?"
"Yes," Matrix's voice was laced in bitterness and AndrAIa narrowed her eyes as she looked into his. Did he really think that he could lie to her like that? She knew this sprite and she knew for a fact that and it was taking all she had to try and undo all the damage that Megabyte inflicted on him. "Okay, fine, I haven't. It just feels so weird."
"I know the feeling, but you have to understand that there's nothing else that's going to come and ruin this for us," AndrAIa said softly and she placed her hand against his warm arm. "There's no super viruses trying to take over the net, no game-hopping to try to get home, no Megabyte or Hex to worry about. Things are starting to be like they should be."
"I guess," Matrix said and AndrAIa frowned at his tone of voice.
"Isn't this what you wanted?" AndrAIa asked, carefully masking her voice so it didn't radiate the hurt that she was feeling. "We don't have to fight anymore, against anything. I thought you'd be happy."
"I am, really I am, AndrAIa," Matrix's eyes widened and it seemed that he finally caught on to the meaning behind her words. "This just feels too good to be true. I've been fighting for so long this just doesn't feel right, like Megabyte's going to come again and try to nullify us all."
"Nothing is going to come and try to nullify us," AndrAIa's tone was soft yet firm. She wanted nothing more then for Matrix to finally get the chance to enjoy his life. "We're home, there's nothing left to fight and I know that Megabyte isn't going to come again. Trust me, we took good care of him."
"Yeah, you're right," Matrix said softly while looking through eyes with a tinge of emotion that he only showed to her. AndrAIa felt inward satisfaction at getting to what she had wanted to for months now. She didn't know that the direct approach would be the route to take. "It just--this is gonna take some getting used to."
"I know, lover, it's the same with me," she said as she trailed her hand down his arm and brought it to hold his hand. "But we can make it through this together."
If possible his eyes showed more emotion and AndrAIa felt a joy flow through her. She wanted nothing more then to make the one that she loved happy and to make his anger and hate disappear. She leaned up towards him and she felt a warm arm wrap about her, and she tightened her hold about his hand. A warmth enveloped her as he tightened his hold and leant down and soon her lips captured his. She moved her lips against his in slow, and gentle movements and moved her free hand up and towards his neck. She felt his tongue against her lips and she opened her mouth slightly, allowing it to enter.
Her lungs were screaming for air and she cursed inwardly before she slowly withdrew her lips from his and dropped her hand from his neck. She panted for breath, feeling her chest move up and down against his own before he realized that he was doing the same thing. She drew her eyes to his and smiled at him, and laughed lightly. He joined her.
"So how's Dot doing? I haven't been seeing her much lately," she said casually. Her thoughts then fleetingly went to Cecil and she wondered if he had noticed their kiss at all.
"Yeah, me neither. From what I've seen of her, she hasn't been herself. There's something up with her, but when I asked she pretended like it's nothing."
"What's up with her?"
"Well, she seems more uptight then usual and she's practically thrown herself into rebuilding Mainframe."
"Well, that's nothing new. She always did like working."
"But not like this. She didn't seem like she was enjoying herself when I saw her, and we've barely been seeing her lately. That's not like her at all."
"Yeah, you're right," AndrAIa said with realization coursing through her. Concern then took over the realization, and ideas of her own as to why Dot would act like this took form. "I wonder if Bob's been seeing her much either."
"Bob? What's he have to do with Dot?"
AndrAIa narrowed her eyes. Men could be so dense sometimes.
"Bob and Dot love each other, Enzo. If they haven't been talking to each other for this long that would explain why they've both been seeming so out of it."
"Hey, you're right," Matrix's voice was laced with realization, which was similar to what AndrAIa had felt before. "But I don't get it, why wouldn't they talk to each other for this long?"
"A lot's happened to them. Megabyte did almost marry Dot when he was pretending to be Bob, that's probably got something to do with it."
"Bob wouldn't care about that."
"But Dot would. Mouse talked to me about how she was acting when Megabyte was still on the loose. She said that Dot was heartbroken."
"What?" Matrix's voice was laced in shock and AndrAIa felt his hand tighten against her own in anger. "But I thought they were getting along fine when we were getting rid of Megabyte."
"Me too, but I guess things aren't always that easy."
"There's gotta be something we can do to help them out. I hate seeing them like this."
"That's something that they have to figure out on their own, lover," AndrAIa said as she shook her head, and she brought her free hand to his chest. "Even if it takes months, I know that they'll work it out. It's between the two of them, not us. All we can do is hope that they work things out."
"I hate that."
"I know you do."
AndrAIa then heard the diner door swing open and she moved her head to see who it was. She saw a small, green-skinned boy walk through those doors. She was half-expecting him to run to their booth excitedly and talk about the things that had happened that day, but instead his eyes were downcast and his feet moved sluggishly across the white and black checked floor.
"Cursors and ad-blocks, it didn't work," Enzo mumbled to himself, and AndrAIa frowned, feeling concern for him course through her.
"What's wrong, little sparky?" AndrAia asked and Enzo's youthful violet eyes turned from the floor to her eyes. "Come on, why don't you sit down and talk about it."
"Alright," he said dejectedly as he slowly walked to their booth and sat down across from them both.
"Humph, why'd you have to go and invite him over here?"
"Matrix!" AndrAIa's voice rose in exasperation and she turned to look at him. She knew that the relationship between the two was strenuous, but that was no excuse for him to act like that. She turned her gaze back to Enzo. "Don't listen to him, Enzo. Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"
"Uh, well…" Enzo seemed hesitant to say anything, but he continued despite this apprehension. "I was trying to get Bob and Dot to talk to one another again but it didn't work."
"Why were you trying to get them to start talking?" AndrAia said with bemusement rising in her. So not all men were dense after all.
"Are you kidding me? You don't already know? Those two have been acting so offline and basic lately. Bob barely talks to me and he doesn't take me to play jetball or anything anymore and Dot's barely even talking to me anymore. All she does is work and tell me to go to the read-only room. I haven't seen them talking to each other, so I figure they're mad at each other or something."
AndrAIa smiled at the young sprite's deduction. "And you thought if they started talking again they'd have more time to be with you."
"Well yeah, but not just that, they both don't seem that happy at all. Ever since Megabreath kicked the bucket they've both been acting totally 8-bit. I'm not so basic not to put two and two together, after all," Enzo nodded matter of factly as he finished explaining to the two what he knew. AndrAIa chanced a glace at Matrix, who seemed to be looking rather annoyed at his copy. She made a mental note to try to get Matrix to warm up to Enzo later, but not right away. She couldn't push him too much, after all.
"I see, so that's what's been going on with them. So what did you do to try to get them to talk to each other?"
"I gave them each a message where they apologized to one another, and picked a place where they could both meet up and talk it out. Thing is, neither of them showed."
"Hey, kid, try doing something that we haven't already done before."
"I know, I know," Enzo said, while hanging his head. AndrAIa felt curiosity rise in her, and made another mental note to ask about what Matrix mentioned later. "But that's all I could come up with. All my other plans didn't work out either."
AndrAIa raised an eyebrow. "Other plans?"
"Yeah, they've both been acting so out of it that I thought that I'd help get things back to normal again."
"Enzo, that's not something that you can make them do yourself," AndrAIa's tone of voice was reprimanding. "They have to figure out what to do on their own."
"But it's been months!" Enzo's voice was laced in panic and his eyes were wide as he leaned forward, across the table. "I don't think they'll ever talk to each other again!"
"Give it time. They're both old enough to figure out what to do on their own. It'll work out, I'm sure of it."
"But I don't want to wait that long! And what if they don't work it out on their own? What if for the rest of their lives all they do is work and be miserable all the time, then they're lives would be ruined and it'd be all my fault and--" AndrAIa put a finger to his lips to silence his words.
"Whoa, whoa, hold up there, little sparky. You're too young to understand, but it's best to let them work it out for themselves. They're the ones that have to want to talk to each other, anyway. Remember what happened today? Neither of them wanted to talk to the other."
"I guess," Enzo said, and his features were shaped in disappointment.
"Cheer up. Matrix and I will spend time with you while they're working things out so you won't get lonely or anything."
"Okay, fine," Enzo said, clearly not satisfied with the answer. He'll come around eventually, AndrAIa thought. It's only natural for him to want to do something, he's still so young.
"Buy you an energy drink?" AndrAIa offered, wanting to get his mind off of the unfortunate business of Dot and Bob.
"Really? Pixilacious," Enzo said, and tried to wave Cecil over. From the look on Enzo's face, it looked like Cecil wasn't going to come over, and AndrAIa could wager a guess that it had something to do with Matrix. Enzo sighed, and got up to walk over to him.
"I'm going to what?" Matrix whispered harshly to AndrAIa. "I don't want t o spend time with that little kid."
"Please, Matrix, just this once. I know how you feel about him but this time is getting hard on the little guy with Bob and Dot acting the way they are, he's only got us left."
"I know, but I really think that--"
AndrAIa brought her lips to his own in a quick but chaste kiss.
"Please, Matrix? I'll owe you one. Whatever you want, promise."
Matrix let out a frustrated sigh, and AndrAIa could tell that he was having conflicted feelings about this.
"Fine, fine, I'll do it, but you owe me more then one and you've got to be there with me and the kid. No way am I spending time with him alone."
"Okay, I promise," AndrAIa said.
"What are you two doing?" came a young voice and AndrAIa turned to Enzo, who was sliding his way into the booth with his energy drink.
"Nothing important."
"Okay, then," Enzo said and was silent for a time as he sipped on his energy drink, almost as if he was contemplating something in his own mind. AndrAIa didn't want to disturb his thoughts, she knew from experience how Enzo could be. The young sprite then smiled to himself, a smile that AndrAIa knew all too well from her memories of Matrix as a child. It was a smile that said that he was planning to do something and she wondered fleetingly if it concerned Bob and Dot. A strong arm pulled her against Matrix's chest and she soon knew one of the things that he wanted. She didn't mind one bit, and the thoughts of Enzo's plan dissipated from her mind and less appropriate ones took form.