A/N: First of all, apologies for the long delay. You remember how I said I was "working on a different project?" Well, that other project kidnapped my brain, held it hostage, and refused to let it go until I had written something like 20,000 words of it. Or more. (Visit my Detective Conan fic, "Alone in the Shadows," if you want to see the culprit). Anyway, my brain finally managed to escape for long enough to get back to the Rockman universe, so here you go!

Also, I have to give out another short apology—I've changed Himura's name to Kurogane. I thought it made a nice symbolic contrast. (Kurogane means "black steel," whereas Hikari means "light.") I hope that the name change isn't too confusing, but either way, your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks for your patience!


"Zap! Hah! I got you with my ray gun, Squirt!"

"I told you to stop calling me that! I'm older than you are, you jerk!"

"Only by nineteen minutes. …And you're such a baby that I might as well be twice your age!"

Listening to the raised voices of his two small sons, Doctor Hikari couldn't hold back a sigh. The older one, Netto, was normally the more sensible of the two—at least by a little. Today, however, he was so moody that he was almost making the younger one look like an angel.

Almost.

"Ha-ha, Squirt! You're gonna have to run faster than that if you want your PET back!"

"Saito Stupid Hikari, I am gonna kill you!"

"Hey!" Doctor Hikari shouted, straightening his back as he glared warningly at his sons. "If the two of you want to keep playing, you'd better be nice! Saito, give Netto his PET, and Netto, if I hear you say something like that again, I'll send you to your room."

The boys slowed and glanced at their father. Netto flushed and glared intently at the ground, but Saito grinned, waved one hand in the air in an "I-don't-know-why-you-worry-so-much" gesture, and restored Netto's PET to its owner before rocketing off to resume his play.

Doctor Hikari leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. The concrete steps of the front porch were hard, but oddly comfortable at the moment, and the morning sunlight was a blessed relief from the darkness of the lab. It was such a beautiful day that he had almost even managed to relax, until the boys' argument over the PET had jarred him back to his worries. Ever since his unsuccessful attempt to ask Kurogane—and anyone else who could potentially convince him to listen—for more time, his stress had escalated to dangerous levels.

Light footsteps tapped across the sunlit porch as Haruka emerged from the house. Doctor Hikari smiled at her as she sat down next to him, holding a clean white mug in each hand. The smell of coffee drifted to him through the early-springtime air, and Haruka held one of the cups out to him with a slightly questioning look.

Doctor Hikari laughed grimly. "No caffeine for me, right now. Thank you, but no." A stimulant was the last thing he needed, given his pounding heart and fraying nerves.

Haruka put the cup down next to her, seeming to understand. "If you don't want coffee, then why don't you go inside and try to sleep?" she asked. "Heaven knows you need it."

"If I'm being forced to take a day off, then I am going to use it. It's been too long since I've spent any time with the boys."

Haruka hesitated, as if she was going to argue, but changed her mind instead. "Stubborn as a computer virus, and twice as hard to talk to," she muttered, and Doctor Hikari nudged her playfully with his elbow.

Haruka rolled her eyes and laughed a little. "At least I know where the boys get it," she said, shaking her head.

"Speaking of the boys," Doctor Hikari said, lowering his voice a little and looking back out at the yard, "Saito hasn't told you where he got those bruises yet, has he?"

"Not a word, and I know better than to try to force it out of him, at this point,"

Doctor Hikari grimaced. It wasn't the first time that this had happened. Every so often, when the boys came home, Saito would be covered with a collection of inexplicable bruises, cuts, and scrapes. Once, he had walked home on a badly sprained leg, and despite the fact that he'd had Netto's shoulder to lean on, the additional strain had put the leg out of commission for months.

"I don't suppose you have any ideas," Haruka muttered, looking after her son with worried eyes.

"Everything from his usual roughhousing to bullies, picking fights, or trespassing on dangerous property. Some theories are more likely than others, but really, I don't have a clue."

Haruka nodded slightly in a way that said that she'd be coming back to the issue later. They sat in silence for a couple moments, but then Haruka glanced over to her side and gave Doctor Hikari a piercing look. "You really do need to get some sleep," she said.

With a small sigh, Doctor Hikari closed his eyes and gave Haruka's shoulder a squeeze. "Later," he said. "I can handle myself."

Haruka looked at him sternly with her bright, red-brown eyes. "Can you?"

The tone in Haruka's voice caught the scientist off guard. "…And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" he asked, a bit more harshly than he meant to.

Instead of giving him an answer, Haruka looked back out over the yard with stubborn weariness etched into her face. The sullen expression did nothing to ease Doctor Hikari's irritation, but it didn't take long before he realized that all of his frustration was centered on himself. …No, apparently he couldn't manage on his own, given what had happened at the lab last night. Running a hand through his medium-length hair, he felt the mild annoyance blossom into resentment.

Three new theories. Twenty-one restarts. Four discarded netnavi frames. Eight days of torture. Every person had limits, and Doctor Hikari had finally found his. The lack of sleep and intense, never-ending stress had finally taken their toll, and when an intern had entered his lab by mistake last night, they had found him on the floor, unconscious. As per his doctor's orders (and Haruka's, for that matter), Doctor Hikari had taken today off.

He had been less than thrilled at the forced vacation.

Almost against his will, Doctor Hikari started to massage his fingers restlessly, a surge of sudden anxiety flooding through his limbs. As wonderful as it was to be here with the boys, as beautiful as it felt to sit with Haruka's arm brushing against his, he simply couldn't relax. He didn't have the time for this! The fate of an entire race of beings was resting squarely on his shoulders, and if he didn't—…

"I know what you're thinking," Haruka said, cutting into his internal monologue.

Doctor Hikari started at her voice, then glowered at the ground. "Of course you do," he said, his heart jumping erratically in his chest. "I haven't been able to think about anything else for months."

"Yuichiro Hikari, you stop that, right now."

Caught off guard by the sudden sharpness in his wife's voice, Doctor Hikari looked up, surprised.

Haruka shifted her position so that she was now resting on her knees and facing Doctor Hikari full-on. Her eyes were just above the level of her husband's. Gently, she put one hand on either of his shoulders, and began to speak in a low, serious voice. "I understand, now, why you've been so fixated on your work. …But Yuu, you can't help anyone if you kill yourself worrying! I swear, if you don't relax, I'll put a sleeping pill in your coffee and force it down your stubborn throat!"

In his shock, Doctor Hikari's lips parted slightly. His face was probably almost comical, but Haruka didn't laugh.

"I can't just forget about them," Doctor Hikari said. "This world is in a crisis—I would be insane if I weren't feeling so much pressure right now!" He tried to draw back, but Haruka gripped his shoulders tightly, keeping him where he was.

"Yuu," she said, and her voice was tender. "You're only human."

The words took a second to register completely. When they did, Doctor Hikari felt something change. His stubbornness melted, his pride collapsed, and his anxiety—while not disappearing entirely—faded enough that he could breathe without feeling a tightness in his chest. Slowly, he nodded. Then he smiled, picked up the coffee sitting next to him, and took a small sip. Haruka gave a short, content sigh, and then shifted around to face the yard again.

"Only human," he murmured. The words had a ring of truth to them that was both freeing and bitter at once. Humans were imperfect. Humans made mistakes. They had flaws, and limits, and no single human could carry the weight of the world for long without being crushed beneath it.

Maybe he would go inside and take a nap. Somehow, Doctor Hikari suspected that Haruka had known he would give in eventually.

"You didn't really put a sleeping pill in the coffee, did you?" he asked suspiciously.

Haruka just laughed, her eyes twinkling.

With a sigh, he picked up his mug, rose from the steps, and turned to the door with a resigned look. He would make it up to the boys when this was over—regrets, love, and forgiveness were all parts of being human, after all.

Now if only I could make a netnavi that was capable of feeling those things, he thought with a bitter shake of his head.

Then, he froze in his tracks.

"Yuu?" Haruka asked, puzzled at his hesitation.

Doctor Hikari, however, wasn't listening. His heart had begun to pound so rapidly that he could feel his pulse in his hands.

"That's it," he whispered.

He stood, staring at nothingness for a second more, and then, an explosion of energy burst outward through his limbs and he dashed inside at breakneck speed. Coffee spilled on the floor as the mug tumbled out of his hand. He nearly crashed into the living room wall as he hurtled around the corner, through the hallway, and into his study, where he seized the nearest piece of paper and began scribbling madly.

He was barely aware of Haruka when she appeared in the doorway behind him. The woman was obviously burning with questions, but she must have sensed the urgency in Doctor Hikari's motions, because she watched him without interrupting, biting her lip and gripping the doorframe tightly with one hand.

For several breathless minutes, they stood that way with no change. Doctor Hikari's fingers were flying almost as fast as his thoughts, and he paused only to whip out his PET in order to use its calculator function when he ran into a computation too difficult to do by hand. His mind was whirling. His skin was tingling. His hopes rose as theories and calculations came together to confirm his idea as plausible, and his thoughts flew faster still.

Then, all at once, he was done.

His breath heaved as he stared at the papers in front of him.

"I can believe it," he whispered. "This might actually work."

It was almost as if his mind had been a darkened cavern, and somebody had walked in with a bright, steady lantern held in their hands. The cave wasn't illuminated entirely—Doctor Hikari's task was nowhere near complete—but he could see things now that he had never dreamed could be in front of him. The distant rays of light had painted a stunning, incredible picture and lit the first steps of the path in front of him.

"Haruka," he said hoarsely, bracing his hands on the desk in front of him. "Call the boys in. Have them sit in the living room."

"Why?" Haruka asked, leading forward at his earnestness. "What just happened? Yuu, what did—…"

"Just get them," Doctor Hikari said eagerly. "I want to have a family meeting. I'll explain everything when we're all together."

Haruka nodded once, and then dashed back outside, already yelling for the boys.

Shaking, Doctor Hikari took a moment to stand there and simply breathe, staring at the notes in front of him as if they contained the answers to the universe. He felt lightheaded, and yet his mind was clearer now than it had been in almost half a year. With trembling hands, he gathered the pages into a thin pile and walked back out of the room.

He had gotten an idea, and if it worked, then everything was about to change.

.*.*.*.

The utter, intense silence filled the room in the same way that water fills an ocean.

Sitting stoically on the edge of a chair in the living room's center, Doctor Hikari could practically see the emotions that flew through the air like frozen lightning. Ahead of him and to his right, Haruka sat with her back ramrod straight and one arm gripping the couch's armrest tightly. To his left, on the other side of the couch, Netto's back was slightly hunched and his eyes were fixed on the ground. Saito, who was perched on the armrest just over Netto's shoulder, had his eyes locked firmly on his father, and for once he was holding perfectly still.

"You have my support," Haruka said at last. Her face was filled with a mixture of awe, humble strength, and subtle fear. She knew they were on the brink of something enormous.

Doctor Hikari nodded once in gratitude, and then turned his gaze to his young twin boys.

Netto, to all appearances, was lost in thought. Saito, however, was sitting tall, and his eyes sparkled with an intense gleam that belied his usual childishness. Slowly, deliberately, he slid off of the armrest to stand on his feet, clenching his fists and raising his chin proudly as he met his father's eyes. The light from the windows shone down on him, illuminating his determined expression and dignified stance.

His face seemed almost to glow.

"I'll do it," he said.

Pride, gratitude, humility, and a thousand other emotions blossomed to life in Doctor Hikari's chest, but the combination was quiet and still—peaceful waters mingling in a pond, rather than in a storm on the sea. Wordlessly, he rose and walked over to Saito, wrapped him in an embrace, and then placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and held him for a moment at arm's length.

"Thank you," he said. The words were simple, but behind them, he could almost hear the resounding, grateful cries of thousands of victimized netnavis.

Haruka, a small smile on her lips, rose to meet her son, as well. When she reached him, she placed one hand on Saito's head and planted a soft kiss on his ruffled hair.

"You're very, very brave, Sai-chan. You'll be helping a lot of people."

Saito snorted, a bit of his usual energy trickling back. "How does this make me brave? It's not like you're gonna chop me up or zap me with some kind of death ray."

Doctor Hikari nearly laughed, but the seriousness of the situation forced him to keep a straight face as he tried to explain. "People have always argued about whether it's okay to experiment with DNA," he said, fishing for words that his six-year-old would understand. "A lot of people are going to be mad or scared about what I'm doing. And really, even I have some mixed feelings about—…"

Saito scoffed, pushing away from his parents and crossing his arms in a cocky way. "You're helping people, right? So what's the big deal? I'm fine with it, and the rest of the world already thinks you're crazy, so who cares what they say?"

The laugh that Doctor Hikari had been holding back erupted from between his lips, and he playfully ruffled Saito's hair, which made the boy beam up at him—Saito wasn't old enough, yet, to be embarrassed by his father's affection. The child's frank, open comment had been right, of course; Doctor Hikari's experiments had crossed into controversial territory long ago, and his 'mixed feelings' had hardly stopped him then.

"If this works, then I'll be the navi's netop, right?" Saito asked, rising up on his tiptoes eagerly.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Doctor Hikari agreed.

Saito's grin was almost blinding. "Ready to rock," he whispered, apparently off in his own little world.

Haruka swept the room with a look, apparently a bit stunned that so much had happened in such a short span of time. "It looks like everything's settled," she intoned with a glance at her husband.

"I suppose you're right," Doctor Hikari said, feeling a bit dazed himself. It felt entirely, utterly surreal to be standing here in the calm sunlight, speaking normally to his family as if today were any other ordinary day. He turned to the boys, gave a small nod toward the front door, and said, "If you two want to, you can go back outside. I think we're done in here."

"Alright!" Saito exclaimed, turning to Netto in a whirl of enthusiasm. "Let's go, Netto!"

Netto, who was still slumped over on the couch, startled slightly at the sudden motion. "Huh?"

"Come on, squirt! I bet I can beat you outside!"

There was a split second before Saito's words seemed to register, but then a smile brightened Netto's face and he leapt to his feet, crying out a defiant "You're on!" Together, they dashed for the exit, nearly knocking over a nearby side table as they went.

"No running in the house!" Haruka called belatedly. Both boys were already out the door, and the sounds of an argument over who had been faster were rapidly filling the air. Haruka let out a sound that was part laugh and part sigh, rolling her eyes in her husband's direction.

Doctor Hikari's eyes twinkled in amused understanding, but then, his expression took on a quieter, more solemn edge, and he reached out to Haruka's hand and entwined his fingers in hers. As one, they moved to the still-open door, watching their children in silence as they both mulled over what had been decided only moments before.

"They sure grow up fast, don't they?" Doctor Hikari said. He felt proud, but a bit wistful, as well.

"You don't have to tell me that," Haruka murmured softly. She hesitated, and then looked up at him, the slightest bit of uncertainty hovering in her eyes. "Yuu… you're sure that one of our boys has to be the donor?"

"If not him, then who else?" came Doctor Hikari's simple reply.

Haruka nodded and faced the front, uncertainty replaced by determination. Silently, Doctor Hikari vowed to repay her later for her strength. It was a unique sort of woman who would agree to let her son's DNA be used in a ground-breaking experiment, even if it was for the greater good.

"You know, I'm a little surprised that Netto wasn't the one to volunteer," he said after a moment. His brow furrowed slightly as he watched his sons continue in some sort of make-believe game. "He's the one most interested in science. He's always asking me about my job, and he actually listens when I try to explain."

"He's been acting strange in general for a while, now," Haruka informed him, frowning worriedly as she brushed a bit of hair out of her eyes. "He's more moody, more oversensitive, and a little clingy, as well. It was worse today than usual—normally, it's almost hard to see any difference. You know how cheerful he is."

Doctor Hikari nodded silently. After watching Netto for a minute more, his gaze wandered over to Saito, who had been so eager to be the donor for his experiment. The bruises on his face stood out clearly in the morning sunlight, and his navy shirt only helped them show up more against his creamy skin. How on earth did he keep getting himself hurt?

When this experiment was over, Doctor Hikari decided, he was going to have a talk with his sons. Somehow, he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that Netto's odd behavior and Saito's injuries were linked.

"Yuu?" Haruka asked, leaning into him.

"Mm?"

"Go to bed."

Doctor Hikari's eyebrows flew upward in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"You. Bed. Now," she said sternly, stepping away and placing her hands on her hips. "I'm thrilled that you may have found some sort of breakthrough, but you still need rest, and my threat about the sleeping pill still stands."

Doctor Hikari stared at her in disbelief. "You think I can sleep? Now?"

"I think you definitely need to try."

"I may well have just discovered the solution to a worldwide crisis," Doctor Hikari said slowly, drawing each word out in careful emphasis.

"You also passed out from exhaustion less than twenty-four hours ago."

"Sweetie, I have half a mind to charge over to Scilab right now and sneak in through the back!"

"…And I have half a mind to drag you over to the hospital and have you sedated!"

"I've already been to the hospital, thanks. They cleared me and sent me home."

"They sent you home to rest, you fanatic!" Haruka glared at him, and he could have sworn that he felt his skin burning from the heat in her gaze. "I'm serious, Yuu! I've done some research, and if things keep on going like this, then there might be serious complications later on! Blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression…"

"Alright, alright," Doctor Hikari said, massaging his head where the beginnings of a headache were starting to throb. "I get the picture." Now that the adrenaline of discovery and new possibilities had worn off, he was starting to feel drained again, and his legs were almost ready to give out. The fact that he had given in to Haruka's orders so quickly was a testament to just how tired he was.

Relaxing slightly, Haruka reached up to give his shoulder a squeeze and then pushed him gently in the direction of their bedroom.

"I don't have to like it," he said over his shoulder as he started down the hall.

Haruka's expression, which was somehow stern, triumphant, and tender all at once, didn't change. "I love you," she said.

Doctor Hikari sighed, then smiled, and paused as he said "I love you, too." Feeling a bit less sulky, now, he turned back towards the hall and continued on—but then, he was forced to stop once more as Haruka called out again.

"Yuu?" Her voice was more serious, this time.

"Yes?"

"Good luck with your experiment," she said, her eyes twinkling warmly. "I'm proud of you."

Something inside of Doctor Hikari tingled strangely when he heard those words, and as he stood there with his eyes locked on Haruka's, he knew that there were a lot of unsaid things riding behind her simple comment. Slowly, he nodded, promising his best. Then, he walked the rest of the way to his room and opened the door, ready at last for some long-needed sleep.

Tomorrow, he headed back to work—and heaven help him if a little clinical exhaustion was going to get in his way.