Between the two of them, Dita was most often confused for a human. Her earports were hidden underneath her unruly hair. Zima, though tall and somewhat intimidating, had a bit of a harder time blending in without his visor on. They normally avoided contact with the public. They were comfortable lounging on rooftops in the daytime or in the dark of the night. Rain and sun never bothered them. The two were designed to absorb energy from the sun if their resources were draining low.
The only weather phenomena that would cause them harm were thunderstorms. Advanced government Persocoms or not, no computer did well against a direct lightning strike.
An evening thunderstorm decided to spoil their normalcy. A quick search of Zima's files led them to a library that wouldn't close until 9pm. It was only 6:45pm. They had time to ride out the storm. The local weather radar told them both that the storm would pass within fifty minutes.
The government 'Coms sauntered their way into the library and seated themselves in a far corner. It wasn't ideal for them whatsoever. Zima wanted to go back to cuddling with Dita on a rooftop, but Dita was on overdrive tracking everyone's movements. Too many potential enemies were amongst them. Dita wanted the rooftop solitude to get Zima as far away from danger as possible.
"Dita love, relax. This is a library. Their hardware is hardly strong enough to even crack one character of my passwords."
"But that doesn't mean the Persocoms around here can't." Dita still couldn't believe his nonchalant nature. Did nothing phase him? Wasn't he ever concerned about breaking down?
"Let's see. The pink-haired one over there is searching cooking tips for her owner. The purple-haired male is suggesting books that he'd like to read. The redhead is helping her owner study for an exam. I detect no immediate threats to our security."
"But they could still make an attempt."
Zima chuckled. His overprotective, jealous, adorable Dita. What would he do without her? He checked the storm's progress on the weather radar that displayed on his visor. Another twenty minutes and they should be scot-free. The tall, dark Data Bank had placed his visor on the table and was about to scan the book selections when they heard the sound of high heels clacking. It seemed to be coming towards them. A brunette woman in a peach-colored ruffled top, a white skirt that came to her thighs and wearing strong perfume had approached them.
She addressed Dita. Zima could sense her defense protocols activating, but admired her for keeping them at bay for the moment. They were under strict orders to not harm civilians unless directly threatened. The most they could do to civilians was restrain them if they interfered with their operation.
"Pardon me, miss. Are you the owner of this Persocom? What brand is he?"
Zima fought to squash his blossoming chuckle. He shouldn't have taken his visor off. Oops.
The Japanese National Data Bank decided to see if he could create a match for this woman's information. Ah, she is a prestigious lawyer named Sana Kisaragi. One of the best in the nation and very wealthy. As of now, the woman owned a total of twelve Persocoms, one serving as her butler, two functioning as maids, and the rest took care of her legal work. Apparently, she wanted him to be the thirteenth. He couldn't wait to witness Dita's reaction.
"Brand? Pfft. We're-" The lithe, fiery Persocom was cut off by the pushy woman who wasn't turned off by Dita's vitriol.
"Oh, he's a custom made unit. I see. Well then. May I offer you a deal? And if you must know, I can pay handsomely. Just restart him and I'll take good care of him from here on out." Sana had moved closer to Zima while her hand inched its way closer to his left earport. Dita was about to lunge at the woman, but Zima figured that he'd better end this before they got in trouble with their superiors.
Zima grasped the woman's hand firmly, but lightly still with that mischievous smile on his face. "What my lovely assistant is trying to say is that we're not for sale."
"We?" Sana was baffled. They were both Persocoms?
"Yes, so clear out before I have to take you in for questioning!" Dita was leaning over the seated Zima to glare at the audacious human female. Zima, sandwiched between the two females, could not control his earport-to-earport grin.
"I-I'm sorry! I hadn't known that you were police Persocoms!" Sana's hand had been released and she bowed with heavy embarrassment and made her way outside to her vehicle.
"I'm reporting her!" Dita began to record Sana's information for a future arrest.
"No, Dita. There's no need for that. She's embarrassed enough." During the confrontation, Zima's sensors could read the woman's fluctuating heartbeat and shaky breathing patterns. She would not be a future threat.
"You're certain about this?" His Dita can never be too careful.
"Yes. We were programmed with lie detectors after all." Zima smiled and petted Dita's head.
She huffed. "This is your fault you know. You can never be serious and I don't understand why."
Zima shook his head. Dita can never let minor incidents go. She must always assign blame to someone or something. Well, she is a protection Persocom, but still…
"In other words, I was too human by taking my visor off for a second."
"That's going to be a problem if you keep acting illogically like that. You're not supposed to, Zima."
"Well, I can't exactly scan the many books around here with the weather radar blaring in my face all the time."
"What do we need books for? We can access any information at any time."
"You haven't wanted to hold a book in your hands and read it word for word? To let the story reveal itself over time and not have it revealed all at once by simply downloading it into your processor?"
"You are bizarre, Zima. There must be a virus affecting your logic systems. It's the only explanation for it."
"I'll challenge that notion. Come with me and let's browse the library. Manually." He wouldn't let her escape, so he grasped her by the upper arm and practically dragged her away from their seats.
"There's a lot of books here. Look through them. I'm sure you'll find something of interest."
Dita ended up selecting a book by a world's bestseller, Jaime Patterson. He was famous for his action books.
Zima chuckled at her choice. She would pick a book that nearly mirrored their line of work they did.
His choice was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet".
It was 7:45pm. The thunderstorm that had stranded them here had long passed. They were both absorbed into their respective books.
Zima was already into the tenth chapter when out of the corner of his optic, he noticed a glow. It was emanating from Dita. Was she levitating a bit in her seat?
"Dita!" He hissed in a somewhat hushed tone. They couldn't afford another scene. The taller government 'Com rushed out of his seat and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. "Dita love, what's wrong?"
The smaller government 'Com grasped the book in her hands in an apparent trance. Zima ran a scan to see if Elda's program had activated, but found no such information. This was coming from Dita alone. He browsed the activity of the other Persocoms. They were behaving normally.
He had to snap her out of this state. He thought about connecting to Dita's earports, but stopped mid-thought. He wasn't programmed with the software to fix Dita should something happen to her. He would speak with his lab technicians to remedy this.
He shook her shoulders. "Dita, wake up!"
At last, Dita sank back into her chair and seemed to sag into it. A few lights blips and beeping noises alerted Zima to her reawakening.
"Why are looking at me like that, Zima? Did something happen to you?"
"No, something happened to you." He never expected this. Dita looked like Elda when she was activating her program.
"Well, what happened? And no games this time!" Dita demanded. If there was something wrong with her, she couldn't protect Zima.
"It…I can't really explain it. When you were reading that book, you...spaced out for a bit. That's all."
"I'll run a self-diagnostic…No abnormalities discovered."
"Hmm." That was definitely an abnormality, but Dita didn't seem to be damaged and no other Persocom was affected.
"It could be that…" Zima trailed off in his thought. Perhaps the book unlocked more of Dita's emotions. It was similar to whenever Elda was beginning to activate her program. He heard a warm, familiar voice whenever it activated. It couldn't be that bad then since the Persocoms affected by it reported the same experiences.
"It could be what?!" This was no time for Zima's cryptic statements.
"Well, you seem to be fine, so you shouldn't stress about it. It could've been just me." For once, Zima wasn't too sure of his resolve this time around.
Zima collected both of their books and returned them to the front desk. He placed his arm around Dita's shoulders and ushered her towards the exit.
"It's always just you, Zima." Dita huffed as they walked outside of the library and leaped back onto their comfortable rooftop lookout.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N: "Jaime Patterson" is a reference to James Patterson.
I read in other fanfics that Zima and Dita are also a part of the Chobits series. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. However, I thought it would be cool to add that idea in this drabble.
Thanks for reading!