"Don't watch the clock, do what it does. Keep going." –Sam Levenson

Honestly, X should have seen this one coming. After their little heart to heart talk with X discovering Tony's abusive brother and the teen's desire for alcohol, Tony had become a more regular occurrence in Cain Labs. Of course this was all after Tony had apparently "finished" with school, although somedays, X was well aware that Tony was not supposed to be out of school at one in the afternoon but didn't have the heart to force him to leave.

So he really should have seen it coming. However, he couldn't find it in him to be mad. He didn't really mind what Tony did, he was just annoyed that everyone else thought it was so funny. Fredrick thought it was downright hilarious, and was currently buckling over the lab table, screeching with mirth. Cain seemed to find the situation amusing as well, letting out chuckle every time he so much as glanced in X's direction.

The android himself looked exasperated as he stared down at the blue lab coat in his hands. It was white the day before. Somehow Tony had gotten ahold of X's lab coat when he wasn't using it and proceeded to dye it blue. Which was amazing because X clearly remembered wearing the coat just about all day the day before. And X knew that it was his lab coat too because there was that stain from when he spilled coolant all over his side and forgot about it so the stain remained permanent.

All in all, the situation wouldn't be quite as funny if Tony hadn't managed to break into X's locker as well and dye all of X's backup coats as well. It appeared that X was going to be wearing even more blue than usual for the next few months, until the ever occurring lab accidents burned through the ones he had.

The door to the small lab opened and a familiar face stepped in, humming an upbeat tune and looking quite pleased with himself. The grin on the face grew when he saw X with the lab coat.

"Wow, X. I knew you had a thing for blue, but this just takes the cake."

X rolled his eyes and sighed when he put the lab coat on. "I wouldn't have minded if you didn't dye all of the other coats too."

"Me?! You think I did that?!" the grin became barely concealed as the face morphed into one of shock and mock hurt. "X I am offended that you would think so low of me."

X stared at him and raised an eyebrow. The face twitched, then split, the grin revealing itself once more.

"Considering your track record Tony, I'm actually fairly surprised that you haven't done something like this sooner."

Tony shrugged, the grin plastered on his face. "It was hard, but you're not going to find a single shred of evidence that it was me. I hacked the cameras so there's no way that you can tell."

X looked confused. "But you just told me that you did it so there's no need for that."

"Oh come on, you're not even mad! What are you going to do?"

Cain frowned during the conversation, although internally, he still found the situation quite humorous still.

"You hacked the cameras," Cain asked. Tony turned to him and paled a bit.

"Yeah? I didn't do anything, honest! I just looped the section where I broke into X's locker and dyed his coats."

Cain sighed. "That doesn't really bug me. What bugs me is that a sixteen year old managed to hack into a high tech institute. I'm going to have to tell them to up the security." The old man stood and made his way out the door. X and Tony watched him leave.

"You wanna know what the best part is though?" Tony asked, the grin returning to his face, apparently, he was completely unfazed by Cain's declaration that he was upping the security, perhaps because the teen found some enjoyment in the challenge. X gestured for Tony to continue as he booted up the computer to begin his work.

"You're actually wearing it. This just proves your obsession with blue."

X sighed as Tony cackled, but a small smile appeared on his face, revealing that really, he wasn't all that upset.

X blinked and looked up from his book as the doorbell rang. Cain was gone and attending a meeting with a few other high end scientists and Frederick was at work, leaving the android to do as he pleased for a few hours before heading to Cain labs. It was a Monday, and early too, so it couldn't possibly have been the mail.

The doorbell rang again and X sighed before standing up, closing the book with a snap and placing it on the coffee table in front of him. He walked across the room and to the hallway that led to the door, letting out a curse when his foot connected with the corner of the wall. It probably didn't hurt as much as it should have if he was human, but it still hurt. He grumbled and half limped to the door placing aside his pain for a moment as he opened it, ready to face the visitor with all of the joy and contentment he had left.

The smile, turned to confusion as he stared into the face of his friend, clearly at loss as to why Tony was at his doorstep at eight thirty in the morning.

"Heya X," Tony greeted. X internally groaned. An unusually happy Tony usually meant he already caused trouble or was seriously planning to.

"Tony? Shouldn't you be at school?" X asked.

"Yeah, but I made a promise."

X's cheery demeanor was gone in an instant, replaced immediately with concern.

"My brother called last night, but I figured it was too late to bother you then. And then I slept in this morning because I got crap for sleep and I'm supposed to be going to school, but . . . hey, I know you said we'd go for ice cream and be terribly unhealthy," X frowned. No, that was not the intention. The intention was to be healthier, "buuut I'm not really feeling up for that. What do you say to a prank?"

Wait what? That wasn't what he was expecting. X blinked. But at the same time, he really should have been. X raised an eyebrow and leaned against the door frame.

"Depends." Tony's grin grew with excitement. " Who's the target?" X wondered if Tony's face could split if he smiled much bigger.

"You'll be the perfect prank partner. Nobody will expect you because everyone sees you as being so responsible. And because you're with me, nobody will expect me either."

X nodded. The logic did seem pretty sound when he put it that way. "So who's the target?"

Tony grinned. "I'm going big. The school's upped their security since my last prank, but really, that just made me more anxious to pull one off."

"The principal?"

"Hell yeah."

"I cannot believe you managed to convince me to do this."

"Quit your whining. What's the worst that can happen?"

"The public opinion of me will be ruined."

"Oh hush, you've never really liked how famous you were anyways."

"Somehow, I can only see myself becoming more famous after this."

Tony cackled. "True, but you will be so much cooler in my eyes."

X frowned. "Says the guy who was practically drooling over my armor the first time you got a good look at it."

"Shhhhhh. We don't talk about that."

X smirked. "We don't? And here I thought you loved talking about technology."

"X, stop being an asshole. You've been hanging around Zero too much lately."

"I'm helping him develop as a human being."

"He's a freaking reploid."

"Exactly."

". . . I'm going to ask Cain to check your head when we get back because you're not making any sense."

"What are you talking about? I make perfect sense. And did you need help there?" Tony was currently balancing on two chairs suspiciously stacked on top of each other, adding the finishing touches to an elaborate device that was their current prank . . . in the principal's doorway.

"Nope, you'd have no idea what you're doing. Man, if this thing works, that'll be the second time the principal has fallen for this trick."

"How are you not suspended yet?" X asked, genuinely curious.

"I would be, if my grades weren't so awesome. The school just deals with it so that they can claim that they taught me everything I know."

"Somehow that doesn't seem entirely right . . ."

"And my parents bribe them with money, because they're tired of me switching schools."

"That makes more sense."

Tony cackled and leapt from the chairs. "If the principal falls for it again, she's going to be checking her head every time she goes through a doorway." X chuckled. "Now we run."

"Don't you want to put the chairs away?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Sure."

"How are we going to watch this occur anyways?" X asked as he placed the chairs in the abandoned classroom they stole them from and began following Tony up the stairs and down the hallway to Mrs. Hatchbury's room. She was on break at the moment, so they knew they could enter in without disturbing a class.

Tony held up his phone. "Cameras." He then opened the door to the English teacher's room and leaned in, glancing around for a moment before sneaking forward. gave Tony a curious glance. X, on the other hand, walked in casually and gently closed the door behind him.

"X! What are you doing here without telling me?!" the English teacher stood to give X a suffocating hug. For a moment, X was a bit overwhelmed.

"He was helping me with something," Tony explained. Mrs. Hatchbury groaned after a moment of confusion.

"Oh, no. X. How dare you?! You're supposed to be the responsible one!"

Tony burst out laughing, doubling over and nearly falling out of the chair he had just sat in. Mrs. Hatchbury gave him a concerned glance.

"I knew that was going to happen!" Tony cried out joyfully. "And it was completely harmless Mrs.H. The bucket only had water in it. Plus, we left a bag of spare clothes, that was X's compromise, for the victim to change into."

"Well, at least it wasn't food coloring this time," Mrs. Hatchbury admitted. "How did you get a whole bucket full of food coloring anyways?"

Tony became serious for a moment. "Very carefully."

". . . did you seriously spend hours squeezing those tiny bottles into a bucket?"

". . . . no!" Tony lied and then started fiddling with his phone. Mrs. Hatchbury shook her head.

"On another note, X, it's good to see you. How's life been?"

"Mostly calm except for when he," X used his head to gesture to Tony as he sat down next to the teen, "comes over."

"Which is all the time," Tony admitted from his phone screen. "Or, when the council comes knocking on X's door and asks him to participate in a study so that they can better replicate his programming."

X nodded in agreement. Mrs. Hatchbury blinked.

"They can do that?!"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Of course they can, they're the government! They don't give a shit about one individual if it's" he sent down his phone and raised his arms to make air quotes, "for the better of all. Load of bull."

Mrs. Hatchbury sighed. "Just because you're not in class and you brought X, I'm going to ignore your language."

"You can be bribed by bringing X!?" Tony exclaimed. He turned to the android suddenly. "X! You're going to school with me from now on!"

"Speaking of school, shouldn't you be in class?" Mrs. Hatchbury asked. Tony sunk in his seat.

"Maybe?"

"Anthony," the teacher warned. Tony gulped.

"Just let me watch the principle get soaked and then I'll go to class."

"YOU PULLED THE PRANK ON THE PRINCIPLE!"

"Shhhhhh, somebody will hear you!"

X was reminded, for a moment, just how much he liked school.

Zero was having possibly one of the worst days of his life. His foul mood sent every oncoming scientist and assistant scrambling for cover. The day had started out fine, but then the medic had insisted that Zero take the day off, because he was scratched yesterday. At least, he thought it was just a scratch. The medic on the other hand, insisted that such an injury would take out any normal reploid for several days, regardless of how efficient their systems were. Normally they would be replacing parts with such an injury but because Zero's systems were so strange, they couldn't replace anything. So instead they gave him a whole bunch of nanites filled with materials and confined him to the base for at least a day. The medic would then look over Zero's health after that.

If it was only confined to the base, Zero wouldn't be upset. It would just be like any of his other days off. But no, the medic just had to forbid Zero from even entering the training room and then proceeded to inform everyone, including Sigma, that Zero was not allowed to do anything that could possibly damage him further. Thus, the house arrest. Zero, however, managed to slip out when the guards weren't working and decided to whine to X. Maybe he could convince the medic that Zero was really okay and that his systems had taken care of the normally critical damage overnight.

However, as soon as Zero stepped into X's small lab, ready to whine, his words died in his throat and he stared, blinking every few seconds, his processor whirling to sort out what he was seeing in front of him. Then he laughed, a large guffaw escaping from his lips as his processor caught up to what he was seeing.

Never mind, this was possibly the best day of his life.

X in all of his blue lab coated glory, stared dumbfounded over his lab table at his friend, completely lost as to what had just transpired. Apparently, he had forgotten about the running gag between his friends about X's favorite color.

(principal prank continued)

X and Mrs. Hatchbury were cheerfully talking about recent events when Tony cursed loudly. The English teacher was about to scold Tony for his language when she saw Tony's paled face.

"It wasn't the principal," Tony whispered. Then, louder, "It was Sam."

This time, it was X's turn to pale and he offered a rushed goodbye towards Mrs. Hatchbury as Tony dragged him out the door.

"WE GOTTA GO X, BEFORE SHE FINDS US!" Tony exclaimed.

"What about your classes Tony!" Mrs. Hatchbury exclaimed.

"MY OWN SAFETY IS MORE IMPORTANT!" Tony screamed, running down the hallway, with a dazed android in tow.

Mrs. Hatchbury chuckled to herself as she watched. "It's about time that kid realized the severity of his actions."

X was only a few weeks old when it happened the first time. Cain just shrugged it off and assumed that maybe the android was just tired or perhaps hadn't been told yet. He made sure to tell him.

But it happened the week after that and nearly happened in a few days following. The next few months was a battle in order to keep it from happening again. X usually caught himself before he did it, but Cain still found the peanut butter in the fridge every once in a while.

The problem was X knew that the peanut butter didn't belong in the fridge; it belonged in the pantry. And yet for some reason, his body and subconscious insisted that X should put the peanut butter in the fridge. X didn't have peanut butter very often, but when he did, somebody was usually around to watch him screw the cap back on and absent mindedly walk over to the fridge. Sometimes he stopped right there, groaned and walked over to the pantry, other times, it took the action of opening the door and bringing a hand up to place the offending food item on the refrigerator shelf before he realized what he was doing. Then he groaned and walked over to the pantry as his observer laughed at his strange habit and misery.

It happened again when his friends were over. Sam, Tony, Nicole, and Mark had just gotten off from school and were sitting in X's living room chatting about some assignment. Zero had somehow managed to snag the day off, despite the increase in maverick activity, and was currently lounging on one of the couches, armor off and blonde hair splayed across the fabric and the floor.

X had set out some peanut butter and crackers for them to eat, too lazy to really put anything special together and was now putting them away. Zero had a clear view of X's actions as the couch he was laying on was in direct view of the kitchen, so he saw when X headed for the fridge instead of the pantry.

"X," Zero called out, confused. He'd had peanut butter before and he knew for a fact that it didn't belong in the fridge. "What are you doing?"

X paused. "What-?" Then he realized that he was holding the peanut butter jar with one hand and was reaching for fridge handle with the other. "OH FOR PETE'S SAKE! EVERY SINGLE TIME!"

Zero raised an eyebrow at X's dilemma. The others turned to look at X in confusion.

"What just happened?" Sam asked.

"X almost put the peanut butter in the fridge," Zero stated casually, calmly watching the fellow android groan in frustration in the kitchen.

"Why would he do that?" Tony asked.

"I have no idea."

"Every time! Every single time! Whenever I take the peanut butter out I always nearly put it in the fridge! WHY?!" X shouted, clearly having a moment.

Sam laughed the others, joining in a few moments later. After a short bit of chuckles, Tony paused and considered.

"X, have you tried putting a note on the fridge to remind yourself?" he asked.

"Yes, but that's just infuriating because I usually have my hand on the handle when I see it," X moaned.

"What about the jar itself?"

"Tried that and that doesn't work either. I don't really look at the jar when it's in my hand."

The group decided that they couldn't help X with this problem and X decided that maybe peanut butter was more trouble than what it was worth.

X was weeding his small garden in Cain's backyard when he pulled on a particular weed. The plant jerked, but the roots remained solid in the ground. X pulled harder and the weed snapped, just where the stem met the base of the roots. He groaned, realizing that he'd have to dig up the offending weed and he was just about to do so when a peculiar smell wafted up to his nose.

X frowned and was reminded for a moment about his difficulties with a particular food item. The weed, when broken, smelled like peanut butter. He didn't recognize the weed but he'd mainly been studying plants with medical properties, so it didn't shock him too greatly.

He stumbled across a very similar weed a few moments later with a very similar outcome, the stem proved to be too willing to break away from its roots and there seemed to be a very peculiar peanut butter smell that filled the air afterwards.

"Again?" X groaned. He sighed and studied the rest of the garden.

The offending weed seemed to make up most of the weed content in the small garden.

"Oh for the love of—."

Peanut butter was starting to become the bane of his existence.

"You say you don't know what the weed is called, but it smells like peanut butter?" Cain asked amused.

"Yes!" X responded quickly.

"You, a plant nerd, don't know what the weed is called."

"Yes I—wait a minute." Cain laughed loudly as X frowned. "Now hold up!" the android started.

He'd been babysitting the dog for well over a week now. The owner had been a friend of Cain's and was currently on a two week long trip. He wouldn't be back for a few days. The dog in question was old and needed a daily dose of medications. However, the dog wouldn't eat any of them without one particular item.

Peanut butter.

X was starting to hate the food item, despite its pleasing taste.

Now he was consistently reminded of his inability to place the food away properly, despite being repeatedly reminded and constantly aware of the issue. Still he took the jar out, unscrewed it, and placed it on the dog's medicine. But today posed a new problem as X stared into the peanut butter jar and the dog waited patiently at his feet.

The jar was empty and X was getting increasingly irritated with whoever thought it was a good idea to place the empty peanut butter jar back into the pantry. He glanced down at the small dog who was looking up at him expectantly before glaring back at the jar.

The owner had been adamant that the dog should have his medicine. X would have to get more.

He glanced outside. It was borderline hurricane weather out there, lighting was flashing and the wind was throwing buckets of wind at the windows. X was made of metal. But he couldn't wait, the owner was insistent that the dog should have his medications in the morning.

He really hated peanut butter.

X moaned to himself quietly and dropped the offending jar in the sink, before shuffling toward the door and placing his rain coat on, bracing himself for the oncoming hell.

He prayed to whatever god there was that he wouldn't get struck by lightning.

He really really hated peanut butter.

Really he should have learned by now. It was months after the problem had first revealed itself and yet here he was, standing in front of the open refrigerator door with the peanut butter jar in his hands.

"God freaking damnit."

Cain watched X, a forgotten spoon of cereal held hallway to his mouth. The android had decided that he wanted to eat waffles smeared with peanut butter that morning and Cain was currently waiting for the inevitable.

And the inevitable came quickly. X was currently walking over to the refrigerator door, with a familiar jar in his hand.

"The pantry X!" Cain yelled. X paused.

"SERIOUSLY!? AGAIN?!"

Cain wondered if the android was really just doing it on purpose.

X wondered if he would ever be freed from the curse.

It was midnight and somebody was pounding on the door. Cain yelled at X to go see who it was because the scientist was not going to try and convince his old bones to get up when somebody perfectly fit and able was available. X complied, fully expecting to see Tony again—the teen had visited X's house several times during the night before—but was shocked to see that the person in the doorway, standing in the rain and the darkness, was none other than a soaked, grumpy, and fully armored Zero.

X welcomed the android inside, locking the door back up before turning around and paused when he inspected Zero more carefully in the light. The maverick hunter's armor was damaged, he'd probably just come from some sort of fight, but that wasn't what concerned X. Zero's usually well-kept and flowing hair was a matted mess, held together in knotted clumps by a gooey substance. X reached over to inspect the mess and surprisingly, Zero didn't stop him, despite his clearly wounded pride.

"I need help," Zero stated, embarrassed. X nodded, dumbfounded.

"I can see that, but what on earth is it?" He was at loss to determine what was holding the maverick hunter's hair together in the matted clumps.

"There was a fight in a gum factory." X blinked and suddenly his mind brought forth a memory of Sam complaining about a very similar problem and Nicole bringing up a solution that had apparently worked because Sam was fine the next day.

"Up the stairs and two doors down is the bathroom. I'll be up in a sec, I just need to grab something to help."

Zero gave X a curious glance. "What?"

X grinned. "Peanut butter!"

It took hours to get every last piece out of Zero's hair. The maverick hunter grumbled the whole time because his communicator was buzzing nonstop—he eventually told them to shut up and that he would be back at the base whenever he could get there—and it was taking so long. He could get the pieces that were stuck on the lower section of his hair, but the ones close to his scalp were up to X to get rid of. There was just so much and X had to convince Zero that cutting it all off was a bad idea. Zero insisted that it would grow back quickly anyways, but X refused to allow the maverick hunter to take the easy way out. Besides, in order to cut it all off, Zero would have to be bald for a short while and X was horrified at the idea. It might work for Sigma, but neither one of them saw it working for Zero.

In the end, X was out of peanut butter that morning and Zero smelled like peanuts for the next few days. A few of the new recruits made fun of him for it, but a demonic grin and a charging buster usually shut them up pretty quickly.

Zero never admitted it, but he actually preferred smelling like peanut butter over waiting for his hair to grow back.

And X was forced to admit that maybe peanut butter was worth all the trouble it caused.

He still almost placed the peanut butter in the fridge after Zero left and he still cursed when he realized what he was doing.

It was a good morning for Cain. X had stayed overnight at the labs so the old scientist hadn't been woken up by X's loud cursing involving a food item. He whistled happily as he took out the particular jar and started making himself some toast. A peanut butter and banana sandwich sounded good to him today.

He closed the lid once he'd finished making his sandwich and absent mindedly began putting all of the items away as he ate his sandwich. Banana peel in the garbage, knife and plate in the sink, peanut butter in the . . . fridge.

"GOD DAMNIT X! THIS BETTER NOT BE CONTAGIOUS!"

Author's Note: Again, I apologize for any errors. Just let me know and I'll fix them. The weird bug that prevent me from writing "dr" is back; this time with "mrs", so that's why there's a space between "mrs" and "Hatchbury". I may have missed one so don't be too mad. It wasn't my fault.

And the peanut butter thing has happened to me. I don't know why this is such a problem for me but every time I go to put peanut butter away, I nearly put it in the fridge. And those weeds happened to me today and I just needed to write it down, hence this chapter being produced so quickly. I was inspired and felt bad about being so late so I cranked out a whole chapter in one day, a process that usually takes several. It really helped that it was summer and I had the time.

However, I'm not completely sure about what I'm doing for the next chapter so it probably won't get done by the end of the week and I'm going to be gone next week so I wouldn't expect a new chapter for at least two or three weeks.