Mother, make me; Make me a song so sweet that heaven trembles, fallen at our feet.
. . .
It was his birthday today.
He wanted it to be a lonely one too.
Doctor Weil had already given his son his condolences before going off to do whatever it was he did during the day. Not that the teenager cared- his father had given him fifty grand this year; whatever Doctor Weil did, it sure didn't stop him from showing his regret to his son in monetary form. Albert ended up pocketing most of it any way. Perhaps being among one of Neo Arcadia's richest human citizens really did have its benefits?
As with any other day, Albert looked over his incoming mail for anything of interest. There was one document that looked rather important, so Albert opened it up. A split second later he nearly jumped out of his skin to the sound of loud train horns, and a blast of confetti that digitally sprayed against the carpet like snow. Big glaring letters spelled out the message loud and clear as a female announcer repeated over and over 'Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday!' in the cheeriest tone that almost gave the teenager a toothache.
"Delete that stupid piece of mail and call Bionka immediately." Albert demanded toward the house's built-in digital assistant.
"Yes Master Albert." the assistant's voice agreed.
Albert casually walked over to the dining room table as the dial tone of the phone rang through the house as it tried to contact one of the few humans Albert admittedly knew.
"Connection to Bionka Acutaneous's residence confirmed," the digital assistant soon declared. "Which feed would you like to proceed with?"
"Dining room." Albert ordered without a second thought. A small beep confirmed his choice as the figure of a teenaged girl flickered into view from the middle of the dining room table. The miniature representation of the human girl was no higher than twenty-seven centimeters tall, showing her full body that gave Albert the impression that she knew he was going to call her.
"Did you get my present?" she excitedly asked. Albert only glared at Bionka.
"You are the biggest waste of imagination there is. You understand that, don't you?" Albert then said.
"So you did like it! I knew you would!"
Albert rolled his eyes, less than amused to be dealing with her at the moment.
"So are you ready to go?" Bionka then asked as she held her hands behind her back and started to rock on her heels.
"Go where?" Albert questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"On our date!" Bionka cheerfully declared. But she started to flush a dark red before clarifying; "I mean, it's your date that I set up. And it's not me with you, it's you and this really nice Reploid that saved me from drowning the other day, and..."
"Hold up," Albert requesting, holding his hand in the air to silence her, "You arranged a blind date between me and a Reploid?"
Bionka nodded, a bit sheepishly, knowing that Albert was not found of Reploids. However, everything she did was to get him to do something he wouldn't normally do- and this certainly did take the cake for sure…
"What is its serial number?" Albert asked, closing his eyes in preparation of whatever Reploid unit Bionka thought would be a good match for him.
"I'm pretty sure you know her already," Bionka admitted, "She's one of the Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia; Fairy Leviathan."
. . .
"I can't believe you're going to go through with this." Fefnir retorted as he, Harpuia, and Phantom watched as their sister tried to brush her synthetic hair out. Although short, it would tangle just by running the brush though a small section of hair, leading the not quite girly Reploid to yank on it until was close enough to be considered decent. Then she did it again- why, she wasn't sure, then again she wasn't sure why she accepted to invitation to begin with. Phantom eventually decided to take pity upon her and helped her brush it out by taking the brush from her.
"I can't believe Albert would go through with this." Harpuia said, almost talking to himself. "It seems a bit… dangerous."
"How on earth could that be dangerous?!" Fefnir snorted.
"I don't think Albert even knows that he's going to meet me." Leviathan admitted. "It was his friend who arranged the… date."
"That brat has a friend?!" Fefnir exclaimed, almost immediately bursting into an uncontrollable laughter. "Who would hang around that pessimist?"
"Who would want to hang around you?" Harpuia questioned. "If it weren't for the fact that you were created from Mega Man X's DNA, you could have been labeled Maverick the moment you touched a gun."
"And no one likes a Maverick." Leviathan snickered before letting out a surprise yelp of pain when Phantom accidentally brushed too hard over a knot in her hair. The black Guardian gave a little grunt of apology as he redid the spot a bit more gently, carefully brushing the knot out.
"Albert is acquainted with Bionka Acutaneous whose family comes from a long line of dermatologists." Phantom softly informed his siblings. "It wasn't until the early Maverick Wars that they started to gain prominence with Theo Acutaneous's invention of nearly human-like Reploid skins. The results were almost horrifying of how lifelike they were, but it gave the family company a lot of money as their skins became the new standard. In retrospect, it would be odd for Albert and the young Acutaneous to not know each other."
"But who would want to be his friend?" Fefnir asked again as he folded his arms. "He's a jerk to everyone!"
"Everyone that's a Reploid." Harpuia argued, giving the red Guardian a rather hollow glare. "We don't know how he interacts with humans he respects. As far as we know, outside of Miss Acutaneous and Weil, Albert simply doesn't know any other humans. Have you ever considered that Fefnir?"
For a moment, no one answered. Fefnir in particular had pursed his lips together to prevent himself from talking. Meanwhile, Phantom gave Leviathan a nod that he was done brushing her hair out for her. The female Guardian mumbled a thanks as she turned around to face her siblings to better show them what she was going to wear for her date- with no mirror to be vain, she inquired the other Guardians for their opinion.
Of course, Harpuia and Phantom only offered a sincere 'you look beautiful', but the unconventional Fefnir gave a rather mischievous grin as he snickered, "Go give that brat another boner."
. . .
There was no way that Albert could admit that he was nervous. Leviathan didn't seem all too thrilled to be there either. She looked rather nice- his compliment was well meant and deserved. Albert took quite note to remember that Leviathan had actually blushed a bit; was she even more nervous than he was maybe? A more likely scenario was that she didn't want to be here any more than he did, but leaving him behind would have been rude. In knowing that he had been honest had taken her by surprise and it brought out a moment in her that was vulnerable. Fairy Leviathan was anything but on a normal occasion; very rarely did she need or even want to look like a woman. And this time when she decided to dress up, one of Neo Arcadia's least friendly citizens complimented her- it would have been rather impolite if she hadn't blushed, to be honest.
"Bionka has some rather… interesting connections." Albert said to Leviathan carelessly after they had sat down to eat. Bionka had placed reservations for the two at a rather well-to-do bistro. The teenager found that he would have likely enjoyed it more if he wasn't sitting across to a being who couldn't eat.
"I believe her effort should be admirable." Leviathan replied, "She wants you to have friends."
Albert, despite his age, let out an indignant huff. "She needs to stop." he muttered. "Stupid girl won't leave me alone, making me do things I don't want to do with some sense of 'bettering' me or something. I could do without seeing her boisterous face for a day, or a week. Maybe even forever if that's what it takes."
"Albert, don't take her for granted!" Leviathan told him, her eyes just boarding a sense of shock. "There might be a day when you think you won't need her, but then you realize that she had meant the world to you. She makes you go out to do things because it will better you. I understand that you request absolute loneliness, but you can't stay hidden forever. If that is really how you feel about her, then I think you should see her more; because she won't leave you alone, because she has some sense of bettering you, because you see her so often that you wonder what would happen if you didn't. You need to realize what little friendships you have Albert, or one day, you're going to be all alone and no better than your father."
The glare Albert gave the Guardian was highly displeased but was also secretly impressed. How would she know about keeping friends close and being lonely? She was surrounded by those of her own kind, and rumor had it that she even found a sense of courtship with the Mother Elf. The other Guardians, that Mega Man X who didn't act like what he used to, the Mother Elf herself… all of them would live for as long or longer than Leviathan could, so what right did the female Guardian have to tell him about losing friends?
Leviathan went silent after that too, bitterly dwelling on her brother's words. Albert had no respect- it didn't matter if it was for humans or Reploids, respect just wasn't one of Albert's capabilities. When it came time to eat, she didn't try to look at him as she mimicked the motions needed for the human activity despite how unfamiliar it was to her. She knew that he watched her the entire time. The Guardian was relieved when it was over, while Albert still looked as if he had something else planned. With little words they bid good bye to each other with the invisible message of taking each other down next time they met, then Albert went off to greet Bionka.
"How did it go?" Bionka asked as she bounced on her toes from anticipation.
"I'm not doing that again." Albert told her coldly.
"Okay." she replied through pursed lips.
"But it was better than staying home alone. Thank you."
Bionka beamed as she giddily hugged him. Albert's muscles tightened at the unwanted embrace and he had half a mind to shove her off, but something Leviathan said had eaten away a bit at his skull. Slowly, grudgingly, Albert accepted to hug and extended the gesture, hugging Bionka back with a small squeeze.
Not too far away, but away from their view, the siren smiled.