A/N: To release a minor writer's block regarding another series of mine, I decided to redirect my creative juices and write a couple one-shots to clear my head. This is one of them. It's been a hit at Rockman.EXE Online's forum, and I hope it's likewise here. Enjoy!

Summary: We humans aren't the only ones who can have contemplative moments in the pre-dawn world.
Rating: G/PG-ish
Someday

He could hear him snoring. After all, it was a sound that permeated pretty much anything, especially the sensitive microphone of the PET. Megaman shook his head and sighed lightly, smiling a bit to himself. Even if he tried, he knew Lan wouldn't get up, judging by the thickness of those logs he was sawing. Not that he'd try, anyway... A check to the clock said it was still the "wee hours" of the morning, long before much of the city was even awake.

Long before he should even be awake, from the "sleep" he went through each night to recharge his batteries, both literally and metaphorically. But still... Still, something nagged at the back of his mind, something begging to be told that he...just couldn't. Sighing softly, Megaman rested the back of his head against the wall he was sitting against. This happened every morning, these days. In fact, it was a yearly occurrence. Every year around this time, he'd just feel this urge to blurt out secrets inside, things he couldn't tell.

Always just when their birthday was around the corner.

He had been "Megaman" for, what, 11 years now? 12? Time flies. And yet, despite how long it'd been, it never got any easier. It wouldn't, you know? Especially when so many opportunities presented itself for him to tell Lan, he just couldn't. He wasn't sure he was ready. Hell, he wasn't sure either of them were.

Closing his eyes softly, Megaman let his chest rise and fall slowly in a brief parody of breathing. He let his memories drift, back to when he'd first met Lan as he was now. And then to before that, back when he still knew Lan as a human, as his brother.

Okay sure, he was technically still his brother now. But to him, it seemed that was in name only, as if the bond between them had somehow been broken when that heart disease claimed young Hub's life. It was just a secret now, shared between him and his father--well, programmer now, more than father. And he knew it had to stay that way, for now at least. For now..

It was in these small, pre-dawn hours that Megaman often wondered how it would've been if he were still alive, as Lan's twin. If Lan would actually be able to skirt trouble, or if they'd both get in it deep on a weekly basis. He wondered if they would have Netbattles with "brother" Navis, or if they'd both work on the same Navi, shared between them, grown with, and taught by both their hands. It was a nice fantasy, in any case. And it was right around the end of those hours that he'd wonder if, given the chance...

If given the chance, would he take a human form, or stay as a Net Navi? If he could reclaim what he'd lost, would he give up what he'd gained?

Megaman blinked and turned his head at a snort and a murmur from nearby. It sounded like Lan was deep in a dream of one sort or another. Knowing Lan it probably involved food or Netbattling, or some combination of the two. Megaman chuckled lightly at that thought, and smiled, wanly. Something in the back of his mind wondered if he'd have dreams like that if given the ability to dream, but his thought processes were already on something else by now. The sun was rising outside, and he needed to start trying to wake his operator up now if he ever hoped to get to school on time.

Walking from his secluded spot and back to the main area of the PET, Mega folded his arms and stared ahead, the tired smile still on his face. This would be over next week, at least until next year. Then the voices screeching for him to tell Lan about Hub would return to a dull whisper, easily passed over in the blare of the PET's alarm, or the slotting in of a battlechip. He could almost ignore them then, and work on what was really important: Spending the Now with his operator, his brother, instead of dreaming about the Could Have Been.

Under his hands, screens opened and reported "WAKE UP CALL" across them. As he looked out of the screen at the sleeping lump on the bed, his smile got a little warmer.

"Someday, Lan." The PET began to let out a gentle little beep that steadily rose. "I'll tell you someday."