"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." –Franklin D. Roosevelt
It was simple. Simple. And yet why was it so difficult? He glanced over at his friend, and snorted when he saw that the said brunette was singing and dancing to some upbeat pop song while mixing ingredients. He wondered for a moment if his friend did this when Cain was home.
Refocusing on the task at hand with a sigh, he glanced down at the cardboard box in his hand and struggled to determine what the tiny lettering was telling him to do. He wasn't much for taking orders, especially not ones from a box. And as an added affect, he had no idea what some of the tools labeled on the box were. He looked up at the cupboard where he knew one of the tools were located. Somehow it didn't make much sense to him though. Cups came in all sorts of different sizes.
He was so focused in his pondering that he failed to see that his friend had stopped singing and was now watching him with a confused and concerned gaze.
"Zero? Are you okay?"
"I have no clue how to cook." It took him a full minute to realize that he'd just said that out loud. His friend, the sweet cinnamon roll that he was (Zero was just lucky he didn't say that out loud), just smiled sheepishly at him. And when Zero looked down at him, he was reminded for a moment just how short the fellow android was.
"Sorry, I forgot you'd never done this before. I kind of just assumed. The others do stuff like this all the time with me."
"Correction, I can't cook."
"Have you tried before?"
"No."
"You don't know for sure until you try. Could I see the box? I'll help."
Zero gladly handed the offending item over and watched as X's eyes scanned the box quickly.
"How about you get all the ingredients listed? It's just brownies so all you'll have to grab are the eggs, and oil. Oil's in the pantry by the way."
Zero grunted and moved to do as he was told, wondering why he'd signed up for this. Seriously, he was a battle robot, not a house maid. With that in mind, Zero really wondered about just what X had been programmed for. Because right now? X only seemed to do whatever he wanted. He was good at whatever he wanted. Surely the android must have some sort of primary function? Zero glanced back at his friend as his hand closed around the large container of Canola oil. X's primary function just seemed to be X. Just whoever X wanted to be. Zero found the idea to be inefficient, but largely fascinating. His own systems were programmed for war, and it often took him a long time to sometimes realize that he wasn't on the battlefield. X seemed to help wake him up from his almost hypnotic battle trances. In fact, Sigma had begun calling in the android whenever Zero wasn't snapping out of it.
It wasn't that he hurt anybody or caused damage to anything . . . alright maybe that was a lie. He did in fact break a few things every once in a while when he was stuck in one of his trances. But all in all, he was mostly harmless to other maverick hunters. He was just twitchy, and trigger happy and hell, many fellow hunters (experienced ones too) had told him that he was downright terrifying.
Shaking his head, Zero decided that he had spent long enough standing in front of the pantry and he needed to move. He had a job to do after all. Find eggs. Clearly a simple task.
Zero opened the door of the fridge and paled significantly. Clearly a task for a god.
"X, help." I wasn't built for this, his mind hissed rather helpfully. X bounded over and Zero had to double take at the happy energy the android was emitting. X leaned over to duck his head under Zero's arm and look inside the fridge.
"Oh," the android blinked. "Yeah that's a problem. Fredrick what the hell."
There were pizza boxes everywhere in the fridge. Both gaping androids looked at the display in wonder and shock. Seriously, how did one even get that much pizza without knowing when to stop? X had discovered Fredrick's almost unhealthy affiliation with pizza last month, but the box count had maintained a steady one. Unfortunately, X forgot to consider that the mailing office had their party last night. X ducked back under Zero's arm and went around to the other side.
"Here just hold these and I'll try and find the eggs." X dumped a five box stack into Zero's arm and promptly kept on adding to the pile, thereafter. Zero had to twist and turn to keep X from stacking the boxes the wrong way. The android wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing. By the time X had found the egg carton, Zero was nothing more than legs, and a small fraction of a waist. X glanced back at his friend and gaped in awe when he fully realized the extent of the box pile his friend was carrying.
"That's amazing, Zero. I would have dropped all of them by now. My balance isn't that good."
Said maverick hunter turned to give X a looked that clearly stated he wasn't sure how he felt about being good at carrying pizza boxes. X laughed and began to pull the boxes off. About halfway through (Zero's head and shoulders were only just barely visible), X pulled a little too hard and the stack began to topple. Zero's left hand snapped out from beneath the stack to catch the top and prevent it from falling over, just as his right slid over to support the pile from the bottom. X smiled sheepishly as Zero's eyebrow raised and he turned his head ever so slightly.
"Smooth," the maverick hunter supplied, voice neutral. X spun around quickly to hide his embarrassment as Zero laughed. When all the boxes had been put away, X wrinkled his nose at the maverick hunter.
"You're an asshole."
"X, you do realize how many people tell me that in a day? Come up with something new."
"That aside, we have eggs!" Zero decided not to comment on how weird that statement sounded.
"Only after venturing into the pits of pizza hell. Why do you have so many boxes by the way?"
"Fredrick's borderline obsessed with the stuff."
Zero sighed. "Are all of you mentally unstable about something?"
X shrugged. "To be honest, I don't think anybody's normal if they aren't weird about something."
Zero hummed in agreement and watched as X pulled out various items from the cupboards beneath the sink.
"So the first thing you do is mix everything together. These are boxed brownies so while they don't taste as nice as homemade ones, they're much easier to make. It will be a nice icebreaker for you in cooking. So just dump the contents of the bag in and put the eggs in with it. I'll show you how to measure the water and oil when you're done.
And so Zero did just that. He dumped the contents of the bag into the mixing bowl and placed two eggs right on top. X blinked, before rubbing a hand up his face and through his hair, giving an amused glance between Zero and the mixing bowl.
"Hey, uh Zero?" The maverick hunter turned. "We don't eat egg shells." Zero blinked and then pulled the eggs back out of the pan.
"What am I supposed to do then?"
"Crack 'em, butlet'sdothatinabowlfirst," X rushed out when he saw that Zero was about to crush the egg over the bowl in his fist. X slid over to the right to grab a cereal bowl. "Here, let me show you with one and then you can try with the second one."
Zero watched as X took one of the eggs and cracked it on the side of the bowl before pulling it open with both hands. The contents of the egg dropped neatly into the bowl.
"The trick is to try and not break the shell too much so that when you pull it apart, you don't have any shell bits in with the yolk. Your turn." X slid the bowl over to the maverick hunter. When Zero cracked the egg it was sliced in half by the edge of the bowl. The shell disintegrated in Zero's hand and there were bits all over the counter. Both occupants of the room blinked.
" . . . How about let's wash your hands and you can try again, but with less force this time."
X handed Zero a fresh egg when the reploid returned. "A lot less force this time."
Zero obeyed, slightly frustrated by the difficulty of cooking. The egg merely tapped the side of the bowl without so much as denting.
"A little bit more." Zero tapped the egg again, with more force this time and there was a decent sized crack in the egg when he pulled it away from the bowl. He almost panicked right then and there because he had completely forgotten the neck step. Luckily, X was there to save him.
"Hold it over the bowl and just gently pull the two halves of the shell apart."
Zero complied and was largely satisfied when the yolk dropped into the bowl, mostly intact. There was a little bit of shell bits, but compared to the catastrophe that was his first try, it wasn't bad.
The rest of the process continued in a similar fashion. Zero discovered that a cup didn't actually mean a drinking cup; it was really a unit for measuring. He was completely bewildered by this fact. Why did they name two kitchen terms the same thing?
Also, teaspoons and tablespoons. Just why? All in all, Zero was incredibly relieved when X closed the lid to the oven and proudly announced that all they had to do now was wait. At least waiting was something he was programed to do. So Zero waited, crouching down in front of the oven like a predator waiting to make its kill. X gave his friend a weird look.
"You do know a watched pot never boils right?"
Zero huffed as he walked down the side walk in frustration. His armor was off for once (X would be proud) and he merely walking around town with no particular destination in mind. He had originally left headquarters to vent his frustrations to X, but the android was apparently not at home. He vaguely recalled X telling him earlier that week that he was going to be leaving sometime for an excavation, but he hadn't been paying very much attention. X's friends were in school, so he couldn't resort to them as a second option. That aside, there wasn't anybody else he could talk to.
It was funny how a few months with X could turn you from a spiteful asshole so a social loving pansy. Really, a few months ago, he would have been perfectly fine with sulking by himself, but no, X just had to show him the joys of knowing somebody that actually gave a shit. The people passing on his right gave him a wide girth as he grumbled to himself. Sighing, he made quick decision to walk into the park instead of being constantly being reminded of how intimidating he was.
That was another thing X had changed about him. A few months ago, Zero wouldn't have given a shit about what people said about him. He still didn't, not really. But he was starting to take notice of just how many people found him intimidating or simply just didn't like him. It hurt, a little bit. More so than he cared to admit. Which was why he enjoyed being around X so much. The android didn't care if Zero was in a foul mood (a common occurrence) and decided to be a complete asshole; somehow, the brunette knew he didn't truly mean any of it.
Zero plopped down on an unused park bench with a frustrated huff. He pulled the communicator out of his pocket and willed it to start beeping. He was bored, frustrated, and in desperate need to tear something apart, but Sigma had told him that if he broke the training simulator again, he'd never be allowed near the thing in the future. What better thing to take your rage out on than a few idiotic mavericks? Surely Sigma didn't need them in one piece too?
There was a feint whistling and Zero's systems went into overdrive as his hand snapped up to catch something that had been thrown at his face.
"Sorry sir! We didn't mean to throw it at you!" a child's voice, barely hearable over the blare of his own systems, registered in his ears. He ignored the voice, instead focused on keeping his systems from snapping into that hypnotic battle trance. X's words of advice pounded in his head. Analyze, he screamed at his internal programming. Analyze before you assume that it means war! It took quite some time for him to haggle the alarms down to a much more manageable level.
"Sir? Could I have my ball back?" Zero blinked, then his eyes focused back on the object in his hand. A football, clearly not a weapon of mass destruction. He almost numbly handed the ball back to the thirteen year old.
"Sorry kid, I seem to be pretty out of it," Zero apologized and watched the boy go back to his friends, unnerved by how quickly his systems had been thrown into battle mode just because a baseball had been thrown at his face.
He frowned and got up with a huff and more grumbling. The only place he could truly fit in was the battle field. Everywhere else, he was nothing more than a threat to its security. He made to start heading back to headquarters when a small hand tugged at his shirt. He turned to see the boy with the ball.
"Sir? I was wondering if you wanted to play with us. You see, we're one player short."
"I don't know how to play kid; it wouldn't be a good idea."
"So? We can teach you!"
"I'm a reploid kid. It wouldn't be a good idea," Zero all but hissed, his bad mood leaking into his voice even though he had tried his best to stop it. The boy shrugged.
"I kind of figured you were. Most people don't have reaction times like that. So can you play?" Zero blinked down at the child.
"Kid, you woke up battle protocols when you threw the ball at my face. It's not a good idea to have a maverick hunter play football with human children," Zero tried to explain.
The boy blinked at him excitedly.
"You're a maverick hunter?! That's so cool! You're like a hero!"
He didn't know why but the comment made him bristle in anger.
"I'm not a hero kid," he growled out. The boy winced at his tone. "Look, I appreciate the thought, but I was built for war, playing ball games is not going to go well. Just get lost kid."
The boy looked incredibly downcast at Zero's response, but nodded anyway and ran back to his friends.
Zero refused to think about the growing pit of guilt that was eating away at his stomach as he walked away. He couldn't play football, especially not with human children. There was just no way.
You don't know for sure until you try. X's words from earlier that week hit him like a train to the gut. His feet stopped and then started going back in the direction he'd came before his mind had fully registered what was happening.
"You know what kid? I'll give it a shot!"
"REALLY?!"
Zero couldn't help but grin at the enthusiasm of the boy and his friends when he agreed.
Contrary to most beliefs, Zero wasn't really crazy or blood thirsty. It wasn't really blood thirst that drove him or made him itch with excitement every time he was sent on a mission. No, it was a desire to test his strength against others and to get stronger while doing so. He liked to feel his systems racing in excitement as he fought a battle that seemed like he should loose. He was disappointed with his enemies nearly every single time. But at least they temporarily got rid of his boredom.
If he was human, he'd be considered an adrenaline junkie.
So he wasn't really as blood thirsty as everyone seemed to think. Battle just gave him a sort of thrill. He didn't entirely like tearing things a part. It just sort of . . . happened. Zero didn't really have a good handle on his strength yet, and often, he ended up tearing apart and destroying something he didn't mean to. It seemed to him sometimes that it was his purpose, to destroy. He didn't actually mind it. Sure there were things he would have preferred not to destroy, but there was nothing that he truly didn't want to damage. Except of course, X.
It was X that became his first real friend, X that showed him the world really wasn't as black and white as he cut it out to be. Zero had originally separated the world into the strong and the weak. He was supposed to destroy the strong and . . . protect the weak? He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do with the weak. They really just existed to him.
And then X showed him that the weak could be far stronger than he thought if he just gave them the chance. The weak could be smart, strong, and powerful if they truly wanted to be, but they just chose not to, like X. Zero knew that X was stronger than he let on, yet for some reason, the maverick hunter felt a desire to protect the blue android whenever he was around. Because his systems had pegged X as being weak. But something told Zero that X was more than that.
X at first was the only one that he felt this urge to protect. After a few months, that urge developed into a need to protect everything X stood for as well.
And then all the sudden, the battles that had previously bored him became a fight that sent his systems scrambling to give him the most pleasant outcome. Because the fight no longer became a battle to see who was stronger, it also became a battle to protect. Because X believed in humanity and that meant that Zero would have to protect it.
Author's note: I apologize for any language or just curt wording in the above chapter but that's Zero for you. Also, no editor, most of this was written while I was sick. Just let me know if you see anything and I'll fix it.
So I've hit a road block of sorts with this story (if you haven't already noticed). It's not that I don't have ideas, it's just that the ideas I do have are mainly centered around future (canon) characters and plots lines that are WAY ahead. So I've been writing portions of chapters that probably won't come around till next year at the earliest, cause I'm really slow at writing. How against it would you guys be if I were to give you guys a taste of what is to come in the next chapter (mostly nostalgic moments, no plot spoilers)? What would that entail? Lots of shouting. Lots of jokes I'm sure you will all find absolutely hilarious. Lots of insanity and ridiculous and a written out story version of the Megaman X chat fic I posted on Archive of our Own. Honestly, just the interactions I have planned between all the major characters of Megaman X is (in my opinion) unique and amazing and I'm dying to show you but it's so far away. Beyond just that, I have so many amazing things planned for Axl and Alia and poor poor Signas, but this story is already 60,000 words long and I haven't even started the main plot. Not to mention Douglas and Life Saver and hell, this isn't even the X series, but I work with (kinda) the Guardians too and I'm so freaking impatient it's killing me. If you thought anything you've read so far was ridiculous, just wait till I introduce Alia; she's a new brand of hilarity that I have never seen anybody attempt for her yet. BUT ALIA DOESN'T COME UNTIL LIKE THE THIRD OR FOURTH GAME I DON'T REMEMBER BUT IT MAKES ME SAD BECAUSE I'M TRYING TO KEEP THINGS MOSTLY CANON.
That aside, X is still a cinnamon roll, Zero is a moody child, and everybody else just exists. (for now)
ALSO ALL YOU PEOPLE YOU HAVE REVIEWED: YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!
