Author's Note: First, I would like to thank crestoflight3 for being my first reviewer! But, I will warn that after this week, updates will be slower because I will be very busy with schoolwork!
Circuits
Necessary
The android's eyes slowly opened, revealing a multitude of colorful lights blinking and flashing in his irises but then, the lights faded out, leaving in their place a soft shade of blue. He blinked twice, and turned to face his new owners.
Despite being excited about the robotic caregiver, both Tai and Kari found themselves unable to break the odd silence that was growing between the three. That is, until Tai spoke up.
"H-hi…Matt," Tai said nervously, "My name's Tai Kamiya and this is my little sister, Kari Kamiya."
"I am at your service." Matt answered in a very polite manner.
Tai was taken aback by Matt's voice.
"Wow! I was expecting him to talk kind of like Andromon!"
"What's an Andromon?" asked Matt, stepping away from the floor of the cardboard box that he was standing on.
"Never mind."
Suddenly, there came a knock on the door. Matt started towards the door to answer it but Kari stopped him.
"Don't worry, Matt," she assured, "I'll answer it."
As she turned the knob, the short-haired brunette was surprised to see both generations of the Digidestined, except Mimi, standing outside the apartment door.
"Hi, Kari," T.K. said, "Mind if we come in?"
"Not at all," Kari replied, letting the group of eight inside the apartment, "Our mother's asleep, so please keep it down."
As Kari led them into the living room, they saw Tai coming to greet them.
"Sorry that you guys have to see how filthy the rooms are," Tai said, taking notice of dirty clothes lying on the nearby couch, "We really weren't expecting company today…Oh! Uh, Matt!"
The blonde servant appeared shortly after he was called.
"You called for me, sir?"
"Clean up the living room," ordered Tai, "it's a mess."
Matt nodded.
"Yes sir."
"Say, where did you guys get the butler?" Davis asked, observing Matt as he started to clean. "I wish I had one."
"Actually, Davis, he's not a butler," explained Kari, "He's an android."
The Digidestined almost shouted "WHAT?!" in complete astonishment if the two siblings haven't stopped them beforehand.
To be sure, Davis walked up to Matt and started knocking on his chest, his brown eyes widened with amazement when he heard the metal clang loudly against his fist.
"I advise that you don't do that, sir." But the goggle head ignored the robot's warning and continued.
"Davis, shhh!" Tai hissed through gritted teeth.
Davis stopped and grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, Tai."
"Prodigious!" exclaimed Izzy, "Whoever built him must have studied every known detail of human outward appearances! He's so life-like!"
"He could actually pass as an older brother for T.K.!" Yolei stated.
"Yeah, Yolei, but that's not why we're here." Cody reminded.
Joe nodded in agreement, "After you told us about your mother, we decided to help you two out as best we can."
Tai smiled. "Thanks, you guys."
…
Shortly after their friends left, Tai and Kari were amazed at how spotless the living room looked when Matt had finished cleaning, but then they heard their mother waking up.
"Mmmm…Tai…Kari…"
They were about to answer her when a sudden thought came to mind.
"What's Mom going to say when she sees Matt?" Kari asked worried, "And then there's Dad…"
"There's only one way to find out, Kari," replied the fifteen-year old, "We'll have to take that chance!"
"I thought I heard voices earlier…" Yuuko told them as they entered the bedroom, "Did your friends come over?"
"Yeah, Mom," Tai answered, "but they left a while ago."
Yuuko turned her tired gaze towards the open door where she saw Matt standing outside in the hallway.
She gave a panicked gasp.
"W-who's t-that?" Yuuko stammered, pointing at the doorway.
"That's Matt," Kari explained, "He's here to help us."
"Plus, he's an android too! It's okay, Mom," Tai assured his frightened mother, "he's not gonna hurt us. Matt, could you come here?"
The robot nodded and came forward, standing in between Tai and Kari, getting a better look at the frail woman.
"Are you Mrs. Kamiya?" Matt asked in a calm voice.
"I-I am…" Yuuko answered timidly.
"Please don't be frightened of me, ma'am."
She averted her gaze at her children.
"Where did he come from? I need to know…"
Tai took in a deep breath, "Kari and I bought him from the Artificial Servants factory with our own money yesterday."
Kari spoke up. "We did it so that you could have someone to take care of you, Mom."
"I don't know how your father will handle this when he finds out," Yuuko sighed, "but I understand why you both made this choice."
Yuuko looked back up at Matt, this time without a hint of fear in her eyes but acceptance.
"Could you make some soup for me, Matt?"
The blonde android nodded and headed into the kitchen.
…
The soup was almost ready when Susumu came into the apartment.
"I'm home!" he said, and then he caught a whiff of somebody cooking.
"Tai, is that you who's cooking?"
No reply.
"Kari?"
No answer.
Following the smell into the kitchen, Susumu was quite startled to see neither one of his children but Matt stirring a pot of soup and he furiously confronted the robot servant.
"Who are you?" he demanded angrily, "And what are you doing here in my home?!"
Matt stopped and looked up at the taller man, "I assume that you are Mr. Kamiya, correct?"
Hearing their dad's angry voice, Tai and Kari rushed into the kitchen.
"Dad, you're home early?" Kari exclaimed.
"Just who is this?!" Susumu questioned.
Like they told their mother earlier, Tai and Kari explained Matt's origin again to their father. However, Susumu was less-than-thrilled about having a robot in the apartment.
"Take him back."
Both were caught off guard. "What?"
"I said take him back," said Susumu in a firm tone, "I'm not letting this…this machine worm into this family as it is! And I'm very disappointed of the both of you!"
"Mr. Kamiya, I have no such intentions," Matt stated, "I live to serve and obey."
"Then get out."
"No, Dad!" Kari begged, "Please let him stay!"
"I know that you're mad at us for buying him in the first place," added Tai, "but give Matt a chance, please?"
"Would you do it for Mom's sake?" pleaded Kari.
Susumu paused. Ever since her release from the hospital, Yuuko had not been getting the proper care that she needed and her health continued to weaken. He and his children tried to do it themselves but that proved to be unsuccessful. Also, cutting hours of work would result in him eventually getting fired.
Then, his expression softened. Maybe, an artificial caregiver was exactly what the family needed.
"Alright," he said, turning to the blonde, "you can stay, Matt."
"Thank you, sir."
With that, Matt turned and poured some soup into a bowl. Susumu watched as Matt walked into the bedroom and offered it to his wife, who accepted it.
…
For the next few weeks, Matt had proved to be necessary to the Kamiyas: The apartment was always spotless, Yuuko was better cared for, and Tai and Kari were passing their school subjects with flying colors.
But one day, Matt found Kari working on one particular school project.
"What are you working on, Miss Kari?"
"Oh, hi, Matt!" she exclaimed, "I'm adding the finishing touches to an essay."
"Do you need any help?" he asked.
"Not really," replied Kari, "this is actually one of the teacher's more lenient tasks. We're studying European fairy tales in my class and I've picked The Little Mermaid. In the original story, the mermaid wished to gain an immortal soul as well as love. Though mermaids live much longer than humans, they turn into sea foam when they die and cease to exist."
Matt sighed, "That sounds exactly how an android is with 'life'."
Kari raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that, Matt?"
"Before I was put on display," he began, "I was put through a test run, to see if every part of me worked properly as part of an experiment. But, there was another, a maid android that was being tested along with me as well. She suddenly started to malfunction; the humans testing her tried shutting her off but her power was out of control as she became more and more unstable. Then the mechanics inside of her exploded, and she stopped."
"What did they do to the maid after that, did they try to fix her?"
"No, ma'am," Matt confirmed, "They dismantled her immediately and threw her away, muttering 'Reject' as they went to test out another android."
"And you witnessed all of that?" Kari whispered.
He nodded.
Kari was appalled learning the true nature of the factory, wanting only profit and wasting what could have been fixed as good as new.
It made her stomach turn with disgust.
She heard Matt sigh again, and Kari thought she heard a hint of sadness in his artificial voice.
-To be continued…