Light Family Memoir
Oneshot 3 - Finals
12:52 am.
It was an unusually late time for the youngest of the Light family, Roll, but there was plenty that she had to do. She had promised to get to bed earlier when Rock had told her to try to get some sleep soon, but soon had already passed. That had been a few hours ago.
Regardless on how late it really was, she could retire to her own bedroom for the night without bothering anyone. The only ones in the house who shared a room was Rock and Blues, respectively.
However, something caught her eye after she climbed up the stairs to the second residential floor.
A light faintly glowed under the door of one of the rooms… Xavier's bedroom, to be exact.
At first, her logic programming simply wrote it off that he must've fell asleep with the light on. After all, he was in college and she knew how difficult it was. But the clicking of keys on a keyboard cued her in otherwise… and then it came to her.
Her processing turned towards the internal clock inside of her. This week… was very crucial to X's education.
It was dead week, a week without any classes, but in return, harsh studying and term papers due throughout the week.
Roll knew as well as anyone else that X didn't make a big deal about his late night work, but it showed in the morning when he bothered to get up with the rest of the family. When X had done that in freshman year, both her and Rock had made him go back to bed, with eventual success.
They weren't just family; they were designed to care for one another, but more importantly, the humans of the household.
Instead of going to bed as she should've, her energy levels dropping a little lower than she usually let them, she walked up to the door and knocked.
"Come in," came a call from the other side of the door. Roll complied and opened the door to Xavier's bedroom. His eyes were focused on the screen, his fingers typing away, though every so often, she noticed, he'd have to hold down the backspace to delete a line or two that he didn't like. However, he could still see her out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, Roll. I thought you would've been asleep by now."
"I had a lot to make up," she responded, "and I was just about to head to bed now, but…"
Xavier sighed and pulled his hands off the keyboard. His office chair swiveled to the side to face her.
"But you won't go to bed until you know my well-being is fine," X assumed. He had been aware of the programming that was installed into the newer generation of the family for a while now, but especially when they had pushed him around the same time last year.
"Yes." A basic response, but it was all she needed to say. A nervousness squirmed inside of her as she had a feeling she would reject any request to go to bed, or at the very least, take a nap.
The eldest sibling shook his head, proving her fears to be true. "I can't go to bed until I finish this term paper. It's due at midnight…" X looked at the time on his laptop for a moment, "tonight, I guess."
She could hear him softly mutter "is it Wednesday already…?", but made no effort to make any response to that.
For a moment, she stood still, trying to find a resolve in the situation, X staring to wait for any further protest. She knew X wouldn't go to bed willingly, and there wasn't much other choice as other methods were blocked by either protective laws or her own mortality matrix.
Only one solution came to mind that would put her care programming at ease.
"I'll stay up with you then. That way, I can continuously monitor you and aid you with anything you might need in order to reduce time spent away from your work."
X opened his mouth to object, but nothing came out as he shut it again. He thought for a moment and then sighed heavily, seemingly giving in her demands. "I'd rather you get the recharge you need, but if that's what you have to do…"
"And I would rather see you get some sleep," Roll retorted, "but obviously I can't make that happen."
X smiled and shook his head again. "Yes, I guess you're right." A pause, then, "Some coffee would be nice."
With a nod, she left the room and headed back downstairs to make some coffee without bothering to turn on any lights to draw anyone else from their slumber.
After the coffee machine was loaded and activated, making its humming noise, she leaned across the counter island and rested her eyes for only a moment.
Her energy levels luckily wouldn't reach critical for a while, but she couldn't help but wonder if she'd be able to stay up long enough. X didn't need the distraction of having to come find her drained body while he was just as busy with the term paper.
A yawn escaped her lips; an adapted sign of tiredness more than a need for oxygen.
"...What are you doing awake?"
Her eyes opened wide as she jumped. Roll peered into the darkness to see someone sitting at the dining room table, and after processing for a moment, she knew it was her older brother, Blues.
"You scared me," Roll admitted, "I didn't know you were down here."
"I…" Blues paused for a moment, trying to formulate the right words. "...have trouble sleeping sometimes. Like tonight."
"Insomnia?" She questioned back.
"Yeah." She could see him adjust himself in his chair. "I… must admit, though, I'm not quite sure what's causing it."
"Maybe you could ask Dr. Light about it."
A period of silence made Roll uneasy, but finally he responded. "...Maybe."
It was almost a sign of mistrust, something that concerned her, but the coffee machine stopped humming before she could even get a single word out to inquiry about it. X came first in this situation, and the youngest knew that if Blues had a real issue, he'd bring it up with X or Dr. Light.
Being too nosy was something Roll knew Blues wouldn't appreciate, anyways.
"So, I'm guessing the reason is Xavier, isn't it?" Though it wasn't very clear in the dim light, she gave him the oddest look.
"How did you know?"
"Saw his light on in his bedroom," he replied, "he always lights a candle or two before bed to read or whatever. Never leaves his light on, even if he's really tired."
Roll started to doubt what she knew about X, but reasons came around to refute the doubt. Blues had been around longer than her, so of course he knew more. Not to mention she was almost always in bed before the elder two siblings were sound asleep.
"Is it the candles next to his picture of his family before we came along?" The mental image came to her like she had seen plenty of times while she was cleaning. The house never changed much, other than for upcoming holidays.
She had always wondered what his mother- maybe even her mother, considering on how comfortable X and Dr. Light were with the three androids- was like, but never bothered to ask.
"Yeah, that's it." Roll could faintly see Blues nod.
"I guess it would be obvious then." She picked up the coffee mug, the hot temperature of the coffee running in her fingerprints. It would typically cause a reaction in a human to let go of it, but in her case, the temperature was no harm to her.
"'Night, Blues," she said goodbye, in case she wouldn't see him until morning.
"G'night, sis," came a simple reply as she headed out of the downstairs kitchen and back upstairs to the bedroom.
The door quietly moved open as she turned the doorknob and pushed over the carpet flooring until the door was wide enough for her to fit through.
The coffee tapped down quietly onto the desk, trying not to disturb his concentration, but to no use, he seemed drawn towards her and the coffee.
"Thanks, Roll," and with proper gratitude expressed, X took a sip before Roll could warn him of how hot it was… and burned his tongue.
"I was about to warn you it was hot, if you would've just waited a moment," she informed him with a hint of sass in her voice.
"Sorry, Roll," the elder brother apologized, "I guess I'm prone to those kind of thoughtless mistakes when I'm tired."
"Which is why you should go to bed," a retort came back.
"I'll go to bed in a little bit, then." He seemed to resolve finally to her demands.
But like just how she had said that she would go to bed soon, that 'little bit' turned into a half hour… an hour… and so on. After the first 30 minutes, she told him to get some rest again, only to be told something similar. By the hour, she gave in and went back to assisting him stay on task.
3:32 am was the time when X finally finished his paper and crashed into bed. He was asleep in no time flat, the caffeine finally failing him. And at that time she crashed as well into her own bedroom.
Needless to say, the next day was taken easy by the both of them after the long night.