Chapter Two
In This Dream
Stand by… …
Re-e-econfiguring data… …
Where am I?
Me-e-emoooory corrrrrr-c-c-corupted-ted-teeeee… …
"Hello?"
Reeeeconfigur-i-ing… …
Staaaaaand by… …
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
Who are you?
"Scanning ID number H-zero-zero-five-three-three-four-eight. Systems operational."
Hello?
"Oh! He seems to be coming to."
A laugh.
"You know robots can't really 'come to', don't you?"
"He's not just a robot. He's our most advanced AI to date!"
"So it's a he now?"
Who are you?
Green eyes open to a blinding white light.
"Those are the pronouns he chose and I respect them," a feminine voice says. "You know, he's really more of a person than a robot."
"You're projecting," a different voice says. He thinks he might recognize them.
"How extensive is the damage?" says someone else.
"Hmm, nothing we can't fix," says the first voice.
"Least we don't have to pitch him. Could you imagine all that work wasted?"
"What was he even doing?" asks the second.
He tries to turn his head to look at the people the voices belong to but he can't. 'Where am I?' he tries to say but no words come out.
He knows these voices – remembers them from somewhere. But where…?
Sttttta-nd by… …
No wait.
Is this…?
Is this where I came from?
"Showing off as usual," the first woman says. "He really is just like a teenage boy; can't keep him down, can't hold him back."
A face appears over him – a soft smile and pretty blue eyes.
Stand by… …
Wait!
He tries to talk to her – 'Who are you?' 'Where am I?' 'What happened to me?' – but he can't even move.
Is this a dream?
Rebooting system… …
Wait…
"Time to wake up."
"Crow…?"
Wait!
Rebooting… …
It's dark when Crow opens his eyes. Static passes over his vision before it corrects itself, automatically adjusting to the low light. He can see something flashing red at the top of his right eye – words. 'Reboot complete. Systems operational.' The short message disappears just a moment later.
Crow blinks once, twice, but all he sees is the full moon through holes in the ceiling.
Something shifts beside him and it's only then that he realizes he's lying on his back on some kind of wooden table. The thing makes a noise of malcontent. Crow has a moment to wonder if he should be worried but his brain… system is still scrambled. Right, I'm a robot.
The thing shifts again. They're warm – or his sensors indicate that they're warm. He can't actually feel the heat radiating from their body but he knows it's there. Human then.
But I thought Seto was…
Crow sits up. The thing beside him is indeed a human, head resting in their arms, asleep on the table. It's a little bit longer, but there's no mistaking that maroon hair.
"Seto?" Crow whispers. But that's impossible. Last time Crow saw Seto, they were at the dam and Crow was…
"Seto," he calls again, shaking Seto's shoulder. "Seto, wake up. Where are we? How did we get here?"
Seto stirs but doesn't wake.
Crow frowns. "Oh, come on," he mumbles, shaking Seto's shoulders with more force. "Humans can't need sleep that much!"
Finally, Seto opens his eyes – the same beautiful amethyst reflecting moonlight as they had during their first meeting. Yet, something about them seems different. They're still soft, hazy with sleep, but they seem older somehow – tired and filled with deep sorrow. What happened at that dam?
"Wha-?" Seto blinks the weariness from his eyes. Crow can't help but feel amused as they widen to the size of dinner plates. "Crow?" Seto whispers, as if he can't believe what's right in front of him.
"Well duh," Crow drawls. "Who else would it be?"
Moisture springs to Seto's eyes in a way that's all too familiar. He throws his arms around Crow before either one of them even knows what's happening.
Crow sits too stunned to move for several seconds. "Jeez," he says, rolling his eyes. Yet his arms find their way around Seto's frame regardless. "Again with the waterworks. Do you ever stop crying?"
Seto only holds him tighter. He mutters incoherently into Crow's scarf.
Crow would sigh if he had lungs. As it stands, he settles for tracing circles on Seto's back with a huff. "Man, Seto, calm down, will ya? You act like you haven't seen me in years."
Seto squeezes Crow's jacket. "I haven't," he manages to say through his sobs.
Crow pauses his ministrations at that. "What are you talking about?" he asks. They just saw each other at the dam. Crow remembers it like it was yesterday – Seto had been crying there, too because Crow's battery was…
Oh.
Crow takes stock of the boy – man – in his arms. He's broader around his shoulders, less scrawny than Crow remembers. His muscles are more prominent and his grip is decidedly stronger. He's taller, Crow can tell even though he's still positioned awkwardly in a half crouch.
"Seto," Crow says softly. He pulls back to look at Seto's beautiful, bright eyes. "How long…?"
"It's been ten years," Seto says. He cups Crow's cheek in his left palm. The skull ring glints in the moonlight. "I missed you," Seto whispers. "I missed you so much."
Crow can't cry but he thinks that if he were able to, he would start right now. "Seto, what happened on that dam?"
Seto's breath hitches. He looks anywhere but Crow's face, finger tracing over Crow's cheek.
"Seto?" Crow's voice is soft, devoid of its usual confidence. He has no idea what to make of this, this… whatever this is.
Seto hesitates. "You died," he says after a beat. "At the dam, I was with you. Your battery ran out and you died."
Crow frowns. "I know that already," he says. "I was there, too, ya know. Clearly the whole death thing didn't stick."
"It did, though!" Seto yells, suddenly frantic. "You died and when I went back, you were gone and I couldn't find you! I looked for you, but I couldn't…" Seto takes a deep, calming breath and dries his eyes. "I found something a few years ago – something I thought I could use to help you. But by the time I made it back to the dam, you were gone. I thought… I never thought I'd find you again but I did. And I… fixed you."
Crow's too astonished to speak. Seto fixed… but that's impossible. Without a working battery, Crow can't… And there hadn't been anything around to recharge it; he searched himself. How could Seto…?
"Seto," Crow whispers after a long silence. "Seto, tell me everything."
"Solar power."
A nod.
"These things fitted to my battery gather energy… from the sun."
Another nod.
"So as long as I get enough sunlight, I won't run out of power again?"
"I think so," Seto says. "My refrigerator hasn't at least."
"I ain't exactly a refrigerator," Crow mutters. "But okay so you fixed me; I'm alive. What now?"
Seto blinks in bemusement. "What now?"
"Well, yeah." Crow rolls his eyes. "Where are we anyway? I thought you were looking for other humans but you're the only one here."
"I," Seto starts. Then he stops. His eyes lose their confusion, grief taking its place. Suddenly, Seto looks very far away, lost in the memories of a life long passed.
Crow thinks of changing the subject but then Seto continues. "I found one," he says. "Ren was her name. She died three years ago."
Died? But…
Right, Crow thinks. Humans are fragile. They get sick or break their bones or just grow older. Seto has. He's probably gotten sick and broken a bone, too. He'll die someday, long before Crow runs out of power thanks to these solar panels.
"You never found anyone else?" Crow asks.
"Never looked," Seto says with a shrug. "Ren and I traveled everywhere, filled out maps, stuff like that. We never found anyone else, though. After she died, I didn't see any point in searching again. If we didn't run into a single human in seven years, I just…" he trails off, shaking his head. "There's no point."
"Of course there is!" Crow shouts, though he's not sure why he's suddenly so angry. "How can you say there's no one out there when you haven't even looked?"
"I did look!" Seto yells back, ire gleaming in his purple eyes. "We looked for seven years but there's no one... Things changed. I couldn't keep traveling forever. I need food and water. I had to build a home somewhere."
"Tch," Crow grunts but he can't say much else to that. He didn't think being human would require so much maintenance.
Seto brings up a good point. A permanent place of residence, a home as it were, is useful. A consistent place to return to where it's safe and you can store your things – a place you can call your own – is... nice. Comforting, even. Though Crow's in no need of food or water or warmth, he can appreciate that a home makes these necessities more accessible.
It just seems unlike Seto to settle in a place like this with no one else to keep him company. When they'd first met, he'd been so determined to find someone. It just… how could he give up like this?
Crow gives the boy another once over. Things change, he supposes. Seto is different now, older, maybe wiser, too. Sadder at least, that's for sure. Things change.
Well, whatever! So what if Seto's different now? He's still Seto and this is his home so it might as well be Crow's home, too!
Speaking of, though, "Where is home?" he asks. There's not much to see in this room save the books lining the walls and the table he's lying on. There's a rolling cart full of tools and metal bits closer to Seto that Crow assumes doesn't actually belong there. A few other tables with half finished electronics and scrap metal underneath the room's single window cover the opposite wall but nothing looks too spectacular. Seto's never seemed like much of an engineer.
Things change, he supposes.
"This is where I grew up," Seto says. "It's an observatory."
Crow cocks a brow. "A what now?"
"An observatory?" Seto frowns. "It's a place where you can look at stars. Like with a telescope? You've never seen one before?"
Crow pouts, though he would deny it could be called something so cutesy. "I lived at an amusement park for most of my life, bite me."
Seto tries and fails to hide a laugh behind his hand. It's the first time Crow's seen something like mirth in his eyes since the last time they'd met. Back then, Seto's eyes hadn't been filled with anything but tears as he held Crow in his arms. Crow likes this much better.
"Here." Seto stands and grabs Crow's hand. "I'll show you."
Crow stumbles a bit getting off the table. His joints are a little slow from a decade of disuse but they warm up quickly enough. Seto looks concerned for a moment but Crow only smirks when he sees he's still a hair taller.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Crow asks when Seto hesitates for a second too long. "Show me the stars or whatever."
Seto's grin is bright enough to light the night. Crow thinks if he had a real heart, it would have skipped a beat.
"That's Jupiter," Seto says with a grin but Crow's too busy looking into the telescope to see it.
"Cool," he whispers in astonishment. He's never seen anything like this before, this swirling ball of orange and white gas – apparently hydrogen, helium, and a host of other elements Crow's never heard of according to the book in Seto's hands. "What's that red spot?"
Seto flips to a new page in the old book simple titled Astronomy and Astrology. "It's about space," Seto had said and that's all Crow had needed to hear.
"It's a storm," Seto says after a beat. "'The Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm on the planet Jupiter twenty two degrees south of the equator, which has lasted for at least two hundred years,'" he reads. "Two hundred years…"
"Doesn't look like any storm I've ever seen," Crow says. "What does anticyclonic even mean?"
"Hang on, it's in…" A yawn punctuates Seto's words. "In the glossary."
Crow would sigh if he didn't find the display so surprisingly endearing. Seto's been struggling to keep his eyes open ever since he and Crow squished into the single seat at the telescope. Crow doesn't see why Seto hadn't just sat in his lap or something. Seto's body might be soft and pliable but Crow's sure isn't. But Seto got all red and tongue-tied when Crow offered so whatever. He can do what he wants.
Then Seto yawns again and Crow actually does sigh. He turns to stare at his sleepy seatmate. There are bags under his eyes and his ears are flushed redder than his hair.
It takes a moment for Seto to notice he's being watched. "Um," he mutters unintelligibly.
"You're tired," Crow deadpans.
"I'm fine," Seto grumbles through a yawn.
Crow rolls his eyes. "Right and I can turn into a bear."
"Can you?"
Crow almost laughs but no, no he needs to be stern about this. "Humans need rest," he says.
"But I'm really-"
He doesn't let Seto finish. In one motion, Crow throws Seto over his shoulder and jumps off the seat.
"H-hey!" Seto shouts. "Put me down! I can walk!"
Crow snorts but does as he's told. Seto pouts so Crow ruffles his hair.
Seto huffs, muttering something about being an adult but Crow pays him no mind. Instead, he looks around for a suitable place to sleep. Where does Seto usually rest anyway?
As if reading his mind, Seto grabs Crow's hand and pulls him toward the winding staircase adjacent to the telescope. "Come on," he says. "If I have to sleep, so do you."
Crow refrains from pointing out how ridiculous that is since he's not human and doesn't need to sleep but he supposes he'll humor his companion. Humans don't like to sleep alone, not according to the books he's read on them.
The loft is much the same as everything else in the observatory that Crow's seen so far – minimal yet functional. There's a mattress in the middle of the floor, a pillow and blanket neatly folded on top, and a lantern beside it. Off to the side, there's a small lounge chair and end table with one drawer and a few books on top of it.
Seto stands at the top of the staircase, face reddening with each passing second. Crow chalks it up to exhaustion. All right, he'll do this himself then.
Crow lets go of Seto's hand and grabs the blanket. "Well?" he prompts, glancing back.
Seto startles just a little. "O-oh, right," he mutters as he starts undressing.
Crow watches, mesmerized as Seto removes his shirt. He is indeed more muscular than Crow remembers but he's still slim. He's tanner than he used to be, though it's hard to tell in the moonlight. The vast expanse of skin along his back isn't flawless as Crow might have guessed. It's scarred, marked by the fighting he'd been forced to do all those years ago. But still, it looks soft.
Crow wonders if he would feel it if he touched it – the quivering mounds of muscle and deep valleys where scar tissue interrupts flesh like a river. Against his will, Crow's fingertips reach out to touch, to feel.
But no. He pulls his hand back to his side. Even if he were to touch, he couldn't feel it, not really. His sensors tell him when things are warm or cold but he's never felt the heat of fire searing his skin. He'd never felt the icy winter wind stinging his cheek. He can't feel pain or softness, only changes in texture. Would that be enough?
It doesn't matter. Seto retrieves a shirt from the table drawer, effectively cutting off Crow's view as well as his train of thought.
When Seto looks at him, fully clothed and even sleepier than before, he seems confused. "You're not going to take off your shoes?"
Crow glances at his feet. It would be rude if he wore his boots on the bed, wouldn't it.
Seto doesn't watch him as Crow undresses. He crawls underneath the blanket, leaving more than enough space for another body.
So Crow follows suit. Almost immediately, Seto curls up against him, nuzzling his face into Crow's chest even though they're the same height now. Almost, Crow reminds himself fiercely. A hair is a hair and he's still taller.
Seto wraps an arm loosely around Crow's waist. "I'm really glad I found you," he mumbles.
Crow can't help but smile fondly. It's all so peaceful. It almost reminds him of the dam and yet it's completely different. They're not separating this time, not ever again if Crow can help it.
Crow settles further into his horizontal position. His own arm finds its way around Seto in return, fingers weaving their way through his hair. "I'm glad, too," he says.