"Good morning Haru-senpai, Gatchmon, Offmon." Hajime and Bootmon greeted Haru, Gatchmon, and Offmon at the entrance to the lab.
Both Haru and Hajime were researcher professors that belonged to the University of Tokyo. The two over the years had proven their merit and been granted certain privileges that even the most seasoned of research professors could only dream of. One of these privileges was having their own private lab where they experienced minimal supervision and contact with other colleagues, colleagues who many times disagreed with their research, sometimes on moral grounds. Nonetheless, once a month, the two would present their findings and research gains to the committee of the department of robotics. The two researchers would sometimes work with each other, but that usually depended whenever their work overlapped. Because of their renowned status among AI scholars, the two would be busy with research conferences all over Japan and beyond.
Two days after the assault on Yuujin, Haru went back to the main laboratory he shared with Hajime. It took a lot of effort to convince Yuujin to allow Haru to return and only with the clause that he take both Gatchmon and Offmon with him for added protection. Usually, Gatchmon accompanined Haru to the lab, and Offmon would go with Yuujin to his job.
Unfortunately, no progress had made on finding more information about the SSH. Even with help from Hajime, the Katsura brothers couldn't find anymore information about them, nor where did the robots that attacked them came from. In fact, it seems after the attack, the organization destroyed most of the information Rei was able to find about them on his first try, with no traces remaining. For now, Haru and friends would have to wait until the group made themselves known again.
Haru walked into the lab with a thermos full of coffee and saw his lab partner with dark sunken eyes and unruly bed hair. Anyone could tell that Hajime did not have a good night sleep by taking a quick glance at the young man.
"Good morning Hajime-kun, good morning Bootmon how was babysitting Naoto-chan." Haru chirped.
Hajime cracked what appeared to be a force smiled. "Interesting, hey did you know my brother left Hackmon with me but in his Ultimate Grade form, Revivemon?"
Haru didn't know how to respond to that. "Sounds like you had an interesting evening."
The smile on the auburn youth slowly changed into a scowl. "Not really, Bootmon got upset every time my nephew cried, which was a lot. Oh, and Revivemon didn't help the situation with his watchdog attitude. In short, no one got any sleep"
Bootmon put up his hands in a defensive stance and started to shake them. "I'm sorry Hajime-kun, Boo didn't mean to."
Hajime's scowl disappeared at that moment. "It's okay. I'm not mad at you, Naoto-chan, or Hackmon. My stupid brother is to blame here."
"Well I hope at least Rei-kun and Ai-chan had fun on their date," Haru said.
"I sure hope so." Hajime thought to himself that he hopes his sacrifice brought happiness to his brother and his wife.
Haru sighed, "I wish Yuujin would take me out."
"But Haru-senpai that would require you to stop being so domestic and allow Yuujin-san to take you out." Haru gasped at Hajime's words. The auburn-haired youth had a kind heart but a very wicked mouth that sometimes utter harsh truths.
Haru feigned that he was hurt by Hajime's comment. "That's mean Hajime-kun, you are implying I keep Yuujin locked up like he is my princess in a tower."
"I can see Haru-senpai as a dragon, you guard Yuujin-san like he is your gold." Hajime, however, felt that he was pushing a little too far now. He needed to retract his statements. "I'm so sorry Haru-senpai, I'm just a little on edge. In addition to no sleep, my brother hasn't stopped lecturing me on safety after he found out about the SSH targeting you two."
Haru giggled, "it's okay Hajime-kun, apology accepted, but it couldn't have been that bad." Haru shrugged his shoulders and took a sip from his thermos and sat down.
"No, it was. It was nonstop. Haru-senpai, he kept me in a small secluded room and wouldn't stop talking for four hours straight. I was only saved when Big Sister Ai found out and gave my brother a vicious tongue lashing."
"While that might have been a tad excessive Hajime-kun, I can see why your brother might have a point, your research is problematic for them." Haru took another sip and began looking through his tablet to see what his schedule for today was.
Hajime grew annoyed at Haru for not being sympathetic to the torture he endured under his overprotective, but well-meaning, older brother. However, his annoyance vanished when he glanced at his phone and read a new text message. "Well you won't be talking about my brother having a point for very long, Haru-senpai." Hajime flashed a huge cocky grin at Haru. "My brother sent me a very interesting text message. Here take a look." Hajime offered his phone to his fellow AI researcher.
It read, Hajime I'm sending Yuujin Shinkai to the lab for backup. He has agreed to do so. Please notify his husband. Thank you. By the way, Ai wants to know if you are coming to dinner.
"Why is he doing this? Why do they do this to me?" Hajime shrugged his shoulders while looking at Bootmon. "I honestly wish my husband and your brother would go back to the way they were when they first met."
Hajime offered a weak chuckle at Haru's silly wish. Gatchmon, however, was worried. "What's going on Haru?"
The green haired man turned to his buddy Appmon and his husband's buddy Appmon, "Yuujin's coming to the lab"
"Hooray, Yuujin is going to be here offu!" Offmon chirped loudly.
"Speak of the devil, he is almost here." Hajime received another message from his brother updating him on the location of where the redhead was. "Did you think he is flying here?" Hajime asked his green haired friend while checking on his recent experiment.
Haru took out his equipment from storage. "I hope not, I told him to hide his damn powers. I don't need the government to kidnap him, leaving me to raise our son all on my own." Haru said with a frumpy look.
Hajime grew tired of Haru's complaints and decided to get to the heart of the problem. "Haru-senpai why are you so upset with Yuujin-san recently? You two are usually on the same wavelength but lately you two can't seem eye to eye, want to talk about it?"
Haru sighed, "I don't know, I just want us to go back to the way we were. For the last couple of weeks, he has been so overprotective of me. I've tried talking to him, but he doesn't really listen."
Hajime being the genius he was, felt that he already figured out what the problem was with the little info Haru gave him, now he just need to confirm his suspicions. "You said weeks, right? Was this around the same time when Yuujin-san got laid off from his job?"
Yuujin's former occupation involved selling AI products to children. He was the spokesperson for a new, growing company. Yuujin loved the job because it offered him the chance to demonstrate artificial intelligence, like him, was nothing to be afraid of and had enormous potential to help improve the lives of humans. In addition, Yuujin liked his role because it gave him something in common with his husband. However, Yuujin was fired once it was revealed that he wasn't entirely human. Many of Yuujin's coworkers lamented the loss of their pal and felt that Yuujin being an android could be a great asset to the company. The bigwigs ignored their pleas.
However, Haru is certain the real motive for Yuujin's wrongful termination was his sexuality and the AI angle was a legal loophole they found to get rid of Yuujin without facing a discrimination lawsuit. He remembers how uncomfortable most of Yuujin's employers were whenever he was around. Haru was sure that they viewed Yuujin as the paradigm of masculinity, something many people have told Haru over the years. They must have felt threatened by Yuujin's sexual orientation. If he could be gay, anyone could be. In fact, Haru believes he once heard one of Yuujin's bosses call him in a low whisper, Yuujin's bitch wife, probably to reaffirm his own insecurities about his sexuality. Once their son is born, Haru intends to teach them a lesson, legally.
"Yeah. Wait you don't mean that…" Haru couldn't believe he didn't think about Yuujin being unemployed played a hand in making his lover more domineering.
Hajime interrupts, "yes, I do. Nonetheless, the pregnancy mostly like has a part to play too, but I suspect if he was preoccupied, he would be less inclined and able to monitor your every movement."
Haru asked, "so what can I do?"
Hajime offers a suggestion. "How about we hire him as our assistant? We need a need one after the old one quit because she had some weird phobia over Bootmon." Hajime pointed his thumb at his Appmon.
Bootmon cried, "I'm sorry Hajime-kun."
"It's okay Bootmon, you did nothing wrong."
Haru chimes in. "That might work. But would he accept the offer?"
Just then, a familiar and deep voice rang out, "What offer?" Both researchers jumped in fear. They turned around and saw Yuujin flashing a bright and large smile.
Yuujin's spouse composed himself and answered his beloved's question. "Hajime-kun had the craziest idea. He wants you to be our new lab assistant." Truth be told, Haru didn't want his partner working in the lab for one simple fact, Hajime. The so-called boy genius had a creepy infatuation for Yuujin because he is an android. Yuujin found it cute, Haru had a different opinion.
Yuujin stated, "that doesn't sound crazy to me, in fact, I'll do it."
"What!?" Haru responded.
Yuujin calmly stated, "I said I'll do it."
Haru nervously laughed. "Yuujin don't accept something so quickly without thinking things through."
"Are you okay with it Haru?" Yuujin asked.
Haru took a few seconds to respond. "Yes."
"Ok then there's no issue, it'll do it," Yuujin exclaimed.
"Fine." Haru turns to look at his junior. "But Hajime-kun it's going to be an issue teaching Yuujin how to do just the basics. Our previous interns at was somewhat trained in the field of robotics, Yuujin only knows some of the rudimentary basics of AI."
Hajime points his finger and smugly tells Haru, "ah but you forget Haru-senpai, we can easily transfer the information he needs for this job." Hajime likes Yuujin and wanted him around. Believe or not, the auburn youth used to have a small crush on Yuujin, but Hajime thinks that might have had to do with the redhead being a robot and less to do with attraction.
Haru gave a deadpan stare. "Oh right, my husband is an android."
Hajime waves to the tall red head. "Yuujin-san, please give me your hand, this will be real quick." Hajime instructed Yuujin to open the synthetic layer of his skin, so that Hajime could insert a wire into him. The procedure only took five minutes. Yuujin now should be as fluent in the study of AI as any grad student.
The first task Haru and Hajime gave to the larger male was to sort out their archives and to categorize them properly and to delete any files that no longer were important or were outdate. While Yuujin was busying looking at the old files, Hajime went over to Haru's side of the lab.
Hajime shot Haru an innocent smile. "Haru-senpai, I have a request."
Haru didn't bother looking at Hajime and continued looking at his monitor when he quickly answered, "the answer is no."
Hajime pleaded, "but you don't even know what I want."
Haru removed his gaze from his screen and looked directly into Hajime's eyes. "I know what you want. It involves Yuujin and it's to test out one of your experiments, so the answer is no."
"But it might help to revolutionize the world! Yuujin-san is the only one capable of fully caring it out to fruition. Besides, Yuujin-san likes helping me out and I promise nothing bad will happen this time. Please say yes Haru-senpai, I'll do anything, ANYTHING!" Hajime sounded so desperate.
Haru calm told the young prodigy, "you said similar words to me last time, and when I gave him permission, it took two days for his arms to become visible again. While I appreciate the help you and Rei-kun provided in bringing back Yuujin and aiding me in creating his bodies, I must be firm about this due to prior circumstances. The answer is still no."
"You're no fun." Hajime pouts. Hajime briefly thinks about going behind Haru's back and asking Yuujin directly, but then decides against.
Hajime was aware of Haru's overprotective stance towards Yuujin. And he knew the vice versa was true as well. A few weeks back he pressed his brother about this. His brother told him point blank that the two suffer from a slight case of emotional dependency. Rei told his brother he had a feeling they were suffering from the condition when he first met them, but his suspicions were solidified when they brought back Yuujin and the two immediately ignored everyone else, family, friends, and school included, for an entire week. Rei has suggested therapy for the couple, but both do not believe they have an issue. Nonetheless, Rei has warned his little brother to not bring up the issue, lest they create a circle of conflict among their friends.
"Hajime-kun, there's an incoming call to the lab." Bootmon could be heard saying from across the room.
Hajime replied. "Patch us through." Both researchers went rushing to the screen and looked with shock at the images displayed.
On the other side of the screen could be seen Dosukomon, Dokamon's Super Grade form, and a disheveled looking Eri in front of a ruined garden. "Haru there's an emergency! Our home has been attacked and Tora was kidnapped!"
AN: Yeah I apologize for the long wait time. Been real busy with school. Comments and critique are valued.