Two chapters tonight. I'll keep writing. Maybe you like? Maybe you'll review and follow?
I had booted up half an hour before Ansem was awake. He'd fallen asleep at his desk with a pair of glasses on his head and his face on the keyboard. Today was happening. I would have a home. I would have a family and not Ansem. I would be someone's son. With such thoughts, I'd searched the terms 'new family' and 'new children' only to find videos of screaming infants being born and babies cooing. I was not a wailing child. I was an ageless android with the appearance of a seventeen-year old male. Was I, as a new child, supposed to scream when the family arrived?
Ansem has picked out a new outfit for me. He said he'd gone for it after I shut down for the night. He wanted me to look special for the occasion.
"Thank you, Ansem. What am I supposed give you?"
"You don't need to give me anything."
"Human customs, such as gift giving, generally require the second party to give something in return."
"Please, Roxas, take my word on this. They will arrive soon. Would you like to go meet them? You can be the first person they see, Roxas," Ansem said.
"Very much so."
Ansem led me to an elevator taking me to the ground floor of his facility. There was a young, blonde woman with a coat like Ansem's seated behind a desk. She was typing quickly and chewing something.
"Good morning, sir. Is this Roxatron?" She asked Ansem.
"Yes, it is. He goes by Roxas. Would you like to introduce yourself to Miss Namine?"
"Good morning. I'm Roxas," I thought for a second on a phrase to use, "it is a pleasure to meet you."
"Why, thank you. It's wonderful to meet you, too, Roxas."
Ansem spoke up. "Has there been any word from the Strife family?"
"They are on their way. They're very excited to meet you, Roxas."
I blinked at her and smiled after conducting a search for appropriate expressions. I stood by the front door and waited, watching videos of babies being handed over to new parents. I would be the new baby; their excitement for me would be real, but I couldn't be sure.
"Roxas, it looks like they could be here," Ansem announced.
I watched a small family exit a car and held myself back when the doors slid open.
"Good morning, Doctor. It's good to see you again," the man said.
"Good morning, Mr. Strife. I'd like you to meet Roxas. Roxas, please introduce yourself."
Ansem grasped my shoulders and directed me to the Strife family. As he did so, my memory went blank. Everything to do with introductions had left me. I had opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a recording of a screaming newborn.
"What the hell is his problem?" Asked a red-haired male from behind everyone else.
"Axel, don't be so rude," the woman said, "he's nervous."
"Robots can be nervous? Isn't the point to be better than us?"
Ansem grabbed my hand and stepped in front of me. "Roxas, cut the recording. Vring the instructions up. Do as you read," he commanded, raising his voice.
I went silent. "I am Roxas. I am pleased to meet you." I held out my hand to the man, waiting for him to shake it like I had seen.
"Hello, Roxas. Bumpy start there?" He asked.
"I made a bad first impression."
"No, no, no. You're fine. I am Cloud Strife and this is Aerith. These are our sons, Sora and Axel."
"Betcha can't tell who's adopted," Axel mused. He pushed his hands into his jean pockets and leaned against Namine's desk, shaking the surface.
"I'm Sora. I think it's really cool that we're essentially the same age. We could be really good friends, Roxas." Sora smiled at me with extremely white teeth.
"I would like that, Sora. I hope you feel the same way, Axel."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get a move on."
"Would the rest of you like to follow us down to the lab you can learn more about Roxas?" Ansem asked.
"That sounds like a fine plan," Cloud answered, shooting his adopted son a look of disdain.
The elevator ride was quiet. Sora and his parents stood together and Axel stood in the corner away from the rest of us. I started looking over all of them. Cloud looked strong, tall, and intelligent; he was blond and his eyes were bright. Aerith was a very pretty woman with stylish brown hair that complimented her elegant features. Their sons were of stark contrast. Axel had wild red hair that jutted away from him in spikes. His eyes were a near-perfect green, accented with mysterious small marks that couldn't be found in any of my conducted searches of complexion imperfections. He was exactly six feet two inches tall, towering over Sora who stood at five feet seven inches. Sora and I were nearly the same in all aspects, save for the hair. His was brown spiky tufts that could put an eye out.
"Roxas," Aerith started, "what do you know about humans so far?"
"Not much. Ansem has programmed manuals into memory along with the ability to conduct internet searches."
"So, you're like Google?" Axel asked.
"He can make searches like that, yes. He has the brain of a supercomputer. He has a small library on human interaction. He can record sounds, videos, and even watch and listen to the results he finds. Roxas can also tap into different languages, he's multilingual. I take great pride in Roxas."
Sora took my hand and ran around the lab once the doors opened. He read monitors and texts he found around the room. His eyes had lit up when he found what I believed was a report on me. Ansem took Cloud and Aerith to his main computer and began talking about me. Axel stood in the corner of the room, tapping his feet and looking over the screen of a phone.
"Axel, would you like to look around with Sora and I?" I asked him.
"Come on, Axel. Stop texting and get over here."
"I'm trying to get signal," he replied.
"Oh, Axel, that'll be difficult since we're nearly twenty feet underground," Ansem laughed.
Axel sat in a chair and spun, shoving his phone into his pocket. Cloud and Aerith glanced over their shoulders at their son and returned to talking to Ansem. Sora squeezed harder on my hand and beamed at me. He was very happy. They were all happy. Axel seemed indifferent.
After one hour, fourteen minutes, and thirty-two seconds, Ansem bundled up paperwork and hardware and all of us took the elevator back upstairs. Ansem hugged me and Namine smiled from her desk as I left the building with the Strife family. I was going to a home.
"Roxas, we've got everything prepared for you at the house. We're so excited for you to join our family. I hope you like it," Aerith said from the front seat of the car.
Sora had begun to lean on me in the backseat as I was seated between him and Axel. Axel didn't try to socialize with me, constantly looking at his phone. Sora chattered about all of the things that we could do when we get back to the house and he enthused about school and he was excited about it just being December; he was overjoyed about giving me a gift for the holiday known as Christmas.
Cloud turned onto their street and parked the car in the driveway of a grand house decorated for the holidays. It looked inviting and I watched as everyone else filed out of the car, but they all waited for me including Axel. Sora linked his arm with mine and led me into the house as Cloud grabbed the things Ansem had given them. From behind us Axel had said something to Aerith that had made her laugh and she agreed with him.
"Welcome home, brother," Sora said, pushing the door open.
The temperature of the house was warm seventy degrees and I picked up the scent of sugar cookies coming from a plugged -in air freshener positioned underneath the west window in the living room. From a search, I found that it was customary for homes to smell sweet and inviting as such during the holidays. For a first experience, it was a wonderful one.
"The boys competed with each other to figure out who would share with you. They found it to be fair, I guess. You share a room with Axel. After some debate, he decided to clear some things away and finally agreed. Go look," Aerith said.
"Come on, little man," Axel said. He started for the stairs and turned back. "You coming?"
"Yes, Axel."
Axel opened the door to the bedroom for me and said, "Mi casa es su casa."
"This is your house? I thought it belonged to Cloud and Aerith."
"God, you're already weird."
There was a fully made bed complete with bedclothes along the east wall, with Axel's bed across the way. There were two desks, both with laptops. There was a dresser filled with clothes that were my size and a backpack loaded with school supplies, a note included that read "If you'd like to go to school." If I were human, I'd feel 'warm and fuzzy' inside.
"You like it, roomie?" Axel leaned against the door and propped his foot up. He cracked a smile and laughed.
"It's all mine?"
"Everything from here to here," he replied, dragging his foot from the wall to the middle of the floor.
"Thank you, Axel."
Axel and I returned to the living room and I was welcomed from hugs from Cloud, Aerith, and Sora. They asked about the room and how I liked it. Cloud had started dinner and all of us sat around the dining room table; I didn't feel like they needed to know about my food preferences quite yet, I wasn't going to deny their meal.
Aerith had told me that Sora and Axel had school tomorrow. Axel told me that in his experiences, he was in eleventh grade when he should be a senior in high school. He and Sora were in the same grade. Aerith didn't expect me to join them because of my status. She and Cloud wouldn't push me if I didn't want to go. Sora said he would try to convince me before he and Axel retreated upstairs. Axel warned me about being quiet or he'd strip me for spare parts or try to reprogram me.
Cloud and Aerith had gone to bed and I went upstairs and sat on my bed. I searched 'bed etiquette' and found sexual context photos and people under comforters. The room was dark and the moonlight came through the window. I pulled the blanket over my body, feeling no difference.
"Hey, Roxas?"
"Axel? You're awake?"
"I wanted to welcome you. I'm sorry I've been a little abrasive today. I wasn't sure how today would go. Our parents are probably the greatest people and I love them. See you in the morning, okay?"
"Okay, Axel. Good night."
Maybe my experience in this house will be different than what I've found. Maybe I'll be different.