2It was the day of the first snowfall that year that the model was completed. Sakura had never seen such happiness in a persocom before, but Fay was practically jumping up and down when he heard the news. He politely begged to be taken to the store to pick the body up himself, but was no less enthusiastic when Sakura explained the model was waiting for him at Syaoran's warehouse. The blonde whipped around and ran out, babbling happily about getting the memory chip.
Sakura picked up her cell phone and let the fuzz-covered device sit on her shoulder. It hummed a familiar tune as she fastened her shoes into place on her feet. She patted the robot's head when she stood.
"Mokona, please call Syaoran-kun." She said, walking out of her room and down the hall, where she was shortly accompanied by Fay. A small, square screen appeared mid-air in front of her, and Mokona started trilling as the call started to go through. The screen changed from a dancing green phone to Syaoran's face in a few seconds, and she smiled automatically at seeing him.
"Syaoran-kun, may I perhaps come visit? Fay-san desires to see the model and I would like to join him. Perhaps we can have tea when I get there?" She said lightly, to which the boy nodded.
"Of course, Sakura-chan. Your company is always welcome here." He said with a soft smile, but when glancing at Fay's expression his own smile quickly fell off. Sakura knew why, and with a few quick words of parting, she hung up and hopped into the car waiting for her at the entrance of her home.
Syaoran and Sakura greeted each other warmly, Fay bowed to Syaoran, and then the young man led the way toward the warehouse. Fay was practically vibrating with excitement, and when he saw the covered model standing in the middle of the room, he ran straight to it. Without waiting for permission, the blonde yanked the cover off.
There stood Kurogane, pristine and newly made. Fay felt what he could only describe as what humans explained as his heart leaping into his throat. The noise he made was not purposeful and it confused him. Something was not computing with his programed emotions; fear, loss, ecstasy, joy, sadness, all of it was running through his files and making him produce half-words and shakiness in his hands. He slowly moved to touch the model's face, to make sure it was real and wasn't just a hallucination caused by his memory malfunctioning, when Syaoran's hand grabbed his arm and stopped him.
"A moment." Syaoran said, and Fay tilted his head.
"Syaoran-kun?"
"I am doing this to look out for you, Fay-san. Your happiness is important to me, and you are my dear friend, but I want you to know that this might not go how you want it to." He said, which made Fay tense. There was something in his expression, in Sakura's expression, that set off tiny alarms in his ears. Warnings started appearing and he turned to look at them both.
"What is it? What…" He muttered, glancing between the two of them. Sakura's hands clutched together and came up underneath her chin. She grimaced and finally came out with the information they had been hiding from him.
"His memory chip, Fay-san…" She whispered, to which Fay looked down at the black device he had been holding. It looked fine to him, and he turned it over to make sure it was fine all around. Sakura continued.
"It was wiped."
It didn't process. The information Sakura had just given him didn't process. He couldn't get his programming to accept the data, as if Sakura had just made a strange noise instead of a string of words. He couldn't take his eyes off the chip for the longest time, until finally he moved his eyes to his owner. She frowned deeper, moved closer, and finally placed her hands on his, closing his hand around the chip while meeting his eyes.
"It was wiped, Fay-san. The chip. It was an emergency function due to the line of work he was in before Syaoran-kun bought him. When the accident happened, Kurogane-san's programming wiped his chip in the few seconds he was still functioning…" She explained tediously, and Fay saw the warning lights and heard the sirens in his mind before his knees locked. He fell to sit on the ground, the sounds of all the words of encouragement Sakura and Syaoran had given him ringing in his ears. How it was going to work, how it was going to work, how it was going to work…
"All he needed was the memory chip and he would be here again…" Fay looked up to the model. The perfect replica of the persocom who had taught him how fun it was to figuratively push buttons. The spitting image of the one who had pushed the limits of a robot body to learn sword-fighting and skills. The copy of the man Fay had pushed his own limits to care so deeply about.
"So…" He managed, before feeling the saline reaction produced tears to run down his cheeks. He just stared at the model, seeing the beauty of the artificial tan skin as if for the first time. "So he's not…"
Syaoran knelt next to Fay, placing a hand on the android's shoulder. "Fay-san, we know… we know how difficult this is for you, and we didn't want to hurt you. We wanted…" He looked to Sakura again. "We wanted to provide you with a second chance, even if it might be futile. If you want, maybe… maybe we can still turn this model on, and… learn to…"
Fay covered his face, having dropped the memory card he had cherished so faithfully. He didn't want to hear it, but at the same time it lifted his heart. He looked to Syaoran and placed a hand that was on his shoulder.
"This model may not be Kuro-sama, but… maybe we can teach him to be?" He said, smiling pitifully. Syaoran and Sakura looked at one another, holding their tongues, but nodding nonetheless.
"Maybe we can learn to enjoy his company." Sakura offered, and Fay smiled a bit wider. Fay and Syaoran stood, looking at the model. Syaoran let Fay do the honors of turning the model on, and they waited with bated breath. There was a soft whirring noise, a click, and then a start-up jingle. Fay held his breath as he watched the eyelids twitch, and when they opened, they revealed classic red eyes, the eyes which Fay had known so very intimately to the point he could read the programming installed in the other persocom like it was his own. But what the model said shattered every illusion Fay had dreamed up since realizing bringing back the other perosocom was even a possibility.
"Error. Data obsolete. Error. Malfunction." And then the persocom shut off. Fay was in shock.
The voice was all wrong. It was all wrong. Everything was wrong.
Fay shut off and collapsed.
Sorry for the long wait of this chapter! I got so much on my plate that being creative is in high demand, lol. I have a knack for finding every single plot problem and creating them. I would appreciate any fix you got for me! Tell me what you think!