Chapter Text
A man with ash-blonde hair enters the store. He looks unconcerned, hands inside his pant pockets, looking around at the androids being sold when a seller approaches.
"Hello sir! How can I help you today?" The dealer smiles at the man, holding his hands together.
The man grunts, looking thoughtful. "I need an Android to help take care of the house: cooking, cleaning, the shitty stuff. Something cheap though, my budget isn't very big."
At that, android U.A 01016 starts to pay attention.
"Okay, right this way then!" The seller leads the way to a black-haired, serious-looking android. "This one is perfect for your demand! He can cook thousands of different plates, can tutor in any subject, also can take care of the house while you are out!"
"Mmm, nah. I don't like this one." The blond guy looks around all over the store, then his eyes locks on to the sign in front of 01016. “ON SALE” 01016 stiffens imperceptibly, hoping he hadn’t been caught watching.
"Oi, why is this one is so cheap? Is it defective or something?"
"Almost," the seller replies, looking a little tense. "This android was returned to us a couple months ago, due to a system failure. It had become deviant, but it was properly reset. However it is a store policy to lower the price of refurbished or returned androids for any reason. Customers tend to avoid buying something that has already deviated because they are afraid of them turning into deviants again."
"I see... And what about that mark above his right eye?" The the man asks, pointing to the Android's eye, his expression an eternal scowl.
"When the former owner returned it for us, it was completely deformed. The android had a lot of physical damage, and there were a lot of bugs in it's software. We never knew the reason, but it's properly fixed now. However, we couldn't fix that for some reason,."
"Right..." The man paused to think for a moment. “I'll take this one. It's cheap, and my roommate is graduating in Robotic Engineering. He'll fix this it, since he's not helping me pay for it." He frowns even more.
Is this guy deviant himself? It seems that he can't make any expression
, 01016 thinks.
"R-Right sir! Since it's a refurbished android, I’ll need you to sign this term saying that it can't be returned in the event of any problems." The seller produces a tablet from his apron pocket, and hands it to the blond customer.
He signs it with his index finger and returns the tablet. Then, the seller takes a small device from his pocket. It looks like the LED that 01016 has on his temple, and he gives to the buyer.
"This is a special
resetting device
that allows you to hard reset this android, wherever you are. When you press it, all software and memory files stored will be automatically deleted forever, the operational system will no longer work anymore, the android will become completely non-functional."
"Tch, so that's the price to pay for something cheaper, huh." He scans 01016 head to toes, then he puts the resetting device on his back pocket. "Okay... well.. I have a lot of things to do today so let's go, robot." The buyer, or actually, his new owner, says. 01016 still thinks that the man might be a deviant.
"Would you want to give him a name? Something that you want to call him better than U.A. 01016?" The seller says his name pausing each letter and each decimal, punctuating with air quotes as he speaks.
"I'll see that later, it's not that important, anyway." The blond just shrugs, and turns around, forward to the door. "C'mon!" He's almost outside of the store when he realizes that 01016 isn't following him.
"What the hell? What the fuck are you doing? Don't you even know how to obey, you dumbass?"
The blond guy seemed confused and angry at the same time, and 01016 suddenly realizes that his owner was talking to him.
Oh
. 01016 blinks, then follows him.
"I-I'm sorry. Thank you for buying me! I hope I can help yo—"
"Yeah yeah. C'mon, let's go," his owner interrupts him, turning to continue walking towards his car. 01016 blinks again.
"Uh. Okay! I hope that mark above my eye don't bother you, owner." 01016 remembers that the blond guy looked annoyed about his scar.
"Nah". He says. "It's kinda nice?" He laughed roughly, trying to mock. His laugh is softer than his normal voice, as if he almost doesn't use that skill often.
Oh. So he does have other expressions.
01016 decides he likes making people smile. He grins too.
"Why the fuck am I telling you anyways? You're just a goddamn robot, Jesus Christ. Get in the car."
01016 obeys. He thinks that he saw the tips of the blond guy's ears turning a shade of red. He ignores it, telling himself that might be a defect on his vision device.
"And don't call me owner, that's awkward." The blond says while turning on the car ignition.
"Of course, sir! What should I call you then?" He says, finishing his phrase with a shy smile.
—
They arrive “home” some time later. The owner lives in a small apartment, on the top floor. It's an old building, and somehow doesn't even have elevator. A small wood sign hangs at the door. It says "Bakugou / Kaminari". He opens the door for his owner, and a new voice receives him:
"Hey, Bakugou! Where have you been, dude? I had to prepare dinner by myself, but it isn’t good since you— WOAH! You really bought the android?! Jeez, that must have been really expensive..."
The new person is shorter than his owner, and 01016 realizes that his blond hair is bleached, and there's a black lightning painted on his bangs. The man gets closer to 01016 and looks at each part of him.
"Uh, what's with that mark above his eye?" He points his finger to poke the blue mark but the other guy says. "It seems that he had some trouble with his former owner or something. I don't really give a shit." He throws the car keys above the desk, together with the resetting device.
01016 feels some kind of relief. If his owner isn't carrying the device with him, it seems that he trusts him, right?
"T-Trouble?!" The shorter guy scuffles away from the robot. "What exactly happened?"
"I was reset due to a deviation in my operational system!! B-But my system is perfectly safe now, you don't have to worry about anything!"
The man yelps, startled by the sudden voice. From the other side of the room, the blond-ash haired can be heard muffling a laugh. "Oi, c'mon, Shitty-hair robot, stop giving information without being told to do it."
"Uhh, so sorry Blasty!" The android's cheeks goes a little pink, and he lowers his head a little.
"
Blasty
?!" The shorter guy bursts out laughing. "Oh. My. God. You seriously told the robot to call you
Blasty
?! That's hilarious, Jesus..." He chokes out, tears beginning to trail down his face.
01016 eyes widen in mild surprise, and he smiles as well. He is happy when he makes people laugh.
"I'm glad that I’ve entertained you, Drooly!" He grins wider.
"Wut?! Drooly?” the man in question repeated, shocked. “Bakugou, you recorded my name as Drooly? C'mon duuude! Robot, don't! Delete that name from your data! I'm Kaminari Denki. Just call me Denki, okay?" He smiles smoothly. "And stop calling him Blasty too. It's pretty cringy. Call him Bakugou, or Katsuki."
"Nope. Just Bakugou, it's fine to me." Bakugou growls from the other room.
Kaminari just laughs by himself. "Okay so, what name he gave to you?"
"Bakugou is calling me Shitty-hair." 01016 knows that this is not a name, it's not even a compliment.
"What?" Kaminari chokes. "No, no! My God... Look, just delete from your registry each name that he told you, okay? I'll think about a nice name for you!" He winks, and points finger guns to the robot making 01016 chuckle. Kaminari goes to the table, where it was covered with tools and parts everywhere. He sits down at a chair and starts to look for the messy, then he sighs. "Robot, do you know anything about robotics? I need some help with college homework..." Kaminari asks, eyes pleading. His expression shows nothing but doubt, like he really doesn't know what he is doing.
01016 bows to Kaminari, apologizing. "Oh. I'm so sorry, Denki-kun! I wasn't programmed with engineering educational programs!"
"Mm." Kaminari pouts, then leans on the table with his chin on his hand. "It’s okay, I kinda figured that would be the case. Do you know how to cook at least? I tried preparing curry but it isn't really edible..."
01016 snaps his arms to his sides, and bows harder, bending almost 90 degrees, eyes closed with strength. "I'm so, so sorry Denki! There aren’t any culinary skills in my data, either!" The android seems really sad, and disappointed in himself.
"H-Hey robot, it's fine! I'll look for something on the internet about downloading and installing new skills in androids!" Kaminari said, suddenly looking excited about that subject. He pulls a laptop from the other side of the table, and starts furiously typing away.
Bakugou shows up at the living room again. "Ugh." He grunts. "I cannot believe that I bought a robot so fucking useless. Do you know how to do anything, at least?" He’s frowning again, and 01016 realizes by now that this is his default expression.
"Originally, I was build to be a body guard android. I can fight very well! My body is pretty resilient, and my arms can harden to use as a weapon!" 01016 demonstrates taking a fighting stance, arms straight in front of him. "I'm a personal trainer too! I can teach nearly any sport you can think of!" He punches up the air excitedly, then his expression changes and he brings his hand down to rub at the back of his neck. "And... I can do some minor house services."
Bakugou observes him, sometimes finding himself shocked at how human this robot can seem. There are briefs moments where he altogether forgets that it even is a robot.
"So... Do you at least have a learning system or something? Like... You can save in your data, and do it by yourself if you see me cooking?"
"Uhh. Probably?"
"Jesus fucking Christ..." Bakugou's red eyes pierces him. His irises is so bright... 01016 realizes that Bakugou’s eyes are almost the same color as his own, and wonders if they have the same hexadecimal code...
"What the hell is wrong with you, robot?! You don't know anything? Ugh, I should have tested you before just buying you right away. Now I can't even return you. Goddamnit." He scowls, his eyebrows forming a sharp angle. "At least you're good looking? Nah. I don't think that matters anyways." Bakugou turns his back to him.
01016 gulps, as if there is some salive for him to swallow? "I-I'm sorry Bakugou, I—"
"Ugh shut up, robot..." He snorts, reaching for some ingredients at the fridge and the cabinets as he lets a pan heat up. "Try to record this, shitty-hair. This is butter, okay?" He scoops some up spoon and drops inside the hot pan, then mixes until it's completely melted. "This is meat. I'll cut this in cubes and fry with the melted butter..."
While Bakugou cooks, 01016 is fully concentrated on each step, saving the recipe in his data to try to do later by himself.
—
A few hours later, android 01016 is standing alone in the living room. Bakugou and Kaminari have retreated to their respective bedrooms, and 01016 guesses that they are both asleep by the lack of noise and light coming from their rooms. He walks over to the table,examining each one of the Kaminari's parts and tools. He sees the laptop still turned on, and looks to the open tabs:
How to download and install skill to the data bank for your android version U.A. XXXXX
Cool names for androids
How to construct a dog bot
Curry recipes
01016 moves the cursor to this last tab.
He reads the recipe, and notices it's slightly different from what Bakugou taught him today. He looks across the website page, and sees a whole lot of plates:
"Breakfast", "Lunch", "Dinner", "Good for cold days", "Romantic dinner for two".
Romantic? This word isn't in 01016's dictionary. Literally.
Suddenly he hears a noise coming from Bakugou's bedroom. He activates his arm in attacking mode as a precaution, then enters the room very slowly, trying his best to not make any noise.
Opening the door, he walks towards Bakugou, who is moving a lot tensely over his bed. He is kicking his blankets, his forehead is dripping sweat, his expression showing fear. What is Bakugou afraid of? 01016 didn't knew that he can even feel fear. He looks so manly and strong, like nothing can turn him down. But like this, he seems so soft, so... Human.
01016 shakes his head at that thought. Bakugou
is
human. What is he thinking?
He deactivates his arm’s offensive mode and gets closer to the bed, looking cautiously to the blond suffering in the bed. Bakugou is sleeping… perhaps a bad dream?
01016 decides to try to wake him up. whatever is happening isn't a good thing. He hasn’t been told to do anything in such a situation, but he thinks that this is the best option for his owner in the moment. Just as 01016 is about to wake him up, he notices that in the middle of Bakugou's mumbling, he is opening and closing his hands in the air, slowly, in a movement like trying to grab something.
01016 extends his hand to Bakugou, and is suddenly caught by the other's hand. Bakugou grips his hand like a clamp, refusing to let go in his sleep. 01016 scares a little with the abrupt action, so he tries to remove his hand from the other's grasp, but just then he hears Bakugou speak, lower than a whisper, imperceptible if not for his enhanced hearing.
"Please, Ei... don't.. don't leave me..."
Tears start to form on Bakugou's eyes corners.
But... he's still sleeping?
01016 can’t help but think that Bakugou looks more human than he even looks like, specifically designed to look as human as possible.
Having nothing to do about the situation, 01016 kneels at the side of Bakugou's bed, without removing his hand from the other's grip. He leans his head on the border of the bed, then closes his eyes.
He needs to recharge his battery, too.
—
The next morning, 01016 opens his eyes, and sees his battery is 100% charged. He also realizes that Bakugou is still holding his hand. He takes a moment to feel Bakugou's sweaty palm, warm against his plastic structure covered with his silicon skin. He is artificial, and sometimes he has to remind himself of that. His former owner had warm hands too, he remembers, and the sensation used to give him a nice electric feeling passing through his synaptic artificial nerves. He used to like the sensation.
Oh
. Why is he recovering things about his former owner? Was I not properly reset? This
definitely
isn't good news.
His thoughts are suddenly interrupted when he feels Bakugou moving over the bed. For a moment he just rubs the sleep from his eyes with his free hand. 01016 wonders if this is the definition of the words, "cute, pretty, smooth". Then, Bakugou's eyes suddenly open wide and snap to stare at 01016.
"Good morning, Bakugou!" 01016 smiles as wide as his structures let him. "Hope you had a good night's sleep!" Their hands are still interlaced.
And Bakugou realizes it just now, because he removes his hand from 01016's grip as fast as his human abilities allows him.
"What the fuck?!" 01016 swears that he sees his ears and the tip of his nose turn a bit red again. He’ll have to fix his vision device as soon as possible. "What the hell are you doing here, you dumbass robot?!" Bakugou has his typical frown taking his face, red eyes piercing the Android's eyes, but the sweat on his indicates that he is nervous and a bit confused.
"Oh. I heard noise coming from your bedroom. I'm programmed to protect people, so I thought you could be in danger." Bakugou's expressions soften just a little, eyes still wide, and trembling a bit.
"When I came in to your bedroom you were.. shaking and crying, but you were asleep. That's what is called... a nightmare, right?"
Bakugou's cheeks and nose become a dark shade of red. He breaks their look, focusing on something at the other corner of the room. He takes off the blankets over him, then grabs the Android's face harshly and pushes him away. 01016 falls onto his ass from his position kneeling on the bed. His face is as astonished as he feels— he doesn't understand what just happened.
"B-Bakugou, did I do something wrong? I-I didn't understand why you were so scared so I—"
"No." Bakugou mumbles. "Just don't do it anymore. It's... weird." His eyes are still locked on something at the corner of the room.
"Uh..." 01016 tries to choose his words carefully. "I was trying to help you. You told me yourself to not leave you. I don't understand, Bakugou-san. I'm confused."
Suddenly, like a gunshot, Bakugou remembers.
He was seventeen. His last high school year. On this day, he had stayed at the school until late. The science fair was going to be the next day, and he was excited at the idea of showing the project that he was working on.
He and Eiji had been working on it for months. Eiji wasn't particularly intelligent, or even that helpful, but Bakugou told himself that Eiji was helping just by being there and giving moral support in his own way.
But today he was sitting on a chair, feet over the desk in front of him, and playing his Nintendo Switch.
This wasn't a problem for Bakugou. If he did everything by himself, the chances of everything becoming perfect is higher. Bakugou had a feeling that finally, finally he was going to achieve a higher grade than fucking Deku.
But things didn’t turn out the way he expected.
While he was rambling thinking about getting the first place at the science fair, he careless added a few milliliters most from one substance than the other, releasing a few sparks, that flew away right in the paper pile located in the corner, starting a fire.
"Holy fuck!" Bakugou stumbled away quickly, but in his haste he accidentally smack the substance’s original tube and caused the content to drop exactly on the fire, provoking an explosion that knocked him away.
Bakugou was glad he wasn’t hurt, but was coughing because the smoke made it difficult to breathe.
"Jesus fucking Christ..." He said between violent coughs. "Eiji!! Where are you?!" He started to feel the air leaving his lungs.
"Fucking Goddamnit..." He heard Eiji coughing in the other corner of the room. "The fuck did you do, Bakugou?"
Not long after, he sees Eiji leaning against the doorframe, coughing. Though his vision is blurry from lack of air and tears from the smoke, Bakugou thinks he can see panic in his eyes.
"E...iji?" He reached his hand in direction of the other boy, only to realize that he wasn't there anymore.
Seconds later, Bakugou passed out. He never knew if it was the strength that left him, or the lack of oxygen in his lungs.
When he regained consciousness, he opened his eyes, but was no focus. He felt someone's hands over his.
"E..iji?" Bakugou mumbled.
"N-no Kacchan! It's me! Eiji isn't here anymore! Oh God, you scared me as hell! Are you okay? It’s a miracle you didn't get hurt. I'm so glad..."
Bakugou could recognize this voice anywhere. Even if he didn't like it. Looking around, Bakugou saw that the fire was gone. He wasn’t even in the classroom anymore. He was breathing through a mask connected to a oxygen tank, laying on a stretcher next to some ambulances. There were a lot of fire trucks everywhere. And Deku was by his side. With a worried look on his eyes. Deku. That piece of shit. Always one step ahead of him...
Bakugou clenched fists. He remembered the moment when he reached out his hand towards Eiji, and he wasn't there. Gone, even though he had been in danger. He felt hot tears prickling his eyes, and allowed them to flow without restraint, letting them clear the ash from his eyes.
Why did he leave me?