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He wasn’t doing it for Dr. Light. This had nothing to do with him. Blues was currently sitting on the roof of the Light Labs, careful to move discreetly in the moonlight. His heavy footsteps were masked under the thick snow that had settled on the roof. The whole neighbourhood was decorated in blinking lights. Symbolism of reindeer and candy canes and the jolly fat man known as Saint Nick. The rosy cheeks of the Christmas icon reminded Blues of his own father…
Focus, Blues! Focus! He wasn’t here to be sentimental. He was here to…be supportive he supposed.
Christmas was a time of giving gifts and wishing goodwill to each other. Well, at least giving gifts and goodwill to the humans. Robots technically didn’t celebrate Christmas. Their duty was to patrol the streets at night scanning for criminal activity while the human policemen slept the night with their family. Or shovelling snow out of yards for people who couldn’t get to work as easily. They weren’t programmed with any concept of human traditions. Or even self-awareness of their purpose. They lived only to serve.
But not Blues. Not Rock. Not Roll. They were different.
Blues didn’t get a chance to meet Roll. At least not yet. After the failure of Wily’s last plot to take over the world and to dangle his success over Dr. Light’s head like a carrot on a string, Blues became an observer of sorts.
Rock had saved the world 3 times now. And what had Blues accomplished except get closer and closer to his death. Even with replacing his faulty core, his systems were now powered by a ticking time bomb in the form of a nuclear one instead. Who knew how much time he had left.
It was...saddening to find out he had been replaced. But he spent so long being alone and serving a family that used him and his hatred for the Light family in a plot for world domination that it gradually dawned on him that Rock didn’t mean to be a mere replacement. He wasn’t created with the sole intent to mock Blues on being everything he wasn’t.
Blues had a brother. And a sister. Even a pet dog. But Dr. Light will never be his father and this would never be his family.
But he didn’t want to be cut from their lives forever. He may not be a part of the family, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t support them wherever he could.
Stashed underneath his arm were two gifts wrapped in old newspaper. He went to a great deal of trouble to get them. Using his old allowance given to him by Dr. Wily, he scraped just enough money to walk into a toy store and buy them gifts. They were still children after all.
The prototype carefully shuffled across the roof, his database was tracing a teleporter signal. Very fortunately for him, Dr. Light made sure to leave one teleporter on in his laboratory for any robots in critical need of repairs. And…also for robots to return home.
No! Now was not the time to get sentimental!
Blues bit his synthetic cheek, pulled up his scarf to cover part of his face and teleported in. He teleported right into a spare lab. Obviously, there was a risk with teleporting into someone’s home in the early hours of the morning. What if they were burglars? Dr. Light had the lab completely sealed off with doors that required a special code to enter to leave. It allowed access to a lab in a time of need, no more and no less.
Now was the tricky part.
Blues cautiously walked up to one of the doors. If his judgement was correct, this would lead to the charging stations were Rock and Roll would likely be on idle mode. He punched the code he remembered from his years living here long ago, silently praying the doors would unlock.
There was a confirming beeping sound and the door opened up with a slight hiss. At first, Blues jumped to hide somewhere in case he woke anyone up. But found that nobody stirred. Not even a mouse.
His metallic footsteps were heavy against the tiled floor. He had to move and quickly. Blues made a light jog to the closest recharging station. It was sealed off by a protective glass, fogged by the heat of machines working to charge the internal battery of the boy resting inside.
So under that blue helmet of his was a mess of chocolate brown hair. It wasn’t the same shade as his own, but it looked well-kept nevertheless. Blues gave a small smile. MegaMan…no…Rock was just a sweet little boy underneath the brave little exterior. Two weeks ago he saved the world and tomorrow he’ll wake up the same as every other little boy around the country, excited to open presents on Christmas day. Blues left the parcel at the foot of the pod and carefully walked to the one on the opposite side of the room.
She looked nothing like him. Blonde hair tucked behind her ears in a neat little ponytail. She even slept with the ribbon in. Was the ribbon permanently attached to her head? Was she programmed to do typical girl stuff her age like talk about boys and go out with friends? The only thing Blues knew about his sister was that she cleaned the lab a lot and wore a red dress. Blues gave a saddened look. He knew NOTHING about his little sister. He placed the gift at the base of her recharging pod and walked away.
But something caught his eye. For just a moment. There was something colourful illuminating the lounge room he used to read in a long time ago.
It was one of those trees he kept seeing inside people’s homes, decorated in lights and ornaments and whatever that shiny fuzzy stuff was called. There were so many gifts underneath. Blues went to walk a little closer to peek through the crack in the door when he froze completely. Dr. Light was placing gifts under the tree with such care that you would have thought he was handling glass. There was a tired but warm smile on his face. He looked absolutely exhausted and given the time of night…or rather…morning, Blues couldn’t blame him. He stopped placing gifts under the tree and paused. Blues stayed as quiet as he possibly could.
Dr. Light actually turned and looked towards the door. Like liquid ice running under his synthetic veins, Blues staggered backwards and immediately teleported out the moment he saw Dr. Light start to walk to the door.
He rematerialized back onto the roof, ducking into the snow to cover his body. Blue watched cautiously as lights from inside the lab flickered onto the snow and the door to the Lab swung open. In only his dressing gown and slippers, Dr. Light came running out into the backyard, searching with a look of pure desperation and…hope? He stood outside and just stared around the neighbourhood for what felt like an hour before something came to collect him.
“Dr. Light, sir! These conditions are dangerous for one as underdressed as you. Either prepare for the climate properly or come back inside”
“Iceman…you should be recharging…did you see someone? I could have sworn…-“
“Doctor. Hallucinations are a potential side effect to hypothermia. Please return to the lab. I won’t let you freeze to death”
“…Hm. No, I suppose not then. I’m fine. Thank you, Iceman. Go back to bed”
“Understood sir”
Blues didn’t see the two figures shuffle back inside the house. He had already disappeared into the night. But he was sure to stay close by to watch over his siblings and see their reactions to the gifts he left. As he fled, decorations depicting the red fat man kept passing him by. He couldn’t help but chuckle silently to himself at the realisation he had become the very thing that mysteriously visited him when he was still young and naïve to the world.