Work Text:
It was a good evening for Ai to stay in his room studying by himself until it was time to go to sleep. Reiji and Camus were away for a job outside Tokyo and Ranmaru had gone to bed early, so the apartment was very quiet. This time, Ai felt like reading about human demonstrations of affection on his computer.
The first article he came across started by describing the five “love languages” he already had data on; gifts, kind acts, quality time, physical touch, and verbal expression. It also described how certain love languages were more prevalent than others in different cultures. In some countries, people tend to have a lot more physical contact and tell each other “I love you” often.
In Japan, that was unthinkable to most people. Ai wondered how Japanese people would react to those words being directed at them so casually. Maybe the western side of the internet had such reactions documented? It would certainly interest them.
After a couple of searches in English, he found something called the “I love you” challenge. People had recorded their parents’ reactions to being suddenly told that phrase, many of them were Asian. Their responses varied from utter confusion to a “thank you”, to a timid “I love you too”, to a “what do you want?”
Ai’s curiosity wasn’t sated, he wanted to try it too. He and the professor had never said it to each other, how would he react? Should he call him? No, Ai would be able to collect more data by doing it face to face. He had to go to the lab next Saturday for routine maintenance, that would be it.
When the day arrived, Ai for some reason started feeling hesitant. He talked to the professor about work while lying on the operating table, his maker testing his external reflexes and checking his joints for wear. But something inside him kept telling him to wait for a better moment to say it.
Maybe he was feeling too vulnerable from not having his clothes on and waiting to have his internal parts exposed as well? That should be the problem, he would wait until the maintenance was finished.
A while later, Ai already had his eye movements recalibrated, his ventilation system cleaned up, his oil changed and his self-diagnosis program updated. But the wait had just made him more anxious.
“Alright, everything’s in order,” the professor said as he started putting some of the tools away. “You’ve been taking good care of yourself, good job.”
Ai missed the workshop’s cool air on his skin as soon as he got himself dressed again. It was as if it reassured him he wouldn’t overheat. He just stood there, still trying to get over his reluctance. It was just stating the obvious, why was it so difficult?
“What’s the matter, Ai?” The professor looked back at him. “You seem like you’re stewing on something today.”
“I… am, yes.”
“Do you want to talk about it? I’m here for you.” He reassured with a calm smile. “You know you can tell me anything, don’t you?”
Some of Ai’s apprehension dissipated, that was all he needed. He had to take the chance before he could have any more second thoughts.
“I love you.”
The professor just stared at him with hints of multiple emotions on his face and body language. Ai stared back, insisting on collecting data despite his body warming up from embarrassment and his emotion-processing systems screaming at him to go crawl into a hole and never come out.
4.6 seconds, which felt like a much longer time gap, passed before the professor said something. “Should I run the debugging tools again?”
“It’s not a bug!” Ai responded. “I just wanted to tell you I love you because I’ve never done it before.”
“Is that so?” He chuckled awkwardly but then relaxed. “Sorry, I didn’t see that coming. You’re such a good kid.”
"It's nothing.” Ai finally allowed himself to avert his gaze for a moment to recover a little from the shame. It didn’t help to be reminded that the professor still saw him as a kid despite him being in his twenties now, mentally and legally. Were all parents like that? But somehow, he felt happy from that interaction.
“Can I ask what brought this on, though?”
“I was reading about human displays of affection and I realized Japanese people don’t usually say ‘I love you’ to family, but it’s common in other countries...”
“Ah yes, that’s true. Ai,” the professor stepped closer and placed a hand on the top of Ai’s head, looking him in the eyes with a tender smile, “I love you too.”
Ai had never felt so cherished and so flustered at the same time. He thought he would need to reboot when his language processing software stopped responding, but it recovered before it became externally noticeable. How did some people do that regularly? “I have concluded I still prefer the ‘spending quality time’ love language.”
The professor laughed. “Same here. Would you like some tea? I bought that hibiscus blend you like.”
Ai nodded, glad about the change of subject, and followed the professor to the kitchen.
That cup of tea was the best Ai had drunk in ages.