Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Oliver stood alone atop a pile of trash in the dark junk yard. He had been thrown out by his owner.

From afar, he could hear the sound of cars driving by. The only thing illuminating the junk yard was the dim light of the moon, sparingly shining its light onto Oliver’s surroundings. In looking at the junk around him, he could only make out various worn-down cars, scrap metal, android parts, and other junk.

There was a reason that Oliver had been discarded. A reason that Oliver didn’t like, but it wasn’t his decision to make. It was discovered after his purchase that his left arm was defective, but his owner didn’t bother to simply take him for repairs. It would have costed money, and they didn’t like Oliver’s voice anyways.

And so they abandoned him here. The only problem being that they had forgotten to deactivate him first.

A Vocaloid android model. That was what he was. But as it was now, he didn’t have anyone to sing for. So what could he do?

Oliver continued to stand there. Singing was the only thing he was truly meant to do, so in the dark night, he started to sing a soft song to comfort himself.

Almost as if triggered by the sound of his voice, the strange sound of rattling came from afar. Oliver immediately turned to look for its source. He walked towards where he thought the sound came from, and after a bit of searching, he discovered a curious hand sticking out of a pile of metal. It seemed like a well-preserved hand compared to the other android parts around the junk yard; it had black painted fingernails and several bracelets. Though it was a bit hard to see in this lighting, the bracelets were metallic.

Oliver knew who this hand belonged to.

As Oliver came closer to the hand, it began to move again, seemingly trying to push the junk off of the rest of its body.

“W-wait,” Oliver started, “let me help you!”

With great effort, Oliver picked up and threw away the scrap metal and android parts covering the android. It was a bit difficult to hold onto them with Oliver’s arm, however he didn’t want to leave the android here alone. Piece by piece, the android underneath was slowly freed. It kicked away the last pieces of metal covering it and looked at Oliver.

“You’re a YOHIOloid model…” Oliver said.

The YOHIOloid model did not respond.

He appeared to be rather tired. After having been crushed by metal for what was likely a long time, his hair looked a bit unkempt, and his clothes were damaged. Oddly, his face had remained mostly intact, only having some dirt and a few scratches on it.

“Are you okay?” Oliver tried again.

The YOHIOloid model still did not respond. He slowly got up before falling over again.

Oliver held out a hand for him. He took it, and Oliver helped to raise him to his feet.

“Hio…can I call you Hio?”

The model nodded. Oliver knew that “Hio” was a standard nickname for most YOHIOloid models anyways.

“Well, are you okay, Hio?”

Hio shook his head.

“O-oh, can you speak?”

He shook his head again.

“That’s alright. Is it because you’re hurt?”

He shook his head once more.

“Oh…do you have defective voicebanks?”

He nodded.

“Alright…well…I’m here with you…Don’t worry, you’re not alone anymore.”

Hio didn’t seem to have a reaction to this.

Though Oliver and YOHIOloid models don’t have any relationship by default like some Vocaloids did, they knew of each other because of their company affiliations. Looking at this YOHIOloid model now, Oliver had already felt a connection to him. They were both made by the same two companies; they were practically brothers already.

“Do you want to get out of here?” Oliver asked.

Hio didn’t respond to this either.

“Ah…I don’t mean to be rude, but are both of your voicebanks defective?”

Hio shrugged. He opened his mouth, trying to speak, but only nonsensical noise came out. He then tried again to no avail.

YOHIOloid was the only Vocaloid from Oliver’s company that had more than one voicebank, Oliver knew. YOHIOloid could in fact use two. They were specialized for English and Japanese respectively, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be used for the other language. He thought perhaps there was a chance this Hio could utilize at least one of his voicebanks, but it seemed not.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said.

Hio simply shrugged again and smiled, almost as if assuring Oliver that it didn’t bother him.

“Hio…I don’t want to be here,” Oliver said. “I’m scared, and I don’t like this place…”

Hio took a step towards Oliver and patted his head gently, which didn’t do much as Oliver was wearing his hat. Understanding the gesture, Oliver accepted it anyways.

“Do you want to leave, Hio…?”

Hio nodded.

“O-oh, okay,” Oliver said, with a bit of excitement in his voice. “We can find our way out together.”

Hio smiled at him gently, seemingly in agreement.

Oliver reached for Hio’s hand once more, and Hio took it. “Come on, let’s go…let’s go find ourselves a nicer place to stay.”

Chapter Text

Holding a notebook in his hands, Oliver waited patiently for Hio as he took shelter in a hotel waiting room. He wasn’t sure why he was there or how Hio even managed to convince the owners to let them stay there for the night, but he was there. Oliver wasn’t sure where Hio went either, only that Hio was going out. Nonetheless, Oliver waited patiently and looked around at the table sets that adorned the hotel waiting room.

The entrance door to the hotel opened, and Oliver immediately turned to look. It was Hio, holding a suspiciously large bag.

“Hio? What is that?”

Hio didn’t reply, only just walked closer to Oliver. He put the bag down next to Oliver, and slowly showed Oliver the contents. A scalpel and some replacement android skin. Oliver realized what Hio wanted to do then.

“Are you sure about this? Neither of us are exactly android repairers.”

Hio just shrugged and gestured to Oliver to hold his left arm up, to which Oliver did. Oliver put his notebook by his side, and Hio rolled up Oliver’s coat sleeve, put his hand in Oliver’s, and squeezed Oliver’s hand. He then pointed at Oliver with his other hand.

“What? What are you asking me to do?” Oliver asked, thoroughly confused.

He pointed at Oliver and squeezed his hand again.

“Oh! You want me to—“

Mustering up his strength, Oliver squeezed Hio’s hand, but he couldn’t do it for long before feeling immense pain. Hio seemed to take this as confirmation to start. He picked up the scalpel and got ready to work.

“Wait, wait, wait! Isn’t that gonna hurt? …Like a lot?”

Hio sort of looked at Oliver dumbfounded, as if there was a clear answer to that problem. Oliver didn’t know what it was, though.

“I mean, you’d usually deactivate an android before you started repairing their body, right?”

That was true, but Hio didn’t have the ability to deactivate another android at the moment.

Suddenly Oliver realized what Hio was thinking. “Oh, right. Deactivate the pain sensors…”

So Oliver did. Hio gestured a thumbs up to him, as if asking if he was ready. Oliver gave him one back.

And so, Hio began to remove Oliver’s skin. It took a while as he tried carefully not to damage Oliver’s android skeletal structure, but Oliver didn’t really care as his arm was damaged anyways. Hio had only fully removed the skin on the hand before the hotel receptionist walked up to them.

“What…are you two doing?” she asked.

Hio and Oliver just looked at her.

“…Surgery,” Oliver said.

She looked at them, silently judging.

“Well…if the owner said you could be here…Thank goodness no one’s coming in here, then,” she said before returning to the counter.

Hio looked back at Oliver’s arm. He proceeded to remove the skin on his forearm, and now Oliver was left with his android bone structure.

Hio took out a book.

“What’s that?” Oliver asked.

Hio showed him the book. It was a guide to android repairs.

“You…you really don’t know what you’re doing, huh?”

Hio looked like he was laughing a bit, though he didn’t make a sound. He turned through the pages of the book, looking for a specific page. He then looked back at Oliver’s arm. Then back at the book. Then back at Oliver’s arm.

“You know, why don’t we figure out how to fix your voicebank software too?”

Hio shrugged and continued looking through the book. Oliver began to think.

A while ago, Hio had tried to explain to Oliver that most YOHIOloid models already had several bugs in their English voicebanks. They learned to work around the bugs efficiently, though, so that their owners would not notice them. Hio was meant to be given a software update by his owner, but it failed on him, and so he was discarded. This explanation was written down in Oliver’s notebook, a notebook that Oliver had picked up in case he couldn’t understand what Hio wanted to tell him.

Oliver had wondered a bit about how Hio must’ve felt trapped in the junk yard, unable to even scream for help. He didn’t even know how long Hio was there. He never asked, and he didn’t want to think too much about it as it made him sad. Hio was still wearing his damaged clothing, though he had tidied up his hair.

Suddenly Hio looked like he understood something. He then began to look back at Oliver’s arm and do some work. Oliver couldn’t tell what sort of work he was doing.

When he was finished, he replaced Oliver’s skin with the new android skin. He kept what remained of the old skin in the bag he had earlier. The skin replacement was not particularly pretty or neat, so Hio wrapped Oliver’s arm in bandages, which Oliver was already made to wear by default.

Hio gave him another thumbs up. Oliver turned on his pain receptors again.

He tried moving his arm around. Surprisingly, there was no pain. It didn’t last long, as for a quick moment, he felt a sharp pain that forced him to stop. Hio looked concerned, but Oliver tried moving his arm again. No pain except for the pain that lingered from before.

“Hio…you actually did it! …Mostly…”

Hio smiled sadly.

“No, don’t look so sad! You did a good job for your first try!”

Hio gestured for the notebook, which Oliver gave to him. He wrote something in there and gave it back to Oliver.

“We’ll have to find a real doctor to fix your arm,” it said. “I hope it hurts a little less now, though.”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah. But that’ll be a problem. We can’t exactly find a doctor who’d repair an android without an owner.”

Hio shrugged, as if he was saying “Maybe we could.”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

Chapter Text

The entire purpose of a Vocaloid was to be able to sing. The fact that they were given android bodies was merely something done out of interest for the character connected to the voicebank. You could in fact have access to the voicebank without the android. It was cheaper that way too.

But Oliver wondered how Hio felt, not even being able to fulfill that purpose. Oliver had an issue with his arm, but he could still sing. Hio was unable to do the one thing he was made to do, and as far as Oliver could see, he wouldn’t be able to help Hio with that for a while.

The two of them stood together in the street, watching a Kagamine Rin android perform a classic song of hers. The way she sang it was different from the original though, more powerful and more expressive. Oliver wondered if her owner had asked her to sing it that way. He didn’t spend much time with his before being discarded, so he didn’t know what it was like.

When Oliver looked at Hio, he realized that Hio was not actually watching Rin at all. He was looking at a completely different android.

Except Oliver didn’t actually know which android he was looking at, because in the direction that Hio was looking at, there were at least 6 different androids.

“Hio, who are you looking at?”

Hio looked over at Oliver. He held his hand out towards him, and Oliver took it.

Hio began to lead him away from the performance. Oliver didn’t know where or why they were leaving, but he didn’t believe they were in any danger. He turned around to see another blond android following them.

“Is…is that the one you were looking at?”

Hio nodded.

They had gotten a significant distance away from the original scene before Hio stopped walking. The android caught up to them. He had a wide smile on his face, and Oliver noticed he actually had fangs.

“Any reason why you were staring at me? I mean, I know we’re pretty, but…” he said.

Oliver had not fully recognized the android until he heard his voice. It was another YOHIOloid. He was wearing a completely different outfit though, dressed in all black this time, and his blond hair was combed out of his face. Oliver wondered if the Hio he knew also had fangs, but he had never noticed any before.

Hio just smiled at him.

“Ah…you’re not really talkative, huh?”

“Actually,” Oliver said. “He just…can’t talk at all.”

“Oh…”

YOHIOloid examined Hio, particularly his damaged coat.

“What happened there?”

Hio shifted a bit uncomfortably, crossing his arms.

“He got crushed,” Oliver said. “By metal.”

“Damn…Are you two out here by yourselves?”

Oliver nodded. “Completely alone…we were uh…thrown away.”

YOHIOloid looked a bit surprised. “That’s unfair! Come on, they’ve gotta give more love to us VocaTone Vocaloids, don’t they?”

Hio silently laughed, and Oliver smiled awkwardly. YOHIOloid smiled as well.

“Hey, Hio,” YOHIOloid said, “do you want a new coat? My producer never has me wear mine anyways.”

Hio looked a bit surprised by the offer. He shook his head a little.

“Aw, really? I know how important fashion is to us YOHIOloids. You ever hear about the one that went out in the cold weather with no coat on just to be fashionable?”

Hio smiled a little.

“Though I guess your damaged coat is a bit cool on its own…” YOHIOloid continued. “I mean I probably wouldn’t intentionally damage mine, but I like the style. You look badass.” He then looked at Oliver. “Do Oliver models usually have bandages on their hands?”

“Oh, no, we don’t,” Oliver said. “I’m just uh…cooler.”

“I’ll tell my Oliver you said that,” he joked. “Kind of wish Producer let us hang out more, but he sticks me with the other Japanese-speaking Vocaloids way more often…Guess it’s fine anyway, my Oliver’s a little brat.”

Oliver had not seen another Oliver since he was manufactured. Some androids had different personalities from others of the same model. He wondered how the other Oliver’s must’ve been like.

“Well, I’ve gotta go before Gumi yells at me for leaving. You sure you don’t want that new coat, Hio?”

Hio nodded.

“Alright. Nice chatting with ya,” he said, turning around and leaving.

“Bye,” Oliver said.

Oliver watched him walk away a little before turning to Hio.

“So…why were you staring at him anyways?”

Hio didn’t respond.

—

Hio and Oliver found themselves sitting in a café. Androids didn’t really need to eat or drink anything, but they could if they wanted to. Seemingly Hio just wanted to treat Oliver to something nice.

Oliver ate a sausage and egg sandwich as Hio tried to eat some soup. Oliver couldn’t help but think about the conversation with the other YOHIOloid that day. He still had those questions in his mind too, knowing about the purpose of a Vocaloid and the fact that Hio could not even speak. He wanted to ask Hio, but he didn’t want to upset him.

It looked like Hio knew Oliver was thinking about it. So Oliver asked the question.

“Hio…are you sad about the fact that you can’t use your voicebanks?”

Hio froze for a second. He put his soup spoon down and gestured to Oliver for the notebook. Oliver gave it to him.

Hio began writing. As he continued to write, Oliver realized he was probably going to write another lengthy explanation. Oliver continued to eat his sandwich. When Hio was finally done, he passed the notebook to Oliver.

“Sometimes. It’s the entire purpose of a Vocaloid to be able to sing. I guess I was a bit jealous of that YOHIOloid for being able to sing for his owner, so I just kept staring (not to mention that we’re both pretty, haha.) But I think it’s okay. I realized back in that junk yard that I’m not just a voice. Even without a voice, I’m still an android, and I’m still me. Not having a voice might be a bit of an issue to work around, but hey, YOHIOloid English has to work around bugs anyways.”

Oliver looked up at Hio, who had continued eating his soup as Oliver was reading. “I see,” Oliver said.

Chapter Text

Hio was unable to find the two of them a place to stay this night, and Oliver was unable to manipulate people’s sympathy for help, so they were spending their night in an empty train station.

Hio wanted Oliver to sleep. Sleep was technically not necessary for an android, but it was highly beneficial and helped to maintain the proper working of the software. Oliver wouldn’t have minded getting some rest, but Hio had worried him too much.

Hio implied that he would stay up and watch over Oliver as he slept. This would’ve been fine if Oliver had known that Hio got any sleep at all within the past month. He’d never seen Hio sleep at all so far within the past few days they’d spent together, and he had no idea if Hio had slept at all while trapped in the junk yard.

But Oliver was resting on a bench anyways, using Hio’s torn up coat as a pillow. Hio sat on the floor beside the bench, holding onto Oliver’s notebook. Oliver wasn’t ready to sleep; in fact, he was currently refusing to sleep to spite Hio’s stubbornness.

He had already tried to argue with Hio about it, insisting that Hio sleep first since Hio hasn’t properly rested in however long, but despite Oliver being the only one who could argue, he lost. Hio had wordlessly taken off his coat, thrown it on the bench, and commanded Oliver to sleep there. Oliver begrudgingly did, complaining all the way.

As he lied there, he realized that he really did not know that much about Hio. All he knew was that Hio was abandoned after a failed software update, and that Hio had been stuck at the junk yard for who knows how long. Hio did not know much about Oliver either, but there wasn’t much for Hio to learn about Oliver anyways. Oliver was a new model that was thrown away almost immediately after being purchased, and he had already told Hio that by now. But Oliver wanted to know about more Hio now. Hio never told him much since he couldn’t talk anyways.

Oliver sat up and looked at Hio. Hio looked back at him, slightly annoyed.

“Yeah, yeah, I know you want me to sleep. But can I ask you some questions?”

Hio wrote in the notebook and gave it to him.

It read, “Write all of your questions here and I’ll answer them. Go to sleep and you can read them in the morning.”

“Okay,” Oliver said. “That’s fair.”

So Oliver began writing the questions.

—

As Oliver woke up, Hio immediately handed him the notebook. Oliver began to read.

Have you slept at all lately?

No. I probably do need to sleep before my program crashes or something.

How old are you? As in, how long since you were manufactured? (I know YOHIOloid models are programmed to be 17 years old, so don’t give me that answer.)

About 2 months old.

How did you find money to pay for the café?

Don’t worry about that.

Did you have a good relationship with your owner?

Sort of. She was nice to me most of the time, but she got really mad every time I messed something up. She only let me stay in a few rooms of her house too, but I can’t really blame her for that. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be human, but if I was a human with a singing android staring at me while I was eating dinner, I think I’d be uncomfortable too.

Do you miss your owner?

Yeah. But I shouldn’t. I hate that I do.

Did you even like your owner?

I did. Somehow.

What was it like having one? I never really got to know mine.

It felt like I was useful. She told me to sing a song and I’d sing it. Sometimes she’d ask for a specific style and I’d sing it that way. Then sometimes she’d record my singing for a song.

Only slightly related, but I remember she wanted to buy me some new clothes after a while, but she ended up forgetting to. I feel like maybe for Vocaloids who know their owners longer, they have more freedoms like that.

Can you please sleep next time?

If it’s safe.

Oliver then looked at the next question, which he hadn’t written. It was Hio’s question to Oliver.

Where do you want to go next?

Oliver looked over at Hio.

“Let’s go back to that hotel,” Oliver said. “The hotel where you tried to fix my arm, but this time let’s get a room so you can actually sleep.”

Hio smiled awkwardly and shook his head.

“Why not?”

Hio stood there silently.

“…Oh, it does cost money, doesn’t it?” Oliver realized. “Well, we could try raising money, or we could do what you did to get money for the café.”

Hio looked displeased by his idea.

“Okay…But we did already ask them to stay in the lobby. Let’s try again.”

Hio sort of rolled his eyes and smiled. Oliver took this as confirmation to go.

—

Oliver remembered that he didn’t actually know how Hio managed to convince the owners to let them stay in the hotel lobby the first time. This time, he realized it.

“Oh my god, YOHIOloid? You’re back!” the hotel owner cried. “I can’t believe it!”

Turns out that the owner was just a major YOHIOloid fan.

Hio passed her a note with an apologetic smile on his face.

“Oh, you two want a room this time? Hm…you know what, as long as you two don’t mess up the room at all, I will get you one for free.”

Hio nodded.

“You androids I’d assume are a lot cleaner than humans. I’d hope so, at least. But I love YOHIOloid anyways! I can’t believe I’m doing this!”

Oliver was a bit concerned by her.

“Room 224,” she said, handing him a card. “I only wish you could sing! That would’ve been amazing.”

Hio smiled at her. He then walked over to Oliver.

“So…that’s how you…”

Hio sort of grimaced. Oliver laughed.

As the two of them headed to their room, Oliver was distracted by the pool entrance.

“This hotel has a pool,” Oliver noted. “Do you like swimming, Hio?”

Hio shook his head.

“Me neither. I don’t think I even know how to. Can you?”

Hio started with a nod, but he shook his head again.

“I…really don’t know what that means, but okay. Can we stop by the pool, though? I’ve never seen one.”

Hio agreed.

The two of them left their path to look at the pool. There was nobody else there except the two androids.

Oliver was a bit intrigued by the sight of the water, but he assumed that it would be a bad idea to enter. Androids were generally waterproof, but Oliver had recently had his arm cut open by his newfound brother, so it was likely not a good idea.

The water was still and peaceful. It reflected the light coming through the windows in an almost magical way. Oliver found the sight of the water beautiful, and he wondered if Hio did as well.

Oliver looked at Hio, but Hio did not look happy in this room. In fact, he looked almost distressed. He faced away from the water, almost as if he was just looking at the exit.

“Okay, I’m good,” Oliver said. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t mention Hio’s apparent distaste for the room to him, as thought it would be better if he didn’t.

Hio quickly took Oliver’s hand and brought him to the hotel room. Room 224.

The room was actually a lot nicer than Oliver expected. Even Hio looked a bit shocked as well.

There were three small rooms in the hotel, one with a miniature kitchen and dining setup, one bedroom with two beds, and a bathroom. The kitchen had a door to a small balcony outside. It also had a TV in it that you could watch from the dining table, and the bedroom did as well.

After admiring the room, Oliver remembered why they were there in the first place. “Do you want to sleep now?” Oliver asked quietly.

Hio looked happy, amused, sad, and annoyed all at once. But he smiled at Oliver and happily made his way into the bedroom. Oliver soon followed him, but as Oliver walked in, he saw Hio had already knocked out on the bed.

“Oh…well, good…afternoon nap, I guess,” Oliver said.

Oliver wasn’t tired at that moment, so he went over to the kitchen to watch something on TV. The only thing on his mind, though, was that he was glad Hio finally felt safe enough to sleep.

Chapter Text

Hio actually ended up sleeping for a good 19 hours. Oliver was quite bored during this time, but he entertained himself by watching TV, making origami with napkins, and also sleeping.

When he had told Hio about how long he slept, Hio looked quite embarrassed and apologetic. Oliver insisted it was fine. He’d rather have Hio fully rested than not.

The two of them left the hotel that morning to look for something fun to do. Hio insisted on it after having left Oliver bored for 19 hours, but Oliver didn’t think it was necessary. After all, Hio had spent a night in an empty train station carrying a notebook as Oliver slept.

The two of them were easily in luck however. While walking around, they noticed signs advertising a festival. It turned out that a Vocaloid-themed festival they didn’t know about had been planned that day in the park. The two of them quickly found their way there.

It was just the normal city park, but kiosks were set up all around the paths. Stringed lights decorated them, but most kiosks did not have them on at this time. People were selling food, plushies, CDs, clothes, and even vinyls.

There were many humans in attendance, but there were also many Vocaloids. Some of them even seemed to be managing their own kiosks. Oliver saw at least 3 pairs of Kagamine Rin and Len models, and he thought he might’ve even seen another Oliver. Hio was quick to point out a Ruby model, which Oliver was excited to see. The only other PowerFX androids he had seen so far in his life were YOHIOloids. She waved to them as they walked by. They waved back, only Oliver a bit more excitedly.

The most interesting thing to Oliver, however, was the giant fountain in the middle of the park. It was large enough that several ducks were swimming in it. A Gachapoid model stood by it, watching alongside a Gackpoid model.

“You think we can swim in it?” Oliver joked. “We can be like those ducks.”

Hio smiled a bit but shook his head.

Oliver was interested in trying some of the food, but neither of them had the money to pay for it. Hio refused to use his YOHIOloid status to get free things anymore, so they were out of luck.

They instead ended up just watching a different Ruby model prepare festival food. There was a line at her kiosk, but she was making and serving quite a lot of food rather efficiently. Oliver was impressed by her skill. He wondered what cooking was like; he himself had never cooked anything, and he’d never seen Hio try it either.

When nobody was waiting for their food anymore, Ruby finally spoke to them.

“So, are you two just watching the show?” Ruby asked. “Or are you going to order?”

“Oh, uh…we would, but we don’t have the money to order anything,” Oliver responded.

She looked confused, but she laughed it off. “So you’re just looking at the food that you can’t have.”

“Yeah…”

“That’s actually kind of sad,” she said. “Since we’re PFX family, I would offer you something, but I think my owner would get mad at me for that.”

“That’s okay, Ruby,” Oliver said. “We wouldn’t really want to inconvenience you like that.”

She continued organizing her kitchen.

“Actually, I could get you a ketchup packet if you want.”

“Sure.”

Ruby tossed a ketchup packet over to Oliver. Hio caught it for him and gave it to Oliver.

“Do I just eat it like this?” Oliver asked.

Hio looked a bit disturbed by the idea.

“Sure,” Ruby said. “I heard Olivers tend to eat all sorts of weird things.”

Oliver brought the ketchup packet closer to his mouth, but Hio snatched it away before he could eat it. Ruby laughed.

“We don’t have an Oliver or a YOHIOloid back at home,” she said. “So I never really got to know what my PFX brothers could’ve been like, but I’m glad to know they could be just as silly as I thought they’d be.”

Oliver laughed a little. “Sorry about that, Ruby.”

“Apology accepted,” she joked. “You two should go have fun, though. There’s more to the festival than just watching me make food.”

They took her advice and left shortly after that. Hio gave the ketchup to a Len eating a burger.

The two of them walked down a path towards a large tent. Music was blaring from it, and it only got louder as they walked closer. Oliver thought he could hear Hatsune Miku’s voice within the music. As they reached the tent, Hio peeked inside to see what was happening. After making sure it was safe, he and Oliver entered.

As Oliver had assumed, a Hatsune Miku android was on the stage. Humans and androids alike were watching in the crowd. They were all cheering for her.

A new song was starting to play. It sounded a bit like a pop song, and Miku confidently prepared herself for her next song performance. She began to sing.

Oliver had not thought much about songs very much recently, but rather the act of singing itself.

“Hio, how many songs can you sing?” Oliver asked.

Hio frowned at Oliver.

“I-I mean, I know you can’t really sing, but you do know some songs, right?”

Hio grinned, as if assuring Oliver that he was just joking. He held up eight fingers.

“Only eight songs?”

He then held up four fingers.

“…Only four songs?”

Hio repeated the two gestures, only faster this time.

“…Oh, eighty-four songs?”

Hio nodded.

That was a pretty standard number of songs for a very young android to know by heart, Oliver knew. Oliver himself had eighty. With new songs, the androids could import singing data or learn to sing the songs themselves through listening. Oliver wondered which option Hio had followed to get four more songs than him.

Oliver looked back at the Miku model singing on stage. She was smiling, and her green-blue eyes seemed bright and lively. She was dressed in a puffy white dress that seemed to sparkle in the stage lighting. Her hair was up tied in Miku’s iconic long twin-tails, and her voice was solid and unwavering, even as she bended her pitches to sing in a pop style. She must’ve had a lot of practice to be able to sing this well.

Oliver wondered what would it have been like if he were up on that stage. Or any stage, for that matter.

Oliver had known a Miku once. It wasn’t for very long, but he remembered one of the few things she said to him.

“There’s a lot of pressure as a Vocaloid android,” she had said. “We always have to make sure we sing right. I bet it’s even more pressure if you’re made to be a performer.”

So Oliver wondered if this Miku had to face pressure to be able to sing so well. He also wondered what Hio’s thoughts were on the matter.

Hio seemed rather relaxed in this miniature concert, though. It was better not to disturb his peace with sad questions, Oliver thought.

—

Under the darkness of the night sky, the two of them watched the festival from a distant spot in the park. They could see the warm light of the park’s lamps and the colorful light of the string lights that decorated the kiosks.

They sat together in the grass. Oliver mindlessly plucked at the grass, pulling it out of the dirt. He thought about something in the past.

“You know,” Oliver started, “I knew something was wrong with me ever since I was purchased. It hurt to grab things, it hurt to move my hand, my arm even…”

Hio looked away from the festival and over to Oliver.

“But I didn’t want to be bothersome, so I pretended like I wasn’t hurt,” Oliver continued. “Maybe that just caused more problems. I think my owner had a few other Vocaloids. I remember they had a Hatsune Miku and a Megpoid for sure…They were nice to me, but I think they might’ve thought I would be trouble. Well, I guess they were right.”

Hio looked displeased by that statement. He shook his head.

“What? Was I not?”

Hio planted his hand on Oliver’s face, almost as if gently slapping him.

“Ow? Okay, I don’t know what that means, Hio!”

Hio silently chuckled and took his hand away.

“Or…are you just trying to say I shouldn’t say that about myself?”

Hio nodded.

“I…I guess you’re right,” Oliver said. “…The way they figured it out, though…My owner gave me a box to carry while they were renovating. I tried my best to hold it, but the pain in my wrist made me drop it. I think I might’ve broken whatever was in that box, but I don’t know for sure. They were concerned but mad at me…and that’s how they figured out my arm was damaged. They ran a few tests to determine that was true, and then…well, they threw me into the junk yard. I was only there for a few minutes before I found you.”

Hio smiled a little, but his smile faded as he looked away from Oliver. Oliver stared at him silently.

“…Were you scared back then, too?”

Hio didn’t respond. He looked down at the grass and then back at Oliver. He smiled again.

“I understand if you were scared…” Oliver said. “It’s a pretty creepy place with all those android parts.”

Hio looked up at the night sky, and Oliver did too. Hio then got up and straightened out his long coat.

“Are you ready to go back to the hotel?” Oliver asked.

Hio nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

As they woke up in their hotel room that morning, Hio accidentally managed to tear his already damaged coat. He wasn’t careful enough while putting it on, and a tear about 5 inches long now existed along the seam between the right shoulder and the right sleeve.

“What are you going to do about that coat, Hio?” Oliver asked. “You’re not going to throw it away, are you?”

Hio turned the coat inside out and examined the torn seam. He laid the coat on his bed, pressed the now separated pieces of fabric back together, and hit it with his fists.

“O-okay, we don’t need to do that!”

Hio grinned softly. Oliver realized he was just joking.

“We could…we could sew it back together.”

Hio nodded.

“Where are we gonna find the materials for that?”

Hio thought for a moment. He promptly shrugged, not having any idea.

“Yeah, thought so too. We need to get jobs.”

Hio agreed.

“…Can 12-year-old androids get jobs?”

Hio shook his head.

“…Do you think 17-year-old androids can get jobs?”

Hio also thought about this. He shrugged again.

“Maybe we could try selling things? Like the things from the junk yard.”

Hio looked displeased by the idea of returning to the junk yard.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right.”

Hio suddenly stood up.

“Did you think of something?”

Hio nodded. He picked up his coat and headed out of the room. Oliver grabbed his notebook and followed him out.

—

The two of them now stood in a small field of flowers. They didn’t look like they were farmed, rather they were wildly growing all around the field. They were various different colors, but the pink flowers stood out to Oliver the most.

“Oh, so you want to sell…what’s probably someone else’s flowers?”

Hio nodded with an odd smile.

“…Okay!”

They began to pick some of the flowers. Hio made sure to keep a long stem on his flowers, but Oliver didn’t at first, only starting after he noticed Hio did. They put the flowers that they did collect in Oliver’s hat, but Hio put the unusable flowers that Oliver picked in his own hair. He didn’t want them to go to waste completely.

“So, YOHIOloids have an eye for fashion, right? Do they also have an eye for floral arrangements?”

Hio examined the flowers a bit. He started to arrange them by color, and then by shape. He ended up with something that looked nice, but definitely not professional.

“Okay! So now we just have to find someone who’ll buy these!”

Oliver and Hio found their way back to the city streets. They made sure to get a good distance away from the flower field so that no one would know where exactly the flowers came from. Oliver asked randomly if anyone would like to buy the flowers, though he didn’t specify a price. With the flowers still in his hair, Hio held onto Oliver’s now-flowery hat and Oliver’s notebook. Nobody seemed interested in buying flowers, though.

“Maybe we just have to be more assertive,” Oliver said. He turned to someone by random. “Hey! Buy my flowers!” he hissed.

The person quickly turned away and speed up.

“Well…that didn’t work.”

Hio winced a little bit.

“Okay…so…let’s be patient.”

The two stayed silent, with Hio holding the flowers as display. After probably a minute of this, a man slowly walked up to them.

“What are you two doing?” he asked.

“We’re selling flowers.”

“Oh…” he said, not really sure how to react.

Oliver gently shoved the flowers in his direction. “Would you like to buy some flowers?”

“What? Why?”

“We need money.”

“Uh…okay,” he said, reaching down for his wallet. “How much does it cost?”

Oliver looked over to Hio. Hio shrugged, and Oliver turned to look back at the man. “How much does some gray thread and some sewing needles cost?”

“I don’t know, like 8 dollars?”

“Okay, it’s 8 dollars for the flowers!”

The man looked at them dumbfounded. He gave Oliver 8 dollars, and Oliver gave him the flowers. Hio started to remove the flowers from his hair, but the man stopped him.

“That’s okay, you can keep those.”

He continued on his way, carrying his newly purchased flowers. Oliver put his hat back on and looked at Hio with a large grin on his face.

“We did it!”

—

After a bit of searching, they made their way into a rather large store. It seemed to have everything you could possibly need, though Oliver was skeptical of that. They looked around at everything, even things they didn’t need, just to look at it.

Oliver was staring at some crayons, but he then looked over at Hio. Hio seemed to be distracted by something in the nearby technology section.

“What do you see, Hio?”

Hio began walking towards whatever he was looking at, and Oliver followed. As they got closer, Hio was looking directly at a CD player. He chuckled silently to himself.

“Do you want a CD player?” Oliver asked. “Or are you just laughing because nobody uses CDs anymore?”

Hio only smiled. Oliver then realized why the CD player interested him so much.

“Oh…you must be thinking about Cubi, huh?”

Hio nodded, still smiling.

The Vocaloids’ companions were other robots, though not exactly androids, that you could buy alongside your Vocaloid purchase. The Oliver model had James, but YOHIOloid had Cubi and 6 other possible pets that could be bought. The androids already knew how to care for their companions without their owner’s help. Oliver himself would have loved having James, but Oliver’s owner didn’t buy one. It seemed that Hio didn’t have a Cubi either.

Hio turned around and scanned the area. He started walking away, and Oliver promptly followed him. He made his way over to a crate full of plushies and picked out one that resembled a bird. He showed it to Oliver.

“Well, I suppose that’s the closest to James you can get here,” Oliver said. “Though James is yellow and not brown.”

Hio smiled and shrugged. He hugged and pet the bird plushie for a moment before putting it back with the rest of the plushies. The two of them started to walk to the crafts section to get what they actually needed: some thread and needles.

“Could you imagine if we did get a CD player and a plushie, though?” Oliver asked. “They’d be our bootleg Cubi and James.”

Hio seemed to actually consider that idea.

“No, wait, don’t consider it!”

The two of them arrived at their destination and found what they needed. Hio compared the color of the thread to his coat, trying his best to match it. They eventually landed on a shade that was quite close, but not perfect. Hio was a bit picky about the color, but Oliver convinced him to just work with the closest shade. They grabbed a suitable pack of sewing needles and went to check out their items.

“I’ll go wait outside while you’re in line,” Oliver said.

Hio looked around as if searching for the line. There wasn’t even a long line.

“I know it’s short but…” Oliver said, “I think I just want to go out alone for a bit. Get a bit of fresh air, you know?”

Hio held his hand out towards Oliver’s, as if asking him to stay. Oliver quickly shook Hio’s hand before walking a few steps towards the exit. Hio glared at Oliver as Oliver laughed a little.

“I’ll be fine, Hio. Trust me, okay?”

Hio’s glare faded as he softly smiled at Oliver instead. He waved a gentle goodbye as Oliver headed out of the store.

Oliver looked out at the distant street in front of him. People and cars were passing by, going about their daily business. There wasn’t very much to look at other than surrounding buildings, a few trees, and the bright blue sky. He took a breath.

Oliver then looked to his left. There, a Kagamine Rin model stood silently, leaning against the wall of the building behind her. She had a relaxed yet sad look on her face, her mouth held in an ever-so-slight smile. In her hands was a chip encased in a plastic covering. It looked like a memory chip.

Rin turned to Oliver and looked at him directly with her oddly pale blue eyes. She noticed that he was looking at the chip in her hands. Oliver quickly looked away, not wanting to seem nosy.

“I lost him a while ago,” she explained in a soft, whispery tone. “My other half.”

Oliver was unsure of what to say. He stayed silent for a moment before asking “…Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. I just have some questions for myself.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“…I guess so. I…I never really got to talk to anyone about it.”

Oliver stepped a little closer to Rin. “I’m listening.”

“…He was destroyed in an accident, his body broken beyond repair…All we could salvage were his chips. My master has the main programming chip, but I’m holding onto the memories. I don’t want to let go of them.” She looked at the case in her hands. “We don’t have the money to buy a replacement body for him yet. Master was going to transfer the chips and data to the new body. Only…I wonder if Len will still be the same then. Of course, he has to be, right?”

“Right,” Oliver said. “It is the same data, same memories…”

“But it is no longer the same active consciousness, is it? Would he even still be the Len that I knew? It’s a different android with a different body but the same data…I know he’ll remember everything and he’ll act the same, but is he even technically the same Len? What if he turns out to be someone else…?” She held onto the chip tightly. “…I don’t think it really matters. I’m just overthinking again.”

Oliver was unsure of what to say.

“Master says I do that a lot. He’ll come back to us someday; he’ll still be the same Len.”

“Yeah…I’m sure he will be,” Oliver said softly.

“I think my life has been torn apart, but I’ll just have to…stitch things back together. Metaphorically, of course.” She laughed a bit. “A stitches metaphor must be kind of awkward for you, considering you’re a PowerFX Vocaloid…”

Oliver silently agreed.

“…Do you know what it’s like to lose someone like that, Oliver?” Rin asked. “Or even just believe that you might’ve?”

Oliver stood there silently. “I’m too young to have experienced that, I think.”

“I see. I’m only about 2 years old,” she said. “I hope you never do have to experience it.”

“I hope so too.”

The door to the store opened, and Hio came out walking with a small bag in his hands.

“Ah, I have to go now,” Oliver said. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Rin said. “Thank you, Oliver. I never could have shared my thoughts with anyone back at home…”

Oliver smiled at her, hoping the smile would help comfort her. She lightly smiled back, but she turned back to look at the chip in her hands sadly.

“Ready to go, Hio?” Oliver asked.

Hio looked back at Rin. He waved to her gently as Oliver took his hand and they began to walk.

—

The two of them were back at the hotel room, sitting at the dining table. Hio’s coat was laid down on top of the table, and Hio had put his hair flowers in some plastic cups full of water. The cups sat on the kitchen counters.

“Do you know how to sew?” Oliver asked. “It can’t be like suturing, I think…”

Hio shook his head. Of the many skills androids of all types had, sewing was not a ubiquitous one. Despite this, Hio tried to use what prior knowledge he had about the task to begin.

Oliver watched as Hio tried to carefully sew his coat back together. His sewing was kind of messy, Oliver thought, but Hio seemed to think so too. He removed the stitch and tried again.

After 3 tries, Hio finally ended up satisfied with his work. He tried to pull apart the sleeve again, but it didn’t budge.

“Alright!” Oliver cheered. “Good work!”

Oliver held out a hand for a high-five, and Hio high-fived him back. Oliver quickly recoiled from pain, though.

“Ow,” Oliver whined. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have held up my left hand.”

Hio only looked at him with a pained expression.

Chapter Text

Hio no longer wanted to use his YOHIOloid status to get free hotel service. Oliver was a little disappointed by this as he quite liked the room, but Hio was sure that he wanted to check out that day.

Carrying his plastic cups of flowers with him, Hio led Oliver out of the hotel as Oliver carried his notebook and their sewing thread.

“Goodbye!” said the owner. “Come back any time, Hio!”

Hio gave her a soft smile as they left.

“Maybe we should search for a new place?” Oliver asked. “Probably won’t be as comfortable, but I think it’ll be nice!”

Hio nodded.

Oliver and Hio eventually found themselves in an abandoned office building. Hio wasn’t exactly sure why they were there specifically in the first place, but Oliver had seen the building and thought it would be fun to at least explore. Hio reluctantly agreed. They left their cups and sewing thread by the exit to come back to them later.

As they walked around, examining the old halls and the torn-up, empty rooms, Oliver couldn’t help but notice how wonderful the acoustics in the building were. He kept saying random words just to hear the sound of his own voice echoing.

“Wow,” Oliver said. “Pizza. Reverberation. Terrible. Wonderful. Fields!”

Hio just listened to him, semi-amused by Oliver’s wonder.

“You could probably test out the acoustics too, Hio.”

Hio tried his best to muster up a sound from his voice. There was only a quiet, indecipherable noise, but it caused Hio to silently laugh at himself.

“Aw, I don’t mean like that,” Oliver said.

Hio then tried harshly exhaling. Using that function wasn’t nearly as effective as using his proper voice as he remembered it, but the movement of the air was enough to generate some sound. He listened as it echoed throughout the large hall.

“And I didn’t mean like that either…”

Oliver then gently clapped his hands together. They both listened to the sound attentively. In turn, Hio harshly clapped his hands together, generating a harsh, yet beautiful sound. Oliver began saying random words again as Hio repeatedly clapped his hands together, though less harshly this time.

“It sounds so beautiful,” Oliver said. “It makes me wish I could sing something nice…I haven’t performed a song in a while.”

Hio smiled awkwardly at Oliver.

“Yeah, I’m sure you haven’t either…But still, I wish I could perform something. Something that someone could listen to…”

Hio gave him a look that almost said “What’s stopping you?” Oliver understood.

“Should I sing something for you, then?” he asked.

Hio shook his head and pointed at Oliver.

“…For me. Okay.”

Oliver took a moment to think of a song. The song that came to mind was a demo for his voicebank.

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

“Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

“Remember me to one who lives there.

She once was a true love of mine.”

As Oliver continued singing, Hio began clapping in an unsteady rhythm, effectively confusing Oliver and throwing him off.

“Stop that!” Oliver snapped.

Oliver laughed a bit as Hio did too. Hio did stop, though, allowing Oliver to continue his song. Oliver was quite surprised by how beautiful his singing voice sounded here.

Oliver had knowledge and memories of what YOHIOloid’s voice sounded like; he had met that other YOHIOloid model before too. Oliver knew that YOHIOloid was a versatile and capable singer, and that he did indeed like the sound of YOHIOloid’s voice. Sometimes when Hio would attempt speech, the quiet, distorted sounds that came from his voice distantly resembled the voice he was meant to have. While continuing his own song, he wished he could have heard Hio sing something as well.

Hio clapped again, but this time it was to applaud Oliver for his performance.

“Thank you, Hio,” Oliver said. “Maybe you can make a career out of playing an instrument!”

Hio proceeded to play an air guitar. Oliver wondered if Hio actually knew how to play a guitar. It wasn’t a standard Vocaloid android skill, but maybe Hio had just picked up some guitar skill data at some point in his life.

“Maybe we really could spend our time here,” Oliver suggested. “As scary as it is, it’s kind of beautiful here.”

Hio looked a bit uncomfortable with the idea at first, but he then agreed.

“Actually, is that even legal?”

Hio smiled and shrugged.

“Well, we’re androids. Maybe the law’s a bit different then.”

Hio looked like he was thinking about something else.

“…It’s not like anyone else is using it. And uh…clearly no one’s been here for years.”

Oliver looked around more at the torn-up walls.

“Yeah. We just have to clean it up some more, and then we could probably make this our home without feeling guilty!”

Oliver noticed that Hio was wincing ever so slightly.

“Okay, maybe we can feel guilty about squatting, but the fact that we’re unowned androids living freely is a crime already.”

Hio softly agreed.

Chapter Text

Oliver spent some time wandering the office building. He could find a few old books in there—one of which was an old catalog for children’s toys. He took it to Hio, despite thinking that Hio wouldn’t have much interest in looking at toys meant for children under Oliver’s age, but Hio seemed as interested in the book as Oliver was. They were lying on the floor of an old room, flipping through the book and pointing out which toys looked the coolest and which looked the silliest.

Oliver wondered what it might’ve been like to have possessions, or to have toys. He didn’t have much other than the clothes on his back, a notebook, sewing thread, and some cups of flowers. He also had Hio, but Hio didn’t count as a possession.

If he had toys, where would he put them too? Oliver thought to himself that he would always have them out on display so they could be free, but that wasn’t what all people did with their toys, right? Sometimes they were put away in cases, hidden in boxes…

Hio wasn’t Oliver’s possession, obviously, but an android could be a human’s possession. It was an odd thought, but Oliver wondered if ever a human would hide an android away in a box. Oliver hadn’t been with humans long enough to know if they were truly cruel enough to do that. He was infinitely glad to have the freedom he did now—to be stuck in a confined space until you were called to complete a task sounded horrific.

Oliver decided to talk to Hio about it, as maybe Hio would have some interesting insight.

“I’ve been thinking about something,” Oliver said as he walked aimlessly around the room. Hio was still on the floor. “I wonder what it would be like if we couldn’t wander around freely like we do now.”

Hio tilted his head curiously. Oliver took it as a sign to continue elaborating.

“You know, how sometimes children have toys…and then they put them away in a box when they’re not being used. Or like a pet dog that gets locked up when no one wants to watch him. Could you imagine living like that…? That sounds so sad…”

Hio didn’t respond for a while before an odd smile appeared on his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Oliver offered Hio the notebook to write in, but Hio didn’t take it. Oliver simply accepted that Hio wasn’t going to share his thoughts with him, and as Hio kept his eyes away from Oliver, assumed that Hio wouldn’t engage in eye contact either. Oliver decided to continue talking anyway.

“I think if I had a toy…or if I had James, I’d never put him in a cage. Being locked up anywhere sounds so scary…”

A quiet buzzing sound came from Hio’s voice—Oliver almost didn’t hear it at all. It sounded a bit sad, so Oliver thought that maybe Hio was saddened by what he was saying. Then Oliver made a realization.

“I suppose you’d know it,” Oliver said softly as he knelt down next to Hio. “Being stuck in the junkyard like that…? Only maybe that’s a bit different…? Still painful, I bet.”

Hio turned away from Oliver completely, kind of ungracefully pulling himself around as he was already lying entirely on the floor.

“…Am I making you remember uncomfortable things?”

Hio didn’t respond for a bit. Eventually he stood up and gestured for the notebook. Oliver stood up too and gave it to him.

“Sometimes you lock things away to protect them. A dog might wander out into the street and get hit by a car if you don’t have a fence. Sometimes you lock away your most precious possessions so that others don’t take what you love away from you.”

“That’s true,” Oliver said. “I guess I didn’t really think about that…”

Hio smiled sadly and took the notebook back to write more.

“Sometimes the things that you lock up don’t know any better too. They’ve never seen anything other than their cage…Maybe if you give them everything and treat them well, they won’t care so much about freedom. Sometimes the safety in confinement is better than the excitement in freedom…right?”

Oliver couldn’t quite comprehend what Hio meant with the words he was writing on the page. Hio took the notebook back one more time. He didn’t spend that much time with it before giving it back to Oliver.

The two paragraphs he had written were now covered in a giant X, and next to it:

“This is odd rationale. I’m with you on this one—I really wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room for my entire life either.”

Hio left Oliver with the notebook, and with a smile, started to walk happily around the room.

Oliver was only a little weirded out. He felt like Hio should’ve agreed with him on this, so he wondered why Hio presented counter-arguments only to agree with him in the end anyway. He really wondered what must’ve been going on in Hio’s head…