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“Be a kid?” Astro asked while cocking his head. Doctor O’shay was busy fidgeting with some documents on his desk, piling them up and aligning them neatly. “I don’t understand what you mean Doctor?”
“Yes Astro, you deserve and NEED a break” He slowly got up and placed his arm around Astro. “You have done so much Astro, it’s been three months since everything and you still haven’t taken a day to relax”
“But I can’t!” Astro exclaimed. “There have still been riots and I promised Insp-” Astro was cut off by a finger shushing his lips. O’shay let out a little chuckle and ruffled Astro’s head.
“Inspector Tawashi and I have had a talk, and he agreed you needed a little break, you know how much they appreciate you Astro and they want you happy and healthy, both physically and mentally”
O’Shay could see the uncertainty in his son's eyes. He carefully got down to Astro’s level and placed both arms on his shoulders. “For me? Even if it’s just a day or two, you, beyond anyone, deserves a day off. Nobody should ever have to go through what you did Astro”
Astro let out a sigh and looked up at his father with big brown eyes. “If my family and friends want me to take some time off, I guess I could do that much” Astro wrapped his arms around O’Shay and squeezed. “Think the ministry would be ok if we left now?”
“Oh, I guess I could leave a little early so I could have an old movie night with my kids” O’Shay smiled. Astro perked up as O’Shay logged off the computer and the two of them walked into the elevator and went home.
Astro reached out and switched off the blaring alarm. He instinctively rubbed his eyes and yawned as he sat up and itched his chest. He knew he didn’t have to do any of these things, just they had always felt so natural to him they just stuck. He slowly got up and went over to his desk and looked into his mirror. Granted he couldn’t see much, due to him being so small, and he had forgotten that he had pj’s on since he never really wore pj’s at night when he was home, but it did feel nice and comforting in a way. He moved around and posed a little bit. He was never one to really pay attention to his appearance, but even he had to admit he was rather cute. His boots squeaked with each step as he bounded downstairs where he was greeted by Nora. “Hey Nora, where is Doctor O’Shay and Uran?”
“Good morning Astro, Uran is currently having a play date with a few friends from school and Doctor O’shay is currently en route to the Ministry, he did however leave you a video message”
Nora’s head adjusted to Astro’s eye level and Doctor O”Shay popped up. “Good morning Astro, sorry we didn’t finish our movie night last night. I was surprised to see you had fallen asleep so early. It’s going to be a bit stormy today so take today to rest and relax, video call your friends, build some models, whatever you like. I love you so much and I will see you after work my son” the smile on O’Shay’s face made Astro feel just so loved. Nora turned back into her normal mode and tilted her head and closed her eyes. Astro gave her a smile back and went into the living room and plopped himself on the couch and turned on the tv. After a while he got bored. With a long hard sigh he stood up and thought to himself. “What to do?”
Astro paced throughout the house until he looked up and it hit him. There was a little door on the ceiling that hid the attic. Astro gently applied his rockets and slowly floated up to the door and carefully opened it. “Oops” is all Astro could get out as the ladder system that was attached to the door suddenly dropped with Astro barely avoiding it as it smacked the floor. “Sorry dad”
Astro went up into the attic and the clicks as his jets returned back to his boots echoed in the dark space. Without any hesitation his built in lights activated as he looked around, his curiosity building. He never really thought about what Doctor O’Shay might have up here, but it wasn’t too far off what he would have expected. A bunch of pictures of when he was in college, some awards and some older pictures as well. As Astro was looking around a small device caught his attention. He reached down and carefully lifted up the small device and scanned it. “What's this thing?”
With a quick scan he learned it was a device called an iPhone. “Used for making calls, browsing the internet, playing games and music” Astro said as he read the basic article that he looked up. “I wonder if it still works”
Astro rummaged through the box, finding what looked like a case and a cord. He frowned as the plug didn't match the new standard of the day, and even if it had, most houses were wireless charging only. Astro tucked it into his pajama pockets and made his way back to the attic entrance. He decided to climb down the ladder and carefully applied just enough strength to throw it back up and give a nice satisfying to click. He squeaked over to the kitchen table where he laid down his findings. Nora heard the soft clatter and rolled into the kitchen. "What do you have there Astro?"
"I found this old device called and an iPhone, I"m gonna try and see if I can make it work" Astro muttered as he carefully disassembled the iPhone. Luckily for Astro he had some equipment he could use to to allow it to charge with the current standard.
"Just need to solder this here and plug in this ribbon cable and" Astro whispered to himself and he could feel his excitement bubbling as he plug the connector into the iPhone and after what felt like an eternity, the logo appeared on the screen a long with a percentage bar for the battery. "So cool! Just need to wait a little bit, its kind of funny how i can charge myself faster than this tiny battery can be charged." Astro set it down and went to the living room and received a video call from his friends and he was super excited to show them what he found.
"Guy's! You will never guess what I found in my attic today" Astro said gleefully as his other friends started tow show their interest.
"What did you find Astro?" Ken asked. "Was it one of your dad's old designs?"
"O-or maybe he found a bunch of embarrassing photo's of O'Shay when he was younger haha!" Abercrombie couldn't contain his laughter. All the other boy's just shook their heads and sighed in response.
"I'm sure whatever it is will be super cool Astro" Alejo smiled.
"Let me go see if its ready!" Astro smiled and he quickly got off the couch and ran to the kitchen.
"Have you guys ever noticed how much his feet squeak when he runs?" Abercrombie asked. The other boys agreed.
"Maybe it was a design feature?" Ken shrugged his shoulders. As the boys were in their discussion the squeaking grew louder as Astro sat on the couch, hiding the item in his hands.
"Are you guys ready?" he asked, slightly fidgeting in his seat. They all smiled and nodded and Astro slowly rotated one hand and revealed the small rectangular device. "It's called and iPhone and its a device used to make calls, and do other various tasks from decades ago!"
"Wow!" the group says in unison as it slowly comes to life and after a few moments it flashed up to a screen asking for a password.
"A password?" Ken questioned. "What kind of password do you think Doctor O'Shay would have or be?"
"I think I can figure it out" Astro announced as he started fiddling with the keyboard. As he scrolled through the possibilities in his brain, he heard the voice's of his friends parents
"Darn it, we gotta go Astro" Alejo frowned. the rest of the boys mom came into the frame and gave Astro a little wave as their kids said goodbye to their friends.
"See you later Astro! You have to show us how it works next time!" they all hollered and the screen flashed to black. After letting out a defeated sigh, Astro leaned back into the couch and began to fiddle with the keyboard again. It took him, a rather surprising amount of time to come up with the password, but soon enough, Astro found himself on the home screen. He was slightly disappointed that it seemed like the modules used for internet connectivity seemed to not be working. His fingers wondered over the screen until he ended up over the music application. With his curiousness heightened he turned up the volume and hit random.
"Finished your paperwork for once Doctor" Yuko said as she typed away on Momo. Just as O'Shay was about to respond to her remark, he noticed a message from Nora on his screen. "Please call home" was all that was written. Without hesitation his fingers moved swiftly across his keyboard and within moments he wasn't directed to Nora, but, to a camera in the living room.
"What on earth is going on here?" O'Shay demanded. Just as he was about to close the program he heard a familiar voice. "Astro?"
"Around the world around the WORLD" sung Astro as he twirled around the living room in his pajamas. O'Shay couldn't help but let out a chuckle watching is son sing and dance around their living room. Yuko's eyebrow raised as she saw the the pure look of content on her bosses face.
"What's going on?" she asked as she placed her hand on O'Shay's shoulders and couldn't help but laugh at what she saw.
"Evacuate the dance floor! I'm infected by the sound! Stop this beat is killing me!" piped Astro. Both adults couldn't help but giggle at his little dance moves he had going on. "Hey doctor DJ let me take this music underground!"
"Thank you Nora, I needed this distraction" O'Shay gave a gleeful sigh. "I don't know why and how he is playing music, but seeing him dancing, singing, ACTING HIS AGE. It's just.....all I ever wanted for him"
"He does deserve it, after everything he has gone through" she whispered. "If you wanted to go home early, I guess we could let it slide today Doctor. Where do you think he he got that device from?"
"To be fair, it looks like a phone I had years ago, I thought it was beyond repair, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised Astro figured out how to fix it. Hopefully he hasn't figured out how to find all of my old text messages haha"
"I Wonder what else he had on here from back in the day" Astro queried. O'Shay quickly straightened up and adjusted his collar. After grabbing his jacket and hat he looked over at Yuko with an awkward smile.
"I'm going to have to take your offer Yuko, have a great rest of your night" Yuko hadn't seen O'Shay move so fast in months and she couldn't help but laugh at the reason why.
"Goodnight Doctor, go home and have fun with your kids, and good luck Astro" Yuko giggled.