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One of the best things about being part of the Maverick Hunters, in Axl’s opinion, was getting to work with the legendary reploid heroes, X and Zero. Axl had admired the both of them ever since his early days as a mercenary with Red Alert. Getting to fight alongside them on missions was like a dream come true. Both of them were just as strong and skilled as their reputations would make you believe, reaffirming Axl’s admiration of them. X’s power to copy enemies’ abilities was incredible and held its own when compared to Axl’s own A-Trans skill. Zero tore through enemies with such speed and grace it was like watching a sword dancer perform their greatest routine. Missions with them were always interesting and Axl constantly learned from their example.
However, there was one downside to the whole arrangement. X was… a bit of a worrywart, to say the least.
“Axl, what were you thinking?! Charging into enemy territory like that was extremely dangerous!,” X practically shouted. “You could have been killed!”
The mission was already done, Maverick arrested with a full report submitted, but Axl wasn’t going to hear the end of it. The whole ordeal was simple: Pyro Pangolin had gone Maverick and taken over the iron smelting plant where she worked. She was a new-gen reploid incapable of being infected by the Sigma Virus, so she was arrested instead of being retired. Axl thought he did pretty good at getting the job done. He had gone into the factory ahead of X and Zero to take care of Pyro Pangolin and by the time his teammates had caught up, he had already knocked her out. Pyro Pangolin did manage to get him with a splash of magma that melted through his armor and damaged his internal systems to the point of disabling his thermal regulator, causing his circuitry to overheat until he lost motor function in the right half of his body. But, hey, those things happen sometimes.
Even though Axl had single handedly taken down the Maverick, X had still given him a stern look saying that they would “talk about this later”. Turns out that “later” meant “while Axl was in the middle of emergency repairs”. So now Axl had the pleasure of being lectured in front of a team of Lifesavers who had spent the past however many hours trying to repair him. How embarrassing.
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Axl said flippantly. “Everything worked out in the end, yeah?”
X closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and said, “That is not the point…”
“Then what is the point? Because it’s not like I’ll never get hurt while on the job. Kinda comes with the territory of being a Maverick Hunter.”
“I know that, but there’s a difference between getting hurt in the line of duty and getting hurt because of an unnecessary risk. You should have assessed the situation first and weighed your options before recklessly charging in. This entire incident-,” X gestured to the Lifesavers poking and prodding Axl’s internal parts, “-was entirely avoidable.”
“But that smelting plant was important for producing things that reploids need to survive!,” Axl argued. “I couldn’t just sit back and let Pyro Pangolin destroy the place!”
X crossed his arms and gave Axl a disappointed look. “Brute force isn’t the only way to solve a problem. Do you even know why Pyro Pangolin decided to attack her own workplace? It’s because the company that owns the factory, Metalikarts Inc., has a history of abusing their employees- both humans and reploids- as well as ignoring safety procedures and pushing faulty products past quality control. She wasn’t just the usual Maverick, violent for the sake of it. We could have talked her down and resolved the situation without escalating it.”
Axl didn’t say anything. His core whirred loudly with shame. He couldn’t look his hero and mentor in the eye, instead choosing to stare at what was directly in front of him. Which, seeing as he was laying on an operating table with his head turned to the side meant he ended up staring at X’s abdomen. For a moment, he glanced at the Lifesaver reconnecting wires in his forearm and begged with a pleading look to please help him out of this situation. But there was no fury quite like X’s when he was pissed off and none of the Lifesavers were too keen on putting themselves in the line of fire.
X continued, “The human jurisdiction assigned to Pyro Pangolin’s case wanted to have her retired immediately. If I hadn’t convinced them to instead put her on trial and get her testimony, she would have been retired. And thanks to her testimony, a full scale investigation into Metalikart’s violations is now underway. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”
“Uh, that all’s well that ends well?,” Axl asked.
“No,” X said. He looked like he wanted to smack Axl more than anything. “Axl, you need to understand that acting on reckless impulses doesn’t just hurt you, it hurts those around you as well. You nearly got yourself killed, nearly got another reploid killed when legal punishment would have been enough, don’t get me started on the collateral damage both to the factory and the Hunters’ reputation, and you worried Zero and I half to death. What would you have done if we weren’t there to back you up?”
Axl perked up at that last part and asked, “You guys were worried about me?”
“Axl! Pay attention! You have to promise me you won’t do something like that again. If you do, I’ll have Commander Signas demote you until you can prove you can carry out your missions with the professionalism befitting an S-rank Hunter.”
“What?! You can’t do that!,” Axl shouted. He tried to sit up, but with half his body out of commission, he ended up aggressively rolling onto one side. The Lifesavers pushed him back down flat immediately.
“I can and I will,” X said with an air of finality. “You may be an S-rank Hunter like me and Zero, but we have seniority over you. If one or both of us decides you aren’t fit to be an S-rank Hunter, then you aren’t fit to be an S-rank Hunter and that’s that. You can’t keep behaving like this on missions and expect to face no consequences.”
“You wouldn’t dare bring Zero into this!”
“I would. In fact, I’ve already spoken with him about your recent behavior on missions. He agrees with me.”
“That’s not fair! I can’t believe you guys are ganging up on me like this!”
And then Axl heard it, that infamous admonishing tone that made him shrink into himself like he was a newly-built reploid receiving his first scolding.
“I don’t care if you think it’s fair or not,” X said. “Promise me you’ll stop being so reckless or else you’ll have to start from scratch at C-rank. Do I make myself clear?”
“...Yes. I’ll be more careful next time…”
“Good. I’ll be holding you to that. If you break that promise, I will know about it.” X then turned to the Lifesavers and added, “My apologies for interrupting your work. I’ll be going now.”
And just like that, X was gone, leaving Axl to finish getting repaired with a heavy sigh of relief. But the headache from this whole embarrassing incident didn’t leave with X. The Lifesavers working on Axl’s repairs gave each other a look that said they thought that entire interaction was amusing. Those jerks even snickered about it.
Axl realized then that he should really listen to X more often because this crap was not worth it. He was never going to live this down and this mortifying memory was going to pop up every time he saw the Lifesavers again. It sucked having to helplessly lay on a table getting his insides poked and prodded, unable to escape and go hide in a ditch until he broke down.
In hindsight, yeah, it definitely wasn’t a smart idea to go in guns ablaze if it meant getting trashed like this. Plus, now that he knows more about what was really going on with Pyro Pangolin, he felt bad for her. Not everyone was as lucky as him to have a job they enjoyed with coworkers and bosses who cared about their well-being, even if some of them were a bit overbearing about it. She was just trying to fight back against those who hurt her and so many others. Axl could sympathize with that considering his past with Red Alert…
Well, one good thing about the situation is that it was really funny when a Lifesaver reattached a nerve receptor in Axl’s arm only to get reflexively punched in return.
~~~
The second instance of X’s overly worried side coming out happened while Axl was talking about a mission he went on with Zero. He had come back from fighting a particularly tough Maverick less than an hour ago, so the fight was still fresh in his mind. The Maverick in question was a bird-like reploid named Cryogen Crane who fought with nasty hit-and-run tactics. He was always flying out of reach until he found a chance to swoop down and strike with a powerful kick accompanied by an icy blast of frost. With the enemy constantly in the air, Zero had quickly become frustrated since he couldn’t attack back with only his Z-saber. That was when Axl swooped in with his trusty pistols and blasted holes in Cryogen Crane’s wings so he couldn’t fly anymore. After that, Zero gave their target a swift and easy retirement. Zero even praised Axl when the job was done for having such good aim.
Axl had excitedly explained the whole mission like it was nothing more than a boss fight in a video game and the praise he got was his most prized achievement.
X, however, did not share his companion’s enthusiasm. “You shouldn’t talk about Mavericks that way,” he said. “They used to be normal people like us before they were infected. It’s not their fault that the virus twisted them into something they’re not.”
Axl just wanted to share a story about him doing something cool and now he was getting lectured. Again.
“Oh, c’mon, X!,” Axl whined. “I’m trying to tell you about how awesome I was, and you want to lecture me? You should have been there to see me kick that Maverick’s butt! Even Zero told me I did a good job!”
“To your credit, you did do well on that mission-”
Axl smiled, bright and optimistic.
“-but my point still stands. You should handle cases of Maverickism with more care.”
Axl’s smile and optimism, gone. He crossed his arms and grumbled, “I don’t see why I should feel bad for a criminal who attacks innocent people…”
X sighed and explained, “Axl, these problems aren’t so black and white. You don’t have to feel bad for them, but it’s important to remember that each incident is very nuanced. We can help the rare cases of Mavericks like Pyro Pangolin who are only lashing out over a bad situation, but we can’t help cure reploids infected by the Maverick Virus. The only thing we can do for them is to terminate them so they can’t hurt anyone else. Whenever you go on a mission to hunt down a Maverick, there’s a very high chance you’re going to kill them whether they deserve it or not. I just want you to treat those missions with the seriousness they deserve.”
X spoke with a sincerity born of decades of experience that made Axl feel guilty. How did he do that? How did he have such a way with words that Axl was always drawn in by the lessons he imparted?
Axl looked down, ashamed, and apologized, “I’m sorry… You’re right. I just- I was excited about doing a good job and got a little carried away…”
“It’s ok,” X said with a gentle smile. He placed a comforting hand on Axl’s head gem and continued. “As long as you understand. I’m at least happy to hear that your performance on your recent missions has been improving. I’m proud of you.”
Axl lit up like a neon sign at the praise. Hearing X express pride in him warmed his power core with joy. It felt just as good as getting praised by Zero and inspired Axl to keep working hard to meet his mentor’s expectations.
~~~
The third instance of Axl being faced with X’s chronic worrying made him want to jump into a black hole and die.
Y’see, everything had started out normal. Axl had been assigned a mission to take out Torpedo Barracuda- a former Hunter turned Maverick- that he carried out solo. It had been quite a while since he was given a solo mission and this one was a pretty important one. He couldn’t mess it up, so he remembered all the things X and Zero had taught him over their many missions together. He analyzed the situation, he infiltrated the underwater research facility that Torpedo Barracuda was holed up in, and he made his move only when he was certain he had the advantage. Everything was working out in his favor.
There was only one minor problem. Just as Axl was about to finish off his target, Torpedo Barracuda grabbed him by the leg and dragged him out of the facility and into open waters. He had been dragged further and further down into a ravine where the water pressure had become too high and started to crush his armor. Axl managed to shoot his attacker in the head point blank, terminating the aquatic reploid once and for all, but the damage had been done. None of his vitals were hurt, but his communications were cut off and swimming back to the surface didn’t restore his connection. He activated an emergency return protocol that allowed him to return to base even without the aid of a navigator and silently begged the universe to let him make it back without dealing with a freaked out X.
The universe did not listen.
The second Axl returned to base, X was on him, checking him over for any injuries and fawning over him like he was a rookie who came back from his first ever mission.
“Axl, are you ok?! Were you hurt at all? What happened? Your gem didn’t get cracked, did it?,” X asked as he grabbed Axl’s face and inspected him. He fired off questions so fast that Axl didn’t have the chance to answer. “I was so worried when Pallette said she lost contact with you! I was just about to be sent out to retrieve you and-”
“I’m fine! Sheesh,” Axl interrupted. He tried to gently push X away, but his efforts were hardly a deterrent. “I did what you told me to do. I analyzed the situation, I figured out the best way to approach the target, and I handled it like a professional! The water pressure just ended up being a bit of a problem, that’s all.”
“Even so, you should still get checked out by the Lifesavers.”
“You worry way too much!”
“I have to worry since certain people won’t do so themselves.”
“It’s just my armor that needs repairing, promise!”
“Hopefully that’s all it is, but I still want you to head down to the med bay,” X said sternly. “Something could have been broken that isn’t immediately obvious and I’d rather not take any chances. Can you walk? I can carry you there if you need me to.”
It was when X grabbed Axl’s arm and started pulling him along to the med bay that Axl had had enough and blurted out, “I can walk on my own, Mom! I don’t need you to coddle me!”
X pulled away instantly like he had been burned. Maybe he really had been burned because his face flushed with a warm, pink blush. He was rendered speechless, though the reason why didn’t immediately register in Axl’s processor. The younger reploid didn’t think what he said was all that scathing.
“I- er, I’m sorry,” X eventually said. “You… you did good on the mission. I know you can take care of yourself, it’s just- y’know, get checked out, just in case.”
And just like that, X had sped walked right out of the room like his life depended on it. He got all weird and then, boom, gone. Very weird.
“Well he was sure in a hurry,” Axl said to himself. “What the heck was that all about?”
A sudden, maniacal laughter revealed that there was an audience watching the entire scene. The laughter belonged to Pallette, who was sitting at a console and pounding her fist into the keyboard out of sheer jubilant amusement. Sitting at the console next to her was Alia, who covered her mouth with her hand and had doe eyes like she couldn’t believe what she had witnessed.
“Sweet sparking systems, I… I can't believe that … that just happened!,” Pallette exclaimed between laughing breaths. “That was hilarious!”
“Oh, jeez, you guys saw all of that didn’t you?,” Axl asked with a loud groan. “Ugh, just my luck…”
“I wish I recorded that!,” Pallette said. “Oh wait, I did! Ha! Thank you photographic reploid memory!”
“Ok, you can stop now. It wasn’t that funny. Everyone knows X treats me like I’m still fresh off the manufacturing line.”
“Well, duh, but you called him ‘Mom’! You don’t hear a reploid say that everyday!”
Suddenly, a realization clicked.
“I… what?,” Axl muttered.
Alia, dear sweet Alia, decided that then and there was a good time to enter the conversation. She tried to be reassuring as she said, “It’s ok, Axl. It’s unusual but not unheard of for reploids to adopt human familial relationships. In fact, I think it’s quite adorable that you think of X as your mother.”
Dear sweet Alia was trying so hard, but she was not helping. At all.
“I- No I don’t! I don’t see him that way at all!,” Axl loudly and aggressively denied. “X is not my mom!”
“Methinks thou protest too much,” Pallette said. It was so obvious that she was barely trying to hide her snicker. “Tell me, does your mommy kiss you goodnight and tuck you into your recharge pod?”
Axl wanted to scream. He should have run from here as soon as he had the chance like X did. He shouted, “Sh-Shut up! He’s not my mom! How many times do I have to say it?!”
Alia let out a heavy sigh and said, “Play nice, Pallette. A navigator should act a little more professional. Besides, it’s rude to poke fun at someone’s family.”
“I- You- GAAAH! I’M GONNA GO WRITE MY REPORT! BYE!”
Axl dashed out of the teleporter room like he was racing to break the sound barrier. His frustrated voice could no doubt be heard all throughout Maverick Hunter HQ, but he didn’t care. He just needed to get away somewhere where he could lay down and cringe until he died in peace.
He desperately needed advice.
~~~
There was only really one person Axl felt he could talk to about his latest, embarrassing problem. He was only close to a handful of people, so his options were limited to begin with. He obviously couldn’t talk to Commander Signas about this because, well, that’s his boss and it would be very weird to involve him in stupid personal drama. Pallette, his traitorous navigator, had already shown her true colors when she ruthlessly made fun of him. Normally, Axl could have gone to Alia for help because she was always understanding and knew how to maturely handle any problem. But she had been a witness to the incident and her initial reaction didn’t give Axl any hope that he would get the advice he wanted from her. He could always talk to Layer about it since she was completely uninvolved, but to be honest, the two of them never really figured each other out. She was shy and he was too outgoing and the two weren’t paired up for missions all that often since Axl usually had Pallette to navigate for him and Layer very obviously preferred to work with Zero. Asking her for advice was bound to be awkward. Finally, X was an obvious and definitive “no” since this whole thing centered around him to begin with.
So, in the end, Axl had no choice other than to seek out Zero for help.
“...And that’s what happened,” Axl said, finishing his explanation of his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. “So… what do you think I should do?”
Zero had intently listened to it, pondered it, sipped on a can of coffee flavored energen, and said, “I think you should listen to your mother.”
Axl slammed his forehead on the table in front of him. When he looked up, he sarcastically asked, “When did you suddenly develop a sense of humor?”
“You give me good material to work with.”
Axl suppressed a loud groan. He wanted to shout out his frustrations and childishly throw a tantrum about not being taken seriously, but he reminded himself that he was still in a public place. Although he and Zero were seated at a secluded table in HQ’s mess hall far away from anyone else who might be around, he didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to himself. Not when he was talking about this particular topic.
“Whatever! Can you help me or not?,” Axl asked.
“First of all, you have to tell me what the problem even is,” Zero said as he set down his can. “Reploids establishing familial bonds isn’t as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be.”
Axl already knew that. He may be young compared to his peers, but he was fully aware that all reploids were designed to be as close to their human creators as possible. That meant that every reploid was programmed with the basic understanding of the concept of human family units. He knew what a mother was, what a father was, what siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and everything else were. But reploids couldn’t have inherent familial relationships the way humans could upon birth as blood relations were fundamentally meaningless to them. At best, they could name their creator like a human named their parent. However, they could form adoptive relationships. For them, that made the choice to consider another reploid to be their family all the more meaningful. That was what made it so uncommon and what made Axl so worried about slipping and calling X “Mom” to his face.
In truth, Axl was scared that X would reject the idea of being like a family.
“I just- I didn’t want to offend X,” Axl said sullenly. “I mean, human mothers are supposed to be female, right? But he’s, y’know, he goes by he... plus, I did kind of embarrass him in front of our navigators… I should at least apologize, but I don’t know how. I wanted to ask for your advice ‘cus you know X better than anyone.”
“I think you’re worrying too much,” Zero said. “I seriously doubt X was offended at all. Embarrassed, maybe, but definitely not offended. He was probably just caught off guard and didn’t know how to handle it at the time.”
“Ok, so say you’re right… That still doesn’t mean he’s ok with me calling him ‘mom’. Like, how cringe is that? He must think I’m a weirdo fan boy taking things way too far…”
“Try thinking about it for a minute. What made you subconsciously think of X as being like a mother to you in the first place?”
Axl held a hand up to his chin and combed through his memory banks and cross referenced what he found with his internal definition of what a “mother” was. “Hm, well… I guess it’s because he’s always worried about me and is always looking after me, even when he doesn’t need to. It makes me feel like he sometimes sees me as being no different than a human child. He lectures me just as much as he dotes on me and I guess… it’s not so bad usually, but he can be a bit much about it every once in a while. It’s just- I don’t know… He does all the things I imagine a mom would do for their kid.”
“Then you should already know the answer to how he feels.”
“I… do? I don’t follow…”
Zero sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in the way he did when he was dealing with a particularly dense person. He said, “How about you just go and talk to him yourself? I promise you, as long as you’re honest with him, he’ll understand.”
“Wh- but- I can’t do that!,” Axl shouted. A few nearby reploids turned to look at him, which made him shrink back into his seat. Luckily, they looked away just as quickly.
“And why not? What is he going to do? Bite you?”
“I don’t think I could ever live it down if I ended up shoving my foot in my mouth even more.”
“That won’t happen. Listen, you asked me for help because I know X better than anyone. You said that yourself. And what I’m telling you is that X won’t be upset with you if you just go and talk to him.”
“...If you really think that’s the right thing to do, then I guess I can give it a try.”
“If you want me to, I can go with you so you don’t chicken out.”
If Axl was going to confront X like Zero wanted him to do, then he needed to take the advice given to him to heart. This was something he had to do himself to prove that he wasn’t a kid in need of constant looking after. Even if, deep down, he would like for X to adopt him and care for him as though they were truly family.
“No, that’s ok,” Axl said as he found his resolution. “I can do this myself.”
Zero smirked, prideful and satisfied, and said, “Taking responsibility, that’s what I like to see. I’m proud of you, kid.”
And then, for the second time that day, Axl shoved his foot in his mouth.
“Thanks, Dad!”
Axl immediately facepalmed.
For his part, Zero hastily drank the rest of his energen trying to hide a very obvious blush. He at least kept a straight face, which is more than could be said for when the same thing happened with X.
Axl groaned and hid his face in his palms, mumbling out, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that…”
“It’s… fine,” Zero said awkwardly. “The association makes sense.”
Uncovering his eyes, Axl stared down his mentor and accidental father figure like he couldn’t believe what he heard. “Really? It does?”
“X and I do pay a lot of extra attention to you compared to any other Hunter,” Zero admitted. “And we’re partners, so if you think of X as your mom, then it’s only logical that I would be your dad.”
“You’re handling this surprisingly well.”
“It would be a pointless waste of time to make this a bigger deal than it needs to be. Though, it was a little weird to hear you call me ‘Dad’ out loud…”
“Like, the bad kind of weird?”
“...No. I just need to get used to it.”
Axl perked up. “So… it’s fine if I call you that?”
Zero hesitated to answer, thought about it, and then decided, “...Just don’t get carried away with it.”
That was as close to a “yes” as Axl was ever going to get, so he fistpumped the air in celebration. Suddenly, he felt a whole lot better about his chances with resolving the issue with X. If Zero was willing to go along with the idea of being a family, then maybe…
“Yes! Thank you, Dad!,” Axl said excitedly. He stood from his seat in a hurry and added, “I’m gonna go talk to X now! I’ll let ya know how it goes later. See ya!”
Axl left before Zero could respond, which meant he missed seeing his newly acquired parent shake his head in exasperation. Even so, Zero couldn’t help but smile at his adoptive son’s antics.
~~~
Axl’s motivation to sort things out with X managed to get him all the way to the door of X’s room before the panic set in again. His stupid CPU wouldn’t stop replaying the mortifying moment he called X “mom” in his head, bringing back all those horrifyingly embarrassing feelings from the entire ordeal. But Axl reminded himself that if Zero of all people was cool with being called “Dad”, then how bad could X’s reaction really be? They just needed to talk and establish how each side feels about the issue, or something like that.
So, Axl sucked it up and knocked on the door, internally fighting his own systems to keep from running away. It only took a few seconds for the door to slide open.
X looked surprised to see who was visiting him and said, “Oh, Axl, it’s you. What brings you here?”
“Um, I… I was hoping to, um,” Axl awkwardly started as he nervously rubbed his arm. “I wanted to apologize. About earlier. I didn’t mean to call you ‘Mom’...”
X stepped out of the way and gestured towards his room with a sigh. “Come on in.”
Axl did as he was told and entered X’s room. He had dropped by once or twice in the past to drop off something for X, but it was a wholly different experience to be invited inside knowing that an awkward conversation was inevitable. The room was very homely and clearly lived in, unlike the usual Hunter-assigned room. There was a vast collection of instruments arranged neatly in one corner, shelves filled to the brim with books from a time before reploids, dozens of framed pictures hanging on the walls, and trinkets of all shapes and sizes everywhere you looked. Axl would’ve thought X was a chronic hoarder if everything wasn’t so well organized. In reality, X probably packed his room with so much stuff simply because he had a deep appreciation for everything the world had to offer.
Axl stood around uncomfortably looking at everything to distract himself until he was offered a place to sit. He ended up taking the only chair in the room while X took a seat on his bed- a proper human bed rather than a recharge capsule. Though, he did have a recharge capsule, too, as all reploids do. Having a regular bed was likely a personal preference he could get away with due to his superior self-sustaining design compared to the average reploid.
Axl needed to stop distracting himself…
“So… about what happened,” X started.
“I’m really sorry!,” Axl hastily apologized. “If you’re mad, I totally understand and I promise you it won’t happen again!”
“Actually, I’m the one who should apologize.”
“I- huh?!”
Five seconds in and Axl was already stunned. He was not expecting that turn of events.
“I admit I’ve been rather… overbearing, lately,” X clarified, “and it seems I’ve overstepped my boundaries as your mentor. I know it’s not an excuse, but I’ve experienced many tragedies during my time as a Maverick Hunter. I can’t help but worry about seeing you go through something similar. I’ve been told that this aspect of my personality is one of my greatest strengths, but it’s one of my biggest flaws, too… I’m sorry I made you feel like you were being treated like a child.”
“What? No! That’s not it!,” Axl exclaimed. “Er, well, that’s not entirely it. I- honestly, sometimes it does feel like you think of me as a little kid, but- but you do a lot of really nice things for me, too! You’re always looking out for me and I’ve learned so much from you on our missions together! Even when I act like a brat, you’re always so patient with me and then when I’m the one who messes up, you still apologize like you did something wrong. Like right now, for example. That’s why I- why I accidentally called you ‘Mom’, because you care for me the same way I always imagined a mom would… I wanted to say sorry for calling you that without asking if it was ok first.”
X was left speechless in the wake of Axl’s monologue. He was surprised to hear such heartfelt words coming from his protege, but then, after a few moments, he laughed.
Axl was just about to ask what was so funny about him pouring his metaphorical heart out, when X finally found his words. He said, “Here I was, thinking that I had annoyed you so much that you thought of me as a nagging caricature of a mother while you were thinking you had accidentally made me upset and uncomfortable. Then the reality is that we were both worried about nothing. How funny!”
“So… you’re cool with it?,” Axl asked hesitantly.
“I don’t mind if you think of me that way. It is a bit… unexpected, to be considered a mother and I’m sure quite a few humans would find it odd, but I kind of like the idea. It would be nice to have someone to call ‘family’ alongside Zero.”
All of Axl’s anxiety evaporated, just like that. He couldn’t believe Zero was right. This conversation was way easier than he thought it would be.
“Oh man, that’s a relief,” Axl said. “I was really worried you’d think the idea was stupid, or something. It would’ve made things really weird, too, since I already convinced Zero to let me call him ‘Dad’.”
X looked absolutely stunned. “Excuse me? you did what?”
“I went to Zero to get advice on how to handle this situation and ended up accidentally calling him ‘Dad’, but then he was like, ‘yeah, that’s fine’, so now I’ve got two whole parents. Lucky me!”
“...Really? Zero actually agreed to that? Somehow, I can’t imagine it…”
“I thought it was super weird, too, but he said that since you guys have been dating for years, if I think of one of you as a parent, then the other should be considered one, too.”
“I- I guess that makes sense…”
“Oh man, this is so awesome! I can’t wait to tell Dad the good news! Now that we’re a full fledged family, we’ve gotta start planning family game nights and outings and do all the stuff that humans do in the movies!”
Axl practically vibrated with excitement and the sight made X smile. His adopted son’s- and wow, wasn’t that strange to say?- joy was infectious.
“Alright, let’s not get too carried away now,” X said with a quiet laugh. “We still have a lot of work to do as Maverick Hunters. Why don’t you make a list of all the things you want to do as a family and we can plan to do them the next time we all have time off?”
“Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ll get started right now, with a corkboard and everything!,” Axl exclaimed.
That might have been a bit too much, but Axl was just too excited. He truly was the luckiest reploid in the world to have the two coolest people ever agree to adopt him. His mentor figures, the two Hunters he looked up to ever since he was freshly built, now his parents. Never in a million years did he imagine that things would play out this way- and so easily, too- but he was sure glad it did.
Axl leapt up from his seat, a million different ideas for family activities running through his mind as he practically sprinted to the door. Before he left, he called back, “Talk to ya later, Mom! Love you!”
The earnest words were no longer embarrassing to let out.
~~~
By the very next day, Axl had already commemorated the founding of his new family with two novelty mugs he got from a ninety-nine zenny store. While he had also made a big long list of things to do and trips to go on as a family, they sadly couldn’t do any of those things just yet. But he could at least get impromptu gifts for his parents if nothing else. He was way too excited to not do anything to celebrate and having to wait for the fun stuff was torture. So, he had snuck away from Hunter HQ for an hour and found what he believed to be the perfect gift.
Axl had presented the mugs to his adoptive parents during their scheduled refueling hour, sliding them both across the mess hall table with a wide grin on his face. His excitement made it hard to sit still and he bounced his leg in anticipation. He asked, “Soooo, wha’d’you guys think?”
X held his mug delicately as he read the words printed on the side. “World’s Best Mom,” it said in fancy black cursive on a vibrant red background. He looked over to his partner’s matching blue mug to see what it said only to laugh. Zero’s mug read, “World’s Coolest Dad,” but the “coolest” was written on a sticky note that covered the word “OK-est”.
Zero glanced up at Axl and asked, “Only ‘OK-est’, huh?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t find a better one that matched with the one I got for Mom, so I improvised,” Axl explained as he scratched the back of his head.
Despite the lackluster presentation of the gift, Zero still poured his can of energen into his mug and took a sip from it. The action brought a smile to Axl’s face.
“These are perfect, Axl. Thank you,” X said as he followed Zero’s example.
Axl fist pumped the air and exclaimed, “Yes! Operation Gift Giving is a success! I’m glad you guys like them ‘cus I’ll definitely be getting more stuff in the future.”
“Just don’t blow all your money on novelty gifts,” Zero said. “Otherwise we’ll run out of space for them.”
“Ok, well, I didn’t mean that much stuff. I’ll save it for special occasions.”
“Is this one of those special occasions, too?,” X asked.
“Heck yeah it is!,” Axl said. “It’s to celebrate officially becoming a real family!”
“In that case, why don’t we take a picture, too?”
Axl’s first instinct was to ask, “why bother?” All reploids, both old and new, have photographic memory by default. They didn’t really need pictures to remember the things they’ve done or the places they’ve been. The only real benefit of taking pictures from a reploids perspective is to convey information to someone else. Unfortunately, reploids could not transfer data like memories freely between each other due to the complexity of how their “brains” work and also because of how much storage their memories eat up. In that way, humans and reploids were a lot alike in that their experiences were forever their own and they could only share glimpses of those experiences through other means.
Oh wait, maybe that was what X was getting at, Axl realized. If they were going to adopt a human-like family dynamic, they might as well go all the way and adopt some cultural aspects, too. Plus, Axl could parade family pictures around and brag to newbie Hunters or random civilians about how he had the awesomest parents in the world.
“That’s a great idea!,” Axl said. He then stood and rounded the table to sit in between X and Zero before taking his helmet off. He set the helmet down on the table and turned it to face the group, sliding it forward and back until he was sure it was the perfect distance for a good angle.
It was a little known fact, but the gem on Axl’s helmet didn’t look like a camera lens just for the sake of it. It was designed that way to better analyze and process the data of any reploid he encountered so that it could be stored in his copy chip. This also came with the extra benefit of regular camera functionality, though he rarely ever used it for that. If he wanted it to take a picture or record something when he wasn’t wearing the helmet, all he had to do was send it a command wirelessly through bluetooth.
As Axl set a five second countdown for his helmet, he said, “Alright, say cheese!”
The lens on Axl’s helmet shuddered in time with a small chorus of “cheese”. Axl hastily put his helmet back on when its job was done and opened the new picture on his HUD. He himself sat in the middle with an ear to ear smile as he held his hands up and gave his parents bunny ears. X was to his right, holding up his mug so that the text was clearly visible with a gentle smile on his face. Zero was to Axl’s left and was caught mid-sip like he was trying to hide behind his mug, but his eyes were still visible and he was looking at X rather than the camera. That detail made Axl grin. It was very typical of Zero to be unable to take his eyes off his partner.
The picture was perfect, Axl had to admit as he emailed it to his parents. Even more perfect was the casual and joking conversation that followed. For that little moment in time, everything was working out exactly as he had always dreamed it would. If the present was already so amazing, he couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring!