Human After All (II)

Joshua found himself spinning around in a circle, desperately trying to find the source of a humming noise that pulsed throughout the air. The sounds were haunting, and they seemed to deafen Joshua with every second he heard them. No matter how much he tried to block out the sounds, they broke through, forcing him to listen the agonizingly high pitched notes.

"Master?" Joshua managed to shout through the hums. A crowd of people formed around him, some pointing at him and yelling things Joshua couldn't make out. They had no faces, only mouths, and they seemed to be constantly moving in the world Joshua was so desperately trying to understand. Others of the crowd were only walking past him as though he weren't even there. Joshua fell to his knees with a slight whimper, clutching his head ever-so tightly in pain. An ache shot through his head like never before.

Rough arms attached themselves to Joshua's shoulders, dragging him against the ground with rough tugs. Joshua turned his head slightly to find empyreals leading him down the sidewalk to his own demise, where he would soon meet his deactivation. Joshua screamed, kicking his legs desperately, but there was no use; nobody was there to help him. Joshua was on his own.

Almost suddenly, there was darkness, pitch black all around him. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the sudden lack of light, A rough hand landed on his cheek, leaving only a stinging sensation upon Joshua's cheek. Joshua hissed, but held back his dislike as he felt tears beginning to pool in his eyes. He tried to blink the tears away, but sobs fell past his lips.

"Joshua." There came Beau's voice through his sobs. Joshua jumped at the sound, looking around in the darkness.

"Master?" Joshua squeaked, trying to find any source of help through the darkness. Beau was no where to be found. Joshua was sinking into the ground of the dark room.

"Joshua.... Wake up!"

Beau shook Joshua's shoulder tenderly, but his voice was urgent, nervous.

"Joshua, please wake up." Beau pleaded, pressing his soft lips against Joshua's cheek. "Please wake up." His voice grew more desperate as each second passed, and Beau finally heaved a sigh of deep relief when Joshua's eyes slid open. But the look in his eyes was not comforting. Beau nearly broke down when he saw his bot with glossy eyes and listened as pants of breath moved his chest up and down erratically.

"Master!" Joshua exclaimed, jumping into his master's arms with melancholy sobs. He had been crying in his sleep, and it scared Beau to death. Joshua buried his face in the warmest part of Beau's chest, wrapping his arms around Beau's body to ensure that he wouldn't actually be taken away by the empyreals. "Master, I-I— they were taking me, a-and I couldn't find you." Joshua whimpered, his voice growing quiet with every second that passed. He probably woke up the girls with his yells.

"I'm here." Beau whispered, running his fingers through Joshua's hair and pressing his head up against his chest where his heart should have been pounding. While Beau knew Joshua was still safe, and that he hadn't been deactivated, the thought still ran through his mind once when Joshua didn't wake up. Beau almost had a panic attack before he realized Joshua was actually taking time to wake up. For some reason, he thought Joshua had been deactivated in his sleep and that was why we wasn't waking up. He knew it wasn't rational, but since he had just figured out his bot was on a hit list, rationality seemed to fly out of the door.

Joshua sobbed, and Beau hushed him, pressing his lips to the top of his head.

"I'm here." Beau said again, trying his best to coax the troubled bot in his arms.

"Master?" Joshua said. Beau nodded, and Joshua looked up almost guiltily. "Master, may I kiss you?"

Beau laughed. "You don't have to ask, beautiful." He let a pet name slip, and his cheeks flushed to a deep rosy color. "All you have to do, Joshua, is kiss me. I promise, that's all you have to do." Beau smiled. Joshua pushed himself up the bed, pressing kisses to his master's cheek with every inch he got closer to his lips until he finally pressed his soft, supple lips against Beau's. Beau shivered, only intensifying the kiss by meshing his lips together with Joshua's. A sudden burst of heat exploded in Joshua's stomach, urging him to advance his movements.

Beau pulled away from the kiss, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. Only his hot breaths lingered upon Joshua's less than warm lips, beckoning them closer together. Then Beau sighed.

"What's wrong, master?" Joshua asked quickly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No." Beau said quickly. "It's just that-that- I... Never mind." He shook his head quickly. Beau tended to say something, but quickly lose his nerve. Besides, he had only first kissed Joshua a few nights ago. Telling him he loved him already would be too soon, especially for Beau's tastes.

The last time Beau told a person he loved them was when he was 15 and in high school, and it wasn't even to another boy, but to a girl. Beau was especially confused about his sexuality in his teen years. For the longest time he thought he was straight, but then he considered the fact that he was bisexual. Soon after that, Beau figured out that he wasn't really attracted to girls. Talking to them and such was fine, but having a relationship with them, just wasn't Beau's thing. It took him almost two years to realize that.

"Master, are you all right?" Joshua placed his hands upon Beau's cheeks. His eyebrows were furrowed slightly in worry for Beau. "Master, you look angry."

Beau smiled, pushing the thoughts away from his mind. He pressed his lips to Joshua's forehead, giggling to himself.

"Sorry, but I just couldn't help being in a daze because of how beautiful you are," Beau laced his fingers with Joshua's, the corners of his lips curling into a smile. Joshua squealed, throwing himself in his master's arms and landing upon the hard ground with Beau, a frenzy of laughs escaping between them.

***

"No, Ethylon. We can't do that. We're going to be caught if we try to get in." Beau pointed his finger at an opening on the building that left them completely vulnerable to the empyreals and their weapons.

"You're right." Ethylon chewed on his bottom lip, crossing out a bullet point on the list next to him. "So far our plan is to at least warn the bots on the list. We've gotta keep them safe."

"But it's their choice if they want to do anything else. And we can't tell them our real names. Some of them might be huge blabber mouths."

Ethylon rolled his eyes. "So if they're blabber mouths and we're not going to tell them our names, we're just gonna tell them about this huge ass plan we've got?"

Beau cursed, throwing a sneer in the direction of the ground. "Fuck, you're right. I hate it when you're right." Then Beau paused, looking at Ethylon in slight satisfaction. "What about your brother?" Beau said. Ethylon looked up, slightly angry, more hurt though.

"I don't talk with my brother anymore." He murmured, not bothering to look up again. Beau rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure he'll be happy to hear from you, and then—"

"Drop it, Beau." Ethylon snapped. He looked up through his blonde locks of hair before letting out rings of smoke in the air. "We can't use my brother in any of this."

"But it'll be some huge family reunion." Beau said with a laugh. "Let's just consider the idea. Hack his server. Send him an encrypted email."

"You fucking do it then, Beau." Ethylon spat, throwing an angry look in Beau's direction before he continued to work on the page under his hands. "You can talk with my brother all you want. I don't want to speak to him anytime soon either."

"Why?"

"Because he just left me, Beau." Ethylon said. "He didn't even fight. He just left. He was probably happy to leave his poor family. Stupid fucker."

"Wow." Beau said with sarcasm dripping in his voice. "Maybe he did fight for your family, and you just didn't see."

"Maybe you should shut your mouth."

"Make me." Beau said back with a snarl. Ethylon grabbed Beau by the collar, to which Beau pressed a switchblade he had started to carry around against Ethylon's throat. They both smiled evilly, eventually releasing each other from each others grip with a weak laugh. Beau thought about how much relief he felt when Lejend offered to take Joshua down the hall instead of allowing him sit in the same room while tension rose. The hit list was becoming too much for the both of them.

Leighlan and Jaydin hadn't left Automate since they found out about the hit list. Rue gave them a hotel room above the ground, and that was where they stayed for the most part. They couldn't trust their original small apartment now that empyreals had swarmed that entire underground tunnel, searching for humans, bots and anything else suspicious. Staying at the hotel was proving to be in their favor as well. They could be as loud as they wanted without bugging anybody else except for a few drunks down below. They were exceptionally happy where they were.

"Beau, are you even listening to me?" Ethylon snapped.

"Nope." Beau admitted, rolling his eyes slightly when Ethylon let out a sigh. "How about we keep this going tomorrow? We'll probably have more ideas and stuff.... The tension in this room could be cut with a knife right now."

Ethylon nodded. "Yeah. We're probably gonna kill each other soon."

"Oh, shut up." Leighlan remarked from his computer screen. He was currently hacking away that the Main's latest defenses. It was a bit harder, Leighlan told them, but he there were holes in the development because the Main was in such a hurry to keep their files safe. They missed some key points, and that made it that much easier for Jaydin and Leighlan to start eating away at gigabytes of memory.

"Just kill each other and get it over with." Leighlan continued from his previous remark. With the flick of his wrist, Beau clicked the knife open and shut, open and shut. He loved playing with the knife, Beau laughed, throwing his switchblade back in his pocket when he realized he still hadn't gotten rid of it yet, though he doubted he would actually use it on somebody.

"I'm gonna go home now. Joshua's probably bored out of his mind." Beau nodded in the direction of the hall. Beau shuffled his feet awkwardly before starting towards the door. He leaned his head against the door, trying to hear any noise, but he couldn't even catch a whisper.

Beau slipped the door open. "Jos—"

"Shush." Joshua said from the crates in the room. Lejend rested her head in his lap, her soft breathing the only thing in the room. She clutched a knife in her fingers, but she looked peaceful, at rest. Joshua placed his hand on her cheek, shaking her face lightly. "Lejend." He whispered. She snapped her eyes open, the knife in her hand showing a glint of light that it hadn't before. "I'm leaving now, Lejend."

Lejend took a glance at the door and pulled herself off of Joshua's lap. She didn't even give Joshua a glance as he slid off of the crate and waved goodbye. She only stared off into the distance as they left.

As soon as they were outside and walking towards their apartment ("their" apartment, because Beau felt Joshua deserved his own property as well), Beau tapped on Joshua's shoulder.

"Was she mad at you?"

"Who?" Joshua furrowed his brows together. Beau smiled.

"Lejend. Was she angry?" Joshua shook his head quickly, grinning from ear to ear.

"No, master. She just doesn't like humans much."

"But she works with Ethylon constantly!"

"She's uncomfortable around humans, master. Even when she's around Ethylon, she doesn't know how to act. She's not emotionless as Ethylon believes she is. She's confused." With that last sentence, Beau scooped Joshua into his arms, pressing warm, feather-like kisses along Joshua's cheek.

"How lucky am I to get such a wonderful mate like you?" Beau kissed Joshua's nose.

"Mate?" Joshua said quickly. His eyes widened in definite shock, before Beau nodded. Joshua squealed, throwing his arms around Beau's neck again. "Oh master! You-you're-you're amazing!"

Being called a 'mate' in their community was more privileged than being called a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife. Such names were only for petty relationships. A 'mate' meant there was one person for the other, and only that one person. There weren't any petty differences between the two, there weren't arguments, and they loved every bit of each other. They were called 'mates'. There weren't many people who liked to say 'mate' either. It was taken very serious, more serious than a marriage proposal.

Beau's smile faltered for a minute, and Joshua noted this change. He furrowed his brows together.

"Master, what's—"

"Empyreals. The usual. Don't pay them any mind." Beau turned his gaze away from the two who were staring exceptionally long at Joshua. Beau wanted to yell at them, to tell them to take a picture or keep walking, but that would result in more suspicion than needed, so Beau just "humph"'ed under his breath and allowed his attention to revert to Joshua again. He gave a smile, pressing his lips against Joshua's cheek. Only twice had they decided to really kiss each other, and each was better than the next. Beau wouldn't start kissing his bot religiously though. He had respect for Joshua, and Joshua should feel that each kiss is sincere and from the bottom of Beau's heart. But that was just what he thought.

***

The night seemed to be so peaceful. The city had quieted down since the swarming of the empyreals. The bird songs came back, and what seemed to be a songbird perched itself in a tree outside of Beau's window. He didn't mind the soft whistling between the bird and the wind, and even though the bird was keeping him awake, Beau wanted to stay awake.

Joshua sighed softly, gently resting his hand against Beau's chest and repositioning his body so he was closer next to Beau's warm body. His sweatpants were loosely pulled over his hips, and because Beau had more respect than to keep looking at the bare flesh, he pulled Joshua's sweatpants up his hips. Joshua shifted among the silk sheets lazily before falling into a soft sleep yet again.

The perfection of the night seemed to be all too much for Beau. Joshua laying next to him in the warm bed, a songbird whistling soft notes throughout the night, the calmness of the town. It was all so serene. Beau was afraid to even yawn because he thought the perfection to be like porcelain. The slightest movement would risk breaking it. Beau knew it was too good to be true.

From the front door came a frantic knock. Joshua jumped, peering through one eye at his master.

"Master?"

"Stay." Beau mumbled, kissing the top of Joshua's head to keep him from moving on the bed. "I'll be right back."

"Okay." Joshua whispered again.

Beau slipped past Joshua's room in complete silence (as the girls slept in his room), and gently tiptoed across a few creaky steps. He cringed in anger, hoping that he didn't wake the girls up just yet.

When Beau neared the door, he heard a gasping from behind it. Beau quickly opened it to find a frazzled Jaydin before him.

"Beau! I-I-I didn't k-know who else t-to go to!" She shouted. Beau hushed her, bringing her into the apartment to avoid causing a scene in the hall. He would hate for one of the neighbors to call the officers. "I-I was s-so lost!"

"Jaydin." Beau said softly, pushing her hair back into place although it was tangled like she had just ran through six miles of trees. She looked the part too; her face was caked with ash, soot, and a cut trailed from the bottom of her eye halfway down her cheek. Her eyes were glistening through the dirt upon her face.

"T-they-they—"

"Jaydin, calm down."

"I-I, uhm, they—"

"Jaydin."

"They took Leighlan!" She broke down into a sob, throwing herself into Beau's arm. Beau uncomfortably rubbed her back, murmuring words of reassurance, but nothing could stop her tears. "They took him, he was in my arms, and gone the next."

"How did they find you?"

"I-I don't know! The-the Automate.... They bombed it. Leighlan and I were just getting back, and.... boom!" She shouted. "Fire everywhere. M-my ear." She pointed to the left side of her face where he ear was bloodied, but still intact. "I can't hear out of this ear. The explosion got me."

"And Leighlan? They took him, alive?"

"They took him!" She shouted again. "Right from my arms. And then-then they just taunted me. They were hitting him, Beau!"

"Stop screaming." Beau said, pressing his lips to her forehead. "We'll get him." Then a thought struck his mind. "Where's Ethylon?"

"Ethylon!" Jaydin shouted again, her brown wisps of hair falling against her face. Beau studied the ashen ends of her hair that were undoubtedly fried from the explosion. She would probably have to cut the ends off in order to save the rest of it. "Ethylon wasn't there. He went out to get more cigarettes, and Lejend—" She gasped. "Beau, they took Lejend! A-and Rue! Rue is dead!"

Beau's heart stilled in his chest. They couldn't have taken Lejend. And Rue? Beau couldn't even imagine how painful Rue's death was. Both Leighlan and Lejend both being taken was detrimental to everything going on right now, especially for Jaydin. Beau bit his bottom lip, taking a few deep breaths before looking back down at Jaydin.

"We're gonna get them back. They won't deactivate Leighlan. He's smart. He knows how to keep them from doing that."

Jaydin wiped her eyes, only smearing the soot and ashes a bit more. Her ear was bleeding mercilessly.

"Here." Beau started to walk her towards the bathroom. "Go take a shower. Clean yourself up. You're a mess." Beau said as she giggled lightly.

"I don't think there's enough soap to clean me up." She remarked. Then she slipped into the bathroom. Beau rubbed his temples, yawning lightly. He knew it was a bad time to be tired, but that was all he could think about. His eyes drooped, and he started towards his own bedroom. He wouldn't fall asleep, but he would just lay down until Jaydin was finished.

When Beau opened the door to his bedroom, he found himself staring at Joshua with gleaming glasz eyes. He didn't bother to look at Beau, not even when he walked next to him and placed an open palm on Joshua's shoulder.

"You heard." Beau mumbled. Joshua nodded slowly.

Beau wrapped his arms around Joshua's shoulders, pulling him off of the bed with such speed that Joshua's head was spinning. He squeaked lightly while Beau pressed his lips against the top of his head. It grew silent between them, and now the only sound was the shower and the songbird outside of the window.

"I won't ever let them take you, Joshua." Beau said.

"You won't?" Joshua looked at his master with gleaming eyes, not bothering to hide the obvious fear in his eyes. He was trembling. How could the officers have found Leighlan and managed to subdue Lejend? She was like a beast, how could they have gotten her just like that? Joshua couldn't even get her just like that, and she trusted him more than anybody else (except for Ethylon, but Joshua was still up there).

"Over my dead body." Beau nodded, pulling Joshua in another hug. Now Beau couldn't even care about the sounds around them, or how peaceful it was before Jaydin came. He only cared about how he was going to protect his bot from the empyreals. He meant it when he said over his dead body. They would never get ahold of Joshua, not in this lifetime or the next, and if they did, Beau would go down swinging.