Human After All (II)

Beau found stacks of albums and CDs that he hadn't listened to since he was just a pre-teen. Beau particularly liked playing music he and Joshua could dance to, simply because he loved to see Joshua giggle and smile so much.

Kiyah's voice was becoming more active as Joshua worked on her CPU little by little. Speaking was mostly her choice, so even if Joshua managed to have her voice active, she didn't absolutely have to speak if she didn't want to. Joshua thought her voice was so beautiful though, why wouldn't she want to hear it?

But the empyreals had no left the town yet, which was troubling because Beau was constantly grumpy when they were around, and since they went out in public frequently, Joshua was squeamish when the officers stared at him, and Beau was constantly having to create some sort of diversion to keep the officers away. While Beau hadn't heard of anything on the officers taking a robot yet, he didn't want to rick losing Joshua, or any of his bots for that matter.

“Master.” Joshua squeaked after a few empyreals walked past the candy shop, eying everything in it before starting down the square. “When are they going to leave?”

“I don't know.” Beau sighed. “They should have been gone already.”

“The rogues, are they still within the town?” Joshua said quietly. Beau searched his mind. If the empyreals had some suspicion of the rogues being in the town, they should have put the town on lock down or something. As traveling was already regulated, they would have no problem stopping others from traveling until the rogues were caught. Sealing the gates should have been no problem for the government.

Joshua poked Beau's shoulder. “Am I asking too many questions? I'm sorry if I am....”

“No, no.” Beau replied quickly. “I don't know if the rogues are even here. I haven't heard anything of the other towns having empyreals walking around. Just ours. But maybe they're just being really thorough.” Beau said, although he knew that was a complete lie. Then a thought hit him. “So that means they have no idea where the rogues really are! What the hell?” Beau shouted. He threw his hand over his mouth quickly as the others in the store stared at him. “Don't say that word, Joshua. That's not a good word.”

Joshua nodded. “Yes, master. But are you worried about the empyreals?”

“A bit.” Joshua leaned his head on Beau's arm, since he couldn't reach Beau's shoulder. “They will be gone soon. I'm sure of it. He said with confidence. Beau ran his fingers through Joshua's soft and feathery hair.

“C'mon, Joshua. Let's get that candy you wanted.”

***

Joshua ran around the store without much thought for other people. He picked up packages of chocolate covered marshmallows, rainbow lollipops, gumballs the size of golf balls, jawbreakers, licorice whips, peanut clusters, caramel chews, and two candied apples. Joshua walked to Beau with a nonchalant smile on his face, and handed him a candied apple.

“Oh, Joshua. They're for you.” Beau denied the sweets. “It's all right.”

“Don't you want it?” Joshua looked confused, furrowing his brow.

“Do you want me to have it?” Beau said. He thought the whole reason he was buying Joshua all the candy was because Joshua wanted them, not for others. Joshua nodded quickly, pushing the candied apple towards Beau again. “Really? O-oh, thank you then.” Beau took the candied apple in his thumb and forefinger, taking a small bite of the tender, juicy apple. The taste filled his entire mouth, and the caramel stuck to his teeth like glue. He laughed, and wiped away juice that trickled down his chin.

“You're a messy eater, master.” Joshua giggled.

“I know, I know.” Beau looked away in embarrassment as he licked the caramel away from his teeth. “Would you like to visit Troia?” Joshua pursed his lips in deep thought, and Beau stared and smiled without shame. Beau threw his hands over his mouth after he cooed ever-so-quietly, and he tried to hide the undertones of a rosy pink blush on his cheeks. Joshua recognized the coo to show that somebody was doing something cute. Dahlia did it plenty of times when Beau would kiss Joshua's cheek, or sometimes hold his hand.

“Did I do something cute, master?” Joshua asked, sounding out the word, “cute,” so he made sure he got it right. Beau nodded, his cheeks returning to his normal shade of skin tone. He pulled his hands away from his face when he was sure his cheeks weren't flushed.

After paying for the bag of candy that Joshua allowed his master to look at this time, they started down the sidewalk towards the coffee shop. The town was quiet, and a little boring, so they figured just a little visit to Troia, and then a walk back home would be nice. The girls didn't want to go out in public, for fear that they would be taken by the empyreals. Beau didn't even want to be in public, but they would, and then Beau would hack more before he shut down his system until the empyreals left.

Joshua was getting used to his master doing things out of the blue because the officers were still in town. Beau would snake his arm around Joshua's hips, or sometimes kiss his cheek, or hold him close to ward off suspicion. From what, Joshua wasn't sure. The feeling of random touches from his master was seemingly normal.

Beau's fingers laced with Joshua's, and a spreading warmth surrounded Joshua's soft fingers. He looked at their fingers locked together. He smiled, and without realizing it, searched for empyreals. There had to have been one around for Beau to do this.

But there were none. No empyreals were parading down the streets with their loud marching, and piercing gazes. Joshua peered at his master, realizing that his master's cheeks were flushed. Dahlia explained to Joshua that the cheeks flushing was a sign of embarrassment or anxiety. Was Beau nervous to hold Joshua's hand? Why?

Joshua gave a small squeeze to Beau's warm fingers, and Beau's grip tightened comfortably around Joshua's, as if he had just received approval from Joshua. The corners of Beau's lips tugged into a weak smile. Joshua watched as he saw that his master was honestly nervous to hold his hand, and it was cute.

***

Beau typed quietly as the girls snoozed quietly in Joshua's bedroom. They had taken a new found fondness to his bedroom, which was good because sometimes Beau needed his room for himself (although he didn't mind when Joshua walked in.)

Sometimes Beau hated using Joshua for hacking. His eyes were an unnatural shade of gray that Beau didn't like at all. Joshua just seemed so robotic, honestly. He loved the Joshua that was sensitive, and kind, and sweet, not the silent, dark eyed robot.

So Beau quickly finished typing the encrypted source codes he was creating for a few friends in another town before he hit send.

The screen flashed white, and that was enough to spark Beau's interest. Flashing screens usually weren't a good sign. Beau tapped the keyboard gently, although what he was typing was a complex code that would allow him to see if there was something going on within the computer. The screen flashed again. In the corner of the page formed a paper clip. It blinked repeatedly. Somebody was trying to get into Beau's server.

“We'll see about that.” Beau laughed to himself. He cracked his fingers, and began to type vigorously into his computer. Files over files opened as the hacker tried to cover their tracks. Pictures, music, screenshots, all opened at once to slow Beau down. But Beau was smarter than that. In less than a second he had shut down all the files from opening with the flick of his wrist.

The screen went black.

“What the hell?” Beau shoved his keyboard away, standing up with anger. The screen flashed again, and a text box appeared on the screen.

“YOU LOSE.”
While running his hands through his hair, Beau desperately tried to figure out how to counterattack the hack. If he didn't—

“Oh, shit.” Beau said loudly. The screen flashed red, and another text box appeared.

“CLEANING FILES NOW.”
Beau reached behind Joshua, hastily pulling the USB out from his back. Beau waited a few seconds... and he waited... and waited.

“Joshua.” Beau touched his bot's face. “Joshua, say something.”

There was no response. Joshua's eyes had slid shut, so the eerie gray eyes no long leered back. Beau began to hyperventilate. “No, no, no, Joshua. Please, wake up.” He pushed the bot's hair away from his face. “Please!” Beau felt his heart speed up, he couldn't catch his breath. Joshua couldn't have been cleaned so fast. He was a complex bot, and they couldn't have gotten to his server so quickly, whoever the hacker was.

“Master?” Joshua's voice broke through Beau's mental breakdown. His master was grasping at his chest. Beau's mild case of asthma was acting up (it usually came back when he was extremely nervous.) “Are you okay?” Joshua pushed himself off of the desk, and stared at Beau with worry filled eyes.

“Joshua, you're okay!” Beau said, throwing his arms around Joshua's shoulders. “You're okay, you're okay.”

“Um, master?” Joshua squeaked. Beau was mumbling things, but whether it was to himself or Joshua, he couldn't tell.

“You weren't reacting. I was so worried.” Beau pulled away, brushing Joshua's hair away from his face. “But you're okay.”

“Oh....” Joshua said. “T-thank you for caring, master.” He stuttered. He never thought Beau would worry so much for his well-being, especially since Joshua was just a robot.
Beau peeked at his computer. A bright, blood red colored screen waited for him. In the upper left corner, a text box blinked. As soon as Beau turned to the screen, it began to move, words filling the screen.

“Should we introduce ourselves?” The text box filled with the sentence. “Since I attacked your computer just now? No hard feelings or anything. I just had to get your attention.”

“Get off of my server.” Beau typed back quickly. Joshua leaned over his shoulder, staring intently at the screen. “Get off my server right now.”

“Who are you to order me around?”

“Well, who are you to hack into my server? I never did anything.”

The text box blinked for quite some time before the stranger bothered to reply. They typed a few times before deleting the entire sentence. Then the stranger typed the entire sentence. “I think I'm Ethylon Wright, is who I am.-
Now, are you alone?”

Beau swallowed harshly. There was a ball forming in the back of his throat. This couldn't have been Ethylon talking to him. Ethylon was a criminal in hiding, wasn't he? He was afraid of being caught by the government, and only an idiot would tell somebody they were a wanted criminal just seconds after meeting them. But Ethylon knew Beau's name, so he must have had some reason to talk to him.

"I said, are you alone?" The sentence on the screen blinked twice. Beau tapped the keyboard on the desk a few times. Who was this hacker?

"Yes."

"Good.
That's some computer you got there, kid."

"How stupid do you think I am? You're not Ethylon."

"You're stupid enough to use your computer while there are criminals and rogue robots on the run, after they warned you not to."

Joshua held onto Beau's shoulder tightly, barely breathing as he read the messages. They were talking to a criminal, somebody on the run. Ethylon was wanted. Not only could he hurt Beau and the others, but Beau could be arrested for associating with an escaped criminal. But Joshua would never let anybody hurt his master, no matter who it was.

“Don't call me kid. I have a name.
And you don't need to know it.
Or, you can call me Jay.”

“I already know it, and more, Beau.
Whatever you thought you could hide from me,
you can't.”

The room suddenly got ridiculously cold, and chills ran down his spine. How did such a strange hacker know his name? And was he really Ethylon?

“So you know my real name. Big deal!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Lying on the first date? I'm disappointed.”

“What do you want, 'Ethylon'? Cut to the chase. I have better things to do than speak to somebody like you.”

“I have no choice but to ask you, Beau. I need something from you. A favor. I can award you greatly if you help me.”

“No way! I'm not working with, or for a criminal.”

“It's a small favor. Please.”

“And stop saying my name. You don't know me. You only hacked me because I was on the servers.”

“I just need you to send a file to an IP address. That's all. Can you do that? I'm sure you can.”

“I'm turning this off, this conversation is over. Find someone else to find your dirty work.

The text box almost disappeared before one last sentence was typed.

“Very well. You're probably useless anyways. Farewell, Beau Homem-Christo. But since I still have you here, one last thought; don't be surprised if the government officials are knocking at your door tomorrow, since I said you and, and mine in the same conversation. They do have ways to look for me, you know. I could get rid of this script. But since you're leaving... I bid you adieu.”

Beau watched as the red screen closed and returned to normal. He heaved a mixed sigh of relief and worry, while Joshua twiddled his fingers on the couch. Beau sat down next to him, leaning his head against the back of the couch. Whatever just happened hadn't been processed in his mind. Beau had just spoken with the dangerous, lethal armed criminal, Ethylon Wright, yet he didn't seem like a lethal criminal. They never do.

Beau pressed Joshua's head against his chest, and through silent breaths, Joshua drew a heart on Beau's chest again. Then Joshua dozed off, leaving Beau in a puddle of problems and silent arguments within his own mind.