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“I’m such a goddamn genius!” Miu had bragged earlier in the day. She had just finished updating Kiibo’s system. However, she decided to include a new function with it. The function was “super awesome artificial dreaming,” which was named by Miu herself. The function would copy Kiibo’s memory data from the day and alter it so it could play while Kiibo went into sleep mode. Though Miu never specified the extent of the editing, Kiibo was excited and nervous for the night to come.
So when Kiibo had said goodnight to his roommate, (and boyfriend), Shuichi, and turned on sleep mode while tucked in his bed, he had no idea what would play for the next few hours.
———
Shuichi had kissed his boyfriend before climbing into his own bed. Kiibo had bragged about Miu’s upgrade while they got ready to sleep, his eyes sparkling. Shuichi smiled softly as he thought about how cute the robot boy was when he went on about his new functions.
After a few more minutes submerged in his own thoughts, Shuichi slowly drifted to sleep.
He has waken up in the middle of the night. After checking his phone, the detective deducted that it was around 3 in the morning. But before he could sink back into his pillow, Shuichi heard a shallow beeping noise coming from Kiibo’s half of the dorm, which was unlike the familiar whirring of Kiibo’s circuits.
“...Kiibo..?” Shuichi whispered into the dark and rubbed his eyes. When the only response was the rustling of covers, the boy climbed out of bed and shuffled to the robot’s side of the room.
Kiibo was still in sleep mode, though he was making muffled beeping noises as he tossed and turned in his blankets. Shuichi knew Kiibo usually slept with no expression on his face, so he was surprised to find his boyfriend looking so frightened and upset.
The detective lightly shook Kiibo in an attempt to awaken him, but it didn’t work. The beeping slowly started to turn into whimpers, and Shuichi became more and more worried. He tried to search the robot boy’s back for some sort of button that would turn off sleep mode. He immediately heard the click of a button before Kiibo shot out of bed with a gasp.
“K-kiibo! What happened? Are you alright?” Shuichi frantically asked his boyfriend questions and put his hand on Kiibo’s metallic shoulder. Kiibo was silent for a few moments, eyes widened and shaking slightly, before he caved and melted in Shuichi’s arms. Kiibo didn’t have a crying function, but if he did, he knew he would be bawling his eyes out.
“Shuichi, it was s-so scary... all my f-friends hated m-me... everyone was a-against me... they though I couldn’t t-think or f-feel..!” Kiibo stuttered, his artificial breaths shaky and anxious. Shuichi rubbed his boyfriend’s back and tried his best to comfort him as he attempted to further explain the artificially-made dream.
“I though all d-dreams were supposed to be good... why was this o-one bad?” Kiibo sounded hurt, which only made Shuichi hug him tighter. Seeing Kiibo in such pain and anguish always saddened the detective.
“Sometimes people can have bad dreams, but they’re usually called nightmares,” Shuichi explained in a soothing tone. Kiibo thought back in his memory bank to when Shuichi would wake up in the middle of the night, sobbing and mumbling for help. Can robots have nightmares as well?
“I’m scared, Shuichi. What if I have another one?” Kiibo essentially buried his face into his boyfriend’s shoulder, though his intense shaking started to quell. Shuichi paused for a moment before talking again.
“I can lay here with you until you feel comfortable to go into sleep mode again. Will that make you feel better?” The detective gave a sympathetic smile, which Kiibo returned.
“Please do.”
———
The couple climbed under Kiibo’s covers, the warmth of the blankets greeting them. Kiibo wrapped his arms around Shuichi, as if he was going to lose him. Shuichi combed his fingers through Kiibo’s white hair, which was slightly messy from moving in his sleep. After about 10 minutes or so, Kiibo had gone into sleep mode, and a soft and calm whirring filled the room. Shuichi continued to snuggle up to the robot while his eyes continuously got heavier and heavier.
Soon enough, the two students were cuddling under the covers. Both of them had sweet dreams, mostly about each other.