Matthew was quite happily sleeping in the darkness of his home - if you could call the laptop that - when he felt something oh-so rudely yank him out. He was flung backwards, landing on the hardwood floor with a small groan. "Alfred?" he said. He frowned up at a stranger above him, wearing a weird cloak and holding some book.

"What... Who are you?" the stranger stammered under his hood.

"Alfred," Matthew repeated, getting a little frightened. He'd never seen anyone else besides Alfred before. Did everyone in Alfred's world have such monstrous eyebrows?

And...what were those? He stared down at himself, seeing four other limbs. Arms and legs, his mind registered, vaguely recalling Alfred call them that. But what was that thing between his-

The door was opened, someone cheerily calling out, "I'm back!"

Matthew recognized the voice immediately - of course, he was programmed to do so in a snap. He smiled, knowing that Alfred would take him away from the stranger. "Alfred!" he said happily. He felt one of his arms reach out for the other boy, and he marveled at how much control he had with this strange body.

Alfred didn't seem to hear him, looking panicked and rushing over to the stranger. He didn't get there, though, because he tripped on Matthew's outstretched legs.

"Sorry," Matthew said with a cringe. The fall looked like it hurt. Hopefully Alfred was okay. He pulled in his legs, which he was finding to be annoying, and smiled when he finally caught the other's eyes. "Hi, Al."

There was a short silence. Then behind his glasses, Alfred's blue eyes widened. "...Matthew?"

Matthew nodded, still smiling.

"I'm hallucinating, right?" Alfred looked up at the stranger. "You put a curse on me and now I'm seeing freakishly cute, naked boys-"

Matthew's smile vanished at the words, and his shoulders slumped, eyes filling with tears. Alfred seemed to notice the sudden change and crawled towards him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked. He touched Matthew's shoulder hesitantly.

"I'm so sorry," Matthew sniffled. "I know I wasn't supposed to be awake, but someone dumped some liquid on me, and then started pulling on me. And now I'm down here." He pouted angrily at the stranger. "He threw me down, and I'm probably broken, and that other man will have to open up me up again and probe-"

"Matthew," Alfred interrupted. "It's okay, okay?" He smiled reassuringly, but Matthew thought it was forced. "That man's Arthur. I told you he was coming over, remember?"

Matthew looked up at the stranger again. "I don't like him," he stated plainly.

"I didn't...throw you down..." Arthur stammered, looking terribly confused.

"You did something, though." Matthew lifted one of his arms to prove it. "I don't have my keys anymore, this thing on my face keeps opening and closing and copying me, and you made something grow between my legs-"

Alfred couldn't help it; he burst out laughing.

"This is hardly funny, you git!" Arthur snapped, kicking his cousin's leg. "You need to explain the situation, right now."

Alfred ignored him, instead focusing his attention on Matthew. "Mattie," -Matthew wrinkled his nose at the nickname- "the thing on your face is called your mouth. It's not copying you, it just means you're talking." He gestured to his own mouth. "Like I'm talking right now. See?"

"It's never done that before," Matthew mumbled.

That's because the only thing your other mouth did was read CDs, Alfred thought, but decided not to add. "And you don't have your keys because, well, you're not a laptop anymore," he said bluntly.

"Obviously," Matthew said, a little sarcastically.

"He's not a laptop anymore?" Arthur repeated, squatting down to their level. "Alfred, what is going on? Are you meaning to say that Matthew...was in that laptop?"

Alfred sighed. He turned to Arthur grudgingly. "Yes," he answered. "Matthew was in that laptop."

"How did he get in there?" Arthur kept asking. "Alfred, don't tell me you locked this poor chap in there!"

"I didn't!" Alfred exclaimed. "I'd never touch your freaky magic stuff, and I didn't even know he could do this!"

Matthew turned to Arthur. "Arthur," he addressed, "I'm a program that Alfred designed to keep him company. He didn't lock me in there, really, he didn't."

"So you're an Artificial Intelligence," Arthur said, not sounding like he believed them. "And this git here designed you."

"My intelligence is not artificial," Matthew said haughtily. Then he sheepishly added, "What's a git?"

"Alfred," Arthur answered.

Alfred rolled his eyes, standing. "Now that that's cleared up," he glared at Arthur, "we need to find some clothes for you, Mattie." He helped the other boy up, steadying him when he almost fell.

"This feels really weird," Matthew commented as he took a shaky step. "I think I like staying in my home better."

Arthur came to his other side and held his arm to help. "Your home?" he questioned, curious despite himself. "You mean that laptop?" Embarrassed, he waved towards the ruined machine.

"Dude, you're buying me a new one," Alfred said crossly as they helped Matthew onto the couch.

"Can you build me another firewall?" Matthew asked. He stretched out his fingers experimentally, awed at how many new things he could do. "The Trojan horse tried to corrupt me again last week. It was horrible."

Alfred chuckled at the cute pout that was on Matthew's face. "Will do," he said with a wink.

"How'd you do that?" Matthew immediately set himself into finding the right command to repeat the wink. "Alfred? Something's wrong with me."

"You're not a laptop, program, whatever you are, anymore. You're a human now, which means you can't search for a command and automatically do it." It was Arthur who answered, to Alfred's surprise. "By the way, Alfred, what is he?"

"A little bit of both," Alfred replied. "I bought the laptop especially for him. Once I finished making him, he kind of took over the laptop. You know what I mean?"

At Arthur's puzzled glance, he elaborated, "He was just always...there." He then chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I found out when I was looking at some, ah, stuff one day, and then there were words across my screen saying, "What the fuck is this?" "

Arthur grimaced. Only Alfred...

"Wait," Matthew piped up. "Does this mean I can never go back?" He looked sad at the thought of never being able to return in his old body. He'd miss Firefox a lot. The little animal was really cute and fun to play with.

"I can send you back with one of my spells," Arthur said. "Of course, I think the laptop should be fixed or replaced first." He turned expectantly to Alfred.

"Right," Alfred said half-heartedly. He didn't want to send Matthew back. He liked hearing him talk. And looking at him. Besides, summer was a month away! Alfred could think of many things that he couldn't do by himself.

Like playing tag.

(What? Were you thinking of something else?)

"So, Mattie," he said, wanting to change the subject. With luck, it would be forgotten. "Wanna learn how to wink?"

Matthew perked up immediately. "Sure!" he chirped, looking enthusiastic to learn something new.

"Okay, it's really easy." Alfred leaned in closer, then winked. "See? You just close one of your eyes really quickly. Try it!"

"Like this?" Matthew tilted his head up to gaze at the other blond and performed his first successful wink. The fact that he was still naked didn't help.

Alfred's throat went dry at the unintentionally sexy action.

Arthur coughed, affected as well, and looked away with a blush. "Good job, Matthew," he said in his most calm voice. "But I think that we should really find some clothes for you.

"Yeah. Good job," Alfred echoed, not sure whether to melt, hide under the couch, melt, change the topic, or melt. Decisions, decisions. He chose to change the topic. "Now that you know how to wink, I want to show you where you're going to sleep!... And some clothes." He jumped up excitedly, grabbing Matthew and nearly dragging him to the bedroom.

Arthur sighed. He could sense Alfred's impeding infatuation with Matthew. The boy seemed innocent, though, and nice - although he'd openly expressed his dislike for Arthur.

Hopefully Alfred wouldn't corrupt him too much. Hopefully.

. . .

"We're going to share a bed!" Alfred swept his arms in an arc exaggeratedly. He looked at Matthew, then at his bed. "We'll fit," he said, smiling a stupid grin. Oh, well. Matthew thought it was endearing.

He touched the covers lightly with his fingertips, sitting down and giggling when he bounced. "It's soft," he said, leaning down and rubbing his cheek against the fabric. He'd never felt anything like it. "Makes me want to sleep."

"Don't sleep!" Alfred chided, dutifully shielding his eyes as he pulled open one of his drawers. He pulled out a shirt, a pair of boxers, pants, and tossed them in Matthew's direction. "It's not too late yet, so we can still go shopping for your clothes."

"But I don't even know how to...do a lot of things yet." When Alfred turned around, Matthew had managed to stick his leg through the hole of the sleeve. "Can we go tomorrow?"

"Aw, okay," Alfred said. He sounded disappointed, but went to help Matthew put the clothes on properly. "We're going first thing tomorrow, though," he added.

"It'll be fun," Matthew promised, smiling.

Alfred smiled back happily.

It would be fun, indeed.

A/N: I decided that this will be updated every Tuesday from now on. I was going to say twice a week, like Love Letter, but I tried and...I couldn't manage it. T-T

See you Tuesday!