Lightning sighed. He looked at the mirror, and groaned, in mute tone.

Boy, just how much he wanted to punch his own face right now.

In the mirror, a reflection that wore a yellow shirt under a black blazer, with the same color shorts and a belt to keep them stay was mimicking his expression. 

Oh right, it had a pair of high black socks on too. 

"All fit! I didn't expect the mansion workers to still keep those clothes. The triplets used to wear them in their teens." Yaya took a few steps to appreciate her work after helping him tie a black necktie. She nodded in satisfaction and beamed at the younger boy. "You look great by the way!"

No, he looked like an idiot, Lightning scoffed inside his head.

It was like he was cosplaying in this kind of costume and excuse him, one would hardly feel joy to hear that these clothes they were wearing once belonged to a man who had wanted nothing but finishing them off. Lightning was not a picky person, but the acknowledgement was still too much.

"...Are you sure you only have this?" Grumbled the boy as he tugged at the collar that was tightening around his neck. It was suffocating, as if someone was strangling him. Lightning never resigned for a fan of shirts, never for once, which he was glad that Boboiboy possessed the same taste as him. Now these high collars had acted as a reminder of where he was and how his life would likely be at risk anytime. 

Besides, it was hot. No kidding. The temperature was at least 34°C outside and his body was fuming, literally. For a brief second, the younger boy seriously wondered how those brothers could clad something like this on a daily basis. 

Taking pity on him, Yaya gently pushed his hand away and loosened the first button of his shirt. Lightning slipped out a content sigh without knowing while she did so.

"I'm sorry, this is the only clothes we have that are around your size." She apologized, hands fixing his collar. Yaya smiled and looked up to his eyes once she was done. "We can go shopping this afternoon if you like."

Great, Yaya felt the need to take responsibility for what had happened to him was the last thing Lightning would wish for. Last night, she had suggested him take a bath before sleeping. The girl had also left a fresh pair of pajamas for him on the bed. Seeing that his gears were soiled and smelly, Lightning saw no reason not to change out of them. He carefully folded the dirty clothes and put them on the nightstand. 

The next morning, much to his horor, his clothes dissapeared.

Lightning had frantically searched for them everywhere he could inside his room, even going as far as flipping the mattress, until Yaya came in with a new set clothes on her hands. She had explained, noticing how muddy his jacket was, one of the new maids in the mansion had sneaked into his room and gathered them to the laundry. Though the maid had acted out of goodwill, she still had done it without permission, his permission, and was scolded by the head butler. Since all of his clothes had yet to be dried, the head butler had prepared a spare ones for him, which he had asked Yaya to deliver them to his room.

The whole deal was an unexpected event, that maid had acted on her own. Hence Lighting didn’t want to add another weight of guilt on Yaya. The girl had gone through enough trouble just to keep his head intact on his shoulders.

"No, don't be bothered. Please send my thanks to the maid and the head butler... and, uh, thank you for always helping me out." Lightning mumbled the last part. He looked down to the marble floor and rocked on the heels of his new leather shoes. The tip of his ears reddened. 

Unknowing, he had missed Yaya's softening gaze. 

Flushed, Lightning touched his head in the habit of finding his cap, only to sense the softness from his dark brown hair under his palm. He groaned as he remember that his beloved yellow dinosaur hat had been blown away after yesterday's wild chase. The boy signed, he missed it. He felt naked without the hat shadow on his face. After all, Lightning was seldom to roam around without his hat and it had been a good shield to hide his expression.

"You can have Petir's old cap if you want." Caught up with what was going on, Yaya proposed, but met the rejection just when the word ‘Petir’s’ came out.

"No, I’m good." The boy shook his head in a flash.

Yaya blinked and raised one of her eyebrows, which Lightning answered with his most, he hoped, innocent smile. Sweats rolled down his back as the air became more and more awkward.

Okay, never pass something up too fast or you would make a fool of yourself, noted. 

Fortunately, instead of pushing on, Yaya chose to overlook his… complicated relationship with her said friend. The girl stood up, with a quick peer on the clock behind him and in front of her, she reached out to his hand.

"Let's go. We're late."

-------
As they were going to the dining room, Lighting took his time and looked around in delight. Yesterday had been such an eventful and tiresome day to him that he hardly found a time to admire the beauty of the mansion he was going to stayed.

An old fashioned mansion, victoria style if he didn't make a mistake. The construction included two buildings arranged in a L shape with three floors and he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a basement or secret room behind the wall or bookshelves somewhere. From what Lightning had heard, his room was on the third floor in the guest wing. Ideally, they could go to the family side and come down to the dining room which was right below, but they had to go down first then pass the grand hall to reach it. Yaya had explained that although he was now a Family’s guest, there were some certain areas he wasn’t allowed to trespass without a Family member, and she wasn't, or the Head’s permission.

That rule was applied for all guests, she added after a second thought.

Yaya really didn’t have do it, because Lightning knew they were still wary of him. Still, her hospitableness was appreciated.

There were rather few workers inside this giant mansion, the boy noticed. From the moment he set his foot inside the mansion, Lightning managed to count a handful of maids or workers that sometimes passed by the corner of his eyes. Otherwise, it felt almostly like only Yaya and the triplets lived here, with him as an addition. Maybe that was the reason why he had crossed the possibility that someone had taken his clothes away when he found out they disappeared this morning. The odds adside, Lightning didn’t mind the lack of people. He was not exactly a sociable person so it was a win-win situation for him.   

When they arrived at their destination, which was a very, very fancy dining room, Angin and Tanah were already there. The young Boss sat on the head of the long table, while his older triplet took a seat on his right side. The food was already prepared on the table.

Right after setting his eyes on the younger boy, Angin let out a long whistle.

“Well, well, well. Don't those bring back a lot of memories~” The blue hat-wearing man grinned to ears, ignoring the younger boy giving him a dirty look. Tanah looked up from the newspaper he was reading and nodded at Yaya. Back to Lightning, he gave him the same treatment. 

“Good morning. I assume that you rested well.” He smiled as the brown orbs locked on the boy. “And that attire really suits you."

Lightning scowled at the remark, knowing fully well the brothers were teasing him. He huffed and pulled out a chair on the left side of the table, as well making sure he was a seat away from Tanah, and flopped down on it. He crossed his arms, refusing to acknowledge the other two. Lightning knew he was being rude, but since Tanah only chuckled at the display, he guessed his host had spared him this time for whatever logical reasons. If he had been honest, the younger boy would swear his reaction seemed to amuse Tanah rather than offend him. That fact irritated him further.

Yaya settled down on the chair near Tanah, the one Lightning had left blank before noticing there was a person missing. 

“Where is Petir?” She frowned, looking around.

“Out," Angin shrugged, bit on his toast. He chewed and swallowed it before continuing. "To patrol. Or he said so. Also grunted he would eat out.”

Yaya puffed her cheeks. She mumbled something along the lines of 'We promised to always have breakfast together and he just has to behave like a kid' and stabbed the egg folk on her plate with a fork unmercifully. 

Contrary to her annoyance, Lightning munched on his jam bread in peace. He hardly felt bothered by the absence of that said member. Lightning was sure he wouldn't be able to touch his breakfast if he had to see that face this early. Last night, the boy could have his dinner all thanks to the fatigue and famine he had endured for the whole day. His body had been dead tired and his empty stomach hadn't helped. It rumbled here and there, screaming for food so all Lightning could focus on by then was nothing but those delicious dishes on the table. Pretty sure he had earned a few glares from a certain someone once or twice, then again, as if he had enough will to care at that moment.

"Lightning, I would like you to meet Ocho after breakfast."

The younger boy snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at Tanah. His mouth puffed up with food, which made him an identical twin with a chipmunk. The similarity was enough for all the people around the table to crack up.

He hadn't been distracted, had he…?

“You aren’t dozing off to Lalaland, are you?” Angin snicked, and Lightning somehow could shot that man a quick 'Shut up' with a food-full mouth as blush creeped on his face. The boy swallowed everything in one big gulp, almost choking himself in the process, and cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry, who again?" Asked Lightning as Yaya passed him an orange juice cup. He muttered a thank you to her.

"Our engineer. He has been cooped up in the lab since yesterday so you haven't met him." Tanah answered as he lifted his coffee mug, then seeing Yaya was giving him a meaningful look, he smiled and put it down. The young Boss reached for the milk bottle and poured a cup for himself. Lightning nodded after finishing his orange juice. It wasn't like he had any better things to do anyway.

"Then Yaya, I hate to ask but can you lead Lightning to the Lab? We have an important meeting after breakfast."

"Sure, I still have plenty of time left.” Yaya nodded as she turned her wrist to check on her watch. “And I need to bring Ocho something to eat and a bottle of water anyway. God knows he's passed out from starvation and dehydration down there." 

Lightning perked up at the mention of a familiar name. But thinking better of it, he kept quiet. However he couldn’t deny the excitement of meeting someone familiar again boiling inside him.
------

So, there was indeed a basement under this mansion, and a very large one of it. Not news with the whole 'Family this and Family that' they kept referring to, but what Lightning was totally unexpected was... this 'Ocho'.

Then again, had anything in this damn world that had lived up to his expectations?

Lightning was face to face with a blonde boy, and he had not been blinking for five minutes straight. There was no trace of an engine, machine or whatsoever. Just a complete combination of flesh and blood.

"Well, ahem. Name is Ocho Bot, but you can call me Ocho like everyone here.” Feeling awkward and uncomfortable for being treated like a strange creature, which was supposed the other way around, Ocho introduced himself first. “I've heard about you from Tanah, world outsider. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." 

He offered Lightning a handshake and the other accepted it on autopilot, not quite snapped out. The boy looked down at their joined hands in amazement. This unmistakable warmth and softness of meat and skin. All these things screamed out that the boy before him was a perfect human being.

"You're human!?" He blunted out before he couldn't stop himself. The other two indide the room blinked, clearly taken back by his statement.

"Yeah…? What else can I be?" Ocho frowned. "And please stop squeezing my hand. You are weirding me out."

Immediately Lightning dropped his hand as if it burned him. He smiled awkwardly as the blonde boy opened and closed his retreating hand, held a the skeptical look on his face. He peered at Yaya behind Lightning and mouthed a not so secret 'are you sure this was the right one', which she merely nodded with a smile.

“Oh, uh, sorry. It’s just... my Ochobot was a Power Sphere- I meant, a kind of round robot so seeing you like this kinda, well, surprised.” Lightning scratched his head when this world Ochobot turned back to him. Now he had a better look at the blonde, Lightning realized he was a tad shorter than him. He had electric blue eyes and white like porcelain skin covered by an also yellow shirt and black shorts with shoulder straps. He wore white lab coat outside, larger than his body, a pair of thigh socks kept by black harnesses and black shoes. Goggles with black glasses on his head and a black ribbon tied under his shirt’s collar.

In one word, he looked cute, like a moving theme doll. It seemed like in any world, Ochobot was still cute as ever. But Lighting sensed he’d be damned if those thoughts leaked out. Hence, he shut up.

God blessed him when Yaya placed a hand on his shoulder and decided to step in before things got out of hand. “Ocho, as you know, this is Lightning. We are hoping you can help him with some stuff… How about you take a look at his power watch first? And maybe, fix it?”

“Powerband.” Lightning interrupted. “It’s called a powerband.”

Yaya nodded. “Ah, I’m sorry. His powerband. Can you?” 

She was asking Ocho with eagerness and, much as the others, the blonde hardly said no when it came to her.

“Well, that’s what I’m here for." He sighed, gesturing at Lightning. "May I have that powerband of your?”

The boy took off his band and gave it to him with a bit of regulation. An engineer or not, this Ocho's age was maybe roughly around his, if not younger. How was he sure the blonde could fix his powerband and not damage it more than its current state? In the end, his powerband was deemed as a new and foriegn tech in this world, and Lightning wouldn't like it if he lost his high speed, too.

“You don’t need to worry, kid. I may look like this but I’m fully capable of repairing something more complicated than this.” Ocho said when he caught a glimpse of doubt on the other boy's face. He placed the powerband on his scan table and turned on the machine.

Lightning raised an eyebrow as he came closer to watch the datas beginning to appear on one of the many screens hanging above. “Kid?” 

"I'm really getting tired of telling this so much." Ocho murmured in weary. “Yaya, could you please?”

“Lightning, Ocho is... well, going to be 27 next month, mentally.”

“He what?!!” The boy stepped back and did a double take at Ocho. His eyes felt like they wanted to pop out of their sockets right now. The blonde's back hunched slightly as he let out a long sigh.

“Stuff happened. Experiment failed so I am stuck, story ends.” He spoke nonchalantly. His voice was low and deeper, making it sound much older than his appearance.

The other boys opened his mouth, there were so many things he wanted to ask and not everyday you could meet a living proof conan. However, Ocho cut him off before a word could come out.

“Enough of my life story. Now you better fill me in your story if you want to go back to your world, with specific details.” He looked back at the boy who was pouting. “Or if you want to remain here forever, I can create you a fake ID and we’re done.”

Lightning grumbled under his breath but still obligent without further object. He dragged himself on the stool near the scan table that the blonde just patted for him to sit. Ocho had pulled his goggles down and now poked his powerband, which was opened, with some slender devices looking like a big needle that he didn’t remember their name.

The boy ogled at him working, this blonde head did know what he was doing.

“What are you waiting for? Begin.”

Lightning scowled. He took back all his thoughts, this Ochobot was not even half cute as his.  

-------
Yaya was proud of herself for reading people. She could see through one based on their expressions and demands. Though the information itself wasn't too much and wholly based on her feelings, it was enough for Yaya to determine who was to trust and who shouldn't be around.

Lightning was a cautious boy for example, maybe too much for someone at his age. Distrust could be seen radiating from his body. However, Yaya couldn't find herself fault him for that. Based on all the trouble he had gone through, the fact the boy was able to be casual around her could be considered a miracle. 

So when two teenagers interacted despite their rough start, Yaya was caught off guard. Lightning seemed more and more relaxed as the conversation dragged on. Ocho could be a bit moody after staying up a night to do research but the other boy, besides occasional grumped, appeared to have no problem with it.

It was almost as if he had known Ocho for a long time, just the same way he had with her. Now she remembered, Lightning had been more mellowed around Tanah and Angin this morning. Though there was still caution as he jumped at the sound of the silver cutlery clattering with plates or a sudden movement from the other two, it was evident he had been more himself when talking to them.

Then it came to her, quirk and clear, the realisation. Lightning might share a close relationship with them all in his world. Yaya smiled, she would size up him later for the details, which she hoped he wouldn't mind, but for now, she was glad they weren't enemies in his world.

Anyway, seeing he and Ocho were on good terms was such a nice thing. Lightning needed to open up to more people around here and not just to her. He wouldn't feel lonely when she was away and perhap, this was a good chance for him to adjust and feel comfortable with the new surroundings until he could return to his real home.

“I know you boys love to exchange stories but don’t forget to take a break.” Yaya places a tray carrying a light supper, snacks and some drinks on the table with a safe distance from Ocho’s devices and many of his books and blueprints. “Especially you, Ocho. Make sure to finish your breakfast even when I’m not around.”

“Yes, mom.” Ocho mockingly pouted at her nag, which added more curl to her smile. 

“You are leaving?” Lightning, the only one who wasn’t aware of her schedule, asked with a startle. He was looking up at her, unintendedly, with a kicked puppy face. Yaya had actually paused before answering him, she had a weakness for cute, fluffy and helpless things, in this case, boys.

“I’m sorry, I have an important class this morning.” Which she was tempted to quit now, if not for the end-of-semester exam. “So I can’t stay. I promise I will come back as soon as the class finishes."

Lightning seemed to want to say more, but had second thoughts and nodded. Still, he pursed his lips and looked down, all the way kept that helpless look. And Yaya lost her grip, she rubbed his brown hair affectionately.

“Be a good boy and listen to Ocho alright?”

“Quit treating me like a kid!” Lightning protested, reaching up to swat her hand away. However, Yaya was already out of the door. She giggled and hummed to herself on the way back to her room to ready for the school, with an image of the younger boy’s sulking face on her mind.

-------
Lightning scolded, already fed up with how everyone was deemed to continue to see him as a kid. Yet, his face was burning. The boy couldn’t help but touch the place where Yaya had patted his head. This was bad. He needed to find his hat or some kind of replacement before all these things killed him.

Realizing someone's eyes on him, Lightning routed his head to the side to meet Ocho, who had been oddly silent during the whole thing and was currently eyeing him in a weird way.

“What?!” Snapped the (mentally) younger boy to hide his embarrassment. The tip of his ears turned red and his voice was a bit squeaky.

The blonde merely shrugged and went back to whatever he had been working on the powerband, as if nothing had ever happened. For some reason, it frustrated Lightning to no end.

“Drink some water, kid. Looking at you makes me want to explode, too.” Ocho commented, not breaking from his reading the datas on the screen. Lightning grumbled under his breath. He snatched a random bottle on the tray Yaya had left and gulped down, both the liquid inside and his humiliation. The cool and sweetness of the fruit juice seemed to ease his mind a bit.

“So... a crush huh?”

Lightning choked on his juice.