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Eldest

For brothers who were not brothers, they were close and perhaps even closer than brothers. The middle one was the youngest, and perhaps the eldest was younger than the youngest, though it hardly mattered most of the time. They fought as brothers and played as brothers and when forced to work together, occassionally managed not to half-dismantle one another.

The youngest and perhaps eldest had fallen asleep long before the other two even thought of rest, though truthfully the eldest who might be the middle one had taken a very long nap during the afternoon and a very long nap in the morning which was quite normal since after all, the two who were not currently asleep weren't human and had slightly different needs as far as energy was concerned. One required far too much rest, though it was not an issue as they continued to play the video game they'd been playing since the sun began to set.

And so the brothers who were as close as machines could be to one another sat beside one another, far too close to the screen so that they could both see and yet not complain about the other getting in the way. Neither much spoke, except when the game ended and that was more of a poke in the side than an outburst because the youngest brother who might be the eldest and was definitely human and needed his sleep was sleeping behind them on the sofa under a thick green blanket that generally the eldest who was not the eldest slept under while taking his many naps.

The house was quiet except for the soft hum of the television and the almost muted sound of the game because everyone had gone out for various reasons and each person leaving the house had put a different brother in charge. Yet somehow they'd managed dinner though that was mostly for the benefit of the human brother and they'd also managed not to break anything or blow anything up or anything else they'd been warned about not doing.

The middle brother who was the youngest brother won for the third time in a row and the eldest brother who was thinking that perhaps it was time to stop playing games for the evening set down his controller and glanced over. Something wasn't quite right, but neither was going to say it because things like this had happened before and they didn't think they were glitching but certainly it wasn't the appropriate behavior for brothers.

When the eldest brother took the controller from the middle brother's hand and set it down as well, the middle brother made a slight move as if to scramble away but that was only a challenge that was quickly accepted. The eldest brother caught his younger brother who was perhaps the youngest and pushed him down, looming over him until he could see his own reflection in his brother's eyes which weren't truly eyes anyway but lenses and technology and wires all bundled together to help make up a self-aware machine.

They were not truly brothers, not eldest and middle, not anything and certainly not bound to rules like humans. Not in the same way. Both double-checked that their youngest brother was still perfectly asleep and when they saw that he was, neither quite acknowledged the other even as they touched one another and tried to find some sense of being and connection that was both family and not.