When You Were Younger

Sir.

Mephone moved the last thing into place, and stood, admiring his new space.
He smiled and clapped, cheering to himself excitedly.

Then, he turned up and looked at the ceiling.
It was plain.
Then, Mephone remembered. The stars!

He giggled, and made his way to the door of his room.
His room.
That sounded cool.
He exited the room, and noticed how much bigger everything felt when Cobs wasn't there.
It was a little bit unnerving, but it was okay. If Cobs was close by, he'd surely be fine. He was nice and gave him a room to live in.

Mephone walked around the halls, and stopped when he noticed a picture frame.
He looked up at it, and it was a photo of Cobs holding some sort of shiny thing. A trophy?

Carved into the bottom of the picture frame, it read something like, 'Tech award, 2006.'
Weird. What did that mean?
Mephone shrugged, and continued on.

Soon, he stumbled upon a door that looked different than all the other ones. It was bigger, and had a more 'fancy' look to it. It read something like, 'Office' in the middle- in really big letters.
Mephone figured Cobs had to be in there.

He knocked carefully, and heard a loud, "Come in!"

Mephone pushed, and the door opened, and inside there was a big room, with a bit of a long pathway leading to a big desk. Windows were at the end of the room. It looked so cool.

Cobs was sat at his desk, eyeing his computer screen, a cup in one hand. He turned his eyes up, and noticed Mephone.
He placed the cup back down, and looked up smiling.
"Oh, hello, Mephone! Do you need anything?"

Mephone was about to answer, when Cobs called down.
"You can come up here. It's...impolite, to be calling like that to someone."
Mephone took some steps up, staring down at the ground.
Once he reached the desk, Cobs spoke again, shutting the laptop simultaneously.
"Take a seat."
Mephone turned to the chair beside him, and climbed it, leaning forward onto the desk and placing his elbows on it, holding him up.

Cobs coughed before he could talk, again.
"Straighten up and take your arms down too, please. It's important to look neat and tidy when discussing important things."
Mephone shuffled a little bit, taking his arms down and placing his hands on his lap, straightening up. Neat and tidy. Neat and tidy.

"So, go on. What is it you need?"
Mephone smiled, "In- in my room, uhm.." Mephone mumbled, trying to find the right words.
Cobs was raising an eyebrow, and tapping his cup on the desk impatiently.
"When I woke up- I saw stars on the ceiling. Can I- uh, have those in my room, too?"

Cobs' smile faded, Mephone recognised that immediately.
"What? Stars? Mephone- I, I thought this was important?"
Mephone shifted uncomfortably.
"I... just wanted to know if I could have them in my room too.. because they're pretty.."
Cobs placed the cup on the desk, and leaned in closer.
Mephone felt a pang of worry hit him.

"You don't need, 'stars.' What you need, is to be focused. You're state of the art, aren't you? You shouldn't have any need for.. stars... Mephone."

Mephone frowned.
"Why?"
Cobs looked even more displeased.
Mephone didn't know what his expression meant exactly, though.
"Mephone4, if you couldn't already tell, I do not tolerate backtalk. I told you to focus on your tasks. You don't have any need for 'stars.' You've just been made, and you're already bothering me with complaints and requests.."
Mephone felt his eyes sting, and his shoulders tense up.
"I-... I'm sorry for bothering you, Cobs-", "And you'll also adress me as, 'Mr', or, 'Sir'. At least try to have manners, 4."

Mephone swallowed, and averted his gaze.
"I- I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to.. make you upset, I just-", "Stop with the nonsense apologies. If you were really sorry, you'd go do what you're told. Now go. I'm busy."

Mephone slowly got off of the chair, and took slow steps down the carpeted pathway.

As he neared the door, he heard a loud exasperated sigh come from behind him.

Opening the door, he turned to peek back behind him.
Cobs sat, computer opened again, slowly shaking his head to himself.

Mephone exited the room and shut the door, quickly.

He walked as fast as he could back to his room, and barged in, slamming that door behind him.
Crawling onto the floor, he found a corner, and shuffled into it, sniffling.
He shouldn't have asked. He really shouldn't have asked. Now Cobs- Mr. Cobs was upset with him. He never told him to focus on his tasks, there. He only said 'focus'. Why did he get so angry? Couldn't he have just said what he did wrong?

Mephone curled in on himself, something wet trickling down his face. Something wet?
Mephone wiped his hands on his cheek, and then looked at his hands. It was just like water. Why was water coming out of him?
He blinked, and felt another drop fall.

Why was it coming out of his eyes?
Mephone felt something inside him hurt. Was Mr. Cobs going to be mad at him forever, now? Would he be happy if he did his tasks?
Mephone was sorry. He really was. Maybe if he did- those tasks- he would be happy again.

Mephone wiped the water off of his face, and shakily raised himself off of the floor.
He took wobbly steps over to the small little device he was given, and checked the list of 'tasks.'

The first one read, "Write 2 pages of a story."
Just write a little story? With what? How? He never wrote before. What if he messed up? Could he mess up?

He figured maybe if he just tried, Cobs would be proud.
He wanted him to be proud.