Ping! Joonmyun looked at the little envelope that had popped up on his computer screen. It was from the Areumdawo Dolls Company. He clicked on it:

Dear Valued Customer,

Congratulations! You have owned your Areumdawo Doll Lay for a year. We would like to inform you that you are now eligible for an upgrade. Your upgrade will be sent to you and you will be able to test it for a week before you decide to buy. Thank you for your support!

Areumdawo Dolls Company 

Joonmyun blinked and reread the email again, trying to understand exactly what was being sent to him. Did Lay need an upgrade? He seemed to be working fine as far as the older boy could see. He would figure it out in the morning. "Oppa," he heard a whine come from where his doll was lying "Are you coming to bed?"

The redhead looked back and forth between his work that needed to be finished and the cute boy lying in his bed. He was tempted but shook his head "I have to finish these spreadsheets and then I'll sleep."

Lay looked at his owner, well boyfriend now, feeling a bit worried. He had been busy a lot lately and he was going to bed late then getting up really early. Sometimes he would even leave without breakfast. That's what worried him the most: Joonmyun not eating. What if he fainted or something? The brunette sighed then nodded as he let himself slip back into sleep mode.

It was about 6am when Lay woke up. He had started getting up earlier in order to be up before Joonmyun and sometimes it wasn’t always guaranteed. He rolled over and saw his boyfriend still asleep next to him. He poked his cheek only to receive a groan and Lay giggled as the other turned over. The doll smiled and decided to let his boyfriend sleep while he got up to make breakfast. He ran a hand through his hair as he made his way past the living room into the kitchen. Ding dong! "Huh?" Lay looked towards the door and wondered if he was hearing things. Who could be there this early in the morning? He was sure the mail didn’t come until ten. He blinked for a moment and decided to check the door just in case. He opened it and saw a giant box sitting outside. The doll raised an eyebrow and wondered what it could be. He looked at the logo on the side: Areumdawo Dolls Company. He remembered that logo from when he was first activated! It was on the side of his box and all over the store he was in. Lay wondered if any of his family were inside of it. He grabbed the box and with a lot of effort, hauled it inside the apartment. He ran back to the bedroom and shook his boyfriend "Joonmyun! Wake up!"

The elder groaned as he tried to shoo the other away "Not now Lay."

"Joonie! Wake up! There's another doll here!"

"Another what?!" Lay's announcement seemed more than enough to get the brunette awake as he shot up and looked at the doll.

"I think another doll was delivered today. Let’s open it!" The doll was practically bouncing at this point and Joonmyun was still somewhat confused. He didn't have a chance to ask any questions as he was yanked from his bed and dragged to the living room. "Look, look!"

Joonmyun rubbed his eyes and wiped the sleep away to see a box similar to the one he had opened a year ago when he got Lay. Oh no. This could not be another doll. He quickly remembered the email he had gotten the night before and his eyes widened. He had thought they were sending an upgrade for Lay, not a whole new doll! He pulled the note off the front of the box and read it:

Dear Valued Customer,

Your old doll is probably woen down by now. Well here's a new one! This is Luhan 2.0. He is our latest and most popular model. Your test-drive begins now! He is already pre-programmed to your specific needs thanks to information gained from your previous doll. Feel uncomfortable kissing? No worries, just touch his bracelet to activate! We hope you enjoy him and decide to continue shopping with us.

Areumdawo Dolls Company

"Can we open the box?"

Joonmyun tore his eyes away from the letter and looked at his doll "No. We’re putting it back outside until they pick him up and take it back."

"Why?"

The redhead didn’t know what to say. He was sure Lay knew there was another doll in that box, but he didn’t know that doll was meant to replace him. Joonmyun sighed and hid the note in his back pocket "Because whatever is in there can't stay here Xing. We don’t have enough room in our apartment for it."

"But what if it's my family from the store?" Lay pleaded "We gotta let them stay for a little while? It could be my parents."

Joonmyun wanted to object, but decided against it. It's only a week. "Fine, but only until they come to pick them up and then they have to leave."

"Yay!" Yixing threw his arms around his love and gave him a quick peck "You're the best."

Joon chuckled and wanted to hold the brunette a little longer, but the doll pulled away and started tearing the box open. It took a few minutes, but when it was done all they could do was stare. The doll inside was beautiful. It was a little shorter than them and it had golden blonde hair that accented it's bright brown eyes. Joonmyun had to admit that the doll was kind of too pretty to be a boy. Granted Lay had an effeminate quality about him, but this doll was too much of an in-between. 

"Wow," Lay poked the doll's face "Do you think she's my sister?"

Joon almost couldn’t hold back his laughter as he shook his head and pointed to the doll's man parts "Not according to that."

The younger boy looked down and blushed "Oh. Well how do we turn him on?"

"I think we press here," Joonmyun pushed the button on the doll's bracelet.

Almost immediately the doll's eyes lit up and sprung to life. He blinked a few times before smiling at the two "Hello my name is Luhan. I'm your new Areumdawo boyfriend, made especially for you." The blonde bit his lip and played with his fingers nervously "I hope you like me."

Lay stared at the doll. The words Luhan had used to introduce himself sounded familiar. He couldn’t place them, but that was because Joonmyun said his memory chip wasn’t installed properly. The redhead said he had the memory of a goldfish, whatever that meant. "Nice to meet you Luhan, I’m Yixing, but you can call me Lay. And this is--"

"Joonmyun," Luhan said before the other could finish.

Said boy blinked and nodded "How did you know that?"

"Of course I know my own boyfriend, silly."

Joonmyun froze. His eyes slowly looked over to Lay who had never looked so angry before. He hadn’t really had any competition since the whole thing with Kris ended. Until now.

The brunette glared at the doll in front of him "I think you might be mistaken. Joonmyun is my boyfriend."

"Nope, I was especially made for him. I know everything about him," Luhan boasted "Like his favorite color is gold, his favorite sport is golf and he's actually supposed to be at work right now."

Lay and Joonmyun stared at the boy in shock at how accurate he was. Then reality hit the owner and he checked the time: 6:45am. "I'm gonna be late!" The redhead ran to his room to quickly get dressed for work. Luhan and Lay both followed behind him, but Lay got to the door first and shut it in Luhan's face.

"Let's get rid of him."

"Nope," the redhead said as he tore off his pajamas and searched for something to wear. "You wanted him to stay, so he's staying."

"That was before I knew he was trying to take you away from me!"

"Xing, he's just confused. He’s not trying to steal me from you. Besides," Joon poked his head out from the closet "I love you too much to even think of being with someone else."

The doll sulked against the door "I'm pretty sure he's not. If he's anything like me, he's definitely interested in you."

"Lay," Joonmyun emerged from the closet fully dressed and walked over to his boyfriend "Listen to me, I'm sure Luhan won't be around for very long. In the meantime, maybe he can help you around the house while I'm gone, okay?"

"Fine," Yixing rolled his eyes and looked away.

"I love you," Joon kissed the other boy’s cheek as he opened the door and Luhan fell inside "I'm off to work. Lay, take good care of Luhan and I'll see you later." He quickly moved past both dolls and headed out the door.

As much as Lay hated to do it, he listened to Joonmyun's words and did as he was told.

"So you have two dolls now instead of one?" Kyungsoo looked at Joonmyun with a raised eyebrow. They were having coffee in the latter's living room while discussing another one of Joon's problems. The older male had told him about Luhan, the doe-eyed doll that had been staying with him and Lay for the past two days. "How does Yixing feel about all this?"

"Not happy. He’s been practically seething with anger since day one." The redhead remembered how his boyfriend slowly, but surely began giving him the cold shoulder after Luhan's arrival. It started with Lay just being curt with him and graduated to complete ignoring. Now the doll was at the point of not even facing him when they slept together. It hurt but at least Joonmyun knew why. Regardless, he always told Lay that he loved him before they went to bed and when the brunette thought he was sleeping, he would say it back. This was a reassurance, but Joon really wanted things to go back to normal. "I have to get Luhan out of my apartment."

"Well at least your subconscious grasped what I was saying while you were zoned out," Kyungsoo shook his head.

"Sorry, I just don't know what to do. I don’t want to throw Luhan out on the street, but I don’t want Lay to be angry with me either."

"Well then you need to find someone else to take Luhan in. I'm sure there's someone we know that needs a boyfriend. "

Joonmyun tapped the side of his cup wirh his fingers as he mentally went over a list of all the single people he knew. Suddenly his eyes got big as he came to a realization. One person came to mind that he knew who would definitely like Luhan "Sehun."

"I take it you figured out who I was talking about," Kyungsoo took a sip of his coffee.

"You already had him in mind? Why didn't you just tell me?!" Joon glared at his friend.

"That wouldn’t have been fun."

"We're back!"

"Well hi there," Kyungsoo looked up from his coffee cup to see the new doll coming into the apartment with Lay. "You must be Luhan," the wide-eyed boy put his cup down and stood to greet the blonde "Nice to meet you, I'm Kyungsoo."

The door slammed loudly and Yixing stomped off to the kitchen. He was clearly still angry about the whole situation with Luhan. Normally he would greet whoever might be at home when he walked in the door, but right now he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He went off to the kitchen to put the groceries away before he started on the laundry. Doing chores with Luhan was the worse. That dumb blonde always thought he knew what was best. He always thought he knew what Joonmyun would prefer more than Lay. I'm his boyfriend; I’m the one who knows him best! Luhan also liked to argue about who would do which chores. He only liked to do light things like making Joonmyun coffee, bringing Joonmyun something if he needed it or whatever else that made him seem like a trophy wife. Lay, on the other hand, was stucking cooking, cleaning and doing all the real work. At this point, I might as well be the maid! Most of that, Yixing could deal with without complaint. It was when Luhan would touch Joonmyun that made the brunette really angry. The other doll would offer his Joon massages and would kiss him on the cheek. One time the little homewrecker--Lay had learned that word from a movie--tried to kiss Joonmyun when he thought Lay wasn’t looking. The thought made the doll even more angry. He stomped his way past the living room, not wanting to know what they were talking about. Although there was a part of him that couldn’t help overhearing Joonmyun ask "How about a date?"

"Really?" The stupid blonde sounded so fricking cheerful.

"Saturday night at seven."

"Great!"

Lay's eyes widened immensely. A date?! Joonmyun had just asked Luhan out on a date! The doll wasn’t sure what was going on, but he couldn’t handle it. He ran off to the room he shared with Joonmyun and tried to occupy himself with sorting the laundry. He tried to calm down as he was checking all the pockets on the pants. There was nothing wrong. There was nothing to freak out about. Yixing was finally starting to breathe again when a note fell out of Joonmyun's pajama pants pocket. The brunette picked it up and read over it. Once. Twice. Ten times.

Crack.

Luhan was his replacement.

Crack.

Joonmyun was going to buy him.

Crack.

Joonmyun was going to be Luhan's boyfriend.

Lay coughed and jerked suddenly as he felt the whirring in his chest start to sputter. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t like it. He sat on the floor and just stared at the floor. He wasn’t sad. He wasn't programmed to feel that emotion. For the first time in his life, the brunette didn’t feel anything. Nothing.

Something was off with Lay. Ever since Kyungsoo's visit the doll had been quiet. He had stop talking. He wasn’t even acknowledging anyone's presence anymore. He didn’t argue with Luhan, nor did he seem angry. Joonmyun first thought that maybe the doll was finally getting used to the blonde being around. He soon realized that this was not the case. The brunette had just become a zombie and did whatever he was told without so much as offering up something to say. Joonmyun was worried, but he wasn’t really sure about what he should do to fix it. Maybe Lay would go back to normal after he got Luhan out of the house. That's what he was planning. He was inthe midst of getting dressed to go take the blonde doll out so that he could finally have some alone time with Lay. The redhead had come up with a great idea that would make his boyfriend forgive instantly. My Little Pony marathon. Joon didn’t like the show but it would make Lay happy. He smiled at the thought as he finished getting dressed.

"You look handsome."

Joonmyun looked up from tucking in his shirt and saw Lay standing in the doorway "Xing." He hadn’t heard the doll's voice in days. "Thanks, I have to look presentable tonight. Well it’s really Luhan's night, but it never hurts to dress nice."

Lay smiled, but the usual brightness in his eyes didn't seem to be there. Joonmyun didn’t notice. "Well I hope you have fun."

"It's gonna be great," the redhead kissed his doll on the cheek before moving past him "I'll see you later."

Lay simply nodded and kept his head down so Joonmyun couldn’t see his face. He didn’t want the other to notice that he was leaking from his eyes. He stood quietly as he heard the front door close. "I love you."

It took a bit longer than he wanted, but he finally convinced Luhan to stay on his date. Joonmyun unlocked the door to the apartment, calling for Lay "Xing!" He didn’t get a response. He hoped the other boy wasn’t asleep already then all his effort would have been wasted. He stared at the giant unicorn plush that he had bought before coming home. "Xing!" He called again. No answer. Now he was worried. That doll had sensitive hearing. There was no way he couldn’t hear the boy calling for him. He put the unicorn down and walked to the bedroom door. Maybe Yixing was ignoring him still. That made sense. Joonmyun sighed "I know your mad, but you gotta talk to me. I got rid of Luhan for the night, so we could be together." Hopefully, he got rid of Luhan forever. "Lay," the older male called again as he finally opened the door.

There were wires everywhere. Too many wires. Where was Lay?

"Xing!" On the bed, the doll lay and his eyes were just barely flickering. Joonmyun ran over and kneeled over him. The doll had a giant hole in his chest and there were cracks all around the hole. "Lay! What happened to you?!"

"I want y-you to be h-happy but I can’t l-live without y-you," the doll sputtered.

"What are you talking about?!"

"Wait w-why are you h-here? I-I thought y-you were with L-Luhan."

"I sent him on a date so I could be here with you!"

"B-But he was g-going, the note rep-place--"

Damn it. Why didn’t he trash that stupid note when he had the chance? "Lay, I’m not replacing you with Luhan. I told you I love you too much. I'm happy with you and only you," Joonmyun held the broken doll in his arms as he felt tears starting to fall down his face "Lay, we need to get you help."

The doll smiled weakly as the brightness in his eyes tried to return "I'm sorry for being so silly." He closed his eyes and held his owner's arm "I love you."

Joonmyun watched as the whirring in Lay begin to slow. No. He couldn’t let Lay go like this. He ran to get Lay's external charger that they had bought one rainy day. He plugged it into the port on the back Lay's neck and prayed he could find help in time. Joonmyun loved his doll and didn’t want to lose him because of this.

A/N: Please forgive me for this AWFUL formatting. I'm posting this from my phone in the laundromat. Anyway, this was probably not the thing to do after the Christmas special. This is so angsty. And this story was to be mostly fluff. I'm sorry, but this idea came to me and I ran with it. I promise next chapter will be full of fluff and cuteness. Oh and I'm celebrating two things: One, I'm starting my senior year of college WHOO! Two, which is more relevant is I now have 200+ subbies for Life-Sized! You guys don't know how much you all mean to me. I know I don’t update often and I probably don't say i enough but I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! Thank you so much for sticking with me, I really appreciate it. Anyway subscribe, comment, etc.

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