A/N: Air Conditioner scared the heck out of me when I was little, but when I rewatched BLT recently, he sort of grew on me. I started to wonder what happened to him after the cabin was sold, so I decided to write this and find out :) This takes place some time after The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, but you really only need to have seen the first movie for it to make sense.

It was fun at first. However, after ten years the novelty of his cabin being a rental property had worn off. From what Air Conditioner had gathered from visiting realtors and prospective owners, the Master's family had wanted to sell the place to pay for his college education. After several months without finding a buyer, the realty company had bought it themselves to rent out to mountain vacationers.

Thus, after ten years without seeing a human face, Air Conditioner spent the next decade seeing far too many. Some stayed for a week, some for a month, but they all left eventually only to be replaced with a new batch a few days later. Occasionally there was a family, children with sticky fingers on arms too short to reach his dials. Usually, though, it was older teenagers or young adults. Partiers.

So what'll it be tonight? Air Conditioner thought as the shadows lengthened inside the cabin. What game should I play with those stupid drunk humans? "Freeze Out"? "Wind Storm"? "Dude, I'm So Stoned The Air Conditioner Just Talked To Me"? In the early days, he'd liked messing with the kids who partied in his cabin, but now the thought of even those games bored him. It wasn't any fun interacting with humans who didn't care about him.

Yeah, and why should they care? he asked himself. They don't own this place. Long as they don't trash it so much they lose their deposit, it doesn't matter to them at all. And the only reason the realtors bother to keep me running is to make them more money. No one's ever cared about me.

But he knew it wasn't true. He had known it when he woke up to the sensation of a hand patting his top, when he'd shifted his faintly sore jaw and found it in one piece. When he'd seen the tall young man with the screwdriver walking away from him and had known that those low-watted morons had been right: the Master had come back.

Of course he had left again and been replaced with the ever-changing tenants, but he had come back. Somewhere in the gap of lost time between Air Conditioner's break-down and his resurrection, the Master had returned.

And he fixed me, Air Conditioner thought. He fixed me, and he patted me. He did care about me.

He finally heard the sound of human feet and quickly hid his face.

"Dammit, this place is a wreck! I'll never get my deposit back if you guys don't help me pick this shit up," a high-pitched female voice whined. He recognized it as belonging to the girl who had rented the cabin that weekend. Air Conditioner couldn't stand her, but he had to admit she was right. She and her friends had completely trashed the living room.

The Master's family never talked like that, he thought. Even that grumpy old vacuum cleaner didn't say words like that. Well, of course he didn't. He'd only use clean language. Air Conditioner found himself dangerously close to laughter at the stupid word-play. Great, I'm cracking up. . . again.

He wished he hadn't thought about Kirby. It was even worse than thinking about the Master, because it reminded him that he was all alone now. None of the other appliances in the house were sentient, and except for the occasional stoner, he'd had no one to talk to in ten years. He'd realized they were gone just seconds after he'd seen the Master; apparently the Master had come to the cabin to retrieve them. But of course he couldn't take Air Conditioner (stuck in the wall), so he'd repaired him and left, taking his only companions away. The thought that he'd never see any of them again had brought tears to his eyes, though he tried to believe it was just condensation.

"We're lucky we got to rent this place," he heard the girl tell her friends in that annoying voice. "Someone's buying it-- we're the last renters."

"Whoa," said her dopey boyfriend. "Bet it cost a lot. Who's got that kind of money?"

"Some vet. The realty office told Mom that he grew up here, so he and his wife are buying it back."

It was all Air Conditioner could do not to come to life right there in front of them. She had to be doped up on something, or else it was all a joke. If what she said were true, it would mean. . . the Master was coming back.

It can't be true, he thought. He wouldn't come back twice Yet in spite of himself, he felt hopeful. Maybe it was true. Maybe he would be cared for again, would have someone to make sure his coils stayed dusted and that he didn't freeze up.

But what if he brings them back?

Despite his loneliness without the other appliances, Air Conditioner suddenly dreaded the thought of their return. The last he remembered of them was Kirby saying-- saying that, and himself cracking up. Even ten years later, he felt like cringing in humiliation at the memory of losing his cool, shattering the collected exterior he had always shown them, all but admitting that he did care about the Master and that he missed him as much as they did.

They saw right through me, Air Conditioner groaned inwardly. That damned vacuum cleaner most of all. Somehow he knew. . . all I wanted was to be free, to be cared for like they were.

When Air Conditioner forced himself away from those thoughts, he realized that he was alone again, judging from the silence in the room. He opened one eye slightly to confirm it, then materialized his face with a sigh. Why bother, when there's no one to see me?

The room was dark and considerably neater than before. Apparently the teenaged tenants had decided to call it an early night, probably to keep from messing the place up again. Air Conditioner looked around a moment, then found himself staring down at the spot on the floor where the other five appliances had looked up at him that day.

Maybe he doesn't have them anymore, he thought. They were already old, and it's been so long. Sure, he probably got rid of them a long time ago. I won't have to see them again-- see them looking at me like that, like they're laughing at me. If it's even true-- if he comes back.

To be continued