Chapter Text
“Mm. . .Hey J?” N hesitantly asked as he turned to look at J.
The Pig-Tailed head maid gently faced away from the beaming night sky as she turned to face the butler with a slight hum in her voice while raising a slight brow.
Getting the maid’s attention, N let out a simple sigh. “Do you think that Tessa will finally get V out of her. .” N fiddled with his words as he tried to come up with the proper words to describe what he had to say. “Her. . .error?”
Instantly knowing to what the butler was referring towards, J didn’t say anything at the moment as she herself bit her mouth as she gave a quick thought on his question before an answer came out from her mouth.. “I don’t think the boss will have V in working condition by the time the gala starts N. .”
N could only flinch upon hearing J’s answer to which J could only look at the butler with sympathy spread across her face. It wasn’t a surprise that N cared about every drone that was in the epicenter of the manor. It made him who he was, a very endearing Worker Drone that every person needed once in a while.
And with that, the head maid was not gonna allow that frown be plastered onto the butlers for long, as a ‘ComfortingSpeech.Mp5’ flickered over her screen for a millisecond before it returned to her two white neon eyes.
“Stud,” the head maid began as she took a step away from the balcony. “You know how unrelenting the boss is, she is not gonna give up anytime soon until V is finally released from her stasis,” she stated with a warm smile as she gave a comforting pat on N’s back.
N slowly recuperated a smile back towards J, which enlightened the Head Maid for a bit before it eventually faltered as he spoke once more. “And. . if the Elliotts still throw her out. ?”
And J’s response was as comforting as it was soothing to N’s audio sensors.
“Even if corporate deems it necessary, Tessa would still go out and find her.” She says as N’s form brightens slightly. “And if she can’t go out. . Then you can be sure that we will be ten-quarter profits away from going there ourselves to get her to be reunited with Tessa,” She said, giving a confident smirk towards the butler.
Now sporting a full on smile. N went forward as he gently wrapped his arms around the head maid’s form. With the maid only giving a short chuckle as she too gave a warm hug back toward the dog loving drone.
It was somewhat surreal to N, that mere 5 months ago, giving J an embrace was not the faintest possibility that he could’ve ever thought would ever happen in his lifetime. Considering what N had perceived J to be a very diligent Worker Drone.
Not that he was saying that as a way to slander her. It was quite the opposite, honestly.
He knew that there were some of his colleagues that didn’t really like J, some outright hated her personality, especially Cyn for some odd reason. And while he somewhat understood why they held contempt towards the head maid, he felt like they never really understood that it was a necessity.
She put herself on the line, stressing herself to ensure they completed their daily tasks. She managed their schedules for weeks, pre-planning events to ensure a smooth workflow and maximum satisfaction for the Elliotts.
While some wouldn’t like to admit it or outright state it. If J wasn’t the one being the responsible Worker Drone in the Manor, then he knew for certain that a good majority of the drones would be either decommissioned and replaced within a couple weeks or less considering the circumstances.
N knew that Tessa would hold out as long as she could, but. . the reality was still present. Both he, V and Cyn would’ve still already been thrown out, regardless of what Tessa tried to do.
And that all accumulates to J being the sole responsibility of keeping everything in shape and doing whatever high corporate ever demands. Alongside pushing aside some of Tessa’s accommodations and needs for the sake of pleasing their masters.
Was it cruel?
Most definitely.
But did he understand why she did it?
Yes.
Though that was the problem he had with his prior judgement about the head maid, which he mostly looked down in shame about whenever he ever replayed his thoughts about it or when one of the Worker Drones ever mentioned it.
While he understood what J was doing.
N never. . really considered anything else about her.
He wasn’t sure why he didn’t really think about J that much, as he could recall multiple times on how much concern he had for Tessa, V and Cyn but. He never really had a single thought for J other than a simple prospect of understanding what she does before moving on.
The only conclusion that N really had for a concerning lack of care for J would be Cyn’s discouraging words of not bothering the head maid or doing a convenient thing that both of them liked to do, such as Movie Night or reading together.
Then he would just suddenly forget any concern or worry about the head maid before moving on with his day.
But that begone viewpoint collapsed in on itself when J broke down into his arms and practically melted into his hug as practically didn’t let go for 10 minutes straight.
In that entire 10 minutes that he was there basically comforting the supposedly stone cold maid, he realized something, something that felt like it was incredibly dormant inside of the maid.
She was. .afraid.
He wasn’t sure about what it was, but he knew there was something feasting inside of the maid that she kept herself hidden for so long. He wasn’t sure for how long it was eating inside of her, but the look on her face yelled years of this being spiraled inside of her.
Even after she left his grasp to do the duties to upkeep, the following day when he saw her, she still had a visible haunted expression on her face from time to time. And of course the expression vanished whenever he was nearby and such, but that expression never left N’s mind.
It reminded him whenever Tessa or V were dealing with their own hardships. The human needing N whenever she was scolded by her parents or V whenever she couldn’t handle the overwhelming amount of tasks her programming was demanding her to do. And each of those occasions N offered a helping hand in any ways he could provide.
So why shouldn’t he not do that to J as well?
It was slow at first if he was to be completely honest, as it was most difficult to even navigate what the head maid was going to do and where she was going to be, as she had an unpredictable path finder in her system which was admirably hard to keep track of.
But when he did finally start a dialogue with her.
He really. . didn’t consider any other possibilities for her strict attitude.
-
“Do. . .do you know it feels like to be horrified. . ?”
N slowly turned to face the maid with a somber look spread all over his face, he slowly scratched his arm as he mostly pondered around the question before he gave an unsure response, as while he had times where he was overly concerned or sometimes scared, but never beyond that. “No. . I don’t.”
J still had a distant expression on her face as she gave a slow but understanding nod. “I didn’t feel anything at first, confused. . But I didn’t feel scared. I didn’t know how to feel scared at the time.”
N’s eyes narrowed with concern as J continued to speak. “I don’t know how long it felt. How long I was in that. . dump.” Her lips then began to slightly quiver as a displeasing thought entered her CPU. “Then. .I saw it.”
She felt her hands wrap around herself as the returning memory flooded her systems, N scooted closer to the maid as he placed a hand on her shoulder as J pulled her knees closer. “I-it stared at me. Demanding something. Yearning for something. I d-don’t know what it wanted. .but it had to be something inside of me, just looking for something a-an-and I refuse to let it in. . .It just stared back. Smiling.”
The maid’s body began to shake as the memory began to come back to her, her arms instinctively wrapped around her legs as she began to shake, N went forward and wrapped his hands around J as a method of comforting her as she shook.
“I-I still feel like it’s still nearby. .Just looking at the opportunity to just. . do something to me ..” Barely above a whisper, J’s shaking began to worsen as the mere thought of rethinking didn’t put her mind at ease in the slightest as panic was slowly flooding her systems as a warning symbol appeared on her visor. “I don’t want to go back. .I don’t want to go back. I don’t wan-”
Sensing that she was beginning to spiral, N hastily but gently went forward and shifted J’s head from her knees towards his chest as he brought her into a warmest and comforting hug he could provide toward the head maid.
J stiffened on the spot when she was brought into the warm embrace from the butler, she remained completely still as she was quivering her lips before the warm sound that was emitted from N’s core came into effect in the maid’s body. She was quick to recuperate the hug.
N held J close to him as he could hear the maid quietly whimpering against his shoulder, he could even feel J silently sobbing as she gripped onto his uniform, and so the only thing he could do to comfort her was to rub her back up and down as a way to relax.
And while his method wasn’t the best he could ever come up with, J did appreciate it dearly as she turned to bury her face into his shoulder.
There were no words that left his mouth, as the entire focus was intently listening towards her and carefully making sure she was given the best care and comfort at that moment of time.
-
. . . .
. . . .
. . . . She was afraid.
Well afraid wouldn’t exactly be the most accurate way to describe her expression.
No, she was utterly terrified.
Whatever aspect of admiration that N had for J’s hardline attitude turned into the utmost concern towards the head maid when those words were uttered out from her voice box.
She never once did her job extremely because she wanted to put out an example or whatnot, or that she wanted to take a corporate interest in her for putting in the most effort.
Nay.
She was doing it for the sake of doing whatever it could take just so she wouldn’t be thrown back into the robot dump with the rest, it was fear that was motivating her to take drastic measures at its finest just so she could avoid being brought into the presence of whatever lurked inside of that scrapyard.
And this was all supported with the knowledge that J would always go in a frenzy whenever she would get injured or one of her parts refused to work. But again, he always perceived it as her just wanting to go back to work. .not her being so utterly desperate for the Elliots to take notice of her being in the slightest bit out of commission.
Suffice to say, there was only one thing that was flooding his mind. To a point where it was his most top priority for the days to come.
Being there for J when she needed him the most.
Something that comes to the current day, he never once regretted it. Especially as the maid that was in his arms was now hugging him with such conviction that only the other two people in the world would ever take notice with much support coming from their end.
Well. . .except for Cyn, that is.
Š̸̳͒h̴̙̲̎e̴͓̳̿͝ ̸̺͖͒ṛ̴̓̽e̶͕̫͂͐a̶̖͗̋l̵̯͂l̵̖̈̆y̵̟̏ ̶̮͍̊̂s̶͇̍̎e̶͎̩̅e̸̟͗͘m̶̜̯̈e̶̖͈͗͑d̴̞͐̐ ̸̡̉t̵̗͘o̵͕͑͜ ̶̫̱̔̚d̴͙̜̏̒i̵̼̊s̵͕̐̃l̵̗̇̀i̶̬̅k̸̻̦͌̿e̷̳̭̒́ ̴̯̹̃J̵͍̋̽ ̴̲̻̀ǎ̶͕ ̵̭̝̀̔ļ̷̜̈́o̷̢̠̒̅t̵͇̍̑ ̴̠̈́͛f̵̧͝ô̵̮̼̋r̸̪̈́ ̴̪͒ͅs̵͓̃͌ȍ̷̝͉m̸̮̖̾̕e̷̠͈̽̋ ̷̠̀̀͜r̶̠̎e̶̘͈̾a̶̤̻͋s̶̭̅̊o̵̫͛͛n̴̖̼̕.̷̗̳̽ ̷̜̀̾
But regardless.
Alongside her genuine, beautiful smile, that was now a common phenomenon whenever he was around her sight. A simple yet endearing smile brightened her face frequently these days.
It was always a gentle reminder that he could do something for the head maid. To heal. And while there were moments where J was shaken or apprehensive at many moments, it was relatively short compared to a few months ago, so there was still progress to be made, but it was still there.
Though he really should talk with Cyn, especially with her sudden change in behavio-
“Uh. N?” J’s voice rang through his CPU, it interrupted any further thoughts he would’ve had as she continued to speak” I think it’s time to go back, it’s getting late. Don’t want to infuriate corporate any longer”
Even though the sentence was usually in her typical corporate language, the tone that was underused provided that she really didn’t want to let go.
But knowing that it was 12:34 am, they unfortunately had to go back to recharge for the next day to come, as they were already cutting it by being out on the balcony already this late.
So when the warmth of J’s core and body left N’s presence, he was slightly downcast by the action, but it dissipated quickly when J gave a smile towards her coworker that caused N to smile back with warmth traced all over it.
“Okay. .let’s go” J stated as she turned to go back inside of the mansion but was stopped when N placed a hand on her shoulder, causing the head maid to stop dead in her tracks as she turned to see the reasoning on why the butler did that, but instead he was met with N having a white blush covering his visor. Almost as if he was contemplating asking her something.
Digitizing a brow, J’s mouth opened. “N? Are yo-”
She didn’t get the opportunity to speak any longer before N suddenly but gently pulled J towards him, she muffled out something before something else finally registered into his mind as she felt something warm and soft covering her mouth.
It was only then when it finally realized that N was kissing her.
Whatever circuits that made J function that night just stopped. It felt like her system suddenly crashed as her visor burned as a familiar white blush covered her entire screen as she felt N’s gently pressing his lips onto hers as the world around them blurred, almost as if everything else around them had evaporated into the air just leaving them two alone.
N’s closed eyes narrowed every so slightly as he gently pushed his mouth against J’s lips as he placed another hand behind J’s back as she pulled her closer that the head maid could feel the butler’s cores emitting towards her own core retrospectively, which only caused the blush on her own visor to glow ever so brighter.
During the entire kiss between N and J, the pigtailed drone stayed motionless, maintaining her frozen posture while experiencing a system reboot triggered by the butler’s unexpected intimate action.
Slowly, N opened his eyes lovingly; then, the drone, realizing J’s hollow digital eyes, saw his loving look turn blank. It then flickered once more as it was now his turn to have a hollowed look on his face as the gravity of the situation of what he had done finally hit him like a train.
The butler really didn’t take into consideration what would happen after he decided to indulge into one of his intrusive thoughts, mostly due to the fact that he may or may not have accidentally seen Tessa do something similar with V.
He should have realized that while V accepted graciously nearly five seconds after Tessa’s initiation, J was still frozen like a statue, her eyes remaining hollow.
He almost slowly removed himself from J’s mouth, out of fear that he had unintentionally violated her own personal space for the sake of taking advantage of her, his mouth opened and closed multiple times as he tried to form a sentence but the myriad of emotions that his CPU was emitting prevented that.
But one immediate thought of dread filled him up in an instant.
He blew it, didn’t he?
“. . . .Ah Biscuits. . .”
Thinking on his feet, N looked up to J with shame all over his face as he moved to speak out an apology or something related to that.
But. Just like J wasn’t able to finish her sentence, the butler didn’t get the opportunity to even utter a word when J suddenly wrapped her hands around the butler’s shoulder as she pulled him towards her as she then reconnected their lips together.
It was now his turn to have his eyes digitized to be hollowed as the head maid was now kissing back in affection, but unlike J, he soon then closed his eyes as he subconsciously wrapped his hands around her as he soon pressed his lips against hers.
Time itself seemed to slow down by a tremendous amount as the two had their hands wrapped around each other, as N could feel J’s hands rub around N’s back. Possessively, he might add.
Not that he minded that, he actually liked it quite a lot.
And as far as he is concerned?
He didn’t want this to end.
Nor did he want to let the girl he loved go, either.
>Memory Playback Log 3051/8/19: Play Successfully<
>Reactivation Protocols Activated<
>Welcome Back Serial Designation N<
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
“. . . . J-J. . .”