Chapter Text
Sausage had never been in any kind of committed relationship before.
Well, he was pretty sure he hadn't.
By this point, it had been 81 days since he awoke in the lab, 68 days since he got his name and said goodbye to the family who gave it to him.
It was 59 days since he arrived in the academy and met his best friends, Graecie and Zam.
And now it had been 1 day since he started calling them his partners.
Sausage was always curious about what his life was like before he woke up in the rubble, in the lab. Sausage was curious if he had a family before then, a romantic partner, a child maybe. The idea made him light up, maybe close friends, maybe they had the same interests as him.
As soon as the thought would make him smile it would make him sad, what if there was a family he had completely abandoned, a child still waiting for their dad to come home.
Or friends he failed to protect.
A loud knock on the door startles him awake from his dream; sparks fly out of his copper appendages, startled.
Sausage was now able to tell who was at his door just by their knock alone; Graecie would always be enthusiastic, her knock bringing the promise for adventure her bells did aid him when it came to identifying her though; A barely audible knock meant that it was Zam, still upholding her politeness despite their clear closeness.
Sausage could hear Penny clawing at the door, she was growing much bigger now. He could've sworn he saw her get some air beneath her little wings.
Protection
He promised to protect all of his friends and that includes his little scaled girl.
To no surprise, he opened the door to find both Graecie and Zam at his door.
"Morning Sausage!" Graecie exclaimed as she let herself into Sausage's dorm room, giving him a large embrace. She was well acquainted with the space by now," Would you prefer if we sat at the table, or do you want to go up to your bedroom?"
"I made us some lunch, I was trying out some new recipes in the kitchen." Zam followed behind Graecie closely, spotting Penny and tossing her a little extra beef from her dish. "I think it will be best to sit at the table…if that's okay with you both."
Sausage closed the door behind Zam "That's fine by me, then our little cuties can all rest upstairs." Almost at the sound of the suggestion Twilite Sparkul and Fleece jumped out of their respective parents bags and joined Penny upstairs. Sausage sighed dramatically, "They grow up so fast."
Graecie had started setting plates while Zam served the food. Just seeing both of them in his space made him feel happy, even before they began this arrangement. He loved being around both of them, it was comforting and effortless.
Sausage was still in his foyer watching both of them, a chill ran up his spine as he became acutely aware of how little he was doing as they'd finished setting the table and were awaiting him.
Useless, he scolded himself.
A gear in his leg buzzed.
He moved to join them; that was the least he could do.
They began eating what Sausage was able to recognise as rice with beef , some potato wedges and a sauce he couldn't identify but knew he was definitely going to enjoy. Sausage enjoyed virtually anything that Zam cooks for him. Zam was eating the vegetarian alternative to the dish, substituting her beef for beans.
If Sausage was going to be having more of her cooking for the future of their relationship, he had no objections whatsoever.
The three entered a comfortable conversation about the most recent happenings around the academy, an awkward interaction with the prince, their most recent findings about their dragons and a new mystery in the capital that they wanted to investigate.
Once they finished eating and cleaning up they fell into relaxing silence around the table, Zam rested her head on the table, Graecie was sitting cross-legged on her chair while Sausage was sitting upright picking at some rust between his fingers.
The sun was setting over the academy, the late afternoon light was glimpsing through his large window, into the kitchen now.
It caused his arm to shine.
It highlighted the blue beneath his knuckles.
I need to fix that soon, if it remained, it would harm Zam and Graecie.
"Do you want to go first Sausage?" Graecie spoke up, gesturing to the cyborg man. Graecie was glowing with her hair illuminated by the sunlight.
"Go first for what?" Sausage looked up from his hands. "I told you, I'm really fine with anything you guys would want to do, I don't care who you want to hang out with," He said confidently not making eye contact with either of them.
He'd put his hands beneath the table now. Turning to Zam who was tracing the light that reflected on the table. "What about you Zam? You've been in a romantic relationship before."
"I don't think this is going to be the same, I feel much closer to you both than I did with my last partner." She stopped drawing imaginary figures into the table. "I thought about it and I think…I'm also pretty comfortable with anything but…" she paused, looking up from her fingers to make eye contact with Graecie then Sausage "I know I want to spend more time with you both…"
"That's fine we can just make sure we wake up extra early before going out then we'd have more time together," Sausage suggested enthusiastically, he was hoping to catch the sunrise with them one of these days but they never got the chance with their classes.
"That would maybe help but I was thinking about…maybe…I don't know…you can say it's a dumb idea but…" Zam broke eye-contact turning into her arm and she says something that gets muffled by her arms.
Gracie rests a hand on Zam's arm, rubbing a thumb on her sleeve, hoping to provide gentle encouragement.
Recently she had stopped wearing her space suit as much in the academy, the three of them had gone into town to get her a whole new wardrobe, her outfits nowadays consisted of anything long with bright colours, greatly contrasting her reserved personality.
It took a lot of encouragement from him and Graecie but this was a true show of how far they had come in their friendship, and how comfortable they all felt together.
"I want to live together, or at least with one of you…I know we're in two different dorms and it will probably be a hassle…I'm sorry." Zam had her head in her hands.
"I think that's a great idea" Graecie and Sausage said together, but at very different volumes.
"I mean, Sausage's room is probably the only dorm that could fit us all, considering my very vacant bedroom," Graecie suggested, "But only if that's okay with you Sausage."
"I'd love to live with both of you!" Sausage exclaimed, looking up towards the upper level of his bedroom. "I may need to do some renovation work to make the space more comfortable for us all but that sounds like fun."
"And we may need to keep this a secret from the professors since I'm not sure how they'll feel about a dorm switching this late" Graecie considered. "But I think we could trust Guard Guard to let you in and keep our secret safe."
"O-okay, that sounds good" Zam said, playing with her sleeves, hiding her very wide smile."Thank you."
"Oh blessed bells, I love this idea," Graecie diligently rang her bells, they echoed in the space. "I think you can stay with me for the time being Zam, until Sausage is done with the renovations."
"I'll get working as soon as possible" Sausage stood up swiftly, knocking over the chair behind him as he approached his chests, looking through his resources. "I can see it now, a little area for our little baby dragons, a bigger kitchen for Zam, a little nook for all our things and an opening in the roof to look at the stars" he looked dreamily at the ceiling.
"Maybe hold onto that last one until we have explicit permission, Sausage" Graecie chuckled at his excitement, moving towards him as he continued to work through his barrels now. "This all sounds great, but make sure you don't overwork yourself."
"Yeah, I don't think I need that much stuff you want to add…" Zam added, joining the two in the foyer now.
"I'm going to make the space perfect for the both of you," Sausage said, moving past them both heading upstairs where the dragons had fallen asleep, awoken by Sausage's loud steps.
"Do you mean the three of us?" Graecie wasn't sure why she asked, she was sure she knew the answer.
The answer was nothing at all, he had been lost to his creative space with a task he needed to do.
He had purpose.
He had to be useful.
He needed to do something right.
From where he sat at his bench, he was not able to read the concern on either of his partners' faces. And with the sounds of the gears turning at his desk, he didn't hear either of them leave.
Sausage wasn't sure how many days had passed since he started working on the space.
He knew he when he was outside getting resources from the forest or the markets, gathering flowers for Zam and soft cotton for Graecie.
He knew when he was at his crafting bench, creating, crafting and constructing.
He knew he saw Zam and Graecie at some point, maybe he saw other people.
He knew some more discussions of 'boundaries' happened, though he's unsure if he was present.
He knew what he wanted and that was whatever they wanted.
He knew he had to work hard for them.
He knew Penny was staying over at Graecie's whilst Zam was living with her, he wasn't sure when he last saw her.
He wasn't sure when he last ate.
He wasn't sure when he last slept.
He wasn't sure when he last tended to his copper limbs.
He was awakened by a hand on his back. It startled him awake, he turned to see Zam.
When did I fall asleep? And how did she get into his dorm?
Once he came to both realisations he sprung awake.
"Whate'er you doing here!" He motioned for Zam to move back downstairs, making a poor effort of trying to cover her eyes. His limbs betraying him.
When did my copper limbs start looking so worn?
He persisted in trying to get Zam to exit the room, now concerned that she may be harmed by the faults in his metal appendages and fearful of her seeing the unfinished room. "Zam you should leave you're going to ruin your own surprise"
Zam tried planting her feet in the wooden floor to no avail, even though he was worn, the sheer strength he possessed couldn't be challenged.
"Sausage, please!" Zam said, trying a new approach to get through to him. "Graecie and I haven't seen you in days, we're worried about you."
Sausage halted.
Days? He could've sworn they were talking in their kitchen just yesterday?
He returned to trying to move Zam out of his dorm.
"There's no reason to be worried, I'm just very invested in a project for my two favourite people." He managed to get them both outside his room now.
He searched his pocket for a key, where had it gone?
"You haven't written back about any of our notes to you" Zam said, now they were both in the hallway.
"Notes? what notes?" His sense of protection was now taking priority.
Were they fighting off some beast that he hadn't known about? Were they having an argument with another student? What if another cursed ritual happened?
Zam wore a concerned expression which did nothing to ease his concerns. She motioned towards the door and closed it to show the front.
It was decorated with small notes that had been taped to the copper door.
They each contained short messages.
"Zam's working on a new dish in the kitchen right now, when you're done working you can come to my dorm to try it out", one of them read, it was written in Graecie's recognisable cursive.
Sausage looked down at another note, "Theres a new vendoor in kapital seling chocolat yu might lik, were going to vist againe tonight" Sausage could just make out Zam's handwriting, when did her english start getting this good?
Sausage looked further down the door to see more messages from them, starting with invitations to be together, to curiosity about what's been keeping him so occupied, to notes asking if he was okay or if they had done something to upset him.
He was devastated reading that.
In no world did he ever want either of them to think that they could ever do anything wrong to him.
He heard footsteps begin to approach them, he didn't have to turn to know who it was.
"How long have I been working for?" Sausage said, taking some of the notes of the door, they began to get crumpled in his hands.
He was too embarrassed to make eye contact with them.
"Maybe 6 days now" Zam mutters, "we didn't want to disturb you, we knew this was something you were very committed to doing"
"We assumed you were reading the messages on your door but you were just busy or, you know…" Graecie now spoke up, "we thought you didn't really want to spend as much time together anymore"
Sausage could almost feel his copper heart collapse at the sound of that.
He had decided to commit himself to his two favourite people and he had made them believe that he didn't want their company at all.
He thought he had found purpose again, to redeem himself for his inability to protect those he cared about.
"We're sorry if we did something wrong, Sausage", Sausage swiftly turned to both of them upon hearing Zam say this.
"No, no, the last thing I want to hear is either of you blame yourselves for my actions." A loud whirring of cogs could be heard from somewhere on Sausage.
He couldn't even identify what was wrong with himself.
The last thing he needed was to shut down in front of both of them, they'd feel even more worried and he would feel even more ashamed.
Graecie and Zam could clearly read Sausage's own concern for his system and decided to enter the dorm and help him sit down.
It felt like he was seeing his dorm for the first time in weeks upon entering.
There were piles of wood, across his kitchen floor, on the counter tops and in front of his cabinetry. If it weren't for his cyborg composition he would have starved from the inaccessibility to his food.
His chests were overflowing, he was typically very organised, but now items weren't in their right places and when unable to fit, finding their place on the floor instead.
All of his small copper golems looked as if they had not been working in ages, fully oxidised and unmoving.
Sausage looked out the window to see the sun was setting.
He remembered the last time he saw the sight with Zam and Graecie in his kitchen, they were smiling and laughing.
He looked at them now, helping him onto one of the chairs, having to move planks of wood to create space.
They both looked terrified for him.
Because of him.
His throat felt hot and tight.
This wasn't a feeling he'd felt before.
"I'm sorry for making you both worry about me" Graecie and Zam looked at him though their gaze was not met. "I was so fixated on creating this space that I clearly disregarded both of you."
"And yourself Sausage, when was the last time you properly ate, or slept or just took care of yourself," Graecie was crouched on the floor in an attempt to meet his gaze, she spoke directly and gently to him. She rested a hand on his knee. The physical contact, though sparse aided in grounding him.
"I guess…I'm not really sure" Sausage looked at Graecie now, unable to avoid eye contact, then he looked back at his damaged hands,"I feel like I need to do this"
"Why did you think that?" Zam asked, laying a hand on his copper shoulder. After a long pause Zam speaks again, "Graecie mentioned how it's important for us to communicate while we're in this relationship"
"You can say whatever you need to Sausage, we won't judge you." Graecie affirmed.
It took Sausage a moment to gather his words before he spoke again.
"I guess, I feel like I haven't been fulfilling my purpose, I mean when all of the doppelganger stuff was happening, you both got hurt, I failed to protect both of you
"You're both everything to me and I want to make you both happy so I thought this would be able to do that.
"It gave me purpose again."
"Oh, Sausage you never failed us, you never have and you never will" Graecie said, smiling earnestly at him, "Us being together in this way doesn't mean we have roles we need to fulfil to be worthy of this relationship, we just get to….be"
"I agree… if there's any purpose we should be having in our relationship is to take care of each other but not at the expense of ourselves." Zam joined Graecie on the kitchen floor.
Sausage could barely look at them."I feel so embarrassed, I can't believe I just let myself go like that."
"You only had the best of intentions Sausage, Zam and I could've been more persistent about checking up on you as well," Graecie concluded, "But that's why communication is important for everyone and we know that going forward."
"If it helps Sausage, from what I saw of the upstairs…I think it looks really great so I don't think your efforts have gone to waste." Zam comments, "I think we could all finish this project together."
"I love that idea!" Graecie beams, getting back up on her feet, a similar sun halo formed above her head.
He remembered that.
Sausage turned to Zam whose face was fragmented by the light from the window.
They both shared a warm smile.
"I think, first order of business is getting you into something else" she made a show of pinching her nose and fanning away a fake scent.
Or was it there? Sausage thought it best not to plague his mind too much.
Sausage and Zam both laughed at this action.
"And then I think we can all spend the night in Graecie's" Zam suggested, "I think… a change of scenery would be really helpful for us all"
All three chuckled at this.
That night the three of them spent the night in Graecie's room. On her bed that was definitely not fit for three but none of them were complaining.
Sausage remembered the conversations they had until they were too tired to speak.
Sausage remembered the light of the moon illuminating the room.
He remembered how it lit his partners' faces.
Sausage wanted to remember this day.
Sausage was going to remember that Zam and Graecie were always going to be there for him, through the good and through the bad.