Work Text:
"Do you think..." Zero began, a quiet wonder in his voice, "that this place...is in our programming?"
X glanced up, the lights of the city beneath him reflected in dark silver eyes. He treasured a small smile to himself, at the touch of Zero's warm hand on his.
"We were programmed for each other," He mused softly, "and this is where we first met. There must be something in that."
"Mm." Zero hummed, and heaved a sigh, looking out over the sprawling cityscape before them. A man made rainbow of dark haze and artificial lights, all silhouetted against a brilliant sunset.
There was pain in this view, a pain in his heart, in his city. It flourished in the decades they had lived there, recovering with a determined grace from the initial destruction the man had caused on his first visit there.
But it was through that pain he had found purpose, purpose in the one who sat beside him on the long weathered cement balcony. An all too familiar office building lay behind them, long forgotten and long abandoned.
But not to them.
The memories were thick here, almost suffocating.
"Why did you pick spring?" Zero felt it hard to take his eyes off the fading sunset, even as his vision blurred.
X churred. "The same reason you chose summer." Tentative fingers grew bold, threading tenderly through one another.
There was a fleeting bitterness in Zero's laugh. "You really still cling to that, don't you? Will you ever let it go?"
"I don't think so." A melancholy smile, "That was the first time I fell in love with you. You can't forget first times very easily." X relaxed, and looked down to watch his bare feet swinging carelessly over the edge of the balcony.
"I know I don't." A grin spread across Zero's lips, "If only they knew all the shit we did here--they'd have condemned this place years ago." There was a puff of pride in his broad chest.
"Zero!" X squealed, giving him an incredulous look, "That's NOT what I MEANT!"
Zero only let out a deep, hearty laugh.
X pouted, and turned to fold his arms. "I meant when you took me here to keep me safe. When we had to hide."
"Yeah, and I was thinkin' about the time you were kind enough to blast your own fuckin' legs off fightin' mavs so I got the chance to repair you." Zero leaned down to see if he could catch X's eye with a smarmy grin, "And one thing led to another."
X's face screwed up into an ever bigger pout, his cheeks a flushed rosy pink.
"Do you think the mavs were really that much harder, or that we kept gettin' hurt just bad enough so the other'd have to undress us?" He chuckled, earning him a extreme pigeon pout from X. He laughed harder.
"Alright, alright. I know. It was rough back then." He let his smile fade with a sigh, turning back to face the dusky city, leaning back.
X slowly relaxed again, and let his expression be shadowed by stale thoughts.
"And I know how I was back then, too. But I..." Zero furrowed his brow, "Honestly, X...I don't think...it would have worked out like that. I was..."
He shook his head, trying to find the right words, "Too focused. I didn't believe in much outside of you and Sigma." He wanted to say more, to say the effect of Sigma's conditioning on his personality, though seemingly benign, could have endangered the both of them. But he kept it to himself.
X's expression lightened, and he smiled, shaking his head.
"No, I understand. You held too much back. I...I wish we didn't have to have fought so much like we did, but I think we both came out stronger because of it."
There was a deep, unyielding faith in his eyes.
"Yeah, I...I really did hold myself back the whole time." Zero mumbled, more or less to himself, "I figure when I came back, I was tired of being so quiet. But I shouldn't have been angry. Especially not at you."
X's smile grew brighter, and he sidled up to the boy, nuzzling into his shoulder.
"It's in the past, Zero." He purred, feeling a burly arm wrap around his slender waist, "Let's remember that."
It was heavy and it was soft, but it all was swept up in a bittersweet breeze as the city finally faded into the smokey horizon.
"X." It was hard to imagine such a small voice coming from someone so powerful.
Zero's severe features had betrayed him, betrayed him in how the strong jaw quivered, the broad nose became ruddy, his noble brow growing weak. Even his golden mane of hair seemed a dusky bronze in the twilight.
His eyes were the most painful to see of all, a storm clouding a mediterranean sea.
"X," He repeated, "X, I love you."
And the boy was there, there to catch the tears on his lips.
"I'll take you away from here," Zero murmured, his hurting heart straining under the weight of something no robot was ever meant to feel, "When it's all gone. When the world grows tired of them." He closed his eyes, feeling X's tiny little fingers thread through his silky hair.
X's voice was small too. Childish, delicate, just as his hands were.
"It'll be over soon. They'll forget us, and we can forget them. We weren't meant for them, anyway."
"Knowing you're a failed attempt at an artificial god is pretty fucked up, isn't it?" Zero whuffed, smiling into X's neck.
"I like to think we're still kids, sometimes." The boy whispered, kissing his lover's temple.
"Me too." He breathed in X's sweet scent, "When all I had to worry about was how long you'd last." A sly grin broke through his once stormy expression, and his lips lingered under X's ear.
The boy held his breath.
"Remember when I took you here? Right before fall? When we were just kids?" Zero made his way up to X's parted lips, leaving languid kisses in his wake.
"Y-yeah," he laughed nervously, "And you blasted 'Father Figure' the whole time." X felt the hair on the nape of his neck prick as Zero went to caress his lips with his own.
Years. So many years had passed, but...
X closed his eyes, feeling the gem on his forehead heat up, a steady vermillion light emanating from it. The glow melted into Zero's own cerulean one.
It didn't take long for the boy to find his way into his lover's lap, the urge to breathe only second to kissing.
The city grew darker and farther away with every kiss. Soon, it was nearly one with the black horizon.
"I know this won't be the last time, because," Zero churred affectionately, breaking away from X for a moment to gaze into his eyes, "It never is. We'll always keep coming back here."
X giggled, toes curling, and rubbed his little button nose against Zero's.
"But let's leave on a good note. I wanna show you...I didn't lose every soft edge I had when I came back for you." Zero tenderly ran his rough hands down X's slender contours. It frustrated him not knowing what he liked more X in this oversized hoodie and sweats, or completely naked. He figured he could decide while he was undressing him.
X rested his forehead to Zero's neck, arching his hips back so he could press his softer side to the favorite Lion King print muscle shirt Zero always seemed to wear.
He giggled, feeling strong hands firmly rest on his rump. Zero was working on giving him the world's first robot hickey, right on his neck.
Hakuna Matata was right.
"But," X scolded, a childish tone to his voice, "We gotta make sure to get home before Papa does. I promised I'd make him dinner."
Zero chuckled, pulling away to kiss the glowing red gem on the boy's forehead.
"I'm sure Dr. Light can make his own dinner, but, as you wish, babe." He held him close for a few more minutes, relishing in the warmth they shared.
The city below them shimmered once more, the stars mirrored in the rainbow of lights the humans had made for themselves.
Two of those lights were together now, glittering like precious jewels, far, far above it all.
Even when the humans left, the cities fell: the lights would remain, as a reminder, that love was the only thing that endured, that time couldn't take away.