Chapter Text
There were pros and cons to having a robot boyfriend. Pros: never having to worry about paying for him at restaurants, he was easily excited and impressed by the most mundane couple activities, and he remembered absolutely everything. Cons: he was kind of difficult to cuddle with (though that could easily be remedied with the strategic employ of some blankets and soft sweaters), he didn’t understand a whole lot about relationships, and he remembered absolutely everything. So, when Y/N began to hint that she’d like to deepen their relationship, she got the impression that he didn’t quite get it, but that he certainly remembered.
That was evident in the situation she currently found herself in.
Of all the things Y/N wanted to be doing with her Friday night, sitting in a dark lab and watching a known nymphomaniac tinker around with her boyfriend’s body was not one of them. Apparently, Kiibo’s idea of a ‘next step’ in their relationship was her learning more about how he functions, and he thought the best way to do that was to have her sit in on one of his maintenance sessions with Miu.
“I’m always learning new stuff about humans,” he had said. “Won’t it be nice for you to learn some more about robots? It can be like a culture exchange!”
And while that wasn’t at all what Y/N meant, he had just been so excited about the whole idea that she just couldn’t say no to him. She swore he could ask her for a kidney with those big, innocent, blue eyes of his and she’d agree in a heartbeat (not that he’d have any need of one, but still). Besides, it would be a lie to say that she wasn’t curious about how he worked (what made him tick, so to speak). She just wished that she could have learned from anyone other than Miu.
Now, Y/N was by no means a jealous person. However, she doubted that there was a single human being on the planet that would be okay with watching this sickening scene play out. Maybe, just maybe, she could have let it slide if she was actually learning something (preferably enough so that Kiibo never had to go to Miu for maintenance ever again), but Miu was being absolutely no help at all. In fact, she was completely ignoring the fact that Y/N was even there at all. Honestly, she had to be ignoring her or have forgotten that she was there for her to do what she was doing (unless Miu really had that little shame). She understood that it was probably necessary for her to be a little handsy with him but by God did she have to go so far?
Miu was practically on top of him. No, scratch that, she was completely on top of him. And, of course, Miu being Miu, she seemed to have a sexual comment for every single little procedure she did on him. Apparently, this was a completely normal occurrence, because while Kiibo’s face was quite flushed, he wasn’t completely freaking out as Y/N would have expected. It was getting to be too much. All Y/N had wanted was to hint that she wanted for them to have their first kiss soon. They had been dating for a little over four months now and while she wanted to give Kiibo as much time as he needed, knowing that he could be extremely shy about any kind of physical intimacy, she was staring to get impatient. In hindsight, she probably should have been more direct with her intentions. Had she been, she wouldn’t have to deal with seeing Miu fondle her boyfriend.
“Ahem.” Y/N cleared her throat loudly, finally capturing Miu’s attention for a moment. “So, at what point today are you actually going to teach me something? Or are you just going to keep on pretending like I’m not here.” Her words had quite a bit more bite to them than she intended, but she didn’t care enough to correct herself and what could she say? She never much cared for Miu’s antics, and even less so now that she was touching her boyfriend.
Y/N swore she wasn’t a jealous person.
Miu ignored Y/N’s venomous tone (she’d say she didn’t notice it, but you’d have to be deaf and blind to not hear the utter contempt in her voice). Miu blinked twice, appearing to almost snap out of a stupor of sorts before finally addressing Y/N. “Oh, Y/N, I suppose you’re still here.” She at least had the decency to look sheepish. “I’m almost done, but I guess I could show you how to tighten up some of the loose screws and stuff. Even a moron couldn’t fuck up something as simple as that.”
Ooohh, this bitch was on thin fucking ice. First, she completely disregards Y/N’s presence, then she flings herself all over Kiibo (who is very, very taken), and now she had the sheer audacity to imply that Y/N was an idiot?!?! Y/N would have found it almost laughable, really, had she not been so royally pissed. It was getting really difficult to hold back the urge to tackle her to the ground and strangle her, or at least impart some kind of violence upon her. However, she managed to hold herself back, if only for Kiibo’s sake.
With a strained smile Y/N pushed herself off the wall she’d been leaning against, choosing to be the better person and ignore the dig and the way it made her eye twitch. “Sure,” she said, only slightly gritting her teeth, “Show away.”
“Miu! That was highly unnecessary and inappropriate! I asked Y/N to come observe today; you don’t have to be rude!”
Y/N felt some of the tension leave her body and she smiled a little to herself. Good old Kiibo, always looking out for her. It was kind of adorable how offended he looked on her behalf, actually, his face all red and his mouth drawn into a hard little frown. It managed to brighten her mood a bit. Just a bit. “Don’t worry about it, hon. We’re all friends here,” she said. His face practically steamed at the pet name, so much so that Y/N was certain he missed the pointed look she sent Miu and the slight warning in her tone.
Miu rolled her eyes. She pointed out a few screws that still needed to be tightened and handed Y/N a screwdriver. She stepped back enough to give her some space but stayed close enough to monitor her. She was almost acting more protective of Kiibo than Y/N herself. She didn’t like it.
Y/N stood in front of the examination table Kiibo was sitting on and gently grabbed his arm. She started at his shoulder, carefully screwing in anything that had come loose. He watched her silently with wide, awestruck eyes, his cheeks so hot Y/N could feel the heat radiating off of them. She was worried he was going to overheat and crash, as he had done many times before when she’d gotten a bit too close. The screws holding his body together were all very tiny, so she had to be very much in his personal space in order to see them. She worked her way down his arm, restarting at his other shoulder once she reached his wrist.
It was actually quite an intimate affair, one Y/N found herself enjoying immensely. Being this close, she was able to truly appreciate how intricately he was built. She was certainly no expert, but even she could tell how refined of a machine he was (as loathe as she was to refer to him as a machine, it was kind of impossible to ignore when she was literally tightening his screws). He was all miniscule parts and delicate wiring—it was quite incredible that he was even functioning; that he existed at all. She suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of appreciation for Professor Idabashi—for him creating something so wonderful and detailed: a person that she cared for so dearly.
While Kiibo didn’t have a heartbeat, per se, there was a steady thrumming noise from the fans in his chest, and Y/N could hear it speed up as she moved on to his hands, taking them into her own and gently tightening the joints of his fingers. She saw a few beads of sweat (oil? Whatever comes out when robots sweat) collect on his forehead. She turned his hand palm-up and continued working. He had been dead quiet ever since she started, but he let out a tiny, pleased sigh when she screwed back in a particularly loose screw. A bubble of pride welled up in her chest—he didn’t do that while Miu was working.
Remember. Y/N. Was. Not. A. Jealous. Person.
Once she was finished, Y/N smiled and nodded to herself, pleased. “Alright, honey, all done.” She brought his hands up to her face and placed a sweet kiss on his knuckles.
Kiibo sputtered, his face actually glowing a bright red. “Th-thank you,” he stuttered, unable to meet her eyes with a small smile on his face.
Y/N chuckled. He was just too precious. All she did was give his hand a little peck and he was blushing and stammering like no tomorrow. She couldn’t help but voice her thoughts. “You’re so cute, Kiibo.”
“C-c-c-c-cute??” His voice glitched and cracked as he squeaked. “I-I don’t know about that…”
“Well I do. And what I know is that you are absolutely, positively, one hundred percent adorable.” She winked at him. What could she say? She liked to tease the poor boy sometimes. It was just too easy. She brought his other hand to her lips and gave it a kiss as well.
Kiibo stammered something incoherent before completely shutting down, likely overheating from embarrassment. Y/N sighed. ‘Oh dear. Did I go a bit too far?’
“This is exactly why I didn’t want you here for this.” Miu finally spoke up, having stepped away and out of sight. Y/N jumped nearly ten feet in the air. She was so caught up in working on Kiibo that she had completely forgotten that Miu was even there. Heat rose to her face at the realization that she went through that whole embarrassing display right in front of her. Miu took the screwdriver back and scowled. “You two are disgusting. And I’m not gonna boot him back up for you, so don’t even ask. He’s your problem now. Now get out of my lab ya filthy robot fucker!”
“Okay, A: that was uncalled for, and B: he weighs almost 200 pounds. How the hell am I supposed to move him?”
“Then you’d better hope he wakes up soon because, like I said, it’s not my problem. I’ve got better things to do than fix your walking vibrator.” Miu turned away and started tidying things up from the maintenance. She waved a hand behind her. “Get out of here ya animals!”
Y/N sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She certainly hoped he didn’t mind being dragged…
Luckily, he booted back up fairly quickly. He apologized profusely for the trouble, his face still glowing red. Y/N assured him she didn’t mind, but she was quite relieved to not have to drag him all the way back to his house. They walked together in comfortable silence. Y/N would’ve held his hand, but the poor boy still seemed fried from earlier and she didn’t want to risk him crashing again.
It probably wasn’t the best time, seeing as Kiibo was still quite flustered, but Y/N really needed to clarify what her original intentions were. Otherwise, she’d run the risk of waiting months upon months for any progress in their relationship (or worse, having to go through another Miu debacle, or something akin to it).
He was just so sweet and caring—she couldn’t help but want to be closer to him, even if some people didn’t understand. He was just so shy at times. She got that he didn’t always understand these kinds of things, and it could take him a while to make sense of it all sometimes. That’s just something you agree to when you decide to start dating a robot. And she didn’t mind taking things slow, honestly. She actually wasn’t totally sure why she was so insistent on moving forward. It wasn’t like she’d never kissed anybody before. All she knew is that she really really really wanted to kiss him, but she figured it’d be best to tell him first before she just sprung it on him. He may not have even known what kissing was. She didn’t want to risk making him uncomfortable just because of her own desires.
“So, Kiibo,” she began, getting his attention. “That was very nice.”
He seemed to brighten up at that. “You really think so? I’m glad! I know that I really enjoyed having you there, b-but I was worried that maybe you’d be bored.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I always love spending time with you, no matter what we’re doing.” She reached over and took his hand in hers. His blush darkened, but didn’t pull away, which Y/N took as a good sign. “But…” she continued tentatively, “It wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I said I wanted to… um… ‘take the next step.’”
He looked up at her quizzically, his eyebrows knitted together in mild concern. “Oh? What, uh, what did you have in mind, then?”
Y/N couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes, instead opting to stare at their feet as they walked. A touch of heat rose to her cheeks. “Well… what I meant was, um, uh…” She chuckled nervously and swallowed. “Y-you know… l-like, s’more couple stuff, I guess…” She found her voice getting smaller the more she spoke, and her wishing more and more that she’d be swallowed by the ground.
“Couple stuff?” If he noticed her embarrassment, he made no indication of it. “I don’t think I understand. What kinds of couple activities have we not yet done? What other kinds of couple things even are there?” He gasped. “A-are we behind?! Is there something we should have done by now that we haven’t?! Is our relationship in jeopardy?!”
Y/N couldn’t help but smile at his nervous antics. It was comforting to know how much he cared, at least. “No, no, honey, it’s nothing you have to worry about.” She gently ran her thumb over his knuckles, finding comfort in the feeling of the cool metal against her fingers. She briefly wondered if his lips would feel the same. She blinked the thought away before it could carry her away, even more flustered than before. “I-it’s just that… um… I, uh… w-what I mean is, um—have you ever kissed anyone before, Kiibo?” She cringed at her blunt wording.
He froze, his eyes wide and unblinking. Y/N was afraid he had shut down again until she saw a steady wave of red rise up from his neck and engulf his face. It would’ve been quite comedic, actually, had she not been just as mortified. “W-what?” he squeaked pathetically.
Y/N knew the answer, but she still felt the need to repeat the question. “Have you ever kissed anyone?” A drop of anxiety grew in her stomach, squashing any boldness she might have felt. “Because it’s totally okay if you haven’t…! A-and it’s not like we need to or anything, but I mean if… you know… if you ever wanted to… I, uh… wouldn’t… mind…” Her voice was barely audible to her own ears and she was certain her cheeks were redder than an overripe tomato at this point. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes.
Kiibo looked stunned speechless, his mouth hanging open like a gaping fish. He made a few strangled noises before turning his head to the side and coughing lightly into his fist. “O-oh………… Duly… noted. I’ll, uh… keep that in mind.”
Y/N felt about ready to combust from sheer embarrassment. Luckily, sometime during her little tirade they had started walking again, and they now found themselves standing right outside Professor Idabashi’s front door. “Well, looks like we’re here wow look at the time I should probably get going now people to do things to see! I-I mean, um… I-I’ll just go. Goodbye, see you Monday!” And with that utterly shameful goodbye, she turned on her heel and sprinted off towards home as fast as her jellified legs could carry her, wishing desperately that she could get struck by lightning.
Kiibo stood on the doorstep still in shock, staring after her. He slowly raised his hand to cover his mouth as he felt his face heat up for the umpteenth time that day. ‘She…… wants to kiss me,’ he thought.