Chapter Text
Revenant was not happy. He’d clocked out and walked to the bus stop down the street from Triple Take Coffee, and there was a big group of old ladies waiting for the bus. They were all gossiping, loudly, about online dating of all things.
“He looked so dashing in his profile pic but it turns out he’d edited in the entire outfit!” one of the wrinkly little skinbags said disapprovingly.
“I matched with a nice lady who’d filled her profile with pictures of blankets she claimed she’d crocheted,” another one said. “Hadn’t done a single one herself! All other people’s work.”
“It’s just such a hassle,” another agreed. “I went to meet this gentleman who said he was sixty-seven, and he turned out to be eighty!”
Revenant clenched his fists and fumed for about thirty seconds before snapping, “Would you all shut up already?”
The nearest lady slapped his arm with a rolled-up magazine. “So rude!” she tutted.
“You’re being fucking rude!” Revenant retorted. “The whole block doesn’t want to know about your stupid dates lying about their ages.”
“Nobody wants your opinion either, dearie, but here you are giving it,” a different old lady chimed in, and Revenant was thinking about stabbing her but was luckily (for her) distracted by Pathfinder’s arrival.
“Hello, friend!” the big blue MRVN said cheerily, jogging up to the group. “I apologize for my tardiness! Ajay and Natalie were advising me on what to wear.”
Revenant looked Pathfinder up and down. “You’re not wearing anything.”
Pathfinder nodded. “We decided to go with that.” Wow. What a moron. Goddammit, why did he agree to this date again? Pathfinder clapped his hands excitedly. “Where are we going?” Fuck. He was adorable. Oh yeah, that’s why.
Double fuck, he’d forgotten to pick somewhere to go. “Uh, it’s a surprise,” he grunted. Surely he could figure something out by the time the bus arrived.
“Oh, I just love surprises!” Pathfinder exclaimed. His emoji turned bashful. “I am really happy you decided to go out with me!”
All the nosy little old ladies turned to look. Revenant gave them a death glare. Pathfinder followed his gaze and his emoji smiled. “Hello! How are you, friends? Are you waiting for the bus as well?” Oh, god, don’t start a conversation with them, please—
“Oh, we’re just wonderful!” one chirped back. “How are you?”
“I am just the best!” Pathfinder said.
“Such a nice, polite boy,” another commented. She turned a critical gaze on Revenant. “Unlike your friend here.” Bitch.
Pathfinder’s emoji blushed happily. “Oh, he is not just my friend, he is my date!”
“Now fuck off,” Revenant added.
The ladies all tsk tsk’d in unison, and Revenant hoped the bus came soon so he could smash all the windows. His wish came true a moment later. Pathfinder politely let all the old ladies get on the bus first, and Revenant was about to follow when he realized they didn’t need to. He’d only told Pathfinder to meet him at the bus stop, not that they were taking the bus (although that was his original plan, the thought of getting on the bus with all those skinbags made him want to disembowel somebody).
Pathfinder had one foot on the bus already, so Revenant just grabbed one of his shoulder bars and yanked him back onto the sidewalk.
Pathfinder stumbled a little and fell against Revenant as the bus driver rolled their eyes and closed the doors. “Oh, my,” said Pathfinder, his emoji looking embarrassed. “That was unexpected, friend!” He quickly straightened up so he wasn’t leaning on Revenant, damn.
“We’re not taking the bus,” Revenant growled. He looked quickly up and down the street and swore copiously in his head until he spotted— “We’re going to the arcade.”
Pathfinder hopped up and down a little. “That sounds like fun! I’m sure we will enjoy that!”
Revenant just made an angry grumbling noise and stalked off down the sidewalk. Pathfinder quickly caught up and trotted right beside him. Stupid, happy, robot. Revenant wanted to hold his hand. “Hey,” he mumbled, thrusting his hand at Pathfinder. “Gimme your hand.”
“Okay!” said Pathfinder, and he did. Well. He hadn’t been sure if that would work. It was nice, so Revenant kept holding on until they reached the arcade.
It was a little crowded, and there was a lot of annoying noise, boops and screeches and irritating recorded voices yelling out scores. Blech. Revenant stomped over to the counter and bought a couple handfuls of tokens, shoving half of them at Pathfinder. Then he prowled around the arcade (with Pathfinder cheerfully on his heels) until he found the most violent, bloody game in the whole place.
It was a single-player game, but Revenant didn’t care. He stood there for twenty minutes, murdering pretend people and enjoying the pixelated blood and death. He used up all his tokens but won most of the games.
“You can use my tokens, friend,” offered Pathfinder, who’d been standing there the entire time cheering Revenant on.
“Pathfinder!” The MRVN and the simulacrum both turned around and saw Ajay and Octane bounding up.
“Hello, friends!” Pathfinder exclaimed. “This is a very fun place. I like it.”
“We like it, too,” Octane said. “You were just getting ready to play that game, right?” He pointed at the one Revenant had just finished, and although he was talking to Pathfinder, he was staring at Revenant when he said it.
“Looks like you have plenty of tokens to use,” Ajay added, also looking at Revenant. It was pretty obvious that they’d heard Pathfinder offer Revenant his tokens and were trying to get Pathfinder to play the game instead.
Revenant grumbled under his breath (they weren’t wrong, he guessed, but they should mind their own business) and stepped aside. “Yeah, take a turn.”
“Okay! I will! Thank you!” Pathfinder did a little wiggle and dropped his tokens into the coin slot. Revenant glowered, watching over his shoulder. Pathfinder proceeded to nearly beat his high score, cheerfully dispatching the pretend humans in a shower of animated blood.
Huh. The MRVN wasn’t bad. Revenant supposed he should have expected that, since Pathfinder was planning on joining the Apex Games. The games were supposed to be pretty gruesome and realistic, so anyone joining would need to have a taste for violence. Pathfinder genuinely seemed to be having a lot of fun, and damn, he was efficient too. Revenant was almost impressed.
“Look at that!” Pathfinder said once he’d exhausted his tokens. “I have won almost as many tickets as you have, friend! Shall we go exchange them?”
“Uh. Yeah.” Revenant jumped a little when Pathfinder grabbed his hand, but he let the blue robot drag him over to the prize area. Ajay and Octane were unabashedly watching so he flipped them off.
Revenant surveyed the collection of dinky toys, useless trinkets, and candy that neither of them could eat, trying to figure out what he could trade his tickets for. What the hell would Pathfinder even want? He’d probably like a stupid toy, but which one?
Revenant scowled at all the prizes and scowled at the attendant behind the counter when they tried to offer a polite smile. All this stuff was a fucking ripoff, what a load of shit. He hemmed and hawed and finally just picked a little keychain of a heart with an arrow through it. That would work. Acceptably affectionate but still semi-murderous.
Now that he had the thing, where did that damn robot go? There he was, chatting with Ajay and that idiot Octane again. Revenant stalked over and joined them. They stopped talking as soon as he did, which was fucking rude. “What are you dumbasses doing here, anyway?” he grumbled.
Ajay and Octane exchanged a glance. “Playing games, obviously,” Ajay said.
“Sí, obviamente,” Octane agreed.
“Hmph,” said Revenant.
“All right!” Pathfinder said. “I will see you later, Ajay! Thank you for understanding! Come on, friend, let’s go.” He trotted towards the exit. Revenant followed, throwing a suspicious glance back at Ajay and Octane.
He waited until they were a little ways down the sidewalk before asking crossly, “What was that all about?”
“Ajay and Octane said they were keeping an eye on us,” Pathfinder explained. “They said they just wanted to make sure I was okay! It was very considerate of them but I told them I can take care of myself and that they also might have been making you uncomfortable!”
Revenant stopped and stared at him. Pathfinder had said all that in the cheery tone he always spoke in. He was so matter-of-fact about it, too, as if it was completely normal to care if Revenant was uncomfortable. “Uh,” Revenant said. “Okay. Here.” He shoved the heart keychain at Pathfinder.
Pathfinder’s emoji positively lit up as he accepted the present, and hearts began bouncing across his screen. “Thank you! I love it, friend!” He immediately clipped the keychain to the side of his chest. “I have gotten you something as well!”
Revenant was about to scoff that he didn’t need any presents but the words died in his throat (or whatever the fuck he had) when he saw what Pathfinder had gotten him. It was a little stuffed plesiosaur. Very little, since Pathfinder had had about the same amount of arcade tickets as Revenant and the prizes were marked up off the chart.
Then Pathfinder was handing him that goddamn little green nessie plushie (that were still popular for some reason) and seeing it jolted Revenant back to memories from when he still thought he was human. He’d owned a toy like that. When he had finally figured out what Hammond Robotics had done, the plushie had been one of the casualties and he’d never, ever admit it but he wished he hadn’t destroyed it.
Revenant carefully accepted the toy from Pathfinder (whose screen was displaying a shy, nervous emoji) and held it in both hands. Shit. Fuck. Was he going to cry? No, no, he couldn’t do that anymore. He tried to say “thanks” (and that in itself was a fucking miracle) but his voice glitched out for some reason.
Was he choked up? Those Hammond bitches wouldn’t have programmed that in, would they? He was starting to get mad just thinking about it, so he focused back on Pathfinder. “I like it,” he managed to say, and Pathfinder looked positively elated.
“I’m so glad!” Pathfinder said. “I had a really good time today! I do regret to inform you that I have to be at work in twenty minutes, so our date will have to end soon.”
“Oh. Huh,” Revenant grunted, staring at the nessie in his hands. “Okay. See you around, then, I guess.”
“Would you like to go on a second one?” Pathfinder asked hopefully.
“What?” Revenant looked up, annoyed. “A second what?”
“A-a second date, friend,” Pathfinder said, softer this time.
“Yeah, sure,” Revenant growled. “I’ll… call you.”
“I am looking forward to it!” Pathfinder raised his hand up. “I have heard it is rude to ask for a kiss on the first date, so may I have a high five?”
Revenant didn’t register the question at first, fixated on the first part of Pathfinder’s sentence and wondering how the hell the robot thought they could kiss, and when it did sink it he sputtered, “I don’t do high fives.”
“Okay, that is no problem, friend,” Pathfinder said, lowering his hand. His smiling emoji was blinking unsteadily. “I will just say have a good day!”
“Mnngh,” was Revenant’s reply. He stood on the sidewalk a little too long, watching as Pathfinder walked away in the direction of the bakery where he worked. He waved back at Revenant several times.
Then Revenant turned to go home, cradling the little plushie in his hands. He had every intention of taking it to bed with him for snuggles and killing anyone who found out.