Chapter Text
It wasn't that much distance, he told himself. He made many jumps of the same length, granted those were just barely and on a much more even surface, but still he could do it so there was no need for him to be so nervous. This was the shortest distance to that house, it didn't look like it had been stripped completely bare like many others in the area, probably due to the acidic waste it was drowning in. If Arthur made the jump he was guaranteed to find something he could take with him. Maybe he should just leave now and come back with something to use to get over the ledge instead of taking a leap of faith.
No. He could do it. No more doubts.
Taking a deep breath he ran from the wall and jumped. Too quickly he landed, his foot catching on a beam lowly protruding from the cement and he crashed face first into more debris.
Crap.
Warning. Critical damage. Contacting emergency services.
Oh shut up.
Arthur groaned, he wished he could just turn off the damn thing…
Failed to contact emergency services. Please, connect to the internet.
But even that required an internet connection for some reason. Groaning, he mentally swept away the red errors blurring his vision and turned onto his back. His right eye was completely busted, Arthur could feel it.
Shouldn't have let Alfred take the engine they found last time they went scavenging. Unless Arthur found something valuable in this damned house he wouldn't be able to get himself a replacement.
Sitting up, Arthur glanced around at his surroundings. While the building was plundered before, it wasn't completely turned inside out, nor had it been touched in a long time, if the clothes hanging from the drawers of the tipped over dresser were any indication.
Arthur moved over to the dresser and looked over the clothes. Childrens clothes, most likely for a primary schooler, around Peter and Charlotte's age. Picking out the ones in the most pristine condition Arthur folded them and put them into his bag. Some of the clothes in the dresser were destroyed, those probably had technological lining at one point.
The first floor of the house had almost completely flooded, but Arthur saw some gadgets that had managed to stay afloat. What he got from the house wasn't nearly as much as he hoped for. It would only be enough to replace his eye if he was lucky or if Ivan was in his miraculous good mood (which only meant he had some minor work for Arthur). Not to count the cracks in his face plating. At least he got some clothing and a few basic toys for the kids in town.
It was getting late, even in the best case scenario by the time he got back to the city it would be dark. Unless he missed the transport route for today entirely. At least his mostly artificial body couldn't feel the cold, but he wasn't jumping at the prospect of that damn voice spamming him with cold warnings.
Luckily for Arthur, the hovercraft appeared not long after he got to his usual waiting area near the remnants of the town. It was shaking as it floated and only slowed down to let Arthur jump on. Pulling the hood farther over his face, the cyborg sat in one of the window seats.
He tried to avoid eye contact for the duration of the trip, there were a lot of shady people that used this route. If they saw his face and the quite obviously android eyes, there was a chance they would take him apart to see if he had any valuable parts in him, never mind his clearly full bag with all the things he managed to scavenge that day.
The sun set and the scenery changed from barren fields with deserted cities in the distance to the outskirts of the settlement. The bus was slowing to pick up another person and Arthur took this chance to jump off. Ivans place wasn't far from here, but before Arthur could set off again a little girl's voice caught his attention.
"Look Arthurs back!"
He didn't have to look back to figure out who it was. Sighing, Arthur turned around to see the three kids running towards him. Well, Peter and Charlotte were running, while Leon approached at a slower pace.
"Did you bring anything for us?" Peter asked excitedly.
"Why are you outside so late?"
"We snuck out!" Charlotte said pridefully.
"Yeah besides I'm an adult already and Leon is with us."
"Leon isn't an adult yet either."
"Don't look at me, I just followed them."
"So what did you bring?" Charlotte was looking at his large backpack curiously, a glint of excitement in her eye.
"Yeah what did you bring?" Peter pulled on his sleeve.
Arthur sighed. "Alright alright… I brought all of you something, let's go inside and I'll show it to you."
The two youngest ran off with an "I'll race you there!" From Peter with Charlotte following suit, her flower pin looking like it would fall off at any moment. Arthur followed them at a calmer pace, Leon by his side.
"You got injured?" The preteen asked curiously.
Arthur smiled gently, he was surprised that Leon noticed in this dim lighting with Arthurs hood covering almost his entire face. "It's nothing, I can replace it. No need to worry about me."
With a nod from Leon the conversation was over. Arthur couldn't quite tell if the preteen was convinced or not, he always found that lack of emotion concerning, but had no idea what to do about it. He hoped it was convincing.
They made it to the small house, the door barely hung off the hinges and the windows weren't secured properly, but the house wasn't ever robbed. Mostly out of fear of Berwald, but maybe out of some semblance of a moral code.
Inside Peter and Charlotte were already being scolded by Tino. After Leon also got an earful, Arthur took off his backpack and dug through it.
"Ugh why more cloooothes?…" Peter whined.
"Peter." Tino called sternly.
"They're too big for me anywaaaay…"
"They're for the future."
"It's alright, he'll learn eventually." Arthur turned to Charlotte, who was examining her own share of the clothes. "And what do you think?"
"These are so pretty!" She excitedly showed her new sweater to Tino. "Look at this pattern!"
"It really is very pretty." The older man smiled at her. "Now remember what you should say to Arthur?"
"Thank you!"
"You too Peter."
The boy whined. "Did you bring me any toys?"
"Peter." Tinos demeanor turned stern again as he warned the boy.
"Not today I'm afraid, but I brought a special present for Leon."
The preteen looked up from his own new hoodie in surprise. Arthur smiled softly at him to try and ease the young boy's nerves. Leon was always like this when he received presents.
Peter whined and Charlotte's face fell slightly. Both still looked over curiously as Arthur reached into his bag and pulled out what appeared to be a metal ball with intricate engravings on it.
"A ball?" Peter shuffled closer.
"What is it?" Charlotte stood up, still holding her new clothes and approached Arthur. Leon also came closer, but stayed behind the two younger children.
"It's a puzzle." Arthur explained, pressing a button on the side of it. The top part of the ball fell apart at the pattern, revealing several layers of parts. Arthur took a magnet from his pocket and circled it around the ball, the parts of it spun around in all different directions as he brought the magnet around. Both Peter and Charlotte let out quiet whispers of wonder.
"Now that all the parts are shuffled you need to figure out how to put it back together from the core." Arthur pushed some of the pieces away and showed it to the children. The core of the puzzle was uneven, showing the outline of the pieces. It was easy for Arthur to spot one of them even with his right eye damaged. As he slotted the first piece in, the children were in awe. "And that's it. You keep finding the right pieces until you complete it. Back in my day people used to take record of the times they could solve the puzzles and there were many competitions on who could solve it the fastest."
"Can I try it?" Both Peter and Charlotte said in unison. Peter immediately reached for it.
"It would be too difficult for you, but you can try if Leon lets you." Arthur turned to the boy and handed the puzzle to him. He couldn't help but smile as Leon stared at it in wonder, nudging some of the pieces.
"How did you find the first piece so quickly?" He asked after a short silence.
Before Arthur could respond, Peter chimed in with. "It's because Arthur is a robot!" He turned to Arthur. "But how did you find it if your eye is broken?"
Again Arthur was interrupted before he could explain, this time by Charlotte. "You can still see things with one eye closed, stupid."
"Hey-!"
"Now, now, don't fight." Tino chimed in. "It's already late and Arthur has other things to do, it's time for you to go to bed."
Charlotte and Peter both grumbled, but went to pick up their clothes, while Leon continued to fiddle with his new puzzle.
"You too Leon, you can start on your puzzle tomorrow." That seemed to snap him out of his trance and the children went upstairs.
There was a short silence between Arthur and Tino as they listened to Peter and Charlotte bicker in their bedroom right above them.
"Arthur, are you alright?" Tino asked, concern evident in his voice. "You do so much for the children, if you can't pay for repairs I can-"
"There's no need to worry, I have enough to replace this." Arthur smiled, trying to ease the tension in the room.
Tino was silent for a moment, contemplating whether or not to believe Arthur. He knew how difficult it was to find any robotic parts now, never mind those compatible with Arthurs system. "Well you better hurry along then. I'm not sure if anyone is still open at this hour."
After they briefly exchanged goodbyes, Arthur was on his way again. Most lights were out already and left Arthur to just his memory to lead him. He briefly wondered what the moon would look like tonight. Even before the chaos, the sky was completely obscured by clouds, leaving no room even for the sun. However, that used to only be in the cities, these rural areas usually had the full sea of stars on display. Now, Arthur doubted there were any stars left anywhere. Even Peter and Charlotte were doubting their existence, no matter how much he and the other adults tried to convince them otherwise.
Arthur sighed, pulling the hood farther down his face, obscuring his vision further. He briefly wondered if Ivan was still up, but ultimately decided it was too late for any repairs and headed to his own home on the far outskirts of town.
He steered clear of anyone he passed by, crossing the street to avoid them sometimes. Only the more dangerous folk hung out in this darkness, probably looking for people to rob, but that may just be Arthurs paranoid streak showing.
After a thankfully uneventful half hour walk Arthur reached his house. A run down building that looked to be unoccupied, half of it was caved in and to a regular person it would have just been uninhabitable with some of the necessary rooms being destroyed. However, with most of Arthur's body having been replaced with robotic parts, he had no issues with it. While there was no water supply in the area to speak of, at least this building had some functional electricity.
Arthur made his way inside and to the second floor room he lived in. Setting down his bag near the door, he pulled the water bottle from one of the pockets. He had taken the water from a less contaminated lake so while it wasn't safe for a person to drink, he could still use it to water his flowers.
He collected the seeds and the solar lamp from some of his previous trips to the destroyed cities and some from the other scavengers who sold them for cheap or just gave them to him. Arthur didn't have many flowers in his small garden, but he was still looking to get more seeds, even if he didn't have any more pots for them. Sadly he never got his hands on any rose seeds, although he didn't know how he would even take care of any with his solar lamp being only a desk light, but he would find a way.
After he finished his routine of checking on his flowers, he turned off the solar lamp, plunging the room into total darkness. Arthur didn't have much in the room so he easily navigated to the charging port. While he didn't really need to charge, with his battery life being over a week even with poor maintenance, Arthur still charged every night just in case.
He was going to have to see Ivan for repairs first thing in the morning, he thought before shutting down.