Work Text:
“Natalia! What are you doing?”
Natalia’s attention snapped back to the fight just in time to feel Levius’s fist collide with one of her elbow joints. She tensed at the impact, but instead of her mechanics simply taking the blow and allowing her to continue on, she felt a sudden release of steam as something internal snapped away.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Zack ended the fight.
Levius looked down at Natalia’s arm worriedly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit that hard.”
Natalia rubbed the back of her neck. “It was my fault for getting distracted. Should’ve been able to dodge that, honestly. Guess I’m just hungry or something,” she forced a laugh.
“You can eat after maintenance,” Zack said. “Bill, you’re with Levius, and Natalia, you’ve got AJ.”
“Huh? I’m more busted up than he is, shouldn’t I be with four-eyes?” Natalia complained.
“You need to get used to working with AJ! If you don’t fully trust your primary engineer you aren’t going to get anywhere,” Zack responded.
Natalia wanted to cross her arms, but with one of them in its current state could only muster up a frown. She made her way over to the table AJ was at, and once Bill stood up to look over Levius she took his seat.
AJ set to work without a word, precise and quiet. Natalia tried her best to steady her breath. Good engineers paid attention to a lot more than just the state of the equipment they were working on, and AJ was no exception. Natalia tried to fight the slight blush forming on her face as AJ’s fingertips worked gently over the metal of her arm.
AJ looked up for a moment, saw that the boys were all clustered together on the other side of the room, then whispered.
“You kept glancing over at us during the fight.”
“No, I wasn’t. Why would I want to watch you and four-eyes read your dumb books.”
“I don’t know,” AJ responded. “I just know that you were.” Her eyes were back on Natalia’s arm, and she looked just as concentrated as when they’d started, despite their conversation. “I just wanted to say that you shouldn’t do that again. It’s dangerous during a bout.”
Natalia would be shocked if she wasn’t completely red by now. Yes, she’d been looking over at AJ during the fight. The more time that they spent together the harder Natalia found it to look away from her at all.
There was something about how she moved, graceful and almost inhuman even performing the most mundane of tasks, that captured Natalia’s mind. But there was also that look in her eyes, cold and deadly and so strangely enticing. Then there were her lips…
Natalia brought her one functioning hand up to cover her face. No need to think about that. Particularly now.
AJ pulled Natalia’s hand away from her face gently.
“I do need to look at both arms,” she said, prodding gently at Natalia’s palm. The boxer flexed her fingers and AJ nodded appreciatively.
“Looks good.”
“So do you,” Natalia responded absentmindedly. “Ah! I mean-”
AJ squeezed Natalia’s hand gently, and it was enough for her to stop mid sentence. Natalia, in a move that felt bolder than anything she’d ever pulled in the ring, interlocked her fingers with AJ’s.
AJ made no motion to pull away, simply letting Natalia hold onto her. It was a strange sensation, two mechanical hands interwoven. Neither had a real sense of touch, but both could feel the warmth and weight of each other’s robotics.
“Alright! Levius is looking good, so if the girls are ready, I think it’s time for lunch,” Zack said from across the room.
Natalia and AJ scrambled to let go of each other as everyone else approached.
“How did the maintenance go?” Bill asked, looking over Natalia’s arm.
She gave him a thumbs up with the previously busted one. “All good here.”
He nodded, and began to follow Levius out of the room.
“Are you two coming?” Zack asked, seeing that neither had bothered to stand up.
“We’ll be along in a minute, I just want to clean up my workstation a bit, and Natalia volunteered to help,” AJ lied.
“Really? I guess you are learning to get along,” Zack gave them a wave and headed off, proud that he’d apparently managed to get them to see eye to eye.
“I don’t like cleaning,” Natalia complained as AJ swiftly returned her tools to the box they belonged in.
“I didn’t really ask you to stay behind to clean,” AJ said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Then...why am I still here?”
“I wanted to have a moment alone with you.”
“Well, you got it,” Natalia laughed nervously. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been alone with AJ.
AJ reached forward with one hand, bringing it up to Natalia’s cheek. The boxer leaned into the warm metal, closing her eyes and savoring the feeling.
“Just kiss me, AJ,” Natalia said, squeezing her eyes further shut.
First she felt a quick, gentle kiss on her forehead, then lips against hers. It was short and sweet, and more than Natalia had ever hoped for. When she felt AJ pull away she opened her eyes again, and found herself staring directly into AJ’s. That steely dark blue she was so used to felt unusually inviting.
AJ’s hand dropped to her side as she stood up from the table. “We should get going before they wonder where we are.”
Natalia, still recovering the kiss, just stared at her for a moment. She shook her head and quickly collected herself, then stood alongside AJ.
“Don’t watch me when you’re in the ring anymore, okay? Save that for after,” AJ smiled.
“I think I could live with that,” Natalia responded, slinging an arm around AJ as the pair left the gym.