Chapter Text
There was a certain amount of comfort in routine. Knowing where you would be, and when, and with whom, and doing what. It was the kind of thing Eclipse was quite content with, until you had come into their life. Security patrols, charging hours. Even their time off patrol and not charging was regulated.
They always knew where they stood.
And then you appeared. Like a whirlwind of beautiful chaos, you had swirled through their neatly organized world and torn it apart...and then rebuilt it with them. At first it had been a shock, they recalled, nothing about how you acted towards them was registering in their data banks. They had been forced to connect to their wireless network and track down the answer on the internet, which was a place they generally preferred to not go.
What they had found was...educational, to say the least. So much information...but it had fit. The way your eyes dilated when you looked at them, how fast your pulse raced, how your skin heated when you were near them.
It hadn’t taken long after that for you to come together. Once they deciphered the strange impulses and code their programming was throwing at them, they understood.
They were smitten. Utterly fallen for you. An odd realization to come to rationally, rather than emotionally, but then, nothing about this situation was typical. They were a robot, after all. Who the hell had put the ability to love into their programming?
They assumed it was a result of their AI. Learning, adapting. Growing with experience made them better workers. They doubted they had ever intended it to go this far.
Oh, certainly the silicon upgrades were a little odd, but at least they could be explained away with excuses about not wanting small hands caught in wiring or between plates, with children needing a soft place to lay their heads when carried to the nap room.
Never mind that they allowed your hands to explore their body, your head to lie against their chest while sleeping so soundly.
Never mind that it lets them hold you, truly, for the first time. Without worrying about hurting you with their whirring gears, pinching joints, shifting plating. Every bit of them was encased in a soft silicone skin, kept warm and pliable by a hydraulic heating system, able to curl around your body and hold you tight up against them.
That had been worth every second in parts and services.
Now, you lay on their chest, fingers tracing the plating edges beneath the silicon as you hummed softly, your cheek pressed against their chest.
“Sunbeam?”
You lifted your head to look at them as they spoke. They were staring up at the ceiling of the hanging daybed, one arm behind their head.
“Hmm? What is it, love?” you asked, wrapping your arms around as much of their chest as you could manage.
“Would we have a garden?” they said softly. You hummed thoughtfully, familiar with this game.
“Mmm, I think we should, yes.” you said. “With a bed of purple irises.” you added with a soft sigh. They smiled.
“That would be lovely.” they agreed.
“We should live near a stream.” you murmured. “So the sound of flowing water is never far away. I like that sound.” They shut their eyes and tried to imagine it. They could have downloaded a file, of course, even played it aloud.
But that wasn’t the game.
The game was to picture it. To see it, put yourselves in the fantasy, into the dream.
You called it Dream Speak. It was your way of coping, you had explained. When something felt impossible, sit down and talk about all the things you wanted. What you would do with them. Where would you live? What would your house be like, your family?
They could hear the bubbling of the creek, and smiled, kissing the top of your head. “Next to the stream it is, precious star.” they thought about it. “We could get one of those old houses you’ve shown us.”
You nodded against their chest. “Mmhm. Fix it up, nice and pretty.” you smiled against their chest. “Modern kitchen, of course.”
“Oh, naturally.” They agreed breezily. “We wouldn’t dream of anything else for our sweet little starlet.”
“I think we should start with traveling, don’t you?” You said, sitting up and straddling their narrow waist. “Where shall we go first, my love?”
They considered it.
“You sometimes talk about the ocean.” They said, looking at you. “We think we’d like to go there first.”
“I can show you how to find urchins in tide pools.” You smiled, thinking about the last time you’d gone looking for them. “I think you would appreciate them. Little things, stuck where they are through circumstance. No fault of their own, it’s just where the tides bore them. The little pool is their entire world.”
You trailed off, staring into space beyond Eclipse's head.
“They’re helpless, in a way. But so strong in others. They survive.” You smiled at them as they brushed the fingers of one hand against your cheek. “And once in a while…you’ll find one outside the pools, pulling little pebbles between its spines to blend into the sand as they fight their way to the ocean...or until the tide returns. I think that speaks to their strength.”
Eclipse watched you talk about the urchins adoringly, seeing the light in your eyes as you went on. You were so passionate. It was one of the reasons they had fallen so hard for you.
When you loved, you loved with your entire heart. Your hobbies, your friends...your lover. Your passion burned so bright they feared it might consume them...and consume them it had, in sweet, delicate flames that they eagerly welcomed.
The daybed swayed gently as they shifted, curling you up in all four arms, kissing over your face and hair.
“We want to visit the ocean with you.” they said softly, two hands catching your face as they kissed you. “We want to sit and listen while you tell us about all the little creatures... and plant flowers together in our garden.” they kissed you again, tenderly, their voice dropping to a warm hum. “We want to kiss you in the rain, and lie with you beneath the stars. Sweep you into our arms when you come home to us.”
“We want to marry you, sunspot.” they breathed. “We would love nothing more than to be your husband. To stay with you...always.”
Your breath hitched against their chest. To be with them like that. Your soul ached for it. Even though you knew it was an impossible dream...
“You would be so beautiful in a wedding gown, little sunflower.” they purred, drawing you up to their face to kiss you.
“It would be blue.” You murmured softly against their lips. “With silver stars.”
“Almost as beautiful as you.” They whispered, stroking their fingers through your hair gently. You looked into their adoring eyes.
“How many babies shall we have, my love?” You asked softly.
Eclipse glitched. Their eyes fritzed into static, and rebooted into little exploding hearts.
“So many, sunflower.” They cooed, kissing you fiercely. “We want to make you our wife, give you babies, we want...” they made a sound somewhere between a whimper of need and a sob as their hands cupped your face and their forehead rested against yours.
“We want to give you a normal life.”
You were silent, eyes closed, tears gathering beneath them.
“I know, my firefly. But I’m happy anywhere I am, any life I have, as long as I have you.” they gathered you into their arms and kissed you as you both shed silent tears for what you desperately wanted...but could never have.
It was late when you finally, reluctantly left for the night, just before lockdown.
Eclipse walked back to the daycare slowly, and to any outside observer, they looked as though they were just on their security patrol.
But inside the headspace, an intense conversation was occurring.
It can’t go on like this! Sunny wailed, distraught.
This is intolerable. Moon agreed with a growl.
“Agreed,” Eclipse rumbled. “We must do something.”
We could... Sunny hesitated, then said, We could escape? he spoke quickly, as though he needed to outrun his own hesitation.
There was a silence, until Moon said thoughtfully,
There's been a lot of commotion at night lately. It mostly keeps the security bots away from maintenance areas.
We would need parts. Sunny said, his tone growing more eager as he warmed to the idea of breaking the rules. And tools. The ability to repair ourselves, to charge.
The conversation continued as Eclipse made his rounds, this time noting the specific locations of cameras and the patrol routes of the S.T.A.F.F. Bots.
By the time they had returned to the daycare, the conversation had become a plan.
Are we ready? Sunny asked.
Yes. Moon hissed, and Eclipse nodded. It was risky.
But any risk was worth it...to give you the life you deserved.