Work Text:
Thad sighed, pausing his video game and standing up. After maybe an hour of walking and fruitless search, he finally managed to locate the dungeon he was looking for. Deciding to take a break before he went in, he propped himself against his wall to listen to the howling of the blizzard outside. He didn't really care for storms so much, but the wind was a pretty good source of background noise.
Right as he caught himself zoning out, Thad was startled back into sentience by a rather loud knock on the front door. He heard his mom call out, followed by a bit of shuffling and footsteps. It wasn't until the door opened that he heard screaming and jumped to his feet, bolting towards the living room.
"Mom! What's going-" Thad started to speak but cut himself off, taking in the sight in front of him. His mother, still screaming, stood in the front doorway. Shoe in hand, she was swinging at a poor drone who was desperately trying to get a sentence out.
"Ma'am, please, I'm- ow! Not trying to- ouch! Hurt anyone- ow!"
Moving closer, Thad could see that is wasn't just a random drone at the door. It was N, Thad's newest friend, his body almost completely crusted over with ice. With some effort, Thad managed to position himself in front of N.
"Mom, mom, calm down! N's cool, he's not hurting anything."
Thad's mom paused mid-strike, staring blankly at her son. "THAT'S the N you were talking about?" She turned to face N. "I am so sorry! I've heard plenty of good things about you, but I never heard you were a disassembly drone."
"Oh, it's no big deal, don't worry about it," N's voice was a little hoarse when he spoke, like he was still waiting for his vocal cords to fall out. He looked a mess, too, with his hair stuck up frozen in places and the small chunks of ice that hung from his visor; he was lucky drones couldn't get frostbite. This didn't seem like the charming, sweet, happy-go-lucky N that Thad was accustomed to.
"Come inside, N, you look like you could use some warming up." Thad was brought back to the present by his mom's voice. N simply shook his head.
"Oh no, It's fine. I just wanted to drop off this," N dug around in his pocket before pulling out a puzzle cube, holding it out to Thad. "You forgot it last time you stopped by the spire. Thought I'd return it and pop back home."
Thad accepted the cube, narrowing his eyes. "You flew all the way out here, through a blizzard, to return my puzzle cube. And now you want to leave, flying back through the blizzard again."
"Yes...?" N fidgeted, suddenly appearing to notice that the workers were staring at him like he'd lost his mind.
"Yeah, no, Uzi'd kill me if I let you do that," Thad grabbed N's hand, wincing at how cold it was, and dragged him through the door. "You're staying here, at least until the storm lets up."
It took maybe 10 minutes of negotiation, a few fuzzy blankets, and one very intense mom stare to convince N to wait out the blizzard. After warming up, N thankfully started to resemble himself again. Thad led him down the hall to his bedroom, picking up his controller and flopping down on the bed.
"Your mom's nice," N remarked, sitting down gently on the bed next to him. "Kinda thought you'd have your own place, though."
"Eh, not really," Thad sat up, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder. "There's only so much living space in an underground bunker, and it's a long process to add more. It's pretty normal to not move out for a while, just 'cause there's not a whole lot of places to move to."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense..." N noticed the screen mounted on the wall. "Ooh, whatcha playing?"
"Skyrim," Thad unpaused his game, walking up the grand dungeon's steps. "I was just about to raid this dungeon. You wanna try?" He held the controller out to N, who took it carefully.
"Sure!" N opened the dungeon door, barging right into the bandits gathered at the entrance. They began attacking, which prompted N to run in circles helplessly. "Thad, they're stabbing me."
Thad wasn't much help, though. He was laughing rather loudly, resting on N's shoulder to keep himself upright. "Yeah, they tend to do that," he managed in between breaths. "You've gotta hit 'em back. Press X and use the triggers."
N obeyed, watching Thad's weapons come into view. In the right hand, he held a shimmering, pale green dagger. In the left, a swirling mass of deep red. N pressed the right trigger, affectively slashing the bandit in front of him, who promptly burst into flames.
"Woah!" N laughed, whirling around to strike another bandit. Thad closed his eyes briefly, taking in the sound of N's laughter. They'd really only ever met under serious circumstances, so the casual cheer in his friend's voice was a welcome change of pace. N turned around, activating the reddish aura sitting in his left hand.
"That's a spell attack," Thad explained. He pushed himself off of N, remaining close enough for their shoulders to still be touching. "Don't use it too much, though, it drains your Magicka."
They managed to get through the dungeon rather quickly, easily killing the bandit chief. Now, all that was left to do was to collect the bounty money.
"Hey Thad, how do I-" N turned towards his friend, starting to ask a question, but cut himself off abruptly. Thad hadn't noticed himself leaning into N during their quest. He only realized just how close they were when N's cheek came into contact with his own, a thin stream of electricity sparking between their faces.
They stayed frozen like that for a while, neither entirely sure of what to do. A steady blush fizzled to life in the corners of both their visors to accompany their wide eyes. Their weird trance was finally broken by the sounds of snarling coming from the game.
"Shit, we're dying!" Thad shook N slightly, motioning to the wolves of the screen. Snapping back to reality, N strengthened his grip on the controller.
"Biscuits!" N readied his weapons, swiftly taking out the wolf pack. Turning back to Thad, his usually animated expression was nearly unreadable.
"You good?" Thad asked quietly, hesitantly raising a hand to rest on N's back. N grabbed his wrist, quickly moving Thad's hand to his face instead. He kept his own hand on the back of Thad's, relaxing slightly into the touch.
"Yeah, I... I think I'm good," N's voice was uncharacteristically quiet. Thad offered a small smile, using his free hand to brush some of the hair out of N's eyes.
"Well, that's good," Thad brought his hand briefly to the other side of N's face before grasping his jacket and yanking him forwards, causing them to both fall back on the bed. N yelped, dropping the controller.
"Really, dude?" He said, propping himself up on his elbows. Thad barked out a laugh in place of a real response, and N laughed too, loud and bright and wonderful. Thad sat back up, grabbing the discarded controller and accessing the world map. N followed suit, snaking his arms around Thad's torso and resting his chin on Thad's shoulder.
In all his life, Thad never thought that he would be grateful for a blizzard. Now, though, he wondered if he'd ever be this grateful for a blizzard again.