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V would never let anyone know this, but she loved building snowmen. The toxic, permanent snow of Copper-9 was perfect for making sculptures. All it took was a pile of the stuff along with a few severed drone parts, and she had a pretty decent snowdrone. She wouldn’t say they were masterpieces, (J had always been the artist of the group, man that girl could draw), but she still liked it. She loved getting creative with it, putting the snow drones in fun positions like groveling, fleeing, and begging for their lives, and even sometimes building snow-versions of herself mutilating them. It was truly beautiful.
Plus, Lizzy always laughed when she did that. Lizzy… Ew, why did thinking of that drone make her core feel all warm? Gross.
Anyways, on that particular day, she was just finishing up her sculpture of a bisected drone corpse, when she heard the familiar sound of N’s wings swooping down to the spire. Crap! The dweeb must be back from that purple thing’s sleepover already. She quickly kicked the snow sculpture over and picked up the severed drone head, pretending she’d been drinking the remaining oil from it.
The first thing she noticed was N’s strange behavior. The drone entered the spire, walked straight past V, without saying a word, and climbed into the landing pod. Normally, he’d barely get three steps into the spire before he started talking V’s ear off about something Uzi had done. Or dogs. Uzi and dogs. It seemed like it was always one of those things.
The second thing she’d noticed was the look on his face. His eyes were blown wide, as if with terror, and the whole bottom half of his face was covered with bright yellow blush.
The third thing she noticed was what he was wearing. It was not his usual pilot’s hat and trenchcoat, but instead a bright yellow hoodie that looked a bit snug on him.
Now, V would have loved to have ignored this. She would have loved to just pretend this was just N’s regular weirdness and stupidity, and gone on building her snowmen. But, her stupid brain wouldn’t let it be that easy. She hated to admit it, but she cared about N. He was her first real friend. They’d spent their whole lives together. He’d been there at the mansion that night. He’d taken care of her when Cyn gave her the virus and turned her into that… thing.
A pop-up appeared on her visor: Conscience.exe activated. V groaned. She hated how much she cared. Reluctantly, she dropped the drone head and trudged her way over to the landing pod.
She slipped inside and slid down the ladder. N was sitting in the chair she'd previously been chained in. He’d pulled the yellow hood over his head and pulled it shut, leaving only a few tufts of silver hair exposed. His tail was also drooping. Now that meant he was really sad. V sighed again, walking over to him.
“Alright idiot,” She started. “What did you do that made you so sad?”
N’s pulled the hood back and looked at her, face still flustered. “Oh, V. Um… nothing! Nothing is wrong. I’m fine. Uzi’s fine. Everything’s fine.”
V said nothing. All she did was turn her hand into a flag gun and raise her “Literally So Insanely Suspicious” flag. N took the hint and sighed, rubbing his forehead.
“I did something really stupid, V.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Ha ha.” He fake laughed. “Seriously though. I just did something really dumb. I might have just ruined my friendship with Uzi.”
V’s eyes widened at that. This was quite serious. She sat down in the chair next to N’s.
“What happened?”
“I was having a sleepover with Uzi, right. And we were watching a movie together. At one point, I fell asleep, and then I had a nightmare, and when I woke up, Uzi and I were…”
V leaned in closer, surprisingly invested in this story. “You were…?”
N looked down, sheepishly. “We were kinda cuddling.” He said under his breath. V huffed.
“And?”
“And what? That’s it.”
V facepalmed. “That’s it? That was your big, friendship-ending mistake?” N just nodded. V groaned. This had been a total waste of time. She was about to rise to her feet and go back outside to build more snow corpses, when N spoke up again.
“Can I ask a dumb question?”
“Better than anyone I know.”
N gave her a look, and then continued. “Is it possible to develop a crush on a person who you’d only ever thought of as a friend before?”
V… well she wasn’t sure how to answer that. She also wasn’t sure why an image of Lizzy popped into her head at that thought. Weird. Then the realization hit her.
“Wait, N. Do you have a crush on Uzi?” All it took was that one question for his entire visor to be overcome with yellow. He pulled the hood back over his head, trying to hide as much of his face as possible. V could feel the heat radiating off of him.
“Oh my god, you do!” V said, shocked. In hindsight, it really shouldn’t have surprised her that much. She’d been at prom. She’d seen the look N gave Uzi when he pushed her out of the way of that giant fan. She’d seen them dancing together. She’d had to listen to N ramble for hours about how much fun dancing with her had been for the rest of that night. Oh, wow. She really should have noticed sooner.
“What am I gonna do?” N whined, wrapping his tail around himself. V was at a loss for words. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. What was he gonna do? Confessing a crush was terrifying. She remembered back at the mansion, when she’d first met N. She’d… well there was no other way to say it, she’d had a crush on him back then. Those feelings were gone now, but she still remembered how much she’d agonized over how to tell him. Lord, she was cringe back then.
“Honestly N, I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“That’s not helpful!” N groaned back.
“Well, what do you want me to say? Just go and tell her I guess. The longer you wait, the worse it’s gonna get.”
“I can’t just tell her. It’s not that easy.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s my best friend! It would make things weird.” N said as he brought his knees to his chest. V would be lying if she said she didn’t feel a tinge of envy when N called Uzi his best friend. It was stupid. It’s not like she cared. N’s friends didn’t matter to her. So what if she’d always thought of N as her own best friend? Whatever!
“Look, I don’t know N! I don’t have the answer to your stupid problem! I don’t even care, okay? You and that purple thing do whatever you want, and just leave me alone.” She huffed and turned her back to N, staring at the wall across from her. She caught N’s reflection in the shattered mirror that hung there. He looked sad. His tail was hanging low to the floor, and what she could see of his face was very clearly portraying an expression of guilt.
Conscience.exe activated
Damn it.
“Uhh. Look N, it’s not your fault. I just really don’t know what to say right now. I have no idea how to help you.” N pulled back his hood, and looked at V with sad eyes.
“It’s not your fault either. I don’t wanna burden you with my dumb problems.” He twiddled his fingers anxiously. “I just don’t wanna ruin this. I don’t wanna mess things up with Uzi. She's the best friend I’ve had in a long time. The last thing I want is to make her uncomfortable.”
V turned back to look at him, searching for the right words. “What do you want, N?”
“What?”
“You heard me.” She said, sitting back down. “You keep saying what you don’t want. What do you want? What would make you happy?” N stared at her like she’d grown a second head. Then a realization came over his face.
“I want to tell Uzi how I feel. That would make me happy.” He looked down at the hoodie he was wearing, staying silent for a bit.
“Well then,” V said, walking over to N. She gave him a light, but still firm smack on the back. “Grow a freaking spine and tell her, dummy.” N looked up at her, his eyebrow raised in confusion.
“But, what if-”
“Shush.” V put her hand to N’s mouth. “If this will make you happy, then that’s what matters most.” N smiled, eyes softening. He moved V’s hand and spoke again.
“Thanks V. You’re a good friend.” V hated how much hearing that made her happy.
“Yeah yeah, whatever. Don’t get all sappy.” She turned her back again and crossed her arms, feigning frustration. She was surprised when N wrapped her in a hug from behind, tail wagging happily.
What an idiot…