Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Serial Designation V watched intensely as the lilac-haired worker drone held a conversation, or perhaps it was a silent argument, with her father. Who blinked his white eyes slowly and gave a tired frown while he said something to his daughter in a low voice. V couldn't figure out what the two were talking about, and she could tell that Uzi was not liking it by the way she clenched her hands into fists at her sides and shifted from one stripe-sock covered foot to another. 

But she could make an educated guess that Khan had finally decided to address the murder drones living situation. It was pretty clear by now -to V, at least- that the doorman father had started to want his home back from the company of the two disassembly drones. 

N and V would have just gone back to living in the far away, isolated, frozen landing pod where they belonged. Well, maybe N didn't belong so far away from Uzi and stuck in the snow. Not that V cared or thought that-... And not that the cold would really hurt any of them, as they don't have skin. If severe enough it might freeze some internal gears, but that was not likely. However, the reason they were camping out in Uzi and her father's home instead of in said landing pod was because -thanks to Doll, J, and Tessa- the damned thing was not exactly available as a living space. Just to put it short.

Basically, it was about time he kicked the uninvited guests to the curb. 

It wasn't like they had been bad guests. While true that V wasn't the friendliest, she did try to get along with Uzi's father. She's doesn't get why, but she felt the need to get him to like her. Or at least, not hate her. N was often annoyingly nice about it. Going out of his way to bring the man breakfast and clean everything he could reach. The guy meant well but Khan just seemed more annoyed about not being able to get to his couch without being bombarded by "Thank you"s and gifts rather than V watching him from afar to see if he would criticize anything Uzi or N did. Not that she cared about their feelings or anything. 

Actually, Khan Doorman should have rightfully removed them from his home after he had walked into Uzi's bedroom without knocking and seen serial designation N drinking oil from his daughters arm like some fucked up sort of vampire. They had to eat somehow. But Khan had most definitely taken the situation as something it was not, based on the horrified screams he had let out before promptly slamming the door shut.

Oh, and it was quickly after that when a "no boys in your room" rule was established -to both Uzi and N's dismay- so that meant N was left to sleep on the couch. Despite his numerous apologies and the fact that nothing was happening with the two. Drinking oil from the poor girl was definitely not like that, which was the honest truth, to be fair. Also that it was Uzi's idea, not that N mentioned that. Not that V herself fully believed there was nothing sparking between the pair, and for whatever reason that thought made her feel...well, something. She just wasn't exactly sure what.

It must be disgust, seeing as she hates both of them. She hates Uzi's pretty weird hair and her butterfly-in-stomach nausea inducing laugh. She hates the way N smiles when he gifts her a poorly drawn picture that he put way too much love care into and the way he always has something sweet dumb to say.

It's definitely disgust, because she hates those idiots. 

To V's surprise, after N had been banned from sleeping in the same room as Uzi, she was invited to share the girl's bed instead of sleeping on the floor like she and N usually did, because- "Now that N sleeps on the couch, there's no real reason for me to make you sleep on the floor. I guess it's not fair. Or whatever." Uzi had explained. And if V was just a bit more stupid she might think that there had been small, purple blush lines appearing on the angsty girls screen. 

It wasn't like V had ever wanted to be close to Uzi. She longed to be. Actually, she hated the idea of being even just a little bit close to the worker drone. So when she climbed up into bed with the girl she didn't blush or smile or say anything at all. V was silent and stayed as far on the other side of the bed as she could. She didn't at all love  feel any sort of way about being so close she could feel the warmth of Uzi's overheated circuits or be surrounded by the comforting smell of the lavender-drone. 

She didn't sleep so good that night. Too busy trying to avoid touching the other, something about it made her circuits feel floaty wrong. And she did not like listening to how Uzi's vents brought air in and out as she lay in sleep-mode. She hated that Uzi kept trying to cling onto her because worker drones are known to get cold easily and maybe it's because the disassembly drones are just warmer from overheating. V did not give up her half of the blanket and instead wrap it around the sleeping girl so that she wouldn't be cold because V just couldn't bring herself to hold her. Her battery-core did not ache in any way upon pushing away Uzi's attempts at cuddling her. Even though Uzi wasn't awake or aware of what she was doing, so it's not like V would hurt her feelings. Not that she cared about how the worker drone felt. Uzi was just a little cold. 

A sudden hand on her shoulder pulled the disassembly drone from her thoughts. She snapped her head around to see N behind her. "You're still spying on her?" He asked, a small grin on his face.

V could feel her circuits starting to warm up at his knowing look, but she shook her head and stepped back inside Uzi's room instead of continuing to peer around the doorway at the girl and her father. "No!"

"I'm not spying on anyone!" She snapped, gritting her teeth and avoiding eye contact. "Just wanted to know if we can finally leave." She came up with the excuse rather fast, and sounded confident enough when she spoke.

Though N didn't buy it, he nodded his head and took his hand away. V felt his touch disappear and was definitely glad about it, she didn't at all feel disappointed or anything that he was taking a step away from her so that he could climb up onto the edge of Uzi's bed and continue doing whatever boring and stupid thing it was that he liked. Probably drawing another silly picture. 

V huffed and turned from the doorway to go slump down into the chair at Uzi's desk. V liked that chair because it had wheels and so she could spin it around. That's exactly what she did, she pulled her knees up to her chest and began spinning the chair around in circles. 

It was at that moment when Uzi finally came back into her room. Shutting the door behind her and frowning while she muttered angrily to herself. V swallowed the urge to ask her what was wrong, but N didn't. He looked up from his drawing and then swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "You good, Uzi?" He asked her. 

Uzi, still frowning, walked over to him. Right past V. Not that the disassembly drone girl noticed at all. It's not like V felt a painful twinge in her wires at the idea that Uzi didn't even consider going to V for comfort. N was just better at that stuff. Uzi dropped onto the floor, sitting with the back of her head against his knees. "My dad is being stupid," She grumbled. To which the boy raised a hand and started to pat her head gently, and Uzi didn't smack his hand away. She just sat there glaring at the floor with her arms crossed over her chest. 

V didn't feel very jealous. She just felt...oddly enough, she felt sort of left out? She wanted to comfort Uzi the same way N seemed to be able to. She could see Uzi's shoulders relax as he managed to wordlessly calm the lilac-haired worker drone just by existing in her presence. 

"He wants me to kick you out!" Uzi threw her arms up, an annoyed tone in her voice and a glare to her eye-lights. "It's like he thinks that you can just sleep in the snow." 

V could see how N's frown deepened, whether that was from seeing Uzi upset or getting the news that they would actually be leaving was hard to tell. Something about his sad expression made her glare at the floor. 

She really, really wished she could think of something appropriate to say that would make N smile again and just go back to looking as stupid as he was a few minutes ago. Maybe say something that would make Uzi stop glaring at her own purple-stripe socks and pouting like that, just go back to trying not to smile at N's stupid jokes or maybe even laugh. 

V was definitely not afraid that if she opened her mouth the feelings that had made their home in her chest cavity would crawl out from deep inside her battery-core and make her say something she actually meant. So instead, she pressed her lips together and kept the words wedged between her teeth.

"We'll be okay, Uzi." N said in a calm voice. V wondered if he meant him and Uzi would be okay, or if he meant he and V would be okay. Could he mean all three of them? It would fit his character. It would be nice. But V couldn't assume anything. He continued, "I don't mind the snow!" N sounded somewhat happy, doing his best effort to cheer up the purple-haired girl. 

It worked, but only a little. She took a deep breath. "It's not fair," The lilac-haired worker drone complained, though she did sound more calm. 

V didn't exactly enjoy just sitting there and listening to them talk, she wanted to be part of the conversation. She wanted to cheer them both up. She tried to stay silent, but that proved harder than she thought. The silver-haired girl stopped spinning in the chair, setting her feet to the floor. Her movement caught the attention of Uzi and N. Then she spoke -in a nicer tone than what was average to her character- before she truly thought about her words, before she could filter them, "You'll be fine, toaster. Me and N will figure something out." 

Uzi blinked, she seemed slightly confused by V's speaking in a comforting voice. And though it often annoyed Uzi that V never used her actual name, the change in tone was more distracting. The lavender-haired drone was unsure of how to react. It seemed like V was trying to be nice to her. "Thanks," Uzi murmured, and looked up at V.  

N smiled, he held a thumbs-up toward V. The idiot had that sort-of stupid smile on his face, as if he could see that she was actually trying despite how scared mean she was. And something about him seeming, well, almost looking proud of her made her circuits warm up. She glared at the wall opposite of Uzi and N. "Whatever," She muttered.

Not like she would ever admit that she was glad N had noticed her attempt. She wondered if Uzi would notice the reason for this? 

It was shortly after that when V really started to think to herself, maybe being nice wasn't so bad? 

Chapter Text

Uzi stared at the partially crumpled-up pamphlet in her hands, reading over it carefully. She had picked it up from one of her classes, the paper things were being passed out to students that day. 

The pamphlet read something about the dormitories, which usually wouldn't have caught her attention. But it did, because as of the past couple days she had been desperately trying to find a place for her the murder drones to live. Luckily her father wasn't too much of a complete asshole and had allowed them to stay until they found another place. 

There weren't many requirements for getting to stay in the school's dorms. The biggest thing was that N and V would then be going to the same school as her, and maybe some classes. Going to school would actually probably be good for them. The lilac-haired girl wasn't sure exactly how she felt about the whole idea, but decided it wasn't very important to dwell on as she deemed it a good plan. 

Perfect, Uzi thought while she folded the pamphlet up and tucked it into her hoodie pocket. The school day was over, students gathered in the halls to leave. Most of them just exiting classrooms. Uzi turned from her place by the lockers and walked back over to her main classroom -where she had gotten the pamphlet- when she got to the door she peered into the room, finding it fairly empty other than the teacher she was looking for and two other students in the back who seemed to be just leaving. 

She walked right up to the teacher's desk, waved a hand in front of his screen to get his attention. The guy was never actually doing anything important. "Hey, hey!"

The teacher, after leaving the digital card game he was just about to win, looked at the emo girl with a bored expression. "Class is over," He muttered. 

Uzi frowned at him, her lilac eye-lights narrowed. "I know, I'm here about the dorms." She explained, "I've got two friends who need a place to stay." Friends? She was pretty sure she had never outright called N and V her friends. Most of her classmates would probably scoff at her saying she had friends. She was also not sure that V liked her very much, nevertheless wanted to be her friend, despite the strange new behavior. N would probably have liked to hear it though.

"Do they exist?" Was the tired question the teacher asked. 

Uzi's eye-lights widened with shock. She hissed, "Excuse me?!" A bit too loudly. And caught the attention of the two students in the back, one of them snickered while the other just looked annoyed. 

The teacher continued, "As students here. Do they come here?" He emphasized dryly. Uzi then felt embarrassment creep into her circuits. Damn her for being insecure enough that she  misunderstood the stupid guy.

Uzi crossed her arms. "No, i-i mean, not yet." She heard more giggles and whispers in the back of the room. Those idiots should be leaving to go home! "They can start coming here!" Uzi tried. 

She was starting to wonder if this was actually a good idea. What if N and V hated it? Would they notice her stupid bullies? Would they comment on the treatment, or maybe join in on it? No, N wouldn't do that. He was sweet. She was a bit less confident about V though. 

"Your friends have to be students first, also you should really talk to the principal or basically  anyone who isn't me about this." The teacher responded, his voice sounded so flat that even a pancake might be jealous. 

Uzi didn't say anything more, she just turned and left the classroom. She still thought her plan was a good one, even if that stupid teacher refused to help her very much. She would talk to the principal! After telling her the murder drones about her idea. She had to make sure they would think it was cool be okay with it. 

When Uzi had gotten back to her home, she made a beeline to her bedroom. Not because she was purposely avoiding her father, which was somewhat of a first. It was just because she was excited in a hurry to tell N and V about her new plan. She opened her bedroom door and stepped inside, setting her school things on the floor. At this, the two murder drones who had decided her room to be their new hang-out spot looked up in unison at Uzi. 

Serial Designation N was the first to speak, the idiot jumped up from his spot on the floor to snatch Uzi up into a warm hug. "Uzi, you're back!" He beamed, somehow he always managed to be so cheerful. Uzi felt her circuits warm up at him having missed her. He set her down pretty quickly, not that she payed any mind to it. 

The silver-haired murder drone on Uzi's bed had an amused smile on her face. "Hope you don't mind, toaster, but this is my bed now. Who knew I'd prefer it to sleeping upside-down?" V said before she flopped down to hide her face in Uzi's pillow. As of lately, V seemed to want all of Uzi's belongings to be hers aswell. Uzi wouldn't mind sharing too much 

"Speaking of, I think I figured out something that'll work! Uhm, for your living situation." Uzi made herself comfortable at her desk, sitting backwards on the chair so she could face the murder drones. N tried to climb up onto the end of Uzi's bed, but V shoo-ed him away like he was a robo-bug so he settled to sit on the floor instead. Uzi wondered why V had little blush lines on her screen, Uzi knew that N liked V, he had told her so himself. If the silver-haired girl liked him back Uzi would be happy for the two.

N's wire tail swished through the air, the neon color nanite-acid end bobbed lightly. "That's great! I mean, I do like living with you, but not being homeless is an important priority!" He said while he held both his hands out in a thumbs-up. 

The lilac-drone crossed her arms over the back of the chair, resting her head on top of her hands. Serial designation V had taken Uzi's blanket and completely wrapped herself up with it, only her tail stuck out and her eye-lights glowed in the shadow. Uzi thought that if one described N as being like a puppy, they'd have to admit that V was just as much like a cat. 

"It's not the most practical plan," Uzi explained, "But my school has these dormitory things now." 

V sat up straighter. "Wait, you want us to go to school?" 

N tilted his head slightly. He asked, "Is that allowed?"

"I don't know, I guess." Uzi could admit that there were downsides to this plan, but it was still something. And a good something at that. 

"That sounds fun!" N chirped. Of course he would like the idea, Uzi thought. But someone else might need convincing. 

That someone was slowly letting the blanket fall onto her shoulders. There was just something about the sight of V being in her bed, silver hair slightly ruffled and blanket around her loosely. It made Uzi look away, even though she didn't really want to. Uzi didn't know what to feel about thinking V might be...well, cute looking.

V spoke with a nervous edge in her voice. "I don't need to actually do...homework, right?" She seemed disgusted at the idea. The murder drones had both seen Uzi do homework before, one time N had even tried to help her. V just said that it looked too confusing. Uzi secretly suspected that V couldn't see all too well, mostly because she avoided reading and bumped into stuff a lot. She never said anything about it. 

Uzi responded a little dryly, "Yes, V. You probably will." 

The serial designation N only said, "I like homework!" Which was something that Uzi had already figured out. She definitely didn't understand the appeal, but hey, so long as he was happy. 

She turned to directly look at V. "That means you can't kill worker drones, too." She said, firmly. Uzi knew for a fact that V had been sneaking away at night to hunt down workers. How else had she managed to not overheat? V hadn't taken any oil from Uzi. Only N had done that. The lilac-drone probably wouldn't even say no if she would just ask.

V's eye-lights went hollow. "What?!" The silver-haired girl frowned. "What am I supposed to do, then? Just overheat!" She growled. Uzi found her reaction to be somewhat silly, there were plenty of ways to get oil that didn't result in worker drone death. Or rather any new deaths. 

"You can still get oil from the corpse tower, okay?" Uzi said. The corpse tower -though creepy- had enough worker drone bodies to harvest leftover oil from. It wasn't much, but it worked. 

V complained, "But that oil is cold! And it's not fresh!" Clearly giving up the murderous tendencies would actually take an effort. 

Uzi sat up in her chair, uncrossed her arms to gesture towards the oil canister on her desk. "I know. I've been getting mine from there." She really didn't want to elaborate on the process of getting said oil, or how any of it made her feel. 

"Oh..." V gave up surprisingly fast. "Fine!" She had been doing that more and more lately, just trying to avoid arguing with the purple-haired drone. Doing less of antagonizing her. Uzi thought it was concerning at first, even wondered if V was sick. But then she started to think that V was really just trying to get along with her. Actually be nice. 

"Don't worry V, I'm sure school will be great!" N said to her. Uzi resisted the urge to disagree with him.

"That's it then. Tomorrow morning we'll go and figure something out so you both can be students," Uzi decided. "Then you can stay at the dorms." She sounded much more confident about the whole thing than she really felt. 

Hopefully this was a good idea, Uzi thought. 

Chapter Text

Serial Designation N lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the empty dorm room. 

He was incredibly bored. And this new room was not like Uzi's was very bland. N was very grateful to her for this place to live, don't get him wrong. 

The new students -him and V- did not need to go to any classes that day. Basically so they could have some time to unpack their things and get settled in before they had to attend any classes. 

So here he was in the bland room unpacking his very few things -He would definitely have to get more things to decorate the place with- and being bored. Also he felt pretty lonely. V had her own room, not that N really needed a roommate. He understood that she would probably want privacy and stuff. He wanted his own space, too.

But still, N missed the company of his favorite friends. Despite having seen them both not very long ago. 

The quiet was starting to become overwhelming. The only sound was the clock on the wall right by his empty nightstand that kept ticking every few seconds. N sat up in the bed, his new bed. Which had a yellow blanket that Uzi had given him. He found sleeping upside-down way more comfortable than being in a bed but he was still very glad to have one. The ivory-haired drone glanced over at the door. He could clearly hear a pair of drones walking down the hall. Because they were talking very loudly. 

N waited for said worker drones to pass by his room, then sighed and got out of the bed. Passing by a few oil canisters on the floor, some empty and others fuller. Just in case. He would probably finish unpacking later, considering he didn't feel much like being all alone at the moment. 

He peered around the doorway briefly before stepping out into the hall. It was empty, which was probably because most of the students had gone out to have fun with their free day. He made a beeline towards a dorm at the farther end of the hall, just a few rooms past his own. When he stopped at the door he knocked a few times in a sort of pattern. 

After a few seconds passed the door opened. V stood there and blinked at N with a knowing look. "Back so soon? It's only been a few hours." She greeted him with the smallest of a smile on her face. "I'm done putting my stuff away."

"Me too." N nodded his head. "The rooms are nice," He said, even though he didn't exactly feel at home In his own room and was very desperate to escape the claustrophobic feeling prison.

She stepped to the side, tilting her head toward the inside of her room. "You gonna just stand there?"

N laughed a little awkwardly, he shook his head and went into her room. V closed the door behind him.

He glanced around, noticing the room to be basically the same as his own. Except it's actually really great looking. Minus a few things, like her nightstand which had some books on it and her beds blanket was dark blue. Also it looked really nice. And he didn't immediately or even at all feel claustrophobic or trapped when V shut the door. That was nice. For some reason he didn't see any oil canisters or anything, which was odd because V had never taken oil from Uzi. Unless maybe she had begun to very recently? Or the oil was put away out of sight. Or she gained it some other way. He didn't know. But it had to be here somewhere so he didn't dwell on it more.

V sat down at her desk by the end of her bed. The seat didn't have any wheels like Uzi's but as V had once said, it would be good enough anyways. N turned to face her and settled on the edge of her bed just across from her. 

"What do you think?" She asks. Then goes on, "I'd say it needs more stuff on the walls, so I'm gonna try to find some posters and whatever." V tells him. 

"Your room is really wonderful, V." N holds both hands out in a thumbs-up. "And i can always help, with anything!" He genuinely thinks that her room looks good already, posters or no posters. He also makes an internal note to himself that if he finds any posters or decorations she might like that he'll get them. The room has only had a day of work, but it feels so comfortable.  

A few lemon colored blush lines appeared on her screen for a brief moment, but then V shook her head and spoke again. "Do you have everything you need for tomorrow?" 

"Yeah, pencils and stuff." He wondered why she would blush in his presence, then understood that she must just be embarrassed or something. N had believed his feelings for her to be romantic, but now he felt the same with Uzi.

So that must mean he had confused the romantic and platonic love, right?

...

Or he had feelings for both of them...

But neither girl would like him back, so it would be best to not ruin the good friendships that he had! He really didn't want to loose V and Uzi. Not over something so stupid as his own feelings. It doesn't matter, he's thinking too much. She hadn't even looked at him. Best not to dwell on it all! 

"What's bothering you?" V asked him, now she was definitely looking at him. A small frown on her face. 

N wonders if his thoughts had shown on his screen. "Nervous about the classes tomorrow. But it's no big deal, I'll be fine." He shrugged his shoulders. He hated lying. Especially to her. But what could he say? Say that the thing what's bothering him is his feelings that may or may not be platonic or romantic for his two best friends who he knows for sure wouldn't feel the same and he can't tell the difference?

Yeah, that maybe would go over well. Or not. 

Serial Designation V leaned a bit closer to him, a skeptical look across her screen. "You sure that's all? I'm trustworthy." She assured him. 

N felt guilty at lying to her, and possibly even making her wonder if she wouldn't be considered trustworthy by him, and also he started sweating the moment her face got so close to his. Who the heck programed that robots could sweat? Weird design choice. But also he wasn't very prepared to try and explain his confusing emotional situation to her. 

"My room!" He blurted out, "My room is too dark!" Well, it wasn't a lie. More like a change of subject, N reasoned with himself internally. 

V sat up straighter, moving away from N's face. "What?" She tilted her head in confusion, an action that N found to be very cute. "You're scared of the dark?" She questioned. 

N laughed nervously. "N-No, no. Just uhm...I just don't like how dark it gets at night!" He very quickly realized that he had backed himself into a bit of a corner. 

The silver-haired girl propped her head up in one hand. "Oh? So you don't like the dark, huh?" She asked again, in a teasing manner. N knew in that moment that he could never live this down. Then V got up, and for just a second N wondered if she was on her way to shut off the lights and test out if he actually hates the dark or not, but then she made her way right over to a little pile of empty boxes in the corner of the room. Probably leftover from unpacking and moving. 

V dug around in one of the boxes for a few seconds before pulling out a handful of what looked like string. N was confused at this. Then she came right up to him and set the pile of string down on her desk; so he could get a closer look. 

"What's that?" The ivory-haired boy asked. He could see that it was a pile of string, but didn't completely understand why V was showing that to him. Or what the string had to do with their conversation. 

"Yours," She said simply. V went back to the box and dug around some more.

N blinked. "Like...a gift?" He wondered out loud. Then he looked back to the string a bit closer, noticing the little, round glass bulbs across said string. So it was not string, but actually some pretty decorative lights. 

V confirmed his thoughts by speaking, "Yeah uhm, lights." Then she stopped digging through the boxes and came back over to the desk. She had a little remote in her hand. "So your room isn't dark," She explained. Then she pressed a button on the remote and the lights went on, glowing a soft white color. 

"Color changing too." V handed the remote to N. Who pressed another button and both the drones watched as the lights on the desk become a blue color. N's face also lights up, but not with a blue color, instead with happiness. 

"Thank you!" N chirped, and wrapped his arms around the girl in a hug. She turned her face away from him, but she didn't push him away or say anything mean. 

"Y-yeah...you're welcome," V stuttered out. 

She muttered a little, "Uhm...was just that I had extra..." As If she felt like she should explain herself for simply being kind. "No other reasons..." She mumbled under her breath. Maybe she thought he wouldn't hear her say that. But N knew. 

When N had gotten back to his dorm room that same night, he made sure to clean up his room -putting oil cans out of sight and finish unpacking- and he put the decorative lights up above his bed.

The lights hung nicely, and made the room feel a bit less intimidating. He liked to set them on a color change mode, so they would shuffle through being multiple colors in a slow and calm way. 

He actually got to fall into sleep-mode that night, despite his multiple worries. And also maybe the bed wasn't so bad.

This whole school thing is gonna pretty cool, he thought just as he finally fell into deep sleep-mode. 

Chapter Text

Serial Designation V absolutely fucking hated school. 

No, that could not be an exaggeration of any sort. The serial designation grit her teeth and dropped her head down onto her desk with a light thud, not paying any attention to the screen at the front of the classroom. Not that she could read it very well, but that didn't matter! She didn't need glasses or anything!

Uzi and N weren't even in this class, leaving her more bored than ever. At least then V could watch N ask a bunch of questions in an entertaining way, or Uzi be rude to the teacher and cause a scene. Not like she missed them and felt nervous about the whole school and colony situation or anything. 

The classes were boring and the other students looked at her weird. Probably because she could recognize at least three of the students looking an awful lot like some of the worker drones she had killed before...not that any of that stuff needed to be addressed. She wondered if any of them would be as vengeful as a certain someone.

Not Lizzy though, Lizzy just kind of looked at her phone. She was pretty nice to V, an actually decent friend.

At first V was certain that others would like N or Uzi more than her, which was proven to be only half true. N got along very good with most of the students he ran into, and especially the girls. Most of the girls seemed to really like him. Not that he noticed. V had seen him talk with Thad, so maybe the two would be friends. 

Uzi however, was not treated in the same way, V came to notice. Yeah she knew that Uzi wasn't popular or anything, but she didn't realize that the girl was basically an outcast. 

Even Lizzy seemed to not care for her much, but had stopped going out of her way to bully the girl. It only took one threatening glare from V to silence the rude comments for good. V hoped that Uzi wouldn't question it, and even more so hoped that she wouldn't realize the serial designation had been the one who convinced Lizzy to just ignore her instead of bullying her. 

It was sometime in between classes when students were walking down halls, Uzi was at her locker and N was whoever the hell knows where. The poor guy was probably being chased by some girl or talking to a teacher about getting more classes. He seemed to like the learning thing. 

V was just walking over to the lilac-drone when some stupid bitch-boy worker with an obnoxiously red hat stopped walking just to stick his foot out and knock Uzi's legs out from underneath her. The purple-haired girl hit the ground really hard, she had yelped in shock and maybe even pain. She also dropped some of her books from her locker.

V couldn't...no, she wouldn't tell you why, but the sight had her fighting the urge to swap her hands for razor sharp claws just so she could tear the worker drone to oil shreds right then and there. Maybe give that stupidly red hat to his parents afterwards just to make them regret having him. 

But she didn't, because she promised Uzi she wouldn't hurt anyone.

And...she maybe didn't want to be cruel anymore. But the reason why wasn't important. 

What she did do, was rush over to Uzi and pull the girl back up to her feet. Maybe not gently enough, considering Uzi startled upon seeing her. "Oh, h-hey V!" Uzi laughed nervously. V grabbed Uzi's things from the floor before the purple-haired girl could, practically shoving the books back into her arms.

Then without saying anything approached the idiot who was already walking away with a few of his friends. The group was snickering. 

"Come on, Brad!" One of the idiot's friends whisper-yelled to him. In response the idiot, named Brad, said some mocking thing about Uzi being 'such a clutz.' 

The bitch-boy had a name, huh? V thought. Even more enraged with each word he and his friends spoke.

"Hey! Hey, asshole!" V called to Brad, who stopped just a few feet away. His friend group chuckled and whispered among themselves. A few other students in the halls peeked over at the situation, but not many. 

Brad raised a digital brow at V. As If he didn't know what he had done wrong. "Excuse me? What the hell do you want?" He said 'you' as if V's own existence was an insult enough.

Uzi's eye-lights hollowed. The purple-haired girl started trying to inch away silently. 

V growled, gritting her teeth and glaring at the obnoxious boy. "Apologize." 

Brad laughed. "What? Apologize for what?" 

"Apologize to her." V kept her glare firm, her hands in fists at her sides.

"To who, that freak?" The boy glanced at Uzi and then shook his head. "Nope." He seemed so sure of himself. His friends had stopped laughing when they noticed the angry drone to not be a worker, but a murder drone. 

V didn't totally understand why she was so angry. It likely had to do with the hunger and warmth clawing at her insides due to her having not consumed any oil in a while. That's what she tells herself. 

Promise to Uzi temporarily forgotten, the silver-haired girl is at the boy in an instant, one hand snatching his obnoxiously red hat right off his head. Other hand holding him by the collar of his shirt so that he was just less than a foot off the ground. Swapping her normal hands with razor clawed fingers and tearing the hat to shreds right in front of Brad. Who now frowned with wide eyes. V stayed close to his face with a now calm look. 

"Fucking apologize." She tells him, voice barely a whisper. Eyes wider than they should be. 

"Y-You're crazy," Brad states. V doesn't like how deep the words hit, but she couldn't completely disagree with him.

Then his eyes fall away from the pile of what used to be his stupid hat, to look at Uzi. "Sorry. Yep, i'm really sorry." 

The serial designation drops him unceremoniously to the floor. He lands harshly and scrambles back to his feet before he and his friends hurry away with hushed whispers and looks over shoulders. 

V returns her weapons back where they belonged in exchange for her typical hands. Her face falls back to a restful state. She notices a few students looking at her and whispering. She turns to look back at Uzi and sees the girl just disappear while turning down the hall.

She of course follows after Uzi, able to catch up with her fairly quick. "Uzi? ...uhm...purple-thing?"

"What?" Uzi stopped and whirled around to glare at V. "Why are you following me, Trying to find more jerks to attack?" 

"Huh? No?" V blinked, clearly confused. She had been helping!

"Why would you attack him like that?!" 

V didn't understand this reaction at all. Was Uzi upset at her? Why? "I was helping you! And i didn't attack him!" 

"That's not helpful." Uzi crossed her arms and frowned at V. "You could get kicked out of this place!"

If V didn't know better, she'd think Uzi sounded worried rather than mad.

"Actually...I-i need some damn space!" Uzi decided, promptly turning away from V. Muttering something about a broken promise. 

Uzi started to walk away. 

The silver-haired girl wasn't sure what to do. Should she apologize? She kind of felt like she should... But she had done nothing wrong! She had helped Uzi! 

And had also broken her promise of not hurting anyone...Though V didn't think she had hurt the boy. Not as much as she should have!

So she just stood there and watched Uzi leave. A strange sort of guilt making itself comfortable under her plating, right next to the hunger and uncomfortable warmth. 

If she would be forced to go back in time she would do things differently. She instead would focus her attention on making sure Uzi was okay, and then later that night sneak into Brad's dorm room so she could tear his wires out through his mouth and watch him drown in his own oil. Then V wouldn't even dignify his death by drinking his oil. She'd just leave his mangled corpse for someone else to clean up. 

Okay, that might be a little much. Maybe.

V had been to busy with her anger at Brad that she didn't notice Uzi's pleading look. She didn't know that Uzi was purposely trying to be invisible to her bullies. All V knew was that she was pissed off and wanted to help Uzi. 

Admittedly, the whole blinded-by-rage thing was a bad move on her end.

But did she regret telling that jerk off?

No, not one little bit. 

Did she regret making Uzi upset?

...

Yes.

Chapter Text

Three days. 

It had been three days since V had spoken to her. 

Uzi didn't know what to do. She wasn't beating herself up over it, no, she was practically beating herself to death over it. Mulling over each and every word she said. She didn't understand why V was...mad? At her? Had she done something wrong? What had she done wrong? Should she apologize? How the hell could she apologize if V was avoiding her? Was she just overthinking it? Uzi's CPU was starting to hurt. 

Uzi grit her teeth, stuffing her fists into her hoodie pockets. The last thing she and V had talked about was the silver-haired girl having attacked that random jock. Uzi didn't even like Brad, she actually kind of hated him.

But she was mostly hurt that V had broken her promise to Uzi, then she acted like she didn't even know she had broken said promise. On top of that, V had worried annoyed Uzi about the fact that she could have gotten herself kicked out of the school or colony if Brad had told on V. For some reason he hadn't. Probably because he feared for his life. As he should. 

Then again, Uzi was really starting to care a lot less about that. And more just wish that V would speak to her again, instead of immediately leaving the vicinity once she saw Uzi. It was as if V was afraid she had some incredibly-contagious-motherboard-virus. Or whatever. 

It wasn't like she... missed V. 

Or maybe she did. 

Maybe she just missed her friend...

It was fine! She still had N to talk to. And also Thad. Actually, Thad and N seemed to really get along, maybe the two had become friends.

The disassembly drone boy had told Uzi that he didn't like some of the jocks, -Like Brad- because of various reasons. Most of the jocks were just stupid jerks in Uzi's opinion. -Example being Brad- But N somehow didn't let it affect him. Uzi wished she knew how to make things not affect her, too. 

Also that V had apparently told N that Uzi had a "bullying problem" because V still talked to him, so now N followed Uzi around like a puppy. V probably did so with the idea that Uzi would find N to be annoying, but jokes on her because Uzi likes the attention  not being bullied. Most of the girls (and some of the guys) won't harass Uzi so long as N is near, because they know that he won't want to date them if they're mean to her. Uzi is nauseous at just the idea. Same goes for if V would stop avoiding her and be near, but rather than worrying about a date the bullies should worry for if they would wake up the next morning. 

N had also said that Uzi should just ask V what's wrong. To her annoyance, because that was kinda hard to do when V kept running away from her.

"I need your help, It's pretty hard to talk to her when she all but runs away from me!" Uzi huffed.

He shook his head. "Nuh-uh, You both need to learn how to sort things out on your own. Not that I wouldn't really love to be of help."

"Can't you just lock her in her dorm room or something? Then I'll climb through her window!" Uzi tried once again. N must have decided to take V's side today or something. "Or maybe tell her to talk to me?" 

"I already tried that last part. And anyways, you've totally got this! I'm sure of it." He must have been hanging around Thad and his stupider jock friends too much. Because Uzi swears N was being like that intentionally. "Also that first idea is kinda creepy, Uzi..."

Actually, what little Uzi had seen of V, because she had still tried to approach her a few times, was that V acted very...strange? Other than the avoidance, that is. Uzi tried not to worry dwell on it, but she knew for a fact that she hadn't seen V eat anything. She kept fighting herself on the thought that when V consumed worker-oil wasn't her business. She didn't need to invade her personal space. V probably just preferred to drink her lunch in private or whatever...

But it was still something Uzi couldn't help noticing...

Maybe she took from Lizzy? V and Lizzy hung out often. That must be it. Uzi would assume V to get leftover oil from the corpse tower, but it was pretty far away. Also the oil there was older, cold, there wasn't much left so it would run out soon and when that happened Uzi was unsure what the next route of action would be. Best not to dwell on that. And also it was not as effective at helping with overheating.

Or maybe V just shared from N's stash? He would definitely share. That made more sense. Uzi then made an internal note to ask him about it. She'd just pretend to be asking if N needed more oil from her than usual and then work it into the conversation somehow. 

"Speak of an angel," N suddenly mused. To which Uzi was snapped out of her thoughts at the sight of said silver-haired drone at the end of the dormitory hallway, likely heading to her room for the night just as N and Uzi were. Not that she agreed with him that V was an angel or anything. Also, she's pretty sure that's not how the saying was supposed to go. 

Then she realized that V had not yet spotted her or N. 

This was good timing, so Uzi decided to finally put an end to this stupid avoidance situation. 

Completely ditching N, the lavender-drone darted past him right towards V. Who's eye-lights hollowed with shock at seeing Uzi, and then after a few seconds she quickly turned to hurry towards her rooms door just a few feet away.

But Uzi was fast despite her size, so she was able to catch up with V. And though she knew it was pretty mean, Uzi was determined to fix this stupid little problem. So once she was close enough she latched a hand right onto the glowing-nanite-acid-end of V's tail and planted her purple boots right to the floor. To which V was pulled right back, like an elastic rubber-band or something. A comical sight actually. 

V hissed, whirling around to snatch her wire-tail out of Uzi's hands and press the delicate limb to her chest. She frowned at Uzi, or rather glared. "You little shit-head! That's cheating!" 

Uzi knew it was. She shrugged. "Don't care! No more running away!" She snapped at V more harshly than she meant to. 

The silver-haired drone actually winced back. "And I'm not running," She grumbled. "I'm just-!" Then V trailed off, "Just uhm..." She obviously had no excuse.  

"What the hell, V?" Uzi gave an exasperated sigh. "Why do you keep avoiding me?" She finally asked.

V turned and kept on towards her dorm. Uzi followed right on her heels. "You said you wanted space! This is space!" V said, trying not to trip over Uzi or accidentally stab the purple-haired girl with her sharp-ended tail. 

"What?" Uzi then remembered telling V to give her space. But obviously she didn't mean 'leave me alone for three days' type of space. Uzi groaned in annoyance. "No! No more space!"

Stopping just outside V's dorm room, with a hand outstretched towards the doornob, the disassembly drone girl paused. "Huh?" She blinked at Uzi in confusion. 

Uzi's harsh glare became softer. "I don't want space anymore, okay?" 

"Okay...what do you want?" V asked, almost hesitantly.

"I just want things to be...normal again." Uzi admitted. Then pointed a finger up at V and close to shouted, "So stop ignoring me!" 

V brought her hand away from the doornob to lightly swat Uzi's hand away from her face. "Fine! I'm not ignoring you." 

"So..." Uzi paused. Suddenly feeling nervous energy work its way back into her circuits. "Why are you mad at me?" She asked in a voice that almost sounded small and guilty. 

"Excuse me?" V's visor displayed a lemon-colored question mark for a brief moment. Then switched back to her eye-lights, which raised a digital brow. "Mad at you? Where the hell did you get that idea from?!" 

"From you ignoring me!" Uzi put emphasis on the word 'ignore' and said it like it was obvious. 

V reached for the doornob again, this time opening the door to her dorm room and after that she gestured for Uzi to follow her. Which Uzi did.  "I was trying to give you space! Because you're the one who's mad at me!" V explained.

"Damn it..." Uzi sighed. Finally understanding what exactly had gotten lost in translation.

She glanced around V's room, finding that it was very pretty. She even had some posters on the walls, and a few drawings that Uzi could recognize were from N. 

V slumped down in the seat at her desk. "So wait, are you not mad at me anymore?" 

"I'm not mad, I was never mad!" Uzi said while sounding kind of mad. 

The silver-haired girl frowned. "Well, neither am i..." Then she looked puzzled again and asked, "But then why'd you yell at me?" 

The lavender-drone looked down at her boots. "I was... worried," Uzi admitted, hoping V wouldn't see the purple blush lines that had appeared on her visor. "You dumbass!" She added, trying to sound annoyed. 

"Hey!" V's eye-lights narrowed at the name calling, as if she didn't call Uzi names all the time. Then V faltered once again. "Hold on...you were worried? Why?" 

"Because I...don't want you to get banished from the fucking colony!" Uzi swore, finding it surprisingly easy to actually admit this. She pretended to gag and stuck her tounge out. "Ew, you really made me say it!" 

"So..." V sat there in silence for a moment. "This means we're...still friends, right? We're okay now?" 

Uzi ignored her nervous energy. Glad to finally get some confirmation about this. "Yeah, You idiot."

The silver-haired disassembly drone relaxed a little. "Fine, Toaster." 

Another few moments of silence. 

"Sorry..." V was the one to break the ice. "I'm sorry I broke my promise." She said calmly. But it was clear to Uzi that she really did mean this. 

"I'm sorry i yelled at you." Uzi also apologized in response, equally as genuine. "Just don't...do that again."

She tried her best to explain herself without saying much. This was a conversation with her cru- ... friend, not a therapy session. Uzi paused, then spoke up again. "Makes me feel like you're gonna just...disappear."

 Like how she felt that day at the lake. Like how she felt when her father shut the door in her face. Like how she felt in the cabin fever labs. Like how she felt when her mother- ...

"You know what? It's stupid." Uzi sighed, she shook her head. Doing her best to keep her hands from shaking.

"Disappear?" The silver-haired girl echoed softly. She saw V's eye-lights soften, then hollow slightly. As if V had just had an epiphany. Uzi could practically see the wave of guilt that suddenly hit the disassembly drone girl. 

"It's nothing, It's stupid," Uzi was quick to backpedal. "Shut up." The purple-haired girl wanted to change the subject. 

V frowned. "I-i don't think it's stupid..." The disassembly drone said in a surprisingly soft voice. She stepped closer to Uzi, raising her hand as if she wants to comfort Uzi but is unsure as to how. 

"I won't...uhm...disappear." V stammered.  Sounding nervous or like she was unsure what to say, but still the most genuine that Uzi thinks she had ever heard V try to be. 

"Promise." V added with a more confident tone. And now a small but determined grin. "A-And I won't break that..." Now the disassembly drone girl set a hand on Uzi's shoulder. Trying her best to appear soothing. To which Uzi glanced up at her. 

"Better not," Uzi mumbled, but knew that V meant it. "I'd totally kill you." She says in a joking manner, a weak attempt at lightening the mood. And maybe changing the subject. She can feel V's hand on her shoulder and it makes her feel warm. 

V smiled now with some amusement. She moves to put her hands on her hips. Uzi feels disappointed at the loss of contact. "I thought you decided you didn't like violence anymore?" She also put in an effort to try to lighten the mood. It worked. 

"Shut up," Uzi scoffed. Seriously, it was like V couldn't help herself. And Uzi loved it. 

"Nope, you like my voice." And damn it, Uzi knew she was right. Though she wouldn't admit that out loud. 

Uzi crossed her arms, trying not to smile. "Do not!" She retorted anyways. 

"Keep telling yourself that." Was the response from V.

Maybe I will, Uzi thought. Genuinely glad to have V and her lighthearted bickering right back. As It should be. 

Chapter Text

"So, you gonna come?" Thads artificial voice asked. 

N hummed in thought, his CPU thinking it over a little. Then he smiled. "Maybe. It sounds really fun." The two were in one of the school halls, just getting ready to leave for the day. 

The jock had just finished explaining to N that he would be hosting a party at his parents place soon, as Thads parents would be away — To see the first unveiling of Khan Doorman's newest door device or something like that — In the time being and the jock just wanted to have a good time.

Thad said that N was welcome to come, It would likely be just the usual party. Drinks and such. N remembers Thads other party — The shindig, he thinks Thad had called it — that he and Uzi had attended a while ago, it was fun.

But Thad would likely be busy maintaining the party itself and N just didn't want to be too alone. 

"You should ask Uzi and V to go out with ya," Thad suggested casually, sliding his bag over a shoulder. "I know V tried to kill me but, like, forgive and forget ya know?" He chuckled. Unbothered. 

Immediately N avoided looking directly at his new friend. The disassembly drone felt his visor grow warm and he really hoped he wasn't blushing. "Wh-Why? Haha...i-i mean, it's not like I would consider them dates. Or anything." Actually he most definitely would, which was why his screen felt warm. Over the past few days he's started to figure out his feelings a little more. Which were that he was crushing really hard on the two girls. But there was no way he'd get the courage to ask Uzi and V out so soon... Maybe one day, though.  

Thad raised a digital brow. "Huh? That's not really what I meant. But I mean, if you did want to ask them like that it'd totally be cool." Thad went on to say. "You'd make an awesome throuple," He sounded more knowing than N appreciated, but at the same time N knew he wasn't the most inconspicuous guy. Thad had likely already figured it out, but even N wasn't completely confident of his own feelings. 

"Th-that's silly!" N did not find it silly. He found the idea very nice. More than nice. He also made sure to open his locker just enough that he could hide his glowing-yellow screen from Thads veiw. "A-Anyways I'll still make sure to tell them about the party. Maybe the three of us will show up." N says. 

Thad nodded. "Sounds rad. See ya later, bro!" He waved to N, turning away down the farther hall to head back to where he came from. Probably his dorm room or something.

"See you later Thad!" N called after him, finally shutting the locker and looking after Thad. Then N also took off, but towards the opposite hall that would lead him back to his own dormitory.

He thinks he'll go to his room and finish some relaxing homework before settling into sleep-mode. He can ask V and Uzi about the party tomorrow, and if the two drones want to go then he will too. He'll be like their chaperon!

Maybe they would enjoy some quality time together after their little misunderstanding? Just to hang out more. He was glad they had both figured that little thing out. N knew they would, because Uzi and V cared about each other. Even if the two weren't very sure how to show that, N could still see it. It made him happy that his two favorite girls could get along. 

But when N got to said dormitory, instead of opening his rooms door to see his own bed empty, he was met with the sight of Uzi. She was just standing in the center of his room awkwardly. She waved at him, seeming glad to see him. "Oh good, you're back!" Was all Uzi said. 

N had no clue as to how the worker girl had gotten into his room, seeing as the door was locked. But hey, she was still welcome!

"Uzi!" The disassembly drones face lit up in a smile. He shut the door and set some of his things away at his desk. "What are you doing here? Not that I mind, of course. You're always welcome!" 

Uzi seemed to relax a little more. "Heeyyy," She greeted back, drawing out the word a little. "Just wanted to stop by. You know, say hello." 

"You wanna hang out for a little bit?" N offered, he could use some company. 

Uzi smiled a little, she nodded. "Yeah." Then adds, as casually as she can, "Also wanted to ask if you're low on oil." 

N falters a little. He's pretty sure that Uzi is only supposed to gift him oil every week or so, and he doesn't have a very big appetite, with that math he should still have somewhere between half a jar and a third a jar left. She had already given him some, so why would she ask again? He was certain that he hadn't been eating more than usual. That was kinda weird. 

He thinks some more, then says, "Not really. I have some to last a little while." Which is true. Depending on how long you would think a little while is. 

"How long is a while?" Uzi asked. She moved again to sit at the edge on his bed and face him.

He didn't mind, and then decided to walk over to his nightstand and began shuffling around in the drawer. He pulled out a jar, filled a third of the way with a thick, black liquid. "Like...half a jar?" He guessed, tilting it to show Uzi. The oil was hers, so N felt kinda weird to hold a jar of it right in front of her. He set the jar down on the nightstand. 

Uzi took one look at the jar, completely unbothered by the contents. "That's enough for lunch tomorrow, idiot." She mused. Uzi never seemed to be unnerved by the whole oil-drinking thing. At least, not as unnerved as it made N feel. 

Finally N frowns, a digital brow appearing to furrow. "Okay, I guess more wouldn't be that bad..." He admits while staring down the nearly empty jar on his nightstand. 

"You know I don't mind doing this," Uzi said with a bit of emphasis. She could tell that he's nearly always bothered by the situation. Despite it having happened before. Unless he's reached a certain point of hunger, but usually that means he's already started to overheat. Which is bad. 

The disassembly drone boy sighed, he crossed his arms. "I know, but i always feel bad!" 

Uzi's grin softened, an understanding in her eye-lights. She knew he hated it. She knew he felt bad every time. "You don't have to feel bad." Uzi tells him, as comforting as she could muster. "At least you don't have to bite me anymore, right?" 

Uzi's voice and her calmness help him. She has a point, too. He didn't ever feel very good about sinking his teeth into her metal, especially because he knew it hurt her. That was a two time thing ever since Uzi's father had walked into her room that one time. That was an uncomfortable day, to say the least. 

Anyways, they had found a much more efficient way now. 

"Fine..." N did his best to relax. He shuffled through the nightstand drawer again and pulled out the second jar, the clean and empty one. Uzi hopped up from his bed and snatched the jar from him. 

Uzi took the jar over to N's desk, she set it down and gestured for him to come over. He did, and made sure to clear away some more space at the desk. Uzi popped the lid off the jar and glanced around. "Do you have anything sharp?" She asked. 

N nodded. He knew that he could just swap his usual hands for his razor claws if necessary, but he'd really rather not have to inflict pain on Uzi. It already sucked, It'd be so much worse to do so with his own hands...

Instead he goes back over to his nightstand and shuts the top drawer. From the second drawer he gets a pocket knife and a box of band-aids. Uzi wouldn't need the band-aid, and N would be able to heal her anyways, but he grabbed the box anyways. Taking it over and setting the things down on the desk by Uzi. 

"Band-aids? Again?" She asks, curious. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten band-aids for her. Uzi probably thought that if he could, he'd wrap her in bubble-paper. 

Uzi spots the pocket knife. A solid black handle, silver blade still folded up inside. She picks it up in one hand, her sleeves had been pushed back, albeit still already falling back down. "This is perfect," She pressed the tiny button on the side, watching the blade flip outwards. It shimmered in the light. N wondered why he even had that in the first place. 

The disassembly drone boy pulls out his desk chair, nodding his head in a gesture that Uzi can sit. She should at the very least be comfortable as possible. The lavender-haired girl sits right down in the chair. She then positioned her right hand a little over the jar, her sleeve immediately falling down back over her wrist. Uzi gripped the knife in her left hand. 

"Do...Do you need help?" N asks a little bit nervous. His honey colored eye-lights glance from her hand to the knife guiltily. "You don't actually have to do this. I'm not even completely out yet." 

"A little." Uzi doesn't look up at him, too focused on finding the right part of her palm to hit. Bringing the pocket knife nearer to the center of her hand and steadying her aim. "Hold my sleeve for me? I don't wanna stain it." 

N does as she asks, just on her other side he rolls her hoodie sleeve back just enough for her. 

"Thanks," She says. Like to her this is casual and normal. To N, he's really got some mixed feelings. 

Uzi, with one quick movement, brings the knife down. She made no sound, though her lavender eye-lights narrowed with the pain. A sickening crack sounded out as the silver of the knife sliced through the top layer of thin silicone covering her palm, not yet had the knife broken through metal, nor did any oil show. 

N can't help but flinch back a little, he shut his eye-lights and turned his head away. Biting his tounge. He really hated when she tried to hide that she was hurt. He really hated when she was hurt. He hated that she kept hurting herself just so he wouldn't overheat. He hated himself for hurting her by just existing.

Another clang sounds out, this time accompanied by a small hiss. N finally looked back just in time to see fresh, inky-black oil bubbling out of the stab wound on Uzi's palm. The knife clattered as Uzi dropped it back down onto the desk. She grabbed her wrist and held her oil-oozing hand over the jar carefully, a focused look on her screen. The oil pooled in her palm and dripped down her fingers into the jar, hitting the glass bottom with a light tick, tick, tick, sound. 

N's optics dilated, honey-color lights glowing just a little brighter. A sense of calm washed over him mingled with the sudden feel of hunger that hit him then, pretty hard. He stared now, fixated on her hand which dripped the sweet-tasting oil into the glass jar with a light tick, tick, tick. 

Uzi glanced up at him, she took notice of his newfound expression. A look she had told him was his 'hungry stare.' Uzi grinned. "I had a feeling you'd be hungry. Just wait a minute, okay?" 

N shook his head, an attempt to clear away his hungry thoughts. "S-Sorry..." He mumbled. He hadn't meant to stare.

After a few minutes she shook her hand, still held over the jar. A few droplets of oil fell down into the container, which was only just filled enough to cover the very bottom of the jar. "Ugh, not bleeding fast enough," Uzi muttered. She reached for the pocket knife again. 

The disassembly drone knew Uzi well enough by now that he knew exactly what she was about to do. He didn't like that. So with one quick movement he snatched the pocket knife off the desktop right before Uzi could reach it. He snapped the blade back inside its protective body and held the knife away from her.

"Hey! What's that for?" Uzi huffed. Eyeing the pocket knife he held away from her. He knew she wouldn't move from the desk as to not allow any of her precious oil to drip onto the floor.

Also he was way taller than her, so she couldn't reach to grab the knife back anyways. He felt bad for knowing and using this to his advantage, but he'd rather do so than watch Uzi stab herself again. 

"No! Please no stabbing yourself!" N frowned. His wire tail curled around his own ankle. Then he said, even though a lie, "I'm not even hungry yet!" In a less than convincing tone. 

"It's gonna take forever to fill this jar if I don't," Uzi retorted. She'd cross her arms if she could. 

N shook his head. Stepping aside and setting the pocket knife back on his nightstand. "I don't care about that. Just no more hurting yourself." He's back to her side now, looking down at her with a worried frown. A digital sweat droplet appeared on his screen. "You're already bleeding enough, just be patient?" 

"It's not even that painful!" The mauve-haired girl insisted. Then sat back with a smirk and said in an almost bragging tone, "I've literally had fingers cut off-" 

"Which is exactly why this is bad," N interrupted her. "You shouldn't be so used to pain! Pain is not a thing you have to feel everyday!" He does his best to emphasize this. In his own opinion, it's as if Uzi thinks these things are no big deal. When to him, seeing the ones he loves get hurt or be hurt is definitely a big deal. 

Uzi just sat there in a nearly stunned silence. Like maybe she wasn't sure what to say to that. Then after a moment, she muttered a small, "...I know that." 

"I'm sorry. But please, just be patient?" N asked softly, he rested a hand on Uzi's shoulder. She looked up at him. He felt guilty for accidentally snapping at her, especially when she was only trying to do him a favor. Though she didn't seem upset.

Uzi slumped back in her seat. "F-ffine. I can sit here for, like, an hour." She had a sarcastic edge to her voice. Her eye-lights darted to his hand on her shoulder and then back again. Then she looked away from him with a few small, lavender-color blush lines on her visor. 

N felt better at that, and he really hoped she would too. He wanted nothing more than for Uzi and V to both be happy. "That's better. We can watch a movie, or play a game, or something fun!" He offered this with his usual silly grin. Then cast a nervous glance to her wounded hand that she held over the glass jar. "A-And let me know if you start to feel lightheaded or any errors show up, okay?" 

"Ugh..." Uzi's more argumentative demeanor began to dissipate even more. She glanced back at her hand, which was no doubt hurting. "Okay, fine." She said a little softer.  

So that's what they did. For what must have been  the next hour, the two played a game on their screens.

All they had to do was let Uzi send N a temporary password to sync their screens on a very basic level. Or In more simple words, basically they could play cards with their faces. Uzi kept winning and N didn't mind. The lavender-drone  stayed at N's desk and the disassembly boy had sat at the edge of his bed, facing her. 

Eventually, or rather after Uzi had won several games, she decided to mention the oil situation. "A little more than halfway now," Uzi said. 

N remembered what they had been waiting on, so after closing out from the game he was on his feet in an instant and right back next to Uzi. Who had also put away the card game.

"Do you think that's enough? For how long?" She asked, blinking slowly down at the glass jar under her hand. The jar was nearly full. The black oil still warm, glinting in the light.

N felt his appetite return, but kept his focus. "That, combined with the little in the other jar, should last me more than a week."

Uzi nodded. "Good." She glanced up at him. "You got a towel? Or like, napkins? Or something?" She gestured to her wounded and oil-dripping hand that was over the glass jar.

"I actually do have a hand towel," He said. Silently he thanked whoever had designed the dormitories to each have a connected bathroom despite such a thing not actually being needed.

N turned to the door opposite side of his room and disappeared just behind the door for a few seconds to retrieve said towel. In his CPU, he chided himself for not thinking ahead enough to keep a first-aid kit. Then kept it as an Internal note-to-self.

Going back over after getting the towel from just within the small bathroom, he returned to be at Uzi's side.

He unfolded the little towel and Uzi reached her hand out towards him, palm up she set her hand in his. Allowing him to look over the wound more carefully. He dabbed at the oozing wound with the edge of the towel, Uzi didn't make any sounds of pain so he continued to gently clean the stab wound.  

After another moment of silence, though a comfortable one, Uzi looked up at N and asked, "Ya want some?"

At first he didn't realize what she meant, but then remembered his hunger. Which he still felt, though a dull ache. He was mostly focused on the cleaning and fixing of Uzi's hurt hand. N's honey-colored eye-lights drifted over to the glass jar on his desk, the lid still off and next to it. Inky-black, fresh, warm oil filled the jar nearly to the top. He knew it would taste good, and make the hungry feeling go away. It'd make his circuits and wires feel cool rather than warm. The hunger gnawed at him, at his internal mechanics and in his thoughts. 

"Isn't that weird? Like, to do in front of you?" He raised a digital brow and tilted his head. Still keeping an optic on the oil; He sounded distracted.

Uzi saw the obvious hunger on his screen. She shrugged her shoulders. "Probably, but I don't care." She said nonchalantly. 

On one hand, it ruins N's appetite and makes it harder for him to drink the oil. Knowing how said oil is acquired makes him nauseous. 

On the other hand, each worker drone tastes a little different. Some have bitter oil, others sweet.

And Uzi...

Uzi tasted sweeter than anything he'd ever tried before.

It was sickening, actually, Just how good her oil in specific was. Warm, rich, addictive. As if he could never get enough of it. N didn't understand why, at first he wondered if it was just because her oil was fresh. Or maybe because he knew it came from her. 

But at the same time he felt guilty. 

He shook his head. Then forced himself to look away from the sweet, fresh oil. "Nope, I'm good." 

"It's okay to be hungry. And you've literally eaten from my arm before, so what makes this too different?" Uzi has a point. Actually, N is being a little silly with his stubbornness. 

"You're right. S-Sorry..." He relaxed as best he could. Once done with cleaning the wound on Uzi's hand, he brought the oil stained towel away and set it aside. 

"Don't apologize," Uzi responded simply. An understanding laced her words. 

N nodded his head. "Right, Thank you!" He beamed again, his typical smile. "B-But I drank some yesterday...and I'm not hungry." He admitted. It was the truth, he wasn't actually very hungry. Uzi just tasted good. 

The worker drone girl glanced away, some purple blush lines flashed onto her visor for a moment before fading. "It's nothing," She mumbled. 

Uzi then gave a small laugh. "Oh right, this is the weird part." She glanced down at her wounded hand, which needed to be healed. 

"The rest wasn't?" N raised a digital brow, spoken with an amused voice. 

Uzi simply shrugged her shoulders, responding with a lighthearted smirk. "Eh, not in comparison." 

"Fair point," N smiled softly, a small laugh escaped him. 

The atmosphere was relatively lighthearted. N felt less guilty now, but his CPU made sure to remind him of all the reasons why he should keep feeling terrible. He ignored most of the negative thoughts as best he could, more focused with fixing Uzi's hand.

He brought a hand to his face and his tounge lolled out of his mouth awkwardly for a moment while he gathered a small amount of the healing saliva on his thumb. This part felt somewhat gross. 

Then he pulled his hand away from his face and put his tounge back where it belonged. He shook his head slightly, and blinked. Then looked back to Uzi's hand, she just watched him intently and curiously, even though she already knew what to expect. N brushed his thumb over the wound, the healing saliva spread onto the wound and quickly started to heal it. The wound already began to stitch itself back together. 

N reached onto the desk and grabbed one of the bandages from the little box, unwrapping it to show that the bandage was a light purple with some yellow star shapes on it. N gently pressed the band-aid onto Uzi's palm where the wound used to be. Though now the injury was completely healed; thanks to a certain someone's weird healing saliva.

And then before he thought about what he was doing, he pressed a careful kiss to the palm of her hand. 

It was directly after he heard her gasp softly, that he realized what he'd done, and his optics hollowed slightly as he glanced back up at her. A bright, yellow blush covered his screen. Somewhat embarrassed, and nervous about the possibility of having crossed a boundary, and also as to what her reaction might be.

But as her shocked expression shifted to a calm one, and her screen began to glow with a vibrant lavender blush, N relaxed. Uzi didn't look upset at all, more so surprised; like she wasn't expecting that. She blinked at him with hollowed optics and horizontal, glowing blush lines on her screen. She didn't say anything, just trying to keep her composure. Uzi looked away from him, a small -Almost giddy- smile was spreading on her face. 

Well, she was smiling. So that must mean she wasn't upset at him, right? N calmed down a great deal, though his honey-yellow blush did not. He was really happy he hadn't messed anything up. His feelings always got the best of him; and this time it wasn't a bad thing.

After another silent moment, albeit a comfortable silence, Uzi spoke again. "S-soo...uhm.." She stammered slightly, "Y-You're sure that you aren't hungry?" Uzi kept glancing away from him, she still had a few little blush lines on her visor. And a smile which she fought to keep smaller than what she felt; it's not like a little hand kiss was a big deal. N still held her hand in his, shifting to interlock his fingers with hers. 

"I-I'm sure," N  nodded. He was surprised at himself, because he managed to look a lot calmer than he thought he might be able to. Internally, he's freaking out, but just a little. His screen still felt warm, and he was probably blushing even more brightly than Uzi. 

"Okay," Uzi said, calmly. Then she gained a look on her face like she had just remembered something important. Then spoke again with a joking tone. "Just remember to share, Vampire boy." 

N tilted his head, a somewhat confused look crossed his face. He didn't completely get the joke. Well, he did see the resemblance in himself and a vampire -which was an old thing from human stories- That was kinda silly. But who is he meant to share with? Does Uzi mean to share with V? Had Uzi not given oil to V yet? 

"With V," Uzi clarified, seeing the confusion on his screen. Uzi raised a digital brow. "You've been giving it to V, right?" The purple-haired girl asked again. "Like, she comes to you for my oil?" Uzi says this more like it's an obvious fact, rather than a question. 

"What...?" N is still confused. That hadn't been happening... was Uzi not bringing oil to V? Was he supposed to do that? He didn't know! "I-i thought you had been bringing it to her, like how you just brought some to me?" He stuttered with nervousness and a confused head tilt. 

"I haven't...because she never asked me. So I figured she asked you, or someone else." Uzi started to just look plain worried now. "So what, unless she's getting some from Lizzy or whatever, the only other option is that...she's just been...s-starving? Why?" 

N's honey-colored eye-lights hollow with concern. "Oh no... I-I think this might be a problem," N's began to feel much less confused and more like he's just had a worrying epiphany. Like he just put two and two together. It'd explain why V was acting strange lately, too. 

"You think?" Uzi repeated sarcastically, though N could tell that she wasn't annoyed. She was  worried. And he was, too. 

"It's probably not anything that bad..." He felt his worry grow; His tone wasn't convincing. What if V really wasn't getting enough oil? What if she was overheating? He knew what that felt like, and it wasn't fun at all...

"This is...probably not good, either." Uzi sounded like she wasn't sure what to do. A visible concern on her hollowed lavender eye-lights, and small frown. She shifted her gaze to the oil jar on the desk. 

And if N knew anything, it was that Uzi was likely right. If that's really true, then this isn't good. He thought. What... do we do now? 

Chapter Text

Warning symbols and tabs popped up one after another, blaring and flashing at her in an effort to bring attention to the problem at hand. Serial Designation V continued to close each tab after the other. Seemingly ignoring the issue. She grit her teeth, bringing a hand to hold her head. 

She already knew what was wrong, her stupid system didn't need to keep reminding her! She felt the hunger, gnawing at her metal. She felt the burning sensation of the overheat, snapping at her wires and circuits. She knew, damn it! 

It wasn't like this was her first time overheating. Sometimes she would forget to drink oil, or maybe just didn't even realize she was hungry to begin with.

It was just the first time she'd let it get this bad, and also the first time she's been so starved while surrounded by the very thing she so badly wants. Needs. That was part of the reason she had opted to lock herself in her dorm room at the current moment. Lest she lose her shit and accidentally kill one of her classmates. She briefly wondered where that Brad idiot was right now, despite how terrible he would no doubt taste. 

The feeling just kept on getting worse and she desperately wanted to do something about it. Make it go away. It wasn't even like she had been doing the whole thing on purpose, things had really just gotten out of hand. V still didn't know how exactly to ask for what it was she needed in a less-than-creepy way. Or who to ask, that would even be cool with it. Seriously, she can't just walk up to Lizzy or Thad or whoever and say, 'Hey do you mind if i drink some of that stuff that keeps you alive?'

V sat down on the end of her bed, still holding her head in her hands. Only because her CPU hurt, not like she was stressed about this or whatever. Okay, no, it was all so stupid. She would obviously be able to have asked Uzi for oil, just the same as N did. And if not, she could probably have found the time for going back to the corpse spire and collecting some there. 

So... she actually did have options. She knew her options. She just didn't like her options. 

Well, whatever! She deserved it all for being her usual stubborn self. No matter how simple it all really was, it was a little too late now. V wouldn't make it to the corpse spire at this rate without losing her mind or something and it would take so much of the grossly cold, not-at-all-fresh oil to help heal her hunger that she would be there all day before she felt like herself again. She'd probably still make sure to beat herself up over it, in the end. 

She started taking some deep breaths, which was weird because she had no real need for air, but it still felt calming to do. She pressed her eye-lights shut tightly. Her arms brought up to cover her head, an effort to block out the light from her other eyes. The real ones on top of her head. It did very little to help with the overheat. 

V was interrupted by a knock on the door to her dorm. She opened her eye-lights and glanced over at the door. She didn't uncover her second set of eyes, however. Whoever it was would just have to wait, because this was a bad time! She could get this under control so long as no worker drones came near her. With their warm, sweet--

Another knock. More demanding this time. Followed by a voice, who sounded like Uzi, shouting, "Hey! We know you're in there, so open up!" 

No. She would not be opening up. Not in any way. No matter how much she kind of wanted to. Especially since Uzi was out there! What if V hurt her? She might never forgive herself if she harmed Uzi...

She stayed silent. Her CPU ached, actually every inch of her ached. Then the second voice called out, obviously being N. And obviously sounding as comforting as he could. Because of course the two idiots would gang up on her. "V, Are you good right now? Can you maybe open the door, please?" 

V swears if she grit her teeth any harder they would break. "I'm fine! Go away!" She shouted, sounding less mean than she hoped too. Damn the overheat for making her feel like the room was spinning. 

"No!" Uzi snapped. She banged her fist on the door a few more times. "And I know how to pick locks, so we're coming in anyways!" V though she then heard N ask Uzi if that was really true in a hushed voice. 

Trying desperately to think of any excuse that would scare Uzi and N away, V blurted out, "I-I'm not wearing any clothes, you freak!" It was actually kind of a funny lie in her opinion. She was just a little disappointed she wouldn't get to see either of their reactions to it. 

Lucky enough for her, she could hear N's reaction of a shocked, "What!" It almost sounded like disbelief. V had no doubt that would scare him off. She smirked to herself. 

"That lie makes no sense," Uzi retorted smugly, "And we're robots so that still means nothing, idiot!" Which was true. And as the doornob began to shake V realized that the little emo drone was already picking the lock! V could feel her smirk fall. She didn't know what to do, so she jumped up from her bed and ran over to lean against the door. Uzi was so short, there was no way she could open the door if V was blocking it. 

N had tried to say something that sounded like the start of a hesitant objection now. "Uzi, i dunno-!" V almost snickered at the thought of him having really believed her silly excuse. 

"Bite me!" Uzi interrupted him curtly with the catchphrase. Also having successfully picked the lock on the door by now, which V could hear happen with a click. The silver-haired girl then decided that traditional doors, even when constructed of metal, were very stupid in comparison to the industrial-strength ones that were used in other parts of the bunker. 

V felt when the door attempted to open, paired with Uzi's annoyed curse upon realizing that V was blocking it shut. "Let us in!"

"Why? What's so important right now, huh?" V asked back. Leaning against the door with all her weight. 

Uzi paused. Then shouted, "Easier to discuss when we're able to look at you!" 

V hissed, "Stop shouting. I can hear you, toaster." Seriously, her CPU hurt so bad right now. Shouting was pretty annoying. 

"You were shouting first," Uzi argued. She was still fighting to push the door open, which V was not going to let her do.  

"Was not." 

"Was so." Uzi said back dryly. 

N broke in by asking, "Are you fighting again?" V wondered what the heck he had been doing this whole time. The traitor should stop Uzi from prying into what could end up as her own death trap! 

The purple-haired girl banged her fist on the door again. "No it's okay, we're just talking." She said calmly. 

"Okay, that's good. Just making sure! Sometimes it's hard to tell." N chirped. Then asked V, "So is it okay if we come in now?" 

She groaned in frustration. She could feel her patience and self control dwindling. "What are you, a vampire? Stop asking!" 

"Is... that a yes?" N sounded like he genuinely couldn't tell. 

"No," V responded simply. 

"Also, why do I keep being called a vampire?" N asked. 

"Because you are basically a robo-vampire," V told him. 

He hummed. "But you are too, with that logic." N was becoming distracted now, V realized. 

She smirked, glad to drag him off topic. V still was holding the door shut to her best ability. Finding that Uzi was surprisingly strong for her short size. "Yeah, and it's freaking cool!" V said, smile evident in her voice. Sure, it was cool when she wasn't overheating because of it. 

But Uzi would not be fooled by a change of subject. "I'm going to break down the door now," She said flatly. Then the banging stopped, and V's eye-lights hollowed as she could only assume that Uzi was backing away to get a running start. 

Then came N's cry of "No!" and shortly after, a light thud sound. But not against the door, so that meant Uzi hadn't been able to run into it. That was kind of strange. V raised a digital brow and backed away from the door. What was going on now? She wished she could look out into the hall without opening the door. 

A shocked yelp. "P-Put me down!" Came the shout of protest, sounding almost flustered. V could put it together easily now and figured out that N had, thankfully, stopped Uzi from barreling into the door. Did he pick her up? She wondered. Probably he did. V fought herself on not opening the door right then and there just so she could see the sight. Which she had no doubt was probably hilarious. 

"Please don't break the door?" N asked. Or rather begged. There was a mumbled response that V couldn't hear. Followed by some silence. She was so curious at what the two idiots could be talking about at the moment. 

"Then help me push the door open!" Uzi exclaimed. V went right back to holding the door shut, bracing herself for N to give in and do as Uzi asked. 

Instead she heard N say, "That would be rude, Uzi." With a calm voice. He explained. "She'll let us in eventually, so just be nice, okay?" 

V could hear Uzi mutter a small "Whatever." 

Then N asked again, "Why won't you let us come in?" 

"She's not letting us in because she's overheating and she knows it!" Uzi said. V had come to understand that, while it is not obvious, there is a difference in Uzi's angry voice and her worried voice. And at the moment, V recognized the latter. Her shoulders slumped down. Uzi was worried about her? That was something that V still didn't fully know how to process. 

N sighed. He was probably doing that stupid sad thing with his face now. "She can hear us, Uzi."

To which Uzi gave a small "Oh."

Another few seconds of awkward silence. Then N knocked on the door lightly. "V, Are you overheating?" He asked, with that stupidly soft and genuine tone. The one that made it even harder for her to lie. 

"She's probably not going to tell the truth, N!" Uzi started to argue. Probably because she was worried, which V still found strange. Was she really worth being worried over? She blinked, her eye-lights drifted down to stare at the floor. 

"Why not?" N asked in a quieter tone.

Uzi started to speak, "Because--" 

"Yes!" V interrupted. She huffed, crossing her arms and plopping herself down on the floor with her back against the door. "I am overheating, thanks!" She admitted. Saying the last part with a sarcastic edge. 

She could hear Uzi give another soft "Oh." She probably didn't expect that response. But with Uzi's aggressive worry and N's gentle demeanor paired together, V had some trouble keeping that little issue to herself. 

"See? She told the truth!" V could practically hear the grin on N's face. 

He asked yet again. But this time softer. "Will you let us in now? We have some oil for you." And at just the mention of the word, she swears all of her senses heighten. 

She turned to look at the door, nearly having forgotten she wouldn't actually see either of them. A little bit of disbelief worms into her CPU. It didn't really make sense for them to just... happen to have oil, in her opinion. That would be a weird coincidence. But she felt more confident in that N and Uzi wouldn't lie to her. "You... what?" 

Uzi spoke up again, sounding calmer. "Yeah, we realized you haven't been, uhm, eating." 

V felt herself wanting to be defensive. But now she knew what was behind the door. Fresh oil, one way or another, actually. Then she shook her head to clear the thought. She wouldn't hurt Uzi. "I-i have been. I just forgot!" 

"Alright. Do you want some oil now?" N coaxed. She could hear it in his voice, that he was trying to make the idea sound more appealing, not that he needed to. And not that it would work on her. 

V could feel her mouth watering, the painful hunger suddenly felt just a bit more intense. "Uhm, yeah." 

"Then open the door, I'll pass it to you. It's in a jar, so you can just have that. If you really don't want us to come in." Uzi explained. 

V couldn't stop herself from blurting out, "Really?" 

Uzi gave a small laugh, a little muffled from behind a shut door. "Yeah, you idiot."

Then V paused. Curious. "Wait. Who's is it?" 

Uzi responded, "Mine, duh."

"Why the fu-" 

"Do you want to hear the explanation or do you want to eat?" Uzi asked dryly. 

"Fine. That's fine," V muttered. She didn't need an explanation, she could put two and two together just fine. And she'd be lying if she said she didn't actually want to see them both then. 

"Can we--" N started to ask. 

"Do not. Do not ask me again." V cut him off a little more harshly than she had meant too, and immediately she felt bad about it. She grit her teeth again, fighting back how agitated she was truly feeling. Not towards N or Uzi, but more towards herself and her overwhelming hunger.

Then came N's small and awkward, "Sorry..." 

V was about to open the door and apologize when Uzi called out again. "Answer the question!" 

The hand that she had started to reach to open the door with flew up to smack herself in the face lightly, which immediately made her wince with pain from her overheating circuits. She tried not to make any pained sound. V frowned and tried not to be curt. "Yeah. Yeah, you can come in, just-" She started to warn, while reaching for the door again. 

The silver-haired disassembly drone twisted the stupid nob that Uzi had already unlocked and pulled the door open just halfway. She pressed her head to the other side of the door and shut her eye-lights, trying as good as she could not to look at Uzi. For fear she might actually lose her self-control at seeing a worker drone so close. V then felt somewhat guilty for even having that thought, because Uzi wasn't just a worker drone. Despite being rather edible for a friend, Uzi still had feelings and wasn't really supposed to be food.

But thanks to the extra set of eyes atop V's head not being covered, she was able to get a really good view of both N and Uzi standing just outside her door. As soon as her systems had fully processed the worker drone's presence, V cursed internally. Quickly enough the words she wanted to say had died between her fangs. "Just... make sure Uzi..." 

Just make sure Uzi doesn't get too close.

"What?" The purple-haired girl raised a digital brow. Obviously not seeing the way V's optics had dilated at the sight of what her painfully overheated programming had just labeled as a nice, fresh meal. 

N blinked and his eye-lights hollowed. "Oh no." His voice held recognition towards the brief flicker of an 'X' on V's screen. She was fully facing them, one hand on the doornob still. But mostly she stared at Uzi. V had went completely silent and just stared. With a blank expression.

Uzi glanced back up at N with a digital sweat droplet now on her visor, and sounding a little worried. "Wait what." 

"I think maybe V is more hungry than we assumed. So she should maybe get that oil now..." N said in a low voice as a nervous sweat droplet appeared on his screen. An arm cautiously reaching out just in front of Uzi with an almost protective manner, though not touching her. "Just, uhm, before she stops thinking clearly." He trusted V completely, but the look on her face and the fact that he could physically feel the warmth radiating from her was really not a good thing.

"N, come on. It's just V." Uzi still shifted anxiously from one boot to another while V eyed her with an unreadable expression. But Uzi shook her head, purple hair swishing, and blinked away any visible worry to replace it with a determined frown. She held out the jar of oil for V. Who finally stopped staring at Uzi so her eye-lights could dart down to the glass jar, filled nearly to the top with dark oil. 

When V moved she did so surprisingly fast. The disassembly drone snatched the jar from Uzi, then took a brisk step back. Her visor kept flickering between her typical, furrowed eye-lights and the large yellow 'X.' She fumbled with shaky hands to screw the lid off the jar. Uzi fought the urge to reach out and just open the thing for her, but also feared having a hand bitten off. And N watched with a nervous look, likely thinking just the same as Uzi.

But the struggle with the jar lasted for only a few seconds while V's tail lashed with frustration, the needle-end looking for something it could stab and –Lucky for Uzi and N– finding nothing. Before finally V growled and bit down on the lid. Using her teeth to pry it off. Then she spat it out and it hit the floor with a 'tink' sound.  

The disassembly drone girl crouched down and then she scurried backwards. V hurriedly began to drink the oil from the jar with her back to the doorway where Uzi and N stood, both of them dumbfounded and not fully sure what to do other than hope the small amount of oil would help with her nearly animalistic state. It looked like a scene from some sort of horror movie. Or something. 

After only half a minute V froze. The glass jar rolled away from her and stopped to lay in front of Uzi at her feet. Empty. She glanced down at the jar, then up at the hungry cannibal who just got a taste for her blood. In the very literal sense. 

V's head snapped around to eye Uzi. The glowing, bright 'X' present on her visor and no longer glitching once she was completely lost to what Uzi could only assume was kill-mode from the intense overheat. Apparently one jar of oil wasn't enough, the mauve-haired girl noted. 

The disassembly drone girl looked Uzi up and down. Then frowned. And her only further acknowledgement to Uzi was an indignant hiss. Like when a stray cat decides it doesn't like you. 

The emo girl frowned right back. "Oh whatever, you can bite me," Uzi said half-heartedly while crossing her arms. Because even when V had only half a mind, she just couldn't resist making it her mission to get on Uzi's nerves!

But then V leaped across the small space towards Uzi with claws outstretched and teeth bared. N acted fast by knocking Uzi out of the doorway. "V no!"  He cried out. He slammed the door shut and pressed his back against it in effort to hold the door shut. There was a thud. Which was likely her colliding into said door, N realized with a wince. But then it went quiet. 

Uzi stumbled away from the door, but didn't fall. She found her footing again and held her hand out to flip off V. Though said disassembly drone didn't see this as the door was shut. N wondered what on the whole of copper-nine it might take for the two to just have more than five minutes of being nice to one another. Then again, he did find their bickering to be oddly entertaining. Maybe even endearing.

Then Uzi paused. "Wait. Hold on." A lavender colored light-bulb appeared on her screen — indicating that she had an idea — for only a few seconds before the icon had vanished.

N stepped away from the door, it stayed shut and there was silence on the other side. He blinked. "Huh?" 

"V needs more oil, and..." Uzi glanced at the band-aid on her hand, subconsciously. Then at him again. "She's kinda given me an idea."  

"What, no." N immediately objected, he already knew what she wanted to do. His digital brow furrowed. 

"Well, filling another jar will take forever. She hasn't got forever, not like that." Uzi argued. She crossed her arms. 

N frowned with worry. "But-!"

The purple-haired drone interrupted. "She's half-starved! You really can't argue about it, N." 

"Okay...You're right." He sighed. "I don't want to argue, I just really don't want anyone to... get hurt." 

Her expression softened. "I get that, and thanks." Uzi said a little softer. "It'll be fine. V won't hurt me, at least not on purpose." 

"I belive that! But... she also might not even realize what she's doing right now..." N knew what overheating could do. Uzi did, too. They had all experienced it at least once. The lack of self-control varied. 

"That's all the more reason to hurry and fix the problem." She reasoned. Uzi uncrossed her arms and set a hand on his shoulder. "And besides, you're here. Two of us, one of her. Just hold her back if she gets too... violent." Uzi gave a small, reassuring smile. 

N relaxed. He glanced at the door again, feeling worried for V. "Are you sure you haven't lost too much oil already?" He asked, looking back at Uzi. 

"I'm sure." She nodded her head and put her arms at her sides again. 

N did his best to not hate the situation. "Okay." 

"Just... hold her arms I guess?" Uzi shrugged. 

"Is that... really necessary?" 

Then came her retort of, "It is if I don't wanna get my face clawed off." 

"Okay then." 

"Tail?" She asked. 

"I dunno. I kinda think she won't use that, maybe." N tried. He eyed the door with yet another worried look. 

Uzi frowned. "You think?" 

"Okay, okay. I'll get her tail, too." N sighed. He glanced at his own tail with an unreadable expression, then back at Uzi. "But last i checked, friends don't restrain friends!"  

"They do when it means preventing cannibalistic rampages," Uzi said matter-of-factly. "Weren't you the one to worry, anyways?" She raised a digital brow. 

He nodded. "Fair point." Then he turned to the door, with his back to the wall he prepared himself. He reached for the doornob. "Sorry V, I hope you forgive me!" With that N pushed the door open and both drones jumped into the room, with a defensive stance each, and ready to face the murder drone who had succumbed to the ferocious overheat.

Only to find that V was nowhere in sight. 

"Where the hell did she go." Uzi deadpanned. Her arms fell back at her sides and she relaxed, her shoulders slumped. 

The white-haired boy also relaxed his posture. He hummed a guess, "Huh... maybe she's hiding?" 

"How did she even manage to hide in this tiny room?" Uzi glanced around. The room was roughly the same size as her own room back at her and her father's bunker. 

N shrugged. He walked over to V's bed and crouched onto the floor so he could glance underneath. "Disassembly drones are good at that," He said thoughtfully. "We, uhm, have to be able to sneak up on our..." Then trailed off, his tone of voice went lower with discomfort. He moved to stand back up after noting that V wasn't hiding under her bed. "Well, I wish I could think of a word better than prey or food." N cringed at his own words. 

The emo girl nodded. "Right. So she's gonna sneak up on me."

"Probably." N turned away from Uzi and faced the bathroom door, wondering if V had locked herself in there. "Hunting, I guess," He murmured. 

"So she's hunting me." Uzi repeated dryly. "Thank you, N. I'm gonna suppress just how creepy that is." 

He gave a small nervous laugh. "Whoops..." 

Uzi went right over to the bathroom door and opened it. No need to knock because with being robots they had no real need for bathrooms anyways. Finding the room empty Uzi shut the door again. Then turned and gazed across the room. She noted as much as she could, and tried to figure out how many potential hiding places there were. 

Under the bed. N already looked, so not there. 

Bathroom. Just looked, not there. 

Under the desk maybe? Eh, no. Would have already seen her. 

Ceiling. Uzi realized with hollowed eye-lights. She snapped her head up to get a veiw of the ceiling above and saw, with mixed relief and worry, that V was in fact not clinging to the ceiling and watching them. That'd be creepy! But Uzi and N both knew that V was watching them from somewhere. She just had to be. Uzi then made a note to herself that she would never play a game of hide-and-seek with the disassembly drone. 

Then the slightest of a 'creak' sounded out in the quiet room. Uzi whipped around to face the closet just fast enough to be met with the disassembly drone — large 'X' displayed on her screen and jaws open in a wide grin — leaping out of the small, dark closet space and tackling the purple-haired girl onto the floor with a yelp. 

Uzi blinked, thankfully not hurt from the fall. She looked up at V with hollowed, shocked eye-lights. Who had grabbed Uzi's arms and pressed them down at her sides, now V was right on top of her legs. "I found her!" Uzi called out to N without looking away from V. And judging from her peripheral veiw it looked like he was doing his best not to freak out. 

V had a shit-eating grin stretched across her face, the yellow 'X' on her screen glowing bright. She opened her mouth and let out a soft, eerie giggle. Showing off sharp fangs with a string of saliva running along her top teeth down to her bottom row. Uzi shivered and she felt her visor grow strangely warm with blush as she fidgeted, unable to move, underneath the disassembly drone. Immediately Uzi then frowned and scolded her own programming for daring to make her blush like that. This was bad. This was a scene from a horror movie and she should feel afraid. Or maybe worried for her friend.

"N! Don't just stand there, get her off!" Uzi hissed. Trying still to free herself from the disassembly drone's hold.

And immediately he took action in rushing over. He grabbed V around her waist from behind and pulled her off the worker drone girl. Then when V whirled around and tried to claw at him, he used his own tail to wrap around her. Successfully trapping her arms at her sides. He stepped back and looked at V. Now she stood there with her creepy smile gone, and despite the 'X' on her screen he would very confidently say that she was glaring at him. 

"Aw, i'm sorry V, but I can't let you eat Uzi." He said with a sympathetic smile. V just bared her teeth and hissed at him, her tail flicked behind her as she prepared to stab him with it. He faltered, his smile turned nervous. "Well, uhm, you'll thank me when you feel better. Maybe." 

Uzi had gotten back up. "Thanks." She brushed herself off and then put her hands on her hips. 

"Now what do we do?" N turned to face Uzi. Still holding V, who struggled to get towards the worker drone.

Uzi unzipped her hoodie and slid it off her shoulders to reveal her purple striped shirt, which matched her socks in both color and pattern. "Now you hold V while I feed her," Uzi explained. She tossed her hoodie onto the chair at V's desk. "I'm going to tell you to pull her away if she takes too much oil or if she starts to bite chunks of my casing off." 

"That sounds great," N mumbled with some concern. Then V's wire-tail shot out and the knife-like end went right for the side of his face. But N had already seen such a move coming, and he successfully caught her tail by the vial before it could hit him. He turned to look at V and gave a disappointed frown. "Don't do that, please." 

V stared at him with the 'X' still on her screen. And once again her maniacal smile had dropped into an angry frown. She attempted to pull her tail from his grasp but couldn't quite do so. N just shook his head and said, "I'm not mad, V. Just disappointed." 

The crazed disassembly drone girl stopped struggling and looked down at the floor in what could possibly be guilt. But that was kind of a hard thing to tell because of her currently still being in kill-mode and not exactly being in control of her own actions.

Uzi snickered quietly, an amused look on her face. Then V darted towards her — At least, as best she could with N's still hold on her — and only stopped just face to face with Uzi. Her jaws snapping shut only a few inches away from the worker drone's face with a loud snap. Uzi's amused grin fell, but not with fear, rather with annoyance. She stepped back. 

N's eye-lights, still hollow with worry, blinked a few times in shock. He wrapped his tail around V just a bit tighter and pulled her back some. "Is this a good idea?" 

"Absolutely not," Uzi said. "Which is why we should stop wasting time." She shifted her shirt collar down to reveal part of her neck and shoulder. She still wore her mother's necklace, so her arms went up to unhook and remove that. She tucked it away with her hoodie. Then she went right up to the overheating disassembly drone and grabbed her head. To which V tried to shake her head about in confusion, but Uzi held her face still and attempted to guide her mouth towards her shoulder. 

V needed no help however, and Uzi yelped when sharp fangs sank deeply into her plating. Rather than biting her shoulder as intended, V had opted to feed from the space between her neck and shoulder. Uzi didn't care. She could feel warm oil seeping from the wound and already beginning to dribble down across the rest of her plating. She hoped her shirt wouldn't be stained. Uzi still had her hands on V's face, she couldn't help it, shifting to hold her head. Hands in hair, carefully keeping her in one place. Uzi noted how soft V's hair was and subconsciously ran her fingers through it, just to feel the texture. The whole thing, the whole situation, felt so... strange. 

"Uzi, are you good?" N asked, he still held onto V, keeping her razor-claws away from Uzi with his tail. Which V kept trying to pry from his grasp so she could rip the worker drone's head off. 

Uzi blinked, her eye-lights moved to look past V at N, as best she could without moving. "I'm good."

The actual being fed from didn't hurt. It actually  felt, in Uzi's opinion, a lot like being held. It made her feel useful and like she was good for something. Almost comforting, save for the whole teeth and oil thing. Or maybe that was just Uzi craving a closeness she felt she could only have under such circumstances.

Once past the teeth and biting part, it was only a matter of keeping V's head in the same place and staying still. Every now and then the disassembly drone would try to free herself from N's hold, who kept asking Uzi if she was okay, to which she would hold her hand out in a thumbs-up. But ultimately, V seemed to not mind, or maybe even forget that he was there once she could drink from Uzi. 

Eventually, after some time, V's temperature started to cool off. She stopped feeling so uncomfortably burning to the touch and cooled down to a soft, soothing warmth. Her razor-claws had swapped back to her normal hands and her struggle stopped as her systems were no longer overheating and she started to come to. Exiting kill-mode. 

Once she had regained self-control and the ability to properly think, V realized the position she was in. She blinked, the last thing she remembered clearly was opening the door for Uzi.

Now looking down she saw Uzi. Bleeding. Uzi was hurt. And judging from the tantalizingly sweet taste in her mouth and the lack of a burning hunger, V had no doubt it was her own doing. She had hurt Uzi! With a wave of fresh, overwhelming horror and guilt washing over her entire being V cried out and stumbled backwards. Hardly noticing her arms pinned to her sides. "Oh, fuck!"

Then her arms were free, whatever had been holding her had vanished and was replaced by a gentle embrace. Snapping her head up she then saw N and realized she must have fallen into his arms. Or maybe he was hugging her. It could've  been some of both. "V! Are you feeling okay now?" He asked with a relieved look, and seemed very calm. "Maybe try not to swear so much, it's not a very good habit."

"N! Oh, I fucked up! I fucking hurt her, I fuckin--!" V spoke quickly, her eye-lights hollowed with panic. She clung to him by the fabric covering his shoulders, the wonderfully sweet taste in her mouth began to make her feel nauseous. 

"You're okay! It's fine, it was my idea!" V paused in her panic when Uzi spoke up. She turned back to face the purple-haired girl, but still subconsciously clung to N. She didn't mean to do so, but he didn't seem to mind. He still held her up like maybe her fear would make her fall down. 

"I'm okay, I'm fine, see?"  Uzi stepped closer and held out her hands. There was the slightest of oil still smeared across her neck and shoulder but the bleeding had stopped. Likely V's leftover saliva from the bite had already begun the healing. 

"Wh-what... what did I do?" V asked hesitantly. She tried to remember what happened after she opened the door but her CPU was still somewhat fuzzy. She remembered N and her screen gained a few small, lemon-yellow blush lines. She frowned and removed herself from his arms, feeling only a little bit more awkward about that. 

Uzi grabbed her necklace and put it back around her neck, hooking it in place. "You finally got something good to drink, thanks to my generosity." Uzi said, an amused grin on her face. "And you're a messy eater by the way."

V crossed her arms and frowned, she was thankful to have the pain of hunger finally gone. "Oh shut up! You had me scared half to death!" She huffed. 

N took Uzi's hoodie and draped it over the purple-haired girl's shoulders. "What's the last thing you remember?" He asked V. 

"That I opened the door. Then i saw Uzi, and i was hungry--" 

"No shit you were hungry." Uzi interrupted. She didn't put her arms through the sleeves of her hoodie just yet. Her worried voice came back and she spoke softer to ask, "You idiot, why didn't you say anything to me? Or N?" 

"I-i..." V faltered. She had no excuse, so she just decided to be honest. "I just didn't think about it. I hardly even realized I was overheating until..." Until it was just too late. 

A pause of quiet.

Then N asked, "Do you feel a little better now?" 

"Yeah, yeah." She nodded. It was the truth. 

Now it'd be Uzi's turn to ask, "Are you still hungry?" 

"N-No. No, I'm okay." V said. She still couldn't help but find it strange to be fussed over and worried about in such a way. Not that it was really a bad thing. "What if... what if I had seriously hurt you?" V asked, worry wormed its way into her tone. 

Uzi shook her head. "Both me and N were here. It'd be fine, unless you can beat both of us in a fight." She says half-jokingly. A small smile on her face. "And anyways, it's not going to happen again. Because me and N are both going to make sure you eat regularly whether you like it or not." Uzi added, more serious.

V hissed, "I'm not an untrained network, I can remember to feed myself just fine from now on!" She didn't need any taking care of, nor any special treatment. 

Uzi shrugged. "I think you already proved that's not completely true." 

"Fine." V rolled her eye-lights. Then relaxed her posture and uncrossed her arms. Suddenly sounding just a little more genuine she said, softly,  "...Thank you." 

"You're welcome," Uzi's response equally matched her suddenly soft tone. 

"We're your friends. We care about you, V." N said, he set a hand on V's shoulder and smiled at her. That stupid smile that looked just as overwhelmingly sweet on his face as Uzi's robotic blood tasted in her mouth. His words managed to be so comforting and not-so-comforting at the same time. She wasn't so sure she wanted to just be friends anymore. 

V blinked. She manged a small smile. "Y-yeah. Uhm, Same." 

Uzi still hadn't put her hoodie on more than just settled on her shoulders. V could see the bite wound between her shoulder and neck, just sticking out from where the collar of her shirt didn't fully cover it. The injury looked to still be healing. V didn't like how slowly the spot seemed to recover. "Are you sure I didn't hurt you?" She asked. "Can I see?"

V grabbed at Uzi's shirt, tilting her head to try and get a look. Uzi put a hand on V's face that covered her screen in effort to push her away. "Hey!" Uzi huffed. 

"Let me look," V frowned. "Does it hurt?" She let go of Uzi and looked down at her. 

The mauve-haired girl brushed herself off and shook her head. "I'm fine. Gosh, you both are such worrisome dorks!" 

"No, i am not." V denied. 

"Yeah, i know i am." N admitted. 

Uzi gave a small giggle and closed her eye-lights. She pulled her shirt collar to the side to reveal the bite. Which was fully healed, but the plating of the area was slightly dented so the shape of V's teeth was still visible. "It's already healed and everything. Doesn't even hurt." Uzi said. 

N blinked, looking at the mark with curiosity. "Huh. You bit pretty hard, I guess," He tells V. 

"What." Uzi opened her eye-lights. 

"Oh." V's eye-lights hollowed upon seeing the bite had left an actual mark. "Oh, I fucked up."

"You wha--" Uzi seemed worried for a second but then her face relaxed into a knowing smirk. "Ohh..." She pulled her shirt collar back to how it rested normally. "Is there a mark?" She asked. 

"Yeah. There's definitely still a mark." N confirmed while giving a thumbs-up. 

"I didn't mean to," V said a little defensively. 

"It's okay, It'll go away in a few days." Uzi shrugged. She grabbed her hoodie and put her arms through, then zipped it up enough to hide the bite mark from veiw. 

The silver-haired girl can't help but raise a digital brow and ask, "Are you sure?" 

"Mhm. N accidentally bit pretty deep the first time he drank from me, too." Uzi explained. "I think it's from being so hungry." And V isn't sure what to make from Uzi's wording, because 'first time' might make it sound like she expects V to drink directly from the source again. 

"It was an accident," N mumbled. Looking down guiltily. 

Uzi nodded and gave a gentle, "I know." Then she stuck her pointer finger out and gave him a light boop where his nose might be if he had one, and N cheered right up again with a smile. 

"Same. It was an accident." V was quick to add. 

Uzi gave an amused eye-roll. "I know." Then she also made sure to give V a little boop where her nose might be. V wouldn't admit it but that was exactly the silly sort of thing she liked more of.

Then Uzi asked V, "Are you gonna clean your face? Do you have anything for that?" 

"What?" V raised a digital brow.

"Oil. You've got oil all over your face, still." Uzi gestured towards V's face. And V took notice of the black oil that was still smeared along the corners of her mouth with a twinge of embarrassment that faded quick as it came. "I meant it when I said you eat messy," Uzi half-joked.

"I have towels in my bathroom," V answered. She was about to go and wash her face but N beat her to it and went right over to the bathroom.

Then he came back over to V with a small cloth. "And sh-shut up," V said to Uzi half-heartedly. "I'm not even that messy." She fought the urge to lick her lips, looking away from the purple-haired girl. But she didn't fight or say anything when N reached out to gently dab her face with the cloth.

Then she finally thought to herself, or rather realized, being cared for is actually a very nice thing.  

Chapter Text

"This is stupid and i hate it." 

"As much as i agree with you it still needs to be done," Uzi said. Then took a deep breath of air into her vents. She propped her elbows up on the desk and rested her head in her hands. Eye-lights shut.

She really did want to help V, but the whole thing was starting to frustrate her. Mostly because Uzi herself was a barely passing student. She believed that she wasn't the better option to help V catch up on studying. Really, N would do a better job. He was smart and had so much more patience.

But said boy was busy at the current moment.

Why was N busy? One might wonder. And the answer was simple: He was an absolute fiend for extracurricular activities, classes, and clubs. If he could partake in everything he would. Uzi had no clue as to how the boy was able to manage his time in such a way. 

So, obviously, Uzi wouldn't just stand there and do nothing to help V.

In a literal sense.

Uzi was going to be in V's room to keep a close watch on her anyways. And yes, Uzi knew she had started to become a little... smothering as of lately. Still following the disassembly drone around and asking her about when the last time she had drank oil was, and if she felt unwell or warm. She couldn't help it, she needed to be sure that V was okay!

In V's opinion, she liked the company. The attention, or whatever. But also in V's opinion, it was a slight inconvenience that she couldn't fight back against the tiny, yellow blush lines that faded onto her screen whenever Uzi would unexpectedly try to get closer than close, or touch her visor and hands, in an effort to monitor how warm V was. The purple-haired girl either hadn't noticed this, or didn't say anything. It wasn't exactly helpful that V's temperature seemed to rise every time Uzi did so. It was like the worker drone feared she would overheat again in under an hour, or something.

N had been less touchy about it, he opted to instead ask her millions of questions. Did you drink oil? When was the last time you drank oil? How much oil did you drink? Did Uzi make sure to eat and drink something after so she can heal properly? Were only a few. Or he would just take Uzi's word. V did still feel guilty for having made Uzi and N worry, that was the opposite of what she wished for. 

So here they were in V's dorm room, while Uzi desperately tried to help the disassembly drone get through her mountain of presumably "lost" assignments. 

The said disassembly drone girl leaned back in her chair and glared at the pile of homework on her desk with more contempt than Uzi thought was even possible to actually feel. How had the pile of work even gotten so tall? Uzi would never know.

"I would rather just fail the class," the silver-haired girl huffed.

"Well I won't let you." The purple-eyed worker drone looked back up at the disassembly drone with a determined expression. Her frustration dissipated a little more. No way would she let V fail any of her classes!

V glanced away and her frown softened a bit, more like she had given up. "You probably should. Uhm, Quit wasting your time."

Hell no. Uzi would not let V just give up. It was only homework, and sure, yeah it sucked. Uzi knew. She hated it, too. But such a thing should be so easy in comparison to all the other shit they had been though...

... Right? 

"It's not a waste," Uzi retorted. She removed her head from her hands and looked up at V. With their height difference, Uzi had to sit on a stack of books on her chair in order to even reach the desk well. "Don't try to get out of this. I'm gonna help you." 

The silver-haired girl gave a half-hearted sigh and leaned forward to look at the current paper she needed to fill out. Having lost much hope in ever getting to catch up with her work.

Actually, now that she thought about it, Uzi realized something. Or well, she kinda already had the idea in her CPU but... she hadn't yet asked V about it. Even though she probably should have.

Obviously V just couldn't see very good. It would explain a lot. It would explain why V would bump into things often. It would explain why she avoided reading. It would explain her sitting near the front of her classes, and her improper writings of notes, her failing grades. It would explain her near always squinting and holding things close to her face when she thought no one could see. 

The purple-haired girl shifted to face V fully. "Hey V?" 

"Yeah?" She looked up from the paper. 

Uzi gestured to her own visor. "Do you need your glasses?" She asked with a small, suspicious frown. She's pretty sure N had mentioned her having glasses before, during their time at the Elliot Mannor. "Is that why you're having trouble reading?"

"Nope!" V responded quickly, probably too quickly. And she shook her head. "I can see soo good," she added for extra measure. It only confirmed Uzi's suspicion. Tessa's upgrades hadn't included fixing V's optics!

The worker drone had put two and two together. It showed on her face. "Are you sure?" Uzi asked again. Then started to explain, "Because when I read the questions, you can answer them really good. But when you have to read it yourself--" 

V interrupted, "I don't need those stupid things on my visor." She crossed her arms and had a look on her face like she knew that she had just been figured out. Still, trying to deny it. 

"Okaayy..." Uzi's eye-lights narrowed, she would just have to get V to admit it. "Do you have any?"

"No. And I don't need any." Yeah she did. But truthfully, her glasses had been lost during her fight with the sentinel raptors, and she hadn't gotten new ones. But V really tried not to think about those things, or those times. 

"What if I got you some?" Uzi offered, her eye-lights blinked back to normal. She leaned back in her seat and grabbed a pen. Clicking the top of it a few times with her thumb. Click, click, click. 

V shook her head. "No way, don't you dare do that!" The last thing she needed was more fussing over, or whatever it was. She still didn't know how exactly to handle the attention. A gift, such a gift to help her, almost made her nervous. V was still pretty new to the whole friendship thing. And the whole fluttery-butterfly-feely thing that was happening inside of her...

Uzi continued to fidget with the pen. Flipping it between her fingers and twirling it through the air. "Why? Because you'll see better with them?" She asked, playfully. 

The silver-haired girl's optics focused on the pen and its small movements. Listening to the sound of its soft clicking. "N-No. Because... uhm..." She tried to find a convincing excuse but came up empty. What was that thing N always said, Honesty is the best policy? She'd just do that. "I really don't want any glasses!" In her opinion she looked silly with them on. Not at all intimidating or scary! 

The mauve-haired girl's expression softened. That was it? She'd been unable to properly see for so long because she didn't want glasses? Uzi would have to get to the bottom as to why. "But it would help you, right?" 

"It... might," She slowly admitted. 

"So then why can't i go and get you some glasses to wear?" Uzi set the pen down. "At least while you do your homework and stuff!"

V blinked and looked up from the pen. She gave a somewhat smug grin, confident of one thing. "You can't make me wear them," She said simply. 

"Wanna bet?" Uzi sat up straighter. She gave an equally as smug grin. "N would even help me. Because it would be for your own good!" She crossed her arms.

V raised a brow, was Uzi being serious? No way! "He would never! That's way too mean for him to do." But Uzi probably would find a way. 

"Oh yeah? Well, what's gonna stop me from going and telling him that the reason you keep failing all your classes is because you can't see?" The emo girl asked. All she wanted was for V to be able to see, and yet the disassembly drone was nearly as stubborn as herself. "What would N do then? i bet he would take my side." She had a point, he probably would. 

V huffed. "You can't team up on me again!" Her tail flicked lightly. Uzi blinked and her eye-lights focused on the limb, watching it close. She kind of missed having her own tail, despite how weird and gross and fleshy it was. 

She uncrossed her arms and brought a hand up to pinch at the middle of her screen with furrowed, digital brows. "What on all of copper-nine is stopping you from getting glasses?" 

The silver-haired girl looked back down to her class assigned paper. "I don't want them." She picked up a pencil and pretended to be reading the words on said paper, but Uzi could see that her eye-lights stayed on just one spot. 

"You don't want to fail your classes either." Uzi leaned over so V would look up at her, and set her arms to be relaxed at her sides. Fixed her posture, too. Then Uzi softened her tone again, thinking to herself that she should try a more patient approach. It's what N would probably tell her to do. He was really good at talking to others, in her opinion. 

"Why don't you want them?" She tried. 

V didn't look up at her. But after a moment of silence, she spoke softly, "It makes me look silly."

...insecure? Uzi wondered, hit with a pang of understanding and sympathy. If that was actually the case, she didn't know for sure. But the idea made her suddenly feel a little bad for pressing on the subject.

The disassembly drone girl set down the pencil and crosed her arms. "I'm hardly intimidating with something on my face that makes my eyes look all big!" She muttered. 

So that was the issue. V didn't like the idea of being less scary? Well, she'd be happy to know just how much she intimidated Uzi.

Or maybe it was just her own feelings that scared her, and not actually V herself...

Uzi also hadn't yet realized that getting V glasses meant she would get to see V wear the things. But then her CPU decided to take said description and auto-generated a few rough images. The idea of V with big, round, puppy eyes was the first.

Oh robo-god, that was unfair! She thought. Her stupid systems couldn't show her such visuals that made a personality like V to look... adorable! That was impossible! And on top of it V was her friend, and Uzi wanted nothing more, she tried to reason with herself, despite knowing otherwise. Uzi tried to pretend like she didn't just gain an ulterior motivation for the whole thing...

"I'll be the one who decides that after I see you with them on, because we're gonna go and get you some," Uzi decided.

V only huffed in response.

The purple-haired girl's expression shifted, she frowned and then said in a calm, genuine tone, "You won't look silly."

The silver-haired girl blinked. She didn't turn to face Uzi, but her yellow eye-lights shifted up to look at her through her pearly-white hair, which framed her face from how she was looking down. 

 "Promise," Uzi gave a small smile and did her best to be reassuring. She wondered if she was getting better at that. 

"Ffffine..." V looked away and flopped her head down against the desk face first, then brought her arms up to hide her head even more. Uzi wondered for a second if that lemon-hued glow that shone against the titanium of the desk was just her normal LED's being so bright, or if maybe it was a blush... But that would be just silly! 

Uzi suddenly felt something shift inside of her shirt pocket, said thing then crawled up her chest and over her side, across her back, to next pop out from the collar of her hoodie and sit on her shoulder. She blinked and looked down at her little buddy. 

"Hey, Trigger, you finally decided to join us?" She grinned. 

V's head snapped up, her eye-lights blinked a few times as she caught sight of the robo-bug on Uzi's shoulder. "You still have him?"

Uzi nodded. "Yeah, he's been safe in my hat." She brought a hand up to her shoulder, to which the robo-bug jumped down and into the palm of her hand. "Well, actually, he was hiding in my pocket instead for today."

He sniffed the band-aid that was still on Uzi's hand a little, then sat back on his rear and ran his claws over his antenna. 

The silver-haired girl gave a nod of acknowledgement, she watched the little robo-bug that Uzi was holding. The worker girl moved her other hand, sticking a single finger out and lightly petting Trigger on his head. She did so in such a gentle and caring manner. V admired that. 

"You called him tigger?" She asked with a slight head tilt. She turned her chair to face Uzi fully. 

"Trigger." Uzi corrected while still petting the little creature, who's beady eyes looked up at her. "Like what's on a gun." 

V nodded and gave a knowing smile. "That makes sense, seeing as you're the one who named him." 

"Mhm," Uzi hummed. She poked Trigger on his head and in turn the little robo-insect stood up on his many legs and went in a circle. She had taught him a few tricks in her spare time. 

The disassembly drone leaned closer to get a good look at Trigger. She gave a small smile. "He's so cute!" 

The small creature turned to look up at V with his beady eyes. He ran a claw over his antenna. Then a small, glowing text box appeared above his head. Which displayed a few emojis and symbols. Sure, he could just communicate with actual letters and words, but as of lately he preferred to talk to Uzi in code. 

V gave a puzzled look. 

"He says thanks," Uzi explained. Then she reached her hand towards the desk, and the little bug jumped down and onto the wooden surface. He spun around again, then stopped to look up at the two drones. The text box vanished. 

The ivory-haired girl gave an understanding smile and nodded. "Oh right, you two have that secret language?" 

"Something like that, yeah!" Uzi nodded, she looked down at the robo-bug. Who sat right on the desk and stared back at her. 

V leaned a little closer to look at Trigger. She gave a small smile. "Can i pet him?" She asked.

The mauve-haired girl answered, "Sure." 

The disassembly drone reached out and lightly poked the bug on one of his antenna. In response, the robo-bug spun in a circle, then he head-bumped her hand. She poked him again, and he jumped onto the back of her hand and crawled over to her palm. She flipped her hand to be palm-up, surprised at the little bug being so quick. 

V still did her best to hold the bug gently. He looked up at her with beady black eyes and his antenna twitched. 

"Don't eat him please." 

"I won't." 

Trigger spun in a circle again, then he did a little flip. V made an "ooh" sound, finding the trick to be interesting. The little bug crawled over her hand and onto her wrist, which he then circled around like he was a living bracelet. 

"He's crawling on me!" She exclaimed, looking back at Uzi, unsure what to do. "His legs feel weird." 

Then the robo-bug crawled around her wrist one more time, then along her arm, up to her shoulder, and promptly vanished. 

"Oh jeez, i lost him!" She stood up from her chair, holding her arms out for fear she might squish the small creature. "Where the hell did he go?!" V's eye-lights darted around, searching for the robo-bug who she assumed must be on the floor somewhere. 

Uzi stayed sitting, and glanced up at V. She could see that Trigger had crawled onto the back of V's head, where she might not be able to see him. Uzi gave a small laugh. "He's on your head, dummy!" 

When the robo-bug crawled over the back of her head and onto her forehead to look down at her, V's face broke out into a wide smile and her eye-lights looked up at Trigger. "That tickles!" She laughed, light and genuine. Not sinister, or mocking. She was having fun. The sound made Uzi feel like she had robo-butterflies fluttering around under her plating.

"You get used to it, after a while." Uzi said. She had long-since gotten used to the feel of having the little critter hide inside her hat or pocket, and often didn't notice or was able to forget about his near always presence. 

"Really?" V glanced over to Uzi, then back up at the robo-bug on her head. She sat back in her seat and then reached up to poke one of Trigger's antenna. Which made the little guy do a a small flip, still landing on V's head. 

"Yeah." Uzi watched her robo-bug as he crawled across V's hair once again, this time he went in circles around her head like a crown. Stopping to peer at her second set of eyes curiously. 

"I think he likes me!" V practically beamed. It made Uzi feel warm inside to see her smile like that. 

The mauve-haired girl could tell that her small bug-friend was definitely having his own fun, getting to crawl around and inspect the disassembly drone finally. "He does," She confirmed.

Trigger paused in his running about and turned to look at Uzi with his adorable little eyes. His antenna twitched and another text box appeared over his head, which showed more code that Uzi quickly translated into words. Words which upon processing them made Uzi glare at her tiny friend as a glowing, digital, purple blush spread onto her screen. 

"Oh, stupid bug!" She blurted out. Then grit her teeth while she fought the urge to snatch the little menace right off from V's head and stuff him back into her jacket where he couldn't say dumb yet truthful things anymore. If a robo-bug could figure her out, she was doomed!

"Huh? What'd he say?" V raised a digital brow and glanced her lemon colored eye-lights up at Trigger, who would smile smugly if he had the proper facial mechanics to do so. Instead he only blinked and ran his claws over his antenna a few times. 

Uzi's response was quick. She shook her head furiously as if in hope that doing so would erase the blush from her screen like an etch-a-sketch or something. "Nothing! He's just a bug. He doesn't know anything about anything." That was a lie. Trigger went basically everywhere with Uzi, basically all of the time. The little critter totally knew what he was talking about and what he had just done. Luckily, V didn't. 

"Okay, if you say so." The white-haired girl didn't seem to be bothered by the lack of a proper explanation. V just kept playing with Uzi's pet bug. Content. 

Once N had finished with his busy schedule, he had joined back with the two girls at V's dorm. Uzi was glad to see him again.

When he had knocked on the door, V was the one to let him in. She practically dragged the guy in from the hallway so fast that Uzi feared any passing drone might think she had just kidnapped him against his will. Which it wasn't, because he was more than happy to be welcomed. V brushed it off and pretended that she hadn't missed him a bit, but Uzi saw through that. And N clearly could too. 

"How's everything?" N asked. He glanced down at the robo-bug that V was still holding. She passed Trigger back to Uzi, and she put the little critter back in her beanie hat so they could get ready to leave the bunker.

Then the white-haired boy looked over to V.  She crossed her arms and shifted her stance, not looking forward to the trip as much as Uzi was. Not that Uzi had any hidden agendas or anything. "And I'm sorry I couldn't help you study." N gave a small smile. "But I'm sure Uzi is a great teacher!" He chirped. 

"Its fine, seriously. And we're both all good." V said. She held out a thumbs-up and gave a small smile. Still, just a bit rigid. Uzi wondered if she was nervous about leaving? Was the whole glasses thing bothering her? 

The worker drone girl faltered. "Oh, I-i wouldn't say that I'm really--" 

"Uzi was very helpful! Uhm, but now I think we should--!" V interrupted Uzi, she stepped in front of the purple-haired girl and waved a dismissive hand. Trying to distract N. 

Uzi frowned. She knew V must be a bit insecure about how she looked with the glasses on, that was pretty clear, V didn't like not looking scary. But the worker drone whipped around and put herself between V and N. She wouldn't be changing the subject on Uzi's watch. "You're not going to get out of this, so don't start trying!" 

V's shoulders slumped and she gave a bored frown, her lemon-yellow eye-lights narrowed and looked down at the floor. "Aw, damn." She huffed. "Worth a shot, I guess." 

"Huh?" N raised a digital brow. He had a black backpack slung over his shoulder, in case of finding anything worth keeping while they were out. 

"V needs her glasses. She can't see for shit and that's why she keeps failing her classes and bumping into things!" Uzi blurted out. 

"Uzi!" V hissed. Then she frowned and gave Uzi a light smack to the shoulder. Obviously not actually wishing to harm the worker. 

Uzi crosed her arms. She was ready to get out of the bunker. "It's true!" The mauve-haired girl huffed. "What are you gonna do? Lie to him?" 

"Hell no! But you don't have to be so smug about it, dummy!" V rolled her eye-lights, there was a hint of amusement that crept into her tone at the very end. 

Uzi retorted, "I am not smug." She planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eye-lights up at the taller drone.  

"You so are." The ivory-haired girl retorted, light-heartedly.

"Okay, okay, okay!" N cut in on the bickering. He glanced from one girl to the other, and then settled to just look at V with a questioning expression. "Hold on, you still need glasses? Tessa didn't fix your vision?" He asked.

"She, in fact, did not." V said dryly. She rolled her yellow eye-lights half-heartedly. "What a surprise." 

N shut his eye-lights and brought a hand up to lightly pinch the middle of his visor. Then with a worried frown, asked, "And you don't have any? You've just been struggling to see?" He wanted to get some clarification. As much as he had assumed, Tessa had fixed V's vision when they had been forced into given their new bodies upgrades.

N really tried not to think about that stuff though...

The ivory-haired disassembly girl just let her shoulders slump. V didn't want either drone to worry or whatever, she was perfectly capable of getting by just fine without her glasses. Which she looked silly with on, and didn't even need! She started to say, "I wouldn't say struggling--" 

"Yes," Uzi answered for her. Rather quickly, rather loudly. Almost as if she was trying to hurry he conversation along. Which maybe she was. Uzi might just be all too eager to get out of the bunker and go into some abandoned buildings. Not that she was in a hurry to see anything do anything. 

Then came V's dry but not truly upset remark, with a small frown as she gazed down at the shorter drone. "Wow, Uzi. You could at the very least pretend you don't enjoy my suffering." 

"I do not." Uzi then crossed her arms and blinked up at V. "Y-You shut up. I'm only trying to help you."  Okay, so maybe Uzi just really wanted those earlier auto-generated ideas from her head to be made real. But come on, V with puppy eyes? Could anyone blame her for wanting to see that? But still, maybe Uzi should try to worry less about her own wants and instead actually focus on the task at hand. Instead, focus on what V wants. That was important to her, too. Whoops... 

Then V gave an amused smile and shrugged. She said, with the slightest bit of genuine thanks, though hidden under the sarcasm, "Okay thanks, short stuff." 

Uzi didn't exactly get why V used so many nicknames for her. And it was just her, like, Uzi isn't sure she's ever heard V call N anything other than his name! Or maybe an insult, but that was back before she had gotten her memory back, and warmed up to them. Somehow she found herself less annoyed by the name-calling when V said it in a way that wasn't actually serious. Not that Uzi would tell her that. The mauve-haired girl clenched her teeth and tried to glare at V through her own amusement. "Just because you can't think of an argument doesn't mean you get to call me short! I'm not even short, you're just tall!" She defended. 

V's face lit up with mischief as she learned a new way she could annoy and tease the worker drone. Uzi knew she would never escape this.

The silver-haired girl put her hands on her hips and stood up straighter so that she could emphasize the height difference between them. "Short stuff," She snickered and went on. "Little short Uzi." Then V reached out a hand and pat Uzi on top of her head.

Uzi glared up at her and tried to think of something clever to say. "Bite me!" 

V snickered. She made a show of looking down at Uzi. Who just kept glaring at her. Seriously, what did V gain from being so purposely annoying?! But at the same time, Uzi had to make herself bite back a stupid grin. It wasn't even funny or clever or anything! The whole thing was so dumb! 

The disassembly drone loomed over her, and kept on snickering as if she'd just invented comedy itself. She swapped one of her normal hands for a ruler, however the hell that worked, Uzi would just try to figure out later. But then V held the ruler-hand out and started to measure an actual length of how much shorter than herself Uzi was. "So small and fun-size! I could put you in my pocket!" V said some more while focusing to try and read the measurements, despite not being able to see so well. 

Uzi then decided to draw the line there because if V figured out her actual mathematical height then Uzi was pretty sure she'd be doomed to never hear the end of short-jokes. She huffed and turned to look at N. Smacking the ruler away lightly and with no true effort. "Meanie! N, help me, she's so mean!" Uzi hissed, trying ber best to glare rather than laugh. 

He was just sort of watching, with a silly smile on his face as he tried not to find the sight too sweet funny. "Aw, but... it's not exactly a lie." 

Uzi paused. "What." She blinked, then stared right at him. "Excuse me?"  Her eye-lights narrowed and N recognized that look. 

With hollowed eye-lights and a digital sweat droplet on his visor, N did a double take. "I-i mean, uhm," He gave a nervous laugh. Then said calmly, "Hey V, I think Uzi wants you to stop calling her short."

To which V paused in her half-joking measurements and glanced over at him. Then she smirked, and slowly raised the ruler to be right next to Uzi's head.

N cleared his voice box and pointed to the ruler and then to Uzi. "So you should, maybe, stop doing that. Please." He asked politely. 

V looked down at Uzi again, who tried to look angry instead of amused. V switched her ruler away for regular hands again. She rolled her eye-lights. "Fine. But next time I won't listen to the guy who's practically three metres tall." She decided.

"That's an exaggeration!" N smiled. Sure, he was taller. But definitely not that much! 

"Your face is an exaggeration," V rolled her eye-lights again. She sounded a bit miffed as usual but he could tell she meant no harm. 

N shifted to pull the backpack off his shoulder and set it down on the desk. "Don't act grumpy just because you can't see me," He teased. To which V huffed and Uzi gave a snort, which was followed by choked laugh that she tried to hold in. The mauve-haired girl had obviously not expected him to say that. 

Uzi covered her face with her hands and turned away so she could giggle to herself. V just muttered, trying to sound annoyed, "W-Whatever. Can we just get this dumb thing over with? I wanna get some sleep." 

"Oh, that's why you're grumpy." N mused. He then remembered that he learned V typically had late after-midnight naps or went into rest-mode before the sun came up as of recently. Maybe it was because she needed the extra rest from the stress of being in a new environment? He hoped she would get to rest soon if that was what she needed. "You didn't get any extra rest-mode after the sun came up?" He asked, not being able to help himself sounding slightly worried. It wasn't good to lose needed rest. He would know. 

"No," V said dryly and looked away. Then she poked Uzi on the back of her head and when Uzi turned to look at what had poked her V turned away and acted like she was just standing there. N felt his worry start to disappear. 

"You can rest when we get back from our adventure, okay?" He gave a small smile. Then internally he decided that if V was tired, she should stay in her room and rest while he and Uzi fetched what she needed. "Or you can just stay here--" He started to offer. 

V interrupted him. "No, I wanna go," She said. Her tail flicked at her side, the acid-harboring needle kept carefully from where Uzi was standing. 

The ivory-haired boy wasn't very stubborn about it. So he nodded. "Okay, fine, but make sure you don't exhaust yourself please," He said softly. 

"This is said by the drone who has a schedule packed with every extracurricular you could find." Uzi said dryly. She went over to the desk and looked at the backpack. Then paused, looked at him, and added a bit softer, "Seriously, you're gonna get burn out or something if you don't be careful." 

"I know, and I'm fine." N said calmly. He unzipped the backpack and Uzi began rummaging around in it.

"Do we have everything we might need?" She asked, while looking over the few things that N had already packed. Which included a flashlight for Uzi, some rope, a pocket knife, and a brown paper bag with batteries inside. Just in case anyone got hungry. 

"Mhm. Yep." N nodded, the fluffy white hair that stuck out from under his hat bobbed with the action. Then he said, "It's not like we're going very far, so just the necessities and some emergency oil." However, he had not packed that just yet. 

Then V piped up, and snickered, "Which is you." 

At that, Uzi raised a digital brow. "I'm the emergency lunch?" She questioned. 

N gave a nervous laugh. "Th-That's not--" He stammered a bit. "I-I don't know if--" 

The mauve-haired girl only shrugged. She fidgeted with her hands, absent-mindedly glancing at the band-aid on her palm. She hadn't gotten rid of it yet. It was a reminder of when he had-- ...

Uzi stopped that thought before she could think much. Yet at the same time, the bite mark on her shoulder seemed to ache. But not with pain. As if she craved something but wasn't sure exactly what. "Chill, it's cool. I can bring a canister from my room." 

N held out his hand in a thumbs-up. Then he glanced towards V and asked, "You already drank oil, right?" 

V had also started to look in the backpack curiously. "Yes. I'm colder than snow." Which in her opinion was true. V had drank from Uzi's wrist just recently, and Uzi had been monitoring her since then. 

"Okay. Then I guess we should go now." N chirped. He watched as V grabbed the bag from the desk and passed it back to him. He slung it over his shoulder again and the three left the dorm room.

The three drones would make sure to stop by Uzi's place before they left the bunker, so that she could retrieve the oil canister from her room in case it was needed. N and V stayed outside while Uzi had gone in, because she said she'd just be very quick and claimed that her room was messy. The emo girl had also told them something about letting her know if Khan was anywhere in sight. Maybe she was avoiding him or something? N understood that Uzi still hadn't forgiven her father for certain past events... 

Such events being when he left her life in the clawed hands of a murderer...

That murderer being himself...

N cringed at the idea of his own actions having possibly played a part in Uzi's downhill relationship with her father. That was pretty shit. He shook his head. The silver-haired boy regretted attempting to kill Uzi when they first met, despite having not known certain things at the time. And N had also apologized more than once for that, but it didn't mean he wouldn't still felt terrible about it. Among the other awful things he had done...

V leaned against the metal wall near the door of the Doorman bunker. She blinked, and her lemon-yellow eye-lights drifted over to look at N. He had stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat and been staring down at nothing in particular. "What's got you so quiet?" She asked. 

N blinked and shook his head again. He looked over at her and shrugged. "It's not anything really. I'm just thinking." 

"About?" She prompted. The vial end of her wire-tail swished. She wondered what sort of thoughts could be bouncing around in that CPU of his. 

The white-haired drone was silent for a few seconds. Then he sighed. "Stuff that I shouldn't have done," N told her. Honestly. 

V paused. She shifted to lean a bit closer to him. She was pretty sure he liked contact and all that. Maybe she could comfort him, if he needed that? Her hands fell to her sides and she looked down. "Well it's not too late to fix now, is it?" 

"I don't know," N mumbled. He gave a small smile, and tried to avoid the less than pleasant thoughts in his CPU. If he dwelled on those memories too long he might get stuck in his own head. He wasn't so sure he even wanted to talk about his issues just yet. Not to say he didn't appreciate V's trying. 

"Anything I can do to... help?" V offered. She looked up at him, and when he leaned back against the metal wall, he uncrossed his arms to rest at his sides. For a brief moment their hands come close, and he felt her fingers brush against his slightly. 

N felt his visor light up with a digital yellow blush. "Oh. Uhm. I-It's not like I'm really upset or anything..." He mumbled. Then he looked away from V and tried to not overthink their current closeness to one another. For once he couldn't tell if he wanted closeness or not.

Maybe deep down he did, thought he also knew that if anyone tried to hold him then he might not be able to keep himself from falling apart. But V was strong. Maybe she could hold him together. Just for a little while. 

"Okay. Just trying to... I dunno... check up on you." V looked the opposite direction of N. Her hand fidgeted slightly, and she felt herself wanting to move just a bit closer. Maybe interlock her fingers with his, and lean her head on his shoulder--...

V shut down those thoughts. Nope. No way. She just wanted to be nice. That was all. There was no way she was really thinking about him like that...  Because she wasn't. Friends. They were friends and she didnt want anything more than that. Or so she tried to tell herself. V just wanted to make sure he was okay. 

"You're doing okay?" She asked. In no way at all did her artificial voice falter.

N nodded his head. "Mhm, yeah."

V stared at the metal flooring of the bunker. "Okay."

It was quiet. The hall was empty other than the two disassembly drones standing side by side.

V knew there was nothing that could scare her. She was a psychopathic killer who felt and feared nothing! She had also been trying to redeem herself... not that she even needed to do so. 

And certainly she had no silly feelings that could scare her. Not at all. Definitely not more than the sentinel drones or the absolute solver ever did... 

...But that was all just whatever. Things were fine now and the three drones that had been involved in the near death of the entire universe could just live a normal, boring, regular existence now.

V didn't need to think about that stuff. She only needed to think about N and how to hold his stupid hand. 

She was gonna do it!

Yep.

Just...

V just needed a minute...

...To gather the courage.

N gave a soft hum. "Thanks." His eye-lights glanced over to her, and she finally looked back up at him. She's pretty sure her visor is glowing bright yellow with those dumb diagonal lines. But N said nothing about that. 

"It's what I'm here for," She said softly. Then after a beat of silence added, "...And i guess the other stuff." With a small smile. 

Another moment of comfortable quiet settled over the two. And V thought that finally, now that N had looked away, she was going do it. She was going to finally reach out and take his hand in hers. And he would either hate it or maybe he wouldn't... But that didn't matter because friends could hold hands and it would mean nothing. It would change nothing. 

Just as she had shifted to try and make her move, N whipped his head around and practically yelped with shock. Which startled the hell out of V and in turn she jumped around to see what had spooked him so suddenly. Which led her to see--

"Mr. Uzi! Hello!" N gave a startled laugh. He sighed and his shoulders slumped as he realized there was no danger. A digital sweat droplet appeared on his screen and he stepped away from V to grab Khan's hand and shake it in a vigorous greeting. 

V relaxed again once she saw no threat, just the Doorman father. She knew there was no danger and yet her programming struggled to recover from being startled just the smallest bit. That was probably normal and fine. Then again she had also managed to fail the shared job as lookout because she was too distracted with trying to figure out how to hold hands with the ivory-haired boy.

The silver-haired girl crossed her arms. How the hell had Khan managed to get a grip on N's hand before she had? That was stupid and Ironic.

She had seen Uzi hold hands with N more than once, and Uzi made it look so easy... How did the mauve-haired drone do it? ... V had truly grown to admire Uzi for her bravery. In all of the things she managed to do, not just hand-holding.

V then wondered what had distracted N from his temporary job, though. Her tail vial flicked to the left then right. Whoops.

"Uhm. Hello." Khan eyed the two with an unreadable expression. "What are... you doing here? At my residence." He asked. 

"Oh, uhm, haha..." N didn't know what to say. He let go of Khan's hand and stepped back to give him some space. The disassembly drones hadn't been back to his bunker since they moved into their dormitories.

V stepped in. "Just waiting for Uzi."

"Uzi is home?" Khan raised a white digital brow. 

V nodded. "Picking up something. Uh, we're headed out," She explained. 

Khan crossed his arms. "Out? Where to?" 

"That old super mall. The one the west side of the lake!" N piped up with a grin. 

The Doorman father frowned. "Is that safe?" 

N opened his mouth to speak, but not before V had gripped his shoulders and spun him around to push him into the doorway of Khan's home. "Tell Uzi her old drone is here and ask her to hurry. I'm going to stall him." Was what V had muttered to him in a hurry as she ushered the boy into the bunker and shut the door behind him. She was pretty sure she heard some kind of crash and winced as she hoped he was fine. He was totally fine. Probably.

But still. Just because Khan had snuck up on them didn't mean he couldn't warn Uzi!

When the silver-haired girl looked back she was met with a suspicious look from Khan. "What's that about?" He prompted. 

V suddenly felt all the more nervous to be in the presence of Uzi's dad. "Huh? Oh, you know. Just... Just disassembly drone things..." She stammered more than she liked. 

"Uh-huh." Khan narrowed his white eye-lights and looked from the door to V. "What's he off to do in such a hurry?" 

"Help Uzi," V said. Though she regained her composure quickly and added, "Who is perfectly safe with N and me by the way," While trying her best not sound too defensive. The very idea that Khan might assume her or N to be dangerous for Uzi to be near left a bitter taste in her mouth. Sure they had both tried to kill her at least once, but things had changed. And things had been sacrificed. 

Khan was quick to give a small nod. "Mhm, of course." His expression went serious as he said, "I don't doubt that. Especially not after all of what has happened."

Then he looked away. And V looked down at the metal floor again. There were scuff marks and small dents, along with bits of old ice and snow stuck in nooks and crannys and crevices. The metal flooring was not very interesting. But it was nicer to think about than the memories. 

Then Khan broke the silence. A silence that V had both not noticed was there, and also been shifting her stance uncomfortably from how loud it managed to be. He eyed the door again while he asked, "And N is helping my daughter to do what exactly?" 

"Getting her things," V explained. She crossed her arms again and shifted from leaning against the metal wall to stand up straighter. "So we can leave. Uhm, for the mall." 

"Why are you three going there?" The Doorman father questioned. V didn't understand why he had suddenly decided to ask so many questions. 

"We're friends. We just want to hang out." She told him just a bit too swiftly. 

Khan stared at her so intensely that V thought he might have been malfunctioning. "Right. Friends." He spoke slowly. With what almost seemed like... disbelief. 

"Yeah." V felt her unease grow.

Was Uzi's dad thinking something like that? For real? No way... They didnt act like more than friends. Did they? No... They were just close!

She then added, "Platonic and all that." 

"Mh, Platonic," Khan mused, an edge of sarcasm laced his artificial voice. He so painfully, clearly,  obviously didn't believe her one bit. 

The silver-haired drone nodded. "Very." 

"Uh-huh." 

V could feel digital sweat droplets break out onto her visor.

N stumbled into the Doorman's living room. He found his footing as best he could, but not without knocking into a wall and nearly stabbing his nanite-acid tail through the metal. He shook himself off and stood upright. He glanced around and saw no drone in sight. He called out, not too loud, "Hey! Uzi? Y-your dad is uh, outside!" 

A mauve head of hair popped out from Uzi's bedroom doorway. "What."

The ivory-haired boy explained, "He just kinda appeared. V is talking to him."

"Oh, good." Uzi sounded sarcastic. She exited her bedroom doorway, with the strap of the black bag slung over her shoulder and the actual bag on backward so that she could rummage around inside of it while she walked over to him. "How the hell did either of you not notice him? Aren't you meant to be, like, super observant killing machines?" She asked, half joking and half annoyed that she would need to deal with Khan now. Still, she spoke without thinking. 

N knew Uzi didn't mean any harm. But it was a rough spot, and still he winced. "Uhm. Well. I-I don't..." He stammered. N wasn't stupid, he knew very well he wasn't harmless. Because what he had been designed to be, and what he hoped to one day become, were two very different things. But despite it all, he still hoped. 

Uzi realized quickly that she hadn't picked the best word choice. Her lavender eye-lights hollowed with guilt. "Fu-- Frick. Sorry." She swore under her breath and looked away. She zipped up the backpack and tried to find the words for a proper apology. "I didn't mean..."

"I know." N just seemed calm. He took another step over to Uzi, giving her a small smile. 

"Sorry. I'm sorry." Uzi paused. She adjusted the bag that hung in front of her. She shifted her stance awkwardly. 

The ivory-haired drone tried to sound reassuring. He wasn't hurt by her having made an observation as to what he was. "It's okay."

Uzi would disagree. Inside, she told herself that she knew better. She couldn't let her annoyance make her speak without thinking. "Uhm... Anyway..."

The mauve-haired drone shifted the backpack around to wear it properly. Uzi had already put the needed canister of oil into the bag. "Just don't answer any of his dumb questions," She blurted out. Maybe a change of subject would help things. 

N blinked, wondering what Khan would be asking him and why. "Wha-what questions?" He asks, "Why would he ask me questions?" 

Uzi avoided looking at his screen. She rocked back and fourth on the heels of her boots. "He's being... crazy nosy as of lately. I don't know why. Just don't let him get under your plating." 

"Okay. What does that mean exactly?" N tilted his head slightly, looking a bit puzzled. Uzi swore it was adorable every time he did that... But in a platonic way, obviously!

She gripped the straps of the backpack and put most of her weight on one leg. "Oh jeez. This is gonna be so awkward..." She muttered.

No way would her dad just let N or V go on without trying to get some kind of confirmation for the things Uzi refused to answer him about. Whenever Khan inevitably asked the awkward question about the two disassembly drones who had basically saved her from a grisly demise, Uzi changed the subject. Mostly because she, herself, had no real answer.

"Why?" N questioned again. Uzi snapped back from being lost in thought. 

"Because he thinks--!" She nearly blurted out that Khan had begun to assume more than just a friendship between them. Or rather, he was very certain that Uzi was dating one of the disassembly drones.

She remembered her father talking to her, saying, "But he picked you over the whole universe, that must mean something!" Or, "She sacrificed herself, you said so. That's what someone who dislikes you would do?" Uzi hated how it made her feel, if only because it made her feel too much all at once...

Khan said he just wanted to know which one.

Because he simply hadn't realized there was a third option. And that said third option was both. So, it had to be either N or V.

Uzi found that very funny and didn't care to elaborate further.

But it was stupid to even think about correcting him about there being a third option. Because it wasn't true. No one was dating anyone. Because no one had feelings for anyone!

"Er, uhm, you know what? It's nothing." Uzi brushed it off. She stepped past N and reached for the door but hesitated. 

What if Khan said something stupid? What if she said something stupid? Something that would mess up the friendships that meant so much to her. That she had worked so hard to preserve.

A hand rested on her shoulder. Uzi turned to look up at the disassembly drone boy. N gave a small, sympathetic smile. "You can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?" With that stupidly reassuring voice of his. "Uhm, if you want, I mean." 

It managed to make her feel better and worse all the same. Of course she wanted to talk to him. But how could she when the problem was her own annoying crush? The sort of crush that she couldn't just shake off. No matter how hard she tried.

Maybe it was more than a crush. Maybe Uzi was hopelessly in love with both of them. Maybe it was too soon to accept that mere thought as anything more than subconscious. Uzi wasn't ready. She was downright terrified. 

"Mhm. I know." Uzi nodded, finding it easier to ignore her internal struggle than she realized. He took his hand back, the touch on her shoulder felt tingly. For some reason she felt herself wanting to smile, a genuine smile. Perhaps because she knew they could all just be there for one another. Perhaps that would be enough. "A-And uh, you too, idiot." 

"Thanks."

And when N looked at Uzi and saw the way that small smile wormed onto her face, he knew that it was possible he would one day be whole again. 

N stepped out of the doorway to Uzi and her father's bunker. Said mauve-haired worker drone trailed right behind him, maybe actively using the taller boy as a shield, not that he would really mind. 

"Uzi," said the Doorman father. He blinked, his white eye-lights followed the purple-haired girl as she walked quickly past him. 

"Daaadd..." Uzi stopped abruptly, despite the whole of her code yelling at her to escape the gaze of Khan, and with it his silent questions. She struggled to think up an excuse as to be able to leave sooner rather than later. "Actually, you know I'm not even really here. This is just uh. A hologram! Yup. I'm not the real Uzi. I'm a hologram." She rambled. 

"You are?" N piped up, a curious look appeared on his face and he sounded as if he might actually believe her. Uzi held back a snicker at that. 

Khan went on. "Well, I'm sure the Uzi hologram can still fill in for my daughter."

"Uhm. I mean, we really are busy--" Uzi tried.

"This one," Khan said while pointing over his shoulder towards V, who was standing behind him with a crooked grin and overall nervous demeanor. "Says that you're going out." 

"To the super mall!" V added. Quickly. Uzi thought her artificial voice might have been nearly several octaves higher than usual. 

Uzi realized with hollowing eye-lights that V had most certainly been subjected to the many questions of Khan and his suspicions. His wrong suspicions. She brought a hand up to her screen and rubbed at the side of her head. "Yep. To the super mall. Now we should reeaallyy get going." Uzi had no clue what exactly Khan might have said, done, or insinuated, but she was confident in that it would make everything more awkward and confusing than if J were to suddenly appear with birthday gifts for everyone. 

A few seconds passed before Khan asked, almost hesitantly, "Is this another... Uh, adventure?"

Uzi wondered if that look on his face was worry or some other emotion he never seemed to express. The idea that something terrible might happen again ate away at her. Almost always, as if some sort of toxic death storm hung over her head and threatened to break at any moment. 

V cleared her voice box and spoke simply, "It's an adventure." She noticed how the mauve-haired worker drone stiffened up at the mention of past events. She also noticed N glance over at Uzi because of it. 

"Oh. How wonderful." Khan sounded unimpressed. Or maybe he wasn't convinced, which worried him. His expression had shifted but still, it was somewhat hard to read him. At least, to Uzi it was. 

"It's not going to end up like the other one," N added.

Uzi wondered, was he telling Khan that, or was he convincing himself? Did N also feel that stab of horrifying nostalgia? Did V also fight the memory files as they opened? She grit her teeth and took an artificial breath. Too many thoughts made her CPU hurt. 

Did the near death experiences leave a mark on them like it did to her? The purple-haired drone thought to herself, putting her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. Was Uzi being too sensitive? No way, she couldn't be. 

"Nope. Probably not." V agreed with N. Or maybe reassured herself. Maybe it was both. 

"Probably?" The doorman father raised a digital brow. 

"Definitely." 

"Fine, just..." Khan sighed. He crossed his arms and eyed both of the disassembly drones. "Have her home by eight." 

Uzi hissed indignantly, "Dad, don't you dare--!" A lavender blush glowed on her visor brighter than she would have preferred. 

"Oh, of course Mr. Uzi!" N smiled and nodded. He very clearly hadn't caught on to what Khan might have meant. Uzi was both thankful and not-so-thankful for his obliviousness in that moment. 

Khan nodded. He seemed to be thinking deeply. Probably taking the reaction from N as some kind of confirmation or proof, Uzi knew, with a suppressed sigh. Now she would never hear an end to it! 

"Thank you, N. You're... a nice young drone." Her father struggled to find the words. He looked back to V and added, "Uh, and you too, uhm..." 

Uzi spoke up, "V." Seriously? Did her dad forget her name? Uzi frowned, a bit of annoyance at that crept into her expression. 

"V." Khan nodded. Then, after a few awkward moments of staring and looking away — At least, between Uzi, V, and Khan — The Doorman father uncrossed his arms and spoke again, "Okay. Have fun." 

Uzi wasted no time in whipping around and starting down the hall. She thought that was the most short-circuit inducing thing she had ever experienced. "Bye!" She gave a quick wave towards her dad, and hurried on. V quickly followed behind her. 

N chirped, "Bye Mr. Uzi!" And held a salute for the doorman father.

Who nodded in acknowledgment of N, before the boy turned to follow after V and Uzi. 

Eventually, or at least once Uzi felt far enough away, she slowed her pace. V strolled up on her left, with N soon after showing up on her right. 

There was a beat of silence; apart from the sound of footsteps on the metal floor. Not exactly and uncomfortable silence, or anything. But then V spoke up, she looked to N. "You're fine." V sounded certain and then faltered. "Uh, right? I heard a crash..." She started to trail off. But then added, "Which isn't exactly not my fault. I guess." 

N shrugged and waved a hand. "I'm great! I didn't even hit the floor." He wasn't hurt or anything. He didn't even feel it when he stumbled. N almost forgot it had even happened. "Just a wall." 

"Oh. Uhm, sorry." V looked down. 

Uzi glanced from N to V. "That's what that crash-y sound was?" She asked. Uzi had heard something but didn't know what it was. 

V frowned. "It was an accident. I didn't know he'd be so light!" She admitted. 

"Light? Did you fricking throw him?" Uzi's lavender eye-lights hollowed with what might be awe or worry. Possibly both. 

The disassembly drone girl's nanite-acid tail swished behind her. "No, I just moved him quickly with force. And without asking." She felt bad at the idea that N could have been hurt. V couldn't tell if she should let it show or not, though. N had thrown Uzi more than once, so V assumed it must be one of those things that friends did. Or was it something done to show that you liked another? She wasn't sure. 

The worker drone turned her lavender eye-lights back to the boy they were talking about. She quickly gave him an inconspicuous and subconscious look up and down to scan for injuries. He was perfectly fine. Actually, he was smiling and his tail wagged behind him like some kind of oblivious puppy. Uzi looked back to V and told her, "V, you're meant to at the very least warn him! Or maybe even ask first!"

She thought about how often N had thrown her, and relaxed again. Uzi then began to wonder if she could throw N and how far he would fly if she did so. 

"I know! I said sorry!" V said. 

N only shrugged again. "It's cool, i don't mind." It was true. He didn't. 

Uzi rolled her eye-lights and held back a snicker. 

As the three made their way towards the exit of the colony, Uzi noted that V hadn't said anything about Khan acting weird to her and N. Uzi wondered if maybe she was overthinking again and it was nothing, or if V was just ignoring it. Maybe that wasn't something that warranted conversation. She didn't know.

But it wasn't like they would ever have to address what was going on between them. Actually, there was nothing between them. Nothing was between anyone. Because nobody liked anybody, okay? Exactly. It was simple. Very simple. Very platonic. 

Uzi shook her head. She cursed at herself  internally, finding that she thought too much. It made her CPU hurt. Gross. 

"Hey Uzi," N said to her. 

"Yeah?" The mauve-haired girl paused and looked up at him. 

"You're not actually a hologram... are you?" N asked. He almost looked worried. 

Uzi smirked. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" He echoed. His eye-lights went a bit hollow. 

"Maybe..."

N reached out cautiously. Before lightly poking the side of Uzi's visor. She tried not to smile, but failed in the next moment as she couldn't stifle her laughter. She lightly batted his hand away and then reached up to poke him in return. "No dummy. I'm real, I promise." Uzi was pretty sure she could hear V snickering beside her. 

N shrugged. "Anything can happen." 

"It wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen so far," V added with a small shrug. 

Uzi knew they were right. 

The three walked for some time through the metal halls, making turns and rarely passing many workers. Who, upon seeing N, would smile and wave seemingly no matter who it was.

There were mixed reactions to V, mostly from anyone who recognized her. But what worker drone wouldn't?

Uzi would never be surprised if she ended up passing a classmate or fellow student. They would glance up at her, and then put their head back down with a glare or a scowl. Because they knew they couldn't say or do anything nasty with N present if they wanted his favor. Or V, if they wanted to not die a horrible and agonizing death. 

Upon reaching the start of the exit, and the first of three doors, a lone worker at a table came into view. "Hey Todd," N said. He gave a cheerful smile as he approached the worker drone that still guarded the door. 

"Hey Genocide bots. And uh, purple one." The worker drone with bored, blue eye-lights greeted the trio. He didn't look up from the castle of stacked game-cards he was busy making though. 

V corrected him, "Uzi and N." Her sharp tail flicked to point at the drones as she named them; a bit more hesitantly as the dangerous end came close to Uzi. N held a hand up and waved. 

"Hey Uzi and N. And genocide bot." The worker drone blinked very slowly. He wore a simple brown winter vest, and his voice sounded monotone. Honestly, Uzi could relate. 

"We're needing out for a bit. Maybe a few hours, is that cool?" N asked, though he wasn't actually looking for permission. He was just tying to be polite, as per usual of him. 

"Yeah, sure." Todd waved a dismissive hand. Then he reached over, swiped a keycard from off the table and held it up. "When you want back in use this card." After a beat he added, with a half-hearted glance towards N, "Or like, just break in. Again." 

Said disassembly drone boy held out a thumbs-up. "Thanks Todd!" 

"This is the most I've done in seven years," Todd spoke in a voice completely void of any emotion whatsoever. He added another card to the castle. "Don't thank me." He then pressed a button on the keypad of the wall just behind him, and all three of the doors opened after one another. He turned to look at Uzi and threw the keycard to her, she caught it and tucked it away safely in the backpack she wore. 

N waved again, then he glanced back to Uzi and V with his somehow always optimistic smile. The latter was busy scratching something into the metal wall. If he squinted, N was pretty sure it was a death threat of some sort towards Todd.

Quickly enough, the three drones all began to make their way down the hall. Passing by the first door entrance down to the last. Where metal flooring stopped, and snowy ground began. Once passed each of the doors, they started to shut. But really there was no need for that anymore. 

The final door to the colony bunker would shut with a clang.

And the three drones set foot into the frozen outside for the first time since the worst parts of their unintentionally, yet irrevocably, intertwined lives.

Chapter Text

A frozen gust of wind howled, sending snowflakes and frost to batter at her plating. She tucked her hand into the pocket of her hoodie while her other clutched the flashlight she held. Uzi shivered. Beside her, the other two idiots showed no sign of even feeling the cold at all. So much for thinking they would freeze to death! 

Okay, no, that was still possible. But at the current moment Uzi was pretty sure she would be the only one that ended up an ice block. How could they even feel cold?! They were robots! Whoever programed that was going to be the first human that she killed! 

Uzi wished they could all just fly to the mall. Doing so would be quicker and they wouldn't get as cold, it'd be fun, too! Not to mention it would be safer, even though that didn't matter anymore. Because everything was fine. And Uzi should just stop thinking about that. 

...But she couldn't exactly do the whole "flying" thing anymore. And in honesty, but not that she would willingly say it out loud, Uzi really missed having her own wings. Despite knowing the limbs were creepy, she had liked being able to fly. 

It was dark, but the sun would probably be up soon. The trees seemed to twist and loom around the drones who walked throughout the snowy scenery. Icy chunks clung to bark on treetrunks, while cold wind whispered deadly secrets to the glittering frost that dappled tiny leaves between softly rustling branches. 

Uzi couldn't help the way she glanced over her shoulder every few minutes, or strained her audio-processors, or how the flashlight in her hand seemed to tremble just ever so slightly. She couldn't help the way she tensed up every time she thought that maybe she had heard something. Seen something. Felt something. She couldn't stop the way she eyed the shadows behind snowy trees for... something. 

Or...

Someone... ? 

...

It was the first time she had been outside since... then. Actually, it was the first time any of them had been outside since that time. 

So what? What did it matter if Uzi was a little on edge? She would get over it, she told herself. She knew she was fine now. 

N spoke up. "Friends?" 

"Yeah?" She looked up to him, feeling much more at ease from hearing his voice. 

V turned her head back to look over to him. What had she been staring at? There were just trees.  

"Uh... it's kinda weird, being out here," The silver-haired boy admitted. "It almost makes my head hurt." His eye-lights darted around. He didn't even need to look around like that, he had a second set of eyes that allowed him to see as far as behind himself. But something in his CPU told him he had to be very sure. Cautious. Alert. 

Uzi saw this demeanor. And she didn't blame him. She completely understood. "Oh. Yeah, i guess it is." Then she did her best to muster up some of that positivity he always managed to gift her and added, "But it's not so bad. It could even be fun, i think." 

"Fun?" N tilted his head. His wire tail kept flicking around, rather than staying in one place. As if his entire coding told him to be ready for something to jump out at him; just in case. Then he smiled, and added, "Oh, yeah! Fun!" As If he had forgotten about that word for just a moment. 

A twig roughly two metres away snapped. Which caused N to yelp and point one arm — swapped for a gun — in said direction. His tail wrapped around Uzi and yanked her over to be between himself and V. Said ivory-haired girl had jumped nearly half a metre into the air with terror before she whipped around with swords instead of hands and a vibrant 'X' on her visor.

At the same time, Uzi had been so shocked she stumbled backward and would have fallen into a low hanging tree branch if N hadn't grabbed her. The flashlight she had was dropped to the snow. 

One of her hands raised up with three fingers out — before she remembered — And then immediately, stopped and stared down at her hands with hollow eye-lights and an unreadable expression. 

A few moments passed, or maybe they were minutes, before N relaxed and switched his hands back to normal at his sides. His tail didn't unwrap from around Uzi and his eye-lights didn't unhollow. Uzi was too busy staring at her hands blankly to notice the way V slumped her shoulders and glared at the snow. 

Then V turned and gave both drones a look up and down, once she saw no injuries on either of them, she crossed her arms and spoke. "N? Uzi? It was just a sound. There's... there's nothing." V sounded like she was convincing herself. She switched away her weapons and picked up the flashlight. 

N nodded, slowly. "Yup, of course! You all good, V?" He asked. The honey-yellow of his eye-lights filled again. 

The disassembly drone girl nodded. She deemed herself to be physically unharmed; despite the painful way her core had frozen up with fear just a moment ago. 

N looked down at Uzi. "Are you good, Zi?" 

Uzi didn't know how to answer that, but she nodded anyway. Then found her screen blushing purple at the nickname. After recovering from her scare, she noted his tail wrapped around her middle and the digital blush lines on her visor grew brighter. "Uh, yeah! I'm good! Are you?" 

He nodded. "I just... didn't expect that." His artificial voice sounded forced. 

V passed Uzi her flashlight back. The disassembly drones could see in the dark, but the worker drone couldn't. Yes, the nanites of the two glowed, but if Uzi were away from them she would still need to be able to see. Uzi put her free hand back in one pocket of her hoodie, she looked away. "Same." 

N seemed to notice his own tail woven around the shorter drone, and his eye-lights once again went hollow as a sheepish look crossed his face. His screen lit up with diagonal, yellow blush lines. He nearly fumbled for a split second before successfully unwrapping his tail from the worker drone — while being very careful of the sharp, dangerous end — and then forcing the disobedient limb back at his side. 

Continuing on, Uzi listened to the sound of the snow as it crunched softly with each step she took. At both sides of her were the previously mentioned other two idiots. N kept looking behind them while V's nanite-acid-holding tail kept swinging behind her, with the razor-end flicking outward behind her in an almost defensive manner. As if subconsciously saying, "just try and sneak up on me, i dare you!"

Uzi could almost feel the extra heat that radiated from each of them, but not enough that she felt any less cold. But not too cold. Not cold enough that she would say anything. They weren't very far from the supermall now, so Uzi would be just fine, she thought to herself. Maybe she would get to look around some clothing shops while they were there. 

Once through the thicker patch of dead forest, the large frozen lake that marked the edge of the colony area had come into the view of the trio. While passing the shoreline where ice met snow, N had paused.

He stopped and looked out at the icey lake. "Oh, wait. Is it okay-- Can i have a minute, please? It won't take long." He asked.

Uzi and V both stopped. V raised a digital brow.

"Yeah! We can stop here." The purple-haired drone nodded. She didn't know why N wanted to stop, but she was fine with waiting. V's puzzled look immediately shifted into one of an unreadable understanding as N pulled something out of his pocket and started to walk out onto the ice of the lake. 

Somehow, he didn't slip on the ice or anything. Uzi felt a little impressed by that, considering N was usually just as clumsy as herself.

Actually, if she strained her optics, she could see that he had taken the pin from his hat out of his pocket. That was strange because she had assumed he lost it, seeing as it had been removed from his hat so long ago. Before he moved to his dorm. Along with the arm bands that him and V used to wear, which had disappeared simultaneously one day when V and N were staying with Uzi. The emo drone didn't question it then, but now she wondered if the removal of those items had any correlation to each other. 

Once N had walked farther out onto the lake, near the middle, where the ice grew thin and a small pond of water showed through, he stopped. The disassembly drone boy wound his arm back, before he threw the small pin far.

It gave a tiny splash as it hit the surface. And disappeared into the cold water, sinking away to never be found again. To never escape the deep, dark frozen water. 

Uzi started to wonder, Why had N and V gotten rid of the items that signified their disassembly job?-- 

...

She knew that if she were human, the realization would have made her go pale.

Not only that, but she was pretty sure it made her feel as if she needed desperately to tear her own plating off. The purple-haired girl looked down at her boots, which were caked with snow. She should have noticed a lot sooner. She should have thought about that fact a lot sooner. 

They were still disassembly drones. They still needed oil, yes, she had thought of that. But Uzi hadn't exactly thought much about the fact that they had both killed a large number of worker drones, and then moved into the worker drone colony. 

That was... something to make her really think. 

And it definitely made N and V think. 

Even if Uzi hadn't fully realized it until then. 

Lavender eye-lights stared into the snow on the ground around her. Uzi didn't know what to feel. She didn't know what to say, or if she should even say anything. So she said nothing.

V scooted closer to her, but didn't take her eye-lights away from watching the silver-haired boy, who stared into the water of the lake and watched something that was only a mere symbol of their shared past sink away. 

After a minute or two, N walked back over to the other two drones. The trio continued their travel wordlessly. 

That was until N had decided that he couldn't handle the anxious, dreadful atmosphere any longer. He was going to fix it. And he knew exactly how. 

So the ivory-haired disassembly drone waited until they reached a fallen tree, and as V was helping the shorter worker drone to climb over it, he slowed enough to briefly crouch down and grab a small handful of snow. He pressed the snow into a sphere and hid the snowball behind his back with a hopeful, almost mischievous smile. 

Uzi landed on her feet at the other side of the fallen tree, just as V climbed over. And when V turned back to look for N, he wound his arm back and tossed the soft snowball right at her. 

V dove down behind the tree and the snowball exploded against the bark. She popped back up. "What was that for?" She smirked, a digital brow raised. It was obvious that N had intentionally missed her. 

"Whoopsie! That must have been the wind," He chirped. Crouching down to grab some more snow.

V caught on to the game. "Oh yeah? You really wanna start this? It's on!" She gave a determined look and disappeared on the other side of the fallen tree again, so did Uzi, as V had pulled the worker drone down with her. N was pretty sure he heard Uzi ask V what she was doing. Then V responded, but N didn't know what she had said. 

N gave an involuntarily nervous laugh. He knew he would be outnumbered. 

Then a snowball went flying over the tree right at him, as he had expected. He jumped aside to dodge it successfully. He hid behind a tree that was still standing. 

On the other side of the fallen tree, Uzi's artificial voice piped up with confusion, "Why are we throwing snow at each other?" 

"It's a game!" V said. She worked quickly to compress handfuls of soft snow into small spheres. 

Uzi propped her flashlight upright in the snow, to light the area better. She then began to take a handful of snow from the ground and did her best to make a snowball from it.

"Really? It doesn't hurt or anything?" She had never played a game like that before. Actually, she had never had anyone who wanted to play a game with her before. She brushed that thought away. 

V shook her head. "Not unless you put rocks inside the snowballs." J used to do that. 

"Oh, okay."

Uzi peeked over the tree they were hiding behind, and saw N shake snow from himself with a happy look. The purple-haired drone also smiled. Uzi liked the idea of a game. She passed the snowball she had made to V, who wound her arm back and narrowed her eye-lights. N darted out from his hiding place to scoop up some snow for himself, and V threw the snowball right at him. He looked up and stumbled to dodge the snow successfully once again. 

Another snowball exploded against the side of the fallen tree, scattering bits of cold like glitter, before he weaved between some trees again.

"Come on! Help me get him!" V urged, while grabbing some newly-made snowballs from Uzi and throwing them at N. Who still scrambled, and failed to dodge most of, if any of the snow at all.

V looked even more triumphant at hearing him mutter "oh biscuits" through laughter as he hid behind another tall, tree. 

The worker drone thought the sight was comical and found herself laughing. Uzi liked this game, she thought. So she took some more snow in her hands and pressed it into another snowball while V paused to do the same. When Uzi was done, she peered over the fallen tree again. This snowball was much bigger than the other.

When V had disappeared back down behind the tree, N had taken the opportunity to escape his hiding-place and run closer to the tree they hid behind. He started to gather a small amount of snow, crouched to make another snowball. 

N had looked up just in time to get a snowball to the face, courtesy of Uzi. Who, upon seeing the boy's entire visor become obscured in glittering, pale ice, began to laugh uncontrollably. V looked up to see N just standing there, his eye-lights glowed through the layer of snow that hid his whole face. Some even dappled his hair and shoulders. 

V quickly lost her own ability to hold back any laughter, holding her sides with her arms and if she needed air she'd have been wheezing. Uzi made and effort to try to apologize through her giggling, but just couldn't get the words out past laughter. N couldn't help but find the sound magical. 

The two laughing drones made their ways over the tree once again, so the taller ivory-haired girl could reach out and brush some of the snow from his screen. To which his visor showed a few yellow blush lines. Uzi also sweeped a portion of snow from his shoulder. N tried to say something but found his mouth muffled by the snow, so he just smiled instead.

He shook himself off, no more snow on his face, though tiny bits of shimmering snow still clung to his hair. "Pfft. Thanks. Nice throw, Uzi!" 

"It's not-- it's whatever. Thanks. Actually, it was an accident. The hitting you in the face part, i mean." Said the worker drone. She gave a small laugh. She shrugged and some small, lavender blush lines popped up on her screen. 

The silver-haired girl glanced back at N. The snow almost made him look like he was covered in glitter because of the moonlight, V thought. She liked glitter, maybe. Even her dress for the prom had been glittery. V makes an internal note to find more glittery things to keep for herself. And maybe to share with Uzi and N. If they wanted. 

V was trying to do that thing Uzi talked about-- What was it exactly, that Uzi had said that one time about N? He was... his own person? Yeah, that. Whatever that meant. V was... doing that. Or at least... trying.

Her laughter died down and she looked away despite not wanting too. Since when had N decided to get so freaking pretty? Oh, whatever. It was probably just the dumb glittery snow. That wasn't V's problem... or something...

"That's alright," N said. He shook himself off again, though any remaining snow had already begun to melt due to the disassembly drone being warmer. V almost felt disappointed at that. 

Uzi nodded quickly, as if trying to shake away the purple blush lines on her screen. Somehow neither disassembly drone noticed, probably because N was avoiding optic-contact and V was busy staring at him blankly. "Anyways, I think we're nearly there," She said. 

N looked back up at the two. "Let's go then!" He smiled. 

The three made their way over the fallen tree, once again. Uzi in the lead after pausing to snatch up her flashlight again, with V behind her. The purple-haired girl missed her tail once again, because of the light it was able to provide her.

N had trailed behind so he could grab Uzi's backpack, which she had shrugged off during the snowball fight, and then nearly forgotten. 

After only a moment, Uzi noticed just how much colder she felt. Maybe playing in the snow hadn't gifted her any warmth. Or maybe it was because N and V had moved farther from her. 

V spoke up, "Uzi?"

She looked up to acknowledge the other. 

"You're uh... shaking." The silver-haired girl pointed out. "Are you good?" 

Uzi kept a firm hold on her flashlight. Like maybe she could hide her shaking hands. "Oh, yeah. It's cool," Uzi said. But holy shit! She was so cold!

"Are you sure?" V raised a digital brow on her screen. Obviously Uzi was lying. V's optical heat readers could see that she was colder than usual. Was that bad? How cold could a worker drone get before something bad happened? V wondered, growing worried. 

Uzi shrugged. "Just a bit cold, no big deal." 

That didn't satisfy V. She stopped walking and put her hands on Uzi's shoulders, leaning down and squinting intensely at her. Uzi felt her visor flicker with, yet again, little blush lines. V's hands were warm. Her face was close. Uzi swore she nearly crashed and died right then and there as her CPU decided to think about what she might do if V kissed her. 

Obviously that would never happen, though... 

The worker drone blinked slowly. "Uh... what are you looking at?" 

"You," V stated. 

"Uh-huh. I know that." The lavender-haired girl gave a slow nod. "So... what are you doing?" 

"Scanning you." 

"Huh?" The shorter drone gave a puzzled look. 

"I'm trying to see what's wrong," V explained. "You know, looking at your vital signs." Even though she had just checked those, right after the startle of that strange sound. And Uzi was fine. A little cold, but fine. 

"Oh. You can do that?" Uzi asked. She held still, with hope that doing so would make the whole 'scan' easier on V. Could N do it too? However it worked, she didn't know. Worker drones didn't exactly do that. Also, she liked the way V was holding her. Then she wondered exactly what V could figure out about her from the scan, which made a digital sweat drops threaten to break out on her screen. 

"Hm." V nodded and straightened her posture but didn't quit her hold on Uzi. "You're colder than you were before." 

"I-i am?" Uzi echoed. She already knew that. 

The disassembly drone nodded. She unfurled her large, metallic wings. Said wings covered more space around her, giving off a soft warmth. "Why wouldn't you just say you're cold, dumbass? I-i mean, uh, Uzi." 

Uzi snickered. Then looked away. "I dunno. It's not like I brought an extra jacket or whatever." Maybe she subconsciously wanted to seem tougher in front of her crushes. But that was dumb. 

"Oh. Okay." V turned to glance back at the other disassembly drone. "Hey N!" 

Said boy looked up and bounded over, right after he had grabbed the worker drone's bag. She thanked him and apologized for leaving it. Uzi had attempted to get her bag back, but N said he wanted to be polite and carry it for her instead. Uzi didn't protest. 

"What is it?" N asked.

"Uzi is cold," V said. "Wing pile?" She twitched her robotic wings slightly in some kind of a gesture. 

"Okay!" N chirped. He knew what she meant. Back in the pod, he and V used to do this to stay warm on particularly freezing nights. Sometimes if it was cold enough, even J would join. He always tried to remember the good; no matter how little. 

The shorter drone gave a confused, curious look. She watched V lift one of her robotic wings up, and N unfurled his own. "What are you--" Then, each of the disassembly drones had wrapped a wing around the worker drone, draped over her shoulders on each side, and overlapping behind her. 

"Oh." Uzi suddenly felt a whole lot warmer. And that wasn't just because of the whole thing where she was now wrapped-in-wings-on-both-her-left-and-right. But holy shit did that definitely help. 

"Is this cool? Does it help?" V asked. She looked away again, and maybe that was a lemon-colored blush on her screen. Probably because her and N's wings were touching. 

Uzi took a second to process. It was like a hug. Or having an arm wrapped around you. But it was wings. And twice. "It... yeah! That's... nice," She managed. Nice was an understatement. Somehow it made her feel... safer. Maybe it was because nothing would sneak up behind her like that. "Uhm... thanks." 

N gave another one of his infectious smiles. "No problem!" There was something he really liked about this. He liked being close to those he loved. There was another part of him which felt oddly... starved for gentle touches and physical affection... He doesn't know what that means. He's not going to think about it. 

The three continued on the rest of the way to the west supermall. After a few minutes, the trees and forest gave away to the old, crumbled rubble of what was left of roads and buildings. Long since overgrown with vines, only very few trees, and small chunks of plant life that had manged on despite the harsh cold. Ice and snow covered and fogged the cracked windows of buildings. Actually, the ice might have been the only thing holding many of said structures together. Glass bits were broken and scattered here and there alongside overturned cars and toppled street lamps. It used to be a city. 

Something in N almost wanted to follow the old and crumbling, once paved sidewalks. But Uzi made a sharp turn towards the cracked street, with broken cars and portions of gravel missing; replaced with odd blue plants. The aliferous drones follow her closely, using their wings to shield her from the chilly air. 

The mall came into view of their optics, it was large and tall like all malls were supposed to be. Around it, or rather in front of it, was a flat plain of yet even more concrete and gravel. Broken, crumbled, ruined, frozen with a layer of snow. Few cars scattered here and there. The remains of what was once an old car park for humans. 

Uzi didn't care for using doors. How funny. So she made her way over to the front of the building where a large window used to be. It would have taken up the whole wall if it wasn't completely shattered. She kept careful of the broken shards on the ground as she stepped through and into the mall. V and N didn't have to be so cautious. 

The interior of the supermall was larger than any other place Uzi had seen, other than maybe the whole of the colony. It almost looked like it got bigger inside than it was on the outside. But maybe that was because of how empty and abandoned it was. Uzi liked that. 

"This place is huge," V muttered. Her eye-lights darted around to examine various shadows and corners of the place. She stretched her wings out to fit through the window. Then tucked them back away. It was a lot warmer inside the building, to which Uzi was thankful. However she felt somewhat disappointed at the loss of touch. 

"I didn't expect it to be so open." N added, as he tucked his own wings aside. "But I actually haven't been to a mall before..." 

Uzi clicked her flashlight a few times, adjusting the light to make it brighter. "Really? I've only been here a few times." Alone. She had always gone alone and this would be the first time she wasn't. 

"Yeah, back on earth I mostly stayed at the manor," He said softly. Then he sent a glance toward V, likely to see how she would react at the mention on that subject. 

V looked away. She kept a straight face. If N was comfortable talking about it, that was fine. And probably a good thing for him or something. She didn't know what her own feelings about it were. She didn't know if she was ready to talk about it. 

Uzi looked from N to V. Then she flashed her light over towards a broken escalator. "Oh. Okay. Anyways-- there's a glasses shop over there! I think." 

"Great! You ready, V?" N asked. He turned to look at V while he followed Uzi, smiling again. 

The disassembly drone girl just stood there. She grit her sharp teeth and clenched her metal hands into fists. Why was she suddenly so full of dread? This was the whole point of being at the mall. It was for her. A gift, to help her, from N and Uzi. Those two definitely had no obligation to do something nice for her. So why did she feel stiff? 

"V?" Uzi called. Frowning. 

She looked up and nodded. "Yeah! I'm here!" Quicky she followed after the other two, up the once-moving-staircase.

Once she had caught up to them they were near the second floor. "You good, V?" The shorter girl asked. 

"Of course, I'm good. I'm good." Why wouldn't she be? Just because she might look silly with dumb glasses on her visor? Just because of a few little memories? 

There were large areas that had collapsed in on themselves, leaving holes that would lead down to the first floor again. N grimaced and nudged Uzi away from one of these edges. "Careful!" 

Uzi paused, looking down at the wary bits of broken flooring. "Yep, I'm gonna keep that in mind." 

The three kept walking past a few different shops. V peered into the cracked, dusty windows as best she could to try and figure out how close she was to her inevitable demise that was the glasses shop. Next to her, Uzi was talking to N. "Did you finish that anime I told you about?" 

N shook his head. "I was almost at the end!" He explained, "I can't get into Tessa's JCJensonFlix™️ account because J changed the password again..."

"I don't get why she keeps doing that." Uzi frowned. Then added, "But it's okay! You can always come over and finish watching it with me." She looked away as a few lavender blush lines appeared on her screen. "If you wanted. And maybe V would wanna hang out, too. I dunno..." 

N chirped, "Thanks Uzi!" 

Meanwhile, V had come up with a plan. She was going to do everything robotically possible to distract the two so that she could procrastinate even getting to the glasses shop... Just until she felt ready. No offense toward N, but he would be a much easier target to distract than Uzi. Mostly because Uzi could be so stubborn. 

So obviously he would be the first one she attempted to throw off topic. 

V pointed to the dusty window of a random clothing shop. "Hey, that looks pretty nice. Wanna check it out?" She nudged N. 

He glanced in the window at a few of the displayed mannequins. Some were only half-dressed and one of them was laying on the floor half-crushed by some debris. "You're right, V! Maybe there's some cool stuff in there that we could borrow." 

Uzi spoke up, "That's a good idea. After we get those glasses." No way in robo-hell would she wait any longer to see how V looked with those glasses on. For starters, V needed the things to see. For seconds, Uzi had the idea stuck in her CPU to wonder if V could manage to actually be adorable. And for thirds, it wasn't fair that N could get to see V with glasses and Uzi not to. 

V was not going to give up so easy. "But look!" She pointed to a rack of clothing just inside the store. V grinned when she spotted one of the jumpers in particular, which was purple and had a human-skull print across it. Perfect. She took Uzi by the shoulders again and turned the worker drone to face the store entrance. "Hey, that's a nice hoodie. Don't you think, Uzi?" 

Uzi's eye-lights could have turned to stars when she noticed the item of clothing. And it was in good condition! "...Okay, yes. That's a very nice looking hoodie." 

"Can't we look around for just a little bit?" V asked, while looking down at Uzi. 

The worker drone was very tempted. That hoodie would be hers by the end of the day no matter who she had to kill. But still, the glasses were the whole reason they had gone to the mall. "I dunno if that's a good idea. What if we get distracted--" 

Uzi looked up at V only to be met with the most innocent, sweet smile that the murder drone could possibly muster, as V clasped her hands together and asked softly, "Please?" 

Uzi is pretty sure V does not typically say please. Ever. She quickly looked away from the taller and her screen gained some glowing purple blush. "Yes of course! I mean, whatever. That's good. Great, maybe even. Let's look around for a little while." 

And with that V pulls the two drones right into the clothing shop with the success of having managed to postpone her fate by what would be at least another half-hour. 

Luckily, Uzi did not have to kill anyone to get her hoodie. 

"Do you see anything smaller?" She asked V. Both drones looked through the rack of hanging hoodies to try and find the one Uzi wanted in a proper size. 

V shrugged and slid a few items of clothing around along the rack. "There's one here but it's still one size bigger than what you said," V told her as she plucked the hoodie from the display and passed it to Uzi. 

Uzi took the soft clothing in her hands and nodded. "That's okay, It works." She couldn't help but smile. It looked so awesome! It was such a nice mauve colour and the human skulls were really badass! The hood was a different, darker hue, than the body and sleeves. 

Way more giddy than she would like to admit, Uzi unzipped her favorite hoodie and slipped it from her shoulders to reveal her grey-and-black-stripe shirt. She draped the hoodie on top of the backpack on the ground by her. She then took the new, purple hoodie and tried it on.

It was a little big but still fit nicely and comfortably. She didn't bother to zip it up and instead took it back off, folded it messily, and tucked it into the backpack. She planned to wear it when they got back to the colony. Or maybe she would wear it to that party Thad was gonna throw? But that would only be if V or N went with her! 

Uzi took her favorite hoodie back and began pulling it on. In doing so her shirt must have slipped off her shoulder, because V cast her a strangely guilty look and spoke up. 

"...Uzi?" 

The purple-haired girl looked over to her while she zipped up her hoodie. "Yeah?" Maybe it was weird to try on clothes in front of other drones... Uzi didn't know. 

It took V a moment to find the words she was looking for. "...Are you...okay?"

Uzi froze up involuntarily. She didn't look at V's face. "...What do you mean?" 

"Your shoulder. It looks... like it hurts." V frowned and looked down. Uzi's shoulder, the space where V had bitten her, still had some very small dents from teeth marks. 

"Oh. OH." Uzi relaxed. She stammered. "Yes I'm okay!" 

"...Okay." V curled her tail around her own leg, the vial flicked left and then right. "Ss...S-Sorry," She muttered. The word felt foreign to speak; and even bitterly guilty on her tongue.

V still felt she owed another certain someone a much more in depth apology, aswell. She glanced up at N, a few metres away. Who was happily looking through some things on a shelf.

But that would just have to wait for another day. 

"It's fine, V. I already said that." 

"Right. Obviously. I mean it's not like i did anything wrong." The disassembly drone looked back to Uzi. Specifically she stared at the spot on her shoulder where she knew the mark was. "I only lost my head and tackled you and bit you and drank your literal life source. Because I got a little hungry. Because I'm bad at remembering to do normal things." With each word she spoke, the silver-haired girl sounded more and more strained. 

Uzi's expression softened. "...Are you good?" 

V paused. She shifted awkwardly. "I think so." 

There was a moment of quiet. But then Uzi broke it and said, "Alright." She stepped closer to the taller girl and reached out. But she didn't know what to do with her hand, so she put it back at her side. "It's only a little mark."

"It really isn't causing you trouble?" V prompted again. She knew Uzi couldn't heal like she used to. She wished she hadn't lost her mind like she did, and bitten the dumb Worker Drone. 

"Nope." Other than hiding it so that her father and classmates won't see it and get any wrong ideas. Uzi really was okay. She almost wanted it to happen again, just so she could be held.

Damn, she really did need a hug... 

The disassembly drone nodded. "Fine. If it hurts or something you'd better tell me," She said softly. But then felt her screen doing that awful blushing again, and added, "Or else I'll kill you!" 

"No you won't," Uzi said calmly. 

"Yes I will." V smirked and put her hands on her hips. She flicked her tail around, carefully keeping the sharp-end away from Uzi. 

"Nuh-uh." Uzi shook her head. Grinned so confidently that V felt like she would short circuit. 

V had finally earned that trust. She was sure of it now. Sure, she already knew so... But it made her feel fuzzy and warm under her plating in a way she didn't realize she could actually feel. 

"Oh wait. Where's N?" Uzi's lavender hair swished as she shook her head left and right, searching for the possibly missing disassembly drone boy. 

The taller girl nudged Uzi to look over on the far side of the store. "He's just over there. Don't worry." 

N was busy rummaging around through another clothes rack. Picking at various shirts and tops before putting them back with a shake of his head and flick of his mechanical tail. 

Uzi relaxed. "Okay, good. Can you help me with something?" 

V shugged and said, "Depends what exactly you need help with." That was such an absolute lie. She would probably do anything Uzi asked of her. But obviously she would never say that! She wasn't — She had an image to keep, okay?! 

"Uh. Fine." She led V over to another shelf. This one was white and taller than both drones. Coated in a thick layer of dust, with messily stacked board games and toppled over action figures that V didn't recognize. There were a few stuffed, plush animals. Most of which she also didn't know the types of. She did recognize a crow plush and a dog plush sitting side by side, however. 

"Can you reach up there?" Uzi asked. She pointed to the very top of the shelf. Where the crow and dog plush sat together. The dog had a funny hat. 

"Yeah, of course I can!" V nodded. She stepped up to said shelf, extending her arm she reached for the top. But the disassembly drone didn't exactly manage to reach. She shifted to try to get a better angle but it didn't help. V frowned and stepped back. "Or not, apparently." 

"Aw damn it." Uzi huffed. Then she turned to V with a genuinely serious look. "Okay, could you lift me?" 

"Lift you?" V blinked with both confusion and amusement in her digital eyes. 

"Put me on your shoulders," Uzi clarified. Still looking serious, but now she broke optic-contact and shuffled her boots. 

V said outwardly, "Okay then." But inside she practically screamed. Like N! Like how she gets on N's shoulders! Uzi was doing that cute thing she did with N, but now with her! Sure, V had carried Uzi on her back once before, but Uzi probably didn't remember that. Considering the fact that the purple-haired drone had been unconscious and they all got a taste of death.

Anyways, V didn't want to think about that. 

It felt like she had earned something, somehow. Perhaps some level of trust or whatever. A new sort of display to being close with the other. It made her want to smile, but she tried not to because she didn't want Uzi to get suspicious and she had to stay tough. Though she's pretty sure she failed. 

Uzi looked at her expectantly. Suddenly V felt kind of awkward because she didn't know exactly what to do. 

Could she just... grab Uzi?

Or should she sit down and let Uzi figure it out on her own from there? 

Hm. V figured the first option would be a lot faster. 

She stepped up to Uzi and hooked her arms under the Worker Drone's to scoop her up and set Uzi on her shoulders. Uzi's hands rested atop V's head. V subconsciously held onto Uzi's legs to prevent her falling. 

The disassembly drone scooted closer to the shelf. With their heights combined, Uzi could reach up and snatch the dog plush from the shelf. She looked at it and gave a small smile. Then she looked down at V and her smile grew.  

"You can put me down now," Uzi said. 

V did not want to do that. 

"Okay." The silver-haired girl reached around and plucked the Worker Drone from her shoulders, before she set the purple-haired girl down carefully. 

"Thanks," The shorter drone held her hand out in a thumbs-up. Then she grabbed the backpack and unzipped it to put her new treasure safely inside. 

N popped his head around the corner of the shelf. "Hey, V! Uzi!" He waved and made his way over to the two drones. He held something in his hands. 

"Look at what I found!" He said as he unfolded the plain light-grey shirt and held it up for them to see. On the front it read in a black lettering: 'I don't feel like being a pilot today.'

V raised a digital brow on her screen. "Hm. How fitting." That was an oddly specific and oddly perfect coincidence for him to stumble upon such an item. It was silly. Kind of cute. 

Uzi chuckled. She wasn't sure if she was amused by the shirt or confused as to why it existed and how N had found it. She unzipped her backpack and passed it to him. "You wanna put it in my bag?" 

"Yep. It's mine now." N smiled as he tucked the silly shirt into Uzi's bag. 

The ivory-haired disassembly drone put her hands on her hips. "You gonna wear it to Thad's party?" V asked, jokingly. 

N seemed to think for a few seconds. "Hmmm... if I go, I'll probably just wear my regular coat." He said. 

Uzi blinked. "Wait. Did you wanna go? Are you going by yourself?" She questioned. 

"I dunno. I didn't really want to go alone..." N only shrugged. 

The Worker Drone's face broke out into a smile. "We should go together! I was totally gonna go just in case Sam spikes the oil—" She spoke quickly before breaking off and correcting herself, "I mean! Because it's a party. Hahahah..." Uzi gave an awkward laugh. 

"I'm mostly helping Thad set it up," N explained. "Playlists and lighting and stuff." He wasn't sure if he would stay or not, but now that Uzi and V wanted to go, he would probably make sure to stay with them. 

Uzi nodded. "Yep, we're going. Come with us!" She turned to look at V. "You would probably like it, it'll be very loud and full of drunk idiots," She elaborated. 

"Ooh? Drunk?" V had only been able to try coolant a few times while living at the corpse-spire. J said it was bad because they had a job to do. It was also hard to find. But V found the memory of drinking under the stars to be a decent one. 

The purple-haired girl crossed her arms. "Sam always spikes the oil with coolant." Uzi doesn't mention that it's her favorite part, and the only reason she's even been to those dumb parties. 

"I wanna go, too." V decides. 

"Hell yeah!" Uzi smirked. 

After that, the three had started to exit the little store and continue on through the second level of the supermall, in order to get to the glasses shop. 

But just as they were passing one final display of broken human stuff, merely one metre from exiting the shop, something caught V's attention. It was red and draped over part of a dusty display. She paused. Her optics grew bigger to take in the sight. It was sparkly and pretty. 

V went right over to the crimson, sequin-dappled scarf and snatched it up into her arms. It was going to be hers no matter what. The pretty scarf reminded her of her prom dress. It shimmered under the faint light and made the vial on the end of her tail flick side to side. 

Uzi appeared at her side. "Hey! Don't think I didn't notice you were distracting me and N on purpose," She said. V turned to look at the shorter girl just as Uzi told her, "You won't be getting out of this so easy!" 

The silver-haired disassembly drone shrugged. She admired her new item of sparkling farbric with a small grin. "You both fell for it anyways. And it wasn't even mean!"

Uzi rolled her eye-lights and made an indignant sound. V circled around behind her and unzipped the backpack she was wearing. Uzi gave a puzzled look. "What's that?" 

"This is mine now!" V held out the scarf so Uzi could see it. 

"A scarf?" 

V nodded and spoke, "It's sparkly and pretty." And then she wrapped the scarf around her shoulders. It was perfect!

Uzi turned to face her. The Worker Drone gave a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, it's very pretty." Uzi tried not to let any of that stupid glowing blush show on her screen. V just seemed to look good no matter what. It wasn't even fair. "Are you ready now?" She asked. 

V tucked her new scarf safely inside Uzi's backpack and then zipped it shut again. "Nope! Let's go!"

Outside of the small clothes shop there were still more stores, at least six in that area, arranged in an octagonal shape around the railings that still stood. Two paths led to the other portion of the mall, and the moving-stairs they had just come up not very long ago. If one leaned far enough to look down they would notice an old, broken, dusty fountain made up of marbled stone and void of any water, in the center at the bottom level of the mall. With dead potted plants shriveled around it.

N wondered about the humans that used to come to this place; He couldn't help but be reminded of Tessa.

At the opposite side of the octagonal area V could see the half-broken display sign that marked it as being the glasses section. Multiple letters had fallen from the sign so she wasn't sure what the place was called. Some strange feeling wormed into her CPU.

Uzi swung the double glass doors open, to which a bell chimed. However in all of the planets that tiny bell was still there, none of them knew. 

Inside was empty, save for plenty of dust and few displays. Shops like this usually had been taken from or picked over by other colonies. This one seemed to have a wide variety leftover. Tall tri-sided, spinning displays stood here and there. A counter at the back of the shop, likely used to be for payments. There were only a few mirrors mounted to the walls, most of them broken to bits or cracked. 

There was a smaller section, or rather a room, at the back of the store. It had a weird-looking machinery and eye charts. The trio ignored that section; they already knew what V's prescription was.

N had still grabbed the chair from inside the little backroom and pushed it over to be by one of the displays. V was quick in making herself comfortable to sit criss-cross in said chair. But not without sending a glare to the display case full of her worst nightmares. 

"Are there any colours you like?" N asked, while peering at one of the spin-able displays. From it he plucked a pair of oval-shaped glasses with blue framing, and held them out for V to look at. 

"Nope." She shook her head. She didn't particularly care what colour she'd get. She wouldn't enjoy wearing the things on her screen anyhow. 

"What about shape?" He asked again as he put the first pair of glasses back. Then he spun the display, it made a whirring sound, and when it slowed to a stop he pulled another pair of glasses off. Square in shape with white frames. 

The silver-haired disassembly drone stared at the glasses and shrugged. She tried not to give any glaring looks to the objects. "I dunno." 

N put the second pair back and said calmly, "That's okay. We can just look around until we find something you'll like!" 

V wasn't so sure that would be a good idea. It'd be like some sort of never ending robo-hell. They were probably going to be there for a very long time. 

Which they were. 

N kept bringing her all sorts of glasses. Uzi would swat away any of the ones that V gave a shake of the head at. Or a glare. Or a frown. Or really any other unhappy look. 

But the two darlings freaking idiots just kept on trying. Uzi brought her a handheld mirror of which made V feel something akin to anxiety whenever she held it. And she didn't dare to actually put any of the glasses on her face. 

So she was just going to have to keep up the games. 

"What about this pair?" Uzi asked. She held out some rectangular glasses with red frames. 

V shook her head. "Nah, those are too long."

Uzi hummed and went back to the shelf. N was at V's other side. He handed her a pair of glasses, shaped like half-circles. "Do you like these ones?" 

V pretended to stare intensely at the glasses. Before she shook her head. "No thanks." Hopefully if she was annoying and indecisive the two would just give up on her and go home. 

Uzi came back, in one hand holding a pair of red glasses with a heart-shaped frames. In her other hand she had a second pair, which were yellow and star-shaped. "Anything here?" She asked with a smirk. 

V tried not to snicker. "Uh, still no thanks." She actually kind of liked those fun-shaped ones. 

To V's surprise, dismay, and some appreciation, the "game" lasted for an unfortunate amount of time. Maybe an hour? She wasn't counting, but she was impressed with how patient both of them managed to be. 

That just meant she had to be more annoying.

So the disassembly drone started swiping pairs of glasses into hiding places. Some pairs under that chair, some in that drawer, a few coupled up and hidden somewhere Uzi wouldn't be able to reach.

But V was pretty sure N had seen her playing her sneaky trick with a few different glasses.

So she had to resort to something else. 

Uzi decided that enough was enough right after she turned around to discover another set of glasses gone and V chewing. 

"Don't eat that!" 

"Why?" V huffed. She crossed her arms. All of the resent events had her feeling hungry. She wanted a nice arm to chew on but Uzi said no murder, so V would settle for something else. 

Uzi didn't know how to even begin to explain that eating random things was probably a bad idea. 

"That pair wasn't tasty enough anyways," V muttered and looked away. 

"Can you please just try to find something you like?" Uzi asked. She sounded like she was highly exasperated and trying to hold herself together. N stood next to her looking like he had started to lose all hope. 

For some reason V didn't enjoy the idea of making either drone too upset. 

The white-haired girl sighed and shifted in her seat. "I like plenty of the glasses here." She fidgeted with her hands and bent a few finger-joints until she heard that satisfying crackle sound.  

"Which ones?" Uzi prompted.

V pointed to the pile of no-thank-you glasses.  "The black ones," She said. "Kinda like my old ones..." 

Uzi eyed the glasses V had pointed at. She plucked them from the pile. "But do you like them?" 

"Sure," V took the glasses from Uzi. "We can go now." 

Uzi frowned. "But you don't like the glasses."

"What." V froze. She stammered for a second before she raised a digital brow and gave Uzi a puzzled look. "How did you--" 

"Let's look some more then," N piped up. He turned to look around at another display. "We didn't look over there yet!" 

"But we've been here a while... I'm not liking anything so we can just go..." Suddenly the silver-haired girl wondered if this was all a waste of time. 

Uzi took the round, black glasses at set them next to the backpack. "We can take these, just in case." She said. "But it's not a bad idea to look for a few more minutes, right?" 

"...Fine." 

So that continued. 

Blue glasses? Nope. But the shape was nice. 

Red triangle-shaped ones? No, maybe not that colour, thanks. 

Silver glasses with square frames? Sorry, no thanks again. 

But the two smiling drones made it hard to be too rejecting. And after only a little longer, but not too long, there was one more pair the disassembly drone deemed okay. That being a pair of which was round, and golden-framed. 

V tucked the metallic gold pair into the bag, carefully. But when she snatched up the black-framed glasses, stood up, and stepped over to a cracked standing mirror, she felt herself stop...

She hesitated.

N gave her a sympathetic look. 

And V thought, he must know. N must see the way her hands clenched into fists and her teeth grit. Because she couldn't shake the nonsensical what if. Because what if she put those things on her face and it somehow made her magically shape-shift back into that small, afraid, vulnerable little maid who couldn't stand up for herself.

She knew that wasn't possible. She knew it was stupid. But V couldn't help it, she didn't want to be like her old self again. She liked how she had changed, and become stronger. V could protect those she cared about— She wasn't going to have to feel so small ever again. 

Back then, she hadn't ever worried like she was now. Actually, she had liked her glasses. Maybe she still did. Though, none of that even mentioned how silly she felt she would no doubt look. 

But... it was N and Uzi, she thought. Those two, of all the drones on the planet, wouldn't make fun of or laugh at her. Even if she did look silly. V knew she was being irrational. 

 ...

So the disassembly drone pushed the pair of glasses onto her visor anyways. She blinked her yellow eye-lights a few times as her optics adjusted slightly, things became noticeably clearer. 

When V glanced at the mirror her reflection was still herself. She didn't look like a scared little maid from the past. She didn't even look silly.

Though, she did feel a tiny bit silly, only for having worried so much. The smallest hint of a smile wormed onto her face. 

Uzi had almost forgotten her ulterior motive for dragging them into the glasses shop. Almost. She couldn't stop such a stupid smile from infecting her face and making her suppress a giggle. No way would she let it show. But she couldn't help it! V was more adorable with her puppy-eyes than any auto-generated ideas could ever wish to compare with! 

"Oh... So fricking cute!..."

V isn't sure she really heard that. "Huh?"

"I said — NEWT! THERES A NEWT!" Uzi cackled nervously. A digital sweat droplet appeared on her screen paired with bright purple lines of simulated blush. Had she seriously said that out loud?! Uzi wondered if she might short-circuit. 

"Where?" N glanced around. He didn't see any lizards, he was too busy admiring V. And he wasn't totally convinced that Uzi had really said that there was a newt anyways. 

"I don't think newts live on this planet," V said. She was pretty sure that wasn't actually what Uzi had said. Being a disassembly drone, she had an acute sensitivity to hearing. But for now she wasn't going to overthink it. No matter how vibrantly her screen displayed that pesky blush! 

Uzi frowned and crossed her arms. "I thought I saw one!" She insisted. Her visor was equally as aglow with purple. 

"I bet you need glasses," V chuckled. 

Uzi shook her head as if it would clear her screen of any blush lines. "So, uh, Can you see better?" She prompted. That was the important question. 

That was when V noticed that being able to see Uzi and N clearly meant they both looked a whole lot more pretty. Did N always have that chip in his sharp tooth when he gave her a smile? Did Uzi always have that little scar on her lip? Wait, no, she's not looking at either of their mouths! She doesn't want to kiss anyone! V forced herself to look away before she lost her mind. "Wow. I mean, yeah! I can see!" 

"That's great! And hey, you look wonderful, V." N said. Then his screen lit up with yet even more blush lines and he stuttered to add, "I—I mean, you look wonderful all the time, but I just mean that—" 

"Th-Thanks!" The silver-haired girl blurted out. She swore that she might overheat and die if N didn't shut up soon. V crossed her arms. Her whole screen was probably glowing like one of the moons on a bright night! 

Uzi rolled her eye-lights and tried to stop blushing. "Okay, okay!" She grabbed her backpack and swung it onto her back. "You two ready to get back to the colony?" 

N nodded. "The sun will be up soon, so let's try not to get stuck anywhere." Yellow blush glowed on his own screen, aswell. 

V flicked her vial tail and agreed. The three then began to make their way toward the exit of the shop. Past broken, dust coated displays and toppled over shelves.

The little adventure felt pretty successful, in her opinion. 

Chapter Text

"Here's one of the Playlists Chad made." Thad said as he passed his phone to N. "Go ahead and add whatever songs you feel like." 

N nodded. "Thanks! Are the sound speakers ready?" He asked while he scrolled through the Playlist, which had a few different genres of song type. He added a few songs that he liked. Then a few he knew Uzi and V would like. 

"Yup. There's this drone, literally named DJ, who's gonna play around with the songs and keep stuff playing all night." Thad explained just as he set a large bowl full of batteries onto the coffee table. The two were setting up another one of Thad's parties since his parents were away. 

"Wow. I bet he'll do a great job!" N smiled. He glanced around at the space. In his opinion it looked nice and simple; but he wouldn't call himself anything near an expert. "Anything else?" 

"Hm. I think it's perfect. I'll just have to get Sam to bring actually decent coolant for the oil." Thad mentioned. He crossed his arms. "It'll be better than what we had at my other party," He said matter-of-factly. Then after a pause added, "I hope." 

N faltered slightly. "Ah... well, I didn't drink when I was at your shindig," He murmured. The vial on his tail flicked left then right. Sure, he had drank plenty on his own time while at the spire, against J's word. But he didn't totally have a preference for his inhibitions being lowered. 

Thad paused. He blinked his green eye-lights a few times, maybe the puzzled look was because he wondered if that had something to do with the differences between workers and disassemblers. Or maybe it wasn't. "Really? Is there any reason for that?"

N shrugged. "I don't really prefer it. And It's probably more helpful if I take care of V and Uzi."

The jock made an small, nervous laugh and adjusted the placement of a speaker near the table. "No offense, but I don't really think those two need taking care of." 

"Oh biscuits, not at all." N shook his head, he almost laughed at that idea. "Actually, I think both of them have beat me in a fight before," He said thoughtfully. After a few seconds he clarified, "I mean, I just want to... you know, be there." 

His friend smiled. "You're so sentimental it's a little ridiculous. Just ask them out already!" Thad urged. 

N smiled back and shook his head. "Nope! That's scary." 

"You're definitely right about that," Thad agreed. Then he shrugged. "But come on, what's the worst that could happen?" He prompted. 

"I don't want to lose two of my best friends." N deadpanned. If you asked Thad he would say it was a disturbing look on such a usually cheerful drone. 

"Do you really think that'll happen?" Thad frowned. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket. 

He knew it probably wouldn't go that badly. But N adjusted a pillow on the couch to distract himself anyway. The vial of his tail twitched as he fought the urge to wrap it around himself. He said nothing. 

"You know, I'd be here, too." Thad said reassuringly. "If that helps." 

The disassembly drone looked back to his friend. N nodded, his smile was already coming back. "Thanks for that, Thad."

Thad pointed finger-guns at N. "Sure thing, N&Ms." He grinned. 

Meanwhile Thad's parents were sitting together watching what they considered to be the greatest thing that had happened to the Copper-Nine colony since the invention of doors. 

Khan Doorman, the door builder himself, was standing on a stage wearing a black tuxedo and a red bow-tie. Next to him was a very tall something covered with a red sheet. 

"My newest creation!" Khan called out with joy. He gestured to the tall thing hidden by the sheet. The crowd of drones cheered and clapped. 

"You might even say, my second dearest child!" He added. The crowd quieted with confusion. 

Khan cleared his artificial voice box. "Because, uhm, I have a daughter? Remember?" He asked the crowd. 

Multiple drones looked to one another with confusion.

Then one drone waved an arm and yelled out, "I remember! That one girl who's always with the murder drones!" 

A few more drones in the crowd murmured and shared hushed whispers with each other before then breaking out into cheerful shouts and clapping hands once more. 

Khan straightened his bow-tie with a dignified smile. No one could claim him to be a bad father now! 

"Then, without any more wait—"

He pulled away the sheet in a flourish to reveal a very large door, unconnected to any walls. It was just waiting to fall on and crush some poor drone who might walk too close. 

"My newest door!" 

The crowd cheered even louder. There were many exclamations about how amazing and great Khan was. 

Thad's parents clapped their hands in unison. "Yes! Yes, a door!" They both cried with glee. 

"Sooo, which one do you like?" Lizzy smirked and held up two different items of clothing. In one hand was a dark coloured top with puffy sleeves made from mesh. In her other hand she held another dark coloured top, but with no sleeves.

V sat at the edge of Lizzy's bed and eyed both options. Both options looked pretty if you asked V. "Uh. The black one?"  

Lizzy held the sleeveless top in front of V before switching to hold the other one in front of her, instead. "Night sky black or iron black?" She prompted. 

"Uhh..." V wasn't totally sure if she even saw a difference in the colour. So she pointed to the sleeveless top. "That one." 

"Nice. It'll go perfectly with your new scarf." Lizzy smiled and set the sleeveless shirt on her bed. Then she turned and put away the other top, but still continued rummaging through her wardrobe. 

"Why do we have to dress up?" V asked. She fidgeted with her new scarf. She liked the feel of the fabric. "I mean, I like it. But aren't parties usually kinda casual?" 

Lizzy turned back to her and stuck a yellow bow to the side of V's head. Then she hummed and plucked the bow back before she tossed it aside.

"I'm making you look extra hot because it's fun," She explained. Lizzy turned back to her wardrobe while mumbling, "And also because N will be there."

"What!" V stood up and gave her best friend an indignant look. "Why does that matter?!" 

Lizzy didn't look up at V. She slid onto the fluffy pink chair at her vanity and started shuffling through her bag of bluetooth-makeup. "Because you're crushing on him." 

"No, i am not." V frowned. Her visor lit up blaringly yellow. 

The blonde drone pulled out a pink pen and then pushed the bluetooth-makeup bag away. She spun around in her chair and gave V a curious look. "Sooo then it's Uzi, right?" She guessed. Then after one half-second a look of understanding crossed her expression and she grinned. "Oohh, wait, it's both!" 

"Lizzy!" V crossed her arms and flopped back onto the worker drone's pink bed. The mountain of pillows gave a light bounce. V just wanted to use said pillows to mask her glowing blush. Why did disassembly drones have to glow in the dark?! 

"What?" Lizzy flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. She clicked a button on the Bluetooth pen and eyelashes blinked onto her visor just above her eye-lights. Then Lizzy tossed the makeup aside and grabbed a pink hairbrush so she could start brushing out her synthetic hair for what was likely the third time that night. 

"I don't like either of them! They're both idiots!" V said. Her artificial voice was slightly muffled by the pillows she was hiding in. 

The worker drone continued to make sure her hair was just as perfect as usual. If not, even more perfect. "I know they're idiots. That just happens to be your type." 

V sat up and cast a glare in Lizzy's direction. Not that the girl noticed, as she was busy with her own reflection and smoothing out her pink dress. The silver-haired disassembly drone stammered, "Why would you think I– I have a cru– Agh! What makes you think i even like them?!" 

"Because you're always looking at them and are actually nice to them," Lizzy said. She flipped her hair again and admired herself in her mirror. 

"So?" V crossed her arms. "That means nothing." Was she that obvious? Did that mean N or Uzi might have noticed? V wondered. The vial on the end of her tail flicked to the right and left. Then right once again. 

Lizzy spun around in her fluffy chair to look at V. "I'm your bestie, okay? You're supposed to talk about your crushes with me." After a minute she added,  "I'm, like, trustworthy!" 

"Yeah, yeah." V flopped back into the pillows. She huffed and wrapped her tail around herself. "There's just not anything worth saying," She mumbled. 

"Of course there is!" Lizzy got up from her fluffy chair and went over to sit on her bed next to V.

The disassembly drone sat up and looked at her friend with a curious expression. Lizzy shifted behind V and started brushing the taller girl's silver and white synthetic hair. V didn't object.

Lizzy went on. "Crushes are supposed to be fun. At least, they are for me!" She said. "I totally get why you like N. He's hot." 

V wasn't sure how that last little comment made her feel. But she didn't say anything about it. Lizzy was trying to be nice. And V had personal experience with knowing just how hard that sort of thing could be. 

"And Uzi is... uh..." There was an awkward pause. Lizzy struggled to muster up her next words but still did so in a confident tone. "Well, she... has a lot of... personality I guess!" 

V couldn't help but give a small smile. "Yeah... She's really funny."

"I like how sarcastic and loud she is," V blurted out.

Lizzy smiled at her. So V continued to speak. "It's so much fun to pretend to annoy her and I lo— I really like the faces she makes whenever I call her short!" Another spatter of neon yellow blush made itself present on the disassembly drone's visor. "And when she's with N it's funny because it's like she can't be so snarky! I think because of how thoughtful and sweet he is."

V started talking faster. "Sometimes she gets like that with me— Like, sweet and soft... but when she does, i think i mess it up. Because i dont know what to do!" She admitted. Then kept going. She didn't even seem to notice Lizzy mumbling her name. "And, as of lately I think N's been reflecting some of that sarcasm and stuff, just from us all being together all the time. Its adorable, right?" V snickered and crossed her arms. "Oh, and he always brings me his art!"

Lizzy poked V on her shoulder. But the moonstruck disassembly drone didn't notice. "He doesn't know this, but I actually have been keeping all of his drawings in my room and I can tell that he's getting better! He's even taking this art class and—" 

"V!" Lizzy interrupted. 

V paused. Yellow blush glowed on her screen. "...Yeah?" 

Lizzy grinned and continued brushing V's hair. "No offense, but when are you gonna do something? Because I really think you should just ask the idiots out already." 

"What? No. I can't... I can't do that." 

"Why not? They would both be so totally lucky to get to be with you." Lizzy set the hairbrush aside. 

"...I uh..." V didn't want to admit to being nervous. She was a crazy killer! She didn't feel fear! She wasn't ready. 

The worker drone stood up. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?" Lizzy asked. Honestly, she sounded more sympathetic than V realized the blonde drone could be. 

"What if—" 

"Nope. Nothing bad could happen... other than like, maybe rejection." Lizzy put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "And if that did happen, as much as I know it won't, then I'll be your support and stuff." She said. "Like, we can eat batteries and watch shit horror movies and cry about it together."

V felt herself go calm at the thought. Mostly because it was an amusing image, but also because it felt good to know she'd have someone there. V smiled. Maybe she was ready. 

Lizzy rolled her pink eye-lights and muttered, "I'd also lock them both in the captcha room. But whatever." 

V scoffed. "Fine! Whatever. It's not like it's a big deal. I'm only agreeing because of the horror movies part!" She agreed. The yellow blush-lines on her screen didn't bother her as much anymore. 

Lizzy grinned. "Exactly! Well, sort of? But... You get the point." She shrugged and sat next to V. 

"Okay, okay. So how do I do this?" The disassembly drone asked. 

"First we handle tonight."  

Uzi paced back and forth in her room. Clad in her new mauve hoodie. Which she typically wouldn't wear to a party where she only intended to get as intoxicated as possible, but with V and N going, she decided to wear it anyway.

Uzi looked down and she gripped her new dog plushie in her hands. She gave it an intense look.  "How do I do this!"

The dog plsuhie did not respond. Uzi growled to herself, "Why am I asking you for advice? You can't even talk." Then she tossed the stuffed animal onto her bed. It made a little squeak sound before landing on its side. The plushie dog almost seemed to stare back at the worker drone with its beady little eyes. 

The mauve-haired girl glared at the stuffed toy. "Don't look at me like that!" She frowned. Then crossed her arms and turned her back on the inanimate object. 

Uzi wouldn't ever admit it, but there was a part of her that, deep down, considered talking to Khan for help. 

The drone huffed and shook her head. "No! No, no, no!" She scolded herself. "Not him, never. He'd make it all worse!"

After a few moments, Uzi blinked her digital purple eyes and uncrossed her arms. "Trigger, where'd you go, buddy?" She called out. 

The little tin wastebasket in the corner near her desk gave a light shake. Then some of the trash shuffled about. And finally her small, greenish robo-bug friend hopped out of the garbage and scurried over to her. He tapped on one of her purple-ish boots with his tarsus, before crawling up her leg and onto her shoulder. 

Uzi smiled. "There you are!" 

Trigger flicked his antenna in response. 

"Come on, help me out here." Uzi pleaded. She scooped up her little robo-bug and held him on the palm of her hand. 

Trigger blinked. A text box popped up over his head with a question. 

The mauve-haired drone shook her head. "No, no, no. It's not that." She sat down at the edge of her bed. "Look, I think it's time that I just... get it over with." She frowned.

Her robo-bug friend tilted his head. Another digital display blinked above him: "The two?" 

Uzi nodded. Trigger blinked away the little glowing text. After a moment, Uzi growled mostly to herself, "I mean just saying something. Getting it over with. Ripping the band-aid off." 

Her little bug sat down. His tiny eyes somehow displayed sympathy. 

"Because let's be honest, I'm a freak and nobody would willingly date me." Uzi went on with a scoff. 

Trigger's antenna drooped and he cast her a saddened look. A little text box appeared above his head that said: "That's not true. And I love you." 

Uzi faltered. Then she gave a small smile. "Aww, buddy... Thanks. I love you, too." 

The little robotic bug spun around a few times on her palm. Before skittering up her arm to sit on her shoulder. Uzi looked down at him. "But back to my original point, I don't think i can handle this whole secret anymore, you know?" She asks the bug, not expecting a real answer.

She went on, "I kinda feel like I'm lying. Well, technically I have been lying. Like, nearly all of those times when one of them asks if i'm good, and i say, yes. But then really, I'm not saying, No because I'm crushing on you." It made Uzi feel better to actually say it out loud. 

The worker drone shook her head. "I want — I need to get it off my CPU!" She decided. 

Trigger gave a little hop in response. A text box displaying: "Heck yeah! You've got this!" Blinked over his antenna. 

Uzi was determined. Her current plan was to first get as drunk as she possibly could, and then corner her two disassembly drone buddies and— Well, she didn't know what her next move would be. She hadn't thought about it very much. Maybe she would be calm and cool, and ask them out.

Or maybe she would drunkenly word-vomit out every suppressed thing she had ever wanted to say. 

She cringed at the latter thought. Her determined look faltered. "If it goes well, which it probably won't, then I'll deal with it." Uzi said matter-of-factly.

Trigger paused in his celebration.

"And if it goes badly, which it will..." Uzi frowned. 

"...I'll at least be able to move on, right?" She said a bit softer. Her smile was bittersweet. Trigger nuzzled his face against her cheek comfortingly. 

"So? Advice?" Uzi suddenly prompted as she stood up. She looked at the bug expectantly. 

Trigger blinked slowly. 

"Yeah, fair enough. You probably know just as much as I do..." All the slice-of-life romance anime she had ever watched did not seem helpful suddenly. 

She sighed. "Okay then, wish me luck buddy. If I get drunk enough I might be able to do this!" Uzi said with a mixture of anticipation, anxiety, and determined excitement. 

Trigger blinked a glowing box above his head again, this time it displayed some text telling her to do her best. Uzi smiled. She set him down onto her desk carefully and pet him a few times before saying goodbye and heading out the door.

Chapter Text

A black screen displayed "sleep mode" in bold letters. After a moment, the screen blinked the letters away and eye-lights appeared. 

N yawned as his optics blinked a few times to start to adjust to the view of his ceiling. He felt oddly heavy, his CPU ached. He shifted to sit up.

Only to discover that he couldn't move. 

N blinked again. His yellow optics adjusted finally. He sleepily looked down to figure out whatever it might be that was preventing him from moving and—

Immediately felt more awake than ever!

His digital eye-lights hollowed with shock and a vibrant, golden blush exploded onto his visor. N stiffled a surprised yelp. He might have even considered swearing if he didn't want to stay silent. 

Draped across N's upper half and soundly in sleep-mode was V. Her tail was wound around one of his legs loosely, and she was holding something close to her chest. Which was, upon further inspection, someone. That someone being a very familiar worker drone with bright purple hair. And Uzi was just as contently in sleep-mode. 

N didn't know what to do. He didn't know how he had even gotten there. The disassembly drone looked around and recognized that he was, in fact, in his own dorm room. But he couldn't remember very much from the night before. Actually, his memory files were very fuzzy. Not to mention that his entire CPU hurt, and he felt exhausted as though he had just been flying instead of peacefully sleeping. 

He must've drank that coolant, against what he had first planned. That would definitely explain a lot. 

Yeah, a lot, he thought to himself as he looked down again at his two best friends. Who still were both totally asleep and cuddling on top of him. His new, yellow blanket must have been kicked aside for favor of closeness. 

Feeling hungover, flustered, and mostly puzzled, N opted to just lay there. He didn't want to wake one or both of them up. At least they both looked happy, he thought. He was glad for that. Uzi had an adorable little smile on her face, and V looked as though she was more peaceful than ever. It wasn't like it was even a bad position to be trapped in, anyways. 

N fought against the urge to slip back into wonderful sleep-mode, despite the pain in his CPU and the coziness of the cuddle-pile. Instead, he did his best to recall some of the events that had brought them there. 

But then something — No, someone, shifted. 

N glanced down again and was met with the sight of V blinking her digital, lemon-yellow eyes open. Immediately a neon yellow icon flickered with a question mark at the corner of her screen, before she looked up and their gazes met. Then her eyelights blinked again, seeming surprised to see him. But as soon as she recognized her position, her screen lit up with simulated blush. 

V sat up — She snapped her head down to see Uzi still in her arms — Then looked back at N as if he might know what was going on. 

Uzi, who had been jostled out of deep-sleep-mode, made a face in response to the disturbance as though she was annoyed that her favorite pillow had suddenly gained sentience. She slowly opened one lavender eye-light — Which turned her annoyance into shock.

The mauve-haired worker drone sat upright, her visor aglow with lavender blush. She looked at V, who still held her. Then looked to N, who was still trapped under V. Uzi's digital eyes blinked again. Then her screen became obscured by a buffering icon. 

After a long moment, her mauve eye-lights loaded back onto her visor. 

N gave them both a sheepish look, and whispered, "Um. Hi." 

"Hey," Uzi said. She glanced between the two disassemblers. It had to be night-time by then.  "Uh, goodnight?" 

V added her own confused, "Hello?" 

"So..." Uzi prompted, but trailed off and went silent. N noted that her missing beanie hat was on his nightstand. He then noted that his own hat seemed to be gone, too. 

"I don't know," He said, with a head shake. "I can't remember much." What he could remember was pretty fuzzy. 

Uzi brought her hands up to hold her head. Her purple hair was messy and stuck up in some spots. "Same. I think I drank too much coolant, it's a miracle I'm even awake." 

"I didn't think I drank a whole lot," V muttered. She shifted off from N but still held onto Uzi. 

N sat up. "I wasn't even planning on drinking," He admitted. He unraveled his tail from around Uzi. 

"That might be my fault. Sorry." Uzi mumbled. Then V looked down at her, blushed, and unwrapped her arms from around the shorter girl. Uzi stayed where she was. 

"Do you remember anything?" N asked, looking at both of them. 

V shrugged her shoulders. "Not really. I think there was some kind of... game?" She guessed. Then started awkwardly trying to untangle her tail from around N's leg. He reached out to help. 

Uzi shook her head. "I don't. Part of my whole goal was to get as drunk as possible," She said, "I succeeded... I think?" 

With her tail free, V stood up. She grabbed her scarf from on the floor and adjusted it around her shoulders. She then passed Uzi her beanie hat, to which the worker drone pulled it over her messy hair. N's hat was not anywhere in sight. 

"Okay, okay. Let's start from the beginning." Uzi decided. She started to stand up, then stumbled a few steps, to which V caught her and sat her back down next to N.

Uzi groaned again. Then put her head in her hands. "I might be hungover," She muttered. Her CPU hurt. 

"Might?" V echoed sarcastically. Then she rolled her eyes in response, before spotting N's hat. She snatched it up from on the floor by his bed,  and set it atop his head. 

N smiled and thanked her. V sat with them on the opposite side from Uzi. 

"Okay, I can go first," Uzi offered. 

V nodded. "Good idea." 

"The first thing I remember was walking to the party..." 

N turned to look at Uzi and V. "You two ready?" He asked with a grin. 

V smirked. "More than ever! This is gonna be great." The taller disassembly drone girl wore her new red scarf and a sleeveless back top. Uzi thought she looked really pretty. 

Uzi nodded. She was following her two best friends. "Hell yeah," She agreed. 

The three walked down the metal hall until they reached the bunker where the party was. Thad stood outside the door, he was greeting worker drones as they came. Lots of students from their school, and even some that looked like they might have been from different colonies. Uzi wasn't surprised, since Thad was known to throw great parties. 

The jock waved at Uzi, N, and V. "Hey guys!" Thad called. 

N and Uzi both paused in the doorway. N smiled and said hello to Thad, then they high-fived. Uzi thanked him for the invite, and V gave a small wave at him as she passed by. 

The inside was already crowded. Worker Drones bumped into one another and chatted among groups. Despite the dim lighting, it wasn't very hard to see. Loud music blasted over the many annoying conversations, of which Uzi was glad for. Though to her dismay she could spot three separate couples already making-out. Gross! 

Remembering her plan, Uzi decided to make her way past the small crowd and to the oil table. Her two favorite drones followed her. She hoped her dumb idea wouldn't end too badly. 

"Does it have coolant in it?" V asked, she leaned against the table beside Uzi, while the mauve-haired worker drone grabbed herself a red, plastic cup and filled it with oil. She tried to pretend that she didn't think V looked good when she dressed up. 

Uzi took a sip from the cup. Then she nodded her head. "Yep." She took another sip of the coolant-infused oil. "JcJenson works fast but Sam works faster," Uzi mused. 

N cast Uzi a slightly puzzled look. 

"It's an expression I just made up five seconds ago," Uzi explained. She then downed the rest of her drink, and reached to grab herself another cup-full.

The goal to get herself as messed up as possible, and to forget about anything and everything bothering her, was a high priority. Nightmares, sleep, memories.

The second priority was to ask out the two wonderful, pretty idiots beside her. Uzi procrastinated the latter. 

"Oh. Cool!" N smiled. He glanced back to the door. "Oh, by the way, did either of you notice those three drones that came in after us?" He asked. 

V didn't hear him over the music. She was busy getting herself a cup of coolant. It was filled to the very edge. 

"Careful not to have too much," Uzi warned. She felt herself start to grow nice and relaxed as she refilled her cup yet again. Already she felt better than before. Perfect. 

"It's okay, I can handle my coolant!" V giggled. 

"Haha. Same." Uzi turned to N. "Do you want some?" 

He shook his head. "No thanks. Wanna go dance?" 

That was what they did next. The three moved through the crowd of various drunk idiots and closer to the music. 

But after that, her memory files began to get too fuzzy to really understand. Uzi knew she must have drank more coolant than she initially realized. 

The violet-haired Worker Drone shrugged. "That's all I can remember," Uzi said. 

She fidgeted with the end of her hoodie sleeve. With a flustered twinge, she couldn't help but wonder if anything... weird had happened the day prior. Uzi remembered planning to ask the two out, but felt her screen glow with blush at the idea that things could have escalated.

No, she scolded herself for that. Yeah, It was odd to wake up cuddling with the two disassembly drones while also in N's bed, but that didn't mean any immoral making-out had happened!! She grit her teeth. 

But Uzi still kept on nervously fidgeting with the sleeve of her new, mauve hoodie. She hadn't done anything strange, right? She worried. Oh robo-god, what if she had truly done or said something weird? 

So what if she might be a little nervous about having no clue as to whether she may or may not have tried to kiss one or both of them? It didn't matter! She was going to suppress that idea! It wasn't like she was in some stupid fanfiction, Uzi thought to herself. 

"That's okay." N set a hand on her shoulder. Thankfully, he seemed to misunderstand the cause of her nervous tick. Uzi gave him a small smile. 

"I guess it's my turn now," V started. She rubbed at her visor and pressed her eye-lights shut. Her CPU ached, of course. 

N nodded. "Yeah, go ahead." 

V cleared her voice box. She explained, "A while after we got to the party..." 

The music was blaring way louder than V had expected. It nearly drowned out her ability to even think. She absolutely loved it! 

Some random song played over the chatter of drunken conversations. But V wasn't paying attention to that. She was busy watching Uzi try and fail to dance with N. He kept holding her up, because every time she spun around she got too dizzy and nearly fell over. 

It was hilarious. And adorable. V giggled at the sight, as Uzi once again tried to spin around only for N to catch her. Then V took another sip of her coolant. The dark mix of ebony and blue-ish liquid swirled around in the red plastic cup. She turned away to go and fetch herself some more, but something collided into her side. She stumbled back but didn't fall. 

V looked down at the worker drone who had bumped into her. 

The stranger apologized, "Oh, sorry." Then looked at her, and smiled. The worker drone was short, yet still taller than Uzi. So maybe that meant V was just tall. 

"T's okay," V muttered, with a shrug. She was about to continue on her way to get more coolant-mixed-oil when the stranger continued to talk to her. 

"Oh, wait." They paused. "You're one of those disassembly drones. N or V?" They asked. Eye-lights coloured like deep, blue water flickered over to glance past V and look at where Uzi and N were together. 

"Uh, yeah, I'm V." The silver-haired girl nodded. V didn't exactly understand why the random Worker Drone wanted her attention. 

The blue-eyed worker drone continued, and introduced herself, "I'm Beverly." She was dressed in a cropped, grey shirt that matched her running shoes. Her shorts covered the torn fishnets she wore. 

"Those two beautiful drones are Onyx and Ace," Beverly said while pointing over at two other worker drone students. Who were actually on their way over. One of them, with green lights, looked kind of excited. 

The disassembly drone girl looked back at where Uzi and N were. Uzi was trying to steal his hat. V giggled softly. When she looked back to Beverly, there were three of them. 

"Is that Uzi Doorman and N?" Asked the second worker drone, the same one with those green lights. He wore a striped sweater and two different coloured boots. 

"Why? What do you want with them?" V asked. She didn't understand what was with all of the questions. 

Beverly shook her head. Her split-dyed pink and blue hair swished. "Nothing crazy, don't worry." 

"We wanted to say thanks to you three!" Said the green-eyed guy. He smiled. 

V blinked. A digital eyebrow popped onto her screen, to raise in a curious look. "For what?" She prompted. 

"Uh, You basically saved the whole planet! Remember?" That came from the third drone — The one with white eye and body lights. They had long black hair tied in a braid. They wore a short sleeved shirt for some band that V didn't recognize, layered over a long sleeved white one. V wondered if they got cold easily or something. 

"Of course she remembers, Onyx!" Chirped the second guy. 

"Oh. That." V frowned. Bad memories. Very bad memories. She wanted more to drink. "You're, uhm, welcome? I guess." She said with a forced smile. Saved the planet? That was more or less one way to say it... 

Beverly grinned. "Don't sweat it." 

"I bet you three think you're the best trio on Copper-Nine, huh?" The black-haired one — Onyx — seemed to joke. A playful glint to their eyes. 

V shrugged. She was glad to take another sip of her drink, but not much was left in the cup. "Pfft. Maybe." Obviously N and Uzi were the best. Stupid toasters. 

Ace put his hands together and smirked. "Well, how about a friendly game?" He asked. Then his smile softened. "You know, seeing as we're three, too." 

V blinked a few times. She didn't know what that meant. She focused more on the first half of what he had said. "Oh? A game?" She echoed. 

"Hell yeah!" Beverly cheered. "Let's get more drinks, and you—" She pointed at V "— Please, Introduce us!" 

But she didn't have to, because that was when Uzi dragged N over.  Uzi was wearing N's hat. His white hair was surprisingly neat, considering V had never seen him without the pilot hat. She looked away and tried not to blush. Those stupid idiots just didn't give it a rest. They always had to be adorable. 

Uzi smiled wide and wrapped her arms around V. Which made the disassembly drone blush anyway. "Vvvvvvveeeeeeeee!" Uzi giggled. She dragged out the one letter as much as she could. 

"Uuuzzzziiiii!" V returned the greeting. She ruffled Uzi's violet hair with one hand, then looked back at N. "Wanna play a game?" She asked. 

"Fuck yeah! Let's play a game!" Uzi growled. She pulled herself out of the hug and grabbed N by his coat to push him next to V.

N stumbled some, and tried to give V her space. He blushed and laughed. "Hey, so maybe don't give her anymore coolant, please?" 

"Whaaattt? But i'm having fun." Uzi frowned. "I finally stopped thinking about the eldritch horrors!" Uzi rolled her eye-lights at the two.

N gave a nervous laugh. "Well that's slightly alarming..." 

Then Uzi turned and looked the other group of three up and down.

"Who are they?" She asked, narrowing her eye-lights. 

"I'm Bev," Said the drone with multicoloured hair. She pointed at the green-eyed guy wearing a sweater and said, "That's Ace." Then she pointed at the third drone with black, braided artificial hair. "Aaanndd Onyx," She ended. 

"OoOkay." Uzi nodded. Then she blinked very slowly. "Where's the game?" She deadpanned. 

Onyx put their hands on their hips. "We came up with it!" They said. "So we're competing in teams, is that cool?" 

"Yes!" Uzi chirped. She grinned again and grabbed hold of N's hand on her right side, and V's hand on her left. "I want these ones! ...To be mine! ...On my team!" She declared. N and V both blushed a yellow glow on their screens, and then muttered in agreement.   

Ace nodded. "Yeah. So you three are a team, and we're a team." He said as he gestured from Uzi, N, and V, to himself and his own team. 

Bev piped up, "It's a drinking game, by the way. So if you think she shouldn't drink anymore then—" 

"I'm sober!" Uzi interrupted, very loudly. With a wide smile.  

V snickered. "Please don't lie if you're going to be so terrible at it," She said. 

N looked at the mauve-haired girl. "Uzi, are you sure thats a good idea? You'll be awfully hungover." He told her. 

Uzi let go of their hands to hold out both her own hands in thumbs-up. "I can handle it," She chirped. Then she took V's hand in hers again. She tilted her head and gave him a look. "Pleeeeease, will you play the game with us?" 

N smiled. "Okay, okay. If you're sure. But either V or I will walk you home just to be safe."  

"Yeah!" Uzi cheered. She took N's hand, too. 

Beverly beamed. "Awesome. Let's go set up!" She said. The worker drone turned and began making her way through the crowd alongside her two partners. Uzi, N, and V, all followed after them. 

As the two groups passed through the crowd in the living-area, and headed toward the kitchen, Onyx turned to face V and started to explain the game further. "It's pretty simple. There's some cans of coolant hidden around in the kitchen and living-room," They said. 

Ace nodded. "And your team will work together to try and find as much as you can," He added. "So the team that has the most coolant-cans after the timer runs out is the winning team. At least, for the first round." 

"It's kinda like a test on teamwork, ya know?" Onxy said, he grinned and threw an arm around Ace. 

Beverly rolled her eye-lights at the two, and laughed. "Pfft. So anyways, the rules are obvious." She told the groups, "Don't do anything dangerous or try to sabotage the other team!" 

N said something in agreement that V didn't hear. She nodded along to the rules. That was fine, she thought. They could still win even if they played fair. 

The kitchen was larger than she had expected, and still somewhat full of partying Worker Drone students. V wondered if the size of the bunker was one of the reasons why Thad could get away with throwing parties. The kitchen was mostly dark colours all over, just like the rest of the places in the colony. There was a black island table in the center of the room with a shiny, marble countertop.

Beverly and her two partners moved to stand at one end of the island table. While N, V, and Uzi went to the opposite end. 

On the counter was a small, round object. Beverly grabbed it and passed it over to another Worker Drone who was next to her. The Drone had red hair, and she waved at the group, with a friendly smile on her face. Then Beverly looked back at them and explained, "That's our timer. Ruby here is going to set it for five minutes." 

Ruby fidgeted with the timer for a second, and then set it down in the center of the table. There was a small button on top of it. "That's set! Ready?" She asked. 

Onyx cheered, "Hell yeah!" 

Ace nodded. "Definitely." 

Beverly passed her phone to another drone and said something. Then turned back to Ruby. She gained a much more determined look. "Absolutely," She said. Then looked back. "You guys?" She asked the other group. 

N smiled. "I think we're ready," He told her. 

Uzi put her hands on the table and leaned toward the timer. "Yeah! Let's go!" 

Ruby pressed the little button with a click. The five minutes began to tick away. 

Beverly and her group promptly broke away from the table. A few small groups of party-goers had gathered to watch the game. Uzi grabbed both of her disassembly drones by their hands and dragged them toward the living area to begin the search. 

V saw Onyx snatch a can of coolant from a fake plant. On the other side of the room, Beverly was lifting up Ace to help him reach a second can. 

Feeling herself grow determined to win, V scanned the area for her new target. Her systems caught sight of exactly what she wanted to find: A coolant can, which was only partially hidden on top of a bookshelf. 

Uzi had taken notice of that same can, too. The shorter Worker Drone darted over and tried reaching for the object. "V! N!" 

V was with her in an instant. She scooped up Uzi in her arms and held the girl up so that she could snatch hold of their prize, before then tossing it down to N. 

"Do you see any more?" He asked. His marigold eye-lights darted around the room, eagerly searching for the new target. 

Uzi looked around too, and after a moment she pointed to the doorway that led from the main area to the kitchen. "There's one there!" She said. True to her word, above the doorframe and perched delicately on the edge of its metal trim, sat another decently-sized can of coolant. 

The three went over to the doorway. N picked Uzi up and she retrieved the second can of coolant from above the door. She dropped it down to V, and the disassembly drone caught it with ease. 

At the other end of the room, Beverly and her two partners were just collecting their third coolant can. Onyx threw their arms up and cheered. Ace was taking pictures with his phone. Beverly rolled her eye-lights in an amused response to the two, yet again. 

Uzi opted to search the kitchen while the opposite team was busy. She gestured to N, and he nudged V to follow them back to the kitchen. 

At first glance V didn't spot any hidden coolant. But as she narrowed her optics and scanned carefully, a third object blinked into her view. Behind a drying-rack for dishes. She snatched the can up with her tail and deposited their small haul onto the countertop. 

Near the other end of the room, Uzi pulled a can out of a fake plant pot. She handed it to N and the taller boy walked up beside V to add the fourth prize to the table. Just as he did so, the small device that sat in the center began to ring.

Uzi made a face at the unpleasant sound, while V suddenly found Disassembly Drone hearing to be a bit of a curse. After a moment, Ruby stepped up to the table from the crowd and took the thing in her hands. She pressed the button on the top and the ringing stopped. Then, the red-haired Worker Drone poked her head into the living-room and called for Beverly. 

With the five minutes done, the other team hurriedly stumbled into the kitchen. Beverly held some cans in her arms. She went to the opposite end of the table and set down her team's collection. Onyx and Ace stayed on either side of her. Ace continued to take pictures of both the hauls. 

"Awesome. You guys are fast!" Ace grinned. He passed his phone to some other drone and asked them of something inaudible. 

Beverly clasped her hands together. "Hey River, be a darling and get us some plastic cups!" She said to a brown-haired drone. 

The brunette drone cast her a confused look. "Sure. But wait, why? It's already in cans..." 

"It's more fun with the cups, though!" Beverly said matter-of-factly. She put her hands on her hips. "And those cans are kind of a lot at once."

The brown-haired drone smiled wide and held a hand over their visor in a salute. "On it, princess Bev!" They said. Then darted away into the sea of drones. 

"Thanks!" Bev called. She turned to the table and leaned against it, while eyeing the two collections of coolant cans. Each team had four, and for a second V wondered if it was a tie. But Beverly continued, "You ready? This next part is where the real fun starts." 

"But after that? It's pretty hard to remember." V frowned. She wondered who had won the game. 

"There's no way I said any of that!" Uzi objected. Her visor was flushed with a lavender blush.  

"You did. You were acting like such a dork!" V snickered. She crossed her arms and leaned back against N's pillow. 

Uzi frowned. "Was not. That was the coolant, not me!" She retorted. 

V shrugged. "You aren't the only one who drank. I mean, I wasn't silly." She said. Then looked up to the boy next to her. "Right, N?" 

N blinked. A sweat droplet icon appeared on his screen. "Uuh..." 

Uzi's face broke out into a wide, shit-eating grin. "Hah! So I wasn't the only one who acted like a dork!" She laughed triumphantly. 

V felt her visor gain yellow blush lines. Suddenly she wondered if she had done or said anything embarrassing. "Whatever! And I want to know what happened next. I mean, who won that game?" She changed the subject. 

N nodded. "Yeah! I wonder if we won," He mused.

"I bet we did," Uzi said certainly. She looked at N and asked, "Do you remember?" 

He thought for a moment. "It's a bit fuzzy..." N began. "But I think after that..." 

The groups had moved to the other room. The dining table had been lined edge to edge with plastic cups, each of them then filled to the very brims with coolant. The opened, empty cans they had all collected, that once held the coolant from the game prior, had been tossed aside. 

The second half of the game was simple: Finish off your team's half of the drinks before the opposite team. 

At the other end of the table, Beverly, Onyx, and Ace were nearly finished with their drinks. Beverly took a long sip from a cup before crushing it in her hand and cheering. She wasn't the only one to cheer, seeing as more students had gathered to watch the game. 

N eyed the coolant on his own team's side. Uzi stumbled as she reached for another cup, and her eye-lights blinked slowly. V bumped into her, which nearly knocked Uzi over, though the disassembly drone girl caught her shorter companion. 

It was then that N realized just how far behind their team was. They weren't winning anymore. And his two best friends definitely needed some help if they were going to finish off the whole table in time. 

N gave a small chuckle as he reached for a cup. So much for staying lucid all night, he thought with amusement. He downed the contents of the first cup, to find that the taste was far from bad. He licked his lips and snatched up a second cup of coolant. N's tail swished behind him. He wanted them to win. 

It didn't take long after that before the coolant did its job. N felt himself get woozy, and maybe a bit warm. It definitely wasn't a bad feeling.

Their side of the table was nearly finished. Uzi groaned, and then she flopped down onto the floor and slurred out, "AaAveNnge... mMmeEe...!" 

Beverly and her two partners looked like they had begun to struggle on, with Ace also opting to flop down beside Uzi. The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Ace held up a hand to try and high-five Uzi. The Violet-haired girl begrudgingly high-fived her competition. 

With N's help, their half of the table quickly depleted. Only a mere two cups of coolant remained, one of which V grabbed and was swift to down. She threw the empty cup onto the floor, and then tossed her head back and cackled maniacally.

The final drink was stolen by N, to quickly be finished. When he looked up he saw Beverly had slumped against the counter. Onyx kept giggling while taking pictures on their phone. And despite the other team having beat her group's team, Beverly still had a wide grin on her face. 

"Wee haave a winnersss!" She cheered. 

Ace lifted his head from where he lay on the floor. "YeEe-haww!" 

V threw her arms in the air. "FuUuck yeEAah!" 

N laughed. Drunken giggling, mostly. His tail swished beside him. "Yeaahh! We did it!" 

"AwesoOome!" Onyx laughed. They stumbled over, phone in hand, and gestured to Beverly. They slurred out, "M'kay, it's picturesss timme for the winnerss." 

Beverly went up to the others. Ace helped Uzi to get up, and find her footing. She decided to just lean against N for support. He wrapped an arm around Uzi and held her up. V reached out and took Uzi's hand in hers, to which the violet-haired drone smiled and intertwined their fingers together. Beverly held out her phone above herself and a flash went off, then she tucked her phone into her pocket. 

She glanced back up at the three. "YoUu cool with us possting thaat on InstantJam? Annnd maybe a few othersss?" Beverly asked. 

"YeEah!" Uzi chirped. She kept on giggling. "Yoouu can maybe mention mee, I'm DarkXwolf-Seventeen." 

The Worker Drone nodded. "Yyeah! I will." She turned and grabbed her two partners, Ace and Onyx, by their hands. "Do yoou three havve someoNe tO take you home?" She asked. 

"Yeah. Me." 

"She means us. Because I'm just as useful, thanks." 

Lizzy was at V's side, with her arms crossed and an amused smirk on her face. Her screen displayed extra digital eyelashes, and she wore a sparkly pink dress. Next to Lizzy was Thad. The jock waved at the group. 

"Hhiii LizZzYy," V greeted her friend with slurred speech. The Disassembly Drone beamed a wide grin, her sharp teeth glimmered. 

Lizzy shook her head. "Girl, how did you even drink so much?" She asked V. 

The silver-haired drone laughed. "HAavin' fUn!" She exclaimed, as she wrapped an arm around N. 

"Okay, same. But the party is getting kinda boring now so I'm gonna take you and your idiots back to your rooms." Lizzy said. She brought a hand up to fluff her hair. 

"Hey, it's not boring," Thad said, "It's just that my parents are kinda gonna be back soon." He crossed his arms and a nervous sweat icon blinked onto his screen. "I gotta clean all this up..." 

Uzi blinked slowly. "Oookay. I kinNnda wanNa lAy doown noW," She groaned. The Worker Drone started to go limp in N's arms. He looked down at her and blinked slowly. 

"Yeah I bet," Thad mused. 

Beverly cast them a puzzled look. "WHo are yOu?" She questioned. "I mean, noT you, ThaAad!" 

The jock pointed to the blonde. "That's Lizzy." 

Ace looked at Uzi. "You knoOw her?" 

Uzi had a shit-eating grin on her face. "I cut one oF heEer poOnytails oFf in yeEaar twoOo!" She proudly announced. 

"She's mYy besSst frienNnd and I looVvve herr soOo muCh," V slurred out. 

Lizzy smacked the center of her own visor with one hand and groaned. Then she sighed. "Okay, okay. Love ya too, V." She said before she wrapped an arm around the Disassembly Drone and helped her stay upright. 

"OkAyy," Beverly said, "Thankss for the GAmee!" Then she grinned and turned away. The three partners stumbled off, making their ways through the slowly dissipating crowd and towards the exit. 

"BYyeEe!" N waved at the group as they went. He stumbled slightly when he turned to face Lizzy and Thad again. 

Thad reached out to hold N up. "Woah, be careful."

N still had Uzi in his arms. The Worker Drone blinked slowly as she started to slump down from his loose hold. Thad went up and hooked his arms under Uzi's. He casually stole her away from N, to which the Disassembly Drone made an annoyed face. Uzi was too busy mimicking duck sounds to notice. 

"Sorry buddy. You can have her back once you can both actually stand up," Thad said apologetically. 

Lizzy started to go to the door, but then V opted to no longer lean against her friend for help. Instead she grabbed N by the hand and dragged him toward the exit. Thad and Uzi followed after them.

The two Disassembly Drones each staggered out of Thad's bunker while giggling like idiots. The jock followed after with Uzi. Their stumbling footsteps echoed in the metal hall. It felt more than quiet, in comparison to the loud chatter and music from before. After a moment V leaned against N, who wasn't able to offer much support and wobbled as though he might fall. 

Lizzy wrapped an arm around V and pried her off from him. She did her best to hold up the taller drone. Yet again. "If you throw up on me I swear," Lizzy muttered. 

V groaned in annoyance but didn't fight. Her tail flicked left and right. 

"Don'T sWwear pleEease," N mumbled. 

Uzi cheered, "WoOoOoOooOo!" 

It didn't take long after that for the group to reach the dormitories. Minus the stumbling along and switching turns to help the others walk. Lizzy had watched N fall down at least three times. Uzi had somehow created her own language, that of which V managed to understand fluently. Thad couldn't decipher it. But still, the trip back to the dorms was a quick one. N's was the closest, so that would be where they stopped first.

Thad paused in front of the door to N's dorm room. He looked back at the Disassembly Drone, who was leaning on Lizzy for support. Meanwhile, Uzi made the decision to lay down on the floor. "This is your room, right?" Thad asked him. 

N nodded. He smiled wide and chirped, "YyEaaH!" 

Thad scooped up Uzi once more. "Don't lay there," He mumbled.

Then he looked up at N. "Okay cool. You should go and get some sleep, N&Ms," He told his friend as he nodded towards the door. 

"GoodDAy," N said. He grabbed the key for his room out of his pocket. Then walked into the door face-first with a thud. 

Thad didn't know if he should laugh or not so he just blinked a few times. Lizzy definitely snickered to herself. "Yep, goodday," Thad said. He snagged the key from N, unlocked the door, and opened it for him. 

N smiled. "Thaank yoUu," He slurred. 

"You're welcome," Lizzy responded with a smirk. She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "This automatically redeems me for all of those times I insulted Uzi, by the way." 

Thad looked back at her. "You what." 

V interrupted. "I'm hUungry. Caan I havEe yoUr arm?" She grabbed Lizzy by the arm and pointed at her. 

"No," Lizzy told her. She pulled her arm away from the Disassembly Drone. 

Uzi wriggled out of Thad's arms and stumbled over to V. "YOu can haVe minE," Uzi slurred out with a wide grin. "Biiiiite... mEeeEe?" She leaned against V's side. 

V shook her head. "Nnoo." She reached up and patted Uzi on her head a few times. 

Lizzy grimaced. The blonde drone shook her head. "Okay, it's time to leave before I hear things I don't wanna hear," She said. 

N rolled his eyes and muttered, "It'sss NOot likE thAt!" From his place in the doorway. 

"We... will GOo now," V said. "GoOdDaay!" Then she wrapped her arms around Uzi and the two staggered over to the doorway beside N. 

Lizzy gained a puzzled look. "Wait, V, your room is that way." The Worker Drone pointed down the hall, in a vague gesture. 

V shook her head. "I am stAyinG hEre," She retorted. 

Uzi giggled from her spot in V's arms. "MeEe toO!" 

N beamed. "OoOh yaAy. IT's a SleEpoVer," He chirped, with slurred words. His tail swished at his side. Lizzy eyed the sharp end and took a step back, just to be extra safe. 

"Is that a good idea?" Thad questioned. He glanced back at Lizzy. 

She shrugged. "I don't know. It probably won't hurt?" Lizzy was only guessing. But really, what was the worst that could happen? 

Thad looked back at N. "Eh, okay fine." 

Uzi celebrated by tossing her arms up and shouting, "YyyAaAyyy!" 

With that, the jock and the popular girl made sure the three idiots were safely locked in the dorm before they parted ways. Thad left to go clean up his place before his parents returned, and Lizzy went to get home before her father. 

Those three idiots, of course, each staggered into the dark room after one another. Uzi flopped down onto N's bed, V followed after. N's pilot hat fell from her head and bounced down onto the floor. Uzi tossed her own beanie away, then wrapped herself up in his blanket. V wrapped her tail around Uzi and pulled her close. 

N yawned, then turned and crawled up the wall some, he was just looking for something to wrap his tail around so that he could sleep upside-down. 

"WhAt are yOu doiNg?" Uzi asked. She was playing with V's scarf and admiring the sparkles on it. 

N found a spot, there was a small bit of silver pipe that stuck out from the metal of the ceiling. He wove his tail around it. "SleEep..." 

Uzi patted the mattress on the space beside her.  "Overr herE...?" She prompted, with slow speech. 

N looked down at the two. "Huh? Ooh, cAan't." He shrugged. 

"WhYy?" V asked. She tilted her head and cast him a disappointed look. 

N hung upside-down from the ceiling. He didn't deploy his wings just yet. "Gotta givEe... youu spAace," He explained. 

Uzi laughed softly. "Noo..." She mused, "We wanna cUddle." 

The Disassembly Drone couldn't help the smile on his face. "Oh, okAyy."

He dropped down from the ceiling and staggered over to his bed.  Uzi scooted back, and gave him room to crawl up with the two. V shifted over to rest her head on his shoulder. 

"GoOddaayy," He murmured. As rest-mode called to him. 

But the other two were already asleep. Both their screens were aglow with drunken text boxes, both lemon-yellow and lavender-purple, that displayed the words: "sZsSleep moOode!"

There was a long pause. Uzi blinked slowly. 

V looked down. She kept her yellow gaze aimed at her hands, which she held in fists, on her lap. Her tail lay motionless beside her. 

Okay, N thought to himself, they had all been able to successfully string together a series of events that made sense, at least. Which proved to be a very rough, very blurry idea of what had happened, but was still pretty accurate. 

Uzi couldn't help but relax a tad, because she knew for sure that she hadn't messed anything up. She crossed her arms and shrugged. "So we did win." She said. Then smirked. "I knew it!" 

"Pfft," V snickered. Her tail gave a light flick, and her shoulders slumped. She hadn't been worried about anything, nope, not for even a second, that was what she told herself. After a moment a toothy smile broke out onto her face. "Of course we won!" 

But then Uzi paused. She uncrossed her arms. "Wait a second," She faltered for a moment. Then she cast the two Disassembly Drones each a puzzled look. "There's pictures?" 

"Ah, shit." V deadpanned. 

N shrugged. His tail swished lightly. "It can't be that bad," He assured. 

V gave a half-hearted eye-roll and said no more. But Uzi sat up and glanced around. She flipped a few pillows, and briefly hung over the edge of the bed to look under. When Uzi sat back up, V tilted her head in curiosity. What was she looking for?

"What is it?" Asked the ivory-haired Disassembly Drone. Her digital, saffron eyes blinked a few times. 

Uzi huffed. "Can't find my phone," She muttered. As she looked over the other side of the bed. Her purple hair hung messily in her face and she blew a few times to get it out of her way. Then gave up and sat back upright. 

"Can you reach my laptop?" N asked. The device might have been courtesy of the school, and was meant for assignments, but that didn't mean that N wasn't going to use it for other things. (Like JcJenson Flix™️ and Minecraft.) 

Uzi cheeped, "Of course I can! It's not like I'm short, or something." She could have been joking, or maybe not. Either way she flopped back down to hang over the side of the bed, she reached for the laptop where it sat on the floor. But it was just out of reach. 

V grinned. She felt the uncontrollable urge to make a short joke. "Ha. Shor–" 

"Bite me!" Uzi cut her off. Then she leaned back against N's pillows. She crossed her arms. "Get the thing for him, you dummy," Uzi told her. 

"You can't tell me what to do," V responded. Then she proceeded to do exactly as Uzi had told her to do, and leaned over to snatch up N's laptop and pass it to him. 

"Here!" She said sweetly, as he took his gifted electronic from her. 

N beamed. "Thanks." 

"You're welcome," V said for maybe the first time in her entire existence. 

N set his laptop between them all. He had used stickers of all sorts to decorate the top portion, opposite to where the screen was. It was all mostly dog stickers and puns. He flipped it open and went to search for the media he knew the possible pictures would have been posted to. 

He paused. "Uhh... What's the account?" 

"I dunno, but she mentioned me," Uzi said. She reached for the laptop. "Lemme log into my account and I'll be able to find it," She explained. 

N passed the laptop to her and Uzi switched the page. After a moment she put in her user and started to type out her password, but then paused. 

"Close your eyes," She muttered, half-jokingly, and put a hand in front of the laptop's screen. V rolled her eyes and then looked away. N shut his eyes and covered the ones atop his head. 

Uzi successfully logged into her account. Most of the images she had uploaded were progress updates for her sick as hell Railgun, and other very similar projects. V already knew that because she followed her. N just didn't have many accounts, okay? And besides that, Uzi hadn't posted anything in a while anyway. 

A notification had popped up among old ones. Uzi noted that the Worker Drone in the profile picture looked a lot like the girl from the party. "I think that's her," Uzi said, pretty certainly. 

Uzi clicked on the profile, and it pulled up the digital page that belonged to the Drone from the day prior. There were some images, so she began to scroll down. One of the most recent pictures, and the same one she had been mentioned in, was the first to pop up. 

The picture– Or rather, pictures, had been taken the day before. Most were of the three Worker Drones, but there was also a picture that had been taken with both of the groups together. N, V, and Uzi, with arms around one another. Next to the other two, who's names she still couldn't recall, and the Worker Drone who had posted the picture was also the one taking it. But the pictures were fine, it was the caption of one specific photo that had caught some attention. 

Guess who beat us at our favorite game?

The #1 threesome on Copper-9! 

Oh. 

Oh. 

Chapter Text

Uzi sprang up from her place on the bed and stumbled half a metre away. Her CPU still ached, of course, and the quick movement threatened to make her sick. A nervous laugh escaped her, and an even more nervous grin stretched across her face awkwardly. 

V hummed softly. She didn't seem to really care about the captions of the pictures, or the comments that had been left by other students, judging by the way the neon canister at the end of her tail flicked lightly from side to side. She turned away from the laptop and glanced up at Uzi with a frown. Carefully eyeing the way in which Uzi reacted. 

"Okay, then! I guess it's time for me to go– Uh–" Uzi stammered. She grabbed her phone from the floor, its case was dark purple, with stickers of skulls on the back, which were peeling away. That was where it had been lost to. Its screen was cracked from regular nights full of clumsiness. She shoved it into the pocket of her hoodie and turned to the door. "Gotta go do my homework, yup!"  

"Uzi, wait," N called. He shut the laptop and pushed it away. He couldn't help the way his tail twitched anxiously beside him. The Disassembly Drone fought the urge to wrap it around something. He got up and was at her side in only a moment. V stayed where she was, silently. N pointed to the laptop, and started to say, "That's–" 

"I'm ignoring that," Uzi interrupted him with a simple tone, as she gestured toward the laptop. She crossed her arms and turned away from the two Disassembly Drones. "Because it's not even a big deal," she muttered, "Because it's just some stupid pictures." Her violet gaze drifted down, and Uzi glared at the floor. "Because we're not in love." 

V couldn't believe how harsh a pang that sent through her. She looked down, and gripped the bed sheets between her metal fingers.

N visibly faltered. He subconsciously wrapped his wire tail around his own leg, the canister flicked away from himself. 

Then, after another silent moment, V grit her teeth and looked back up at the purple-haired Drone. "...Then what are we?" She asked, hesitantly, though maybe with too much bite in her tone. She glanced between Uzi and N. 

"D–Don't say that," Uzi hissed. She whirled back around to face the two. Her hands were tense, curled into fists. "Now we have to fricking talk about it," She whispered, maybe to herself, through gritted teeth. 

N bit back his own nerves. He unwrapped his tail from his leg and took a faux breath. Then he reached out and set a hand on Uzi's shoulder. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay," He said gently. 

"But we kinda have to," She murmured back. Uzi already knew that. She hadn't truly thought it could be ignored forever, but that didn't mean she didn't also think that she could make her feelings go away before then. Obviously that hadn't been the case. So yeah, she had a few things she wanted to say. "And I do want to," Uzi added. 

He brought his hand away. N couldn't suppress a soft sigh. Then he nodded his head, and gave her a small smile. "Okay. Then let's... talk." Somehow, he wasn't as nervous as he thought he would be. 

"Bite me," Uzi muttered, as she uncrossed her arms and went back over to the bed, just beside the spot where V was, and sat beside her.

The indigo-haired drone looked from N to V. "This is all your faults." She grumbled at the two. "You idiots made me care about you both and now look at what's happened." 

V slumped her shoulders. N took a seat at the edge of his bed and chewed on one of his fingers like he thought that wouldn't give away his anxiousness. 

"Same," V piped up. Then she felt her screen warm up, no doubt with some small, glowing lines of blush. "I mean uh, I care about you guys, too." She admitted. Then looked down, if just to avoid looking either in the face. "I know I don't always show it or whatever," V murmured. 

N cast her a soft look. "You do show it." He said. 

"Yeah!" Uzi nodded. Her mauve hair bobbed messily. "Don't act like you aren't a total softie." She smirked. 

"Am not," The silver-haired Disassembly Drone denied. But really, it wasn't a secret that she had been, and still was, making efforts. Of which had begun to get easier. 

Easier, V thought. That was what it was. She hummed to herself for only a moment, in a small bubble of thought. And then, before she could overthink it anymore, she took a breath and blurted out, "I think we should try it." Then V went quieter, she faltered a little. "The uh, being together thing..." She mumbled, to clarify. 

Uzi, immediately, gained wide eyes and glowing blush on her screen. The Worker Drone stammered for a moment, then took a breath and paused. "You... you do?" She echoed, softly. 

V tried not to lose her sudden wave of confidence. And maybe bravery. "Yeah. Why not?" She prompted, though as soon as V did, she realized that she didn't want to hear any possible reasons. Her silver locks drifted aside as she gave a head tilt, which provided a nice veiw of her blushing, nervous face. 

Uzi shut her mouth and looked down. Her hands fidgeted with her hoodie sleeve yet again. V watched closely, as Uzi began to chew on her bottom lip to prevent herself from smiling. Then V looked back up, at N, and examined his face a bit too closely. He seemed nervous, too. But he blushed just as much as Uzi. V wondered if she had said the wrong thing. 

N mustered up a whisper, "What if it ruins our friendship...?" He asked. His voice seemed small, but not truly uncertain. He knew that it wouldn't ruin anything at all. Still, his subconscious urge to deprive himself from any sort of happy ending was something that would be tackled and brutally killed at a later time. 

V glanced between both of them. Uzi had looked back up, sending N an unreadable look. Then V turned her golden gaze onto him, too. "What if it makes us something better?" She imitated. V tried to keep her tone more gentle, rather than challenging. If the answer was no, then the answer was no. And the rejection would be accepted. 

Uzi spoke first. She grit her teeth, took an artificial breath, and then groaned. The violet-haired girl relaxed her shoulders. "...Yeah, okay whatever. We can like... try." She said, with a smile creeping onto her features. Her simulated blush glowed bright purple. Uzi blurted out, "Let's go on a date." Then her lavender eye-lights voided and she stammered. "I mean, if you uhm, maybe wanna... ?" 

N blinked. "OH, I– We–" He stuttered. A vibrant, golden blush spread across his face. Then he gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah! That sounds fun!" He agreed. Then a bit quieter he murmured, "You mean uh– All of us?" 

Uzi gave a small nod of her head. "Yeah. Is that... cool?" She questioned. 

N smiled. His screen was partially obscured by his own blush. "Of course. I–I'm okay with it," He told them, while nodding his head right back.

V could see that his tail swished softly at his side. She couldn't hide that her own did just the same. "I'm cool with it, too." She added, a little softly. "So then..." V started slowly. "Maybe sometime tomorrow?" 

N couldn't control his grin if he tried. "That sounds fun," He said. The inside of his chest felt as if dozens of little robotic butterflies had begun to flutter around and dance. 

V crossed her arms and smirked. "Right. I'm glad we're finally all on the same page." 

"Don't act like you're so smooth!" Uzi snickered. She gave a light roll of her lavender eyes. Then her expression softened, and she nodded her head. Uzi admitted, softly, "But yeah, that wasn't... as hard as I thought it'd be..." Was it scary to say what she felt? Yeah, of course it was. Did it feel good to share? Absolutely.  

V yawned. Her fangs gleamed softly, even in the dim light. She leaned back onto N's favorite pillow. "Okay, now that the feelings thing is taken care of, I'm going back to sleep." V decided. Her CPU still hurt from the heavy drinking of the day prior.

Uzi was about to say something, but instead gave a light squeak as V suddenly wrapped her arms around her and pulled her down to rest against the Disassembly Drone's chest. N flopped down with the two, on Uzi's other side. He reached around to hug them both, and rested his head on V's shoulder. 

"What am I? A fricking teddy-bear?" Uzi grumbled sarcastically. But she didn't sit up. 

As in cute and cuddly and nice to hold? V wondered. She hummed, "Yup." 

Uzi huffed. "Hrrmp." But despite it, she turned and nuzzled her face into the crook of N's neck. To which he gave a soft, happy hum. 

Maybe some more sleep wouldn't be so bad. 

That wasn't the last time their relationship would be discussed, however. A few hours later, each of the three had crawled out of sleep-mode once more and then gone their separate ways to begin another night. Luckily, one with no classes to attend. 

V crossed one leg over the other, she was comfortably seated at the edge of a plush, pink bed with far too many decorative pillows and stuffed animals. Her wire tail gave a small swish, the nanite acid in the canister at the end glowed softly. The Disassembly Drone gave a light eye-roll as she watched the reaction that was given to her from her best friend. 

"Oh my gosh, V!" Lizzy squealed. The Worker Drone had a massive grin on her face. And she clasped her hands together. "You finally asked them!?" 

V nodded, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah. I mean, I sorta did that," She said. "Technically it was Uzi who said we should go on a date. But me and N agreed!"  

Lizzy plopped herself down at V's side. Some of the decorative pillows bounced and the mattress gave a tiny squeak. She gave an intense stare to the Disassembly Drone. "Tell me everything." 

V laughed quietly. In truth, she was giddy about having finally reached such a point. Obviously she was really excited for the date. Though, she also bit her lip in an equal anxiety. So what if maybe V had never been on a date before? ...That didn't mean she couldn't still figure it out. 

"We only started talking about it just tonight –" V told her. "About being together." 

Lizzy nodded along with what V said. Then she asked, "So it went okay?" 

"Yeah, actually." V mused. Then she quickly added, "Er, of course it did. I knew it would." 

"I knew it." Lizzy smirked. She leaned back and brought up a hand to fix her hair. Even though it was already perfect. "This is awesome! I'm like, happy for you," Said the blonde. "Which is crazy because I never feel that way for anyone." 

"Thanks." V murmured. She watched as Lizzy snatched her phone from her nightstand and the screen lit up. Lizzy's phone was nothing like V's own. The screen didn't have a single crack or scratch, meanwhile V dropped her own at least a hundred times a night. In her opinion the glass should just be stronger. 

"The pictures are soo cute, by the way." Lizzy held up her phone to show V, yet again. 

The silver-haired girl murmured another thanks. Then after a moment, spoke again. "We're going out tomorrow night," V said. "I think we're gonna watch a movie. I hope we can bring food, too."  

Lizzy tossed her phone aside. It vanished into the mass of decorative pillows. V almost felt sorry for the small device. Lizzy cheeped, "I'm helping you get ready, no arguing about it!" And held up a finger in front of V. 

"Okay, okay." V smiled. Something about friendship made her understand why N always craved it. She nudged Lizzy's hand away. "I still want to be casual, though." 

Lizzy waved a hand dismissively. "Fine, fine. So long as I get to do your hair." She put her hands on her hips and cast V a smug grin. "You need to be extra hot for your boyfriend and girlfriend!" 

"Lizzy!" V hissed indignantly. There was no way in robo-hell for her to hide the vibrant blush that took over her screen. 

"What? It's true now." Lizzy said with a shrug. 

N took the bottle in one hand. The small, metal chips inside of it rattled softly as he did so. "Thanks, Thad," N said. He gave his friend a thankful smile. 

Thad nodded, and returned his own grin. "No problem. I mean, it was literally my party that you got so messed up at," He said with a slight shrug. 

"It was fun, though. And worth it." N chirped. He still had to try his best to stay away from any of the lights nearby, since his headache hadn't gone away. Unfortunately for him, the band of yellow eyes atop his head jist had to be so awfully sensitive; Likely because of his ability to see in the dark. But N was lucky enough that he had a friend who could willingly bring him the wonderful gift of anti-pain chips, right to his dorm room.  

Thad leaned against the doorway. "Yeeaaahh, I could have guessed so," He drew out that first word like he wanted it to try to reach a specific number of letters. 

"Ooh, right. You saw?" N realized. He forced a nervous laugh as he remembered that most of his classmates had likely seen those pictures. Internally he opted to focus on that when his head didn't hurt so badly. 

The green-eyed drone nodded in confirmation. "The photos got a bunch of kudos, at least," Thad said. Then he stood up straight and continued to speak. "But hey, did everything go okay with V and Uzi?" He asked N, his tone and voice went a little softer. 

N really couldn't control the smile that overtook his features at the mention of his two favorite drones. "Yeah!" The ivory-haired boy exclaimed. Then he paused, to lower his voice a tad bit. "We talked and stuff," He said, trying to sound calmer than he was. 

Thad relaxed and crossed his arms. "Awesome. It's cool that you three finally figured it out." 

N nodded. "I think so. We're going on a date." 

"Hell yeah, N&Ms!" Thad grinned. "Where are you going?" 

"V wants food, and Uzi wants a movie." N explained. "So we're gonna find a place where we can see the stars and then set up there." He flicked his tail from left to right. 

"A rooftop might work, if you know of any stable ones near here," Thad offered. "Just, uh, be careful if you do." He had thrown a few parties on rooftops, but it tended to not be the safest thing ever. So instead he picked the stable ground, where nobody could go on a flight without wings. (Braiden was fine.)

"Honestly, it's gonna be sorta like the other times we've hung out," N went on. "Does that mean I should do something new? I know humans would get each other flowers, that seems nice. But a lot of the plants here are all kinda dead." He rambled a little bit. N certainly liked the idea, but he didn't know where he would find any flowers. 

"Hmm," Thad hummed in thought. Then he blinked, and an icon appeared on his screen, much like a green light-bulb. "I have an idea." 

Uzi scrambled up the ladder of her loft bed and threw herself onto her pillow. "Trigger! I did it!" She cheered. 

Then she immediately sat upright and smacked her head against the ceiling. "Ow. You can't ruin this, ceiling!" She muttered as she flopped back down. Her mauve hair sprawled against her pillow. Then again she sat up, slower and without hitting her head. 

From behind her favorite band poster on the wall, the little robo-bug crawled out and over to her. He jumped down and landed in one of her hands. His little eyes blinked up at her. 

Uzi hissed, "Why did I do it?! How did I do it?!" For a moment she panicked at the idea of things changing. But then she paused. Uzi shook her head, and grinned once again. "Whatever! I fucking did it!" She celebrated yet some more, and let out laughter a bit too loudly. Trigger hopped from one of her hands to her other, repeatedly. His little eyes sparkled with glee. 

There was a knock at her bedroom door. Uzi quieted. 

"Uzi?" Her father's artificial voice sounded a bit muffled from the other side of the door. 

"Shit," Uzi swore. Trigger jumped from her hand, so that he could crawl up and onto her shoulder. "I mean uhh." Uzi stammered for a minute. But quickly she shouted, "Go away I'm changing!" 

Khan sounded panicked. "Oh no, again!?" 

"What. No!" Uzi quickly responded. "I meant my clothes." That wasn't a complete lie. Other than the fact that she had changed back into her usual, favorite hoodie over a few hours ago. 

Then she sighed, softly. In the back of her CPU she knew exactly what it was that he worried about. Her solver transformation tasted bitter every time she remembered it. She was grateful for not having to go through it alone. Faintly, Uzi wondered if Khan had witnessed Nori's change. 

Khan spoke up again, calmer. "Oh, okay. Well then, take your time." He paused, and cleared his voice box. "When you have a minute, could you meet me in the living area?" The request was almost hesitant. 

Uzi blinked once, slowly. Her face took on a puzzled expression. "Uhh, okay. Yeah whatever!" 

Khan said "Thanks." Then Uzi could hear footsteps walk away, down the hall. 

She sat upright and flung herself down from her bed. Her purple-ish boots clicked against the floor as she paced back and forth. Uzi hissed and cursed under her breath. "FuckFuckFuck." 

Trigger clung onto her shoudler as she went. The little key-bug swayed as she paced and he did his best to hold on. Uzi noticed this and stopped. "Oops," She mumbled. "Sorry buddy."

Then she scooped the bug up into her hands and looked down at him. Uzi set Trigger on her desk carefully. The robo-bug walked in a circle before he sat down and stared up at her with his tiny eyes. Uzi opted to sit in her chair and prop her arms up on the desk.

"We posted a bunch of pictures last night. A lot of them kindaaa make it look like... we're in a relationship." She said. "Sooo... I'm preeeeetty sure that he wants to talk to me because somebody showed those photos to Khan," Uzi explained. She groaned in annoyance. "This is gonna suck!" 

Trigger blinked up at her. His antenna twitched and he tilted his head to the side. Above his head he blinked a text box that displayed the words: That's rough. 

Uzi sighed. "Yeah. Not exactly excited to see how he's gonna react." She muttered. 

After procrastinating for the next twenty minutes, Uzi had run out of space on her arms to draw. So with a sigh, and with her boots dragging along the floor like blocks of ice, she left her room and walked down the hallway. Trigger was hiding in her hoodie pocket, and he gave a small chirp of support. 

Uzi peered into the living area. She could see Khan was sat on the couch, staring at the TV as JcJensonFlix™️ displayed some show or movie. Khan looked over, and made no readable expression at her presence. He flicked the TV off. "There you are." 

Uzi awkwardly stepped out from the hallway. "Hello, hi, hey." She waved one hand, while shifting her weight from one foot to the other. 

"Why don't you have a seat?" Asked her father. He shifted over on the couch, despite not needing to. 

The mauve-haired girl shook her head quickly. "Nahh... I'm good," She replied. 

Khan nodded. His white eyes met her. "Alright. So uh, there's something I wanted to talk to you about." He began. 

"Oh. And uh, what could that be?" Uzi questioned. She forced a smile onto her face and gave a pretend laugh. "I bet it can't be serious. Or anything." 

He sighed. Then looked up at her. "Uzi, I know that you and the Murder Drone are more than friends." Khan said. Uzi tensed up. He continued, "I'm not mad, I just want to know... Why did you not tell me?" 

Uzi forced her shoulders to slump. She felt a bitterness rise up in her CPU when he said that one word. "...Firstly, could you please not call them that?" She requested, curtly. Or more so, it wasn't a request at all. Uzi muttered, "And really, there was nothing to tell you." Which was truthful. It had only been an unreciprocated crush until this evening. 

Khan nodded his head. But then he paused, and seemed to think about what it was that he wanted to say. He started, almost cautiously. "You didn't ever say that you like girls." 

Uzi faltered. She tried not to respond too defensively, but it wasn't like that small fact had been something discovered recently. She had years to tell him, but didn't, despite there not being any sort of issue. Plenty of drones in the colony had same-gender partners. Plenty of drones had multiple partners, too. Uzi had just never deemed it important enough to say. Much like other things about herself. "So? It's nothing new." She said. "And we're robots, so anyway gender doesn't matter." 

"I didn't mean it like that." Khan reasoned. Of course he didn't. He wasn't like that. No drone was. It didn't make sense for a robot to care about that sort of thing. He said, "I just wish you had... talked to me." Genuinely, he frowned, disappointed maybe. "I want to know how you're doing." 

Uzi gave in and sat on the couch beside Khan. She crossed her arms. "That might take a while, honestly." She told him. Maybe she sounded rude, but it was the truth. "And besides, I kinda wanted to give you a break. After all the other stuff..." She admitted, quieter. Who would want to give him more news after all of what had happened? Not Uzi. 

It went silent for a few minutes. Uzi wondered if the next part would include him telling her to stay away from her Disassembly drones. To which she would not listen. But then, he spoke up, softly. "...There are no breaks in life. Especially not when... when you're a parent. And I signed up for that." Khan said slowly. He reached out and set a hand on her shoulder. "You're my daughter and I love you," He told her. "I really am trying to fix things... But you've also gotta let me." 

"...Thanks." Uzi murmured. "I love you, too." Then she paused, and let a quiet moment seep in. But she spoke up again to add, "And uh, if you wanna know stuff, then I guess I could mention that we're going out tomorrow night." Uzi muttered and looked away. 

Khan crossed his arms. "In honesty, I can't say that I'm thrilled about this." He cast her a small smile. "But I promise I'll put in the effort, because I can tell that they make you happy." 

Even though Uzi believed that to be the absolute minimum, she nodded her head and said, "Thanks." With a tiny grin. 

One day could feel like a short amount of time. 

Go into sleep-mode and have a really weird dream, then wake up to attend a few classes. After that, pause for lunch. Add a few more classes. Finally it was right back to a respective dorm or bedroom when that was done. Quickly catch up on homework, or just burn it and play video games instead. Or hey, maybe eat it since the lunch tasted bad. Whatever the robotic heart desired! 

Once the sky had reached its darkest, and the stars became extra visible from the ground below, Uzi deemed it time to set up. N had texted her a location, and in response she had told him to pick up V and meet her there at a specific time. What N and V didn't know, was that Uzi had left early. Her plan had been scratched out on an old weapon blueprint, as mostly pictures, with added notes in her messy handwriting. 

She rolled the blueprint up and tucked it into her backpack. The bat wings on it seemed to flutter in the soft wind. The air felt chill, and the black sky appeared to be clear of any clouds that may try to bring snow. Uzi grabbed her bat-bag by the strap and pulled it off herself, then set it down. She rummaged around in it before she pulled out a white sheet. 

She glanced around the area, which was a circular rooftop. The fencing around the edges had fallen in some places, or were missing certain patches. The building clearly used to have many windows, before they had all been shattered. It had been constructed of cement bricks, which seemed to be what keep it sturdy after so much time and weather. So, it proved to be stable and safe enough for at least two-hundred drones to stand on. 

Uzi went up to a section of the fencing where two of the posts still stood. The posts weren't too tall, but Uzi knew she wouldn't be able to reach the top on her own. She glanced back at her surroundings and took note of the door to the stairway that went into the building. She set the sheet down and took a quick detour. 

Her footfalls created soft echoes through the empty stairway, which luckily wasn't too far. She made a swift turn to an open door and entered the room. The worker drone forced a fake cough, to dislodge any dust that threatened to get into her mouth. Uzi blinked, purple eyes that glowed softly in the dark room. Boxes and crates lined the walls end to end. Some of which had old sheets rested atop them, or old furniture that no doubt harbored whatever creepy fungi could manage to survive there.

The worker drone went up to a few boxes and opened them. Inside there were varying items. In the first box there were plates and bowls, the second held old clothes, and finally the third box had pillows. Uzi smirked as she dragged the box of pillows out to the staircase. She looked back, and spotted a foldable chair among the rest of the mess. Perfect. She grabbed it by the backrest and dragged it along with a loud screeeeech. 

Once back up the stairway, the mauve-haired drone paused and sighed. Uzi tore open the box with the pillows and emptied it out. She then kicked the empty box and watched it tumble down the stairway. She snickered. With a glance around to find a good spot, Uzi snatched up her backpack again and fetched a blanket from it. She set her bag back where she got it, and found a clean area to lay down the blanket. Uzi usually only used it for the rare occasion where her and N or V would have picnics, but now it would be just as functional. 

Next, she turned back to the pile of pillows. Most of which were square and coloured in patterns. Few were round, or spotted. Uzi placed the pillows on the blanket evenly. Vaguely the pillows made the shape of a crescent moon, before Uzi hummed to herself and reached out to fluff a few of them some more. Once she was satisfied with her work, Uzi flopped down onto the blanket. From there, she got a beautiful view of the sky. The stars above twinkled like handfuls of glitter and dust. Constellations that she had only memorized from pictures or videos, became clear and crystal. Like spider webs that stretched from each corner of the sky, dappled by morning dew. In a way that her peripheral vision couldn't catch all of. No matter how hard she tried. 

With a content sigh, the worker drone sat up. She shook her head and got to her feet once more. Uzi turned back to her bat-bag and took out some clothespins. She pushed the chair aside, and watched it unfold. Next, she took the white sheet that she had brought with her, and climbed up. Balanced about as steadily as a toaster on a toothpick, Uzi reached up and, with shaky hands, fitted the sheet evenly from one post to the other.

She was so focused on her task, that she didn't hear the beating of wings approaching. There were two soft thuds, one after the other, and then a murmur of voices. Uzi paused. She turned to step down from the unsteady chair, when one of her boots slipped. The worker drone gave a yelp. But instead of meeting the ground, she felt a familiar embrace catch her. 

"Careful!" N's voice sounded through the quiet night. Uzi looked up, met his screen with her own, and her eyes widened as she took note of the bridal carry that he held her in. N asked, "What are you doing?" With a small, curious head tilt. 

"Putting the sheet up," Uzi said. Then a blush broke out onto her face. "Hey! Put– Put me down!" She stammered. 

His vibrant yellow eyes blinked slowly. Then he seemed to realize that he was, in fact, holding her. "Oops!" N gave a light laugh as he set Uzi back on her own footing. 

"Thanks, though. It'd be a little hard to hang out with a broken screen." Uzi glanced away as she murmured her gratitude. Then she looked back to him. "Where's V?" 

N suddenly looked puzzled. "Huh? She was right next to me," He said. Then he turned around, and Uzi followed his gaze over to the pillow-nest that she had made, where a disassembly drone tail stuck out of the pillows and flicked side to side. 

"Found her," Uzi smirked.

To which V sat up, and looked back at the two. "Hi!" The disassembler called. "What's this?" 

"It's uhh, like a homemade couch." Uzi explained.

"I like it. It's cozy." V said. Then she scrambled out of the pillow fort and stood up straight. "Buuut, we have a movie to watch. Right?" 

Uzi nodded. A stupid grin took over her face, and she couldn't even try to pretend to be angsty. "Yeah! I brought my laptop so uh, you two can pick whatever and I'll set it up." 

"Thanks Zi." N said. "I have something, uh, first. For you both. If you don't mind," He stammered a bit. A few lines of blush faded onto his screen. 

"Oh yeah, of course it's cool." Uzi said. 

V made a little "ooo" sound. "What is it?" She chirped. "I wanna see." 

N nodded. Then he turned and took off the same way that he had come from. Uzi and V paused to glance at one another in curiosity. After only a moment, N was back. His hands held something that neither drone could see, just behind himself. And his visor was obscured with a golden blush. "O-Okay! So, I know they're not real but... I–I uh, I just wanted to bring something, so..." 

He outstretched his arms to reveal two flowers, one in each hand. In his right hand, outstretched for V, was a rose with multicoloured petals. Each petal was speckled with varying splotches of deep crimson, vibrant golden, and some small flecks of ebony. When she took the flower into her own hand, she could feel that the stem was smooth and soft. As were the petals, since the flower was a mix of some fabric. Closely, she could spot a dust of glitter along the edges of the petals. 

V didn't bother to hide her grin. The blush on her screen made it feel warm, and glowed bright. "Oh, it's so pretty! That's really sweet..." She murmured, as she gave a small laugh. V tucked the faux rose away, into the pocket of her jacket, where it would be safe. "Thank you."  

N beamed, his eyes practically lit up. Uzi took the flower he had gifted to her, from his left hand. The flower had five petals that each ended in points, like the impression of a star. She felt a petal between two fingers, and found that it was also made from fabric, just like the rose. The faux azalea had been coloured a deep, royal purple. Tiny white freckles decorated the petals, between each of the long noir stripes that trailed from the center of the azalea, to the very ends of each petal. 

Uzi felt her visor go flush with glowing, purple blush. "I really, really like it." She blurted, her eyes wide. A grin took over her face "But y–you didn't have to get me it!" 

N said, "I wanted to." A dusting of yellow decorated his face. And behind him, his tail swished from side to side. After a moment, he asked, "Ready for that movie?" 

Uzi nodded her head. She admired her azalea for an extra second before she hid it away in her hoodie pocket. She was going to find a place for it once she got back home. Maybe a vase? Uzi wondered. 

"Yeah! I brought batteries," V exclaimed. She snatched a baggie from one of her pockets and held it up. How did V manage to store more than just one thing in the tiny pockets of her cropped leather jacket, you may ask? Well, the answer would never be known. 

Uzi snapped her head up. "Oooh, what kind?" 

"Alkaline triple A. Your favorite." V said. 

"Hell yeah!" Uzi smirked. "Thanks," She said, as V passed the bag to her so that she could snag one of the treats. After that, Uzi popped the battery into her mouth and gave V the baggie back. She turned to her bat backpack and dug around in it for a moment. She pulled out her laptop and a small, rounded silver box, then set both items on the chair from before. 

Uzi flipped open her laptop, and prompted, "What movie do you guys wanna watch?" As she turned back to look up at the two disassembly drones. 

"Hrmm..." V hummed in thought. Then said, "Horror." But as Uzi turned back to her laptop V interrupted to change her mind. "No wait, a comedy!" 

Uzi blinked digital eyebrows onto her screen and raised one of them. "You like comedy movies?" She echoed, a bit surprised. 

V shrugged her shoulders. She didn't exactly prefer comedy. "A little. But I don't want N to get scared." 

"Hey! I'm not scared of a movie," N interjected. He flicked his tail from side to side. 

"You sure?" Uzi asked. 

N nodded his head. "Yeah!" He said, sounding very sure of himself. 

"Okay, okay. A horror movie it is, then." Uzi agreed. She clicked on the genre and her laptop's screen displayed some options. After an extra few minutes, a movie had been selected. Something about a human writer and his family going to stay at a cursed hotel. Uzi was excited for the part where the humans would die. 

But first, she took the silver box from before and connected it to her laptop with a cable. She placed the box atop the chair, and aimed it at the sheet she had hung. The projector displayed whatever it was that Uzi would decide to play on her laptop. She pressed the "start" button, and the movie began to play its opening scene. Uzi leaned back, and rested against a blue pillow where she could see the movie well. V curled up at her side, and Uzi couldn't help but feel like she had little robo-butterflies in her chest when the disassembly drone rested her head on Uzi's shoulder. The canister at the end of her tail flicked lightly against one of the other pillows. 

It didn't take a very long time — roughly half-way into the movie —  before the trio evolved right back into a pile of comfortable cuddling, similarly to the sunset from the night before. Uzi shifted to lay flat on her stomach, with her arms proped against a pillow while she held up her head in her hands. V made certain to nestle right up to N, while muttering something about it being "cold". And N had decided that out of all the pillows there, Uzi was the best one. The worker drone had to keep a close eye on the two disassembly drone tails that lazily swished, and wagged about. The sharp-ended wires continuously wound around her own arms and legs, aswell as each other's. Uzi gave an eyeroll, since it was like suddenly there wasn't any way for them to possibly control their own limbs. 

V made sure to share her batteries with Uzi and N. Except that she also made sure to keep up her own game, which consisted of swiftly stealing batteries that the others reached for, before either could get them. N found the game funny, and a few times the attention was taken from the movie to instead watch as Uzi pelted batteries at V. To which the disassembly drone girl caught each one in her teeth. 

By the time the movie had reached its end, the night air had grown colder. Uzi pondered which part of the movie was her favorite, though when she looked away from the projector screen and rolled onto her side, her CPU took on a different pattern of thought. Curled up at her side was N, who at some point had fallen into a light sleep-mode. Not deep enough to display words on his screen, but still asleep enough. N had made Uzi's shoulder his own pillow at some time, too. How the hell did he fall asleep during a horror movie? She wondered. Uzi almost laughed at that. The robo-butterflies in her chest fluttered once again at the sight of his sleeping face. He looked peaceful, and even still had a small smile on his face. 

V caught her staring. Because she was, too. "You're stuck like that now," She said with a smirk. "If you move you'll wake him." As if she wasn't just as close to Uzi by that point, with her tail wound around the worker drone's leg and her chin rested atop her head.

Uzi only hummed in response. She didn't mind not moving for a little while. If she glanced up, she had a good view of the night sky. The stars still shined brightly, like gold and white and silver gemstones against the big black ink. Suddenly she spoke up, in a small whisper. "Do you like being like this? ...Us?" Uzi asked. 

V brought up one hand and gently twirled a strand of Uzi's purple hair around her fingers. "Of course. It feels... right." She answered, slowly. Then she turned the question back around, to be sure. "Do you?" She asked softly. 

Uzi shut her eye-lights. "Yeah, yeah. It's good." She said truthfully. Her chest gave another flutter. V continued to play with her hair. 

"Mhm, I can agree with that." N said. 

"Oops. Didn't mean to wake you." Uzi murmured, opening her eyes and glancing down from the stars to look back at him. 

N shrugged his shoulders. "You didn't, it's cool." 

"Okay." Uzi let her eye-lights drift back up to the sky. Where the stars and constellations sparkled and hung in the sky, so light she felt she could reach out and scoop them into her hands. "Let's just keep being us, then." Uzi whispered. 

After a while, the three had decided to head back to the colony. The sun would be up in a few hours, and neither disassembly drone wanted to get stuck in some random building. Uzi could agree with that, too. She made sure to pack away her things, albeit not neatly. V may or may not have swiped a decorative pillow that was sparkly in a way she very much liked. 

Once they got back to the colony, N and V opted to drop off Uzi at her place first since she was the closest. They were the only drones out during that time, since the sun was slowly beginning to rise outside. Uzi paused in front of the door to her home and looked back at her disassembly drones. "Soo..." 

"Tonight was pretty fun," V said. She gave a small hum, as blush dusted her screen. She swapped one of her hands for claws, to carefully examine and pick at them as to pretend she was totally calm and chill. 

"Really wonderful!" N piped up. His tail swished quickly behind himself. 

Uzi nodded. "Yeah! We should, uh, keep doing this." She said. Uzi paused, she turned to the door and stammered. "A—Anyways, goodday." 

V put her weapon away and looked up. "Goodday Uzi," She murmured. 

"Goodday," N bid farewell. 

But as Uzi reached out for the keypad of the door, something in her chest fluttered yet again. She bit her lip, chewing up the silicone softly as she typed in the numbers a bit faster.

There would be at least a few second before the door opened, she knew. So Uzi steeled her nerves and spun around. N noticed and began to make a puzzled expression, or maybe even open his mouth to ask if she was alright, but he was abruptly cut off as the shorter worker drone planted a quick kiss on his cheek. In the next moment Uzi did just the same to V, leaving the taller girl with a surprised look. 

Uzi whipped around as the door to her home opened. "See-you-tomorrow-or-whatever-now-goodbye!" She spat out the words as quickly as she could, tripping over them a bit. Her visor lit up a blaring purple blush as she darted through the door and it shut with a clang only a moment later. 

N and V stood there for a second. Slowly, N turned to look at V, and she looked back at him. Both of them were a tad dumbfounded, with visors obscured by golden blush and eyes widened into hollow rings.  

"Oh." V said. 

N started to speak. "Did she just—" 

"Yeah," V responded before he could finish his sentence. 

N blinked a few times, a smile spreading across his face. "Ah, cool." He mumbled, softly. His tail behind him swayed just a bit quicker. 

Chapter Text

N was in the library.

He was sat in a secluded corner, his back to one of the many bookshelves. A book cracked open in front of him, the pages still fresh, yet concealed with a thin layer of dust. No one ever visited the library anymore. The drones of copper-nine — And at one point, the humans of earth — all preferred to go about their reading online. N knew that was easier in some ways, but he dearly enjoyed the feeling of paper between his fingers, the sound of the pages turning, the atmosphere of being surrounded by shelves and shelves full of books. It made him feel at home. 

Just near the outpost's school grounds, technically still on campus, there was a small library. Much of it was different from the library at the Elliot's manor. Like the size, and most of the shelves here were constructed of metal rather than wood. There were less books to choose from, and no elegant decor. N didn't mind that. He might have actually preferred it. Though, one thing remained the same: the library was always empty and quiet. For N, that also meant it was safe. 

Nostalgia could be an agonizing burden, but not tonight.  

He smiled to himself, and brushed his hand across the surface of his chosen book, watching as the dust cleared away and words were uncovered. This one read about types of birds. Such as where they once lived, what they used to eat, and how some of them mated for their whole lives.

But N was more curious about their wings. The anatomy of those wings, in specific. How different were wings of flesh and bone from wings of sharp metal? He wondered. What wings from Earth might function similarly to his own? Or Uzi's solver ones. It was a simple curiosity that had made itself known within him. N and V were the only two in the colony who had the limbs. He knew that Uzi did miss her old ones, despite the fact she never wanted to show it. N didn't blame her, he'd be upset if he lost them, too. But N also knew that Uzi would talk about it when she was ready.

An odd rustle caught his attention. Even more strangely, the sound had come from above. N looked up with confusion plastered all over his face. To his surprise he found V, her eyes glowing through the shadows as she skittered across the ceiling like some sort of spider. Very clearly searching for... something. Honestly, the weirdest part was that she was in the library during their spared time given for lunch. 

She stopped. Her yellow eyes glanced around, immediately landing on him. "There you are!" She cheeped, as a grin broke out onto her face. She scurried over to the nearest wall and climbed down. Almost instantly she was right there, sitting next to him. 

"Oh, hey." N smiled. Completely unfazed. He was just glad to see her. 

She tilted her head to one side. "Did I spook you?" She asked. 

N shrugged. "Not really," He admitted. Then he pushed his book away, and turned to face her completely. 

"Good," She hummed. "It's so much faster to get around like that, since there arent any slow-walking idiots in my way. But for some reason, it scares the worker drones when they look up and notice me."

V shifted a bit closer, examining the book sprawled in front of them. There was a smaller stack of unopened books beside him. "What are you reading?" She wondered, resting her head against his shoulder. 

"It's just... about different types of birds," He said. N looked down at the book. His visor warmed, and he knew he was probably blushing like an idiot. It wasn't his fault! He couldn't help it. Internally he was still processing the shift in their relationship. Truly, not much had changed. But somehow, things seemed different, because he knew she returned his feelings. 

"That seems nice and interesting," V said, as she swung her crimson bag off her shoulders and plopped it down beside them. Uzi had found it for her, and V was eager to cover it with decorative patches she collected. Among others, there were a few human skulls, and a lot of rainbows.

V unzipped her bag and pulled out a small box. "But why aren't you eating?" She asked, with a head tilt. 

"Oh. Uhm." N stammered. He had skipped lunch, again. But not because he wanted to avoid eating. "I had oil yesterday, so I'm okay," He explained. 

V's golden eyes went so wide that N worried she would run out of space on her screen to project the reaction. "You've only been drinking oil?!" She gasped. "What about lunch?! And breakfast! Dinner!" V sounded so panicked, this was more concerning to her than the actual end of the world and destruction of the planet. 

The only librarian on the whole of copper-nine poked her head around the corner of the bookshelf, from her place of where she was organizing some books. "Shh!" She shushed, one finger held up in front of her frowning mouth. Her pink eyes were disapproving, but not quite angry. 

N held in a nervous laugh. "Oh biscuits," He mumbled to himself. Then he smiled gently, and whispered, "Sorry Ms. Annabelle!"

To which the older drone nodded in acknowledgment of him, before turning away to resume her work. Ms. Annabelle was always nice to N, she didn't mind his presence and never seemed scared of him. He would help her put books away as often as he had time to spare. He wondered if it was partially because of the fact that she had trouble seeing, and possibly didn't know he was a murder drone. 

"Oops..." V looked guilty. Silence wasn't technically her strongest skill, unless she was hunting. But then, she was faster than her victims anyway. She looked back to N. "But seriously. Aren't you hungry?" She spoke, quieter. 

N hadn't given much attention to the idea of eating. He and Uzi shared batteries once, while watching anime, but he had never felt the urge to eat anything other than... uh, you know what. "...I don't need to eat, it's not like I'm gonna overheat." He said, slowly. A puzzled look crossed his face. Was V eating stuff that she shouldn't eat, again? Too many table legs and lamps had been lost. Very sadly. Much to Khan's despair and bewilderment... 

V snickered. She opened the box with a click. "Pfft. If you didn't bring any lunch, that's fine, I can share a little. But only since it's you." She said. 

"Huh? No, no, it's okay!" He shook his head. V should keep her things, N didn't need to eat. He would survive. 

She held out the box, revealing its contents. It had little dividers across it, and in each of them there were small objects. Chips of copper, sticks of gold, screws, and curled wires. "Did you know the worker drones here eat all kinds of stuff? Not just batteries." 

N examined the contents of the lunchbox. "Is all of that actually safe to eat?" He asked, remembering the tragedy of Khan's furniture. That poor man dealt with so much. 

V raised a digital brow in confusion. "Of course. Why do you ask?" She said, remembering the deliciousness of Khan's furniture. That rude man refused to let her eat anything tasty. 

He shrugged. "No reason." 

V held her lunch out to him. "Eat one." 

"V, it's your lunch..." N said, with a polite smile. He pushed the box back toward her. 

She frowned and put the lunch box in his hands. "Eat with me," V told him. A golden line of digital blush blinked onto her visor and she glanced away. 

Oh, so that was why she was here, N realized. His smile grew and his chest gave a flutter. "Well, since you don't mind sharing..." He murmured, as he took one gold stick, and examined it curiously, before taking a small bite. To then hum, and eat the rest. 

"Isn't it great? There's so many things here to try." V grinned. She set the box between them, and grabbed a wire to nibble on. 

N nodded his head in agreement. He had never considered eating the same food as the worker drones. He hadn't really wondered much past if it was safe, and upon noting that it was, lost interest. He took a few screws next, finding them crunchy and dense. V seemed to really like those wires, though N didn't share the preference. The two disassembly drones shared the lunch quietly. Small bits of conversation made ways through, but not much needed to be said. The peaceful atmosphere felt like full moonlight after a day of fresh snowfall. 

After a little while, N heard something shuffle. He didn't question it much, though he found himself casting a glance in the direction it came from, to which he found nothing more than a large stack of books. He was a bit confused, mostly as to why the stack had been left on the floor. Didn't Ms. Annabelle just clean up? He brushed it off. 

But then it happened again. That same exact sound. And when he looked back, still no one was there. V had noticed it, too. She didn't pay it as much attention, if anything she simply found it fun to pretend not to notice. 

He finally gave her a puzzled look and whispered, "What's that sound?" 

V tried not to laugh. She eyed the stack of books behind them, and then looked back to him. She lowered her voice. "You haven't figured it out?" 

"What do you mean?" N blinked slowly. He glanced over at the books again, but nothing seemed off. Other than the large, box-shaped construction of library books that had appeared behind them... That was kinda weird. 

V shrugged. "We're not the only ones here," She said. 

He could tell that V knew something he didn't. Curiously, he tilted his head. "Of course we aren't, this is a public space." 

"I mean, it's not just us two." She tilted her head towards the book stack. A knowing look on her face. 

N glanced back over to the pile of books. This time, he narrowed his optics and examined closer. There was a small area in the front where one nook was open. In the shadows of that window, was a pair of purple eye-lights. Amusement sparked in his CPU. "Oh, really?" 

V shushed him. "Shh. I wanna see how long she stays hidden." 

N looked back to V. He couldn't help but ask, "What's she waiting for?" 

The silver-haired girl stammered, "I—I uh, I don't know." She shrugged, gave a nervous laugh, and looked away. Her visor had gone flush with a honey-golden glow. V's optics focused on the little stack of books beside them, skimming over the covers until her attention caught onto one specific title: Animals of Australia. 

V scooped up the book, she held it out for N to see. "I wonder if there's anything in here that we've seen before," She said, flipping open the book and turning a couple of pages. 

N pointed to one of the pictures printed on the left side of the page. A small, green creature with big eyes clung to a tree branch. "I've definitely seen this," He stated. 

V nodded in agreement. She had a few different memories involving tree frogs. When it rained, they came out from where they hid, and crawled onto the windows outside the manor. She used to watch them jump around while she dusted. They were pretty weird in her opinion. But they were always harmless, which meant she didn't ever mind them. 

She turned another page. More printed pictures appeared, along with plenty of text that described the habitats and life cycles of each animal. This one, V didn't understand. It looked strange, like some sort of a very large rabbit? The book referred to it as a "Kangaroo." 

N eyed the picture closely. "Hm. I've never seen one of those," He said with a head shake. 

V murmured, "Same," and turned the page once again. She didn't like the Kangaroo as much, it seemed a little creepy. Like something Cyn would send after her. Actually, it almost reminded her of the sentinel drones. 

The next page had information about another small animal. V found that it reminded her of a fluffy mouse, but with wings and large ears. 

"These are the cutest," V said. "I've seen one before." 

"You have?" N asked, a little surprised. He had taken stronger notice of the forelimbs, adapted as wings, covered by thin membrane. That caught his attention, since the wings seemed a lot like Uzi's. 

She nodded. "Yeah, it's called a bat. One got into the manor basement and I had to take it outside." V explained, her smile growing. Then she stifled a laugh and added, "J was too scared of it." 

N's eye-lights voided. He wasn't so sure he could imagine J being scared of such a little bat. "Really? But it's so adorable!" He gave a small laugh. N would give up an arm and a leg just to see that. 

"I know." V glanced down at the picture of the bat. It was hanging upside-down, and if V knew anything it was that such a thing must mean it was asleep. She narrowed her optics, glancing from the book to the place where she knew their stalker was hidden. An idea popped into her CPU and she grinned. 

"Hey, it kinda looks like Uzi," V chirped, just a bit louder than before. 

N blinked down at the picture. "Huh. Yeah, It does." Oddly enough the bat did remind him of Uzi. The fuzzy purple-ish fur, the fangs, and it was just so adorable — Wait, no... There was probably another reason. "Maybe that's because of the wings?" He said. 

V shrugged. "More like because it's so cute," She said, loud enough so she knew Uzi would hear. 

"Oh yeah, that too," N agreed, nodding his head. If they both thought so, it was obviously just the truth. 

"I am not cute!" The indignant hiss came from the oddly stacked pile of books. N glanced up, in that direction, and V did the same. Uzi's eyes narrowed and she hushed her voice. N could still hear her mutter, "Oops." 

V grinned, she got up and went over to where Uzi had been hiding. She nudged a stack of books aside, revealing the purple-haired drone who sat there wide-eyed with a pair of binoculars, aswell as a white and red striped box of batteries. V looked down at her. 

"No! My badass fortress!" Uzi cried. 

V hummed, a victorious look on her face. "Gotcha." 

Uzi frowned, crossing her arms. "No way, someone told you I was here. I'm very stealthy." 

V leaned down and scooped her up, pulling Uzi out of the pile of books to bring her back to N while in a bridal carry. "Sorry, little bat, you've been found." 

The worker drone made absolutely zero effort to free herself. "Free me!" 

V sat beside N, still sure to keep Uzi right in her lap. "Maybe later," She mused, before then placing a kiss atop her head. 

Uzi rested her head on V's shoulder. "Traitor," She mumbled with a smile, as a purple glow faded onto her screen. 

N piped up, "Why exactly are you spying on us?" He questioned, with a puzzled head tilt. 

Uzi shrugged, nonchalantly. "I was just waiting for you to finally kiss." 

V's visor lit up with yellow lines of blush. "Uzi!" She squeaked. 

Said drone looked back up at her. "What? You're gonna kiss eventually." Uzi said with a shrug. "It's called being supportive!"   

N gave a sheepish laugh, his face was aglow with blush in a way that matched V. "Th—Thanks for the support," He murmured. "But you don't need to, uh, hide next time." 

The goth drone hummed, "F—ffine." Uzi nodded her head in agreement. She popped up, bringing V with her. "On a completely unrelated note, it's not snowing tonight," Uzi said. She held out a hand for N, bringing him to stand aswell. Then she narrowed her lavender eye-lights and glanced between the two disassemblers. "Maybe you should stretch your wings. Go for a flight together." 

V gave her an unimpressed look. "Uzi, are you seriously—" 

"Who knows, maybe it'd be romantic," Said the mauve-haired girl, a shit-eating grin adorned her face. 

Visor obscured by lemon-yellow blush, V fidgeted with her red scarf, then gave a roll of her eye-lights and huffed. "Okay, okay, we get the point! Now go hack into someone's microwave and start a fire!" 

Uzi paused. "I do not start fires. I just... happen to be near them when they spread," She clarified, with a grin. Her eye-lights narrowed and she added, "Buuut, I guess I could leave you two alone... together." Then she snickered to herself before slipping away past one of the bookshelves, out of sight.

N blinked. "Did she just... send us on a date? Can she do that?" 

V shrugged and said, "She did it." 

The idea was a good one, though. Certain weather was preferred during flight, and it had been a little while since N had been able to stretch his wings. Since moving into the colony, there weren't as many chances to get outside the bunker. N was pretty sure his wingspan was larger than his dorm room, anyway. "I'm not against the idea of going to fly," He offered. 

"Guess we're going then!" V cheeped, turning and taking his hand in her own before darting for the door. 

The two Disassemblers left the library. Once away from what was considered the campus area, V made a beeline for the exit doors of the colony. N followed close beside her. They seemed to be the only two in the hall that led to the outside, which wasn't actually odd, considering most drones would be on break at that time. 

Upon their arrival to door three, N and V found Todd. The worker drone was stacking cards into the shape of a rabbit. He glanced up at the two disassembly drones, upon hearing them approach. 

N waved. "Hey Todd. Would you mind opening the doors for us?" He asked. 

Todd looked around. His eye-lights narrowed as he peered behind N and V, then sat up straight. "That's weird..." He muttered to himself. 

V looked around and noticed nothing of interest. N tilted his head and said, "What?" 

Todd shrugged. "I'm pretty sure you lost the short one," He informed them. Then he leaned back in his seat, adding with mild amusement, "Her legs probably couldn't keep up." 

"You mean Uzi?" V asked. She propped her hands up on her hips and frowned. "She's busy starting a fire somewhere." 

"Oh okay." Todd turned his attention back to the rabbit that he had constructed with game cards. 

V gestured to the exit and asked, once more, "And the doors?" 

Todd gave her an annoyed look. "I'm supposed to be on break," He grumbled. "And why can't you just use a keycard like everyone else?" He asked, with one digital eyebrow raised. 

V crossed her arms over her chest and shot the shorter drone a harsh glare. "We don't have one of those, dumbass." She growled. Her tail lashed close to the metal floor. 

Todd rolled his eyes. "That's on you, considering the WDF has been passing them around like how humans do with germs." He said. "Everybody here just has one by now. Leaving the bunker is a normal thing, apparently. Probably since you two aren't killing us anymore." Todd matched V's glare after that last part. "What's even the point of my job? Am I keeping you inside now?" 

V sighed in annoyance. "Aren't you also supposed to make sure drones from other outposts don't break in and steal stuff?" She questioned. All V wanted was to stop talking and get outside! Her wings were going to rust and fall off if she didn't make use of them soon. Also, she wanted to take the opportunity to spend some time with N. 

Todd shrugged. He added a carrot made of cards to the paws of the rabbit. "Nothing here is worth the effort, believe me." He said in a monotonous voice. 

N stepped in between the two. He would like to keep V from potentially snapping and disemboweling this dude. "If you hate your job, why not quit?" He asked, in a very clear attempt to change the direction of the subject. "Don't you have any dreams?" 

Todd blinked slowly. He looked up at N. "I... I have always wanted to open my own pet shop." 

N beamed. "Really? That's amazing." He leaned against the foldable table in front of them. "Follow that dream, Todd. You can do it, I believe in you!" N chirped. 

Todd nodded his head. "You know what? You're right." He stood up abruptly. "I hate this miserable monotony of constant dayshifts and occasional nightshifts! I'm opening a pet shop!" He yelled. Then Todd darted down the hall until he was out of sight. 

"Hell yeah!" N called after him. Holding out a thumbs-up. At least someone would find a purpose in life! He looked down and saw something against the metal floor. "Oh hey, he left the keycard," N mumbled. He scooped up the thing and held it out for V. 

"Thanks," She murmured, taking the card and flipping it in one hand. The keycard twirled in the air before V caught it once more. She swiped it through the edge of the keypad and watched the red light blink green. The doors each raised with a mechanical whoosh and the two Disassemblers made their ways outside. 

The typically harsh wind of copper-nine was much lighter that night. Occasionally, the gentle air offered breezes only strong enough to ruffle the drones hair. Fresh snowflakes drifted from the clouds above. N found the weather delightfully freezing. He crouched in the snow and deployed his wings, unfurling the blades and stretching comfortably. Snowflakes landed against the metal, only to dissipate into nothing instantly. 

V did the same. She put her hands together above her head before leaning to one side, stretching the joints in her back carefully, at the same time one wing popped out to give a few small flaps. After a second she repeated the action and stretched to the other side, making room for her second wing to be freed. V stood up straight and hummed. "Not too many clouds, that's perfect." She mused. 

"Where to?" N asked, eyeing the sky. He tried to remember when the last time had been that he got to fly somewhere for the purpose of having fun. His memory files came up a lot more empty than he'd have liked. 

V shrugged. "I dunno. You pick." 

"Hmm. How about North?" He decided. That area was familiar enough he could easily build a simple map for the layout in his heads-up display. 

The ivory-haired drone nodded her head. "Sounds good," She agreed, crouching for a brief moment before shooting into the air. Left behind was a little cloud of snow. 

N was swift to follow. Wings giving a few flutters as he leaped after. The sky was adorned with a layer of clouds, the wind gentle, and the snow melting before it could reach him. It didn't take long for him to catch up with V. He dove down, circling around her, to make his presence better known. He waved at her from higher up, gliding backwards. N might be clumsy on the ground, but the air offered no challenges to him. 

"Show off!" V rolled her eye-lights. She smirked, giving a single flitter of her own wings, just to mimic him. Then she angled her wings differently and took to the clouds, above them, she'd be hidden from view. 

N kept his eyes on her as she vanished into the blanket of clouds above. While keeping track of the directions to follow, N was also certainly going to keep up with V. Popping up through the dusty layer of white, N scanned the area. It appeared like a field of snowy hills, the stars above blinked like thousands of little eyes. But he knew only one pair could see him. 

That would be the pair of yellow eyes peering at him from the clouds. Locked onto her target, the aliferous drone drifted over, slowly. Silently. Once just behind her unsuspecting victim, V zipped out of her hiding place and barreled into N's side. He made a surprised sound as they spun through the inky sky. Slowing to a stop, V wrapped her her arms around N and smirked. 

"Got ya." She said smugly. 

"Hey! No fair, I didn't expect that—" N moved to cross his arms and then paused.

He glanced down to find V still holding him. He slowly looked back up at her, since being carried had not been something he expected on his end. V felt gentle, with one arm at his back and the other under his legs. So this was what Uzi always felt like when he picked her up? N wondered. A golden blush spread across his visor. That managed to feel a lot nicer than a hug. 

V tilted her head. "You good, N?" She asked, with one display-brow raised. 

N nodded quickly. "Yep. Yeah." 

The silver-haired girl fluttered her wings. "Cool. Let's find a nice tall building then," She decided.

Then, V opted to just continue on their travel, as if she had planned for that all along. N had zero issues with this. He made himself quite comfortable in her arms, resting his head on her shoulder to watch the stars while V occasionally asked for directions. 

It didn't take too long to arrive at their "destination", which happened to be just a decent plot that had some buildings still standing. The bar was pretty low when it came to apocalyptic wastelands. This city in particular had many collapsed towers, half of them frozen as usual. V fleeted over a few of the lower rooftops, before then making her landing atop the tallest one. A round, twisting structure that vaguely reminded N of human candy. Or maybe their old spire of cadavers. All the glass had been blown to dust long ago, and yet the nearly hollow base still stood, sturdy. 

Upon landing, V snapped her wings shut and tucked them away. Then, much to N's disappointment, she set him down. He stood up, his own wings already having been put away a while ago.

N peered over the edge of the rooftop. From there, the whole city could be seen with ease. White snow and blue ice glimmered against the debris, old places, and broken structures. The ebony sky stretched on for what only pretended to be forever. Stars and constellations sparkled past fading, passing clouds. Moonlight filtered its way down to cast a surreal glow over everything. V's hair seemed to match the silver of starlight. Her eyes glowed in the night, a vibrant contrast N took notice of. 

He sat at the edge. Facing the ground, and its drop, below. N glanced back at V. "It's pretty, huh?" He murmured. Not looking at the city. 

V nodded in agreement and took a few steps closer to the edge. "It is. Almost as good as actually being in the sky," She mused, looking over the abandoned city below. N watched as her optics dilated and blinked slowly, a soft clicking sound hardly able to be heard accompanying each of the photos taken. Likely to remember the sight, and to share with Uzi later. 

She paused for a moment, taking a soft breath, and when she exhaled it came in a white puff. The silver-haired disassembler sat beside N. Her shoulder against his. For a moment he thought he might experience a system crash as V leaned her head on his shoulder. N looked out at the dead city and tried to keep his tail from wagging. There was nothing to save him from his own screen blushing, though. 

A gentle quiet settled. The only sound proved to be the whistle of snowy wind. V's scarf swayed with the breeze. She looked down, strands of ivory fell just enough to hide her face. Her next words came suddenly, cracking the silence like ice.

"...I'm sorry." 

N did a double take. "Huh?" He tilted his head at her, but not with confusion, more so he was aiming to get a better read of her expression. V's tone carried serenity, she didn't stutter or pause, and her voice held no waver. N didn't need to think for even one second to know what she meant. 

V looked at him. Visor to visor. Her gaze shifted, growing stoic as she struggled to maintain optic contact. "I don't think I ever said it," She began, and this time she spoke softer, words weighed down by guilt, "But I'm sorry. Very much." 

N felt himself grow so still he could have been mistaken for a statue. He glanced down, mulling over the statement. "Oh. Thanks," He whispered. Honestly he had no idea as to what he should say in reponse. The truth was likely a good option. And after a very short moment he looked back up at her. "I forgive you, V." 

For a good few seconds V seemed to internally fight with herself on whether she should argue with him. But then her stoic face melted away, softening her gaze until she gave him a look of gratitude and relief. "Thank you," V said. Her shoulders slumped as if something heavy had been lifted from her chest. 

N felt a small smile creep onto his face. "...Trustfall?" He asked. 

V blinked, and at first she cast him a puzzled look. Then her eye-lights narrowed with determination. "Trustfall," She said, with a nod of her head. 

He popped up onto the edge in one swift movement, turning to face her, with a widening grin. Alright, then that would be what they did. N tilted his head as his tail swayed beside him. He gave her a look, one of knowing. Then N winked, took a step backward, and fell out of sight. 

V stood, her wings deployed and she glanced down. The other disassembler seemed to drop like a rock, now almost too far to get even a glimpse of. V smirked. It was her turn. She twisted around and shut her eyes, before allowing herself to lean off the edge. And quickly begin her plummet. 

Wind whipped at N's face as he descended. Freezing and harsh, it sounded as loud as waves lapping at an unfrozen shore. He dispatched his metallic wings but kept them held tight against himself. Falling always manged to be one of the most freeing things to the aliferous disassembly drone. Metres ticked away on his HUD, serving as a countdown. It took only a few seconds before V caught up to him. A sudden hand grasping for his against the wind. N opened one yellow eye, just to greet her with a smile. V managed to roll her eyes at him in response despite being upside-down and literally sailing straight for the ground. N took both of her hands in his own, and V was quick to interlace their fingers together. Despite the whipping air and metres hurriedly crumbling away, N found himself completely at peace. 

The ground grew closer and closer. The two let go of one another, falling apart. With one last moment left, N snapped his wings outward and caught the air. V did exactly the same. He swooped upward, narrowly missing the ground with ease. Once high enough to float comfortably, N opened his eyes. His optics scanned the area, and above him he spotted V, fluttering her wings slightly as she drifted back down to the ground for a proper landing. He followed suit. 

Crunchy footsteps met frozen snow in double landings. N shook himself off, taking a breath. His tail continued to dance behind him in an uncontrollable display of joy. Flying, falling, being in the air, it was amazing! When lives weren't in immediate peril that made things a lot more fun, too. He bounded over to V, who had taken to a lightpole, dangling by her tail as she stretched her wings. 

"That was so much fun!" He chirped. 

V gave a soft laugh. "Pfft. Yeah." She agreed, then her swaying slowed as she steadied herself. Hanging there comfortably, her hair falling messily. "Hey pretty boy," She prompted. 

N looked up at her. "Yeah?" His visor flickered with faint blush lines. V really liked using those nicknames, it seemed. Not that N minded at all. Actually, he thought he liked them just as much as she did. 

Then V reached down to cradle N's face in both of her hands, gently tilting his head back. He blinked a few times before his eyes met hers. She looked down at him with such a soft expression, trying her best to read him. His smile didn't falter, though he did fall a bit quieter. V thought this would be something that she'd never do. It just always seemed too soft for someone like her. But the silver-haired girl found herself wanting to finally kiss the idiot. And N gave her no reason not to, glancing at her lips briefly, with that calm look on his face. 

The disassembly drone nodded and gave a quiet hum in response. That was all V needed. She tipped her head down and closed the remaining space between them. Pressing her lips to his in a kiss much softer than anything else she'd ever done before. N brought his hands up to hold V's face. It didn't take long for the two to figure out that kissing while one of them hung upside-down could be a little awkward. 

After a long moment, V paused, pulling back just a little and taking a breath. N opened one eye to peer up at her, then the other. V knew her screen was probably glowing light amber with blush. 

The ivory-haired drone sighed quietly. The words he really wanted to say next seemed to dance around in his CPU. After another second, N spoke up, his voice a whisper. "...Is it still a little soon to say I love you?" He asked. 

An even harsher blush lit up V's visor. This idiot was going to make her systems crash! Her eye-lights hollowed and she stuttered for a small moment. "M–Maybe. I don't care. Say whatever you want." She blurted. Her wings gave a light flutter, causing her to sway slightly. She righted herself instantly. 

N beamed. That stupid, adorable, moonstruck grin of his that became so familiar so fast. He tried to control the quick wagging of his tail, but it was no use. 

"I love you, V." He said softly. Simply. Just those few words, and it sent bolts of electricity through his chest. 

V's expression softened. It took everything in her not to melt into a puddle right there. Bliss overtook her face. That gentleness steadily grew less and less foreign. "Yeah, same." She breathed out. Returning his enamored look, V mustered up more courage than she had needed in a while. The courage to speak with unadulterated honesty. 

"I love you, N." 

Chapter Text

A hanging sign displayed a screen, black and glossy under soft beams of mid-day sunshine that managed to reach. The words typically lit up in a boring font, plain and unassuming, had since been shut down. A simple Lost and Found. Once night fell again, the shop would re-open. But here, past the faint sun, where light didn’t quite reach and shadow hid figures, was Uzi Doorman. With a bag slung over her shoulder, a hum in her voice box, and a mission in her beating core. 

The Worker Drone strolled into the small center at an unreasonable hour. Though, during the night, that was what it was. However as daytime creeped over the horizon, and robotic inhabitants drifted to their bunkers for sleep-mode, the shop would begin a new life. This, she knew well. 

She was greeted as she stopped by the front desk. The shopkeeper leaned against the counter, his smile wide. “Back for more, eh?” He asked Uzi, his red eye-lights flashed with something greedy as he spotted the younger one’s bag. 

Uzi shook her head. “Not the usual. Have what I need?” 

“Depends.” Said the red-eyed Worker. 

Uzi shrugged off her bat-bag and hauled it up onto the countertop with a soft thud. Unzipping it, she pulled out a box and set it in his hands. The shopkeeper peered into the box, practically counting each and every little bolt, nut, and screw gathered there. It was a decent enough payment, there were a large number of useful nothings with absolutely zero specks of rust. It was certainly a much larger payment than Uzi had made yet. 

“Hm. Nope.” He shoved the box back over to Uzi. The insides clattered. 

“What!?” Uzi growled. She lowered her voice, gripping the box tightly. It wasn’t easy for her to collect so many little tiny parts. And it wasn't easy to sneak out during the day, without alerting her father or the pair of two who followed her everywhere like a loving cat and puppy. “Bite me! I know you have it!” Uzi said. She set the box closer to him. 

“Need more than that. For somethin’ like this,” Was all he said back. Then the shopkeeper turned away. 

“Oh for the love of Null,” Uzi bit back worse words. Particularly the ones starting with ‘go fuck’ and ending in ‘yourself’ but hey, she'll save such language for later. “...And?” 

He turned back to look at her. Leaned against a shelf and shrugged his shoulders. “And…” His gaze fell to the sparkling necklace around her throat. 

Uzi stiffened. “And then I get what I want.” 

He narrowed his eye-lights at her. Almost a glare, but not nearly. “Adequate payment first.” 

“You're not getting this, so don't even try.” Uzi hissed. She ripped off her mother's jewelry and shoved it into her hoodie pocket. Serves him right for staring at it. 

The Worker Drone frowned. “Well I need more than a box of bolts, Doorman.” 

“There's more than bolts in there, Cash.” Uzi argued. She snatched her bag over and dug about in it some more. “And fine, I'll be polite and throw in a tip.” She muttered sarcastically, “Since you're so great to work with.” 

The shopkeeper — Cash — Paid her no mind. His expression was that of boredom. Though Uzi knew, he was often caught a greedy moron. Which was why she only brought enough to trade for one microchip. She could simply recreate the second with relative ease. However, now she would have to rely on some unexpected improv. From within her bag she took a glowing, vibrantly green object and held it out for the older man to see. 

“Oh, Doorman.” Cash grinned. “Is that what I think it may be?” 

Uzi tossed the fusion cell up into the air, it twirled like a space rock as it fell, and she caught it before Cash could reach his hungry hands to do so. Of course it was a spare, as she knew very well how to hunt down such a rarity by now. It wasn't one of many. It was actually one of three. Difficult to come by still. Really, it was worth more than she should give him. 

“Uh-huh.” Uzi smirked, she nodded her head in affirmation. “So, where's my microchip?” She asked. 

Cash smiled at her, politely. “Oh, you know, I do happen to have one around here.” He spoke eagerly. His optics stuck staring at that fusion cell as if it were treasure. 

At that he darted off, through an open doorway behind the service desk. There was a rustle, and a clatter, and finally he appeared again. A small box in one hand. He tossed the box onto the counter, to which Uzi scooped it right up. She nearly tore it open to look within. And Uzi found that, yes, Cash had indeed gifted her exactly what she needed. A triangular shaped microchip sat in the box, its sharp edges a soft grey. Wonderful. 

Uzi looked up. She tucked the box containing her precious cargo into her bat-bag. Then she zipped it shut. Cash collected the box containing the bolts and nuts, then tucked it away where Uzi didn't bother to look. He held out his hand expectantly. Grinning at her. But really he was just smiling at his newest addition. 

“Knock yourself out,” Uzi said as she lazily tossed the cell up, then flicked it in his direction. It soared over the counter. 

Cash scrambled to catch it, and after a moment of fumbling he stood upright. Admiring the fusion cell in his hands, and its soft green glow. He didn't look back at her as she began to leave. He simply muttered, “Yeah, yeah, uh-huh.” And nodded his head. 

Upon exiting the small shop, Uzi walked slowly down the metal corridor of the colony. Reaching into her bat-bag again, she closed her fist around something. In her hands, she held close a little box, and within that box, was her rightfully earned prize. A prize that Uzi knew, as her purple eyes admired it with careful calculation, would certainly help her break free of her chrysalis. 

Uzi Doorman sat at her desk, headphones on her head blaring music so loud that if she were human she'd have gone deaf an hour ago. Hunched over and scribbling something into a notepad, she bobbed her head along with the tune. Scattered across her desk were dozens of sheets of paper. Blueprints in various stages, along with even more crumpled-up, scrapped ideas. The purple lights in her room had been turned up to better see, and therefore properly plan out, what was probably the most insane thing she had decided to create and put into action so far. For once, it wasn't inspiration for new weaponry that she sketched down. 

With her music playing at such a high volume, Uzi didn't notice the very brief knock at her bedroom door. In fact, Uzi didn't even hear anyone enter her room until she was suddenly lifted from her thoughts— and her chair. 

Her headphones slid down to rest against her shoulders as she looked up. The mauve-haired drone's eyes went wide with surprise. Uzi was still getting used to having visitors. Especially when those visitors were so very, very friendly. "Ack! Hey, hey!" Uzi twisted around, trying to see her attacker. 

V greeted her with a wide grin, similarly to how she might if she'd just caught a kill. "Hey, hey," She mimicked. Then she turned Uzi around in her arms to get a better look at her. And also to pepper her face with a bunch of little kisses. "How are you doing? What are you doing?" V asked, with a bit more emphasis on the what after noticing how disheveled the other appeared. In honesty, Uzi hadn't expected V to be even half as cuddly and affectionate as she suddenly became. That was clear in how much she kept blushing. 

The Worker Drone's purple hair seemed more messy than usual, and lines of exhaustion hung under her eye-lights as if she hadn't entered sleep-mode that day. But Uzi smirked, a buzzing excitement seemed to keep her awake, despite her hands trembling. "I'm about to finish making the coolest thing ever!" She cheeped. Hardly able to contain herself, and wanting nothing more than to show off her current invention. 

V watched Uzi practically vibrate, and took that as a sign to set her down. The shorter Drone wasted no time and dashed over to her desk. She scooped up a small, flat device. There were two of the things, grey and black, side by side among the wreck of her workspace like they were the only survivors to some terrible explosion. Shaped oddly like upside-down hearts. Or maybe two very small, folded wings. Uzi spun around and held out her hand, against her palm was one of these odd shapes, glowing a faint white along its intricately feather-like seams. 

"Ta-da!" 

The silver-haired girl cast the device an odd look. V tilted her head slightly, and gave a confused response. "...What the..." She had never seen anything like that before. 

Uzi nodded her head eagerly. She let go of the object, eyeing it as it fell. With one snap of her fingers, the little device began to unravel. The white, glowing seams split apart and those odd feather-like patterns unfurled from inside of it. It bloomed much like a flower, unfolding, long spindles of black metal akin to spider legs crawled across the floor before cracking into proper placements. V watched in awe. After just a few seconds, the process was complete.

What remained was the thin endoskeleton of a singular wing. Stretched across Uzi's bedroom floor as if it were resting. But it wasn't a Disassembly Drone wing. Or even a fleshy Absolute Solver wing. Lacking any basic shape, or blades, or coverings, V knew the wing was still unfinished. Fundamentally, it was only metal bones. 

Her golden eye-lights went wide. She looked down at the wing, and then at Uzi. There was no way the worker drone had made this over a long state of time without managing to say anything about it. "Whoa. What the–!" 

Uzi noddded again, her messy mauve hair swished. "I know! They're still just a base, definitely a work in progress, but so far I've worked out all the problematic details! Er, most of them." She paused. Uzi knew very well there were definitely a few more issues that still needed re-working. But it wasn't anything she couldn't handle! 

"You made wings," V said. More as a statement than a question. She knew her girlfriend was an impressive engineer, but she wouldn't have guessed that list included spare limbs. She assumed the Worker Drone only made weapons.

Of course, then a deep pang of sadness hit V, because she should have realized sooner just how much Uzi missed being able to fly. After eliminating the Absolute Solver, and therefore everything it brought with it, that meant Uzi had to lose her Fleshy limbs aswell. No freaky powers, no yellow eyes, no tail, no wings. It didn't seem, at first glance, like the sort of thing that would leave a gapping hole in your chest. But actually it was. And Uzi felt hollow. Hollow in all of the places where those ugly pieces of herself used to be. But it would be okay, because the doorman girl had the tools to fix it. 

"Hell yeah!" Uzi said. The Worker snapped her fingers once more, and in a second the wing began to curl in on itself. The metal bones compressed tightly, disassembling and weaving themselves back into the tiny device from before. Still glowing softly. Uzi scooped up her trinket from the floor. "Soon enough they'll be done, and I'll get to go flying again," She explained happily while cradling her creation in one hand, admiring it. 

"Okay. Wow," V breathed out. She couldn't help but smile. "I love your energy. But when exactly did you start this project?" She asked, a bit of concern seeped into her voice as she spoke. Her optics still scanned the extraordinary mess that Uzi's workspace had become. And the purple Drone looked like she hadn't slept any. V was no expert, but she still knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to stay awake for a full twenty-four hours to create new limbs. 

Uzi blinked slowly. "Yesterday." 

V's eye-lights narrowed. "And have you, I dunno, maybe slept at all since then?" She questioned, politely. Or at least as politely as V was capable of being. 

Uzi stared at V like a deer in headlights for a solid three seconds. "...That's not important!" Then she turned away, setting her device atop her desk and grabbing for another blueprint. "What's important is that I have a lot to do! I need to add blades and a silicone coat, make the fans smaller, and adjust the connective joints so that—" 

"Uh-huh. That sounds super cool, and I can't wait to see when they're done. But you've gotta get some sleep first." V interrupted Uzi. Obviously she wanted to see her new project when it was done, and obviously V thought it was awesome that the mauve-haired girl was making herself wings, but there was no way she could ignore how tired Uzi looked. 

Uzi paused. She looked back at V. "What, no. It's almost time to—!" 

"Take a break. Hang out with me." V crossed her arms. She didn't plan to sit back and watch Uzi work herself into a sleep-deprived pile of dust.

She stepped forward and lifted Uzi right back up. Carrying her over to her bed. The Worker Drone looked like she was trying to come up with some kind of excuse as to why she shouldn't have to take a break. But Uzi said nothing as V curled up in her loft bed, and pulled Uzi closer to cuddle. Her tail twisted around her leg, with the sharp end pointed away from her. Uzi's shoulders fell. Her frame relaxed significantly at the feeling of having a warm place to rest, after having spent the rest of the day and night at her desk or standing. Or running around grabbing spare parts from other centers of the colony.

She looked up at V, failing to not seem sleepy. "Fine... A few hours won't hurt," She agreed, resting her head against V's chest.

The silver-haired girl pulled the indigo blanket over them both, because V was always happy to nap. Especially with someone she loved. Much to the Disassembly Drone's victory, it didn't take long for the shorter Drone's visor to display her status of sleep-mode. 

After Uzi's nap, or more accurately the next night, N came by. He knocked on the entrance door and was let in by Khan, who's intense gaze he eagerly escaped by slipping into Uzi's room. Once there, N and V took comfortably to settle side by side with each other in Uzi's bed, watching as their girlfriend rambled on and explained in great detail all of her plans and progress in relation to her most recent invention. 

Uzi held up a wrench, pointing at a section of a blueprint with it. The coloured papers and instructions seemed to be plastered upon every surface of her room. "And here, I'm adding the fans, which will help me hover in one place for a while." She said. Her appearance was much more typical, thanks to V having insisted on getting to brush Uzi's hair for her. 

N tilted his head slightly, eyeing the blueprints. None of them displayed any sort of backpack funtion, or a means of being added to something wearable. "What are they getting attached to?" He asked, slowly, with a curious look. 

Uzi froze. She lowered her wrench, resting it against her other palm. With a nervous grin, she muttered, "Well uh, you know... Me. Obviously." 

"Wait. What." He sat upright from where he was laying in V's lap, to her disappointment. His marigold eye-lights hollowed in surprise. "Uzi, how are you gonna do that?" N asked. 

Uzi shrugged. She set down her wrench and glanced up at a blueprint that showed how the wings Skeletons should rest within the two small devices. "It's not too crazy. I'd just have to open a panel on my back and figure out some welding so that—" 

"Woah. Welding?" V echoed. Interrupting Uzi's calm explanation. 

N leaned back into V's embrace. The white-haired drone fidgeted with his tail. "Is that safe?" He questioned, giving Uzi a nervous expression. 

"It's... safer than most other things I've done." Uzi said, truthfully. "Like, you know, grow organic wings, get possessed. And also defeat a planet-eating monster. And stuff." 

"That still doesn't sound totally harmless..." V murmured. She hadn't fully realized that Uzi planned to make her creation a part of her person. But if that was what Uzi wanted, and she was sure it was safe, then V wouldn't object. 

Uzi ambled over to her bed. She sat beside her two Disassembly Drones, giving them both a soft look. "It's not without risk, I guess." Uzi admitted in a quiet voice. 

N wrapped an arm around her, bringing Uzi to join the cuddle pile. "I support you, always, Zi. I just really don't want you to get hurt," N said quietly. His voice sounded muffled due to him burying his face into the crook of her neck. 

V nodded her head. "Same," She agreed. Then the Disassembler reached over and ruffled Uzi's hair, which earned her a delightful look of annoyance from the shorter girl. "We care about you and all that stuff." 

"Same. And I'll be okay, I know what I'm doing." Uzi reassured them both. It was harder than she would admit, but the goth struggled to handle being fussed over. That was something that absolutely never happened... Until now.

An odd grin slowly stretched across her face. "But I do kinda wanna ask something... super weird..." Uzi muttered, internally cursing herself for no doubt ruining what was probably considered a sweet moment. 

V's face lit up in a wide grin. Nearly reading Uzi's CPU. "Oo! I wanna help!" She chirped, pointing to herself. 

N's eye-lights went a little hollow with surprise at that. "Oh," he breathed out, sitting up. He did not expect that. "Yeah, okay. Same."

The goth drone looked down. Watching her own hands as she began to fidget with her fingers, and cracking the joints with tiny pops. "Um. Yeah. I know that's not a normal thing to ask." 

The silver-haired girl wore a shit-eating grin. "It's definitely not! I'm in!" V decided, a little loudly. Her tail flicked from side to side. N ducked his head down to avoid being accidentally killed. 

V gave him an empathetic smile. "N, don't worry. Uzi knows what she's doing, we can still heal her if needed. And it's just one little... body modification surgery. Nothing dangerous." She said quietly. V was never good at being comforting, she knew that, but she would always do her best when it came to these two anxious idiots. 

 "I know. I just don't like the idea of anything going wrong." He stated, simply. With one look at V, and another at Uzi. He trusted them both, very much. But he also never wanted to lose them ever again... 

"Then maybe let's not do this." Uzi shook her head, and crossed her arms. A guilty frown on her face. "If you think it's a bad idea, I'll just... figure something else out." She decided. Uzi just didn't have it in her to watch someone she loved look at her so worried.  

The ivory-haired Drone reached out to gently cradle Uzi's face in his hands. "No, no, no. I don't think it's a bad idea." N said. "And there's no way I'm gonna even try to stop you if this is what you want."

Uzi went quiet. A small smile tugged at her lips. Her screen blushed purple. She nodded her head once, giving N a look of understanding. "...Thanks," She whispered. 

Uzi was sat on her desk. (It having been cleared off a few moments ago.) She faced away from the silver-haired drone beside her, as N fidgeted with his own hands, not yet making any move to touch her. Mostly N was just standing there and looking anxious. 

V stayed where she was on Uzi's bed. She slightly pondered if it was weird to watch, but then again there were worse things in existence. And Uzi said she should lend a helping hand when needed. It wasn't like anything weird was happening, if you didn't include the part where N was going to look at Uzi's actual endoskeleton. 

"Need any help?" She asked. Seeing as how N was basically frozen in place. Worry wormed into V's mind. 

He shook his head. "It's fine. Just gotta open this panel, aha..." N laughed nervously. His screen lit up with a yellow blush as he reached out and slid one hand under Uzi's hoodie, feeling for the edge of any paneling at the center of her upper back. His tail twined around his own leg. He averted his gaze anyway. 

"Can you even see what you're doing?" Uzi glanced back at N. She grimaced. That was not how surgery worked. 

The taller drone shrugged in response. N's screen blushed as he retracted his hands from her shoulders. 

Uzi took that as a "no", and opted to fix the problem on her own. She now realized she hadn’t thought this part through. She glanced down, and then unzipped her hoodie and slid it off her shoulders, tossing it onto her bed. As the item of clothing landed beside her, V looked down at it with wide eyes. Then N reacted with a girly scream. He brought his hands up and covered his yellow blushing visor. Uzi was still wearing a shirt. That adorable freaking idiot!  

It wasn't really a big deal. They were all just robots, and didn't even have any reason to wear clothes, other than for fun. Uzi knew this as fact. She turned to look back at V, assuming she would agree with her. 

V rolled her eye-lights and crossed her arms. "N! Calm down, geez." She muttered, her own visor glowing, too. She glanced up at Uzi, as she was in the middle of pulling her shirt over her head. Only to have the exact same, flustered reaction. "UZI! AAH! DAMN IT!" 

The Worker Drone threw the grey clothing item at V. It landed on her face, hiding how she was blushing so much it obscured her screen.

"You guys? Really?" She huffed. Obviously she was wearing a damn tank top beneath! It was purple too. Glancing between N and V. Who were both acting like blushing idiots. Or maybe even like humans. "Bite me!" Uzi squeaked. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her boots. Her core beat in her ribcage, and she shook her head in effort to ignore it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. None of that nonsense now! This was meant to be serious. 

"I didn't expect anything else," V said with a shrug. "This is fine." But her voice wavered a little and she kept awkwardly looking back at N and then at Uzi, and then the floor. 

To which Uzi nodded in agreement. N hesitantly uncovered his face. Though both he and V were still blushing. What the hell were they thinking? Hrrmp. 

"Anyways, I guess that helps," N admitted. He hesitantly pressed a hand between Uzi's shoulders, her upper back now visible, he successfully located the correct panel to open. He couldn’t help but notice how cold she was. And Uzi felt herself relax, as N's hand offered a soothing warmth. 

"Do you want anything?" He asked. He assumed like, maybe a blanket, or something because she's so cold feeling. 

Uzi shook her head. "Just the modification. Thanks." She said, gently. 

Suddenly a hand touched her own, and when she looked up, there was V. Holding her hand. Reassuringly. Despite how stupid and fine the whole thing was. Uzi used all her strength to not burst into tears then and there. The emo Drone had never felt so safe to actually, genuinely, be left in another's hands. 

Uzi turned back to her desk and popped open her indigo toolbox. She had never imagined that a night would come where she would use any of her tools on herself. Let alone allow someone else to do so. The Someones she loved. Uzi shrugged those thoughts away, reaching for one of her micro-screwdrivers. She grasped the tool by its mauve handle, the silver end glimmered under her purple lights. N or V would need it. She looked back at him, and set it in his hand. 

N looked down at the micro-screwdriver, a digital sweat blinked onto his visor. N held it up, aiming between his two fingers at the center of her back, but he made no contact. And then his hand began to tremble. 

Uzi frowned. “N, you good?” She asked, her concern nearly palpable. 

V took the tool from his hand and stepped closer, her shoulder against his. Her hand still in Uzi’s. “It's okay,” She said, “Just let me handle this part.” 

And in the way she spoke, there was an understanding. Something Uzi chided herself for not noticing sooner.

Though, the way V took a shaky vent of air, gave away her own nerves. But that was the thing about V: she always managed to adapt with what she was thrown at. Even if she didn't need to. And if you asked her, N shouldn't push himself to do something he didn't trust himself yet to do.

The goth's purple gaze met his yellow, and it became clear to Uzi why exactly N had grown so nervous. She blanched. If Uzi could slap herself she would. 

It was almost like asking them to disassemble her. 

“It's not going to hurt me. I promise.” She said, Uzi couldn't help the frown that etched onto her face. “I'm so sorry— You don't have to.” 

N smiled at her, just a little. He nodded his head once. “I know. And please don't say sorry, because it's alright,” He murmured. “I'm going to be here for you, Uzi. We're going to be here for you. Together. Okay?” 

“Thank you.” Uzi managed. She blinked away the tears that threatened to bubble onto her visor. Her insides whirred, warm and fuzzy in a way so much better than overheating. “Thank you both.” 

N wrapped his arms around her. He set his head atop hers. “We love you. I love you.” He said softly. Steady, certain, and confident. N’s screen became obscured by blush once again. 

V followed right beside him. She put one arm around Uzi, and her other around N. “Yeah,” She cheeped, in her rough voice she whispered, her words velvet smooth, “Love you, idiot.”  

“I... I love you, too.” Uzi said back. Blushing. She looked down, her heart grew cozy with warmth as though in a blanket. “Stupid, stupid, weirdly hot, robots…” She muttered, mostly to herself. 

“Heard that.” V smirked. 

Uzi pulled out of the hug and squeaked. “Bite me! Hurry and take my spine out!” 

N rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure thing, Boss.” He stepped aside, to give V room to start the insanely weird process that this would no doubt be. 

Despite her own worried thoughts, and vague insecurities, V leaned close and carefully unwound some of the very little screws along Uzi’s back. With one moment, she hesitantly removed a large portion of the white casing that ran from just below Uzi’s neck, down to the space between her shoulders. V stared at the plating in her hands for a few seconds longer than she should have. A sinking feeling wormed into her stomach. She set it down and looked up at Uzi. 

The base of her endoskeleton shimmered softly. Purple lights, glowing wires, and tubing which carried fresh oil, all twined and curled about and around what was, fundamentally, her exposed spine. Metal bone gleamed silver. 

But Uzi looked back, and lifted her arm, to give V and N a thumbs-up. As well as a shit-eating grin. 

Yep. Uzi was fine. 

V relaxed. N peered over her shoulder curiously. Uzi picked up the first of the two odd devices she had made, and passed it to V. Then she gave N the second. He had since been shown the functions, along with her explanation of the blueprints. Then, Uzi looked down and took out a much smaller box. She opened it, and held out a microchip. Actually, two microchips. Each of them triangle shaped and with grey edges. The two chips rested in her white palm side by side. One she bought, and one she made. She held out her hand for her partners to see. 

“What will those do?” N asked. 

Uzi explained, “Sensory receivers. So I can feel them. They go last though. Ready?” 

V nodded. “Ready.” 

“Yep,” N agreed. 

“Right,” Uzi said. “It's go time then.” 

...

Adding a set of mechanical wings to a Worker Drone's frame was a relatively simple idea. The actual process itself was not so simple. But if asked, Uzi would gladly say it was worth every second. In truth, the modification took all night. And that was with six helping hands.  

Uzi did a majority of the rewiring steps on herself, simply turning her head three-hundred-and-sixty degrees like an owl to see what she was doing. N aided with passing Uzi her tools and additional parts, the bringing of snacks, along with skipping JcJenson-ify™️ advertisements that interrupted her nightcore playlist. V switched one of her hands for a blowtorch as the time came to weld the wings in place. Their skeleton structure rested motionless against her desk. 

Once the limbs had been fully attached, Uzi took the two triangle-shaped microchips and examined them. Then, she popped them into place on her respective shoulder blades, and with that the largest burden was over.

Not to say that would be all. No, there was still very much to do. But for now, Uzi was tired. 

With the most tedious part complete, the Worker Drone shut the panel once more onto her back, and then promptly collapsed into her bed face first. N and V followed suit. 

Chapter Text

The next night came quickly. Uzi hardly even realized that she was beginning to drift out of sleep-mode. Lavender eye-lights appeared on her screen once more, and she sat upright with a bleary hum. 

On the side of Uzi closest to the wall rested N and V. Both Disassembly Drones were still deep in sleep-mode. N had curled up into a ball with his knees to his chest, his arms around himself, and his face hidden against V's shoulder. The taller girl was not so keen on taking up as little space as possible. V had loosely put her arms around Uzi and her tail weaved around N. 

Upon blinking away sleep, Uzi nudged V's leg off her lap and managed to untangle herself from the pile of cozy limbs. Stumbling a metre away from her bed, the purple-haired girl sighed softly. A few lines of digital blush appeared on her screen, her smile softening as she took in the sight of her two favorite idiots cuddling. N made a soft sound in his sleep, the sort of confused whine that made Uzi want to crawl back into bed, and his tail hovered over her side of the bed as if subconsciously looking for something. 

With a head shake, the Worker Drone ignored her desires and turned back to her workspace. She slid into her chair and popped open her toolbox. 

With a silent flourish, the space of her shoulders changed, and in only a few seconds a pair of skeletal wings deployed. Reaching to the maximum of her wingspan, Uzi turned her head around to catch a glimpse. Gaining control of their functions had been simple. She flexed the limbs, flapping once. They met her CPU, explaining in lines of ones and zeros what sensation had occurred. No pain. Just chill air. 

Uzi could feel a manic grin spread on her face. Evil laughter bubbled in her throat, but she swallowed it down, as to not wake the cuddling Disassemblers. 

With that, the final stretch began. Quietly the Doorman began to tinker and alter. Her headphones prevented her choice in background sound from waking the others, they deserved to rest after all. Uzi bobbed her head from side to side, focus unbroken as she bent malleable metal and screwed panels shut. Shaping the feathers was hard at first, but it got easier after the third segment. Along with much other details. Uzi found the last part tedious yet fun. 

It didn't take much longer before N and V woke. N did so first, he shifted around before popping up like bread from a toaster. Carefully, as to not wake V, he wriggled from her grasp and bounded over Uzi. 

“Good night, Zi.” He chirped. “What're you doing?” N peered over her desk, his golden gaze curious at the new state of her wings. 

“Night, N.” Uzi looked up, shrugged her headphones off. “Just some touch-ups,” She explained. 

Her wings unfurled, having been draped over her desk while she worked. Uzi’s new mechanical wings reached roughly the same size as her Absolute Solver ones. Now, no longer metal bones without shape. Instead she had customized the exterior much more efficiently for flight. Black metal shimmered softly, reaching like the spindly feathers of a crow’s wing. Between those seams, a faint purple glow emanated, like LED lights seeping through. 

N smiled, his typical toothy grin. “They look really amazing,” He breathed out, in awe. 

Uzi felt her visor blush slightly. “Pfft. Thanks,” She said. “And for the help, too.” 

“You're welcome,” Came another voice. V was awake, it seemed. 

The silver-haired Disassembly Drone sat up in Uzi’s bed and stretched her arms over her head. She gave a yawn that showed off her sharp fangs, before strolling right over to Uzi’s workspace and leaning against her desk. 

“Wow,” V gasped. Then her yellow eye-lights blinked a few times, settling on the sight of Uzi's new wings. Shimmering softly under the purple lights, and almost seeming to have feathers. “All done?” She asked. 

“Yeah,” Uzi said, with a nod of her head. Her wings shifted off the desk, straightening out behind her. 

“You're pretty badass for doing all this, you know?” V said. It wasn't exactly the most common thing on Copper-Nine to see a Worker Drone simply make themself new limbs. 

That specific compliment never failed to make Uzi beam. A purple fluster lit up her screen. “I‐I am? I mean, duh.” She stuttered. Then she crossed her arms over her chest, her wings gave a little flutter. She couldn't wait to test them out for real! 

And that she would do, later that same night. Uzi folded up her wings and the limbs tucked themselves comfortably away into her back. She peered down the corridor from her room, finding that Khan wasn't home. Uzi couldn't tell if such had disappointed or reassured her. Either way, the Worker Drone and her two Disassemblers slipped away from her bedroom, out of their bunker, and down the metallic halls that would lead them to the exit of the colony. Purple boots echoing small thuds, while others had been designed with stealth in mind. Though, they had no need to be silent, anyway. 

After passing each of the three doors, with Uzi’s own keycard, the trio once again met the outside world. Snowy and cold, windy and dark, all as usual. Uzi gazed up, purple LEDs glowing softly as she counted a few subtle constellations which hung in the sky, deep and ebony as a puddle of spilled oil. She bit her lip, in an attempt not to smile too much. The goth found that she hadn’t looked forward to something like this in a long while. 

Learning how to control the Absolute Solver and the limbs that came with it had been a challenge, to say the least. Uzi felt an odd ripple of disappointment at knowing this progress and skill had been lost. But that quickly faded, as the many sleepless hours spent crashing into streetlamps and buildings hadn't been forgotten, and not nearly any of that practice would go to waste. There was no need to re-learn how to fly. 

Mechanical wings unfurled in a second. Black metal blades, curved at the edges, stretched like raven feathers. Amethyst light seemed to be woven between each intricate detail. It came as naturally as the act of walking. 

Uzi looked back at N and V with a shit-eating grin. “Try and keep up,” she said. And with that shot off into the night. 

The Disassembly Drone lass followed after her. V's face adorned with a determined smirk while she deployed her metallic wings, which shimmered silver in the dim starlight.

N had no trouble as he took off beside her. “Wait up!” He laughed. 

“Let's see who laughs when I catch you, flittermouse!” V called. 

Uzi beat her wings a few times, and discovered it took much less effort to stay steady when there weren't holes littering her wings. She dove into the clouded sky, a classic hiding place among the soft white. N careened around a treetop, before popping up above the clouds to scan for where Uzi might be. She watched from her cover in the puffy clouds as V swooped down beside him, likely also searching for her. 

But N spotted Uzi first. His face lit up like the sun and quickly began flying in her direction. Uzi, then deciding she did not feel like letting the game end, turned and darted away. Both Disassembly Drones gained speed, the metres between them crumbled away as Uzi zipped between clouds. Flipping and cartwheeling overhead of the two with smug glances, while N and V chased the purple-haired Drone through the clouds like fireflies in the summer. 

Uzi’s game of cat and mouse didn't last very long. N had vanished from her sight as she flew backward from V. Only to then let out a surprised chirp as a familiar pair of arms snaked around her and pulled her close. V cackled at Uzi's reaction. Then was quick to tackle them both. 

As they staggered back, Uzi’s peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the wings she had built. Polished to perfection, crafted to completion. 

It was hers, Uzi greeted the thought with as much relief as jubilation. The Ex Solver host got to make that choice. For something that had once felt so far removed from herself, fleshy and at first intrusive, Uzi found that her reflection no longer came off as distorted. To have something forced out through her spine and adorn her, only for the pain of that same transformation to be brutally cut off, had left pieces missing. Pieces she had the tools to restore. To choose to restore. Because Uzi Doorman was going to be who she wanted. Even the Solver of the Absolute fabric couldn't take that away. 

The trio tumbled through a cloud, thanks to V, and after a moment managed to right themselves once more. N looked down at Uzi with a smile, having opted to hold her. “Pretty sure I win.” 

V wrapped herself around N from behind, her hands on his shoulders. She reached over and poked Uzi’s visor. “Got you,” She said with a smirk.  

The lass with mauve hair snickered quietly to herself. Subconsciously her robo-corvid wings gave a slight flutter. Yet another wonderful thing that came with these two Disassembly Drones: they both radiated gentle warmth. While most Drones hated the heat, Uzi quite liked it. Being wrapped in multiple blankets wasn't an uncomfortable experience for her. And cuddles? With the two most cozy idiots on Copper-Nine? How could Uzi resist? 

The Worker Drone leaned into N’s embrace, to which he rested his head on top of hers. Finally, Uzi could wrap her wings around them all like a cocoon. She took note of the way V wound her tail around her leg. Croodled together. N tipped his head to the side and opened his mouth to speak, though he was interrupted as V caught him with a kiss. Uzi’s core skipped a cycle at the sight. How and why were those two so sweet together? N seemed to forget whatever he wanted to say, too busy being delighted by the act of affection. Uzi expected the Disassembler girl to look affectionately smug. What she did not expect was for V to place a soft kiss to her lips next. 

Okay, yep, Uzi felt like she was gonna overheat. Her fans whirred softly as her temperature began to rise. A purple loading icon ticked onto her screen as she took a moment to briefly buffer. Once she snapped back to her reality, Uzi’s visor exploded into a mess of violet blush. She stammered for a few seconds, unsure of what to say, or if she should even say anything. 

V tilted her head. An almost nervous look crossed her face, her visor aglow a soft lemon yellow. “That was… Okay, right?” She said, “I probably should've asked. I wanted it to be, like, equal and—” 

“It's fine! I'm fine! I totally knew that was gonna happen,” Uzi blurted. She nodded her head a few times, just barely she managed to hold back a moonstruck grin. 

After long enough, the blistering sun of Copper-Nine began to make itself known. It rose slowly over the horizon to cast orange light over the thick, pearly ice that coated the ground. 

That signaled the end of night, which meant the trio of Drones hurriedly flew back to the place they may have called home. It wasn't a long flight, not at all. But as Uzi glanced back at the sunlight, she began to wonder if something could be done for V and N to repair their deadly weakness to its rays. 

Alas, that metaphorical train of thought was stopped in its tracks as they arrived at the first of all three doors to the Colony. Uzi dropped down to the ground with an icy crackle beneath her boots. She stretched her new set of wings one last time, before she readied herself to fold them away. Her purple eye-lights glanced up to find— 

Huh. To find that Khan was standing in the entryway of door one. His white optics voided at the sight of her. Uzi had a pretty good idea why. 

She faltered. Her grin wavered for a second, her wings bent awkwardly as if attempting to fold together. “Oh. Um. Heyyy… Daaad…” Uzi raised a hand, waving at him awkwardly. She didn't exactly expect him to suddenly appear. 

And judging by the look on his face, Khan didn't exactly expect a set of wings to suddenly appear on his daughter. Though, it wasn't the first time. “Uzi, what.” He paused, opening and shutting his mouth like he wanted to say what the hell. But rather, Khan placed his hands in his pockets and nodded toward her. “So, ahh, what might this be?” 

Uzi, being herself, responded bluntly, “I made myself wings.” She rocked back and forth on the heels of her boots. Maybe there was a defensive bite in her tone. Her corvid wings flapped once, then positioned to reach a full wingspan. Glimmering ebony metal, and mauve light. 

“Yeah. You did.” Khan nodded again. He smiled, something akin to pride spread on his face as he took in the sight. He said, “Well, they look… very nice.”  

“I know,” Uzi said. Then after a beat, she added, “And thanks.” 

“Uzi’s super talented,” N cut in. He shifted from one foot to the other, his wings rested against the snow for a moment before at last vanishing into his back.

The taller girl nodded her head once, in agreement. “Her engineering capabilities are certainly impressive,” V said. Her wings had since gone also. Now, her Disassembly Drone tail fidgeted and danced behind her, cutting the air. N stepped aside to narrowly avoid an unintentional injury. 

“I completely agree,” He said. Khan blinked slowly. His white LEDs almost seemed to grey at the edges. He brought one arm up, as if pointing to the sky. And began warily, “Anyway, I came searching for you because there's some good news—” 

His words were interrupted by a clatter. The sound of combat boots against metal making their way down the hall. A set of hands grasped the doorway before a head popped into view, her voice ringing out as she called, “I'm back!” 

Khan looked back at her. Out from the corridor and into the entryway of door one, a Worker Drone bounded into the cold air. “Hey babe, did you find her yet?” She asked him. Her indigo hair was pulled into a ponytail draped over her shoulder. She hadn’t yet noticed Uzi, or the two Disassemblers. But very quickly, her lavender eyes landed on them and she hummed, “Ohh.” 

Uzi felt herself go rigid. Her wings snapped out of sight instantly. Purple eye-lights wide, hollow with surprise. 

Nori grinned, and bounded out of the doorway to stand beside Khan. “Hey kiddo,” she said. “Was just looking for you.” 

“You're a Worker Drone again,” Uzi stated. A little smile began to show on her face, breaking past the sudden realization. 

Nori had been a Drone-Heart for a long while, even after getting back to the Colony. She must have found, or more likely constructed, a new Worker body for herself. Uzi was hit by a pang of disappointment, she hadn't known. Her and Nori hadn't exactly hung out since the revelation that she abandoned them. Khan was much quicker to let it go. But Uzi still couldn't help avoiding walking down the same corridors as her Mother. 

“Hell yeah I am!” Nori cheered, “That's kinda the whole surprise. So, surprise!” She crossed her arms, clad with a black dress and a jean jacket which had been decorated by numerous patches. “Been working on building this body to be just like my old one.” 

“Wow,” Uzi breathed out. “That's great.” It was true, she realized, Nori and her did look a lot alike. It almost managed to be a bit creepy. 

Her Mother nodded. She looked down and flexed her fingers a few times, curling her hand into a fist before opening her palm again. “Feels pretty neat in comparison to being a literal meatball,” Nori said. 

With that, the now group of five entered the first of the few doors. Khan seemed to lead the way, with N and V keeping close on Uzi’s left side. Nori trailed next to Khan, but after passing the third door, she fell back and began to stroll beside her daughter. Uzi couldn't blame Nori for wanting to talk to her, if it was an attempt. But they both knew, despite the calm water and peaceful stretch of time, there were still rough edges around one another. Was it still forgiveness if no apologies had been spoken? 

The walk was quiet. Uzi pondered whether she should go back to her parents' place, or if she may rather tag along to one of her partner's dorms. It would be much harder to ignore her feelings toward Nori since she wasn't a meatball scurrying around on the floor anymore. 

Nori interrupted this train of thought. Her voice cut through the silence, to ask, “Hey, what's up with that?” 

Uzi gazed back at her. The two looked to be quite similar in height, if not the same. She noticed Nori's puzzled look over her shoulder. Likely having had her attention caught by the soft mauve glow along her scapula. Damn it, Uzi chided herself. She was still itching to deploy her wings again. Stupid subconscious LEDs. Maybe there were still a few things to get used to with these wings.

Uzi shrugged, then glanced away. Attempting to remain casual, she said, “Oh. I have wings.” 

Nori's eye-lights voided on her screen. “What?! The Solver is back?” She gasped. Her hands curled into fists. 

“Nonono!” Uzi shook her head frantically. And watched as Nori relaxed. “I made them,” Uzi explained.  

Her Mother blinked a few times as she took in that statement. She crossed her arms together. “You… modified yourself?” Nori asked, slowly. 

By that point, the five had arrived at the outside of the Doorman's residence. Khan stood by the door and cast a look back at his family. N inched closer to V, feeling out of place. While V wondered if they should keep walking and meet up with Uzi later. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Uzi nodded her head. “It's all good, see?” She offered, and then unfurled her new set of wings. She held them low to the metal floor, the LEDs seemed to dim as she held the corvid-like limbs steady. 

Nori stared in astonishment, her expression difficult to read. 

V set a hand on Uzi’s shoulder. “Uh, hey Zi?” She murmured, “Me and N are gonna go to the library. We'll see you soon, promise.” 

Uzi gave them both a small grin. “Okay, cool. See you later,” She said quietly. The Worker Drone knew very well that V was attempting to grant her some privacy with Nori. 

N waved, giving Uzi a reassuring smile. She watched as her two Disassembly Drones took off down the hall and around a corner, out of sight and sound distance. 

Nori wasted zero seconds standing around. She grasped the hood of Uzi's jacket and pulled her over, spinning her around to face her. “Doorman, what the hell?!” Nori hissed, “Why on Copper-Nine would you do this?” 

Khan opened the door to his home and stepped inside. Then cast a nervous glance back at his family. 

“What?” Uzi blinked, a puzzled look on her face. “It's safe, don't worry,” She said. At first Uzi assumed her mother was worried, by the way her eye-lights hollowed. It wasn't like what she had done would be considered normal. 

Then came Nori's whispered accusation of, “You're recreating what that Thing did to you! To us!” 

Uzi felt herself go cold. Those words hurt like tearing open a halfway healed wound. Her teeth ground together, her hands clenched into fists and she yanked herself out of her mother’s grasp. 

“What? No I'm not,” Uzi objected, “I wanted wings, so I got them. That's it!” She told the older woman. Her crow wings fluttered in distress. But her voice held steady, telling only the truth. Nori had simply misunderstood. 

Her mother seemed to go through every stage of grief in the span of a few seconds. She opened her mouth to speak, then shut it. As though Nori were deep in thought trying to find a reason as to why Uzi would want wings. The concept seemed totally alien to her. At last, her expression hardened, and she crossed her arms. 

“It's because of those, huh? You want to be like one of them?” Nori asked. She didn't even attempt to hide her blatant dislike for V and N. 

Any time either Disassembly Drone happened to be around, Nori would actively avoid them. She would leave the room or give odd glances, while refusing eye contact. But she never made rude comments. Nori did her best to “grin and bear it” with the silent hope that Uzi would move on after long enough. Could anyone blame her for not being enthusiastic about her daughter dating two vampiric Ex serial killers? 

Uzi’s lavender eye-lights went void and her wings unfurled with surprise, as if she might take flight. Which she wanted to do, to run away from the conversation. She blurted, “One of them? What the hell! Chill out, it's just–” 

Nori growled, “Chill out? You seriously just told your mother to chill out, when you've gone and messed with your systems in such a way?!” 

She turned and hurried after Khan. Into the bunker home. Her grip on Uzi’s jacket hood had returned, she dragged her daughter after her. One wing clanged against the doorframe and Uzi bit back an annoyed remark over being pulled about. The door shut once all three were inside. Nori released Uzi and she stumbled back. Khan inched away slowly, pressing himself flat against the wall like he might be attempting to blend in with his surroundings. 

“I'm sure you've done it safely. And your wings look sick as hell,” Nori said, “But that doesn't excuse what this symbolizes!” Of course she knew Uzi was smart, and very much capable, but seriously? How could an Ex-solver host ever want those wretched wings again? 

“What?” Uzi muttered. She spared Khan a side glance, finding it quite annoying that of course he would try to escape the situation before an argument broke out. 

Nori narrowed her eye-lights. She stated, “You got your wings because of the Solver.” Then she cast another look at Uzi's wings, which drooped almost limply against the floor. Quietly, as if in disbelief, she asked, “You still want that attached to you?” 

“No!” The mauve-haired girl hissed, “I made them. These aren't Solver wings, they're mine. Because I decided to have them.”

Nori took her words in for a moment, considering the idea that a Worker Drone could have wings without them being related to the Absolute Solver. Her expression softened somewhat. She spoke, “And how are you going to explain this to the rest of the colony?” 

Uzi folded her arms over her chest. Her wings shifted, her wingspan didn't manage to reach while in the hallway of her home. So she folded them to her back rather than putting them away. “I'm not going to. It's part of me and that's all,” Uzi said with a determined look. “Anyone who has a problem with it can bite me.” 

“Alright,” Nori sighed. She closed her eye-lights for a moment. It wasn't really Solver related, it was just her personality. There was an attempt to hide the proud smile spreading on her face. “But also you're grounded,” Nori added. 

“What!” Uzi groaned in annoyance. She grasped at her beanie and complained, “You can't do that!" 

“I just did,” Nori said simply. A shit-eating grin plastered on her face as she turned and walked down the hall. She was thoroughly enjoying getting to catch up on all her parental abilities. 

Uzi grumbled to herself. Her wings flapped a few times, smacking against the wall, which made her growl at them and put the annoyingly expressive things away. She cast an unamused glance at Khan, who had hidden underneath the dinner table. 

"Thanks for being so helpful," Uzi remarked sarcastically. 

As it turned out, mechanical wings functioned a bit differently than fleshy wings. And maybe Uzi had also forgotten how to keep them from popping out at random after losing her fleshy ones. It was likely a result of the fact that she was still a little giddy over the whole thing. 

Uzi and N had stopped to visit V in her dorm the day prior to play video games. All of which Uzi won. Then, when it got too sunny out, opted to just have a sleepover. 

The moon had just risen into the sky, marking the start of a new night. In the midst of a cuddle pile, Uzi found herself rudely awoken when someone poked her visor. 

“Uzzziii,” V groaned, her screen flickered the words sleep-mode a few times, since she was only half awake. “Get your wings outta my faaace.” 

“Huh?” Uzi blinked a few times. Her optics adjusted to the dim light, and then she took notice of the soft purple glow that was her wings. 

One of the corvid-like limbs folded awkwardly next to her, and pressed against the side of V's visor, preventing the silver-haired girl from resting her head on Uzi’s shoulder. Uzi shifted her wing away so her girlfriend could cuddle closer. 

“You're suffocating our boyfriend.” 

Uzi glanced over to see her second wing draped over N. The yellow glow of his screen wasn't visible, as V said, her wing decided to wrap around his head as if attempting to hold him close. 

Uzi cringed. She untangled her wing from N, and then put the defiant limbs away. Crow wings vanished back into her frame. “Oops. Sorry,” Uzi whispered.

“I'm good,” N said. He gave her a toothy smile. 

 That wasn't the last time Uzi’s wings acted subconsciously. Much to her annoyance. She inspected them closely and determined that there were no issues with the wings. Uzi simply had to readjust to having them. 

The second time it happened was also the worst timing Uzi could imagine. 

Bored out of her CPU in Captcha class, the mauve-haired girl rested her head in her hands with her arms up on her desk. The teacher went on and on about how to count the randomized number of fire-hydrants in a three by three collection of images. Uzi could not possibly care less for a subject. She would rather go flying. Or hang out with N and V. Or possibly go flying with N and V. 

Uzi wanted so strongly to fly away from her boredom that she didn't notice the set of corvid wings that sprouted from her back. One wing flapped in annoyance, while the other drooped down to the floor beside her. 

Obviously everyone but Uzi noticed. 

Then came the myriad of whispered curiosities, blatant staring, few hands which pointed fingers, and one click of a phone camera that still had the flash on by accident. (That was Lizzy.) 

The teacher paused what he was doing. He looked about as uninterested as always. “Uzi Doorman,” He drawled, “Your weirdness is distracting the class from this incredibly important lecture.” 

Uzi narrowed her eye-lights in annoyance. “My weirdness is totally cool. Bite me!” She growled, and sat up in her seat to point a finger at him. That was when she realized her shoulders felt a little heavier than usual. And then noticed the feeling of cold flooring beneath her feather-like blades. Uzi looked down. “Oh. Well shit.” 

To make matters even worse the stupid limbs refused to become hidden again. Uzi had trouble getting the wings to go away, since she couldn't control her own restlessness. She was itching for flight like a bird in a cage. 

Class would go on for only a few minutes more, and then finally she could be dismissed. Those few minutes were spent acting casual, because even though Uzi had grown used to bullying, she hadn't grown used to staring. 

As soon as she could, Uzi hopped down from her desk. (Because yes, she is so short that in order to reach her work she sits on the desk itself rather than a chair. Bite her!) And gathered her things to leave.

Uzi ignored the faint whispers that followed her down the corridor. Her main focus was on the Nightcore playlist blasting her audio-processors into an early grave, while pondering how she would pirate JcJenson-ify™️ premium. However, she could not ignore the two Worker Drones who appeared at her locker beside her. She shut it with a clang and glanced between the two. Her expression was annoyed at first, but then went placid. 

“Kinda queer,” Remarked Thad. As he leaned against one of the lockers by Uzi’s. He peered at her wings, which were folded at her sides. 

Lizzy elbowed him. “Shut up Thad.” 

“Ow! What's the big deal?” He asked indignantly, while rubbing his jabbed side. 

“That word doesn't even mean that anymore, idiot.” Lizzy said. She rolled her eyes at him. 

Thad cast Uzi a very not discreet glance. “So?” 

Having figured they were caught, Lizzy put her hands on her hips and turned to Uzi. “Heeeeyyyyy!” 

Thad waved. “Hey Zi,” He said. 

Uzi blinked slowly. She slipped her headphones off. “Uh. Hey,” She greeted.

Lizzy smiled, her rose coloured eye-lights locked onto the sight of Uzi's wings. She wheedled, “Those are, like, sooo cute. You should definitely get some pink ones for me. Because, you know, we're cool now.” 

Thad grinned and turned his attention back to Lizzy. “Wouldn't it be cool if I got an extra set of arms?” He exclaimed, “I'd be the best player on my team!” 

Lizzy flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. “You already are the best on your team,” She said. 

Thad shrugged. He added, “And I'd still look awesome.” 

Uzi gave Thad a puzzled look. “Where would you find the extra arms?” She asked. Then she looked at Lizzy and said “no.” To which the cheerleader actually seemed disappointed. 

“I dunno. It's just fun to think about.” Thad said with a shrug.

Lizzy eyed the crow wings that shifted idly behind Uzi. Her pink eye-lights were wide with curiosity, and almost the sort of awe that a kid might feel at seeing something new. Then she reached out and poked one of the feather-like blades. 

Uzi grumbled, “Hey! Personal space, much?” She took a step back, her wings gave an exasperated flap. The amethyst glow reflected off her locker. 

“I'm just looking,” Lizzy muttered. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. A pink annoyance tick blinked onto her screen. 

“With your hands?” Uzi asked wryly. She folded her wings closer to her body. Uzi loved her new wings more than anything, but If only the stupid things wouldn't materialize every time she wanted to fly! 

To her surprise, Lizzy nodded her head once. “Mkay, that's fair. Sorry,” said the blonde. A little begrudgingly. Though she did give Uzi some space. 

Thad spoke up, “They look sick.” He pointed finger-guns at Uzi. 

“They actually are kinda pretty,” admitted Lizzy. Then she looked away with a grimace, as if she just realized that might be considered a compliment. “In like, an emo way,” She added. 

“Thanks, Thad.” Uzi said. She shuffled her boots a little, unsure exactly how to feel about Lizzy having been kind of nice. “And uh… I guess Lizzy.” 

“Anyway. Can I get a picture?” asked the blonde. Her phone held up in one hand. 

Uzi bit back a smirk, because of course that was what Lizzy actually wanted. “Uh. I guess?” She shrugged.  

Lizzy grinned. “Sweet.” 

Uzi flared her corvid wings as best she could in the hall. The purple lights shimmered as she did. Lizzy leaned over and snapped a selfie beside her. Then, quick as she had appeared, the popular girl was on her way. It seemed Lizzy got what she came for. 

Thad watched Lizzy go. He looked back at Uzi. “Do they go away?” He questioned. 

The mauve-haired girl nodded. “Yeah. Only when they feel like it,” She said dryly. 

Thad peered over her shoulder like he was curious as to how that worked. “Anyway, sorry to bug you. Lizzy heard a rumor and I tagged along because I was curious,” He explained. 

“Eh, it's fine.” Uzi said, “So everyone just kinda knows now?” 

He nodded. “Probably,” Thad told her, “But a bunch of people think it's awesome anyway.” 

Uzi snickered, she glanced down at her boots. “Cool. Glad I'm not getting banished or something stupid.” 

Thad paused. His optics narrowed as he peered down the hallway, switching from bewilderment to recognition. “Looks like you're wanted,” He mused. 

“Huh?” Uzi spun around, puzzled. Her lavender optics caught a glimpse of a Disassembly Drone tail weaving around the corner and out of sight. 

“You've got a stalker.” Thad said simply. Then he stood up straight and began to amble off. “Guess I'll see you later. Bye Uzi!” He called, as he waved.  

“See you later,” Uzi bid Thad farewell. She gave him a little wave. 

Upon spinning back around, Uzi found herself face to face with a familiar Disassembly Drone. Typically such a thing would make her jump three metres into the air, but this time, she anticipated being met with a certain someone. 

“Uzi!” N cheeped, “Hi love!” His tail swayed low to the floor at the sight of her. In his arms he held a stack of books, likely from the library, although balanced rather precariously. 

“Hey buddy.” Uzi couldn't help the soft smile that took over her face upon seeing him. She reached out and cautiously shifted a portion of the books into her own arms. N's shoulders relaxed at the help. “Wanna hang out later? Me and V found a new anime to binge,” said Uzi. 

The ivory-haired boy beamed and nodded his head. “Yeah! Of course.” His tail swayed beside him, although a bit slower than typically. Tired lines hung under his golden eyes, Uzi noticed. 

She reached up and took his head in her hands. N looked a little confused at first, but he welcomed any affection, and opted to rest his face in her hands. Uzi pulled him down to plant a kiss on his lips. Which was a bit hard considering he wouldn't stop smiling. 

The contact proved Uzi’s suspicion correct: her Disassembly Drone was hot to the touch. Uzi let go of N, and looked up at him. “What's with that?” She murmured, her brow furrowed with concern. “You're warm. Did you run out of Oil?” 

His yellow eye-lights drifted down. N mumbled, “Oh. Mmm-maybe.” His shoulders shrugged in response. “Okay, yep.” 

Uzi had granted both V and N their own glass jars filled with Worker Drone Oil, safely extracted from herself by what one could call the robo-equivalent of an IV. Uzi only ever removed the minimum amount she could, but it always lasted them both similar amounts of time. 

She looked him over a bit, and really N seemed fine. He was just warmer than he should have been. And maybe he was tired. “That's a little sooner than usual,” Uzi said. “You sure you've been drinking enough, sunshine?” 

“Yeah! I think so.” N paused for a moment and seemed to mull it over. He tilted his head to one side. “But now that you mention it, I guess maybe I'm kinda hungry,” He said slowly. 

Uzi took his hand in her own, deciding to ignore the rise in temperature for now. N was hungry. That was it. She shouldn't be too freaked out. “Come on then.” Uzi joked, “You better not overheat and die, me and V would be pissed.” 

N interlaced their fingers together and rested his head on top of hers. “Yeah, yeah. I won't,” He said with a hum.

Chapter Text

Uzi made her way down the meal corridor, her hands tucked into the pockets of her hoodie while her headphones blared. She stopped in front of a familiar door, to a dormitory she visited often. 

She slipped her headphones off and tucked them into her bat-winged backpack, next to her phone, which had a terribly cracked screen that illuminated another text sent by her girlfriend. Uzi already knew what it would read, since V had asked her to hurry over to their boyfriend’s dorm. Uzi wasn't sure why exactly, but the lack of information included made her feel that perhaps it was urgent. And even if that wasn't the case, she wouldn't mind an excuse to hang out with her favorite Disassembly drones, instead of sitting through a boring class that she already had high grades in. 

The mauve-haired woman reached up and gave a few swift, hard knocks on the door. N said she was always welcome and Uzi could only assume V was already inside. The door, unlocked and not quite of industrial strength, slid open with no effort. She stepped into N's room and nudged the door shut behind her. 

In the entrance-way, Uzi pulled off her backpack and held it by one strap, prepared to set it on the floor. She looked over, words spilling from her mouth with ease, “Hey V, I got your message. What's...” Abruptly she paused, falling silent in response to the scene she walked into. 

N appeared to be curled up in a small lump on his bed, (as small as a Disassembly drone could manage to look). He was wrapped snugly in at least four different blankets, his hair untidy and his pilot hat gone. Actually, he was still dressed in his sleepwear. His yellow eyes had narrowed, almost into a glare, and he had lines of exhaustion under them. His visor glowed with a faint flush, one that wasn't the same as blush, but rather hazy. He argued, “I really don't need—!” 

V cut him off. Her own eyes narrowed the same. She held out a mug to him, to which N let his head fall back against his pillow. “Drink,” V told him, “drink the oil, you're too hot; you need to cool down.” She sat at the edge of his bed, her legs crossed, her face scowling and her tail lashing in a way that would make her seem rather annoyed to the unknowing eye. But Uzi knew better, N knew better: V felt worried. 

Uzi glanced between the two. She took notice of N's strange fatigue and uncharacteristic desire to be left alone, while V seemed only concerned about getting him to do as she said. “Uh… What's up?” asked the Doorman, slowly. It was then Uzi realized the lights had been dimmed a considerable amount, the room almost fully dark. 

The Disassembler woman looked over to Uzi, her shoulders relaxed at the sight of her, and her tail stopped lashing, instead going limp at her side. “N's got a bug,” V explained gruffly. “And he refuses to drink anything that will help with his high temperature!” She paused, and looked back at N to address him, “I mean, come on, do you want to overheat?” 

N's mouth twisted into a tired, silly smile. “Uzi! Hi!” He waved at her, though it seemed to take him some effort to behave cheerfully. He coughed, his frame shivering like he was freezing. Then, he looked back at V and sighed. He reasoned, “But I'm not overheating. It's just a little bug. You should go back to class! And Uzi, too!” 

“You're warmer than usual. Drink the oil as a preventative,” V responded bluntly. She held out the mug of oil once again. 

Uzi blinked, both worry and curiosity became clear on her face. She stepped over to his bedside, leaving her bag near the door. “Wait, like, as in sick? Since when?” Her head tipped to one side. 

“Since he didn't show up to class,” the silver-haired girl explained. She set the mug in his hands, to which N grimaced. “I had to threaten— Uh, ask Thad in my very, very nice and polite voice to tell me where he was, and long story short, I came here to find him like this.” And as if on cue, N coughed a few more times. 

“Oh, damn.” Uzi cringed at the sound. She reached out and placed her hand on his head, finding that V was right, N felt far warmer than usual. Not hot enough to be overheating due to lack of oil, but still not a normal temperature. Likely caused by his systems running in overdrive for protection. Couldn't be an enjoyable feeling, either, Uzi thought. “That's pretty bad,” she said. “It definitely needs to get fixed before it becomes an issue.” 

V huffed. She glanced at N with worried eyes. “That's what I'm saying!” She crossed her arms over her chest. 

N groaned quietly, he rolled over and pressed his face into his pillow. He covered the band of real eyes atop his head, as if in pain. “I'm not hungry,” he mumbled, with an edge of exhaustion to his tone. “Let me go back to sleep.” 

V winced, a look of guilt on her face as she reached out to him, brushing some of his hair out of his face. “I'm not trying to keep you up,” she said to N. “I just want you to drink something, you’ve barely even eaten all day.” 

“Did you get any kind of anti-virus?” Uzi questioned. She scooted closer to V, nudging their shoulders together soothingly. 

N coughed again. His shoulders trembled, his tail coiled close to his body as he sought warmth. “Uhh. No.” 

“Great,” Uzi muttered sarcastically under her breath. She ruffled N's hair, pressed a kiss atop his head, and then stood up. 

“Could you please stay with him in case he gets worse?” she asked, looking at V. Of course, N didn't need to be taken care of. But simply being there offered comfort, and who wouldn't help out an unwell loved one? Uzi believed such a concept was something important to uphold. She added, “I'm gonna go grab some anti-virus.” 

V nodded in agreement. She looked back down at N, opting to rub his shoulder soothingly. Her tail wrapped around an extra blanket and pulled it over his shuddering body. 

Somehow he felt freezing cold. N shifted to be closer to her, his head rested in V's lap while he glared at the mug of oil. He couldn't fathom the idea of stomaching it, due to his lack of appetite and overwhelming nausea. Although, all the same, he was unpleasantly hot. 

Uzi gave V a reassuring nudge, and leaned over to place a kiss on her cheek. She murmured a goodbye before she grabbed her backpack and then exited the dorm room. 

There were a few places where Uzi could nab a typical anti-virus. The closest being the technician’s bay. She gazed up at a corridor sign, the arrow on it pointed to the left, with bold words that read: med bay. 

She was familiar with such a center, and had even visited a few times for minor injuries or bugs of her own. As of recently, a certain drone with a new Worker body had picked up shifts there, acting as the robotic equivalent to a doctor. There was a part of Uzi’s mind that knew the job was as simple as it seemed, just a job, and nothing more. If not, then it was something Nori chose to do to get her mind off from past events, to re-join a functional colony, and even get used to artificial life again. But there was another part of Uzi, the larger part, ruling in her mind, that said something else. 

Uzi went right. 

She would just take a small detour, it wouldn't last long, she thought guiltily. She could just as easily head to a shop and get the anti-virus there. She wasn't avoiding her mother, she just wasn't ready yet. Not ready to look into Nori's eyes, which peered at her like a reflection. Not ready to face someone who refused to face her. Not ready to... move on, when it came to a certain someone who seemed to have forgotten a few very special words. 

The mauve-haired woman made her way down the corridors, her fingers curled around the straps of her backpack as she darted with ease through twists and turns that each looked alike, that one might mistake for a maze. Uzi opted to head to the nearest shop, one which she knew carried a variety of things, such as most edible items like batteries and pain-relief chips and, of course, anti-virus. 

She bounded up to the door of the shop, reached out to grasp the handle, and tugged. The door ope—... 

...The door did not open. Uzi paused. Her lavender eyes narrowed into a glare. She tugged on the door again, it shook slightly, but refused to budge. Her gaze, filled with dread, traveled up. There she saw exactly what she expected, the unwanted sign that marked the shop as “closed.” 

A gruff sigh escaped her lips as she crossed her arms. Uzi brushed off the minor annoyance. Whatever, she decided, she would just go to a different shop. It wasn't like she was in a hurry to get medicine for a sick loved one while also trying to avoid her lying mother like malware! Or anything! Important! Like that! Damn it!  

Uzi exhaled, her shoulders slumped, and she turned away. There were plenty of places to go to fetch some anti-virus, outpost three was a large place with a decent population after all. A pang of guilt rippled through Uzi's core like a droplet into a puddle, as the thought of N popped into her mind. He likely felt awful. So much so that he was barely eating, as V had said. Uzi chided herself with shame, she needed to grow up a bit and just go see Nori. What was a few minutes of irritating conversation going to hurt? Her feelings? Her ego? Pfft, how stupid. And not to mention, pathetic. For every damn she gave Nori could bite her! 

Uzi went back down the hall. Her optics drilled into the sign there, the one that read between the split paths in the corridor. An arrow pointed right, labeled for a small store. Or go left, to the med bay. Where Nori was. To ask Nori for an anti-virus, to give to her sick boyfriend. Her sick boyfriend, N, who Uzi loved more than her own artificial life. 

And who Nori more than "disapproved" of. 

What if she didn't even want to give Uzi the medicine? What if her mother disliked N so strongly that she would deny him such a simple remedy for a harmless bug? Sure, his system would fight it off on its own anyway, but would Nori seriously do that? Uzi couldn't be sure. She couldn't know that, not when she felt as though she barely knew Nori herself. 

...Would she turn Uzi away? 

Her purple eye-lights voided, trained intensely on the sign. She wanted to go there, she wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. She needed to. What sort of lover would that make her, otherwise? 

...Would Nori be so unhappy with Uzi that she may vanish, once again? Just the same as she had done before? Would she leave Uzi, completely alone, with Khan never bothering to spare a glance in her direction? 

Her hands fidgeted with her bag as her fingers began to tremble. A harsh ringing in her audio processors grew loud enough to drown out all surrounding noise. Her thoughts numbed, slowed to a halt, as though she couldn't possibly focus on any more than one thought. 

What if Nori left her, again?  

Her core thumped in her chest, hard, harder. As if she were running. Or perhaps needed to. But, no, Uzi was a fighter. She always had been. A sudden burst of disquiet made sweat droplets begin to form on her visor. There was nothing for her to fight. There was no true threat, no real enemy. And still, Uzi felt unstable, as if the floor beneath her would fall away at any second. Something ugly festered in her chest, perhaps the remains of someone long ago abandoned. Left behind. Forgotten. Disposable.  

Tears bubbled up on her visor, pooling in her violet eyes. Uzi bit her lip. A small rustle started up, beneath her beanie. Only a few moments later, upon sensing the girl’s distress, a familiar little creature crawled out from his place under Uzi's hat. Trigger, the robotic roach, the key bug from the cabin fever labs, and Uzi's tiny companion. The little greenish critter’s antenna twitched. He scurried down her back and up onto her shoulder. There, Trigger began to nuzzle against her, in an attempt to soothe her anxieties. 

Uzi reached up and wiped her face, she shook herself off. Snap out of it! She huffed, thankful the hall was empty and there was no one to see her while in such a weakened state. She glanced down at her pet bug, and offered him a few scratches on his head. Trigger crawled away, and hid himself beneath her beanie hat once again. Uzi, taking a few deep breaths, whirled around, and ripped her sight away from the sign. She would continue on. 

Uzi vaguely wondered what the hell was wrong with herself, considering most of her anxieties stemmed from either things Cyn had done, or events related to the Absolute Solver. Such as her near death encounters, or that night at camp 98.7. Nothing of the sort had ever before overflowed like that when the topic of her mother appeared. At least, not after the time she discovered Nori was alive. 

On to the next store she went. And with her she carried her backpack, and something heavy in her core. 

The second store was slightly farther away. At least, it was farther away in comparison to the medical bay or the other shop. Uzi tried desperately to squish down her guilt, for going out of her own way in such an inconvenient and time consuming fashion. The corridor felt cramped and small, with halls far too long as she made her way to the entrance of the store. Luckily, they were still open. 

Alas, Uzi was then made aware that, to her dismay, the second shop had completely run out of anti-virus. She searched every section she could find, from top to bottom. And requested help from every employee she met. But there was not much that could be done about a late shipment, and having purchases from sick customers. Perhaps the bug N had caught was more contagious than Uzi and V realized? It wouldn't be such a shock. 

Feeling rather dejected, the Doorman girl exited the store. Her eyes narrowed to an annoyed glare, she racked her CPU for directions to any other places that might have what she needed, what N needed. A tick of frustration blinked onto her screen, as she battled herself internally. She should save so much time, if she would simply go and see Nori. But the thought made her fidget, tapping her foot in anticipation. How ridiculous it was! She had faced far worse! 

Still, the daughter turned away, and started in the direction of the third shop. 

Of course, to make Uzi feel as though the universe itself hated her, the third shop’s computer system was down. Which meant she entered the place and found what she needed with ease, but upon reaching the front check-out a Worker had to admit to her that most purchases were not functioning. Specifically treatments and chips, since items like such could not be traded or paid for without a tracking system, or digital payment. 

By that point in the evening, Uzi pondered theft. 

But no, that would cause too much unnecessary trouble, especially with graduation rapidly approaching. So she smiled, bared her teeth as politely as she could muster, which was not very much. And then left. 

Outside the shop, Uzi repeated many curses and profanities to herself. She snaked her arms up over her head and yanked on her beanie as she groaned. The urge to rip out strands of violet hair gnawed at her. She opted to chew on the silicone tips of her fingers, where on a human nails may be, instead. Uzi wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet. She could never give up so easily! Not her! 

So, yet again, Uzi Doorman traveled to another place. One even farther away from her desired destination. Although, she hoped, a pharmacy would certainly have some anti-virus for her to purchase! And then, as she had said, she would return to her favorite individuals. Albeit far later than she wished. 

The pharmacy was busy. Cramped, packed full to the brim with Worker drones who apparently needed to collect their prescriptions, or get tested for glasses, or buy anti-virus, or pain-relief chips, or whatever reasons they may harbor. Uzi didn't care. She got the anti-virus, placed herself in the horrifically long line, and didn't dare budge. 

After what must have been two hours, Uzi's turn arrived. She stepped up to the check-out and handed the anti-virus to the Worker who would sell it to her. 

He shifted nervously. His blue eyes met Uzi's purple, and she began to wonder if she looked as deranged as she had started to feel. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. He stood there opening and shutting his mouth like a lost fish. Probably missed his frozen-over pond. 

Uzi sighed. She tipped her head to one side and asked, rather impatiently, “Well? What's it gonna cost me?” 

“You... um... You need proof of a prescription.” 

Uzi managed to exit the store without brutally murdering anyone. 

Shamefully, she accepted her losses and trekked back to N's dormitory. Her boots seemed to drag against the metal floor as she sulked all the way back. Her core thumped in anticipation, her fingers fidgeted with her bat-themed backpack, and Uzi began to shift her worry away from Nori. Instead, she began to fear the possibility of V and N being angry with her. 

N may not be, thanks to his seemingly never-ending patience. ...Or would he? What if this truly was the last of his resilience? What if N got angry with her for being gone for hours and still returning empty-handed? ...And V? Would they be upset with Uzi for her childish avoidance? She wouldn't blame them, if so. Not at all. 

This anxiety influenced Uzi's decision to ignore the beeping of her phone. She didn't know who was sending her messages, but she could make a pretty good guess. Somewhere in her mind, she knew she was worried over nothing at all. The nervous energy was unlike herself. Perhaps brought on by the stress of exams and the impending graduation ceremony? Either which way, it had nowhere to go, so it made a home in her chest. 

Uzi let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Her grip on her bag loosened while her shoulders slumped. Her violet eye-lights closed, and she reached out to knock on N's door. It swung open almost instantly, which prompted Uzi to open her eyes to see V standing there, who appeared almost as anxious as herself. 

The mauve-haired drone glanced down at her boots. She shuffled in place awkwardly. “Hey, sorry I took several million years. Everywhere was useless and—” 

V wrapped her arms around Uzi and pulled her into N's room. The Disassembler kicked the door shut behind her as she centered her attention onto her significant other. “Purple fricken’ toaster! Geez, there you are. You didn't answer any of my texts and I got so worried, you idiot!” V hissed, her eyes narrowed into a glare as she hugged Uzi close. “Are you good?” 

Uzi blinked. She spoke up, quietly, “I—I didn't mean...” Her voice trailed off. V set her down. She cast a glance at N, who was curled up, and seemed to be asleep. Her anxiety fizzled out, like a dying fire, until only ashes remained. “I'm...” Uzi set her bag down by the door. “I mean...” 

V tipped her head to one side, her yellow eye-lights dilated as she took in Uzi's demeanor. “Oh. You're making one of your unhappy faces,” she observed, softly. She reached out and took Uzi's hand in her own, her thumb brushed over the top of Uzi's hand gently. “What is it? What's wrong?” 

“It's nothing, I'll be fine.” The Worker drone shrugged. A faint few lines of lavender dusted her display visor, and she held onto V's hand more firmly. “I didn't get the anti-virus, though,” Uzi admitted, shamefully. 

V nudged Uzi's shoulder. “Ah. Well, that sucks. What happened?” She asked. “And— wait. Seriously, I wanna know about whatever’s got you down.” 

She looked up at V, and was met with such a genuine look, of a soft smile and golden eyes behind round glasses, after a decently rough day. Of course, Uzi had been through far worse days, and nights. But V's hand in hers made her want to melt. 

“Everywhere was either all out, or closed, or their computer was broken! Or they wanted a prescription!” Uzi huffed. Her voice cracked, her mind ran over the events, as she recounted her anxiety. “Except the damn medical bay... Which I can't even get to because for some reason I'm suddenly scared of my dumb mom's opinion!” And then, just to make Uzi feel even more pathetic, the tears returned in full force. “Bite me!”

V's eye-lights hollowed in the centers. Her shoulders tensed, and she stepped closer to Uzi, linking their arms together. “Woah. Woah, okay.” She paused, and bit her lower lip, as she pondered how to best offer support. That was never V's best quality. She did try, though, she tried her hardest. She murmured, “It's okay, it's fine. Just take a breath.” 

Uzi let go of V, and instead reached up to hide her face in her hands. Her stomach burned with a churning sense of dread, while her legs ached to run away and shove herself into a closet, or cupboard, or any other place where she could avoid being seen. The taller woman wound an arm around her waist, and cast a glance back at the sleeping young man where he rested undisturbed, before she then led her significant other out of the dorm room. 

The door closed quietly behind the two. Uzi stopped, her body leaned against the wall as her head hung low. She didn't want to look up at V. She wanted — needed — to keep herself in one piece, no matter how fractured. 

The mauve-haired girl crossed her arms, she gave a harsh glare to the floor as she tried to blink away the tears that wished to bubble up on her visor. “I don't know what's wrong with me! I just want to help our boyfriend...” 

V nodded her head, her silver curls bobbed with the action. She leaned back against the wall beside Uzi, and bumped their shoulders together. Her tail hung low to the floor. “I know. Me too.” 

She scooted closer, to which Uzi let her head fall against V's shoulder. Then the silver-haired woman wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and pulled her into a hug. V muttered, “Come here, chill out,” as she set her head atop Uzi's and began to rub soft circles against her back. 

It was too much, oddly enough. Uzi couldn't possibly hold back her tears, not when she was so outmatched. By the feeling of V's arms holding her securely, almost as if to keep her from falling apart entirely. Followed by the delicate tickle of a Disassembler's tail curling around her leg, and the gentle massaging of her back. Soft curls of ivory hair fell against her cheek as she pressed her visor into the crook of V's neck, inhaling the soothing scent which clung to her crimson scarf. Something sweet and bitter all the same, like oil and burnt ash. It could never be too much, oddly enough. 

Silent tears cascaded down her visor, Uzi hiccupped, then dug her fingers into the leather of V's jacket. “We're supposed to be making N feel better,” she hissed, guiltily. “Not you comforting me.” Quiet sobs broke free from her chassis, at last. Her shoulders shook and her hands trembled. Corvid wings constructed of metal and violet light unfurled from her spine and cocooned around herself, and partially V. 

V made a soft shushing sound, one of her hands came up and brushed some of Uzi's hair out of her face. “N is okay. His temperature has lowered, since he finally had some oil, and he's sleeping now anyway.” She told Uzi, quietly. Her hand rested against the other girl's cheek, her thumb brushed over the edge of her visor, attempting to dry away her tears. “How about you go hang out with him for a bit, in case he wakes?” 

The Worker drone blinked a few times, her violet eye-lights adjusted, and her tears slowed. A sense of serenity washed over her frame, the tense energy drained, her shoulders relaxed. Her wings unwrapped from around them both, and she folded them at her sides. “But—” 

V tipped her head forward, she rested her forehead against Uzi's while she cradled her face. Her golden eyes shut, then Uzi's did the same. “And I'll go to the med bay. To get the anti-virus.” 

Her significant other frowned. Uzi stood up straighter, her mechanical wings folded into her back, out of sight. With a look of wary uncertainty all but drawn on her face, Uzi shook her head, and muttered, “Nori works there. And, like, maybe one other drone. So she's the one you'd probably have to get it from.” 

The silver-haired girl hummed in thought, she straightened her posture and gave a nod of her head. “I know,” V murmured, with a shrug. “Worst case scenario, she says no, because she doesn't exactly love me. But that's whatever.” 

Uzi's eye-lights dilated, shimmering a glowing lavender as they squinted like crescent moons, along with the sad little smile she couldn't hold back. “Oh, bite me. I love you,” Uzi whispered, her arms around V's waist hugged the taller girl closer. 

Her core ached, and unfortunately, Uzi began to understand that she really did want Nori to love and accept her partners. N and V were a part of her weird little family, in a way. The one she built for herself like a weapon. They had been there for her when no one else was. She wanted her mother to see them for the good-hearted individuals worthy of second chances she saw them as, rather than simple war machines without any feelings or reasons. 

V's visage softened. Her golden eyes fell half-lidded and she craned her neck to set her head atop Uzi's. She buried her face into the sea of purple locks on the Worker's head. “I love you, too,” V purred. The Disassembler snaked her arms around her girlfriend’s waist and squeezed her close, snug. “And best case, I grab what N needs before he wakes. Either way, we'll cuddle-pile when I'm back.” 

She pulled away, to cast a look down at Uzi. V grinned, with one blink her demeanor shifted, blending from soft to certain. She gave Uzi another light squeeze, her tail gave a few wags, then curled around her lover's leg. “Sound good, birdie?” 

Uzi's visor glowed with just a touch of that familiar violet fluster V had grown to adore. She reached up and wiped her cheek once more, a quiet exhale left her lips, and she nodded her head. The shorter woman nuzzled her face against V's scarf one last time, a fairly rare but not unusual show of vulnerability, one that Uzi struggled with. V understood, she was of course, much the same. 

Uzi pulled back, she unwrapped her arms from around V, and the other did so also. Her tail flicked at her side, the bubbling acid shimmered like the colours of citrus fruit. Uzi turned away, her hand grabbed the door handle.

V tucked her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket and began to walk down the hall. She faltered, and cast a glance back at Uzi. Butterflies fluttered their tiny robotic wings in the pit of her stomach. She had, to her own dismay, neglected one itty bitty thing. 

Although, Uzi didn't let her get too far without a reminder. The Worker drone was on her in one second. Metallic white hands curled into the rose-red fabric of V's scarf, and the Disassembler found herself giggling and wagging her tail like a moonstruck idiot as she allowed Uzi to pull her down to her level, and press their lips together. A small tink sound rang out as V's glasses clinked against Uzi's screen. 

The two parted, after just a few more little pecks and murmurs. Uzi finally relaxed, her core beat slowly, her breathing now deep and rhythmic. V couldn't help but scan her over, asking her HUD to monitor the vitals of her “target”. To simply double check that, indeed, Uzi's temperature was perfect, every little thing seemed to run properly. She was okay. 

The metal corridor remained eerily silent as Serial Designation V ambled through. She paused, her body designed perfectly for stealth left no echoes of footsteps. Her tail weaved in the air as she glanced up at the sign. An arrow on it pointed to the left, with bold words that stated: med bay.  

V went left. 

Her hands were tucked into the pockets of her jacket. She walked the rest of the way down the hall to the entrance of the med bay. Outside, she stood there, with her yellow eyes narrowed to slits as she stared at the door. Most likely Nori had a job to do. And so did V. A part of her couldn't help but wonder if, at any point in time, Nori may ever be considered her mother-in-law. Although such a concept was farther than foreign to her. She was quick to snuff it out the same way she would do upon discovering unnecessary candle flame. With a quiet growl, she reached out and grabbed the handle of the door. 

Inside the med bay buzzed and beeped with technology. The front room was oddly void of any drones. But V couldn't see any farther than that. The back area was saved for any task or procedure which might be deemed urgent or time-sensitive, while the front where V had just entered was for non-emergencies. Her gaze traveled from flickering computer screens filled with information of multiple genres, and mounted over every wall surface, to densely packed shelving strategically placed wherever any space may be left. Chirps, rings, and signals rang out between chattering voices and footsteps. 

V’s upper band of real eyes dimmed their nanite glow in a reflexive effort to block out the array of sights and lights. A part of her wanted to cover her audio-processors and stab all of the things that made noise, so that they might stop making noise. Her hands reached for her scarf — the one Uzi got her — she rubbed the crimson fabric between her fingers, her focus shifted to the texture of each and every tiny fibre. 

“Hello up there,” a high pitched voice broke through the background sound. V glanced down to the only other person who occupied the front room, the back area being closed off by a wide curtain. “How might I assist you, miss Dissassembly-ing madam?” asked the little drone. Who, as V managed to see them face to face, appeared to be only an Untrained Neural Network. Despite this, the small pill-shaped baby had limbs, two legs to stand on and two arms folded behind their back politely. 

Flashes of memories filled V’s mind, of a very similar baby drone from deep within the Cabin Fever labs. Although this one wore an orange bow atop her head, to match her spotted night-clothes. Her large, ivory eyes blinked up at the Disassembly drone woman with unbashful wonder. 

V paused for a few seconds, she glanced around and found no one, still alone with only this small network. She couldn’t help but wonder where her parents were, or if she were lost. Not to mention why a child would feel okay with the idea of approaching her in specific. A scary murder drone of all things. Not to mention her personality, which was... very lovely! ...If you asked N. 

She opened her mouth to speak, something along the lines of, “why are you in the med bay all by yourself?” though a different person called out first.  

“Corinne!” 

A Working drone pushed past the backroom curtain. Her long hair fell in her face as she ignored the hanging fabric. She used her left hand to fix the almond-coloured strands away, so that she could see better. On her wrist she wore a bracelet which harbored a small hanging charm, this only caught V's attention due to the vibrant alert symbol etched into it. Chronically low battery. Likely unable to store charged energy, prone to collapsing when over-exerted. 

The mother stopped just before the little drone. She huffed, shook her head, and chided her daughter. “No speaking with drones you don’t recognize.” Her arms crossed over her chest, her magenta eye-lights had lines of exhaustion beneath them as she gave V a cautious glance. On her coat was a tag which read her name in swirly handwriting: Jules. 

Corinne gave her mother an amused expression. She reached up and patted her arm. “Mummy, it’s okay, I do recognize her. She knows Uzi and N. They are the ones who saved copper-nine!” explained the Untrained Neural Network, who spared a happy look at the Disassembler. “And she is here because she is a new patient! So I will help.” 

The woman, Jules, relaxed. She blinked a few times, her expression softening significantly, and her shoulders slumped. “Oh. I see,” she murmured, breathily. Her head tilted as she examined V briefly, without much concern. Then she turned to her child. “Now, be a dear and go fetch Mrs. Doorman. You know it’s her job to manage the front, not yours.” 

“But some day,” Corinne said, “I will work here for real some day! ” Her large eyes narrowed as her mother gave her a few pats atop her head, before adjusting her bow and nudging her along. 

“Apologies,” whispered Jules, as she ushered Corinne away. The little girl waved at V as they left. Jules looked back to give the silver-haired woman a friendly smile, and a nod of her head. “Good-twilight.” 

V returned her nod, and raised her hand slightly to give a small wave. The two vanished behind the curtain to the back area. Her posture slouched. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket and took in a deep breath of chill air she didn’t need. Her tail whipped through the air a few times, she shook herself, and braced her patience for whatever the upcoming interaction might bring. Socializing was juuust like hunting... Yep. V was good at hunting. 

Footsteps tapped against hard flooring as the only other Working drone made their way toward the front room. The curtain gave a rustle as it was pushed aside, said drone stepped through and let it fall back into place. She stretched her arms above her head and let out a groan of annoyance, her joints clicked, then she took handfuls of her violet hair and pulled it back, to tie it up into a single loose ponytail. Nori blinked a few times, her eye-lights opened and at last she seemed to process who she stood in front of. Lines of faint tiredness decorated her visor under her optics. A busy day of repairing injured Worker drones, perhaps? Or had she not visited her home in a while, instead favoring staying distracted by her job? Actually, it was more likely caused by the observable fact that the entire med bay was run by only two adult drones. 

“Oh,” Nori sighed. She placed one hand on her hip and tipped her head. “What’s up? Need an oil bag or something? We just got a bunch donated, actually.” 

V shook her head. “Ah, no. Just some anti-virus.” 

It wasn’t a bad idea, to stop by the med bay for oil donations. Those were supposed to be reserved for Worker drones who had lost oil from injuries, big plastic bags of the black robo-blood. Although N would probably like the idea of not having to rely on Uzi to survive. It would be good for her, too, to not put so much stress on her own body just to feed them both. V pondered grabbing a bag or two. It wasn’t like the Worker drones were going to need so much, considering they were no longer under risk of injury from going outside. Thanks to...

The older woman nodded and turned away. She collected a small bottle and gave the label a quick read. “For who?” Nori asked. She needed to be sure of what type to give. 

“N. And, actually I think those oil bags are a good idea.” V forced herself not to fidget, she held her tail steady and low to the floor. 

Nori stepped up to her and held out the bottle. “Cool. I dunno if this stuff works for Murder drones the same way it does for Workers, so just be careful I guess.” V took the bottle of anti-virus and tucked it into her pocket. Nori added, “I don’t see why you guys would be much different from us, other than the whole oil thing. But even still, I’ve been there, done that.” 

The Doorman woman spun around and disappeared behind those curtains once again. Her footsteps seemed to echo softly as she made her way to collect said oil. It didn’t take her very long, just enough time for V to let her shoulders slump, and for her mind to wander back to the thought of an examination test she really needed to study for. 

It was just when V began to ponder on her own life, on her own experience of what parents were like, only from what she had witnessed of the Elliott family's hand, when Nori entered the main room again. She held a bag of oil in each hand, the clear plastic allowed V to get a nice look at the ebony liquid as it sloshed around with the movements. Oddly enough she found herself not growing hungry at the sight. She took the bags as Nori passed them to her. 

“That’s it then?” Nori asked. 

V nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, that’s good.” She turned, and prepared to leave. 

She wasn’t sure why, exactly, but something fresh bubbled up in the back of her mind. A newfound curiosity, of the sort, in reference to the mere concept of family. What it meant, who it applied to, and why. She knew the dictionary definition, the clear cut image which was supposed to be painted. And still V knew otherwise. The truth was, it had nothing to do with shared blood or oil or even who raised who, if she were to cite Tessa and the Elliotts as her source. But rather, if V had to stop and think on the subject, as she never had before, then she would confidently place the Elliotts as not being a family at all. 

So then, she thought, next would be to define what it fundamentally meant. A new law placed to the concept. She knew it applied to loved ones, it existed as a human based need and desire for support and community. But they were not human. So maybe that desire was more universal than at first it appeared. Or maybe they just went about the concept differently. In whichever case, she decided, family was simple. Family would be the people who shared compassion with one another. It would be constructed on a foundation of trust, then love, and most importantly friendship. 

It would be a question. 

How far are you willing to go? 

And that, Serial Designation V knew, had a solid answer. 

She would call N and Uzi just that, her family. A freaky little team of members, sure, but it was more than good enough for her. She came to this conclusion and wondered how far it extended. If Uzi was part of her family then what did that make of Khan? And in relation, what did that make Nori? 

V stopped. She turned around and glanced back at Nori. The words echoed in her head before she could stop them, ugly and frightening: Mother in law? Or rather, something only like such? Only a small portion of the terror popped up at the understanding that V had never had her own parents. She never knew a mother for herself, nor a father for herself. The closest she ever came to such an idea would have been Master James Elliott’s hands wrapped around her throat or Mistress Louisa James Elliott’s broken perfume bottle slicing through her palm. Yet again that just didn’t fit. Would it have been Tessa, then? She wondered. No. No, none of those humans ever fit the concept in even the slightest of ways. 

“Nori?” A voice called out. V took a few seconds before she realized it had been her own. 

Uzi’s mother looked back at her. Those violet eyes were beyond anything V felt she could read. Her gaze was not a challenge, it was not defensive or looking for a fight, but something felt cold. Something felt like maybe Mrs. Doorman was far away. Maybe she was looking V up and down and deciding what to think of her. Calm, calculated, observant. 

“What’s up?” Nori hummed. 

V asked flatly, “Why do you hate me?” Her question was straight to the point, no need to waste time or pretend anything else. No use in sugarcoating a bitter statement. But she had to know. Was is because of what she was? Was it because of the things she’d done? Because of her snarky comments and shrill cackles? Or perhaps even her less than perfect grades? 

“Pfft,” Nori snorted. She let out a quiet laugh and waved her hand dismissively. She shook her head. “I don’t hate you.” 

V tilted her head, confusion washed over her like a wave of chill water. It must have been evident on her face. And suddenly Nori felt like much less of a threat. As if a weight had been lifted from V’s shoulders. Relief. 

At that, she couldn't help but keep speaking. “Then what’s with—” 

“I just don’t like you.” Nori interrupted. She turned to look away from V, and her hands dragged over a few cupboard doors, searching for a specific one. “I don’t even know you. And I think your past actions prove you can’t be trusted, especially around my daughter.” 

V all but bristled. She kept a firm hold on those bags of oil, willing herself to just be careful for once in her life. Her shoulders tensed and she straightened her posture. “My past actions? Oooh, so like when I died for her?” she asked, calmly. “Or maybe when I chose to fight alongside her and N after Cyn decided to try and eat the planet?” 

Nori paused, her hands rested on the handle of one cupboard, and slowly she looked back at V. Her brows furrowed. “What?” She let her hands fall to her sides. She leaned against the countertop and gave V a curious look. “Okay, I’ll bite. Khan won’t tell me much of what happened. Says it’s your story to tell,” the older woman admitted. 

V blinked. Oh. Wait, was it actually going to be that simple? Was all of that overthinking for nothing? She bit back a groan of annoyance. “I— uh—” V said, “I mean, I wouldn’t know where to start. I guess the whole dying thing would be a decent spot?”  

The Doorman woman nodded her head. She glanced away, her fingers gripped the counter. “I should’ve asked Uzi more. I know that.” Nori said, “It’s... hard. I spent all that time away, and now I’m back. And my baby isn’t exactly a baby anymore.” She didn’t look at V, her gaze stuck on the floor as she spoke, with something like acceptance. Quiet resignation. “Uzi doesn’t need me. It’s too late. Best let her move on.” 

...What was she supposed to say in response to that? She didn’t know the first thing about what it meant to have a parent. Or what it was like to be anyone’s child. 

Nori shuffled around, uncomfortably. She opted to snag a tablet down from the cupboard. It shut with a soft thud. She then set to filling out a few digital files. 

“I don’t know what any of that’s like,” V said. N always chirped about honesty, it seemed to work. “I’m not anyone’s daughter. But I think you should still try and fix things with Uzi.” 

Nori stopped. She put the tablet down. “...I never thought of that. That you two both don’t have parents. That sucks.” She looked at V, again, and it felt genuine. Nori seemed to actually mull it over. “What’ll I do? I’ll say I’m sorry. And Uzi, she would forgive me, because I’m her mother. A stranger, but still her mother.” 

V tipped her head to one side. “Isn’t forgiveness a good thing?” 

“No, not to me,” Nori stated. “I shouldn’t be forgiven at all. Uzi ought to leave me in the dust.” There it was. Nori couldn't ask for forgiveness she felt she didn't deserve. 

A low giggle rose up V’s throat. Oh, how deeply she knew that feeling. V might even dare call herself the queen of it. “You could say the same for me,” she said with a grin. “And yet, here I am.” 

Thus, stories saw light.

There was a quiet knock on the door, the low sound of metal knuckles as they rapped against a hard surface. A moment passed, then it slowly nudged open. V peered into the room, her golden eyes big and blinking behind her glasses, the sight she was greeted by made a small smile grace her face, and she entered silently. This was one good thing that came of her murderous stealth. 

N was asleep, still, curled up in his bed among a wreck of multicolour blankets, peaceful at last. He more than deserved to sleep for however long he needed. Beside him was Uzi, or rather, nestled into his arms was more like the correct way to describe the placement of said Worker drone. She had rested her head atop his, her violet curls mingled with his messy flaxen ones, while her arms and wings had each wrapped protectively around his frame while he slept. Almost as if Uzi wished to shield him. 

V did her best to be quiet, her hunter status of course made sure she was quite good at that no matter if she tried or not. She placed the two bags of oil on N’s desk, among a scatter of art supplies and a guide for wireless mouse care, while being careful to prop them up in a way they wouldn’t topple over. The ebony liquid splashed timidly against the plastic. Then she took out the anti-virus from her pocket and gave it a quick look over, her optics traveling over the letters printed quickly. V almost snorted as she set it on the bedside table next to a mug filled with paint brushes, internally she made a note to be absolutely certain N finally took it. 

Uzi shifted her gaze, her violet eye-lights blinked open, as it seemed she hadn’t really been asleep. Or at the very least, not so deeply. A whisper came next, as she greeted her partner, with a little smile. “Hey, glad you’re back.” Uzi sat up, she maneuvered herself a little bit, altering her position with N so as to make room for V. She beckoned the other girl. “C’mon. Wanna know how it went.” 

V happily obliged. The Disassembly Drone climbed onto N’s bed and wasted no time in making herself comfortable among the blankets and her significant others. She tugged a yellow blanket up to drape around her shoulders and then wrapped her arms around Uzi. She murmured, “It went good.” 

“Really?” Uzi rested one of her wings over V’s side and pulled her closer. The other corvid wing made itself cozy around N. The mauve-haired woman tilted her head, out of something like disbelief or maybe awe. “With Nori? ” 

V swallowed down an amused scoff. She nodded her head in confirmation. “Yeah. I talked to her, actually,” she explained. “Had to kinda fill her in on some of the stuff that happened.” 

“Khan didn’t?” Uzi paused. She didn't look very surprised by that. 

“Nope. Something about stories.” V gave a small shrug. “I told her mine, though. It’s a biiiiiit tangled up with you and pretty boy, so I hope you two don’t mind,” V said. She then reached over and carefully poked N's visor. He didn't wake, or even so much as stir. 

Uzi rolled her eyes. “Pff. It’s fine. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said. The Worker drone mulled it over for a moment before she asked, “So, what, Nori’s just cool now?” 

“Maybe just a little. She doesn’t hate me.” V rested her head on Uzi's shoulder. “But something is something, yeah?” 

“Yeah, duh.” Uzi brought her hand up, and began to comb  her fingers through V's hair, toying with the ivory strands. She glanced over at the plastic bags filled with oil, where they rested on N's desk. “What’s all that?” Uzi asked. 

“Some tasty snacks. A donation from Nori's stash in the med bay.” V nodded her head in the direction of the anti-virus. She grinned. “And! Mission accomplished.” 

Uzi relaxed at that. The sight of their MacGuffin had seemed to soothe any semblance of remaining tension harbored by her. “Oh wow. The treasure of such a remarkable journey, huh,” Uzi joked, her voice dripped with sarcasm. 

V's tail wove around N's, creating a tangle of the two wires. Such a thing would prove slightly less cozy when they both woke up again, and would then have to deal with un tangling the limbs. But V shushed that idea away. She flashed a smile at Uzi and muttered, “You’d think it was the hero’s elixir or something.” 

A little smile crossed Uzi's face. She glanced down at N. “Yeah, well, this hero is for sure gonna be happy to have it,” she said. And ruffled his hair.