Work Text:
Writers Block
Peter VI sat in his room late one evening trying desperately to figure out how he was going to write this paper for English class. It was due the next day, and he hadn't even started. He had to explain his views on a current trend of some sort, which he 1) had no care for the current events of “pop culture” and 2) had no idea how to write about a topic he didn't care about in the least for.
He was stuck.
He sighed loudly, slamming his head into his desk in front of his laptop.
“Ouch... “ he grumbled, face down on his desk. “I don’t have time for this! Why do I have to write stupid papers when I could be doing more important things?"
He thought about the lab and the various experiments his father conducted. He wanted very badly to help him, to learn, not write essays on useless topics.
He sat up suddenly, rubbing his face where it hit the desk. He had an idea. Maybe he could ask The Spine to write the paper for him! Six quickly closed his computer and gathered up his plethora of papers and information. As quiet as he could manage, he snuck from his room down a couple floors to The Spine's room.
As he tiptoed down the hallway, he passed the Jon's room. Pausing to peek in for a moment, he could faintly see the brass bot had already drifted off into stasis for the night in the middle of his cozy looking nest of toys and things. Who knows what that silly bot had in the messy room of his. Silently he hoped that the Spine hadn't gone into stasis yet, as it was pretty late.
Walking a little farther down the hall, Six arrived outside The Spine's room. He quietly peeked inside and to his relief The Spine was still up and appeared to be writing at his desk. A single lamp illuminated the large wooden desk as he carefully wrote, the pen gliding across the paper, the practiced movements graceful.
Awkwardly, Six knocked on the door-less frame.“Uhh, Spine? Can I come in?,” he asked quietly.
Hearing the knock, The Spine paused what he was writing, set down his pen, and turned around. “Sure, what can I do for you Peter?” he replies with a smile.
Six walked in and pulled up a chair to sit next to the silver automaton, dumping his things on the floor next to him but keeping his computer in his lap. “I'm stuck Spine.” he stated with a frown.
The Spine raised an eyebrow.
Six hesitated before continuing.“Well, I have this paper due tomorrow for class, and I just can't write it... I can't find anything that interests me in the topic and I'm just... stuck” Six sighed lowering his head a little. “So I was wondering...” suddenly he lifted his head and stared straight into The Spine's glowing photoreceptors , “...if you could maybe write it for me?”
The Spine crossed his arms and sighed letting out a puff of steam. He looked down at the hopeful expression on the boy's face. “I don't know if that's a good idea Petes.” he said after a pause. “You should probably write this yourself, you wouldn't want to get into trouble if your father found out.”
Six deflated and looked down at the laptop in his lap.
Seeing the boy's reaction, the Spine thought for a moment and smiled. “But..” he said putting a silver hand on the boy's shoulder. “Maybe I could help you to write your paper? Give you some ideas? Hows that sound?”
Six looked up to the green glowing photoreceptors in front of him and grinned. “Yeah, that could work. Thank you Spine!” He set about picking up his papers and laptop and placed them on The Spine's desk. He then scooted closer to the silver bot, spreading his things out and explaining the details of the paper as The Spine listened.
The Spine smiled to himself as the boy explained things, happy to help the young Walter next to him. He thought back to when an earlier Walter sat next to him many many years before, and started to teach the young silver automaton to read and write. He remembered how kind and patient his creator was. How whenever the then newly built automaton made a mistake, he calmly corrected it and gave the nervous 'bot kind loving words of encouragement.
Still smiling, the Spine started in to help young Peter Walter VI with his paper.