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What a day
Uzi sighs, entering her room and closing the door using her “Absolute Solver” powers without looking at it.
Wait.
Was the power she had even called “Absolute Solver”? The only frame of reference she has is how the words and the symbol would always appear together, hand in hand, hence why it made sense to name her power like that. Although, calling it a power undermines what this thing actually does/has done. It goes beyond telekinesis or destroying things with a wave of her hands. It slowly but surely transformed Uzi into an oil-lusting beast with wings made out of organic bones and leather and a lizard-like tail she could move at her will yet it still seemed to have a mind of its own.
One by one, she killed her classmates and if it weren’t for N, she probably would have killed V for good too. Or she would have turned into an eldritch being like J. Regardless, both fates made her shudder.
She lies on her bed, staring at the now clean ceiling after her dad had taken all her crazy ramblings and notes away. And for once, she felt grateful that he did that. Staring at the ceiling always helped to calm her nerves. The last thing she wants to do is remember anything that has happened the past few days. Not the absolute solver nor the incident at the camp. Everything left her with so many questions with the answers all in sight yet too far back to read. And whenever she’d approached them, they’d seem to move backward, making it even harder. She knows they’re there, and she knows where to find them yet she only received breadcrumbs, not enough to satisfy the hunger for closure. Thoughts slip through her fingers, theories become more nonsensical, and if it weren’t for N she would have already lost her mind.
But despite everything that has happened, he became her lifeline of sanity.
N would always be the one to reassure her that everything will be fine as long as they stick together. Ever since the incident, he has shown more worry and care for Uzi without acting suffocating or making Uzi feel like a danger. His optimistic yet calming nature is what has drawn her to him as he always managed to comfort her when the world weighed down on her shoulder. In a way, she envied that trait of his. Always being able to calm her down and make her feel all fuzzy and warm inside whenever he’s close. She wished she could grant him the same amount of comfort he does to her. She hopes that she manages to give him the same level of comfort that he gives to her. Uzi didn’t admit it lightly, but she might feel more than a platonic friendship for N. It transcended far beyond that, and thinking about it scared her.
Is she willing to risk their friendship to chase after a feeling that might never get returned? After all, she didn’t consider herself good enough for him, in that way. As a friend, maybe, but a partner?
A sudden crash and curse chased Uzi out of her thoughts. The only other person in her “apartment” (as the workers liked to call it) was her dad. She stands up from her bed, slowly peeking her head out of her room. There was Khan, picking up a bunch of photos that were scattered on the ground, seemingly having been dropped from the box next to him.
“Dad? Is everything okay?” Her full body now emerges from the door frame as she approaches her dad who’s frantically trying to pick up all the pictures.
“Ah, it’s nothing to worry about! Don’t let silly old me disturb you.” Uzi frowns at his words. Unlike N, it’s obvious with how her dad treats Uzi that he still walks around eggshell all the time. They have been growing together - albeit awkwardly and slowly - but some remnants of their past relationship would unintentionally resurface. With a sigh, she bends down to pick up some of the pictures that fell down, noticing that they all had one thing in common.
Her mom was depicted on them.
The first picture she picked up had her mom and another Worker Drone standing next to each other as if they knew each other for years. Another one had her mom wearing a beautiful white gown, blending in perfectly with the metallic flowers in her hair. Next to her stood her Dad, with a happy albeit nervous smile, wearing a fancy looking suit.
“I remember that day vividly.” Khan sighs as the memories rush in his mind. “That day, there was nobody more beautiful than your mom,”
Uzi picks up a third picture, widening her eyes as she sees it. Her mom and dad were holding Uzi together, smiling.
“What about this one?” She shows it to Khan and his face immediately lights up.
“That’s the day you first opened your eyes!” Khan takes the picture from Uzi’s hand and examines it closer. “That was the best day of our lives.”
“What are you doing with those pictures?” Uzi picks some more up and puts them all in the box. She read the big black letters written on the box “NORI’S SUPER AWESOME ADVENTURES”. Khan’s expression drops a little as he takes the rest of the pictures and motions for Uzi to pick up the box. She does so and they both sit down on the couch.
“Today is the day she passed away.” Khan sighs, skimming through the pictures in his hands. Uzi could see some were her dad and her mom on dates or just her mom and the drone with the short hair. “I try to forget what happened and instead remember the good times. With her.”
“Wow, that one is old!” Uzi took a picture out of the box which had small tear stains all around it, yet she still recognized the figures in the picture. There stood her mom along with a bunch of other figures but not her dad.
“That picture was taken when we weren’t even together!” He stares at it and smiles. “I always thought that she was too good for me, back then.”
“Too good for you?” Uzi hands Khan the picture and raises a brow. “I always thought you two were like high-school sweethearts - or at least in your version of ‘high school’”
“We were friends before that, of course. But it took me a long time to confess my feelings to her.” Khan puts the picture back into the box and faces Uzi. “I wasn’t liked by many, especially after my, uh… ‘kill all human’ phase. But somehow Nori found that endearing and we hit it off pretty quickly after that,” Uzi stares at him with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.
“You wanted to kill humans?!” Her entire body tensed in shock while Khan's eyes hollowed by her outburst. “I always thought you were a pacifist!”
“I’ve changed a lot ever since I married her,” Khan chuckles. “And after we made you, I knew that I had to focus my priorities elsewhere. They changed again after her death, though” He sighs and Uzi feels a pang of pity for him.
“Dad?” Uzi starts fidgeting with her thumbs, forming her sentence carefully. “Who confessed first? You or mom?”
“Your mom, of course! I would never have the courage to do it myself.” Khan laughs.
“But what if she never confessed? Would you have tried?” Uzi’s mind shifts towards N.
“I would, though it’d probably be awkward for the both of us. But, I knew for her it would have been worth it.” Khan picks up another picture from the box, smiling brightly and showing it to Uzi. “Hey! Do you remember this?” He points at a pillow fortress she and her mom built in an abandoned mattress store when she was young.
In the picture, her dad, her mom, and Uzi read a book together in said fort. Uzi remembers vividly the nights they would spend together there. Though after what happened to Nori, Uzi was never allowed to visit that place again, much less go beyond the three doors her father installed to keep them safe.
“I remember. Haven’t been there for a long time though…” Suddenly, an idea pops up in Uzi’s head.
“Hey, we could visit the place again. With N being my friend and V, eh, tamed? It’s not dangerous anymore to go outside” Uzi beams, something she hasn’t done in a while. However, Khan returns a sad smile her way.
“I’d love to but I promised Ron I’ll help him with something important. Why don’t you go there and I’ll arrive later?” Khan hands her the picture of them all happy in the pillow fortress.
Uzi frowned and sighed. One part of her screamed in her mind that Khan was abandoning her again for his tasks, putting priority over his doors over her. But with all the change they had gone through and the seemingly improving relationship between them she didn’t want to ruin it all just because of a silly little voice in her head.
The voice in question being Uzi’s younger self.
“Alright.” She sighs “I’ll be there then” She tucks the picture in her pockets. Khan places a hand on her shoulder as if he read her thoughts.
“I promise I’ll be there,” His voice has grown unusually soft and sincere, shocking Uzi a little. However, the corner of her lips started twitching upwards in a small smile as she nodded and turned to leave.
He’s not abandoning me…
She closes the door to their living quarters and makes her way down the hallway, spotting a few drones here and there. And as her gaze met the glowing yellow eyes, she knew she had spotted the drone that she wanted to see.
“Hey, Uzi!” N shouts, waving his hands, catching the attention of the other drones around them. Uzi cringes a little as she smiles at him.
“Hey, N…” She smiles awkwardly at him. N and Uzi began walking together down the hallway, however, he noticed Uzi’s brooding expression.
“Penny for your thoughts?” He asks, looking ahead with a smile and his hands behind his back.
“Oh, I just talked with my dad about… stuff,” She shrugs her shoulders.
“Good stuff or bad stuff?” He finally looks at Uzi while still walking ahead.
“Good stuff, for once.” Uzi hides her hands in her pockets. “We rummaged through some old pictures of me, my mom, my dad…” She lightly grips the picture of the pillow fort.
Suddenly, an idea pops up in her head, again.
“Hey, wanna go somewhere?” Uzi stops, fully turning to N with a smile.
“Sure! I love doing-”
“-anything, I know, buddy” Uzi finished his sentence and N awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“Do I really say it that much?”
“Yes but not too much,” Uzi smiles reassuringly at him.
Uzi leads N towards the doors that once shielded the colony from danger. But now, with the disassembly drones (partly) on the worker's side, the doors have become obsolete, much to Khan’s dismay. Even though everyone believes that V has killed workers before (why she lied about Uzi going on a rampage, she’ll never know) N could still walk freely in and out of the colony with warm greetings and smiles. Uzi envied that a bit, as she’d be confronted with weird stares instead. Nonetheless, knowing that N doesn’t have to fear any more bullying from the likes of J makes her glad as she firmly believes that someone like N deserves to be treated with the equal amount of respect and love he gives to others.
“Where are we going?” N broke the silence as they reached the hallway where the wind from the outside blew in, the three doors wide open.
“Somewhere…” Uzi answers vaguely, still walking forward. Ron, who was sitting at the table at the first door, waved and smiled as he spotted the duo. N smiles back and waves as Uzi does a casual two-finger salute.
“Have fun you two!” Ron calls out as Uzi and N leave the colony. N turns around, walking backward as he shouts back “Thanks, we will!” before they lost complete sight of him. The silence enveloped them as N looked up in the sky, trying to come up with a topic to talk about.
“So…” N speaks up, exaggerating the o. “You never answered my question”
“Hm?” Uzi looks at him.
“Where are we going exactly?”
“A place I used to go to a lot,” Uzi shrugs.
“And that is?” N bends down a little to look at Uzi but she keeps her gaze to the front.
“A surprise, you dork” She smiles, rolling her eyes.
“Oh, right, right! Sorry.” N chuckles and scratches the back of his neck. “Got a little curious there”
“It’s fine”
On their way to the mattress store, N proceeded to tell Uzi what he had been doing while she was at home. And although Uzi listens intensely to his words she can’t help but get distracted by the sound of his voice blessing her ears. It sounded as sweet and soft as honey (or at least the drone equivalent of honey) and she felt like she could drown in it in serenity. Or maybe listen to him telling his stories whilst they’re wrapped around a blanket, holding each other close without having to worry about their rising body temperatures…
“Uzi!” N calls out, pulling Uzi aside as she almost walks into a pole. “You good?”
“Oh, I’m fine.” She answers nonchalantly, blushing slightly though as she remembers her past thoughts. “I got… distracted”
“You should be more careful otherwise I’ll have to constantly hold your hand!” N laughs but she could swear that she saw the tiniest yellow glowing lines on his visor.
“Ew, nope! No hand-holding!” Uzi chuckles, blushing at the thought of holding N’s hands.
How would they feel, intertwined with mine? She brushes off the thought.
“Besides, we’re close anyways. See?” Uzi points to the building that once sold mattresses and pillows. Now, the cracks and dents made it barely stand in the blizzard.
“A mattress store?” N tilts his head in confusion as he follows Uzi inside. “Why did you lead me here?”
“Because… reasons.” She shrugs her shoulders as she pushes against the doors that are barely held on the hinges. “I dunno, I wanted company.”
“But why in this place?”
“You’ll see, stop asking!” Uzi pouts.
As she fully opened the door they took in their surroundings, broken and dirty mattresses were laid across the floor. However, in the corner of the room, some mattresses and pillows have been placed over each other, made to look like a little fort. Inside N could see blankets and various colorful books. The outside of the fort was decorated with unlit fairy lights.
“Wow, is that what you wanted to show me?!” N asks excitedly as he approaches the fort.
“Yeah, I built it with my mom and dad. Lemme try something…” She opens a fuse box attached to the wall and flips some switches. Nothing happens until she switches one particular switch and the fairy lights begin to glow in a warm yellow color. “We used to read stories there together. Whenever I had nightmares or couldn’t sleep they’d bring me here,”
“It looks so cozy!” He crouches down, bending down a significant amount. He sits on one of the pillows and picks up a book with a rainbow drone fish on the front cover.
“I remember all the times sleeping here” Uzi sits down next to him, taking the picture out of her pockets and staring at it. “Times were different back then” Uzi sighs. N turns his attention away from the book to the picture she held.
“Aw, you look adorable there!” N points to the photo which had a young Uzi laughing and smiling happily as she flipped through the pages of the book in front of her.
“Bite me!” Uzi says, unable to hide her blush as she puts the picture back in her pockets.
“Hey, I mean it!” N says, leaning closer to Uzi which made her heart beat even more than before.
“Tch, s-sure!” Uzi rolls her eyes and pouts, making N chuckle.
There was a comforting yet somewhat awkward silence before N broke it, looking at Uzi with a softened expression. “And… I-I think you’re still cute.”
“Huh?!” Uzi exclaims, blush lines visible on her visor. Her shoulders tensed up yet she still sat at her place. “T-Thanks, I guess?”
“Uh, you’re welcome.” N averted his gaze with an equally flustered face as he realized what he had just said. Yet a small smile tugs at the corner of his lips.
Another awkward silence enveloped them before Uzi leaned back with a groan. N also leaned back until both of them were lying on their backs next to each other. N neatly folded his hands on top of his stomach while Uzi crossed hers at the back of her head.
“You know…” Uzi starts, looking at the ceiling. “I haven’t told my dad about what happened…”
“What happened-? Oh…Nevermind.” N says, sheepishly chuckling. “Why didn’t you tell him?”
“How am I meant to? ‘Hey, Dad! I killed all of my classmates because I now hunger for oil and if you don’t feed me I’ll grow gross biological wings and tails!’”
“I don’t think they’re gross,” N says, turning to his side so he faces Uzi.
“But what would my dad think?” Uzi says, also turning to her side to face him, if it wasn’t for the heavy topic they’re discussing she would have blushed at their close proximity. “He’d think I’m gross and… hate me,”
“I don’t think he would hate you, Uzi,” N says, hesitantly reaching his hand out to touch her face. “After everything that has happened, everything you two lost… the last thing he’d want to lose is you, Uzi. And… I don’t want to lose you too,” Uzi blushes at his words, averting her gaze.
“Jeez, when did you get so cheesy,” Uzi chuckles as N lets his hand rest on her cheek, pushing a few strands of her hair away. Uzi doesn’t react to it, but is screaming internally from his gentle touch.
“‘Suppose that happens when you’re around,” N smiles. His actions grow bolder as he moves even closer to Uzi, hesitantly wrapping one arm around her. Yet despite his actions, all the confidence was merely there to mask his anxieties and fear of her rejecting his not-so-subtle advances. He breathed a huge sigh of relief as Uzi leaned into his arms, hugging him back.
As they both lied there, embracing each other, the silence between them comforted them more than it did before. Neither of them talk as N slowly builds up the courage to run his fingers through Uzi’s hair, pushing her beanie aside. Uzi sighs at the sensation, snuggling up closer to him, closing her eyes.
“Hey, Uzi?” N’s voice has turned into a soft whisper.
“Mhm?”
“Can… friends still do this?”
“Do what?” Uzi opens one of her eyes, looking at N with a drowsy expression. He stops stroking her hair, much to her dismay, meeting her gaze. He could feel himself drown in the comforting purple light.
“Be this close but still be friends,” N can feel the nervousness in him grow. But unlike the time where he rejected her hand in the bus, he doesn’t want to pull away.
“I… I don’t follow,” Uzi says half-lying. Her fear of misinterpreting his words outweighed all her rational thoughts.
“I mean, we are friends, right?” N continues stroking her hair. Uzi sighs, nodding her head. “But I feel like sometimes we act like… we’re more than that,”
Uzi’s eyes shoot open, the drowsiness from before completely faded as she registered his words. “N, are you trying to say that-”
“Ah, nevermind, I said too much!” N’s voice raised in volume and pitch as he pulled away from the embrace, turning around so that his back faces Uzi. “Forget everything I said!”
“N…” Uzi was surprised herself with how gentle her voice got but nonetheless placed a hand on his back in an attempt to comfort him from his flustered state. Uzi takes a deep breath in, knowing how much of her pride she needs to sacrifice for her next move.
She wraps her arms around his torso, spooning him. His whole body tenses, making Uzi second-guess if this was the right call until he slowly but surely begins to relax in her embrace.
“You know…” She starts, nuzzling her face on his back, partly to hide her blush. “I’ve wondered the same,”
“...really?” Uzi’s heart broke in a million pieces as she heard how meek and small his voice sounded, a stark contrast to his usual cheerful attitude. Uzi nods, hoping he notices it through the fabric of his coat.
“And, if I’m being honest…” Uzi hugs him tighter, preparing herself mentally for the next words she’s going to say. “I-I kinda like it… when we act like that,”
Uzi let’s N go as he turns back around, fully facing her. Uzi could read so many expressions on his face, most notably shock and excitement. Her face heated up as her blush worsened, feeling small under his sudden intense gaze.
“W-What?!” Uzi pouts, suddenly growing defensively. “Stop staring!”
N breaks out in a gentle chuckle which transforms into laughter all the while Uzi looks at him, bewildered by his change of mood. Yet she feels the corner of her lips tug up into a smile.
“You mean it?” N asks, having calmed down a little. Uzi rolls her eyes in responde, lightly smacking him on the shoulder.
“Duh! Otherwise I wouldn’t have said it, you dork!” N blushes at her words, pulling her into a hug.
“Oh, uh, wow. I never expected this!” N tightens the hug and so does Uzi. Feeling a sudden boost of confidence, she nuzzles her face on his chest.
“I… I really like you, N. Like, like LIKE you!” Uzi hopes that N can’t see the bright lilac blush forming on her visor.
“Uzi, I like like you too…” He whispers sincerely as if he wasn’t aware of how cheesy his words sounded like. And to be honest, neither really cared as they stayed intertwined in each other’s arms, only their comforting breathing and the subtle pulsing of their core’s could be heard.
And N’s wagging tail constantly smacking the mattress. It took so much willpower of Uzi to not burst into laughter.
