Work Text:
Michael placed his cup of coffee down on the table next to the couch as he laid his head back down on the pillows as he stared at the walls which were decorated in sheets of papers that had colorful child-like drawings on them. Living with multiple handfulls of kids will do that. Admittedly, he wasn't... Too pleased with how they had decorated his house, but he didn't mind. He was happy that they were happy.
Michael was interrupted by his thoughts once the door to his house was slammed open, followed by mechanical laughter. Michael sat up and faced his little sister. "Elizabeth, what'd I tell you about slamming doors?" he scolded, but she just laughed in response.
"Oooooooops..." Ennard giggled, as they took off the soaking-wet raincoat that Michael had given them. It was raining outside, and Ennard insisted on going out and playing it, so Michael gave the clump of wires and endo-skeleton parts a pool cover to use as a raincoat. It was incredibly oversized, but at the same time it was the only thing that would work as a proper raincoat.
"Oh, and that thing is dripping water everywhere. Why didn't you just leave it outside?" Michael sighed, knowing full well that Ennard would never actually listen to him. That's what happens when you agree to take care of a robot that's possessed by at least 30 kids, including your little sister who was always a handful.
"Oh! Yeah!" Ennard smiled, opening the door and throwing the pool-cover outside. They slammed the door shut, directly going against Michael's previous wishes. "What are you doooooing?"
Michael picked up his coffee mug, taking another sip of it before replying to his little sister. "Nothing right now. Just relaxing. What are the other kids doing?"
Ennard blinked for a while, as it took them a while to process the question they had just been asked. They lit up once they had an answer, though. "Susie and Jeremy are playing together, and the rest are asleep! But I don't know what Charlie is doing.."
Michael nodded, humming in acknowledgement. "Do you need anything?"
"I don't!" Ennard was quick to respond, but for a split second Elizabeth forgot she wasn't the only kid with control over Ennard. "OH, And I don't think any of the others need anything either."
Michael nodded once more, laying back down and looking at the TV. He picked up the remote and started skipping through the channels. "That's good, come tell me if you do."
"Will do!" Ennard laughed, doing a little salute before they wandered off to go do their own thing. They had just played in the rain, and next Elizabeth wanted to go draw. Admitedly, it was a little hard to draw as Ennard, because she was not used to coordinating the crayon or marker with large, mechanical, metal claws instead of the small tangible hands made of flesh and bone she had previously been used to, and the presence of 29 other kids didn't make it any easier. As a result, the lineart of her art is wobbly, and the coloring is outside of the lines. She wants all her art to be perfect, so this upsets her, but nothing can be done about it.
Michael still hangs it on his fridge anyways.
Ripping a sheet of paper out of one of the many notebooks that Michael had purchased for them, they placed it down on the table. Ennard stared at the blank sheet of paper for a moment, waiting for the inspiration to come smack her like a semi-truck. It didn't, though. How irritating. She was motivated, just not very inspired. That was the worst.
"Draw a giant worm eating the entire sun." one of the kids' voices said to her. She let out a cross between a scoff and a giggle at that. Entertaining, yes, but she wasn't going to draw that. She continued to think for a bit, and wait at the same time. Thinking and waiting, one thing she did constantly and one thing she almost never did. "Draw us and Michael together!" A more cheery voice suggested. "But we drew that, like, seven times this week!" Elizabeth shot back. It was a fun prompt that was easy to work off of, but she had exhausted that.
Grumbling, they laid their robotic elbow on the table and pressed their face against their palm. "Why don't we just.. do something else?" a voice asked, softly. "But I also would like to draw.." another voice replied, with multiple kids either agreeing or disagreeing. Their chatter was making it difficult for Elizabeth to think. It was irritating her beyond belief.
Holding the marker hard enough to make her mechanical hand shake slightly, but not hard enough to break it in half, she began aggressively scribbling on the paper out of anger. Less so because she didn't know what to draw, but more so because everyone was just being so loud. Did they ever shut up??
"But, Elizabeth, I'm serious," one of the voices began speaking to her. She felt like she was gonna snap. "You really should draw a giant worm eating the sun. It'd be so cool-"
"SHUT UP, OH MY GOD," Elizabeth yelled. Out loud. The kids were used to Elizabeth talking to the other kids out loud, but they still didn't exactly love it when she yelled at them. Oops.. She hopes no one heard her.
Everyone heard her.
Ennard plopped their face in their hands, grumbling. "Dude, just draw the worm," the kid practically pleaded at this point. A few kids had started to agree. "Yeah, I also want to see a worm eating the earth." "I said the sun, idiot, not the earth." "Oh.. Well, the sun, then."
Meanwhile, Michael was still watching TV. He heard Elizabeth yell, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. Especially since she told them to shut up. She does that. A lot. For the most part, she got along pretty well with the other kids she shared Ennard with, but there were moments they all got on each other's nerves.
Ennard peered over the corner to the living room, looking at Michael. Eventually he noticed them, and he noticed they were holding a piece of paper. Pausing the TV, he stood up and walked over to Ennard. He wasn't used to not having to bend down to talk to Elizabeth, It was so surreal that she was now.. Taller than him. "Is this a drawing?" he asked. He loved it when she came to show him her art.
She couldn't help but smile extremely wide. "It is!!" She couldn't contain her excitement as she handed it to him. He examined it for a bit, confusion written all over his face.
It was a giant worm eating the sun.
"..It's lovely!" he managed out, after a while. He truly did like it, he just was not used to Elizabeth drawing things like this. Things like giant worms eating planets wasn't exactly something she'd usually draw.
But he was absolutely 100% going to put it on the wall anyways! He held it against the wall in a spot Ennard approved of, and using a piece of tape, he stuck it there. Ennard tilted their head at it, smiling proudly.
Needless to say, the other kids were EXTREMELY confused when they woke up and saw it. Especially Evan.