Work Text:
As much as V didn't always like hanging out with Uzi all of the time, it had been very noticeable that the worker that V always enjoyed messing with was acting a little strange today. Every year, there was a special brawl that took place amongst the disassemblers where all they would do is fight each other until they got exhausted and disheveled. Sure, it would've been more fun if all three of the disassembly squad remained alive, but it isn't too much of a problem. If anything, a one on one fight between the critical V and the surprisingly strong N are always the most fun experiences the former would have in her life. It was why it all the more surprised V when she heard a simple question come out of the angsty worker's mouth.
Uzi: "You guys fight every year?"
She had heard about the annual fights that disassemblers have. The fights were actually more for fun, but V wasn't going to dare to let that slip out of her mouth.
V: "Yes. It's a test of our abilities to see if we've kept ourselves strong."
Uzi: "Well, I'm bored. Could I join?"
What? The worker, who is quite literally the prey of the two disassembly drones that she hangs out with all the time wants to join the fight where they basically attack each other until near death? Has she lost her mind?!
V: If you want to die, then go right ahead."
The purple eyes displayed on Uzi's visor hollowed out, with little curls accenting her ringed optics to emphasize the fear. If there was a more obvious way to show her anxiety, then it probably would've already occurred long ago.
Uzi: "What?"
V: "Forget it, let me prepare."
Uzi: "I didn't say no."
That caught the female disassembly drone's attention. This worker had only barely grasped the concept of how bad her AbsoluteSolver could get, and she wants to join this brawl? She doesn't even have close to the abilities to what the most basic Beta builds of disassembly drones have. How would she even pull it off?
V: "Ask N. I wouldn't care, but he probably would have something else to say about it."
Uzi: "He probably would just tell me that your Sick-As-Hell feuds are for murder drones only-"
V: "Disassembly drones."
She was quick to correct her on that.
Uzi: "Bite me- you know what, it doesn't matter! I just want to join!"
A sudden ring sound, likely a notification, could be heard coming from the now slightly annoyed worker's pocket. She mumbled something indistinguishable to the disassembly drone standing nearby her, before turning around and pulling her phone out of her pocket. V tried to get a good look at what it was, but she couldn't. Plus, it didn't seem right to just be nosy and pry into things, like whatever it was that interrupted them. Wait, why does she care about that? She shouldn't need to!
Uzi quickly shoves her device back into her pocket, turning around to face the curious disassembler. Just from the expression that any drone could read, Uzi didn't seem all too enthusiastic about whatever it was. V remained curious, but decided not to push it.
V: "Fine, you can join. Just, be careful."
Uzi vented a sigh of relief as her open mouth closed into a mischievous grin. V scoffed to herself. Uzi was terrible at hiding things, but she didn't want to bother with asking directly about it right now. Whatever it was that had sidelined the tension in the room for a moment probably shouldn't be on her mind right now. Why would she even need to care about that, anyways? However, just judging from the expression that Uzi had possessed on her face when she had turned around, it probably wasn't anything good. It was probably something to do with her good for nothing father - if she could even call him that - telling her some more dumb shit. V has heard about what the purple-haired drone rants about when it comes to Khan.
That doesn't matter right now. She's about to enter the duel where once she leaves it, she will be too tired to do much else. Of course, they're not allowed to do any crazy shit that would actually leave them dead, but they could do basically anything they would want to as long as they don't cause death, and that they know what they're doing.
V: "By the way, it's just a fight. There isn't intended to be any actual death."
Uzi: "Aww, I wanted to kill you!"
The tone that Uzi was using was obviously dripping with aggression. V scoffed once again.
V: "You would've been a pile of oil had N not entered the picture."
Uzi: "Bite me!"
Both drones started laughing at the stupidity of it all, Uzi's being more of a quiet giggle compared to V's cackle, filling the spaceship with volume. Who would've thought, a death threat being responded to with simultaneous laughter. That's only when the two drones that might as well as hate each others' robo-guts have a conversation. N never really understood why they hated each other so much sometimes.
The laughter quickly died down, collapsing into a somewhat relaxed silence. A silence that didn't possess the usual tension that most of these would have. It was a silence of... what was it? A mutual agreement? An understanding? Not even V could tell what was going on after the cackling had stopped.
After some warm-ups for everybody, the first round of dueling began between N and V. Uzi could only watch in awe as the two of them started attacking each other like they were workers who had initiated the violence. Blades clashing each other, wings furrowing out, snow being kicked up from multiple leaps and descents, sparks being emitted from the blades. It was absolutely stunning to the purple-haired worker in a way. Her trance was startled out of existence when she heard the notification again. Khan just can't stop bothering her today. She didn't want to be reminded of an event right now while a Sick-As-Hell battle was going on!
Eventually, when the two disassembly drones stopped brawling, both of them panting in exhaustion as oil dripped from their wounds, they each looked around through their optical calibrators.
N: "So... you said that... Uzi was joining us?"
Oh, right. V got so involved in the maniacal laughter that captured the area while she clashed blades with N that she completely forgot that Uzi had decided to want to join. She looked around the area for any sign of the purple worker. She couldn't see anything other than a few marked footsteps implanted into the snow. Did she back out last minute, or was she lying about wanting to join? A hand was suddenly waved in front of her visor, snapping her back to reality. How pathetic, she just zoned out over something stupid.
N: "Right, V?"
V: "Mhm. She just walked off somewhere."
N's expression immediately collapsed, chipping itself down into one of noticeable worry. Of course N would worry a lot about Uzi, those two were essentially a couple now, as much as it seemed nonsensical and stupid to V. She only rolled her eyes as she started walking in the direction of the path created by the footsteps, which most likely belonged to Uzi.
V: "I'll go find her. Don't overheat on us."
The last thing that V sees of N before she furrows her wings back out is him beginning to fly in the opposite direction, she assumes to find workers. Good, he won't get in the way of her trying to find Uzi. Her yellow-tinted vision easily detects the footsteps left in the snow as she takes off from the ground and follows them. She doesn't have too much energy left after the fight, but it should be enough to fly over to wherever Uzi ran off to, right?
V keeps her head downwards, laser-focusing on the ground to ensure that she doesn't lose track of the path.
How far did the damn worker run? V would've said that out loud, but there wasn't much of a point. She wasn't trying to mess with Uzi, nor was she trying to get N to mind his business. This was something else. There was no point in speaking of her if the only drone that could hear those words was V, and only V. The snowstorm of Copper-9's atmosphere picked up in intensity slightly, and the path only continues. The female disassembler starts making up theories in her head as to what could have possibly happened.
Did she return back to her outpost? Did she run off somewhere? Did another worker somehow find their way over without being spotted and take Uzi away? What even happened? The couple of minutes spent flying through the sky felt like hours to the disassembly drone. She just wanted to find the worker and figure out what the hell was happening with her, damn it! If only it was much easier than having to fly around for so long like this after an intense fight.
Eventually, it gets too tiring to keep flying. It costs more energy to keep oneself in flight than by walking, so V settles herself to the snow, still following the path that is slowly being covered up by the ensuing snow. It's only when she looks up that she notices something noteworthy.
The end of the path of footsteps lies a faint glow amidst a broken down car.
Is that Uzi? V approaches the car slowly, footsteps quietly crunching the snow up as she walks. The closer she gets to the abandoned, human-operated vehicle, it becomes obvious that it's the worker she knew. What only wrenches her core is what her optical calibrations display to her directly in front of her: Uzi, curled up in a ball in some kind of blanket as some kind of vaguely familiar music from several decades ago plays.
She would have said something, just to mess with her. Something like "I thought you wanted to fight?" or "Guess the overconfident one found the definition of cowardice," but it just didn't feel right to mess with her. V wished she could try to help out, but she didn't know what she would even do! Should she go in the car with Uzi, or should she just keep watching from a distance?
Her gut convinces her to walk over towards the car, seemingly with a lack of will as she lays her hand on the car door's handle. Surprisingly, the door mechanism still works as a somewhat sharp pull allows the hatch of the car's door to open. Uzi doesn't look up, and V can only just now hear the quiet sobbing coming from the worker. It only continues to wrench her core the more she watches Uzi fall apart. She wants to do something - anything(!) - to help, but she can't think of any idea of what she should try to do. V eventually decides to just be as comforting as she can allow herself to be, and sits down into the seat in the car next to the purple-haired worker. She shuts the door as quietly as she can get the vehicle to close.
The music sounds more familiar the more that V listens to it simultaneously with Uzi's quiet sobbing. It sounded like some of the meticulously crafted classics that a drone would hear back at the manor. When the main disassembly drone squad were just measly workers under the rule of humans. V kind of missed those times, but there were many... many aspects of that time that she wished she could forget. It's why she sometimes expresses herself to be envious of N because he had received the special treatment of losing all of his memories.
V's thought process is interrupted by a hitch in Uzi's breath. She really wished she could know what was going on, but a part of her really didn't want her to push an answer out of it. The disassembler could notice herself subconsciously put her hand on the worker's shoulder. A brief flinch, a small gasp, and then a tighter curl into a ball as she covers herself entirely under the blanket she had. This isn't helping.
The next song begins to play, and it's definitely an article of music that V remembers. She would've began singing had Uzi not been here, slowly breaking down next to her, and had it been back at the manor if she was all alone. She eventually decides to just get it over with, and ask a simple question.
V: "May I know?"
The female disassembly drone herself was surprised with how soft her voice sounded. She doesn't usually ever let it get that calm in order to maintain her façade, but there was no need to maintain such a thing. It was fine to not need to act like a careless, maniacal murderer.
Uzi doesn't respond verbally, only uncovering her head from the blanket, showing her tears being put on display as V watches them slither down her visor. She could feel her own eyes hollow out upon the sight. Not even a couple seconds later, and she did something that she wouldn't expect that she would do with anyone for the rest of her life.
She awkwardly and slowly wrapped her arms around the depressed worker. She hugged somebody. She actually hugged somebody.
A feeling of two arms reciprocating tightly around V's back could be felt as Uzi leaned herself into V for support as she continued to cry silently. It did feel a little awkward, but there was no need to care about that. As long as N didn't figure out where they were, it wasn't like it was the end of the world. It was fine. She was fine.
Another song introduces itself through the car's radio. V had remembered this song in particular being a song that she would dance and sing to when she was a worker. It was quite tempting to sing it, especially when the instrumental break approaches its end. V makes up her mind. If it helps to sell the comfort of being in this weird car, then so be it.
As the lyrics begin unfolding themselves, so too does V's soft singing voice.
V: "Merrily we fall out of line, out of line."
Uzi lifted her head from the disassembly drone's chest. Was she... singing? V only continued to sing softly, almost in an unnaturally passionate way.
V: "I'd fall anywhere with you, I'm by your side..."
"Swinging in the rain, humming melodies."
"We're not going anywhere until we freeze!"
Uzi couldn't help but smile upon listening. The sadistic murderer, gently and happily singing this song as if she knew it by heart. It was also a fairly decent song, too, not being quite sucky like most of the songs that people attempt to sing. She held tighter onto V's jacket as she buried her face into her shoulder, just trying to relish in the moment that she'll probably never have occur in her life ever again; the female disassembly drone's beautiful singing voice.
V, meanwhile, only continues to let the lyrics escape her mouth in various tones to go along with the song. She had imagined herself, dancing to the song as she would sing in the manor. Nobody needed to be around, not even N or J. It was just V, and the music, and she would dance gleefully. The memory of it puts a smile on the disassembly drone's face as she continues to sing. She wished it was simpler like that. Simpler, and a lot less of all this bullshit that Copper-9 has in store for the trio of drones. She would've let her voice express a lot more volume had Uzi not been here. She didn't care, though. As long as she was successful at comforting her while singing this well-articulated song, then she was okay. She felt herself hugging Uzi tighter as the song approached the end.
As it faded out, a next, not as beautiful song began to play through the radio. V was tempted to immediately turn the volume down a little bit, but all she ended up doing was taking in a deep vent, before exhaling, continuing to embrace Uzi for however long must be needed.
V: "Do you feel any better, Uzi?"
Uzi: "Yeah... thanks."
"Your singing by the way, is... uhh... pretty."
Uzi was complimenting her for it? That caught V by surprise, but to be fair, she almost never sang in front of anybody. The chance of catching her singing was about as rare as the sun exploding tomorrow. She felt slightly warm in her face as small, yellow ticks began displaying on the lower part of her visor, showing off a light blush.
V: "...Thanks."
V wasn't used to thanking anybody for something as miniscule as a compliment like this. Even when she had to, she always turned it down with something else. She couldn't just do that here, though, so she had to at least try to use a reasonable response. A quick glance at Uzi's visor very easily showed that, displayed towards the bottom of her visor under her purple eyes, showed the same ticks that V had. Dear god, they were both a mess.
Uzi: "P-Pretty good, I mean!"
Uzi let out a chuckle of embarrassment. It was admittedly nice hearing her laugh.
V: "You suck at hiding things."
Uzi: "I know."
Both of the drones' blush marks faded as they both lightly chuckled for some time. The silence that encapsulated afterwards was brief, since V had to eventually break the silent wall with another question.
V: "So, can I ask you something?"
Uzi: "What's up?"
V: "If you don't mind... why were you here, just... crying? Why did you seem so unhappy after you had looked at your phone before I went into the fight?"
Hopefully that wasn't too pushy. Just hopefully, it wasn't too much for Uzi to have to deal with. V's just curious about her and her well-being after all, right?
Uzi: "... Right."
She lowers one of her arms from V's back as she pulls her phone out of her pocket. She then hands it to the disassembly drone, completely avoiding eye contact. V releases one of her arms so that she can grab it, and then look at the screen. On Uzi's lock screen, showing her wallpaper - which was just a picture of her Sick-As-Hell Railgun that she once had - there were a few text notifications, coming from Khan. Of course it was that no good worker that she wished could have been torn apart as soon as she laid her eyes upon him. What she read that he said, though, was a little bit of a shocker.
V's optics hovered over the message as she quietly read the phrase "Hey, the anniversary of you know is today. With Nori. Can you come back home?" Following those messages were several messages, those of panic as Uzi's father's messages started being shown in all capital letters, ending with one too many exclamation and question marks, and other things. V paid no mind to it as she handed the device back to Uzi, slightly confused. She wasn't about to get all nosy, like N probably would've had he read those.
Uzi: "As you read, today is the anniversary of my mother passing away."
Right, her squad had killed a lot of drones, so it wasn't particularly easy to remember which drone was which. It was all just spot, kill, and then feast on the oil. However, she has heard little stories from N about how there was this one female worker that was a lot harder to kill than the rest. Something about purple hair who had the AbsoluteSolver, almost like Uzi. The worker he was talking about was likely her mother, which V assumes is named Nori, but she wasn't going to confirm that assumption immediately. It seemed as if Uzi just wanted to keep this all to herself by sparing the squad the possible guilt that would've come from this news.
Uzi: "A-And... of course, when I heard about the fight. I wanted something to distract myself. I was just hoping that... that he wouldn't message me about it."
V: "...And then, he did."
Uzi hums in response, starting to quietly sob again. She must've had a very good familial relationship with her mother. The only times that she saw any type of family back at the manor was Tessa's parents. V was absolutely certain that those two adults that dared to call themselves her parents were anything but a good family. A drone could even strongly dare to say that those two weren't even her family at all with how apparent it was that the two humans didn't like Tessa and her drones at all. The difference compared to Uzi and her mother, just from the reaction that the poor worker was having in front of V just telling her about this was definitely something different. This wasn't Tessa's parents level of negative. This was an actually decent mother, who had her life taken under the gauze that it improved a disassembly drone's quota. Probably a good thing that it was V that Uzi was admitting this to, and not N. He would be a guilty mess.
The two continued to hold each other close to one another without saying a word as the music continues to play in the background. It's only when V checks her internal clock that she realizes something quite problematic: daytime is approaching soon.
V: "Crap!"
Uzi: "Huh?!"
Uzi checks her internal clock as well, noting the exact same problem that V had discovered just a few seconds ago. She curses herself out for letting this happen, before they both release each other.
Uzi: "We should get back."
V nods in response as she opens the door next to her, climbing out of the dilapidated vehicle. Uzi follows out shortly afterwards, the snow crunching under her feet. The car door is slammed shut behind the two of them as V quickly furrows her wings out. She gestures to Uzi to hop on to make this trip much more efficient. When she's only met with a confused glance, she allows her voice to spill out from her mouth.
V: "Hop on."
Uzi: "Like, onto your back?"
V rolls her eyes.
V: "Yes, sure, that. Just hop on so we can get back faster."
Uzi: "Fine, but before we do."
V watches as Uzi slowly walks up to her. Once the worker stands right behind her, the familiar voice could be heard that could've chose to orientate a million words, but only chose to use three.
Uzi: "Thanks for listening."
Uzi climbs onto the disassembly drone's back as the latter takes off. They eventually shoot through the sky at dizzying speeds as if it were nothing, the worker holding onto V for dear life. V flies as swiftly as she can back to the coordinates she saved to be the Spire. She continues to whip through the sky, Uzi still holding on quite tightly without saying a word.
The Spire comes into view, and V quickly descends into the shade to make sure that the sun doesn't reach her in case it started to slip through the horizon. Uzi lets go of her as she drops into the snow. N had been standing nearby the pod, doing his usual things. He looked over towards the two drones once he heard the commotion.
N: "Hi, Uzi!"
He ran up to her and tightly hugged her, catching the purple-haired worker off guard. V could only smile gently at the sight. At least Uzi was okay. They could potentially even have their brawl tomorrow! But that's for tomorrow night. Right now, V feels slightly content knowing that the worker wasn't too hurt at all or anything.
N eventually lets go, Uzi nearly falling over in the process, and then waves at V. She lightly scoffs at him as he flies up to a stalactite to enter sleep mode on. The disassembler still standing in the snow turns over to face the worker standing right next to her.
V: "Tell anyone, and you're dead."
Uzi: "About what? Your precious singing?"
V: "Don't say that so loud!"
Uzi giggled upon seeing V's slightly blushed visor with her somewhat annoyed expression. V followed suit, joining the laughter after some time of just the worker laughing quietly to herself.
V: "So, are you going to go back to your outpost to sort... that out?"
Uzi: "Nah."
V: "He's not going to leave you alone once you go back, you know."
Uzi: "I don't care, he can bite me!"
Uzi begins walking to the spaceship in the middle of the dead worker corpse-filled Spire. She suddenly gestures for V to follow as she continues to walk, the crunching of the snow reverberating quietly each step. V, not really having an idea of what else she should do, begins to follow her. She started feeling quite tired, in all honesty. First, an exhaustingly exciting fight, then having to embarrass herself by singing all just for comforting Uzi - which she didn't regret at all, by the way - and then having to fly back in an unnatural speed, even for her? She was absolutely exhausted! Nonetheless, she was able to shuffle herself into the spaceship right after Uzi did.
Uzi, upon seeing V, suddenly wrapped her arms around her again, the latter of which looking surprised once again. Eventually, she let go, noticing that V really didn't seem to want to stand around for too long. A blink of an eye later, and V was sitting down in one of the two chairs that the pod had. Another blink later, and Uzi was hugging her once again.
V: "You're awfully clingy today."
Uzi: "Bite me."
V reciprocates, holding Uzi up to herself softly, yet closely. She felt herself closing her eyes as she slowly grew more and more tired. She relaxed her limbs a little bit, but she still didn't dare let go of the worker. It felt as if not allowing her to rest like this after an event like what happened back at the abandoned car would've been something stupid, something selfish to do. V couldn't do that right now. As much as it would be funny, she really couldn't do that right now, and it wasn't just because she was extremely tired. The last few hours were definitely a rollercoaster of unusual events to take place, especially considering it was after a brawl, but in all honesty, she couldn't complain.
Eventually, both V and Uzi slowly winded down and entered sleep mode while hugging each other in the spaceship. not daring to let each other go.