Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

08-08-2024

N and Uzi sat in the cathedral, only a few hours after their recently finished fight with Cynessa. N’s oil-created semi-confession of “not love, just hanging out” was still sprawled unto that of the smooth yet somehow also cobbled floor. Khan was busy brewing up conversational filler with Lizzy and Thad, but this activity was occasionally forgotten about to throw N a shady glance.

N, each time this occurred, gave a nervous smile and immediately shifted his position to be less wrapped around Uzi within a comical amount of seconds. He wasn’t necessarily afraid of the Drone, but more afraid of how he would feel about the two dating. Him and Uzi weren’t confirmed, but he was pretty sure that when they had a chance to talk about it, they would be. Yet the whole idea of her father’s disapproval still drilled into him, as he over-thought what would happen if Khan disapproved.

What if he tries to keep her away from me? Jesus, half my life is centred around her at this point.. She’s literally my only friend.

The Disassembly Drone froze up upon feeling the worker drone shimmy closer up against N, more than she already was. Previous to her sudden change in pose, she had just been leaning up against him. But now she had twisted her whole body to face him and wrapped her arms around his neck, with her face pressing up against his shoulder. N’s yellow eyes were now hollowed out as his shocked expression lit on his visor was very much reflected on the floor, a sight that made him more embarrassed than he already was.

He watched with fear scribbled into his expression as Khan did a double-take of the two, but didn’t seem at all displeased. In fact, he gave the Disa a small smile and a nod, then continued his conversation with the two in front of him, who seemed to ask many questions about Khan not having a problem with this.
“Didn’t Uzi’s mom literally get killed by a Murder Drone?”
Lizzy questioned, and Thad asked several follow-up questions to Lizzy’s own.

N looked back at Uzi, feeling bad for not really showing any physical affection to her throughout their relationship. After all, she was the one to engage the most. N never really knew how to engage in any physical intimacy, no matter the kind. After all, Disassembly Drone were taught to kill and hunt, which was quite the opposite of love and romance.

N closed his eyes and thought back on what Uzi had done with him to show her affection. He knew they held hands a lot, but it felt rather basic. He opened his eyes and snaked his right arm around her, going from a regular expression to a “:3” as he felt rather proud of his small move he made. The lines of blush faded into existence under his eyes as the drone reacted to N’s touch, exhaling softly and forming a small smile. His tail curled up to around her waist, wrapping around it multiple times, and his vial of acid eventually winding up resting on top of her waist.

N laid down a little more, allowing Uzi to have more room to put herself when she moved. Which she of course did when he did, now resting her head on top of his shoulder and her light pink sleep screen taking up a portion of his right eye’s peripheral vision. He was now pretty much entirely blocked from seeing what Khan and the others were doing, which he definitely didn’t appreciate, but tried to become more audibly aware to hear them approach or anything.

Khan eventually walked over to the two, crossing his arms and clearing his throat.
“Uzi.”
Uzi’s screen went from sleep mode to just her closed eyes, which slowly blinked awake. She pulled her head off of N’s shoulder, looking up at Khan, and glancing behind him to sleepily gaze at the others.
“We’re leaving, come home whenever you want.”
“Okay..”

Uzi dropped her head back onto N’s shoulder, but her eyes widened as she felt N pull her up against him, since she had partially moved away from him upon waking up. She stared into the distance with a shocked and embarrassed expression, looking at their blurred reflections on the nearest mirror-imitating surface. N watched Uzi sheepishly stare into the reflection of them, and he stared at her with an amused look drawn out on his visor. He moved his arm from her neck down to her waist, watching her become more and more embarrassed by the second.

”N, you know we never talked about the gross.. Gross stuff!-” She hesitated, trying to hold back a smile as the Disassembly Drone held her waist. “Wellll, ya wanna talk about it? Better now since there’s nothing crazy happening and we’re alone.” N suggested, sitting up and pulling away from her, going to sit in front of her. He crossed his legs, happily keeping his gaze upon her as he awaited an answer while she thought about what she wanted to say.

”Uhm.. Yeah, sure, why the hell not?” Uzi had a hint of a nervous tone to her voice, looking down at him as he flipped onto his back and sprawled himself across the floor. “ We don’t have to if you don’t want to, Uzi.” He assured her as he reached up and poked her whilst quietly going “Poke!”. She smiled and swatted his hand away, getting a smile from his as well. “It’s fine, I’m just stalling.” She sighed.

N raised a brow, a look of both concern and confusion glazing across his screen. “Why are you scared?” He questioned Uzi, who sighed and brought her knees to her chest. “I’m just always scared people are gonna leave me.” She looked away, but looked back over at N with an alarmed expression as she heard a loud grinding sound, but realised it was just N pushing himself across the floor to be slightly close to Uzi.

”Well, I’m not gonna do that. You can trust me. I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again. I’m not going anywhereeeee.” He teased her, changing his screen to the >:3 face. “No matter what I say?” She moved her legs, pushing them to her right side upon seeing she could stretch them outwards. “No matter what.” He returned his screen to his regular eyes and held out his hand, which she grabbed from the backside of his hand and interlaced their fingers together. “Okay.” Uzi nodded at N, who’s screen retained the blush it had earlier but with a stronger glow. “Um.. I..” She stumbled over her own words several times as she tried to get out her confession to the drone she currently held hands with.

”You’ve got this.” N smiled at her, the face he gave her just wanted to make her cry, but in a good way. Uzi took a deep breath, and after she exhaled, a small smile built itself into her appearance. “I find you really cute, and you also care for me, like, a lot, which no one’s really done for me. You’re really protective of me and nice to me, and also I just love how you treat me.” N listened to her talk, focusing on both her words that he’d wanted to hear her say for a while, but also her blush’s glow intensifying the further she went on. “You make me feel loved and happy, and I just always want you to be around and I get sad when you aren’t. I have a love-hate relationship with how I crave your attention and touch and your stupid face, and I just wish I could wake up every morning or after every nightmare to you, because I know you’d comfort me the moment I said something was wrong.” Uzi looked back at him, and he just had the most joyful shine in his eyes as he stared up at her.

”My turn!” N shot upwards, twisting himself and re-posing himself to be back to sitting criss-cross. Uzi blinked, yanking her hand away so she didn’t break it. N noticed, visibly glancing down and then meeting her gaze. Uzi playfully rolled her eyes at the drone in front of her, holding out her hand again which was happily taken by him. “When we first started talking, you were just some.. Edgy Worker Drone.” He laughed, looking down at their interlocked hands. “But the more we talked, I started to see better parts of you and how cute you could be at times. I always found you to be really silly, but the more.. Affectionate we got, the more I started to realise I just liked seeing you being happy and I hated seeing you upset. I hated the thought of hurting you at any time, and I hated seeing every time you got sad. I love being able to see you being happy and everytime we got separated, I always felt alone or like I was missing something. But it was you.” N leaned in, hunching over as he looked up into her eyes to try and get her to look at him, which he succeeded at.

“That’s so sappy.” Uzi chortled, shaking her head and closing her eyes. N smiled and shrugged. “Welllll, I like you. A lot.” N poked the centre of her visor, this time going “booOOOP!” as his tone went from low to high-pitched, and he pulled his finger off once he ended off with his high note. She grabbed his empty left hand and pulled him towards her with it, his eyes going from happy to alarmed as the Worker pulled him closer. “You’re so cute.” Uzi grinned at him, and he sat himself up properly. Upon doing this, Uzi noticed N’s tail curled up into a heart behind him, but decided against pointing it out.

”You are too, Uzi.” N pulled her beanie over her eyes, and laughed as she panicked and pulled it off entirely. “Woah.” N got onto his knees and lifted himself up off the ground as he looked at her hair. “I’ve never seen you without your beanie on.” He sat back down, kicking his legs out to the side. “Get a good look?” She raised a brow with a smirk on her face. N let go of Uzi’s hands and swatted at her, then put his hands behind his back. “No more handholding for you.” N wrapped his tails around his hands, kind of trying them together to keep them in place. Uzi immediately went to grab them, just as N knew she would. “Serial Designation N, get your frickin’ hands out from behind your back right now>!”

”Nope!” N grinned, watching her try to reach around him but failing as he’d turn himself away from her. She eventually wrapped both her arms around him and pressed her face up against his chest, then felt his tail tied around his hands and huffed. “No fair!” She turned away from him. N smirked as he got an idea, then untied his hands and scooted closer to her. He sat onto his knees, then wrapped his arms around Uzi from behind and placed his head on top of hers. “Hi, N.” She rolled her eyes but smiled.

“Hi, my girlfriend.” He closed his eyes, unsheathing his wings with a loud slice that echoed through the Cathedral. Uzi looked up at them, trying not to move her head as much as she could. Then she realised what he said and her eyes widened. “Wait, did you call me y-” She cut herself off as N’s wings flew around them, shielding them from the outside world. “Yea, I did.” Uzi swore she could hear N’s smile just through his voice when he spoke. “If you start calling yourself N Doorman, I’m gonna kill you.” Uzi leaned back against N, closing her eyes and letting out a low laugh at the thought of her boyfriend calling himself “Doorman” for his last name.

”If I can't do that, then you better call yourself Serial Designation Uzi.” N moved his head off of hers, now playing with her hair as they sat there. “That at least sounds better..” Uzi let the drone play with her hair for a few minutes before turning to face him. “Hi.” N blinked at her, tilting his head. “Watcha doin’?” He asked, but reeled back a little as Uzi climbed into his lap and wrapped his arms around his neck. “Looking at how pretty you are.”

N stared directly into her eyes, then put a hand on her right cheek. Uzi leaned into his touch, but was taken aback as N kissed her out of nowhere. She closed her eyes, smiling as N moved his other hand to her hair and snaked his fingers through it. Uzi got a vague taste of oil from his lips, making her somewhat hungry but she knew it could wait until they got home. He pulled away, but as an effort to keep kissing him, she followed his movement for a few seconds until pulling away herself. “First kiss.” She grinned, now putting her hand in N’s hair and running her hand through it to see how he reacted, which was well.

”You’re so pretty, Uzi Doorman.” N stared at her with half-lidded eyes, looking over her visor and hair as if he was taking it in. “Oh, stop it.” Uzi put a hand on his visor and lightly pushed him back. Uzi looked around, peering outside of his wings. She stood up a little, then walked outside of his wings while trying not to slice any part of her in half. N stood up as well, moving his wings behind him and watching her with the happiest smile he thought he ever had. “Alright, are you ready to head back?” Uzi said, grabbing her beanie and putting it on. N nodded, and Uzi flared her own wings out, jumping into the air and flying to the way out with N following behind her.

Chapter Text

08-08-2024

Uzi fell down to the ground, N’s tail stabbed through her leg. She tried to scramble away, but by the hands of what was technically her own property, she was about to die. N raised up his claws as the X on his screen briefly flashed to that of his regular eyes, yet showed no remorse to his actions at all. And as he brought his claws down upon her head, Uzi shot up, looking around and her eyes racing around her surroundings to see if any real danger was around. Her hand was automatically posed for the Absolute Solver to be summoned as her nightmare resonated with her a little too much, but she started to calm down as she realised nothing was going to hurt her.

Though, there was still one drone who she needed specific reassurance that wasn’t going to hurt her. And so, Uzi used the Solver to open the admin messages window on her screen, and selected the line of code that read, “SERIAL_DESIGNATION-N”
“priority-contact.exe”

She sighed and shakily tried to open his contact, having to physically tap the air to open his messages, therefore resulting in her missing more than several times. She wobbly typed out, “hye can u cme over, i had a reslly bad ngithmare” then sent it and went to grab herself a snack in hopes to calm herself down.

N paused from eating the drone he was currently chowing down on, his tail stabbing through the drone so far that half of his vial pierced through the other side. He read the notification on the side of his screen, then dropped the worker and took off to the Corpse Spire. He landed on top of the pod and snuck inside, grabbing a weighted blanket that he stole from Uzi months ago, and trying his best to hold the heavy thing in his arms and climb back up the ladder.

“N, are you there?”

N panicked more and more as he tried to climb out of the pod, but struggled and kept getting caught. He eventually made it out, using his wings to shove them out of the pod and bring himself upwards outside of it. He set the blanket overtop his wings, keeping them somewhat warm in the cold, metallic cavern he stood inside of. He responded to her messages,

“sorry, Zi, i got kinda occupied :p i am omw tho!!!”

Uzi smiled at N’s message, forgetting how cute he could be even through text. She grabbed her snacks and started to eat them, but as she was left alone to her own thoughts she started to panic, the aspects of the nightmare getting to her. Did N truly hate her? If he did, he was really good at hiding it. She should’ve known that would be a risk of falling in love with a Disassembly Drone; that the chances of him not loving her back would be more considerable due to his violent nature.

Uzi took a shaky breath in and out but continued doing this several times to calm herself down and make her heart stop racing. N wasn’t like that. But maybe he was behind closed doors? Uzi eventually gave up on trying to convince herself out of it, bringing her knees to her chest, but still attempting to find anything mentally or physically occupying to keep herself distracted from the short time it would take for N to get there. She eventually ended up grabbing her phone and doing research to see if Disassembly Drones were even thought to be capable of such things. She got mixed results, which didn’t really affect her current mood. What did was the scenes of her nightmare circling back as she looked at the drawing N made on her ceiling, so she buried her face into her bed and flared her wings around herself, quietly crying into her mattress.

But of course, the door slid open with a quiet hissing sound as N walked up to her room. He walked in, then saw her sobbing and immediately ran up to her. “Uzi?” He reached over the bed, figuring for a solid minute how to get her attention before she spoke. “Gooo awayyyy!” She covered herself up more. N put a hand on her shoulder, trying to signal to her that he wasn’t Uzi’s dad or something. She looked up, a glare illuminated on her screen before she saw N, but when she did her mannerisms changed immediately. “N!” She gasped and immediately turned to face him. N had a concerned look displayed on his visor, but his lips had a small smile. “I brought you this.” He handed her the blanket, and Uzi blinked, then narrowed her eyes at N. “Didn’t you steal this from me a long time ago?” She pulled it around herself, then moved up to sit in front of her pillow. “Uh, maybe,” N itched the back of his neck, then jumped up onto her bed and sat next to her. She tossed the blanket around him as well, leaning up against the Disassembly Drone and immediately taking his closest hand in her nearest one.

”So, what was the nightmare about?”

”Well.. I don’t remember most of it, but at the end you uhm.. You tried to kill me. And if I hadn't woken up, you would’ve.” Uzi looked off to the side as if ashamed to admit this was a fear she had. “Uzi.. I would never..” He put an arm on her leg, and she looked back at him. “You love me, right?” Uzi’s voice cracked as she spoke, and N saw his own worried expression reflect on her visor, and he unsheathed his right wing and wrapped it around her. “I love you, Uzi. Of course I do. I’d never hurt you. Not on purpose.” Uzi scoffed. “I was gonna say.” Her response to this made N narrow his eyes. “Uzi, if I ever hurt you, you need to tell me. I know it can be difficult, but that’s how I keep myself from making those same mistakes in the future. I know that sometimes the things I say and do can hurt you, but it’s never what I purposefully wanted to do.” N took a deep breath, then let go of her hand and leg and hugged her, putting her off-guard. “Do you understand?”

”I understand, N.” She confirmed, twisting to face him and wrapping her arms around him in return.

”Okay, good. Now, what do you wanna do?” N asked, pulling away but letting one of his arms linger around her waist, very lightly brushing up against it. “..Can we just cuddle?” Uzi’s small smile moved to the side of her face that N could see. And the request itself made N happy since he was usually the one asking, but now his girlfriend, who was usually the more “You ask me,” person had finally become a “I’ll ask you” person. So of course, he gladly accepted the request and they laid down together. N’s tail twined itself around’s Uzi’s, while Uzi’s tail happily munched on N’s tail vial. “You’re so clingy.” Uzi grinned, but N immediately protested. “You held my hand first. And also took me to a prom. Anddd-” Uzi swatted behind her, smacking the side of N’s face. “Shut up!” She laughed as she refused to have him continue.

“You win.” She blushed and looked down upon feeling his hand go around her waist and grab her left hand, which she flipped around so they could hold hands properly. “I love you, N.” Uzi smiled, but grunted as N suddenly picked her up and flipped her over to face him. N had a reasonable amount of blush drawn out under his eyes, and Uzi saw in her reflection on his visor that she did as well. “I love you too.” N gently kissed her cheek, but Uzi snorted. “What are you, a coward?” N raised a brow, confused. But he immediately understood what she meant as soon as she kissed him, tongue included. He got a hint of what she had eaten earlier, but it was somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of oil he had eaten earlier that still remained in his mouth. He went along with the kiss, knowing it’d make her feel better, and it would also make himself better. His wings both unsheathed again, but he actively avoided hurting her as he pulled her closer using his sharp-edged wings.

Uzi kissed him harder in attempts to get more of the oil taste, which N sometimes forgot she was drawn to. He kissed her back, but not as passionately as she kissed him, in order to let her have the taste of oil stay there for longer. N, wanting their hangout to not just be them making out with each other, tapped her shoulder to let her know he was going to pull away. They pulled away at around the same time, N pulling back just a second before Uzi did. “What drone did you eat?” Uzi joked as she poked the centre of his visor, pushing his head back a bit. “I ate like.. Tennnn minutesss before I got here?” He questioned the time he ate, but Uzi didn’t seem to care. “Well, start eating more oil and drink some before we kiss. I’d love that.” Uzi grinned, kissing him on the cheek. “Are you a coward?” N repeated what she said earlier, making them both laugh.

”Oh, no! Just being polite.” Uzi trailed a finger from his cheek to his shoulder. He shivered at the light touch, enjoying her touch while it lasted. “You’re sooooo clingy.” N smiled. “No I’m not!” He swatted at her, and the two just swatted at each other like those cartoony fights on TV. This stopped after a minute when Uzi grabbed N’s hand and kissed the LED triangle on it, which immediately made him giggle. “Why do you deny it!?” N swatted at her again, and she swatted back. “Shut uppp!” N pulled backwards, then used his wing to separate the two, making a little test.

”Ahem! If you try and go through my wing, you have to admit you’re clingy, but if you don’t, then you’re not!”

“Hah! Easy.” Uzi turned away from N, but he was rather surprised at her sudden willingness to give up. So he turned away, using his other wing to separate them. He still had his tail wrapped around hers and very much felt it chewing on the glass, but didn’t care. He ended up drifting off, quickly going into sleep mode as he was rather exhausted from everything he had done that day.

N woke up to seeing Uzi sitting beside him with crossed arms and a displeased expression. “Morning, love..” He yawned, stretching and shaking his tail a bit. “Morning, N.” He blinked at her saying his name instead of one of the pet names she usually called him. He frowned, wondering if something he did yesterday upset her. “Did I do something?” He set his wing between him, this time unintentionally. “...Mmmmm I’ll admit it, I’m clingyyy!” She groaned, pushing his wing aside and wrapped her arms around him, this forcing N to remember the challenge her gave her the previous day. “Oh, Uzi..” He chuckled. “What?” She asked, looking up at him.

”Yeah, you’re clingy.”

Chapter Text

08-09-2024

Uzi giggled at the screen, a smirk taking up a portion of her face. She faced N and her legs were kicked out over his own, her [from Uzi’s perspective] left hand holding N’s left hand. He watched the TV with mainly confusion, fear, and the occasional laugh, but every now and then his attention was drawn back to Uzi. He would stare at her for a bit, and then realise he was staring for too long and he’d turn his attention back to the video. He wasn’t all that interested in it since it was difficult to keep up with as he got distracted over and over again. N knew Uzi was more focused on it than he was, and it made him happy to see her so happy over this. Yet he couldn’t stop the repetitive line of thought that was,

We cuddle, hold hands, save the world together, live together, and go to the same school together. Yet we haven’t kissed.

N knew he must’ve gotten lost in thought when Uzi tapped his shoulder, a worried look on her face. N glanced at his own expression on her visor, but got distracted by the random blush that appeared on her screen. He smiled and turned to face her. “Hai.” He wagged his tail, and Uzi rolled her eyes, playfully pushing his visor back. “Stop ittt.” N grinned and just flopped over onto Uzi’s side, and she immediately fell over. “But you’re cute when you’re flustered?” N narrowed his eyes and his grin changed to a smirk as Uzi went wide-eyed and stared at him. “N- no I- I’m n.. No?” Uzi barely strung her words together as she made direct eye contact, which was suddenly broken as she looked away. She blinked and, in a pitiful attempt to keep her from being less flustered, sat up and pushed N off. “S-stop that! It’s gross!” N crossed his arms and brought his tail up beside him, a fake pouty face set to his expression. Uzi looked back at him, but immediately regretted it as she sighed and slouched over a bit, giving in to his tempting look. “..Fine..”

N Lunged forward and hugged her, wrapping his tail around hers. His expression changed from his happy little c: to a more serious one as he remembered his earlier line of thought. “Uh, I know that you aren’t the uh.. Biggest, fan? Of touch and cuddling and all that but.. Why haven’t we kissed yet?” Uzi froze up, looking side to side and then back at N. “I didn’t know you knew what that was.” She blinked, and N took this as an opportunity to make some flirty remarks. “Oh, man.. I seem to have forgotten. Mind showing me?” N wrapped his arms around Uzi’s neck and grinned down at her, while she silently blushed and stared up at him. “Where did you learn how to flirt so well?” Uzi asked as if it were a genuine question, to which N shrugged and went back to his innocent, wholesome smile. “Uhm.. I don’t think I’ve kissed anyone before, really? And for you it just never came to mind. I didn’t know if you were ready or even knew what that was.”

”Yeah, I guess I do act like I wouldn’t know it.” N chortled, but went dead quiet as Uzi cupped the side of his face. “Well, let’s hope this can jog your memory of what kissing is.” Uzi grinned as she restated the remark he made earlier but used it to her advantage. N stayed completely quiet, and just barely nodded his head when Uzi did, their own way of saying yes. He became less tense upon feeling Uzi’s lips press against his, and his hand meandered up to the side of her face. He briefly opened his eyes to see why Uzi was moving, and he smiled a little as she fixed herself to be more upright and at N’s height. He closed his eyes again and leaned back, Uzi following as he hoped she would. He pulled away a bit after he leaned back, and scooted back against the wall, but made sure to place his hands around Uzi’s waist so he could pull her with him.

”Worth it.” Uzi said as she rested her head on N’s chest, a small, close-mouthed smile built into her expression. N smiled and moved some of her hair out of her face, which she laughed at. “Exactly what I was thinking.” N shook his head and then spoke. “You’re so pretty..” He spoke quietly, resting a hand on the side of Uzi’s face. “Oh my God, shut up!” Uzi sat up and moved to N’s left side. “I can’t call you pretty?” N whined, crossing his arms and staring with a sad face at the sheets of the bed. “Oh, come on! I’m not all that pretty...” Uzi trailed off. N looked over at Uzi, blinking. “You are to me.” Uzi looked at N and smiled, then pulled his hat over his face, to which he protested until he couldn’t because he was now being passionately kissed by his girlfriend. “Uzi..” He tried to speak once he got a chance to, but he was shut up again. He just let this happen though, as he wasn’t against it and was enjoying it. N leaned up against her as much as he could, then once she pulled away, he put his head on top of hers. “You could’ve just told me to close my eyes.” N suggested, reaching for her hand and then interlocking their fingers.

”It felt like a better option to pull your hat down.” Uzi shrugged. “Ohhhhhh! Yeah, it was better. I would’ve known it was coming, then.” N commented. “But anyways. Was that better? I can do that more often, if you’d like.” Uzi asked, causing N to move his head off of hers and look at her. “Yeah, to all of those things.” N kissed her forehead as gently as he could, and Uzi shivered. “You’re so gross.”