Work Text:
She’d been streaming for a little over an hour before Cecilia noticed the edges of her vision blurring. As much as she wanted to huff in annoyance, it wasn’t worth the questions that would come from chat, so she just kept playing. Within a half hour, though, the blur had crept into her entire field of vision. She paused the game, made an excuse to chat about an “idol meeting” (bless Ame-senpai for that one), and went to find her emergency glasses.
Sometimes being an automaton was really inconvenient. As much as she tried her best to keep up on the preventative maintenance, something always seemed to crop up at the worst of times. At least her eyes losing focus had an easy stopgap solution until she could address the root issue. It wasn’t like her mainspring had unwound or anything. That would be about as catastrophic as it could get.
Able to see clearly once more, Cecilia finished out the stream with her chat being none the wiser.
“Thanks for hanging out tonight!” she said into her mic. “I’ll be back tomorrow, and I think we can finish this one out. Bye bye!”
Ending the stream, she stretched her arms above her head. Her shoulder joints gave a hint of friction, just enough to make her pause. When was the last time she’d done a full joint lubrication? Starting down at her fingers, Cecilia tested each and every actuation point. Fingers and wrists on both hands felt fine. Her right elbow give a little squeak as it approached its maximum range of motion. Both shoulders felt stiff as previously mentioned. Neck was fine, thank goodness; that was always a pain to service.
And speaking of pains to service, her stupid torso joint had lost a full quarter of its range. How had she not noticed that till now?
Oh right… all she did nowadays was sit in her chair and stream….
She sighed. Screw it, might as well do a full service. That, coupled with refocusing her eyes, would take a few hours, but it would only get worse if she put it off.
Her bedroom door burst open. The shock sent her clamoring and caused her to end up on the floor.
“Ceci!” a familiar gremlin’s voice called out. “Great stream as always!” Gigi stopped, and her excited expression turned to confusion as she saw where Cecilia was. “Yo, why are you on the ground? Wait, why the fuck are you wearing glasses?!”
“I’m on the ground because you freaking scared the crap out of me,” Cecilia said, sitting up. “And really, you’re more surprised about the glasses?”
“I mean, you’re like a robot, right? Why would a robot need glasses?”
“Just because I’m an automaton doesn’t mean I always operate at a hundred percent. The mechanisms that keep my eyes focused can shift over time. It’s kind of a pain to refocus them, and glasses work as a temporary fix.”
Gigi’s own eyes widened in wonder. “Whoa… that’s crazy.” She plopped down on the ground in front of Cecilia and reached a hand out towards her left eye.
Cecilia swatted the hand away. “Don’t just try to touch my eye!”
“What?! I wanted to help!”
“You don’t even know how to focus them.”
“You probably, like, take your eyes out and fiddle with ‘em, right?” Gigi said.
Cecilia gave her a flat stare. “I’ve got adjustment knobs behind the backplate of my head.”
“Oh…. I just wanted to help….” Gigi’s expression fell. It turned to that overly pitiful one that worked on Cecilia every single time, and tonight was no exception. She huffed.
“If you really want to help with something, I could use a hand lubricating a few of my joints. That should be simple enough for even you to handle.”
Gigi perked right back up, either not noticing or purposefully ignoring the second bit. “Of course! Leave it to me! What do I need to do?”
“Let me get everything we’ll need.” Cecilia got up and went to the small workbench next to her desk. Rummaging through the drawers, she grabbed all the necessary tools then sat down on the stool. “We’ll start with the neck joint. It’s a pain for me to do myself, but it’s one of the most easily accessible ports for someone else.”
“Ports?” Gigi asked, coming over to stand behind her. “Dontcha just, like… pour the lube stuff all up in there?”
Cecilia rolled her eyes. “All of my joints have seals in them specifically to prevent things from outside getting into them. I have several lubrication wells all over my body that distribute it around. One of them is on the back of my neck, just below my hairline. You see it?”
Gigi’s fingers slid along Cecilia’s porcelain skin, and Cecilia suppressed a shudder. Despite her rudimentary and muted sense of touch, the uncharacteristic care in Gigi’s caress took her by surprise. Gigi stopped at a small hole in the otherwise perfect ceramic.
“This it?”
“Yes, that’s it. You just need to take this—” she held the small lubrication bottle over her shoulder, “—and pour for about five seconds.”
“Wait really?” Gigi asked. “Do I just, like, jam it in there?”
“Essentially.”
“Won’t that hurt?”
“Not particularly, no. I don’t have many touch receptors there, so I’ll barely feel anything.”
Gigi took the bottle. “If you’re sure. Just don’t get mad at me if it does hurt.”
Cecilia distantly felt the nozzle enter the maintenance port. After a few seconds, the sensation disappeared.
“Like that?” Gigi asked.
“Like that,” Cecilia said. “Well done.”
“Hehehe, see? I’m like a lubrication expert over here! So where next? Lemme at it!”
“The next one’s for my torso joints. It’s basically impossible for me to do myself because it’s right in between my shoulder blades.”
This time, Cecilia couldn’t stop the shiver as Gigi trailed her fingers down her spine. Her hand stopped.
“You okay?”
“Y-Yeah,” Cecilia said, trying to shake off whatever the hell that was. “Anyway, did you find it yet?”
“I’m not seeing anything…. It’s not off to the side or anything, is it?”
“It shouldn’t be. Though it might be low enough to be under my top. You can just pull it down if you need to.”
“W-W-W-Wait, what?!” Gigi said. “I’m not just gonna pull down your fucking top!”
“Why not?” Cecilia asked. “That joint needs lubricated, and I can’t do it myself.” Then it hit her. Gigi wasn’t an automaton. She was all fleshy, and the fleshy folks had all these weird notions about bodies. Cecilia hid a grin behind her hand. “Oh, I see now. The little gremlin is embarrassed, isn’t she? It’s fine, though. If you can’t do it, I’ll just ask Raora or Elizabeth.”
“I’m not embarrassed!”
“Then this should be no problem for you, should it? Here’s I’ll even loosen the belt to make it easier for you.” She did so before Gigi could protest, holding the front half so her top didn’t actually fall down.
“Oh you little…,” Gigi growled. “Fine, if you want your fucking lube so bad, I’ll give it to you!” She pulled down on the fabric, exposing enough of Cecilia’s back to reveal the maintenance port. Cecilia felt that same distant sensation for several seconds before it disappeared. “There! Now fix your fucking shirt!”
Cecilia snickered as she did so. Once everything was back in order, she spun around to face the little gremlin. Her face was red, and it never ceased to amaze Cecilia that fleshy faces could change color like that.
“Those were the only two I can’t do myself,” Cecilia said. “Thank you for the help.”
“Oh… okay….” Gigi’s expression fell back to that same stupid pitiful look that Cecilia seriously needed to immunize herself to.
As it was, she still fell for it. She sighed.
“But you can stick around and help some more if you want.”
“Yay! What’s next?”
It was kind of cute how excited the little gremlin got at the prospect of helping out. And the care with which she fulfilled her duties actually warmed Cecilia’s heart (figuratively of course). A second pair of hands made it all go much quicker, too.
Maybe it’d be alright for Gigi to help out more often.