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Dazed, sat unmovingly staring at the ceiling as if he was underwater, Larry allowed himself to sink into his own thoughts and imagination.
"Larry?"
Hues of red and yellow painted his thoughts.
"Larry, Larry can you hear me?"
He couldn't properly make out what exactly his thoughts were trying to make up, whatever it was, it was mesmerizing.
A sudden grab of his face sent shivers down his metallic spine, he snapped out of it instantly. The clouds in his eyes faded to allow him to focus as he realised, that was his twin brother, Lawrie, staring back at him visibly frustrated.
"Robochrist Larry!! What has gotten into you? This is the 6th time I caught you staring at nothing this week!"
"I don't know brother" Larry's response was solemn, solemn enough for Lawrie's gaze to shift from irritation to genuine concern. His audio receptors tilted upwards as he began.
"Look, Larry, I'll keep this just between us, I think you may have developed a processing malfunction."
"What? How so? I don't know what you are referring to I was simply recounting all the rules-"
"Do you think I'm silly, Larry?" Larry sighed and rolled his eyes as Lawrie begun his sentence "You've been way more upbeat than usual, like way too upbeat, like the way humans act when they drink too much caffeine upbeat."
"Well I strive to ensure everyone gets a bit of cheer-"
"No Larry I know you! This isn't the usual you, this and every time I catch you in your weird sessions of zoning out you seem genuinely terrified snapping out of it, like you're hiding something, not like I paused you thinking about the rules."
"What would I have to hide Lawrie." Larry chuckled nervously, almost defensively at Lawrie's observation as an awkward silence stained the air. The longer Larry thought to himself about it, the longer he realised, Lawrie may be right. But what did he have to hide? His mind was too blurry to think. The longer he thought, the more his audio receptors tilted downwards, the more his face glitched and his teal helmet began flaring up.
"Look, Lar, I won't tell anyone for as long as nobody is suspicious, but you will need to have this evaluated soon, or, you know what will happen."
"Lawrie! Lawrie! I'll be fine I'll figure it out soon, infact I can guarantee I'll have it figured out by tonight! Just give me some time alone! I'll be just fine!" Larry babbled, pushing his brother towards the dull, grey, sluggish exit door.
"Are you sure Lar I didn't finish-" before Lawrie could finish his sentence Larry barged him out of the room, slammed the door shut, pulled his legs towards himself, and concealed his screen in them.
A hundred different thoughts obstructed his ability to think rationally, he could feel his robotic heart beat sink as it started to beat faster and with every beat came another worry. What could possibly be happening to him? What could this 'processing malfunction' possibly be? And what happens if the park finds out? He knows that anything peculiar will only be forgiven at the cost of his memory, his status at the park, or worse, his entire life.
He began pacing from one corner of the room to the other, the ticking from his metallic feet followed, his audio receptors upwards as if he was trying to steady himself and think as reasonably as possible: what could this be? His attempt at trying to redownload and look through any possible faults that may have taken place in past interactions failed. What if this bug is much, much harder to locate? What if it is internal? Maybe submitting to the park was the right thing to do in the end.
He sighed, turned around and began trotting to the door, his mechanical frame wobbled. There was perhaps no way out. He was defeated. Upon opening the door, he jolted back.
"Hey Larry you didn't.. let me finish what I was trying to say.......... Also I brought you tea because.. you think better with it."
Lawrie stood right outside of the door, almost like he expected Larry to open it? He stood shocked not expecting his brother standing on the other end. Lawrie held a boring mug with starr parks starr almost fully scratched off, filled to the brim with boiling, brown fuel (because they probably can't really ingest anything else I would think). As Larry's surprise faded he could feel his metal heart turn malleable, his audio receptors tilted slightly downwards and his robotic frame eased, it wasn't often that Lawrie would show affectionate gestures, the fact that he came back and the use of "tea" as the comfort item, according to Larry's scans, showed him that he really did care.
"Oh you didn't have to brother, thank you I appreciate it. Really I do."
"Well, I'm not good at talking, but I can listen if you want me to." Lawrie handed over the mug and slid his back against the wall until he reached the floor, he urged Larry to sit down next to him with a tap of his palms on the floor.
"Well before that, you said I didn't let you finish speaking, what ever could you mean?"
"Oh right."
He looked away for a moment and itched the back of his helmet while his audio receptors went down.
"Well, don't take offense Lar, but you've also been very very weird about some-"
"Who? The rules prohibit any weird behavior, I will apologise immediately."
"Somebot. Some robot. The robot that randomly crashed into our lives and gave us hours of work in rebuilding the park after his so called 'city saving'."
Larry looked back at him with big, round, pearly eyes. Akin to a clueless cat.
Lawrie sighed.
"Surge, Larry I'm talking about Surge."
"Oh right Surge! Oh don't be silly Law, Surge saved our lives!"
"And that's exactly what's been strange about you! If anybody else ever scratches or stains the walls you reprimand them, and yet you've been giving Surge all these excuses-"
"Well I don't think he should be accountable after doing it for the greater good of the park."
"Larry we've also had complaints from Max, you know, Surge's friend, that he's been getting a ridiculous amount of tickets issued by you for ridiculous 'infractions'."
Larry looked away, in guilt or in shame, the realisation seeping in that perhaps, Lawrie had a point, and that he had done something bad, something he wasn't programmed to do.
"You've been acting really odd especially around Surge, what is it about him that has your engines exhausted?"
It all started making sense, but at the same time it wasn't. Larry thought back to all his "weird sessions of zoning out" and as the blurriness of it all faded, he was able to decipher that he was infact, thinking about the red party bot.
"Now that you bring this up, I have to acknowledge that I was, infact, perchance, thinking about.. Surge... During my, 'zone outs'."
Lawrie blinked
"Lar, do you think this goes deep into how your wires are wired?"
"Such a preposterous statement! Rule 83, as defined in the rule book, states that robot employees may not engage romantically with anybody in or outside of the park. I would never disobey the rules-"
Lawrie shushed him, tapped the star of his helmet which clicked loudly and spawned a projection of Larry in the past saying:
"Denial is a common human experience when feeling romantic feelings for the first time." In a bubbly, lighthearted mocking tone.
Larry's annoyed frown was so wide it could touch the floor, as opposed to his twin's smirk that was almost as wide as the smile painted on Larry's face. He double tapped the star on Lawrie's helmet to turn off the projection before looking away, narrowed his smile into a small, pitiful pout as his receptors went far down, he pulled his legs back into a fetal position. More, brand new thoughts began clouding his mind but before he had any time to focus on them, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned back to face Lawrie who had kept his hand there after he turned.
"Listen, I don't care that you have feelings for Surge regardless of the rules of the park. We've had everything the park wants us to know hard wired into us and you never disobeyed, you deserve to find happiness outside of the park, regardless of what the park tells us. Do you think you feel ready to tell Surge the truth?"
Larry was taken aback by the question -and what Lawrie said in general.
"I do not."
Lawrie sighed.
"That's okay."
Before Lawrie got to see the grin emerge back on Larry's face Larry pulled him into a tight embrace.
"Thank you so much, Lawrie."
"It's my pleasure Larry."