Work Text:
Cyn had pulled one of her stupid “pranks” again. One that ended in a lot of bloodshed.
Uzi sighed, stumbling into her bedroom. She wiped some oil from her cheek, falling forward onto her bed. V chuckled behind her and leaned against the doorframe. She’d accompanied Uzi while N sorted out the aftermath with Khan and Nori.
“You’re a mess,” V stated matter-of-factly. Uzi groaned and buried her face in her pillow. “Aren’t you going to clean yourself up before crashing?”
Uzi glared at her. She noticed that V’s wings were still extended. Clots of oil were smeared in the hinges, and there were some scratches on the blades.
“You’re not looking any better. Why are your wings still out?”
V looked back at them. She bent one, and a glob of muck clumped at the joint.
“Gotta wipe them down,” she replied, completely unbothered.
Uzi narrowed her eyes at this. After a moment she grumbled,
“Do you want help?”
V blinked. “What?”
“N isn’t going to be back for a while,” Uzi said, swinging her legs off the side of the bed. “And he’s normally the one who helps you clean ‘em, right? I’ve seen you guys do it.”
V paused, scoffing and turning her face away.
“I don’t need your help.”
“Riiight,” Uzi drawled. “And you’re gonna reach your hinges how?”
V’s visor flushed with colour at that.
“It’s either this or you wait for N,” Uzi shrugged.
The disassembly drone hesitated. She made a face like she was debating something in her head, then groaned loudly and walked over to fully enter the room.
“You’re so annoying.”
“Mhm,” Uzi ignored her and headed into her bathroom. She grabbed a cloth, dampening it with some cleaning fluid, then called V in with a wave of her hand.
She followed with her arms crossed. Uzi directed her to sit on a chair with her back facing her. V pulled off her jacket, exposing her torso and bare back. Uzi tried to smother the feeling of embarrassment rising in her at the lack of clothing, because they didn’t technically have anything that needed to be hidden. It was the principle of the matter.
V looked an absolute mess. Fuel was spattered across the back of her neck and her wings from the other two’s contributions to the fight. Some looked like it had gotten into the gaps between the hinges of her wings. There was no way she could retract them without being cleaned first, unless she wanted a ton of gunk getting stuck in the sockets. This was a fucking disaster.
“Robo-god...” Uzi sighed. She started to dab at the oil and quickly realised how fast the cloth was turning black. She examined it before tossing it into a basket and grabbing a few more, prepared to get this done one way or another. N hadn’t asked her to clean his wings yet, and she never asked, so she was going in completely blind.
V was bouncing her leg as Uzi continued her work. One of her wings fluttered out when Uzi was dragging the rag down the tips of it, smacking her in the face. Probably an involuntary motion.
“Fucking—ow?” Uzi grunted, rubbing her cheek where the blades hit her. It didn’t cut, but it still hurt. V merely shot her a glance and shrugged, turning her face away again so Uzi couldn’t see her. Uzi huffed. “What is your problem?”
She pushed the rag into the base of V’s wings while she spoke, determined to get this done despite how she was feeling—
V suddenly jolted, and Uzi didn’t even have time to blink before V’s hand whipped back to grab hers. Their gazes connected. She looked so angry. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was opened in a snarl. She looked like a caged animal.
“Don’t.” V hissed. Uzi blinked and yanked her arm out of her hold.
She was used to V being catty. She was used to her being aggressive. But this was something different.
Uzi shuffled backwards, raising her hands like you would put them out in front of a rabid dog to stop it attacking you.
V was breathing heavily. She’d grabbed onto herself, fingers digging into her upper arm and around the side of her neck. She stood up, her eyes flicked up to meet Uzi’s again, and she shook her head.
“Sorry, I just…” she muttered. “…I didn’t expect you to go near..there.”
Uzi furrowed her brows.
“What were you expecting? How does N normally clean the ports?”
V put one of her hands over her mouth and looked away. “...he’s different. He can touch them.”
“Oh, what, and I can’t?” Uzi scoffed. She was getting really tired of her today.
“You don’t know what it’s like.”
Uzi gave her a perplexed expression, her brows furrowing together.
“…I also have wings, y’know.”
“Not like this,” V gestured to the blades. Her voice was hoarse. “Yours are organic. You grew them. These were forced on us. N might not fully remember, but I do.”
V turned away. Her wings curled in. There were still thick globs of oil around the connecting joints, so she can’t retract them yet. V exhaled and dropped back down on the stool. Silence fell between the two of them.
Eventually, Uzi found herself reaching out. Her fingers grazed V’s spine. The taller girl flinched, her wings going tense.
“You’re right,” Uzi admitted. She took a closer look at the sockets. While the welding and mechanics there were well concealed, there was still the ghost of a painful experience.
“What?”
“You’re right, okay?” Uzi repeated. “I don’t know what it was like. And…I’m sorry Cyn did this to you.”
Luckily, her tail kept her mouth shut for once.
V glanced over her shoulder. Her brows were knit together, her mouth slightly open, clearly not knowing what to say.
“Don’t make this weird,” Uzi muttered. V snorted in response, a smile briefly crossing her features.
Uzi splayed her fingers on V’s back, the smooth metal cold under her touch. Her thumb and pinky finger pressed against the base of both of V’s wings.
“...growing mine in also fucking hurt, for the record,” she stated. “So it’s not like I don’t get it, at least a little. Now are you gonna let me do this? I’ll be gentle. Promise.”
Uzi couldn’t catch sight of V’s facial expression, but she saw her grip her arm just a little bit tighter.
“…okay,” she finally murmured. “I trust you.”
I trust you.
They weren’t outright enemies anymore, but it had been a while since V said that to her. And last time it had been at the elevator, when they were all on the brink of death and surrounded by sentinels.
This must mean a lot to her.
Uzi picked the rag up again. She finished wiping some oil from the tips of her wings, then she allowed herself to bring it down to the connecting ports. The gaps were small, just enough for her and N to tuck their wings and pull them in. It was where a lot of the oil had slid down and gathered. She started to dab at the edges. When she dug the cloth in the slightest bit, V shuddered and tensed.
“You good?” Uzi asked. God, she sounded like N.
V nodded. She drew her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes. Uzi methodically pressed the cloth into the slots, the oil soaking up into the fabric. Her hands were light and dexterous, more sensitive than she’d ever been with V.
It felt almost intimate.
“Okay, we’re almost done,” Uzi said.
As she got the last of the grease out of her left port, some of the dark substance from the cloth dragged against her back. Uzi frowned and tossed the rag aside. She thought about it for a moment, then decided to wipe it away with her thumb as she had done to her own cheek.
“What are you doing?” V questioned. Uzi felt colour rush to her face.
“Sorry, I—”
“No, no,” V amended. “It’s fine. I don’t mind.”
Uzi was more than a little surprised at that. V was normally pretty cagey about touch. She swallowed before shaking her head.
“Try to retract your wings now,” she instructed, trying to change the course of the conversation. V nodded and withdrew her wings. They slid back into the sockets, the clean movement deeply satisfying. “Alright. Looks like you’re all set.”
V sighed in relief and bowed her head. She lowered her legs from her chest, but didn’t stand.
“Thank you,” she spoke the words softly.
“Okay, just get out of my room,” Uzi rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’re super eager to get away from me.”
“It’s not that,” V said. Uzi raised a brow.
“Look, we both know you don’t like me—”
“I don’t dislike you.”
That gave Uzi pause.
“Then...why?” Uzi asked. “You’re so hostile. Like, all the time. You fucking snarled at me just now.”
“It’s...it’s just because I don’t want to get too close,” V murmured, with a sense of brutal honesty Uzi hadn’t seen in her much before. At least not in this context. She rested her head in her palm. “It’s hard to be vulnerable around people. Letting them touch me like that...after everything that happened to us.”
Uzi squinted. “Nobody’s making you be vulnerable around me.”
“It’s impossible not to be.”
Uzi felt some feeling rush inside her at the confession. Confusion, maybe? No. It was a new experience with V altogether.
“You somehow bring out a soft spot just as much as N does. It’s something about you,” V continued. She laughed dryly, hiding her eyes between her fingers. “So I don’t hate you. I did, but now that I know you, I don’t think I could, even if I tried.”
Uzi went quiet. This girl was leaving her speechless today.
She found her hand resting on V’s back again. She let her palm run over the filled-up sockets of V’s wings. Her thumb dipped into it, but V didn’t flinch this time. All Uzi heard was a short breath. Uzi leaned her head forward, her forehead on the curve V’s back.
“…I don’t totally hate you, either.”
It took a lot for Uzi to admit that. Especially with how difficult V had been just minutes earlier.
She felt V’s wings flitter in their ports, her tail flicking back and forth. The blade of the needle brushed against Uzi’s leg. V tilted her head back so it leaned on top of Uzi’s.
“…okay, that’s enough sappy stuff,” Uzi eventually spoke. It earned a snicker from V. Man, her laugh was cute.
Uzi tried to withdraw, only for V to reach back and grab her hand, turning on the stool. Uzi’s eyes widened, but softened just as quick. She squeezed her hand. They took another few seconds of silence, before Uzi bit the bullet and leaned in—
“Hey, guys!” N called, barging into the bathroom. Uzi and V both jumped and let go of each other, shuffling away with flushed cheeks. N looked between the two of them. “Everything's sorted out. V, can you help clean my wings?”
V’s mouth narrowed to a thin line before she nodded, standing up from the stool. N seemed to pay no mind to the fact V’s were already clean.
As they left the bathroom, V looked over her shoulder and mouthed a “thank you” to Uzi.
And as she heard her bedroom door close, the two disassembly drones leaving to take care of N, Uzi was left wondering what this meant for her and V.