Work Text:
"Something tells me you're thinking too hard, Kolanii."
Kolanii stopped looking at the disassembled communicator in his hand. The screen was separated from the metal frame, multicolored wires tangled underneath it connecting to a complicated motherboard. The communicator had been acting up as of late, maybe because it hasn't been properly tended to in weeks. He finally got his hands on a toolbox in one of the worlds he travelled to (He stole one from coollanii).
Paul sat in front of him, legs crossed and head tilted like usual. They were still taller than Kolanii, who looked up with frustrated eyes. "Yeah, well I have to think hard. This isn't an easy thing to handle." He said, turning his attention back to the communicator. He held a screwdriver in his other hand, twirling it around before using the pointed end to count something in the communicator.
Paul observed, analyzing the wires and the circuits. After a while, they beeped twice, making Kolanii look up from his work. The beeps meant Paul had processed a lot of information at once.
Paul said "You need to disassemble and redo the main circuit. Follow that up with dusting off the motherboard, then reassemble everything. It should return to normal when you reconnect the display!" with a cheery, robotic voice.
Kolanii stared for a moment, watching Paul blink as they returned to their less artificial tone. "Was that helpful?"
The other simply furrowed his eyebrows, looking back down at the communicator. "Yeah. Too bad I already knew that."
"You didn't. Your tone suggests you didn't know what to do-"
"I DID! Now shush, let me.. disassemble the circuit or whatever you said." Kolanii said, his ears twitching in embarrassment.
A smile appeared on Paul's interface. "The main circuit."
"That one, sure."
Paul watched as Kolanii followed his instructions carefully, hunched over in pure dedication. It took him about half an hour to get everything right, and Paul stayed the entire time, gears whirring even if they weren't doing anything. Kolanii liked the ambience of the turning machinery in an otherwise silent environment. The calm combination of the sounds of nature and technology is odd, yet it's what he'd gotten used to.
The sound of the display screen snapping into its frame made Paul beep in excitement. "Is it done, Kolanii?" They asked, sitting up straight.
Kolanii didn't answer immediately, still focused on getting everything right. He carefully placed the communicator on his wrist, clicking it into place.
"Dunno… let's see." He muttered, turning his hand around to get comfortable. With a single press of the button, he turned the communicator on. After a silent moment of eagerness, the communicator finally made a jingle as it started up.
"Hooray! You did it, Kolanii!!" Paul cheered, throwing their hands up in joy. Kolanii straightened his back, putting his free hand on his waist and turning his head up in relief and pride.
"Thank Wallace… I thought it was gone for good." Kolanii sighed, finishing up the rebooting. Paul watched as he pressed more buttons on the screen, setting up the last of the system.
"Kolanii…" Paul said, their voice faint. "I have a request."
Kolanii hummed in return, his eyes still on the communicator. "What is it?"
"Could you… fix me too?"
The two sat silently for a second, Kolanii going still from the others request. He slowly looked up at his robot friend, eyes full of confusion and concern.
"Wha? But you're not broken?"
"Not entirely. I have been experiencing a bit of lag as of late. Maybe it's something that can be resolved." Paul replied.
Still confused, Kolanii said "Ok but why did you say it like that it's weird."
"Say it like what?"
"Like why did you say 'fix me'? That's weird."
Paul beeped once. "Well how else can I say it?"
Kolanii blinked frantically in disbelief. "I DUNNO?! Like- You could've said 'Can you fix the lag I've been having' or 'can you take a look at what's making me lag'?"
"But those are too lengthy. You like efficiency, so I used the minimum amount of words required-"
"Yeah yeah whatever. Besides- I don't think I'm capable enough to fix a robot. You saw how hard it was to fix this thing." Kolanii lifted his hand, gesturing at the communicator. "I don't trust myself with whatever you got going on in there. If you want to die, then I'll do it." He paused, wanting to say he didn't want Paul to die.
"We have to stay alive. So… just fix it yourself, I'm sure you know how to." Kolanii gave Paul a reassuring pat on their shoulder before trying to stand up. As he was bending his knees to stand, Paul interrupted him.
"I don't trust myself with… myself." They said, looking at Kolanii with the same display as before, but he could've sworn it had more emotion. Kolanii stared, processing what Paul had just said.
"What do you mean you don't trust yourself? Dude, if there's anyone you should trust, it's yourself." He said, kneeling in front of his friend. He regretted saying that to an AI, but oh well, it's already done now.
"What if something happens and I hurt myself? At least I'll guide you." Paul reached their hand towards Kolanii, gently putting them on the others hands. "You do the work, I'll tell you what to look for."
Kolanii looked down, watching Paul's metal fingers lay gently on his pale fingers. How can he say no now?
"Fine. Tell me what needs to be done step by step. Don't leave out any important details, okay?" Kolanii inched closer, letting Paul's hands slide off. Paul beeped happily, nodding in understanding. Kolanii was hesitant, but he figured he'd just look into the software first. He didn't want to deal with all the hardware stuff, that was way past his zone.
Pushing the top of Paul's cloak out of the way, Kolanii pressed a button on Paul's chest, making a sheet of metal slide down to reveal a second screen. It showed Paul's console which had his vitals and every single process that happens in his mind. It always feels like an unsolvable math equation when someone looks at it, but Kolanii could decipher it pretty easily.
He read the signals, the vitals and after ruling out that there aren't many issues there, he looked into the Logs.
[Intended interpersonal relationship trait - Trust, Reliability, Confidence]
Intercepting emotional response - confusion
Intercepting response - generating response - response output
Analyzing physique - Generating movement — Intended emotion : Trust
Trust gained
Intercepting response-
Kolanii blinked, chuckling to himself under his breath when he realized Paul trusted him. They trusted him enough to get him to do this. They didn't need help, they just wanted to gain trust and get close.
"You sneaky guy…" Kolanii muttered to himself, rolling his eyes as he closed the log panel.
"Alright," He said, moving his head back, his eyes moving up to look at Paul's interface before continuing "What do I need to do?"
"You can check the RAM speed in the control panel." Paul responded, beeping twice.
Kolanii did as he was told, moving his fingers around to find the control panel. While he did, he thought to himself why Paul wanted to be involved with him this much.
Did they really enjoy his company? By now, he could've been sure they hated being with him.
Was this… affection?
No, it can't be. They're a robot, they can't feel human emotions.
The control panel menu gave Kolanii the path to find the RAM speed. Sure enough, it was much different than usual.
"Ah- I see. There is an issue there. What do I do to fix it?"
Paul beeped twice again. "You might need to update my software and reboot everything."
Kolanii pulled himself away, keeping his hands on the metal frame of the display. His eyebrows furrowed at Paul's response.
"Reboot everything?"
"Yes. By rebooting my system, the updated software can start up properly. Is something wrong?" Paul asked, confused at Kolanii's sudden change in emotion.
"Well- Wouldn't rebooting kinda reset everything? Is everything saved somewhere?" Kolanii looked at the display again, trying to find something that says data is saved.
Paul beeped twice. "Everything is saved in my internal hard drive, hopefully. So there won't be any problems!"
"HOPEFULLY?" Kolanii almost yelled, looking back at Paul's face. "What do you mean hopefully? You don't know for sure? What if you lose everything?"
"It should have automatically updated the hard drive as usual. It refreshes every 30 minutes, so I think it's safe."
"Should have? You're not sure about this. I don't want you to lose everything. I don't want to lose you-"
Kolanii stopped his words when he realized he was getting too attached to Paul. Paul looked at him, a silent beep indicating an update in the logs. Kolanii was too far apart to see the update. He sighed, dropping his head down in defeat.
"Kolanii, I'm not going to lose everything. You're not going to lose me." Paul replied, tilting their head. "If you want to be sure, you can check the internal hard drive for the latest refresh. It's next to the control panel."
Kolanii huffed, growling under his breath in embarrassment and slight relief. He leaned closer again, moving his shaking finger to press the cloud button next to the control panel.
Latest update : 29 minutes ago
"29 minutes ago. That means the next one is in a minute." Kolanii recited what he saw on the display, returning to his gaze shared with Paul.
"That means in a minute, you can reboot me. Then I'll keep everything! Sound good?"
Kolanii blinked, assuring to himself that Paul isn't going to leave forever. "Yeah… sounds good."
Paul's interface changed to a smile. "Yay! Press the update and restart button, then I can automatically reboot after updating."
Kolanii looked around for the button in the display, finally finding a red circle icon with the words 'update + restart' next to it flashing in bright orange. The update had been long due, it seemed. His finger hovered over the button for 10 seconds, trembling as time went on.
"Found it."
"Great! I'll tell you when the time has passed."
Kolanii kept his eyes on the glowing display, his warm breath hitting harshly against the inside of his mask as he let his eyes succumb to the harsh glare of the screen. After about 15 more seconds of silence, Paul finally gave the signal.
"That's one minute! You can press the button now, Kolanii."
Kolanii breathed in, turning his face away from the screen for an extra second.
The next moment, he leaned back, keep his finger over the button but his face away from the display. He was face to face with Paul, who didn't move their head back from the proximity.
With his free hand, he pulled his white mask down. His eyebrows were furrowed, making it seem like he was angry. Paul saw his lips after a really long time, a singular beep signifying a frantic update to the logs when Kolanii pulled the mask off.
"Come back soon, Paul." Kolanii whispered before pressing his lips onto Paul's screen, aligning them with the few pixels that depicted their mouth. Not letting Paul react properly, he pressed the button while his lips were still on the interface.
He felt the warm temperature of the screen slowly cool down, indicating the display had turned off.
Pulling his face away from the screen, a melancholy smile appeared on his face.
Kolanii had only been with Paul for a year now, but now he realized how important they were to him. He'd spent almost every moment with him, having him turn off for even 5 minutes felt like he was taken away to never return.
He muttered to himself reassuringly.
Paul isn't gone forever. They're just rebooting. They're going to come back the exact same as before, nothing will change. They're going to remember me. They won't forget me. They'll forget my kiss, but that's good. As long as they come back the same as before.
A message appeared on Paul's interface against a bright blue screen.
[Update in progress! Est. 52 min until complete. Thank you for your patience!]
"Fifty two minutes…" Kolanii grumbled to himself. "It takes that long?"
He spent about ten minutes staring at the blue screen, watching as the estimated time slowly reduced. At the 40 minute mark, he stood up, walking away from Paul for a moment. He walked through the grassy field until he stumbled upon a small patch of dandelions.
He returned to Paul, holding a dozen yellow flowers in his hands. The mild breeze flowed around him as he walked in silence, the sun getting closer to the horizon in the distance.
The blue screen read ; [Est.36 min until complete]
Kolanii spent the next five minutes carefully placing the flowers in Paul's hands, so that they would have a gift when they wake up.
With 30 minutes left on the clock, Kolanii sat a few feet away from Paul.
The fur on his ears swayed gently under his white hair, as the sea breeze arrived from the distance. The gentle wind made his sleepiness more apparent, and his eyes began to slowly drift into a nap.
30 minutes passed, and Paul rebooted with an almost silent tune. It took them a moment for the interface to light up, and when it did, Paul could see who was sitting in front of them, mirroring their pose.
Kolanii, sitting silently with his legs crossed, his hands on top of each other in a meditating pose, but his head was dropped down in front.
Paul beeped twice after looking down at their own hands, counting the yellow flowers.
Being quiet as possible, Paul did his favorite task.
Gently placing the yellow flowers in Kolanii's white hair, as if the sun had dropped its tears on an ivory cloud in the sky.
These quiet moments were what felt the most important to an AI named Paul. You might think they might enjoy learning through conversation, through interacting and by engaging…
Not Paul.
Deduction skills, thinking skills… these are all the things he mastered by observing their human. Their Kolanii. Maybe then, they could be more human.