Work Text:
It was a busy night, at least for Tesla. The inexplicable urge to work always got the better of them, but it was their passion, nothing could deter them away from it.
“Hey Tes, got a sec?”
…Except maybe for Zero_One.
They always had this exceptional charm to them, maybe the reason Tesla joined the band in the first place or why they even looked in the direction of the instrument they ended up falling in love with. That was a debate in their mind, whether or not it was all Zero, or something else entirely.
It didn't exactly matter though, not when they had bigger fish to fry, but they couldn't help but put down what they were doing to listen to anything Zero had to say.
“Yes, Zero, what do you need?” They turned around in their chair, and it didn’t take a response from him to see what the issue was. Their face, or rather screen, was glitched out, flickering in and out with no apparent reason as to why. “Good lord, zee. Sit down, let me have a look.”
Despite the situation, Zero_One looked practically giddy in response to Tesla. Sitting down in a nearby stool, Tesla scooted closer with a screwdriver in hand to prod at any issues. Zero was a special case compared to normal tech, but Tesla always found a way to solve any problem.
“I don’t really know what happened, I started feeling a little off and eventually Rust pointed out my screen.”
“It’ll be fine, nothing I haven’t fixed before.”
After a good few minutes, Tesla was still trying to find the source of the problem. Absolutely nothing they tried did anything, even less so did their frustration alleviate. Tesla was dead focused on fixing Zero, however, despite their struggle. Zero didn’t exactly mind, anyways. It wasn’t bothering them that badly, and being around Tesla was comfort enough for if they were worrying about it.
-
“Okay, that should work. If not, you might be a lost cause.”
After much time and maybe a coffee break, Tesla finally connected everything down to one spot, where they reconnected something loose and the flickering ceased. They rolled back slightly in their chair to look at Zero one more as a whole and not so up close.
“Ah, thank you Tes!! You’re the best” He dragged Tesla into a hug, they complied despite any discomforts they may have had.
“It’s not a big deal.” They slightly patted their back, “...I’m glad to help you any time.”
They let go of the hug and Zero took a glance back at what Tesla had been working on prior to helping them with their screen issue. Metal parts, screws, and old reused tech bits scattered the desk behind them, tools haphazardly put away in maybe not preferably safe ways. He tried to tell them to be more careful, and they would do it again, but last time he did they looked at them like they had a horse for a head.
“Whatcha working on?” They finally asked.
“Hm? Oh, just a small project.” Tesla swiveled the chair to face the desk. “It’s- nothing important.”
“Well, if you say so. You gonna continue working on it now?”
“Probably. You can stay here if you like.”
“I was actually gonna continue playing a game. I’ll call you when dinner is ready, yeah?”
“That sounds good, I’ll see you in a little while then.”
Zero planted the front of their screen against the top of Tesla’s head, metal muffled against the soft fabric, technically in an attempt as a kiss to the top of their head despite not having a mouth. They soon left, leaving Tesla to work on their project.
-
Dinner didn't take much longer, only giving Tesla around half an hour to work before Zero came back around to drag them to the dining room.
The aroma was strong, even from the hallway. Tesla always wondered why they all ended up sitting down for dinner when Rust was really the only one who needed to eat besides themselves (Even then it didn't have to be as frequent). And despite how well he cooked, Armstrong couldn't even eat, but that heavenly smell of his cooking kept them from arguing.
Tesla sat in their respective chair, next to Zero and across from Armstrong. A specific place, at a specific time, every day.
Just how they liked it.
The table was generally talkative as usual, normally between Rust and Zero, but nobody went to dinner without chatting a little.
What was odd, however, was that Zero was more quiet than normal, and after a few minutes of being at the table it crept up into Tesla’s mind that they hadn't heard much from their neighboring companion. It was only as they opened their mouth to speak to Zero was the problem finally obvious.
A drop of his utensil and his screen taken over by that awful blue error code. The room went silent immediately as soon as the metal hit the porcelain plate. It was practically enough to make Tesla’s heart drop.
To Tesla, it all moved like a blur, not exactly sure what happened until they were able to process Zero being in their hands to fix back inside their lab.
The hurried voices of each other discussing and questioning what had happened.
“They've been fine until today, I didn’t even know they could error like this-”
Rust spoke hushed to Armstrong, who was probably the most visibly panicked. It was in his nature to worry about the rest of them.
Surely they would have told us they were feeling unwell. Have they been in pain and haven't told us? Have I not noticed anything and they tried showing it?
He finally calmed down once Rust reminded him that Zero_One was in Tesla’s hands to fix, that he would be okay.
But Tesla was unsure of that themselves.
Had they done something wrong when attempting to aid them earlier? Misplaced a part of their circuitry and caused them to error? A multitude of reasons that led back to themself flooded their brain along with trying to grasp what was wrong.
What if they weren't able to fix them at all?
They sat staring at Zero and that awful, awful error code, which sat on his screen with a lingering glare that made Tesla’s hands sweat even more with the stress of uncertainty.
A hesitation and frustration of not knowing where to begin with fixing the situation sat heavily on their shoulders. They were always expected to know what to do.
It wasn't until a gentle hand was placed upon their shoulder that they (sort of) released the tension in their jaw. Tesla looked behind them to see the familiar face of their blue masked companion.
“Are you okay?”
What kind of question was that??
Of course not! Their best friend, their partner, the one person to truly give them hope in life was incapable and in their hands to repair or they may never hear their voice again-
“Apologies, I shouldn't have asked that.”
Tesla looked at Doc with a glare then turned back to Zero, still worried and stumped, afraid of hurting him or ruining the situation beyond repair.
This wasn't like one of their projects, this was life or death. Who knew if this could be solved through rehosting, would Zero_One himself, without the host, be able to come back from this at all-?
“Tesla, please, do not stress yourself. Pace yourself.”
“No, Doc, I need to help them. I don't know what can happen if I don't.”
“I understand, but you cannot work on something, someone, when you are worried such as you are right now.”
“I was helping them earlier. What if I caused this, Doc?” Tesla basically snapped, worried out of their mind about how this could be your fault. Doc removed his hand from their shoulder, not as a way to get away out of fear, much different, this was normal for Tesla. They wanted to assure them that this was their own decision.
“What does Zero say about you working when you are upset?” He set his hands both on his cane, leaning forward onto it.
“I- I suppose to set it aside for later? But I can't do that, Doc. This is Zero we're talking about.”
“Yes, that, but I specifically recall your conversation with Zero_One last week.”
The week prior, they had been insisting on working on something that had taken over their mind for days now, but frustration kept them from working at the pace they were hoping for. Zero had reminded them to work slowly, take their time. Tesla reluctantly agreed when they took the advice but it helped in the long run, and worked smoother afterwards.
“You're right.” Tesla hated to admit when the others were correct.
“Take your time. Zero_One would understand.”
Doc didn't linger. In fact, he left the room and took the other two with him to give Tesla some peace and quiet.
Tesla put their focus on Zero again once the other three left, sighing before deciding to try to work.
“I promise, I’ll fix you properly this time.”
It was more of a promise to themselves, in all honesty. Because, despite their idle nature at the moment, Zero_One knew they could trust Tesla, no matter what happened.
-
The morning sun arose, Tesla had fallen asleep hours ago after working on fixing Zero_one. The blue error code had erased itself from his screen forever ago yet they had waited for him to wake up to no avail. When the hours had grown heavy on Tesla's eyes, they finally let themself rest beside where Zero lay once they knew they had done all they could.
It was a miracle they managed to sleep at all with how stressed everything made them, or even more surprising how they didn’t wake up in a cold sweat after a worrisome dream that Zero never woke up.
At the very first ray of morning light, a faint beep echoed through the silent laboratory. A soft glow of a message which read Rebooting on Zero_One’s screen dimly lit the dark room. A few minutes passed of the loading screen making loops, an occasional beep here and there but not enough to wake Tesla.
Finally, the screen went black before that familiar cracked orange face emerged through the dark screen.
“Ouhgg… my head…” Zero_One sat up where they had been laid and placed a hand to their head, a stinging pain piercing through their head. Squinting their eyes open they took notice that they weren’t in their room like he had originally thought, seeing that they were in Tesla’s lab instead. Speaking of, they turned to make more sense of their surroundings and saw Tesla asleep on their desk.
Standing up from where he was sat, Zero took a moment to regain their balance before going beside Tesla and gently shaking their shoulder.
“Tes?” They slowly stirred awake, not budging until the voice registered in their head that it was Zero. They practically shot up when they acknowledged who was behind them. Carefully, Tesla took Zero_One’s head in their hands, moving it around to check them for anything.
“Zee, are you okay- Do you feel okay?? What do you remember?” They spoke quickly, panicked that he could still be feeling unwell or could glitch out again at any moment. They hated to get their hopes up that things are working and this was no exception.
“Tes, I’m okay, I promise.”
“You went- offline or something- I was worried out of my mind.” Zero knew what happened. It would be hard not to know at this point but they knew what happened to begin with. Why it happened was beyond their knowledge but they at least knew they went offline for who knows how long.
“I- …I know, but you fixed me, didn’t you? I’ll be okay.” He put a hand up to one of their arms, hands still holding onto his face like it was the most precious thing they wouldn’t dare drop. Tesla was still panicked, confused as to why Zero_One was so calm, their heart raced with the stress that maybe, just maybe this is just a dream and Zero hadn’t truly woken up.
But, after letting themself just look at Zero for a few more minutes, not letting go, told them everything they needed to know. That this was real, that they were real, and that everything seemed better.
“Don’t… scare me like that again.” they let their hands fall from his head to his shoulders in a wave of relief.
“Hmm… I don’t think I can make any promises.” Zero_One shrugged, making the joking remark. Tesla moved their hands from their shoulders, smacking their headphones down to push their hair into his face.
“Hey!” They sat there laughing for a minute before Tesla suddenly went quiet as the faint sound of rushing footsteps approached the room. Zero hardly got a second to try and speak before the door slammed open, Rust still in his pajamas stood in the doorway.
“ZERO, YOU’RE ALIVE!!!!!!”