Chapter Text
Uzi Doorman was tired.
Her alarm blared throughout her room, painfully reminding her that she needed to get up at this ungodly hour to go to stupid school and deal with stupid people. Uzi groaned and slapped it off as quickly as she could before burying herself back into the blankets. After everything with Cyn, she thought she deserved at least a day off.
It's not like I almost singlehandedly saved the entire universe from ultimate destruction or anything, ugh, gimme a break.
Not that her classmates or any of the workers in the bunker cared. They were probably unaware that anything had happened, as clueless as they were. Uzi didn’t care, as long as they didn’t bother her while living in their blissful ignorance. And she could prank them as much as she wanted with her solver powers, anyway.
Loud knocking disturbed her half-asleep musings.
“Uzi, you need to get up for school,” Khan’s voice was muffled through the door. “You’re going to be late.”
“Ugh, bite me,” Uzi grumbled. Apparently saving the world didn’t get you out of school.
She heard her dad’s footsteps moving away from her room, and rolled over into a more comfortable position. She wasn’t ready to leave her warm, comfy bed just yet. Come to think of it, her bed was a little warmer and cozier than usual. While Uzi’s sleep-fogged brain tried to remember why that was, she felt the mattress shift. She heard a sleepy mumble and a strong arm pulled her back into the source of the warmth.
Oh. She had forgotten that her boyfriend was here. N had moved into the Doorman residence almost immediately after the final battle with Cyn. It didn’t make sense for him to live at the spire anymore, and Uzi was more than happy for him to stay with her. It was going to take some getting used to, but she was glad to have him around.
N was definitely very cuddly when he was asleep. He had pulled Uzi closer to him, and was currently nuzzling his face into her hair. She relaxed further into the embrace, as he wrapped his arms around her and hummed happily. His higher body temperature made him a perfect personal heater, which Uzi did not mind at all. He was normally a heavy sleeper, so she didn’t expect him to be fully awake even after the multiple interruptions that had woken her up. Her dad was gonna be pissed if she didn’t get up for school, but a couple more minutes wouldn’t hurt either of them.
Unfortunately her dad did not have the same idea, and was back to pounding on the door.
“UGHHHH! I’m literally getting up! BITE ME!!!” she yelled, reluctantly disentangling herself from N’s arms and dragging herself out of bed. This awakened N, who whined at the loss of contact and blinked sleepily at Uzi.
“Mornin’,” he yawned. “Time to get up for school?”
“Unfortunately.”
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” N replied as he stood up and stretched his arms above his head. Uzi dug through her drawers. She wasn’t even going to bother changing out of her pajamas.
“It's going to be just as boring as ever. Where the hell is my beanie?”
“Next to the blueprints on your desk.”
“Thanks. Stupid core collapse dumping all of my stuff everywhere,” Uzi grumbled, sidestepping the piles of junk that had accumulated all over the room. She picked up a random power cell from under her chair. “Hey, I was looking for this!”
“At least it helped you with something,” N chuckled, as he buttoned his coat and put on his hat. Uzi zipped up her hoodie and started lacing her boots. “Eh, maybe. It's still annoying though.”
It had only been a few days since the incident, so everyone was still trying to get back to normal from the explosion, and the loss of gravity, and the unimaginable amounts of trauma… Nope! Not going there. The whole bunker, and hell, the entire planet was still a disaster, so at least she had an excuse for a messy room.
“Uzi? You ready to go?” N stood by the door, hand poised by the control panel.
“Yeah,” Uzi said, pulling her beanie over her hair. “You would think saving the whole freaking universe would get you at least a few days off from school.” She used her solver to grab her backpack as N opened the door. He smiled.
“Heh, yeah, guess not.”
Uzi reached for his outstretched hand. “At least you’ll be there. It’ll be way more interesting now that I’m not the only cool one.” She smirked.
N grinned. “I’m excited to spend more time with you.” he squeezed her hand and Uzi blushed. “It’ll be nice to hang out together without all of the, uh…”
“Danger? Life-or-death stakes? Eldritch horror? Loads of traumatic experiences?” Uzi asked.
N’s eyes hollowed and he shuddered slightly. “Yeah, that stuff.” They swung their interlocked hands as they made their way down the hall.
Khan sat at the kitchen counter, sipping the robo-equivalent of coffee from his #1 Dad mug. Nori, who had returned to the bunker shortly after the Solver’s defeat, was perched on the counter next to him. Uzi’s newly reunited parents were deep in conversation, catching up after being apart for so long. They both looked up as Uzi and N walked in.
“Good morning, Uzi. Did you sleep well?” Khan asked.
“Yeah, until you woke me up with your obnoxiously loud knocking!” Uzi glared at him. “Why do I even have to go to school anyway? The planet was practically destroyed and I don’t even get a day off?”
“Now Uzi, you know routine is important–” her dad started, reciting one of his stupid ‘Family Maintenance Manuals’ or whatever, when he was interrupted by Nori. The core drone whacked his arm with one of her claws.
“Stop it with your dumb manual nonsense already.” Uzi’s mom scolded.
Uzi smiled. It was weird having her mom back, but she could get used to this.
“That doesn’t mean there’s a reason you shouldn’t go to school, though.”
…damn it.
“Ugh, mom! Why?” Uzi groaned.
“Good morning to you too, hon.” Nori joked. She glanced over and narrowed her singular eye. “N.”
The disassembler shrunk back under her gaze. “Good morning, Mrs. Doorman, Ma’am,” N said awkwardly, nervously fidgeting with his free arm. Uzi squeezed his other hand reassuringly. She gave her mom an annoyed look as her dad pointedly avoided eye contact.
“Mom,” Uzi warned, practically glaring.
Nori looked like she was about to argue, and Uzi did NOT want to deal with this right now. She decided to cut the conversation short.
“Since you are forcing us to go to school, we better head out. Since you were SO worried about us being late.” Uzi said, gently tugging on N’s arm to guide him out of the apartment. “See ya later.”
Uzi ushered N out the door before her parents could reply, and cut them off by slamming the door shut. She couldn’t believe they were doing this again. She turned to N, who had visible worry lines appearing on his visor. “Sorry about them. I don’t know why they are still acting like this.”
N shrugged and looked down at the floor. “It's fine. Can’t really blame them,”
Uzi crossed her arms. “You’re my boyfriend and you’re not going anywhere. They need to get over it.”
While Uzi had eagerly welcomed N into her home, her parents did not share the same sentiment. N was right, Uzi couldn’t blame them for being wary, especially Nori. Having your former enemy and worst nightmare living in your house would be a lot for anyone. Sure, N did a lot of terrible things as a disassembly drone, but Uzi knew how awful and guilty he felt about it. And while her parents didn’t know him as well as she did, anyone with working optics could clearly see that he wasn’t going to hurt anyone. N was literally the sweetest drone she had ever met. Uzi knew it was going to take some time for her parents to accept him, but she wished they would be less rude about it.
“I terrorized your colony for years, Uzi,” N replied flatly. “And murdered countless workers. I don’t deserve their forgiveness.” He rubbed his arm with his other hand, still avoiding her gaze.
Uzi narrowed her eyes. N had been through enough already, and she probably didn’t even know half of the horrors he had experienced. She wasn’t about to let her loving, golden retriever boyfriend go down a spiral of self doubt. She jumped up and put her hands on either side of his face, pulling him down to her level and forcing him to look at her.
“N,” Uzi said, “You are the best thing that ever happened to me, awful past or not.”
N stared back at her.
“You didn’t know what you were doing, you were just following orders and trying to do the right thing.”
N raised a hand. “But I still–”
“Shush.” Uzi interrupted. “You changed, and that's what matters.” She shook his head back and forth. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”
She bonked their visors together. “I love you and trust you and that’s all I care about.”
N gave her a small smile. “Thanks Uzi.” he kissed her on the cheek. “I love you too.”
Uzi blushed. “Bite me.” she said, embarrassed at the show of affection. She stepped back. “Now we should actually get to school before my parents come out here and kill us.”
N straightened. “Heh, yeah, we probably should.” he offered her his hand again. Uzi smiled and took it. He squeezed it as they started down the hall, ready to face the day.