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There was something strangely addictive to Elecman about fighting Quickman. Maybe it was the thrill of leaping around some crumbling battle arena, knowing that he could let himself go all out without worry of hurting anyone. Maybe it was the adrenaline of feeling quick boomerangs slicing at his limbs, while he fired lightning bolts at the other robot. Maybe it was the euphoria of coming out on top, watching Quickman stumble back and let out a breathy laugh, before teleporting away. Even the times where he himself had to retreat, there was something exciting about having to hide his injuries from Dr. Light, sneaking off nearly every week, explaining away his exhaustion by blaming his job at the power plant when his brothers asked about his tired state.
It was always exciting, meeting Quickman somewhere far outside the city borders. Every few weeks, they would have to go somewhere different. Elecman's circuits fluttered with giddy excitement as he stepped into a defunct warehouse, listening to the creak of metal beams and crumbling concrete. For a brief moment, he wondered if the other robot hadn't arrived. It was seemingly empty, almost peaceful, usually Quick would be waiting for him, leaning against a wall or simply standing in the middle of wherever they were. He stepped into the moonlight streaming through the half-collapsed ceiling, looking around. That was, until he felt an arm wrap around his waist, yanking him back until he was flush against someone's chest. Elecman inhaled sharply at the feeling of a quick boomerang tracing his cheek and the sound of Quickman chuckling into his ear, his chin resting on Elec's shoulder.
"You sure like making me wait, huh?" His voice was quiet and threatening, making Elec all the more excited. Elec let out a shaky sigh, tilting his head to stare at the other robot from the corner of his eye.
"All the more fun to get you riled up…" He trailed off, leaning into the almost tender embrace. Admittedly, he had taken longer than usual to arrive. "If you let me go, we can get started."
"Dunno, you seem to enjoy being held like this," Quickman laughed again, tilting his face just close enough for his teeth to graze Elec's skin when he spoke. "Maybe we'll stay like this for a bit longer, since you seem so fond of waiting." There was a certain edge to his voice as the sharp tip of the boomerang pressed into his neck, not hard enough to draw fuel, but enough for that familiar spike of adrenaline to start coursing through Elecman's circuits. Slowly, he raised a hand to gently place on the side of Quick's head, his other hand coming to rest on the arm that Quick still had wrapped around his waist.
"Are you really willing to wait any longer?" He asked simply. The other robot didn't say anything, but released Elec from the embrace, letting a suitable fighting distance form between them. For just a moment, they stood there staring at each other, before that quiet calm was broken, as electricity and quick boomerangs began flying through the air. The two robots leapt around the battlefield, Elecman knew that the easiest way for him to win would be to keep the distance between them. Quickman's attacks were easier for him to dodge from further away, but the other robot knew that, and was constantly trying to press closer. Letting him get too close would mean that Elec would be on the losing end of the fight. He felt the sting of the sharp blades slicing at his body every time he got too reckless at dodging, and it was exhilarating. The flash of electricity coursing from his hands illuminated the other robot, who Elec could see grinning maniacally back at him. He could clearly see the wear beginning to show on Quick's body, even from a distance. His armor was scuffed and singed, but there was an intense look in his eyes, one that should've scared Elec, but instead it made him even more excited.
For most of the fight, Elecman managed to keep Quickman far away from him, giving himself the upper hand. Eventually, though, Quick did something strange. It wasn't something Elec noticed at first, just a twinge in his body that there was something different, but it became apparent eventually. Quick had stopped trying to get closer. His attacks were more widespread, too, the quick boomerangs bouncing off the walls and the exposed metal frame holding the crumbling building up. For just a moment, Elec paused, and the building creaked. Quick had a plan, and he had walked directly into it.
That brief moment of hesitation turned into panic as Elecman felt a boomerang hit the back of his legs, sweeping him off his feet, giving him just enough time to process the second boomerang, intentionally cutting clean through the metal supports. The structure folded like paper, and the only thing Elec could feel was the white hot pain of concrete pinning his body to the floor, and metal rebar digging into his sides. He gasped, coughing from the dust filling his circuits as the building finished collapsing. Slowly, Elec cracked his eyes open. Through the dizzying pain, he watched Quickman's blurry figure get closer, and he felt something he had never felt during any of their fights before; genuine fear. It was something that had only briefly crossed his mind in the past, the idea that one of their fights might end in capture, or even death, but it had never gotten that far. One of them would always retreat, and the other never tried to stop them. It felt, to him, almost sacrilegious to hurt each other that badly, like it was some unspoken honor code that both of them stuck to. But maybe he was wrong.
Elec tried as hard as he could to push himself free, trying to stamp out the waves of pain that shook his body every time he moved. His brain was full of foggy panic as the other robot crouched in front of him, unable to process what Quick was saying to him through the ringing in his ears. He tried, and failed, to suppress a fearful whimper when Quick reached out, gently patting the side of his face, before the robot's smug expression soured into concern. He stood back up again, and Elec's eyes unwillingly squeezed shut, preparing himself for the worst when he felt the weight on top of him slowly lifting. Even if Quick didn't kill him, he was certain he was about to be reprogrammed by Dr. Wily, or just simply imprisoned, when he felt Quick easily lift him up, and his body lurch at the sudden feeling of teleportation.
Elecman felt a small amount of physical relief when he was placed onto something soft, even if his panic didn't subside. It was quiet again, but this time it was a different type of quiet. Instead of the calm silence of an abandoned building in a moonlit field, it was a more comforting, insulated type of silence. Elec opened his eyes again, he was in an unfamiliar room. The ceiling was nothing remarkable, but when he turned his head to the side, he could see cold, metal walls, transformed by the warm light of multiple lamps, ones that Quickman was still turning on. Elec was still nauseous with fear, but there was something else there, too. Confusion. Before he had the chance to dwell on it, though, his panic was immediately turned up tenfold when Quick turned back towards him, his footsteps making a dull click until he reached the side of the bed.
"Hey, can you understand what I'm saying now?" Quick crossed his arms, despite the harsh, but still quiet, tone, there was still a thick layer of concern over both his words and his face. Elec opened his mouth, but the moment he started making noise, he let out a pained hiss, he had subconsciously tried to sit up to talk.
"I guess that's a yes? I hope it is, at least." He turned back away again, walking just out of Elec's line of sight.
"Wh… what are you doing…?" Elec's own voice felt staticky and strained, echoing off the walls of the room. He could hear shuffling, and the sound of drawers being opened. It wasn't long before Quick was back at his side, setting some tools down what Elec could only describe as a lab table, repurposed as a nightstand. "What are th-those for?"
"You're gonna have to be more quiet than that," Quick placed a finger to Elec's lips, "Don't want Wily or the other robots to know you're here…" He murmured. They stared at each other for a moment, before Quick turned back to the tools on his table. Elec let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, trying to force the tension out of his body.
"Y-you still haven't told me what you're gonna do." Elec lowered his voice to match Quick's volume, his eyes still trained on the other robot. Quick let out a quiet laugh.
"I'm not sending you back to Light like this. Unless you want him to start asking questions." Elec stared at him, his brows furrowed in confusion. "I'm going to get you patched up."
"Oh." For a while, Quickman just walked around him, assessing the damage. Every so often, his hands would ghost over Elecman's body, trailing down his side, or gently lifting one of his legs, to which Elec would hiss in pain.
"I could probably fix most of this. Not really sure what to do about your suit, though. Or your armor." Quick hummed. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna need to take them off." He immediately grabbed the mask on Elec's face, before pausing, staring at the other robot. It took him a moment to realize that Quick was asking for permission to continue. Elecman gave a small nod, feeling… strange at the sudden care that Quick was giving him. It wasn't a bad feeling, though, just a bit weird.
"Mmh, is your suit insulated?" Quick tugged the protective hood off Elec's head, his eyes momentarily widening at the mess of hair underneath. "Wow…"
"Y-yeah, I was created to work at-" Elec cut himself off, when Quick ran a hand through his hair, mumbling something under his breath. His hand eventually came to rest on Elec's cheek, his thumb gently rubbing circles against his face.
"…I don't think I've ever seen your full face before." Quick absentmindedly murmured. "It's really… um… Light really took the time to give you guys nice hair, huh?" His hand felt warm.
"Not all of us have hair, but it is pretty nice." The gentle touching was relaxing, in a strange way. It gave him a different sensation to focus on, other than the pain. He almost whined when Quick removed his hand to remove his own helmet. Almost.
"Wily only gave a few of us hair. It's not as nice, though. Probably cheaped out on that regard." He scoffed, running a hand through his own, much coarser and frazzled, hair. "Say, has Light changed any of my brothers?"
"Huh?"
"Like, please tell me that he didn't give Flash hair." Quick laughed loudly, before covering his mouth and clearing his throat.
"Ah," Elec also started to chuckle, before flinching in pain. "Gh… n-no, he hasn't. He's asked about it though, Dr. Light just never has the time."
"Good. Hopefully he never gets around to it." Quick grinned, fiddling with the armor piece from Elec's chest, awkwardly trying to prop him up enough to remove it without hurting him even worse. It did feel a bit wrong to let Quick take his armor off, any other robot would've told him that letting a Wilybot strip him of his only protection was asking for death, and they probably would've been right. Elec really wasn't sure what possessed him to be okay with this, maybe some wiring got knocked out of place when the building collapsed on him, and his safety sensors got disabled. But right now, after seeing how Quick was treating him, he had never felt more comfortable with the other robot, which admittedly wasn't a high bar, considering that they only ever saw each other when they were fighting.
"Ugh," Elecman was snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Quickman groaning. He had gotten the armor off, but was struggling with the suit underneath. It was already hard enough for Elec himself to take it off while uninjured, so it wasn't surprising that Quick was struggling to get it off while trying not to hurt him. "Can I just cut this stupid shirt off? You can have one of mine after this."
"Wouldn't it be obvious if I came back to the labs with a different suit on?" Elec asked cautiously.
"That's not my problem to figure out. Maybe you should just teleport straight back to your room or something." Quick rolled his eyes at the other robot, before stiffening. "I mean, if it's really a problem I can try to figure something else out…"
"No, it should be fine." That strange feeling was even more intense now, like something fluttering in his circuits, different from the excitement of fighting. Elec drew in a sharp breath, involuntarily tensing up again, despite the pain, when he felt the familiar sharp tip of a quick boomerang pressing against his chest, just hard enough to slice through the insulated material.
"Relax." He felt Quick grab his hand, gently squeezing it while he worked. Elec had no idea the other robot was capable of being this precise, but it made sense for a battle robot to have good accuracy. As soon as the air hit his bare frame, Elec shivered, sending waves of pain throughout his upper half.
"You need to stop moving around so much, you're making it worse." Quick commanded, finishing peeling the fabric off of Elec's body. "This is probably gonna hurt. Just… try not to squirm, okay?" He grabbed a rag off the table and soaked it with something from a bottle he couldn't quite read, and pressed it against the gash in his side where the metal had been digging in. Elec let out a stifled gasp, trying to stop himself from thrashing around as the pain in his body reignited.
"It doesn't seem like there's any serious internal damage, you're just leaking a lot of fuel. You should be fine, though." The other robot finished wiping the wound clean, setting down the rag that was now blackened with fuel and concrete dust. Elecman tried to calm his nerves and focus on anything other than the pain as Quickman began working on the repairs. Normally, if Dr. Light was fixing him, he would either be on sleep mode or have his pain sensors turned down. This was a whole different level of hell.
"Hhh… how do you kn-know how to do a-all th-" Elec cut himself off, hissing at the feeling of wires reconnecting.
"Hm? Oh, I had to learn how to fix myself after our fights. Wily is always too busy with his own stuff to do it for me." Quick did something that caused a sharp stab of pain, making Elec yelp. "Shhh. Shit, you need to be quiet. You shouldn't be leaking fuel anymore, though." He placed a hand in an almost loving way on Elec's arm, gently massaging it while the pain subsided. Suddenly, Quick's head shot up, and he ran over to the door and barely opened it, just out of Elec's view.
"What the hell was that?" Elec heard someone, another Wilybot, but he couldn't tell which one.
"None of your business. Go back to your rooms, guys." Quickman hissed. Was there two of them out there?
"What, did you hurt yourself messing with spare parts again?" A different voice said, and the two other robots laughed.
"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. Just try not to yell so loud next time." The two robots continued laughing, even as Quick slammed the door, and Elec heard the click of a lock. He walked back over to Elec, groaning.
"Fuckin' hate those two…" He mumbled, grabbing a thick, curved needle and some sturdy looking thread.
"…Who was out there?" Elec flinched at the feeling of the needle sliding through his skin.
"Just Gemini and Top. Gemini has the room right next to mine, and those two freaks spend all night gossiping about other robots. I've even heard them talk about me before, like they don't know I can hear them through the wall. Can never make out what they're saying, though." Quick sighed, leaning closer to focus on sewing the gash shut.
"Damn…" Elec stifled a laugh. "Can't imagine the things they would be saying if they knew I was in here."
"Don't even make me think about that." The two fell into silence again, this time much more comfortable. It still hurt, but the pain in Elec's side had mostly subsided. The same couldn't be said about his legs, though.
"I'm assuming that Light gave you guys the same fancy 'self healing' skin, right? I can't imagine that Wily would have that and Light wouldn't," Quick asked. "Probably should've checked that before I started the stitches…"
"Yeah, we do. Usually he just cauterizes the skin though, so he doesn't have to remove the stitches later." Elec stared at the ceiling as Quick went silent again, and with nothing to talk about, that same feeling of confusion from when he first got here came back. Out of every Wilybot, Quickman seemed like the least likely robot to want to help him. He was always the most aggressive, and the most prideful. Elec would've assumed he would've been much prouder of himself for this, but instead he's fluttering around him with concern, taking an immense amount of care to fix him. He never knew that Quick could be this… soft.
"You…" Elec started. How was he supposed to bring this up? Quick paused and looked up at him, what if he brought it up and it made Quick change his mind? But his mind was burning with curiosity, this behavior didn't seem normal for the other robot.
"What?" Quick asked, and Elec realized he never finished his sentence. He turned his head to stare at Quick, who was looking at him intently. Elec swallowed, it would be weird if he suddenly backed out.
"Why are you doing all this?" He blurted out, almost instantly regretting it when Quickman's jaw dropped slightly, going silent. He stopped stitching Elecman's side, breaking eye contact. It was silent, probably only for a few moments, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, Elec felt breath against his side as Quick sighed.
"I didn't wanna lose- I wanna keep fighting you…" He trailed off. "If I just left you to die, or brought you to Wily, then we wouldn't be able to keep doing this. None of the other robots are nearly as… entertaining as you."
"If you didn't want this to happen, why did you try and kill me? I know it was intentional." Elec nearly raised his voice at the other robot, who flinched at the accusation.
"I thought it'd make me feel powerful. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed fighting you until it hit me that I would have to fix you to keep this going." Quick looked almost guilty, an emotion that looked completely alien on his face. "I like our fights better when you're actually fighting back, I didn't like seeing you so… scared." Oh. That last part wasn't one Elec was expecting. From everything he had heard about Quick before they started fighting, the robot seemed to take sick pleasure in making others afraid of him. He had been told that Quick was cruel, and a dirty fighter, and truthfully, he didn't hold a great opinion of him before they started fighting regularly. But, as strange as it was to hear, it also made Elec feel weirdly comfortable. It had never occurred to him that Quick cared about him, or that the fighting was more than just a selfish desire for violence.
"…I see." Elec closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I guess… that's good to know. Thank you." He felt Quick resume working on his side, and it finally clicked as to what that strange feeling was, and it was much stronger now. Love. It wasn't something that Elec was ever expecting to feel about the Wilybot. After all, their relationship seemed to be entirely based upon violence, but there was more to it than that. Even if it was something that they had only realized today, they cared for each other. This wasn't something done out of hatred, it was mutual, it was something that they both craved from each other. It probably wasn't a new feeling, either. There was a reason Elec kept going back to the other robot, why he always felt so excited at the thought of being with Quick, why he felt so comfortable letting the other robot embrace him in a way that most people would describe as romantic, just before they began attacking. At the end of it all, despite the pain he had gone through this evening, Elecman felt relaxed under Quickman's touch, relaxed enough to drift off to sleep.
"Hey," Elec blinked his eyes open at the feeling of Quick running a hand through his hair again. "Wake up, sleeping beauty." There was a blanket pulled over him, and the rest of his armor and suit had been taken off.
"Are you finished?" Elec yawned and sat up. The pain in his body was mostly gone, aside from a dull ache.
"Yeah. Here, take this." Quick passed him an unopened E-tank.
"You really don't need to do all this…" Elec mused, opening the can. Quick scoffed.
"Actually, I do. I'm not letting you leave exhausted from fuel loss." He rolled his eyes, before a more soft expression came over him. "Are you feeling better?"
"Mhmm…" Elec hummed, smiling warmly at the other robot, who shared eye contact for just a moment, before looking away and coughing.
"Good. You've been here for too long, anyways." Back to the aggression it was, then. Quick passed him one of his own suits, and his armor. Elec wasn't quite sure, but it looks like he had tried to clean his armor, even if it was still covered in dents and scratches. He didn't even need to ask Quick to look away while he changed, the other robot was already standing stiffly with his back to Elec.
The suit wasn't the best fit on Elecman. It was too long on his arms and legs, but tight around his hips and shoulders, and it was a different material, too. But it covered his body well enough for him to make it back to the lab.
"You can turn back around now." Elec said, calmly. Slowly, Quick turned back around, and Elec realized that, despite being already turned away from him, he also had his eyes squeezed shut. He lightly chucked as he watched Quick's eyes briefly trail over his body, before snapping back up to meet his.
"Are… you gonna put your mask back on?" He asked, glancing at Elec's hood and mask, still laying on the table.
"Mmh, probably not. It's kinda nice to let your hair free for a bit, don't you think?" Elec reached up and gently brushed a hand through Quick's hair. Even if it wasn't as nice as his was, it still had a certain charm to it. Quick nearly jumped out of his skin at the contact.
"Yeah, yeah I guess. For you, at least." He swatted Elec's hand away, and Elec could hear his fans boot into overdrive. "You don't need to be here anymore, you can go now."
"If you're sure you don't want me to stick around, I can go." Elec smiled knowingly at him, but the other robot just scoffed again, shaking his head all too aggressively. "Well, thank you, for all the care."
"Don't thank me. It was my fault you got hurt." Quick looked away, almost in shame.
"You still helped fix it. It was nice, you know." Quick didn't respond, but he relaxed a little. Elec debated on pulling him into a kiss before leaving, but that might've been too much for the other robot. It was cute, how he suddenly got bashful the moment things were softer than their usual encounters. Still, though, a part of him did feel weird, saying goodbye but with no goodbye kiss, but maybe he could work his way up to that.
The Light Labs were quiet, when Elecman finally got to teleport back to his room, it seemed like the other robots had turned in for the night. He immediately took the too-tight suit off, folding it neatly and tucking it under his bed, where hopefully nobody else would find it. He stared at the sewn up scar in the mirror on his door. Quickman had done a great job, all things considered. It ached only a little, but not enough to keep Elec awake. In a few days, he would have to take the stitches out, or maybe he could go back to Quick to see if he wanted to do it. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to wait long to see the other robot again, and maybe after their next fight, Quick would want him to come back to the Wily Fortress on more pleasant terms.