Work Text:
Where the frick is he!?
Uzi thought to herself after glancing at her bedroom clock, whilst continuing her sketch vigorously in her bat-themed sketchbook. She’d been drawing manga in her bed for the past…hour? 2 hours? She’d lost count. Point is, it’d been way too long for waiting. She glanced down at the rough sketch in front of her, before eyeing it closer, only to realize how her sketch almost identically mirrored a certain male disassembly drone. She glanced at the clock again, before rolling her eyes, dramatically.
Ughhhh…this frickin sucks.
She laid back on her bed staring at the ceiling, before subconsciously looking here and there at the different drawings and miscellaneous missing posters that stuck cluttered right above her. A certain drawing stuck out to her, though. She’d tried to tuck it behind an unimportant missing poster a while back, in hopes that N wouldn’t see she had ended up keeping one of his earliest drawings. It was a simple one, one N had done before he began to take art more seriously, and before Uzi started practically tutoring him between classes and when they hung out. The drawing was of them, holding hands. The text across the top and bottom read “Thank you for being my Girlfriend!!!!”
Frick you N, Uzi thought. Being so frickin adorable…when you’re not even here.
Uzi sighed, loudly. She’d never admit this to anyone (especially V, God knows that would turn out horribly), but all she really wanted right now was N, just to be with him. To look at him, to see his face, to hold his hand… maybe even cuddle, maybe- Ugh, frickin teenage hormones. She cut herself off.
Uzi sat up in bed and crossed her arms, before assessing herself in the mirror that hung on the back of her bedroom door. She quickly took note of the intense amount of blush on her face. Her eyes went wide and she shook her head violently, in hopes that would simply make the blush, and the thoughts of N floating in her head go away. She looked in the mirror again after her head-shaking fit, but to no avail, the blush on her face still prevailed…and if anything it was brighter now. Uzi wasn’t known for being a quitter, but since she was alone in the comfort of her own room, she thought, Frick it. and simply gave up. With a sigh, she jumped off her bed, attempting to utilize her bangs to cover up the tops of her currently bright yellow and purple cheeks as she walked out of her bedroom. Maybe she’d grab some oil out of the fridge to drink, or quickly run over to the newly opened oddities shop right outside of the living pods.
In all honesty, she didn’t care what she did, just anything to distract herself…for now.
She proceeded out of her bedroom by opening her door, shutting it, and attempting to continue on forward.
Only to run face first into…
Khan. Her father.
“Ugh, what do you want?” she said flatly, once she backed up out of Khan’s chest. She wasn’t particularly in the mood for any of his antics, whether it be polishing some new door model he’d conjured up, or God forbid another Father-Daughter Spontaneous Getaway Vacay! (Copyrighted, Trademarked) No way in hell. Never. Again. She thought. However, if the stupid-wide smile on his face was any sort of indication as to what he wanted to talk to her about, her worst (well, one of her worst) nightmares might be coming true after all.
After almost a complete 15 seconds of no response from Khan, and 15 seconds of Uzi glancing away awkwardly, she finally spoke again.
“What?!” she said, eager to know when he’d leave, so she could therefore also leave.
Khan cleared his throat and lost the stupid dumb smile on his face. Finally, thank God. Uzi thought, though a small smile still prevailed. Khan leaned forward slightly, getting his face pretty close to hers, which caused Uzi to lean back into her door. He held up his phone with his right hand, shaking it ever so slightly, before saying, just above a whisper,
“He’s home, Uzi.”
Uzi just raised an eyebrow, not understanding at all who “he” was and what her dad was talking abo-ohmygod. The most shocked expression Khan had ever seen Uzi with spanned across every one of her facial features. He chuckled a little to himself, looking down at his daughter with what could only be described as fatherly pride. He could only guess, pride in the fact his only daughter was finally finding her people. Uzi’s eyes went so wide they appeared as though they could fall forward, right out of her visor, and her jaw fell completely open in pure disbelief.
Once her father’s words registered in her head, she made an immediate beeline for Door 1.
The entire time Uzi ran from her bedroom door to the exit of Door 1, her whole mind was in a daze. She could barely think clearly, not even bothering to mutter out different excuses to her fellow colonies of drones, who may have given her weird glances.
They were only mere obstacles to her now, obstacles in her way, from getting to him.
An intrusive thought slowed her down to a jog when she finally was in eyesight of the door. What if her dad was lying to her? What if he actually wasn’t home? …No. Uzi refused to think like that, to let her own thoughts take herself out of this blissful moment. Oh, just how blissful it would be when she actually saw him.
She picked up speed again, using all the force she could muster up in her body to run as fast as she could to the door getting larger and larger in front of her. She skied to a stop when she was just a few feet in front of it, heart pounding, but not from exhaustion, from excitement. Until…
Oh, crap…
She forgot the key. Frick.
She must’ve been so excited to see him she completely blanked on grabbing a key. Ugh, I'm so stupid. “Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid,” she repeated to herself audibly, pacing in a small circle she created for herself. A guard worker drone slowly came up behind her and tapped her lightly on the shoulder, yet despite the quiet acknowledgement, Uzi found a way to still get jump-scared, literally. She jumped back, hissing like a cat and hovering the purple solver in front of her right hand. The guard just rolled his eyes, blank face, and tossed the key at Uzi, who managed to grasp it with her solver. She then slowly grabbed the key out of her solver, glancing back and forth between the guard who was many feet away from her at this point, walking away indifferently, and the key. She then hurried towards the left wall, hovering the key back and forth over the scanner, before it finally read “geez alr, Door 1 Open >:c” Uzi sighed gratefully, a wide open-mouth smile eclipsing her face, and stood in front of Door 1, watching it open slowly.
She impatiently tapped her foot.
God, this stupid door always takes forever.
Though now it felt more like an eternity.
The moment there was enough space between the top and the bottom parts of the door, Uzi dived through the smaller-than-ideal entrance and tumbled out into the snow, landing rather ungracefully.
Right now, she didn’t care, though. She was too full of ecstasy to even care that her clothes were covered in snow.
After she finally stood up and brushed herself off, she looked all around with a bright smile and happy eyes.
After a while, she figured she’d just call out for him.
“N? …N? …N..?”
The only response she heard was the howling of the wind and the sound of broken, dead drone corpses falling off of the huge spire right outside the door. Maybe he was lying… Uzi thought.
She turned around to head back into the bunker, expecting a loud peal of laughter to hit her right in the face the moment she walked through the door…
Until…
“UZI??”
…oh my God.
“Uzi!?”
OH MY GOD.
“N-“
“Uzi!-“
She turned around faster than she had ever turned in her life…
And there he was.
Right in front of her.
Well, if you count, like, 50 steps as roughly right in front of her.
Oh, but not for long.
“UZI!!!”
N practically screeched as he bolted for her, arms open wide the entire time like an idiot.
But she didn’t care.
He didn’t care.
They didn’t care.
They were both just happy.
Happy to be home.
Uzi finally came back to the present and realized N was there, really there, right in fro- roughly 50 steps away from her…and bolting towards her.
And she started bolting, too.
She eventually felt tears race down her visor, and felt her cheeks flush, knowing they were, most likely, a very bright yellow and purple, just like earlier when she thought of him. Oh, but this, this was 1,000 times better.
This is really him, not just the thought of him.
Her best friend. Her boyfriend.
Just remembering she gets the privilege to call him that caused more tears to run down her face, and the closer she got to him, she saw the tears running down his face, too.
Uzi was suddenly hit with a wave of such shock and disbelief she stopped running altogether, and just stumbled backwards before falling, now sitting like a lost child in the snow, right in front of the corpse spire where they met so many months ago. Her hand slammed over her mouth, attempting to stifle her loud bawling. That’s him. That’s really him.
She’d never felt this…safe in her life.
This at home.
She saw N’s face become clearer and clearer as he got closer and closer to her, and with each step closer he got, the bigger her smile got, to the point she’d felt as though she’d never smiled this wide in her entire life. Watching N sob and laugh uncontrollably caused her to laugh uncontrollably, too.
When he finally was close enough, N scooped her up off the ground and enveloped her in a huge bear hug, causing more giggles to burst out of Uzi as he continued on running, eventually spinning the two of them as snow continued to fall down all around the pair. He tightened his arms around her, she locked her legs around his waist, and they spun in loops, laughing. And crying. And opening their eyes briefly just to see each other. To make sure the other was really still there. And he held her there, making sure she had no chance of leaving his grasp, not that she’d try to.
Never, in a moment as priceless as this.
Eventually their song of giggles and sobs tapered off into a calm hum of spurts of laughter, here and there. N stopped spinning, Uzi stopped bawling, and the couple just looked at each other, completely in awe that they both get to exist together in such a rare moment, with just the two of them. Uzi grabbed N by the face, pressing their foreheads together gently, her eyes and smile still watery. N laughed a little, always up for her antics, his eyes still holding fresh tears.
She didn’t expect her next words to flow out of her, but against any will of hers, they did.
“I love you N.”
She spoke, voice shaky, trying to contain her overflowing joy. She moved her face back away from his, but still held his face. Uzi’s jaw fell open, not expecting her to be the first one to say those 3 special words. N’s eyes went wide, also evidently surprised.
They both shared an expression of shock, but not like Uzi’s earlier, one of disbelief and doubt. This one was different altogether. This one was full of relief, and love.
N’s face eventually relaxed, features slowly spanning out into a warm, small smile. Uzi blushed more, before defaulting to just burying her face into N’s coat jacket, like she usually would when flustered. With her hands still gripping his face, N giggled giddily under this breath. He slowly rubbed her back, still holding her close.
A slight pause, before, “…I love you too, Uzi.”
Uzi squeezed her legs tighter around his waist, electing another giggle from N. Then the pair fell silent, simply enjoying each other’s missed presence, at last. N continued to stroke her back gently, admiring the all-too-familiar landscape around him he had missed so much, but not nearly as much as a certain worker.
Eventually a muffled chuckle poked at the quiet atmosphere around them, causing N to look down at the shaking figure at his chest. He smiled bigger, curious.
Uzi lifted her head, still giggling. “Heh…ya know, I never really thought now would be the first time either of us said that.” She wiped tears from her visor.
N smiled, watching every movement of her face as she spoke. “Hehe, yeah…me either.” He kept watching her, entranced.
She took note of his dumb, (ok, and pretty cute) lovestruck expression, trying to hide her smile and increasing blush, though the latter didn’t even try to hide his.
Uzi, after a brief moment, inquired him about said lovestruck expression.
She readjusted herself in N’s arms, “Heh, what?” She tried to sound annoyed, but knew she could only fake her feelings to a certain degree, given how emotional the moment was for the both of them.
His eyelids closed slightly, relaxed, “…i just love you...” his words flowed out his mouth like a river, as natural as words could be.
Both their eyes went wide and the pair shared a yellow blush, with a hint of violet in Uzi’s.
She laughed awkwardly, “We really gotta get used to hearing, that don’t we..?” she muttered.
N laughed with her. “…yeah.” he said fondly.
They both stared into each other's eyes for a moment longer, before Uzi pushed N’s face out of hers in mock annoyance, eliciting another flow of laughter out of N, and perhaps a small giggle out of Uzi.
She laid the side of her head on his chest, “God, I really missed you..”
“I missed you, too.” He kissed the crown of her head, gently.
Uzi immediately jerked her head up, her hands lying on her boyfriend’s chest.
N looked at her blankly, before registering her reaction, “Oh...oh! Oh, uh, s-sorry i don’t- i don’t have to-“
she cut him off, accidentally.
“No, no, uh it’s-“
“No, really! Heh heh, it’s-“
“I mean, I don’t mind it’s just-“
“I don’t have to-“
“We can just-“
And then they both, without a word, decided to end their, frankly, unproductive conversation, there.
After a moment of looking away from each other awkwardly, N spoke up.
“I’m sorry, Uzi. I didn’t mean to ruin the moment, I just…”
Uzi looked up at the latter when N paused.
“I was just excited to see you…that’s all.”
She glanced away for a long while, before deciding to go through with her little idea.
She grabbed N’s face with her right hand, gently stroking his cheek with her thumb, causing him to blush once again. She chuckled a little at this, liking how she almost had a little control over him with how easily she could make him flustered.
She then let go of his face and buried her face in the crook of his neck. She could feel the warmth radiating from his body. God, it really is him, huh. She thought to herself. She wrapped her arms back around his chest, hugging him tight.
“It’s ok…ya know, the…kissing…thing. Well, I mean, like, what you did just now, heh heh.” she laughed awkwardly. God, why did she have to be such a klutz. “I mean, heh, not that I’d…be opposed to…” she trailed off, and just restored to burying her face into N’s chest. “Ugh, never mind.” she said, her words muffled.
N laughed a little, finally collecting himself after all the intense blushing he just went through.
“…I know what you mean.”
Uzi turned her head so she could hear him better. He continued,
“We can just…take things slow, yeah..?”
Uzi smiled fondly, “Yeah…slow.”
She paused, trying to remember something she knew to be important to her.
“Together, too…right?”
N chuckled, and kissed the top of her head again.
“Always…”
Then the pair stood- together, of course, with not a single care about the time or the hour, or how much said time had passed since the rivers of tears they both shed, just simply there. In each other’s arms, where they knew they’d stay belonged, from now, until their days were numbered.
After a few silent, precious moments of quiet, unspoken intimacy, Uzi leapt up out of N’s arms and stood in front of him, arms crossed in front of her, wordlessly admiring the beautiful creature she had the honor of calling her boyfriend. Little did she know N viewed her just as highly, in the same bright light. With N’s arms crossed behind his back also, the two both laughed, unable to contain inside themselves the joy they simply felt from the latter’s presence.
They walked on towards the bunker. Uzi prepared for the eye rolls a many she’d be likely to receive, and N not having a care in the world, though in a sense, she was his world. Regardless, the only thing on his mind now, while Uzi rambled on about her newest anime hyperfixation, was how happy this tiny 4 1/2 foot drone walking beside him made him feel, the drone holding his hand.
Neither could recall when their hands had met. It just felt so natural.
Like
one could say…
Home.