Work Text:
“Ok J, you can do this. Just- just think of it like an employee reimbursement!”
It had been a few weeks since J, for some reason, agreed to date this idiotic trio of drones. She had enjoyed it more than she thought she would, but… she also felt she was getting too much out of it.
Maybe it was because she hadn't been given affection in years or some other trauma, but she felt she owed them all something for their time.
Out of her three partners— gosh still getting used to that— she figured V would be the best to start with. The two drones had a… rocky relationship to put it simply, but they also understood each other best. Hiding behind masks to do what they felt needed to be done.
That was before that purple toaster changer her- everyone's life's. Now, the two were way closer, and more honest with each other.
J approached the door to her room, “You got this J! You’re at the top of the ladder, this should be easy!” she hyped herself up before knocking on the door.
Silence followed for a few seconds, before the door suddenly opened, and V stepped into its frame.
“Oh, hey J. Odd seeing you at my place. Whats up?” she casually asked.
“H-hey V. So, I’ve been thinking. We’ve been dating for a little while now, and I think your uh- exemplary work as a partner… uh, deserves an award!” J stated about as awkwardly as you can imagine.
From behind her back, J pulled out a small box and sheepishly handed it to V, quickly putting her hands behind her back and avoiding eye contact, in a futile attempt to hide her visor blushing.
V took the box and glanced between J and the box a few times. She opened it and found a new pair of glasses inside. White frames and yellow lenses, very on brand— pun unintended— for J.
J commented, “I uh, saw that the pair you usually wear was all cracked up. Figured you could use a new pair. For uh, the sake of workplace efficiency of course!” beads of digital sweat appeared on her visor, totally betraying her attempts to not appear nervous.
V giggled at J’s explanation, “I see I see. Well, I appreciate it J. But you really didn’t need to do this, its a romantic relationship not transactional.”
“I am aware, Just- I felt it was necessary to give you all something.”
“All of us? You have presents for N and Uzi as well?” V inquired, her voice taking a teasing tone.
“I did. Though, I am worried they won’t accept it. Especially N. I’m still not sure how he agreed to this.” J sulked some.
“Ah yeah… I can understand that.” V paused, thinking how best to continue, “Okay J, let me put it simply for you. N is still a big softie at the end of the day. He hasn’t forgotten, but he has given you the benefit of the doubt. So, I’d just accept it and try to make up for it.”
J didn’t look very convinced but sighed and agreed anyways. “Even with all of that baggage, I at least know he’ll like it. Uzi on the other hand…” she trailed off.
“Uzi is easy! In case you’ve forgotten she hasn’t exactly gotten a lot of love over the years. Trust me when I say she’ll be overjoyed at anything you give her… if you can get her out of the workshop that is…” V seemed slightly annoyed.
“Is she that much of a workaholic? I assumed she just watched anime all day.” J remarked, realizing she may have not been paying enough attention to her other girlfriend.
V laughed again, “Oh she does that as well! Usually at the same time, quite the multitasker.”
“I see. Well, I’m glad you liked the gift- I mean, reward!” J laughed, “I’m just gonna, go give the other two their things now. I uh, I appreciate the pep talk V, really.”
V smiled, putting on the new glasses, “No problem Jaybird. Just act natural with them, especially Uzi. Buzzwords mean nothing to her.” she giggled as she leaned in and gave J a small kiss on the cheek, “I’ll see you later kay?” as the door slide shut, leaving J alone in the hallway.
“O-okay…” J said aloud to no one, her blush growing in brightness.
—
N was slightly harder to find. As always he was being helpful wherever he could be; she eventually found him helping a few workers put stuff away into storage.
She glanced at the gift she had brought with her, it wasn’t anything huge, but it was very N.
J waited until the workers had walked away before approaching him, “Ahem, hi N.”
N looked back, and seemed a little surprised to see J, “Oh hey! You need help with something?” He asked, ready to help at a moments notice.
“No- not today at least, instead I have something for you.” she stated, handing him the box. After her talk with V, she felt less nervous about giving N something.
That seemed to amaze him, “Aw for me! Well thanks bud!” he took the box and opened it with a shocking amount of care. Taking the wrapping off instead of tearing it.
“You were always the most careful of us weren’t you.” J thought aloud.
“Yep! The Elliot's were pretty demanding, old habits die hard I suppose.”
N opened the box to reveal a stack of books, old physical ones at that. Specifically, they were all books on animals, one being dedicated to dogs.
“Oh J, you actually remembered. Aw this is pretty sweet actually.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t the best to you, but I could never forget how much you adored animals.” J paused, considering whether to say what she was thinking… deciding that it couldn’t hurt to maybe mention at least.
“I uh, I hope we can make up for lost time as well. Make some more… positive memories you know.” She smiled, a bit pained one but a smile nonetheless.
At that N seemed more conflicted. “J, look, I know you feel bad about well… about a lot of things. And I won’t say I've completely forgiven you yet, but you really need to stop worrying so much. Things are different now, so lets just appreciate what we have now okay?” He asked, smiling as brightly as always, a ray of joy as usual.
J sighed, “You know. V basically told me the same thing. I just- I can’t wrap my head around you two… after everything. You just… you’re okay with all this.”
“Well… we have a lot of time to make up for it. So, I’m just enjoying what I have right now.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m glad. You of all drones deserve a happy ending. Even if it means dealing with Uzi.” she groaned some.
“Ah come on! Uzi is a blast! You two just have…”
“Conflicting personalities. I know I know. I love her still, but would it hurt her to be more formal at times?” J asked a little peeved at the purple drones lack of manners in geneal.
“Well, I can’t really argue there. She is in charge of more things now, not a bad idea to act the part.” J was glad N agreed with her, V always brushed her concerns in this regard off.
“Speaking of, where is she? V said shes usually in the workshop, but I couldn’t find her there.” J asked.
N gave it some thought, and J swore she almost saw a literal light bulb flash when N remembered where Uzi was.
“She had the day off! And I talked her into actually taking a day off, of everything. She works herself to hard, even on personal projects. I’ll take you to her, should still be in our dorm.”
“Oh that's perfect! Saves me a lot of hassle.”
—
Opening the door, N and J walked into a dark room, all the lights having been turnt off.
“Does she always keep it this dark? I know you guys have a bunch of fairy-lights.” J asked, having to use her night vision to see much of anything in the room.
N also looked around the room, “No… usually she keeps at least a few lights on. Workers don’t have night-vision after all.” N called out for Uzi a few times, and both drones heard a sudden crash in an adjacent room.
J opened the door to reveal Uzi sprawled out on the floor, her wings and tail out as well. To her it looked like she’d fallen from the ceiling, maybe she had been napping? She sure didn’t know.
“You uh- you good lil buddy?” N asked, rocking Uzi’s shoulder to wake her up some.
After folding her wings back in, and shifting her limbs to a more natural position— thank robo-god they were all robots— she sat up with a half awake face and glanced between N and J.
“Crap… how long was I out? I only wanted to take a nap before finishing the railguns new shell casing.” she didn’t seem particularly interested in J being there, but she also didn’t feel quite… all there yet, so J wasn’t bothered by it.
“Well, you were working when I left. So I guess a few hours tops. See, I told you, you don’t get enough sleep and this happens!” N chastised her, though it came off like scolding a child.
“Geez, V wasn’t kidding. You’re more of a workaholic than me, that's saying something twerp.” J chimed in.
“Oh can it Miss Secretary!” Uzi quipped back, but soon noticed that J was carrying something with her. “Whats that for, employee of the month or something?” she joked.
“Actually! It’s for you. You’ve been an adequate partner so I am reimbursing you for it. That is all.”
Uzi raised a digital eyebrow at that and smirked, “Oh! I see what this is. Can’t bring yourself to say you love us still, so you went for buzzwords instead. I gotcha.” she looked so proud of herself, getting to tease J like that.
“J-just open it already you stupid toaster!”
“Ok Ok, no need to get so defensive. I’m just messing with you.” Uzi opened the box, with no care for the wrapping mind you.
“Huh, are these-”
“High-grade goggles. Yes. I know you tinker a lot, and workers still need eye protection. So… I figured you’d like those above most things.” J knew Uzi the least out of the trio, so she had more or less assumed what she would like based off what she heard.
The growing smile on the purple drones face was a good indicator she had made the right assumptions though.
“Whose getting sentimental now.” J teased.
Uzi blushed some, “Bite Me! And, uh, thanks, I guess.” she kept looking at the goggles like they were the greatest thing ever. “I’ll have to make you something using them. Be prepared!” she yelled as she jolted up and ran back into her small workshop.
“Biscuits… she didn’t listen to me at all…” N groaned.
“She is technically our boss, not much we can do about it.”
“J. Only you could see Uzi as an authority figure.” N said as she laid his hand on her shoulder.
J brushed him off, literally and figuratively. She wasn’t wrong, but neither was he. That was an argument for another time though, “Well, I’ve done my job. I’m glad you all enjoyed them.”
As quickly as she came, she left and headed back to her dorm.
“Hey biscuit, I have an idea…” N said, smile growing brighter as his idea became clearer.
—
“I would say that went rather well. They all seemed pleased with what I got them.” J thought aloud in her dorm. She was rather worried but it was apparently rather unnecessary thankfully.
She was about to turn in for the night- day- she didn’t know really. Still getting used to her new schedule. Before she could do much, she heard a knock at her door.
Odd. People usually just leave her a note at the office or message her directly if there are issues with something, and she wasn’t expecting anyone today… who could this be?
The knocking continued so she hurriedly put away some things and opened the door to see V, N, and Uzi waiting there. “Well, I wasn’t expecting you three. What’s this for?” she asked, unsure why they would all three be needing her right now.
The three drones looked at each other and sighed, as if it really should have been obvious why they were there.
“We decided to— as you put it— reimburse you for being a good partner!” Uzi stated.
“It was N’s idea. We don’t have a gift per say, but we do wanna hangout for the rest of the night. If you’re okay with that.” V chimed in.
“Oh! Well please, come in. I certainly won’t mind spending some time together off the clock.” J then made a somewhat rapid attempt to put away papers and her other work supplies.
“So J can be a homebody workaholic, but when I do it, its a problem. I see how it is.” Uzi jested, looking around at all the papers in the room. Most were work documents that needed signing or review. Overall it felt similar to the clutter of her workshop, blueprints everywhere.
“Well, unlike you, I trust J to understand work-life balance.” V teased.
“V.” N stated, “Neither of them know what that means and you know it.” he said as he helped J pick up some documents.
Soon enough the dorm was cleaned up and the four of them set to work enjoying themselves, Uzi had brought an old earth console for them to play. Though she had pirated most of the games and had actually tried jailbreaking it in a variety of ways.
They spent the next few hours playing games, ranging from fighters to puzzle games, even a few simulators that J fancied. After a while though, they did get tired— even drones needed sleep after all.
“Well. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this, it was nice of you to show up.” J said, stifling a yawn.
Uzi snickered, “Who said we were leaving?”
“We thought it’d be nice to maybe, spend the night?” N said, though it seemed like he was asking if she was okay with it. But that was a dumb question, of course she was okay with her partners staying over. In fact, the idea made her a little giddy.
“I- Uh, yeah sure! Good by me! Not sure there’s enough ceiling space for us all though…”
“You have a bed right? We’ll just use that. Way more comfortable than the bat thing anyway.” Uzi pointed out.
J hadn’t thought of using the bed, it had been ages since she used one to sleep now that she thought about it. It should be plenty big enough though. So she agreed and guided the others to the bedroom; the bed was still neat and untouched, so thankfully they didn’t need to hunt down pillows or blankets.
As the four of them settled into the bed, J found herself tearing up a little to her own surprise.
“This… this feels really nice.”
“We can do it more often if you really want. We should probably consider moving in together actually, thinking about it…” Uzi thought aloud.
“Later. For now, I just want to enjoy being with you all. Corporate mandates it actually.” she joked, sparking the others to chuckle some.
As the four of them drifted off in each others embrace, J found herself feeling the happiest she had been in a log, long time. This had been worth all the hardship.