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Eli's POV What the fuck? Was all that Eli could think to himself as he laid with his head on his desk. His eyes had been switching from staring at the clock, and that one emo loser, Uzi. His mind just kept spinning in circles about all sorts of things he wasn't supposed to be thinking. He kept thinking about how much he wished he was a girl, and how it was so unfair that that loser got to be so feminine, and he couldn't, and how he wished they could just be lesbians toget-. Eli cut himself off, that was as far as he’d let himself spiral.
That would never happen, they’d never be… that . Eli was a boy, and Uzi had a girlfriend, that overly friendly disassembly drone, N. Not to mention the fact that Eli also already had a girlfriend, Tina.
On that thought, Eli turned over to face his girlfriend, who seemed to be similarly mopey, her eyes currently facing the clock, before she turned to face Eli, giving a small wave. Eli returned the wave, but was caught off-guard as the class was abruptly interrupted by the door slamming open.
Uzi’s dad, Khan Doorman, stepped in and loudly said to the teacher “I need to borrow my son for a special door related event!”
The teacher loudly sighed, “Uzi is sitt- wait, son? You have a son?” he said, clearly caught a little off-guard.
“Yeah, my son Uzi. He’s in your class,” said Khan, his annoyingly enthusiastic voice changing to one of confusion.
Eli whirled around to face Uzi, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Uzi’s a boy? He thought to himself. She (or is it he?) used to dress fairly gender-neutral, but why would a boy dress so feminine? I mean I’d like to, but that’s weird of me. Uzi was weird, maybe that was why? Eli’s train of thought was interrupted as Khan loudly gasped, his attention finally landing on Uzi, who’s eyes were hollowed, and was visibly shaking.
“UZI! What are you wearing?!” Khan practically shouted with confusion and anger. Taken aback by her outfit, but especially her skirt.
The drone in question seemed to curl in on herself. “I-uh, dad, I-” she stammered.
“No son of mine will dress like… like… that !” Khan yelled, the confusion gone from his voice.
The tension in the room steadily grew, as Khan glared at his daughter (son?), who seemed to be starting to cry, their shaking growing.
The tension was snapped as N, Uzi’s girlfriend, stood up and gave a dangerous glare at Khan.
“MR. UZI!” N’s voice boomed across the classroom, “THAT IS NO WAY TO SPEAK TO YOUR DAUGHTER!”
N snarled at Khan, before she picked Uzi up out of her chair, and scooped her under her arm.
Eli gasped as he realized what N was saying, as he put the pieces together, his thoughts came tumbling out as words. “Wait, you can… do that ?” he said, sounding more excited than confused, “you… I can be a girl?” he said, more giddily than he would have liked.
N looked at him, pausing briefly before saying “You’re coming too,” and picking him up along with Uzi. Eli started to protest, but then realized he actually wanted to know more about… everything that was happening right now, and what it meant.
Khan yelled a series of objections as N walked to the door, glaring at him as she walked past. Tina hurried to follow along as they left. Eli glanced behind them to see Doll staring at him perplexed. He gave a small shrug before turning to Tina.
Eli caught Tina’s eyes, both widened, Eli’s mind thinking back to all the late nights he and Tina stayed up, talking about things quite similar to what was going on today. An excited smile crept across both of their faces.
As N walked down the hall, away from the school and towards her own apartment, Khan gave his last shout, yelling “I HAVE NO SON!” so loud the entire colony must have heard.“YEAH. YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER !” N shouted back.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Tina POV
1 Year Ago
Tina sat on the floor of Eli's room, looking at some football cards that her boyfriend had gotten for his birthday a few weeks ago. He didn’t particularly like them, but knew that Tina would, so he had kept them for her. He sat on his bed scrolling through his phone looking bored, as Tina couldn't help but marvel at the cards with excitement.
“Thanks again, Eli, these are really awesome!” Tina said with an excitement, turning to him. Eli gave a snort in response.
“Y’know it’s nothing, not like I’d ever want them,” Eli said.
“Still! Way better than any of the stuff I get. It’s all so…
girly
”
A few minutes of silence overtook the two, as they returned to their individual activities
Eli sighed, looking up from his phone “You know, you’re really lucky.”
“How am I lucky?” Tina replied with confusion.
“You get to just… be a girl.”
“Are you kidding me?” Tina said “I’d do anything to get to be a boy!”
“But… why?” Eli asked, puzzled “Being a girl would be so much better.”
“Really?” Tina said, taken aback.
“Yeah… I wish all the time that I’d been born a girl” Eli admitted, seeming a little disappointed.
“Huh…” Tina paused for a moment, before saying “I wish I’d been born a boy.”
They both sat for a moment, not sure what to say next, before eventually Eli broke the silence.
“Maybe… that's just how everyone feels?” Eli said. “It's not like we could…
actually
do anything like… change our genders,” he continued with a laugh.
Silence overtook the room for a moment, before Eli spoke again.
“Hey I have an idea,” he said, “I don’t know if it’s a good one, but what if when it was just us, and no one else was around we… pretended we were…”
“Pretended we were… what?” asked Tina.
“What if we pretended that you were a boy and I was a girl. We could swap clothes and act like we were opposite genders,” Eli finally rushed out.
Tina was taken aback for a moment, she
definitely
did not expect Eli to suggest that, but the more she thought about it, the more her confusion turned to intrigue, and intrigue turned to
excitement.
Suddenly, before she could think about it much, a wide smile spread across her face. “Yes!” she blurted out. “Let's do it!”
Eli smiled at her, making an excited squeal sound, which Tina quickly joined in on. Despite how scary a lot of this emotional revelation stuff was, she was beyond glad that she had someone else to go through it with.
4 Months later
Tina laid on her bed, Eli at her side as they both tried– and failed to fall asleep. Tina couldn’t know what was keeping Eli up, but she had a strange sense that it was something similar. Tina couldn’t stop
thinking
, and
thinking
about all sorts of things that wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t wind down, the thoughts just kept circling and circling, but always coming back to one thing– her name. She could
deal
with it, and it
wasn’t
a big deal, she just… hated every time somebody used it.
Maybe… Eli would understand?
She wondered, before building up the courage to speak.
“Hey… Eli?” she asked, wondering if her pinked-eyed boyfriend was still awake.
“Yeah?” Eli immediately responded, he’d clearly been scrolling his phone, despite how many times he’d been told not to do that late at night.
“Do you think we could use…
different names?
” she asked, “kinda like how we… pretend?”
“Yes!” Eli practically shot up, looking at Tina with a twinkle in his eye.
“Oh… okay!” Tina said, taken aback by Eli’s immediate excitement, it seemed as though he had thought about this himself.
“What would your name b-” Tina was cut off by Eli suddenly practically shouting “Lizzy! Can I be Lizzy?”
Tina couldn’t help but smile at her boyfriend’s enthusiasm. “Of course!” she said.
“Eeeee!” Eli- no,
Lizzy squealed, “and what do you want me to call you?” he asked.
Tina thought for a moment, even though she had often thought about how much she disliked her
current
name, she hadn’t actually taken time to consider what she would want the
replacement
to be.
After what felt like an eternity of pondering to Tina, she finally decided upon an idea, admittedly quite similar to her current name, but she felt like it fit.
“Thad” she said, “I’d like to be Thad.”
Tina and Eli-, no, not that,
Thad and Lizzy
smiled at each other, and after a few minutes, finally drifted contently into the realm of the unconscious.
Present Day
As N carried Eli and Uzi through the hallways, leading them to her apartment, Tina caught herself staring, a smile of melancholic excitement across her face. Glancing at Eli, she could see the… girl was making the same connection herself. All those months ago, when they said that they’d
never
get to change, and
never
get to be themselves, that was wrong.
Boys could become girls, and Eli would get to become Lizzy. As excited as she was for her friend, she couldn’t help but be a little disappointed that the same wasn’t true for her. But she brushed that aside, now was for being excited for her friend, regardless of how disappointing it was that Tina couldn’t change in that same way. However much she brushed it aside, however, a small voice in the back of her head kept asking
if boys can become girls, why couldn’t you do the opposite?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Uzi POV
Uzi had no idea what the hell was going on. One moment she was just sitting in class, a moment later and she’s outed to her dad , only to then get picked up by her girlfriend, along with Eli, who bullied her , but apparently might also be transfem? She still wouldn’t let herself process her dad, no, Khan’s words. As horrible of a father as he might have been, she still didn't want to think about how he had… disowned her? Is that what happened? She wasn’t entirely sure, but that’s what it sounded like had happened.
Does he really care that little about me? Uzi asked herself, Did I really matter that little to him?
Her train of thought was cut off as they finally arrived at N’s apartment, the door sliding open as N entered the code. The disassembly drone audibly sighed and brought them all in, that was when Uzi noticed that Tina had been following behind them. Makes sense, her boyfriend is here, makes sense she wouldn’t be far behind. As if on cue, Tina broke the fragile silence in the room.
“Hey, so, uh, what is going on?” Tina asked, her seemingly accusatory words muddled by a voice riddled with confusion.
N turned around defensively, as if she was ready to protect the two in her arms, but quickly softened as she realized who it was. It seemed Uzi wasn’t alone in not noticing the green-eyed drone following them.
“Well, this one needs to be taken away from her horrible dad, and this has some stuff they need to figure out, so as far as i'm concerned , we’re gonna have a sleepover until all of this is sorted out.” N said, gesturing to Uzi and Eli as her characteristic cheerful voice broke through her sad expression.
“Hey, can you… put me down now?” Eli asked, seemingly trying to sound annoyed, but failing to pull it off.
N put both of them down, turning to them, Uzi could see that her face had a soft, but also visibly tired expression.
N’s house was fairly bare-bones, her having just moved in and all, but it still managed to give off that… N energy. Of the little possessions she owned, quite a few of them had managed to be various forms of pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals (one of which, a dog, N had practically screamed in excitement over when Uzi had given it to her).
Uzi walked over to take her usual spot on the couch, before turning back to face the group.
At this point, N and Tina were pretty much standing around, unsure of what exactly to do, while Eli was staring at his hands, seemingly lost in thought.
“Is that really something you can do ?” Eli asked out of the blue, turning to Uzi as he said it.
“You mean… being transfem?” Uzi guessed. At the same time N finally seemed to remember that this was her house and went to sit down next to Uzi.
“Being… what?” Eli asked.
Uzi blinked in confusion, “Have you never heard of being trans?”
Eli practically rushed up to Uzi, causing her to briefly flinch back.
“ What is that?” Eli asked, clearly sounding excited, he held a kind of expression and tone that Uzi had never seen from this usually mean drone.
N looked back and forth between Eli and Uzi, before standing up and announcing “Come on Tina, let’s go make some hot chocolate. I feel like this calls for some.” This was followed by her walking off to the kitchen, with Tina glancing back at the two, before following her.
“Trans? You know when your gender is different from the one you were assigned at birth?” Uzi explained, turning back to Eli.
“You can… I can… That means” Eli squeaked “I can be a girl?”
“I mean, yeah, if you want to be,” said Uzi.
Eli jumped up and hugged Uzi, that was how she knew this was serious , because the Eli she knew wouldn’t hug her in a million years , still there was something oddly comforting about his, no her touch, that Uzi couldn’t exactly put her finger on. That being said, it was still a little awkward, someone who usually bullied her, was now getting her help at figuring out their gender, and was now hugging her? What in the world? Uzi asked herself, but she decidedly just went with it.
“Hey, uh, Eli?” Uzi asked, before she was quickly cut off.
“It’s Lizzy.” Lizzy said, a wide smile grinning on her face, giddy as she said it.
“Alright… Lizzy.” Uzi said, smiling in turn.
They were quiet for a brief moment before Eli- Lizzy realized what she was doing and quickly pulled away. A little bit of a blush was visible on her visor, likely just embarrassment, or at least that's what Uzi assumed. Lizzy carefully sat on the other end of the couch, looking a little awkward, but seemingly happy.
They sat in silence for a minute before Lizzy turned to Uzi, “So… how did you know?”
“Know what?” Uzi asked.
“Y’know that you’re… a girl.”
“I guess I just… felt like I’d be more comfortable being feminine.” Uzi admitted, turning away to stare off into space.
“And then, when I tried it, it felt so… right , and after I did a bit of research into what being trans exactly was , I just kinda… put it together.” Uzi said, turning back to Lizzy and giving what she hoped was a supportive smile.
The blush marks on her visor said otherwise.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
N POV
“Come on Tina, let’s go make some hot chocolate. I feel like this calls for some,” N said, walking off with Tina right behind her. While she did think that this would call for some hot chocolate, she also thought that it would probably be better for Uzi and Eli to be able to have their conversation in private.
As they got to the kitchen, N began getting out the supplies to make hot chocolate, with Tina understandably just standing around, unsure of how to help.
N poured the milk into a pot, turning on the heat, then turned back to Tina, who was still standing awkwardly on the other side of the kitchen.
The silence between the two of them was abruptly interrupted as Tina spoke.
“Honestly, I'm just surprised neither me or Eli realized it sooner.” she said, making eye contact with the other drone.
“Realized what?” N asked, turning to face Tina as the sound of the stove could be heard.
“Yknow, transfem people” Tina responded, her expression changing to a slightly sad one after a few seconds.
“Oh, yeah, huh” N responded, nodding her head. Taking notice of Tina’s expression, she tilted her head and asked “Hey, what’s wrong?”
Tina turned up to look at him “I guess I just… I wish that
I
could do that too.” she admitted.
“Uhh… Tina, you already
are
a girl,” N responded, puzzled.
“No, no” Tina said, shaking her head with a little laugh “I mean change the
other way
.”
“Oh, you mean like from girl to boy?” N asked, admittedly quite curious.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Tina replied.
N took a moment to think about exactly what Tina was saying. Admittedly, it sounded
very
similar to quite a lot of things she had been thinking about recently. Her moment to ponder, however, was apparently a bit more than a moment, since before she knew it, the milk was boiling, the bubbling could be heard from behind her.
“Crap, the milk!” N said, turning around.
As she salvaged the situation, she let out a brief laugh, before turning back around once stability had been brought back to the kitchen.
“Y’know, me too,” she said with a small sigh.
“Wait, really?” Tina asked, perking up a little.
“Yeah, it’s kind of just been sitting at the back of my mind for a while, especially after…” N paused for a moment, a little sad at the thought of her old squadmate, J, “one of my old friends came out as transfem, and then of course Uzi is too. I’ve just always kinda wished that it could go the other way too.”
“Yeah…” Tina said, sounding slightly frustrated, as if she felt
so close
, yet so far from something.
N took another moment, as she did, thoughts and ideas flowed through her processor as she finished up making the hot chocolate, adding the marshmallows. Her thoughts finally put themselves together in one, solid thought.
“Why
can't
it?” N asked, turning back to Tina with an excited expression on her face.
“Why can’t it… what?” Tina responded, looking a little excited, as if she had a guess at what N was getting at.
“Think about it!” N said, her tail started to wag from excitement, “what’s stopping us? Wouldn’t we be happier that way?”
“Y’know what, yeah! Why can’t it go the other way? If boys can become girls, why can’t girls become boys?” Tina said, increasingly excited.
N was practically hopping from excitement, before she remembered the hot chocolate, grabbing two cups with her hands, then one with her tail. She gestured to Tina to grab the last one.
“Let's go tell them!” N said with an excited giggle. Tina took the last cup and followed the giddy drone back into the main room.
As N walked into the living room, she couldn’t help but notice the two drones on the couch blushing at each other, only interrupted as N and Tina came in.
“Hey! Guess what?” Tina said excitedly, ignoring the embarrassed messes in front of her.
“What?” asked Eli.
“So me and N were talking, and we decided that if boys can be girls, why can’t girls be boys? So…” Tina turned to N, as if suggesting that N should finish…
his
statement.
“We decided that we want to be boys!” N said.
“Oh, awesome! You’re both transmasc?” Uzi asked bluntly.
“Wait, that's already a
thing
?” N exclaimed. Tina’s eyes widened with shock, though no sound came out of his open mouth.
“Yeah? Did you think that you could only be trans in one direction?” Uzi asked, amused.
“Well… yeah, I mean you never told me that was an option,” N said a little sheepishly.
“Wait… does this mean we are
all
trans?” Eli asked with a laugh.
“I guess so, Eli!” N exclaimed.
Eli visibly grimaced for a second, before they spoke again.
“Oh, it’s actually Lizzy now,” Eli, or Lizzy, corrected. She looked at Tina with a look that almost seemed like a question.
Tina looked confused at this, giving a confused look as such, before seemingly realizing what it was Lizzy was trying to say.
“Oh, uh, I guess since I’m a boy now, I was wondering if you guys could call me Thad instead of Tina?” asked… Thad, with a shrug.
“Yeah, sure,” Uzi said with a small smile.
“Thad and Lizzy” N said cheerfully, “those both have great rings to them!”
“What about you? Do you want to go by something else?” Uzi asked N.
“Hmm… No, not really. I like N, and it’s pretty gender neutral anyway,” N said, nodding.
“Yeah, same with me, that’s why I never tried to change mine” Uzi replied with a shrug.
N looked around at the room full of smiling drones in front of him, as scary as this all was, he was glad that he could support his friends in their journey, and hopefully be supported in his.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lizzy POV
Lizzy couldn’t get herself out of her own head. Her thoughts scrambling themselves like a soup of random objects, none quite fitting together. What she was
sure
was something worth thinking about was her
blushing moment
with Uzi a few moments earlier, interrupted by Thad and N’s coming out to them, and now she didn’t really know what to do. It seemed like the idea of “What now?” resonated with the rest of the group as they all just stood around, staring at each other with smiles on their faces.
The quiet, happy moment between them was paused when Thad suddenly snapped his fingers as if he had an idea.
“Hey Liz, you know how my family always got me those overly-girly clothes that I never wanted?” Thad asked.
Lizzy turned to him, the smile on her face growing expectantly, “yeah?”
“Well since I obviously don't want them, I was thinking I could give them to you!” Thad said cheerfully.
“Ohh, yeah!” Lizzy responded with excitement, standing up “I have stuff like that too! I could give you all the clothes that don't work for
me
, and you could do the same!”
“Yeah, awesome, perfect!” Thad responded with mutual excitement.
Lizzy stood up, walking towards the door as Thad followed. Once they approached it, Lizzy turned around to face N and Uzi, “Well, see you both soon?” She asked.
N smiled and nodded, as Uzi replied with a hint of melancholy “alright…” she said, the thought of her own home situation clearly getting to her.
Lizzy frowned, hesitating to leave until N walked over and hugged the small drone, giving them a thumbs-up to go. Lizzy turned back around to Thad, who seemed to have similar feelings, and the two of them left the apartment, walking down the hall side-by-side.
The two of them walked in silence, the tension growing as Lizzy didn’t exactly know what to say, luckily, she wouldn’t have to be the one to break the tension, as Thad spoke.
“Are we like… still dating?” he asked, as if he was wondering to himself out loud.
“I… don't know,” Lizzy admitted, both to herself and Thad, “everything’s so
different
.”
“If it would make it easier to figure out, we could…
start over
,” Thad offered.
“You mean like… not date, and see if we would want to again?” Lizzy asked, unsure of her own emotions towards the idea. The amount that Uzi came to her mind as she thought about it was something she would never admit to even herself.
“Yeah, something like that,” Thad replied, seemingly lost in thoughts of his own. Lizzy laughed internally, wondering if Thad was in a similar position to herself with Uzi. She quickly shut that thought down, as wondering that would require
admitting
that she was thinking about someone.
As they reached the intersection where they would have to split off to reach their respective houses, Lizzy turned to face Thad once again.
“Meet back here in 10 minutes?” She offered.
“Sure!” Thad replied, before he thought for a second, “but we’re not doing the switch
here
, are we?”
“Nonono,” Lizzy giggled, “I figured we’d do that back at N’s, I know
my
parents wouldn’t like that” she said, her sentence ending with a bit of sadness.
“Same,” Thad said nodding, “on both things… Well, see you in 10 minutes!” he said, turning and walking away with a thumbs-up towards Lizzy.
Lizzy sighed to herself, before she turned and walked towards her own home.
* * *
When Lizzy and Thad got back to N’s, they knocked on the door, waiting for just a second before they heard N’s voice say “Come in!” to which Thad opened the door.
As they stepped inside, they could see Uzi
in the exact same spot on the couch. The only clue to time passing being two empty cups of hot cocoa, and N on the couch next to her.
“Hey guys!” Thad announced cheerfully, “What’d we miss?”
“Oh, nothing we ju-” N was cut off by Uzi bluntly announcing, “we broke up.”
“Heh, same,” Lizzy laughed as Thad replied, “Oh, shoot, sorry guys!”
It took the sitting drones a few seconds to process what they both said, as they had spoken over each other, but once they did, Uzi laughed as N displayed an empathetic expression.
The two boys looked at each other with similar empathy in their eyes, as Lizzy intentionally avoided eye contact with Uzi, eventually thinking of a way to break the awkward tension.
“Well, anyways, clothing swap time?” Lizzy offered to Thad, gesturing her bag of clothes towards him.
“Oh yeah!” Thad said excitedly, before he turned to N, “so, uh, where can we change?” he asked.
As excited as Lizzy was for all this, she couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Sure, she was used to dressing feminine in front of Thad, but now she was going to do that in front of multiple people whom she had
very
little experience being vulnerable with. As much as the last day had contained a
lot
of shared connection, it still felt very new and scary.
Lost in her own thoughts, she completely missed N and Thad’s talking, only shaken out of it when the two of them started saying her name. As she began hearing again, she could hear them concernedly asking, “Lizzy?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry, yes?” she rushed out, feeling slightly guilty for their worried expressions.
N appeared relieved that nothing seemed to be wrong, and just told her, “You guys can change in the bathroom, and Thad was offering for you to go first.”
“Oh, uh, sure?” Lizzy replied awkwardly, before starting her walk towards the bathroom. As she walked, she caught Uzi’s eye contact, the curled-up drone had been quite silent since they got back, the reason for which Lizzy had no clue.
As Lizzy reached the bathroom, she turned back to Thad, before mentally preparing herself, and entering the room.
A few minutes later, Lizzy emerged from the bathroom, now wearing a red and yellow crop top and skirt that she thought matched well with her hair, in addition to a black undershirt. As much as she told herself she wouldn’t be, she couldn’t help but still feel nervous, a feeling that was soothed when she heard the encouraging voices of the other drones, all of which were now perched on the couch.
As she came into view, she noticed Uzi’s visor glowing a bit brighter, with…
was that a blush?
Lizzy asked herself, as Uzi quickly turned away, hiding under a blanket. Lizzy brushed it aside, as she looked over to N and Thad, the former of which was giving a supporting thumbs up.
Thad stood up and walked over to her, a wide smile on his face as he looked at what Lizzy had selected. “That looks so good on you Liz!!” he squealed.
Thad picked up his new clothes and walked over to the bathroom, turning around to Lizzy as she smiled at him, returning the smile, he then closed the door. Lizzy turned back around, and went to take Thad’s spot on the couch.
Sitting down in the pillow-mess of a couch, Lizzy found herself sighing with relief, as she let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Turning to face the blanket-covered Uzi on her side, she noticed the small drone seemingly staring at her from under a blanket, all but her eye lights being obscured by the coziness.
Lizzy giggled to herself, and began fidgeting with her fingers, she never quite thought about how much she
really
liked the color of her own lights, and now that she could let herself dress the way she wanted, it really felt
good
in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Lizzy smiled, and pulled out her phone, it’d been quite a while since she’d checked it, but beyond the expected messages from Doll and Rebecca wondering where she’d been, she also saw… an
invitation?
Apparently there was a party next week at Final Girl’s house, and she’d been invited. Sure, they’d used the wrong name and everything, but it was still exciting.
Maybe that’d be a fun time to make my debut as Lizzy?
She wondered, before turning to look at the drones sitting next to her.
Huh, they probably aren’t invited.
Lizzy thought to herself, a twinge of guilt shivering through her.
Uzi really doesn’t deserve it,
Lizzy thought, sighing to herself
I guess my excuse was that I was just… jealous? Something of the sort.
Lizzy’s thoughts were shot away as Thad walked into the room, and when she saw him, she couldn’t help but smile. He was wearing one of the silly baseball hats that Lizzy had been given, along with an old jacket and shirt. As much as Lizzy couldn’t have cared less for those things when she’d had them, it really felt like
him
.
Thad noticed Lizzy’s smile, and in response winked and made finger guns, to which Lizzy giggled. As Thad joined in on the giggling, Lizzy couldn’t help but notice the drone at her side–N, appearing
very
flustered, however Thad must not have noticed, as he continued to make various silly, but on-brand gestures.
Lizzy suddenly remembered the text she’d received, and after a moment of looking around at Thad, and her new friends- Uzi, and N, she made up her mind. Not only was it going to be her debut as a girl, but they’d be coming too, no matter how unpopular they may be.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
J POV
It had been a long time since she’d been this happy, J thought to herself. She grinned, looking around at the hollow cold of the spire. The liability named N was gone, numbers were looking good, oh, and she had a girlfriend. Since N- no, she didn’t deserve a name. Since the malfunctioning idiot had left, she’d found herself growing closer to V, as the only other squad member, and therefore her only company.
She’d always admired how efficient V was, sure she’d be a little excessive now and again, but she got the job done. Now that she didn’t have to deal with the old nuisance of a drone, she had much more mental space to think about it. In J’s eyes, V was perfect.
On the topic of her girlfriend, the drone in question had just arrived back at the spire, J had arrived about half an hour earlier. It seemed that V had gotten carried away again, and had missed the curfew. J pondered for a few moments, letting her annoyance at this, and her adoration of V battle; her annoyance ultimately won out.
“Hey, consider at least letting me know if you’re going to be late, as usual ,” J barked at her. Sure, it might be a tad rude, but she was just trying to help V do better! J was sure another effective drone would understand.
“Oh wow, that's so kind of you,” V replied snarkily, “Great to know how much you care .”
J blinked in response, unsure of how to reply. “Just try to meet the curfew, idiot,” she said, voice not admitting how confused she’d been at that.
V rolled her eyes and flew into the landing pod. Is V… mad at me? No, that doesn’t make any sense, I was just being helpful! J thought to herself with a scoff, following after her.
As J walked into the room, she couldn't help but seemingly catch V looking down at the buttons of the ship, pressing one of them with a melancholic smile. J narrowed her eyes.
What is she doing? J asked herself, This better not have anything to do with that old spare luggage, N liked to press those, didn’t she?
When V noticed that J had entered the room, she quickly and suspiciously pulled out a bubble-wand, turning around to blow the translucent annoyances at J with a playful, yet still sad smile.
Is she… missing her? J thought to herself with confusion, No, that’s impossible, no girlfriend of mine would miss a traitor like her.
As if reading J’s thoughts, or the scowl that plastered itself across her face, V took a step back out of… was that nervousness? J couldn’t decipher it before the drone spread her wings, and flew into their sleeping room.
AGH! Why are emotions so hard! The abandoned drone asked herself, her scowl dipping further with aggravation.
J let out a sigh, everything considered, it’d been a long day. As much as N was an incoherent buffoon, she did pull at least some of the weight for the team, and adjusting to that had been hard for the two, that must be why V was acting the way she was… yeah.
The idea brought little reassurance to J.
The squad leader really didn’t have the energy to deal with any of this right now. In all honesty, she just wanted to go to sleep with her girlfriend. However, as she followed said girlfriend into their sleeping room, it seemed she was not going to be afforded such a luxury. V was hanging from the top of the room, a clear sign that she did not want to be disturbed or embraced by anyone .
J frowned a little as she strung her tail through the rafters as well, letting out a tired noise as she lifted herself up, and promptly formed a cocoon around herself with her wings.
The slight disappointment of sleeping alone could not be allowed to get in the way of efficiency, after all.
J let out a yawn as she could feel her various processes and systems shutting down.
…
…
Flap
J could just barely hear it, as she was almost completely powered off, her lights having already done so, but she barely managed to hear the sound of someone releasing themselves and…
flying away?
She got herself online in a start, and looked around the room.
V was nowhere to be seen, the bar she’d been dangling from still shaking. Where is she? J asked herself, feeling the building emotions of rage, anger, mistrust, and confusion building, but she pushed it down.
Now was not the time for feeling.
Now was the time for doing .
J released herself, and gracefully glided to the main room of the pod.
Still no V.
J was frantic at this point, desperately, she clambered up the ladder and exited the pod, being met by the cold, normality of the spire.
V was still nowhere to be seen.
Where is she? J demanded of herself Sure, the sun may not quite be up yet, but where could she be going this early, and why?
The squad leader was answered by only the icy wind of the never-ending blizzard.
J sigh-growled furiously, and threw herself into the air, determined to find her lost girlfriend.
Where is she? J thought angrily.
Where is she? J thought sadly.
Where is she? J thought desperately .
“V?” J called, trying to not let fear nor desperation seep into her voice.
There was no response.
“V?” J called again, louder, the emotions pouring themselves into her words.
There was still no response.
J was met with a horrible realization: She was alone. She was all alone on this horrible planet, with nobody else. They’d chased away N, and now she’d chased away V. She had nobody to turn to, nobody to be with, nobody to help her.
“V?” J said a final time, only barely muttering it under her breath as she choked out a sob.
She was alone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
V POV
V flew. She flew as fast as she could, she didn’t dare think about looking back, regardless of how real her concerns could be. She could almost feel the arm of the drone she was fleeing from reaching out, about to grab her, pull her back.
V pushed it all aside, her only focus now was
escaping
.
Before V could even process where she was, or what was going on, she heard it.
Silence.
She wasn’t being chased, there were no wings beating behind her, she’d gotten away.
She let out a sigh of relief, like a breath she’d been holding, and looked around. She was met by beautiful loneliness, with only the view of the city and snow.
As beautiful as the brightening snow was around her, it meant the sun was inevitably coming up, and staying out in it was assured death.
As she decided on where to spend her first night alone, where she could escape the sun’s deadly rays, V’s thoughts kept drifting back to the events that had passed– both today, and
then
.
When N had left them… or they’d left N? V wasn’t exactly sure, but she berated herself all the same.
She’d thought J was like her– desperate to forget, to move on, to just
destroy
until she couldn’t feel anymore.
But she was wrong.
Where V
wanted
to forget, and
wanted
to be emotionless.
J actually was.
And that was
terrifying
to V.
She thought it would be easier at first, with N gone, no more feeling to suppress. But that hadn’t been the case, she
missed
her.
It’ll be easier, you just have to forget, that’s clearly why J did what she did, right?
V thought to herself.
But all of that self-assurance was destroyed when J told her what she’d tried to do to N.
She’d tried to kill her.
J had described how as well, she’d tried to use the virus chip to put N out of commission
for good
.
Any
hope that V had for J, that they could move on, and be uncaring
together
?
It was all gone, replaced by a void of despair, loneliness, and most of all,
regret
.
If being like J was what truly being apathetic, emotionless, and
uncaring
was like.
V wanted
none
of it.
Despite her best judgment, she had begun to
let
herself feel,
let
herself be vulnerable, at least on her own. And the sea of emotion that she suddenly felt was like a dam breaking.
It’d
consumed
her, like a flood in which she drowned.
And worst of all?
She had nobody to help her.
She’d tried… once, to be vulnerable with J.
Saying she had none of it would be a strong understatement.
Their squad leader had lashed out at her, judged her, belittled her. All was as usual, any sense of the softer drone that she’d hoped would come out, the softer drone that she
remembered
?
Whoever they were, they were gone. V was pretty sure they died with Tessa.
Tears began to form themselves on V’s visor, as she flew, attempting to dodge the awakening sun however she could.
Then, she saw it.
The bunker where they’d left N.
The bunker where N
was
.
Like a beacon of some kind of…
hope?
It shined, subsuming V in a whirlwind of emotions, both positive for her future, and negative of her past.
She wiped the tears off herself, and dove.
As she gracefully flew down, her years of practice showing in her every motion, she spotted a hole in the snow, with luck, it would lead directly into the bunker.
Sure enough, as she approached, she recognized the hole as a result of her and J’s brief fight with N and that… worker.
That worker had been
weird
, just suddenly showing up out of nowhere as if she’d known N for years, getting her to stand up to J… kinda. She also had that weirdly powerful gun, which J had luckily been able to just barely avoid getting shot by, but after seeing the damage it had done to the floor where J had been?
It would have killed her, for sure. And yes, V was running away from her, but that didn’t mean she wanted her
dead
. She had liked J, there was a reason they had been dating, and a little part of her still wished that she could have found J’s soft side. But it was increasingly seeming like she didn’t have one.
So V left. She hadn’t thought it through very well, having not decided on where to go beforehand, but now that she was at the bunker, it seemed like a good place to go. Maybe she could see N again, maybe they’d get along, maybe V could be open with her.
But the thoughts of how she had been so mean to her wouldn’t let V believe that. Pretending to be grossed out by her, claiming to not know her name,
leaving
her?
Would N be able to forgive me? After everything I did? Probably not, I know I wouldn’t.
V thought to herself bitterly, the tears threatening to come back.
But she still had the problem of the rapidly rising sun that would cause her to overheat if she didn’t find shelter soon. Maybe she could just hide out in the bunker? She’d have to avoid N and that worker, but she’d have shelter and a pretty solid source of food.
After taking a few moments to come to a decision, she quickly flew through the hole in the roof with her characteristic expertise. The room she entered was quiet and empty. That was good luck; quiet and empty was good, the
last
thing she wanted right now was to be seen. But that just might happen if she stayed out in the open, so her thoughts switched to finding places to hide.
Something on one of the walls caught her eye, the entrance to a vent. She had been in them briefly when was here last time, and she couldn’t imagine people tended to go into them. She could hang out in there, at least until she figured out what next.
Collecting her thoughts, she dove into it. It was actually fairly spacious, fitting her large frame surprisingly comfortably. Where difficulty came, however, was in it being quite difficult to navigate, as with every movement, if she wasn’t careful, a large
clang
Would sound.
Still, she (slower than she would have liked) made her way through the ventilation system, until she came upon a crossroads, with various vents going in different directions. Despite the adrenaline that had previously ran through her in her escape, she was still
tired
, not going into sleep mode for what felt like
days
would understandably do that to a drone.
V let out a tired sigh, made herself as comfortable as possible, and tried to tame the never-ending spiraling of thoughts in her head.
Maybe I'll try to find N… tomorrow
she thought sleepily, the idea bringing her no closure, as she anxiously drifted off to sleep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Thad Pov
“What are we doing here again?” Uzi asked from Thad’s side. Anyone with even the littlest knowledge on the purple drone would be able to hear the annoyance in her voice.
The four of them– Thad, Uzi, Lizzy, and N were all standing around, a few doors down from Final Girl’s house, where a party was starting; a party which Lizzy had practically
demanded
that they all attend.
When Lizzy had told them all this, it had been clear exactly how hesitant Uzi had been about it.
That makes sense, not a week ago all of the people attending would have bullied her, and even though Lizzy made sure that wouldn’t be an issue anymore, I can't blame her for being weary,
Thad thought to himself.
Still, regardless of Uzi’s understandable weariness, the small drone had been determined to go. In all honesty, that had caught them off-guard. A party was the
last
place anyone would expect Uzi to go, much less
willingly
.
The outcast’s group of friends would not be some to let this moment slip away, however, and they immediately got to work in planning their outfits, which would have to be
extra
special with this being their first large gathering with their new presentations.
N wore a black suit that he had found when scavenging. He had insisted on wearing it even though he was repeatedly informed that the party was, in fact, not
that
fancy. Thad didn’t mind though, N looked handso- awesome. He looked awesome. Lizzy was wearing a pink dress with hearts on it and a pink hard hat to replace her usual red and yellow one.
Uzi wore a simple black dress and big black boots, of course adorning her head with her classic beanie. Thad had decided to match N a little, and wore a suit too, though his was dark red with a yellow tie. When they had all gotten into their outfits to leave, N had given them the informal (but very fitting) title of ‘Dapper Buddies’.
Thinking of it brought a small laugh to Thad, which had the inverse effect of snapping him back to reality, and out of his reminiscent train of thought.
Taking in the situation, he could see Lizzy explaining to Uzi how they were making their ‘grand debut’, and that it was going to be
perfect
. What was surprising to Thad, however, was Uzi's response. Where he would have expected a snarky comeback, or sly remark from the drone, she gave only a small smile, and a head nod.
The attention that Thad would have put into that was immediately stolen by the giddy disassembly drone to his side grinning at him. “Ready dude?” N asked with excitement.
Thad’s expression lit up quicker than he’d like to admit as he turned to the drone, “Of course N&Ms!” he exclaimed. Turning back to Lizzy, he caught her eye as she finished practically ranting to Uzi about every detail of how the night would go.
Lizzy turned around quickly, as if slightly embarrassed about her rambling, then after a moment turned back around. “Ready everyone?” she asked, a hint of nervousness still in her voice.
They all responded with a couple of “Yeah”s, and a “Course, Liz!” from Thad. Lizzy smiled at their affirmation, then ran up to Uzi, grabbing the shorter drone’s arm, and linking it around her own. A small blush showed up on Uzi’s visor, if Lizzy noticed, she didn’t make it clear, just taking off towards the entrance, practically dragging one softly protesting Uzi along with her.
Thad laughed as he and N watched the girls (one much more enthusiastically than the other) turn the corner and enter the party containing probably a couple dozen other worker drones. There was a table with some alcohol on one side of the room, on the other there were a few drones sat in a circle playing a board game.
As the two of them began following the path of disruption left in Lizzy’s wake, Thad couldn’t help but feel… content, happy, warm? He wasn’t sure, but he felt
nice
. He felt a warmth grow on his visor, unsure why exactly for a few moments until he looked up at N, who he saw look at him, blush, then look away sheepishly.
Oh no, am I-
Thad thought to himself, cut off by Lizzy’s voice calling from behind them “Uh, back here, losers?”
He snapped back to reality, and turned around. He realized with embarrassment that he’d been too focused on walking with N that he didn’t realize that they’d not only walked
into
the party, but
past
it, as Lizzy had so kindly pointed out.
“You lovebirds done, or are you going to get some alone time?” Lizzy asked sarcastically.
Thad’s blush grew even brighter, “No- uh, we aren’t- uh no,” he stammered. Lizzy just raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Okay then, whatever you say,” she said with a giggle, turning back to Uzi, who was holding back a laugh.
“We- we aren’t-” Thad stuttered increasingly quietly. N patted him on the head comfortingly.
The two girls rolled their eyes in almost perfect synchronicity, and with one last giggle, went back to whatever they’d been talking about.
Damnnit Lizzy
Thad thought to himself, more so with annoyance than any kind of anger. He turned back to N to attempt to give any kind of funny comment on the situation, but was interrupted by Braidon loudly exclaiming “Eli? Is that you?”
Thad flinched to himself, remembering what was special about this party for them– and how
that
was going to be its own
world
of annoying, something that he
really hoped
he wouldn’t have to deal with.
As if answering his wish, Lizzy let out a loud, annoyed scoff, and suddenly walked to the front of the room, activating what Thad liked to call her “announcer voice”.
“Alright losers, I was gonna do this a
little
differently, but I think this’ll just be easier. Yes, I am a girl now, my name is Lizzy, and these two,” she paused and gestured to N and Thad, “are boys now, N is still N, but Tina is Thad, and if any of you have an issue with that, I'll get N to
end your pathetic lives!
” she said, her tone rising with the last bit.
“Wait, no, I'm not-” N tried to explain, but the gasps going around the room spoke for themselves.
“And that includes you,
Rebbeca!
” Lizzy announced, cutting off N’s attempt to clarify. Lizzy turned, pointing towards the blue-haired drone as she did.
The room was silent for a moment, as if waiting for the mentioned drone to respond, “Fine,
Lizzy
, settle”
It seemed to Thad that this was something of a conversation he missed, but with everything going on,
this
wouldn’t be the detail he was going to focus on.
As the room fell into applause following Rebecca’s response, Lizzy gave Thad a victorious smile. She gave him a light shove as she walked past him, back towards the drinks table.
The room continued to stir for a few moments following the end of Lizzy’s announcement, and did not die down as a timid-looking Final Girl came to the front of the room. She stood in the spot Lizzy had been not moments ago, and began trying to get the room’s attention, though her efforts came up short as only a few people focused on her small pleas of “attention everyone?” and “quiet down please.”
The voices
did
finally settle down as, while walking to the front of the room herself, a frustrated-looking Rebecca shouted “Attention, idiots!” It seemed to be in mimicry of Lizzy, but clearly fell short of the pink-eyed drone’s social prowess.
Still, with the room settled down, the girls at the front of the room could say what they wanted to, with Rebecca giving a gentle nod as Final Girl began to speak. “I-I would just like to announce,” the comparatively very introverted drone began, “that Rebecca and I are now dating!”
Rebecca grabbed Final Girl’s hand giving her a small smile, the room erupted into cheers and congratulations as she did.
Thad was no different, clapping as he walked to the front of the room to give the new couple a congratulations. However, from behind him, he could hear one recognizable voice speaking in a creepy voice, and maybe a little too loud, “That’s
hot
!”
Everyone turned to face Braiden, the drone looking around as if to say “What?”
“Not cool dude,” Thad said, shaking his head.
Uzi’s reaction was less tame, as the purple drone walked up to him, and punched him in the face. “Bite me! Gross!” she yelled at him.
The room went silent in shock at the situation, Braiden, clearly angry, turned quickly and went to punch Uzi back, only to be met by a
very
angry Lizzy, the pink-eyed drone standing in his way, staring threateningly into his eyes.
Braiden blinked, unsure of what to do. He could be seen glancing around the room, eyes hollowing, before he turned, and nervously half-walked half-ran out of the room.
The room erupted into cheering, everyone happily returning to partying, more comfortable now that Braiden was gone. At the same time, Thad smiled as he watched Uzi and Lizzy turn to each other, giving gentle smiles before faint blushes showed up on their visors. Thad laughed to himself before turning back around, to which he was greeted by the cheerful sight of N, the disassembly drone having not left his side this entire time.
He had to admit, N looked great in his suit. He was also just so nice
all the time
. Which Thad hadn’t expected when he met the
drone programmed to commit mass murder
. But regardless, N was, which was
awesome
! He was just so kind, and caring, and kissable- no, no. Not a thought he should be thinking.
N is my friend. I will NOT have a crush on him. Yes he is very cute, and snuggly, and nice. But that doesn’t mean that I will have a crush on him.
Thad thought to himself. Just then, N saw him watching him and gave a big smile. A big
adorable
smile. Robo-Jesus, Thad was going to need a drink if he was going to survive this night. First whatever was going on with him and N, then the whole announcement getting him thinking about it
again
? Besides, it was a
party
, he might as well.
Thad walked over to the drink table, he saw Lizzy was already there pouring herself a cup. He gave her a nod and poured one for himself. With his cup he went and stood next to Lizzy, following her gaze.
He looked to see N, Uzi next to him, the two were talking, giggling to each other as their visors glowed a little brighter than normal. Thad made eye contact with Lizzy, and in unison, they both took a big gulp of their drinks.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
N’s POV
In N’s imagination of how this party would go, having a great time was not what he had expected. But dancing with Uzi, who was having her first good experience at a party
ever
, the crowd roaring, music blaring, he had to admit it: he was having a
great
time!
N spun the purple drone in question into a dip, before spinning her back up so they were facing forward holding onto each other's waists at the climactic end of the current song. The motion lined up well with the beat of the music, which, at least in N’s opinion, felt
very
cool.
As the song ended, he released Uzi. He felt his visor blushing as Uzi eagerly guided him to the drinks table. When they got there, N grabbed a cup, and reached to pour himself a glass of fruit punch, but was stopped by Uzi lightly punching him on the side. She directed his attention by pointing to a small sign next to the bowl which read “Most definitely spiked.”
N let out a sheepish laugh as he turned to face Uzi, who was gesturing towards the root beer. After filling up his cup, his audio receptors were bombarded by the noise of Thad yelling excitedly, and walking over to them. “Hey guys!” he announced, his voice unusually giddy.
N locked eyes with Thad, taking in his current state. His visor gained small stress marks as he looked over the green-eyed drone with worry. “Hey, uh, Thad. Have you been drinking?” N asked gently, trying to shake the concern from his voice.
The gentleness of N’s statement was immediately thrown away, as Uzi noticed the green-eyed drown, throwing in her own comment in the form of a loud, stressed sigh.
Thad looked between the two of them, his eyes finally settling upon N as he answered the question. “Yeah!” he said with a giggle.
“How much?” N asked, the concern not leaving his voice.
“Not much, just a cup or two,” Thad smiled, stepping forward to give the concerned drone a quick hug before retreating back.
“Alright then,” N said, Thad didn’t seem
too
drunk, so his estimate of how much he had seemed reasonable. He turned to Uzi, giving her a look as if to ask what he was supposed to do now. She shrugged, clearly
also
confused.
The purple drone’s response was cut short by a voice from her side stepping forward, leaning on her shoulder as they spoke. “Heyyy, Uzi, wanna dance?” Lizzy asked, clearly having had a couple drinks herself.
Before Uzi had a chance to answer, Lizzy had already grabbed her hand, leading her away from the drink table and towards the dance floor. Uzi glanced back at N who gave a small smile and thumbs up.
His focus on the now-dancing drones was cut to an immediate halt as Thad let out a laugh from his side. He turned back to face the drone, who he noticed was currently blushing while staring into his eyes. A blush on N’s own face as Thad continued to contently stare. N felt his own visor heat up as he tried to figure out how to best break the growing tension.
“So… how are you liking the party?” N asked awkwardly, it was a pretty basic question, but best he could come up with so quickly.
“It’s fun, everyone's…
attempting
to call me ‘he’ and ‘Thad’, and there’s alcohol. I haven’t had much alcohol before,” Thad said. “How is the party going for
you
?” Thad booped the taller drone on the nose as he spoke.
N stumbled, taken aback and a little flustered. “It’s going… well,” he said, still not sure exactly how to respond.
There was silence for a minute, N awkwardly staring at Thad as the green eyed drone not-so-awkwardly stared back at N. After a few moments, the silence began to grow comfortable, but was cut off. “Have I ever mentioned how
handsome
you look?” Thad asked.
“No, uh, thank you. You too?” N said, a little awkward, but he wasn’t lying: Thad
did
look pretty good.
“Thanks,” Thad said with a big smile. Silence overtook the duo for another few long moments, stopped only when Thad booped N on the nose again.
“Hey everyone!” A voice called from the other side of the room, only audible due to a lull in the music. “Does anyone wanna play spin the bottle?”
Excited cheers rang across the room, signaling the crowd’s approval of the idea.
Thad looked at where the voice had called from, turning back to N with a big smile on his face.
“We should
totally
do that! Come on!” the eager drone said, grabbing N’s arm and dragging him to the other side of the room.
N didn’t even have time to object before he was dragged away; not that he would have, he loved doing anything.
The circle of people playing had about a dozen or so by the time the pair sat down. Lizzy and Uzi were already there with Lizzy hugging Uzi’s arm and leaning her head on her shoulder. N sat down in between Thad and Doll, who was glaring daggers at Uzi.
Is Doll… jealous of Uzi? Or does she just not like the school “freak?
N wondered to himself.
“Alright, now that we have a pretty good sized group, I’ll start,” a boy, Darren, said. He pulled out a bottle, setting it in the middle of the circle and a second later it was spinning. After a few moments, it came to a halt, clearly having landed on some boy N had only met once in passing. Darren paused, clearly this wouldn’t have been his choice, but bound to the rules of the game, they both awkwardly crawled forward a little so they could reach each other, sharing a quick peck.
A few moments later, the boy had spun the bottle, this time landing on Doll, who grimaced, but kissed him in a similarly uncomfortable fashion to how Darren had. Doll took the bottle and spun it, it spun for a few moments before finally pointing at Uzi.
Doll looking somewhat horrified, exclaimed, “
Он приземлился на Лиззи!” (
That landed on Lizzy!
)
“No, that totally landed on Uzi!” Rebecca said, met with general agreement from around the circle.
Doll groaned, looking around “Я действительно должен это делать?” (
Do I really have to do this?)
“Yeah, it’s the rules,” said a kid N didn’t know.
Doll frowned, but leaned forward a little, definitely not meeting Uzi at the halfway point, so Uzi had to crawl forward a little more than usual, away from Lizzy, (much to the pink drone’s dismay). They shared a very quick peck before Doll shot backwards.
Uzi rolled her eyes at Doll, but picked up the bottle. She spun it as she shuffled back. And as it came to an eventual stop, it landed on… Lizzy.
Doll reeled back with horror, shaking her head as she turned away. Uzi looked surprised, meanwhile, the landed-on drone at her side had a
huge
smile on her face.
Not needing any further direction, Lizzy turned, grabbed Uzi’s face and gave her a kiss
much longer than the previous ones shared in this game. After a few seconds she pulled away, and snuggled back against Uzi, whose face was much brighter than usual with a very obvious blush visible. Doll stood up angrily, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
The room went silent for a second, everyone either staring at Uzi and Lizzy, or the door that Doll had just left through. Eventually someone made a noise as if clearing their non-existent throat, then spoke up “Lizzy, it’s your turn.”
Lizzy looked up, glaring with annoyance. “No it isn’t. I’m clearly busy,
idiot
,” she spat, motioning towards the drone she was snuggled up next to, “It’s Thad’s turn.”
Everyone looked around, trying to decide if they should allow that. Fortunately for the pair of cuddling drones, no one wanted to get on Lizzy’s bad side, so someone eventually motioned to Thad to take his turn. He laughed, reaching out to spin the bottle, it spun and it spun before landing on…
N
. It landed on N.
N turned to look at Thad, not entirely opposed to the idea, the smaller drone didn’t seem to be either. This theory was proven correct when Thad leaned forward to give N a kiss. It wasn’t as much of a peck as the first few kisses, but also not quite as intense as the one between Lizzy and Uzi.
N had to admit, it was a nice kiss. As the drone in front of him pulled back, a small smile on his face. N couldn’t help but giggle, his nerves slightly pushed back for now. For about the millionth time that night, N wasn’t sure what to say. To his luck, he didn’t have to figure it out just yet as with a huge
clang
something crashed through a vent grate just outside of the circle.
Everyone immediately turned to see what had happened, their eyes fell upon a disassembly drone with her wings and claws out wearing a red dress. It took N a second, but as soon as he processed it, he couldn’t mistake that drone for
anyone
.
It was V.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
V's POV
The grate fell open effortlessly as V descended out of the vents, landing skillfully, but loudly in the center of the large, homely room. She opened her wings, taking out her claws and bearing an X on her visor as she let out a giggle, the screams and cries from around her only serving as encouragement.
In all reality her intentions surprisingly had nothing to do with murder tonight, her eyes scanned around, looking for the one person she was there to find. And there she was, wearing a… suit? Is she wearing a suit? V asked herself, I didn’t know she liked to wear them. Standing around the tall drone were several workers, one of which, a small green-eyed one wearing a suit, was behind her, hugging her in very obvious fear.
V gave another giggle, both trying to maximize the fear she would instill in the spectators around her, and a genuine laugh at the worker clinging to N. After a few moments, though, she felt the moment of her entrance had passed. Letting out a slightly disappointed sigh she switched out of her hunting stance, her wings and claws retracting as her visor switched back to her usual yellow optics. In a matter of moments she’d returned to her usual state, bearing a smirk as she looked around the room.
It was mostly just scared worker drones– petrified onlookers, though one that she recognized caught her eye, it was the drone that N had fought her and J alongside a month ago. She looked much less scared then the rest of the workers, though, funnily enough, she had another drone clinging to her. That clinging drone weirdly didn’t seem at all bothered by V’s arrival, seemingly content and distracted with snuggling up against her target.
V turned back to N to see the large drone beginning to step towards her, her expression softened as she began to speak. “V?” she gasped with surprise, fear very apparent as well.
“Hey… N… It’s been a while?” V responded awkwardly. In all of her thinking about what to say when she saw her again, now that it was happening, it all felt so much harder.
N continued stepping towards her cautiously, as if afraid that any wrong motion could set her off.
That makes sense, last time I saw her I was attacking her,
V thought to herself, the realization of how this must look to N finally setting in.
V quickly rushed to reassure her, “Don't worry, I'm not… here to… kill anyone,” she said, attempting to put on a soft smile, though she was unsure of how well it worked.
To V’s relief, it seemed to work just fine, as N dropped some of her caution and worry as she spoke again. “Oh… Awesome?” Though a statement, her tone of voice made it come out more as a question than anything else, as if asking
why
she was here.
“I left,” V suddenly announced, catching a confused N off-guard.
“Really?” N asked, the confusion melding into excitement as she spoke.
V’s invincible composure began to break down as she stepped towards her fellow disassembly drone, and suddenly she found herself suddenly
very
vulnerable, her apologies and explanations flowing out of her. “I’m so sorry N, I should have never left you for J, I know how she treated you, and I know how
I
did, and-” V’s words were suddenly cut off as she felt a heavy weight wrap itself around her in a hug.
“I forgive you V, I don't know why you did what you did, but I forgive you,” N reassured, holding her tighter as she began to shake, fighting back her tears.
After a minute of this, V pulled away from his embrace, trying her best to collect herself.
“Oh! I should probably mention, I’m a boy now?” N suddenly announced, shrugging sheepishly.
V blinked in confusion, that was
not
something she’d expected today, but thinking back… it made sense. N
had
always been more masculine than her or
especially
J, it really shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. V nodded her head. “Alright! Cool! Honestly, I probably should’ve figured that out considering… some things.”
N grinned, shrugging happily as she responded. After a moment he paused, and glanced around the room they were in.
V suddenly became acutely aware of the situation they were in, standing together, surrounded by workers showing varying levels of shock, fear, and confusion. All– that is–
but the one snuggling the purple drone, who was just staring at her in… awe? That certainly wasn’t what V was used to, but the pink drone did seem kinda weird.
The purple drone walked up to V, with her… girlfriend maybe? clinging to her, following with.
“You’re V right?” the drone said angrily, V tried to answer, but she continued without letting her. “Why exactly did you come here, after you know…
trying to kill me and everyone else here
?”
The seriousness of the situation was suddenly broken by the pink drone giggling, and announcing, “You’re hot.”
“Lizzy!” the drone at her side exclaimed.
“Uzi!” Lizzy mimicked happily, promptly cuddling her head into the crook of her neck, beginning to happily purr.
The drone– Uzi gave a pout in response, seemingly attempting to express annoyance at the situation, something she did not succeed in whatsoever.
V fought back a laugh, it had seemed the anger this ‘Uzi’ put up had less behind it than she’d thought. She turned to face the disassembler beside them, who appeared to be similarly struggling against his laugh. This wasn’t
quite
the reception she was expecting, but she didn’t exactly know what to expect, and she wasn’t about to be complaining– she’d been forgiven and let in, and that was all she could ask for.
“Uh… so what exactly is going on? Who are you? Other than the murder drone who attacked us a month ago, of course” the drone who was holding onto N earlier said, walking up to stand next to him.
“Oh! Right!” N said, “Everyone, this is V, my old squadmate! V, this is Lizzy, Uzi, and Thad!” N motioned to each drone as he said their names.
The drone named Lizzy giggled as her name was said, after a few moments giving a small wave, and widely smiling as she said “Hiiiiii!~”
V raised an eyebrow at this, simply curious for a few moments before she remembered that she had crashed a
party
, and these drones had likely been drinking who-knows-what.
“Are they-” V wondered aloud, cut off by N answering, “Drunk? Yep!”
“We should
probably
get them home,” N continued sheepishly, looking around the room. In a swift motion he scooped the green-eyed drone from his side, holding him with both his arms. He turned to face the door, taking a few steps before looking back to V. “You coming?” he asked.
V looked back and forth between N, and the pair of girls– Uzi and Lizzy, before walking over to them, and following N’s example, picking them up with each of them under one of her arms.
“Hey!” Uzi protested. “What are you doing?” The little drone flailed around under her arm, but after a few seconds determined that it was to no avail.
“Carrying you,” V responded in a flat tone, hiding her amusement.
“Well could you
stop
?” she demanded, annoyed.
“Hmm… alright fine,” V said, putting Uzi down. A part of her had wanted to drop the small drone, but she
really
didn’t want to mess up and accidentally hurt N’s friend, despite how tempting it was.
V switched to holding Lizzy with both arms, which the pink drone seemed to like
very
much. She reached up with her arms, and began snuggling V, who gave a small smile as she walked the drone out of the party, Uzi following close behind.
Silence overtook the trio, with Uzi looking down, pouting to herself as V smirked, flashing glances at the purple-haired drone every so often. The silence would last until the drone in V’s arms began loudly purring, V feeling the vibrations before the noise.
V glanced back at Uzi once again, this time catching her looking up at them, a
very
bright blush on her visor. The smirk on V’s visor grew as she paused her walking, moving the purring drone onto her shoulder, which she very quickly adjusted to, draping her hand one, and hands around V’s head.
With one of her arms now free, she quickly scooped the purple drone back up, before she had time to protest, and began walking again, content with herself and the situation. Uzi appeared to argue briefly, but didn’t really seem to actually want to.
Girls in her arms, V walked along, following N as he navigated the maze of turns and corridors. She nearly paused as she felt a second vibration, this one coming from Uzi. Sure enough, a moment later the sound could be heard. The girl on her head must have heard it too, as she giggled softly, and her blush brightened as she stared softly down at the now-purring drone.
They continued peacefully, a large smile on her face as the minutes felt blissfully long. Eventually, they arrived at N’s apartment, the cheerful drone waiting for them at the door, turning around to face them.
N’s face lit up with excitement as he saw the trio approaching. He set Thad down, and practically
ran
over to V, “You’re getting allloooong!!!” he announced, hugging V himself.
V shook with surprise, she opened her mouth to speak, intending to scoff and belittle him, but she caught herself before her habit could get the best of her.
I can’t– I don't want to be that person towards him anymore,
she thought to herself with determination, shifting herself closer into his embrace. She was going to let herself be vulnerable.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Thad POV
Thad started booting up, though he didn’t really want to. He felt warm and comfy, as if there was something… wrapped around him? Whatever it was, it felt
warm
, and…
cozy
. He subconsciously moved himself further into the embrace, and its warmth.
As he woke up a little bit more, he couldn’t help but
realize that it was
N
who was snuggling him as the disassembly drone slept.
How did he get here?
Thad thought to himself as he reminded himself of the events of the previous night.
Let’s see, Rebecca and Final Girl announced that they’re dating, I went and got a drink, we went to play spin the bottle, Lizzy kissed Uzi. Oh huh, good for them. Then… I kissed N. Oh no, I kissed N, why did I do that??? He must be mad! But he’s snuggling me? I mean he doesn’t really seem the type to hold a grudge I guess…
Thad pulled himself out of his spiral of thoughts. He scooted a little back, away from N, and out of his embrace (as much as it pained him). From his new vantage point, he could clearly see N, relaxed and sleeping peacefully. That was, until a few seconds later when the large disassembler stirred and grumbled, he turned over, pulling Thad back closer into his arms before sighing and relaxing again. Well he doesn’t seem mad Thad thought to himself, slightly amused.
To his relief, he didn’t seem to have a hangover, he didn’t really have that much to drink after all.
Oh no… Lizzy…
he thought to himself, hoping she felt okay. He snapped back to the present,he had things he had to focus on right now: the
very
cute disassembly drone he had kissed last night who was currently wrapped around him.
I mean… is that really a bad thing?
A little voice in Thad’s head said.
I mean he’s super comfy and warm, so you might as well enjoy it?
Thad wished he could argue with that logic, but he couldn’t find the words, nor the will to do so.
He snuggled in a bit closer, hearing N’s heartbeat, which… wait, heartbeat?. He was pretty sure drones didn’t have heartbeats, but it could just be a disassembly drone thing, he wouldn’t know. It felt, in a way like an almost comforting sound, a reminder that N was here and he was alive.
Thad sighed, they were both safe. He decided to check his internal clock, it was 5:28am, he didn’t need to be awake right now. Feeling the drone wrapped around him and listening to the soft thump of his heartbeat, Thad was quietly and softley lulled into sleep.
* * *
When Thad once again felt himself resurface into consciousness, it was this time due to the larger drone adjusting below him. He felt N slowly roll over, the drone in his arms (Thad) getting pulled along with him. As Thad squinted opened his eyes, he watched N do the same.
“Ack! Oh, uh, sorry!” N jumped up, quickly scrambling back as his eyes hollowed, staring into Thad’s.
“I just… do that… in my sleep sometimes,” the yellow-eyed drone reassured, a small yellow blush showing up on his visor.
“Oh, it’s fine, I get it dude! Besides, it’s… cozy?” Thad responded with comfort, feeling his own visor light up abnormally.
N watched curiously as Thad spoke, his words worked to widen his grin with joy. When Thad had finished, he suddenly felt a large presence falling on him, as he was tackle-hugged by his silver-haired companion.
Thad laughed as he was once again surrounded by N’s embrace as they enjoyed a warm hug. After a few moments, the large frame around him unwrapped, as N stood up to begin their day. He gave one last squeeze before the disassembler began his path to the exit of the room. As he started his trek, however, he turned around, and as if compelled by a force of habit not his own, he confessed the words, “I love you, dude!”
“Love you too, bro!” Thad replied, not even taking a
moment
to think.
Thad froze, the words said in the last moment alone processed in his mind, but would not compute. They spun around in circles, going through his thoughts again and again.
Did N mean romantically? That’s what I meant, but he could have meant “I love you!” in a good friend way. How do I know what he meant? Do I ask?
Thad thought.
“Y-you do?” N asked, his voice sounding soft, curious, and
excited
.
Okay he probably meant romantic. BUT he could have meant platonic and just be weirdly excited that I platonically love him?
Thad thought again, somewhat trying to convince himself.
Thad took a deep breath, nervous, “Yeah, I do. Do… you?”
The disassembly drone nodded, blushing a bit more.
He totally meant romantically right? I mean he’s blushing, so he must!
N walked forward, awkwardly reaching out to hold Thad’s hands gently.
“Yeah, yeah I do,” the larger drone replied, his face nervous, but giddy.
Thad smiled, savoring the calm moment the two shared. The little voice in his head that had been whispering
but what if he doesn’t like you like that?
couldn’t take this away from him.
…
Maybe it had a point, he should probably make sure.
“Like… romantically, right?” Thad asked, the nervousness, excitement, and happiness in his voice combining into an awkward tone.
“Yeah, yeah, romantically,” N laughed reassuringly in a manner that Thad couldn’t help but think of as
adorable
.
“Me too,” Thad smiled.
They just stood there like that for a few moments before Thad worked up the courage to speak again. “Can I- Is it okay if I kiss you?”
N grinned. “Yeah,” he nodded happily.
Thad stood on his toes as N leaned down a little and they kissed. It was
nothing
like what had happened last night, he had been tipsy and he didn’t
know
that N liked him back. But most importantly, that had been
then
, this? This was
now
. It was over a little sooner than he would have liked, but that was okay; he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be their last.
He stepped a little closer to the disassembly drone, wrapping his arms around him and resting his head against the taller drone's chest. N wrapped his arms around him in turn, sighing contentedly. He wished that this moment could stay forever.
“So does this mean we’re like… boyfriends?” N asked softly, as if trying not to break the happy silence.
“I mean, I hope so, if you want to be,” Thad answered.
“Yeah, yeah I do,” Thad didn’t need to be able to see N’s face to know that he was smiling.
They stood in each other’s arms for what felt to Thad like hours, enjoying their collective warth, and coziness. After what was according to his internal clock,
somehow
only 15 minutes, Thad moved his head, staring into N’s eyes contently.
“We should
probably
check on the girls at some point, make sure they’re doing okay,” N said softly.
Thad sighed. “But you’re so comfy! You’re probably right though,” Thad replied with a small pout.
They separated all the way, although it was somewhat reluctantly. As they walked together they tightly held their hands together, not wanting to fully let go of eachother. N quietly slid the door to his room open and stepped through. Thad followed close behind silently shutting the door behind them.
Laying on N’s pull out couch were the three other drones. V was laying on her back, with Uzi laying on top of her, arms wrapped around the larger drone. Lizzy was next to them, but was practically
clinging
onto them with how she was hugging them both, her head laying on V’s shoulder.
Thad leaned his head against N’s arm as he quietly tried to suppress a laugh. “I think we should make them some pancakes for when they wake up.”
N looked down at him. “Good idea, they could also be to celebrate the fact that you’re my boyfriend now!” he replied with excitement, and a grin.
“That sounds good to me,” Thad said, kissing N for the second
real
time.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lizzy POV
Lizzy felt herself slowly wade into the pool of consciousness as she woke up. Her first waking thought was her noticing how
comfortable
she felt. Her moment of bliss was quickly followed by the sudden pain jolting through her as she recognized her
massive
headache, who in the world programmed that? As she started to (unwillingly) continue to wake up, she realized exactly
why
she was so comfortable: the two drones she was holding in her arms, snuggling within one big cuddle pile.
One of said drones was someone who she liked a
lot
more than she’d like to admit, and the other one… her memory was getting annoying, like she
really should
remember who they were, but just couldn’t. The confusion surrounding that only increased as Lizzy recognized that the large drone was a
disassembly drone
. That fact would probably have done a much bigger number on her were it not for her
blistering
headache making itself known again, and the fact that the murder machine was currently holding onto Uzi like a teddy bear.
Lizzy’s attention found itself drawn to a strange ambience coming from the kitchen. She slowly extracted herself from the two other drones, both to investigate, and
hopefully
find something to help with the blistering pain in her head. Glancing towards the still-cuddling drones as she sat up, she couldn’t help but regret leaving the embrace, she had been
quite
comfortable where she had been. She turned to see who was causing the commotion in the kitchen, after her visor adjusted to the
painfully bright
room, she recognized the frames of N and Thad. The pair of drones standing in the kitchen, performing a sloppy attempt at the art of cooking. They would occasionally make eye contact with each other, and dissolve into smiling messes, not to say they weren’t already smiling a
lot
.
After several moments of this, Thad paused, his eyes meeting Lizzy’s as he glanced over at her. “Good morning sleepyhead!” he greeted cheerfully, “sleep well?”
“Ughhh, I’m never drinking again. Thad, never let me drink again,” Lizzy groaned.
“I mean I can if you want,” Thad offered with amusement and sarcasm.
“You know that I don’t. What
happened
last night?” Lizzy sighed, rubbing her head.
“You got drunk and very cuddly. Like
really
cuddly. It was actually kind of adorable,” N answered, entering the conversation himself, whisk in hand as he stirred something in a large metal bowl.
“I wasn’t going for adorable. This is why I don’t like to get drunk around other people. Please tell me I didn’t do anything to stupid,” Lizzy
pleaded
, praying to the most likely god she didn’t embarrass herself
too
much.
“I’m not sure, depends on what you count as stupid,” Thad said, turning back to… whatever he was doing.
“I don’t know, did I like, kiss anyone?” Lizzy wondered aloud in a question.
“Kinda, yeah,” a very sleepy voice answered from next to Lizzy.
Lizzy turned around, surprised to find Uzi awake, albeit barely. Her optics raised to find Lizzy’s own pink ones as she maintained her position, still cuddling the disassembly drone.
“Comfy?” Lizzy said, smirking at Uzi being all cuddled up with someone. She was admittedly somewhat jealous of both the drone Uzi was cuddling, and Uzi herself. That was something that she didn’t need to think about, and it was promptly pushed to the side of her mental space, along with everything else fitting the “deal with later” description.
Uzi raised a confused eyebrow at Lizzy, before waking up
just
enough to take in her current position. She turned to face the silver-haired disassembly drone she was snuggling as her eyes widened with realization. The purple-haired drone jolted up, struggling against the cozy iron grip wrapped around her, and after a few moments, succeeded. The small drone
tumbled
down her silver haired hugger, landing a few feet away, turning to face the room’s other occupant.
“Well
you
kissed someone last night, so I think I win,” Uzi proclaimed as if trying to hide her embarrassment with a sly jab. Her drowsiness, and the events of the last few seconds did her no favors in the attempt.
“Yeah? Who?” Lizzy countered sarcastically, trying (and succeeding of course) to come off as confident, and maybe a little cocky, even though she wasn’t really feeling it.
A large blush came across Uzi’s screen, the gremlin of a drone being too flustered to answer. Realization hit Lizzy like a brick as she took a step back, she hoped that didn’t mean it was Uzi, but knowing her drunk self, it
probably
was. She thought back to the previous night as it came back to her piece by piece, like a story.
Let's see, we showed up at the party, I gave a little speech, Rebecca and Final girl came out… Uzi and N were dancing, and I started drinking. Then I asked Uzi to dance, not my best decision if I want to keep this silly little “crush” under wraps, but whatever. Then… oh what came next? Oh! Spin the bottle! That must have been when I kissed someone, but who was it? Oh. Oh no. Well. It could have been worse? Not really, no it couldn’t have been. Especially with how I acted afterward.
Lizzy could feel her face light up, which sent a message she really didn’t want to be sending right now. Desperately, with her dignity on the line, she announced, “I was drunk,
idiot
, it didn’t mean anything. Don’t read into it.” It felt convincing to Lizzy, and she was pretty sure she managed to pull it off, being well versed in the art of lying and “playing it cool”.
“Yeah, I know, clearly,” Uzi said, trying to come off as aloof, but Lizzy couldn’t help but tilt her head with confusion as she picked up on a twinge of… disappointment? She debated for a second on whether or not she should pretend to fall for the act, before eventually deciding against it.
“What? Did you wish it was for real?” Lizzy mocked, she wasn’t sure what exactly was compelling her to act so mean, nor did she really
want
to. It just tended to come quite easily to her,
especially
when she was kind of nervous, right now being a great example of that.
“No! No of course not,” Uzi claimed,
anything
but convincingly.
“You did! You totally did,” Lizzy smirked, jabbing a finger at Uzi with fake surprise.
“Lizzy, don't be mean to the girl you kissed!” Thad called from the kitchen, his tone resembling one of a parent telling two siblings to stop fighting.
Lizzy rolled her eyes, despite the amount of truth the green-eyed worker’s words carried. “Whatever, Thad!” She responded, before turning back to Uzi and saying “yeah, yeah, sorry or whatever, it’s not your fault that you like me, I
am
gorgeous after all.”
“Don’t pretend you have the high ground here!
You
kissed
me
, remember?” Uzi replied, the annoyance in her voice growing with every retort.
“Yeah! Because I was
drunk
! That doesn’t mean that I… like you or anything!” Lizzy gushed, her invincible shell cracking for one vulnerable moment, before she quickly collected herself, sealing it back up.
Uzi stood up from the bed clearly exasperated, Lizzy followed, the still sleeping disassembly drone giving a light murmur. She must be a really deep sleeper, otherwise the growing argument around her would have woken her up ages ago.
“Then why were you clinging to me the whole night?” Uzi said, halfway to a yell at this point.
“Because I was
drunk
! It doesn’t mean anything!” Lizzy responded angrily.
“Being drunk doesn’t make you do just
anything
! At least
some
of that was you!” Uzi replied, her voice surpassing a shout at this point.
Thad and N just watched from the kitchen, not daring to intervene.
“Oh
shut up
!” Lizzy yelled.
“Or
what
?” Uzi challenged.
“Or… or…” Lizzy trailed off angrily.
“Not so smart now are y-” Uzi got cut off by Lizzy grabbing her head and kissing her angrily. Lizzy hadn’t the faintest idea why
that
was the course of action she went with, but it was all she could think to do in the moment. She pulled back a brief moment later, leaving Uzi standing there somewhat shocked.
“That. Shut up or that,” Lizzy said, suddenly not knowing what to do next. She felt panic and embarrassment settling in, she clearly needed to take a moment to collect herself. Making a clearing-your-throat sound, she announced “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.”
She walked confidently to the bathroom, closing the door behind her she slid to the ground, back against the bathroom door.
Oh Robo-Jesus what did I just do?
Lizzy thought to herself, her invincible façade fading as soon as she was alone.
Great job on convincing them that you don’t want to kiss Uzi, dumbass. Now what am I supposed to do?
Lizzy stood up, looking in the mirror. She sighed loudly as she thought to herself
I'm gonna have to actually tell her, aren’t I?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Uzi POV
The bathroom door slammed shut with a loud
bang
as Lizzy fled into the room. Uzi stood still, shocked. She tried (and failed) to process what had just happened.
“Not how I expected her to do that,” Thad called from the kitchen, reminding Uzi of the fact that both he, along with a concerned N standing next to him, had witnessed both their argument, and the… following events.
“Not how you expected her to do… what?” Uzi questioned, turning to him.
“Kiss you. I assumed she’d do it at least
a little
more romantically than that,” Thad said with a laugh, “though maybe I shouldn’t have, classic Liz!”
“
You knew she was gonna do that?
” Uzi asked incredulously.
“Yeah, she’s had a crush on you for forever! Even back when me and her were dating,” Thad explained.
Uzi just stared at him, her mouth hanging open. She blinked with confusion as she attempted to form words, though none would cooperate. She eventually managed to squeak out a “what?”
Thad just shrugged and turned back to cooking, N turning around too, but not before giving the green-eyed worker a kiss on the top of his head.
“Wait, what? Did you just kiss Thad?” Uzi wondered aloud. This day had only started about 10 minutes ago and it was already
incredibly
strange.
“Oh, yeah, we’re, uh, dating now!” N announced, turning around again to face Uzi, beaming.
“Oh, uh, cool! Can’t say I expected that, But good for you!” Uzi said, this was all growing into being a little too much for her to process right now. She reluctantly sat on the floor and groaned, what was she supposed to do now? Lizzy apparently liked her, and kissed her,
twice
. And now she was just in the bathroom, and Uzi had to figure out what to do before Lizzy got back.
Suddenly she noticed someone laughing, she jumped up and whirled around to face the source. She saw V sitting, fully awake, laughing.
What’s so funny?
Uzi thought, annoyed,
and how long has she been awake?
“What? What's so funny?” Uzi growled.
“I heard that entire thing, you guys really don’t know what you’re doing, do you?” V said, still laughing.
“Oh, and you do?” Uzi demanded. She was in all regards, exhausted from arguing at this point.
“Well I’m not in some weird complicated ‘will they won’t they’ drama, so yeah, I think I’m doing a lot better than you,” V replied, smiling smugly.
“Well if
you’re
so smart, what do
you
suggest I do?” Uzi asked, raising an eyebrow.
V smirked, standing up and walking over right in front of Uzi, looking down at her. “This,” she said. She lightly held Uzi’s chin, pushing it so she was looking up at her. She leaned down until her face was mere inches from Uzi’s.
“Can I kiss you?” she purred, her voice low and seductive.
Uzi’s eyes widened and all she could do was slowly nod. The yellow-eyed girl leaned down until their lips met, softly kissing the smaller drone. All thoughts fled Uzi’s mind, the only person she had kissed before was Lizzy, and it was never quite like
this
.
V pulled back slowly, smirking. She stood up all the way, letting go of Uzi’s face before casually strolling over to the kitchen.
“So what are you making?” V asked the spectating boyfriends, as if nothing had happened.
Uzi couldn’t hear the ensuing conversation, still too shocked to process what had just happened. She needed a break, but wasn’t sure exactly where to go. Before she thought about it too much to come to any
sensible
conclusion, she just walked into the bathroom Lizzy was still in. The door clicked open as she entered, Lizzy turning around from where she was standing in front of the mirror.
“Oh… uh- about a minute ago-” Lizzy tried to start, but Uzi just put up her hand to tell her to be quiet as she closed the door behind her, Lizzy seemed to get the message and stopped talking.
Uzi walked exhaustedly over to the bathtub and sat down next to it, holding her head in her hands as she gave a loud sigh, Lizzy awkwardly watching from across the room.
There was just
so much going on
. Only a bit over a month ago everything had been normal. Not great, mind you, but normal. She knew what to expect, no one liked her, her classmates were mean to her, her dad didn’t care about her. It wasn’t good, but it made
sense
.
Now she had just kissed
two different people.
One used to bully her and the other was a disassembly drone who had tried to
kill
her. And she liked
both
of them! On top of that, she still kind of liked N, who was dating
Thad
now. It felt like the world had just suddenly gotten flipped upside down, and she couldn’t find her balance.
Tears started to form themselves on her visor, everything was just
so much
, pausing momentarily when a voice cut through her thoughts. “Hey, Uzi… are you okay?” It was Lizzy asking, gently and softly. Uzi wanted to answer– she
tried
to, but it was just too much. She settled on shaking her head as the best way to answer.
“Do you want a hug?” Lizzy asked.
Uzi could only give a nod as an answer, her voice still refusing to respond. Lizzy sat down beside the crying girl, leaning over and wrapping her up in her arms. Uzi turned, grabbing the pink drone, and reciprocating the hug as she brought her closer. Uzi buried her head in the other’s neck, letting the tears on her visor fall.
“Hey, it’s okay. Whatever it is, it will be okay,” Lizzy reassured, her voice sounding more gentle than Uzi had ever heard from the popular mean girl.
Uzi hoped she was right, it felt like everything was so different it could never be normal again. She just wanted to stay there forever, with this drone she liked far more than she wanted to admit holding her and telling her it would be okay. Where she could leave the outside world behind and just feel safe and loved.
A few minutes of comfortable silence followed as the girls were wrapped in each other’s warm embrace. Talking would only pick up again when Lizzy would break the silence. “Do you… want to talk about it?” Lizzy suggested quietly.
“Later,” Uzi said, shaking her head slightly, grateful that her ability to speak had come back.
Lizzy just held Uzi a bit closer, smiling as she said “okay.”
Will things ever be normal again?
Uzi thought to herself, the answer to which seemed to be a clear and resounding “no”. At least… not the old normal, but maybe there could be a
new
normal, one where she had people who loved and cared about her, and she could be happy. Where she wouldn’t be settling for “normal” but instead for “good”.
“Hey Uzi?” Lizzy asked, interrupting Uzi’s train of thought.
“Yeah?” Uzi answered quietly.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for kissing you earlier without asking. I just panicked and wasn’t thinking, but I should have asked,” Lizzy said. Uzi had to admit, she didn’t really expect an apology, but she appreciated it anyway.
“Thanks… for the apology and the hug,” Uzi responded, her voice quiet and sheepish.
“Anytime,” Lizzy asserted. “And I mean that.”
Uzi closed her eyes and let out a content sigh. She felt safe with Lizzy, in an entirely unexpected turn of events, Lizzy felt like
home
. Even if she wasn’t perfect, and could be mean sometimes, she cared about Uzi, and Uzi couldn’t help but care about her.
“Hey, uh, Lizzy?” Uzi said, pulling back from the hug just enough that they could look each other in the eye.
“Yeah?” Lizzy asked, tilting her head slightly.
“You um… You weren’t
wrong
, earlier. I…
did
want you to kiss me, I
did
want the kiss last night to not just be a drunken mistake,” Uzi confessed sheepishly, looking over to the side, unable to meet the pink drone’s eyes.
Lizzy stared into the purple drones eye’s for a few brief,
terrifying
seconds, before a large smile spread across her face.
“Well, luckily for you, I
did
want to kiss you. And admittedly last night was…
kind of
a drunken mistake, but… was also something I wanted to do in the first place,” Lizzy responded,“I was just… scared you wouldn’t like me back.”
Uzi looked back at Lizzy, who was giving her a nervous smile. “Do you… like… want to date or something?” Uzi asked tentatively.
“Yeah, yeah I do,” Lizzy said, her smile widening. Uzi giving her own in return.
They stared at each other for a few moments before Lizzy spoke again.
“Hey, um… I feel like our first two kisses didn’t
exactly
go well… would you maybe want to… try again?” she offered.
“Yeah, I’d like that… or whatever,” Uzi replied, smiling a little bigger than her uncaring tone would have suggested.
Uzi somewhat awkwardly leaned in a bit, she had never really…
kissed
someone. Sure, she had been kissed by other people (three times in the last 24 hours), but had never really done the kissing
herself
. Lizzy seemed to notice Uzi’s nervousness and gave her a reassuring smile.
Lizzy put a hand on the back of Uzi’s head leaning in closer until their foreheads were pressed together. Uzi looked away awkwardly, troubled in her effort to meet the other drone’s eyes.
“You’re not very good at this,” Lizzy giggled with a twinge of amusement.
“Oh, bite me,” Uzi said, closing the distance between them, gently and softly kissing her. She wasn’t really sure what to do with her hands, it hadn’t been entirely relevant before, but now that it was she wasn’t sure what to do. Lizzy seemed to have a much better grasp on the concept, keeping one hand behind Uzi’s head, somewhat tangled in her hair, the other on Uzi’s upper leg.
Uzi, deciding she should probably do
something
with her hands, reached up to pet the back of the girl’s head. Lizzy pulled away a little, laughing.
“Did you just
pet
me?” she giggled.
“I don’t know… you have like… cat ears? On your helmet?” Uzi gushed out, somewhat embarrassed.
“Oh my god, you’re
adorable
,” Lizzy teased, laughing harder.
“Bite me,” Uzi said, rolling her eyes, the smile adorning her face not wavering in the slightest.
A knock came from the door, shortly followed by Thad’s voice announcing “Hey, uh, pancakes are ready! Come out whenever, No pressure obviously!”
Uzi and Lizzy looked at each other, and dissolved into a collective giggling mess. “Coming!” Lizzy managed to call out through their joint laughter. She collected herself, standing up and offering a hand to Uzi to help her do the same. She took it, standing up and smiling at Lizzy.
If this is the new normal, maybe that's alright.
Uzi thought to herself contently, the pair taking their first steps towards the realm of breakfast.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
V POV
V could hear the soft click of the bathroom door opening as she sat on the once-bed now-couch that she had slept on the night prior, holding a plate of pancakes drenched in syrup.
She turned her head to see a pair of drones emerge from the bathroom, holding hands. N, who was in the kitchen but hadn’t yet turned around to see them, spoke first, “You’re dating, aren’t you?” he asked, never once turning to face them as they approached.
“Uh…yeah?” Uzi responded, bewildered.
“I
knew
it! My lesbian senses were tingling,” he announced with
full
seriousness, turning around with a plate of pancakes and taking a seat on the couch next to V.
Thad followed N, sitting next to the taller drone, his own plate in hand, and head on his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Wait, are you guys dating?” Lizzy questioned with amusement, pointing at them. It seemed that Lizzy hadn’t heard the news yet, having been in the bathroom when they announced it.
“Oh, yeah, since a few hours ago!” Thad answered, grinning.
“Oh nice! I was wondering when that would happen,” Lizzy said, giving them a smile before taking Uzi’s hand. She casually strolled over to the kitchen, purple gremlin-drone in tow.
There was silence as the two girlfriends got their food and sat on the floor, the couch was too crowded for two more to join on.
“So I take it my advice helped?” V teased in between bites of pancake.
Uzi shot glare at her in response, but wasn’t able to disguise the blush showing up on her visor. Lizzy looked back and forth between the two, confused.
“What advice?” Lizzy asked.
The only answer either of them gave was V shooting a daring look towards Uzi. She
really
wanted to see the purple-haired drone answer the question, though Uzi was most likely too awkward or flustered to do so. The blush on her face spoke volumes more than she probably wanted. The daring moment came to an end as Thad cleared his throat, and spoke up.
“V and Uzi kissed,” Thad said flatly.
Uzi looked over somewhat nervously at her new girlfriend, unsure of what her reaction would be.
“You
what
?” Lizzy demanded, appalled. “You kissed V…
without
me?”
V burst into laughter,
what did she just say?
“Anytime, Liz,” she joked, though she meant it more seriously than her tone would imply.
Lizzy raised her eyebrows in a way that seemed to imply more surprise than any sort of reservation at the idea. She carefully stood up, eyes meeting V’s with intent as a smile adorned her face, but then paused, turning to Uzi. She made a motion between herself and V in a way that seemed to imply the question “Can I?” Uzi gave a more complicated response, gesturing to herself, the both of them, and at V, before eventually ending with a smiling nod. Lizzy seemed to have followed the message much better than V managed, giving an affirmative thumbs up before standing.
“Well, if you're offering,” Lizzy giggled with a small smirk, walking over to V.
V gave a small laugh, and a smirk, lightly grabbing the front of Lizzy’s shirt once she was close enough.
V pulled Lizzy into a passionate kiss, the pink drone bringing both of her hands up so they were tangled in the other’s silver hair, pulling herself closer. V kept her hold on the front of Lizzy’s shirt with one hand, moving her plate of pancakes off her lap with the other. Lizzy took the cue and climbed onto V’s lap, now taller than the disassembly drone which meant V had to lean her head back a bit to keep kissing her. She released the front of Lizzy’s shirt, moving her hands onto the smaller drone's waist. Lizzy was a
much
better kisser than anyone she had kissed before.
After a few blissful moments, they finally separated, their faces still right next to each other. A goofy smile spread across the pink drone's face.
“Oh you’re
in
,” Lizzy said.
“In… what?” V asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lizzy paused for a moment, before releasing V’s hair and standing up, climbing off of V’s lap. She held up a finger to V, non-verbally telling her to wait a moment, her face conflicted in contemplation. She walked over to Uzi, whispering something in her ear before taking the short drone’s hand, and leading her into N’s bedroom.
V watched the two girls take their leave before taking her plate back from N’s lap, where it had been sitting since Lizzy took its place. She fought to stop herself from blushing, that was a
good
kiss, and from an admittedly
very
cute girl.
“I wonder what they’re doing,” V thought out loud.
That was apparently what pushed N and Thad over the edge, the pair going from small snickering, to
bursting
into laughter. V shot them a scowl as she crossed her arms, looking up as N leaned out and met her eyes.
“V, I’ve watched you kiss
both
of those two in the last
15
minutes, what could only be described as
breath-takingly
,” N stated, “If I had to guess, they’re
probably
planning on how best to get you ‘in’ to their relationship.”
N sat back in his spot next to Thad, V giving him a dumbfounded blink, before relaxing back herself.
“Oh,” V said, a little caught off-guard. “I just assumed they were making out or something.”
“Nah, they’re probably waiting for you to be there for that,” Thad joked, somewhat sarcastically.
V nearly spit out her pancake, luckily managing not to. She took a moment to collect herself, finishing her bite, then attempted to change the topic. “Oh by the way, congrats on your new relationship!”
Her plan worked perfectly as the golden retriever of a drone’s visor light up brightly, him turning to hug Thad, lifting the green-eyed drone off the ground briefly as he snuggled him close.
V smirked at the pair as Thad’s visor lit up as well, the two clearly enjoying their moment. V finished the last bite of her pancakes and took her plate into the kitchen, quickly rinsing off the syrup before sitting back down on the couch. After a few short moments, she heard the door to N’s room open.
Lizzy and Uzi walked into the room, one with excitement and confidence, the other more shy, though with excitement of her own. Lizzy strolled over to V, sitting on the armrest beside her, Uzi just behind her.
Lizzy took a breath, calming her nerves, before saying “V, girl, you’re like,
hella
hot. Do you like, wanna date me and Uzi?”
Her expectation of this being what they asked her was drowned out by the wash of surprise that they were
actually asking her
. Saying that it caught V off guard would be an understatement, she could only
hope
her attempts at hiding it were successful. She looked both of them up and down, both to give herself a second to recenter herself and to
attempt
to salvage her confident image.
“And you’re
both
asking me this?” V asked seriously, her gaze turning to Uzi, hoping not to put
too
much pressure on the nervous purple drone.
“Uh-I-...yeah,” Uzi stuttered, clearly nervous, but she rolled her eyes in what seemed to be an attempt to hide that fact. She wasn’t doing a very good job at it though, unhelped by the blush that had found its way onto her visor.
N and Thad stood up to give them a moment and take their plates into the kitchen, N glancing back giving any, or (more likely) all of them a thumbs up. V rolled her eyes with amusement before turning her attention back to the girls next to her.
“Hell
yeah
I will. You two are both
super
cute!” V answered, a smile spreading across her face, her confidence unwavering.
They both took a moment to process her words, but as soon as they did, V could see the effect they had. Uzi blushed with embarrassment, while Lizzy loudly squealed, reaching out to hug the silver-haired drone, but managing to fall on top of her in the process.
V snickered as she was embraced by the purple-haired drone from the other side, having taken N’s vacant space. Before she even knew it, she found herself sandwiched between them.
V felt herself relax in the comfortable silence, her arms around her newfound girlfriends– and theirs around her. The gentle vibrations Lizzy’s purring joined by Uzi’s a moment later.
V let out a content sigh. Running away was the best decision she could have made.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
J POV
J groaned, letting V run away was the worst mistake she’d ever made.
The squad leader soared through the air, her grace only challenged by her aimlessness as she circled the place she had been so desperate to avoid– the bunker of N’s betrayal.
It had been a number of months since she’d last seen it, avoiding it like the plague in the time since. That privilege had been denied from her after V left.
She hadn’t seen her silver-haired girlfriend since (
were they even still girlfriends?
), not even a single
trace
. No footprints, no corpses akin to her handiwork– nothing. It was as if she’d just disappeared off the trace of the earth.
Or… maybe she was hiding
below
it.
No. V would never do that, she’d never stoop so low as to run to N!
J bit back at herself, yet her eyes and mind still found themselves pointing back to the cursed bunker. She’d been considering trying to… strike a deal of
mutual assistance
with her former coworker, maybe she’d be able to find out if V had been spotted
anywhere
. She would never admit it, but her longing to find her girlfriend was challenged by another nuisance–
worry
.
Drones didn’t just…
disappear
like that, especially disassembly drones, and
especially
not V! But she…
had
to be okay, she repeated to herself– she was
sure
that V was okay. Her self-reassurement couldn’t keep a small,
annoying
part of herself from fearing the worst.
She hadn’t been this scared since– nope, nope, back down that thought goes.
J distracted herself by focusing on her breathing– taking a deep vent in, followed by a deep vent out, pausing after each. She focused her mind on the noises around her: the falling snow, the rushing wind, the worker drone footsteps, wait… why were there worker drone footsteps?
The disassembly drone opened her eyes, pausing the breathing exercise she’d learned from– nevermind. She scanned the ground below her with confusion, what would a
worker drone
be doing out in the middle of the night? In a snowstorm no less?
Despite her reasoning, her optics found themselves caught onto something: a faint red glow making it remarkably easy to find in the sea of white. In a swift motion, she flew down in a glide-like maneuver, landing dramatically in front of the worker. She felt her hand switch out instinctively into a gun, with a small, satisfying
click
.
She smirked as the drone stumbled back, though her expression wouldn’t show it, masked by the wide, emotionless X covering her visor. She took a menacing step forward, savoring the expression of fear on the worker’s visor, but was immediately taken aback when they spoke.
“О, так значит, третий беспилотник-убийца хочет проникнуть в эту
идиотскую
колонию?”
(Oh, so a third murder drone wants into that
idiotic
colony?)
The worker rolled her eyes, her voice dripping with both sarcasm and annoyance.
J grimaced at the nickname these toasters had given them–
murder
drones? Did they even care to get their names right? And why did she speak
Russian
? Those thoughts went quiet as they were drowned in realization as J fully processed what the toaster had said.
Wait, there’s two of us in the colony? Wait… that means…
“What did you just say?” J growled, interrupting herself, her eyes shifting from the threatening X to her pair of yellow,
very angry
eyes.
The red drone stumbled back, widening her eyes for a second before her bravery returned, “Ты здесь для того, чтобы присоединиться к двум другим таким же, как ты, в этом бункере идиотов?”
(Are you here to join the other two of your kind in that bunker of idiots?)
she repeated.
“Other…
two
?” J spat furiously, lowering her gun-arm to glare into the Russian-speaking drone’s eyes. “What do they look like?” J demanded, taking another step towards her.
The red-eyed worker glanced towards her cautiously, before letting out a sigh, and answering. “Вон та жизнерадостная девушка в шляпе... и
ее
”
(There’s that cheerful one with the hat… and
her
)
she said, pausing as fury and hatred ran in her eyes. Before J could even question what she meant by that, she continued, “Она отняла у меня родителей, а теперь еще и Лиззи.”
(She took my parents from me, and now she’s taken Lizzy.)
J paused, her mind racing, she
hoped
,
clung
to the chance that it wasn’t V, that it was
anyone
else. The back of her mind already knew the answer, but she had to be sure.
“Describe…
‘her’
.” J stated, hoping the desperation could be kept out of her tone.
“Этот фальшивый ангел? У нее, как и у тебя, есть прищепки для ног, куртка, и, кажется, ее имя или "обозначение" - Ви?”
(That false angel? She has pegs for legs like you, a jacket, and I think her name or ‘designation’ is V?)
she answered, momentarily distracted from her anger, though quickly circling back.
J felt her eyes hollow, her high internal temperature standard for disassembly drones felt eerily
cold
as she took a step back.
“She really ran to that
idiot
?” she said in disbelief, unable to contain her thoughts in her mind.
She felt herself fall into an old habit of hers when similar things would happen– pacing. She began walking back and forth, her tracks in the snow overlapping as despite her…
company
, she stared onward. She began spilling her thoughts aloud, the disbelief and
hurt
she felt not letting her reason effectively.
“Did she
ever
even care? Did she think I’d forget? That I wouldn’t be worried if she disappeared into the night? Was she ever planning on coming back to at least let me know she was
alive?
”
J kept pacing back and forth, her ranting growing more sporadic as it continued, until eventually, with a deep breath, she managed to collect herself. She turned to the red-eyed toaster that had, until that point, been watching her with some sort of amusement.
“Listen… I have… a business proposal for you” J reluctantly offered. She really would have rathered not get help in this plan, much less that of a toaster. Despite her feelings, however, she couldn’t deny the fact that she knew that she wasn’t going to be let into that bunker. Getting someone on the inside would be nothing but a benefit to her.
“Что… ты это имеешь в виду?”
(What… do you mean?)
the red-eyed drone asked with suspicion, “Что это за предложение?”
(What kind of
proposal
?)
“It seems we share a…
common interest
.” J explained, as contemplative and put-together as she could.
“Я вижу… так ты предлагаешь нам поработать вместе, чтобы вернуть тебе эту… Ви? И, следовательно, она больше не будет нас беспокоить?”
(I see… so you’re offering that we work together to get this… V back to you? And therefore she won’t bother us anymore?)
the toaster remarked, sounding intrigued by the idea.
J nodded approvingly, this toaster might end up being a bigger help to her than she’d initially thought. As a matter of fact, she actually seemed like a good associate, at least for the time being.
The toaster in question stuck out a hand, offering a handshake. “Я принимаю твое предложение, я помогу тебе войти, а ты поможешь мне изгнать этого демона.”
(I accept your offer, I will help you get in, and you will help me get that
demon
out.)
The disassembly drone couldn’t help but feel surprised, why exactly was she including herself in the fighting bit? She brushed it aside, treating it as unimportant as it was. She took the outstretched hand, shaking it, and giving a small, professional smile.
“J,” she said, giving her name.
The worker smiled back, “Кукла.”
(Doll)