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"What do you mean you feel sick?"
"I don't know, not like sick sick," Guy-Man frowned, fingering the hem of his top. The bot has finally come to face Thomas with the problem he's been trying to hide for the past few days, "But I don't know how else to describe it."
Thomas saved his progress on the computer and turned in his chair to face Guy-Man. The golden robot was standing in the doorway of Thomas' personal studio in nothing but an oversized hoodie, chords still dangling from his neck and wrist. It was obvious he was about to go to bed. "Robots don't get sick, Guy," Thomas deadpanned, his visual scanners vaguely checking Guy-Man out as the other robot shifted nervously in place
"But I feel sick," Guy-Man said, his voice quiet in the still air, "I feel like something is wrong."
Guy-Man looked up, meeting Thomas' gaze for a moment before looking away, "Guy, robots don't--"
"I know, Thomas," Guy-Man hissed, his vocoder crackling, only slightly. Thomas perked up at that; the first indication that something may be wrong. But before he could say anything about it, Guy-Man was rushing away and out of his reach.
Thomas sat for a moment longer, vision caught in the place Guy-Man was just standing, replying that last bit over and over in his mind. Maybe something was wrong?
--
Thomas knocked on the door, softly but surely loud enough for Guy-Man to hear if he were still awake. After a moment or two of no detectable movement in the room beyond, Thomas opened to door gently, the light from the hallway spilling into the darkened room. Guy-Man is sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed, blankets pulled up all around him with lengthy wires leading away from him and to the wall. He's facing the curtained window, the glow from his charging status the only other light in the room.
Silently, Thomas walked up to the bed, settling himself neatly on top of the comforters beside Guy-Man, careful of the object he was holding in his hand. Curious as ever, Guy-Man turned to face the other, the blank canvas of his helmet quickly forming a quaint little question mark as he noticed the item Thomas has brought with him.
Thomas watched as the question mark glitched a little; pixels jumping around on the screen in a few places. It wasn't anything big or noticeable but it was still there and Thomas felt himself get curiously more worried the longer he waited.
He passed the bowl to the other robot who took it right away, golden helmet tipped towards the object as he carefully brought it to his own lap. Everything was so quiet, the air thick between them.
A few moments passed and then, "Why did you bring me this?" Guy-Man asked, a hint of a laugh in his voice. (Also a hint of static, but Thomas chose to ignore that for the time being.)
Another moment, "I," Thomas stuttered, "-- I don't k- know."
They looked at each other, "Robots can't ea--"
"I know, I know," Thomas said, hands raised defensively. He felt slightly embarrassed, "But hear me out okay?"
"Okay.."
"I mean, like i-i-it's what," His hands were waving wildly now, "w-what the humans do when they're sick. S-s-someone brings them soup. Humans e-e-eat soup when they're sick and it makes them all better you know?"
If Guy-Man could smile, Thomas has a sneaking suspicion he would be right now. He tilted his head away from Thomas, still facing the soup, his fingers tightening around the bowl ever so slightly.
It was quiet again, but this time it wasn't so much heavy as it was comfortable. Thomas let himself just sit for a while, watching Guy-Man's reactions until finally he sighed, a mechanical whir that seemed to alert Guy-Man of his presence all over again, "Here, let me," Thomas murmured as he leaned over and took the soup from his partners hands. He leaned over him further, gently setting it securely down on the bedside table.
He then proceeded to wrap his arms around him, tugging the willing bot into a lying position, holding him close and fitting their bodies (and mostly their helmets) as close together as possible. With soothing hands running up and down the length of the golden robots back, he began to whisper to him. Soft nothings that had proven to work efficiently when trying to calm him in the past luckily worked for Thomas yet again as he tried to get Guy-Man to go to sleep for him.
"I'm sorry I didn't realize something was wrong sooner," Thomas whispered amid it all.
"It's okay," Guy-Man murmured back, the static too much for Thomas to handle.
When Guy-Man had successfully entered sleep-mode, albeit a fitful one, Thomas untangled himself from his partner and immediately went to work.
He opened up the panel in the back of Guy-Man's head, flitting around in the wires, visual scanners going absolutely nuts as he searched for the problem. When he reached the small circuit board in the back of Guy's head, a quick in-depth scan brought up nothing and he felt lost already. He decided he needed to check more panels.
--
Hours passed and a few times Thomas has to coo his "fevered" partner back into sleep-mode in order to keep working but eventually he found the bug. Hidden deep in a valnerable spot on his motherboard was a tiny little virus that seemed to be messing with Guy-Man's thoughts and any visual and verbal output he tried to make. It wasn't anything big and it was easy enough for Thomas to extract and destroy, but it still felt like a giant load was taken off his shoulders when he finally got it done.
Exhausted, Thomas laid himself back down and curled himself around his favorite robot, letting his sensors turn off as he powered down for a little while.
--
When he awoke, the room was light and he quickly realized he was now plugged in and nearly fully charged. He also realized that Guy was still in the bed with him, arms still around him, head still tucked under his chin. The other was awake, however, as Thomas could feel his fingers tracing lines down his arms and along the clothing covering his chest. The silver robot didn't want to move, didn't want the golden robot to know he was awake, didn't want this moment to end any time soon. He revelled in the feeling of Guy-Man so close to him, of Guy-Man giving him all his attention in that moment.
All things must come to an end as Thomas eventually decided to gently squeeze Guy-Man in his arms, signalling that he was awake if the bot didn't already know (he did).
In a burst of movement Guy-Man untangled himself from Thomas and sat up, visor beaming a tacky smiley face down at the silver robot whose helmet followed the movements lazily and content, "Thomas," Guy exclaimed softly, "The soup, it worked!"
"What?" Thomas replied quietly, the controlled excitement never really leaving Guy-Man as he continued.
"I feel so much better now, your soup actually worked!"
Thomas felt something stir in his chest and he wanted to smile up at his bot just like the humans do in the movies. But alas, all the happy silver robot could do was reply soft, almost breathless, "yeah," before he felt himself drift off again, probably to finish charging completely for the day ahead of them. And when he was nearly gone, he felt Guy-Man fit himself back into the empty space in front of Thomas, wrapping himself around his partner and helping him get a good nights charge.