Work Text:
A robot looks ahead blankly at the wolf before it. It is unsure how to feel about this creature, but it feels a pull as if it must be forced near at all times. It feels as if the wolf is a growth on itself that it must keep at all times.
“What is love?” the robot asks, tone as bleak as the stares it gives.
The wolf gives a sly grin.
“Love is what you feel for me.”
The robot feels a drop in its nonexistent stomach.
It feels uneasy. The robot feels. It feels like the wolf has lied, as it wraps its familiar paws around it again. As it is drawn into the dense fur that would almost smother it to death if it simply had lungs. As the wolf refuses to let go, making the robot stay still.
The robot feels unsafe.
The robot feels very unsafe…
—
The robot wakes from its charging cycle with what could be best described as fear.
The robot never knew what to say it felt. The robot felt emotions were a lie, like the suggestion of them even existing was just another lie out of the wolf’s disgusting muzzle. The disgusting muzzle that forced itself into the same space the robot existed in. The same disgusting muzzle that forced itself onto the screen of the robot’s face. The same disgusting muzzle that–
The zombie sits up, looking over slowly at the robot in the same room.
“Are you okay?” the zombie tilts their head, worry trying to paint itself on their face.
It looks back.
No.
No…
He.
He looks back.
The robot lets a digital smile spread across his face. Uneasy, but there. The robot feels… comfort. The robot feels safe. The robot feels loved, even if he cannot understand what love feels like itself.
“I’m okay.”
The robot stares happily at the zombie before him. He knows how to feel about this creature, like a pull of the spiraling universe has brought them together for the better. He feels as if the zombie is still a separate person who simply means the world to him.
The robot is happy.
The robot is happy…