Chapter Text
It was a late, ordinary night on the post-apocalyptic husk of Copper-9. The freezing bones of the human race scattered around the land, the toxic planetary wide death-storm that refused to quiet down, and the discarded chunks of frostbitten machinery littered everywhere you look like one worldwide winter junkyard. A typical night for what little automated life remained, especially to an unsuspecting worker drone.
Despite the disassembly drones’ surprising yet unsurprising acceptance into worker drone society after befriending a few in particular, there comes a time where they must eat. The moment their body temperature exceeds normal levels, their only option to prevent overheating is the sweet, refreshing taste of a worker drone’s oil.
Well, in most cases..
Since their acceptance into Outpost 3, N (and begrudgingly V) had sworn off on the constant overhunting and terrorizing of the worker drones, especially when within confines of the bunker. Rather, instead of slaughtering drones for their blood, Uzi Doorman had graciously offered to donate some of her own whenever N would need it. For V, she preferred to scavenge for already dismantled drone parts, though occasionally couldn’t help but pick off a few lesser intelligent beings who wandered too far from home. It was an interesting situation Uzi found herself in, but felt a sense of pride in the fact she was the one to ‘tame’ the drones who constructed a four hundred and ten foot corpse spire, not that it took a lot of effort with N.
The same drone that had murdered dozens with little thought, was currently curled up in a ball on a certain angsty drone’s bed, giggling and clutching a pillow like a teenage girl. The owner of said pillow was at her computer, reading off poorly written creepypastas to him and using exaggerated corny voices.
“Heeheehee! How’d those kids even get those guns anyways?!” N asked through his bouts of laughter. “I’m here wondering how the guy’s hair was dyed black after being set on fire.” Uzi replied with an amused grin. “To think I actually thought this was cool when I was a kid, maybe because I didn’t actually read it…” The emo drone swiveled in her chair to face him, leaning back in the seat comfortably with her arms crossed. “Slenderman is way better anyways, trust me.”
“Whaddya think it would’ve been like if we both grew up on the internet? Do you think we’d be friends online too?” N curiously speculated, moving to cross his legs on the bed to face her better. He didn’t have a ton of memories of his childhood, but most of if not all types of online entertainment was completely foreign to him.
“Pfft, I doubt it. Would you have also spent your time trying to code credit generators in order to buy all the cool expensive stuff on IMVU?” Uzi asked with a sly smirk, raising a brow at him playfully. He blinked stupidly at her, pursing his lips in thought.
“Uhhh… I’d play that one game with you with the cute puppies and bracelets!” N replied, smiling sweetly at her. “I wasn’t a dog, I was a WOLF! A cool sleek wolf. And they’re not bracelets! They’re spiked collars I scammed members out of because wearing stolen accessories is more badass!” Uzi huffed at him, N always found her feisty personality endearing, his smile never leaving his face when they’re hanging out. “Sending you a friend request right now~! Ooh, here it comes!” N set her pillow aside to make his way over to the end of Uzi’s bed, holding out a fist bump where she sat. Uzi snickered, small lines of blush appearing on her visor before bringing her fist up to return the gesture. “Yeah yeah, request accepted…” She muttered bashfully, avoiding eye contact with a softer look on her face. N gazed at her gentle expression, one he didn’t get to see as often, but affected him every time he did. Suddenly, he felt a warm feeling deep inside him, something he would’ve chalked up to feelings of appreciation for his best friend if not for the artificial growling sfx that played near his black silicone stomach, taking them both by surprise. “Aha… excuse me.” N chuckled awkwardly, slowly retracting his fist bump and sitting back on the bed with an embarrassed blush displayed on his screen.
“Huh, well I guess that’s good timing since you’re already here with me. You hungry?” Uzi asked thoughtfully. Even though it’s been several months since N started relying on Uzi’s oil for sustenance, it’s a situation neither of them feel entirely normal about, one way or another.
“Would it.. be okay with you?” N asked while pressing his fingertips together, his blush remaining. “You ask that every single time. Of course I’m okay with it, it’s better than wiping out the whole colony.” Uzi reassured him as she scooted her chair close enough to where the wheels on the legs were pressed against her mattress. Like clockwork, she crossed her legs in a comfy enough position and held out her index finger close to his mouth, her back hunching slightly in order to get close enough to him without getting up out of her chair, feeling too lazy to do so. N suddenly felt even hotter, his mind hesitant to hurt her despite her compliance, but his body temperature picking up the longer he stared at her. Sweat drops formed on his visor as he situated himself in front of her, now sitting on his legs at the foot of her bed and gradually curling his fingers around her thin metallic wrist. He leaned in close, his eyes slowly squeezing shut as he parted his lips, wrapping them around her finger and holding it in his mouth for a moment longer than necessary. “Come on, you’ve gotta bite down on it to get anything, dude. It’s fine, I swear.” Uzi tried to encourage him by pressing her fingertip against the incisors on his upper jaw. N let out a small, apologetic whine. It was never easy hurting Uzi regardless of the context, but he knew he had to bite down at some point, especially since the act of only gently sucking on the distractingly sweet plating of her finger is bound to gross her out at some point. N squeezed his eyes shut, Uzi picking up on the queue to brace as he bit down as hard as he could, trying to be as swift and painless as possible at releasing the oil from her body.
“Gh…” Uzi winced in pain at the initial bite, but quickly regained her composure. It was always an interesting sight to watch N feed on her. There’s only been a handful of times where she’s seen him drink anyone else’s oil that wasn’t hers, but at no point from what she saw did she see the same look of contentment on his face. It was annoyingly clear how worried he always is for her safety, but whenever he actually started to taste her, she had a feeling he preferred things this way over his initial position as a murder drone. N kept his eyes closed as he delicately lapped at the bleeding stub in his mouth, swallowing her oil in small portions at a time. It tasted even better than usual somehow, her warm, delicious blood making him feel unusually hotter rather than cooling down his systems like it normally did. “Now that I think about it actually, I bet my dad would hate you even more if we met online. He’s always on my ass about being careful about that sorta thing, but he just doesn’t get it.” Uzi tried to strike the conversation back up as N kept drinking her, filling the void with more casual chatter. “Like, does he even know how hard it is meeting actual cool people nearby? And of course the moment I DO meet someone cool nearby he has to give me a hard time for it. Whatever, at least doors are his thing so he never has a problem looking at mine when I shut him out, right?”
“Mhm…” N hummed quietly in agreement, albeit a bit distracted. He kept lapping at the oil from her finger, but he wasn’t getting any cooler. On the contrary, he felt an oddly stronger sense of hunger each time his tongue met her soft metal skin. He used his hand holding her wrist to push her finger further inside his mouth, sucking a bit more intensely in hopes he’s just a bit hungrier than usual. “W-Woah.. eat much?” Uzi joked, raising a brow at the heat from his face remaining for this long. She cleared her throat quietly and kept on chatting with him. “Anyways, I think if you grew up on the internet with me I highly doubt you’d still be as optimistic as you are. You’d probably… You’d probably be…” Uzi began trailing off a bit during her sentences, N pushing her hand deeper into his hot mouth and vigorously gulping down her oil with an odd sense of passion. His blush spread further across his face, his fingers clenching around her wrist where she could feel his body temperature increasing more and more.
“O-Okay N that’s enough, that’s enough!!” Uzi ripped her hand out of his mouth and fell backward onto the seat, N seemingly snapping out of his trance the moment he couldn't feel her anymore. His eyes shoot open in shock, an instant look of regret and worry on his face. His hand still lingered in the air from where he was holding onto her, his chest was heaving slightly as if he forgot to breathe, and the corners of his mouth still had some traces of her blood on them. “Jeez N, you almost made me pass out! You never usually drink that much.” Uzi scolded, though the look on her face turned more concerned when she saw how much worse his condition seemed to be now.
“B-Biscuits, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get carried away like that! Y-You good?” N apologized profusely, his lingering hand outstretching a bit in worry, though he found himself struggling to focus as he stared into her hazy purple eyes glowing in the dimly lit room, and the way her matching purple hair partially obstructed them.
“Are YOU good?” Uzi asked back, keeping her eyes on him while mindlessly using her solver to regenerate the missing part of her index finger.
“I-I don’t know! I still feel so toasty for some reason..” N replied, seeming just as lost as her on why he feels so full and yet still so uncomfortably hot. He felt his stomach begin to ache from how much he’s consumed, letting out a slight groan and placing his hand where it hurts. “Agh, owwwwie….” Uzi reached out and placed a concerned hand on his leg, letting out a quiet gasp at his feverish body temperature. “Uhhh.. uhh… What else is supposed to cool a disassembly drone down? Can you guys drink energy drinks?” Uzi swerved out of her chair to scavenge for a non-opened can of the robot equivalent of monster energies, which is most likely just acid. As she searched around for any other option, N’s yellow eyes slowly hollowed out as the only other possible reason for his temperature suddenly crossed his mind, which sounded more and more likely once he started putting things together. His body heating up from Uzi’s proximity, refusing to cool off even after ingesting much more oil than he’s used to, that strange craving that he confused with stereotypical hunger, those cravings getting stronger and stronger after getting a taste of her sweet, enticing body… N stood up from the bed abruptly, his face a mix of fear and fluster. Uzi stopped fiddling with her diluted cans of various acids at the sound of him getting up, looking over her shoulder at him confusedly. “N? What’s going on?” She furrowed her brows worriedly at him, watching as several sweat drops dripped down his visor erratically. “I-I–!! I need to go see V, she might be able to help!” N stammered, stepping over to Uzi’s door. “Wait!” Uzi called out, following him to the door and grabbing onto his hand, N flinching in response. “Can I go with? Y’know, in case you need anything from me?” Uzi looked up at him pleadingly, her consideration for him doing little to help the unexpected inner turmoil in his mind and body. N tried to take a long, deep breath to compose himself, his sweet smile returning on his face. “It’s alright Uzi, I’ll just go check by myself and tell you tomorrow, okay?” He said calmly while gently squeezing her tiny hand back. “It’s a school night, isn’t it? That stuff seems… important.” Uzi scoffed in response. “Important? As if. The only ‘important’ thing I plan on doing at school tomorrow is finishing my desk graffiti in detention and turning in the essay I asked you to write for me.”
“I’m confident I wrote at least five words correctly!” N giggled, his voice a bit raspy. “But yeah, you rest up and I’ll come see you tomorrow, kay buddy?” N was still visibly sweating and clutching his stomach tightly, but he still had that positive, reassuring smile on his face that managed to disarm Uzi every single time. “Kay, N. Just let me know.” Uzi said before pulling him into a farewell hug, her cheek pressed against his chest due to the height difference. N let out a soft, shuddered gasp at the abrupt contact, swallowing hard and trying to remain together while the blush on his visor glowed brighter with a vibrant yellow hue. Uzi could hear N’s heart starting to pound inside him and let go of their embrace, also taking note of his nanite tail wagging rapidly from behind. She didn’t get to comment on it however as N was already heading out the door. “Goodnight Uzi!” N called out, a tinge of fluster in his throat. “Night, N..” Uzi hesitantly waved, shutting the door to her room. She stared at the hand she was waving with, the same hand that was still covered in some of N’s slobber. “Eugh…” She winced and tried to shake it all off, wiping whatever remained on her bedsheets before flopping onto her bed face first, passing out immediately.
N let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, his sigh transitioning into a groan of discomfort as his stomach ache suddenly became much harder to ignore. He stumbled in the living room over to the exit, but halted at the sound of someone’s voice.
“You better be gentle with her. She’s a lot more delicate than she seems.” Uzi’s father Khan was leaning against the wall close by, sipping robo-god knows what from his #1 Dad cup while giving N the death stare. N’s head slowly rotated over to face him, staring at Khan like a deer in headlights, his arm still outstretched with the motion of opening the exit door. “h-hah?” N squeaked.
“The door.” Khan pointed at the exit with the hand he’s holding his mug in. “She’s my second favorite door. You better be gentle with her, especially after what you did to my first favorite door.” Khan pestered, still carrying a grudge from their first interaction. N blinked in surprise, but quickly recovered. He simply gave Khan an awkward thumbs up with his free hand before opening and closing the door as slowly and gently as possible to avoid any further confrontation.
N’s body steamed more visibly upon heading back out into the freezing outdoors, the frost doing surprisingly little to calm the heat inside him. He trudged on foot back over to the spire, feeling too bloated to fly, glass and metal shards from mutilated worker drones crunching under his heavy feet with each step. Upon making it near the entrance to the massive tower of robot genocide victims, his legs practically gave out, him plopping onto the ground with an audible “Oof..” while he waited for V to eventually show up. V had never been the most considerate drone on the planet, but N knew that she’d at least be able to either confirm or deny his suspicions about his abnormal symptoms, having dealt with him long enough to know the signs better than him. N gazed at the steam leaving his body in the wind, both fascinated and worried by the sight. He’s had some moments in the past where he went without food for a longer period of time one way or another, often due to V and J taking all of the hunts before N could get to them, but very rarely would his body be burning to this extent, and even more rarely would oil manage to make it worse. N rocked back and forth on the cold, littered ground, humming quietly to occupy himself while he waited. Eventually, he spotted the sharp, metal wingspan of another disassembly drone in the sky, circling around the spire a few times before ultimately shooting onto the ground like a large bullet, getting a bit of snow on him in the process.
V retracted her wings back into her body and made her way over to the spire entrance, carrying what seems to be the long dead corpse of a dismembered worker drone, only the head and torso remaining. She spotted N on the ground, raising a brow at his odd breathing and the steam leaving his body. “What happened to you? You look half dead.” V asked, squinting in confusion. “I-I’m feeling a lot warmer than usual.. Do you think you could scan me, please?” N asked politely, hunching over a bit to try and quell his aches a bit more.
“You could always just eat something, or did that purple thing finally cut you off?” V replied snarkily. Despite her cold words, she used her large metal claws to rip the worker drone’s head off of its body, tossing the head his way for him to eat. N grimaced at the thought of food and pushed it away the moment it landed, covering his mouth and shaking his head profusely. V only grew even more confused, dropping the torso thoughtlessly and moving closer to get a better look at his condition. She crouched down in front of him, her lengthy claws dangling off of her knees. “Well if you’re not gonna eat, then how the hell do you expect to get better?”
“I-I did eat! I ate a lot, actually…” N gently lowered his hand from his mouth, opening his eyes back up to look at her. “I kinda almost made Uzi faint by draining most of the oil from her body, but all it gave me was a tummy ache…” N explained. V squinted her eyes intriguingly at him, standing back up properly and taking a few steps back. “Alright, hold still.” V said as she began to scan his body, checking his system’s status condition.
N tried to stay completely still during her scan, but couldn’t help but squirm around from time to time due to the weird aches in his body going beyond just his stomach. “I wouldn’t be surprised if your body had just gotten sick of drinking the same oil all the time. I’d add a bit more variety to my diet if I were you.” V commented during her scan. “Isn’t all worker oil the same though?” N asked, trying to maintain eye contact with her despite her eyeing him up and down. “Clearly not, since I don’t hear you talking about other oil tasting as sweet as hers.” V replied. N blushed and brought his legs up to his knees, wrapping his arms around them. “Hmph, touché..” He mumbled.
Once V finished her scan, her eyes widened slightly, a more serious look on her face. “Ah, dammit..” She uttered. N looked back up at her, matching her expression when they made eye contact. “What? Do you know what’s going on, V?” N asked hesitantly. “N.. I think it’s happening again.” She vaguely stated. N immediately picked up on what she meant and V could see his face fall in real time.
“V… V no, quit trying to mess with me.” He tries to nervously laugh off her statement, trying to push down his increased sickness from the added anxiety of the possibility of having to deal with such a thing again. “I don’t know what to tell you, N.” V shrugged, a complex look on her face.
“V, no! There has to be a mistake! Come on, do it again! I want a second opinion!” N pleaded with her, not wanting to believe the time had come so soon. He can’t deal with this problem, not now. He struggled to his feet in order for her to scan him better despite it making his stomachache worse. He couldn’t help but curl inwards quickly after from the pain, letting out a low groan while his body temperature only got worse.
“I already did, and the signs all add up to it. The temperature, the oil, the pain, all of it. If you plan on telling her this side of you, you should probably do it soon before you embarrass yourself.” N let out a worried little huff, turning his head over to Outpost 3 in the far distance. He’s already starting to think about how he’d even begin to talk to Uzi about this part of him, feeling his cheeks getting even warmer thinking about it. He did say he’d tell her if anything was wrong, but now that his fears are confirmed, how is he ever going to explain this to her? How could he possibly isolate himself this time around without hurting her feelings? He spaced out as these questions ran through his head. He doesn’t want to accept it, but V was right about the symptoms adding up, plus now that he thought about it, this is usually the time of year this sort of thing happens to him. If it really is true, Uzi at least deserved a heads up. “Hey, best case scenario; maybe she’ll be the first one to actually relieve you, right? She looks like someone who would, honestly.” V teased. A deep blush invaded N’s face, and the implication alone flustered him enough to make him puke all of Uzi’s previously consumed oil onto the ground. “Ugh, EW! Sorry for bringing it up, I guess!” V exclaimed, wincing at him and stepping back in disgust as he retched. The oil sizzled loudly on the ground, reflecting N’s messy face back at him. It barely even started and he already felt like a wreck, which didn’t give him very high hopes for the future.