Work Text:
An old, dusty PA system garbles out barely decipherable, timid words in the room I’m in. “Uh, [Y/N]..? Could you come to my office? Please..?” Then there’s a loud pop from the speaker stopping it’s broadcast, and I’m left standing here confused and a little worried.
I make an effort to not let my worries consume me and cause me to spiral, but I also don’t ignore it outright. Immediately my legs go into action on autopilot to the memorized path that leads to Tenna’s office. I’ve walked this path so many times from many different starting points that the ghost of every movement is ingrained in my muscles.
I push open the heavy doors, slip inside, and shut it back for privacy. I would have locked it too, but unfortunately that was too high up. Tenna’s sitting at his desk with a strong grimace, which naturally heightens my worry drastically. I practically run over myself getting to him as I look for any visible injuries or anything.
“Tenna! What happened? You look…”
His face scrunches up uncomfortably and he looks away, tapping the fingers of one hand on the dark, wooden arm of his chair, and the other hand preoccupied with fidgeting with his gold tie.
“Today’s MIKE’s day off, but I’m really regretting it because uh, s-something happened… See I, I managed to accidentally step on my CORD, and…”
Sadly, he snakes his tail out from behind him, and I quietly gasp as I immediately see the tear, plug partially dangling and clearly causing strain to the injury. I look back up at his face and he looks like he’s ready to cry, condensating tears building up and everything. his hands are shaking, and seeing him like this is absolutely heartbreaking. Just our luck, of all days.
“Ohh, oh sweetheart… Don’t worry, uh, I’ll be right back, ok?”
Quickly he looks over at me with some distress, and before I even start to back away he’s leaning forward and visibly struggling not to grab ahold of me, gloved fingers trembling as he outstretches them.
“N-No! Don’t go, please! I-”
“Don’t worry! I know how to fix this, I have some stuff in my office… Just, hang tight for a second, ok?”
He whines and still looks really upset about all this, and seeing him so distressed tugs harshly at my heartstrings, but I need to go. I can’t leave him like this though, so I hurriedly pick up his hand with as much delicacy as possible and give it a little tender smooch.
“Don’t worry, I promise I’ll be back, just give me a couple minutes, ok?”
His tail barely starts to wag before he yelps and tucks it back into his lap. I wince at the clear pain he’s in, and use that as more motivation to get to my office faster, as fast as I possibly can. The heavy office door closes naturally behind me with an echoing click, and the distant noise morphs into the clicks and clacks of heels rushing down clean, tiled halls all the way to my closet of an office.
Once I reach the room, I turn on an overhead light and blindly go for a desk drawer to start digging through it. Papers and miscellaneous items are shoved around and haphazardly tossed out so I can look for… for… Aha, finally! Some scissors, rubber cleaning gloves, and electrical tape. Why I had all these things in here, don’t ask, I like getting up to weird shit.
Running so much has my sides aching and lungs burning, but it’s worth it if it means Tenna can feel better sooner. By the time I come back and can close the door behind me, I’m actually in some pain myself from exhaustion, and of course like the sweetheart he is, he frets.
“Woah, what happened? Are you-”
“Ran around way too much haha… gahh… hahh…”
It’s difficult to catch my breath, but once I feel like I can steady myself enough, I’m already marching back up to Tenna’s side with all my supplies in hand. I sit down crossed legged and set everything but the gloves beside me, which I actually decide to put on. Once I’m situated, I motion for Tenna to lower his cord so I can get a good look at it. He’s clearly hesitant, but slowly and carefully he trails it down to me, wincing and gritting his teeth the whole time in anticipation.
I gently let areas of the tail around the wound rest in my hands like an injured wing, making sure he’s as comfortable as can be. That tear looks pretty good, there’s just barely some wire peeking out, and it’s hard to not break down at the sight. I slowly pull my hands away and it remains lifted by my face while he holds it still like that for me. I find the edge of my black electrical tape and pull forward. What I have to do is for sure going to hurt, so regretfully, I brace Tenna for this.
“This is gonna hurt, but only for a moment… Think you can handle it?”
He whines fearfully and changes how he sits, struggling to stay still as worry bubbles up inside him and threatens to overflow. He looks away from me and grips the arms of his chair with a death grip, and while he’s like this, I figure I need to get to work. Before I do that though, he gives me a last little warning.
“Be careful… Don’t wanna, electrocute you or anything…”
I hum softly in acknowledgement, and I then use my knee to steady and align the end of the cord, the plug, and the rubber as closely as possible. Once straightened out, I put the end of the tape just past the injury and begin wrapping it around like a bandage. I have to pull a couple times to make sure it’s tight and secured, and whenever I do, Tenna cries quietly in pain, and every groan and yelp makes my heart feel like it’s breaking. It’s so hard not to look up at him, but if I were, I have a feeling I’d see some claw marks being etched into the chair’s armrest.
I wrap the shiny, black tape around a couple times until it seems good and sturdy, and once I’m satisfied, I grab my scissors and cut the unused wheel off. Now that I’m done, I scoot back and give him some space, but let him clearly know I’m done so he doesn’t have to worry about any further torture.
“There! How uh… how you feeling?”
He’s still grimacing as he looks back at me, but when he cautiously looks at his tail and gives it a few slow, studying sways, his expression softens a tad.
“... It’s still sore and kinda hurts, but… I feel better… Thank you, [Y/N].”
Finally I can smile again and let out a breath I never realized I was holding. My posture relaxes and I slump back a little as I feel like I can finally relax some now that the emergency has been dealt with. Boy, what a day so far.
“Thank god, and you’re welcome! I’m just glad I had everything, pretty convenient, huh?”
Softly he chuckles at my remark and his tail carefully curls back up into his lap where it can rest peacefully without risk of straining or hitting something. His hands fold carefully over the appendage and I notice how smooth his fingers look, not a trace of claws in sight… But that even slightly upbeat mood depresses again as he looks at the tape keeping his tail together. His hand reaches up to one of his antennae and flinches to a stop just before meeting the tape keeping it in place. He sighs and leans forward against the desk, and uses his arms to keep himself propped up as he sadly observes himself.
“I’m really just falling apart aren’t I? Held together by duct tape and prayers… How pathetic… Why do you even keep me around when I’m so old and fra- YEOW!”
I knew every word he’d speak by heart, and before I could let him get all mopey and self deprecating, I gave an unharmed part of his tail a light tug, just enough to get him to stop. He whines and holds his tail closer, grasping it tightly in his hands as he looks at me confusedly.
“W-What’d you do THAT for?!”
“To get you to stop talking about yourself like that!”
I have to be a little careful to avoid touching his cord, but carefully and swiftly I wrap my arms around him to hold him tightly. Even though it was impossible, I was doing my best to force my love to seep past his clothes and into the very exoskeleton that carried him.
“That’s my boyfriend you’re talking about, and I love him JUST the way he is thank you very much!”
For a small moment Tenna’s quiet, thinking quietly to himself and fighting his urges to protest. He so badly wants to point out all his flaws, but he also knew he’d be met with more love and push back and would lose eventually. He decides to give up while he’s ahead, and lets go of his tail to wrap his arms around me in an equally loving embrace.
“Besides, this injury… Is it uh, is your cord in the Lightworld damaged?”
I hear a soft hum before some echoing beeps from his antennae as he taps into his more inanimate form, looking it over for any damage aside from the broken antenna and the lightest screen burn ever.
“... No, no it seems fine.”
“Then that just means that this is a Darkworld issue, which means it should heal up, right?”
I tried to keep my tone hopeful, but truthfully I am very unsure, and so was he as he got all nervous and panicked.
“Well I don’t know! This has never HAPPENED before! I-I don’t know if ANYONE knows!”
Tenna hugs me tighter and I reciprocate the pressure as I try my best to ground and calm him in any way I can. I rub up and down his back and nuzzle my cheek against his chest, anything I can think to do to help, even if it’s not much.
“Then, we’ll wait and see what happens! Either it’ll heal, or it won’t. Either way, I promise you, it’ll be ok, ok?”
He sniffles and looks down at me with some hope sprinkling in his own expression. It’s clear he’s scared, but I’m glad he’s willing to believe me even if it takes a ton of convincing.
“You promise..?”
“I promise. I love you, Tenna, It’s ok.”
“I love you too, [Y/N]...”
I know he’s scared, I know he doesn’t completely believe or trust me, but as long as he’s willing to try, I will be here to keep reassuring him. I really don’t know what will come of this, but I will do whatever it takes to make this ok, I promised after all, and I couldn’t bear to break a promise I made to him.