Work Text:
There’s a robot at the door.
Hathaway lives a stranger life than she realized. She figures this out when her first thought upon seeing the robot is that she hopes it doesn’t wake Taylor from her nap, and that maybe she and Scales should invest in those far speech things that Carey told them about. The robot at the door is probably for Scales, but he’s out with Lucian doing… whatever they do when they’re together. It was supposed to be her day in, home alone with her baby, and now she’s going to have to track down her husband and tell him about the robot at the door. He’ll probably love it, though. He’ll be so excited.
She’s so busy thinking about how, exactly, she’ll tell her husband about the robot that it takes her a second after opening the door to realize that there’s someone with the robot. “Carey?”
“Hathaway!” Carey says brightly, and goes in for a hug. Hathaway lets her, wrapping her arms around Carey’s waist. “How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been well, how are you? How’s Killian?”
“I’m great, Killian’s absolutely great.” Carey pulls back and smiles brightly. “Can we come in?”
“Of course,” Hathaway says, and moves out of the doorway. “Scales is out right now, but I’m sure we can track him down if we need to.”
“Oh, no, we’re actually here to see you.”
Hathaway blinks. She looks slowly to the robot, who doesn’t react, and back to Carey. “Really?”
“Really.” Carey glances around the house as she walks in. “Is Taylor with Scales?”
“No, she’s down for her nap right now.”
Carey nods. “We can’t wait to see her, then.”
“You keep saying we.” Hathaway turns to the robot, suddenly uncertain. It’s still hovering outside the doorway. “Did you… did you want to come in?”
The robot doesn’t say anything, but it turns towards Carey. Carey gestures at it, and it makes its way into Hathaway’s house.
“So,” Carey says casually, “you’ve probably noticed by now that this isn’t my fiancee.”
“Either that or Killian had some work done,” Hathaway agrees, looking the robot up and down.
To her surprise, the robot laughs at that, a single, short burst before it claps its hands over its mouth. Its shoulders are shaking.
Hathaway looks at Carey in alarm, which isn’t helped by the fact that Carey looks a little teary. “Carey?”
Carey swallows. “I can’t tell you everything,” she says, voice thick.
“I know,” Hathaway murmurs. In the handful of times Carey has visited, she and Killian have tried to explain what they do, and she and Scales have a general idea of it now. Even with the way their words fizzle out into static sometimes, she understands the broad strokes of what they do. Robots aren’t entirely out of the question. Crying normally is.
“But, uh, there was a thing a while ago. I can’t really get into it but it involved the fzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, and we kind of had to save the world-”
“Again.”
“Again.” Carey half-smiles, tears now rolling down her cheeks. “And there was this guy who figured out how to put the souls of the dead into robots, and…” she turns to the robot, looking helpless.
Hathaway stares. “So you were a person,” she says. Her heart is pounding, like it figured out what’s going on before her brain has had the chance. “Someone I knew who died.”
The robot nods. Hathaway bites her lip. She hasn’t known many people who have died, at least not recently. “You can talk, I heard you laugh before. Why haven’t you said who you are?”
The robot makes a noise curiously like a sniffle. “Because,” it says, and Hathaway feels it like a punch to the stomach, “I don’t know if you’d recogn-”
“Noelle,” Hathaway sobs, and rushes forward. Her cousin, her favorite cousin is here. Her cousin who taught her how to braid hair and that elbowing someone in the face is more effective than punching them, her wonderful cousin who was in Phandalin, is alive. Her cousin is a robot, which maybe isn’t too normal, but Hathaway is willing to take it.
Noelle catches Hathaway easily, hovering down to wrap her arms around her. Hugging a robot isn’t very comfortable, not that that’s a surprise; there’s no hair for Hathaway to bury her face in, and the hand stroking her back is too cold. But it’s Noelle’s voice that’s hiccupping as she says “Hathaway, Hath, Hath, ” and the way one of her hands cups the back of Hathaway’s head is Noelle, through and through.
“I missed you,” Hathaway says. Her breath is hitching deep in her chest. She knows that if she’s much louder she’ll wake her daughter, and that’s the only reason that she doesn’t howl with unfiltered joy. “Noah, I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Hath, so much.” Noelle’s arms tighten around her. “I wasn’t sure what you would say, if you-”
“If I saw my robot cousin?”
Noelle laughs. Hathaway feels it vibrate through the metal, into her own chest. “Exactly. There’s been a lot going on, but Carey told me you married her brother, and I couldn’t believe it.”
“I guess it’s a small world.” Hathaway finally pulls away enough to look at Carey, who wipes away a tear and smiles. She has so much she wants to say, but all she can manage is, “How?”
“Long story short, we work together.” Carey’s smile widens. “I couldn’t believe it when Scales said he married a Redcheek.”
“You work together?” Hathaway turns back to Noelle in surprise. If Carey’s some kind of badass bounty hunter government agent, that must mean Noelle is too. “Was your life goal always to work somewhere that other people can’t know about?”
“Only when I found out most taverns don’t want a robot to tend bar.”
Hathaway laughs and leans her head against Noelle’s shoulder, ear pressed against the metal. She can hear something whirring softly inside her chest. “You’re not as comfy as you used to be.”
“Sorry,” Noelle says, so chagrined that Hathaway instantly feels bad.
“More surface area, though,” she says, and makes herself as comfortable as possible. It’s a hell of a task, given that Noelle’s shoulder is sheet metal, but she finds a position that probably won’t end with a sore neck. “Did Carey tell you that you have a baby cousin now?”
“She did! Did you really name her Taylor Swift?”
“Scales’s idea. I wanted her to be named Kate.”
“Short for Katy Perry?”
Hathaway grins. “Maybe.”
“You and Scales were meant to be,” Carey says, half-awed.
“He sings, I dance.” Hathaway shrugs. “Some matches are made in heaven.”
Noelle laughs and curls one arm around Hathaway’s waist. “I’d love to meet him,” she says, but Hathaway doesn’t miss the uncertainty in her voice.
“And you’re going to,” Hathaway says firmly. “He’ll be home soon, so if you want-”
“Hath! Honey, guess what!” Scales calls from the door. Hathaway has to clap a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. She can hear him bounding up the front steps to the house, followed by what has to be Lucian’s more even steps. “We were out in town and someone said that there was a robot visiting! A robot, Hath!”
“Oh my god,” Carey whispers. “He’s about to lose his fucking shit.”
“He’s about to wake up our fucking baby,” Hathaway whispers back, and Carey barks out a loud laugh.
The sound of Scales’s key jiggling in the door stops. “Is Carey there?”
“‘Sup, bro,” Carey says cheerfully.
The door creaks open slowly. “Why are you visiting?”
Hathaway smiles. “Come in and find out.”
Scales pushes the door the rest of the way open, and his jaw drops as he takes in the scene.
Lucian appears behind Scales and looks impassively at them. “It seems that your wife already knew what you came to tell her.”
“Hi, Scales,” Carey says brightly. “I’m gonna go check on Taylor.” She starts towards the stairs and in a blink of an eye she’s up them, which Hathaway supposes is par for the course.
Scales is still staring, so Hathaway smiles at him. “Honey, this is my cousin Noelle. It turns out that she and Carey work together.”
“Cousin?” Scales repeats, sounding strangled, before he comes back to himself. “Uh. She’s taller than you.”
“She’s also a robot,” Lucian says.
“Ever observant, Lucian,” Hathaway says dryly.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Noelle says, a little shy.
Scales blinks, but he smiles at Noelle, looking warm. “Hey, you too. Hath has a pretty big family, I guess it makes sense that one of you would look way different from the others, huh?”
Noelle laughs at that, sounding pleased, and Hathaway silently breathes a sigh of relief. She’s very, very lucky to have a husband who’s so good with her family. “Scales, I was thinking Noelle and Carey could stay for coffee or something, but we’re fresh out of that coffee I like. Is there any way that you could go back into town, to that one store? I know it’ll take you about an hour, but I would really love it.” She offers her most winning smile.
Scales, bless his soul, seems to pick up immediately on what she’s saying. “You need time to catch up, I’ve got it. C’mon, Buttwatcher, let’s go get my awesome wife some more coffee.”
“I don’t think robots can drink coffee,” Lucian mutters, but he starts out the door.
“Wait, hold on-” Hathaway pulls away from Noelle to go over towards Scales. She leans up and kisses him lightly, just to see the way he smiles at her. “Thank you.”
“Hey, long lost family is kind of our thing now,” Scales says breezily. “We’ll be back with coffee, and, uh.” He looks at Noelle questioningly. “Motor oil? Is that- do you do that?”
“I don’t,” Noelle says, but Hathaway can still hear the way she’s smiling. God, she missed Noelle. “But thank you for offering.”
“No problem. Drop by any time if you want to see your cute baby cousin.” Scales beams with pride before glancing at Hathaway one last time. “See you soon?”
“See you soon,” she affirms, and squeezes his hand before he leaves. As soon as the door is closed, she turns back to Noelle. “I just bought us another hour to catch up before he comes back.”
“You were very, very subtle about it, both of you.”
“We’re doing our best, Noah,” Hathaway mutters.
Noelle laughs. “So can I meet my cute baby cousin?”
“Of course you can.” Hathaway reaches out and takes Noelle’s hand. She knows Noelle can’t feel it, but it’s good to have something of her cousin to hold onto. “C’mon. Taylor’s waiting.”
“Taylor’s waiting,” Noelle agrees, and they start up the stairs together.