A/N: I wasn't going to do another Anolug fic for this month, but then I figured, well, why not? And I actually had some good answers to that question, but, eh. I'll worry about that later. In the meantime, here we are and here's some fluff!
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Lug's plating pulls slick against her frame as she feels Anode's spinal strut straighten beneath her. That answers the question of whether Anode overhead the chat going on in the corner of the inn lobby. Why she bothered to question whether Anode would catch wind of the slightest word of treasure-hunting, Lug has no idea. Anode at least has the decency to acknowledge Lug's upset, petting at one of the straps around her shoulders to sooth without words as she pays down on a room for one and bounds off with their key card in hand.
"So," she says the moment they've got a closed door behind them.
"No," Lug cuts her off before she's even finished transforming. Anode's pout is already parted around a protest as she turns, but Lug won't hear it. "Anode. No."
"But–"
"You promised."
Anode winces, caught flatfooted without an argument. She makes a few meaningless gestures, lips flapping around nonsense noise like she's waiting for someone else to stick a good point in her mouth. Maybe she is– she's always had a set limit of how much responsibility she'll accept for the trouble she finds her way into.
Lug waits her out, arms crossed and foot tapping. A week of rest and relaxation, just the two of them, was what Anode had assured her; not exactly the settling down that Lug's been campaigning for, but still something. It isn't often she can win against Anode– her brilliant fool of a partner excels at being right no matter how wrong she is– but Anode made her a promise and, by Primus, Lug is going to see it kept.
"Just think," Anode finally settles on, throwing out her arms, "if this pans out, we can get a room meant for two!"
"Why?" Lug snorts, shouldering past Anode– less on purpose than because, okay, the room she's booked is pretty cramped. She pulls herself up onto the single recharge slab and props herself against the wall. "You need your own slab all of a sudden?"
"No," Anode admits, plopping down half on top of Lug and regarding her with her optic ridges quirked. "But a bigger slab wouldn't be remiss, right?"
Anode is going out of her way to take up space, to prove her point, but she's miscalculated. It's hardly any time at all before she's made herself comfortable, readily taking Anode's weight. She hooks a leg around Anode's back, heel skimming her thigh, and pulls her close with an arm around her shoulders.
"Why?" Lug asks again, a smirk flirting across her mouth.
There's a bit more nonsense lip-flapping before Anode sighs and drops her head in the crook of Lug's neck. She admits against the cabling, "Okay, fine, you've got me there."
"'Course I do," Lug says, smug, ignoring Anode's answering snort to cuddle close and let her eyes fall offline. She won't need to recharge for at least another day, but she feels as though she could slip into sleep mode anyway, just like this, with Anode whirring warm at her side and tracing glyphs across her plating.
Then Anode sighs, just short of melodramatic and Lug answers with a disgusted groan that takes a running leap well over melodramatic. She figures she's earned it, or is about to, at least, as she chews and spits out, "Oh, fine."
Anode whoops as she jumps up, pulling Lug with her. She hugs her and nuzzles, "You're the best," across her cheeks before swinging her over her shoulder to her back.
"Yeah, you always say that when I agree with you," Lug grumbles as she transforms and settles in for the ride. She huffs at Anode's quiet reassurances that they'll just give a listen around town, no commitments, not bothering to comment. People talk, she knows that. Maybe they'll trip over a new adventure and maybe they won't. Lug will complain if and when they cross that bridge and then she will get her promised r-and-r– but she knows, underneath it all, she would go anywhere as long as she was riding there on Anode's back.