AN: oneshot. Krang/Shredder friendship. Old-toon. krang pov.
This is sort of a redo of a really old fic of mine.
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Just Don't Expect A Hug
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Krang had always thought humans were disgusting, pointless little creatures.
Shredder wasn't an exception, just a different sort of disgusting. The sort that Krang could almost tolerate. Sometimes it was even amusing. Maybe that was why he kept him around.
In any case, banishment got dull and tiresome after a while. Even lonely. And he could use the entertainment.
Shredder was entertaining and apparently fearless when it came to striking up deals with alien beings from other dimensions. That sort of thing didn't seem to faze him, and Krang was intrigued by it.
Or him.
Either way, he'd ended up keeping him around.
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"You'll just have to trust me, Krang," Shredder told him one day. But he looked like he might be smirking behind that mask, and Krang knew better.
"But you don't trust me, Shredder."
Krang had never gotten the concept of relationships very well. It wasn't a big loss. He supposed they were just one of those human things that he'd never properly understand.
Shredder's eyes narrowed, and Krang could imagine his frown.
"You're right. I don't trust you, Krang."
He sounded irate, but then he always did. It was one of his 'human' things, and occasionally it was entertaining.
Krang watched the ninja stalk away, and he began to wonder about it.
He knew, through general observation (and daytime tv) that humans thrived somewhat on their relationships. But he also knew that he was only the equivalent of a human brain, and it would never sit right with Shredder.
He used gloves, for god's sake.
Not that it mattered at all. Krang still hated him, anyway.
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"Where's my body, Shredder?"
Shredder seemed to flinch, half-hidden behind the gutted control panel.
There were wires loose and tangled up like spaghetti, occasionally fizzling and hissing in his careful hands.
Krang liked to watch him tinker with things sometimes, and even admire his deluded sense of power, under the false pretence that he actually owned the Technodrome. That was pretty laughable in itself, but Krang could humour him if he was feeling very generous.
Another fizzling wire, and Shredder cursed and shook his hand.
"I'm kind of occupied with something right now, Krang. In case you hadn't noticed."
Most of the time Krang didn't put up with insubordination, and he'd usually cackle and put Shredder back in his place. Pull him back down a peg or two, just to remind him who was in charge of this operation.
Sometimes Krang wondered if Shredder was actually afraid of him, and the idea of it wasn't as satisfying as he'd expected it to be.
"What could be more important than fixing my body?" he slammed a twisting tentacle on the panel anyway, and Shredder automatically backed up a bit. He rolled his eyes.
"Would you rather the turtles finished us off first?"
Krang scowled deeply. "I'd rather you do as I say-"
The Technodrome suddenly flickered out of life, and they were shrouded in darkness for a few minutes. It accompanied an ominous and creaking hum that made Krang feel sick.
When the lights came back on Shredder was crouched down by the panel again, wiping his brow with burnt fingers.
"That should do it."
Sometimes he was surprising.
"For once you did something right," Krang heard himself say. "Well done."
It wasn't really any sort of compliment, and Krang kept his mocking sneer in place for good measure.
Shredder barely offered him a backward glance, anyway. "It's nice to be appreciated."
Krang knew he was pleased and unbearably smug behind that mask, and somewhere in the back of his mind he wanted to protest Shredder's sentiments.
Krang didn't appreciate anyone. And especially not his reckless insubordinate human.
Instead all he could do was scowl a bit more.
"Go bandage your fingers, you idiot."
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Krang's body wasn't pleasing on the eye, and Krang had long suspected that it looked like that because Shredder was a spiteful and bitter human who liked to laugh at him.
Even so, if not entirely useless, Krang was still pretty vulnerable without it.
Now he found himself alone and on the ground, surrounded by turtles and without his eyesore of a body.
An eyesore was probably preferable to death, though.
Krang was very certain that his nasty human would abandon him, and they'd left the Technodrome on particularly bad terms that morning; Shredder complaining about Krang's complaining, and vice versa. Same old, same old...
And then suddenly he felt strong arms lifting him back up, the thrum of heat as he found himself curving against a chest, and Shredder had proven him wrong yet again.
"I'm glad you're not dead," Shredder said, in a callous voice. Only because he knew he'd got one over on Krang, and that Krang needed him more than anything in that moment. "Just don't expect a hug."
He turned around into a combative stance that invited whatever the turtles might throw at them, and his spiked arm hovered near enough to Krang, like some sort of protective gesture.
They escaped fairly easily, as usual.
"Don't go wandering out of your body again, Krang," Shredder grumbled, a bit later. "Especially with the turtles around."
Krang wasn't annoyed or even humiliated. He only noticed the careful precision in Shredder's hands, as he placed him back inside of his body. He wasn't wearing the gloves either.
"I won't," Krang said.
Secretly smiled.
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Krang wasn't especially wary, he just didn't have the human instinct for it.
But then Shredder wasn't either. It was one of his many little weaknesses. Krang had heard they were quite common amongst humans.
Krang thought he knew most of Shredder's weaknesses at this point.
"Blasted turtles," Shredder said, voicing one of them.
Krang didn't much care about turtles, or honour or revenge, or anything else that Shredder seemed to care about. But it was nice to watch from a little way off, and see how it all might play out.
His human had a back story. Humans were complicated.
"Just don't go barging in there, guns a-blazing, Shredder. This is a delicate operation."
It wasn't that he worried about the wretched human. He just wanted to make sure he'd see him again. It wasn't the same thing.
"Don't fuss so much. Bebop and Rocksteady are coming with me," Shredder said, as if that was supposed to be any sort of consolation.
Krang pulled a face and rolled his eyes.
"Well it's your funeral."
8
There were crackles and buzzing sounds on the intercom for a little while after that, but nothing else.
Krang still wasn't worried; he just liked to know what was happening. The trouble was he didn't leave the Technodrome much anymore. There wasn't much need to; he was comfortable, and Shredder did all of that dirty work these days.
Krang wasn't sure when it was that he'd become so reliant on a human.
"...stupid Shredder," he muttered, and turned the intercom off as he left the Technodrome.
He went alone; without Rock soldiers or footsoldiers, or anything but his own body. It was a bad move, as if he might have forgotten rational thought for a little while.
It didn't happen very often. Krang liked to think he was pretty sharp like that. Well, he was a literal brain, after all.
Outside he could hear the distant sounds of sirens. Other humans would be arriving soon, and Krang remembered how much he hated them.
"It's the boss, he's been hurt," Bebop said.
He and Rocksteady appeared abruptly, through a blur of shadows.
Between them was Shredder, and he looked odd and different, just hanging there so limp.
"...Saki?" Krang said, even though he already knew that Shredder wouldn't answer him.
He was familiar with human frailty, even if he couldn't really relate to it himself.
"He's hurt," Rocksteady reiterated, unnecessarily. "We better get outta here."
Krang felt himself nod. "Yes...obviously."
The two mutants were graceless and bumbling, and Krang pushed them impatiently out of the way, to get a better hold on his delicate, foolish human.
Shredder felt weightless and cool against his android body, and it was strange sensation, because Krang had always imagined him to be warm. Perhaps he would have been, in human arms.
Sometimes Krang thought he might want to be human, too.
"Saki," he repeated, uselessly.
Shredder didn't stir at all, and his chest barely moved with the uneven rise and fall of his breathing. It was the tiniest comfort to watch, as they tunnelled back to the sanctuary of the Technodrome.
There was a strange feeling buzzing about Krang's mind.
He wasn't sure. Maybe he was panicking.
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He placed Shredder on the operative table, punching in commands on the nearby control panel. It fed off lines of statistical human information, the sort of stuff Krang would have baulked at in another life. Now he clung to all of it, as if his own life was in peril.
"What happened?" he snapped at the two mutants.
Bebop and Rocksteady lingered behind him, matching his own creased expression.
"Um, we had the bomb ready, just like you ordered," Rocksteady said.
"Yeah," Bebop cut in. "But then it reset itself, and started to countdown. We thought it was gonna hit the Technodrome, so Shredder went back to disconnect it-"
Krang didn't need to hear anymore.
He glared at Shredder, and hated him for making him feel anything like this. But then he didn't really hate him at all. That was the worst thing, and therein the problem.
He rested an android hand against Shredder's shoulder. Intricate technology allowed him to feel the pulse of life against his palm, even if it was ultimately an artificial sensation.
But Shredder was still alive, and that was something.
Krang felt another foreign feeling stab at whatever passed for his gut.
Ah, an attack of conscience.
"Seems I underestimated you, Shredder."
Krang blinked with the sudden realisation. He hoped that Shredder might forgive him.
Quickly batting away the sentiment, Krang pushed another button.
A gush of electricity sparked up and into Shredder's body, and Bebop and Rocksteady gasped, as Shredder jerked into consciousness again.
Krang just held his breath, until Shredder opened his eyes with a groan.
"You're back. Finally," Krang said, and his voice crackled. He would have been embarrassed for it, but Shredder didn't seem to notice.
He sat up slowly and dazedly, clutching his head. His eyes narrowed and scanned the room, before eventually resting on Krang.
"Everything's...safe..." he muttered, and then groaned again, holding his side. "...what happened?"
"Never mind that now," Krang reached out a tentacled arm, if only for a split second.
He retracted it very quickly, as Bebop and Rocksteady took some steps towards their master.
"You okay, boss?"
"Of course, you micro brains..." Shredder said, and sounded like he might be grimacing.
Krang's sneer almost turned into a smile;
"Good work, Shredder."
"...don't mention it."
Shredder stood up, unsteady but aided without any hesitation at all by his loyal mutants.
"You should get some rest, boss," said Rocksteady, an arm hooking easily around Shredder's shoulder.
They knew superfluous concern, and Krang supposed it was because they were human once, too.
He could only watch on, feeling strangely redundant, as the three of them left the room.
88
"We're headed in the right direction, Krang. I suppose my mutants have done something right for once."
The Technodrome was lit up and humming with the gentle tones of evening, and Krang was with Shredder again, staring up at the huge monitor and going through the motions of what they did most every evening.
Shredder looked pleased with himself, even accompanying a bandaged torso and a wearier tone of voice. A reminder of things that had happened earlier that day.
Krang mostly remembered the alarming buzzing in his mind. The blurred urgency and the odd rush of time, when he had thought that maybe Shredder was-
"Krang? Are you even listening to me?" Shredder sounded exasperated.
Krang turned and looked at him properly.
Shredder wasn't so much mysterious as he was guarded behind that metal mask. It was a shame, really. Krang wanted to know him better than that.
Without letting thought interrupt his intent, he reached out a tentacle, and placed it on Shredder's arm.
He marvelled at the simple warmth of it, how it was just alive. Humans could be wonderful like that.
"Thank you, Saki," Krang said, not letting emotion break his voice. That would be too easy.
Shredder's eyes widened a fraction, like he might be surprised.
"For what?"
"Please don't make me elaborate."
Shredder's gaze held, like he might be figuring out a suspicious puzzle.
"...I don't want to lose this place anymore than you, Krang."
Krang smiled at him. "We are on the same side, Shredder."
Shredder shrugged. "Hah. I'd hope that's what you want."
Krang could almost see his smirk through his mask.
Perhaps he was just getting to know Shredder too well. Or perhaps he knew human nature too well these days. Krang wondered if he was developing his own weaknesses.
It didn't stop him from squeezing the arm a moment longer, as if that might be confirmation enough. He'd never been the sentimental type, and lord knew that Shredder certainly wasn't.
Even so, Shredder's eyes seemed to soften a bit.
Loyalty, or maybe it was just familiarity, was not something Krang grasped very easily, but he thought he might be starting to get the hang of it.
Humans called Shredder really weren't so bad, anyway.
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END
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a/n: "It's nice to be appreciated" is a line from the show. I can't even remember the ep.