A/N: I wanted to make it short, but I failed*_* So it will last for about one more chapter. I'm just not able to place everything I wanted to write in one chapter...
I've always wanted to write some hard 1/2. Hope it's not very horrible.
1's gaze, accusatory, reproachful, a little pitiful, followed 2 as he carried nearly unconscious 5 through the battlefield. They were unable to feel, they didn't have nerves or pain receptors, but still 2 could feel 5 shuddering, twitching in his arms, could see his distorted face. As the guns of countless machines roared in the dusty air, 2 pressed his apprentice's weak-willed body to his and moved forward, struggling for each step he made. 7 rushed towards them, put 5's arm on her shoulder and helped 2 carrying mechanist to the helmet the dolls had been hiding under. 2 could feel 1's heavy gaze as they walked pass their self-proclaimed leader; 7 looked at him just as determinedly and accusatory, but 2 didn't find power to even lift his head on 1. 5 weakly tucked his head into inventor's shoulder and sighed hoarsely, nearly moaned, making 2 shudder. As all of them hid under the helmet, and it blessed them with its darkness and faint safety, 2 allowed himself to turn to 1, but he couldn't indicate their leader's eyes or even face. They walked all the remaining daytime, until 5, unable to tolerate his trauma anymore, fall unconscious into the dust.
2 couldn't save his eye. There was not much to save anyway, but still 2 couldn't help it but feel a little guilty looking at his apprentice's face, marked by war. He didn't even have a burlap patch, so he used a piece of smooth leather found in the garbage, and it stood out awkwardly and unfamiliar on 5's face.
When 2 left 5 to regain his consciousness and walked out of his improvised surgeon room, 1 was waiting for him outside.
"Is he still alive?" - he asked with a discontented tone of voice, as if 5 was guilty for being injured.
"He wasn't going to die" - 2 answered, "He'd only lost his eye".
"So you repaired him".
"Well, yes, I helped him, but he has only one eye now... I hope that his inner mechanisms hadn't been damaged, or he'll have problems with his body functioning properly...".
"5 is defective. He's only wasting our time, exposing us to danger" - 1 hissed, claiming 5 as a useless thing. 2 frowned.
"He's not wasting our time! He's one of us", - he stated, and was immediately grabbed and smashed into near-by wall, 1's hand framing him.
"As long as he's doing what he'd been told. And you too. Don't make me leave you in the middle of battle to die like bugs under machine's feet", - 1's face was drawn so close to 2 their optics touched, and 2 didn't dare to say that he had already left 5 to die under machine's feet, under bullets of its guns. One of 1's hands made its way on 2's chest and squeezed the fabric, pressing inventor's body closer to 1's. "Don't forget that you're still alive only thanks to me. You owe me", - he said, clenching his hands so tight on 2's cloth that tips of his fingers pinned through it. 2 watched him silently, unable to resist or to argue.
When 1 released 2 and walked away, showing him with every movement and expression that he doesn't deserve the leader's attention any more, the inventor stayed still with his back pressed against the wall and his eyes facing the sky that was just as dusty as the ground. He palmed his damaged chest and breathed heavily, as if he had just escaped the battlefield of a bloody, furious war.
The Sanctuary's main hall threateningly echoed 2's steps as the inventor walked towards the improvised throne of their leader. 1 was sitting deep in it, his fingers digging in old wooden arms, his body tense in its stillness. 2 found himself unable to straighten his sag shoulders as the older doll watched him, as if 1's heavy gaze had bend 2 to the ground.
When inventor stopped in front of the throne, barely four or five steps away from it, the surrounding silence hit him more then any words could.
"What do you want?" - asked 1.
"I wanted to talk about the twins..." - 2 looked straight into 1's eyes for the first time he entered the room.
"I... suggested that they should leave".
"Leave?" - Inventor couldn't help it but exclaim, "out there? In the town? They are only children, they're defenseless against the danger there!"
"Yes! Yes, they are children!" - 1 rose from his chair, pointing his staff at 2's face, "There's no place for children in this war! They won't survive, and they'll endanger the rest of us!"
"Now they won't survive for sure!" - The combined echo of their voices was suddenly deafening and threatening, coming upon them from the dome of the hall. 2 clenched his fists, threw a blaming gaze on 1, standing in front of him like a man stands in front of a tsunami wave running on him. 1 stepped to him, head drawn into shoulders, fingers clenching on the staff furiously.
"Don't you dare blaming me? If not me, you'll already be dead by now! You owe me".
The staff hit 2's shoulders, hooking him, and with a sharp, powerful movement 1 made 2 fall on his knees. 2 placed his hands on 1's belted chest in attempt to stop him, but 1 used the staff to slap his hands off of himself. In next second its end, decorated with a little sleigh bell, was tucked under 2's chin, making him raise his head on the group leader.
"You owe me your life, your body - everything! Without me, protecting you, guiding you, you'll become just a useless piece of burlap", - hissed 1. 2 watched him, not daring to move, questioningly and fearfully looking in his narrowed eyes. His inner gears seemed to tick so loud it could be heard in the thin air. 2 pressed a hand to his chest, as if afraid that his mechanisms can break and stop working, his wire ribcage heavily lifting and falling. 1 threw the staff away, sleigh bell rang as it hit the ground, making 2 shudder. Then the inventor was grabbed by the shoulders and shook roughly.
"Weakling, you're such a weakling!"
1 grabbed the lacing on 2's chest, untied it with a sharp movement of his restless fingers and threw the burlap open, uncovering 2's insides. 2 shrieked out from amazement and fear, but instantly fell silent when 1 pushed his hand down into his body and grabbed handful of wires that entwined around his metalwork. 2 gasped, caught hold of 1's arm, but the other didn't pay any attention to the inventor and continued moving his fingers through the frame and vessel wires connected with gears and cogs, shifting through it, roughly mapping, grasping, clenching. 2 felt like he was going to loose his senses, groaned 1's name and asked him to stop with a trembling, uncertain voice. 1's fingers have at last stilled, catching hold of 2's voice box and making him fell silent again. 1 looked in inventor's widened eyes.
"Fool. Useless, whining fool", - he sniffed scornfully, pulling his hand out of 2's chest and standing up.
"Close yourself up before someone sees this mess" - said 1, smoothing a crease on his robe. 2 sat immovable, shivering, unable to calm himself down, even through he didn't have a breath to catch or a heartbeat to slow. Without looking he started to tie his lacing back, closing his chest, hiding his mechanisms back under the burlap. He felt like his heart was ripped from his ribcage and then carelessly thrown back.
"Now leave", - ordered 1 in his usual tone, as if 2 was going to stay. Inventor heavily lifted himself from the ground, palmed his chest, stupidly afraid that 1 had damaged his inner framework and his skeleton will collapse under its own weight, and then moved backwards, shuffling towards the door. 1's gaze followed 2 as he left.
"This should do it", - said 5, handling 2 a piece of metal wire. "I think so", - he added sheepishly, shrugging. 2 petted his shoulder, smiling approvingly. "This should fit perfectly" - he said, and 5 smiled back at him.
As 2 continued packing things they've found in the town today, 5 looked at the horizon, lightened with red by the evening sun.
"It's getting late", - he said, pointing at the sky. 2 nodded at his apprentice. As they walked hand by hand, rolling the hand-cart with their belongings to the Sanctuary, 2 couldn't help but look at the way sun laid shadows on 5's patch. His damaged side became absolutely expressionless and unified, and 2 felt guilty for making him like that.
8 was waiting them at the Sanctuary's enter. 2 could see faint fear in 5's remaining eye as they approached the taller doll.
"1 told me to bring you when you return", - frowned 8, throwing a haughty look at two other dolls. Before 2 could protest, before he could defend himself and his apprentice, 8 grabbed 5 that tried to cover his head with both hands and rudely shook him, making him hang like a flag in a windless day. 2 silently accepted 8's careless grip and pull, and 1's guardian dragged both of them towards the main hall, 1's residence.
1's eyes caught the sight of 2 and pierced him as the three entered the room. The leader's fingers dug into the arms of his throne with a familiar tense gesture that didn't escape 2's attention.
"You broke my law again", - said 1, his voice threateningly quiet, sending shivers through the inventor's body. 5 gasped fearfully, lifted his hands, as if in attempt to defend himself. "No, no, we just…"
"You just endangered us again for the sake of your garbage!" - 1's voice sharply raised, and even 8 twitched, his fingers involuntary digging deeper into 2's fabric. 5 winced.
"It's not garbage", - replied 2, suddenly brave and not afraid of any possible consequences. 5 exclaimed, but immediately jammed his mouth with both of his hands. 8 roared at such disobedience. 1's eyes narrowed.
"Leave us", - he hissed to his guardian, 8 dropped 2 at the floor and dragged 5 from the hall - inventor's apprentice gave out a muffled cry of his teacher's name, but 2 didn't even turn, rooted to the spot by 1's gaze.
"You" - a finger pointed at his face, then lowered to his chest and poked his lacing, "are garbage. Your things are garbage. Stop trying my patience".
"You're the one who has to stop", - said 2 resolutely, making 1 twitch. Their voices seemed too loud in an empty hall, echoing and coming back to haunt them. 2 wanted to leave more then anything.
"Open up", - said 1, ordering tone, hiss-whisper that sounded like thunder. When 2 didn't move, he shouted: "I said, open yourself up!", and that shout had for a second or two deafen 2 completely.
His hands didn't obey him when 2 undid his lacing, pulling the bootlaces on his chest loose. 1 watched him untying himself with demanding intensity, and when inventor finished, approached him in one quick movement and found his way inside 2's body. 2 gasped at the feeling of 1's touch, then smashed his lips shut for not to make a sound. He could hear 1's murmurs: "Garbage, you're made of garbage..." as the older one shove through 2's inner mechanisms, his most vulnerable and fragile parts, his intimate parts. Even 2 himself didn't open his body much, and when 1 did it, even through they didn't have any receptors to actually feel the touch, 2 felt strange.
1's hand tensed under 2's burlap, as if he found something forbidden there. 2, filled with his presence and touch completely, exhaled 1's name. Through half-shut optics he saw an abrupt gesture, in which 1's free hand lifted to his upper belt and clenched its clasp, but dropped down just as quickly without doing anything.
Seemed like something switched, changed in it, and 1 withdrew, leaving 2 all spread up like a martyr, his lifeless insides feeling a chill they weren't supposed to feel.
"Why are you doing this?" - said 2, barely trying to make the phrase sound like question and not really hoping for a proper answer.
"To make you know your place", - 1 turned away, but his voice was still clear and loud, powered by the echo.
Before leaving 2 let the thought that was bugging him long ago slip from his lips, committing his loose and admitting his victory at the same time:
"You're made of garbage as well".