Chapter 11

Was there some kind of demon clinging onto her, waiting to rip off her face?

Cyborg slowly turned her head, then let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Noodle, who had previously had her face buried in Cyborg's hair. Judging by her heart rate, she was still asleep, so Cyborg turned back around and tried to turn herself off again.

Her efforts were interrupted by a sudden, loud knock on the bedroom door, which caused the napping guitarist behind her to stir. Noodle managed to groan a quick, "Go away," before she collapsed back into her pillow. When Cyborg began shifting, she added, "Not you."

"Oh," Cyborg rolled over to face Noodle, "Good morning."

"Morning. Fully charged yet?"

"Almost. I'm around eighty percent."

Noodle glanced at her alarm clock, sighing.

"Aren't you gonna see who knocked on the door?"

"Murdoc can wait."

"How do you know it was Murdoc?"

"Only Murdoc hammers on people's doors like that at ten in the morning."

Giggling, Cyborg buried her face in her pillow. "It's very warm in here," Cyborg commented.

"I thought you couldn't feel heat."

"I can toggle it."

"Lucky."

"I know."

The smile faded from Cyborg's face when Noodle unwrapped her arm from around her. Noodle sat up and took a drink from a bottle of water. "I'll be back in a second," she promised.

Cyborg found herself wondering how Noodle had the willpower to force herself away from the warm comfort of the bed as she watched her wandering into her adjoining bathroom. Cyborg rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling, then began running a diagnostic to check for any remaining issues after her forced shutdown.

As she examined her programs, it dawned on her that she hadn't ran a diagnostic on herself like this since her and Noodle started hanging out. This was way overdue, she realised.

Other than a few holes in her memories, everything was in order. Noodle stepped back into the bedroom, then crawled back under the duvet. Cyborg yelped as Noodle rested her cold hands on Cyborg's upper arm.

"Hey! Your hands are freezing!" Cyborg complained, trying to pull away.

"Sorry," Noodle laughed, "I couldn't not."

"That's okay then," Cyborg decided, shuffling back towards Noodle. "Your bed is really comfortable."

"Memory foam. Super comfy," Noodle agreed.

"I had a really weird dream last night," Cyborg said, "And I think it was a proper dream, not just an old memory."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, it was about me watching Terminator 3," Cyborg began, "We were sitting in a cinema, but it was just us two. Then, the movie started and the Terminator came back out of the lava. He was just a robot skeleton like in the first one when he got blown up. Uh - then in the next scene he suddenly looked normal again and he went to go find John Connor. Before he found him, I woke up though."

"We can... we can watch Terminator 3 if you want," Noodle said.

"Yes!" Cyborg pumped her fist, "Is it like my dream?"

"Not really. It's not very good either. Well, not as good as the other two you saw," Noodle admitted, "It kinda ruins the ending of T2."

"What's T2?"

"Terminator 2."

"Oh. That's clever. But Terminator 3 isn't as good?"

"No."

"What happens?"

"Do you wanna watch it?"

"Only if it sounds good."

"Okay. John Connor's an adult in the third one and a new Terminator comes back from the future to kill him. But the T-800 comes to save him. Eventually, it turns out that judgement day still happens and the world ends."

"What about Sarah Connor?"

"She's not in it. I think she dies before the movie or something."

"What? I liked her. They ruined it," Cyborg looked disappointed.

Noodle shrugged. She tried to come up with something to cheer Cyborg up. "They... they made one set in the future about the war," she managed, "And there was a TV show, but I didn't bother with that."

"I'm going to pretend that one and two are the only ones," Cyborg decided with a nod.

"Me too. I have so many cool movies to show you."

"Better than Termi- T2?"

"Some of them. 2-D showed me a lot of old movies when I was a kid. Now I must pass my knowledge onto you," Noodle put on a goofy voice.

"I can't wait," Cyborg grinned. She fell silent for a few seconds, then added, "Trampolining was fun."

"Oh, was it?" Noodle raised an eyebrow, "Which did you like more - trampolining or what we did instead?"

Cyborg realised Noodle was teasing her, then gradually slid beneath the covers to hide her flushed cheeks.

"I'm kidding," Noodle chuckled.

"Trampolining was fun," Cyborg repeated, poking her head up from out of the sheets, "But the other thing was better."

"I think so too."

Before Cyborg could press her lips against Noodle's, Murdoc (probably) knocked on the bedroom door again. Noodle sighed, then opened her mouth to tell him to go away.

Murdoc suddenly burst into the room, looking as aggravated as usual. "Are you ever gonna get-" he trailed off when he noticed the two Noodles were sharing a bed. "Get downstairs. Don't bring your robot," he ordered, apparently stunned. Murdoc slammed the door as he left.

Cyborg gulped, frozen in place. Noodle laid back down, then brought her out of her trance by kissing her forehead. "It's fine, we were gonna have to tell him anyway," she rationalised.

Cyborg met her eyes, took a deep breath, then said, "Y-Yeah."

"I should go see what he wants."

"Okay," Cyborg managed a smile.

Noodle traced Cyborg's cheek with her hand when she noticed that the robot was shaking. "It won't take long," she promised.

Cyborg tried to calm herself down as Noodle climbed out of bed and left the room. Overheating wasn't a romantic idea at the moment, as two forced shutdowns in the span of a few hours probably wouldn't be harmless. She managed to calm herself down by imagining the hilltop that Noodle had taken her to.