Slider gave the bruise on his dad's arm a little poke. Hacker shot him a side ways glare before looking back at his work. The young cyborg coming into his room to distract him had become routine at this point and he wasn't going to waste time getting distracted by it, as long as he stayed relatively quiet.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Slider inquired, eyes fixed on the dark spot.
Hacker put a palm to his face and shoved him away from the computer he was working at. He rolled his eyes as the little Radster shuffled back next to him scarcely a second later.
"No," he replied curtly. "It's a small cyberfluid leak under the skin. No reason to go poking around."
"Aw. I wanted to see." Slider fell quiet, but continued to cling to his parental figure's arm. "What are you working on?"
The ex-technician shot him a deadpan stare. Regardless of how Hacker had planned it, it seemed the young borg had formed an attachment, which meant his 'father' was destined to be pestered by him forever.
Unable to work with just one arm, Hacker reached inside the desk for a screwdriver and pointed it at Slider. "I'm going to let you look, but afterwards you're going to leave and entertain yourself for the rest of the day. Understand?"
Slider nodded vehemently. "Thanks dad!"
Hacker let out a puff of air through his nose. As he undid the screws in his arm, he grumbled under his breath. "It won't hurt you to be less needy. Your father will be home in half an hour and you can go do whatever you do with him."
"We go out for burgers, practice skate tricks and work on cars. He doesn't do what you do though."
Hacker gave a curt nod, relenting that much. "Nobody does. That why I do it. But this is just an arm leaking cyberfluid," he said, taking a section of metal skin from his wrist to his elbow off and setting it on the desk. He had set a cloth down underneath his arm so the fluid would get on the desk if it spilled out. One of his tubes had ruptured and was spilling its contents all over the inside of the arm, a pool of blue welling inside.
"With something small like this, it's easier to let the automated repair take care of itself. But if you wanted to, you could get a vacuum with a fine point to suck up the fluid and slip a ring gasket temporarily over the rupture."
"Cooool," Slider murmured in awe.
"Yes, very cool. Now beat it."
Despite his father's less than affectionate disposition, Slider lit up brighter than a house on Starlight Night at having learned something new. He leapt into Hacker's lap and wrapped his arms around his neck for a hug.
Hacker blinked, it taking a moment for him to register what was happening before he pried the boy for him. "Off," grunted, turning his attention back to his work as Slider ran off, still filled with excitement.