I guess the 3000 word thing it a one time thing. Oh, well. Enjoy diabetes.
"Tav,"
Tavros crossed his arms on the flat surface of Dirk's workbench, sighing heavily as the stoic engineer brought out his tools for repair. The boy's right hand loosely gripped Gamzee's left, as the said automaton laid across the bench, unresponsive. The boy didn't like seeing Gamzee like this, vulnerable and ineffective, but the bot preferred it, saying that sometimes the repairs hurt and that he trusts Dirk.
The boy idly wondered if the bot trusted him as much.
"I know this is sudden- I didn't even find out about this until today."
As Dirk gathered all the necessary equipment needed, the mohawked boy slumped his head down in his arms, exasperated. He let out a big sigh he didn't know he was holding.
"But, unfortunately, I have to leave with the Calvary. There have been reports about pirates that we have to look into and I couldn't bail myself out…"
Tavros gripped the bot's hand tighter, as the engineer started to work on Gamzee's damaged right arm, mumbling under his breath. Something about the bot needing to be more careful. It didn't matter much.
"I'll be back in a few days."
The boy trembled slightly, pulling the unmoving hand toward himself.
That was a week ago.
Tavros got the message via courier bot when he was in the kitchen grabbing breakfast. The boy knew that something was wrong. His first clue being Gamzee's (welcomed) presence in his bed, and the clear absence of his own father. He just didn't expect it to be true when the courier came by.
Stalled near the kitchen cabinets, the boy remembers fumbling with the little clockwork recorder in his hand, hesitating to play it. When he did eventually play it, the boy's heart crumbled.
"I'm sorry. I love you, kiddo."
There was more to it, just some minor reminders about money and medication. It didn't matter. He held the transmission in his hand for a few moments before throwing it in a small fit of anger across the kitchen before the message even finished.
He wasn't mad at the sudden mission, he was mad at how he was informed about it.
It felt like he didn't even care.
From the corner of his eye, Tavros saw Gamzee come in almost a minute later, worry apparent in his glowing eyes. When the bot spotted the boy crestfallen, he immediately rushed to his side, comforting the best he could. But sadly, it wasn't enough.
The week went by slowly, only keeping himself busy through school and small chores. It was almost as if he fell back into the routine he was in when he first came to Skaia. Dawdling, tedious and painfully familiar.
Gamzee was there though, trying his hardest to cheer the boy up. It helped, to some degree, but the boy still gave a sad, almost hollow, smile. The bot knew it was fake, and the boy knew that the clown knew. It was like he wasn't even trying to hide it. The boy could not blame the automaton for trying though. It was in his nature to put people in high spirits. It probably hurt the clown bot that he was unable to make Tavros happy.
Today however, Gamzee did something different.
According to the timepiece sitting on the drawers of the boy's room, it was two hours past noon. Tavros sat, crossed-legged, against the headboard of his bed, with a study sheet in one of his hands in front of him (something about the history of the country, or the mechanics of a simple steambot, he wasn't really paying attention). Gamzee was sprawled across the bed in his normal lethargic fashion, with his head on the boy's lap, smearing his usual face paint all over. Tavros, of course, couldn't feel it, but he was aware, so with his free hand, he petted the bot's unruly hair. The copper clown seemed to enjoy it, making small purr like sounds (can bots really purr?) of contentment, and it made the boy a little less tense than normal.
Of course, the mohawked boy couldn't fully enjoy the moment himself, in light of recent circumstances. He wasn't really mad anymore at the sudden absence of his father, just somber. With four parts worry. He just misses him, more than he's cross. His lips pulled down slightly as he let his thoughts drift. It didn't take too long for the boy's head to be filled with ridiculous what-if scenarios concerning his father. And it didn't take long for the fear and guilt to settle in.
The boy sat the sheet down beside him. No use in trying to study something when his mind was elsewhere. As he was still absentmindedly petting the artificial strands of Gamzee's hair, Tavros tried to push the thoughts away, but they would rush their way back. He thought of the last time he saw his dad, at the barracks. How he was livid with another solider when they parted, hastily. He didn't want that to be his last interaction with him.
"I never got to say goodbye…" Tavros whispered, hopefully out of Gamzee's earshot. If he was annoyed by the boy's constant complaining, he never said anything, but Tavros didn't want to burden the bot more than he already had.
Gamzee rose his head, though, indicating that yes, he heard that. But the response wasn't quite what Tavros expected.
Slowly, the bot slid up to sit from his lazy position. Carefully the copper clown turned to face the boy, using his right arm as leverage against the end table next to the bed. Using his free hand, Gamzee pulled Tavros' head down to kiss the boy's forehead, like it was the most normal thing to do (and to the bot, it almost was).
" 'Never say goodbye, because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.'" Was all the bot said before he smiled widely at the mohawked boy.
Tavros blinked. Gamzee just quoted his favorite book to him. Before he could even process the action, the boy smiled his first real smile in days, blushing all the while. Gamzee beamed right back. A few moments of comforting silence passed before the automaton's gaze softened and looked to Tavros as if asking permission for something, pleading even. The paraplegic shivered under the stare, before letting his own drop, holding up a hand to the one still held on his head. That seemed to be the answer the bot was looking for before leaning in. The boy closed his eyes…
Whatever the boy was expecting never came. Instead, he heard a crash of metal and a loud curse. Tavros shot his eyes open and darted to the source of the sound. Sure enough there was Gamzee, on the floor, his right arm limp against his body. He started laughing out loud, like the tension in the room moments ago never existed.
Against Tavros' better judgment, he laughed along side him before ushering him to Dirk's.
Dirk snapped his fingers in front of the boy, causing him to jerk out of his thoughts and wheel back some. The blonde was still as stoic as ever as he straitened up behind the workspace.
"You spaced out, kid," he said, before propping Gamzee back into a sitting position. Tavros couldn't see it behind those obnoxious glasses of his, but he could tell the engineer's gaze bore straight at the boy. "He's fixed," he deadpanned before flipping the steambot's power switch.
Tavros only saw Gamzee power up once before, and that was under different circumstances, but watching the bot come to life before him, his gears speeding up, the steam whistling from his body, the brightening indigo forming in his eyes, it was beautiful. Tavros tightened his hold on the clown's hand, watching as the bot's head slowly turn toward the boy. Those eyes brightened completely and Gamzee smiled, returning his hold and gave a tight squeeze on the mohawked boy's hand.
They decided to stick around Dirk's a little while longer, much to the blonde's displeasure. There wasn't too much to do, other than mess with the engineer's inventions and watch him work on a current project. Both became banned pretty quickly after a few things 'accidentally' broke (by Gamzee's hand). They both found a better activity when one of Dirk's own steam bots, Squarewave came in. Tavros remembered quickly that he was the bot he saw the first day he was here. The three of them had a 'slam-off', which was just them throwing rhymes at one another. It ended up being a three way tie. When Dirk's other bot, Sawtooth, made his way to the trio, he demolished them. And that was sugarcoating it. The tall bot didn't lord his win over the other three, just told them to try harder, before taking off with the smaller bot running after him like a puppy.
It ended up being pretty late at night when Tavros and Gamzee finally got kicked out of the blonde's workshop. They threw rhymes at each other ("Daaamn, Tavbro! I didn't know you could throw down sick fires like that! My motherfuckin' gears can't up and handle the heat!") as they made their way back to the boy's empty house.
Tavros started yawning as Gamzee opened his front door. Wheeling inside, the boy made a straight beeline toward his room. As he got to his bed, he spared the automaton behind him a glance before pulling himself up. Gamzee, with his trademark smile ever in place, automatically followed the mohawked boy and took the space in front of him. The boy was starting to get tired, but he could tell that the bot wanted to entertain him a little more, so Tavros leaned against the headboard, sitting.
"Hey, bro? Can I ask you something?" The bot asked, all too sudden, but the boy expected it, in a sense.
"Of course, Gam," Tavros replied, with a smile matching the automaton's.
Gamzee's own smile faltered slightly, though, before his artificial eyes met the boy's, "Can… I motherfuckin' kiss you?" His tone was nervous, but pleading. Almost like a child asking his parents for sweets before dinner.
The boy blinked before blushing deeply. His mind went blank and his mouth went dry. He never expected that. His throat formed a lump and his heart sped up faster. But despite it all, he wasn't repulsed by the idea. The boy actually liked it. Blushing to the point where his head might explode, without really knowing that he did it, the boy nodded.
"Miracles," the bot murmured, the flinch now nonexistent.
Tavros expects a lot of things from Gamzee, from his jokes, to his juggling to even his large contagious smiles. His mind, however, drew a blank as to what he could be expecting at this moment. The moment where Gamzee is cupping his face with his copper fingers, where those shining indigo eyes glow with something other than their usual mirth, where he's leaning in and when the boy closes his eyes. But when the bot's painted lips found their way to the boy's for the first time, slow, loving, tender and sweet, all expectations flew out the window.
'Never say goodbye, because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.' - Peter Pan
