Cross posted on tumblr and ao3

I don't own DMMd

Noiz spent the next few minutes scarfing down whatever remained in the dish the old lady provided, ignoring any small talk between her and Aoba, who was not so subtly sending him pointed looks.

If it were up to him, Noiz would retreat back into his workspace and hide there for the rest of the day. He really didn't want a confrontation with Aoba, of all people. Their relationship was strained anyway, what with Sly coming out every so often and taunting him like nobody's business. And Aoba apologising every damn time it happened, which Noiz guessed this untimely visit was about.

"Aoba, you're good with your hands, aren't you? You should help Noiz out some days whilst my husband is recovering."

Noiz twitched at that suggestion, whilst Aoba waved it off. He didn't need an extra set of hands around here. He was coping just fine, thank you very much. Just because Aoba was the delivery boy did not mean he was able to tell a spanner from a wrench. Noiz had quite a hunch that Aoba was not that talented.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Counting to ten in his head, Noiz promptly shrugged off any conversation directed towards him and went into the back of the shop. He heard the old lady gripe about his manners before yelling her farewells. Suspecting Aoba had followed suit, Noiz let out a long sigh of relief. The less people he had to see today, the better.

Promptly busying himself with making a list of what he needed to do over the weekend - involving a trip to Keisen again -, a loud bang behind him had him jump six feet in the air (which he would forever deny after because there was no way he, Noiz, would be afraid of something as small as a noise). Turning around to find out what dropped, Noiz merely frowned at the apologetic look that was being sent his way by one person he really didn't want to talk to.

"Sorry about that."

Noiz merely whipped back around and shrugged, because as long as what was dropped was picked up, he really didn't care. "'s fine."

"Are you angry at me for something? I know that sometimes the other guy harasses you but -"

"Stop apologising, dammit," Noiz scowled, sending Aoba a nasty look, "who gives a shit if he comes around here? I don't care."

Seeing that pained look cross Aoba's face had Noiz sigh in frustration, gripping his head with one hand. "Sorry, sorry," was all he mumbled. He really didn't know how to handle these situations. Why did he always get into them with him around. Noiz really wanted Aoba to just leave.

"No, it's my fault, I'm -"

"Don't apologise," Noiz interjected, but knew Aoba would finish his sentence.

Aoba's lips pulled into a soft smile. "Sorry."

A derisive snort left Noiz, but he just plopped into the nearest chair, shaking his head. It wasn't that he had a problem with Aoba, or Sly, it's just that he'd never been as close to the former. Growing up, all Noiz had known about was Sly. The kid would pop up whenever he wanted to and, being a highly impressionable teenager, Noiz had followed him along without a thought.

Then when he'd walked up to Sly one day after catching him outside, he'd been met with a rather angry look and found out it was Aoba. And Sly was merely a personality (or as Noiz had begun to suspect over the years, just one of them). Noiz was almost as hurt with that information as Aoba was knowing that Sly had potentially killed another person's innocence.

Now he just avoided them both, but Sly always found a way to get at him. Aoba claimed that whenever Sly was running rampant, he couldn't remember a thing. But there were times when he seemed to know what happened. Either that or he was getting very good at guessing what was going on.

"So, what are you here for?"

"I came by to see you. A note was left on the fridge to say 'hi' to you."

"You're your own slave, you know that right?"

Aoba smiled, in that way of his that was always just so tired. "Not all of us are Mr. Perfect, after all."

"Ain't that the truth."

Noiz merely looked away from Aoba's pointed gaze, and couldn't help his eyes falling on the bot. He didn't react as Aoba stepped closer, completely taken by the sight of the broken robot. Aoba crouched down, in exactly the same position as he had the first time he'd brought it home, and gently ran his fingers along the bridge of the bot's nose.

"Noiz … where did you find this?" The sheer awe in Aoba's voice had Noiz rolling his eyes.

Clicking his tongue, Noiz moved to crouch down beside Aoba. In a smaller voice, he answered, "Keisen."

"You went out to Keisen? By yourself?"

At Noiz's continued silence, Aoba sighed to himself. "One of these days, you're gonna get yourself killed."

An almost bitter smile warped Noiz's features as he responded. "No one will miss me."

Tense silence followed, as Aoba clearly seemed to choose his next words carefully. "Are you going to patch this up then?"

Noiz's lips quirked at the change in conversation, but was thankful nonetheless. He offered a small nod in regards to Aoba's question, and let Aoba move the bot as he liked, taking in the damage with continued awe. He was probably like that when he first saw it, just in awe that something like this even existed (and was found by him, of all people).

From the corner of his eye, Noiz watched Aoba, who was absolutely fascinated by the robot in front of them. The way Aoba was mumbling to himself, material needed and probably the time it would take to repair the bot, Noiz had to rethink just how gifted Aoba might have been. Sly had always left things to Noiz to mess with, claiming he had no need to fix things when Noiz was around, but Aoba seemed to know what to do.

When Aoba turned to him, asking for a pen and some paper, Noiz obliged with increasing curiosity, the corner of his mouth quirking in amusement when Aoba all but snatched the offered materials and began furiously writing.

"It's an old model. Really old. You'd have to remove the casing completely to repair it, so you'd have to find a new mould …"

Aoba mumbled to himself as he wrote notes, leaving scraps of paper over the areas with severe damage, with small questions almost to himself on how to repair it. Noiz frowned at the sudden amount of paper being used and placed over the bot, before huffing to himself - successfully blowing a few pieces away.

Stopping suddenly, Aoba looked over at Noiz in that overly apologetic way of his. Opening his mouth to apologise, no doubt, Noiz merely shook his head.

"I need some help, I think. To get this thing up and running again."

Aoba flushed, pleased with himself, before offering the pad of paper back to Noiz. Looking through what remained of the notes, Noiz mumbled out a sort of invitation.

"I'm heading out to Keisen in two days. Be here by 8am sharp."

It was an invitation, in the purest Noiz fashion, which had Aoba laugh and agree to be there on time.