[TRIGGER WARNING: GORE]
"Hold still, damn it!"
Alex grimaced. He had to give Jay serious credit - he had never seen wiring so complex. As if it weren't difficult enough to figure out what went where, there was no good place to prop up the flashlight, leaving him only a dim glow to work by. He hadn't anticipated having to do such a heavy repair. This was going to set them back a day or two. Tim shifted, craning his neck around to see what he was doing. With an aggravated sigh he shoved the bot's head forward and continued his work, ignoring the throaty growl from Tim. The arm was only connected by a handful of wires and a single thick cord, having almost been torn off completely in the attack.
"Why is that thing following us? Why did it attack you?"
"I don't know! You know more about it than I do. You said something about not letting it get away 'this time'."
"The night before we left I chased it away from the shop. I had it cornered, but it tackled me and I blacked out. Are you sure you've never seen that thing before?"
"What? Of course I'm sure."
"Somehow I don't believe you, Alex."
Alex bit his lip. He had seen it before. He just couldn't remember where, when, or what had happened.
"Listen, you need to calm down. You're steaming too much. I can't see what I'm doing."
"How would you feel if you just-"
"Got my arm ripped off?"
A tense silence fell between them. Somehow, Alex had expected it to feel good knowing that this monstrosity had suffered the same fate as him. But it didn't. It was discouraging. And it must have hurt. After all, Jay had given him the gift of sensation - although right about now it must've seemed like a curse. He himself remembered the pain quite vividly. He remembered his vision going completely white, the instant of numbness, the shock coursing through his system, and then the red-hot agony shooting through his veins. He still had nightmares about it. Sometimes, Tim didn't listen to Jay and he finished the job nice and slow. Limb by limb. Sometimes his arm never came fully off. Sometimes he just ran into Jay, without Tim there, and he made his comments about the dangers of sentient robots and everyone went on their merry way.
"What did it feel like to you?"
"What?"
"Your arm. What did it feel like when it tore?"
"It hurt."
"Obviously. Describe it."
"Why do you want to know?"
"I'm curious. Can't a man be curious?"
Tim sighed and Alex assumed the conversation was over. He paused to wipe the condensation from his glasses.
"It felt hot. Like I was burning from the inside out. Then my fingers went numb, I assume that nerve was severed completely. Then I couldn't move my wrist and I kind of freaked out, and I think maybe that made it hurt worse because I pulled back really fast and I probably put a lot of stress on the wires further up my arm. It was a really sharp pain and it didn't stop. It hasn't stopped. I still can't feel my fingers or move my wrist."
Alex nodded, though Tim couldn't see him. Similar in many ways and yet so different. His pain was more technical. It didn't come with the emotional pain, really. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Twice they had to shut off the light because Alex thought he heard movement, but nothing ever came to bother them.
By the time he was finished and the arm was firmly bolted back in place, most of the nerves re-connected and the large patches of missing marbelite sealed up with a lightweight rubber, dawn was arriving. His eyes ached, his fingers were cut up from the ragged metal edges and numb from the cold, his head hurt from dehydration...He was a tired mess.
"Alright, I guess we should move."
"No. You need to rest." The distortion was gone from the bot's voice. Alex eyed him suspiciously.
"Don't you want to find Jay?"
"Of course I do, dipshit. But you're no use to us tired and hungry. Eat, drink, and lay down. I'll stand guard. I don't sleep, remember?"
"You expect me to trust you? After what you did?"
Tim's eyes narrowed and for a moment Alex actually regretted his words.
"Fine. Don't trust me then. Eat, drink, and lay down and be strung-out about it the entire time for all I care. But you need to rest. So rest."
With his back to the wall and shielded on both sides by dumpsters and scrap piles, Alex got as comfortable as one could get when your bed was a thin blanket laid out over the cold ground. Tim sat across from him in full view.
"Thanks, by the way."
"What?"
"Thank you. For fixing my arm."
"Oh. You're welcome, I think." A pause. "I guess we're even now."
"I guess so."
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Alex pushed himself up onto his elbows. "You hate me. You could have let that thing attack me. Why didn't you?"
"Listen, I don't have a good reason, so stop making me think about it before I decide to go back to wanting you dead."
"I deserve an answer." He mumbled.
"Well that's unfortunate."
Screw you. It wouldn't even matter why you're starting to care if I wasn't starting to care too.