"Lizzy, this is completely unprompted", purple eyes glared at the figures in their living room.
"Girl, chill. It's just for a few hours. We'll be back later". The former cheerleader posed her hand on her hip, V attempting to do something similar regardless of her busy arms. The way they were dressed up, Uzi had no doubt they were indeed off for a night of fun.
V sighed, "look, we'd do the same for you if you two would ever actually settle down". Uzi gave her a glare as V passed off the parcel in her arms to N. V gave the other Disassembly Drone a coy grin, "I know how much you like to play with her, just entertain her while we're out".
N took the pill-shaped baby into his arms, carefully holding the infant drone against him. His eyes seemed to sparkle at the sight of the small thing in his arms. "She's so cute! Thanks V and Lizzy!".
"N, wait a second", Uzi cautioned, "they just barged in here and asked us to do-".
"Chill~", Lizzy stressed, "maybe you might learn something or… something ". Uzi gave her a glare.
V raised a finger at the baby, "just make sure Chloe doesn't miss us, alright?".
N nodded with vigor, "yep, I'm gonna take such good care of her!".
"You better", Lizzy casually dismissed him before offering him a small thankful smile.
V gave them a nod before escorting Lizzy out the door, their arms interlocking. Uzi exhaled at their departure before shifting gears to raise a questioning look at N and the baby.
He raised his own look back at her, "what? She's cute!".
"They dumped her on us".
"Is that her fault?".
Uzi looked away, a tense look on her. "They could've…warned us, or something".
He shrugged, "stuff happens". He shifted focus to the infant drone, cuddling the infant.
Uzi decided to leave the topic at that. Great, an afternoon for just her and N down the drain because their friends needed a babysitter. Just great. N was pretty focused on the infant drone, he'd been since V and Lizzy had her. It'd seemingly just happened one day when they wandered in with the tiny drone in tow. She remembered that day well because of how her dad teased her about having a kid of her own with N.
She didn't know how to break it to him that she was really not certain about that happening.
It was painfully obvious to her that she didn't have any good role models to look up to regarding that. Khan had mostly changed his ways, but she'd still grown up without a mother, or really a parent in general, to learn from.
…Not that it didn't keep N from being such a good father figure to their friend's kid without him having parents at all.
"Hey, Uzi", he called for her attention, "look at how she follows my finger!". She looked over at the other side of the sofa as he raised a finger in front of her. The tiny drone's eyes followed his finger as it traveled around her vision, a delighted expression crossing her face.
Blink. "Cute", was all Uzi could say before sulking into the couch. N was too distracted to comment on it, the tiny drone capturing his attention. Time seemed to pass by as she waited for their friends to return. She was hoping it was soon, she didn't want the kid in her space for too long.
TIme passed and time passed. N didn't seem to care as he entertained the child. Uzi just prayed that this would be over soon.
…
"Uzi?", he asked. She wasn't sure how long it had been, but her partner was suddenly asking for her.
She pulled herself into an alert position, "what?...".
"Do you want to hold her?", he asked, holding the tiny drone out to her.
Her teeth bared before she looked away, "no, I'm good".
"You don't sound good".
"Don't worry about it…".
He returned to playing with the infant as Uzi returned her gaze to the two of them. V and Lizzy's kid somehow managed to have yellow eyes, which complimented N's eyes to an almost disturbing degree. Almost like she could have been N's kid instead.
…If it wasn't for Uzi, that could've been the case for the infant in N's arms.
She'd told him before that she wasn't interested in having kids. However, there was a big 'but' in all this. She couldn't tell him that this was purely on her and her own insecurity on the topic. No. N would be so disappointed if she spoke that honest truth. The more she looked at how N interacted with Chloe, the more it ate away at her. Another honest truth reared its head - that N would've made a great dad if he had picked anyone but her to become committed to. Her teeth bared at the thought of him cuddling that infant as though it were his own. He deserved that, she thought, he deserved better than her.
N suddenly caught her attention, "do you want to hold her?".
"I… uh…".
He suddenly scooted closer to her as he passed the infant off to her, "she's not hard to take care of. It's alright".
"N?".
N nuzzled her, "you can do this. I know you can". She took the infant into shaking hands. N gave a firm hold onto both the infant and her back, both hands giving the smallest boost of confidence to her. The bizarrely familiar eyes of the drone infant blinked back at her as she adjusted her position. "Just be careful with her, but I know you can do that", he told her.
Uzi raised him a cautious look as she adjusted her grasp on the infant. "How do you know I can do that?".
He raised her a small smile in offering, "because you're Uzi. You're the kindest drone I know".
She blushed as she regarded the infant with probing eyes. The infant looked back at her with golden eyes, which Uzi almost felt as though the child had stolen them from N, but she knew better. "Is it… hard to talk with them? Or…?".
N took a calming tone as he regarded her, "just be nice". He added as an afterthought, "well, you would know already that they can't talk. I didn't at first".
Uzi looked back at the infant with renewed curiosity. The small drone looked back at her with kind eyes. She felt bad immediately for the evening so far with the tiny drone. Chloe certainly didn't deserve the evening away from her parents, forced to take shelter with this odd-ball couple. In a way, Uzi suddenly felt connected to the small droneling.
She tried bouncing the small droneling against her, earning a delighted look from the young drone. "See? You got it", N gave her a reassuring look. She had to admit, the baby certainly was cute, especially so when it was her and N holding onto it.
"Uh, hello?", Uzi offered it. The tiny droneling offered her a happy smile in reply.
N gave a loud squeal at this, "so cute!".
Uzi gave him a sympathetic look in return before focusing again on the baby. "Well", she tried, "maybe I could teach you something". Some devious look crossed her face as she considered it, "I'm sure Lizzy and V would love it if I taught you some fun language".
"Uzi, no".
"Bite me!", she exclaimed, "I can teach the next generation whatever I want!".
N smirked before clarifying, "she's not ours, can't teach her anything crazy. Alright?".
Uzi sulked, "ok… alright". She continued to bounce the infant in her arms, silently thinking over how funny it would be to teach a new drone her vocal quirks. Maybe that would be setting them up for failure, but N's influence would make sure they wouldn't be a total outcast. N was cool, and N was compassionate. There was a good reason she'd fallen in love with him. He'd make a good counterbalance, if only she could handle having a kid in the first place.
Her eyes shifted to become concerned. There was no way she would make a good mom, her own had made sure that was impossible. From her disappearance to also being infected with the Solver, there were few things Uzi felt confident regarding her mother, Nori. Specifically however, her being dead was the biggest nail in the coffin against Uzi being a parent herself. How would she know if she was doing a good job if she never had someone to model off of?
Yellow eyes blinked back at her, startling her. N took the infant into his arms again, muttering her an apology after explaining that the child was likely bored again. Great, there it was. She'd messed up with the baby finally. She watched him play with the baby as an uncomfortable bile feeling arose in her. It was now she realized that she did have something of an example to go off of, and he was doing a great job at it even without his own role models to go off of.
N just naturally made a great father.
"Thanks, but uh… you good?", he asked suddenly. She realized moments later that she had voiced that last thought aloud and a deep embarrassed fluster graced her face.
"Don't- Don't worry about it", she tried to explain, "just uh… realized that".
His eyes looked over at her, "you too, though. I think you handled her pretty well".
"N, there is no way I'd make a good mom".
Concern set in on his face, "I didn't say anything about that. …Is that why you don't-".
Her lips drew back as emotion overcame her, "you want to be a dad, don't you?".
His eyes shifted uncomfortably between her and the baby. She didn't miss the look of longing he tried to cover up as soon as it appeared. "You do, don't you?", she pressed him.
"Kids are… new to me, kinda", he found himself unable to look at her, "I knew what they are through humans, but drones having them too and… you know… before we met… how many families I-". He broke off as Uzi put a hand on his back. He quickly found himself easing into her touch as his emotions calmed.
"You don't need to talk about that", she reminded him, "I'm… sorry I got you thinking about it. I didn't know".
He cradled the infant carefully in his arms, "you made the right call, I think. About us. About kids. I still took parents from children and children from parents. It's not right for me to just… ignore that. Probably shouldn't even be around this one".
"N, that's V's kid".
"And? V doesn't think about those days but I still do. She's… she's…".
Uzi gave him a questioning look, "you can't come up with an excuse for her, can't you?". He nodded. Uzi took an exhale as some harsh truth crawled its way into her mind. "N, you're not denied that right because of what you did. You'd make a great dad and that's… kind of what matters".
"But you don't want that", his face tensed, "I can't force that on you".
"I do !", Uzi exclaimed before falling silent a moment later as what she said sank in. His eyes hallowed at the confession, quickly meeting their purple counterparts. They broke eye contact a moment later.
"...Really?", N asked in a tiny voice, fearful of the answer.
Her face tensed up in uncomfortable looks before she made her next confession, "y-yeah… but I wouldn't make a good mom. No kid deserves that".
N blinked as he took in the confession. He looked at the child in his arms before placing her in Uzi's. Uzi protested the action immediately, only for N to tell her to trust him. He put a hand over one of her own, telling her, "I think good parents worry about being bad parents a lot. You've got this".
"What do I do?".
"What do you think you should do?", he asked back.
She looked at the small drone infant noting the blank expression on its face. Her attention returned to N, "is she… bored?".
"Probably", he mused, "we've been talking a bit long so it's about time for her to get more attention".
What should she do? She already tried bouncing Chloe, maybe… Her mind went back to what N was doing earlier. Chloe seemed to like that a lot. She leaned over the child realizing how embarrassing this was going to be. She smiled shyly, embarrassed fluster ironically enough aiding her in making faces at the child. A delighted expression appeared on the child's screen, earning a similarly delighted look from Uzi as well. Uzi experimented with the action more, slowly finding herself easing into it.
N watched all this with delight, a smile grew across his face. He scooted next to her to lean in with her. She gave him a small smile as he returned the favor, the both of them making faces at Chloe who delighted in the sight.
At some point it became a bit much as Uzi pulled away a bit to laugh, N took a careful hand on Chloe. "This is so stupid!", she breathed out between laughs, "it actually works?".
"She's easy to entertain like that. You're doing good, Uzi", N smiled.
"Is being a parent this… fun?", she asked, suddenly unsure why she asked that. Was it fun? Was she and Chloe having fun?
Their eyes met again, N took in the smile spread across Uzi's face and the delighted developing AI in her arms. Without thinking, he blurted out, "it could be", before blush appeared on his screen as he realized what he said. Uzi also found herself blushing at the idea. She looked away as N apologized, "s-sorry. I shouldn't have-".
"No, it's… ok", Uzi interrupted. N tried to put some distance between them on the couch only for Uzi to quickly nuzzle him before he could get away. N obliged, sticking close to her and after a few moments put an arm around her.
A silence set in before Uzi said in a small voice, "I don't know if I'm ready".
"You don't have to do it, Uzi", he said with a heaviness to his voice, "I don't want anything getting between us. If you're never ready, that's fine with me, too".
"...I love you".
N held her tighter back.
There came a knock at their door waking N up from a brief nap. He and Uzi had cuddled up on the couch together with Chloe in their arms, all three of them sleeping together on the couch. N briefly wondered if Khan had come by and he'd start asking questions. "C-Come in?", he tried to keep his voice down as he carefully untangled himself from the pile on the couch.
V was at the door, Lizzy in tow. He breathed a sigh of relief. Lizzy noted this, asking, "dude, what's the problem?".
A fluster broke out on him as he explained, "oh. Uh. Uzi's dad sometimes comes by and uh… He's… asked about Chloe before".
"Where is she?", V asked, pushing him aside as she quickly spotted her daughter sleeping in Uzi's arms. V's voice quieted, "she never hangs out with Chloe. What got into her today?".
He shrugged, "got over some stuff, I guess", before looking over at her and the child and smiling at them.
Lizzy sighed, "you two need to have one already. That's our kid you guys are projecting onto".
N tried to hide his fluster as he calmly went over to the two of them and removed Chloe from Uzi's arms. Neither of them stirred as N carefully handed the child over to her parents, V taking the child. "T-Thanks", he told them, "we had a great time with her. Uzi kinda needed the visit".
V gave him a playful look, "good luck. I couldn't imagine her being motherly".
" V !", N hissed, "she was great with Chloe today! She had fun! ". V playfully nudged him, earning another flustered look from N.
Lizzy tapped her foot impatiently, "ugh. V, babe, are you only saying that because of the bet?".
"What bet?", V innocently asked even though Lizzy knew better.
Lizzy rolled her eyes, "ugh, whatever. Let's just get back home already". V led them out as she gave N a thanks for watching Chloe.
N made sure the door softly closed on them, hoping to not wake Uzi up. As he turned around however, he saw her slowly waking out of low power mode. He returned to her side on the couch as she finally opened her eyes.
"N?", she asked him, "where's Chloe?".
"Lizzy and V took her home", he said, "they were just here".
Uzi sighed, "oh…".
A silence fell between them as Uzi's hands made grabbing motions. He could tell something was on her mind.
"...".
"I think I want to have a baby".
N immediately twisted himself to see her, a startled look spread across his face. "Uzi?", he exclaimed, "d-do you mean that?".
She blushed and her eyes hallowed, "y-yeah! What are you, deaf?". Initial reaction done, she apologized, "sorry. I would if you want to".
N took a moment to blink away his shock. "Uzi, are you sure you want to have one now? We can wait, it's ok if you realize you don't want to".
She reacted with a violent fluster, "s-stop talking me out of it! I told you before that I want it!".
"Uzi, you've told me since things settled down that you didn't want kids. Of course I'm worried about you deciding against that without really thinking it over", he told her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She leaned into his touch, "yeah, thanks…".
"Nothing comes between us", he said, "so let's take this carefully, ok?". Uzi nodded as he held her close. "Whatever happens, I'll still love you".
The two agreed to wait a week on the decision and see if they were both still for it. Over the following days, N found Uzi to be in a chipper mood than usual. Sure, her usual mood now was better than how it used to be when they were younger, but this was… different. She was much more affectionate with him, but not to a concerning degree, it just felt nice. Like some embargo was lifted.
He remembered walking in on her reading about caring for infant drones. He gave her a quizzical look which she returned. N asked if she needed more time to think it over, she disagreed. He was also curious about the reading material, noting that it was part of some series of manuals he remembered her ranting to him about before. Uzi shrugged, stating that it was the only material on the topic she could find. He gave her a smile before returning to chores.
It didn't take long for a week to pass. He sat with her back on their couch again, noting her anxious look. "So", he started, "it's been a week. How are you feeling?".
She fidgeted a moment before starting, "uh, well… Not yet, actually".
"Do you need more time?".
A hand flew to her other arm to soothe herself, "well actually… we need a little more time. Our place isn't exactly baby-ready".
He looked around at the living quarters they'd moved into. They had lived with Khan for a few years, only to realize they wanted some privacy sometimes. The new place had a few rooms, their bedroom and a spare room Uzi tinkered in.
His gaze returned to her, "guess that's right. We don't even have a bedroom for the kid".
He blinked. "So… you still want to have a baby?".
Fluster spread across Uzi's screen. "Y-Yeah".
"Oh…", he said, fluster appearing on him too.
"We've got kind of a lot of work to do first", she said, "I think I need to move my workshop to my old room at dad's place".
"Won't he ask questions?", N thought, "are we just gonna… tell him we're having a baby?".
"Nope, nope!", Uzi exclaimed, "I don't need him in my hair about having a kid! We tell him after we visit the nursery and get the kid".
N smiled, "yeah, that's a good idea". The older drone definitely made it a point time and time again that he wanted grandkids. In retrospect, he could see that insistence being a factor in Uzi not wanting any for so long.
"It's a very good idea", Uzi said, "I don't need dad getting in the way".
He glanced over at the door to the spare room, the one Uzi used for tinkering. "So… Do you want to get started on clearing the workshop out today?".
She walked over to the room, motioning for him to follow. "Hold up", she raised a hand, "got a project I wanna do first".
"Can I help?", N asked without thinking.
She blushed, "y-yeah. I think that'd be uh… romantic".
As they walked inside, N asked, "so what do you have in mind?".
She put a hand on the desk in the middle causing a few tools and pens to rattle. Under her hand was a sheet of blue paper, "a… crib… cradle? Basket? Ugh, I had to design it with my materials in mind".
He looked at the plans drawn up in white marker. The object definitely seemed useful, they would probably end up placing the child in it during recharge just to know where the little goober was. "It looks great", he said.
"I hope so", Uzi said, "just wanted to make sure I was doing something right with this whole parenting thing".
He smiled, "it's a nice idea. You wanna get started on it now?".
"Yeah. Oh yeah, one second", she said and grabbed some metal sheets, "time to get cutting".
The two spent the following hour carefully outlining and then cutting apart the metal with a laser-cutter. In the end, they were left with sizable pieces of metal to work with.
She held two of the pieces showing him how they connected, "next we're taking the blowtorch and a bonding metal to them".
He nodded and carefully held the metal together with his claws as she got to soldering the pieces together. "I think this will be pretty useful", N mused, "I don't think V and Lizzy have one of these".
"I don't think they have much for Chloe. They kinda just rushed into it", Uzi frowned, "I don't think they really realized how much work a kid is".
"They're trying their best. They got us, Lizzy's dad, and Thad to help them", N smiled, "I bet our kids are gonna get along".
Blush covered Uzi's face at the thought. "Y-Yeah. It would probably help Chloe out if she had another half-and-half kid to hang with".
N's tail wagged, "and likewise! Chloe would be a great friend for our little… goober?".
Uzi raised him a look, "we're not naming the kid Goober ".
"I didn't mean to suggest it! Just kinda mentally wasn't here for a second", N clarified.
"Zoned out?", Uzi asked, "I know it isn't Solver possession, we beat that a long time ago. ...Uh well, kind of a dumb joke on my part".
"You're probably pretty glad that you're the last one to go through that in your family".
"Yeah…". He was right though, she'd thought about it like that before. It had pulled at her that with complete freedom to have unaffected kids now, she had been against it for so long.
"...So where does the baby come from?".
"...What?", Uzi asked, startled, "N, do you really not know?".
"I uh… Never learned that for Workers actually", he looked around embarrassed, "I know humans make them in their bellies… somehow… Uh, when we go to the nursery you'll be uh, pregnant, right?".
Uzi held her face in a palm, "oh my Robo-God I really have to explain this to you".
He shrugged, "well, yeah. I guess. I don't know that's even possible since destroying the Solver took away all that organic stuff about you. And me. I kinda forgot that actually".
She peeled her hand off her face, "so, when we visit the nursery they'll have an untrained neural network for us. Then we just… raise it. It's a baby".
He blinked. "Oh, that's way less terrifying than I thought. I thought Workers were just really good at hiding it".
"I'd show you terrifying if I still had those flesh limbs".
"I didn't think they were that scary", his head tilted at her, "you could hold me back with four hands. That's two more than any other partner gets!".
Uzi blushed, at this point turning off the torch. At times she forgot how much he seemed to miss that aspect of her. To be honest, she missed them sometimes too. Her wings would double as extra hands which she always felt would help her a lot in her tinkering ventures. Her tail may have been full of a paralyzing agent, but it also had its uses. But most of all - flight. They used to be able to fly together, but now they were stuck with flights where Uzi was either on N's back or in his arms. She loved him a lot, but the lack of agency she had on these outings did sometimes sour her mood. Most of all, she just missed flying together with one of the only other drones who could. Without the Solver, she was just normal again. He, on the other hand, mostly lost access to various weapons while his wings and tail remained intact.
"Uzi?".
"Tail".
"Yeah, you had a tail too. I thought it was pretty cute", he smiled, remembering the appendage.
She realized she'd said that out loud. Oops. "Y-Yeah. I miss it too".
"Do you ever wonder about attaching a Disassembler tail on?", he asked very curious about her answer.
She was glad he left out the detail of the only Worker they knew of to possess one. She still had phantom feelings of her fingers being crushed every now and then. "Well… It'd be pretty useful…".
"Can I get you a tail from the lab?".
She froze. The idea had crossed her mind on occasion. The extra appendage would help a lot with her various projects. However… it would be weird to have. She was finally normal and here they were openly discussing making her a freak again, and over something so obvious?
…Wasn't like she really cared about that. She'd been othered for most of her life, it felt weird to not be that. N seemed down for it though and he wouldn't think of her any differently for wanting that.
"Uzi?".
"T-Two weeks! Answer then", she blurted.
He looked at her with such an amused expression, "you need twice as much time to decide on a getting a replacement tail than you need on wanting a baby?".
Uzi blushed, "kind of a lot going on right now, N".
He nodded, "yeah, I get that".
The two returned to their project finishing up soldering the metal together. They let the newly-crafted item rest on the table. N clapped, "it looks great!".
"Yep, should be big enough for the little goober", she noticed the knowing smirk on his face, "we're not naming the kid Goober ".
His face fell only to snap back to a smile moments later, "well, it was funny at least". She gave him a playful shove as they set out on the next task on their agenda for the day.