Starting to feel drowsy himself, N pressed a hand to the door of their home. Tossing aside his thoughts over the prior conversation, he greeted Uzi as he walked in. He stopped as he noticed what she was up to.
"More research?", he asked.
"So?", she asked, her body bent over the desk. Manuals and notes spread across the desk.
He blinked. "You're a nerd".
She looked at him in confusion before deciding to retort, "bite me!".
"Haven't heard that one in a while", he observed as closed the door, "being a nerd's cool though".
Uzi hid her fluster by burying herself in her research again, "I can't believe at times that you willingly let yourself get bound to this weird nerd in the bonds of some dumb human religious ceremony".
"...Are you flirting, or are you putting yourself down?", he asked all of a sudden.
"I don't know".
"Are you feeling alright?".
"Dude, I don't know", she said pulling out the drawer of the desk, "I haven't been this hormonal since we were younger".
He looked at her in confusion, "you uh, fell for me that early on?".
She looked at him with such a peculiar look plastered on her face, "what? No? What part of that gave you that idea?".
"I uh, have very human ideas of what you're talking about. But you… uh… haven't had fleshy stuff on you in a long time so I don't know how you're hormonal now", he admitted, hand on his neck.
She looked at him like she was explaining something obvious to a child, "N… it's an expression. I'm not talking about actual hormones".
His face lit up, "oh! Yeah that makes sense".
"If that's settled", she put away her research material, "how about we head off to sleep?".
He nodded, "I'd like that".
Their room was covered in nic-nacs and pictures. Photos and drawings of them and their friends (what few of them at least) covered most of the walls. Framed above their bed was the first drawing N ever gave Uzi. He'd since added an addendum to it, a sticky note adding "girl" before the "friend". Uzi thought it was hilarious and kept the addition on.
The two climbed into their shared bed. N quickly found himself getting used to sleeping like this. Sleeping "normal" at least let them wake up separately if need be. Uzi didn't have a preference because either way she'd be sleeping against him covered by his wing.
"You ready?", he asked, charging cable in hand.
She nodded and slotted hers in, "ready to sleep".
He put his in and immediately felt his systems urge him to sleep. It was a weird thing to get back into the habit of, his systems didn't need outside energy like this until they were both free of their curse. Now, he recharged like any other Worker in here.
"Ready", he said as she wrapped an arm around him. The wing on the side facing up emerged and extended over them. His arms wrapped around her.
She blushed, "every night, huh?".
"If you like it, then why change it up?".
They kissed before falling back into comfort. The two quickly sank into the depths of recharge together.
"N? Hey, wake up".
N stretched as he became aware of the lack of Uzi in his arms. His wing retracted as he activated his visual input.
Uzi had his bag in her arms. "Where the hell did this come from?".
"My bag?".
She was careful to grab the item within it. A moment later she held the vial, "where did you get this?".
"Did you hafta wake me up for that?".
"N, I'm serious", Uzi waggled the item in her hand, "did V… cut it off?".
Emotion tore into his face as her implication caught him off guard. "Uzi, no. I just", he swallowed as he realized what he had to say, "...I went back to the lab and did a little graverobbing".
"And you didn't tell me?", she said, concern etched into her screen.
"I thought I would just keep it around until you told me if you wanted a tail again or not", he looked at her in concern over her next action.
She looked at him incredulously, "N, what if I didn't want a tail? Would it just float around here until an accident happened? What if our kid gets poked by it, what then?".
"Uzi, we have three guns under our bed", he gestured to the mattress, "we still have a lot of stuff to think over before we get the kid".
Her head nodded, "ok, yeah, you got a point and I'll move my collection over to dad's. But N, you still risked your life for this, and for what?".
"I risked my life for that so you'd be happy, if you want it that is".
She couldn't meet his gaze. "...I hate that you went there again…".
"Uzi…", he sighed as he sat up on their bed and hopped off it, "love's about sacrifices and, well, I knew I could do this one. You're clearly not comfortable with how things changed and if this helps-".
"N", she stopped him, "don't do anything that would hurt yourself for my sake. This was dangerous ".
"Uzi, stop ", he countered, "you've always given me the choice to decide how to live my life. If I want to use that to make you happy, then that's completely my right". He carefully took the bag from her hands, setting it down on the bed.
"N…".
His hands found her own, "you'd do the same for me, you've done it before. That's a choice you've made for me".
Uzi buried her face into his chest, startling him. Her hands broke from his own to hold him. After a moment, she calmed down to tell him, "sorry. I missed up".
"Oh, Uzi…", he tenderly said as he wrapped his own arms around her, "you were worried about me, that's good".
"C-Can we… try the tail?", she asked suddenly. He noticed his own had wrapped around her involuntarily.
"Sure", he said as he let Uzi back away from him. She proceeded to moments later as he let her lead them over to the workshop, N picking up the tail.
As Uzi led them in, she took a good look at the cradle they made. It was change, and it was change she felt was going to be good for them. After all they went through when they were younger, this sort of domestic 'normal' existence had really lost its appeal, but the idea of starting a family had become very appealing. Maybe having a tail again would spice things up so this new venture wasn't just some milestone in their relationship.
N set the tail on the table, both of them turning attention to the cradle beside it. "Well", Uzi said, "we probably should make one for Lizzy and V".
"Probably. I think they'd like that", N said.
Uzi lifted it off carefully, setting the object to the side. N attempted to help, only to quickly realize she had it. She looked over the table and confirmed that she had space to lay down on it.
She turned to him, "so uh, yeah. It's gotta go where I can't reach so uh, you willing?".
He nodded, "gladly! Just uh, give me some pointers".
She gave him a thumbs-up and climbed up on the table. A fluster crossed her face as she looked at him, hand on her jacket's zipper. He looked back at her, "do you want me to look?".
She nodded, "you'll be looking at my backside a lot for this, might as well not care to begin with".
He nodded and put a hand over the one holding her zipper. Looking at her for approval, he quickly found that and together they unzipped her jacket. He took a hold on the collar as she slipped her arms out of it. Her jacket, a typical Worker one with a few decorative patches on it, was laid down on a box elsewhere in the room, leaving her nearly naked aside from her beanie and shoes, both of which she hadn't parted from.
Before things could get weird, Uzi laid down flat on the table. Turning her head to him, she asked, "where does it look like it could fit in?".
N took a cautious look over her backside. He knew where his own stuck to his frame, translating that to a typical Worker body would prove difficult. Somewhere along the frame for the pelvis was probably right. "Hey, do you remember where that kidnapper put hers?".
Uzi froze and her hand instinctively clenched as phantom pain could be sensed. He noticed immediately her shift in attitude, saying, "oh, sorry. Forget I said anything…".
"I don't remember…", she said, trying to offer him some form of answer.
He said nothing as he looked over the smooth white form, blush tinting his screen yellower as he tried to not make this weird in his mind. "So uh, do we need a drill?", he asked.
"Drill? Oh, uh", she said, "there's no hidden latches or anything?".
A cautious touch over her form was done. He pulled away as soon as he was sure the feature had no such functionality. "N", she said, "I know you have to touch my ass for this, but we've been dating for 10 years . You can stop being modest about it".
He had no doubt the blush on his screen was to an obnoxious degree at this point. "Sorry. Just respecting you", he offered.
She huffed, "if you install this tail wrong, then you'll have something to be sorry about".
She had a point. "Ouch. Let's make sure that doesn't happen then", he looked around, "where's the drill? I don't see any other way to do this".
He could see sweat on her screen. N put a comforting hand on her head, "something wrong?".
"...Might be having second thoughts".
"If you don't want it, then that's ok. We can stop here", he said.
Her eyes shifted around uncomfortably before she said, "it's not… weird to do this, right?".
"What do you mean?".
Her eyes shifted to the replacement tail and then over to his own, "this is gonna be permanent even if I end up not using it. Like, I'm gonna have to have a hole on my back for it. Having to… disfigure myself for this? Should I be doing this?".
He gave her a long look before closing his eyes and talking, "you're smart, and I think you can come up with some way to cover it up if you don't want to use it, and you know your jacket will cover it up anyway. We can make this work, but if you don't want the tail we don't have to go through with it".
She thought for a moment before asking, "can I see you use your tail?".
He smiled, "gladly". The appendage snaked over his shoulder and hovered in the air above them. Uzi rolled over a bit to watch it move around. He exhaled, "it's not as fun as your old tail though. I liked Mr. Chompers a lot".
"I could modify the end, make it grab-able like that", Uzi suggested.
N laughed, "thanks, but, I think I'll stay like this. You could do that with your tail, though".
"Yeah…".
"Maybe I could grab a sentinel head and you can put it on the end", he suggested, some excitement at the idea.
"N, no", she cautioned, "I don't want you going back there for that ".
He shrugged, "then I guess you could build one?".
"Or put a hand on the end at least", Uzi thought aloud, "that'd be useful".
"Probably would".
"..."
"N?".
He looked at her in concern, "what?".
Her eyes shifted around again, "you wouldn't think it'd be weird for a Worker to have a tail, right?".
"No", he said, "it's not weird because it'd be you. You've already been a Worker with a tail, it's not something weird to me".
"...Do you think I'd be seen as a freak again?".
N swung an arm over her, "Uzi, don't say that. You won't be a freak".
"Why would it not be weird because I'm doing it?".
"Because…", he faltered, "because you've never been someone who really cared about that before. You've became things before and you owned being every single one. That was always something I admired about you - how unapologetically you you are".
She buried her face into his chest. He was making sense, and a lot of it. The connections snapped into place as she realized something important and honestly very stupid and cheesy of her. Being normal was overrated. As much as she'd wanted to fit in and be accepted, life on the other life wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Constantly trying to not stand out, the sort of thing a younger her would've found ridiculous. Normal was boring and normal was wrong, Uzi Doorman deserved better.
And perhaps, maybe she did really , really want to have to tail again.
"I'm doing this", she said, pulling away from him.
"Are you sure?", his face beaming with concern.
She gave him a thumbs-up. "You're right. I'm not being myself by being like everyone else", she turned back over to lay face down on the table again, "I'm Uzi, and I want a fucking tail again".
Another concerned look was raised her way, "you sure-sure? 'Cuz that's not exactly what I said".
"Bite me", she snapped, yet he knew she didn't mean it.
"Alright, you're the boss, Uz", he said as he set out looking for the drill.
She pointed off to a tool bench, "in there".
He grabbed the tool out, quickly finding the cord's plug. N plugged the device into an outlet nearby, giving the device an experimental press on the trigger. "Uzi?", he asked, "this is probably going to hurt".
"Go lightly", she instructed, "I got mechanics and electronics down there, too. Can't go damaging those".
He gulped. Great, another thing to keep track of. He exhaled, gathering himself together as he mentally marked out where he thought the tail should go. "Ok. Here goes", he announced as he brought the drill to her backside. The tool spun to life as he carefully directed it against her exterior. It felt wrong tarnishing her body like this, but there was no other way to do this.
The tool screeched against her frame, Uzi dug her fingers into the table. The sound stopped as N peered into the hole in her frame. "Hey, uh", she tried, "what do you see?".
His eyes digitally squinted. Something felt a little weird about the mechanics he could see inside. "...Did they design Workers with this in mind?", he asked.
"Good news?", she asked hopefully.
"Maybe", he said, "kinda looks like there's open connectors or something in there".
"That's… terribly convenient", she said, "or my body's just built weird on the inside. Wouldn't surprise me after what happened".
N brought out a thin tool to poke around at the ports. "I'm not all that great at mechanics like you, but I could try connecting them".
She nodded, "if you need help, just tell me what you see".
He took the tail and inspected the end he'd pried off. The connectors still looked good, he hadn't broken any when he tore it off. "So…", he began talking, "we got this big connector thingy in the tail, some other thin wire or some-".
"Ribbon cable", Uzi clarified.
"That", he nodded, "and a plug?".
"Probably for power", Uzi suggested.
"Right. So which one should I connect first?".
"How big a hole did you make?", Uzi asked.
He took a look between the wire and the hole. "Uh… It's pretty small. I could make it a little bigger so the tail can fit in perfect".
She looked over her side a bit to look at herself a bit, "seriously? How the hell is this DYI working out so well? Yeah, no. It's gotta be this body being weird or something".
He smiled, "guess you were always destined for a tail. Maybe wings are also something you always should've had?".
"Woah… slow down", she cautioned, "let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Tail is happening now , so let's keep focused on that".
He nodded and got to work on connecting the tail. He took the drill and carefully cut the hole to the tail's dimensions. The wires extended out a bit from the rest of the tail, so he got started on the power plug. The tiny plug was easier to get in than he expected. He saw Uzi visibly jump when it slotted in. "You alright?", he asked.
She gave a careful thumbs-up, "j-just got the notification about it. Thing's got power now".
And just that , he thought as he watched it lay there motionless.
Next up, the ribbon cable. He carefully took hold of the tiny cable with a tool and placed it up against its slot. With his other hand, he tried moving the fastener in only for the ribbon to slip out. This was going to be harder than the plug it seemed. Indeed, it took him several more tries while Uzi gave him some encouraging words before he got the awful little wire into place. The placement of it didn't help things, he'd made the hole a little farther up than the connector could be easily interacted with. Such a weird cluster of features, he had to agree that it was more than usual.
Uzi froze as it connected, her systems quickly working through a driver set-up for the new appendage. Once it was over, the mostly-connected appendage flopped around as Uzi tested it.
"Uzi!", he cautioned, "I'm still working on it. Let me finish up".
"Oh, yeah, sorry", she said, "got a little uh… excited".
A little too much actually, the tip swiped his arm and a thin trail of nanites were trying to eat away at his casing. A quick lick and his limited auto-repair kicked in.
Taking the base of the cord into a hand, he carefully started to work it into the port to hold the thing in. It was much easier than he thought it would be, and he quickly found the job done.
"It's done!", he announced as Uzi sat up carefully
Uzi looked behind her as the Disassembly Drone tail trailed behind her in uncertain angles. She moved it around experimentally, watching it as its movements gained more and more fluidity to them.
"It's certainly more… basic than the old one", she said watching it move around.
"Sentinel head~".
"N, no".
He rested his hands on his hips, "it'd be badass though".
She smirked, "since when were you the authority on that?".
N shrugged, "now, I guess".
"Alright Mr. Badass, am I cool again?", her hands fanned out at the question.
"Very", he said nodding his head, "you're just naked still".
She blushed as she grabbed her jacket and put it on. "Now?", she asked.
He smiled, "yeah. Just need wings again and it'll be like going back in time to a decade ago".
She laughed, "except I'm way more mature now". N chuckled as she stared at him, "what? Like you're much different Mr. 'I'm still too easily scared to watch horror movies'".
He shrugged, "well… uh… you know, I've been through worse than some of those movies".
"I know that feeling…".
She hopped off the table and stretched her limbs out, her tail flicking out carefully. After she was done, she wrapped her arms around N in a hug. "Thanks", she said, "I think this is gonna help a lot".
N smiled and picked her up, Uzi not minding this much. Her arms went around his neck and his hands held her by the approximation of her thighs, their faces now at an even eye level. She flashed him a genuine smile before leaning in. The kiss was short, but sweet. After pulling back, she immediately hugged him again until she pulled back for good and he set her back on the floor.
He gave her a thumbs-up, causing her to laugh. "Seriously? The kiss was romantic as hell", she teased.
"Good job, right?", he asked.
"Very", she nodded, "feels natural".
She pressed up against his side, her tail caressing his. "Now we're not quite the odd couple, huh? Tail buds gotta stick together", she teased.
He laughed, "that sounds like something I'd say! Man, we've really rubbed off on each other".
She smirked, "gonna get angsty on me?".
"But you're already so good at that-". She jabbed him playfully with what was considered her elbow.
One hand grabbed the collar of his jacket, "I thought you learned from the best? You've been real helpful with me lately, how about you cut loose?".
He offered a smile, "well, I think we've both been pretty good at hearing each other out lately. I don't have anything I wanna angst about".
"You sure?", she raised a questioning look.
"Sure sure!", he chirped. She smiled and dropped the topic.
Their tails tugged on each other painfully causing them both to look at the appendages. Now tangled up in each other, their attention shifted to this.
She gave a small tug on her tail, "uh, that's not supposed to happen".
He laughed, "you must've been really excited. I know I was".
She blushed, "you get a girl a tail and expect her not to use it?".
N got to work untangling the mess, Uzi joining in. "Not a problem we can't fix", he said.
Uzi smiled at him as the mess slowly unraveled itself. Undoing the last of the messed up wire, their hands brushed up against each other. Their screens flustering at this. N held open a twist in his tail, "pull through", he instructed. Uzi pulled her tail out of the knot with a little more force than she meant. Something hit her in the face, followed by a sting across it. She reached for something to balance herself out on. Her hands met a surface and when she could refocus her visual input she froze.
Her hands were over the cradle. The vial of her tail hovered above it.
N rushed over as he heard small panicked noises from her. "Uzi? Uzi it's ok, let me see-".
He would also briefly freeze at the damage to her face before gently holding her as he got to work neutralizing nanites. Once he was done, she asked in concerned tones, "i-is it bad?".
He shook a no, "neutralized and repaired, you look like nothing happened".
"N".
"Uzi".
"I could have-".
"Don't".
Her eyes shifted between him and the cradle, "if we had already… and you weren't here…".
Mutually hollow eyes looked into each other, worry bleeding into each other like an open wound. His mouth opened, slow and timid of what he was about to ask, "can I… remove it? The tip? Right now?".
She blinked and nodded slowly until the nodding was vigorous, "please. Please".
He gave her a careful, fearful, look before grabbing the vial of her tail in his hands. Looking at where it connected to the side of the vial, he began trying to pry the two apart. A sort of pop noise happened as the first gap between the two appeared. Uzi visibly cringed as she could feel the pressure from N's hand on the appendage. He looked at her in concern, "you good?".
She nodded, "yeah, finish up".
He put his fingers into the gap and finished pulling it all apart. The vial nearly smashed to the floor if N hadn't grabbed it quickly. He and Uzi stood looking at it for a moment.
"Uzi?", his eyes focused on her.
"N, don't decide anything in haste".
"Uzi what if I".
"N, I know, I just-".
His eyes dripped with worry, "what if I hurt the baby? Chloe?".
"N…", she put an arm around him, "you have that spit that fixes anything, I don't, that's why this one needed to come off".
"But what if-".
" N ", she stressed, "you haven't hurt Chloe and if you do, you can fix it. Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I got so freaked out".
"...Does everyone still see me like that?".
"N?".
His hands gripped the vial tighter, "is that why other drones still look at me weird? Is it because I'm still this ?".
"N!", Uzi exclaimed, "stop. Or don't, I mean… Look. Don't worry about it. You take care of Chloe just fine, it'll be fine".
"How can they even let me take care of-".
"N", Uzi raised him a look, "V's in exactly the same boat. If it's really this big a concern then please, talk to her about it because I can't help you as well as she could on this".
He blinked, "you really want me talking to her about it?".
She sighed, "please, she's the only other drone in the same position as you. She and Lizzy already worked this out, I want us to work this out too".
He set the vial on the table and held her, burying his face into her beanie. After a moment, he admitted, "...I can't believe you still want to have a kid with something like me".
"Not some thing ", she said, "some one ".
His grip on her tightened before he let her go. Virtual tears framed his eyes as he told her, "you'd make such a good mom".
She blushed, "really? I… uh".
"You keep saying you wouldn't, but I think you'd be so good", he said, a hand lingered in hers.
"Y-You too. Uh. I mean in the dad sense but, um, thanks", her flustered state was calm.
He looked at the vial again and evidently made up his mind, "I'm gonna talk out my issues with V because I still really, really want this baby. I can do this, just gotta work through that".
Uzi smiled, "you got it! We got this".
Their eyesight caught on each other as the one tail without a tip waged and its counterpart shortly followed.