Tap tap tap. Ronnie drew back the metal reinforcement to see none other than N standing outside the window, with that begging look on his face. Ronnie nearly bluescreened at the unexpected presence. "Heyy Ronnie, do you think you could let me in? I need maintenance done." N pressed his pointer fingers together as he looked up at Ronnie. Ronnie stared at N, bemused. "..Maintenance?" "Yeah! V and J are gone at the moment, and they wouldn’t want to help me anyway." Ronnie carefully considered his options. One, let a disassembly drone into his bedroom, or two, reject him and potentially anger a disassembly drone. He definitely didn't want the latter, so with a sigh, Ronnie opened the window all the way and helped N inside. Ronnie brushed his hands on his basketball shorts and started digging through the closet for his toolbox. "You got an access panel, yeah?" "Sure do!" N chirped. "Alright, take your coat off. I need to get to it." Like with worker drones, a disassembly drone's access panel was on their back. N took off his parka and sat down on the floor in front of the bed. Ronnie sits down on his bed. He opens the toolbox and takes out a wrench. "So, what's the problem?" "I've been feeling congested lately." "Hm. I'll take a look." Ronnie unscrews N's back panel and pops it off to reveal.. a tangled jungle of wires. Ronnie almost had an adverse reaction. "Who did your maintenance last time? Because they need a talking to. This is a mess!" "Yeah, about that.. I had to do maintenance on myself a few times... With a mirror." Ronnie stares for a moment, and then sighs deeply. "Dude, you can't perform maintenance on yourself! It's dangerous and unreliable." "Sorryyyyy." Ronnie sighs. N just had the cutest puppy eyes, it seems. "It's fine, just- come to me from now on, okay?" "Got it!" N gave two thumbs up. With that, Ronnie began the tedious work of untangling all of N's wires. N squirms as he tries to suppress giggles. “Hehe, that tickles!” Ronnie gave his own amused smile, but an underlying layer of fear is still present. N and Ronnie weren’t exactly friends yet, at least on Ronnie’s part. You couldn’t blame him for being cautious, though. N was a murder machine, programmed to eat Ronnie’s kind! The worker drone can’t be sure that N attempting to befriend him wasn’t just an elaborate ploy. Though, Uzi is friends with him, right? She’s been fine this whole time, so maybe he’ll be too. You can never know. Ronnie finished untangling the wires. He closed up N’s access panel and gently pats the center of it. “Alright. Does that feel any better?” N doesn’t respond. Ronnie can feel the terror begin to pool inside of him. Oh no. This was it, wasn’t it? Ronnie got off the bed and walked in front of N, who he discovered was chewing on his hand, making small dents in the metal with his fangs. “N..?” N took his hand out of his mouth and waved cheerfully. Ronnie was flabbergasted, completely lost on what to do next. What was all that about? “Do you feel better now?” Ronnie repeated. “Yeeeeah..” N dragged out. His screen displayed a small smiley face emoticon. “...Are you okay?” Ronnie was put off by the disassembly drone’s sudden change in demeanor. “Yeah! I’m good!” N’s speech and behavior was definitely affected by something, but what? Ronnie began to see it less as a reason to be afraid and more like a potential conspiracy, and he loved a good conspiracy. Though don’t get it twisted, he was still afraid. Ronnie continued his questioning. “Are you sure? You’re acting kinda different.” “Oh, yeah! I’m a little little right now. It happens when I get really comfortable.” A faint rumble could be heard from N’s internals, as if to prove his point. Ronnie quirked his head to one side. “...I’m sorry?” “Little! Tiny!” N reiterated. “Ohhh…” Ronnie snapped his fingers. “Yeah I still don’t get it.” N made a pinching motion with his fingers. He was getting progressively more frustrated that Ronnie couldn’t understand what he meant. “Like a bot!” “Like a- huh?” Ronnie backs away, not fully believing N. He points an accusatory finger at the carefree muder drone. “You mean to tell me that you’re acting.. Like a little kid? And you expect me to believe that?” “Well, it’s the truth!” N beamed. He swayed back and forth in his seat. Ronnie, clearly, didn’t believe N. He crossed his arms, his expression hardening. “You know, you don’t have to play these games. If you wanna kill and eat me, just do it.” N was very disheartened at that. His optics shone with sorrow. “I would never! You’re a friend of Uzi’s, and I’m a friend of Uzi. That literally makes us friends!” N threw his arms out, just about to start wailing. Ronnie nods slowly. Yeah, he understood the logic, but that didn’t make it correct in his eyes. He gives an empty sigh. “I guess.” Well, what point was there in arguing? Ronnie looked back at N, who’s playfully swinging his legs back and forth. Great, now he has an overgrown toddler he has to care for. But what if it’s a trick? Disassembly drones love playing with their food; this might just be N’s way of doing that. A very odd way of going about it, but that didn't matter! Ronnie couldn't let his guard down for nothing. Then N spoke up. “I’m bored!” “Me too, little buddy. Can I call you that?” “I don't mind!” “Okay, cool.” Ronnie continued, caution in his voice. “So… you're bored?” N flopped back onto the bed. “Mhm! I wanna color!” “I don't think… hold on.” Ronnie walked to his desk and rummaged in one of the drawers. He pulled out a box of beat-up markers. He then took a couple pieces of copy paper. “They’ve seen better days, but it’s all I got.” Ronnie sat back down next to N and handed the coloring supplies out to him. “It's okay!” N gave a thumbs up and took the markers from Ronnie. He slid down to the floor and began drawing something. It looked like himself, but it was so messy that Ronnie couldn’t tell. Ronnie decided to work on his project while N colored. He was nearby if N needed anything, but surely he didn’t need to be supervised every minute of the day. Ronnie is wrong about a lot of things, but he didn’t expect this to be one of them. The worker drone heard some strange squeaky noises, so he turned around, only to see N drawing all over his arms. Ronnie grumbled, took a tissue off his desk, and sat down next to N. “Hey now- Let’s not-” N whined as the markers were taken away from him. Ronnie, while holding a bubble in one side of his mouth, rubbed the washable marker off of N’s shiny white plating. “But I wanna draw!!” N cried, yellow digital tears displaying on his screen. “But you have to draw on the paper. Can you do that?” “Fiiiiinee…” N’s screen showed a tiny frowny face. Ronnie nodded and handed the markers back to N. This wasn’t so bad so far. Sure, he didn’t understand, but N was admittedly adorable like this, and thus Ronnie felt that curtain of foreboding pull away from his eyes. N went right back to drawing, as if nothing had happened. Ronnie took a deep breath, clutching his chest. He didn’t know he had that in him. Maybe his dad was right when they said the parental instinct is- well- instinctual. Ronnie felt a strange emotion towards N. It was strong, and very protective in its aura. Could he feel paternal to a murder robot his same age? He was starting to believe it. He wanted nothing more than to hold N close, and cuddle him, and pepper his cute little face with kisses, and- “Hi Ronnie!” When did he start hugging N? His arms were draped around the regressed disassembly drone, squishing his face into N’s shoulder. Luckily, N didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he started purring gently, and his tail started wagging. “I made you a drawing!” “You- you did?” Ronnie was still surprised by the fact he caught himself hugging N. He slowly let go, and N turned around to pick up the paper he was just scribbling on. It was a messy drawing of two people, one taller and one shorter. The shorter had dark blue clothes on and a blue and red propeller hat, and the other had light grey hair and N usual black parka. “Oh hey, it is me! And you!” N held out the drawing into Ronnie’s face. “It is!!! We’re friends in this drawing, because we’re holding hands!” “Awww. That’s sweet, little buddy.” N smiled wide and gave the drawing to Ronnie. “Is this for me?” Ronnie asked in between chuckles. “Mhm!” N held the drawing back out, expecting for Ronnie to take it. Ronnie took the drawing and reached over to set it on his desk. He looked back over to N, who was staring off into space with his eyes lidded. “Are you tired?” N shook his head, but he was nodding off. “C’mon, let’s get you plugged in.” N whined, but didn’t object. Ronnie helped N into his bed and laid him down. He went rummaging through his cord supply for one that was compatible with N. He plugged him in and into the wall. “Goodnight, N.” Ronnie leaned over N, his hands gingerly graced N’s face. In that moment, he felt something for N that wasn’t fear. Something warm and vanilla-scented. N’s optics lulled shut, and his breathing slowed as his body warmed up. “Night night…” Ronnie nodded and sat up. He wasn’t tired, so he went over to his desk. He sat down and cracked open a notebook labeled “study notes.” He opened to a new page and began writing. October 12, 3071, 12:00 pm (edit time & date) N displayed some new behavior to me. While I was doing maintenance, N seemed to change headspace(? I don't know how else to describe it), acting like a child, around three to four years old. He enjoys drawing, on paper and himself, and he tired out relatively quickly. This behavior is distinctly human, and it makes me wonder where he learned it from. Maybe I can learn more about human childhoods, if he holds any valuable information. I’ll report back once he wakes up. I am curious to see if he remains in the same headspace.