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Xyr battery can charge even if xe’s awake, so it doesn’t really matter if xe keeps xemself up ‘til the late hours after midnight.
Xe hugs xemself tighter and feels the circuits inside of xem bend in obedience. The flexible rubber metal joints don’t make a sound. Xe folds xemself until xe can hear the metal plates softly klink together. It’s not enough.
Xyr knees to xyr chest, xe taps xyr fingers on xyr legs. It doesn’t make a sound. Xe taps harder, repeatedly, listening to every klink progressively get louder in xyr ears. Xe squeezes xyr eyelids shut and imagines.
Xyr systems senses external pressure grip xyr body. Xe flinches, but remembers that xyr partner is right next to xem. As xyr senses heighten, xyr system waking up, xe hears… then feels cold air breathe down xyr neck.
Boothill begins to turn xyr head towards Robin. Xe’s interrupted when xe feels Robin’s nails lightly graze xyr scalp then glide through xyr long hair, rendering Boothill motionless. Xe feels slightly chapped lips softly press the back of xyr head under all that hair, but at the same time Robin’s hand tracing the space between xyr jawline and the crook of xyr neck, her arm snaking through that gap. Xe’s overloaded with sensory alerts by now, but Robin takes it even further by smoothing her thumb over Boothill’s lips. Boothill, without thinking, opens xyr mouth and lets Robin inside.
Xe’s sure sharp teeth are poking at her from in there, sharp teeth that were mechanically engineered to handle any matter xe would throw in there.
However, Robin goes straight to the gums. Xe notices just how long her nails are when xe feels them lightly scratch them, just once. And it… hurt. That was a mystery. Xe could handle paper rolled up thick as the roots of the tree, rocks that pop and crumble into sand after only a bit of chewing, 9-millimeter metal like candy… but a woman’s manicured, painted nails was able to get a rise out of xem?
Xe felt Robin sigh down xyr neck and recognized it was out of content. Xe could practically hear the smile on her lips. Xe could imagine her face right now: Look at her, laying there smirking to herself and her locs tangled together in some perfect mess and a flowered halo floating in the air somewhere and the lingering traces of makeup on her face. And… chapped lips. Oh, now that vision is mixed with cold and softness and pressure and wind and sweetness and softness and pain and god, damn it all to hell and back.
Boothill flips xemself on xyr back and looks Robin dead in the eye and stretches xyr tongue out to Robin and Robin, oh the goddess she is, notices xyr intentions with her beautiful glowing eyes that mimicked a painting of the cosmos and grins big and wide as she moves her fingers to press against the flesh of xyr tongue and oh lord, Boothill hears how xyr jaw cracks and loosens to make room for Robin to plunge further in xyr mouth and tug on xyr tongue and Boothill tastes cherry or something as xe slithers xyr tongue around and between Robin’s finger and thumb. Xe swears xe hears a throaty moan escape Robin’s mouth and Boothill thanks the Sky-Shattering Lux Arrow and Lan themself and any Aeon out there that might’ve had a hand in how xe could have had the possibility of meeting this angel above xem.
Boothill, for maybe the first time this whole night xe can’t remember, moves, towards Robin, and reaches out xyr mechanical arm to Robin’s face, Robin humming like a little songbird as xe does it. Xe holds xyr hand there, patiently admiring her pretty face and her pretty nose and her pretty lips and her pretty eyes and the way her smile tugs up a little at Boothill’s gaping mouth. Xe still watches as xe, gently, takes Robin’s wrist and tugs on it. Watching, as Robin retreats from xyr mouth and just before she leaves completely xe takes her hand lifts xyr head and plants a kiss on the back of it, her eyebrows raise a little and a silent gasp escape from her parted lips. Feeling, after xe takes that opportunity of surprise to pull her closer in a swift motion and finally kiss that lovely Robin, chapped lips and a lavender-cherry tongue and felt-fabric hair falling on xyr face and the beat of wings pushing the air around them and their hands still intertwined together on the bed and xe knows the external pressure that xyr systems are sensing pressing against xyr body is Robin, who knows damn well that xe’s a cyborg who can’t return the burning heat blazing inside of her but couldn’t care a flying feather from her head less. Boothill finds xemself wishing that xe could, but that thought temporarily disappears when xe feels Robin pull back, hears a pop when their lips separate, and notices saliva pool in the back of xyr mouth and xe almost chokes on it looking up at Robin with some puppydog yearning look. When did xe get so fudgin’ weak?
Xe hears air escape from Robin’s mouth in the form of a chuckle and xyr face practically lights up with heat that xe hasn’t experienced in… eons. Oh god, when’s the last time that’s happened?
Robin comes closer and there, kisses xyr forehead, there, kiss on xyr eyebrow, there, on xyr cheekbone, and Great Lan, she’s petting xyr hair...; xe really can’t catch a break with this lady, who does she think she is cuddling up to xem like this?
Boothill groans as Robin’s nails drag along the back of xyr neck, but is soon silenced when Robin kisses xem again, a short one this time. They let go and Boothill grunts as xe sits xemself up on the bed, xyr gears creaking inside of xem. Robin squeezes xyr hand and for the first time tonight opens her mouth for words to come out instead of flowers.
“I wanted to help you fall asleep,” she whispers, that angelic voice soothing like if xe replaced the oil in xyr system with honey.
“Ya really didn’ have to,” Boothill tells her, as if xe wasn’t enjoying how xyr sensors were being kicked into overdrive with her addictive touch. And xe sure isn't sleeping right now. “How’d ya know I was up?”
“Usually I’d fall asleep to your fans cooling your body, but I didn’t hear it.” Man, she’s attentive. “So I couldn’t sleep either. And…” She pauses. Only a second though, before she decides she should be straight with it. “I sensed you were uneasy.”
“Ya don’t hafta be anxious, I know,” xe says, rubbing her back with xyr thumb. Xe knows what that implies, that she used her power of “Harmony.” She’s been extensively honest about it. She didn’t want Boothill to think she’d be secretly mindreading xyr thoughts or anything during the early days of their meeting. Now, Boothill knows she wouldn’t do that, not with the secret part at least. Boothill kisses the crest of her head when xe sees her soft smile, moving the hand on her back up to press against her head.
Even though she’s smiling, she still looks sad, carding through Boothill’s hair with her fingers and worry pooling in her eyes as she looks at Boothill, who’s moved on to kissing her ear and adjusting the grip on her hand. “Are you… okay?”
It’s a flat and corny question xe’s probably asked xemself millions of times but never giving xemself an answer. It’s meaningless and gives no comfort at all. Hearing it from somewhere other than xyr own mouth and mind isn’t all that different, but the way Robin says it gets xem thinking a little more than usual. Just in the wrong direction.
Why does she care so much? She shouldn’t. She’s all on her own now with pains all over her skin and every minute xe looks at her she looks about ready to implode. That light she used to have when talking to xem is so much duller now. Xe’s thought so many times how xe took that light from her. The very picture of xem probably reminds her of events she doesn’t want to think about. She shouldn’t be looking after others when she’s got just as much on her plate.
Robin notices Boothill pause xyr actions and she only looks more troubled, so Boothill says something fast, “That ain’t a fair question.”
Robin flinches and Boothill instantly regrets waking up today. “Wait, no, I’m sorry, I didn’ mean ta-”
“No, Boothill, it's okay. You’re right.” Xe sure doesn’t feel right when her grip on xem tightens instantly and she looks away. “It’s not.”
They sit there quietly for a minute or two. Robin lying on Boothill’s chest, Boothill sitting back on the bedrest and they’re both just holding on. Neither of them’s sure if it’s comforting or flustering. Boothill listens to her beating, bleeding heart and Robin listens to xyr parts slowly rusting. They both have unfinished business that's keeping them in this world, and when they’re done maybe they’ll part from it. For now, they can take solace in the familiarity of bleeding hearts and rusting parts.
“I love you,” Boothill whispers, finally.
“I love you too,” Robin says, closing her eyes.