Chapter Text
A simulated huff escaped her before her eyes darted around her bedroom. Uzi bit her lip for a moment, and her gaze wandered back to the desk before her. A few piles of flat disk-like objects were lying on its metal surface. The older drones at the bunker liked to refer to them as poker chips, but her generation just called them the latter. “It’s still not enough,” the short drone murmured to herself, hunched over at her chair, “I need just a bit more and then I can get it”. She had already flipped her room upside down in the search for forgotten disks, checked the living room couch for any hidden between the gaps and got paid by a few classmates to do their homework. Anxiety, or perhaps excitement, gnawed at her wires now that she was closer to her saving goals but not enough to have finally reached it.
The purple-haired girl abruptly stood up from her seat and paced around her room, CPU wracking to find a quick solution. “Borrow from someone?” she whispered to nobody but herself. “I could grab some from Dad’s wallet… uuurgh, but then he’ll add ‘thief’ to the ‘disappointment of a child’ interviews.” Most often, there wasn’t someone to listen to her thoughts, but she was fine since listening to her own monologues was enough for her. Well, there was Thad sometimes. He was the only drone who actually treated her as a peer… and as a friend. “WAIT, Thad!” Uzi’s whispering turned into a loud gasp of realisation, “Maybe he can lend me some chips!”
The short drone looked at the wall, her LED lights unfocused as she internally checked the time. Hell, class is soon. Uzi zipped towards her backpack and hastily placed it around her shoulders, almost falling backwards during her hurry.
With determined focus, she exited her apartment unit and stomped through the bunker’s hallways. Other drones flinched away from her path; some curled up their synthetic lips upon sighting her and turned away to gossip with their fellow worker drones.
“Sʜᴜsʜ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀ ғʀᴇᴀᴋ ɪs ᴀʀᴏᴜɴᴅ!”
“Sʜᴇ’s, ʟɪᴋᴇ, sᴏ ᴀɢɢʀᴇssɪᴠᴇ! I sᴡᴇᴀʀ sʜᴇ’s ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀ ᴅʀᴏɴᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴡᴏʀᴋᴇʀ.”
“Hᴇʀ ғᴀsʜɪᴏɴ sᴛʏʟᴇ ɪs sᴏ ᴛʀᴀsʜ~” “Yᴇᴀʜ, sʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏʙᴀʙʟʏ ɢᴏᴛ ɪᴛ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴀ ᴅᴜᴍᴘsᴛᴇʀ ʙɪɴ~”
“Sʜᴇ sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴅᴏ ʜᴇʀ ᴅᴀᴅ ᴀ ғᴀᴠᴏᴜʀ ᴀɴᴅ–”
“...” her metallic hands tightened around her backpack’s straps and quickened her pace, trying to stomp away as to disguise it with anger and tuning the world out with some good taste angsty teenage nightcore music.
At some point, she bumped into a hard obstacle, a quiet curse escaped her mouth, her digital eyebrows lowered as her optics searched for her anger’s target while getting into a verbal defensive stance. “Ouch, sorry, dude!” Anger switched to confusion and was then replaced by relief. “Oh, hi Thad,” the purple-haired girl said, trying not to sound awkward or cringe.
Her arms folded, and she looked away for a few seconds before looking back at him. “Sorry for the bump, I was distracted thinking about some stuff,” a small blush formed on her screen for a few seconds before fading away. “No problem, it happens,” his tone was relaxed, slightly leaning into goofy happiness. “Wanna hang out after class?” the blond drone asked as they started walking beside each other towards their shared classroom, doing a joyful fistbump when answered with a nod from the other machine. “By the way…uhm…can you lend me some chips?”
“Sure! As long as you do my chemistry homework for like a week?” Thad chuckled and gave her a friendly punch on the shoulder. Fondness crept into her smirk, and LED lights, which she rolled and agreed to the deal with a few ‘yeah’s. “Did something at the traders’ market catch your eye?” he said with a soft smile as one of his hands rummaged through his shorts’ pocket before depositing some disks in her metallic palm, “Maybe a figure from that anime you were showing me last weekend?”
“Do you remember that project I am working on?” Her optics focused on him and tried to divert her other sensors’ attention towards the environment, lest she bump into someone else.
“The railgun?”
“Yes, my sick as hell railgun!” Her voice got louder with excitement for a moment before she coughed and tried to recompose herself, “A trader from the north is resting here at the colony, and she has a functional battery core for sale.” Thad’s digital eyebrows momentarily lifted, and his optics softened with delight. “Oh, neat! Can I tag along?” She let out a contented noise and increased her walking pace, “Yeah, but let's get to class before the teacher locks us out!”
The sound of pixelated guns shooting and controller buttons being hurriedly pressed filled the angsty purple-themed bedroom, the antique TV’s screen displayed the text “You are dead”, and a long groan followed suit. “I bet they were using hacks,” Uzi grumbled into her pillow as her cold metal fingers tensed around the gaming controller before going slack and staring at the ceiling with a huff. “It was fun though,” Thad commented from his seat on the floor, his back resting against her bed’s side. “For you!” she snapped; however, it lacked any true bite.
The sound of a buzzing alarm rang through the room, jolting both drones from their seats and making the purple-haired one fall from her bed with a yelp. All movement stalled before Uzi excitedly got up from the floor with a maniacal smile, “The trader should be at the Traders’ Market by now!” She grabbed a bag from her desk and snatched the baseball-hat-wearing drone's hand and helped him get to his feet. “Nice! Also, do you mind if we look at any stands with stickers? I want to make my skateboard cooler,” He hummed. “Yeah, sure, maybe if we're lucky we'll find band stuff too,” she shrugged her shoulders with a small smile, “I would kill for a new Dead Batteries’ poster.”
At first, her metallic hands grasped firmly around his, and her legs moved fast to compensate for her shorter stature. Gradually, her manic enthusiasm softened into simple, slightly more normal excitement, her hold loosened, and their walking pace slowed down to something more comfortable for both. “How much is the trader asking for? I heard battery cores are pricey,” Thad asked softly. “60 chips, less if I add objects she's looking for into the exchange,” she replied and lifted the bag she was holding with her other hand, “That's why I got this!” His green optics wandered to the white plastic bag, which held a vaguely rectangular shape. “And that would be?” A bit of curiosity sneaked into his laid-back tone. “You'll see,” she simply answered, and her smile resembled a square bracket (“]” this thing lol).