Work Text:
"Augh!" P03 recoiled violently. "You are such a nuisance!"
"Oh? Did you want me to leave then?" You smiled, pulling your rag back to your side.
You simply heard a short huff in response. The very first time you were able to convince him of getting wiped down, you had to fight tooth and nail, just to spend the next several hours that same night tediously cleaning. The dust and grime was easily cut through by a finger stroke, his expression cloudy and dulled, his arm joints creaking at the slightest movement. You were not able to achieve a perfect clean, with all of the meticulous angles and crevices, but your work was something to be proud of. He actually had a shine to his metal that did not previously exist, his face now brighter and a more vivid blue. And you would be damned if he allowed himself to revert back to how he was.
"The more often you let me do this, the shorter it'll be each time. Come here." Your hands grasped the sides of his monitor, angling it downwards to yourself. Before dragging a rag across his screen, the last thing you saw was a glare. "Don't act mad with me."
"I'm not mad."
"Mhm!"
You pulled the rag back (nowhere nearly as blackened as the first time!) and examined your work. Your eyes scanned over his expression, the faint scan lines that touched upon the blue.
"You're very pretty like this," you said, idly letting your hands run down to the bottom of his monitor.
"I–um." For the first time, P03 noticed his own reflection in your gaze, speckles of blue highlighting your eyes. Somehow your eyes looked more intense than usual. "Thanks."
Your thumbs grazed the edge of his screen, running over ghostly webbed cracks you've failed to recognize before. They did not feel too deep, too damaged, but something felt amiss. P03 was not clumsy and before you came around, he barely left his factory.
"Can I ask where these came from?" You asked, thumbing over the cracks as though you could smooth them over.
P03 slightly jerked at your words, at your touch. His claw wrapped itself around your arm, pulling your attention away from the cracks, if only just briefly. "I'm sure you already know."
"I do?" You pursed your lips as you thought, lowering your attention to your hand wrapping around his claw. What would you know? You can't recall a single incident during your time together that would've caused this. Or did you just not pay attention?
No, it wasn't that. It's because you weren't even present, even aware of what was happening. Your mouth barely parted as the words struggled to form.
"He– he put his hands on you?"
"I would rather not talk about it."
"But you–" You stopped. No, you knew pity was the last thing he desired. Pity made him feel vulnerable and humiliated. The best (the only) way to comfort him was with a lack of words. You soon had to learn you could not force everyone to spill their troubles, no matter how much you wanted to help. "...Okay."
P03 strung out a short, flat noise. He grabbed onto your long-forgotten rag and lightly tossed it at you. "Go back to being gross and sappy. I like you better that way."
You blinked at the rag before putting it aside. As your hands slowly crept to his monitor, he leaned into your touch. You pressed your forehead against his screen and closed your eyes upon the sudden coolness.
"I thought I was being a nuisance?" you coyly said.
"You get a pass this time," he said. "Any other time you're not gonna be in my good grace."
"Ha! When am I ever in your good graces?"
You pressed your face in harder, teasingly at your words. Your hand left his monitor, and without opening your eyes, you could tell he angled his vision to peer at your wandering hand. You wrapped around his claw, idly grazing your thumb against the ridges.
"... Is this all you wanted to do?" P03 eventually asked, unmoving. Despite this he leaned comfortingly into your touch, so gentle and light that you barely left fingerprints behind. "Blowing your moment on something like this?"
"No, but I thought you were going to have a little bit more patience." You pulled back and examined his screen. Your lips quickly, sweetly, found their place on him where his mouth would be, feeling the soft humming underneath.
P03 jolted back violently. "Y/N!"
"You're suddenly so warm!" You laughed, covering your mouth with your hand. His metal frame was getting hot to the touch, his inner workings now much louder than before. "You said I got a free pass!"
"I didn't think– hmph!!" He scowled as there was a trill of erratic beeping that you could only interpret as grumbling or cursing. "You look like an idiot trying to do that when I have no mouth."
"Did you like it though?" You leaned forward, your face close to his grimacing expression. Your body leeched off the warmth coming from him, a welcoming new presence within his chill factory. "You can tell me if you didn't like it!"
His frown deepened as your restless eyes never left him for an answer. "I don't need to say anything."
"Is that so?" You leaned forward again, placing another kiss with a tilt of your head. This time it felt less awkward. His body did not suddenly jerk upon your touch and instead leaned closer, comfortingly so into your embrace, into your arms that found themselves around his back. His own arm tightened around your waist.
"So you didn't like that?" You teased, leaning most (if not all) of your weight against him. Despite your confident attitude, P03 felt the thrumming of your heart against his chest. Your hand mockingly ran down his spine. "Because if you didn't, I guess… I could… stop…"
He nearly shuddered upon your feathery touches, regaining just enough self control to recompose himself. They were light and ginger, hands meant only for comforting and loving (and not for harming). Only meant for him, to ground your presence, to ground himself into your open embrace.
He leaned forward, pressing his monitor against your forehead. You briefly saw a pixelated heart present itself on his screen. "I guess you can have another free pass."