Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

N liked a lot of things. He liked the colonists who were friendly to him, he liked V, he liked Ron, he liked Thad, and he really liked Uzi.

A lot.

N really liked how his life was going for him right now.

There was something he didn’t like, he thought as he walked through the doors into the colony.

Before Uzi, he didn’t like these doors, they stopped him from getting the warm, sweet oil inside the bunker - all the Worker Drones that could fill him up. But he didn’t hate the doors - he didn’t really do hate, besides, hating inanimate objects was a weird thought to him.

Uzi, the Worker Drone who blew him away - quite literally as part of their first meeting and every sense metaphorically. She was incredible, creative, funny, smart…he blinked as he realized that this list could go on for some time.

“Hey, N,” Ron waved at him. “Up for a game?” He gestured to an open seat at the official WDF gaming table.

N smiled, “Sorry, not now. Need to ask Uzi something.” His tail wagged excitedly.

Ron chuckled good naturedly, “Mind settling a bet first?”

“Huh?” N asked confused, “Uh, sure, how can I help?”

N liked Ron, he really did, but he hoped this wouldn’t take long. The planet wide toxic death storm was supposed to be especially inhospitable tonight - it was very pretty to watch, maybe fly a bit with her (she liked flying, he liked flying, and they would cling to each other - all good things!), and then come back and watch some pirated anime with her or some movies - she had a great selection! And if he stayed until morning, forcing him to stay even longer? Well, he wouldn’t complain.

Ron’s lips twitched, “Are you and Uzi dating?”

N’s processors practically screeched to a halt as he started stuttering, “Wha-what? No, no, no.”

He poked his fingers together, “I mean, it’d be…nice.” He blushed. “Don’t tell her I said that!” His eye lights were hollowed as he said this, a blush clear on his visor.

“Whoa whoa, calm down, N,” Ron raised his hands in a placating manner. “The guys and I have a bet going on you two.” He gestured to the other members of the WDF that were playing cards until N showed up and were now watching the taller drone. “Some of us thought you two were already dating, some of us thought…otherwise.” Ron didn’t elaborate on what that could mean, possibly afraid that it would make N violent.

Ouch. Fair, but still, ouch.

“So, guessing you aren’t dating, huh?” Ron sounded…regretful? Sad? N wasn’t entirely sure. “Dang, guess I lost the bet then.”

If N were more like Uzi, he would have yelled about people betting on his love life.

But N wasn’t like that and blushed more, “Wh-What? You bet on us?”

Ron chuckled a little nervously as he rubbed the back of his head, “We bet on a lot of things. Look, that’s not important.” He was clearly trying to change the subject. “So, what do you want to do with Uzi then?”

“Well…I kinda want to ask her to be my girlfriend.” For a second, every drone in the room was completely silent. This silence was broken when N grabbed his head, “Nope! Changed my mind! Can’t do it!”

“Wait!” Ron called out. “You were going to confess today? Now?” He sounded happy. “Go for it! Do it!”

“What if she…” N trailed off.

Ron waved a hand dismissively, “Here’s something about Uzi, she doesn’t let a lot of people close to her…or anyone now that I think about it. No one, except you. You ask her out? She’ll say yes, I’m sure of it.”

N’s tail was wagging excitedly, “You really think so?”

Ron smiled, “Yes, so go to her and ask her out right now!”

N didn’t waste any time, dashing towards Uzi’s home, with a screamed, “Thank you!” as he left.

Ron smirked at the other members of the WDF, “Well, looks like I’m winning that bet now.”

T̵̸̼̘̺̓͌͛h̵̵͉̫̺̓̓͑e̸̴̢͍͕̒̀͐ a̸̵̪͋̽̈́͜b̴̵̼͓͎́͛̚s̵̸̻̞̦͊̒̚o̵̸͙͇͖͆͝͝l̸̵̡̪̈́̓͝u̸̵͇̠̝̓̐͘t̵̴̻͇͖̒̿͝ë̴̴̠͔͖́͆͠ s̴̴̢̘͔̿͐̈́o̸̵̼̝̓̓̓͜l̸̴̢͍͉̈́̓v̸̴͇̫̾͆̀e̸̵̟͉̿̓̈́r̴̴͍͖̙͊̽͋ d̸̸̝͉̼͋͊e̸̴͕͕͉͌́͠c̸̴͍̻̫̀͘l̴̵͇̻̒͑͒ä̴̸͔̟͓́̿͆r̸̸͕̪̙̈́͌͑e̵̴͇͙̝͊͒͝ș̸̴̠͙̐͋̚ t̸̴͙̪̓̓́h̸̴̢͖̝͒̀͒i̸̵͙͔̺̚͝͠s̵̸̢̞̘͛̓́ a̴̵̡̟̙̔͋͊ l̸̵̡͚͙͊͝͝i̴̵͓̻̙̔́͝n̴̵̝͔̈́̀͝e̴̸͚͔͋̓̿ b̸̴͍͙̠̾̿r̸̵͖͕͔͐̽̽e̴̸͙͙͋̓̓͜a̵̵͔͕̺͒͒͘k̵̴͔̠͕̈́͋̚

Uzi was looking over her blueprints in her living room, humming approvingly, “If we get a more powerful generator, or use generators that are completely independent from each other, and use separate computers, that would-”

“Uzi!” N barged through the door, making Uzi jump, clutching the blueprints

“Robo-Christ N! You can’t just barge in like that!”

N chuckled nervously, “Sorry, sorry, was just excited to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Uzi raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?”

N rubbed the back of his head, “Well, I wanted to ask you…if you uh…” his eyes darted around for a second before the landed on the piece of paper Uzi was clutching in her hands. “If you could tell me what that is?”

Uzi knew he wasn’t here for that - how could he be? - but her grin made N shiver as he realized what it could be and the mess he had just unleashed.

“I was working on blueprints on how to improve the doors!” She sounded proud and giddy, like she always did when talking about designing new doors.

“Oh, cool!” N forced a grin. Internally, he wasn’t half as happy as he looked.

“See, when you got in because of me, we use electromagnetic doors. Lot better at staying closed than hydraulic ones, but they eat up a ton of energy and if something goes wrong, they open up. When you stabbed the keycard scanner thing with your tail, you broke the computer systems telling the doors to stay closed. That’s why all three doors there opened up, but the rest were fine. Most doors here are hydraulic doors - more maintenance, but able to take more.” She paused to look proud of the doors that kept her colony safe. “That’s also why we use electromagnetic doors at the entrance - they need less maintenance, so we don’t need to risk our lives as much checking up on them. Oh! And-”

N really liked how his life was going for him right now. He just wished his best friend wasn’t into doors this much.

So, he resigned himself to waiting till she was done, when she got passionate like this, that was the best way thing to do.

Plus, she knows he doesn’t know a lot about doors, so it’s not like she could go on for a long time by herself, right?

“Oh, door-hter!” Khan said as he rushed into the room, carrying blueprints. “Want to go over these door designs with me?”

As Uzi grinned, N felt the last hopes for his plans tonight falling away…and locked up behind some stupid door!

T̸͕͉̙͒̒͠h̴̡͉͚̽̐̽ë̸͚̘͎́̈́͝ a̴̡̘͍͑́b̴͓͚̟̈́͆̚s̴̫̻̻̔̚͝o̴͉͎̦̓́̒l̴̝͇͎̾͆͒u̴͕̫͇̿̕t̵̺̫͍͐͋͘é̸̡̻̺̒ s̸̘͕͊͒͘o̴̢͖͛̈́̓l̵̫͖͊̾́v̸̢̘͉̈́͛̒e̴͙̪͘͘͘r̵̡̠͖̔̕͝ d̴̠̦̓͐͘͜é̵̻̟͎̐͆c̴͉͔͚̔͒̚l̵͖͕̘̓̒͛ä̴̞͙́̕͜͝r̵̡̝͉͋͊͘e̵̘̠͊̕̚͜s̸̙͔͇̀͛͝ a̸̡̘̟̿͐̈́ t̵̟̝͉͛̽̽i̸̫͍͙͐̈́m̵̝͙͛͛̚͜e̵͔̺̐̕̕ s̸̫͕̀̾̐k̸̫͖͓̿̾͛i̴͔̫̺̿͋͘p̴̞̫̼͊̔̈́

2 hours later

V landed right outside the spire, giggling as she thought about the kills she got. It was a lot easier than usual, for some reason, the toaster’s scavenger party couldn’t find a building with any doors - made it so much harder to hide from her.

So, in a moment of pure kindness on her part, she decided to let N know so he could top up on oil before he spent time with the purple thing.

She blinked as the sound of an explosion reached her, “What the?”

Following the noise, which was very close to the spire, she saw N with one arm as a grenade launcher, and his free hand was grabbing a door from an actual pile of doors, before he threw it in the air and shot at it, making it blow up.

‘Huh, guess the purple thing got to talking about doors again,’ she thought before turning around and flying off to laugh at the ridiculousness of this whole thing where she wouldn’t make a golden retriever feel worse.

Chapter Text

Uzi winced as she walked over the shattered remains of countless doors, the jagged edges digging into her boots and causing her to stumble occasionally. The ground was littered with shards of wood and metal, and coated in snow, all rustling underfoot as she pushed forward.

Normally, the destruction of so many doors would upset her, but today they only made her think about pushing N away. Even if it was accidental, she hurt her best friend.

Her only real friend.

When she was younger, after her mom died, when the bullying got worse, her dad would make excuses for her to avoid school and go to work with him. It didn’t improve her school life, but made their relationship as solid as any of his doors, especially when it was revealed how good she was at building and designing things.

Doors became a source of comfort and safety for her, and she accidentally closed the door on N, figuratively speaking.

She sighed, she knew that she and N had a number of different interests, interests they could both talk about in detail, but she hadn’t realized she was putting her love of doors ahead of him.

Making him feel lesser to the doors when she brought them up, even if she didn’t mean to hurt him, she did.

And, as much as her angsty teen programming was against apologizing, she definitely owed one to N.

Her visor flashed with “Loading sadness.exe” before she slapped herself, cancelling it.

“Urg,” she groaned. “Why do emotions have to suck sometimes?”

The sound of another explosion echoed from ahead. Uzi followed the sounds, barely wincing when she got close enough that shards of the newly blown up doors hit her head.

‘Poor doors,’ The thought forced itself to the front of her mind for a second as she kept walking.

“N!” She called out.

N, who just blasted another door, lost the disassembly drone trademark X running his visor in exchange for hollowed eyes as he took in the destruction he caused.

“Oh biscuits,” he whispered, sure that Uzi was going to be really pissed with him for this one.

His eyes darted back and forth before he realized how close she was - and wow, he must have been really focused on destroying these doors to miss that - and resigned himself to whatever she had to say.

‘Oh, she has a gun with her…’ he grimaced at the thought of what might be to come.

“H-Hey, Uzi.” He tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “You see all these broken doors? I was just about to go look for whoever’s responsible. Cool, so bye!”

He extended his wings and would have flown all the way up to the lower atmosphere had she not yelled, “Wait!”

Her expression, it looked pained, and that was more than enough to keep him grounded.

“What’s-”

Before he could ask, she shoved something into his chest.

A keycard.

“Look…every door I make, that keycard can open them,” she said with a blush.

N’s eyes widened - she prided herself on how hard it was to open any of her doors, let alone all of them.

“Look, it’s hard for me to open up to people…but…urg! What I’m trying to say is…I’m sorry I made you feel bad. So bad you did,” she gestured to the destroyed doors, “this.”

“So…I’m just trying to say…” she closed her eyes with a blush clear on her visor. “…If it ever feels like I’m closing the door on you…just want you to know, you can always open it.”

N didn’t need any more words, he reached forward and hugged her.

Her eye lights were hollow now, but the blush didn’t disappear in the slightest.

“You really don’t care that I destroyed all these doors?” N asked as he ended the hug and took a few steps back.

Uzi shrugged, “At first, a bit.” He wilted a bit. “But then, I realized, these doors are weak. I could make better doors than these easy.”

She started to get excited, more animated as she started talking about doors before she deflated again, “Oh, sorry, I…uh, did it again.”

“No, no, it’s all right.” He blushed. “I think it’s cute when you get like this.”

Uzi blushed more, “Still…I’ll try not to make you feel ignored.”

N smiled, speaking with a growing blush, “So…want to hang out? Watch some anime, fly, test some doors, and stuff?”

Uzi, blushing just as strongly, smiled back at him, “That sounds nice.”