Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hello everyone! 
welcome to the fic.

Some ground rules:

no inappropriate or deliberately hateful comments. Constructive criticism is welcome but just saying “you suck” or “I hate this ship” is not productive lol If you don’t like it don’t read.

addressing the human/robot “problematic” issue: If the two beings are 100% sentient and can make their own choices in any matter I honestly don’t see a problem with it whatsoever. Much weirder cross-species stuff has always existed in fandom and even canon content and not been ragged on so eh.

Reader feedback will be taken into account when writing future chapters, and suggestions for the more slice of life silly side of things are always welcome!

no I do NOT write nsfw so pls kindly do not ask that of me. I have nothing against people who like that kind of fic but I am not one of the ones who will write it so any request for that will be immediately deleted.

finally, have fun, I hope you enjoy my stupid fanfic, it’s the first one from this fandom so I’m weirdly nervous ahaahhahahahajajajajajajaja

The fic starts from the next chapter onwards!

Chapter Text

“N!”

J was not pleased. She really should have known that a library lurker like N would have found the drawings she’d mindlessly doodled; but in her defence, there were a LOT of books in the library and honestly, she hadn’t expected him to happen to stumble across the singular one she’d hurriedly stuffed the few pages of art into.

She’d have to work on that. She already felt guilty enough for drawing on the job (although “The Job” that day had literally comprised of babysitting a bored Cyn and making sure she didn’t set the library on fire while “dusting” it). No, she’d also made the grave mistake of letting her mind slip and forgotten to retrieve the pages afterwards. That wasn’t the efficiency the Elliots or corporate would expect of her. Muttering crossly, J had channeled her disappointment in herself and apprehension at the discovery of her doodles into being mad at N. She stormed over to him and he looked up with alarmed, hollow white eyes.

”Oh, h-hi J! I was just uh, reading…?” His gaze darted nervously from side to side as he avoided her fiery expression, and a nervous smile was fixed on to his face.

“I can see that,” said J icily. She crossed her arms across her maid uniform and tapped one foot on the ground impatiently. “Slacking off again? Really, N, do I HAVE to do EVERYTHING myself.” She almost added “robo-Jesus” on the end but that kind of language was not appropriate in the workplace. J was as diligent of a worker drone as she could possibly be and after her previous mishap she was not about to lower her standards now.

”Oh—“ N’s eyes widened as he understood part of her irritation. “No, Tessa told us to go on break. She’s working on Cyn right now, having a look at her programming; Cyn had another nightmare last night, kept talking about “the exponential end” and seemed really shaken and upset when she woke up…” He trailed off, his eyes rounding in a pitiful puppy-dog way as he seemed almost on the verge of crying.

J hated when he did that. It wasn’t professional to be flailing around sobbing your heart out everywhere, and it was unfortunately rather infectious. The last thing she wanted right now was to feel bad for this idiot. He cared far too much about his colleagues; he treated them more like family than just other employees. 

but that makes you a hypocrite, doesn’t it? said her subconscious. She angrily brushed it aside, disregarding the runaway thought.

“Enough of that, I’m sure Cyn is fine,” J reassured him briskly. “Now give me back those drawings I know you’re hiding there, I’m going to be mad at you either way so you might as well just admit it.”

She ignored his mild flinch at the word “mad” and held out her hand, not leaving room for negotiation. He hesitated, then reached into the book he held and handed them over. Three small folded pieces of paper, all there; while it was certainly humiliating to have been caught using her own art as a bookmark, it was still a small relief to have them back in her possession.

She would have just left it there and not said anything else, but N had the nerve to pipe up with “I think they’re really good by the way. It looks just like her.”

It was J’s turn to flinch, but she quickly turned it into a glare. N laughed nervously, pulling at his collar as he realised he’d now provoked her unintentionally.

J leaned in close. “Not. A single. Word,” she hissed venomously. “I—was not being professional, in that moment. Slacking off on the job was a terrible mistake and I’d VERY MUCH prefer if this stays between us.”  Admitting to her slip up in that regard was painful, but it was much easier than giving N the real reason she didn’t want him telling anyone; a reason that would get her disassembled if anybody ever knew. N was not a good keeper of secrets; he always believed in honesty. She had to really give him a reason for it. “If you do tell anybody, I’ll make sure you’ll be stuck in the grounds cleaning the family graveyard stones for the next week, GOT IT?”

N immediately nodded with a near frantic look painted on his visor. He was rather easily spooked and the graveyard, even with other drones was the last place he ever wanted to be. Tentatively he asked, “Not even V? I’m sure she’d not tell, she’s great at secrets—“

J scoffed loudly, “V!? Oh my goodness, N, you’re actually obsessed. Can you go a single hour without thinking about her?” 
J was mostly using this sudden outburst as an excuse to move on from the drawing conversation, but N didn’t need to know that. Until recently, J WOULD have just scorned him for liking V the way he did; she certainly had no interest in such things. Sure, V was pretty enough, but not J’s type at all; neither was N so she couldn’t care less about their unsavoury barely-secret relationship. 

At least N looked decently embarrassed. “Well, you know, we hang out a lot, and you come sit with us sometimes. I figured you might not mind too much if it was V. It wasn’t anything to do with the—the way I feel.”

”N, you are literally right now reading an extremely nauseating novel called How to Romance” J pointed out, unimpressed. 

He slumped slightly, aware he’d been caught. “All right, you got me there. But she’s so sweet—“

”—when she’s not being a weirdo and ripping off spiders’ legs to see what they do,” J muttered. “That girl is a sadist sometimes.” 

“She’s just mad at them because she’s afraid of what Mr Elliot will say if he sees spiderwebs anywhere,” N said wisely. 

“ANYWAY,” J said, wanting to move on from the spider talk (she secretly really didn’t like them), “ I can assure you there is absolutely nothing worth reading in that book. Hence why I was uh…distracted. It’s all just mushy over-romanticised trash, nothing in reality is like that.”

N’s face fell slightly. Then he perked up as if he’d had a bright idea. “Well, if you know better than the book, do you have any ideas?”

J was taken aback. “Ideas about what?” She inquired suspiciously. “I’m not setting you two up.” 

“Well, like…” He scratched the back of his head (nervous habit, drones didn’t get itchy), looking awkward. “I don’t know. Good things to say to get her to like me? Or like—to make it more obvious I like her but without actually having to say so. I’m too nervous. Every time I try to just tell her outright, my words slip up and I end up saying something like ‘those are very shiny forks you’re cleaning’.” He looked almost despairing.

J couldn’t help but snicker. “You’re absolutely hopeless,” she scoffed. “V probably thinks cutlery is your new hyper fixation.” Last month, N had had a weird obsession with collecting all the feathers from old feather dusters. It seemed to clear his head and increase his productivity somehow, so Tessa and J had just let him do it without questioning, odd as they found it.

He only looked more depressed at that.

In a rare moment of utter weakness, J sighed. “You’re telling me you want me to teach you pickup lines? I’m a girl, N, I don’t know what kind of thing guys are supposed to say.”

N frowned. “Good point, well… what would you want a guy to say to you?”

J was kind of extremely caught off guard by that. A guy? Oh, she didn’t know, she was sure… 

“I don’t really. Like male drones like that,” she hedged with an uncharacteristic awkwardness. She hadn’t thought she liked anybody in that way, until—

No. She was not going to think about that—this was about N’s stupid crush.

”Oh!” N brightened. “Yeah, that checks out. You don’t really seem the type.” He had a comical look of deep concentration on his face for a moment. “What if you…just listen to me say things, and tell me what you think is bad and what isn’t, and then I’ll know what to do.” He nodded decisively. “Like that thing Tessa always says about being a ‘ripping royal stud’ haha.”

J’s core missed a beat at the mention of Tessa’s name and she stiffened slightly. “Great founder of JCJenson…You want me to…what, role play? Doesn’t seem very professional.”

”No one is around,” N said pleadingly. “And I don’t mind, it’s just because I’m not that confident.”

Well, anyone would be more confident in any situation after the rock bottom that was staging a confession scene. J grimaced in disgust, and before thinking, she said with deep and scathing sarcasm, “Well, what exactly do you want me to say? Oh, whoa, N, you sure are a uh, very handsome and super funny drone, how about we go and grab way too many batteries and watch stupid movies all night every night for a week?”

A sudden laugh cut sharply into the conversation. A familiar laugh, chipper and playful, although with an odd, tiny edge to it that J had never heard before. “J? N? What’s all this? Did I miss something?”

J stiffened, her spine going ramrod straight; she felt her own eyes hollow out as N in front of her gave an extremely nervous chuckle.

She turned slowly around, cursing the   universe for the worst timing possible and wishing the wrath of Robo-God on whoever decided that dramatic irony should exist.

She took a deep breath and fixed a rigid smile on her face.

”Hiiiii, Tessa!”

Chapter Text

Before the unfortunate J and N stood Tessa, whose eyes sparkled playfully, hands on hips as if she found them amusing. But there was something ever so slightly off in her expression.

J felt horribly guilty. Tessa was probably a little angry at them for “being affectionate” out in the open; it wasn’t good form and it would also shed Tessa in a bad light to her parents if they caught her drones being unprofessional. And Tessa’s parents…J shivered. Well, they weren’t exactly lenient in their discipline. 
I won’t let them hurt you, she vowed silently. But there were sliiightly more immediate humiliations at hand right now.

”IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!” N blurted out, SUPREMELY unhelpfully in J’s humble opinion. She glared at him; that just made it sound as if it was exactly what it looked like.

Even with her form in eternal shadow (drones were programmed not to see their humans properly so they wouldn’t get too attached…Welp. That sure worked out didn’t it?), J could tell Tessa’s eyebrow raised. She turned to J, looking for either denial or confirmation, knowing J would respond with immediate truth to her superior. 

“Affirmative,” J said indifferently, “he wanted some kind of practice for the other one.” She didn’t look at N once, made it very clear how bored and unamused she was with his antics. (Although boredom wasn’t the prime emotion right now, no, something closer to fear painted J’s metaphorical heart as Tessa leaned back and guffawed gracelessly). 

“Oh. That is so funny,” the human giggled. She glanced over at N, her mirth fading to sympathy at his cringing expression. “Ah, don’t worry about it N, I’m sure V likes you exactly as you are. Changing yourself for someone you love it never the answer, it’ll lead you to misery in the long run.”

A very astute observation for a sixteen year old with no romantic experience that J had ever heard of. One of the things J admired her boss for; Tessa was always so perceptive and vastly understanding of the world.

”Wow, you two have sure made a bit of a mess of the library…” Tessa looked around at the scattered books on the otherwise pristine floor.

”Hey, that was all N!” J protested. “I would never leave the room in such a—“

”SHH!” Tessa giggled suddenly again, abruptly leaning in to put a finger against J’s mouth, silencing her. “If they think it was more than one of you, the folks’ll make me clean it with you rather than just N alone. It’s an excuse to just hang out!”

J tried desperately hard not to focus on the physical contact and instead said, muffled, “Hang out?! N may have all the free time, but I’m still on the clock! I have better things to do!”

”Better things to do than have a great, chill time in the library with your very favorite boss?” Tessa teased, removing her hand and standing up straight. She struck a dramatic pose. “But whatever could be so much more important?” She cracked an eye open and just to J’s luck, finally spotted the paper that was being gripped unnecessarily hard in one of J’s hands, rumpling the point of contact. 
“Like that, for instance? Watcha got there?”

J fought to keep her eyes from hollowing. This was the worse possible direction for the conversation to take; she cursed herself for not hiding the paper quicker. She was torn between two things: she couldn’t ignore a direct question from her boss, but she also very much did not want to admit to the truth.

”I uh…had some free-ish time…when I was looking out for Cyn,” she said carefully. “I was just doodling. That’s all.”

”Lemme see,” Tessa said obliviously and with great enthusiasm. 

J glanced at N with apprehension. His visor reflected her expression; for once, the two were in solidarity about their nervousness. J took a deep breath. It’s fine, she told herself repeatedly. Just stop feeling nervous. Easy. Professional work mode. Tessa is your boss, she’s given you an order and you simply have to follow it. She took a subtle breath, stilling her mind. Her thoughts were blank when she handed the paper over. No shaking hand, thank robo-God. She was well trained to handle situations like these where unprofessional emotional levels were unwarranted. 

She could feel her nerves writhing within her wires as Tessa’s eyes scanned and then widened slightly. But they were distant, she was well equipped to focus only on what she saw, not what she felt. Work environment. Scan for dangers, stand at attention to the bosses’ orders and react accordingly. She vaguely recognised that N was giving a look of abject terror (why? It wasn’t his fault, sort of) but took no notice. 

“J” said Tessa slowly. J kept her face and mind blank. Same way she did when the other bosses said her name. Diligent, composed, peaceful. The absolute perfect worker drone. Some small part of her braced herself for scorn.

”These are amazing!” 

J and N both looked directly at Tessa now, coming into focus. The former with surprise, the latter with a relieved goofy grin. 

“Th-they are?”

J didn’t know what to think. She’s assumed Tessa would be angry at her for doodling her without permission. She hadn’t exactly approached her and asked her to model. The art was actually from memory, J was mortified enough that N would see something so rushed. 

Curiosity glowed in Tessa’s eyes. “Is this how you all see us? Just shadows?”

”Yeah,” N answered before J could. “Something to do with not getting attached. They reckon if we can’t see what you look like you’ll just be generic authority figures to give orders to us.” 

Ah. Tessa looked surprised, then visibly upset suddenly. That wasn’t good; that meant the two drones had to fix it. An unhappy boss was unacceptable. “You…don’t see me that way, do you? Just another faceless master to pander to?” She seemed horrified at the thought. J thought she understood; Tessa, unlike other humans, had put time, love and care into fixing up her loyal workers. The idea of them seeing her as a cold distant figure must seem incredibly ungrateful of them.

It was the opposite of true, however. A good worker would comfort their human in any situation necessary, but more than that, Tessa was the only human J wanted to comfort. It distressed her to see her sad; it meant she had failed in her duty, and worse, Tessa’s sad face made J sad too, despite all her efforts to maintain impartiality like she should. 

So, J found herself doing something she did extremely rarely: blurted out the first words that came to mind. “No, not at all! You’ve done so much for us, and we all appreciate that a lot. And you’re very obviously the best human here. No one else could measure up.”

She realised her mistake the moment the last sentence ended, but the way Tessa’s face instantly brightened made it worth it. Her eyes creased as she smiled and glowed so hard they were almost radiant. 
“Aww, you guys mean a lot to me too! Always have. You do way more for me than I ever do for you, least I can do is fix you up when Mother and Father don’t bother.” She huffed a little then seemed to brush it off. 
Then she grinned mischievously. “Soooo,” she said. “Very fun library cleanup time that totally isn’t hanging out? N can go alphabetise all of the animal section—“ she paused a little to laugh at N’s squeak of delight—“and you can do your obsessed little cleaning spree thing.” 
That was one of the things J appreciated about her boss. While Tessa urged all her drones to “have fun” (lark about more like), she understood that J took pride and satisfaction in productivity rather than play. 

“What about you?” J asked. She didn’t want to leave Tessa bored, that wasn’t very good form. 
“I reckon I’ll draw both of you,” Tessa mused with another dazzling grin. “If you’re ok with that? My obligatory art course is getting more serious with the independent study and they wanted something observational. I could learn a thing or two from you.”

”Oh.” J felt her eyes hollow for a brief second before giving a rare, short laugh and waving it off. “Fine by me. It can be solid evidence for the court that I was working hard while you two were slacking off.” She hoped her tone came across with the half-teasing she intended; J wasn’t the best at humour, but Tessa made it infectious. 

“Me too!” N affirmed cheerfully, already halfway to the expansive animal section. “I love anything, you know that, Tessa.”

”Aight,” said the human, flopping down dramatically by the same messy bookshelf J and N had spoken by. “Have fun.”

J couldn’t possibly have fun (what even is the point of that word? Workers weren’t meant to find anything fun) while being totally aware of Tessa observing her every move, but she shrugged it off. She wasn’t expected to, it wasn’t required of her, so instead she’d do what she did best and marched off to reorganise somebody’s very slovenly pile of encyclopaedias, trying to forget the blinding white stare she could feel behind her.