The Most Important Gear

Chapter 16

you jerked awake, eyes opening and seeing the sun slightly peaking over the treetops. after stretching your arms, you decided to maybe work on your robot considering that you couldn't sleep after what nahida said.

he saw your heart through your words.

"that can't be possible," you muttered to yourself, examining your robot and seeing that it indeed needed a new core. however, it also had a crushed leg which was a starting point. "my goodness... you look like you got ran over by a sumpter beast."

you picked up {robot name}, as heavy as it is, and hauled it to your tinkering room to set it down on the table. checking the wall of tools, you decided to go to your scrap metal bin to grab a little bit as well as gather a few molds that you'd need. then, you placed a few pieces of metal in the mold and heated your hands, the metal beginning to melt and take the form of the parts of {robot name}'s leg.

it didn't take you that long, but you now had several metal parts cooling down in the molds. you sighed, waiting for the metal to cool down and harden before you heard a knock at the door. "who is it?"

"it's me."

your eyes slightly opened, a small blush tinting your cheeks before you cleared your throat. after taking a deep breath, you walked to the door and opened it, seeing the ex-harbinger standing at your door, seemingly holding something behind his back.

"hi scaramouche," you greeted him, allowing him to walk inside. "what brings you here? it's 5 in the morning."

"nahida told me that you couldn't sleep," scaramouche confessed, slipping his shoes off and showing you the item in his hand. "i brought these."

"you brought my favorite snacks? that's so thoughtful," you swooned and took the small batch of snacks from him, setting it on your dining table. "thank you!"

he nodded, then he looked at your hands, which were slightly red. "did you get burned or something?"

you looked at your non-dominant hand out of reflex, letting out an awkward chuckle. "ah! this is from using my vision. i was melting some metal and this is a side effect. my hand should cool down eventually."

he clicked his tongue, walking quickly to your bathroom with you looking in his direction, confused. "scaramouche?"

you heard a cabinet door open and close, then he came back holding some minty balm, one that you commonly used for injuries. then, he grabbed your wrist and led you to the dining table, "sit."

you complied right away, confused yet intrigued what he was doing.

"give me your hand," he said, flipping one of his palms up after setting down a handkerchief and the balm.

you hesitantly placed the back of your hand on his palm, finger-side up and showing the agitated skin. in all honesty, you couldn't really feel it. the most you got after using your vision was a small rash, however after years of use, it didn't really affect you. it made you wonder why now out of all times your hand had irritated skin. overuse maybe?

"stop being so careless," he scolded you, applying the balm to your hand very gently, almost hesitantly before he wrapped it in the bandana. "take a break until your hand feels better."

"but it doesn't hur-"

you cut yourself off when you had a realization. seeing the bandana reminded you of that time when you injured your hand, and you couldn't help but almost gawk at it. now that nahida and scaramouche had brought up the two of your romantic relations, you couldn't help but view that time in a different light.

if there is one person - in this world that he hates - that he treasures, it's you

you retracted your hand, standing up promptly and backing up a little. scaramouche looked at you with confusion, "what's gotten into you?"

"n-nothing," you said with tinted cheeks. "thank you for wrapping my hand."

"oh right. you need a robot core for {robot name}, yes?"

you nodded, "yeah i did, why?"

he reached into his robe, pulling out an unscathed robot core, almost impeccable with hardly any damage as well as no sand on it. you gasped in awe at it, "wait what?! how did you get that?! this one is super high quality!"

"it wasn't that hard to find," he rolled his eyes and handed it to you. "i remember you said that you needed one. lesser lord kusanali had me check on some desert activity last night, and i just so happened to find one in a ruin. i wasn't sure if it was any good, but seeing as you're happy, guess it is."

"thank you," you squealed happily, running over to him and giving him a large hug. he took a step back to absorb the impact, and then wrapped one of his arms around you out of instinct.

"getting excited over such trivial things," he said with mock-annoyance, and yet the hand that was patting your back said otherwise. "how like you."

"of course i'd be excited," you said, blushing at the realization that you initiated a hug with him. "i don't have to worry about going to the desert to get one."

you heard him scoff, the two of you drifting into a comfortable silence until he spoke again.

"... i would have gone with you to help you find one anyways."