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So, this was.. an interesting situation, to say the least.
Recently, V1 and Gabriel had moved into a calm house on earth, for some odd reason, Gabriel insisted on 'building' one but V1 said that'd be tedious so hell nah and they moved into a normal house somewhere.
They cleaned up the house, redecorated, all of that stuff, great yeah? EXCEPT, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED? *GASP* jk I'm too tired for this.
They happily shared the singular bed, it took quite a while to get used to.. well, not being in HELL all the time, it was calmer, the peace and tranquility was nice.
Gabriel had eventually made a small training area, there was no reason to train, but hey, better than going rusty when you can spar with your dear machine, yes?
He trained often, sometimes every day, he read books quite often, V1 and him would sit around in the living room or wherever and just.. read. They fished every now and then, they had plenty food, and plenty of stuff to do, alongside an eternity to do it, so what was the problem?
Overall, Gabriel was active, and seemingly satisfied with how they were living. But every now and then, there'd be a slight obstacle, and what's that?
In V1 terms, Gabriel could have good days, and 'bad' days. V1, at first, was quite alarmed on how to deal with this. He'd be sluggish, too tired to move around, and be a big debbie downer in general, not to mention how sad he seemed during these times. V1 WAS bothered by this stuff, but slowly realized that they'd need to help him recover and get back to usual, Like a GOOD partner.
So there they layed currently. Snuggled up with Gabriel in a large bed and a blanket. He was having those weird 'bad' days again. So V1 ran around the entire day trying to help him get to.. I dunno, do normal stuff, and take basic care of himself. They didn't understand it too well, but they picked up the fact that both Gabriel and themself HATED this, so they needed to help.
They shifted in his arms slightly, not uncomfortable, just too still for too long. He softened his grip on them, V1 turn their camera head to him, he was finally asleep. His soft breathing and wings wrapped around the two of them was comfortable but there was something V1 needed to deal with first.
The GODDAMN DISHES.
For the past few days, the dishes had been piling up and it had been bothering V1 and they wanted to wash the dishes but stuff kept coming up and they had been holding off on that objective since it reminded them of that stupid layer 7 secret level..!
They got out of Gabriel's arms, and the big ass bed, and V1 stood up still, they stretched their robotic limbs slightly. They looked over to Gabriel, fast asleep, phew. They tucked the blanket over him, he was wearing a normal t-shirt, it looked odd but nice. They patted his wings and walked out the room.
They started walking to the kitchen, through the hallways and stairs of the house, they looked at the doors and walls that they repainted. The furniture that they took from an abandoned Ikea, it all looked nice.
They walked into the kitchen to FINALLY deal with the dishes. They took out a single sponge and some soap and picked apart the dirty dishes, there were a lot.. they slowly started going through them one by one. They holded the dishes gently as they scrubbed.
It reminded them of when they learned to be gentle with fragile things.
"You.. broke it again." A somewhat disappointed voice had said. It was Gabriel's. He had been teaching V1 on how to gently hold much more fragile things such as glass and porcelain.
They had always kept breaking the them, but.. it wasn't their fault!
..was it?
They were just strong, that's what they were built for. That was the one purpose they had. To be a war machine, after all.
...Gabriel was never mad whenever they broke the glass or porcelain. He was oddly patient for an angel who called them an 'insignificant fuck.'
they thought of what what they read about him in the terminals. He was described as charming, which made him a point of interest in heaven.
Well.. he was indeed charming, V1 couldn't disagree with that. He was much more kind when he wasnt the 'judge of hell' or 'the apostate of hate' and just.. Gabriel.
They really liked him didn't they? They raised an eyebrow to their own dialogue. They were pretty lost on everything- wait- what were they even doing again?
Ah.. yeah, the dishes!
'One, two, three, four, five..' , V1 internally scanned and counted the dishes they had cleaned so far, there was still a few large plenty left. They could pick up the speed and finish them quicker but that came with the risk of breaking the porcelain.
Nah.. let's just take it slow.
V1 narrowed their eyes, as kept shuffling through dishes and scrubbing.
They need to keep everything clean.. keeping everything perfect was like their new form of getting a P-RANK! It's so fun?! Right?! V1 lied to themself as they slowly lose more and more sanity of from their shitty code.
Don't fuck this up . Don't fuck this up. Don't break the porcelain. Don't. Don't. Don't.
God they'd throw themselves off the pyramid that V2 fell and died from If they broke the porcelain SO-
What's that noise?.
V1 doesn't turn around, yet stays on guard, who could it be?-
"Machine."
Oh shit
V1 turns around after closing the sink tap and placed the dishes down. They're singular bright optic blinking, they stare at him.
Gabriel stood there, hunched over and clearly still tired, and possibly unmotivated to do anything.
Gabriel stared at V1, V1 stared right back. Gabriel had only said one word and now neither of them were talking.
V1 blinking, and then went back to doing the dishes. Gabriel wasn't dumbfounded, only because he was tired as hell.
He tiredly stumbled over to and stood right behind V1, he wrapped his arms around them and put his head on their shoulder. V1 could barely care, they felt fluffy inside and the only thing they disliked currently was the fact that they now had been restricted again.
It then dawned on them that Gabriel had saw that they weren't in bed, and just got up to find them. gabriel had been a tired idiot for so long that it confused V1 why he even came downstairs, but it was just for them. He barely moves during bad days, it puzzled them on why he'd do such a thing when he could've just went back to sleep. He was clearly tired after all.
"Why are.. you out here..?" Gabriel suddenly spoke out.
V1 was lost on that question, clearly he could see the dishes in their hand? Is he stupid?
Nevertheless, V1's crappy little voice box that they refuse to use spoke out calmly.
"[DISHES STATE: UNCLEAN]."
They almost never talked unless necessary, plus being quiet was much more natural to them, they enjoyed not talking, if no words are spoken, that means no problems, mistakes, and miscommunication, right?
It never occurred to V1 that all of those things could happen even if they didn't talk in general.
"..alright.." his throat was hoarse.
Oh, they thought Gabriel was gonna complai-
"But that's stupid, you could just do it tomorrow."
'nevermind' V1 thought.
V1 kept going through the dishes and cleaning them while Gabriel leaned on them from behind. They were almost done anyway.
Eventually Gabriel just covered the both of them in his wings, just covered, not cocooned or something, V1 tried to appreciate the sentiment even if they didn't understand it.
His feathers were glowing slightly, V1 stole a few glances while keeping their head in the direction of the sink still. They lightly started cleaning the cups and glasses, many of them were dirty, others just.. dusty as hell.
Aaaaand finally done! V1 unnecessarily rinsed off their hands one last time, and then turned off the sink. All the dishes were clean! Perfect! P! P! P rank, right yea-
Before they even realized it, they were suddenly being picked up, and carried back to the bedroom.
"Machine, WE are going back to bed.." Gabriel said tiredly. Slowly walking to the bedroom, he opened the door, and then they both flopped into the bed.
They settled properly and layed down next to each other, it slightly freaked V1 out that Gabriel slept with his helmet on, he could be just straight up staring at them right now, and they wouldnt know unless he started talking.
"Why did you even do the dishes at all..?" His voice slightly echoed through the room.
V1 stared back, then just gave him a 'i dunno' gesture. They wanted to do the dishes, but were appalled at the idea of it being similar to that secret level, weren't they?
V1 was getting confused, they didn't understand, why couldn't they understand so many different things, they didnt understand emotions, other people's emotions, their own, is this why they were insignificant? Because they were simply wire and metal that only had fake organs? A fucking mockery of what humans could be? Of what humans ARE? WERE?
It was awful, they're awful. V1 needs blood to LIVE, that's already horrible, they kill to survive and they fear even while having a adrenaline rush that's making them insane yet also somehow joyful in slaughter, they could never be human. Having REAL emotions made someone human, they're not someone, just someTHING. An object. A moron. A goddamn failure of humanity's creation.
Tap.
...?
"Machine. Your eye looked weird.. are you alright?" A voice spoke out. His voice.
The voice of an angel.
And yet, he was never a perfect angel either, was he?
He killed innocents, he was merciless. Just like them. It was all useless in the end too, wasnt it?
V1 realized the reason Gabriel had these.. 'bad days'.
Because he was still grieving, but also over it. Like a broken scale going back and forth, trying to understand what he was doing. Trying to make sense, and at the end, simply laying there. Unable to move. Unmotivated. Finding it hard to take care of himself. It seemed like Gabriel hated and barely understood his own emotions too. He simply felt more than V1.
Gabriel's hand went from tapping the glass on their optic, to simply laying there Infront of them.
V1's own hand crawled up, and they grabbed Gabriel's.
Well, this was an.. interesting situation to say the least.
They both clasped eachothers hands together, it was nice. Comforting, V1 could've sworn they saw the exact moment Gabriel drifted off and fell asleep. Peaceful.
V1 put it in a shutdown diagnostic, so they could sleep and get some shut eye too.
As they slowly closed their eye, they heard it.
"I.. love you..."
He mumbled as he fully fell asleep.
"[•shutting down...•]"
Was what they saw right before they fell asleep.
.
.
.
.
Gabriel's wing covered them like a blanket. He unconsciously pulled them closer as well.
do robots dream of eternal sleep? Because angels do.
All this from doing some dishes? Worth it.