THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS (a male reader insert)

Clockwork Hearts Can't Break

The workshop was dark, it always was, its not like he needed the light anyway, his new eye was equipped with state of the art night vision. The soft glow of machinery and the small touchscreen on his helper was enough. Tightening screws, oiling joints were everyday things. His helper bot was an old model and needed new work done just about everyday to keep it going but replacing its body would be too expensive. Not only the cost of the parts, but of the technology the transfer the memory drive to the new exoskeleton. He didn't really want to replace the body anyway, he liked it how it was, a chunky round bear-looking thing, one of the first animal based helper robots. Now you couldn't tell between the new animal bots and actual animals, apart from the quietness of their footsteps, but he didn't like that. Why make a robot if it just looked like a normal animal. 

However when it came to androids, it was the exact opposite, he didn't mind how life like they looked, as long as he knew they weren't actually human he was fine. He often felt more like an android than human, he practically was with all the parts he had replaced with machinery. More machinery than human he was told, both legs and arms, half his face replaced with a sophisticated bionic eye and extra external memory. And there was his heart, the first thing he ever got replaced.

Clockwork, fully automated clockwork he would wind up every morning to stay alive. It had just become a part of his life, open the hatch, put the key in the mechanism, wind it up for the day and listen to it tick to life. He had back up systems in place, but he never failed to go through his little routine every morning. It made him feel more like a real person, like he wasn't fully gone yet.

"Toaster," he said.

"Yes (Y/N)," the robot spoke, it spun around on the spot, it's little round paws clacking on the workshop floor.

"What is my schedule for today," he lifter up his visor, putting the welding gun down.

"Pick ups in the morning, scrap metal collection at midday and grocery shopping in the evening sir."

"Grocery shopping? I do not remember putting that on my list."

"Because I did," Toaster said, bringing up a photo of the boy's fridge, "I saw how little food you had left and cancelled your afternoon plans so you could go grocery shopping."

"You cancelled my afternoon plans? Sometimes I regret giving you the free thinking update."

"That's a lie, you said it makes me "A better companion" and you didn't have any afternoon plans except for working on orders."

"Very important orders."

"Orders you can't do if you die from starvation."

"Good point," he stood up and stretched, his joints clicking back into place, "And which pickups do I have."

"9 am hard drive pickup, 9.30 helper bot front panel pickup, 10 am blaster extension pickup," the bear bot continued as his owner walked around the workshop, grabbing the parts he had fixed for clients.

Being a mechanic that dealt in not so legal practises was good money, some of the best you could get in the cracks without selling your body or your skills. It sucked ass sometimes, dealing with not so savoury people was never fun, but that was a small price to pay for a sense of security.

It was morning, but no sun shined this far down in the city, the neon signs and dim streetlight always on 24/7 for those who lived in the perpetual darkness. People were walking through the streets when (Y/N) opened his shop front, the market place was always alive on weekend. It served as a black market of sorts, with guns for sale in one place and old scrap parts sold in another. The smell of freshly cooked street food lingered in the air no matter what, sweet snacks for children to bother their parents for and cheap breakfast items for those off to work for the day.