Backstitch

Chapter 17

It felt strange not wearing his suit. He didn't even realize how confining the apparel had been until he exchanged it for the flannel. He smiled at how soft the pants felt compared to the stiff suit. Lou slid his blazer off and folded it neatly before laying it on the bathroom counter. He'd undoubtedly be wearing the outfit again in the morning. Sliding off the tie, Lou unbuttoned the white shirt and folded it as well. As he reached for the nightshirt, his eyes caught onto the reflection, and he went still.

Cautiously, he reached a hand up to his chest, fingers tracing the red stitching across where his heart was. Another string coloration caught his attention, and he turned to the side to see a similar stitch along his shoulder. How had he become damaged? If the robots caught sight of the imperfection—

"Lou?" There was a knock at the door. "You okay?"

"Uh, y-yes... I'm fine." He couldn't take his eyes off the reflection. It was hideous. A prototype shouldn't be seen with deformities like this on itself. Nolan mentioned something about just checking in on him and said he would be downstairs. "Wait—" Lou spoke up before he could think better of it.

Nolan paused mid-step and watched as the bathroom door opened up. He was surprised to see Lou only wearing the night pants, but not so much to see the suit folded neatly by the sink. The blonde pointed shakily to the stitching across his chest, "W-What's this?"

"Oh," Nolan frowned at the stitching. "It...You got hurt, so...I tried fixing it."

"Hurt how?"

There was a pause. "Stabbed," Nolan winced.

"Stabbed?" Lou's voice quivered. "N-Nolan, I-I can't have this!" He gestured wildly to the stitching. "If the robots see this—oh my doll—if Mr. Everett sees this...I'm done for!"

"Hey," Nolan took the blonde by the shoulders. He could feel the stitching where the chip had been removed from Lou's shoulder. "Remember, you're safe now. You don't have to be perfect anymore, okay?"

Lou took a shaky breath, lowering his gaze, "Right, yeah...I'm sorry."

"And stop apologizing." Nolan smiled softly, tilting his head to catch Lou's eyes. "None of this is your fault." His eyes landed on the apparent mark on Lou's chest. "I can use a different colored string if you'd like. Maybe make it not so noticeable for you."

There was a similar look of fear Nolan remembered seeing on Lou that night they removed the chip. "W-Will it hurt?"

Well, he couldn't very well lie. The last thing he wanted to do was give Lou any false sense of security and hurt him more by proving himself wrong. "Yes, it will—which is why I'm not forcing you," Nolan quickly assured when Lou edged away. "We can totally not worry about it, honest. But if you wanna change the colors, maybe make it kinda blend in a bit, I'd be happy to. But I don't wanna hurt you either."

Lou bit his lip, facing the mirror. He would enjoy nothing more than to make the imperfections at least a little discreet. Not that he'd regularly be allowing people to see him with his shirt off, but he couldn't shake the twist in his gut every time his eyes landed on those red stitches. "Would you?"

The brunette smiled softly and led Lou out of the bathroom to sit on his bed. He went into his closet to pull out the sewing kit. "We'll try a cream color," he said almost to himself as he sat beside Lou. Slipping the thread through his lips, he guided it through the camel's eye and turned to take Lou's arm. "I'll start with your shoulder, okay? But I gotta undo the previous stitching."

Lou let out a shaky breath, squeezing his eyes shut tight and gripping the bed sheet with his other hand. "J-Just...do it quickly, p-please."

"Don't tense up; it'll hurt more if you do. Just relax." Lou wanted to scoff at the advice, but he was far too nervous to let anything out other than a whimper. Nolan sighed, "Here." He settled on the bed, crossed his legs, and pulled Lou to sit on his lap. "Just don't think about it." The blonde leaned back against Nolan's chest, still tense. "How was your day today?"