infinity train one shots

One-One's fight

AN: two in one night? God I love summer vacation, I've never felt this kind of motivation before. Requested by undertalefrisk10342 9 months ago >:D. Sorry for the delay.

It had been two months since One-One had been restored to their position as the train's conductor. It was good, things were in order. Monotonous order and the routine was simple. New passenger arrives, assess them, give them their number, and send them in the pod to their first car. Glad-one loved it, Sad-one not as much.

"Oh! I love helping passengers! They're so silly when they first arrive but they always figure things out." Glad-one exclaimed after a particularly passenger-heavy day.

"Until they die." Sad one responded, voluntarily and dramatically collapsing to the floor.

"A life well lived and over is better than one that never started!" Glad retaliated. He loved his other half, truly and deeply, but his constant downer energy was hard to put up with. Sometimes he found himself wishing that his other half was programmed as positively as he was.

"I wish I never started," Sad grumbled. Sad also loved his other half, but never could quite figure out how Glad was such an optimistic bot. They had bounds of information, being robots. Aware of wars, famines, and the horrors the world and people came with, yet he still enjoyed them and relished in improving their lives? It was utterly confusing for him.

Glad snapped, as much as a constantly happy bot could "Would it be possible, for you to just enjoy helping? It's what we were programmed to do. And I apologize if it comes off as harsh, but you're terrible at it!" he found his little robot voice raise at the end "Oh, that was, I didn't mean for my volume to go that high."

Sad's little robotic eye blinked rapidly. Is that really how Glad perceived him? Some downer robot who couldn't do their stupid job right. He hadn't meant to drag the other down. He decided he would leave the following morning, Glad had always been the leading bot in their endeavors, and surely he could do it just fine without Sad there. "Ok." He said, his volume barely audible to the human ear, but picked up with ease to the other robot.

The two rolled up to their spot at the front of the engine, which also doubled as their charging port. Glad powered off, feeling mildly unwell with himself for snapping at Sad but vowed to just be extra tolerant of his pessimism the following day, and Sad vowed to get out of Glad's life forever.

Just before dawn rose the next morning, which was when the two usually powered on, Sad snuck out and scuttled out of the conductor's engine, hopping onto a car that was about to start moving. He climbed into the car, it was a collector's room, full of trinkets and knick-knacks and assorted goods and treasures. He settled underneath a side table and laid down, waiting for the sweet embrace of death (empty battery) to take him.

Glad, however, had just powered back on, and noticed Sad wasn't attached to him. "Oh? where did Sad run off to?" he said aloud.

"Sad one!" he called out, before scanning the room for the other's presence, beginning to panic slightly when the results came up empty. "Was I too harsh? I should have apologized. He could be anywhere by now. Oh no." he started, pacing back and forth before noticing the steam rising from him. He was overheating due to the stress. "Calm down one," he said to himself "I'll set out an amber alert! any passengers who can bring him back to me get off the train, regardless of their number!" He decided. It went against his morals and ideals to do so, but he would break a couple of self-made rules if it meant he could have his other one again.

Back at the collector's, Sad was nowhere near the point of battery depletion "Sigh" He said to himself quietly

"Qu'est-ce que c'était ? Montre-toi !" (What was that? Show yourself!) a woman exclaimed.

A small white cat jumped down from her cat bed, patrolling the room before jumping as a small and old tv turned on without warning. It was Glad-one.

"Um, hello! Attention! Attention all passengers and denizens of the train. Anyone who can bring me my other half, Sad-one, will be granted a full pardon from the train, and all denizens granted a wish as train departure is not yet an option for you. He looks a lot like me, small, little, a bit of a downer, but I need him to function. Thank you." He spoke. To most onlookers, it was an emotionless, static robot speaking to them. But Sad could hear the emotion in the other's voice. The joyful spark that intertwined itself with his words was gone entirely. Glad had turned, Sad.

The cat batted him out from under the table. "You must be the one he's looking for. My little run-away, pourquoi êtes-vous parti ? (why did you leave?)"

Sad-One looked down "I didn't think he needed me anymore. He was upset with how bad I was at helping passengers."

The Cat looked at him softly "Oh Mon petit robot(My little robot), you overlooked it, you keep him in balance." She told him. "Helping passengers is good, but acknowledging their faults is truly what helps you see what they need to improve on." She went on to explain.

"Oh." Sad-one said, looking back up to the Cat, "I guess you're right. Can you take me back to him?"

She nodded "I was planning on it either way, missing out on a wish from the conductor himself? I'd be a fool to pass that up, especially when the thing he wants is in my very home." She said, walking towards her shuttlecraft, the one he remembered from not too long ago when they had first met, but this time, he knew she was taking him to the right place. "Allez-y! (Hop on!)"

When they finally made it back to the conductor's room, they found Glad, pacing back and forth. Sad didn't know what to say to get his attention. This was not a problem for the cat, however.

"Ahem, I believe I have something you want." She said, pushing Sad forward with her paw.

"Sad!" Glad shrieked with excitement, scuttling towards him "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said what I said I do need you you're half the reason any of the works and-" He rambled. Sad chirped in response, expressing the first hint of joy that he'd ever had in his entire existence. He was home, he was safe, and he was with his other half.

AN: (1098 words) I went off the rails there but holy crap it was fun. >:D Drop your requests in the comments and I'll get to them at some point :)