When Steam meets Clockwork (A Steam Powered Giraffe fic)

Discovery

*picture is the Twins. The one with curly hair is Doll, the one with straight hair is Clocky*

It took a little while to get through the spiky bush, but Rabbit finally did it.

Upon uncovering whatever was inside this leafy and thorned prison, he tilted his head in confusion, his un-matching photo receptor eyes widened in shock.

There among the spiked branches and dead leaves were two female bodies, cracks and scratches on their limbs and young faces, revealing clockwork gears underneath their broken porcelain skin.

The girls' eyes were shut, a few shadows around them, and they wore gothic steampunk clothes; one of the dolls had a bow in her straight, sandy-brown hair and the other a black lacy headband in her curled hair of the same shade.

Nonetheless, they were both identical, as if they had been made to look like identical twins.

The automaton male carefully got them out of their hiding place, looking at the multiple cracks and breakages. He felt an oil 'tear' drip from his eye, his face showing an exact replica of remorse and pity when he saw the breakages on the twins.
Rabbit smeared the oil away with one hand.

"Oh m-m-my go-osh" he choked out, glitches making him stammer on his words.

"Who the hell would d-do this to these d-dolls?! wait...they....they must be the owners of the keys!" he told himself, seeing an opening on one alternating shoulder each, just the right size for the silver keys.

Both female dolls remained motionless, their gears frozen as if they were broken too.

There was only one thing to do.

Before he or his programming could register what he was doing, Rabbit put the silver clockwork keys in his jacket pocket. His body whirred and creaked as he picked up the twins in each arm, making his way back to the lab.

The door to Walter Robotics creaked open; no sound apart from Rabbit's footsteps on the stone floor could be heard.
Rabbit's gaze flickered around the silent room, seeing his fellow automatons powered down near the wall, the technicians had already gone to bed. Green and blue light cast long shadows on the walls, the dark shapes changing form when Rabbit moved.

He carefully lay the two human-sized clockwork dolls on the examination table next to each other, their hands seemingly clasped together as if they would be torn apart there and then.

Swiftly he withdrew the silvery keys from his pocket, placing one in each keyhole, winding the dolls up.
Their eyes fluttered open in unison, each having one brown eye and one blue eye so in the dark they almost looked as if one set of eyes stared out, glowing a brighter blue colour than Rabbit's own blue eye.

"Hey there, girls! glad to see y-y-you're ok! Well, powered up, anyways" Rabbit said cheerily with his trademark grin.

They looked up at him curiously.

"W-where are we?" asked the doll with the straight sandy-brown hair, sitting up and stretching.
Her twin copied the action perfectly.

"Y-Y-You're in Walter Robotics! I'm Rabbit!" the copper male told them. The dolls looked at each other; Rabbit could see the gears in their bodies hard at work making them function.

"My name is Clocky, and this is my twin sister, Doll" Clocky said, her long, straight hair fell down to about hip-height, her odd eyes (one brown, one blue) stared up at Rabbit.
Doll looked up a little shyly, her eye colour was the same as Clocky's.
They both looked a lot younger than Rabbit or even Jon and not as tall (though they were relatively human sized), had porcelain skin and talked in adorable Cockney accents.
"H-hallo" Doll stuttered.
"A-are you a war robot?" she asked curiously, Clocky glanced at her.
"Hey! don't be mean, he rescued us, I think..." Clocky added in confusion, absent-mindedly looking down at the small, silver watch she wore on a chain around her neck.
"I'm not b-being mean! I was just asking" her twin argued.

Rabbit laughed.

"You're half-right! I w-was in a war, but r-returned to my original performing programme" Rabbit explained.
"Performing?" the twins gasped in unison, eyes wide in anticipation.
"Y-yup! Me a-a-and my brothers perform outside the manor and lab, of course. Maybe you can see us some day!" he exclaimed.
Clocky and Doll looked ecstatic, staring up at Rabbit.

Rabbit smiled back; if he had a working heart rather than the Blue Matter within his core, rest assured it would be skipping several beats.

But then again, how could one describe that sort of feeling in a robot?

"W-what were you too made for?" he asked.

Clocky and Doll looked at each other, their expressions sheepish and melancholic.

"We...We don't know. For a while we were built to be mechanical friends to a rich girl, but her f-family wasn't nice" Doll explained.

"So, we ran. But then we were caught...broken...and left in the bush to rust" Clocky concluded, Doll looked down.

Clocky sighed sadly.

"And that's why your k-keys were nearby" Rabbit said slowly, a frown evident on his face.

Doll and Clocky nodded.

"Well, you're not alone any more" he reassured them, the twins shakily going towards Rabbit and embracing him, their eyes shut to keep tears at bay.

Rabbit did the same, vowing to keep the dolls safe.

"Rabbit?....."

*TBC!*