Robot Related Reads

Peter, you dick.

Lexi pulled the cork out of the bottle with an echoing pop. She took hold of The Skull's wrist and poured the aged red into the glass he held in his hand.

"Bottle number two, alright!" She poured her own glass and placed the bottle at the edge of the roof. The Skull reached down and pulled it up to sit by his leg.

"Not riskin' your drunken self kickin' this off the roof." He took a sip. "Was expensive." Lexi would have defended her sobriety had she been so. Instead, she huffed quietly and leant sideways against his arm and looked up at the night sky. The Skull watched her from the corner of his eye.

The night was overcast. Grey, wispy clouds blocked out most of the stars, but the ones Lexi could see she recognised. She couldn't have told you their names or their stories if you asked, but she remembered seeing them before. Years before.

"D'you miss 'im?" She slurred and took a drink. The Skull sighed quietly.

"We hafta do this now?"

"We've both been drinkin'. If we don't do it now, when are we gonna?"

"We don't have to do it at all."

"Yeah, we do. S'healthy." This earned her an aggravated groan.

"Fine, whatever. Yes. Course I miss 'im. He was my brother. He was a damned pain in the ass, but he was my brother." He looked away, embarrassed, leaking thick, black smoke and took another large sip of wine.

Lexi was already silently weeping. Her body was shaking and creaking as she turned her head and buried it in The Skull's arm. He looked back at her surprised and then hung his head.

"Lexi." She didn't respond. "Lex, Jesus. Please, don't cry."

"H-he was he was m-my husband!" She grabbed onto his coat sleeve when she began wailing. "We-we were married! D'you know what that me-e-eans?"

"I think so."

"It means- oh god-d-d. It means h-he loved me!" Her voice was glitching. A rapid, digital clicking could be heard coming from her throat. "For the first fucking time in my life somebody actually cared about me-e-e!" She dropped her glass onto the roof and The Skull watched it roll away off of the roof and fall somewhere into the bushes below.

He stared off into the distance for a while before taking hold of her hand that was gripping his coat and prised it free. He kept a tight hold whilst he reached his arm around her and wrapped it around her tiny, shaking body. Lexi instinctively curled up against him and continued crying into his waistcoat.

It had been a few months since Hare had shut down, of course, it had happened before, but this time it was permanent. They hadn't foreseen this happening after Norman was killed, but there was a lot of things they hadn't accounted for.

And even though they knew someone who could have fixed him, when they sought help they were somewhat politely refused.

A week or so after shut down, Lexi and Jack had travelled to San Diego to visit Walter Manor and make their plea. Luckily for Lexi the Walter robots were touring. She didn't know where, but anywhere else but the manor was good enough her

Upon entry, a Walter Worker had immediately caught sight of Jack and scoffed derisively and when they asked to speak with Peter she wordlessly escorted them up seven flights of stairs- arguably the most awkward journey of Lexi's life.

The conversation in Peter's office didn't last long. Short of saying 'Get out' the moment they walked through the door, Peter hastily explained to them that after running on green matter and coal for so long, Hare's now "obsolete carcass" would not be compatible with blue matter, and his frame would be too delicate to make the full transition from coal to steam power.

Lexi immediately called bullshit purely based on the fact that Rabbit was much older than Hare and the Walter's had somehow managed to keep her operational through countless family generations, several wars and touring every year.

Peter quickly pointed out that Rabbit didn't laden herself with copious amounts of alcohol almost every day. Lexi then told him that was 'a load of bollocks' and said that she was surprised that anybody that worked in the manor didn't need to be drunk every day considering 'what a fucking mess this place was'.

After a long silence, Peter politely asked both Lexi and Jack to 'get the fuck out of [his] office'. Which they reluctantly did.

And now, left with a dead husband, an emotionally unavailable brother-in-law and another that was, mentally, unaccounted for, Lexi found herself sat on a roof in the dark drinking very old wine, feeling utterly alone once again.

So when she felt an arm around her and the warmth of another body press against her, she was surprised to say the least. Considering that that person was The Skull. But she had little time to dwell on it as her mind was bouncing backwards and forwards between thoughts of crippling loneliness, her once again dead husband and the hand that held onto hers. She held back her sobbing for a moment, and between quiet sobs she managed to look up and ask The Skull an important question;

"When did you start being nice to me?"

"Well," He chuckled. "I think it was probably somewhere between killin' my father and you marrying my older brother."

"Damn, I must'a done somethin' right."

"Eventually, yeah."

"I'm gonna let that slide cause you're being sweet an' cuddlin' me." She readjusted herself against him. "But we both know that if I were sober I would kick your arse for that comment."

"Sure thing, half pint." He reached around and wiped away the black globs of oil that were staining her cheeks. "Y' feel better?"

"Ultimately, no. But right now, I feel... Calmer. I know I'll feel like this for a long time but, I think I've gotten used to a lot worse. S'just a new feelin'; losin' someone you love." She tapped The Skull's shoulder with her head. "You 'n' Jack better not be plannin' on goin' anywhere any time soon." His audio receptors pricked up at that.

"'Scuse me?"

"Oh no! Tough guy experiencing feelings! Yeah, I love you, pet." Lexi laughed. "Get used to it." It took a moment for him to register what she had said, but when it finally got through to him, The Skull found himself holding her a little bit tighter.

"I love you too, Lex."

"Oh nooo! He loves me too! Aaahhh!" She flailed around playfully as much as his grip would allow. "Sorry, we've been drinking red wine and I get weird when I've been doing that." They both laughed.

"You're embarrassing me."

"There's nobody else even here."

"You're embarassing yourself."

"So? It's just you. And you love me."

"Oh, I definitely made a mistake telling you that."