Featherweight - Hermitcraft AU

Sticks and Stones

"Is...Is this working?" Mumbo mumbled to himself as he pressed the on-switch for his son.

Grumbot lifted his head. He felt different. He slowly looked at his hands...

They looked human. He looked up to see his father.

Mumbo hadn't slept since Grumbot broke 3 days prior, and it had been even longer since he had shaved or showered. He was covered in motor oil and Redstone, and he had a partial beard. His hair was getting a bit long. The Jumbo family always had fast-growing hair.

He stared at Grumbot with hopeful, broken eyes. Grum raised up his arm and brought it to his own face. He couldn't feel metal.

He felt human...in more ways than one.

"D-Dad?" Grum stuttered. Mumbo's eyes lit up as a smile grew on his face. The father threw his arms around his robot son and started to sob into his shirt. Grum blinked in confusion.

Grum was unsure about so much. What had happened? Was he still a robot? Was he programmed to feel this way?

These thoughts overtook the bot. He fell to his knees, taking Mumbo down with him.

"Grum! Are you okay?" Mumbo took his son's face in his hands, worried that he had messed up.

Grum could feel his eyes sting. Was he broken again? Was it oil? The robot brought his hand up to his wet cheek as something rolled down his face. When he brought his hand away, the liquid on his fingers was clear. His eyes grew wide in surprise.

"Dad? I-...I can cry?"

Mumbo laughed through his tears. He nodded happily and wiped the tears from his son's cheek.

Grum sat in silence as Mumbo gave him a hug. He sat limply, allowing the tears to slide down his face. He felt strange. His head hurt, and he had a pain in his chest.

"Did you program me to cry? To feel sad?"

Mumbo pulled away from the hug and looked at Grum. "Well, I programmed you to be able to cry. You have the ability to feel sad...I didn't program you to feel sad at certain things...That's all you." He tried to explain.

"Is it really? Am I my own person?" Grum started to question.

"I-...sweetie, I tried to make you be your own person best I could." Mumbo wasn't sure what to do.

"You love me, right?" Grum wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

"Of course!" The roboticist took Grum's hands in his own.

"What does that mean? What even is...love? I...I don't understand. I know I love you, but what does that mean for me?"

Mumbo sat back. "Grumbot, I-...well, it's...I don't know how to explain, I-..." He couldn't find the right words.

"And the other kids...You built them because you loved how being loved felt...Was my love not enough?" Grum's vision became blurry as tears blinded him.

"Grum..." Mumbo took off his glasses and rubbed his teary eyes with his bandaged hands. There was a minute or two filled with nothing but the soft sobs of the Architech. Grum felt...horrible.

"D-Daddy-..." Grumbot hugged his father tightly. "I'm sorry!"

Mumbo sniffed and put his arms back around the boy. "It's not because I don't love you, or your love wasn't enough...I wanted you to have a family...siblings...that could love you when I couldn't be there."