Thread: NieR: Automata - Heart beneath the Steel - (StarMech x Kaybee)

2B did her best to keep the way her heart beat a little faster at the eagerness in 9S voice as she returned hidden, though as before the emotional responses involved were oddly persistent. While she kept herself from a similar level of cheer in her response 2B could not keep her cheeks from turning pink with a flush, a situation only worsened when her 'imagination' decided to crop up again as he drew close, creating a fresh simulation. He was shorter than her by an inch or so, a fact that she normally considered irrelevant, but now served to remind her very suddenly of the fact that 9S was not a combat droid at all. Why, it would be simplicity itself for her to just hold him down and claimi him as her ow-!i She throttled the little fantasy and nodded curtly, her personality matrix furiously paging various software routines only to find that none of them were able to quell the blush that had blossomed on her pale face, and while it was fading slowly, it was not doing so nearly fast enough for her tastes. That is good, there was nothing to report while the pod was offline. Not a lie at all, though perhaps it omitted certain activities that had taken place in that time as well as the fact that 2B hadn't noticed the initial offlining in the first place. Still, nothing had gone wrong or threatened the mission in that time, so in truth, nothing to report... Then the rain started to fall, and there came more pressing concerns in the moment. While 2B and 9S were synthetic beings and thus largely inured to the effects of water outside of catastrophic interactions with their well-shielded delicate internal systems, their outfits were not armor. They repelled water to a degree but with the toerential rain coming down on both of them, the two androids were quite soaked in the few minutes it had taken them to find shelter alone, and so as 2B's night vision systems flipped on to compensate for the darkened metallic interior of the shelter she found them drawn to the clothes 9S was wearing. The dampness made the fabric cling to his body, outlining his form rather than obscuring it, and while 9S did not possess the muscled frame of a combat android, 2B found the lithe and toned appearance fascinating. Sure he may have been designed to look the part of a research android, but YoRHa models were designed to look good at the very least since a certain decency of appearance was fairly well proven to be beneficial when it came to interaction with human squadmates. Then he began to speak, and to her surprise, 2B found an emotional subroutine she hadn't expected rising to the surface. Anger. You think this is a poor outcome? Her voice was harsh, and she immediately tried to restrain the emotion, not wishing to hurt 9S and not certain of exactly where this would go. Had you not intervened, that fight would have ended with my death. Had you not been present to create a burst from our cores, I would have been destroyed. Oh, so that was why she was angry. It was strange, having a part of her dispassionately watching as she reacted to her emotions. It was a curious mix, both the idea that this was somehow not the best outcome possible when most other simulated results led to her death, 9S death, or both of their deaths, but also the idea of 9S faulting his own actions for such. Is that what you wish 9S? Her throat worked, a human gesture of a swallow, and 2B realized that sorrow had snuck up under the anger as well, and that in her miniature tirade she had drawn closer to him and was by now standing over him. Would you rather have been terminated? Would you rather I have been terminated? She wasn't even bothering with the video feed errors point. She'd seen the base, there was nothing left there that they could use, too much rust and ravaging from time to draw any fine work materials out of it... Then why would you blame yourself for actions that kept us both functional?! The bottom of her visor was distorted and flickering slightly and 2B realized that there was water pooling there, a mystifying realization that she possessed functional tear ducts occurring somewhere in her mind as -for the second time that day- she hauled the mask up to rest against her forehead, revealing silver eyes shining with moisture for a split second as the accumulated liquid fell down her cheeks before she wiped the tears away and managed to wrest control of them back from the automated emotional processors, cutting off the flow ebfore she quickly pulled the mask back down. Why?