ButchGibbon

Shelly was getting ready to go to sleep, It had been a long day.

She wrote down her plans for tomorrow in her notebook, brushed her teeth, and got in her dinosaur pajamas. As she stepped out of her bathroom she felt cozy and tired. Her muscles ached pleasantly from her long day and her bed was looking more than just inviting. But it was missing something, a crucial detail.

Her bed was empty.

Her partners were all very different, but they had one important thing in common, bad time management skills and awful sleep schedules. Shelly loved them all dearly, but that had to be the one thing they all did that consistently annoyed her.

Shelly loved sleepy cuddles, pillow talk, and good morning kisses. And she wasn't about to let her partners get away with this injustice. She had three of them for crying out loud, at least one of them should always be here to fall asleep with her, but preferably all of them.

Since It could be a surprisingly difficult task to get them all in bed at the same time, Shelly gave them her biggest puppy eyes until they all agreed on a mandated weekend bedtime. if they weren't all in her bed by 11 then she was allowed to drag them here kicking and screaming if she had too. They had all begrudgingly accepted her terms. Shelly glanced at the clock on her bedside table, It was currently 11:15.

Shelly cracked her knuckles. She was ready to enforce bedtime.

She left her room and wandered down the hall to go get Vee first. Vee's sleeping habits were the easiest to forgive, as much as she did enjoy relaxing and recharging with her partners, she WAS a robot and she didn't necessarily need sleep to begin with. So for her to get caught up with work and forget to come to bed was more understandable. If she got tired she could just pop in some new batteries and be done with it. But none of that made it anymore palatable for Shelly to sleep without her.

Reaching Vee's bedroom door, Shelly barged right in, she knew Vee wouldn't care about the lack of knocking if it was her. Vee had an internal clock, she should know what time it was anyways so really she should be expecting Shelly to come get her by now.

"VEEEEE BEDTIIIME" Shelly hollered and stomped up to said robot, waving her arms above her head like it was an emergency.

Vee jumped the slightest bit at the intrusion and turned her head towards the noise. She was sat at her desk with a screwdriver in her left hand and a panel open on her right forearm arm.

"...Bedtime?" Vee replied slowly while raising her eyebrow. She turned back to her arm and tightened some mysterious parts back into place.

"Don't give me that look, yes it's bedtime! Don't tell me you forgot!" Shelly crossed her arms in disbelief and huffed in betrayal. The audacity.

"Huh?....oh wait, THAT bedtime" finally recognition hit the robot. She got done with her fiddling and closed her arm up, twisting the screws back and fitting everything as it should be.

"Is your arm okay?" Shelly changed the subject, All the mock anger at her snuggle time being forgotten was replaced with concern.

"Pfft yeah obviously! Everything is perfect as always" Vee put on a cheesy grin and flexed her nonexistent arm muscles in a show of her wellness.

"Are you sure?" Shelly ran her hand down Vee's arm until reaching her metal hand, smiling while interlocking their fingers. Vee followed the movement with her eyes. Her gentle insistence was enough to remind Vee who exactly she was talking to. She didn't need to pretend everything was fine if it wasn't. Vee looked her in the eye again, the robot's smile grew softer, more genuine.

"Yeah, don't worry. My arm was just a bit stiff today, nothing a little maintenance won't fix. Sorry i kept you guys waiting" Vee stood up and put a few small tools away so she wouldn't have to clean her desk tomorrow.

"Don't be sorry, especially if it was for something important like your health. You're not the only one that forgot anyways, Brusha and Tisha both aren't in bed yet either!" Shelly started her sentence sweetly, but towards the end all of her irritation at the situation came back in full force.

"I'm not surprised, Brusha told me a few days ago she was starting a new project. I bet she doesn't even remember what planet she's on right now, let alone what day of the week it is" Vee replied, finishing up her tidying and turning towards Shelly.

"Please, lead the way pajama princess" Vee added on, lifting her arm up for Shelly to loop around her own.

As soon as the ammonite had Vee in her clutches she dragged her right down the hall and back to her room. Where Vee sat primly on her bed and began undoing her bow tie.

"Okay you stay here and get changed, I'm going to grab the other two!" Shelly said over her shoulder on her way back out.

"Good luck" she heard Vee replied as she shut the door and started towards the elevator to get Brusha.

Brusha's sleep schedule was always entirely up in the air. When she was actively working on a new piece she'd go days at a time hardly getting a few hours in, feverishly working on whatever painting she deemed worth the energy, until inevitably crashing and sleeping the whole day away. During times like that it could be hard to tell she was even sleeping at all, she'd come into bed while everyone was already passed out and leave before anyone woke up. The only sign she got any rest at all was the few loose bristles left on her pillow and the lingering smell of coffee and acrylic that followed her.

In-between projects she was more consistently in bed at normal times, in fact she slept a lot when not working on anything. As if that would somehow make up for the rest of the time. Shelly didn't mind though, Vee and Tisha were both very work oriented people. They had things they wanted to do and they intended to get them done early. Shelly loved that about them, but it also meant they were morning people. So Shelly appreciated having somebody willing to occasionally stay in bed with her and have a slow, lazy start to the day as she preferred.

Leaving the elevator and getting to Brusha's door, Shelly once again didn't knock. This time because she knew good and well how focused Brusha could get when working on a painting, knocking would just make her jump and probably mess up her brush stroke. Shelly learned that the hard way after the first few times of walking in on Brusha rather distraught at her work not going exactly how she wanted.

Walking in on the artist, Shelly saw she didn't have to be worried about interrupting. Brusha was standing a foot or two away from her canvas, a hard analytical look in her eye with one hand cupping her chin and the other holding a pencil between two fingers. She was so deep in thought she didn't notice Shelly had entered the room at all until she was right up next to her.

"Brusha, it's bedtime" Shelly lightly tugged on the sleeve of her sweater to get her full attention.

"Huh...what time is it?" Finally looking over, Brusha playfully grabbed Shelly's hand to stop her pulling.

"Past 11 and the weekend, you know the deal, you should be in bed. You look tired" Shelly pulled on their held hands to get them to move towards the door. Brusha really did look like she needed some sleep. Well, more than Brusha usually looks anyway. The dark circles under her eyes were extra pronounced.

"Mm? Oh right, your forced group snuggle nights. I guess time got away from me, I just need to fix this painting and I can join you all" Brusha replied and turned her full attention back to her canvas, it was a mirrored pair of swirling purple patterns with sporadic spots dotted around. If you asked Shelly she'd say it looked like a triceratops head crest, but in her time getting to know Brusha she learned maybe she wasn't the best at interpreting abstract art. Regardless of personal bias it already looked amazing, what more you could really add to it was beyond Shelly.

"It already looks pretty finished to me" Shelly tilted her head to the side, maybe it was just the angle?

"Hardly. It is atrocious in its current state. Art only in the way it conveys my frazzled unfocused mind during its creation. It needs more, I just can't seem to be able to think of what it needs exactly" Brusha put the eraser end of her pencil to her mouth in thought.

"Welllll I mean I'm no artist, or doctor, but you probably can't think of it because you're exhausted. If you get a full night of sleep I'm sure you'll wake up and be able to finish this off easy" Shelly plucked the pencil out of Brusha's hand and put it in a nearby cup full of pens and brushes. Shelly knew if she left this room without Brusha the artist would forget to come to bed entirely. Which wasn't going to happen, bedtime was non negotiable.

"And also you're getting impatient and need a big spoon?" Brusha added on for the fossil. Shelly nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Alright, fine" Brusha finally relented, letting out a big yawn into her elbow and putting her paints away before allowing Shelly to pull her out of the room.

Once they made it to Shelly's room, they opened the door to Vee laying casually on her side in bed flipping through a magazine full of dinosaur illustrations Shelly had on her nightstand, She was now wearing a T-shirt and pajama pants. Once she noticed them she gave Brusha a cocky grin.

"Oh heeyy Brushy there you are! I thought you died or something" Vee sarcastically quipped and crossed her arms.

"Haha. Sorry you have to cancel the funeral....and don't call me that" Brusha glared and flipped her off while heading towards the bathroom to wash the paint off her hands.

"Okay I'm going to get Tisha! Don't kill each other while I'm gone" Shelly called out at them both. She heard Brusha grumble something about saving her murder plans for another night and Vee laughing in reply as she shut the door. She walked away from her room for hopefully the last time that night, she went to check the kitchen first. There's always a mess to clean in there.

Tisha was normally the first one in bed. She enjoyed spending her evenings reading a good book to relax before going to sleep, so she was often there even if the others were busy. So it was a bit concerning that she hadn't showed up yet, she must be anxious about one thing or another.

That was Tisha's one big hang up. without something to occupy her mind she'd inevitably get caught up in her anxiety and get out of bed in the middle of the night to organize Shelly's toy dinosaurs by color or something, anything she could focus on besides her thoughts. The others always had to make sure she fell asleep first, she had an easier time resting when she had the distraction of listening to her partners talking back and forth about nothing in particular.

Turning the corner to the kitchen, Shelly found Tisha right where she thought she might, she was washing the dishes. Well she was scrubbing at a plate that already looked quite clean, But still. Shelly came up behind her and put a hand on her back right in-between her shoulder blades, and began rubbing in small circles. Immediately the tension in her posture loosened and she leaned into the touch.

"oh... mmm hi" Tisha said slowly, she sounded as tired as she looked.

"Hello, do you know what time it is?" Shelly was half worried Tisha was going to fall asleep standing up. But at the question the tissue box straightened back up and grabbed the sponge she had dropped in the sink.

"Wh, um. Fairly Late?" Tisha rinsed her sponge out and put the plate on the drying rack to the side. She looked over at the clock on the oven's display.

"Cmon, you should be in bed" Shelly turned the sink off before Tisha could even think about cleaning the few remaining utensils sat at the bottom.

"Oh I didn't realize, I guess I forgot to check the time" Tisha dried her hands on a towel and rubbed at her eye.

"Are you alright?" Shelly asked while putting her hands on Tisha's hips.

"Yes...ugh, it's just squirm was being so MUCH today. He was going around leaving bits of paper everywhere, and that's not easy to clean! You can sweep up some of it, sure but it's annoying. And then you can't even ask him to clean up after himself because he'll just cry about it and then I'M the jerk!" Tisha gestured wildly with her hands to get her frustrations across.

"I know he can be a lot, I tried to help him stop crying the other day and nothing worked. Everything I said just upset him more" Shelly scratched at her cheek remembering it. It ended with her nearly begging the bug to cheer up.

"Exactly! He could at least TRY to stop and appreciate the effort you put in. Oh and he ate the last copy we had of a book I was looking forward to reading. I just don't understand, we have blank printer paper laying around! Why must he insist on eating our books, or the least he could do is eat the bad ones!" Tisha threw her hands in the air. She took a deep breath and blew her tissue out of her eyes before collecting herself.

"Okay, Thank you for listening. Please, let's get to bed before I feel the need to ask Dyle to pick me up some pesticides" Tisha added on. She clasped her hands together and led the way. Shelly giggled as she followed after her.

Once they got to Shelly's door they stopped a moment to listen to the racket from the other side. It was mostly Brusha huffing angrily while Vee laughed her ass off. They glanced at one another a second, and Tisha rolled her eyes in such a dramatic fashion Shelly snorted.

Entering the room, they saw both of them in bed, Brusha laying nearly entirely on top of Vee with the robot in a headlock.

"You know that's not doing anything, I don't need to breathe!" Vee managed to say through her giggling.

"Yeah. It's really pissing me off" despite her words Brusha had a big grin on her face. She tightened her hold while Vee batted at her arm.

"Hey you two better not mess up the bed before I get a chance to lay down!" Tisha scolded them on her way to the closet, probably intending to steal one of Shelly's shirts.

"Well tell Vee to stop being so annoying and I won't feel the need to beat her up every 2 seconds" Brusha let Vee's head go but didn't get off of her, instead she started playing with the TV's antenna. Mostly trying to straighten out the crooked one, it wasn't working very well. However Vee looked very pleased at the attention.

After finally accomplishing her mission, Shelly was well and truly sleepy. She walked up to the empty part of the bed, plopping face first into the sheets and wiggling into the middle. After settling with a sigh, Brusha rolled off Vee and onto Shelly's back. The pressure felt nice on her spine and the fossil smiled.

"Make room for me" now clad in stolen pajamas, Tisha hit Vee with a pillow to get her to move over.

"Bossy" Vee remarked while scooting to the side. Tisha nodded her head in agreement.

It was a tight fit. The bed certainly wasn't made for 4 people, and it wasn't an uncommon occurrence for one of them to fall out of bed. But that was alright, it just meant they had to cuddle real close.

Shelly repositioned so she was on her side, Brusha holding her from behind, while Vee scootched up close to her front. She heard Brusha talking about something with Tisha over her head, but she was having a hard time paying attention. Shelly was officially the filling in a cuddle sandwich. Her favorite place to be with her favorite people, She was so happy she was practically purring.

The hallway was cold, and silent. Well, as silent as it could be for her. Vee's world was filled with a constant, uncomfortable static buzz in the back of her head most of the time now. 

She was accompanying Shelly as the fossil patrolled her territory. She did this every morning, checking every room and hallway she arbitrarily decided was hers. Vee couldn't tell what was so special about the area. But the left back corner of the floor they were currently stuck on was theirs. And Shelly didn't treat intruders very kindly.

Vee tried to avoid making too much noise. But her broken body popped, sparked and glitched regularly. Not to mention the small sobs that racked through her body no matter how hard she tried to quiet them. It was humiliating. She wasn't normally one to cry. Ever. But with the pain from the ichor, the memories, the regrets. Red tears were nearly always streaming down her screen. 

Her torso burned particularly painfully for a moment, she leaned on the wall and waited for the ache to lessen. She couldn't imagine the agony Shelly felt in her legs. 

Shelly stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her. Patiently waiting until Vee was ready. It was still strange for Vee to have to look UP at her. But with Shelly's long Jurassic bottom half, the fossil was a bit taller than her now. She'd never get used to that.

Vee took a long shuddering breath through her vents before feeling well enough to continue. Shelly slowed her pace so she was walking slightly behind Vee now. Probably to keep watch over her. 

Vee had lost track of how long they had been down here. It felt like months. Maybe even years. It was impossible to tell time on this floor. She wished her internal clock was working like it should. But she guessed time was a bit meaningless now anyways. 

They passed the main foyer. Boxton mindlessly walked in circles, ichor covered the floor where he stepped. Shelly growled and lightly stomped her foot at him. Apparently he was too close to her hallway. Despite his far off look he was smart enough to stumble off a safe distance away. Shelly kept her intense gaze on him until he disappeared behind a corner. Once she was sure he was gone, she started down the hallway once more. 

They shared this floor with Boxton and Poppy. Vee had tried to interact with them plenty of times in the past. In the beginning she would nearly beg them for their attention. But eventually their eyes became unfocused and their heads empty. They never looked at Vee anymore. The ichor got to them much faster than it did Vee and Shelly.

Their mental health had been on a downward spiral ever since they both twisted, An ever present brain fog overtaking them and getting worse by the day. 

It was harder for Shelly. 

The ichor's effects were not linear, sometimes she'd have good days, actually responding to her name and doing everything in her power to make Vee smile despite it all. Sometimes she'd have bad days, an animalistic glare in her eyes while she stomped down the hallways chasing anything that moved. Bad days are happening more and more now. 

There were a couple scary moments recently where they had spent some time apart, only for Shelly to act as if she didn't recognize Vee once they reunited. Jumping away from her and growling for a long terrifying moment before recognition flashed in her eyes, she'd come up and lick the side of Vee's head in her own weird little way of apologizing. Vee never blamed her of course, but It was awfully scary.

Vee had no idea what she'd do if Shelly woke up one day and the ichor made her forget all about Vee, or their relationship, being stuck here would be completely intolerable without Shelly. It was a double edged sword in a way, on one hand she wished Shelly was anywhere but here. The fossil should be on the surface, happy and healthy, to be adored and loved by every child on the planet. But on the other hand, Vee was incredibly grateful everyday she was stuck down here with Shelly. She always made Vee feel like everything was going to be okay. Like if they just stayed strong for a few more days, somebody would find them. They'd get help, and it would all go back to normal. 

But every day that felt more and more like an impossibility.

Vee guessed the fact that she herself was mostly mechanical made the ichor effect her head slower. Sure her body was failing her in some other ways, but all things considered she felt she was doing alright compared. 

She just had to keep it together enough to make sure Shelly didn't hurt herself.

They continued along their way, Shelly stopping here and there to sniff at old boxes and glare into the dusty air vents they encountered. They had just finished their patrol around the floor and were about to get to their makeshift bedroom Shelly had made in an old corner office when suddenly a crash echoed off the walls from somewhere down the hall. Shelly's head snapped in the direction of the sound, a low guttural rumble leaving her throat.

"It's probably just a rat or something" Vee tried to calm her down, but before she could even think of turning around to face the fossil Shelly had sped off towards the sound, full speed. Her large clawed feet leaving ichor cover footprints as she went. 

"S-shelly wait for me-" the glitch in her voice was embarrassing but Vee didn't have time to care much. She started after Shelly with heavy footfall.

Vee was obviously not going to out run her, let alone even catch up with her. But she stumbled into the small storage room not too far behind. Shelly had her face buried in a pile of old boxes piled up in the back. She was grumbling and throwing things out her way. Apparently trying to find whatever pest was making noise back there. Vee lightly tugged on the fossil's tail in an attempt to get her attention.

"Shelly c-come on, don't go digging around in this o-old junk. Just l-l-leave it be" Vee was getting very much ignored. Her screen glitched momentarily in irritation. Shelly didn't even pause her rifling, Rude. Vee tried not to take it personally.

In the blink of an eye, a loud SNAP filled the space. Shelly yelped and backpedaled, running right into Vee and slamming both of them into the opposite wall. Vee's head was smacked hard enough for the static in her ears to double in intensity for a good few seconds.

Once she got her bearings, she tapped Shelly's back in hopes of maybe not being crushed under all that dinosaur. She heard Shelly let out a pitiful Lil cry as she got off the robot and turned to face her. She looked at Vee with big wet eyes, her tongue sticking out of her mouth with a mousetrap clipped at the end.

Vee tried not to giggle. 

"H-here let me eh- help you out" Vee reached out and gently held the trap in place with one hand while moving the metal clip away with the other. Shelly tried to stay still, but her tail wiggled uncomfortably the whole time.

After a second the ammonite was free. Vee triple checked the trap was disarmed before throwing it in the overflowing trashcan by the door.

"I know we've been here a long time, but you never know what's hiding in all this crap, you gotta be careful" Vee scolded. Shelly rubbed at her tongue for a moment before closing her mouth and stepping forward, burying her face in the crook of Vee's neck while grumbling and huffing. Vee pet the fossil's head to let her know she'd be alright. 

Over Shelly's shoulder, Vee saw a mouse run out of the boxes she was digging around and disappear into one of the vents along the floor. Great.

Thankfully Shelly was too distracted to notice, she was now licking all along the side of Vee's head. Vee wasn't exactly sure if it was her way of being sweet and saying "thank you" or if the cold metal of her TV just felt nice on Shelly's swollen tongue. 

"Alright, that's enough excitement for one day. Let's get back" Vee shook her head in the direction of the door. Something rattled around in there. She definitely got a couple screws knocked loose.

The ammonite glared at the mess a moment longer before following Vee out into the hall. 

---------

Shelly used to be a big talker. 

She would go on for hours at a time, about dinosaurs, her day, everything she loved about the world and the people around her. She often didn't have anybody to listen to her yap, so whenever she finally had a willing participant she took full advantage of the opportunity and would talk and talk endlessly. Not to mention her ever inspiring speeches and words of encouragement she gave freely to any toon feeling down.

Vee, on the other hand, wasn't one to ramble. She was to the point and blunt. She spoke in a concise manner. She didn't add any flourish or unneeded information. She didn't like small talk and she certainly didn't feel the need to fill the dead air in a quiet room.

So, naturally her and Shelly ended up with a certain dynamic when they were together. Not ALL the time of course, Vee could go on at surprising length if you asked her about a subject she was passionate about and she was comfortable enough around you. And Shelly would listen intently since it felt so rare and intimate to see the robot get like that. But for the most part, Shelly talked, and Vee listened. 

But just like most things after they twisted, that changed over time.

After twisting, Shelly's speech slowly degraded. Starting with a slight slurring of her words. After that she started growling and speaking less and less, it kept getting worse daily until she only ever spoke simple small sentences in broken English. And One morning she woke up, coughing, and just couldn't get a single word out of her ichor filled throat.

It was awful, and Vee missed her ramblings terribly. Especially since they were stuck on such a quiet floor. Late at night, when they were cuddling on their bed of 3 old blankets and 4 couch cushions they stole from the breakroom, it was so silent. All Vee could hear was her own body betraying her, with the static and constant glitching. Along with Shelly's labored, wet breathing. It made her feel weak and helpless. 

Vee took to filling the silence, even if her voice stuttered irritatingly more often than not. Anything to prevent that broken feeling. They would lay together and Vee would try to talk about anything she could think of, which wasn't much honestly. She wasn't as good at it as Shelly, she ran out of things to say often and would end up repeating herself and talking in circles. But Shelly never acted like she was annoyed by it, so Vee continued with hopes Shelly appreciated the noise as much as she did.

So as usual late at night, hours later Vee found herself trying to come up with something to say. She didn't have much, so she settled for thinking out loud. 

Shelly was resting her head on Vee's chest and the robot held her close. She heard Shelly grumbling some type of noise, she hoped it was a sound of contentness.

"I think I'll mess with the elevator buttons again when we go out tomorrow" Vee rubbed Shelly's back. The ammonite smiled and closed her eyes.

"I mean, I know I've tried to get that thing working a million times with no luck. But...I don't know, it feels nice to try...something. instead of just standing around, ya know?" She felt Shelly lightly nod her head up and down. 

"Sometimes...I think about what would happen if the elevator did actually start working. And we just...l-left. Do you think anyone would even want to help us anymore? they would probably think we're too far gone at this point e-eh?" Shelly evidently didn't approve of her gloomy way of thinking. The ammonite left her cozy spot tucked under Vee's chin to lean back and look her in the eye with an upset expression. 

"Oh um sorry, That's a b-bit negative. You were always better at positive thinking than me" Shelly grumbled in agreement. 

"Let's see...you'd probably say something like, don't worry Vee! Everything's going to be okay! Also did you know the t-rex lived in the cretaceous period? not the jurassic period like popularly believed. Also you look very handsome today!" Vee spoke in a high pitched tone and flapped her hands up and down just like Shelly did when she was excited. 

Said fossil narrowed her eyes at the imitation, but ultimately huffed and nodded her head in agreement while She settled back down onto Vee. 

Vee laughed at her reaction, before detaching her damaged microphone from the tip of her tail and plugging herself into the outlet by their bed to recharge.

--------

The next morning they once again found themselves walking down one of the many dusty hallways, heading towards where they knew the old elevator door was. As they wondered the lights overhead flicked ominously, but thankfully didn't turn off. 

Vee never knew why the power was so fickle down here. It popped off at random, leaving her and Shelly to stay huddled up for hours at a time before unceremoniously clicking back on. The first time it happened, Vee had tried to get up and maybe find a fuse box to mess with or something. But Shelly was very unhappy her nightlight started walking off and she whimpered before yanking Vee back into bed by her arm. She learned Shelly very much did not like going out during blackouts, so they stayed in place and waited them out.

Frankly, it sucked. And the terrifying idea of it shutting it off and just not turning back on did flash through Vee's mind everytime. It wasn't a scary idea because she was frightened by the darkness or anything, she could deal with that. But mostly because if that happened she wouldn't have a way of recharging her battery. That would be a bit of a death sentence for her. 

Well, hopefully that wouldn't ever happen.

Finally they entered the space with the elevator. It was just like all the other crummy hallways down here. wood floor, a nasty rainbow carpet in front of the door, with dirty walls covered in old posters. A metal shelf with some paint cans was up against one of the walls. Vee went straight to the buttons to the side. She removed the main panel revealing the messy wiring on the inside. Just as useless and confusing as the last time she checked. 

Vee knew her way around machines, obviously. She had the information downloaded in her head for years. fixed herself and many other things plenty of times. But this elevator just wouldn't work. It all looked right, everything plugged into the right spots, no wires were damaged or cut. There was simply nothing she could do to get it working from this spot. But she still went about her routine of unplugging and restarting all she had access to. Just in case it decided to fix itself. 

Vee expected Shelly to do her usual thing of checking every nook and cranny of the space they were in for danger. Vee wasn't sure what Shelly was ever checking for really, she doubted there was anything in this building that could really hurt them. But it seemed to calm her anxieties and Vee guessed it gave her something to do. They both needed an activity to occupy their time to help them not FULLY lose their minds just yet. 

But instead of doing her normal mini patrol, Shelly followed Vee over and sat down right next to her. Watching her intently while she fiddled with the machinery. Vee didn't mind one bit, she always loved having an audience.

"Whatcha doing there, S-Shelly?" Vee pulled a plug from the very back of the space, she wished she had a screwdriver. 

Shelly just smiled at her, her large tail thumping loudly against the old floor. Her red tinted eyes didn't leave the robot, her gaze relaxed and full of love. Vee was adoring the attention. Shelly didn't even really need to do anything. Simply being looked at, perceived, was a comfort for Vee. She always enjoyed every second she felt Shelly's eyes on her. 

"I look pretty cool fixing stuff don't I?" Vee wiggled her digital eyebrows and gave the most suave smile she could manage. Shelly rumbled out a giggle at her but also nodded her head in agreement.

"You have great taste Shelly. And i must say, you're looking pretty cute today yourself" Vee jammed some cables into their places, still nothing.

Shelly rolled her eyes and smiled. She forced her way under Vee's arm and rested her head on the robot's lap while laying on the ground. Vee rubbed her fingers down the spiral of her shell. 

--------

Vee noticed a new sound echoing down the empty halls. One she hadn't heard in a long, long time, it was Running water. Well more accurately it was aggressive rushing water. 

Shelly was already up and alert at the new noise. She hopped up and took a few steps forward, about to go speeding towards it to investigate no doubt. But she paused and turned back to look at Vee, presumably expecting her to come along. Vee let out a sigh through her air vents, guess she wasn't going to be able to sleep in. 

They followed the racket to a closed door, if Vee was remembering correctly all that lay beyond was a decent sized maintenance corridor and bathroom, so they never felt the need to venture back there. Right Now however it sounded as if a river materialized in the small space overnight. 

Shelly pushed the door open with a clawed hand slowly, revealing a pipe along the wall had burst. Water gushed out onto the floor, where a large puddle had formed and was only getting bigger. It was already starting to smell musty in the cramped area. Before Vee could even think about stopping her, Shelly let a growling Lil giggle and raced into the room to jump in the probably very gross old water. Vee used the door as a shield to avoid any splashing. 

Of course, it just HAD to be a water pipe that burst. An ichor pipe breaking would have been totally fine and not life threatening to Vee. But with her luck, there it was. She was happy it was at least in an area she didn't care to explore anyways. But it was scarily close to where they slept, and there was no telling how much this space would flood. Hopefully there was a floor drain in the bathroom nearby. 

Shelly kicked some water around, tinting the growing puddle black with ichor. She looked at Vee cowering away, her expression expectant. 

"Surely you don't want me to follow you back there, water and Vee don't mix. Remember?" Shelly tilted her head in confusion. She clearly did not remember.

"You um, H-have fun without me. Just make sure to dry off before getting too close okay?" Shelly shrugged her shoulders and fell backwards into the water. Rolling around like it was fresh rain. 

It's not like they really had baths down here. So even if it was a bit nasty Vee honestly couldn't blame Shelly for playing under the water stream. It looked like it felt pretty refreshing to get some of the ichor off her legs. 

Well with Shelly preoccupied, Vee decided to leave her to her fun. She left the door open to keep an ear out for her, but she wandered off a safe distance from the liquid death trap. She took slow unsteady steps and let her mind wonder. She looked at the various posters, drawings and advertisements along the walls. 

One poster in particular caught her eye. big yellow text filled the top left corner, "WINNING BIG starring Scraps & Vee" it read. Vee never liked that one. In fact, it was probably her least favorite poster she had anything to do with. It wasn't Scraps' involvement that upset her, even if Vee found the craft project's endless lucky guesses rather annoying sometimes. It was...HIM. Dandy. Vee never understood why he took up so much space in the picture. His name wasn't anywhere in the title. Why was HE center stage, while she was pushed into the background. It always frustrated her. 

But none of that really mattered anymore did it? Look where she was now, stuck in a dark basement. Slowly losing her mind, watching the person she loved in pain with no way of being able to help her. She worked her ass off to get where she was, and it all built up to...this. she couldn't help but feel like she had wasted her time. 

She should have gone to more of Brightney's book clubs. She should have taken Shelly on more dates. Her metal hands clenched into fists.

She should have told Glisten she loved him like a brother instead of just assuming he knew already. She shouldn't have been too embarrassed to give Astro a hug. The edges of her vision blurred.

Shelly walked into Vee's line of sight. Water still dripping from the tip of her tail. Concern flickered in her red eyes. Vee took a deep breath.

"What? I-I'm alright" Vee tried to push her long antenna out of her face. It didn't work.

Shelly didn't look like she believed her. She tried to step closer but Vee put her hands out and backed away. 

"Water, Remember? Let's wait until you dry off" Shelly looked disappointed, but obeyed. She stayed a good distance away.

--------

Shelly was having one of her bad days. 

Vee left sleep mode and noticed two things. One, she was still feeling tired. Her battery was hardly charged since she plugged herself in last. The power must have gone out for some time after they fell asleep.

And two, she woke up all by herself, which was very unusual. Shelly normally woke up before Vee finished recharging, but unless something was upsetting her, the fossil always stayed in bed until they both were ready.

Getting up and walking out the door, Vee found Shelly stomping up and down the halls. doing her usual territorial patrol of all the spaces she claimed as hers. An unfocused animalistic look in her eyes with her teeth bared. A low rumble emitted from her throat.

"Shelly?" The ammonite didn't pause her walking, she didn't even look in Vee's direction.

"Are you alright?" Vee caught up to stand in Shelly's walking path and waved a hand to get her attention. Shelly finally slowed her pace and her eyes refocused.

"What are you d-doing?" Shelly looked like even she wasn't sure. Her eyebrows clenched and she scratched her cheek. Eventually she shrugged her shoulders. She still seemed out of it.

"Well we s-should get back to bed then" Vee suggested. Shelly shook her head no.

The fossil stepped around Vee and continued along her way. Welp.

"Oh ah....o-okay, well um, wait up for me!" Vee hurried to catch up. Shelly was once again looking off into the distance at nothing in particular. Vee was worried, to say the least. 

They went from room to room, Shelly searching the area like she expected to find an apex predator hiding in one of the closets. Even as they kept finding nothing out of the ordinary, Shelly never seemed to relax. 

"I think everything's safe Shelly" Vee leaned against the wall while watching Shelly feverishly check behind every bookshelf in the storage room they were in. A low battery warning flashed on her display again. 

"Alright, yep. everything looks good, now let's maybe get back? Please?" Shelly didn't react. She kicked over a trashcan and walked past Vee to leave the room and check out the next one. Vee really didn't want to have to leave Shelly alone to go recharge when she was like this, she was clearly paranoid and scared of something that wasn't there. Vee reluctantly followed her.

Just as Shelly went to open the door to the next office, a very large (and fat) rat darted out from the gap under the door and down the corridor. Shelly let out a growl from deep in her chest and immediately chased after it like a lion hunting a gazelle. 

"wait- just- let it go, it's not hurting anything!" Vee yelled after her. She started following the angry fossil as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast at all. 

The rat ran around a corner, Shelly close behind. But she was going too fast and she overshot the curve. Her large claws slipped like butter on the floor. She went straight into a metal shelf filled with boxes against the wall, knocking it over on top of herself and creating an explosion of styrofoam packing peanuts. 

The rat disappeared into an old vent.

"Shit- shit s-shit!" Vee cursed and ran over, out of breath. She took a moment to lean on the wall before stumbling over to help. 

"Are you okay?" Vee managed to help lift the shelf up enough for Shelly wiggled out from under it. A cardboard box was on her head, packing peanuts stuck to her body everywhere. The fossil let out an irritated huff.

"Aah...here just um, I'll Get that" Vee grabbed the box and slid it off, revealing Shelly's grumpy frown. 

"At least you didn't chip your shell" Shelly nodded her head and crept over to the vent to ensure the rat was really gone. She shook herself like a dog to try and get the packing peanuts off, but the static in the air made them cling on. She started plucking them off all the parts she could reach but her tail was covered in the things, they wouldn't get off no matter how hard she wiggled. 

"L-Let me" Vee started petting all the peanuts off, Shelly gave her an appreciative smile. Vee suddenly wasn't feeling very good.

And that's when everything went black. ---------

Vee crumpled to the floor face first with a sound not dissimilar to someone kicking over a metal trashcan full of batteries. Shelly, not expecting the sudden noise, jumped out of her skin and bolted to hide behind the nearest corner.

After the initial fear passed through her, Shelly slowly leaned around the edge of her hiding spot. What was that about? 

Shelly stepped over to Vee. She poked her shoulder with her clawed hand. When that didn't get any reaction out of the robot, Shelly carefully flipped her over. She looked fine, thankfully her screen didn't break on the impact. Vee had never just turned off like that though, or not that Shelly could remember. She was having a hard time remembering things nowadays. But surely Vee was okay?...right? 

Shelly put her head to Vee's chest for a second before feeling silly. Vee didn't have a heart beat. She remembered that. So how was she supposed to make sure Vee was okay? 

This was not a safe place for a nap. They were out in the open. That rat could come back, or something worse. She had to get Vee back to bed.

Shelly bit down on the back of Vee's neck and carried her like a kitten down the hall back to their room. Vee was heavier than she looked but with minimal struggling, Shelly finally got them back to their safe place.

Shelly gently lay Vee out in their nest, tucked her up snuggly in one of the blankets they had to keep her from getting cold. If robots....got cold. They probably didn't. But just in case! 

She was thankful they had such a cozy place to hide. The office space they found was in the far back corner of the floor. It was nice and small, and they had gathered up every soft thing they could find from the rest of the rooms. The best part was it had a large bookshelf Shelly pushed out so you couldn't see their nest from the entrance. It was perfect.

Shelly laid down, wrapping her tail protectively over Vee's still form. 

She needed to figure out what exactly to do. She was pretty sure robots didn't need to eat or drink. Yeah, definitely not drink. She knew that part. And Vee didn't need food. She probably wasn't cold. She didn't look hurt, well more hurt than usual. Did she just need rest? 

Maybe Vee would wake up on her own time.

Shelly would gladly wait as long as Vee needed. However long it took her to wake up, Shelly would make sure to protect her. 

--------

It had been a few days. Well that was Shelly's best guess, and Vee still hadn't moved. 

Shelly was starting to miss her, a lot. They had spent almost every second of every day down here with one another. Shelly wasn't used to having so much time to herself, to say the least. 

She didn't know how to occupy herself. She did her patrols of the floor at first, but she didn't want to leave Vee alone for too long. So she stayed in bed most of the day.

She wished she had a sewing kit, or maybe a good book. Anything really. 

But thinking about it more, maybe those wouldn't actually help much, her claws would make threading a needle close to impossible. And the last time she tried to read a book her vision was too blurred to make out the words. She ended up making Vee read it to her. 

Speaking of, Shelly readjusted Vee and fixed her bow tie. It had gotten crooked. No matter how bad the ichor got, Vee was always insistent on keeping the bow tie on. What for, Shelly wasn't sure. Maybe she just liked feeling fancy.

Shelly was just about to settle down, maybe try to sleep away her boredom. When the power shut off with no warning, a loud clang echoed across the floor. Shelly froze in fear.

A Black out. It seemed they were happening more and more as time went on. And Of course one would happen when Vee was asleep, her only source of light. Shelly couldn't see her own hand in front of her face, it was the type of darkness your eyes couldn't adjust to.

She started to tremble. Having one of her senses taken away from her made her feel vulnerable. She curled up around Vee and whimpered.

It took a very long time to turn back on.

--------

Shelly was in pain.

She tried laying on her stomach, but that pressed on her ribs in an unpleasant way. 

She wiggled onto her side, no matter what way she positioned them, her legs throbbed.

She huffed out a sigh of anguish and tried rolling onto her back. That put extra pressure on her aching tail. 

Tears welled up in her red eyes. She had a headache. Her teeth felt too big for her mouth. 

She long since forgot what it felt like not being in pain. Even on her best days now it still hurts. She wished Vee was up to rub her back.

Shelly turned her head to check on said robot. Vee looked exactly the same as last time.

Shelly didn't want to leave Vee alone. But standing up hurt the least at the moment, even if the muscles in her legs felt tired. She decided going on a little walk would help.

She took slow uneven steps down a hallway. Her large claws making clicking sounds as they hit the hard wood floor. There was dust floating in the air.

She found herself back in the elevator room. She wondered over to the buttons Vee had been working on, that felt like forever ago now.

She hoped Vee didn't have any wiring loose or anything like the elevator buttons. She wouldn't have a clue how to fix that type of thing. Her clumsy clawed hands would probably just make things worse.

She checked the room over, empty. A thick layer of dust was blanketing everything they didn't touch regularly.

Suddenly she noticed a low mechanical rumble steadily growing louder. No, it was growing closer.

She turned back to the elevator. She could feel vibrations in the floor.

The elevator was...working. She didn't know how, but it was actually working! They had been stuck down here god knows how long and had never seen or heard it move, but here it was.

 Shelly's heart soared for a precious moment, maybe they could help Vee. 

The noise of the machinery grew to its loudest point. Shelly put her hand on the door while she waited for it to open. 

But that never happened.

The elevator made its way right past the floor they were on, and continued deeper onto the building. The sound fading away with her hope. Shelly banged on the door as hard as she could, she pressed the broken buttons. Nothing.

She sat there in the silence after, for a long time.

She decided to go back to bed.

--------

It was late, or it felt late. Shelly was tired at least.

If the power was on, the fluorescent lights never stopped their endless buzz. It was always hard to keep track of time.

She was laying in the nest next to Vee, who was just as unmoving as before. Shelly had repositioned her so Vee was laying on her side. That's how the robot normally liked to sleep, Shelly wanted her to be comfortable. An unforeseen result of that was now all Shelly saw as she lay there was her own reflection staring back at her in Vee's blank display.

She looked just as miserable as she felt.

She hadn't moved much lately, She didn't see a reason to get up. She didn't care about the rats encroaching on her territory anymore. She wouldn't care if the elevator started working tomorrow. And she didn't care about ever getting up again.

She felt as if she was slowly rotting alive. 

She had been trying for the past day or so to recall every memory she had of Vee. She wasn't having an easy time so far, The Ichor had taken everything from her. She couldn't remember their first date, or who confessed to who first, what day their anniversary was or how long they had been together. 

The worst part about it was even if Vee was up, Shelly wouldn't be able to speak to ask her about any of it.

she couldn't place exact times or settings. But she did remember the feelings. She remembered feeling loved, and cared for, happy, safe. She remembered feeling seen for the first time in a long time.

She missed Vee's rambling, It always helped put her to sleep. She missed Vee in general.

For the first time she really considered what would happen if they never got out of here. She didn't really like letting her mind wander to that thought. She always did her best to be positive, but it had never been so hard for her to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She was starting to question if it was ever there to begin with.

She wondered if the ichor would kill them eventually. Maybe they would die snuggled together, perhaps they would be found here a million years in the future. Shelly's skeleton and Vee's metal exterior. She thought they would make a great museum exhibit. Shelly hopes that happens, Vee would probably want her body to be put in a glass case to be admired instead of buried.

The sadder part of her brain told her that dying peacefully would be a luxury they would never get. They would probably slowly lose their personhood to the ichor. Their memories, their wants and desires, their bodies. Until they both were mindless zombies. 

Shelly rubbed her tired eyes. She didn't like thinking about that.

She should try to get to sleep.

--------

Shelly was awoken from her sleep by an alarm going off. 

For a second she thought it might have been a fire alarm. But it sounded too quiet, Shelly thought so at least. She supposed she didn't really remember what one might have sounded like. She sniffed the air and didn't smell any smoke or anything. She fell back into bed and waited for the annoying noise to stop. 

But it never did.

Hours must have passed and the alarm kept blaring. Just loud enough to aggravate her never ending headache. sparks of pain started in her temples and shot down her spine in beat with the alarm. She rubbed her face and huffed. Guess she had to get up and investigate.

She stretched out, her joints popped painfully and she sighed. Shelly glanced at Vee, she looked the same.

The alarm was coming from the room right next to them. Just another office space filled with cubicles. computers, books and personal items scattered around at random. There was a large whiteboard with some schedule scribbled on it up against the back wall. 

Shelly found the source of the noise in one of the abandoned cubicles. An ancient digital alarm clock sat on the desk, the top of it was covered in dust. How the hell it was still working and why it randomly decided to start being annoying out of nowhere was beyond her.

Shelly pressed the button on the top that was supposed to make it stop. It then proceeded to not do that. Shelly growled, and slapped the button harder. It still didn't stop its mental assault.

Her head hurt and she wanted to go back to bed. Normally she wouldn't consider being so aggressive, but Shelly was just about fed up with this stupid clock. She grabbed the old piece of trash and chucked it as hard as she could at the wall. A chunk of the drywall flew off and the clock exploded into pieces. Finally, the sound stopped.

She walked over to get a closer look at the wreckage, to ensure it was dead for good. The little screen had cracked in half, all the buttons on the top were gone and the little door to the battery compartment had popped off. 

The batteries were corroded beyond belief. How on earth was it still working- Shelly's red eyes popped open.

Vee was out of battery.

The thought hit her like a bolt of lightning. That was it, it had to be. Shelly sprinted out of the room so fast she nearly fell over while turning the corner.

She felt like an idiot that it took her so long to remember that, Vee recharged. She was a robot. She didn't need food, water, or rest. She needed to be plugged in. She felt like a stupid silly fossil. If she just remembered, she could have been with Vee this whole time. 

So long as nothing else in Vee's internal machinery had broken when she fell.

Shelly jumped into their nest and threw the blanket off Vee as fast as she could, she fumbled for Vee's cable tail. She plucked the microphone off the end and tossed it carelessly away, Vee could be mad at her about throwing it later. When she was on and here and alive.

She smashed the plug into the outlet nearby and held Vee up by her shoulders, staring into her blank screen. waiting with bated breath for something, anything.

Shelly squinted her eyes against the bright blue light of the reboot Screen that popped up. It slowly loaded, taking what felt like forever. Until the bar finally filled and Vee's face replaced it. The image looked more staticky than before, but she was working. Shelly had dark ichor tears rolling down her face. 

"Uggh my head hurts- oh a-are you okay? What happened-" Shelly threw herself towards Vee, grabbing her in a bone crushing hug. She started to sob. Vee slowly returned the embrace.

"H-hey, It's okay" Vee was lying. It wasn't okay. Shelly wasn't sure anything would ever be okay again. But she sure felt a whole lot better hearing her say it. 

Shelly had so much she wanted to say, that it had been so long. that she loved and missed her. That they needed to find a piece of paper and write down what she needed to do if something like that ever happened again. But All that came out of her throat was some grumbly roars.

"We're both alright, Everything's fine....you are okay right?" Vee gently pushed Shelly away to hold her cheeks in her hands and looked her in the eye. She wiped a tear away with her thumb. Shelly nodded a yes. 

"Good" Vee rested her forehead against Shelly's.

It was normally no problem at all to think of a gift to get Shelly.

Vee had gotten her an unholy amount of dinosaur related gifts over the years, you really couldn't go wrong with that. You could slap a T-rex on anything and the ammonite would probably love it.

But, that was also easy.

Anyone with a working brain could tell within 5 seconds that Shelly liked dinosaurs. It was starting to feel a little....detached, unthoughtful. Like she was dumping dinosaur related crap on her and calling it a day. Sure Vee would try to throw in a couple sewing items to spice it up and encourage Shelly's hobby, but that's about where the diversity in Vee's gifts ended.

Shelly's room was far beyond stuffed with every dinosaur species you could think of, in real fossils, plush, and figurine form. You could only get a girl so many triceratops squishmallows before she got bored right?

Well this year Vee was going to step up her game.

She needed the perfect gift. Something that told Shelly Vee really cared about her, something emotional.

Sadly that type of thing was never Vee's strong suit.

especially when it came to Shelly, she just made Vee feel so strongly. And it was still so hard letting herself express those feelings openly, something about it felt like...a glitch. Something she should be ashamed of, that she needed to hide.

She knew when she was alone with Shelly she had nothing to be worried about, but that didn't stop the irrational fear from building in her motherboard and making her stutter on her words when she tried to express her feelings verbally. 

It made her feel like a coward.

Shelly deserved someone who was able to compliment her everyday, someone brave enough to be vulnerable, someone who could make her feel unforgettable.

maybe if she could just think of the perfect gift, a gift that could get across all the things she couldn't make her speaker box say. she could be that type of partner, at least for the night.

Vee had paced her room at least 20 times trying to think of something that would work, But nothing that came to mind was good enough.

She was beginning to get frustrated with herself, the holiday was rapidly approaching, She had to figure it out soon.

She looked at the antique wall clock she had hanging by her desk, 3PM. Dyle should be back from his weekly food run, she had asked him to pick something up for her and to go grab it from him.

She sighed through her air vents and exited her room to head to the train station. As she marched down the hall, her head was still running with potential gift ideas. Once she was in the elevator, she tapped her foot on the ground impatiently.

Finally the elevator door opened and she stepped out into the station. It was bustling, Toons went back and forth unloading boxes and whatever else from the trains storage car. 

Vee made sure to take an extra step away from Fin as he helped carry out supplies, just to make sure he didn't spill any of his water on her, she'd greatly enjoy NOT short circuiting right now. Shrimpo sat on a box (not helping, mind you) and complained to Fin about every new thing that he saw coming off the train. Vee rolled her digital eyes and started walking a bit faster to avoid getting an ear full.

Finally getting to the engine, she saw Dyle leaning out the window in the front of the train. He was looking over some papers attached to a clipboard and rubbing one of his clock hands in thought.

"Dyle! You got what I asked for?" Vee spoke loudly to be heard over the room noise. Dyle looked down at her out the window.

"Ah, Vee! Yes of course, you've been asking for them every Christmas for a while now. I couldn't forget if I wanted at this point" Dyle reached down out of Vee's view, shuffled a few things and threw a small container of toy dinosaurs over to Vee. She caught it easily.

Vee had made it a tradition to get Shelly at least one tube of plastic mini dinosaurs every holiday season for a few years now, Shelly had a pretty large box full of them in her room. The ammonite got very excited about them each year, to the extent that she was mentioning during Halloween that she was thrilled about getting more. So even if Vee was trying to get a nicer gift for her this time around, she had to throw in some mini dinosaurs. She wouldn't want to disappoint.

"Thanks" Vee replied and put the tube in the pocket of her jacket.

"Not a problem" Dyle said properly and turned around in the train car. He was out of sight for a moment before opening the door on the side and stepping out and  

on to the ground. His shoes made satisfying tapping sounds on the cement as she went. Vee noticed he came out carrying a glass jar filled with small pieces of paper.

"what's that?" Vee asked him, she nodded her head towards the jar. Dyle stopped mid step and raised his eyebrow at her.

"Mm? Oh it's the suggestion jar. If anybody wants me to grab anything in particular, I have them write it down and put it in here!" He wiggled the jar, making all the papers bounce around inside.

"How come I've never seen it?" Vee asked. That jar was actually giving her a great idea. 

"Probably because most toons ask for food and you don't eat and therefore have only ever asked me for toy dinosaurs" Dyle replied very matter-of-factly and smirked at her. Vee grumbled at his tone, but didn't disagree with him.

"Would you happen to have another jar laying around that I could use?" Vee asked him.

______

Vee was a very difficult toon to buy a gift for.

On the stage sure, she was flashy and extravagant, anything to keep a crowd's attention. But off the clock she was a rather work oriented and practical person. She didn't really have the desire for anything fancy, Or all that many other interests or hobbies if Shelly was being honest. 

Vee had a large amount of older technology for her part of the museum, she seemed to enjoy collecting that. Shelly wished she knew more about that stuff so she could maybe get her something along those lines. But when it came to antique tech Shelly was completely clueless. It didn't help that Vee's collection seemed to be boundless. She had old phones, clocks, computers, even a few kitchen appliances. Shelly had no idea where to start or even how to get her something she didn't already have.

Shelly tried to get her some flowers once, that's what all the romantic people do in books and movies! Vee seemed to appreciate them at first, but had gotten rather upset once they inevitably wilted and died. She had even tried to press them in a book with parchment paper to preserve them, but even after all that she was still visibly upset at them decaying. Shelly had promised not to get her anything perishable again.

Shelly had to have asked Vee a million times what type of gifts she'd want, Vee would always reply with something along the lines of "oh it's fine, I'm just happy to spend time with you" which was heart meltingly sweet, and also incredibly unhelpful.

The past few years, Shelly would just try to get her something like an article of clothing or an accessory. So even if it wasn't particularly special, Vee could at least get some use out of it.

There was just one problem with that approach, Vee would NEVER end up wearing any of the gifts Shelly got her.

Each year Shelly would think she'd found the perfect thing, a nice useful item like a watch or a pair of dress shoes, Something that was Vee's style, that Vee could look at and think of her. Only for Shelly to never see it again after giving it to her and for the TV to never wear any of it. Shelly just hoped she didn't throw them out or give them away.

It was a bit frustrating. But this year Shelly was determined to finally get Vee a good gift. One she'd enjoy and actually use.

She just had to....you know....think of what that was going to be. 

But first she had lunch with Tisha.

"And then after all that I still couldn't get that stain out of her sweater!....uh Shelly are you alright? You look distracted" Tisha asked. Shelly realized she was glaring down at her plate in thought. She really was trying to listen to Tisha's story, but she couldn't stop thinking about the upcoming holiday. 

"Oh yeah I'm fine! Sorry, I was listening. I've just been struggling trying to come up with a gift idea for Vee, I'm not sure she's liked my past gifts so I gotta come up with something really good this year" Shelly huffed and rested her elbows on the table.

"Of course she didn't like them. It's Vee, she hardly appreciates anything around here!" Tisha rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Oh boy, Shelly shouldn't have gotten her started. 

"Honestly she's lucky you let her get within 10 feet of you! She should be grateful she gets anything at all. I'm sure your gifts have been very thoughtful, unlike her gifts to you!" Tisha went on.

"Come on Tisha, I asked you nicely not to be so harsh on her! You just don't know her like I do, she can be very sweet and appreciative in private" Shelly tried to gently interrupt her rant.

"Ugh, I'll take your word for it...I'm just saying you could do way better.... You should just get her like...batteries. or oil, or whatever robots are into" Tisha waved her hand dismissively and took a sip of her drink.

"Mmm...she does like batteries....No, no that's not special enough. I want it to be something unique!" Shelly replied.

"Well...not that I think she deserves it or that you should waste your time on her BUT you could always make her something...your sewing has been particularly impressive lately. if she still doesn't like a nice handmade gift then nothing will thaw her cold metal heart!" Tisha leaned back in her chair.

"OOoo! Wait, that's an amazing idea! Thank you so much Tisha, oh I just got the perfect idea. I hope I can pull it off before Christmas, I gotta get started now!" Shelly stood up so fast she nearly knocked her chair over, and bolted out of the room.

"WHAT? Shelly you hardly even ate anything, TAKE YOUR TIME- aaannnd she's gone" Tisha sighed and rubbed her forehead.

________

Finally the day arrived. Christmas eve.

It was late in the evening, hours away from the holiday itself. Toons ran around Gardenview wrapping last minute gifts or snuggled in their beds, comfy and ready for the jolly day ahead of them tomorrow. Bobette was running around singing and hugging everyone to get all the excitement out of her body.

Shelly was already in her pajamas, making her way to Vee's room. One hand knocking on the door and the other protectively holding a nicely wrapped gift. The two of them always exchanged their gifts to one another on Christmas eve instead of waiting for the actual day. It let them have a more quiet, intimate setting to enjoy the holiday together before they had to deal with the enjoyable, yes, but also very loud and tiring celebration involving all the other toons.

Vee opened the door and peered at her, her expression blank at first until a small smile popped onto her display once she saw it was just Shelly. She stepped aside and gestured for her to come in.

"Hey. How was your day" Vee asked while Shelly walked on in and made herself comfortable on Vee's bed.

Shelly looked around. Vee always kept her room fairly tidy. Besides her desk, that was always messy with some project she was working on. Next to the table was a tall green toolbox. Everything in there was overwhelming green. By the bed she had a pile of plushies. Most of them being of Vee herself, a couple of them were plush of Shelly, they sat proudly in the middle of the stack. One lone Dandy plush was thrown a few feet away from the others, it was in awful condition. It looked like it was burned, drowned, and chewed on it. And it probably had been. Vee never really decorated for the holidays, but this year she hung up some yellow Christmas lights along one wall. They filled the space with a warm cozy atmosphere.

"Really good! Have you gone into the kitchen today? Sprout, Cosmo and Ginger made enough cookies to feed a herd of stegosaurus. It looks crazy in there" Shelly babbled and slowly kicked her feet. She watched Vee as she walked over to her desk and grabbed what looked like her gift from on top of a partially reassembled printer.

"And I'm sure they'll all be gone by midday tomorrow." Vee sat right next to Shelly. She leaned over and lightly tapped her screen against Shelly's forehead, it was her own funny little way of giving a kiss. It always made Shelly blush.

"How was YOUR day?" Shelly asked and changed her position so she was cross-legged on the bed with her gift in her lap. Vee went to match her so they were facing one another.

"It was alright," Vee shrugged.

"Just alright?" Shelly asked, a bit of concern leaking into her voice.

"Yeah, I've just been a little anxious since this morning. I really hope you like my gift" Vee moved her hand up to her chest, trying to fiddle with her bow tie, but she forgot she was in pajamas and wasn't wearing one. So instead she played with the collar of her shirt.

"Oh I'm sure I'll love it!... I'll admit, I'm also a bit nervous" Shelly wiggled in her spot and looked down at her lap. Vee laughed.

"Well, let's stop being nervous then. I'll go first" Vee held her present out for Shelly to take. It was cylindrical and wasn't wrapped the best, Vee never was very good at that. It had a lot more tape than necessary and a few spots the blank side of the paper showed. But the pattern on it was small pterodactyls in Christmas hats. So Shelly was more than happy with it so far. 

She grabbed it and sat it on the bed between them, it weighed more than she expected. Her curiosity was growing by the second but she still held herself back enough not to rip right through it. She wanted to preserve the cute wrapping paper. 

She gently unwrapped it, slowly revealing a large glass jar. Filled to the very top of the metal lid with carefully cut and folded pieces of paper. Shelly brought it up to her face to take a closer look, she saw each little paper had words scribbled on them in Vee's handwriting.

"It's um filled with compliments and stuff. things I think a lot, but forget to say. Or that I'm too scared to say. I just thought that, when you're feeling bad...or forgotten and I'm not around, you could take a note out of there. And then you'd know I'm thinking about you" Vee avoided eye contact. She was staying fairly still. But her nerves showed through her tail, it was wagging back and forth. thumping on the mattress.

"I wanted to try and get you something...more sentimental this time" Vee added on, she finally got brave enough to look up at Shelly and immediately got worried once she saw Shelly's eyes had welled up with tears.

Shelly hugged the jar to her chest and hiccupped. She shook her head and tried to calm herself down, mostly because she knew if she started crying Vee would have absolutely no idea what to do. 

She opened the lid on the jar and pulled out a note. unfolding the paper, it was a bit hard to read with her vision still blurry. But it said something about her smile being infectious. There was a poorly drawn dinosaur on the side as well. It was hard to tell what species it was supposed to be, but it had a long neck so maybe a brachiosaurus. It was precious.

"VEEEEE! This is the nicest gift I've ever been given!" Shelly closed the jar, sat it safely to the side and crawled into Vee's lap so she could wrap her arms around the hosts shoulders in a hug. She felt robotic arms hold her tightly back.

"I don't care what Tisha has to say, you're the absolute sweetest toon I know" Shelly pulled back and held either side of Vee's head in her hands.

"I'm happy you think so. I know I'm not great with this stuff all the time, but I really do try for you- wait what's Tisha been saying about me?" Vee stopped mid sentence and gave her a look. 

"OH um, nothing. Here! Open mine now!" Shelly moved and replaced her previous spot on Vee's lap with her present. The ammonite didn't go far though, she sat close enough to lean on Vee's arm. 

Vee smiled and took a moment to appreciate the paper. It was green with a little snowflake pattern, and had a bow in the middle. Shelly was definitely a lot better at wrapping than she was. Vee almost felt bad that she had to rip it apart, so she tried to do it as nicely as she could.

Vee gasped when she pulled the gift out of its wrapping paper, it was a handmade waistcoat. The front was a bright green with embroidered details and black buttons, the back was a darker forest green and the inside was lined with a whimsical dinosaur fabric. 

"Wow, Shelly, did you make this? It looks amazing...the details are wonderful" Vee said, holding it up, getting a closer look. 

"Yes! I'm so happy you like it!" Shelly replied as she watched Vee admired the details, and waited for her to put it on....only for Vee to not even undo a button.

"Aren't you going to try it on?" Shelly said, hope in her voice while she gave Vee her biggest pleading puppy eyes. Vee snapped her head towards the fossil.

"Oh...right I suppose I could." Vee very gently undid the buttons on the front and slid her arms through it. 

"It fits perfectly, how did you know my measurements?" Vee asked, raising her eyebrow at the ammonite.

"educated guess" Shelly replied.

Vee relaxed and slouched her spine, only for her to jump and straighten her posture shortly after. She fidgeted, smoothing over a crease she made in the vest. Looking at it with a worried expression before she began to take it off again. She folded it carefully and sat it in her lap. Shelly sighed.

"Are you sure you like it? It's okay if you don't" Shelly said, gloom slowly overtaking her cheerful voice. Vee snapped her head towards the fossil, panic in her eyes. 

"Wh- no, no I love it! I can't believe you took the time to make me something like this from scratch. I always enjoy seeing your sewing, I'm so happy I get to have something you made for my own. I really like the dinosaur fabric" Vee shifted so she could hold Shelly's cheek in her hand. The fossil leaned into the touch.

"But do you think it's something you'd wear?" Shelly asked her.

"Uhhh well-" Vee looked at the waistcoat with anxiety on her display.

"I notice you never really use any of the things I've gotten you in the past either, I'm sorry. I thought I knew the type of stuff you'd like. But I never seem to get anything you love enough to show off. I really wanted to get you a good one this year. Especially after you got me such a sweet gift" Shelly shuffled an inch away, looking dejected. She felt Vee's tail wrap around her back, to stop her from getting too far. The microphone bumped against her thigh to get her attention. 

"No Shelly, it's not like that at all! I use your gifts- well I mean I don't USE them- but it's not because of..ugh" Vee paused and covered her face with her hands, upset with herself over her stuttering. She collected herself before starting over.

"I've loved everything you've gotten me. It's just- it would be easier to show you" Vee stood up off the bed and offered her hand to Shelly, She took it.

Vee led her into the small walk in closet attached to her room. She opened the door and flicked the light on. There was a few boxes of clutter that lined one corner but it was mostly simple and organized. There was a shoe rack against one wall and all types of blazers and jackets hung up on the opposite wall.

Shelly followed Vee to the very end of the little room, there was a tall cupboard she'd never seen. Shelly had never actually looked in this closet at all before, she had no reason to ever snoop around. Vee opened the door on the cupboard and stepped aside so Shelly could see the contents.

It had 3 shelves in it, the bottom one looked like various things Veronica had gotten her. on the top 2 shelves was quite literally everything Shelly had ever gifted Vee, all dusted and looking brand new. The watch she got her a year ago was still in the box, the cologne she got her 3 years ago was shiny and untouched. Everything still had the tags on them and a few things were even in glass display cases.

"I know it's...kinda weird. and I'm sorry i don't wear your gifts, it's just...if I use them then they aren't new anymore. And if they're not new anymore then they deteriorate with use...and age, and the thought of that makes me....sad I guess. Because I love everything you get me! And I want to keep them nice for as long as I can...if that makes sense" Vee rambled and scratched the back of her neck. Shelly's heart swelled with affection.

Honestly Shelly felt a little silly for not considering Vee would do something like that, the robot took great care of her things. Not to mention Vee had a tendency to personify objects. She'd looked on in sympathy at anything she had to throw out, especially broken technology. Shelly even caught her one time apologizing to the refrigerator when the host kicked it by mistake. Of course she'd care about the things she was given, of course she'd do something sweet like this.

"Aww Vee, that's adorable. next gift I'll make sure just to get you a trinket you can display so you don't have to worry about ruining it or anything silly like that" Shelly stood on her tippy toes and kissed the corner of Vee's screen. 

"Sorry again I never showed you or anything...I honestly didn't think about it" Vee said and held Shelly by the waist.

"That's okay, I'm just glad I know now" Shelly replied and wrapped her arms around Vee's neck.

They hugged each other close and enjoyed the quiet moment they found themselves in. Both of them hoped they could have many, many more Christmases together in the future. Shelly pulled back to look Vee in the eyes.

"Your gift was very, very sweet. And emotional! But....you know...I do kinda miss those tiny dinosaur toys you usually get me..." Shelly said looking away, twiddling her thumbs.

"Oh, I almost forgot" Vee turned and opened a sock drawer, pulling out the tube of plastic dinosaurs she got from Dyle and passed it to Shelly. 

"YESS YESS YESS!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH" Shelly jumped up and down.