DWN-012

Grins and casually leans back against his man.

“Well, gee; I just dunno. ♥ Who could it be?”

Chuckles, but doesn’t move his hands yet.

“Hey, squirt! I was wonderin’ when you’d notice!”

And that hug is returned, Quick grinning widely. He’d noogie the baby brother, but the helmet is kinda getting in the way of that. It ruined the effect.

“Wait, Alto’s goin’ over it? You’d think he’da asked Soprano to do it or something; Soprano’s the expert...” Oh, well. It’s none of Rhythm’s business, and he’s a lot more concerned about what Forte’s saying. “Hey. Y’ didn’t wake up crazy. Y’ woke up glitched, and that’s not your fault. T’ be calling yourself crazy like that’s an insult to the copy line. Granted, they’re not the best a’ the bunch, but... None of them are crazy.”

Okay, maybe Blaze was. But asiiiiide from that....

Oil doesn’t mind the sap- it’s cute. To think, this fluffy puppy used to be this awful fratricidal egotist who was blind to his own mistakes… with enough patience, he ended up this sweetheart that no amount of heterosexuality would prevent Oil from developing feelings for. …Of course, the lingering bit of troublemaking wasn’t at all something to complain about.

“Wow- really? That’s awesome! She got a name yet? ‘M sure the kids’ll love a new playmate.” Especially since last Oil checked, there hadn’t been any lady DWNs since the copy line; and those two were… er, nuisances at best. Nah, that wasn’t fair. Copy Roll was a brat but she never seemed particularly evil in her own right, and Rave was more selfish than dangerous. Granted, Pop wasn’t ever particularly fond of his clone, but eh. That was kinda understandable.

He snickered at that reaction. As much as he had to shoo off Tenor for being overbearing, seeing Ree all flustered was hilarious- and super adorable. Eh, his eldest bro had good intentions, at least. ‘Cept those good intentions had confession-blocked them way too many times in the past; he’d better not pick that habit back up when proposing actually becomes an acceptable possibility! (Though if Quick Man did drop to one knee and propose now, it’d be hard to say no…)

“Hehe. Yeah, really; though I don’t blame ‘im for bein’ excited, either. I know I’d waited long enough by the time we ‘fessed up. ♥”

And for the record, if Zamir from Tenor’s crew ever ‘fessed up to him finally, Oil was going to make sure to pay him back for the shipping.

“Heh, yeah-- I’m pretty sure it’s Piano or somethin’? Forte’s been bouncing off walls ever since we got all th’ parts she needed. It’s actually kind of adorable, given it’s Forte and what he was like before... Talk about deja vu.”

Quick’s referring, of course, to himself and how much of a brat he was back in the day. And he didn’t even have the excuse of being glitched upon booted up! Nah, he’d come online a huge jerk who actually justified taking down his own brother in his head-- “Protection”, he’d called it. They were the only two left, and he hadn’t wanted Soprano to fall to the blue twerp-- So instead, he’d done it himself. Where in the world had the logic in that been? Even now, he regrets it... Though he’s not sure Soprano’s really one hundred percent aware of that.

...There’s another point for the horrible brother tally.

Quick’s grip tightens on his boyfriend slightly, and for an instant a rather remorseful expression crosses his face... Though he’s forced that silly grin back on his face as quick as he can manage. He’s not thinking about this right now-- The last thing Oil needs after dealing with work is for him to be any less than in a perfectly good mood!

“Same, honestly- It’s just weird, thinkin’ someone else out there could be so invested in whether we got together or not! I mean, like... I used to think romance was a huge waste of time until, well... y’know. This is still kinda new to me. It feels more... Personal, I guess? So t’ have him so aware of it and actively involved is... I dunno. ‘M being weird.”

“I don’t eat Gos’ treats any more, geeze,” Forte complains, making a face. “Once or three times was enough, trust me.” Despite his fussing, he’s beaming from ear to ear and fairly bouncing in place from just how excited he is.

“’m finally gonna have a linemate and - and she’s almost done!”

“Anymore, he says. Uh huh.”

There’s a snicker to be had there, but Rhythm lets the teasing go in favour of the topic of conversation. He’s heard something like this here and there around the fortress lately-- Kind of hard not to, when your linemate just so happens to be daddy’s favourite and nigh constantly glued to his side.

“Guess, eh? Okay-- Uh, hm. Lessee... Yooooou wanna race? Or for me to teach ya how t’ ride a bike? Oooh, or you just had somethin’ real good to eat that wasn’t any of yer pup’s treats?”

He’s probably wrong on all of those counts, but hey!

“Your arms are th’ best ‘anywhere’ I could be, but Pennsylvania sounds good, too.” Oil chuckles before Quick kisses him; to which he responds in kind. This makes a very happy Oil.

He wasn’t going to open up anytime soon; at least, not easily. It had been bad enough hurting the baby with this… not to mention the Quint incident soon later, which was very much Oil’s fault for scaring the poor kid away… At least said poor kid was with the fifth gens now, but still. Oil had done enough damage… he wasn’t gonna beat himself up to the point of depriving himself of his precious boyfriend or anything, but he did want to make up for his mistakes and avoid making new ones.

“Missed you too, babe. ♥ How’re the kids at Old Man Wily’s? Tenor ‘ain’t buggin’ you too much about proposing again, is he?”

“N’ there’s nowhere else I’d rather y’ be. ♥” Man, he turns into such a sap around Oil-- But since it’s him, and they’re finally dating after so long of hiding their affections, Quick doesn’t mind. “How ‘bout both, then? Cherry Springs State Park, here we come! Hope y’ don’t mind a little breaking and enterin’.~”

He inputs coordinates, and wastes no time in boo-wipping away to their destination-- A little ways off from the spot he’d found last time, so he could run with Oil Man in his arms. Though tempted, he avoids using his full speed this time around. The adrenaline rush would be fun for his boyfriend, but it’s already getting fairly cold. Robots can’t get sick, thankfully, but the DWN still doesn’t want Oil in any discomfort.

“Stuff’s pretty interestin’ right now, actually-- Bro says Forte’s gettin’ a twin, n’ Pops is workin’ on her now. Not just a twin but a sister, too! Neat, ain’t it? ‘S been a while since we’ve gotten a new sib, and having a baby sis’ll be pretty cool!” He trails off, cheeks pinking lightly at the mention of one Tenor Light. He’s still trying to forget the last time he’d been trapped alone with the behemoth of a DLN... “Er. N-no, not lately... Uh. Pretty nuts, ain’t it? I mean, the thought’s nice and all, but like... He’s movin’ kinda fast...”

“Heh- they sure wouldn’t. ♥ And I wouldn’t complain, either. Come to take me away, hottie?”

Oil happily loops his arms around his boyfriend’s neck, smiling at the smooch on his cheek. He snuggles up to Quick contently. This was definitely the best thing after a hard day at work… It’d be even better if he had it every day. Then again, he couldn’t hog his precious boyfriend… that wouldn’t be fair to either of their brothers. But still. ♥

“Sure did. Glad y’got here so quick- but then that’s th’ point of bein’ Quick Man, ‘innit?” He chuckled and casually nuzzled his head beneath his boyfriend’s chin. Yes, good.

“Maaaaybe.~ Anywhere in particular y’ wanna go? My place, your room, to infinity and beyond... Oooh-- Or there’s this place in Pennsylvania with a fantastic view of the night sky I found out about the other week... Whatever y’ want, babe.”

To be fair, if Oil told him to show up and hold him like this every day, the DWN would make it his number one priority to show up on time and do just that. He’s still kinda out of the loop about what exactly involving his boyfriend’s job is stressing him out so badly, and it bothers him just a litle... Hopefully this time Quick might coax it out.

“Send me either my boyfriend or a baby bro. (Work’s been kickin’ my butt lately…)”

“Y’know, I don’t think there’s much they could do if a big, scary, DWN just so happened to steal you away one of these days. Sure, the old man'll probably get on my case about making a scene, buuuut guess who doesn’t care?” Casually scoops the boyfriend up bridal-style and smooches his cheek.

Key giggles and, with a burst of fire from the bottoms of his boots, props himself up to hug Rhythm’s face and smush his own against it. The tiny DWN would thus feel a smidgen warmer than before, but nothing uncomfortable. “At your service!!”

The poor kid didn’t even know what was wrong with their eldest linemate. Just that after one of their dad’s lame attempts at world domination he just suddenly… got sad. Eventually it got bad enough that Soprano didn’t play with him anymore, and crying didn’t work, and Key was just… confused. Why not…? He knows he didn’t do anything wrong, and it must’ve been something that happened, but…

Although Rhythm had gone travelling more, he’d still kept up the front well enough around Key that the kid never caught on that it was the same for him. Heck, Key didn’t even know that Rhythm had shut down a few days ago. Oh well- Soprano might reply soon…! And ReeRee was good for cuddles until then– huh?

“Really? Sheesh, finally. I know you two were friends and all but it took you long enough to get together!” Yes, Ree, even the tiniest sibling figured out how homo the both of you were. Though he’d never met Rap in-person because of the DLN’s aforementioned pyrophobia, the way Rhythm talked about him was super gay. “I can behave, whenever I finally get to see him!”

“As for what we can do…” Ah, so many ideas– “Let’s make a pillow fort!!”

Key’s giggling brings a few chuckles out of his older brother, and the elder DWN carefully wraps his arms around the kid so that he can hold and carry him. Man, what a cutie! He feels kinda bad for leaving Key alone for so long... 

Maybe he’ll drag the baby bro off on a road trip sometime-- Maybe bring Casey, too, so he doesn’t feel left out. Maybe Forte as well? The kids would like Disney world, right? And Forte deserves to feel like part of the family-- Rhythm remembers being in the SWN’s position, and it is not fun. Who better to start turning things around with than the younger and more impressionable family members? They’re more open-minded, after all! Oh--

Maybe they could drag Soprano along, too; Rhythm’s okay with his kid brothers, but wrangling three of them in a giant theme park would be too much for one guy! Oh, and Rap and Time could go as well! Rap needs to get to know his family, especially since Ree’s pretty familiar with the Lights by now, and Time could do with some actual kid-things in his life... Hmm...

The thought of recent happenings is one Rhythm doesn’t want to deal with; He’s spent enough time moping lately, and he’s pushed his family away for way too long as it is. He nuzzles Key’s face, only to go a little red when he realizes Key had been aware of just how fond he was of his then-crush. He’s... Not very good at hiding his feelings for Rap, is he? Haha, whoops!

“O-oh... Uh, yeah! Heh. Better late than never though, right? And good, good. He’s super important to me, and you guys are my family-- I want you to get along! It’d make me real happy, y’know?” The elder of the two chuckles again, nodding at Key’s suggestion of a pillow fort. “Sounds good to me! Where d’ya wanna go? My room, your room? We’ll make the biggest and best pillow fort ever! Think anyone would notice if we ‘borrowed’ a few pillows?”

Tenor laughed light-heartedly, patting Rhythm on the back. The irony of a Robot Master named Quick Man saying that something was to fast wasn’t lost on him, but he decided to skip the obvious commentary that could’ve been made. “Well, whenever you’re ready, kid! FYI, when you do go looking, I suggest getting gold and rubies; y’know, your colours. He does seem to like anything that reminds him of you.”

The embarrassment wasn’t over yet, Rhythm, but Tenor was going to have to wait for you to give him more fuel. So he goes to unlock the door instead, to let himself and Ree into the house. He picked his box of tools back up to put them away once he got in; he’d set them down when he’d decided to scare the wits out of the DWN.

“Here we are; make yourself at home while I go put my stuff away.” He let the door swing open, adjusting the box under his arm. “Let’s see- in terms of who else is home, there’s Melody and I think the twins might be home. Or if not, they’re doing errands with the Doc. He did say he was gonna take them to the park today… other than that, the house is pretty much empty. There’ll be fewer interruptions when Rap comes home, though, I know that much.”

With a grin, Tenor moved on to another room for a moment. He’d return soon, but for now the DWN would be left to be embarrassed by his boyfriend’s brother and waiting for said boyfriend to come home from work.

Rhythm winces slightly at the pat on the back-- He’s honestly not the biggest fan of physical contact, family or his boyfriend aside, and he’d really appreciate it if Tenor laid off. Then again... He wants to make a decent impression on the DLN since he’s going to have to be friendly now, so he feels like just letting him do what he wanted would be the best thing to do... Maybe?

His internal debate on whether to bring up his discomfort is cut short when Tenor begins giving him reccomendations as though he planned on going looking right after his visit. “R... Really? I, er... Yeah, I’ll remember that-- Um... I mean... Well... In the far future, anyways-- Assuming that’s something he’d even want-- Uh. Seriously, Gutsy, it hasn’t even been a month yet! Chill!”

The redhead falls silent, staring pointedly at the ground as he wills the deeper blush staining even the tips of his ears to go away. He follows Tenor inside, muttering his thanks and nodding when the older robot heads off. Once Tenor is out of earshot, the DWN lets out a sigh of embarrassment, looking around to make sure the aforementioned Melody or twins aren’t around. The last thing he wants is for someone else to witness his suffering at Tenor’s hands.

Well... Doesn’t seem like they’re around. Good. Rhythm makes his way into the living room, still a bit tense. Gosh, it’s weird being here when Rap isn’t... 

“Arf!”

The sound of metal paws padding against the lab’s ground is enough to snap Ree from his thoughts, and he looks down to find Rush in front of him, tail wagging a mile a minute. Ree grins, kneeling down to pet the puppy and feeling infinitely more at ease now-- He loves dogs, and Mega Man’s is no exception!

“Hey, buddy! Long time no see, huh? Did the twerps not bring ya to the park? That’s lame, but hey! ‘M not complaining right now.”