#painter x reader

Fifteen years since Sebastian Solace and Painter had been sent down to the Hadal Blacksite. If it wasn't obvious enough, the years didn't exactly do them any good.

Stuck in a giant, metal forged cargo full of glass and aggressive experiments isn't exactly a place you would want to call home, but it was better than being shot dead by the soldiers from Urbanshade. One crazy enough could call this a standard motel as long as you know the inner workings. Despite the attempted humor, Sebastian knew very well that this death trap was nothing more than that, and he was sure that the lovely Expendables that got sent down here figured that out sooner than they expected.

For years, Expendables showed up left and right expecting a large sum of cash to be handed to their grubby hands because of their oh so humble bravery of trekking down in the Hadal Blacksite. Next thing he knows, he finds their body limp on the floor because they simply couldn't run fast enough to a locker. It was laughable. They all came down believing they could do a fraction of what he and others had tried for the longest time ever. It was a nice game to tally in his spare time. He doubt there would be many who'd be able to survive and camp around until they reached the end.

Then you came along.

You were seen a lot in runs. Sometimes you'd be with another Expendable or more, other times you'd be by yourself (the latter being the majority from what he's seen). You came into his shop, you bought his items, you left. It was straight to the point with no words added than necessary. And when he found you dead, he'd take what you had and move on.

The more runs you had, the more changes he saw. A twitch of the eyebrow, a double-take of your inventory, a more defensive shell that grew around you when it came to moving in groups. You were still polite, sure, but the air around you slowly became stiff whenever you.

And after a while, you kind of... stopped.

You became somewhat of a homebody whenever you entered his shop, making more small talk than before. You even talked to Painter when he appeared on his walkie talkie. It was irritating at first, but it became a norm. You, however, still had work to do. Urbanshade wouldn't pay you to sit with The Saboteur and attempt to be buddy-buddy. So you accepted it, leaving the shop and later dying before you could reach the crystal. Just like the others.

Sebastian never dug into it in the beginning because he didn't care, but that one day you came into his shop with a high amount of data, you bought his file.

Was he ticked off that you purchased it? Yes, but more data meant more dirt on Urbanshade for when he and Painter escaped. A single Expendable or two can be tolerated to read his personal info. It was for the better.

When you left, he expected to find your corpse later down a few doors. Instead, you came back a few minutes later, file in hand, slamming it back down in its original place and swiping your hands down your face.

It was uncomfortable for Sebastian, seeing a stranger seemingly stress out over something that happened long ago. Sure, pity him. Make him feel reminded of the hideous thing he was forced to be. Then again, deep down, he could feel himself claw up from his throat to his brain. It was a vulnerable part of him, the real him, that he never wanted to show.

Then, you had to look up at him with those eyes. Pupils that held resentment to someone that wasn't him. A sadness that panged in his chest surprisingly. He was prepared to make a quip, a smirk forming on his lips before you asked him:

"When's your birthday?"

'When's your birthday—' What?

"My birthday?" Sebastian drags out, swiping his bang away from his eye, "Not exactly a business-related question. Why so curious about the day I was born, Expendable?"

"I—Well," Your eyes glance to the vents. You push yourself away from the desk and begin to crawl through the tiny space. "I'll be right back."

That was a few days ago.

You never came back—right away, at least. It was assumed you had died in your run and took time off. Lord knows you needed it with the amount of runs he'd seen you in. If it weren't for the angel's blood in your veins, you'd certainly be dead a long time ago. But that wasn't his problem. He didn't care.

What a poor farce.

Painter sits on the desk near Sebastian, the shop closed for the day. "Seems odd to say that and never come back." Painter comments as he doodles on his screen. "Do you think they were just messing with you?"

"Possibly. But honestly, that Expendable doesn't seem like the type of person to do that. Not giving them leeway, just an observation."

"I'd hope so. It's weird to ask about someone's birthday and go away for a long time."

"Don't worry kid," Sebastian swishes his tailfin, "We've got each other. I think that's more than anyone else could offer."

When a whole week passes and he hears the sound of thumping through his vent, Sebastian prepares his customer service smile and sharp tongue. That seemingly died the moment he realizes you're crawling into his shop. His angler light illuminates as he unfolds his hands, looking down at you with confusion.

"Seems as though you're back. Quite a long time for something so short." He mocks.

"I'm sorry," You pant as you kneel up from the concrete ground. Your face shined a bit, presumably a thin veil of sweat. "I-I had to run from a Pandemonium a few doors down... Had to use shots to run to a room with lockers... Give me a few seconds." You hunch down and support your hands on your thighs.

"Aw man... I could've made things more fun." Painter grins. "Just kidding! Maybe."

A sight like that would usually have Sebastian laughing under his breath, but he doesn't feel like poking fun at the misfortune you've experienced. He finds his heart panging at the thought of your death. Disturbed, he pushed the thought away and slightly leans over to you with expectance.

"Is it the right time to ask you why you wanted to know my birthday, Expendable?"

"You're birth...? You're birthday!" You gasp as you swivel your bag over your torso and onto the floor. Your hand immediately begins to dig through it before you pull out a stick.

Painter's scribbled face turns into a frown. "A stick? Are you serious!?"

"Is this some kind of joke?" Sebastian dryly interrogates.

"No. Even better." You look around the room before laying your other hand face up, "You got a light?"

The fish rolls his eyes and leans back. "You ask for too much." His regular hands reach behind while his third arm lingers on his side. He turns back with two wires and crouches down to bring them closer to the stick.

"Watch it—" zzIP—TSCHH! "—PLEASE!" You tilt back as the stick's top is lit aflame. Sparkles began to flicker in ever direction, the light now reflecting on you and Sebastian's faces.

"It didn't get soaked!" You wheeze in delight. Your hand drew an infinity shape with the sparkler in hand, the three of you watching as the light morphed it's shape before disappearing.

"Woah... What is that?" Painter awes, his eyes following the object's movements.

"A sparkler. It's a firework you can hold. People mostly use it for the Fourth of July and cakes, but I have neither or, so this will do." You explain as your draw circles with the firework.

Painter's face switches to a smile before quickly morphing into a mocked longing. "I wish I had taste buds. I wonder what cake would taste like."

"...It's sweet," Sebastian suddenly explains, making you look over. He's already looking down at Painter, hands clasped together as they usually are. "It depends on the person's tastes but... it's usually sweet, covered in icing and decorated. A lot of flavors too. Some of them are abysmal."

"What's your favorite, Sebastian?" The computer questions. You could see a tiny smile morph on both of their faces.

"Tres Leches. Never gets old." Sebastian falters, his eyes now pinned down at you. "Why are you doing this, Expendable?" His tone is accusatory and aggressive, but you don't falter in the slightest. Sparkler still lit in hand, you idly twist the object between your fingers.

"I couldn't sneak something like a cake or anything. I didn't know when you're birthday was, or Painter's, so I decided I'd just make it up on the fly and bring something for you two to celebrate with."

The fish's fins twitch. "Where the hell did you even find sparklers?"

"Urbanshade employees had a party and forgot to clean up. Found these bad boys, snuck'em in my bag, and brought it to my run." You prove this by reaching in the bag in question with one hand and pull out a full pack of sparklers.

Of course they would. Sebastian can't believe those are the same people who are trying to kill him. Urbanshade's finest, He sighs internally.

"Being stuck here probably makes you insane," You say, "I doubt any of us are having fun. And I don't think you can live long like me, but it doesn't mean I enjoy it either."

"No one's exactly forcing you to do this." Sebastian says.

"Not like I have a choice."

The sparkler fades.

You bite the inside of your cheek and hand the box towards the man.

He takes it with no hesitance.

"February third, nineteen nighty-three." Your eyebrows slightly raise up.

"How long have you've been here?"

"Fifteen years to be exact. Painter, just for a few." He looks towards Painter.

"We've been here a long time... Not exactly the best place to celebrate birthdays. Not like we can." The bot mumbles.

You don't exaggerate or scream in shock, but gesture your head to the box of sparklers in Sebastian's hold. "Then you've got fifteen years of sparklers to catch up on." You loop your bag around your front, making your way to the vent.

"You plan on missing out on the party?" He jokes as you get on the floor.

"Ehhh, I think this is more a private party for the two of you. I'm not exactly someone in your circle... I'm Expendable." There's a clear sadness Sebastian and Painter can pick up on before you wave a hand off. "Hey, at least I brought a birthday gift, huh? Happy birthday, you two." And you crawl through the vents.

There's a moment of silence after your leave.

Thumps sound through the vent. You reappear, sheepish. "I forgot to get the keycard."

"It's for the better." Sebastian says. His third arm beckons you. "Stay for a while and celebrate. It's the least you can do. Besides, Painter needs some hands to hold his sparkler without burning up."

"If I had the hands to do so, it'd be GREAT." Painter sneers at the man. "Not everyone has three arms to spare."

"It's better than melting any of your parts." Sebastian states as he grabs hold of two sparklers. He uses his third hand to grab the box and extend it to you, allowing you to take hold of your own. You watch as he uses the wires to spark a flame on his firework, placing the wires down before lighting Painter's sparkler with his own.

"When's your birthday, Expendable?" Painter questions as he erases a few stray lines in his work.

You arch your brow at the redirected question. "[Month & Day]. Why?"

Sebastian looks from the sparkler to you. "Well, if you're gonna be in this shindig for some time, I'd say it's better to celebrate now while you still can. Urbanshade sure as hell won't celebrate your special day, so why don't we?"

Your body loses its tenseness. With the sparkles reflecting in your eyes, Sebastian would have believed it was something you could do naturally. You instantly hold your sparkler towards Painter's, allowing it to fire up. You're immediately captivated by the object and smile warmly at it.

"Happy birthday to us allll!" Painter drags out. You look up and see a simple drawing of a cake with three candles on top with different colors. "We each get our own candle. Ignore the fact that it isn't real."

"I can't really ignore it if you were the one to point it out." Sebastian says.

"Well ignore everything I said then, debbie downer."

Sebastian rolls his eyes again and extends his left hand, the sparkler now put to the middle. "To fifteen years in Hell, and lost birthdays." He looks towards your direction.

"To fifteen years!" Painter cheers. Sebastian moves Painter's sparkler to his own.

"To lost birthdays." You softly repeat, placing your sprinkler to the middle.

The orange sparkles illuminate into a single ball of light. You immediately think about how it looks like the sun. Given the amount of years you had been cooped in the prison for so long, dying and respawning back to the same building, the sun hasn't been something you've seen in a long time. You doubt Painter or Sebastian had seen in in-person in a long time, either.

And they were right, about celebrating your own birthday. Urbanshade could care less about when their guinea pigs were born. You weren't special to them. So today will be, substituting the sparkles as your star.

Under the depths of the sea, thousands of studs from your home, you celebrate your first birthday after detainment.

-♯⍴.ᥲі.ᥒ𝗍ᥱr

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He's very difficult to please! One second he wants you to go but not even 5 minutes after he tells you to leave, he begs you to come back. He can be very whimsical one second and the next he's calling you a loser for liking a computer.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He's noticeably much calmer and much more gentle with you. His insults lose their edge when it comes to you.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He absolutely loves when you hug him, he might not be able to feel it but he can see you hugging him and it makes him feel loved.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He's terrified of losing you. Everytime you visit him, he begs you to stay with him just a bit longer or better yet: don't leave him at all. He knows you'll come back anyway but he hates watching you die.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ On that last note, whenever you leave, he watches you over the camera's, making sure you're okay and giving you subtle little warnings whenever a dweller's following you, "Hey, Hey! You ever get the feeling someone's watching you?" "Might wanna watch your back!" and "I sure do hate stalkers!"

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He begs you to draw with him. It doesn't matter to him if you're really good at art or not, he just wants to have some kind of memorabilia of you... just in case!

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He knows it's really stupid which is why he'll never tell you but he gets embarrassingly jealous when you use other computers or machines. Like when you interact with Navi he gets really pissed and tries to get your attention back on him. If you ever bring it up he'll deny it. He's not gonna let up.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ Whenever you do die, he freaks out. He gets so worried that one day you just won't come back, that one day you'll die and it'll stay that way. You need to get back to him as soon as possible or he'll get really mad at you for worrying him.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ He might not be able to feel it, but he asks you to hug and kiss him. It's comforting that someone cares enough about him to do things like that, even though they don't really have to. He'll either get really sad or really mad if you don't do it but he never forces you to.

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ Romantic rivalry with Navi except it's all in his head and she doesn't care what so ever.. Can Navi even feel love in the first place? He doesn't know or care, he's not gonna risk losing you to some other ai >:(

⋆ ˚🪻 ⁀➴ ꒰ Let's you draw little lipstick kiss marks on his face. It's probably the absolute closest he'll get to any actual affection. In return he'll probably just ask you to put your cheek to his screen so he can draw a kissy face and say "Mwuah!" really loud. He's very silly 💔

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!" "[Y/N]!! HELP!! SOMEBOD——" That's the last time you heard his voice before the sound of glass shattering echoes through the radio, accompanied by the radio's static. You don't waste any time answering. "P-P.AI.ter?? P.AI.nter?! What was that noise? Are you alright??" You received no feedback, only silence with static. "Answer me!" voice laced with anxiety, you can only hope that something bad isn't happening to him. Then, an announcement from Navi came. "This is site-wide announcement! I happy to report that the parastite messing with my systems has been neutralized" Now, this makes you worry a lot more. Your heart thumping faster than usual, palms shaking, as you hope your dear friend is alright. "Hold on! I'm coming!" Leaving your shop, the radio chimes in again but it's not p.AI.nter... A faint voice could be heard cussing to himself while he hurriedly ran away, and the thumping on the metal floor slowly faded away as he ran. Is that what you thought? Why is he there? WHAT DID HE DO TO P.AI.NTER?? Slithering yourself to the hallway as fast as you can while avoiding the entities there, you finally made your way to p.AI.ter. You froze, his screen was shattered, and pieces of tiny glass sprawled across the table and the floor. Your trembling hands slowly grab his monitor or his head, breath shaking and uneven as you look at his shattered face, no signs of life showing. Tears started to shed as you held the monitor tighter. He's gone... Someone murdered him. And you know who it is. . . . You searched for that man tirelessly for hours. Opening up the valve door, there he is, the man who killed the only friend that was left in this god forsaken facility. Sebastian Solace.. Thinking of his name makes you want to throw up for what he has done.. And now, he has to pay for it. "YOU!" Your face is filled with pure anger and hatred towards him, as you quickly grab him by the neck when he fails to run away from you. "You think you could just run and forget like nothing happened?!" His eyes showed immense fear as his legs swung under your hold. "You could take everything you wanted, WHAT I wanted.. AND YOU! DECIDED TO TAKE THE ONLY THING THAT WAS DEAR TO ME!!" Sebastian spoke as he tried to explain to himself. "You.. You got it all wrong! It was an accident, I didn't mean to kill him!" "Accident..? ACCIDENT?! WHY THE HELL WOULD IT BE AN ACCIDENT?!" You flared your sharp teeth at him, showing your hatred towards his stupid excuse. Trying your best to control the anger "I trusted you to get me out of this hell of a place, I really did, gave you a good service that any expandables would want, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?!" "I was trying to rescue him, I swear!" he tried to defend himself, but you weren't convinced. "Rescue him?? HAH! INSTEAD, YOU RESCUE NAVI BY MURDERING HIM!" You tried not to cry as the tears started to swell up in your eyes. Quickly regaining your composure, you spoke. "You will pay for your sins!.. Oh, and I'll be the one who gets to do it." You chuckled. "You bet I'll be enjoying this like how you enjoy murdering p.AI.nter.." Your clawed hand plunged through his chest as you grabbed his heart and dropped him to the floor. His vision became blurry as he tried his best to breathe. "Oh! And the best part is? I get to do this over and over. I know you'll come back, and I'll be waiting.." Sebastian's desperate breathing filled the quiet air. "Actions have consequences. You did this! And you have no one to blame but yourself.." Holding his heart tighter and tighter, you looked at him for one final moment. "You're in the hell of your own making.." "AND YOU'RE NEVER GETTING OUT!!" You crushed his heart to the ground, blood splattering over the floor and onto your shirt. Looking down with heavy breaths, a sound of a bell could be heard. It's him.. You're not in the mood to deal with him now.. After a few seconds, the sound rang again. "WHAT? WHAT DO YOU POSSIBLY WANT NO——" ... "Could you knock that off? I'm not a fan of staring contests." You hissed at him.

Sebastian stares at your tall figure with discomfort in his eyes. Looking back at you now makes him realize what mistake he shouldn't make again. He continues staring for a few seconds before you break the silence by sighing. "Are you gonna buy anything or what? You have a job and a promise to fulfill, y'know." Sebastian quickly regained consciousness and bought something. While he was heading out, you spoke. "Be safe." Hearing that makes him uncomfortable after what you did. If that thing had never reset the timeline, it would've been pure torture for him right now. He's thankful that you are unaware of it.