towerofanimus | Turpentine Erase Me Whole

Characters: Rabbit and The Spine and whoever happens to run into either one of them
Setting: Dormitory floors
Format: Starting in prose, will match who shows up!
Summary: Rabbit has just come back from a bad case of being dead. He is not in good shape, and seeks out the only other person who can possibly make him feel better after all of this. Even if he was the one that did it.
WARNINGS: Oil.

The ten minutes where he couldn't move were terrifying. Staring at the ceiling, his arms and legs like dead weights, rapidly pulling air into his bellows and exhaling large clouds of steam into his room. What if he'd been broken for good? What if he'd never be able to move again after this? Serious problems arose from damage like that, and if he'd just been messily slapped back together, he might never regain the use of his legs ever again. It was horrifying.

At long last, he managed to roll out of bed, hitting the floor with a grunt and wildly scrabbling to get to his feet. He was up. He was.... He was alive. It almost felt impossible. Fear still ran through him though. He had to find The Spine. He had to know if he was alright. If he'd hurt anyone else or if he was still malfunctioning. And if he wasn't... Well someone would have to be there for him. Someone would have to help take care of him.

And Rabbit couldn't let things go and never see him again after this. He knew a malfunction when he saw it. He couldn't do that to Spine. He was out in the halls, frantically looking through every room for his brother, rubbing at his neck, and testing out his voice as soon as he was capable.

"S-s-s-spine? S-Spine where are ya?! Spine!"

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He knew it should be impossible. He should be dead. Long gone and buried somewhere, or sold off for scrap or whatever would happen to him after he ceased to function. By all means he shouldn't even be able to move even if he was alive, he should have been paralyzed for life.

But here he was, moving and processing and alive. He shouted down the halls again, busting open yet another door in his frantic search for his possibly still malfunctioning brother.

"Spine!" And then he heard it. His voice down the hall. The room was forgotten and Rabbit sprinted towards the sound of The Spine's voice, spotting him just down the hall and-

He slammed into him, wrapping his arms around his brother with very little care about the fact. The fact that he'd been killed by the same robot not but a day ago. The fact that he was still strong enough to do it again should he malfunction. It didn't matter.

"S-s-spine... Spine ya know me? A-a-are ya okay now, Spine?" He clambered to reach for his face, peering into his eyes with a note of urgency.

"Are ya okay?"

This couldn't be happening. There was just no way. Dead was dead was dead, and Rabbit had definitely been it; yet there he was, barreling down the hall towards him. It just wasn't possible--

The Spine didn't have the luxury of coming to terms with Rabbit's existence before the copper 'bot slammed into him. It was a small miracle that they didn't topple over in a heap, Spine wrapping his arms around him and digging his heels in, skidding to a stop. His servos kicked in and, for once, didn't overcompensate for the lack of balance. Or maybe they did, but it just happened to be in the opposite direction Rabbit's momentum was taking them, so he wound up standing up straight.

The photo-receptors that met Rabbit's mismatched ones were bright green and wide with lingering disbelief. "...Fine. M'fine." No, he wasn't, but he wasn't a mindless murder machine, which was a step up from yesterday. "Rabbit, I d-d-don't--" His vocalizer started to glitch, making him stutter, and he waited impatiently for it to settle again. "How are you here?"

He could feel the leak starting at the corners of his eyes and didn't feel like doing a damn thing to stop it.

And yet here it was, happening anyway. Even Rabbit was hard pressed to find a reason behind his miraculous revival. Apparently Yotsuba was right about death being impermanent here. It still had been hell to go through and he would have preferred it never happened to begin with but still.

He kept his hands on The Spine's face, peering into his optics carefully and trying to see if there was any hint of the madness left. No... he seemed to be fully there. Fully himself again. That was all he wanted from him right now. Proof that he was still himself. He knew he wasn't fine though. Not with that tone of voice, and he buried his head in his chest, filling his bellows with air.

"I d-don't know. I don't know h-h-how I got here. I ju-ju-just wo-woke up in my be-bed an'..." Steam hissed from his vents as he wiped black tears on The Spine's front. He'd apologize for it later. Things were a little more important right now.

"I'm s-s-sorry, Spine... I c-c-c-couldn't save ya... I c-couldn't do anythin' ta.... I wanted ta...." He wiped his eyes again, this time with the back of his hand.

"I sh-sh-shoulda be-been able ta help ya...."

No, he wasn't fine, and the oil falling to spot the back of Rabbit's vest was testament to that. He held on a little tighter, uncomplaining. It didn't matter if his brother soaked his clothes through with tears. What mattered was that he was alive to shed them in the first place.

Just woke up. The Spine accessed memories of bland humans in red collars hauling Rabbit's body away despite his protests. Perhaps... perhaps they had fixed him, somehow? The damage had been so extensive, though... Even the Walter mechanics would have had trouble repairing it to the point that Rabbit could have been brought back online.

It was a mystery that would have to wait.

"There wasn't anythin' you could do," he said, not unkindly. He drew in a breath and rubbed his brother's back with a flat palm, wiping the oil from his own face with the back of his other hand. "You did your best, Rabbit, I-I remember that much. I remember you talkin' to me, tryin' your darndest to bring me back."

He still didn't understand what had gone wrong, exactly. Internal diagnostics reported no malfunction had occurred. "I can't believe I... did what... what I did." The recollection made him take a step back, fear suddenly twisting his features. "I'm not sure I'm even safe to be around, maybe you should--get back."

Rabbit just snuggled against him, comforted by the simple fact that he was being hugged not fought or punched or zapped or threatened with lasers or anything of the sort. Just gently hugged and even if he could feel The Spine's tears landing on the back of his vest, he didn't mind. Just so long as everyone was okay and alive and well.

"I-i-it was we-weird though. I thought... I thought that I'd ne-never get t'move again. I c-c-couldn't move when I first woke up. Ain't nu-nuthin' like it, Spine..." He stared at the wall, rubbing The Spine's back gently and sending air through his systems again.

"It was l-l-like... Like ya w-weren't even there, Spine. I saw ya t-tryin' to get out. Tryin' to tell me to leave. I remember that." And Rabbit had refused, lest he unleash his brother on everyone else. Something he did must have broken through the malfunction.

But Rabbit refused to let him step away, clinging all the harder as The Spine stepped back and letting out a noise of protest. "Ain't n-nuthin' wrong with ya. It's nuthin'. D-d-don't go, Spine. Please..."

His hands went to Rabbit's arms to shove him away, but instead he froze, standing perfectly still. Don't go. He didn't want to go anywhere, didn't want to step back, wouldn't have done it at all if he weren't afraid for his brother's safety. "I... it's not safe..."

It wasn't safe, but when would he ever be certain again? There was no one here to run a check on him. He had to trust his own, potentially faulty, diagnostics.

For a long moment The Spine just stared at Rabbit. Then, with a burst of steam and a quiet, static-laced sob, he tugged him close instead of pushing away. Internally, he was kicking himself. He was supposed to be the responsible one. The stoic one. The one that everyone could rely on, and here he was breaking down.

There was something wrong with him. He must have still been malfunctioning. It was the only explanation that made any kind of sense.

Why had he even bothered trying to clean the oil from his face?

"I d-d-don't care. I ain't l-leavin' you. Not ever again, Spine." He'd let him down. He was supposed to be the big brother. He was supposed to help his family when they needed him the most, and Spine and needed him and he'd failed. He'd made things worse.

He didn't want to live in fear of The Spine having another major malfunction. Of hurting him again and tearing him limb from limb. So he simply wouldn't, that was all that it came down to. He wouldn't hold it against him, he would even strike the memory from his banks if he could do it. He wasn't about to abandon him over something like this.

There was a soft sigh as The Spine hugged him, the older bot rubbing his back gently and mumbling reassurances to him. It was going to be alright. Everything was going to be just fine, just wait and see...

Oil dripped freely from his optics, he could hardly care about them, and he clutched The Spine close, stroking and trying to keep himself together. Someone here had to be the strong one.

Turpentine Erase Me Whole

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