Chapter Text
"We should adopt a pet. Now that Matt and Michael are gone it's become pretty quiet in the house."
The fact that Rabbit had to shout to make her opinion known made Steve grin. Muffin whetted behind a Walter Girl and disappeared with her around the next corner.
"I want a pet." The robot lady crossed her arms and looked at the sound technician.
"What? Do you expect that I leave now and buy you a dog?" He asked her.
"I don’t like dogs." Rabbit pouted even before Steve could say anything else to calm the situation.
"Isn’t Steve a good pet?" The Spine just came out of the kitchen, it smelled deliciously of biscuits. The human gave him an evil look.
"Steve is too large. And he's not on a leash and you can’t cuddle with him." Prompt Rabbit was drawn into the garden. It was not long until she found herself eye to eye with the dragon.
"Find a leash in my size and I'm nice." growled Steve. He had to lay flat on the floor so that his massive skull wouldn’t overtop Rabbit by meters. Carefully, he put a paw around her and rubbed his nose against her.
"And I do also like to cuddle."
Rabbit scratched his scaly jaw but then pushed him away . "You're not a pet. You're my friend."
Thus, the discussion was over for them. And shouldn’t she soon get a pet, she would just look for one. Or find a really big leash for Steve.
"Here you are stuck then." The Spine laid a hand on Steve's shoulder and watched him work. "You have learned a lot from Matt and Michael, hmm?"
Steve nodded and grinned. "Unfortunately, not enough. Can I even see your chassis?"
Without a word but very curious about it The Spine pulled off his vest and shirt. When he wanted to take off his pants, Steve stopped him .
"That's enough already totally." He said, holding a book next to the metal body.
"Would it be rude to ask what you are doing there?" Confused the robot watched the human in his strenuous work to draw lines in the book.
Steve ignored the question and smeared with his pen in the book. Only when he got a dry tongue, he noticed that he was too concentrated, the pen cap between his teeth, still drawing lines, while The Spine patiently kept silent. Metal scraped on metal as the robot opened a hinge in his neck and released steam from it.
"Oh excuse me, does that bother you?" Steve had cursed the man who had taught sarcasm to the robots.
"No . You can get dressed now. Are you going shopping today?"
"What for strange questions do you have today. Is everything all right?"
"Bring me half a beef with. In the piece."
The table groaned and sank a little as the dampers were loaded. Only when they relaxed again Steve admired the meat in front of him. The three robots surrounded him curiously.
"You want to eat here?"
"Shall I fetch your flamethrower or do you do it yourself?"
"You really want to touch it?"
Steve just grinned and did not answer. Instead, he pulled his laptop closer and clicked on a few links, the pages opened which paved the robots worries.
"I should get Petes." Rabbit had the terrible suspicion that something wasn’t right with Steve. He behaved strangely and giggled the whole time while he was now looking for wires.
"Stay here. Do you know Frankenstein's monster?" Steve put on his welding goggles.
"The novel or one of the many movies?" The Spine looked uncomfortably at the side of beef. "You don’t do what I am afraid of that you will do it?"
Steve had a metal bracket snap into the meat. "Yep. All resign!"
With their own eyes the three robots watched as things happened that had perhaps happened when Peter Walter I had conducted his studies. Muscles twitched and there was a smell of burning flesh. One after another Steve tried out different positions of the brackets and recorded the results. Then he turned off the power.
"The Spine, would you help me to disassemble it? And not a word to the others on the preparation!" Steve pushed his glasses back up and tested the residual stress with a finger.
When he came to himself in a corner of the workshop, he was surrounded by people and machines.
"Blood pressure and heart rate is normal. How do you feel, Steve?" Reported The Spine.
"Cooked through." Steve's eyes widened as he noticed a familiar feeling. He quickly pushed through the crowd to a window. With the upper half the body he hung out and opened his mouth.
Rabbit handed him a towel and a glass of water when he had finished vomiting.
"I think I'll call it a day.” With trembling knees Steve let himself escort back to his room by Rabbit, while Peter Walter VI curiously was eyeing his experiment with a smile and left the workshop.