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Sawyer watched as Leith and one other guy he didn’t recognize talked in the doorway. An object being passed over to the blonde man, a kit. He fought off a groan in annoyance of what was going on, and he only realized what was happening once Leith turned around and the door was closed.
“Really? You’re the one doing this?” He asked, but it wasn’t really a question.
“Yes, I have decided that I’m doing this job.” Leith purred, walking over to Harley and setting the cleaning kit onto the table.
Opening it, he could see many pieces to help him with dusting the robotic vessel. A screwdriver, some weird thing that he assumed was meant to move the wires out of the way, a specialized duster meant for Harley, and other things that weren’t as important.
He felt a presence approach behind him and a screen peer down at him and the kit. “Do you even understand how these things work?”
Leith exhaled and picked up the screwdriver. “Yes, I do. I used to work with this kind of stuff. In like my early college years.”
“And how does that apply?”
“Just shut up and sit on the table so I can actually reach you.”
Harley huffed, but turned away and sat on the table. “I’d recommend starting with my head.”
There was only a nod in response. Leith moved and climbed onto the table, ignoring the past memories of him being on this very table with Sawyer using him. Manhandling him like he was nothing. He stood onto the table and unscrewed the plate on the back of Harley’s head. He set it next to the thing’s leg and used a small flashlight he grabbed to look inside the head. He eventually found where the fans were and spoke to Sawyer.
“Can you pass me that cleaner thingy?”
There was a hum, then a hand blindly reaching over and handing Pierre the thing he asked for. Pierre flipped it in his one hand as he tried to figure how he was supposed to do this. He did eventually go in, putting the flashlight in his mouth and pulling back some wires with one hand so he could reach the fans on the side.
“I swear, you better not sever a wire.” Sawyer growled, tilting his head slightly downwards, as though he was trying to escape the touch.
Pierre chuckled, muffled, and lightly kicked Sawyer. “Don’t tempt me.”
“And don’t kick me.”
“Any other rules I should know about, ‘boss’?”
Sawyer sighed in annoyance, but didn’t say anything. Aware that it was nearly impossible to argue with such an idiotic man.
Pierre smirked before continuing his actions. At some point he needed to get further in, so he curled his fingers around the wires to push them out of the way and, to his surprise, Sawyer made a high-pitched noise similar to a whine. The noise was gone as soon as it appeared, with Sawyer tensing as though he recognized the mistake he made.
Before Pierre could say anything, Sawyer spoke. “Shut up.”
“What- I didn’t say anything!”
“You were going to.”
Leith stood there for a moment, before deciding to try that again, pulling at one to see if it would get a reaction. Which, he somewhat did. Harley’s fingers curled into the grip on the edge of the table, but no noise came.
‘So, he does feel something. It seems like it.’ Leith thought, again remembering what had happened a little more than a week ago.
—
Leith bent forward and moved towards Harley. His hands going to the cavity between his chest and crotch section, gripping the spine and causing Harley to gasp and curl forward. He felt hands immediately grab the back of his shirt and heard a loud static sound, like he was glitching.
He felt the body freeze and decided to let go and move back with some struggle, seeing Harley basically just stuck in place as his screen sat on a bluescreen. He could probably get someone else to fix that.
—
He hummed out loud, making Harley move his head so he could glance back to the man. Leith made eye contact directly after and tilted his own head in shammed innocence. He saw the eye before him narrow into an upside down triangle, then turned back away.
During that moment he had been letting his thumb run over a good-sized wire. And now that Harley wasn’t paying attention, he pinched his nail into it.
“Hey! Quit it!”
“So you admit you feel this?”
“I-” Leith had never heard Harley so flustered like that. Flustered to the point that words, for once, didn’t flow so naturally. Like moss in a stream of water, except Leith was the moss and the water was Sawyer.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“I will have your tongue soo-”
Leith twists a thin wire between his fingers, making Harley gasp and move in a way that he almost poked the human with the rods coming from his back. Leith had to physically back up, nearly losing his balance with a short squeak. His feet dragged him back over after a minute and he stood slightly to the side, putting his hand back into Harley’s head to the machine’s dismay.
He found it odd that Harley hadn’t moved during that time frame. He could've gotten up and ran off or something. Could’ve grabbed Leith and strangled him or whatever. But he didn’t. Instead he stayed there, tense as ever, but there.
Leith wrapped his hand around a few thin wires, and a particularly thick one, to lightly pull at it. “You still didn’t answer my question.”
“Right. Yes, I can feel it to an extent. Happy?”
“Can I know what it feels like?”
“No.”
He tugged at the wires and moved closer to Harley. “I want to know, so tell me.”
“You’re feeble mind won’t un-”
The grasp became tighter and the pull made one of the thin wires break. In response, Harley let out a noise between a pained grunt and a pleasurable moan.
Silence
Tangible Silence
Leith spoke first, leaving Harley to bask in the embarrassment. “I- is this like… are you getting off to this!?” His hand left the confines of Harley’s head.
“You have to be joking.” Leith continued, moving to try and see Harley face-to-face. “Answer me. Tell me that was just like. A glitch or something.”
There was a puff of air before words came. “It was not a glitch.”
“So… are you aroused right now?”
“I don’t think you want that answer.”
“You’re right, I don’t.”
“I still need to be cleaned.”
Leith stared at the avoidant eye, then hesitantly moved back. It can’t be this hard, he literally has done worse things before. But it’s weird that he’s doing this to someone who isn’t even fully alive. Just consciousness and some organs. Organs that were encased in those capsules of goo, if you could call it that.
He almost laughed at the absurdity, but settled for a shaky exhale. Instead he imagined it as something else. Just digging in a man’s ass or something. No, that's even worse. Why did he think that?
He rubbed his face and finally put his hand back in. Maybe he could use this as a learning skill. Figure out how to get on Harley’s nerves, figuratively and literally in this case.
“Hey, uh. Sorry, this is really awkward, but can you describe the feeling?”
“You’re talking like me right now.”
‘Don’t tell me then, that’s fine.” Pierre hummed and moved so he could see the wires. He reached in and took a bulky wire in his finger, rubbing his thumb on it.
Sawyer shifted but didn’t make noise except for him speaking. “I’ll tell you. It feels mostly fuzzy, but also depends on what you do and the type of wire.”
“So how do you feel when I stroke this wire?” Pierre continued his actions, waiting for an answer.
“Mmmm, well. It’s definitely a bit faint, so I assume the wire is of a bigger density. But if I had to describe it, it feels like tiny bugs crawling in my skin.”
“That’s rather grim.”
“Whatever you say.”
Pierre tugged lightly on the wire before moving to a more slim one and did the same action he did before. This time he was able to hear Sawyer make another noise.
“That one is a narrow one I assume. The feeling is greater, but more ticklish. Sends shivers down my spine.” The mechanical body distantly spoke, not paying too much attention until the wire in Pierre’s hand was yanked outwards.
“How does this arouse you, though?” Pierre questioned, not relieving the hold.
“Well the feeling, haah, isn’t exactly painful. Depending on what you do.” Sawyer groaned, waving his hand in the air as though he was trying to not pay attention to the moans that choked in his ‘throat’. “Like tugging on that wire as of now, it’s more sensitive, which leads to a vast sensation. Though, I can’t exactly explain how it's pleasurable.”
Pierre made a mental note of that, and hoped that he wouldn’t forget it. He was better at remembering when he wrote things down, but maybe he will be able to burn this into his mind like he did some other things.
He twisted his finger around the wire, then twisted another thin wire around his middle finger. Slowly, he pulled at them, then loosened. He repeated this in an action to purposely tease with Sawyer. In response, Sawyer whined and his back arched the furthest that it could forward. This action moved his head closer towards Pierre, giving him better access.
Pierre took this opportunity immediately, using his free hand to grip a wire on Sawyer's neck. The aggressive and yet desirable moan was close to expected. Maybe not the frustrated noise he seemed to make, but still.
“Do you not like it there?” Pierre hummed, pinching the wire.
There was a gasp that interrupted a few words. “Wasn’t ready for it. Nor was it exactly pleasurable since the wire you grabbed wasn-”
Pierre pulled at the wire again, this time simultaneously with the wires he was holding in his separate hand. A static filled shriek filled the air, making Pierre pause and let go of the neck wire.
It didn’t take long for Harley to come back to his senses, the pain and pleasure now gone to just numbness. “Don’t do that again. I could’ve bluescreened again, and you know how bad it was when that happened.”
Leith remembered exactly what happened. White had the mechanic explain whatever damages were possibly done, then had the guy leave so he could bravely scold the accused man of everything.
—
“Not only those damages, but Sawyer is currently being reshown how to walk and what not. If I didn't get there on time, the damage could've been worse. Blue screening is not a good thing and you should know this by now.” White pointed his finger at Leith's chest, speaking through his teeth.
Leith stared at the grey-blue eye with a somewhat forced smirk. The metal body was somewhat shaking, whether it was from anger or the effects of what happened, Leith wasn't sure. All he knew is that this man was stubborn and a quick-learner because he learned everything back in a total of three days. Though, he still was forced to stay down every now and then. Unfortunate and reasonable.
—
“I’ll be more careful.” The human hummed, lowering his hand onto the steel shoulder.
“You won’t do it again.” Harley exasperated, shrinking a bit to try and get away from the grasp.
Leith’s hand followed the movements. “Not what I said.”
“It would be rather advantageous for you to use your ears and listen to me.”
“Yeah, yeah. You know I don’t care for the random jargon you use.”
Harley turned to eye the older man, lifting a hand as he went to speak, only to get interrupted by Leith. “You better be glad you’re still here. You never listened and still don’t.”
“Your constant floccinaucinihilipilification of my work is rather tedious to listen to.” Leith had no idea what came out of Harley’s ‘mouth’, leading the latter to say it again. “Floccinaucinihilipilification. In short words, you see my work as worthless.”
“You could’ve just-”
“Shut your mouth.”
Leith grumbled, but didn’t say anything else, instead he forced the mech’s head back forward and moved his hand from where it had moved to sit on top of the TV, to now the back once more. Looking inside, he found a few wires and pulled. The hand on the shoulder was now tangled in a few neck wires.
Harley wasn’t sure whether this was fun for him, or it was agonizing. Maybe it was both, maybe it was none. But it did make a tingling sensation. A sensation that was intense enough to make him completely forget his surroundings. Forget that he was currently being watched and listened to. A few choked out gasps and groans that he was trying to hold in now out in the open.
Leith smiled at the delightful noises that came from the speakers. Pulling on a few small wires on the neck to spite Harley. The very man surprisingly seemed to enjoy this as well. Leith never thought about it, but Harley never seemed to cry, even after Yarnaby nearly bit his arm off. Instead, he seemed like he was fighting off laughter anytime he got hurt. If he wasn’t mistaken, wasn’t that masochistic?
And when the robotic vessel was human, he always bit Leith. Didn’t matter where. Was he also sadistic? He would ask but that was definitely a weird thing to say.
Instead, Leith focused on the present. Rubbing his thumb over the wires inside the chassis. He could hear the fans whirring now, fast and definitely to the point of overworking themselves, though Harley didn’t seem to notice. Didn’t seem to signal anything to tell Leith to stop. So he kept going.
And going. And going. Harley thought it would never stop. The profluent words sucked into a black hole. A few things appeared in his vision, warning him of an overheat, and yet he couldn’t figure out what to do.
Sawyer tried lifting a hand away from its hold on the table, but he tilted forward slightly in response, leading him to put it back down. Pierre noticed this, but didn’t see it as worrisome. His ministrations continued until it eventually overrode the system.
An elongated moan came from Sawyer. A static overlay followed with, until it abruptly stopped as the system forcefully shut down. The bliss filled eye glitching to a loading screen. The circle icon spinning before the screen went fully black.
By the time Sawyer rebooted and turned on, Pierre had just closed his chest cavity and was screwing it back. The taller being hummed to let Pierre know he was awake, but didn’t do anything else. He saw the man tense as he did so, but didn’t question it.
Pierre stood back once he finished and looked up at Sawyer. “So, how was your beauty sleep?”
“It wasn’t sleeping, and it was enjoyable… To an extent.”
“Aw, how sweet.” Pierre teased, putting the tools back into the kit and closing it. The click of the locks echoing through-out the room. “I cleaned the rest of your fans, though. So, you should be good to go.”
Sawyer’s eye narrowed, then looked off to the side. “We won’t talk about this. Just like how we aren’t talking about last week.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” Pierre picked up the kit, moving to stride towards the door before stopping in his tracks when he heard his name being called from behind.
“Leith. I have a request to make as well.”
“What is it?”
“Can you get me something to cover up? A cloak of sorts? It’s stupid, but I feel naked.” The screen almost looked like it was blushing when Sawyer said that.
“Um. I’ll see if I can.” Pierre said, then mumbled under his breath. “Weirdo.”
“I heard that.” Sawyer grumbled, leading Pierre to quickly glance back and sprint to the door.
“No, you didn’t!” He reached the door and scrambled out, now facing a slightly confused and concerned tech man.
“Hello-?” The latter spoke, holding out a hand to take the kit.
Pierre cleared his throat, handing the kit back and running a hand through his slightly tousled hair. “Greetings, again. You didn’t hear anything did you?”
“No? I came back,” He checked his watch. “Only 2 minutes ago. You were taking a bit long so I was waiting here.”
“Good. Good. Go run along then.”
The tech man raised an eyebrow at the command, but turned and strolled away. Pierre let out a sigh, rubbing his face. He can’t believe he actually did that. God. He was so stupid.