this maybe came out a little more hurt/comfort than I intended, but im happy with it! Story under cut
It had been years of fixing his partner by now. Jay was mature enough not to make a fuss when Zane had to strip down for repairs or maintenance. The whole blushy, "sorry let me avoid looking at you at all ever" routine just made Zane feel worse about himself. It was one of the reasons he hadn't come to Jay or Nya for repairs until after Chen. That didn't mean Zane taking off his shirt in the workroom for maintenance was never an affair, though. Jay had just switched to gawking. Zane was hot, and Jay had the self awareness to admit that he was a very, very weak man.
When they were doing physical repairs after a fight, Zane was usually amused by the staring. He would throw out some gentle quip, maybe even tease Jay while he worked.
This was not a physical repair.
When they were doing maintenance, especially if it involved Zane's coding or memories, he was more shy with Jay's attention. Nothing sapped his self-confidence like a reminder that his psyche was fundamentally different from his family's. So today, when Jay wolf-whistled at the sight of a sliver of lower back, he just laughed quietly.
Jay really shouldn't have expected anything more. He sighed and placed a hand on that sliver of metal, now a fully bare back. Zane paused with his shirt tangled around his biceps, not looking at Jay.
"You alright?"
"I suppose I'm just still embarrassed after this afternoon."
That afternoon had been a mess. When Zane's internal memory storage got too full, it started deleting things as a self-preservation method. He hadn't realized how full it had been getting until he had tried to clean the bathroom.
With amonia and bleach.
"Everyone was safe, Zane. Your censors caught it in time."
"It never should have happened in the first place."
"People forget things all the time!" Jay gently took Zane's shirt from his hands. "We'll getchya all taken care of. Come on, let's getchya sat."
He had long since built a specialized workplace for Zane repairs. Somewhere he could sit or lay comfortably no matter what part of him Jay needed to open up. It was a soft chair with all sorts of spinning and tilting bits and bobs. Zane started fussing with the arms and the headrest as soon as he was sitting while Jay set about preparing the computer.
"You heard about that new startup outta Jamonakai?" He asked as he typed.
"No, I have not."
"They're working on these superlight data storage models with like, tons of space. They're meant for storing archives, but I've got a friend of a friend thing going on and I think we could probably fit one up for you." He finished initializing the computer and booted his chair around so he was facing Zane. "We might not have to do this so often anymore."
Zane smiled sadly. "I would like that."
"I know you would, hun." He pressed the center of Zane's chest until a hydrolic hiss filled the air and the panel opened. "You want me to leave you alone?"
"No," Zane said weakly.
"Okay." Jay tugged the end of a cable from his desk. "Okay. We can talk about whatever you want."
"Can you hold my hand?"
It was a no-brainer. He plugged the cable in and slid his hand into Zane's. "Feeling nervous?"
Zane squirmed. "Excessively emotional. I'd just like some comfort."
Jay smiled and rubbed a circle into the back of Zane's hand. "Let me get the transfer started and we can cuddle."
Jay wasn't as much of a coding guy as he would have liked. He was learning quick, but Pixal got all the credit for the program they used to clean out her and Zane's memories when they needed to. Jay just booted it up and supervised the process to make sure everything went smoothly. And to comfort his partner, of course.
When he turned back around, Zane had flattened the arms of his chair to create extra room on the sides. Experience had taught Jay that it was more than enough room to curl up with Zane for as long as the data transfer took.
He sat himself down carefully and let Zane adjust the two of them how he wanted. Normally when they were cuddling, Zane would wrap himself around Jay and be content with his new teddy bear. Today, though, he shimmied himself down on the chair and rested his head on Jay's lower stomach with his arms around his waist.
"Comfy?"
"Yes, thank you."
Zane was so damn polite, even when he didn't have to be. Jay rested a hand on his neck just below his ear.
"Nobody blames you, you know."
"I blame myself."
"That doesn't count right now."
Zane shuddered, eyelids fluttering. It wasn't uncommon for some things to tug a little as they went through.
"You're doing good."
"Mm." Zane squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in the plush of Jay's stomach.
"Feeling better?"
"I believe my antenna may need to be updated."
Jay turned Zane's head gently and carefully started picking through his hair. There was a patch on his scalp beneath his hair that functioned as a sort of satellite for the data that they transferred out of Zane. It was a good system: They put anything he wouldn't need in a worst-case situation into a series of cloud servers that he could access from just about anywhere. It had only proved to be an issue once. They had updated the information that needed to be stored locally after that.
"It looks alright."
"I am having difficulty recalling some information."
"Like?" Jay managed to squirm one foot to the floor and push their chair towards the desk without disturbing Zane. He felt a smile against his stomach.
"Less important names, like Cole's middle. Faces of people I have not seen in some time. How many freckles you have."
"Why do you know that?"
"Is that not romantic?"
Jay thought for a minute. "Good point. Let's see what we can do." He opened up a different window on the computer and ran a quick diagnostic. "Ope, I think we're gonna have to open you up."
"Of course."
Jay didn' want Zane off of him any more than Zane wanted to get off of him, but they had to shift so that Jay could work. Over the years, Zane had insisted on more and more access panels so that They didn't have to take off his entire outer shell for every little fix, so it really was as simple as removing Zane's scalp to take a proper look.
"No, yeah, your ice broke another wire." Jay strolled over to a different corner of the room. "Easy fix. Just gonna lose the memory connection for one second, okay?"
"Alright."
It really was an easy fix. Jay had replaced enough of Zane's wires that it was over before the local memories had even finished uploading to the cloud, and then he was securing Zane's scalp back in place and tilting his head back for a kiss. Zane sagged in relief, practically putty in his hands.
"147 on your face, 439 on your back," he murmured against Jay's lips.
"Freckles?"
"Mhm." His eyes fluttered open, radiant blue reflecting just slightly on his cheeks. "Thank you."
"You know you don't have to thank me for this, hun. I'm happy to fix you, and I like doing it." A ding from the computer had them both turning to look at the screen. "Upload complete!"
Zane carefully tugged the cable out of his chest. Jay moved his hand out of the way before he got a chance to shut his own chest, though. He closed the panel and put one knee on Zane's chair so he could kiss him from the front this time.
"My brave nindroid~"
"That's enough of that," Zane murmured. "I haven't done anything brave."
Techno hands anyone? These were a tad rushed cause I've had like no time (Takes place sometime after season 4 of dr, no specifics cause its just fanfiction in my head and not spoilers lol)
As always-- this was done specifically so I could have a cool new phone wallpaper!! Thanks again to @oracles-art-icles (tagging art blog) for creating me a fun new techno-themed background for this!!
Part two of little ship doodles for those of the more obscure (or just straight up insane) Ninjago ships. You can take a gander at part one or drop a suggestion.
Suggesters!
Seliel x Pixal - @sundaysboobiemilk
Zant Tanz x Bolobo - @kurubyz-x0
Morro x Nyad - @joygression
Nokt x Ras - @nyaskitten
Frohicky x Gweeg - @blazeymc
Jay x Rapton - @sir-companioncube
Pythor x Garmadon - @fletcherwilbury
Echo/Mr. E x Robot Manager - @cryptdidnt and also @t1n-cans who hath dubbed this ship Espressoshipping
prguitarman
areudirty
theartofmadeline
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
