❛ Did someone hurt you? ❜
"Oh man, where to start?" says Uzi, sighing. " How long you got? Every classmate I've ever had, my teacher, my dad, my mom, my boyfriend, my friend, this little keybug I was chasing, some corpo bootlicker, a skinwalker, a robot dinosaur-"
Brad looks down at her with his typical inscrutable expression. "No, I meant that you're bleeding."
"Oh. Oh yeah." She looks down at the cut on her leg, from which a dark, thick liquid oozes out. She's seated against a wall, waiting while her body's repair functions knit the gash closed. Meanwhile, the blood-oil mixture continues to pool onto the ground. "That's norm- Not normal, but expected, I guess."
Looking up at Brad, Uzi just offers him a small shrug. "You play with power tools, sometimes it bites you. And before you ask, not literally playing, but it's fine. It'll heal."
Wincing, Uzi presses a hand to the injury. Ichor trickles from between her fingers, but the pressure helps some of the pain go away. Damn whatever human programmed those pain sensors into drone bodies. When she looks up, Brad is kneeling at her side, reaching out with halting hands. "No, not like that," he says, voice even. "It's not sanitary. You should- Here."
He holds out a strip of dark cloth, glancing up at her. "Can I?"
"It's really okay, my repair systems are just a bit-" Uzi cuts herself off with a sigh and a frown. Her nerfed repair system will fix the problem before long, and she can just have a can to refill her oil reserves, but... The guy seems insistent. Let's just humor him.
"Yeah, alright," she says, pulling her hand away and sticking out her leg. "Don't worry about it being too tight. My circulation's not like a human's."
"Alright," says Brad. "Just let me know if it hurts."
Uzi's violet eyes just watch as he ties the scrap around her leg. He knows what he's doing, but his movements have a struggling gentleness to them, as if he's trying very hard not to be too forceful. "Doesn't hurt even a little bit," she says.
"Good." Brad gives the knot a final tug, rising to his feet. "That good enough?"
"It's fine. I've had worse, you know? That skinwalker I mentioned, she tore my core out," says Uzi, tracing a circle on her chest. "Now that hurt, but I used to be able to self-repair a lot faster. So, y'know. I got better."
She flashes a toothy grin, and Brad just frowns. "You're pretty... blithe about all this," he says.
"What, am I supposed to angst about it? No thanks, I've already got plenty of stuff to get emotional about, a little injury's pretty far down on the scale," she says, rolling her eyes. She almost folds her arms over her chest before remembering she doesn't want to get an oily hand print on her favorite coat. But looking down at her hand... It smells kinda good, actually. Waste not, want not? She sticks her tongue out as she moves her hand to her face so-
"Hey, c'mon," says Brad, placing his hand on her arm. "I get that you're a machine and all this human stuff doesn't apply, but... Have some dignity."
Frowning, she yanks her arm away. "Ugh, whatever. If it makes you feel better, then fine. Not like it'd actually fill my tank, anyhow."
An awkward silence follows, and Uzi places a hand on her bandaged leg. Finally, she sighs. "Well... Thanks for helping, or whatever. Before you ask, I can get home fine on my own."
Brad's expression is barely visible beneath his darkened brow, but he gives her a small nod. "Alright. Don't push yourself too hard."
He doesn't wave or say goodbye, he just turns to leave, and Uzi watches him go. With another sigh, she undoes the makeshift bandage before running her fingers down her leg. Just smooth metal; the injury's already fixed. She'll just keep that to herself, because Brad seems like he could use a win or two in his life.
