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"P03?" Grimora gasped incredulously. "I did not expect you to show, my dear!"
"I responded saying I would be attending, didn't I?" P03 said with a mechanical huff.
"Yes, you're always punctual, but still a part of me was in disbelief." Grimora casted an appreciative smile towards him.
Every year she hosted a celebration – to celebrate the lives of the dead. Mourning was a given, but she wanted it to be more than that. To appreciate the actions and lives the deceased once held, to be happy they had a chance to live and to finally have their hard-earned rest. They were well-cared for in her hands, after all.
P03 typically did not attend, not that Grimora minded. She always invited him regardless as a formality, but also in the hopes that one day he would learn to appreciate her specialty.
P03 broke her out of her musings. "Has Dyani arrived yet?"
For a split second, Grimora's eyes widened before resuming her typical placid smile. It was like she was missing a single puzzle piece and now she viewed it locking into place so effortlessly. P03? Seeking someone out? If he requested the location of any of the others Scrybes, she would have assumed it was to mock them for one reason or another. But Dyani… one of Leshy's subordinates? This was something different, something more tame.
Grimora nodded. "Yes she has, dear." Her arm swooped behind her, gesturing to the backside of her crypt. "She's outside if you keep going straight. I did not realize you were friends?"
"At best I tolerate her," P03 said.
Grimora laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. He did not respond with open disgust? "Well, I think she's having a good effect on you, P03." P03 frowned and cocked a brow, but was never given a chance to rebut. Before he knew it, Grimora's dress was sweeping past him, her voice drawing ever more so distant. "Try not to scare her away then, dearest!"
P03 didn't understand what Grimora was talking about. She was, unsurprisingly, cryptic. He shrugged it off and headed towards the back exit Grimora had referred to.
Outside of the crypt stood a large field of flowers, vibrant blues and purples and whites. Despite the nature of Grimora's domain, foliage still grew, still placed so delicately upon the tombstones. And Dyani knelt in the middle of all of it, her claws gingerly snipping a couple of flowers at the root.
"There you are." P03's voice cut through the silence, causing Dyani to jump.
She craned her neck to look behind herself and laughed, placing a hand against her chest. "You scared me!" She stood, gently wiping any dirt off her dress. "I didn't think you'd come."
P03's eye twitched. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Dyani tilted her head in mild confusion but chose to not press on it. "Because you don't come to social events." She closed in the distance between them and held her flowers tightly to her side. She smiled warmly. "Thank you for coming here."
"Hmm. Yeah. Don't mention it." His gaze peered past her, noticing that the field of flowers seemingly spanned forever. "Do you… mourn someone here?" Astonishingly, he attempted to sound as sensitive as possible. Dyani had such a deep desire to attend he couldn't help but be curious.
"Not here," she said. She pulled her cloak around her tighter against the chill air. "But at home. We bury all the beasts at home." She held up her bundle of flowers, tracing her nails faintly over the petals. "I like to put flowers over their burial spots. I still put flowers over those who passed decades ago, even if their bodies have already fed the earth."
These were not pets. They were wild animals that stalked the woods but chose to trust Dyani, to not bare their fangs or strike their claws at her. They recognized her as a beast and something more, something unyielding. The cryptids came out of their hiding for her and her alone.
P03 did not respond, his attention on the flowers held out in front of him. Dyani didn't expect him to; she wasn't even sure if he's ever had anyone to mourn with a life surrounded by other bots and Scrybes. He did not particularly seek out friendships unless he was approached first. She expected some sort of idle remark from him, something something that the flowers will shortly die too, but it never came. And perhaps if they had not been close, he would have.
P03 finally looked up, his screen especially illuminating within the overcasting darkness of the crypt. "You do not seem upset."
"I am," Dyani said simply and smiled. "But I didn't ask you to come here to listen to me be sappy." She placed the flowers off to the side and extended her hands. "Will you dance with me?"
P03 knitted his brows. "That sounds like something old people do."
Dyani threw her head back and laughed. "We are old people, you old fool!" P03 did not immediately recoil from her preposition, so Dyani took it upon herself to accept it as a 'yes.' She closed in on the space between them, placing a hand on his shoulder and her other hand reached for his claw.
"You're the fool for trying to dance with someone with no legs."
"That doesn't matter," she said. "It's your job to humor me, remember?"
"We both know you're making it my full time job."
"You can always tell me 'no,' you know."
P03 let out a long, synthetic sigh and Dyani laughed. A part of her was convinced that P03 enjoyed being dragged out of his hole, to have a break in his monotonous routine. He would never admit it, obviously, but he never fought her too hard on her plans nor turned her away.
It was barely dancing and more like swaying, but that was what they both expected out of this regardless. P03 barely interacted with the rest of the world and Dyani has never bothered with formalities such as dancing. But it was the act behind it that mattered, to allow each other so close that P03 felt her breathing against him and Dyani slowly felt her fur stand from his dry metal mixed with the dry air.
"You–" P03 stalled, as though debating if he wanted to continue forward with his statement. "You are not telling the complete truth."
"Am I not?" Dyani responded coyly but smiled knowingly. P03 quirked his brows and frowned. "No, you're right. How did you see right through me?"
"You wouldn't have dragged me out here otherwise."
"Well now you're going to ruin my surprise," she teased. "I did want to talk about something."
P03 felt apprehensiveness run through him, from Dyani's nails tapping against his shoulder to her hand beginning to fidget with his. Her own apprehensiveness was eating at him, especially as her gaze avoided his own.
P03 kept his voice low but his tone did not hide his worry. "Did I do something wrong? Because if I did–"
"You didn't do anything," Dyani said amusingly, finally matching her gaze with his. "The other reason I'm here is because I'm a widow. Grimora takes care of them for me."
A silence followed after her words but she never expected P03 to respond, especially when it was so sudden. He looked as though he did want to say something – anything – but nothing came out. She chose to continue filling the silence.
"And it took years for me to move on. I felt lonely and isolated. But Grimora eventually comes to me and says 'I have an idea of who you could talk to if you're ready, but you're going to think I'm insane at first for suggesting it.'
"So she suggests this person to me and, yes, I thought she was crazy. I barely knew them and I'm sure they barely even tolerated me. But she reassures me that if I'm persistent, something will crack and something will fall into place. So I keep pushing because what do I even have to lose?
"But this person. They were so prideful that it took every ounce of effort to not smack them. I wanted to be that person to knock them down a peg if just to be petty."
P03 snorts a short, amused laugh at this. The corners of Dyani's mouth tugged upwards as she continued.
"But they were also so patient with me, even if I was a distraction. Even if I was told so, I was never pushed away. So patient that they allowed themselves to be dragged to dumb social events."
"I never said this one specifically was dumb," P03 said, almost defensively.
"So you think I'm talking about you?" Dyani gapped.
"I– no– hmph!" A stutter of whirs and blips emitted from him in protest. He shortly regained his composure, omitting the edge from his voice. "I don't understand where you're leading with this."
That unwelcome yet familiar uneasiness settled in once again, a feeling snaking through his core. Dyani's nails scraped against the cool metal of his shoulder, her other hand tracing over each dent and scratch of his claw. Her lips held a faint trace of a smile, but her face and body was noticeably tense against him.
"I wanted… I wanted to know what we are."
"What we are?"
She felt so childish, so silly to even ask, especially as P03 dragged the words out of her. Her nails made an uncomfortable, etching noise against the metal when she realized he was still waiting for her elaboration.
"Are we lovers?"
"I– I don't– 'Lovers'?" His eye twitched and static faintly presented itself into his voice. Their intimacy was promptly ripped to shreds as P03 attempted to distance himself. Both of Dyani's hands planted themselves on his shoulders and squeezed, keeping him in place, if only because he was too startled to fight back.
"P03, please," Dyani begged. She was right in front of him but the distance felt mountainous and unscalable, as though if she were to let go she would lose all progress. She took a step closer. "It is just a question. There is no right or wrong answer."
P03 stared in disbelief, though his words were not harsh or unkind. "Where did this come from?"
"I just–" Dyani removed her hands from his frame. She casted an apologetic glance. "– I have my own wants and needs, P03. I need to know exactly what I'm expecting in my future – I need to know if I'm actually working towards my future. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"
P03 avoided her gaze. He had never put that much thought into the meaning of their friendship. He always saw her every other day of the week and Dyani always made it a point to go somewhere new every so often. And for the first time in so long, he actually looked at the beach by his factory. The roaring of the waves would continue to remind him how loudly mind-numbing the factory was, with the noise of metal melting and clanking and clanking and clanking and clanking.
When did Dyani sneak herself into his routine?
P03 was snapped from his stupor when Dyani held out her hands to either side of his monitor, not quite touching him.
"May I?" she asked, brows knitted.
P03 did not respond. His lack of aggressive dismissal was enough for Dyani, so she cradled his monitor, pulling it down and pressing her own forehead against him. P03 closed his eyes upon her touch.
"I care for you," P03 said quietly, "but I don't…" His voice trailed off. His claw awkwardly gripped at her dress, unsure of what to do with it in this position. Dyani gingerly repositioned it to rest behind her back before returning her hand to his monitor.
"Please keep going," she said gently. Very faintly he could feel her breathe against his screen.
"I'm apprehensive," he finally said. The static was now thicker in his voice. "If I say yes, then what happens? What changes?"
"Nothing has to change. Or if you want changes, that's fine too." Dyani thickly swallowed her nerves. "What is worrying you? What can I answer to ease you?"
"I do not have… experience… with this, with what you want. What if you're disappointed?"
Amusement crept upon Dyani's lips. P03 peered at her curiously.
"I am not asking you to change yourself. I know what you're like." She briefly stalled, her eyes kept closed against his monitor. Her amused smirk never died. "A real pain in the ass."
"Right now?" P03 laughed through a series of distorted beeping. "I thought we were having a moment."
"We are!" Dyani laughed as well, burying her hands and face into his chest. "But I don't like seeing you this stressed." She looked back up to him and returned her hands to his monitor, and to her relief and surprise, he leaned into her touch. "You won't disappoint me. You never have."
"And what if I piss you off instead?"
"That wouldn't be any different than usual, huh?" She pressed her face against his simpering expression.
"I can… try. With you. With us."
"Try to piss me off?"
"Hmph!" He scoffed and Dyani giggled at his exaggerated eye roll. "I'm being serious. I'm not going to be perfect but I want to do good by you. I mean that."
"I can't believe the best Scrybe just admitted they're imperfect!" Dyani gasped. Even now, although she couldn't describe why, she was feeding his ego.
P03 sighed. When he attempted to move away, Dyani just gripped onto his monitor harder.
"Hey!"
"I'm not done with you yet," she said. She pushed her face to the underside of his head, letting her hands trail to his back, idly stroking his spine. She felt his own hand find its way to her back as well. "Thank you for giving this a chance."
Dyani eventually pulled back and found her hands grasping onto P03's own. She reached down and grabbed the bundle of flowers she placed to the side so long ago. "Will you come meet my past beloved?"
"Of course."