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Zer0 had never been in the Atlas building before- having not been on Pandora before Atlas had been taken over by Hyperion and even since Rhys had the building recommissioned Zer0 hadn't had any reason to before now. The halls had been mostly restored to their original Atlas red and silver glory but evidence of years of abandonment were still visible, the few employees that Zer0 passed watched him nervously, considering Atlas’s history with Athena sword swinging vault hunters probably weren’t the most welcomed people.
Rhys didn't look up when Zer0 entered his office, not noticing the assassin was there, Zer0 sat down a chair in front of Rhys’s desk and crossed his arms on top of it, watching what Rhys was doing. He was making something in his hands but it was too small and Rhys’s hands moved too fast for Zer0 to see it, on his desk was a pile of black bits of plastic that Rhys would pick up and join on to what he was holding, pouting his lips in concentration when using the smaller pieces. He was adorable, Zer0 decided. Zer0 continued to watch Rhys work for another few minutes, at one point Rhys couldn't get two pieces to stick together and he took the whole thing apart to start from scratch.
“What are you doing?” Zer0’s voice startled Rhys and he jumped, smacking his knee against the bottom of his desk, Rhys rubbed his knee and Zer0 displayed a :) emoji when Rhys frowned at him.
“I didn’t hear you come in, how long have you been there?”
“Not long. I got your echo / You said to come over.” Rhys’s face flushed and a question mark popped up on Zer0’s mask and Rhys dragged a hand through his hair.
“I know, but I kinda thought you’d take longer.” Rhys laughed awkwardly again then stared down at his hands instead of looking at Zer0.
“What were you doing?” Rhys looked up from his hands and Zer0 gestured to the pile of plastic, picking up a piece and bringing it closer to his mask, Rhys seemed grateful for the distraction.
“I started making charms whenever I get bored, and Sasha found out and demanded that I make her one so I decided to make one for everyone. I’ve got a couple finished if you want to see them.” Zer0 nodded and Rhys rummaged around inside his desk and underneath papers until he pulled out two key chains. He handed them over to Zer0 and told him who they were for and about how he made them- for Sasha he made a little rocket launcher (which of course didn’t need an explanation) and for Fiona, Rhys made a little version of the fake vault key she tried to sell him and Rhys said he’d rather install Handsome Jack into his brain and rip out his echo eye a second time than try to find purple plastic ever again.
“They’re very well made / Atlas should be making charms / Instead of their guns.” Zer0 displayed another :) emoji and Rhys started blushing again.
“Thanks. I- uh- I made this one for you, if you want it.” A ‘!’ replaced the smiley face on Zer0’s mask, he put Fiona and Sasha’s charms on the desk and took his one from Rhys, turning it over in his hand. It was a replica of Zer0’s helmet- the black matched the plastic on Rhys’s desk and Zer0 was surprised that he hadn't noticed Rhys finish it- except a red heart emoji had been painted onto the faceplate and a pair of little cat ears had been added to the top of the helmet.
God it was adorable. Zer0’s mask projected a solid block of red, revealing that Zer0 was blushing and Rhys let out a soft laugh.
“The plan was to finish it before you got here but you just couldn't be fashionably late, could you?” Rhys grinned and by now Zer0 could probably do a perfect impersonation of a stoplight, Zer0 digistructed his sword into his hand and attached the charm to the hilt, he flipped the sword upright to make sure the charm wouldn't get in the way or fall off, then flipped it back and showed it off to Rhys with a mask mimicking the charm.
“Rhys, oh my god. Rhys / I’m honoured to have it / I really like it.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
Zer0 spent the next couple of hours with Rhys in his office, mostly gushing about the charm, because good god it was perfect, but Rhys did have work to do and Zer0 had to leave (“Unless, of course, you want to stay and help with paperwork” Rhys had said, to which Zer0’s reply was to practically sprint out the room). Before Zer0 could make his speedy escape Rhys grabbed the sides of Zer0’s helmet and pulled him down to press a kiss to his faceplate where his mouth would have been.
When Zer0 returned to Sanctuary the other vault hunters had squashed themselves into one of the booths in the back of Moxxi’s bar, Zer0 joined them in the booth and interrupted their conversation by excitedly holding out the hilt of his sword towards them.
“Look at what Rhys made.” Zer0 showed them the charm, Axton and Maya “aww’d” and Salvador just continued drinking with disinterest.
“It isn’t that big a deal.” Maya kicked Salvador’s leg under the table before taking Zer0’s sword to look at the charm closer.
“I think it’s cute, even if it is, technically, your decapitated head on a keychain.” Axton and Salvador laughed into their drinks and Zer0 displayed a “:(“ on his mask, snatching his sword back from Maya.