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The snow was falling over Copper-9, coating the planet in a pristine white blanket. The snow had never stopped falling, as the planet had been plunged into an eternal winter ever since the planet's core collapsed. But today was a special day. Today was Christmas, at least according to the old Earth calender.
In the living room of Uzi's apartment in Outpost-3 sat six Worker Drones and a sentient tail. Lizzy was sat upon the sofa scrolling on her phone, with V sleeping like a cat, purring away on her lap. N and Uzi sat on the floor next to the Christmas tree. Uzi was eyeing the gifts, trying her best to guess at what was in hers. N had to remind her to wait for the others to arrive, though he could barely contain his own excitement. J and Tessa were in the kitchen. Tessa, in her newly acquired Worker Drone body, was happily humming as she prepared snacks for everyone. J was preparing herself a cup of oil.
Cyn, the sentient tail, ever so impatient, spoke first, breaking the shared silence, "Who. A-Are we. Waiting f-for?" she asked, "I'm bored."
Uzi, the drone the tail was attached to, spoke in response, "We're waiting on Thad and Doll. Speaking of which, where are they?"
Lizzy looked up from her phone, "Thad was just texting me, says he and Doll are just leaving the clinic."
"That red-eyed bitch finally got a new body?" V spoke up, still sleepy.
"Yeah, and please, no name-calling today. It's Christmas."
"Can they. H-Hurry. Up?" Cyn asked in her broken, monotonous voice.
J took Tessa in her right arm, who was carrying all the snacks, and her cup of oil in her left and walked over to the sofa, gently setting down her Worker Drone girlfriend before sitting down herself.
"Wow, J, you're quite strong." Tessa said admiringly, giving J a kiss on the cheek. She set down the snacks on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
"Thanks, Boss," J said in return, "Y'know, it's quite peaceful like this. Maybe we don't have to open any presents," she said with a smirk.
"Bite me, we're opening presents," Uzi chided. N had to calm her down before she went haywire on the presents. Uzi let out a series of grumbles and whines as a result.
Just then, there's was a knock on the door. N got up to go see who it was, and upon seeing a red and a green drone outside, he swung the door open with a wide smile on his face.
"Yo, s'up N-and-M's," Thad held his fist out for a fist-bump.
"Hey, Thad," N said in his best cool voice, reciprocating the fist-bump.
"Здравствуйте," [Hello] Doll greeted with a wave.
Following their arrival was a series of greetings as everyone made themselves at home and prepared to open presents. Thad and Doll placed their mystery gifts under the Christmas tree and took a seat on the already cramped sofa. Uzi, who couldn't wait to open her present, went first.
She tore at the wrapping paper viciously, eager to unleash the contents inside from their paper prison. Her efforts revealed a cozy-looking ugly Christmas sweater, knitted with an array of vibrant colors. Her first instinct was to barf, if drones could. The bright colors did not match anything else in her wardrobe and she hated the idea of wearing it.
"Try it on!" N said encouragingly, oblivious to her repulsion towards the abhorrent outfit.
Reluctantly, she put the sweater over her head and slipped her arms into the sleeves. When she was done, she came to the realization that the sweater was way to big. The hem sat way past her waist, covering half her upper legs, and the sleeves went past her hands. It as if she had put on a sweater dress instead. This garnered light snickering from V, J, Tessa and Lizzy, with N trying his best to contain his own laughter, to which Uzi smacked him playfully.
"Okay, which one of you gifted me this?" Uzi asked, half annoyed, half amused.
"You have to guess, idiot," Lizzy said jokingly as she began to take pictures.
"What happened to 'no name-calling'?" V asked sarcastically as she pulled herself closer to Lizzy.
"I'm obviously exempt from the rule," Lizzy replied self-centeredly.
"Hmm, sure~" V said as she pulled Lizzy in for a kiss.
"Найдите себе комнату, вы двое," [Find yourselves a room, you two] Doll performed a gagging gesture.
"Still have to guess over here!" Uzi said, interrupting V and Lizzy's make-out session.
They reluctantly separated and turned their attention back to the purple drone wearing the ugly Christmas sweater.
"Alright, seeing as N over here had the hardest time refraining from laughing, I think it's you," Uzi said, pointing at N.
"Nope, not me!" he responded with a little giggle.
"Alright then who was it?"
Tessa was the one to confess, "I thought your wardrobe could use a bit of color," she teased.
Everyone laughed at that, with Uzi flusteredly responding, "Bite me! Black is plenty of color," failing miserably at her refute.
"All right, all right," Thad stepped in, "Let's not get carried away, who's next?"
"Guess I'll go next," Tessa suggested.
She walked over to the tree and picked out the gift with her name on it. It obviously had no name saying who it was from, so she walked back to the sofa and sat in J's lap. The disassembler hugged Tessa in return.
Compared to Uzi, it felt like Tessa took forever to open her gift as she carefully tore away the wrapping paper, slowly revealing a pretty bow for her hair.
Tessa let out a short gasp, "It's beautiful…" She gushed over the bow, handing it to J so she could tie it into her hair.
When J was done, she turned to look at her reflection through J's visor and was absolutely stunned.
Lizzy was the first to comment, "Looks great on you," she said, taking a picture.
N also commented, "Nice bow, Tess'."
"You look stunning," J quietly whispered as she hugged Tessa tighter.
"Thanks, Jaybird," she whispered back.
Turning back to everyone else, she thought hard about who to guess. She looked around the room, trying to spot anyone who might give themselves away with a facial expression. Ultimately, no one wanted to crack, so she guessed at random.
"Hmm… Was it you, Lizzy?" Tessa asked, "You seem the most interested other than J here."
"Wasn't me," Lizzy responded.
Brief silence followed before Doll spoke up, "Это был я." (It was me)
"You?" Tessa said, shocked, "How'd you know I wanted a bow?"
"Я спросил Джей," [I asked J] she responded simply.
"Oh, well thank you very much, Doll," Tessa thanked her fondly.
Next, it was Doll's turn to go. She picked up her labeled gift from the tree and sat back down. It was somewhat weighted, but equally balanced. She opened the gift with care as it revealed a black box. Further intrigued, she opened the box to find a knife sitting gently in place. Doll picked up the knife turning it around in her hand once, then twice, before duplicating it with her solver.
Uzi, V, Lizzy and Thad all jumped up from their seats.
"Put that thing away!" Uzi yelled, arming her own solver. V had switched one of her hands for a gun which she promptly aimed at Doll, while she covered Lizzy with her body. Thad was hiding behind the sofa.
"Успокаивать," [Calm down] Doll said with a smirk, "Я не собираюсь причинять тебе вред." [I'm not going to hurt you] She disappeared the duplicated knives before placing the original back in the box.
The four calmed down and returned to their seats, Uzi let go her solver and V returned her weapon. They all sighed a breath of fresh air.
"Думаю, очевидно, кто мне это подарил," [I think it's obvious who got this for me] Doll said with complete confidence, "Судя по вашей реакции, это явно были не вы четверо. Джей и Тесса в тот вечер там не было. Остался только ты, Эн," she deduced. [Judging by your reactions, it clearly wasn't you four. J and Tessa were not there that evening. Leaving only you, N]
"Yep! It was me. Wow, nice job figuring that out."
"Why would you get her a knife, N!?" V shouted, "Are you insane!?"
"I thought it would be a cool gift," N tried to defend himself, "Plus I couldn't think of anything else… Sorry…" his voice dipped low as he tried to make himself smaller as a result of the scrutiny.
"Whatever, it's fine. At least she didn't try and kill us this time," Uzi said, de-escalating the situation, "I guess you're up next, N."
"Yay! My turn!" N said giddily. He rushed over to the tree and pulled out his gift. It was probably the largest one there, and N was more than ready to find out what it was. He tore open his gift like a kid on Christmas morning, pulling away all the wrapping paper and unveiling a box with a toy robot dog on the front.
N gasped loudly, "Wow! A real dog!" he exclaimed. He unboxed the toy dog and turned it on, his face lit up even more as he watched it move and bark. "This is the best day ever!"
"Ya still gotta guess, goofball," Uzi told him, laughing a little.
"Oh, right," N looked around the room, eyes passing over everyone until they landed on his girlfriend sitting next to him. "Was it you?" he asked playfully as he gave her a hug.
Uzi was giggling as she tried her best to push away but eventually gave up and let herself be hugged, "No, it wasn't me, silly," she said, finally reciprocating the hug.
"Who was it then?" N asked, puzzled.
J spoke up with a snarky remark, "Its helplessness reminded me of you," she said wittily.
"J, be nice," Tessa whispered sternly.
"Fine. Merry Christmas, or whatever…" J conceded. Tessa let out an unhopeful sigh.
"Merry Christmas to you, too!" N said with a cheerful tone, unbothered by J's harshness.
J was the next to go, she snatched her gift from the tree and plopped back down on the sofa next to her Worker Drone. Tessa snuggled next to J as she opened her gift. It too, revealed a small black box. Upon opening it was a pen, but not just any pen. It was a JCJenson branded pen. To say J's reaction was over the top would be an understatement.
She celebrated the gift, and threw the box in a random direction, almost hitting V.
"Watch it!" V yelled.
J held the pen up in the air in celebration, "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" she yelled vociferously, mirroring N's previous comment. She crashed down onto Tessa, proceeding to hug and pamper her with kisses, unable to contain her excitement.
Tessa, not understanding J's excitement but willing to share, returned the hug and a few kisses herself.
"Overreaction much?" V questioned.
J relaxed and broke from Tessa, "You wouldn't understand," she retorted, flashing her hair.
"Understand what?"
"N-Never mind…"
Now was time for the guessing game. J peered around the room, looking for anyone who looked guilty enough to give themselves away. When her eyes panned over Uzi, Uzi couldn't help but let out a light snicker, immediately covering her mouth. Unfortunately for her, J saw it.
"Was it…" she pretended to pan over the room once more to build suspense, "you," she pointed a finger at Uzi.
"Whaaat, no, totally couldn't've been me," she jokingly refuted.
"Mhm, sure," J entertained her joke.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Uzi admitted, "Okay, fine. It was me."
"Ha! I knew it, damn I am good at this game," J said proudly.
"It's not a competition, Jaybird," Tessa put a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, I know. I just like being better than the little toaster."
"Hey, no name-calling," Uzi reminded her.
J chuckled to herself and relaxed further into the sofa, contempt with her new gift.
Thad spoke up about the glaring issue, "It seems like Uzi's supposed to go next, but she's already opened her gift," he pointed out. "Who's going next?"
"You can go," V and Lizzy both responded.
Thad grabbed his gift from the tree. It was weighted but also felt hollow. He knocked on the gift a few times trying to guess at what it was. When he couldn't determine it, he tore open the wrapping paper. His efforts revealed a football, which had been signed by A.I Watt. His reaction was almost immediate.
"Wow…" Thad started, at a loss for words. He felt the ball once over, relishing the material in his metal hands, "This is—this is really cool." He tossed the ball over to N, and held his arms out in front of him, waiting for him to throw it back.
N threw it back with a surprising amount of force that almost knocked Thad out of his seat. Still stunned from the throw, he said, "Nice throw, N. Got some real potential there."
"O-Oh, thanks," N sheepishly replied, scratching the back of his head.
It was now Thad's turn to guess. Everyone else had already revealed themselves to their gift partner except for Lizzy and V. His eyes gazed over the couple, and they stared back. The three held this position until Thad finally spoke up.
"I've got a fifty-fifty here so… V?" he asked dubiously.
The two lovers looked at each other for a second before smirking. They looked back at Thad and V responded in a playful tone, "Wasn't me."
Lizzy let out a quiet breath of laughter, "Yeah, no, it was me."
"So close," Thad chided himself, "Anyways, thanks for the gift, Liz'."
"No problem," Lizzy said, half-uninterested before returning to her phone.
"Babe, it's your turn to go," V said encouragingly to Lizzy with a kiss on the cheek.
Lizzy looked up from her phone, "Hm? Oh, right."
She lazily walked over to the Christmas tree and picked up one of the two remaining gifts. V invited her to sit on her lap, to which Lizzy happily obliged. She began opening her gift slowly without much interest, until she caught a glimpse of what hid underneath the wrapping paper. She proceeded to tear the rest away swiftly until the gift was revealed.
"A nail polish set? Aww, V, you shouldn't have~" she said playfully to her girlfriend.
V looked at her flusteredly, "H-How did you know it was me?" she stammered.
"Because, I know my girlfriend well," she responded with a flick of her hair.
"Do you now?" V asked, impressed, "Well, do you know what I want?~"
"I may… but not right now," she gave a teasing kiss to V.
"Robo-G-God. Somebody please. S-Shut. Them. U-Up." Cyn broke in, performing a gagging gesture, despite her lack of appendages.
"I'm not one to agree with the demon in my tail, but yeah, please continue that elsewhere." Uzi added.
"Fine, you guys are no fun," Lizzy joked as she broke away from V. A quiet whimper could be heard form the disassembler as she did.
Despite this, she got up and fetched the last gift under the tree. She sat back down next to Lizzy and began opening her gift.
When V was done tearing the wrapping paper away, she revealed a box with an image of a pair of glasses. She opened the box to further reveal a pair of round glasses, similar to the ones she used to wear at the Elliott Manor. Her mind was immediately flooded with memories, both good and bad, which brought a single tear upon her visor. V pushed those memories away, not wanting to deal with them right now, and put on the glasses. She turned to look at Lizzy, who was already taking pictures.
"Girl, those look so good on you," Lizzy complemented her.
"It's just like the good old—" Tessa started before pausing, "Hm, never mind. Ya look stunning, V."
"T-Thanks," she responded to the both of them with a smile, a small blush creeping up her visor.
"I guess Thad got me these?" V asked.
"Yeah, guess it's pretty obvious, huh," he replied.
"Thanks," she said again, this time to Thad.
The gift exchanging was complete, each had received a thoughtful gift from another. Except for Cyn, she was on the naughty list this year. They sat in silence, cuddling with their loved ones. N and Uzi were playing with N's new robot dog, listening to it bark and yip away as they played. V had fallen asleep again while Lizzy was painting her nails, purring loudly as she slept.
Tessa looked over at the two lovebirds and back to J.
"Can you purr too, J?" she whispered to her disassembler, not wanting to wake V.
"Sometimes… Only if I’m really comfortable," J replied quietly.
Tessa motioned for J to come closer. She took hold of J in her arms and she quickly fell asleep, purring quietly. Tessa relished the sound, thinking it was the most adorable thing ever.
Moments passed before anyone moved again, but it was Thad and Doll who got up first.
"We gotta head out," Thad gestured to the door, "I need to take her back to the clinic to make sure she's fully adapted to her new body," he whispered, not wanting to wake the sleeping murder bots.
"Bye."
"C'ya."
"Merry Christmas." The drones still awake whispered back goodbyes.
"До свидания," (Goodbye) Doll said back.
"Thanks for having us!" Thad waved as he left the apartment.
Hours later, as nightfall began, the sleeping disassembly drones awoke. V looked at her pained nails and back to Lizzy, who was starting to fall asleep herself.
"Did you do these?" V asked gently.
Lizzy, who was half asleep, groggily responded, "Yeah. Like them?"
"They're beautiful, just like you," V replied, giving Lizzy a kiss on the forehead.
"Mhm, I wanna go to bed now."
"Okay, I'll take you home," V said as she picked up her tiny pink girlfriend in her arms. She walked out the door, saying her goodbyes to the drones still in the living room before flying through the expanse that was the Outpost-3 residential sector towards Lizzy's place.
Tessa, who was on the verge of falling asleep herself, spoke next, "We should probably be heading home now too, huh, J?"
"That would be a good idea…"
"Can you carry me home like V did with Lizzy?" Tessa begged sleepily.
"Sure thing, Boss," J eagerly agreed.
She took Tessa into her arms, and earned a kiss as a 'thank-you.' The two said their goodbyes to N and Uzi, who were now the only two drones left in the apartment, and flew out into the residential sector.
"What a day, right, N?" Uzi nudged the large drone who's lap she was now sitting in.
"Mhm," N moved Uzi's beanie out of the way and kisses her on her head.
"Ew, gross," she joked as she grabbed her beanie back.
N spun her around in his lap and kissed her again, this time on the lips. At first Uzi wanted to pull away, but she quickly adjusted and melted into the embrace. Their passion for each other burning stronger than ever. It didn't last long though, as N pulled away.
"We should also head to bed, hm, biscuit?" N suggested.
Uzi grumbled, "Hmph, fine. But only if you stay tonight."
"Gladly," N lifted his purple drone into the air. Uzi let out a short yelp at the sudden movement before N carried her away into the bedroom.
He plopped himself and Uzi down onto the bed. After getting themselves tucked in, they snuggled away, sleeping soundly in each other's embrace.
Outside the bunker, the snow continued to fall, the moonlight reflecting off of each unique snowflake as the night began to shine brighter. Christmas was over, but the eight of them now shared fond memories that none of them would soon forget.
♡ · ─ ·✶· ─ · ♡
The End.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays!