Ch-ch-ch-changes! [pt.1 of 2]

It was a fairly normal day at the Walter Manor. Well, as normal as things could even be in such a place around New Year’s. Nothing was on fire, QWERTY wasn’t trying to put sombreros on everyone and everything, and the robots were being suspiciously quiet. Six breathed a contented sigh of relief as he toyed with the pen in his hand and marvelled at the picture he’d drawn that bore a striking and unsettling resemblance to the latest intern.

His head snapped up as he heard hushed frantic voices outside. He cleared his throat and awkwardly crammed the doodle in a convenient drawer before innocently returning to pore over the blueprints on his desk.

“Just- just go in and ask him won’t you!” one of the voices hissed. It seemed to be physically struggling with something… or someone.

“I d-d-d-don’t wanna! What if-if h-he s-says no!” a second voice whimpered.

“Don’t be a dummins, just ask and find out!”

Peter raised a perplexed non-existent eyebrow behind his mask.

“Uhh… come in?”

The voices paused for a few beats. Six impatiently tapped his desk with his pen as Spine and Rabbit came round the doorframe – granted Rabbit was rounding said doorframe rather unwillingly and had to be forcibly pushed in by The Spine whilst desperately trying to dig two boot heels into the carpet.

Peter eyed them up as Rabbit came to attention with Spine’s hands placed firmly on either shoulder.

“Well?”

“I… I… g-g-g-”

“Rabbit has something to ask you, Master Walter,” Spine finished as Rabbit breathed a steamy sigh of relief, still stuck in the stammer.

“Well then he needs to...”

“She” Spine interjected again.

“Sh- she- wait, what!?”

“Go on Rabbit.”

Rabbit nervously twiddled her fingers together in front of her boiler as her red bandana slid forward over her mismatched eyes. She mumbled something that was barely audible. The Spine rolled his eyes.

“Rabbit, Peter isn’t a mouse.”

“Rabbit, do speak up. I can’t hear-“

“I wanna be a girl-bot!” she yelled, temporarily free of the stammer and clear as a bell.

Peter was rather taken back. He sat rigid and stunned, unsure of what to say.

“Wh-what?”

“I w-wanna b-b-b-be a g-g-girl-bot, Petes,” Rabbit pulled her bandana further over her eyes and blushed profusely. The Spine patted her shoulder and smiled gently.

“But… but you hate getting upgrades.”

“I kn-kn-know…”

“So why the sudden change? You aren’t happy with the way you are?”

“N-n-no. And I ha-ha-h-haven’t b-been for a long time Petes.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Rabbit’s always been a girl-bot in her core, Six. And it’s about time she got some upgrades too” Spine intruded much to Rabbit’s relief of not having to converse with a worsening stutter, “Before our Pappy got sick he was working on a new chassis for Rabbit. He was going to work on her himself when he got better and… well…”

Spine paused as he noticed oil welling up around Rabbit’s optics. 71 years on and still a touchy subject.

“You get the idea. Rabbit never wanted to be worked on or so much as look at the blueprints Pappy had in mind since then.”

“I see,” Peter pressed his fingertips together in an arch and leant back in his chair, “So you want Walter Robotics to build you a new chassis. Is that correct? You do realise we hardly have enough funds as it is.”

Rabbit looked up slowly, still unable to speak, optics wide and oily. Peter felt his heart tear in two.

“W-well… is the old chassis still in the manor?” he stammered weakly.

“I believe it may still be in an old storage vault, but it’s incomplete. For obvious reasons,” Spine replied before wiping Rabbit’s cheeks with his handkerchief. She stubbornly shooed the hankie away and finished the job with a sleeve and a hard sniff, earning a smirk from her brother.

“I’ll see what I can do. Do you know which number the vault is?”

“I have no idea, Master Walter. None of us do. Though I imagine it’d be the one that looks like it hasn’t been touched in nearly a century.”

“That narrows it down greatly…” Peter whined sarcastically and tugged at his hair, “Fine. I’ll get the Walter workers on the case. In the meantime, I need to write some adaptive programming and…oof!”

He was cut off as Rabbit lunged forward over the desk and threw her rust-ridden arms around his neck.

“Th-thank y-y-you,” she whispered quietly.

“You’re welcome, “Six squeaked, “But it’ll be a few days, maybe weeks before I’m done.”

“I’ve w-w-w-waited th-this long, P-Petes,” Rabbit released him as the air rushed back through his semi-crushed neck, “I d-d-d-don’t th-think an-another c-c-couple d-days will k-k-kill m-me!”

‘Here’s hoping it doesn’t’ he thought to himself as The Spine escorted Rabbit out of the office.

~*~

Three days passed. Rabbit paced around the lounge in circles, glitching every once in a while and angrily stammering to herself. Hatchworth watched in wide eyed curiosity, waiting for the floor to cave in from the hole she was wearing into the carpet just as Spine had warned her earlier “if she kept this up”.

The Spine huffed impatiently and flipped his paper down into his lap, “Rabbit!”

Rabbit jerked to a halt.

“Will you just settle down for goodness’ sake!”

“I-I c-c-can’t h-help it, Sp-Spine! W-what if-if P-Petes ch-ch-changes his m-m-mind! What if… what if h-he-he c-can’t d-d-d-do it! W-what if…”

The Spine sighed heavily and stood up. He situated himself in front of Rabbit and cupped her chin with one hand.

“Firstly, Petes is a genius. He invests a lot of time in reminding us of that fact,” he began as Rabbit giggled slightly, “I doubt this is going to be impossible or beyond his knowledge. And secondly, Rabbit-”

He gently raised her head to look into her mismatched eyes.

“After everything you’ve been through, you deserve to be happy. Petes know this. Hatchy knows this. I definitely know this. And Pappy knew it too.”

“You’re going to look amazing, Rabbit!” Hatchworth chimed in and patted Rabbit’s shoulder, “We can even get you some fancy shoes to go with the new look!”

“Aww, g-g-gee you g-guys, I’m oilin’ up h-here…”

“Well it’s true,” Spine smiled down at Rabbit as he brought both of them into a tight embrace, “And Rabbit?”

“Yeah, The Spine?”

“Maybe you really will beat me in an arm wrestling match for once,” he smirked teasingly as Rabbit punched his shoulder.

“Y-y-you’re a j-jerk, Spine,” Rabbit laughed.