an attempt at fic (Rabbit/The Spine)

It was morning and The Spine looked into the mirror, frowning as he did so. For having
seen the same sight every day for more than a hundred years, one would think he’d be
used to it by now. But no, seeing his own titanium plating standing out from the bland
wallpaper of his room, it still made him uncomfortable. Yet, he kept the mirror. What
normal person wouldn’t have one? Though that this was silly, after all, he is not a
normal person, he never would be.

     He sighed and proceeded to get dressed, hoping that maybe once he was
covered up for the most part, he’d feel a bit less unnerved by his own appearance.
Generally it only softened the blow, but he’d take any comfort he could get. Not too long
afterwards, he was dressed in his usual outfit, however he left the tie off for a sense of
casualness.

      He looked again to make sure he hadn’t put his hat on crooked or something
equally foolish, if he did he’d likely never hear the end of it from Rabbit.

     Suddenly The Spine heard a loud knocking on his door and immediately after,
the opening of said door. Of course, the bot who had just popped up in his thoughts was
there.

      ”G-good mornin’, The Spine!” Rabbit always was either early to rise or he just
didn’t get up til afternoon, there simply was no in-between and today, it was the former.

      ”Morning, Rabbit. Didn’t wait for me to let you in, I see.” The Spine’s voice had a
slight hint of annoyance in it, Rabbit hadn’t really done that much to cause it but The
Spine was already a bit grumpy due to his issues with his own appearance.

      If Rabbit noticed that bit of annoyance, he didn’t show it. “W-well yeah, I saw you
all focusing on yer reflection and figured not to interrupt ya.” Rabbit almost looked a bit
concerned, but his smile covered that up.

     “It was nothing important, Rabbit. How about we go down to the living room and
see if the others are awake?” The Spine wanted to change the subject, not really
wanting to deal with this. Especially not so soon after he had just powered on.

”Ya sure? Y-you seemed awfully gloomy-lookin’. Anything on your mind? Bad
day already?” The Spine hated how often Rabbit saw through his attempts to hide his
feelings. Despite being a good actor, Rabbit just had a knack for figuring him out.

“I said it’s nothing, can we just go?” A last attempt to change the subject, hoping
that Rabbit would just drop it. However, he could not be that lucky.

      ”N-n-no, The Spine, I’m not gonna just dr-drop it. Is this part of your whole
human wannabe thing?” The Spine mentally winced at this blunt description of his deep
yearning to be human, or at least more human-like. Knowing that this was a
conversation he would not be able to evade, he gave in.

      ”Rabbit… I just wasn’t happy with seeing my reflection, alright?” The Spine
hated admitting things like this to Rabbit, but often it seemed inevitable that he would do
so.

      “Oh, The Spine…” Rabbit looked at him sadly, while not knowing the feeling; he
certainly wanted to do what he could to help remedy this problem.

      ”You know it’s been like this for ages, but it’s not that big of a deal so let’s just
not talk about it too much, alright?”

     Rabbit came closer to The Spine and put his hands on both sides of The Spine’s
face. Their eyes met, Rabbit looking to him with both love and worry. The Spine didn’t
quite know what was to come of this.

      ”The Spine, y-you ought to like yourself a bit more. You’re a hands-some guy.”
This comment, combined with this oddly intimate contact cause The Spine to sputter a
bit of steam from both embarrassment and disbelief.

      ”What are you talking about, Rabbit? I’m not even that attractive.” The Spine
truly did believe this; he was convinced that the only reason that women had liked him
in the past was sheer luck and effort on his part to act as human-like as he could. Even
then, it never worked out in the end, so he must have been doing something wrong.

      Rabbit frowned, but he was determined to work this out. “That’s complete
nonsense, The Spine. I mean, just look at you~” Rabbit idly rubbed the sides of The
Spine’s face with his thumbs, meant to be a comforting gesture.

      “I have, Rabbit, and I did not like what I saw. I’m not sure if I ever have.” It had
been ages since The Spine had seen himself without any kind of negative response
inside of him, so this much was true.

      ” E-everything about you is so wonderful, though! How can y-y-you not see that?
For-r-r example, your cheekbones, your nose, your neck, ev-ven your ears…” As he
listed off different parts of The Spine, he trailed one hand’s fingertips on those parts
gently, the other staying where it was.

      ”…a-and of course, your lips.” Rabbit’s own curled up into a smirk as he leaned
in to kiss the taller automaton, almost tiptoeing to do so. The Spine made a surprised
little noise at the back of his throat, but made no attempt to push Rabbit away. Rabbit
took this as a sign that this was acceptable and threw both of his arms around The
Spine’s neck, pulling him in closer and by accident, knocking off The Spine’s hat. He
then broke the kiss a few moments later and looked at The Spine, a slight mischievous
glint in his eyes.
     “Besides, if you were so unattractive, would I w-want to do that?”

     The Spine looked at Rabbit blankly. “…Oh.” He was a bit speechless, not having
really noticed signs of Rabbit’s attraction before. Rabbit snickered a bit at the look on
his face and leaned in to kiss him once more. Rabbit was pleasantly surprised when
The Spine actually kissed him back, awkwardly resting his hands on Rabbit’s hips.

Judging by this, Rabbit concluded that this attraction was a mutual thing, and a bit
daring, nipped at The Spine’s bottom lip. In turn this caused The Spine to shudder and
make a small sound of enjoyment. If he were human, he would certainly be blushing
right now.

      Rabbit was rather pleased with himself, he had expected The Spine to push him
away and that would be that… but instead, the situation seemed… promising. Not
wanting to scare him away by doing too much, he pulled away from the kiss, but his
arms remained where they were.

      ”Just t-to be clear… you did like that, right? I w-would’nt want ya feeling taken
advantage of or anythin’. And if you d-didn’t, then I promise I won’t do it again…” Rabbit
looked at him bashfully, awaiting a reply.

     “I… yes. I think I rather liked that.” He smiled at Rabbit in a warm manner.

     “However, I’m not too sure… try it again?”
     A wide grin appeared on Rabbit’s face. “Oh, I can definitely do that~”