Copper Miracles 3

Pain was the first thing registered through Tavros' mind as he slowly regained consciousness. A slow, throbbing pain through the back of his head and down his back. Groaning, he slowly tried to pry open his eyes, but only to be met with a blurry light above. Groaning again even louder, he turned his head away from the seemingly too bright light, and buried himself further into the cushions.

Wait. Cushions?

Ignoring the sudden flood of pain in his head, he bolted up face to face with a bright orange couch, and forcefully turned his head. Tavros widened his eyes, a shiver crawling down his spine. Shifting his weight, again ignoring the pain in his head, he turned to scan the rest of the unfamiliar room. The room was littered with bot parts, from legs and arms to bolts and wires, and everything in between. He spotted his wheelchair at the end of the couch, dented and grimy. Raising a brow, he reached over to grab his chair and inspect the damage.

"Motherfucker! Watch out!"

His eyes widened as the sudden voice, then the memories, surged through his head. The speeding car, the voice, then the forceful shove, then nothing. Tavros grazed his thumb over one of the dents of the chair, wondering who his savior was. The voice sounded familiar, but he wasn't too sure, it could be his imagination playing tricks on him.

A sudden crash and a curse was shouted in the next room over and Tavros jumped. Whoever saved him might be in the next room, he concluded. Running his hand through his brown arch of hair, he considered his options. Fidgeting on the couch, a part of the boy wanted to jump on his chair and abscond out of there as fast as he could. But instead, he shimmied into his chair the best he could and quietly, rolled into the next room. After all, it would be rude to just leave without thanking the savior, wouldn't it?

Rolling into the hallway, he noticed that it wasn't any different than the room he was just in. More bot pieces were scattered all over the place. They all looked relatively new, but they were still collecting dust. Getting used to the bumps his wheel was making, Tavros wheeled closer to the source of the sounds. On the way, he did notice a small silver bot, attired in a small red shirt and red messenger cap, perched near a window. Looking past the bot, out the window, he noticed it was dark out. Very dark.

Shivering, he rolled further to his destination, the urge to abscond greater than before. When Tavros finally reached the room, he found something far from what he was expecting. Sort of.

Instead of seeing a psychopath with a wrench planning on hitting him the moment he entered (Tavros always expected the worst when it came to suspense), he found a blonde young man, a little older than him with triangular shades across his face and his hair slicked back into spikes. He was doubled over a workbench with another bot laid across it. With a wrench in hand, he was tightening the bolts in the bot's shoulder. Peering even closer, he noticed, with wide eyes, that it was the same bot that performed at the fountain, just without the normal face paint that the boy grew accustomed to. His glowing indigo eyes were also dim, indicating that he was shut off.

Well, if he wasn't confused before, he certainly is now.

The blonde was too engrossed in his work to notice the mohawked boy wheel himself in, his chocolate eyes not leaving the deactivated steambot. That is, until his chair hit a table near the entrance, causing a few bot parts to fall and hit the floor with a loud crash. The paraplegic silently cursed himself as the blonde slightly raised his head upward, then back down at the automaton.

"About time you woke up." He said, deadpan. Tavros couldn't tell if he was looking at him or the bot through his shades, but the thought itself was unnerving.

"Uh… Y-yeah," the boy responded, inwardly cursing himself at the stutter. His head drifted away from the blonde and the bot, suddenly finding the discarded automaton arm on the floor more interesting.

The blonde didn't say anything for a while, and when Tavros finally glanced back at him, he was still standing over the bot, still tightening the bolts on the clown's copper shoulder. When the blonde did finally look back at the other boy, his face didn't change from it's stoic look. Tavros cringed.

"Are you gonna come in, or just sit there like an idiot?"

It took a minute for the mohawked boy to respond. "Oh.. Um… S-sorry," he spat, wheeling in on impulse further into the room, careful of all the parts scattered around. Tavros could feel the other's gaze linger on him as he rolled, nervously to the workbench.

It was quiet for another minute before the blonde pointed at the dent on his wheel with the wrench. "Need me to fix that?" He inquired, his face still stoic. Tavros fidgeted.

"Um…" the boy shifted, his grasp tight on his damaged wheel. "N-no, it's fine."

The other boy either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore him, because he just stood upright and tapped the empty spot next to the clown bot. "Sit."

Tavros shifted in his seat again, but complied, not wanting to anger the stranger. He rolled up to the bench and with little effort pulled himself up and sat next to the deactivated steambot. He saw the blonde kneel over the wheelchair, wrench in hand, and detach the wheel from the chair. "Fucking thing's a mess…" He heard the blonde mutter. As the other boy walked over to the other bench across the room, he made sure to grab a few tools. More notably, a hammer. The mohawked boy shivered. The blonde spared Tavros a glance before turning to the bench. "Dirk."

Tavros glanced over at the blonde, who was already pounding away with the hammer. "W-what?"

"Dirk Strider. My name." He turned his head back to give Tavros another glance before continuing, "this would be the part where you'd give me yours."

The paraplegic blinked. "Oh… It's uh, T-Tavros Nitram." He mentally slapped himself. Hard. Dirk only nodded in response and went back to fixing the wheel, leaving the other boy to his thoughts. Did Dirk save him? Or someone else? Why did he have the bot here? How did Tavros get here, and why? The boy glanced over at the quiet automaton. He looked so different without his usual face paint and large grin.

"Don't be so tense."

Tavros smiled.

"Just relax, and let them miracles run all up through you."

"Hey, kid," a snap of Dirk's fingers brought Tavros out of his daze as he snapped his head up to meet the blonde. "Don't mean to interrupt your trip to the memory abyss, but your chair's fixed." The boy nodded as the blonde rolled his newly repaired chair over to him. He then slid off the bench and perched himself right on the chair, rolling it a bit for good measure. Good as new. If you ignore the other scratches and dents on the rest of the chair.

Releasing a shaky breath, he turned to the blonde, who was returning to the clown, fidgeting and tightening his grip on the wheel. Now or never. "T-thank you…"

Dirk shook his head, "Don't thank me. Thank Gamzee when he wakes up. I just fixed your chair."

The mohawked boy blinked, "G-Gamzee?"

The blonde glanced at the other boy, then back at the bot. "Either you haven't been here long, or you've been living under a fucking rock." He pointed at the steambot, "This is Gamzee, the 'Miracle Bot' as the kiddos know him as. He's been here longer than I have. He saved your ass and brought it here."

Tavros blinked as he looked the bot over again for the thousandth time. Gamzee. The boy smiled. It suited him. His smile, though, turned to a frown quick when he observed Gamzee's state. "Is… Is he okay?" He took a breath as he rolled over to the automaton once more, peering into his dimmed eyes.

Dirk nodded, "Only a few dents and a loose shoulder. Could've been a lot worse." He patted the metal casing of the bot's shoulder, and started scanning the bot for anymore needed repairs. After spotting none, the blonde took off those strange shades and wiped his brow with his arm. A few more minutes of awkward silence followed before Dirk spoke again, putting back on his shades, "I'm going to wake him up now. Be prepared for… Whatever the hell he does."

Tavros blinked at the warning. When Dirk pulled the automaton to a sitting position, Tavros heard several switches and slowly, steam exhaled from the bots vents and his indigo eyes slowly grew brighter. The mohawked boy instinctively reeled backward as the automaton's head slowly rose. Gamzee blinked a few times, looking his way toward Dirk, who just simply pointed at Tavros. When his indigo eyes met with Tavros', Gamzee's eyes brightened and he lunged at the boy, engulfing him in a big hug. His second from the bot today.

"Motherfucker, you're okay! I was up and all sorts of worried for you!" Gamzee yelled . Tavros could only squeak out a few seemingly inhuman sounds of surprise before Gamzee let go of him, his glowing eyes tracing the boy for any signs of injury. "You're not motherfucking hurt, bro, are ya?"

Tavros shook his head, "N-no, I'm fine…Um.. Thank y-you…"

Gamzee flashed his trademark smile, a little less scary without the paint, but still unnerving to the boy, "I'm glad!" He beamed as he ruffled Tavros' Mohawk. "It's a fuckin' miracle." There. That shudder again. But Tavros ignored it, thinking it was some sort of power-up twitch. If that existed.

Dirk shuffled behind them, coughing into his fist, trying to get their attention. "Okay, as much as I hate to break up this lovely reunion of the ages," he started to push Gamzee forward and wheel Tavros out into the hall, "I have work to do, and you two are getting in the way," the blonde glanced at the automaton, who proceeded to walk forward ahead of Tavros, "Clown, take him home. The city's a shithole at night," Dirk finished as he wheeled the mohawked boy to the living area and just promptly turned around to head back to his room.

"Will do, Dirk-bro!" Gamzee affirmed as Dirk just waved over his shoulder and disappeared into the hall. The bot took the handles of Tavros' wheelchair and before the boy could protest, rolled the boy outside to the dark Skaia streets. The night was cold, and the boy shivered as they traveled down the seemingly abandoned street. The duo sat in a comfortable silence, the only sounds between them being the creak of the wheelchair and the small hiss of Gamzee's steam vents, simply venturing to the familiar square, before the copper bot spoke, "So, I'm just motherfuckin' going and I don't know where you live!" He laughed, making the boy a tad bit uneasy, "So tell me, my brother, where do ya hold your motherfuckin' self?" He leaned forward over the back of the chair, face-to-face with the boy.

The mohawked boy cringed, and blushed at the sudden closeness of the automaton, but answered, praying that language doesn't fail him, "Uh…" Smooth. "The g-government housing district… Past the, um, square." Wow, hardly a stutter. Tavros felt slightly proud of that, giving the clown a small smile.

Gamzee beamed, "I know where that is!" He exclaimed and before Tavros could blink, they were off, speeding down the square, the boy clenching the arms of the chair and Gamzee yelling in delight.

It was the most terrifying experience Tavros ever had. But it was also the most exhilarating.

After a few minutes of reckless speeding, the boy saw his house at the end of the street and he signaled for the bot to calm down. "Gamzee, stop…!" He stressed. The bot seemed to get the hint, as he slowed down to a brisk walk. Tavros fidgeted in his seat as they approached his house. Suddenly, he felt the toll of the day hit him hard. He almost got hit by a car, his head still hurts (thinking about it made it hurt even more), and now he was being escorted home by a clown steam bot. He did not even know how to begin to explain this to his dad.

When he reached the front gate of his house, he grasped his wheels and looked at Gamzee, "Um, this is my stop," he muttered. He tried not to look directly at the bot's smiling face. "T-thank you… For everything." the boy finished as he started wheeling himself to the house.

"Wait!" As Tavros turned to face the automaton, he already ran up to the boy. "I wanna know your motherfucking name."

Tavros blinked, not really sure if he should answer, but ended up doing so anyway, "T-Tavros."

Gamzee's grin widened, if that was even possible. He kneeled down and ruffled the boy's Mohawk, then engulfed him in another hug. "Nice name, Tavbro." He chirped, breaking the embrace, and the boy slightly blushed at the new nickname. "I'll see you later, yeah?" He asked and without thinking, Tavros nodded. With a big grin and a wave of his hand, the steambot skipped down the street out of sight. Tavros could of sworn he heard a honk or two, but he really didn't care at the moment.

With a smile on the boy's face, Tavros wheeled right into the walkway of his house, slowly preparing himself for whatever his father may throw at him.