Work Text:
Peppermint yawns, stretching her arms up, over her head. As her arms fall, she grabs her iced coffee and takes a sip. Her eyes scan the lines of code in front of her. She's almost got this cracked...
A sudden knock from her door makes her freeze. Her eyes flick to the clock in the corner of the screen. 2:53 AM. Shit.
"Just lemme finish this, I've almost got it—then I'll go right to bed. Promise," she says as she hurriedly saves her progress, just in case.
Peppermint turns to see exactly who she expected: Chai. He's standing in the doorway. The expression on his face is unreadable. The best way she can think to describe it as is tired. 808 is hanging from his shoulder, her ears folded back. She hadn't even noticed her leaving her charging bed.
Peppermint frowns.
Usually, Chai would've said something by now. Or at least mumbled. But he's just...staring at her. His eyes glint in the light from her screen.
"Uh...Chai?"
Another moment of silence passes. Then, with a sigh, he walks over to her bed and sits down on the edge of it, facing her.
"I know you're, like, busy with whatever when you should be sleeping...but..." He trails off. His head falls forward, hiding his face from view.
"What is it?" she asks, turning her chair toward him.
Now that he's a bit closer, she realizes that he's trembling. He's breathing kind of heavy, too. Her brow furrows.
"I, uh...I think something's wrong..."
"Did you—are you sick?"
"No. Not, like, um...I don't think so."
"Did you get hurt or something?"
"No...but, er, my chest hurts..."
Peppermint's eyes widen.
"Your chest hurts? Where specifically?"
Chai tips forward, his head touching his knees. 808 whines as she hops off of him, moving to sit next to him. His hand moves to settle on his chest—probably in answer to her question. The problem is, she can't see where exactly it's at. Not from here.
So, she gets up, sitting next to him on the bed. She reaches towards him, but stops just short of actually touching him.
"Uh—can you sit up?"
After a moment, he complies. His eyes are shut. There's a sheen of sweat on his face. Most importantly, his hand is right on top of his core. Shit.
"Pull your shirt up and lie down," she orders as she gets up to grab her tools.
He mumbles some sort of affirmative.
When Peppermint sits back down, setting her toolkit next to her, she finds 808 curled up around his head. She's purring, her eyes squeezed shut. Peppermint frowns.
She must've felt that something was wrong thanks to their connection. Which means she likely woke him up if the pain didn't.
Turning her focus to the pressing matter at hand, she scrutinizes his core. It's not broken. All of the wires are still intact. Nothing is disconnected. So that means that the core itself isn't the issue. Which can only mean one thing...
However, Chai's player seems...okay. It doesn't look damaged. It seems like it's still moving around to the beat. But she wouldn't really know. And he seems too out of it at the moment to really explain anything.
Well. Only one way to find out what's wrong.
But she has no idea what sort of affect this will have. Maybe she should find a substitute or something first. But it's not like Peppermint just has MP3 players lying around, and she's not sure if her phone would work.
Thinking about it...he seemed fine without it when he woke up after what happened in the LIFT tunnels a while ago. He was a bit loopy, but that was to be expected. Then again, though, they put it back in as soon as they could...
Peppermint sighs. She can't sit here thinking about it. He's in pain. She can—hopefully—fix that. She'll just have to bite the bullet.
"I'm gonna have to take your player out. If you start to feel worse or something...tell me. Scream. Whatever."
"M'kay," he mumbles.
She carefully opens the core and removes it. The light inside dims a bit, but it's still glowing. She scans his face for any signs of...anything. He slowly opens his eyes.
"Huh...feels weird," he says.
"Does it still hurt?"
"Mmm...nah. Feels, uh...funny?"
"Funny like...?"
"Like, uh...like...I guess...normal. My old normal."
"Is that...good or bad...?"
"S'fine. Doesn't hurt."
Peppermint relaxes a bit. Then, she starts analyzing the player. It doesn't take long for her to figure out the problem: it's low on battery. Almost dead low.
"Have you been charging this thing somehow?"
"No...? Dunno how I would. Why?"
"...It's almost dead. But it's lasted for months now."
"Oh. Huh. Weird."
The battery must just be completely dying, then. Which makes sense. This thing is old as hell.
As she pops it open to get the battery out, she asks, "How long have you had this for?"
"M'player? Uh...high school. Wait, no...junior high."
"And you never replaced any of the parts?"
"I did, couple times, whenever it started acting funny."
Her brows go up. "I thought you weren't a tech guy."
"I'm not really. Just looked stuff up online."
"...Right. Should've guessed."
Battery removed, she inspects it to see what kind it is. Not that she's likely to have another one around, but she probably has one with similar specs.
Getting up, she grabs a bin of batteries from her shelf. Peppermint digs through it to find a suitable replacement.
"Got it as a birthday present. Gram and Jas saved up enough to buy it for me," he says.
She pauses for a moment. "Who's Jas?"
All she gets in response is silence. She sighs. Then, she turns to look at him to make sure he didn't die or something.
Chai's still breathing. Actually, he seems to be breathing at a more regular pace compared to earlier. He's staring up at the ceiling.
808's moved. She's got her head on his shoulder. She's still purring; trying to offer what she can. Peppermint will make sure they both give her plenty of treats after this.
After finally finding a replacement battery, she gets to work on putting it into the player. She has to make a few adjustments due to this one being a different kind, but it doesn't take very long.
"You still doing okay?"
"Yeah. Tired..."
"I'm sure. You usually aren't up this late."
"Mmm...why're you still up...?"
"'Cause of you."
He huffs. "Before."
"Work."
"Mm...go to bed after this, 'kay?"
Now it's her turn to huff. "I'm fine."
Not even a second later, she yawns. Chai shoots her a cheeky grin. She rolls her eyes.
New battery in, Peppermint seals the player back up. Then, she tests to see if it's working. It comes back to life quickly. So, she returns it to its spot in his core, then seals that back up. The light inside of it grows brighter and starts pulsing.
His eyes go wide. "Woah."
"What? Is something wrong?"
"No! Just feels...different. But like, not bad different."
"...Alright. Good. Now get back to bed."
"Don't mind if I do...but you better go to bed, too."
She sighs. "I will, I will..."