Lovable N || N x Harem

Chapter 7

The air hung silent with tension. The furrowed lines on J's forehead a map of her displeasure, and the agitated twitch of her tail conveyed a mix of frustration and suspicion.

"What do you mean by that?" J interrogated, her low voice laced with an undercurrent of undeniable threat.

N sheepishly smiled, concealing the rising panic that was rearing its head in him. "Okay, so, a worker earlier might have suggested that they could fix up our landing pod to, uh...escape the planet—" N could already feel J's heavy stare increase tenfold and the mention of leaving, "which is definitely against the rules!" he quickly added, chuckling nervously as J's hard look didn't soften. "But it is kind of making me question why our pods were only-one way in the first place, and why a multi-billion dollar company can't afford to give us proper cooling systems. Cause, y-you know, I get the feeling the company doesn't actually love robots, and, like, we might be robots?"

Every word that left his mouth only served to increase the scrutinising gaze J was giving him.

"I've made a terrible mistake," he said, the weight of what he was saying only just now hitting him. "It's cool how immediately I could tell."

J inhaled sharply, eyes closed for a fleeting second before locking back onto N. "N, I've mentioned in the past that if you ever gave me a reason to, I'd kill you myself, right?"

N swallowed and nodded slowly, wondering where exactly she was going with this. "Well," J continued, her voice dropping to a dangerous register, "right now, you're giving me a reason." Her words sent a chill down N's mechanical spine. "And what do you mean by 'a worker suggested it'? Have you been fraternising with these barely sentient toasters, N?"

"N-no! Of course not!" I w-was just—"

J just quietly growled to herself, pinching where the bridge of her nose would have been had she had one. "It's just one thing after the other. First the crashing incident, and now this..." She turned to face N, hands on her hips. "N, because you did such a good job with getting us into this bunker, I won't punish you for this act of...insubordination," she said. "But, you will stay here until I say otherwise. I need time to think about what to do with you."

J opened her wings, prepared to fly into the ventilation to join V in her slaughter. Meanwhile, N stood amidst his internal conflict. His gaze flickered between J and the concealed form of Uzi, who had been silently observing the entire confrontation. Their eyes locked, and in that instant, Uzi silently conveyed her plea. A single word mouthed by her reverberated in his mind, leading to a swift, decisive conclusion.

"Please."

He knew what he had to do.

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Everything had been going so well. They finally made it into the bunker they had been trying to break into for so long. All they had to do was wipe out the rest of the workers and their place as the top ranking team would be solidified.

So why did N have to go and say those things?

Interacting with the workers was already worth punishment, but to actually consider their ideas of leaving the planet without company permission? That was grounds for termination. And by all means, J should have disassembled him, there and then, but the mere thought of doing that to N made her sick to her synthetic stomach for some odd reason. And despite getting rid of him being the most logical course of action, she found herself disregarding logic in favour of gut feeling, as absurd as it sounded. Getting rid of N now of all times just didn't feel right, so she hoped to have a talk with him later on and straighten out his mind.