"I will never understand why you'd love to sit around and do this at all."

A2 had been sitting close to the rivers of the forest, her feet dangling from one of the remains of the castle as she stared at her, no, at 2B's Pod as it floated around in the waters, searching for fish.

Or aquatic life forms as the thing liked to call them.

2B would insist that this activity the humans called fishing was relaxing, and she also would always convince A2 to sit and do just that for hours at times whenever she claimed she was too stressed out.

Well she would be way less stressed if 2B wasn't so determined in trying to convince her to do something that had no use whatsoever to her. And to A2's dismay, she always managed to do what she wanted to.

As if it would help at all, A2's whole existence was stressful by definition, ever since she'd been deployed, why would sitting around and stare at the Pod as it fished would do anything at all?

She wasn't one that liked to sit around either.

Regardless here she was doing just what 2B wanted from her yet again, another time of so many that she lost count. And whenever A2 asked, 2B always answered that the activity was relaxing.

Perhaps the other android didn't know that being the same model they held the same kind of interests.

A2 honestly had no idea what possessed her to listen to the other android's voice every single time, she only knew that she did. She kept telling herself that it was just to get 2B to shut up, but part of her knew that she just wanted to keep her happy.

2B really had been one of the first people besides Anemone that ever tried to treat her with some kind of gentleness, even though she was just a mere consciousness living in sync with another. Perhaps that was what was driving 2B to help her, because she knew how A2 felt about anything and everything all the time.

2B knew her better than A2 ever knew herself, not that she would admit it.

She was just trying to help out in what little ways she could, A2 had been annoyed at having someone telling her what to do, she always decided for herself, but with time she adapted to it, perhaps even too quickly.

But having someone looking after you felt… nice…

And she missed the company of someone that wasn't holding her at sword's edge, but it had been so long she had forgotten how it felt to be cared for.

Eventually she decided that 2B's ideas weren't that bad, and much to her surprise she would herself enjoying these quiet times that she even started looking forward to them.

They couldn't last forever of course, but it was rather fascinating hearing 2B talk over something she liked to do, to hear her showing emotions that she spent so long burying them deep inside her chest.

A2 wasn't ever going to judge her over having feelings, not when her own were often so overwhelming it was hard to think clearly.

So she just sat quietly, her eyes taking in the scenery like she'd never allowed herself to do before, taking in every little detail, from the smallest leaf to the shape of a crack in the wall, idly listening at the sounds around her, at the slow rippling of water as Pod 042 moved, occasionally making small beeps, to the wind messing with her now short hair.

And of course, to 2B's voice.

She'd been right, and if she closed her eyes she could almost picture the other android next to her, their shoulders touching, as she dozed off…


A2's blue eyes slowly opened, adjusting to the sunlight shining above her, it took her a moment to catch up that her head was lying on to another person's shoulder, and that they no longer were in the forest, but in the city, just outside the resistance's camp.

"Did you sleep well?" 2B's voice was quiet, but she knew that A2 was awake.

Her response was to just sigh and lean even further into 2B's shoulder, and the other woman let her. She could spot 9S nearby, his Pod was in the water beside Pod 042, while he sat near the fishes they got, calculating how much gold they could get from them.

He would have been jealous of her taking 2B's attention a while ago, but he eventually adapted, knowing that 2B was more than willing to give equal amounts of affection to both of them, and that A2 wasn't stealing her from him.

Perhaps he had changed idea when she showed that she too had a softer side, and that 2B brought that out of her so easily.

Regardless, it was nice to spend these times with 2B in person instead of just a mere voice, and 9S had just been a bonus.

Fishing hadn't been something she enjoyed, and she still didn't, but it was all worth it if she got to pass time with them this way.

Perhaps it wouldn't be too bad if it happened more often.