Chapter Text
"Ma, can you tell me about grandma and grandpa?"
The ten year old didn't expect her mother's eyes to hollow and widen at such an innocent, simple question. Hope tilted her head in confusion and plopped down beside her mother, nuzzling up to her side. Yellow eyes watched hollowed green for a moment before she softly chirped. The sound seemed to startle her mother back to awareness, as she gave the younger drone a worried smile.
"Now why'd ya go asking a question like that, Hope?" Her mother nervously asked, still with that smile. "Ya already know your grandma and grandpa, ya just stayed with them the other night!"
"Not them," Hope shook her head. "I meant the real ones, the ones from the manor."
"There's nothing to tell," she was told, her mother simply shaking her head. "Nothing important, anyway."
"But, Ma," Hope nuzzled closer, putting on her best puppy-dog eyes. "Ya never talk about them. How come?"
"I... Don't worry about it, kiddo," her mother said. She reached up to gently run her hand through Hope's hair, twirling the strands around her fingers. The action made the younger drone purr, pressing closer to her mother's warmth.
"Why don't ya ever talk about your past, Ma?" She asked, casually flopping herself into her mother's lap.
She heard a sigh as she rolled onto her back to stare up at her mother. Hope had never seen such a forlorn look in those green eyes. The hand in her hair stilled, fingers still all tangled up. Hope chittered, sitting up and resting her head on her mother's shoulder.
"Ma?"
"I didn't have a very nice past," her mother quietly said. She wouldn't look at Hope. Instead, her gaze was stuck looking somewhere else, somewhere the younger drone couldn't see. "I was... I was a very different person back then."
"Different how?" Hope innocently pressed.
"I was a lot... Quieter, around people," the green eyed adult told her. "I didn't really have friends, and my parents weren't... They weren't the sort of people that liked the things I talked about."
"What kinda things? Like the stuff you do at work?"
"A little bit, yeah," her mother nodded. "But mostly it was stuff like robotics and general engineering. It... A lot of people around me didn't like to listen to any of it."
"But it's fun to listen to you talk 'bout that stuff!" Hope said. "Ya get all excited n' happy!"
"None of them thought so. They'd yell at me, or tell me to be quiet," the older drone scoffed.
"But why?"
"That's just how it was supposed to be," Hope was told.
"That's so dumb though!" The small disassembler protested. "What sort of people don't wanna hear someone talk about the things that make them happy!?"
"My birth parents," her mother sighed. "Hope, sweetheart, please. I really, really don't want to talk about this, okay?"
"... Alright, Ma," she let go of the topic, snuggling closer to her mother. "Can ya tell me 'bout how ya and Mom first met?"
"Of course I can!" Came the much more enthusiastic answer.
She'd heard the story before. How, one night, her ma had snuck out of the house and ran off to the scrapyard. There, she found a busted-up drone but still aware drone. Her ma saved the poor innocent thing and brought her home. She fixed up the broken drone, cleaned her up, and had her join the maid staff. Over time, her mothers grew close, the savior and the saved, becoming the best of friends in all the universe. Love blossomed, and a tragedy neither of them had really explained to her happened, tearing them apart. It was thanks to her auntie Uzi that they'd been reunited, and that Hope was programmed.
It was a lovely tale. Granted, Hope was positive they weren't telling her the whole story. Life was always so much more complicated than what a simple retelling could explain. But she loved it. It was almost fairytale like in the way it happened. A classic, really. But it always, always made her question just... How did it even work out, back then? Hope knew her mother used to be a human, and from the vibes she was getting, she was sure her human grandparents weren't the sort of people that liked cross-species relationships.
Hope decided she would ask again another time. It was clear that her mother would rather avoid the topic entirely, and she wasn't close to cruel enough to keep pestering her with it. She was sure she'd find out more, in due time.
"Hey, Mom," Hope turned to her disassembler mother.
They'd gone outside the city for a mother-daughter hunting trip, chasing down a herd of mechanical megafauna that had been introduced to the region not too long ago. They'd stopped to set up a temporary camp, walls of ice surrounding a small work area and a large den made of condensed snow. The sun had crested above the horizon by the time they finished, leaving the two huddling within their frozen nest as her mother started a small fire.
"Yes, dear?" Her mother replied, not taking her visor eyes off the fire.
"Can you tell me about grandma and grandpa?" She asked, watching her mother's skillful hands tend the growing flame. "I asked Ma earlier, but she didn't wanna tell me anything."
"Of course she didn't want to, her parents were awful," her mother snorted.
"Can you tell me instead, then?" She pressed, shuffling over to lean against her much taller mother's side.
"Alright," the older drone shrugged. She reached up to gently run her hand through Hope's dark hair, a gentle purr rumbling from her chest. "What do you want to know?"
"What were they like?"
"Hmm, well," her mother hummed. "Master Elliott was an arrogant, rude, cruel man. He liked to get drunk and yell at everyone that made him mad. Usually it was one of the other servants around the manor. We lost a lot of staff during his outbursts, when he would drink more than normal and go off on rants about the smallest things. Most of the time, he left us alone if we stayed out of his way. I... I don't really remember him spending much time with your mother, outside of any parties or gatherings.
"Your grandmother, on the other hand... She was a nightmare woman."
"A nightmare woman?" Hope interrupted.
"Lady Elliott used to yell at your mother all the time, for everything," her yellow eyed mother sighed. "Anything she did, she'd be yelled at for. The wrong dress, the wrong hairstyle, the wrong smile, the wrong food choice, the wrong word. If we were lucky, she was just yelling and being loud. Less lucky, and your mother was just forced to stay in her room for the night without dinner."
"They didn't let her eat dinner!?" The smaller drone shot up in alarm. What sort of parent would deprive their child of a meal!?
"Oh, yes," her mom nodded. "We had to send N or V out to grab a snack for her to munch on, when the coast was clear. The one time either of them got caught, and they were shoved in the basement for a week without any contact."
"Why?!" Hope screeched.
"Punishment," her mother shrugged. "Their logic was that Tessa would listen to them if she was starved. Disobey, starve. Listen and behave, don't starve. You'd be surprised how many times people used that sort of discipline back then."
"That's... That's evil..."
"That was the nicest method they used."
What?!
"Oh, yes," her mother said, nodding to herself. "A lot of the time they would chain her to her bed. Usually when they thought she'd be in the way during a party. They did it so often your mother had a permanent bruise on her wrist from where the cuff was. She liked to call it her 'prisoner bracelet'."
The soft, fond laugh the older disassembly drone let out did nothing to soothe Hope. If anything, that made it worse. How could her mother laugh at anything like that!?
"Ah, your mother, always trying to keep things positive for us," her mom sighed happily. "Even when that witch would put her hands on her, your mother was always trying to make me smile and keep me calm and happy."
"Put her hands... Grandma hit Ma?!" Hope gasped in horror.
"Often, too," her mother confirmed. "Most of the time she made sure to only strike her where others wouldn't be able to see the bruises. One time she hit her in the face so hard she had a black eye for a month. I think it was the only time I ever saw that woman panic."
"What the heck did she hit Ma for?!" Hope growled, her tail flicking back and forth.
"Tessa was defending V. Her optic calibration had been off, and she'd accidentally broken an expensive vase. Lady Elliott wanted to scrap her right then and there, but Tessa yelled at her for it. Oh, she was so angry! I wish I could've stopped her, but my programming wouldn't let me. I just had to watch her hit your mother."
"And grandpa just let this happen?!" She hissed.
"He never cared," her mom said. "All of us came to the conclusion that the only reason he didn't take Tessa and get rid of her was because he could use her for social gain. I think he wanted a son as his heir, honestly, so he just ignored her if she wasn't in his way."
"But why?!" Hope yelled, pushing away from her mother to stand and pace around the fire. "Why be so... So cruel and stuff?! What's the point!"
"Sometimes there isn't one," her mom gently said. "Sometimes people are just cruel and rude. Maybe they had a reason why they acted that way, maybe their own parents acted that way towards them when they were younger."
"That's not an excuse though!" She snarled, smacking her tail on the icy ground. "Who cares if their own parents sucked?! They sucked, and you and Ma are nothing like that! You guys are awesome moms!"
"Well, thank you dear," the older drone smiled.
"Like, ugh! That's just wrong! They hurt her or ignored ber, 'cause what, they didn't like her?! She talked back?! I talk back and you guys have never smacked me!" She kept ranting. "Ma's just so nice and kind! Who hits their own kid!? Who ignores their own kid?! What did she do to deserve that sort of thing!"
She plopped back down next to her mom, arms crossed as she fumed. Was this why her ma didn't want to tell her anything? Did she not want to keep reliving the pain of such horrid parents? Had Hope hurt her by asking in the first place, making her remember?
"I should tell Ma I'm sorry when we get back," she mumbled. "I must'a made her feel so awful asking about them."
"You were just curious," the older disassembler said, spreading her wing and resting it over her smaller shoulders. "You know your mother, she's not going to be upset with you for asking a question."
"But what if I made her remember all the things they did to her?" She said. "What if she's just pretending she's all okay when really she's hurting bad!"
"Oh, don't think that way, Hope," her mother told her. "You know that's not the case. Tessa's an open book, she's never been the best at hiding her feelings."
"Yeah, but I should still say sorry," Hope huffed, nuzzling against her mother's warm side. "Hey, Mom?"
"Yes dear?"
"I'm really happy you and Ma aren't anything like that," she whispered, tucking herself closer. "You guys are really awesome moms."
She didn't get an answer in words. Instead, her mother simply yanked her up into her arms, a loud, happy purr shaking the both of them. Hope giggled, playfully thrashing in her mother's grasp, her own purr vibrating from her throat. She could remember when she was still a tiny tot, how both of her mothers would cuddle her close every single night. They held her like she was the most precious, most fragile thing in the world. Did they treat her that way because of her grandparents? Were they scared of ending up like them, even slightly? Hope couldn't ever see that happening. Her moms loved her so much, they'd never be able to bring themselves to hurt her. Heck, once when she was a pillbaby, she'd rollen off the couch and almost cracked her visor. It wasn't a memory she had herself, but her aunties and her uncles all said that her moms were losing their minds over such a minor accident.
When the two of them got back, Hope decided, she'd do something nice for them. She wanted them to know just how much she loved them, and how amazing they were. After she arranged some things, first, of course.