Late Night

Zinc startles awake from a snap to his forehead. He shoots his head up from the bar, looking around confused. His eyes still on J's rather annoyed face.
“Oh,” a grin spreads to his face. “Hello, Robocop.”
J doesn't change their expression. “Your nicknames are getting worse.”
“I think it's an upgrade to Soup can,” Zinc shrugs, reaching to empty his whiskey glass. J's eyes follow his movements.

“Come home,” they say eventually.
Zinc lets out an offended gasp. “Already? The party is just beginning!”
The robot's eyes roam around the empty bars, a few patrons are at a round table, otherwise it's empty.
“Sure.” J crosses their arms. “Either way, you come with me.”

Zinc looks around himself, groaning. He waves to the bartender, putting his drinks on his tab. J takes the lead to the backdoor, opening it. Zinc notes the lock looks broken.
They leave into the cold night, the ground is wet from the recent rain. “Did you break the back door?” Zinc asks, raising an eyebrow as he catches up with the other.
“No,” J lies. “It was like this when I came here.”
Zinc snorts as they enter an alleyway to avoid the main street. They step through a few puddles, going from alleyway to alleyway. A few times they have to stop, waiting for a drone to pass. They didn't need another drone chase this week.
“So,” Zinc talks in a low voice as they take another turn, “Why are you so eager to get me home?”
J has an eager step in, walking so quickly Zinc barely noticed the limp they have in their left leg, barely. Of course he noticed, J's walking pattern had been off, and now he saw why. The knee didn't bend.
J answers with a casual tone, “You said you would be home early, you didn't, so I came looking.”
Zinc makes an aww sound, mocking them. “You're so caring for me.”
“Shut up,” J grumbles backwards, opening the backdoor to their small apartment. “Or I'll staple it closed.”

Zinc takes the steps, waiting every few for J to catch up. They're really trying to make the unfunctional knee as little as a problem as possible.
“You know, I like other ways to shut me up better.”
J passes him, punching his shoulder. “That one's more permanent.”
Zinc lets out a laugh. He smiles as J opens the door for him, walking inside to throw himself on the couch. It was a broken one they found, better than nothing. Even if comfortable was not the word for it. J did the same, seating themselves next to Zinc, putting their leg up.

Zinc bites his lip, biting around on it. He stares at the knee until he can't take it anymore. He stands.
“Where are you going?” J asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Getting my tools. Your leg is malfunctioning.”
He hears J let out an annoyed groan, as if fixing their leg was a bigger hassle than walking around with it broken.

He grabs the leg as he sits back down, pulling the fabric of their pants up until the kneecap is revealed. Zinc only has to look it over for a few seconds until finding a problem.
“Ah, there. Did you land weirdly? The cap is busted and blocking the bend..” He runs his hands along the metal, turning the knee. It earns another groan from J as they have to turn onto their side.
“A few hours ago,” they answer. They hold their head up on one hand, with a relaxed expression as Zinc starts tinkering to fix it. “It's no big deal.”
Zinc shrugs, “Well, now that you don't get maintenance from Arachnis anymore, someone gotta fix your shit, huh?” He smirks.

The fix isn't anything complicated. Zinc doesn't know why J didn't want to mention it. Embarrassment? That would be new, but on the other hand. In the last few weeks, a lot of things have been new. As if the person he thought he knew returned more and more to humanity.
He finishes up in a few minutes, testing the leg by bending it back and forth.
“And done,” Zinc looks up with a smile.
He blinks a few times at J's closed eyes. “Did you seriously shut down while I'm doing an amazing fix here?”
No answer. Zinc puts the leg down, shuffling over to J's side. The head is slightly leaned down, their arm still holding it up, nothing much like a shutdown, more like… dozed off?
“Did… you seriously fall asleep?” Zinc talks more to himself than to J, catching himself laughing. “That's new. Didn't even know you could still do that.”
He shifts again, putting an arm over J's waist and laying behind them. “You still surprise me.” Zinc closes his own eyes and falls asleep.