not that bad

PROMPT: they lean in at the same time and both stop

maybe it's not that bad, harry thinks to himself. just living as a normal man.

as normal as a phone could be, that is.

he never actually though of himself as a person before mister kennedy appeared in his life. and, well, it was easy to forget he actually was — work and programming don't really go well with self-realisation and personal development.

he felt guilty for it from time to time before bear, but not enough to put any kind of work into building a personality. following the script was easier, faster, and most importantly, didn't get him in trouble. he's heard enough stories about gen twos Remembering. never ended good for them, unless their location closed. even then it was hard.

and yet, here he is. folding laundry alongside one of the escapees, alongside his last replacement, alongside the one who fought for the right to be himself harder than any of those harry had heard about. just... being normal.

"someone's got thinkin' to do today," the other phone laughs, and harry turns to him, back from the haze of memories. "something's on your mind?"

harry shakes his head, grabbing another well-ironed shirt and swiftly putting it on a hanger.

"well, if you really must know," he tilts his phone a bit. "i was thinking about one jake wilson, and how i'm glad to be a friend of his."

jake chuckles and slowly nods.

"corny much," he comments, before turning back to the ironing board and fishing out the next shirt.

harry looks at the pile. they're almost done. well, jake is almost done, since he has done all the ironing, and folding or hanging things doesn't really count. though, it speeds the process up and does take some work off of jake. there's only a couple shirts left, and all of them belong to harry and jake.

in the meantime, harry hides the folded things into the closets in both rooms. they're easy enough to distinguish — somehow each one of them got assigned a colour at some point. surprisingly with no relation to their phones. apart from him, maybe.

harry likes black, so he doesn't really mind. and if jake's button-up ends up with stanley's shirts, it's not that big of a deal. they share clothes anyway. sometimes he doesn't even see the point of separating. if it wasn't for size, they'd probably wear one another's clothes all the time — all four of the group.

when harry returns, jake is on his last shirt. it's harry's.

"you know, it's nice," jake starts slowly. "i never was a huge fan of housework and wasn't very fond of putting the effort into actually ironing anything."

he carefully straightens a sleeve and the hot metal crisps it pristine.

"i guess it's different when you're doing it for someone important," he passes the shirt to harry, who awaits with a hanger in hand. "or maybe i'm just getting old."

"maybe you are," harry shrugs, getting a huff in return, and puts the shirt away. jake unplugs the iron and puts it upwards on the board to let it cool. "i don't think it's a big deal anyway. if you're old, i'm simply decrepit."

jake steps closer to him and seems to carefully inspect the other's dial. harry stares at him in return, thoughtfully, putting a hand on jake's shoulder.

"someone's got thinking to do today," he says mockingly, but kindly, lowering his phone closer to the other's. jake seems to get closer too.

maybe it's not that bad, harry thinks. being in such close proximity to someone. as a phone, it's a little weird. he can't look jake in the eyes, can't examine his facial expression, and it's hard to figure out what's going on in his mind without seeing a face, but it's okay. the slow swing of his mounting cord says enough. it feels intimate.

too intimate.

harry can't bring himself to move any further. he freezes completely, aside from the slight tremor of his hands. jake doesn't seem to move too.

"yeah," jake says. "yeah, thinking."

"a lot of it, probably," harry laughs uncertainly.

"yeah."

"uh..."

"...yeah," jake takes a step back, fiddling with his ring, and harry feels himself much better with a bit of personal space he regained. "so..."

"let's get takeout."

"yeah let's do just that."

"roger wanted mcdonalds."

"okay."

it's awkward. but maybe, it's not that bad.