Chapter Text
"BT."
"..."
"Hey, BT."
“...yes, Jack?” A warning, hiding under a calm facade.
It didn't stop the snicker that came from the previously human half of their cohabitation. Jack was trying his hardest to not burst out laughing. Since the pair found themselves in this situation, it was almost always Jack’s fault that something was broken or damaged. It made some sense, since he wasn’t used to being a war robot while BT had ample experience with it. So, now that the blame could only be placed on the AI, Jack wanted to milk it for what it was worth.
“snrk..I th-think...hhehe..I think you’re n-not supposed to use rifles like that.” Jack was talking about the long-barreled precision rifle that was now sticking out the metal target’s bullseye. The sensation that was distinctly like a parrot ruffling up it’s feathers in displeasure bounced across the link. Jack valiantly held back a bark of laughter.
“..I was practicing our accuracy, as intended.” was the clipped reply from BT, although a current of mild embarrassment licked beneath the neutral tone. The AI was decidedly not embarrassed, and he was most certainly not someone who got frustrated. He also never lied. Jack’s laughter in the backdrop of their mind did not help to solidify the thoughts in the slightest. BT took a small moment to reflect (not mourn, not at all) on the loss of privacy.
“Our-! Hahah!! BT, you threw the rifle we were practicing marksmanship with like a javelin after you missed the same target five times!” Jack blurted in between laughs. It took him a few minutes to calm down, the imagery of a frustrated BT yeeting a rifle too good. After he calmed down, he continued. “It’s okay to get frustrated, buddy. I do all the time.”
BT was still giving off the aura of an upset parrot all ruffled up as he responded in his normal tone. “Frustration is a human emotion, I am not programmed to feel them.”
While BT was busy being not annoyed and not defensive, Jack took the lead on the body long enough to sit them down beneath a nearby tree. Now that the moment had subsided, he realized that this situation was something BT was not equipped to handle. After all, emotions weren’t programmed into AI, at least the full extent of them. Jack gained much more strength and a different type of coordination once the pair merged. It would make complete sense that BT would also gain something from Jack. He figured a talk was in order.
“Hey, BT. I mean it. Now that we’re in this together, some things from me are going to carry over to you and vice versa. Just like how I have to learn not to crush stuff, I can help you handle these emotions you’re feeling now. They seem a lot harder to control than they actually are.” BT took a moment to think. It was true that so far, Jack was the one who was needing the most help adjusting. He couldn’t expect to come out of this sort of thing without anything changing, could he?
But to a degree, these emotions made him wary. They came upon him suddenly, with no prior warning or build. They were intense, more so than the feelings of ‘pain’ and ‘fear’ he was used to as a Titan. It became hard to think around the feelings provided by the emotions, which would become a problem if something like anger popped up while they were in combat. BT didn’t like admitting he needed help, but he would do so for Jack.
“Yes, I think I need to take some time with them to get used to them.” He finally admitted, but the negative mood he was in was instantly lifted when Jack’s positive feelings raced in.
“Great! No better time to start than now.”