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Brian was the pilot in much the same way that Marius was the doctor, that is to say they held the role in little more than name alone. Had they joined the crew in another order it was likely their roles would have been switched, keeping them both in their pre-mechanization area of expertise.
As such it wasn’t uncommon to find the pair together. Marius leaning against Aurora's control panels guiding Brian through more difficult navigation and sharing the responsibility of directing Aurora. Brian in the med bay explaining how to perform operations and talking through symptoms and side effects.
They were happy with how their silent routine worked. Well, for the most part. Marius enjoyed not having to get behind the wheel so to speak, he was in his element when assisting but the fear of reliving what had taken his arm took the joy from being in control. Brian couldn’t feel the same. He missed the feeling of operating on a patient, the feeling of gore coating his fingers, the way his patient's flesh would squish against his own.
Brian’s envy of the ‘doctor’ had been slowly growing until Marius voiced his concerns. They had just finished stitching up a wound on one of Toy Soldier’s favorite octokittens, the poor thing had hurt itself on a broken vent cover and it simply couldn’t stand for it. Marius had just returned the octokitten to the very relieved Toy Soldier when he took note of the furrow in Brian’s brow.
“What’s the matter? I think that operation went pretty well. It better have, I don’t want TS sneaking apples into our next tea party again.” He turned from Brian to clean his workspace, having snapped Brian out of his thoughts.
“No no it’s not that I just…” he trailed of, eyes locked on the scissors Marius was busy disinfecting “miss handling operations.”
“Oh, is that all?” Marius stared up at him, eyes wide and shining. “Would you want to operate on me then?”
Brass hands twitched at the idea. “I don’t- it won’t be the same. I can’t feel it the way I used to.” His voice was mournful when he spoke. A metal hand clasped one of his.
“You could still try, it might feel better than not doing it at all.”
Metal face plates shifted into a small smile, Brian’s eyes finally meeting Marius’. “Yeah I guess. Get on the table for me?”
“Why how forward of you.” Marius batted his eyelashes as he took a seat on the table, hands already moving to unbutton his shirt.
That coaxed a laugh out of the metal man, his laughter underlined with the sound of his fans kicking up speed. “Oh shut up and strip, I can’t cut you open if your still dressed.”
“I see no reason you couldn’t.”
“I love you but I don’t want to deal with you griping about getting blood on your new jacket.”
Dramatically Marius sighed, throwing his jacket and shirt across the room as he stretched out on the sold steel table. “Fine then, could have just told me you were looking for an excuse to see me topless. Well I’m ready for my operation doctor.”
Brian flicked his forehead, chuckling at the way Marius stuck his tongue out. “Oh hush. Stay here while I grab the an anesthetic.” He shook his head when Marius groaned at that. “Relax your still going to feel it, it’s just so you put up less of a fight.”
Marius relaxed as Brian sunk a needle into his flesh, the feeling throughout his body growing muffled and his limbs growing heavy.
Brian took his time marking out where the incisions would be made, waiting until Marius could no longer flinch away from the cold ink of the marker to grab a scalpel.
At first he barely pressed down with the blade, beads of blood already forming at the broken skin. On the second pass over the cuts he applied more pressure, revealing in the feeling of the blade fully sinking into flesh and the sound of a heavy breath through Marius’ nose.
The layers of skin parted easily, the scalpel moving smooth and steady through the flesh of his abdomen, leaving a bright trail of red in its wake.
Brian peeled the skin back from the incision, one hand in Marius’ hair, the other working it’s way between the skin and muscle. With his clean hand Brian reached for Marius’ desk, pulling a box of pins from the desk drawer.
Marius looked over, head falling limply to the side, hazy eyes trying to focus on the box. “Whatcha got there?” His words slurred and tongue heavy. Brian’s hand returned to his hair.
“Just gotta make sure to keep your skin out of the way.” With his bloodied hand he grabbed a pin. Slowly he pushed into Marius’ skin, pinning it open and away from the incision. At each needle pushed into his flesh Marius’ eyes twitched, eyelids heavy and pupils dilated from the anesthetic.
The V shape at the top of the incision pulled back and pinned to the flesh above his clavicle. Ten pins on each side kept the flaps of skin from the largest incision away from his ventral cavity, allowing Brian easy access to his innards.
Slowly Brian pushed his hand inside, tucked between the stomach and the liver. The hand tangled in Marius’ hair joins it soon after, finding home in the nest of his small intestine. He was up to the wrist in gore. The feeling wasn’t the same, the textures not as pronounced and the viscera didn’t move against his fingers the same way they had when he was still flesh. Still he reveled in the feeling.
He delved his hands in deeper, one hand toying with his small intestine like a length of rope while the other worked its way further up beneath his rib cage. It rested between the base of his lungs. Marius could feel its presence in every breath he took, space meant for air being taken up by an unmoving brass hand.
Brian closed his eyes, simply focusing on the feeling of the operation. The natural warmth of a body against the constructed warmth of machinery. Blood no longer clung beneath his nails, instead it buried in the scratches covering brass skin. It was difficult to believe, as he held a hand between Marius’ lungs, that he’d once had lungs similar to his. That he hadn’t always had the fans and ventilation system that had taken their place. Slowly he picked up a bundle of small intestine, he held them above the hole where they had once been placed, where what remains shifted to fill the open space left behind. He regarded the pile of intestines in his hands for a moment before slowly lowering his hands allowing the organ to slide back into place. They felt like worms as they uncoiled against his hands, almost crawling into the comfort of a familiar body.
Now free of the intestines he moved further up, hands returning to Marius’ rib cage. He works one hand back up between the lungs, forcing it further up to the heart. Marius squeaked when his fingers made contact with his heart, the beating of it speeding up. The hand not holding his heart ran its fingers over his ribs. Brian’s fingers lightly thudding against them as if he was running his hand along a fence. He toyed with Marius’ heart, pinching veins and arteries shut, squeezing his heart in his hand and reveling in its panicked beating. Staring down at the blood spattered mess before him Brian couldn’t help but think it felt blasphemous.
Mindlessly the hand on his rib cage moved further up, over the sternum, over the skin peeled and pinned out of the way and to the side of Marius’ neck. Two fingers rested where his pulse was most prominent. He counted out his heart rate, feeling it in the pulsing of his heart and the blood rushes through his arteries.
One look at Marius’ face showed he was getting hazy, eyes unfocused and glazed over. Brian paused, considering for a moment, the state Marius was in. Organs out of place and skin pinned to itself, blood covered and still bleeding. He made his decision.
The hand around his heart tightened its grip. “I’m going to kill you, it’ll be better to heal like that.” In a smooth movement he pulled the heart, snapping the veins and arteries connecting it to the body.
He returned the heart to its proper place once Marius was well and dead and set about cleaning a Marius revived himself.
He found comfort in the grin Marius had given him as he had died. Weak and pained and full of love.