It had been a week since the blending incident, and the Repairman and Marie were still feeling the effects. The Repairman was finally letting Marie help him out, partially because he had to, but also because she was right. She wouldn’t have tried to save him if she wanted to take his job.
“Hey, um, Repairman?” Marie asked. This felt awkward, given they were still fused together, but she had to know.
“…Yeah?”
“…What did make you think I was going to replace you? I mean, the letter clearly said…”
“You were gonna assist me, I know.”
The Repairman sighed.
“…You gotta keep in mind, I’ve been doing this alone for over eighty years now…”
“Yeah?”
“When you showed up, I thought I might be doing….doing something wrong. I mean, why else would they make an assistant out of the blue?”
He remembered that not only was Marie a blob of blue paint, but they were also both blue now.
“I mean, out of nowhere? I figured you were made as a way of saying ‘You idiot, we’ll show you how it’s done…’“
“…My creators didn’t animate me to say that, you know. They told me that you’ve been working alone for so many years, so I was gonna make your job a little easier. They said you deserved that.”
“…”
“…Repairman?”
“…”
And then the amalgamation hugged itself.
“Urk! Okay, remember our strength… and you don’t have to cry! Just…it’s okay…”
“I’M SORRY!”
Marie patted their shared shoulder, and after a moment, the two got back to work.
Siblings-a-Fixin' 