If I Rebooted Tin Man

Chapter 2: GI: The Origin Of 'Good Morning, Sweetheart'

Glitch, being Glitch, is on a ramble about how he's a very nice sort of person.

Oh really?, says Cain, who is very tired of all the talking and is only half listening.

Yes!, Glitch insists, of course. He lists reasons why he's nice. Then he makes the mistake of saying that he'd even go so far as to call himself a sweetheart.

Cain snorts.

Well, I am nice!, Glitch continues to argue.

Whatever you say, Sweetheart, Cain says and walks off.

This annoys Glitch. Of course it annoys Glitch. He doesn't have much dignity but he did once and he knows that and of course this offends him.

So of course Cain keeps calling him it. Not all the time, he still has things like Zipperhead and headcase to snap at him, and sometimes convict when he's feeling particularly irritable. And Glitch, of course, if only because it's one of the few things he consistently responds to and it keeps him somewhat grounded. And then Ambrose eventually makes it into the mix, and well...

But everyone calls Glitch those things, or at least many people have called him all those things. But only Cain calls him Sweetheart.

Then he wakes up and he sees a face above him and he's frightened because he's not entirely sure who it is and he thinks he might've just been fighting someone before he was knocked out and–

"Good morning, Sweetheart."

—and then he knows it's Cain, because of course it's Cain.

Because only Cain calls him Sweetheart.