Axel and Silent walked towards Antonio's restaurant as Silent noticed Axel's eye kept flickering from blue to red. She knew that would be trouble for her if he started acting up at the diner. Hopefully, he didn't do anything crazy. "I gotta get in touch with Junior to fix you up," Silent mumbled.
Axel whined, nuzzling Silent's hand with affection. His tail wagged slowly, crouching down in a playful stance and bounding off down the road towards Antonio's.
Silent took off after him, yelling for him to slow down. Silent was fast, but today she felt super exhausted after spending the majority of last night trying to patch him up. She had no clue what she was doing because she's never messed with programs and parts before.
It wasn't a pretty sight to see Axel malfunction in the middle of repairing him, and he sorta wrecked one of the Duke's soon to be built cars. The Duke was not happy.
Once Silent reached the establishment, she caught her breath. "Goddammit, Axel, I'm tired! Please wait for me!" She felt Axel nudge her hand with his muzzle before nipping at her fingers harshly. She yelped, yanking her hand away. "Ow!" She looked down at her fingers to see they were slightly bleeding.
Axel barked at her, wagging his tail and crouching down in a playful stance again.
"Bad dog! That hurt!" Silent scolded him, wiping her fingers off on her jeans. Her fingers were still bleeding faintly so she settled for wrapping it up in her cloak for the time being. "We need to get you fixed up." She looked at him with a tired look. Maybe this happened when Crater threw him into a wall a few days ago.
Axel tilted his head, waiting for Silent to follow him into the diner. His long tail thumped on the ground patiently. He was sitting in the middle of the entrance of Antonio's Restaurant, scanning the area for a perfect booth to sit at.
There was a booth located right in the middle of two pillars that could fit him and Silent perfectly. It looked spotless, and it seemed like no one was gonna use it for a while. It was a pretty good choice.
Silent noticed him staring at something, "Axel, what're you doi-" she got cut off by Axel, who bit down on her sleeve and yanked her towards the booth. She stumbled, "Slow down!" She ordered, but he still kept on going. She dug her heels into the floor, trying to deter him from going any further.
Apparently, that action made him mad as he turned his head around, growling at Silent. His eye was beginning to glitch out again. He looked like he was going to pounce on Silent if she didn't do what he wanted.
Silent bit her lip and started walking towards the booth that Axel had picked out. She didn't want Axel to start a scene in the diner so she went along with his plans for now. Reaching the booth he had picked out for her, she sat down on one of the ends, letting Axel chew on her cloak's sleeve (at least he wasn't chewing on her arm).
"Hey what can I get- oh, it's you Silent." Riley waved at her. She looked down at Axel to notice that he was biting Silent's sleeve. His eye color was a bright red which reminded her of the original programming that Axel had. "Is... Is Axel alright?"
"No, he's been bugging out ever since Crater threw him against a wall. I'd advise you to stay away from him until he gets fixed. His mood changes a lot, and he's in a very bitey mood." Silent showed Riley her fingers. "I don't know what's wrong with him."
Axel heard his name being called, and he looked up from chewing on the sleeve. He spotted Riley, his eyes flickering to blur as his tail wagged in excitement. He went back to chewing.
Riley inched away from the dog, pulling out her notepad to take Silent's order. "So you want the usual?"
Silent looked at the menu for a moment, deciding to ask a question. "Do you guys have anything seafood related? Like just shrimp or squid or like fried fish sticks? I'm craving some seafood. Oh, and I want a vanilla milkshake!" She put the menu down, resting her chin on her hands. Looking around the restaurant, she noticed that it was busier than usual. "Is there an event happening right now? Why are there so many people here?"
Riley jotted down some things onto her notepad, "The Mama's Boys dropped by for a visit and a few people here are their fans, I guess. Those fans called other fans, and now it's swamped. I'm surprised you didn't notice your loverboy's car parked right outside. It's hard to miss with its design and color scheme."
Silent looked around the room to see that there were a lot of people crowding around certain tables which probably had some of the Mama's Boys at them. "Huh, didn't know they had fans considering the type of shit they do. I guess people like Junior even have fans." She tapped her fingers on the table. "Stop calling him my loverboy." She said bitterly.
Riley stood there, looking at the restaurant. "Ya know, Junior has a ton of fans. I was surprised to see him flirting with them. I was totally expecting him to get turned down, but I guess not."
Silent looked at Riley, "Wait, you mean he can flirt? You mean the short fuckboy can actually flirt?"
Riley snorted, "As I said, I was surprised too. Here watch this." Riley pulled up a video screen, pressing play.
The video started with Junior trying to flirt with one of the Amazons. Silent didn't know who it was because she's never met them before, but she guessed it was their leader. Soon Junior tried talking to her and for a while, she listened to him. Then she said something to him, and his face fell. It made Silent burst out laughing as Riley closed the video.
"Oh my god! She totally wrecked him! I've never met her before, but she just promised to snap his spine!" She held onto her stomach as her head rested on the table. "I would have paid to see this!"
Riley held onto her tray. "Dude, that's not even the best part! Like so after she said that to him, he looked at her and went 'please' in the tiniest voice ever. Silent, I lost my mind, I couldn't stop laughing."
Silent thought this day couldn't get any better. "Holy shit! Oh my god, don't tell me he has a thing for that? Wow, now I can totally use this against him whenever he tries to flirt with me again!" Silent had to move her mask to the side so she could wipe the tears from her face. Once she and Riley settled down, she took a deep breath. "I cannot believe he said that."
Riley stepped away from the booth, "Well he did, and I recorded it." She looked at Silent thoughtfully, placing her pen to her lips. "Say, are you and Junior still together?"
Silent's mask looked confused, "We were never together in the first place? Why are you asking?"
"I thought you two were dating! You both seem lovey-dovey with each other!" Riley gasped. "You guys would make a great couple! Hey, I can ask Junior if he wants to date you. He is at the Smoothie Bar." She pointed over behind her where Junior sat talking to his fans.
Silent sputtered, "No! Don't you dare! We are not lovers, and I highly doubt he likes me since he flirts with every person that shows him the slightest hint of attention."
"You sound like you're jealous."
"Riley, just go get my order."
"Alright, see ya in a few. Try not to get jealous of the fans keeping Junior from you!" Riley sprinted away from Silent's wrath.
Now that Silent was alone again, minus Axel who was still chewing on her sleeve, she had to think about why everyone assumed she and Junior were a couple. It made no sense! They were just friends is all and besides, Silent made no plans to date anyone when she arrived in Motorcity. It was actually a rule she had to follow whenever she went out on her hunting jobs. If she had fallen for someone and they felt the same eventually she would have to leave when she finished her hunts. With the amount of work she has, long-distance relationships don't last very long. Sure it does get lonely sometimes, but she can usually keep going by herself. And now, she has a robot dog to take care of.
She started thinking about what made Junior so interesting. There had to be something that drew her in, and she knows it's not his personality. Just because he was cute didn't mean she wanted to hold his hand and kiss his dumb face, right? Or like talk to him about random shit and listen to music together? That's what friends do, and they were friends. There were times she wanted to strangle him for his behavior of mistreating robots, and other times she wanted to just hold him close and— wait, hold the fuck up.
It dawned on Silent that she probably liked Junior more than a friend. She held her head in her hands. "This cannot be happening! There's no way in hell I have feelings for that loser! No! It's gotta be a misunderstanding, yeah!" She whispered to herself in denial. Maybe if she hit her head hard enough against the table, she could knock some sense into herself.
Silent jumped, looking up at whoever happened to witness her dismay. Turns out it was one of the Mama's Boys staring at her with a smirk on their face. She didn't know all of their names, except for Junior, so she struggled to try to come up with something.
This Mama's Boy had a bandage across his nose. His red cap was placed sideways on his head, covering his brown hair. He was a lot taller than Junior, well all of them were and built like an ox. He looked like he could snap Silent in half if he wanted to.
He noticed her struggling for his name. "My name's Chad. I'm pretty sure you know which gang I'm from." He stared down at her, glancing to the Houndbot by her feet. It looked like it was chewing on something, but Chad couldn't tell what. "Hey, your dogs got something in his mouth."
Silent sighed, "Yes, I'm aware. He's just chewing on my sleeve. He's kinda malfunctioning. I was gonna call your brother to fix him, but Junior hasn't been picking up any of my calls recently."
Chad laughed as he sat down on the opposite side of Silent. He put his hands behind his head. "Well, he's been pretty busy lately due to some unexpected business. Also, his fans won't give him some space since we've been here." He glanced back towards where Junior was at the Smoothie Bar being trapped by his fans.
Silent looked over there, spotting the shortie talking up a storm with the crowd around him. He looked like he was flirting due to how smug his face looked. Rolling her eyes, she began to mutter, "I still can't believe he has fans. He's too goddamn short to even reach the barstool without help."
Chad snickered, "You're right. I think he's got a box he uses to get on some things higher than him." Now that Chad was talking to Silent, he could now see who Junior was always hanging out with when they weren't working. He thought it was that kid who kept yelling his own name when he hit things, but it's a girl apparently. He thought it was strange because Juniors not been very popular with the ladies, except for those in his fan club. He decided to examine her more.
"He probably has a booster seat in his car."
Chad snorted and looked at the dog near his feet. "So how's the Houndbot doing? Since Junior gave him to you for some reason, I've been wondering if he gave it to you because it was bugged or something. Junior never really explained why."
"As I said before, I think he needs a tune-up. As you already know, I'm a fighter, not a mechanic so I have no idea how to fix him. None of the Duke's mechanics will take a look at him because they're afraid of us." Silent shrugged her shoulders.
Chad looked at the Silent for a moment, "Who could be afraid of you? You're so small." He joked before looking at the dog by his shoes. "I could take a look at him if you want."
"I thought you hated me? Why would you want to help me?" Silent asked. She didn't have a good relationship with the other Mama's Boys because she's never had the time to befriend them. She's only made friends with Junior because he's the only one to approach her again and again.
"Because you're not as bad as I previously thought. If you can handle Junior's shitty personality and behavior, then you're good in my book. I don't know about the others though." Chad answered back, leaning on the table.
Silent didn't know what to think. She personally would rather have Junior look at Axel, but he's busy at the moment. She looked at Axel, contemplating her answer before nodding her head. She glanced at Chad to see he was being honest with her. "Ok, please fix Axel. You better not fuck him up or I will personally come after you."
Axel stirred upon hearing his name, and he looked at the man kneeling beside him. His eye changed to red, growling at him.
Silent leaned over and rested her hand on his head, stroking him softly. "No Axel, it's ok. He's not going to hurt you, he's going to try and fix you up." Her voice soothed Axel's nerves as he dropped his guard. "Good boy."
Chad whistled, "Damn, I can see why Junior let you have him. You can control him with just your voice." He began to open up Axel's side panel and took a look at the components inside. "So, what's he been doing that's causing you trouble?"
Silent stretched out in her seat, "He's gotten very hostile towards everyone, even me. He's been snapping at everyone, and I'm tired of getting chomped on. It hurts." She showed Chad her arm which was covered in bites. Her fingers stopped bleeding thankfully.
"Oh, that must suck. I've been bitten by Houndbots before, and it stings like a bitch. Considering Axel is rather large for his size and mutated, his bites must be extra painful." Chad inspected her arm for a moment before returning to the task at hand. He opened up some screens to take a look at some programming. Scanning through the stats and diagnostics, he found the problem. "I think his programming is trying to revert itself to its original state, ya know like before we took out Kane's programming. I can try to disable it." He announced, taking a look at Silent to see her holding a milkshake in her hands. "Where'd you get that?"
"I ordered it. I was supposed to get some seafood with it, but there's been a problem with my order so this is all I get." She replied, lifting her mask so she could take a sip.
Silent stuck her tongue out, "it's mine. If you can fix Axel for me, I'll buy you one." She spotted Riley wiggling her eyebrows from behind a pillar that was next to their booth. Silent glared at her for making assumptions about something happening between herself and Chad.
And now Chad could see why Junior was so smitten by Silent; even if it was just a small portion of her face exposed, Chad could tell that Silent was kinda cute. Apparently Junior had seen half of Silent's face, and he was hit by Cupid's arrow right through the heart. Chad smiled, "You know, I can understand why Junior talks a lot about you now. He thinks you're pretty cute, and now that I can see what you kinda look like, I totally agree." He bluntly stated, trying to fix the dog's programming. He greatly enjoyed the noise that Silent made when he made his statement.
Riley started snickering behind her tray.
Silent's face felt warm as she pulled down her mask and hid herself in her hands. "Please don't hit on me! I deal with this enough from Junior!"
Chad snickered. He couldn't believe that Junior had the gall to flirt with the Duke's bodyguard. The same bodyguard that kicked their asses the first time they met her. "I'm surprised he hasn't tried to ask you out on a date yet like he's done so with many other people." He clicked on some commands and closed the panel back up. "Alright, he's been fixed. If he starts acting funny, don't hesitate to call." He sat back across from Silent.
Silent looked down at Axel's eye, seeing it was a bright blue color again. She smiled in relief, leaning down to pat his head. "Thank you! Now as promised, I'll get you a milkshake." She looked at Riley, who nodded and walked off.
"So what caused Axel to malfunction? He's a pretty sturdy bot so it would have to take a large force to mess him up." Chad asked, watching Silent as she sipped on her milkshake. By this time, Silent had officially moved her mask to the side of her face (it was still covering half of her face though) so she could drink the milkshake in peace without having to readjust it constantly.
Silent blew a bubble into her milkshake, watching as it formed a bubble and popped. "Crater threw him against a building, and I guess it broke something from the impact." Silent shrugged.
"Man, Crater sure does hate you. I've never seen him actively go after someone other than you before. Well, there is Squall from the FoxFyre gang, but he doesn't go out of his way to attack him as he does with you. What did you do to piss him off?" Chad asked, glancing around the establishment to keep his mind occupied.
"I think it's because I beat his ass. You saw it happen." Silent replied. "Apparently his whole gang wants me dead except a certain redhead." She took another sip of her drink again.
Chad nodded. So she's made friends with the redhead from the Electroblades... that could prove troublesome for Junior. He was still trying to figure her out. He could see why his brother liked her. She didn't push him away like most of the people he's flirted with. Maybe she felt the same towards Junior but didn't know how to show it? "Huh.."
Silent looked at him, confusion etched on her face. "What?"
"Juniors really fell hard for you, and I have to agree that you're something special." He placed his hands on the table, leaning across it. He softly chuckled, seeing her hide her face behind her mask. "Your mask is telling me how you're feeling, you can't hide it." He pointed out.
Silent hissed. "Stop calling me cute! You haven't even seen what I look like, you've seen like part of my face. It doesn't count!" She crossed her arms and looked away from him.
Chad sat back down in his seat. "Well from what I've seen, you're very pretty. I would like to know what you look like from underneath the mask though. Maybe one day..." he trailed off. Thinking back to what Silent had said before Chad had introduced himself, everything clicked into place. "I get it now."
"What you were talking about earlier before I arrived." He crossed his arms, nodding to himself. "You like Junior."
Silent's voice caught in her throat. She bit her lip to contain all the noises that wanted to spill out from her mouth. "Why does everyone keep saying that?! I swear to god I do not like him. There'll never be a chance in hell. Y'all just imagining it."
Chad raised a brow at her statement, "Ya sure?"
"Yeah totally. It's never gonna happen."
"Well, that's a shame. He's very fond of you." Chad stated, glancing over to the Smoothie Bar to see Junior making his way over to their table.
"He flirts with anyone he can. I doubt it, Chad. Here watch this video that my friend sent me." Silent pulled up a video screen and pushed it over to Chad, who pressed play. "He spends his time flirting with Foxy so I don't believe he likes me like you think he does." She said as he watched the video, snickering at the end of it and closing the screen. Silent moved her mask to the side again so she could take a sip of her milkshake.
"Well, I do admit that he does flirt with Foxy a lot, but he doesn't stare at her the same way he stares at you. He's head over heels in love with you." Chad stretched his arms above him. "Sounds like you're jealous of Foxy too."
"No, I've never met Foxy before. Why would I be jealous?" She rolled her eyes.
Junior had noticed one of his brothers was missing from their little hangout by the Smoothie Bar. He looked around for Chad, spotting him at a booth with some girl. "Well, would you look at that? Chads got himself a girl." He laughed.
The other members of the gang looked where Junior had pointed and started cackling. One of them (the one with the glasses and teddy bear in his overall's front pouch) leaned in close to Junior and whispered something in his ear.
Junior's carefree expression faltered. "Are you sure?" He looked at his brother in annoyance.
Junior grumbled, jumping off the barstool and headed on over to meet up with Chad. As Junior walked past random people, he spotted a familiar-looking Houndbot resting beside the booth his brother was at. He recognized it as Silent's dog.
The Houndbot stirred awake when something got too close to its territory. Once Axel recognized who it was, his tail started wagging.
Junior put his finger up to his mouth to shush the dog, hoping Axel would understand him. Thankfully, he did. He walked closer to them and found out the girl indeed was Silent herself. He noticed her mask was on the side of her face, allowing her to drink her milkshake. She looked very pretty— wait a minute.
Junior stopped dead in his tracks for a moment to process the thought that he just had. Well yeah, she is pretty, but he usually never went after the same girl for this long. He usually got bored and went after a new target. But for some reason, he liked to tease Silent. Liked getting her flustered, liked hearing her laugh, liked her voice, her personality... he just liked everything about her. Oh hell no, he had fallen in love!
"Pardon me," A waitress said and pushed past him to deliver a drink to their booth. She set it down in front of Chad.
Junior's face felt warm, and he shook his head to get rid of the thoughts plaguing his mind. "I do not have a crush!" He repeated over and over again under his breath. He walked right over to their booth and slammed his hands on the table, catching their attention. "Well, what do we have here? You guys on a date?"
Silent jumped at the sudden noise, banging her knee underneath the table. She glared at Junior while holding her knee. "You asshat! That hurts!"
Chad slurped on his drink, avoiding eye contact with his brother. If this was gonna play out like Chad wanted it to, he had to avoid pissing off his brother at all costs.
Junior snickered, glancing at Chad who wouldn't look him in the eyes.
"We're not on a date. We're just talking." Silent replied.
Silent remembered what Chad had said to her, and she looked to the side. She was probably blushing, but she couldn't help it. "Nothing, go away fuckboy."
Chad choked on his drink and started laughing. "She—she just called you a fuckboy!" He held his stomach as he laughed.
"Shut up!" He snapped at Chad while bringing his attention to Silent. He leaned closer to her, smelling the scent of vanilla that came from her milkshake. "I'm not a fuckboy."
Silent smiled mischievously, "oh that's right. You can't be one if you've never fucked anyone. My bad, I forgot." She leaned back to avoid getting punched in the face.
Chad laughed even harder now, gripping the table for support. "Holy shit, she got you good!" He was going to get in so much trouble for this, but it was absolutely worth it.
Junior growled, grabbing Silent by the front of her cloak. "Shut up!"
"Aww, are you mad because I called you out? It's ok, not everyone can get laid. Don't feel bad about yours—" Silent got cut off when Junior punched the seat cushion beside her. Yeah ok, he was pissed off now, maybe she should stop before it was too late. She held up her hands in a defensive stance. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry."
Junior gave her a death glare, "You better sorry. I would not hesitate to punch you." He threatened.
"Hey, no need for violence. She was just joking. Take it easy." Chad recovered from his laughing fit and stood up to stop Junior if he needed to. He could hear Axel’s low growling.
Junior cursed, lowering Silent back down into the booth. He let her go and crossed his arms. "Whatever."
Silent looked to the side and scooted to the middle of the booth in case Junior wanted to sit down.
Chad looked between Silent and Junior, sighing in annoyance. "Hey let's not let this sexual tension get everything weird, talk it out." He just opened up another issue.
Silent glared at Chad. She knew what he was doing, and there was no way in hell she would allow it to come to light. Her feelings that is, she wouldn't allow Chad to reveal her feelings for Junior. "Shut up, Chad."
Chad smirked, "Why don't you tell him? It's a perfect time to."
Junior looked back and forth from Chad to Silent in confusion. "Tell me what?" Junior had sat down on the edge of the booth.
"It's nothing." Silent replied, having a staring contest with Chad.
"I'm sure Junior would like to hear it."
Junior groaned, "For fuck's sake, just tell me!"
"Silent has the hots for you!" Riley blurted out; soon covering her mouth with her hand and fleeing the booth.
