It had been a few days since Doctor Walters transferred to his new workplace: A highly-classified research outpost that linked weapons otherwise too dangerous to handle with armor countering it. He had mixed feelings on leaving the CAPT Project. Yet he was excited to work on a project with tangible results.
His new coworkers seemed far more responsible and, frankly, more cordial than the ones he left behind. But getting to know them would have to wait. He wanted to maximize his time with Freddy before they went from seeing each other daily to only having a few chances to visit him a year. (If that.) And Glorn knew how good he was at socializing without him around.
When Freddy suggested taking a walk to explore the planet Teddy happily accepted. Even if Cathy wasn’t coming along because she wasn’t interested in “a bunch of boring rocks.” Even if they didn’t know how far the security cameras reached.
Once they were out of earshot Freddy rubbed the back of his head as he said, “Y’know, you and Cathy care about each other more than either of you would like to admit.”
Teddy stared at Freddy in stunned shock. After a moment he scoffed and said, “Where’d this come from?”
Freddy chose to ignore his brother's tone. “She kept asking about you.”
Teddy rolled his eye. “Why? Because she wanted to make sure she didn’t have to see me again?”
“Teddy..,” Freddy growled as he clenched his fists before throwing his hands up in frustration. “Grop! No! Because your life is a-!” He stopped himself by pressing his hand against his face.
Teddy’s eye fully widened when Freddy yelled. Then his shoulders sunk and he averted his eye as he meekly waited for Freddy to continue.
Freddy took a long, deep breath to settle himself. “Because you just keep…” His hands flailed as he struggled to find the words. There was no polite way to convey how worrisome Teddy’s life had become.
After a bit he asked, “...Hey, remember when you said she was like the sister you never had?”
Teddy awkwardly rubbed his arm. “...You know I didn’t mean it in a nice way…”
“Still… do you think she would’ve offered to guard you if she didn’t care about you?”
“I mean… she wants to be with you so..?”
“Okay, so, I was trying to ease you into it but…” Freddy stopped and rubbed his head. “I gotta go back to vent maintenance. Nobody else will go in.”
Teddy nodded. He knew that. Was he implying what he thought he was?
“Cathy’s working on getting a security job here.”
“Wait, really!? Even if-”
Freddy warmly smiled. “Even if we’ll be apart.”
Teddy had trouble wrapping his head around it. They had become just as inseparable as Teddy was to Freddy. She was willing to stay behind? For him? And how did Freddy feel about parting with both of them at once?
Somehow, the prospect of being stuck with her wasn’t as bad as he thought. It actually made him feel safer. He averted his eye as he hesitantly said, “I suppose it won’t be too bad.”
Freddy leaned over to get a better look at his brother’s expression and smirked. It was funny how they were honest about their feelings with anyone but each other. (When it wasn't aggravating.)
“Just try to get along, huh?” Freddy started to walk again.
Teddy trailed behind Freddy. “I’ll try…”
“Good!” So…” He pointed at a rock located near the edge of what they could see over the heavily-curved horizon. “Wanna race to that rock?”
“You’re on!”
They counted down together before dashing towards it. Neither of them realized that they had gone beyond the furthest security camera's range.
(Previous)
Norman was the first to hear and see Freddy happily wave at the two as he continued to comfort his partner. And it wasn't long until Larry noticed too after Norman tapped on his shoulder and motioned his head up towards the watchdog on one of the cots.
Seeing his closest friend seemingly just fine from a distance was a massive relief for Larry. When he received the message Norman sent to him a few minutes ago, he immediately assumed the worst happened and rushed to the medbay as fast as he could without reading any further than "meet me at the medbay".
..And, well, it wasn't like seeing an injured Freddy on a cot was the best outcome, but he was never this extremely thankful about being so darn wrong, as he could never imagine a world where he was right about his first initial thoughts upon receiving Norman's message.
Once Larry had noticeably calmed down a bit, Norman slowly let himself go from their embrace and extended his hand out to the tall janitor. "Feel free to hold onto my hand if ya need to." To which Larry silently obliged, as he was still quite stressed out about this whole situation.
After a quick and loving peck on the cheek from Norman, the two began making their way over to Freddy's cot, where both him and Cathy waited for them.
"Sorry we took a bit," Norman chuckled a little before he turned to Freddy with a small, relieved smile. "But we're so glad to see that you're okay." Larry nodded along, his eye still visibly wet as he added,
"I..I could've sworn I wouldn't be able to see you again.."
Freddy brightly grinned at Larry. “Good thing you didn’t see the state I was in earlier!”
“Yeah!” Cathy whistled. “You were a mess!”
Freddy picked up on their unease and shifted topics. “Anyways, I’ll be fine after staying in here for awhile. Just lost a kidney. But I never needed it anyways.” He awkwardly chuckled before speaking again.
“So how have you two been? Anything interesting happen?”
(Previous)
Larry hesitantly smiled back at Freddy, trying his best to remain positive, but deep down: he was still extremely worried about him. And he very much did not appreciate the tone of both Freddy and Cathy's voice when they mentioned his previous and much worse condition.
"Yeesh.." Norman cringed slightly after Freddy brought up his injury. Though, if he insisted he didn't need his kidney, then he shouldn't be too worried. After all, he knew Freddy was quite resilient. So surely losing a kidney wouldn't be too much of a hindrance for him..
"Thank grop you only lost a kidney," He then added. "I couldn't imagine seeing you in a much horrible state than the one you're in right now."
When Freddy shifted to talking about how Norman and Larry were doing, Norman spoke up first:
"Ehh, not really," He shrugged as he shoved his unoccupied hand into his pocket. "Aside from us worrying about you guys, these past few days have been mostly uneventful, haha." Larry chuckled a little alongside Norman, but it was getting more obvious that he was uncomfortable by the way he tightened his grip on his partner's hand.
Cathy didn’t get why Larry and Norman got so worked up just because they didn’t see them for a few days. They’re adults. Things happen. And as far as they knew they could’ve randomly decided to go get takeout for a few days. Why bother letting everyone know?
Freddy, on the other hand, was better at both reading and understanding people. His smile faded as they contradicted his belief that they’d be better off not knowing what happened to him until they knew that he would make it through.
After a long moment of dead silence he slumped and let out a heavy sigh. Then he turned to his wife, who looked like she was about to put her foot in her mouth. “Could you please check on Teddy?”
Cathy was smart enough to know that he was trying to shoo her away. Fortunately, she had been waiting for a chance to leave. “Like, sure, I’ll send another pic of him in the same spot I left him.” She lightheartedly rolled her eye as she made her way out from next to the bed. Then she gave him one last wave before heading out.
Once Cathy was gone Freddy looked to Norman, then Larry. “Please don't blame Teddy and Cathy,” he said with another sigh. “I..,” He rubbed his head while finding his words. “...well, they were wrecks when I woke up...”
Then he nervously shrugged while fidgeting with his blanket. “And they knew that I’d rather not have all my friends crowding around to see if I’d make it through...”
(Previous)
"I..I hope so.. Seeing Norman alive is enough for me to be happy." He stuttered out and smiled after another few seconds of silence and thinking to himself, grabbed his friends hand in the process, and lifted himself up.
Larry rubbed his eye as he looked around the messy food court, just realizing the huge mess that was made.
"..Hey, how long has the food court been like this..?"
This time Freddy's smile was genuine as he helped Larry to his feet.
When Larry asked about the food court Freddy grimaced as he looked around. Earlier he hadn't gotten a chance to study his surroundings before he heard Larry but it was... pretty bad, wasn't it?
No wonder Cathy landed herself in hot water. Did the news say when she ran in?
After a long pause Freddy said, "...Dunno. It was pretty normal when I had dinner... and I'm pretty sure that was around five."
(Previous)
Thomas waited out the line for his tofu burger, then got in the equally-long line for his coffee. Once his lunch was obtained he did a quick scan-around for Theodore. He couldn’t immediately spot him, so he made a break for his lonely little corner table in the back of the court.
He sat down with relief, yet sunk a bit too. Of all days, he really wished Clay were here. He thought maybe sitting next to and chatting with someone would deter Theodore from bugging him more. But not wanting to dwell on it, he took a bite of his burger and smiled. He loved tofu!
After Theodore got his smoothie he looked around and groaned when he spotted Thomas near the back of the coffee line. So much for that plan...
Teddy ended up eating his wrap with Freddy and Irene while waiting for Thomas. And, as luck would have it, his beloved sister-in-law joined them soon after Thomas headed off to find a table. Once he saw Cathy he bickered with her about taking a bite from his muffin at breakfast. Then Teddy declared that he wouldn't risk his smoothie around a selfish, disgusting jerk before storming off, briefly returning to casually tell Freddy that he'll be busy during dinner, and storming off again.
This spat, along with Teddy's departure, would have happened anyways. Yet today it was a blessed excuse to break from his usual routine without question.
Theodore headed in the same general direction Thomas had and scanned the crowd for him. Once he found him tucked away in the back he sat next to him and sighed.
"I know I can be rather... off-putting," As Theodore spoke he averted his eye and awkwardly rubbed his head. Then he gripped his chair and took a deep breath to prepare himself for a difficult conversation.
"...So I promise to stay away for good if you hear me out."
(Previous)
Bert smiled wide and proud.
“Sure has. One of my favorite times was when,” he paused to chuckle, “…when I had dinner with Chef Quincy and Percy, and after Percy stabbed me and ran off, Sherri Jr chased after him. I was pretty scared for her at first, but when I found her she was gnawing on his stupid hat! She must have got him good! Ghehehehe!”
He hugged his rat.
Ah, Sherri remembered that too, back when she was small. What a scary moment… She was very happy to hear that her father was proud of her for attacking that scary horrible guy. She gave a happy squeak in his embrace.
Teddy laughed along with Bert. “I wish I got to see that!”
It was a good thing that his strange, muffled laugh meant that it aggravated his lungs far less than it could have. And that it was indistinguishable from a few soft, pained hisses mixed in anyways.
Once his laughing fit died down he decided to transfer the ice pack to his left hand to free up his right. When that went well he took out an orange prescription pill container, pushed it against his thigh to bypass the “childproofing” mechanism, and flicked the cap onto his lap.
Teddy smiled at Sherri Jr. as he put it face down on the table and lifted it to reveal a neat pile of honey almonds. Then he cooed,
“A brave girl deserves a special treat~!” He considered telling her that it was too dangerous to do it again before looking at Bert.
...Nah, the last thing he wanted to do was bring the mood back down. Instead Teddy scooped up the almonds and held them up to Sherri before she tried to leave Bert for them, and said with a sly smirk,
“Perhaps you should thank Cathy for strengthening your guard rat.”
