The Bond

Ch 57

"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind

"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind

=o^o=

The two of them had no choice but to spend the night at Lucy's house after the earthquake finished, the hospital staff who carried Mary into the ambulance telling them that it was better to stay together in this situation. Incidentally Lucy's house is the closest to the supermarket.

Lucy's apartment was actually not that much of a mess, things were on the floor and some plates and glasses were broken.

"Sorry, it's such a mess," Lucy said guiltily.

"It was understandable, after all, it was an earthquake," Michael replied, waving his hand as if he didn't mind at all, while Ennard merely frowned at the pile of books in the corner of the room. "Are you going to the hospital?"

"Yes, I have to check on Mary's condition." Lucy nodded, tucking her leather coat tightly. "But not for long. You can use my bathroom, and the guest room is next to mine," Lucy said as she tied her hair.

Michael thanked her for a moment, Ennard was still busy looking around. "Considering the earthquake earlier, is there any chance that the supermarket would need help rearranging things?" Michael asked with interest, approaching Lucy with a wide grin.

The girl just laughed. "I guess so," Lucy answered, Michael quietly cheering. Even so Lucy seemed to know Michael's intention. "I'll go now, okay! I'll be home soon!"

"Be careful," Michael replied to Lucy, causing Lucy to nod for the second time.

Lucy's footsteps could be heard moving away after Lucy closed the apartment door tightly, Michael waited for the sound of the footsteps to completely disappear. Moments later, Michael turned to face Ennard—the animatronic was now watching Lucy's earthquake-safe aquarium with fixed eyes, watching the fish swimming.

"It's called a fish."

"I'm aware I'm insightful, Benedict."

"Who knows." Michael laughed for a while, he sat on the single sofa nearby and watched Ennard with a wide smile. "Besides, I didn't think there would be any information about fish in your program."

Ennard let out a small breath and turned to Michael, then folded his arms over his chest. "Your father incorporated general knowledge into my program, and over time since I was also his experimenter for Artificial Intelligence just like the other Funtimes, I developed my own knowledge."

"AI? Then can you be said to be the brother of the HandUnit?"

"I don't know why your mind is so shallow."

"Unpredictable," Michael corrected Ennard with a grin, Ennard rolled his eyes in boredom and not amused at all. "So that's why you act like a human, not like a normal robot."

"Even though you're basically right you still have shallow mind."

Michael shrugged his shoulders, indifferent to what Ennard had told him. "You're so cocky for an AI."

"Tell me things I don't know."

"You like me."

"I don't—" Ennard's face immediately flushed red as he cut off his words, staring at Michael who was attaching a sweet smile to him with a look of disbelief. "I don't like you!"

"I'm telling you things you don't know, and you don't know that you actually like me." Michael was getting more and more flirtatious, and Ennard's cheeks were like ripe tomatoes at this point.

"You—you idiot!" Ennard rebuked angrily, he approached Michael only to grab the eldest Afton by the collar. "I don't like you at all! You're so annoying and self-absorbed, and your stupidity can't be helped! I will never like you, in fact I hate you!"

The brown-haired man didn't care at all, he looked very relaxed. "Yeah sure, Enn."

"Ennard."

"Enn."

"You fucking moron."

"It seems that today you cursed at me a lot, even though there was an earthquake."

Ennard violently released his grip from Michael's collar, sending Michael backwards until his back hit the head of the sofa. "Do I look like I care?"

"Nope."

"Good."

Michael chuckled, before plastering another wide, weird smile on his face looking at Ennard who had turned away.