The Bond

Ch 76

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

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

=o^o=

"You know what I miss about my ugly home?"

"Your self-esteem that was left here?"

"I don't even have it."

Ennard held back his laughter so it wouldn't come out hearing Michael's relaxed reply when they checked every side of Michael's house. Normally the short man would get angry if he said that in response to him, but now it was rare and Michael was just adapting to his sassy attitude—he found it interesting in the midst of Michael's drastic changes.

Michael raised both eyebrows and looked at the cracked wall. "You threw Mark in here," he said, pointing at the wall.

"Mhm, you have a problem with it?"

The eldest Afton just shrugged. He remembered being angry when he heard Ennard do that to Mark before Ennard took him out of town, but this time Michael didn't think too much about it anymore. Mark deserved it. "Probably what I miss most here ..." Michael trailed off, his fingers tracing the dusty surface of the shelf as he stepped over to the table where he used to assemble the endoskeleton. "The rude Ennard."

The animatronic stopped walking and tilted his head at the words, he was confused. "Pardon?" He frowned. "Am I not that rude now for you?"

"Compared to before," Michael replied as he tapped the tip of his index finger to his lower lip. "Somehow the scale is different." he chuckled. "You used to be so annoying, you were rude as my enemy!" The man nodded slightly as if convinced by his words. "Now, we're friends, so I don't mind too much."

Michael's broad smile silenced Ennard for a few minutes. Ennard was grateful he was in his animatronic form now, or he didn't know what would have happened if he had been in his human form. Ennard snorted. "You're so stupid. I still don't understand your way of thinking, I killed you and you consider me a friend."

"See! You've turned into me!" Michael laughed loudly, while Ennard had no idea what Michael meant. "You used to be so fussy when I blamed myself about Evan and then lectured me about being the killer and now you're the one doing it."

"I'm not—" Ennard felt his engine whirr and he took an uncomfortable step back, he was flabbergasted. "I don't blame myself for killing you—no!" he exclaimed. "You're taking my words wrongly!"

"'We are both killers, what makes us different? You and your brother were both killed, so what makes the two of you different?' I still remember what you said at that time, it was so sweet." Michael giggled, looking at Ennard who was still frozen in place with exasperation. Then he lowered his gaze as the corners of his lips lifted upwards. "Taking your words wrongly or not," Michael said quietly, his gaze warm as he raised his head again to meet the animatronic's gaze. Michael's smile was wide, full of delight. "You've changed, Enn."

Ennard said nothing at all, just silent where he stood. It was difficult to explain what vague expression he was currently showing behind his white mask. Michael still maintained that meaningful smile, before he raised an eyebrow to see Ennard finally move to lower his head slightly with his robotic eyes rolling the other way. It was as if he was embarrassed and looked away.

Michael laughed, he walked over to Ennard. "You also made me change my view of the tragedy, a bit. I'm not so ... scared anymore." Michael's voice trailed off at the end of his sentence, but the smile still lingered on his face. "It seems I owe you for that." Then a grin appeared, Michael stood on his tiptoes to pat Ennard's iron shoulder—remembering that Ennard was too high in his animatronic form made Michael suffer himself. "I can't touch your head so change your form!"

"Why would I do that for you?" Ennard backed away from him as he slapped his hand hard. "Whatever, I'll just recharge."

Michael watched Ennard leave the room, he smiled amusedly. Ennard would probably use his room to charge so he decided to leave Ennard alone.

They had planned to visit Lucy in the afternoon, but it seemed he would have to go without Ennard considering how long Ennard recharging himself—they had been awake from yesterday until now, not to mention just running away from the scientists at two in the morning. So, Michael understood that Ennard needed rest too, after all he kinda fell asleep for a while. Michael smiled a little and took a step out of the living room, his feet took him down the hall and he stopped in front of the closed bedroom door.

At first, doubts took over, but he tried to muster up the courage. He turned the doorknob slowly, then he was silent long after the door was fully open. Michael gulped, glanced the other way slightly with his eyebrows knit, and he stepped inside before stopping in front of the bed.

Michael crouched down, his hand reached for the red fox mask which now looked dull.

Painful memories.