History Shows Again and Again

Chapter 26

January 3rd, 2021

"Nice bracelet."

Zeek looked up from his spot on the bench, phone in hand and thumb paused in mid-scroll. Ren was standing beside the bench, obviously peering down at the said bracelet. They hadn't seen each other since before Christmas, mostly because Zeek had Mark and Madison over and Ren was busy at his job at the APEX faculty.

"My niece- well, someone who I see as a niece- handmade this for me for Christmas. Speaking of, how was your Christmas and New Year's?"

"It was fine. Had to work through those days but it's something I'm used to."

Zeek forced himself not to comment on that as to not say the wrong thing and turn everything unpleasant between them, even though that was a slim chance.

"Although..." Ren suddenly continued. "I did end up getting you something for Christmas."

"You didn't have to get me anything, you know."

Ren shrugged. "I know, but I wanted to."

The man held out a hand in a fist and Zeek raised a hand, palm up, and stopped under the fist. He watched as the fist uncurled, making two small objects fall into his and he pulled his hand back to look at it. What he saw made him burst out laughing.

Sitting in his hand were two, little keychains. One was clearly of Mothra in her adult form, chibified to make her look cuter. Seeing it sparked an idea of what to give the twins the next time he saw them.

The second keychain was a chibified Godzilla.

"Oh my god." he caught his breath. "Where did you– actually, don't answer that in case you instantly got me hooked on collecting these. I love them."

"I was thinking about getting you a new notebook...but I saw things and figured that you already have spare notebooks laying around."

"You'd be correct about that." He smiled before slipping his keys out of his pocket and began to put the two keychains on. "There."

Zeek slipped the keys back into his pocket before looking up at Ren once more.

"No theories today?" he asked as soon as he noted the other's missing notebooks.

"Nah, I decided to take a break and read for a change."

"Oh? What are you reading?"

Zeek held up his book so the other could see the cover; a hand was hanging out of a blanket with the name 'Stephen King' at the top in big, golden letters and the words 'Night Shift' below the hand.

"I would never have painted you to be a horror reader."

Zeek shrugged. "I like to mix things up a bit. Besides, this is my favorite Short Story Collection from him so far. 'Trucks' and 'One for the Road' are definitely my favorite out of these."

"I've never read them."

"...I got a few if you wanna borrow any."

"Hm... I suppose. I've been meaning to expand my reading past research papers and the like."

"You do not read only research papers." Zeek snorted before he paused. "...Do you?"

Ren just let out a small hum in response, making Zeek squint at him.

"...You might be a bigger nerd than me."

The man in black snorted. "No one's a bigger nerd than you."

Zeek made a show of going back to reading, causing the other to chuckle at his antics.