The Bond

Ch 89

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

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

=o^o=

Lucy glanced at the room she was about to pass, the half-open door revealed an animatronic standing in the corner of the room. The girl then went quickly to the backyard, she found Michael sitting under a big tree scribbling something on a book in his lap.

"Oh hey, Lu," Michael greeted as she approached, he smiled widely and gave a small wave.

"It's Ennard's third day of recharging, is he okay?" she asked, unable to hide the worry in her words. Lucy glanced at the house again a few times.

Michael nodded, his attention drifting to the page again. "He's fine," Michael replied. "After all, he was also deactivated for almost two weeks, at that time we also met."

She looked at Michael with interest. "Really?"

"Yep."

"You said he left you several times."

"Yeah, just for two days." Michael gave Lucy a bored look. "After that he came back again, when I woke up I found him damaging the ceiling of my house."

Lucy raised both eyebrows, but she wasn't surprised to hear that. "You guys are fine now? Since when?"

"Three days ago," Michael replied casually, his shoulders shrugged nonchalantly and he smiled broadly at Lucy, he didn't say anything else before continuing his sketch in an abandoned book he found in the house's shed. "I really like him."

"Duh." Lucy rolled her eyes, she pulled the book in Michael's lap—it shocked Michael a little—and opened every page of the book. They were all sketches of the same object; Ennard. "You're obsessed," Lucy said, returning the book to the man who grabbed it with a red face. "Either obsession or a crush, it's a thin line in your case."

Michael felt his cheeks burn briefly, he hid half of his face with the book. "I don't know, I feel like I like him," Michael said slowly, his gaze turned to the left. "But he killed me, so this feeling is really hard to pin down. I'm not sure."

The girl's eyebrows knit at that, she patted Michael's shoulder. "Let time tell," Lucy said, smiling warmly at Michael.

Michael slowly smiled. "Five years I hated him, and now I act like a teenager in love." Michael laughed, before he resumed his sketching. "It seems there really is something wrong with my brain—liking my own killer? It doesn't make sense, but here I am, being in dilemma with my own feelings."

"Sometimes things come out of sudden, not planned at all," Lucy chimed in while playing with the ends of the grass near her. "That person is always someone we never expect."

"Is he even a human?"

"On second thought, it seems that there really is something wrong with your brain."

He pouted. "I'm weak to affection."

"He insults you every chance he gets!"

"But he never left." Michael stared intently at the sketch in his lap. "His words always hurt me when we hated each other, but he never left, then things changed after those scientists. I don't know why, over time he also ... changed more and more." Michael bent his knees and pressed them to his chest. "Ennard probably rude and annoying, but his behavior is the opposite of what he says." Amused laughter left Michael's mouth, he smiled at Lucy. "He doesn't realize it, but he cares."

For a moment Lucy was stunned. "You really like him."

"And it feels wrong," Michael said languidly, wiping his face in exasperation. "He's an animatronic, he's just my father's artificial intelligence, he murdered me. A lot of things went wrong here, but I couldn't think rationally, it feels like I'm stuck—stopped at a fork. I don't know what to choose, my heart or my logic?"

"That's a choice you have to make without the interference of others." Lucy patted the top of Michael's head. "Also—"

The sound of something falling caught their attention. They both stared at each other for a moment confused, the voice came from inside the house. Michael stood up and without thinking he immediately shot to the source of the sound, Lucy followed him from behind. He opened the back door quickly, then stopped where he saw broken vases scattered on the floor, a small table toppled over, Ennard groaned in pain.

"Enn? You are okay?" Michael asked—he had said the animatronics would be fine, but now he took that back. He approached Ennard carefully so as not to step on the shards of the vase. "Enn?"

"Vase—stupid fucking vase, who put it here? Damn it." Was the first thing Ennard said.

Michael raised both eyebrows. "That vase was always there since we lived here. What happened to you, that's the question." He chuckled, unable to imagine the red-haired man walking unsteadily until he hit the table.

Ennard stared at Michael for a moment. "My head hurts."

Lucy replied. "You don't see your hands are worse than your head?"

Ennard looked down at his bloody hands. "Oh."

"Come on, I'll treat it." Michael didn't wait for Ennard's response, he grabbed Ennard's wrist to go from there to the bathroom. "Lucy can you clean this up?"

"Sure, Mike."

"I don't need your help, Benedict."

"Yeah sure."

Lucy looked at the two of them who continued to argue a little towards the bathroom and sweatdropped. Ennard kept saying he didn't need the eldest Afton's help, but he didn't let go of Michael's hold on his hand; Michael was right, Ennard's behavior was the opposite of what he said.