The Scientist - merome

Chapter Four

With a shaky hand, Mitch opened the door.

Jerome hurriedly got out and flung himself at the benja, who let out a cry as he was tackled on the ground. The used-to-be bacca held him tight, keeping back tears.

"I-I'm sorry...I missed you so much." Jerome's voice caught in his throat, and he let go of Mitch. He rolled to his back so he could sit up.

The bajan's face was red as a beet, seeing he was hugged by a very...attractive man that could possibly be his missing best friend. He cleared his throat. "I-It's fine, I guess..."

Sky could see Mitch's flustered state, so he decided to help the poor man. "So, you're Jerome? Just...Hairless?"

Fluffy barked out a laugh. "Nah, they changed me into a human. If I was hairless, I would look like a naked mole rat." Sky cracked a grin at that.

"Okay, I believe you. Only Jerome would say something like that."

Mitch looked a  bit miffed. "I still don't believe you. Tell me something that Jerome would only know." The chocolate haired man scowled as he thought.

"At night, you take Betty out of her case and stroke her blade while murmuring 'My precious..' under your breath."

Adam snickered at this, while the statement made Mitch's face flush again.

"Okay, I believe you." Once the sense of betrayal faded away, there was a feeling of euphoria at finding his friend. He missed his cocky little attitude and his jokes.

"Aw, biggums.." Jerome reached for his friend and hugged him, and it was only then that the Bajan realized he was crying. He latched onto the new human while his body shook with sobs.

"I never gave up on looking for you, I woke and went to sleep wondering where you are...I kept your room clean. I still made your favorite breakfast every morning hoping you would come down the stairs like you always did. I missed you so much."

Jerome was touched by Mitch's proclamation, and he even had teared up as he held his friend closer. "I'll never leave you again, I promise." He muttered. His heart was filled with joy and longing as they embraced.

Sky had made himself scarce when Jerome looked up, and he chuckled. "Sky left to give us some space, apparently."

"Good. I'm not letting go for a good, long while." Mitch replied. Jerome didn't have a problem with the statement at all. In fact, he kinda didn't want the moment to end, either. He looked up through the canopy of trees and saw the sun making its decent.

"Mitch, we need to get going. Hugging can wait til we get home." Jerome sighed, tugging the benja up with him as he stood. Mitch let go of the used-to-be bacca and settled for holding his hand, lacing his fingers through the fluffy's.

"Sky, you can come out now!"

The commander fell out of a birch tree nearby. "Ow, shit!" He groaned, slowly sitting up.

Jerome's booming laugh filled Mitch's heart with utter joy. He had his fluffy back. Sure, he wasn't as furry as he used to be, but he could get used to it. Maybe.

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"God, it's freezing."

Mitch couldn't understand how Jerome could say that, then again, he did spontaneously loose his fur. Okay, maybe not spontaneously....

By now, they were cutting through a desert to get home. The Bajan hadn't let go of his fluffy's hand, and said person had no problem since it felt like winter out here. In fact, he even hung on to his arm.

"You're so warm, Mitch..." Jerome said huskily, making the Benja laugh.

"You'll be okay, G. We're almost home."

Sky had taken the liberty of using the map to find their way back to home, and he stared at it as he trudged through the sand.

"Okay, we should come across a river...Hah! There it is!" He shouted triumphantly, seeing its blue waters. "There's the thin area of trees and then we reach Mitch's house...Then I can finally get home."

He idly wondered what Ty was doing, but cleared his head immediately. Thinking about Ty led to thinking certain thoughts about him and he didn't really need to have problems with that today.

He knew that Jerome saw the river, because he heard him groan. "Great, wet clothes. That's just fantastic."

"I'll grab some sand and make you some stepping blocks to it, don't worry." Mitch reassured Jerome. With that being said, he quickly pulled out a shovel and dug out about 10 blocks of sand.

Thankfully, the river wasn't too wide and not too deep, so he could place the sand down and it wouldn't fall into it's cerulean depths. He soon had a zig zag pattern for Jerome to use.

With careful steps, Sky was across and standing with Mitch. "C'mon, Jay-Rome!"

Jerome was a bit shaky, lingering on a step before heading to the next one. He had about three steps to go when his foot gently skimmed the water.

"Damn! That's cold..."

He hurriedly went across, trying to ignore the waves of ice cold that ripped through his foot. He landed next to Mitch, and soon they were off again.

The building they saw when they emerged from the treeline was familiar, yet foreign. It looked older than Jerome remembered, and this made him frown.

"Guys? How long was I gone? It was only a week, right?"

Mitch looked shocked. "You- You don't know how long you've been gone? Didn't my behaviour earlier somehow hint at something longer than a week?"

"I just figured that it seemed like that to you. Cut me some slack, I've been asleep and had no track of time whatsoever." The older man snapped, brow furrowing.

Sky groaned. "It's been 6 months."

Jerome's face softened. He'd been gone for so long...He missed so much. "What...What have I missed?"

Adam laid a hand on his shoulder. "We'll talk about it when we get inside."

As they entered the house, a pit of regret filled his gut. He wished he never went to sleep that night, some months ago. He should've stayed awake so those people wouldn't have taken him away. Anger washed through him at the thought. While he couldn't turn back time to fix things, he could utilize the future for his revenge.

He was going to make that scientist pay.

| guys I'm sosososo sorry about not updating in a while. I got preoccupied... *points to my new adoption fic, 30 day OTP challenge, and Skyllx fics*

This is shorter than normal cause I didn't write it IRL and then type it. Apologies. leave a vote and comment guys! It motivates me!~|