It was a quiet night at the Possum Springs Bus Station, with it being practically empty beside the janitor and the mouse-boy sleeping on the bench. The ceiling lights buzzed, becoming the only source of sound besides the Garbo and Malloy show being played on the T.V. The sleeping mouse-boy was named Merry, short for Merriweather. The reason for his odd slumber on the bench was that he had no idea when the bus for Possum Springs would arrive, so he sat there since 3 PM. Yeah, he was glad he didn't have to work today. The janitor didn't really make a fuss about him basically loitering, not when he had bought the older man's silence in one Fiascola can from the machine.
"At least someone is here." A feminine voice rang out, the person for the voice belonged to walking over to Merry. "Hey, wake up." They said, smacking the boy on the cheek, making him sit right up.
"School's out Mom!" He shouted before realizing he wasn't in bed, and his mother wasn't the person who slapped him. "Oh, hey Mae."
"Hello, Merry," Mae said simply.
"Nice to see you again."
"Nice to see you aren't negligent, where is everyone?"
"Home. Sleeping the night away without knowing that you're home." He replied with an over dramatic tone.
"Why didn't you bring them with you?"
"Forgot."
"Of course you would. How long have you been here?"
"What time is it?"
"Dunno." She shrugged, looking around the station. "This seems new." Merry nodded at that.
"Yeah, you missed a lot of stuff." He muttered, standing up and stretching, hearing a few satisfying pops and cracks.
"You're still short, that's amazing," Mae said as she ruffled his hair, making him groan and pat it away.
"Not my fault Mae, ok? I just got bad genes."
"Same excuses I see Mr. Merriweather." She said in a fake regal tone, making him roll his eyes and keep quiet. He walked over to the janitor, Mae following behind him.
"Hey Mr. Janitor, could you move?" He asked, sounding polite as a sarcastic 19-year-old could sound.
"Can't, the doors broke." The janitor replied simply, making the boy sigh.
"When will it be fixed?" He replied in a tired tone, already knowing the answer.
"Right when you get a Fiascola from the vending machine." The Janitor said in that same simple tone, making Merry sigh and turned around.
"Stay here Mae, I'll get this guy his fix." He muttered before jogging towards the vending machine, pressing the appropriate button for one Fiascola brought to him by the dreamy Fiasco Fox. He was going to turn around to head back but looked at the machine again before pressing the button for a Lime Fiasco, grabbing a can and getting another. "Not every day you get free Lime Fiasco." He mumbled to himself as he stuffed both soda cans in his hoodie pocket and walking back to the two of them, hearing The Janitor say.
"I get spooked when I'm on my lonesome."
"Understandable," Mae replied back as Merry held out the Fiascola to the Janitor.
"Here you go." He sighed out as the man took it, drilling a hole in the bottom of it and taking a few sips before pulling away with a satisfied sigh.
"Yummers."
"Now can we leave?" Mae's impatient voice rang out, the older man only nodding in response.
"Yup." He then just left, turning off the lights in the station, leaving the two in the dark. They stood there in the dark, staying silent as they took in what happened.
"Ummm...well...let's go, Mae, time's a wastin," Merry said as he took the initiative, walking out the bus station with Mae right behind him. They stood outside and Mae looked around, looking for something.
"So do you have a car?..." She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Nope."
"Don't you have a driver's license?"
"Yep."
"So why didn't you borrow one?!" She raised her arms up in frustration.
"Forgot."
"Of course you did." It then became silent between the two of them, with it quickly becoming awkward. "Beats being alone, I guess we're walking." She said as she started to walk down the sidewalk, Merry beside her. The sound of the train filled the silence between them, with Mae sighing out of nostalgia.
"I didn't realize how much I missed the sound of that train. I used to hear at night during the winter when the leaves fell down."
"Yeah for something so obnoxiously loud it's pretty charming. Like you." He said with a snarky grin, earning a punch to the shoulder.
"Shut up!" She chuckled as they continued to walk, Merry reaching into his hoodie pocket and grabbing a Lime Fiasco, cracking it open and drinking one. "Wait they had Lime Fiasco?!" She said as she narrowed her eyes at him. "And you didn't bot-" She was interrupted by him shoving another soda into her face.
"Grabbed another, wasn't wasting free Lime Fiasco, it'd be a betrayal to myself and all Lime Fiasco lovers everywhere." He said before taking another sip, with Mae taking the soda in her face. He raised his can and they immediately bumped their cans.
"Cheers." The two said simultaneously as they drank their drinks, somehow getting into a random chug contest, which ended in what you expected, both of them choking on their respective drinks and coughing them up.
After the two caught their breath and stopped coughing up the burning liquid the two continued their walk. Looking to fill the silence again Mae decided to strike up a conversation about Merry's choice of clothing, particularly the large and obviously oversized hoodie he had on. He had rolled up the sleeves a bit, showing his hands but it was still obvious it was too big.
"If you're wearing that hoodie to compensate I'd hate to tell ya bud, it's not working." She joked, which earned a groan and an eye roll from the small guy.
"I'm not compensating for anything Mae, it's comfy."
"Where'd you get from?"
"My girlfriend."
"Really?"
"What about it?"
"Just never expected you to get a girl. Like I thought it was really, really, really, really, really-" She was cut off but Merry.
"Unlikely? Yeah, I know-"
"Really, really, really,"
"Mae."
"Really, really, really,"
"Mae stop."
"Really, really, really,"
"I swear to god Mae."
"Really, really, really,"
"MAE!" He finally shouted, completely annoyed. "I get it! I'm not a charming person but you don't gotta rub it like that." He said as he sighed.
"So who's the unlucky lady?"
"You know Selmers?" That made her stop in her track, blinking in surprise.
"No way, I thought she was with Dennis."
"Nope, they split, he got some job at some prison, met up with some girl at a gas station."
"What a jerk."
"Yeah, she was pretty mad about it, the divorce was a bit of trouble, but it all turned out well in the end. Thank god." He said as they made it to the end of the sidewalk, with the rest of it leading to the woods.
"Looks like we're hiking through the woods, through the woods is home and my bed," Mae noted.
"And your negligent parents," Merry added with a small chuckle. "But yeah, I had to hike through here to get to the bus station, it might be more difficult the other way around this time." He said, walking on ahead, while Mae loosely followed. "Man, it's pretty dark, I can barely see where I'm go-OH SHIT!" She heard, followed by two loud thumps. Rushing over to the edge she could see Merry at the bottom of the little cliff, groaning.
"Are you dead?!" She shouted down at him, waiting for a response.
"Unfortunately I'm still alive, got the wind knocked out of me but otherwise, I'm a-ok, get yo ass down here!" He shouted up at her, having gotten up. Mae soon was down there with him, cringing at the sight and smell.
"This is some dank nature, dank nature and garbage." She muttered while she walked through the murky and shallow water.
"Yeah...it's gross, but it's home." He said back, not liking the water getting into his shoes.
"If you're homeless," Mae replied as she climbed up on a log, Merry climbing up after her.
"That's true I guess." They both looked at the logs and Merry sighed. "It was easier coming down this way."
"Well stop complaining, we got logs to climb," Mae responded while climbing up the log pile, Merry begrudgingly following her. But as soon as their climb began, they reached a point that was too high for either of them. Mae, looking at this situation, decided to go over to a log that was sticking out and randomly jumped on it, making it and the rest of the pile shake. Merry slowly reached her and started to become increasingly worried that she was still jumping on it.
"Mae I don't think you sho-"
"Shhhh Merry, I'm doing my thing." She cut off his worried voice with more jumping, with the log suddenly giving in and flinging the two down the ravine, with Merry almost breaking his neck as he landed next to Mae. "Oh my god, that was dangerous, we could've died, that was amazing!" She said enthusiastically as she stood up, Merry being not as ecstatic as she was
"What were you doing?!" He shouted at her while rubbing his back.
"Clearing a way for us obviously." She responded as she climbed back up the logs, Merry hesitantly and carefully following her, making extra sure not to fall again. When he finally caught up with her she was playing with a pirate ship wheel, spinning it around. "Bout time you caught up with me."
"Sorry if I'm not a super athletic kid like you."
"I'm not that athletic." She responded as he went over to the fence. Easily climbing over it like he did earlier when he went to the bus station. "You're not allowed to say things like that when you can just jump over a fence, I don't have that upper body strength."
"Well figure something out! I'm not going anywhere." He said, watching her run off from the fence. Sighing he looks down at his dirty shoes, his face scrunching up in annoyance. "Damn, going to have to clean these before going out again, this is just plain filthy." He muttered as he heard a car pull up behind him. Turning around with a gulp his magenta eyes widened at the sight of a police car, with a person stepping out. He sighed again, recognizing the officer as Mae suddenly landed next to him. One flashlight click was heard as a light shone on her face.
"Hello Mae, been a while."
"Hey, Officer Molly." Merry waved at her.
"Hello, Merry, nice to see you again."
"What are you doing here? Got nothing better to do?" Mae asked, making Merry facepalm at the question.
"I was just doing my rounds when I saw you in this very off-limits playground."
"So?"
"Get in the car Mae, you too Merry," Molly said as Merry immediately did what she told them, getting into the car. A few seconds later Mae climbed into the car with him. Looking over at Mae he had one thing to say.
"Welcome home Mae."
Well, here's my first NITW fanfiction and first fanfiction in general! So sorry if I butcher the character's personality. Leave your thoughts in Reviews and PMs. Though honestly if you just try to insult me I don't really care, I've probably told myself worse.