"Braaaaain!" Pinky called. "Excuse me!" he called and a woman looked down at him. "Hullo," he greeted. "Have you seen my friend, The Brain? He's got a really big head and he's usually all scowly?"

"Um... No, sorry." Baffled and largely uninterested, the woman moved on and Pinky was left pouting. He continued skipping along the sidewalk, calling out questions about Brain and hoping that maybe someone in the small, nighttime crowds would've seen him.

But he'd walked all the way to Romy's apartment building and it had taken him almost all night and he was so tired... He climbed onto a bus bench and stretched out on his side. It didn't occur to him to go inside the apartment building and visit his son and ask for help. He'd wanted to find The Brain all on his own, like Brain had found him in Hades all by himself. He could do it! He'd gotten out of the cage, he could find Brain.

Pinky whimpered quietly and curled up on the corner of the bench. He needed The Brain's help to find The Brain! He sniffled and his nose caught a very familiar scent. He sat straight up, sniffing and seeking the scent desperately. It was Brain! It had to be Brain! He leapt to his feet, his previous melancholy entirely forgotten. "Brain!"

He looked down and there he was, head tilted back as if he was straining to hold onto a scent. But that was silly. Brain never used his nose like that. Thrilled, though, that his friend had escaped, Pinky leapt down and landed right in front of him. "Brain!" he repeated and the shorter mouse jumped back, stumbled over his feet, and landed on his behind. Pinky only giggled until he noticed that The Brain was very quickly scooting back. "What's wrong, Brain?"

There was no response, so Pinky took a step closer and sniffed carefully. It still smelled like Brain, though there were traces of Snowball, pond water, and some unfamiliar person. "Are you alright, Brain? Oh, no!" he wailed. "Is there a monster behind me?" He spun on his heel, expecting to see some wicked creature like in the scary movies Brain wouldn't let him watch anymore.

But there was nothing, so Pinky snorted a little laugh and turned back. "Oh, Brain, there's no- Brain?" The shorter mouse had rolled and was fleeing on all fours, eyes wide and panicked. Pinky, however, just saw it as a familiar game. Not familiar to him and Brain, of course, but to his parents. "Chase Me" had been a favorite in the pet shop.

Delighted, Pinky dropped down on all fours and sprinted after his friend. Good thing he was heading towards the Lab! They'd be back just in time for Saturday morning cartoons! When Pinky finally managed to catch The Brain, he tackled him and they rolled end over end, with Brain's head finally dragging them both to a stop. "Oh, that was fun!" All of his worries and fears had simply been forgotten, pushed aside in the face of sheer delight. He'd found The Brain! All on his own!

Though there was something very odd about Brain's behavior. He was wriggling and seemed to be trying awfully hard to get away. Well, that part was normal, but he wasn't shouting or being grumbly. He looked... He looked awfully scared. "Brain?"

When Brain opened his mouth, Pinky's ears perked in expectation of some insult, but there was a shrill squeak instead. "What's wrong, Brain? Are you hurt?" It dawned on him, then, and he gasped. "Egad! It was Snowball! He turned your brains into cream cheese, Brain! Narf!"

The shorter mouse paused in his struggles, blinking wide pink eyes up at the taller one. He hesitatingly rubbed his nose against Pinky's chest and Pinky giggled at the tickly feeling of being sniffed. "Egad, Brain, that tickles! Zort!" There were more squeaks suddenly and The Brain did something he'd never, ever done before except when it had something to do with a plan or they were going to get blown up. He threw his arms around Pinky's neck and held on tightly, rubbing his face into his chest with abandon.

Pinky smiled. "Oh, Brain, I missed you too!" He started to get to his feet, but Brain wasn't letting go. It took a bit of maneuvering, but Pinky managed to stand and hold onto his friend at the same time. "I'm so happy you're back! I told that mean old Snowball that you'd get away." Humming happily, he carried Brain back to the lab, only letting go to push him through the mail slot.

-8-8-

Brain's lack of voice didn't disturb Pinky overmuch. Brain would sometimes go quite a long time without speaking when he was formulating a plan, but he didn't seem to have any interest in that. After a brief exploration of their cage - he'd leapt onto their bed and rolled all over it, mussing the blanket and knocking aside the pillows - The Brain hadn't left his side. It was really very nice, but each time he'd tried to talk to him, the shorter mouse would just blink and rub against his side.

It wasn't very Brain-like. Poit.

More very not Brain-like behavior came around midday when the scientists came around to put them in a maze. Brain hadn't wanted to go. He'd hid away under their blanket when they'd come into the room, but had peeked his head out when he'd realized Pinky hadn't followed. He'd proceeded to squeak until Pinky had noticed that the squeaky sounds weren't from his wheel, but his friend.

"Hm?" Pinky wandered over and was pulled beneath the blanket. "Brain, it's not beddy-by time yet!" But the mouse hadn't released him until the cage door opened. He'd looked out as a hand had reached in, and even Pinky could see the terror in his expression. "Oh, don't worry, Brain. You know they're just taking us to a maze!"

The large-headed mouse had just whimpered and tucked closer until the pair had been plucked up and deposited in a maze. "What do you think's wrong with the little one?" a scientist wondered. "He's usually much more independent."

"Well, he wasn't here yesterday," her colleague replied, studying the two of them. "Little rascal probably escaped again and found something he didn't like."

"Oh. I'm sure that snake is acting as a good deterrent. His cagemate didn't even leave, remember?"

"We'll have to continue monitoring them. Let's see how his new clingy behavior effects his maze runs." The two of them continually set records for completion of brand new ones, but who knew what they'd do now? "Start the clock and we'll see."

The little slat was lifted as the timer was set and Pinky started off on a jolly pace, heading in the direction of the cheese scent. Brain kept by his side, his shorter legs working quickly to keep pace. "Brain, d'you know where we're going?" There wasn't a response, so Pinky tilted his head to the side. "Brain?"

He looked down at the mouse, who didn't seem to be paying any attention to what he was saying. He was instead glaring at the walls around them as if they'd insulted his favorite pair of pants. And that was funny enough because Brain didn't wear pants. Pinky blinked, imagining him in puffy clown pants, and giggled. Brain looked up then and reached for Pinky's hand, but he did nothing to show that he knew the way.

"Oh, Brain, you're letting me lead? Well, I shall do my best! The cheese smell is, um..." He sniffed the air testingly, searching for the telling moldy scent. "This way!"

An hour later, they'd somehow found their way back to the start of the maze and Pinky's nose had become completely desensitized to the smell of cheese. "I'm sorry, Brain. I don't think I'll ever find the end... Troz." Brain just sat down and took a hold of Pinky's tail, patting the appendage soothingly.

Giggling, the taller mouse dropped down beside him. His joy was short-lived, however, as he considered the possibility that they might be stuck in the big old maze forever. He shared that thought, but Brain didn't seem very worried at all. He crawled into Pinky's lap and snuggled.

"Oh, Brain... Do you not know the way out either this time? That's alright! The scientists are bound to get us out of here, aren't they?" There wasn't a response, which was now starting to bother him. Brain had never gone so long without talking to him before. Even when he was making his plans! "Are you awfully upset with me, Brain? I promise I did my best and- oh."

Pinky squirmed and looked down, surprised to see a pink tongue gliding through his fur. "Oh, well, thank you, Brain, but I already had a bath." The smaller mouse continued on unperturbed, ignoring Pinky's squirming. "It is very nice of you, but I thought you said groomin' was unsanitary. Narf! Brain?" Pinky had to poke his head a few times before Brain stopped and looked up at him. "Are you okay, Brain? Do your yogurt brains needs to be refrigerated so they work properly?"

Brain blinked several times, staring up at his friend for several minutes before letting out a frightened squeak and clutching tighter to Pinky when a hand reached in and scooped them up. "These are unexpected results. They didn't even finish."

"It looks like they just gave up," the woman agreed. "Leave the snake another month?"

"Absolutely. It seems the less motivated this one is, the better."

When they deposited the pair of them back into their cage, Brain stayed close and shivered. Pinky patted his back. "Don't be scared. They're leaving, Brain. And look! We're back in the cage, all safe and comfy! Narf!"

"Nn."

"Brain!" Pinky gasped. "You spoke! Well... sort of."

"Nn," he repeated and poked Pinky's shoulder.

"What...?"

"Nn!"

"Narf!" Brain smiled and snuggled close again at the exclamation that had been more by accident than design, so it took Pinky several moments to realize that it had been what Brain had wanted to hear. "Naaaaarf," he mused wonderingly. "I thought that annoyed you, Brain. Poit!"

The smaller mouse rubbed his large brow affectionately against Pinky's chest. "Nn."

"Alright!" Pinky held him tightly, grinning. "Whatever you say, Brain! Narf!" When Brain had relaxed enough to resume his grooming, Pinky didn't bother trying to stop him.

-8-8-

By the third day of Brain's new behavior, Pinky was really and truly starting to miss the normal Brain. This one snuggled and smiled and played silly-willy games, but the old Brain had come up with fun plans and asked him what he was pondering and bopped him on the head. Even when Pinky had done the things he'd known would earn him a bop didn't get him one.

And he missed it! He missed Brain! But Snowball hadn't shown up and Pinky didn't know how to get to Snowball and he didn't know anyone who was smart enough to find him. None of the other mice in their lab cared. They seemed glad that Brain wasn't escaping anymore or trying to take over the world. They all just worried about the snake and whether or not it would go away soon. He'd even asked for Billie's help even though she scared him sometimes, but she'd just sidled in real close and said that they should just take the time to get to know each other better.

Pinky had run away from her really fast, but Brain had been upset anyway and had groomed him until Billie's scent was gone completely. He'd also been displeased by Pinky's mimicry of Billie's "Natch!" He'd covered his ears and glared angrily. That was close to the normal Brain, but there'd been no "Stop that, Pinky, or I shall have to hurt you!"

He missed Brain's voice... All the biggly-wiggly words that he couldn't understand and the way Brain would explain over and over again. The only thing Brain still did the same was scribble on his blueprints, but he didn't draw plans anymore.

Pinky jumped down from his wheel and trotted over to Brain, looking at the squiggly lines he'd put down. He had no idea what it was, but he could imagine all sorts of things and it made him smile. "Oh, that's lovely, Brain!"

The shorter mouse looked up and made little nonsense sounds. It was almost like his normal voice, but too disjointed for even Pinky to easily piece together. He'd taken to attempting conversations like this anyway, supplying in his own dialogue and guessing at Brain's. The conversations usually went just fine until it was time for Brain to tell him the plan or when it was time for Brain to tell him what they were going to do tomorrow night.

Pinky sighed and sat down. He couldn't even watch television since the remote was too far and the scientists had found the paperclip in their cage and taken it. "Brain, d'you miss takin' over the world?"

The shorter mouse may not have understood the words, but he could see that his cagemate was unhappy. So he followed instinct and crawled into Pinky's lap for a tight hug. He made the little sounds he'd painstakingly picked up over the past few days for good measure.

Pinky returned the hug, nuzzling The Brain's ear. "I know, Brain, but how'm I supposed to find Snowball when we can't get out of the cage anymore? Do you have an idea? Oh! I know! We'll, um, get super powers! And go right through the cage!" he decided. "Oh, no, no. Poit. Where will we get super powers?"

He kept thinking until a muscle he'd pulled more times in the past few days than he had his entire life previous began to hurt. He reached up to rub at it, but Brain batted at his hands to do it for him. "Thanks, Brain..." He sighed. "Maaaaaaybe weeeeeee cooooooould..." He stretched out the words, trying to give himself more time to think. "Caaaaall Miiiiiisterrrrr Suuuuu... Saaa... Maurice! We'll call Maurice. Oh, Brain, we haven't seen him in ages! Nyert! D'you think he's grown up since we left him in the ground to grow?"

Brain nuzzled him, so Pinky took that for an agreement. "Oh, Brain, I bet he has all kinds of carrot babies and a carrot wife! And- oh, wait, no, no. We don't have his phone number!" It didn't occur to him that they also couldn't reach the phone to call someone to help them out of the cage since, well, they were in the cage.

"Hm... I bet if we'd set the balloon people free, they would've come back and help, but noooo. Maybe the Lettuce Head Kids would help... D'you know any Lettuce Head Kids, Brain?"

"Nn."

"Oh, zort, neither do I. Do we know any kinds of kids? They can be very helpful. Hmmm... hummm..." He giggled, distracted when Brain nipped his ear. "Don't do that, Brain! That tickles!"

"I bet it's not meant to tickle."

Pinky's brow furrowed curiously. That hadn't been Brain, but he hadn't said that part either. And none of the other mice in the lab were helping. Even Gerry was staying far, far away since Brain had stood over Pinky and growled at him. Pinky couldn't look around, however, because his head was suddenly being pressed to Brain's rumbling chest. "You're bein' all growly, Brain. What's wrong?"

He heard the cage door open and his ears twitched. "Hello!" he greeted whoever it was.

"Hey. Uh... Why's dad growling at me?"

"Romy!" Pinky squirmed out of Brain's embrace to smile brightly at their clone. "What're you doing here?"

"I was hoping to get here before you guys tried to take over the world. Seeing how, y'know, somebody already did it. What are you guys even doing?"

"I was trying to escape!" he said cheerfully, entirely oblivious to potential double-meaning of his words considering Brain's death grip on him.

Romy looked over the still-growling mouse. "Well, now's your chance while I've got the door open."

"Right! Oh, but what are we going to do when we get out, Brain?" Pinky looked over. "Brain? Oh, don't growl at Romy, Brain! Narf!"

Brain latched onto Pinky's fur, tugging him away from the invading mouse. "Nn."

Pinky laughed and picked Brain up, carting him in the opposite direction. "Brain, he's your clone. Don't you remember?"

"Is he okay?" Romy wondered, cautiously moving closer.

"Oh, yes, he's fine," Pinky assured him. "Snowball turned his brain into a gushy pile of yogurt, though, so that's probably why he's being so growly. Usually he's just grumpy! Narf!" Brain thrashed and wriggled in Pinky's arms, trying very hard to escape, but Pinky pushed him at Remy.

"Glarb!" Romy wailed as they tumbled to the floor, the paper he'd been carried flying away. Brain stilled, ears twitching at the familiar word and nose sniffing experimentally. He rolled away from Romy, nose wrinkled, and bounced back to Pinky to compare. He sniffed himself, went back to Romy, and began to squeak excitedly. He grabbed Romy's arm and dragged him closer to Pinky.

The tallest of the three laughed. "See, Romy? He's fine."

"Just a little slow," their clone muttered and shuffled away. Brain very clearly didn't like that, so he grabbed Romy and tugged him into a tight embrace. The younger mouse sighed and let him, patting his back. "Gee, Dad..."

"Ooooh. What's this?" Pinky had picked up the fallen sheet of paper and was reading it slowly. "'Sign your' big word 'to me or face your' slightly smaller word. 'Signed, your new ruler, Snowball.'" He gasped. "Snowball? Egad, Brain! Snowball really did take over the world!"

Brain's lack of reaction to that news was fairly alarming to the clone. He tried pushing back again, but his "father" continued to cling. "You should go and turn on the TV. You can see."

"Right, Romy!" Delighted to have some direction again, Pinky bounced out of the cage to hop onto the remote and turn the news on.

It hadn't been on long before he was tackled, someone squeaking irritably in his ear. "Oh. Well. I'm sorry for leaving, Brain, but Snowball's on the TV!"

"You can actually understand him?"

"Oh, no. I just guess! Poit." He scooted away from Brain, moving just far enough to be able to sit up and look at the television screen. There were large crowds gathered before the White House, but the President wasn't at the podium - a hamster was. "Oh, Brain, how will we find Snowball now? No one knows where the White House is!"

"I think everyone knows where the White House is," Romy supplied and Pinky looked back at him, baffled.

"Really?"

"Almost everyone," he amended. "Why d'you want to find him, anyway?" He scratched the back of his ear. "Seems like a drag, man."

"Because he's the one who turned Brain's brain all mushy! He has to change him back so we can save the world and take it over tomorrow night!"

"Pinky... He's not gonna change dad back just so you two can beat him."

"Oh, we're not going to beat him, Romy! That would be so cruel." Behind him, Brain started licking his ear. "Hm... Oh, I know! We'll make him a fruit basket! Everyone loves fruit baskets!"

"Yeah," Romy agreed, rather distracted by his dad licking his... other dad. Maybe if it were Pinky, that wouldn't be so - okay, it wouldn't be odd at all if it were Pinky. But to see The Brain doing it was totally weird. Like... whoa. "What's he doin'?"

"Oh, Brain? He's just grooming me. Isn't it nice of him?"

"Yeah. Super nice." He rocked back on his heels, waiting for it to stop. When he just switched to the other ear, Romy could only shake his head. "Alright, we definitely gotta find this Snowball character."

"Oh! Romy! You're half-Brain! Can't you fix him? Then we won't have to bother Snowball after all!"

"Uh..." He shrugged. "I dunno, man. He seems kinda... happy like this."

Pinky stared blankly at him before ducking his head to look back at Brain. Pink eyes blinked and then his tongue made a quick swipe from between his eyes to his nose. Pinky laughed and tilted his head forward again. "Oh, Brain, don't do that in front of Romy!"

"See? He's completely chill. Maybe you should just leave 'im."

"But..." Pinky's ears wilted. "He's not Brain anymore, Romy. And he didn't want to not be Brain." He leaned over a bit when the smaller mouse burrowed into his side. It was a comforting warmth and Pinky was grateful for it, but also rather sad. This was just what he meant. Brain wouldn't do this if he was really Brain. "Please, Romy? If he really wants to go back to normal, you can just... change him back. I miss Brain... Poit..."

Romy sighed heavily. "Narf, man."

"Yay!" Pinky cheered and threw his arms around his cagemate. "Did you hear that, Brain? We're going to get you back to normal! Narf!"

Brain just buried his nose into Pinky's fur and breathed in. "Nn."

Because Romy was totally necessary XD

Their cute baby boy, lol