Yay, finally Chapter 4!

I'm really really sorry for the lil' delay, I had some stuff going out but hey, at least the wait is over!

Anyways, previous chapter had Bill, Skip and Kouyou having coffee together at Bill's place while trying to dig a lil'more into Bill's past, while Tina went to another friend's place in order to start tracking Bill.

Nox belongs to Odako; Skip, Jana and Kouyou to Dr. Stephen; Bill, Tina and Frankie to me.

Chapter 4: A journey starts with a small step

It was a sunny summer day, and the bright rays of sunlight were warming up. The wind blowed slightly creating one of those days that really really can't feel better.

But Tina couldn't feel really well. When she came back, she expected to surprise her childhood best friend, hug him and finally open up about the mutual feelings they had been bottling up... but the house was abandoned, there was no clue of what happened to him or where was him now. And now, an anxious Tina was in the front door of Bill's other friend, with him still not being able to process that Tina was finally back.

"OH MY GOD TINA! It has been years!" said Frankie with joy. He was a tall white cat with silverish hair. His orange eyes were shining with emotion and he had to supress the impulse of hugging her

"Yeah, it's been ages!" Tina replied, her voice had a lil' shake of akwardness. It's not that she didn't like the dude, but she had been waiting all this time to meet Bill, not his sporty cute-looking friend. But she didn't expect Bill to disappear in the first place...

"Hey don't stay there, come in" Frankie invited. The rabbit stepped in the house and took a quick view. The woody interiors still looked like 5 years ago. The door opened to a wide living room where a couple of comfy armchairs and coffee table were waiting for visits to use them. Behind the bigger sofa, an old-looking fireplace was holding some chunks of wooden. A big carpet and some pictures adorned the room

The tall cat went to the kitchen and started the water boiler, the coffee would be ready in a couple of minutes

"So, what brings you here? Last time I heard about you, you were far away studying" he asked going to the point. He also had another couple of questions to do, but he wanted her not to rush

"Well, I'm happy to announce my studies are over!" she said with a tone of fake smug.

"So you've oficially gotten the title of Unstoppable Smartass" chuckled the cat as he looked at her. She had changed a lot since back then, her glasses gave her a refined look and she had changed her tomboyish clothes for new girlier ones. On the other hand, her hair was shorter and now she sported a couple of bangs, not too different to the ones Bill had... Bill. He still felt guilty about that. The memories of their last argument returned to his mind.

"Yeah" she replied with a smile. Frankie looked at her again, remembering how different she was. Back then she used to wear baggy clothes and looked rather plain. But now she had a "cuter" look and judging by that hoodie she was wearing, probably had a boyfriend. But something about that hoodie made him think... It's like he had seen it before.

"Anyways, there's something I need to ask you, dude" Tina said looking at him

"You know, I've returned yesterday and I went to Bill's place. It looked rather abandoned..." she added.

"Yeah... Bill left shortly after you, around 15 days later" he said as he went for the coffee.

"But why? Did he tell you? Is he really that..."

"...desperate? .. impulsive? Yeah". Frankie sounded sad. He knew he had fucked up in the past and that he may have had a hand in Bill's choices. The cat took the coffee and gave a cup for the rabbit. Black for her, with milk for him.

"Do you have any idea of where did he go?" Tina asked with worry. She had no idea where her friend was. He could be anywhere, in the south, in the north, in a close town or in the other side of the world... and if something had happened to him, she wouldn't know... what if something had already happened? Tina's mind went overdrive as her thoughts conflicted about if Bill could be doing well or not...

"It's kinda my fault..." Frankie said with regret. Tina raised her gaze and looked at him. The cat felt how the rabbit's honey-like eyes scanned every corner of his face

"No... don't blame yourself" Tina answered trying to keep her cool. "Please tell me, what happened?" she added with anxiety

"Well, you remember Katie right?" Frankie started

"Yeah, she didn't like Bill. Or me. Kinda bitchy now that I think about it" Tina answered

"Well, not much before you left we argued. It was mainly due to hanging around with you guys" the cat let out. He looked sad. He knew he fucked up back then and he felt responsible for giving Bill the push he needed to leave.

"So the bitch told you the push us away so she could have more time with you?. I mean I remember you saying you were very busy with your training and stuff, but judging your look I can tell you were lying back then" Tina continued as she starting analizing the situation. And then an idea came to her mind. "Bill found out?"

"Yeah, two days after you left. He was already doing bad. Like I could feel how "losing you" affected him. And we he came to me try to vent out, he discovered I was lying and hanging around with her" Frankie explained. The moment came back to his mind and he bited his lip. He could have intervened back then but he just limited to watch as his -then- girlfriend and his -then- best friend screamed at each other, fighting for his attention. "And then, she screamed that I was the biggest liar and said the only reason I hanged out with Bill was pity".

Tina's glaze trembled. She already had a bad relation with Frankie's ex but now, she felt furious. Her eyes shined with anger as her gaze stabbed Frankie's face

"Did you reply?. Did you just let that bitch say that to his face?!" she asked with a frightening tone

"Ye-" he tried to answer, but his face got slammed by the quickest slap of the country. Her eyes looked sharp at him, like expecting another answer. Answer that she knew he didn't have. Otherwise, Bill would probably be still hanging around. Frankie looked at her again. His face still showed sadness but also a small smile. "He left three days after that. He just packed some clothes, camping kit and rode his bike out of town. But he left his computer at his place..."

Tina's face enlightened as a wide smile appeared in her face. "And he always posted stuff in his blog! We may have a clue of where the fuck did he go!"

...

The light of the evening started to fade as Frankie and Tina started up Bill's old computer. The abandoned room was covered in dust, but Bill had taken care of tidying it up before leaving, so things were carefully organized besides the whole dusty thing. A collection of Mangas and Comics was resting in a shelf along with a a couple of anime DVD's. In the opossite side if the room a bookcase contained Bill's collection of Sci-Fi novels and a couple of CD's loaded with chill and electro music.

The screen flickered as the system finished starting up. The desktop showed a pic of a cheerful, smiling Tina. A small tear formed in the redhead's eye as she looked at the screen. Frankie quickly opened the web browser and Bill's blog appeared on the bookmarks.

It took only a couple of seconds for the page to load. Tina and Frank looked at the screen with expectation as they readed the last post.

It didn't have much text on it, but instead it showed a pic of a very happily Bill, hugging some unknown people. A cute looking red fennec, an annoyed blue wolf, an angery brown fox, a gorgeous blonde rabbit and purple cat with a devious smile were looking at the camera

"HOLY SHIT IS THAT NOX?" Tina screamed with emotion

"Who?" asked Frankie with no idea of what was Tina talking about out

"Noximilien Times, leader of the moebian band, "The Time Out Quartet"" Tina responded with excitement. "I have heard a lot of their music back in college, and I gotta admit the vocalist is so cute!"

"Moebian? like from Moebius?" Frankie kept going on without being able to understand. "How did you come across music from other zone?"

"You can find a lot of stuff in the internet if you know were to look" Tina answered with a smug tone

"So our dude ran away to another dimension?" wondered the cat with a defeated tone

"Nah, Nox is a zone traveller, she must had been here when this pic was taken. His birthday was a couple of months ago and there's snow in the pic..." the rabbit said before getting interrumpted by the cat.

"You do know there's no snow here at all, right? He must have travelled a lot... How far away can you go on a pedal bike in 5 years?"

"I have no idea, but I think I can track him. We gotta make him log in to the blog again..." Tina wondered

"...and check the session history to track his device? It could totally work!" finished Frankie.

...

The cat and the rabbit looked at the web browser as a pic uploaded to Bill's blog. Not much later, a phone far far away blinked as a notification popped up.