i fixed a few things from last chapter. im not too happy with this one either though...
You're tired, so very tired. But you've got a toddler strapped to your back and a mission to complete so you don't dare try to collapse on the ground and sleep. Not that you would really want to at this point, you'd rather not drown in a few inches of rain. Your limbs are heavy and the water in the air is starting to soak into your skin. It's cold and dark and you're tired. Dirk keeps shifting around on your back and you can feel every movement of it; every little shift, or jump, or sway.
The lights of the city blink and swirl and glare around you. Bright and colorful. You aren't in a particular bright and colorful mood though and you're infinitely thankful you have your shades. The rain is obscuring the sight of everything in the way that rain does. You can smell it in the air along with the usual smells of the city (even if they seem muted and denser with the blanket of rain). The pavement is hard and unforgiving underneath your feet as you trudge along. You can hear the occasional splash as you reach a puddle and it combines with the uneven beat of rain against your umbrella, the general roar of it around you, the crackle of thunder, and the smooth swish of cars driving down the road. You can almost hear a piece of music hiding within the unorganized symphony of the rainstorm.
"Bo," you feel a soft pat from a little hand against your side.
"What is it, little guy?"
"Neh."
"Oh, a guessing game. Okay. I can dig that. Wanna give me a hint?"
"Bah."
"Hmm. I dunno, that could mean anything, Bro. Are you trying to play me for a chump or something? Trying to one-up your big bro?" You reach back with your free hand and tickle him a bit. You can hear a tiny giggle from him (it's not as loud or energetic as a baby's usually is but it's still a laugh) and you chuckle along.
"Neh," you could feel him shake his head. "Sowah!"
"Oh, a story, huh?" You had long since been able to interpret his babble and that was the word-thing he used when he was asking for a story. It's not like he talked much otherwise. He was always so quiet.
"Yah."
"Alright then. Well, once upon a time there was a little Prince. He lived in a far away kingdom filled with tall towers and bright colors. I'm telling you dawg, his place was the shit. This little guy loved to build things and was making robots and other cool stuff all the time. He could build you anything you wanted."
You could tell that Dirk was interested by the way he stilled on your back, putting full attention on the story instead of squirming around. Unfortunately, you didn't really know where this story was going, you were just pulling it out of your ass.
"Oh yeah, anything. Rapping robots, battlebots, bunny robot things, auto responders, whatever. And everyone in the sweet kingdom of his agreed that he was the beast master at robot stuff. The fucking best. And the Prince loved it. That is until this one day a new challenger appeared!"
You could hear a soft intake of breath and smirked. Dirk really like story time with Dave. Because Dave is the best story-teller.
"Well, the Prince flipped his shit. Who did this guy think he was? Sure he might have been bigger and sweatier and older but that didn't mean he was better! So the Prince was all like 'oh hell no' and presented a challenge to that motherfucker as soon as he met him. And the other guy was like 'what okay whatever you say mister Prince'. So they got set up and stuff and had one of the most intense robo-building contests ever!"
It was taking way longer to get to the diner than usual. Probably because the buses didn't run this late so you had to walk, but whatever. That wasn't going to stop you from complaining.
"The Prince worked hard and fast," you snickered internally at that, "and he was pretty sure he had made the sicknastiest robot in existence. He called it... The Brobot."
Dirk was starting to squirm again, though it didn't seem to be out of disinterest. You think it was more because he was really into the story. You paused for dramatic effect and waited to see if he told you to continue, to test your theory. After a couple of steps he slapped at your side with a disgruntled "Bo!" You smiled and continued your story.
"Aight. Sheesh. Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. But when he looked over at the other guy's robot he wasn't so sure he would win. I mean the other guy had this huge ass mechanical monstrosity and it looked fucking powerful and STRONG. But he let the robots battle anyway cause why the fuck not. And the bots were evenly matched! I shit you not, it was like watching Godzilla and King Kong go at it for hours. They kept fighting until they destroyed each other. It was tragic, little man. Robo-guts everywhere. The Prince had been devastated and the other guy was upset too. So they talked it out like real men."
You could see the diner, finally, up ahead so you needed to wrap up the story before you had to hand him off to Petunia and take care of some homeless guy.
"Anyway, they talked and it turned out that they both liked horses and robots and shit and they became friends instead of enemies. They made even better robots together and ruled the fucking kingdom like beasts. So the moral of the story is Bros before foes. Yeah, so, the end."
You reached the end of you epic narrative as soon as the door closed behind you in a soft swoosh. You shook off the rain from your umbrella and closed it up before looking around and trying to spot the dead dude. Petunia came rushing up to you before you could spot anyone.
"Oh, Dave! I'm so sorry to call you out so late! But I'm so glad you could make it down and help out!" Petunia was fussing all over, flitting around you like a worried mother hen. She moved around to your back and lifted Dirk, who was chill as a cucumber now that he had gotten a story from you, from his carrier on your back. Once she was done cooing over Dirk you calmed her down and asked for the details of what happened.
"Oh! Yes, well," she gathered her thoughts and you noticed that the event must have freaked her out to have made her this scattered. "At first business was going really slow and it was getting near closing time so I decided to head to the back and check the stock. I left the bell on the counter so if anyone needed my help they could just ring."
"Alright. So when did the random guy show up?"
"Sometime while I was in the back, I suppose. I hadn't seen him come in but I didn't hear the bell. I think he passed out as soon as he came in. He was bone dry when I tried to wake him so he come in before the rain. But that's not important! Dave, honey, I think he's really hurt. There was blood all over him!"
"Okay, okay. Calm down and show me where this guy is."
She took you hand (her other hand cradling Dirk to her chest) and led you to the back where she had moved him. She told you that she tried her hardest to stop the bleeding but the towels placed over him wouldn't make good bandages for long. You made it into the room and she led you up to the mystery man.
The first thing you noticed where the washcloth towels soaking up blood around his wound. The second thing you noticed was that he looked familiar; black, wildly messy hair, blocky glasses that obscured most of his face, and the dorky teeth poking out from his lips. The third thing you noticed was holy shit it this "homeless dude" you were called in to take care of was John Fucking Egbert.
Holy shit.
