It was a strange feeling to Julio to already be so used to being in Lily's base. Originally, if one had told him that he was going to be kidnapped by an affable villain and feel right at home in just a short time of being in the base, he would have called the person crazy. And yet, there he was, lying down in the middle of a field in said base, utterly covered in purring, kneading, sleeping balls of fur otherwise known as cats, and completely and utterly content with his situation.
He was unsure if this was indicative of getting a case of stockholm syndrome, but he severely hoped not, and put the thought to the side. He turned his head as he heard the door of the area slide open, watching as the familiar form of Lily shambled inside. He raised a free hand slightly to wave at her, and she gave a half-hearted one in return as she walked over and promptly fell face first next to him, although careful not to land on any of the cats.
"Hey, Lily. You seem down." Julio said, almost bluntly. The smaller girl let out a groan, shifting her head to look at him. She looked absolutely exhausted and stressed, to say the least.
"That's an understatement. I ran into your team again and met your boss." She replied weakly.
Julio's eyebrows shot up as he gave her a wide eyed and disbelieving look, needing to give the sentence another thought over before he was able to answer.
"What??? Again? And you met Brand?" He asked incredulously. Lily nodded miserably, planting her face in the ground again as she reached out to bury her hand into the fur of one of the animals and beginning to pet it.
"Yeah. He's scary. He looked like he was going to kill me." She said. Julio cringed, hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.
"Yeah. He probably wasn't, don't worry. He just has a scary resting face." He reassured. Lily gave a small nod, mumbling something else under her breath and rolling over so she could pull one of the cats onto her chest. The two sat in silence for a few more minutes, watching from afar as robots milled around the rooms and the field, never staying in one place for long.
"...Uh, so. How long do you think I have to stay here? My mama Rosa is probably really worried about me." Julio said after a minute. Lily tensed, her hand freezing up for a moment. She didn't answer for a while, simply looking away from him.
"Well, uh, I really hope not much longer. A month at the longest I hope. I've been getting as many people and blueprints in here as I could so we could speed up the process and have everyone back home sooner rather than later, but what I'm doing kind of takes a lot of time. If I'm not able to get it done fast enough, I'm going to need to figure out something with you and everyone else. They all have families that are worrying about them, and having to keep them away from each other is killing me. It's just a situation I'm going to have to deal with. But one way or another, I'm determined not to keep you longer than I need to." She explained. Julio nodded slightly, shifting quietly as silence came over the two once again.
"...Hey. What's that cat's name?" He asked after a moment, attempting to steer the mood away from what was careening towards tense. Lily blinked, looking down at the cat on her chest. It was large and fat to boot, with large blue eyes and mostly white save for the soft orange colors on its ears, face, and tail.
"Oh! This is Cream. She's a cream point ragdoll. She's actually about to be ready to be adopted out once she's had her litter and taken care of them and whatnot." She answered, scratching the cat behind the ears. Julio sat up finally, sending the other cats that had been laying across his chest to the side, almost seeming vandalized as they shifted off of him.
"That's nice. How long have you had her?" He responded. Lily grinned as she sat up and placed the aforementioned cat into her lap, her previous mood quickly dripping away as she quickly began talking about her.
Julio was happy to sit back and listen as she talked. It almost reminded him of how Duncan would spout on about every invention he saw or made, and how happy it made him to do so. Yes, it was still a strange feeling to be feeling as comfortable as he was in company with her, but he couldn't say it couldn't possibly work to his advantage in the future. But for now, even though he was never really the best at waiting, he would wait for the time to come when he could finally leave, and he could go home.