Chapter Twenty-Four: Fix The Boat Or Swim

"…p? C….ar me…? ….ry?"

Bad Cop slowly opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by his friends, each of them with a concerned look on his or her face. He shoved himself upright from where he'd apparently collapsed. "I'm okay," he muttered in response. "'s just… disorienting."

"Did it work?" Benny asked, adopting a hopeful look. Bad Cop pushed himself to his feet, looking the spaceman dead in the eye before grabbing his face and kissing him soundly. Unikitty whooped loudly, causing the others to laugh. Vitruvius smiled to himself, satisfied all was well, and quietly vanished while they weren't paying attention.

Bad Cop released Benny after a moment, his chest starting to feel tight when the astronaut didn't respond. Benny simply stared at him in stunned silence. "I'm- I'm sorry," he stammered. "I shouldn't have- I must have misunderstood-"

Benny finally shook himself out of his daze and grabbed Bad Cop's shirt collar, pulling him close for another kiss. "Nah, you understood perfectly," Benny assured with a grin when he released him again. Bad Cop hugged him close, unable to stop the smile spreading across his own face. "I'm going to take it that's a yes, then?"

To confirm, Good Cop switched out, giving Benny a warm smile. "That's a yes," he said, and pressed a kiss to the spaceman's forehead. "Thanks for looking after the silly goose while I couldn't."

"Well hey, what are friends for?"

Good Cop then turned his attention to his former employer, and frowned. He stepped around Benny and marched toward Business, who began scrambling back in a panic. The others looked on, confused as to why, until Good Cop hauled back and punched him right in the nose, startling them. "That's for everything you put Bad Cop through!" he barked, adopting a scowl that looked so out of place on him.

"Good Cop?!"

"What the heck?"

"Wow, I didn't know he could get angry!"

Once she recovered from Good Cop being the violent one for once, Lucy stepped between the two men to check Business' nose. He hissed and whined at her touch, but kept still. Blood was gushing pretty steadily from it, and he fished a handkerchief from his pocket to staunch the flow, but- "Not broken," she announced, and turned to give Good Cop a Look. "And don't you even think about 'fixing' that," she warned. "I will kick your butt, freshly back from the dead or not." She turned back to Sirius. "He's quite a spitfire."

"You have no idea," Business mumbled from behind his hanky.

"You owe us an explanation," Good Cop growled, still angry. "On top of an apology. Why is it that no matter how hard we pushed ourselves, it was never enough? What was it that changed three years ago to make you crack down on us so hard?"

Business frowned back, trying not to cower under that glare. It was even more terrifying coming from Good Cop, since he so rarely got truly upset. "Because I found out you were a Master Builder," he admitted. Good Cop could feel his twin stirring curiously in the back of his mind.

Well, that explains why he didn't seem shocked about me helping with the portal.

"You two kept that secret from me for years," Business continued, completely unaware of their internal conversation. "How was I supposed to think anything other than that you were working undercover for them as a spy? You even had that self-enforced rule of 'capture not kill', so how could I trust you when you couldn't trust me?"

Good Cop rolled his eyes, fighting the urge to either facepalm or smack Business upside the head. "You wanted us to be up front with you about being a Master Builder when you hired us to hunt them down? You realize how ridiculous that sounds, yes?" Business had the decency to look ashamed at that. "By the time we thought you might be okay with it, you were acting weird, punishing us for failures beyond our control. You stopped seeing us as people, and started acting like we were just another one of your mindless robots to be ordered about. We didn't know you'd found out, so what were we supposed to think? As far as we knew you'd just… snapped. Cary and I both thought of quitting so many times, when you started getting worse about it, we started wondering what it really was we were fighting for. But we couldn't just leave you alone, not when all you had left were the robots. Even for all the hurt you put us through, we still worried about our friend." He paused, hands clenching into fists once again, and Business flinched away at the fury practically roiling off him. "Until you erased me, forced Cary to Kragle our parents, then left him to deal with the fallout completely alone. The only reason he still followed your orders was because he didn't know what else to do, he hardly knew up from down!"

Business sighed, finally dropping his hand from his nose and forced himself to meet Good Cop's gaze. "Yes, I know," he said quietly. "And I owe you both the biggest apologies ever. Personal reasons for my behavior aside, what I did to you guys was not okay." He wiped at the small trickle of blood that was still dripping. "But I knew simply saying sorry wasn't going to be enough, so when Metalbeard came back with a chance at restoring you, I jumped on it. And I know Bad Cop wasn't thrilled to have me along, but it was the only way I could think of how to prove it to you both just how sorry I really am."

Good Cop's gaze softened at that. Business stiffened when long arms wrapped around him, but there was no pain, and he realized that Good Cop was hugging him. He relaxed and leaned into the hold; as much as he kept people at arm's length, he'd forgotten how nice actual human contact felt sometimes. "That's for everything you've done to help," Good Cop said. "Cary's already long since forgiven you, but now you can consider yourself officially off the hook."

"Oh thank God," Sirius breathed, dropping his head against Good Cop's shoulder, his tension bleeding away so quickly it left him shaking a little. Good Cop chuckled and held him until he was certain his legs weren't about to give out and dump him on the ground.

"So what do we do now?" Emmet asked. "Those sky pirates are still out there plotting against us, and we don't have a ship to get away on."

Benny grinned, bouncing on his toes. "B and I have the perfect plan for that."

Metalbeard narrowed his eyes at his best friend. "I thought ye be up to somethin'."

Benny snickered. "Yup. But we're going to need you guys to keep your eyes open for them, and keep them distracted if you see them start to head back."

"We don't get to know what the plan is?" Unikitty pouted.

Emmet's eyes went wide. "Oh! Is that the surprise you were talking about?"

"Yep!"

"Ohh, surprise! I love surprises!"

"And you're really gonna love this one," Benny promised. He looked at Good Cop. "Can I have B back now?"

"Certainly," Good Cop agreed, switching out. Bad Cop smirked at him. "Ready to get started?"

"Oh stars YES. Let's go!" Bad Cop laughed as Benny grabbed his hand, dragging him along.

Sirius glanced over at the remaining Master Builders. "Well. Airheart was right about one thing, there is an entire city to explore still. Care to join me?"

Bad Cop smiled to himself as they wandered through the city looking for parts. Benny's hand found its way into his at every available opportunity, unwilling to be separated for too long. The spaceman was overflowing with frenetic enthusiasm, and he wasn't sure it was entirely due to their project. He was feeling like he could float, himself. "Ready to start part two?" he asked when they'd collected a sizeable pile of parts.

Benny's grin turned wicked. "Ohh yes. Let's." He zipped toward where the Sky Rogue was moored, Bad Cop running along behind him to keep up. The spaceman took great pleasure in gutting the airship, stripping it of its engine in its entirety. Bad Cop remained outside, catching parts as Benny tossed them over and keeping a wary eye out. Though Alastar now had several new tricks up his sleeve, Cary still didn't feel comfortable without his gun.

Bad Cop wandered on board once Benny had finished, looking for supplies next. They paused in the stairway as they entered the cargo hold. "Dude, what." Benny was indignant and furious. "That's like, half of Metalbeard's stuff, right there! When were they planning on letting us know?!"

"I don't think they were, Ben," Bad Cop sighed. "Pirates, remember?"

"Metalbeard's not like this…" Benny sulked.

"Metalbeard's different. Come on, let's take his stuff back, I'm sure he'll be happy to see it." They went through the hold, grabbing everything the sky pirates had stolen from the cyborg captain, and a few extra supplies besides.

Benny squealed excitedly as they set everything by their pile of parts. "Come on B, let's get building!"

"Hold up just a moment, Benny," Good Cop answered, and Benny tilted his head curiously at him. "We should leave a thank you note, don't you think? It's only polite, after all." Benny grinned and followed him back on board, curious as to what exactly they were planning on writing. They strode into the navigation room with purpose, and the spaceman laughed at what Bad Cop scrawled out on a loose sheet of paper.

"Oh she's gonna be so mad when she sees that."

"That's the point," Bad Cop told him, smirking. He took it down to the empty engine room. "Come on, now we can get started." Benny sprinted back outside and leapt over the railing, landing lightly on his feet before launching straight into work.

"SPACESHIP!" the astronaut screeched, practically a blur as he fused parts together. Bad Cop smirked as he helped where he could, working on the inside as Benny got the shell put together. It would be his biggest yet, a fact Benny was immensely proud of. The cop snickered as Benny sang happily and off-key to himself.

"Excited much?" he teased when Benny finally joined him.

"Metalbeard's mind is going to be absolutely blown when he sees this," Benny said giddily. "How much longer til it's done? Anything I can help with?"

"This is the most complicated mechanism I've ever made, Ben. I want to make sure it's absolutely right."

"Just show me what to do, B. I'll help make sure it's perfect."

Bad Cop smirked at him. "You just wanna know my secret."

"I dooo," Benny whined. "You're the only one who's ever figured out how to build something that transforms, B, of course I wanna know the secret!" He leaned in close, waggling his eyebrows. "I wanna know all yours secrets."

Bad Cop let out a startled laugh at that. "Knock that off, you lunatic." He gave Benny a gentle nudge, and the spaceman snickered as he floated back a few inches. "Patience is a virtue."

"Not when you're dangling such a tempting carrot in my face."

"Oh, fine," Bad Cop mock-huffed at him, and Benny grinned. "Get over here so I can show you how it's done." The spaceman bounced giddily and drifted back over, trying not to press in too close as Bad Cop worked and listening very carefully as he explained how the mechanism functioned.

"Geez, B, how did you guys even figure that out?"

"A lot of experimentation and trial and error. It was honestly kind of by accident, at first."

"Accident?" Benny laughed. "What were you trying to make, if that was by accident?"

"I don't think we were really 'trying' to make anything, we were just kind of messing around." Benny continued to giggle. "What?"

"I can't get the image of you as a mad scientist out of my head, now." Bad Cop rolled his eyes. "Hey." He looked back over, startled at how close Benny suddenly was. The astronaut grinned and pecked his lips. "Hi."

"…Why do I get the feeling you're going to be doing that a lot?"

"Cause I rather like the smile it puts on your face when I do it, and I want to see more of it."

Bad Cop looked away again, rubbing the back of his neck, but his smile didn't fade. "Let's just… get this thing finished, okay?"

Benny giggled. "Sorry. Too much too soon?"

"…A little."

"Alright, I'll try to tone it down. I'm just so excited, this is like the best day ever, I get to build a spaceship with my boyfriend- can I call you my boyfriend now?" Bad Cop nodded, amused. "And I get to call you my boyfriend now! And we're sticking it to those jerkface sky pirates and doing an awesome thing for Metalbeard and we got Good Cop back and ohmygosh I have a boyfriend now and we're building a spaceship and-"

"Geez, Ben, breathe," Bad Cop laughed. "I think I got it." Benny smiled sheepishly, then grinned again and launched himself at Bad Cop, hugging him tightly.

"Seriously. Best. Day. Ever. Oh! I just got an idea!" He pecked Bad Cop on the lips again and zipped back outside. "I gotta go do a thing real quick! Don't send the signal til I get back!"

Good Cop switched out, watching with no small amount of amusement as Benny practically flew back to the Sky Rogue. "I think I see why you like him so much. He's adorable when he's excited."

Get your own crazy spaceman, that one's taken.

Good Cop laughed.