"Billy?" Arnie asked. "Are you sure you're feeling well enough to go on a mission?"
"Oh, Arnie, don't be too concerned" Billy replied. "I'll perfectly make sure that my nose won't become stuffy again anytime soon. Paper tissues are also some kind of magic, you know?" They smiled as they secretly thought of how Yikk recently told them that back in kindergarten, they also had a packet of tissues in their chest pocket at all times, in case one of their classmates would become sad, cold, or anything else in that way. Some kind of magic indeed, and in this case, disguised as love and sympathy.
"You're very confident about your statement, huh?" (Arnie just interpreted that smile as a smile of confidence.)
"I surely am, sirree. Now let's get going, shall we?"
Along with Billy and Arnie, Lava, Squee, Charlie, Navy, Nika, Pop, Rice, Choco and Nori followed suit towards their ship.
"You lot, have a good mission!" Vienna said, as she waved at the missionary crewmates.
"Bye, sis!" Neri exclaimed to Nika, "you have a good mission, too!"
All of the missionary crewmates waved and greeted back before finally getting into the ship and changing into their spacesuits and oxygen tanks.
"There, peace and quiet at last." Vienna headed to the main room and had a seat on her 'usual' sofa. "Yikk, you seem so restless, how come?"
"Well" Yikk replied, "I owdewed a wittle something fo' Biwwy, and I wanna suwpwise them wif it waytah today, yet I no wanna open the pahcel once it awwives."
"Should I get it instead once the mail person delivers it?"
"That be a vewy nice offah of you, thanks!"
"Is it scheduled to arrive today?"
"Yes, I owdewed it yestahday evening, an' today, I got an e-mail that the pahcel is on its way to the destined addwess."
"Alright then."
Yikk was also tending to Yuri the entire time, and the latter seemed to find it alright to be with someone other than their mother.
"Yuri's a sweet child, huh?" Neri said at the sight.
The childish crewmate simply nodded in response, as did Digit, even if the latter did it more reluctantly since they weren't too sure about such an unpredictable kind of young human yet.
"Aguh?" Yuri babbled in question as they tried to reach their little hands out for Digit, who backed off.
"No, no" Yikk said in a strict yet very gentle tone, as they gently pulled the theyby away from the robot, "that be my wobot, so hands off. You no wanna give them a cold now, huh?"
"Ayeeyuh…"
"Even Digit no wike you yet. They find you a tad… lessay… unpwedictable… oh, of couwse you no undahstand that just yet, siwwy me."
"Don't worry, Digit" Neri said to Digit, "I'll protect you from Yuri's grubby hands, at least I am capable of being gentle with robots like you." He carefully patted the robot's head with his finger.
"Aw, Newi, that be vewy sweet of you."
Vienna had gone to the kitchen in the meantime to prepare some formula for Yuri, who was seemingly restless because of returned hunger at the moment.
"Do you heawe that, Yu?" Yikk said. "Mum be making you some food, even if I wanna give it to you soon."
Yuri simply smiled and giggled softly in response.
"Ooh, do I spy a wunny nose? Civiwised people dun have that…!" The lime crewmate grabbed the lower end of the theyby's bandanna and gently dabbed the sudden nasal mucus from underneath their nose. "Thewe, all bettah."
"Dada."
"No, I not be youh Dad. Youh Dad be on a mission wif youh big sis."
"Daguh?"
"Me? I be Yikk."
"Y…"
"C'mon, say it, even if you pwobabwy not be able to…"
Yikk and Neri both burst out in laughter about the statement.
"What are you two laughing about?" Vienna asked. "Yikk, are you sure you didn't just tell Neri some weird joke or anything?"
"No, Vienna, I pwomise I didn't, and I nevah will eithah."
"Very well then."
"Do you even know any weird jokes?" Neri asked.
"Not weawy, but some of my fwiends fwom Iyahwand do."
"I see. Well, neither do I, and neither does Nika."
"Yee!" Yuri then suddenly exclaimed, widening the eyes of everyone else who heard it.
"Oh my gosh!" Yikk squeaked. "Vienna, Newi, I think Yuwi just twied to say my name!"
"I think so, too!" the middle 'mini-crewmate' said.
"That's miraculous" Vienna chucked, as she headed back to the main room with a bottle of formula. "Say, since you've been watching Yuri the whole time, would you like to feed them, too?"
"Suwe, I cannot see why not." The youngest crewmate took the feeding bottle from the mother's grasp and subsequently handed it to her youngest child so they could drink it by themself. "Thewe you go. You do wike a good bottle evewy now and then, huh?"
Yuri was too busy to reply vocally. They simply focused on sucking the still warm formula out of their bottle that they held on to and had a peaceful gaze in their slightly shiny purple eyes while doing so.
Meanwhile, at the Mira HQ, the very next mission had swiftly started after the arrival of the missionary crewmates, and today's impostors were Squee and Nori, who also found it a peculiar combination.
"A dumb blonde and a silent sneak" Nori had said. "I wonder how that'll go."
"Hey, don't call me dumb!" Squee retorted. "I'm the smartest and most handsome impostor there is!"
"Don't just say that dang I-word out loud where the other ears are!"
"Sorry, alright? I didn't know you were cross with me."
Several crewmates had the running of the diagnostics of the Skeld's main ship as their first task, which meant that they were all practically trying to push one another out of the way when trying to reach the start button on the tablet computer.
"Ouch!" Billy said. "Don't just mercilessly shove me away like that! Do you want to catch a cold as well? Then please keep on going like that."
"No" Lava answered back, "you get your germy paws away from that thing! I'm mandatory to do the diagnostics at first!"
"No, I am!" Charlie said, "you bunch of dimwits!"
"You guys" Arnie said, as he tapped the left shoulder of each arguing crewmate hard with two of his fingers, "please stop this nonsense right this instant! Nobody is necessarily mandatory to do the diagnostics at first. Now, Billy, you were definitely the first to stand in front of the screen, so why don't you do it? And then Charlie and Lava, and then me?"
"I'm definitely going to look for Choco after this" the tomboy sighed. "Can't get a single task done properly without him in my sight, to be honest."
After all of the crewmates had started their diagnostics tasks, they wanted to continue to their next, but Arnie briefly put a stop to that.
"You guys do promise to not argue like animals again once you all come back to pick the anomalies as retrieved from the diagnostics" he said, "alright?"
"Yes, sir" was the straightforward answer of the red, yellow and cyan crewmates.
"Very well then, now skedaddle to your next few tasks, because I will do the same."
Charlie soon found Choco fixing the wires in the locker room, and she happened to have that exact same task, so out of nowhere, she helped him out.
"Sweetums" Choco said, "you know how I am already doing well with tasks like this one?"
"I happened to have the same one, Day" Charlie replied, "where's your next wire fix task located? Mine's at…" She briefly looked at the display screen of her pager. "…the hallway in between the lab and the reactor room." ('Day' is an abbreviation of Damien, which is Choco's real first name.)
"Ah, the reactor. I have to unlock manifolds there soon. I'll keep on watch for the bad guys, alright?"
"That's a deal."
The two matesprits shook hands before heading for the decontamination hall, where they knew very little of the presence of Squee in the vent.
"Once one of them is distracted" they said to themself, "I'm going to pounce, like a fierce puppy!"
"You mean a kitten" Nori said from his spot in the shaft. He was currently underneath the vent grid of the locker room.
"Oh, fuck off, I'm trying to fake my noodle here."
"Excuse me?"
"Never mind!"
"Squee, you're being really annoying, and I'm being brutally honest."
"Whatever."
In the admin room, the crewmates who had the task of inserting their ID codes were lined up in a queue, like real civilised crewmates did, and Arnie could only approve of that.
"I indeed saw them being a little… pushy back there" Navy whispered into his fellow crewmate's ear. "And right you were about teaching them a little lesson about it."
"That's what leaders of crewmates are for, right?"
"No kidding, you're one of the best, and that's no lie coming from the sloppiest part of my brains."
"I would never take that tone and statement for a lie, Navy."
"Daddy" Nika said, "can I help you insert the numbers? Billy is done now."
In response, the dark blue crewmate immediately grabbed his ID card, handed it to his daughter and picked her up so she could reach the number keys to insert the code after the card.
"Lessee… that's 6, 4… 2… 0… and uh… well, another 0 then."
"Very well done, Nika!"
"Yay, thanks!"
At the office, Pop had taken a seat at the primary computer to upload a few requested data there. However, once she was at almost 50%, a meeting was suddenly called due to a reported body.
"Aw, c'mon!" she grumbled, "why can I literally never finish a long task like this?!" She angrily got up from the desk chair and hurried towards the cafeteria.
Out of all of the crewmates that were present at the emergency meeting, Charlie was the most distraught of them all.
"Squee knee-kicked Choco right into his spine" she wept. "I saw it from the corner of my eye while I fixed the wires in the hallway in between the lab and the reactor room."
"Did not!" Squee retorted. "It's Pop and Billy. Just because."
"That's racist, to just rat those of colour out!" The cyan crewmate bonked the dumb blonde right onto their head.
"Ow, don't just bonk me on my noggin!"
"It's definitely you with your foggy noggin, impostor!"
"That indeed was rude of them" Billy sighed, also at the verge of crying. "People shouldn't just rat others out based on their race…"
Pop swiftly voted Squee out on her pager before wrapping her right arm around Billy's shoulders to comfort them.
Nori was also a little angry at Squee for making such a dumb statement, and decided to vote them out as well, despite the fact that they were really his fellow impostor.
"I believe Charlie better" Navy stated, as he also voted Squee out. "It's not too usual of Squee to be this annoying as an impostor."
Lava nodded and hummed in agreement.
Very soon, Squee was sent to the 'impostor task floor', the unconscious Choco was brought to the medical bay by Arnie and Charlie, and the mission then finally continued for the remainder of the group.
"Stupid dumb blonde co-impostor" Nori grumbled underneath his breath as he went to the balcony just to sabotage the communications and pretend to download weather data. "I may also be blonde, but I'm definitely smarter than that sick excuse of a rotten orange in the crate."
"Oh no" Lava grumbled, "not this again. This is always the kind of sabotage that takes eternities to be stopped…" She was in the communications room, and already happened to sit near the communications device that showed codes that changed every now and then.
Rice wanted to help out, but was soon shooed by the snob.
"Get to the fucking office right this fucking instant to help me stop this goddamn sabotage, will ya?!"
"Alright" the crewmate in white huffed back, "but you don't have to mercilessly yell and curse at me. I have feelings as well, you know?"
"Sorry then, but still, hurry up and make it quick."
Just as expected, nobody was present at the office, and Rice frantically entered each and every shown code on the communications device there, which seemed to take quite the while, until both lights on both of those devices showed green, which was a good sign, and so, the sabotage was solved.
"Fucking finally!" passer-by crewmates could hear from both the office and the communications room.
Pop soon returned to the office to do a second attempt on her uploading task.
"Hi, Rice" she said.
"Hey" the younger twin sighed.
"What's the matter?"
"Lava just mercilessly yelled and cursed at me while I was only trying to help her stop the sabotage just now, and even if she apologised, I still feel hurt from the inside…"
"That's not too nice of her former self to suddenly make such a return. She should know that you were just trying to help." The girly girl started the uploading process, walked towards her fellow crewmate while still sitting in the desk chair and put an arm around their shoulders.
As the mission continued, Pop continued to emotionally support Rice by staying by their side at all times, and the latter only approved of that to the fullest. The two even performed the scan at the medical bay that they still owed from their task list to prove themselves safe for a full hundred per cent.
Arnie, Billy and Nori saw the scan, and thus had some proof as well.
However, seeing as his younger sibling was visibly hurt somehow, the only remaining impostor decided to keep his hands off of both him and Pop, so there wouldn't be any further drama among them, if anything.
He did punch a good strike at the launchpad, though, by walloping Lava on her right temple while she was about to pick an anomaly as detected by the diagnostics she started at the start of the mission.
This did not remain unseen and unheard for long, though.
"Daddy, I heard something!" Nika exclaimed. "A 'bam' and an 'ow'! Did you hear it, too?"
"I indeed did" Navy said, as he grabbed his daughter's hand and went towards the launchpad, where the two soon discovered and reported Lava's unconscious body.
"Good thing I escaped just in time" Nori quietly sighed from underneath the nearest vent grid, before getting out of the shaft to head to the very next meeting once the coast was clear.
Unfortunately for the remaining crewmates, nobody still knew who the one remaining impostor was just yet, so the votes were skipped, Lava was brought to the medical bay as well and the mission simply continued once again.
"Good morning, ma'am" the mail person at the door said. "I can still say that, right?"
"Well, yes" Vienna replied as she took a brief glance at her watch, "seeing as it's still seven to twelve at this point."
"Neat. Anyway, the point is that I have a few parcels addressed to either you or your housemates. Would you like to sign?"
"Of course, I can't see why not."
The mail person grabbed a small tablet and a special touch-screen pen, the latter being given to Vienna so she could sign for the parcels that were soon handed to her.
"Thank you very much, have a nice day."
"You too."
"Thanks."
The purple crewmate gently closed the front door with her foot and put the two stacked parcels underneath the letterboxes on the wall.
At the same time, Yikk, Digit and Neri came down the stairs, and especially both the humans looked to be a bit shook and tired.
"Gwad that the Gowon Wuwwaby did the twick once again" Yikk sighed. "Man, Yuwi indeed has shwill cwies!"
Digit nodded in agreement. Even if they were 'only just' a robot, they were still capable of sensing the five or six human senses.
"You didn't know beforehand?" Neri asked.
"Not without my eahs unpwugged."
"I indeed did see you plug your ears as well whenever Yuri cried near you and the others. Good point."
"Should I make you guys lunch?" Vienna asked, as she guided the two towards the dining table, also to not make Yikk even more restless because of the parcels that had already arrived.
"Suwe, Vienna."
"Please do, Mummy."
"What would you guys like for lunch?"
"Dunno" both Yikk and Neri replied.
"Would you like a PB&J sammy, some grilled cheese, or perhaps some soup?"
Silence fell in the kitchen, because nobody could really decide.
"Some soup would be nice" the lime crewmate eventually said. "Definitewy desehved that aftah hahd wohk jus' now…"
"Yuri isn't always as fussy as they are lately. It only really occurs whenever they're sick, or cold, or teething, or anything else in that way. But I'm only glad that you and the twins found a way to soothe them instantly during a time like that."
"Yeah, me too. In fact, I do wondah if it awso wohks on wittle Jeff next dowe…"
"There's only one way to find out, and that's by sending either a link to the song or a file of it to Snippet."
"I dunno if he be musical in the way of pwaying the guitah and bein' able to wead notes if I wanna send him a music sheet…"
"Now that you mention it, neither do I, to be honest. That's a very good statement you just made." Vienna grabbed a medium-sized pot and a can of vegetable-only soup, and the latter was soon emptied to have its contents warmed up into the former.
"I wanna learn to play the piano when I grow up" Neri said. "Char is so good at it, and I kinda envy her."
"Yeah, she be" Yikk said with a little chuckle. "I can onwy pway the mewody to the Fowest Maze song wif my wight hand, and fuhthahmowe, nuffin'."
"Yikk, you mustn't complain. I can play nothing at all!"
"Yet. But you will weahn that, eventuawwy."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Five short minutes later, lunch was served for the three people in the kitchen, and devoured within what seemed like no time at all.
Vienna only approved of that to the fullest, and mainly if it came to Neri, who barely ever complained about having to eat vegetables in comparison to Nika, who did so very often.
"I feel fatigued" Yikk said after having put their bowl and spoon into the dishwasher. "Do you guys mind if I go to sweep upstaihs fo' a wittle while?"
"Do whatever pleases you" Vienna said. "If you're looking for me, I'll remain here at all times, because whom else would have to watch over Neri and Yuri?"
"And I wanna stay by your side at all times, Mummy" Neri said. "I love you, and I cannot stand to not see you."
"Aw, that's very sweet of you, little sunlight sparkle." The mother planted a gentle kiss on her son's cheek.
"Sleep well, Yikk."
"Thanks." The youngest crewmate went upstairs as quietly as possible to not wake Yuri up, and took a brief bathroom break before heading towards the dorm room.
Digit, who followed them the entire time, also knew how to be as quiet as possible, fortunately, since they weren't the kind of robot that'd whirr and clink so loudly while moving around, unlike most of the first robots and robot prototypes from the past.
Once they were in their bed, they made themself as comfortable as possible with Digit, all three of their dolls, their comfort blanket, their covers and their thumb, and before anyone knew it, they were fast asleep. Every single crewmate in the living building has always envied that exact detail, and right they are about that.
Downstairs, Neri decided to watch some cartoons on TV, while Vienna grabbed her iPad to do some miscellaneous work on there.
It barely happened, that it was almost quiet in the entire living building. One could hear a needle fall, in a way of speaking.
If one would briefly imagine a lack of walls at the moment, the only audible sounds were Yuri's soft snoring, the soft rustling of the radiators, the air shaft that often went unnoticed to everyone else, and the television that was set to a gentler volume for once.
No, but seriously, no crewmate could ever comprehend why the television would often be turned on at such a loud volume when they would watch something alone in a completely quiet situation.
"Mummy?" Neri eventually asked once a commercial break was there.
"Yes, Neri?" Vienna asked back.
"I've been thinking, and I wanna do so much in the future. I wanna learn to play the piano, but I also kinda wanna be a crewmate like you and Daddy."
"If you want, you could always do both. Take Alph next door, for instance. He goes to the university on his computer and is a crewmate at the same time, that's what he told me, and I honestly didn't really expect that."
"What's a university?"
"It's some sort of school for very smart people, like him. One is only allowed to go there if they are smart and know almost everything in the world. Unlike me."
"But Mummy, you are very smart."
"That's very nice of you to say, but it's not that I literally know everything in the world, kind of like Alph does."
"That's actually pretty cool of Alph to both go to school and be a crewmate at the same time. How does he keep up with that?"
"He's a really patient guy, and he tries to make sure to not get too stressed at the least convenient times."
"Wow, I wish I could do that, too."
"You will eventually learn that, sweetie, don't worry."
"Thank you, Mummy." Neri shuffled towards his mother and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. "I will have to think about this for a looong time, because I'm still very unsure of what I wanna do in the future."
"Take all of time you need, son. I won't put you under any kind of pressure."
"Thank you."
Soon after, the commercial break was over, and as Neri watched a new series of cartoons, Vienna continued her work on her iPad.
"A-ha!" Charlie, Pop and Rice exclaimed. "Busted and caught red-handed!"
"I, uh…" Nori simply brought out, his head being as red as an overly ripe tomato at this point. "I didn't do anything!" He swiftly covered the spot in between his legs with his hands.
"Go and change into clean clothes soon" Rice stoically said before reporting Billy's unconscious body in the greenhouse.
Finally, a meeting that'd actually make sense this time.
"So?" Navy asked. "Where did you guys find the body?"
"Rice j-just self-reported!" Nori brought out. "I s-saw it with my own eyes!"
"I didn't" Rice answered back. "It's definitely you who mercilessly punched Billy in their face, Nori. How are you even a terrible liar all out of sudden anyway?"
"I… I…"
"You're indeed a terrible liar, Nori" Nika said in a very unusual tone. "Daddy, vote him out."
The remaining crewmates voted the remaining impostor out, and they emerged victorious soon after.
"Now" Charlie said, "Nori, I want you to bring Billy and Arnie to the medical bay before changing into clean clothes and heading for the floor underneath this one."
"Oh, puh-lease!" the older twin retorted. "Can I not be agonised for having a weak bladder for once?!"
"Then don't be such a scaredy-cat anymore, and for all I care, wear something in the way of sanitary towels during the next few missions."
"Alright, fine. But I need some help with carrying the unconscious bodies, since I'm not anyone in the way of the Hulk, unfortunately."
"I'll help" Rice said, "on the condition that you don't complain. We've carried more unconscious bodies together than you think."
"Yeah, that's right, but that was either when we were both impostors, or when we were both regular crewmates."
Both of the twins went towards the decontamination hall at first, since Arnie's unconscious body and Bobby were located there, and it was also quite a secluded location where one would easily forget about unconscious bodies.
Afterwards, Billy was brought towards the medical bay, and once that was also done, Nori picked some spare clothes from the cupboard there, changed himself in the bathroom and put his soaked clothes into an 'urgent laundry' bag before heading towards the 'impostor task floor' and letting the regular remaining crewmates finish their remaining tasks as well.
"I'm also kind of wondering how Nori suddenly became such a bad liar" Choco's spirit said. "I literally saw the sweat break from his forehead underneath his helmet."
"Maybe he was nervous to do the imposing on his very own?" Billy pondered. "Just a thought, as I feel the same way, to be brutally honest."
"At least he listened to what he was told to do just now" Arnie said. "After all, he's one of the few serious crewmates around here, and I'm being honest now as well."
"I should most likely do the same. I'm so sorry for being such a bad impostor whenever I was one on a few of the past missions, Arnie."
"Billy, you don't have to apologise for that. It's completely normal to be an impostor during missions at this job."
"Yeah, but rather than doing some lame impostor tasks, I'd love to get some well-deserved corner time after getting voted out… just like my moirail!"
"Alright, you asked for it, and I'll keep it in mind. Just like how Yikk told me that they also asked for it when they were the impostor for the first time." The former private glared at Lava, who listened to the whole ordeal with a smug and evil look on her face. "You keep your pointy nose out of this, Valentina. I know how much you love to hear such 'agonising' stories, but I'll be keeping all of my senses on you, don't forget that."
The snob was obviously shocked at her leader's statement.
"Y-yes, Arnie… I asked for trouble, so I get it, too."
"As long as you'll remain good, I won't approach you in any way."
"Okay."
Time slithered by like the slowest kind of snail, but eventually, everyone was all done with their tasks, and the unconscious crewmates slowly woke up as well.
Before everyone departed, though, Choco and Navy made a full lunch, since everyone was now practically starving at this point, and that especially didn't help with the fact that it was quite a long mission just now.
In the meantime, it had become 4 p.m., and the main cast took it as easy as possible. After all, it wasn't just the missionary crewmates that had a long and eventful day today.
"Oh, what do we have there?" Billy said, as they noticed the parcels underneath the letterboxes on the wall and went towards them to pick them up. "Ah, and it seems that a certain moirail of mine has also bought something from the same store recently? That barely ever happens, if you ask me." They sat back on the sofa and handed both of the parcels to Yikk.
"No, no" Yikk said, as they handed one parcel back to Billy. "The one addwessed to me is fo' you."
"Wait, it is? What a coincidence!"
"I nevah knew you bought somethin' fo' me wecentwy, but heweby."
"Yeah, it's a little apology for not interacting with you as much anymore due to my recent cold."
"I bought it fo' the same weason! Man, we be so in sync."
"Aren't we?"
Both the moirails laughed heartily before both grabbing a nearby pen to make a little hole in the tape of the parcels before completely ripping it up in the process of opening them.
Indeed, both of those parcels also started with a sheet of paper that had a little poem typed out on it, albeit not in a too fancy font, but it still meant something.
The poem in the parcel for Billy went as follows:
Dear Billy,
You were struck with a cold, and colds are honestly getting old
That way, we could barely interact, which is a really sad fact
To apologise, I bought you a thing, without listening or asking
I hope you like it, even if it's only for a very, very slight bit.
Love, Yikk
"Aw, green bean" Billy said almost quietly, "you shouldn't have done that, you're way too sweet." They were blushing all over their face. "Now, what do you think of what kind of poem I composed for you?"
Yikk simply giggled in response, and the poem for them went as follows:
Dear Yikk,
Roses are red, and their thorns sting as much as many kinds of shrubs
Speaking of plants and such, do you like Deku Scrubs?
Love, Billy
"Why, I do…!"
"You know what, we should reveal our parcels' contents together at the count of three, okay?"
"Otay!"
"One, two…"
At the count of three, the two crewmates took their destined object out of the parcels, and both reacted surprised and very happy at the same time.
"I've always wanted cool accessories like these!" Billy exclaimed upon showing off their two new wristbands. They were yellow and had a cute Boo ghost embroidered on them.
"An' I nevah knew such cute pwushies existed!" Yikk squeaked upon showing off their Deku Scrub plushie. "Thank you so much, Biwwy!"
"No, thank you, Yikk!"
The couple of moirails were aimlessly left laughing and giggling until they thanked one another with a tight hug and a few kisses.
Navy and Vienna saw the whole thing happen from the dining table, where they sat to watch Modern Family on the latter's iPad, but briefly paused the show to speak to one another.
"Told you the whole shop would be a huge success" the dark blue crewmate chuckled. "Always trust little birds who tell the good things."
"Oh, you and your little birds" the purple crewmate chuckled back. "Why didn't you have one of those as a pet when you were young?"
"Because I already saw plenty of them when shambling through the forest as a child and a teen, and it'd be a shame to keep one of those in captivity, right? In this respect, nature is great every now and then."
"Yeah, that's absolutely right."
"Also, for pet birds, you should speak to Arnie, as he once told us all that he had at least two of those at his parental home."
"Oh, yeah, that's right, he indeed said that, and also that they weren't encaged the entire time, because especially large birds need some space every now and then."
The couple shared a brief peck on the cheek before continuing to watch the comedy show.
In the meantime, Yikk and Billy had brought their most recent loot to the dorm room and remained there until dinner would be served in at least two hours.
"How did you discover Unusual Amusement in the first place?" Billy asked.
"A wittle bihd told me" Yikk replied.
"And what's their name?"
"Navy. An' possibwy Vienna, too, as she cawwed me a 'sweet wittle Deku Scwub' as well yestahday."
"Oh, so she almost spoiled the surprise? How rude of her…!"
"At weast I didn't undahstand why she did that in the fihst pwace, an' that onwy be a good thing, wight?"
"I guess so."
"Biwwy, I be gwad you be feewing a tad bettah fwom youh cold."
"And I'm glad to finally be able to interact with you after that nasty cold, Yikk."
The two moirails exchanged their umpteenth kiss and a genuinely kind smile afterwards.
