Chapter Eleven
Fanny's POV
I hate to admit it, but Hoagie was right. I did need to lighten up. I was tired from walking, so I just sat down and pulled by knees to my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs tightly. I kept trying to blink the tears out of my eyes, I didn't want him to see me cry. It was bad enough having Nigel around the time I found out my daddy was evil.
"Hey Fanny?" His voice was sincere, and he seemed pretty guilty. I felt him sit down beside me, but I didn't look at him.
"Look, I was harsh back there, and I'm sorry." He explained. "I shouldn't have said those things, I didn't mean any of it…"
"No, you're right." I noticed he looked at me in concern. "I should lighten up once in a while. It's just hard…"
I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, don't take it so seriously. Look, once we finish this mission, we can talk, alright?"
I looked at him, and I saw sincerity in his eyes. I wiped my eyes with my arm and smiled for real for the first time since we started the mission. I guess it took him by surprise. I felt more tears sliding down as he smiled back. I felt his thumb wipe them away, and right then I felt something I had never felt before. Something I never thought would ever happen to me for real.
I was in love.
Not that I'd ever admit it, but I felt it, and it was strong. But for some reason, I didn't like it. I guess I was just scared. Ma always said it would happen at the worst of times for me. I guess she was right.
"Look, we'd better keep going. The faster we get out of here, the faster we can go home and relax." I stretched out, and got up steadily. I bent down, and offered my hands to pull him up. He grabbed them in gratitude, and I pulled him up.
"So, what do you propose we do then?" He said, looking around. "I mean, you are the boss."
"Since you put it that way…"I placed hands on hips, and looked around for a moment. "I think we should keep together. And, I recon we go down that way."
He looked at where I was pointing, and cocked an eyebrow. The corridor was pretty dirty, but there were no signs of life of any kind. "Fair enough. But I thought you'd avoid dirty, dark corridors?"
"Never judge a book Gilligan." I reached into my bag, and pulled out two watch communicators, one green and one blue. I gave him the blue one, and strapped the green one to my left wrist.
"What're these for?" He asked, strapping his own and studying it carefully.
"Communicators. So in case we get separated, we can contact each other." I closed my bag, and signaled for him to follow. "And keep an eye out for the gun. It may be around here somewhere."
"Sure." He said, placing his hands behind his head as we ventured further into the darkness. Soon it became black as night.
"You know, it's really dark in here…"
"Don't even think about it Gilligan." I said sharply.
I think I turned to talk to him or something, because as I turned back I bumped into something. It couldn't have been a wall, unless it was a furry one. There was a low growl, and I heard Hoagie shift his foot.
"You know toots, I always thought of you as a tiger, but that was a really good impression of one." He said.
"That wasn't me." I replied, inwardly sighing happily that there was no light for him to see how red I had gone. I reached out, and ran my hand through the fur in front of me. I made out the body, and an arm of some sort. Something slapped me lightly upon the cheek, and I put two and two together.
"Umm, I know what made the noise." I whispered, taking steps backward. "I think we just ran into a tiger."
There were two flickers of yellow, with black slits through the center. A set of pearly white teeth appeared just underneath them. I backed right up slowly, and ran straight into Hoagie. A light flickered on, and there was definitely a tiger before us. A huge tiger with teeth as long as my arm.
Hoagie pulled his arm away slowly from where he had found a light switch, and unconsciously pulled me into him in a protective hold.
The tiger eyed us greedily, its tail twitching like a snake killing its prey. I stared it right in the eye, and noticed a few cogs going around in the pupil.
"It's a robot." I concluded, looking more closely at it.
"I see now. Some of the fur is missing from its hind leg." Hoagie added, checking his pockets for something. He excavated a spanner, and grinned in a way I had never seen before. And it was cute…Why am I thinking this?
"Well, I think it's time for the kitty's checkup." He cracked with a chuckle. I groaned and shook my head at his really bad pun.
"They're not fighting! Our plan is failing."
"On the contrary, it's going better than planned."
"How so sister?"
"Their new relationship will cause trauma if one goes missing…"
"Are you saying…"
"Yes dear brother…that is exactly what I am saying…"
