Perry punched him in the face.

It was the typical -inator of the day, or week, like almost every other time. Nothing extremely dangerous, but it had to be stopped nonetheless. Neither expected different from the usual song and dance that they were used to.

Heinz went backwards. He hit the doctor multiple times. The last two hits were with his tail. Heinz tripped as he kept heading back. He fell to the floor. Perry topped him. The agent prepared to hit him again. When his fist flew, Heinz caught it. He punched Perry off him. The teal platypus flew a few feet behind him. He backflipped and landed gracefully. Heinz jumped back up. He ran towards him to hit him again. Perry dodged the blue eyed man. As Heinz turned, he kicked him. Heinz fell again, hitting a door.

The door opened a crack. Upon the realization that it did, Heinz immediately got up. He grabbed the door handle and nearly slammed the door shut. Despite his actions, Perry charged towards him for another attack. Heinz held his hands up.

"Wait!"

Perry put himself to a halt. He slid a little, but otherwise stopped. The platypus stared at Heinz, blinking once or twice. Heinz scratched the back of his neck, looking off to his right.

"Sorry, but can we continue in a different spot?" He finally spoke. "It's just, there's some things behind that door that I rather not talk about, at least not yet. It's kinda traumatic for me, to be quite honest with you.

Taking a moment to let it sink in fully, Perry nodded. Usually he went on with backstory after backstory about his past without hesitation. He didn't know what was so traumatic that would be worse than what he already knew, but regardless he respected his wishes. Even if he was now filled with curiosity, he knew he shouldn't pry on something that could be extremely uncomfortable for his loved ones.

His little, turquoise paws grabbed onto Heinz's bigger hands. Perry backed up as he pulled him far, far away from that door. Doing that made a tiny yet noticeable smile crawl up on his face. Heinz's deep blue eyes said everything Perry needed to know. That was enough for him at this moment. Once they were away enough, Perry removed his paws from his palm.

"You know, Perry the platypus, I really appreciate-"

He jumped up and kicked him. That was followed by a smack with his tail. Perry hated to interrupt him like this, but saying it wasn't necessary. Heinz needed to know that.

Plus, it was about time they got back to fighting. They could talk more later.

Perry made his move, claiming two checker pieces.

He only had a couple pieces left to go before he won yet again. He looked at his surprisingly mostly fair opponent across him, who Perry knew was pondering his next move. Unless Heinz managed to turn this around somehow, he should've known he was at a loss. The platypus could tell what his next move was going to be just from how Heinz was looking at the checkers alone. What he was thinking didn't bleed through into his blank face. He knew better than to let the enemy know what he knew, even if it was through facial expressions.

Heinz laid his head onto his closed hand. He made his move, putting a piece forward. Perry slightly smirked as he went over that one, claiming it as well. He jumped through another one that ended up being Heinz's last checker piece. The man groaned at his loss. He slumped back, falling down the chair some.

"Isn't there anything else we can do? All we do is checkers, checkers, checkers!" He complained. "And I'm always losing! This is, what, the fiftieth time I lost?"

Perry held up his right paw, having his hand closed besides his index digit and his thumb. It quickly changed to all fingers up aside from his ring digit which touched the tip of his thumb. Heinz rolled his eyes.

"Twenty-seven, fifty, same difference!" He crossed his arms. "Point is, you always win while I only get a few wins, what's up with that? Why don't we do something other than this in our free time to enjoy ourselves like, I don't know, go to the movies or eat at a restaurant or maybe sex?"

Heinz continued talking, but Perry couldn't make out a word he said after that. He felt parts of his body tremble and he couldn't hide it. Milk started dripping out of his pores. Everything around him felt like they weren't there, only focusing on himself. He hoped Heinz wouldn't bring that up at any point in time. As much as he loved to, he just… couldn't. He wouldn't be able to get through it without them stopping. Feeling it and seeing it, he wouldn't be able to handle it. Luckily for him he wasn't holding anything, otherwise he would've dropped it. It was getting too much for him.

Surpassingly enough, he didn't feel like vomiting like he usually did from the hit wrenching feeling he got whenever he was shot into this state. Perry was extremely close to leaving the room because of this if it weren't for the fact that he felt immobile from mentally being in the void he was currently in. He didn't want Heinz to see him in such a state like this, but unless he snapped himself out of it he couldn't do anything. His mind started to race, becoming ruthless, restless, yelling everything at him on what he's not.

His body was getting sweatier by the second. He was becoming a cow with how much milk was coming out of him.

Perry halfway snapped back to reality. Heinz was holding his little turquoise paws. He looked up at his face with his bloodshot eyes, seeing how worried he seemed to be. He couldn't blame him at all with what he had just witnessed. Perry grabbed his long, skinny fingers and held onto them tightly.

"Are you okay, Perry?" Perry nodded slowly, it only being half of the truth. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have suggested that. I keep forgetting that you're not, uhh, you know."

Perry managed to crack a smile and a small chuckle. Knowing that made him feel better. The words that came from his mouth let Perry know that he knew and saw him as just that, Perry the platypus. Even after he told him, his feelings and views of him never changed. That was what he appreciated regardless if he had to worry or not.

By then, he was sweating less and less. He wasn't covered in milk like he was before, but he was still sweating a little. His shaking went down quite a bit as well. If Perry kept his focus on Heinz, he would be alright. One thing he kept his mind on was the fact Heinz was rubbing his paws with the tips of his thumbs. He could tell he didn't know exactly what to do for him, but what he didn't know was that it was enough for the platypus. He put his face on one of Heinz's hands, specifically his palm. Perry closed his eyes.

"Would doing something make you feel better? I don't care if it's checkers again."

Perry chirred in response. Anything else would be much better than that for the time being

He was still going to hold onto his finger though.

Heinz looked up at the building.

It was one of those animal themed restaurants some people liked. It was one he heard about before Perry dragged him here, and he wasn't too happy being there. No one should get him wrong, though, especially Perry, he enjoyed being surprised like that. I'm fact, he thought it was great that Perry went out of his way to do that for him.

He just wouldn't go to that restaurant for as long as he lived.

Heinz saw what the food looked like, and they really went along with the theme they were going with. The only problem was that they looked like ocelots, way too much like so for his liking. It was possible they were made with ocelots as well, but he didn't know about that bit. Heinz didn't want to eat something that looked like or was made from the animals he was raised by. He didn't think Perry meant to do that with ill intentions. It was possible he didn't know about that and thought a themed restaurant would be fun.

He looked down at Perry, who looked worried as if he might have done something wrong. He didn't know if he just fucked up or what. Heinz shot him a reassuring smile. He gently grabbed his paw.

"I don't want to seem ungrateful, because really I like that you did this for me, but mind if we eat at a different restaurant?" He requested. "I don't want to eat anything that looks like ocelots, you know? I know it's just a themed restaurant, but have you seen the food? I'd rather not."

Perry looked away in embarrassment as he chattered. If it weren't for his fur, he would be seeing him turn red like a cherry. Finally he then nodded, allowing Heinz to take the lead. Heinz walked him to one on the other side of the street that he saw minutes before. When they got there, Perry let go of Heinz's hand. He went over to pull a chair out. Heinz took the gesture and sat down.

Perry went to sit down as well. Heinz caught sight of a woman with white hair and a pink outfit, who was walking towards the restaurant they were at. A chihuahua was worth her as well, wearing a fedora like the one Perry had. That he knew was Pinky, considering they met once before. The woman stopped upon returning the gaze.

"Poofenplotz? What are you doing here?" Heinz raised his eyebrow.

"Well isn't that a welcome." She retorted. "I'm here on a date if you didn't notice."

Perry and Pinky raised their fedoras at one another, greeting the other. One could see that Pinky had a black eye, presumably from their job as nemeses.

"You're dating a chihuahua?"

"You're dating a platypus?"

Heinz looked at Perry then back at Poofenplotz. "...Touche."

Poofenplotz and Pinky walked along and into the restaurant. Perry sat down and looked at the menu. Heinz decided to do the same, see what kind of food and drinks they had.

Once a waiter came, they ordered.