"Yes!" The Brain stood in wonder as he oversaw his memory scanner. "Pinky! It's complete!"

"You solved the puzzle without me?" Pinky pouted, folding his arms across his chest. "That's the last time I share my rubber band collection with you!"

Brain hopped down from where he'd been working, brushing his palms together. "No, Pinky. Don't fret, the puzzle has been untouched. I've simply finished the device that will assist us in extracting the pieces of the puzzle from the infant's mind."

"Oh, alright then. Narf!" Pinky followed Brain as he strode over to the playpen. "You can still play with my rubber bands then."

"I'm delighted." He mused, peering down at the child.

She was curled up in a ball, fast asleep, clutching the green crayon. Pinky made some sort of 'aww'ing noise above him, and even he had to admit she was very skilled in utilizing her innate baby cuteness to bend others to her will. Perhaps if he wasn't trying to get rid of her, he'd use that quality in a future scheme. He probably still could, he filed it away for later.

"Alright. Pick her up, Pinky." He instructed.

Pinky sighed dreamily. "Oh, but Brain, I don't want to wake her up! She's so cute! Poit!"

"Well, we have to move her to the machine."

"You pick her up then."

"That's ridiculous, I asked you to do it first."

"You didn't ask, Brain."

"Pinky, if you don't pick her up, I'm going to have to hurt you."

"But why can't you do it?"

"Because!"

"Because... why?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you. I just don't want to!"

Neither had noticed that their conversation had already accomplished what they didn't want to happen. The baby blinked up at them, observing their back and forth conversation quietly. Pinky had his hands on his hips and Brain mimicked the stance, or perhaps it was the other way around.

"That's not a very good reason."

"Coming from you, who's incapable of reason."

"How about we both pick her up?"

"Fine. I grow weary of this conversation. On the count of three. One..."

"Five!"

"...Two comes next, Pinky."

"Oh right, narf! Two!"

"Three." Both mice finally turned to reach into the play pen, startled to find a pair of pink eyes watching them delightedly. She laughed and clapped her hands, reaching up right back for the both of them. Pinky and Brain turned to look at each other, so close their noses touched, before Brain huffed and spun away while Pinky giggled right alongside the infant. "Just grab her so we can fire up the machine and see if it works."

This time Pinky did so without complaint, balancing her on his hip. "You haven't tried it yet, Brain? But how will you know if it's safe?"

"Of course it's safe." Brain did his best to look affronted, though he did expect Pinky to question the reliability of his creation. "I designed it with an infant in mind."

Holding her close as if to shield her, Pinky still looked unconvinced. "It won't hurt her, will it, Brain?"

The Brain took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "How about you try it first?"

"Alright! Narf!"

Brain didn't know if he should be concerned for his associate's lack of self-preservation, considering his interest in that of others, but he let it slide in favor of fixing the helmet to Pinky's head. "Give her to me, Pinky. It's probably best if you sit down."

Pinky obliged, taking a seat on the ground since the chair that connected to the machine had been built for a baby. Brain now tried to balance her on his hip, requiring complete movement of his dominant hand. He twisted a few knobs and flipped several switches. "Are you gonna make my head a puzzle, Brain?"

"It's already a puzzle to me, Pinky." He sighed, then gestured to get Pinky's focus. "Now, I need you to relax, Pinky. The memory scanner works best when the participant is at their most relaxed. Adrenaline, while it can provide quick flashes of accurate memories, also tends to tamper with what is real and what is fictitious. So do not allow yourself to become startled, Pinky, for we want precise results." He waited for Pinky's nod before continuing, even if most of this information was lost on his simple-minded friend. "A state as close to REM sleep would provide the best feedback, but that also runs the risk of letting dreams slip through to integrate themselves within a memory. So just do your best to remain calm, take deep breaths. Meditate, if you will. Are you ready?"

Pinky closed his eyes and wiggled about to get his last bit of energy out. "Ready, Freddy!"

Brain rolled his eyes, then entered the key word on his pinpad: Home. "This key word will conduct a search through your long-term memory, if it even exists, and display the memories that best match the word on this screen. You don't have to close your eyes, Pinky."

"Oh, right. Troz." Blue eyes blinked back open and watched as Brain typed in a few more entry codes and the machine began to whir. "What's the secret password, Brain?"

"Home." He replied, finally stepping back to see what would be displayed. "Our cage, or at least the lab, should be displayed. It automatically goes to the oldest memories, so it'll most like be when you first realized the lab was your home."

"Naaaarf..." Pinky crooned in awe and the screen began to fizzle. "Look, Brain!"

"Don't get excited, Pinky." He warned, shutting the other mouse up immediately. The Brain himself on the other hand did not try to curb his excitement. "Yes!"

"Pah!" The little mouse pointed at Pinky, then looked up at Brain.

He glanced down at her for a moment. "So now it's 'pah'? Trying out all the consonants?" He didn't let his attention linger, for an image materialized on the screen.

It was... it was the lab, but the focus of the memory was not on the place. Or rather, Brain did not focus on the place. Instead his gaze was drawn to a familiar looking mouse. A much younger mouse, not that much older than the one he currently held in his arms. A voice crackled through the sound system he rigged up, but it was fuzzy. He didn't notice the baby reach out and pull on a red knob, but luckily it caused no ill-effects, instead it cleared up the voice.

"What are you doing?" The voice was clearly Pinky, young and with an echo, but Pinky all the same.

The mouse he was looking at seemed perturbed, but answered nonetheless. "Reading."

In his memory, Pinky moved forward to peer at whatever this mouse was reading, but all of was gibberish, at least that's how Pinky remembered it. "What's that?"

"Biology." Pink eyes narrowed slightly when there was no reaction, and continued. "It's the study of living organisms." Brain felt a lump in his throat, he knew what came next. "It's like the-"

"Building blocks of life..."

"Oh!" Images of blocks started to form on the page Pinky was looking at, then the mouse came back into his field of vision. "I like playing with blocks! Can I play too?"

This? This was Pinky's first memory of home? The Brain was vaguely aware of the rest of their conversation, he knew it had something to do with correcting Pinky, that was how their childhood went, but he turned away from the screen to observe his associate sitting a ways off. Pinky's eyes were glued to the screen, not surprising since this was almost like television for him, and he looked decently entertained.

"Oh, Brain! Look how cute you were with your little-big head!" Pinky cooed once he realized Brain was looking at him. "And already a smarty. I'm so proud!"

"Pinky... why...?" They were only memories, but Brain still felt the niggle of guilt that if he looked into his memories, he doubted his first images of home would be Pinky. More likely his home in the fields or when he was with Snowball. He knew Pinky remembered his parents though, he'd heard the (painful) story he'd told. Why weren't they his first memory?

"Nice to meet you, The Brain!" The baby mice on the screen shook hands. "Thanks, Brain!"

"Wait, what's your name?"

"My name? Poit. I don't have one." The image began to blur, transitioning to the next one in line, another instance of interaction with a younger Brain.

"Oh, this is fun!" Pinky smiled. "But why can't I see me?"

"Pinky." Brain waited for Pinky to switch his attention from the screen to him. "I... I don't-"

"You were the first one in that scary mean cage to talk to me." Pinky didn't seem bothered by this at all, if anything still as cheerful. "Where you go, I go! That's a home, right?"

It was true. Pinky would be more than happy to call a garbage can his home as long as the two of them were together, that was no surprise to Brain. It was just this scientific proof, undeniable confirmation that was beyond Pinky's mental control, forced this lump in Brain's throat to exist and his eyes to burn.

"Oh, Pinky..." It was difficult to remember that under all those 'narfs' and 'poits' and 'egads' was that little mouse who'd only wanted a friend to keep him company. Just like he had. Somehow he managed to set the baby mouse down, though he couldn't quite recall doing that, and allowed his emotions to get the better of him, just this one time.

Pinky on the other hand was startled by the sudden embrace, finding Brain's arms around his neck was not a typical occurrence, but he did not hesitate to return the hug immediately. "Brain... why're you crying? Your puzzle works! You should be happy! Unless you're gonna miss little baby mousey too?"

He supposed it didn't really matter what his child memories perceived as home, so long as he and Pinky were on the same page now. Swallowing thickly, he nodded into Pinky's shoulder. "Of course. Yes. It works." He cleared his throat, his voice still sounded too clogged. Pinky handed him a tissue from somewhere. "Thank you. Come, let's get this helmet off you and put it on her. We still need to get to her memories, that's the object of this endeavor after all."

Brain dabbed at his eyes discreetly, turning away from Pinky to peer at the screen once more. It was very fuzzy since Pinky was distracted and not in his calmest state, but still perceivable. The two of them were exchanging drawings, oh dear, he could not watch. It was bad enough when it actually happened. He went over to the machine and switched it off, then nodded for Pinky to take off the helmet.

"Do I have hat hair?" Pinky tried to smooth out his fur, but only succeeded in making it look worse. "Ta-da!" He held his arms out wide and spun around to show off his new look as Brain still tried to compose himself. Taking note of this, Pinky danced over and picked Brain up in a tight hug. "Don't worry, Brain! I still think you're cute, even though you have a big, lumpy head now! Narf!"

Brain was more concerned with breathing rather than being offended by Pinky's choice of adjectives. "I appreciate the sentiment, Pinky. Put me down now."

"'Kay!" Pinky dropped him.

The megalomaniac groaned, then felt the little paws of the baby mouse on his head as she peered down at him. She hadn't moved from where he'd put her, more engrossed with his interactions with Pinky than anything else. "Bah?"

"Don't you know any other vowels?" Brain righted himself and dusted himself off, feeling more like himself thanks to being strangled. "Pinky, get the helmet on her while I reset the machine."

"Aye, aye, Brain!" Pinky saluted, then picked up the mouse as brought her to the little seat. "There you go! All nice and comfy?" He took her stare to mean 'yes'. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt a bit!"

The machine began to whir to life again. "Alright, Pinky, come over here."

"Okay, Brain!" He stepped away from the baby and stood at Brain's side, both of them looking to the screen to see if anything would come of it. "What if she thinks this is her home now, Brain?"

"I'm hoping that's not the case just yet. Memories of her family may still be fresh, while the ones of you and I are still fairly recent and may not have completely transitioned into long-term memory just yet." Brain explained as images started to appear. The child remained decently calm as this took place, blinking up at the screen curiously.

Only one more chapter after this!

Pinky's memories are from Ch. 2 and Ch. 6 of my other PatB story "Friends?" I thought it'd be cute and fun to stick them in there. And Brain getting all emotional! Nawwww~