99 Bottles

"86 bottles of beer on the wall,

86 bottles of beer,

Take one down and pass it around,

85 bottles of beer on the wall!"

Kevin laid down on his back in the cell while waiting again to have Wessel squirmed into his head. He tapped his left foot the right leg resting on his knee while singing the song off tune and somewhat loudly. He'd been here about 3 hours by now and he had started to get bored. The female Hork-Bajir controller "Scar" once again guarding his cell arms crossed as best as possible without scratching herself. The best he could get out of her tonight was some sort of grumble about her recent promotions position being able to be active yet so she is back to guarding host cells. So with no source of conversation and the strangely long time his Yeerk was taking he eventually fell back on the standard method of entertainment, annoyance. Eventually though he heard the cell door squeak open and with a brief grumble of "you have to share" he say a large mustached man in a sports jacket thrown into the cell with him. The man immediately sat up and started shouting at Scar.

"You fucking goblin piece of shit if I could get out of this cage I'd crack open your throat like a Pez dispenser and shit down your neck!" At this point Kevin recognized it as his boss Chief O'Malley. Only one many could be so successful at making a string of vulgarity sound like something heroic. So he quickly shifted into a sitting position.

"Chief that you?" At this O'Malley turned to face him his face still red but seeming to cool somewhat.

"Anders heh of course I get thrown in with you, you bleeding heart jackass." Kevin just smiled the words to him sounding like a father saying he did good and calling him sport.

"Sir how have you been holding up?" The older man just rolled his eyes and leaned back.

"Kid you know very well I'm a tough old bastard some smiling fucking slug isn't going to break me." Kevin nodded at that but couldn't help but hear something else in that sentence. He knew he couldn't pry though for unlike Wessel the Sub-Visser was sure to try and rip every little memory of their brief time apart to see if any secrets were spelled. So for now he just nodded and enjoyed at least the brief company.

"So Chief want to help out getting on my guard's nerves? Works way better than shouting they know how to handle shouting." O'Malley huffed and crossed his arm.

"What and join you in your fucking middle school pussy foot shit?" He looked away but then Kevin could hear him clear his throat and they both began to sing.

"84 bottles of beer on the wall,

84 bottles of beer,

Take one down pass it around,

83 bottles of beer on the wall!" Scar just dug her toe claws into the ground ignoring the two humans. While moving into taking down the 83rd bottle Kevin stopped singing for he started to notice how O'Malley did it. It was a rich operatic tone almost flowing out of the large man's mouth. Not at all like the out of tune drivel Kevin could produce. Eventually the larger man noticed and turned his head glaring at him.

"Going to slap whatever gross alien tentacle is in your mouth out and tell me why you are so gob smacked." Kevin cough slightly and quickly tried to recover.

"Oh just uh didn't know you could sing sir is all." O'Malley huffed and looked out the bars of the cell.

"It was in University Anders just something an shrew asshole of an aunt wanted for me before she helped pay for it. Wasn't all a shit show I suppose met my wife that way." Kevin just quieted. He knew at least the Chief was married once remembering that before the Yeerks there was an old framed picture that his boss would keep face down on his desk only looking at it when he though none of his officers were watching. Kevin just swallowed and changed the crossing of his legs.

"Never knew that Chief that's .. uh interesting." O'Malley just looked at him sideways and laid his head back against the wall.

"Go back to singing Anders before I strangle you." Kevin just smiled and cleared his throat.

Sometime later after hitting the 44th bottle, and despite strict denial Scar humming along quietly for a few, the door was opened and two human controllers pulled him out leading him back to the pool. Kevin tried to start up conversation with them but they didn't budge their faces cold like stone. Eventually he found himself at the front of the line. While many behind him were crying or cursing Kevin just kept a tiny grin on his face. The first thing he learned was that out of all the things he could do not letting them see an ounce of distress messed with his captors heads more than anything. So he was on his knees ear near the liquid and eventually felt the wriggling entering of Wessel getting back in his head. His last thought before his brain was a shared space again was how it seemed the Yeerk was in some word more "gentle" in his entrance recently. Still he felt himself stand up outside of his own power and once again there were strings on him; that comparison also once again made him remember when Wessel bought every Disney movie he could simply because he hadn't seen them yet.

{Sorry about the time Kevin something… came up.} Kevin tried to give a mental equivalent of rolling his eyes but was shocked to realize his eyes actually did roll as they walked to the exit from the pool. Before he could even recover from the shock Wessel spoke up.

{Look Kevin just keep calm for now. Something came up and we've got some business to attend to tomorrow night. I don't want to say more right now.} Kevin mentally nodded once again finding his body following suit.

{Well… I'll look forward to it.}