Hi!

Sorry about the wait, I`ve been really busy lately..! But now the new chapter`s finally ready, and I can`t wait to share it with you! I really hope you`ll like it *smiles*

The new chapter starts somewhat where the last one ended, and it took me a while to figure out where I wanted to go with it. Sulley and Randall are beginning to know each other a bit better now, and I seriously can`t wait for their relationship to evolve! Still, they are barely friends yet, and they both have a long way to go; but I feel they`ve both started the journey..!

Mike is an important part of this chapter too, and I`ve made him very supportive to Sulley; they are best friends, and he should act that way.

Here`s the new part of the story, I hope you will all enjoy it! :D

Chapter 10: Coming Clean

Former co-workers and rivals James P. Sullivan and Randall Boggs sat side by side in the second one`s couch, tired from their late-afternoon walk in the snow, eating some microwave-dinners the first one had prepared for them. No words passed between the two, but none of them paid much attention to the movie on the TV either; they were both deeply engaged in their own thoughts.

Sulley looked over at Randall every once in a while to see how the lizard was doing, and was pleased to notice that he actually ate the food he had made him; the walk seemed to have done him good. Sure, he still didn`t look healthy, by far, but at least he sat up straight for a change.

Outside, during their walk, Randall had told Sulley that he had planned to drown himself when he was trapped in the human world. Did he still think about hurting himself? Sulley was worried about it; earlier that evening the lizard had also told him that he had nothing to live for and that he had no friends. Those could be reasons to still think about suicide, couldn`t they? He took another glimpse at the scaly monster, who seemed to be buried in thoughts of his own.

Randall was still regretting telling Sullivan what had happened to him in the human world; he`d let himself get carried away, and was angry for allowing himself to do so – why on earth did he do it? Having the big, hairy troll over for some sort of dinner for the second time in four days made him angry too, but not even near the anger-level he felt towards himself for telling him that he had planned to kill himself; Sullivan would probably never let him out of sight now…

The lizard took another bite of his dinner, and swallowed it almost without chewing; this clearly wasn`t the kind of food to eat if you wanted a great gastronomic experience. Although Sullivan had only made him dinner twice, Randall had already drawn the conclusion that he was a terrible cook; burned pancakes and microwave-nonsense really wasn`t the lizard`s cup of tea. However, this was probably his punishment for not being in the mood to cook for himself – either that or his motivation to start doing so again…

After they`d finished their meal, the two monsters remained seated to watch the rest of the movie – although none of them knew what it was about. Randall had decided to himself that watching it still was better than talking, and luckily, it appeared as Sullivan had thought the same.

The purple monster hardly registered what was happening on the screen in front of him; he was still too busy thinking about what he had told Sullivan earlier, and not to mention what Sullivan had told him. That he had considered him to be his friend when they were working together. Randall had never thought of Sullivan as anything else than a stupid rival who always got in his way, and he still didn`t view him as a buddy; but something was different now. Having him over today felt weird enough, sure; but not as bad as it had done last week. He avoided to look at the other, the so-called friend, and chose to remain silent; he had nothing to say to him, anyway.

Once the movie ended after about twenty minutes, Randall finally looked over at his guest, but without meeting his gaze; now was probably the time to say something;

"I think you should go home now".

The blue monster had to smile at the awkward utterance; the lizard`s way of being was rude and impolite, but there was something to it that was sort of funny, almost cute – he really had no clue on how to entertain guests.

However, Sulley was overbearing and decided Randall was sort of right, too;

"Yeah, it`s actually getting quite late". He got up from the couch, and Randall did the same. The purple monster was still not looking at the other as he continued;

"And you have work tomorrow."

"Mmmm…" Sulley chose not the tell Randall that he had actually changed his plans for tomorrow. Instead, he told him only a part of the truth;

"I`m coming back tomorrow to see how you`re doing, Randall".

"You don`t have to; I`m fine".

"No, you`re not". Sulley looked at his new friend, who tried his best to avoid eye-contact. "You need someone to look after you right now; you`ve been suicidal, things like that aren`t fixed in a day".

He took hold of Randall`s shoulder, and finally managed to look him in the eyes; "I`m coming back, and I`m going to help you get better".

"But I don`t want -"

"Randall; I`m coming over".

That was final, and Randall understood that the decision had been made. Whether he wanted it or not, his new "friend" was going to nurture him back to good health; he shivered at the thought as he pulled away from Sullivan`s touch and walked him to the door.

Sulley stepped out into the hallway, said goodbye - and was pleased with the fact that today, the lizard actually closed the door normally after he`d left. He let out a sigh, and was thankful that Randall seemed to be over his I-hate-you-so-much-I`ll-slam-the-door-in-your-face-state. That was a big change for Randall, and a huge step in the right direction.

The snowing had stopped when Sulley reached his own building. He had chosen to walk all the way home, to get a little extra time to come up with something good to tell Mike; he realized that he had to tell him everything about the situation with Randall, but he had difficulties with finding a way to say it.

He lingered on how he was going to spill the news as the elevator brought him up to his own floor and while he walked through the hallway to the apartment he shared with Mike; once he finally reached it he took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped inside.

"Sulley! I was getting worried about you, big guy!"

Mike`s cheerful voice didn`t quite fit Sulley`s expectations; he had expected his best friend to be angry with him for letting him down during lunch, and probably for other things, too – Mike always managed to find something to pick on. But now the little green monster stood there in front of him with an ear-to-ear smile, offering him a cup of coffee – the situation instantly made Sulley insecure. What was going on?

For a moment, all the blue monster did was stand foot, still with the door open, and stare at Mike with his mouth slightly open. The smile decreased a bit in the green one`s face, as he took a step closer to Sulley and waved his hand in front of the other`s face in an attempt to make contact;

"Sulley..? Hello? Are you just gonna stand there? Come on in, I have to talk with ya!"

Sulley eventually closed the door and went over to his best friend with a rather defensive attitude, accepting the coffee being so kindly offered;

"Mike, look -" The blue one thought it was probably best to come clean with things as soon as possible, and started with an apology; "I`m sorry about earlier today, I didn`t mean, well, I meant – but – I didn`t… I… I don`t -"

"Sul, Sul – It`s okay!" Mike lifted his hands to stop the words coming out from his friend`s mouth, and his face re-gained the big smile; "I figured it out!"

"You did?"

"Yeah, sorry for giving you a hard time today; I didn`t think of it then".

"You… Wait a second, what didn`t you think of..?"

"Come on, Sul..!" Mike placed his hands on his hips, and frowned at Sulley`s clueless expression;

"Don`t pretend you don`t know what I mean; Sophie! You were with Sophie this afternoon, weren`t ya?" The green monster smirked as he went on;

"It`s okay, I totally understand why you don`t wanna come out with it and tell everyone at work yet – it`s all brand new and exciting, and you wanna keep it to yourselves -" Sulley`s expression didn`t change, except from his chin, which fell a little further down. "- I remember what it felt like when I started dating Celia and we fell in love -"

"What?!" Sulley finally got to his senses as the meaning of Mike`s words began to sink in; "I`m not in love with Sophie!"

"Of course you`re not in love with her, you`ve only just met her! What you have is a crush! And I can totally see why, she`s really sweet! Okay, she`s still Randall`s sister, but like I said, I`ll let that pass – she`s very pretty, and seems like a nice girl, and -"

"I don`t have a crush on her, either!" Sulley started to sound kinf of desperate; "And it wasn`t her I was with this afternoon!"

"It wasn`t? But I was so sure!" Mike`s smile decreased; "Then who were you with..?"

Sulley placed his hand on his shoulder and escorted him over to their sitting area;

"I think we should sit down for a while, Mike… I have to tell you something."

"Jeez..! What did you do? Kill someone?"

"No! No, no, no… It`s nothing like that… Mike – do you remember last week, when I told you about Randall?" Sulley sat down in his chair and used his hands to tell Mike to sit down, too.

"…I`d almost managed to forget about it, but thanks for reminding me..!" Mike sat himself down, and the smile on his face had now been replaced with a frown.

"Mike; I went over to visit Randall today".

Mike just stared back.

"Mike? I`ve been looking after Randall in his apartment since I left work today. I was there on Friday, too. And on Thursday night – even though you told me not to; I`m sorry". There. The words were said; quick and harshly, like ripping off a band aid.

Mike was still looking at his friend, without a word; this was probably one of his longest periods without talking ever.

"Mike? I`m sorry – I should have told you. If you`d seen him, you`d understand; he`s not doing so good. He`s depressed, he hardly eats, and I`m really worried about him".

Mike had finally gotten back his ability to speak, and glared at the blue one with an accusing expression;

"Why are you worried about him? You hardly know him, why is he suddenly your responsibility?"

"I… Actually don`t know… I just feel sorry for him, and I want to help him – make him feel better… I`m the only friend he`s got."

Mike rested his eye on his best friend for a long time. Eventually, his facial expression softened a bit from Sulley`s last utterance;

"The only friend he`s got, huh..? I didn`t know you guys were friends."

"We weren`t, but… I think we are now."

"Does Randall think so?"

"I think he will".

Mike leaned back in his chair and said noting for a long time. Sulley felt a little uncomfortable, but relaxed when Mike eventually gave him a teasing grin;

"You know Sul… Others find themselves an old car or something as a project to fix up, not another monster..!"

Sulley couldn`t help but laugh; "Well, I`m not gonna fix him up, I`m just gonna… help him find a reason to live".

"Oh, so that`s it? Fine! You`ll have additional work for a while, then; call me in a couple of years, when you have an afternoon off!"

"Mike…"

"Okay, I`m sorry – I just find it a little funny; I mean, who would have guessed? You`re friends with Randall! I`ve never seen the guy with friends!"

"Exactly..!"

"And I can`t imagine him being depressed! How`s he like when he`s not – well – Randall?"

Sulley gave it a thought;

"He`s… Depressing..!"

"Sounds like fun…"

Mike`s eye narrowed as he sat back up in his chair; he still wasn`t a big fan of Randall. However, he cared about his best friend, and if this was important to Sulley, it was partly his case as well.

"I wish you had told me sooner… Are you going back there tomorrow?"

"Yeah; I`m going to spend the day with him, so I`ll take some time off from work".

"Who`s gonna be in charge at work then?" Hope rose in Mike`s voice and his eye widened.

"Terrie".

"Oh…"

"But I think there`s a chance she`ll need an assistant..!" Sulley smirked at the green monster.

"Great! Can`t wait! Ummm, for Randall to recover, I mean..! Hey, speaking of which, are you going to spend all of Wednesday and Thursday with him too? Are you taking more days off work?"

"One day at the time, Mike..!"

"Sure… How `bout Friday?"

"Mike".

Mike eventually calmed down and Sulley praised the silence that slowly filled their living room. He took a sip of the coffee his best friend had made him, only to discover it had turned cold; he got up with a sigh to make some more, and picked up the pizza-menu on his way to the kitchen – he was getting hungry again, too.

Chapter 10..! I hope you liked it.

I am going away on holiday for the upcoming week, but I think I`ll still manage to update the story from my iPad on Thursday or Friday – hopefully. If I can`t, the chapter will be up when I get back, next Sunday. In chapter 11, Randall and Sulley are going to spend an entire day together, and we`ll see Rex again! :)

I`m planning to write a lot while I`m away, and things are getting interesting in the future chapters. First of all, we have the evolution of the relationship to look forward to, but there are other things coming, too – Rex is going to play a big part in the future chapters, for instance. I hope you will all stay tuned and follow the story on:)

That`s all for now, take care!