Mable: I had this done this morning, but I had some stuff to do with my Mum, so I didn't have the time until now to publish. ^-^ I hope everyone's had a good Mother's Day; whether or not you are doing anything special for this Sunday.
This is a sort of quieter chapter, I'll forewarn, but it's good to have these in between the moments of people almost getting killed. XD I'm kidding, of course… Well, sort of. Enjoy!
Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Fifty-Seven
By time Mike, Fritz, and Natalie got to Jeremy's house, the weather was taking a turn. The peaceful sky from earlier was blanketed in darkening grey clouds, forewarning a coming storm on the horizon. Almost as though foreshadowing the visit itself. They approached the eerily quiet door and Mike took the liberty of knocking. It took a few moments before footsteps could be heard and only then did Jeremy open the door. He looked flustered at best and exhausted at worst.
"O-Oh, hey!" Jeremy greeted with a smile. "What are you guys doing here? I thought you were going to eat."
"We did," Mike curtly responded. Then did a quick assessment over Jeremy's condition. He was dressed casually, as though he had no intention to leaving today- which Mike could fully relate to. However, he did notice a new bandage wrapped around his thumb. It looked like the one Fritz had, but he didn't think that Fritz said he was bitten by a Minireena.
"We brought food," Natalie volunteered as she lifted the bag of takeout. This seemed to pique Jeremy's interest, but he was hesitant to let them in.
"Thanks, that's… That's really great of you guys, but I don't- You don't want to come in here. The place is a mess," Jeremy awkwardly squeaked out. Almost immediately after saying that, something scurried past the door. Mike looked down with piqued confusion. After a few moments, a tiny face peered out from behind Jeremy's leg. Not even looking down, he tried to 'subtly' beckon her back.
"Is that Daisy?" Natalie asked, her smile returning at seeing the Minireena. Jeremy forced out a positive reply and Natalie crouched down. "Hello, Daisy. How are you today?"
Daisy stared at Natalie for a moment before turning her head and burying her face into Jeremy's leg. She grabbed on his pants and clung to him. It was a very odd gesture for the small doll. Daisy was usually rather predictable; giggling constantly and getting into everything that she could. Yet here she was looking clearly upset. "Not so good, huh?" Natalie encouraged sympathetically.
This was promptly followed by a strange thumping noise from inside the house. Jeremy inhaled sharply, "Give me a minute-!" and went to push the door to closed. Almost immediately, Mike snapped his hand out and caught it. This caused Jeremy to hesitate for a split second. "Just- I'll be right back," Jeremy stuttered and disappeared into the house, abandoning the three, and Daisy, in the doorway.
"…So, we're in agreement; something's clearly going on?" Natalie asked the others and stood again. There were a couple of agreements and they patiently waited for Jeremy to return. Right when Mike was prepared to let himself in, Jeremy returned.
"So, uh, I- I'm a little busy," Jeremy tried to excuse. "I'm having a little trouble with- with the new Minireenas. They're a little bit of a handful…" This was the first time that he let his stress slip through.
"How bad is it?" Mike blankly and bluntly challenged. This was rewarded with a few moments of silence. Jeremy stared at him with a flustered look. Then he opened the door to let them in.
"They hate me," Jeremy admitted as they stepped in. While the house looked to be in okay condition, Mike immediately spotted cereal spilt on the kitchen floor. This is what led him to the top of the fridge where he could see a Minireena holding herself into a basic pose. As though it was that innocent, even it was very clear that Minireena had thrown down the box. "They're not like Daisy at all. They just… They really hate me."
"They don't hate you, Jeremy," Fritz encouraged. "Daisy wasn't exactly perfect when you first got her. She gave you plenty of problems."
"She didn't do this!" Jeremy protested. "They- They'll destroy anything they can get their hands on! They broke my glasses, my contact lens case is gone, and the Magician- Every time they climb on him, he shrieks, and this happens in the middle of the night too!" A day and night of exasperation came out in full force. "I just- I don't understand what I did wrong this time! What did I do differently?!"
"He shrieks?" Mike clarified with a look of near disbelief.
"He screams and flails his arms. It's the most I've heard him speak or seen him move," Jeremy admitted and followed by tiredly sinking onto the couch. He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed his face. "Everything was supposed to go so smoothly. I already had their names, I already made them beds… I thought Daisy would help them calm down…" Partially feeling like he was at fault, Fritz sat down beside the younger and laid a sympathetic hand on his back.
A small hiss alerted both to the fact that another Minireena was beside the couch. It had climbed enough to peer over the arm and, even with its constant smile, it seemed to be glaring.
"That's Rose," Jeremy quietly introduced. "…She's the nicer of the two." Fritz decided to not even ask any further and simply accepted it as fact.
"You don't have to do through this," Fritz assured. "We still have the warehouse and the pizzeria. If they're too much handful, you don't have to keep them here."
"I can't do that to them," Jeremy sighed in dismissal. "…Or Foxy. Him and Daisy already have issues of their own…" He rubbed over his face wearily as 'Rose' disappeared behind the couch and vanished. The third Minireena was currently trying to climb into the cabinets above the fridge, but Jeremy had already taken precautions to rubber band them closed.
Mike lifted the box of cereal and closed it, saving what was left, and placed it back on the fridge. He was rewarded with more hissing, though this one also had a bit of a vocal whine on it. "Stop that," Mike answered, unenthused by the noise. "Unless you're hiding claws, that's not scaring anyone." He placed the cereal box back into place while the Minireena climbed down onto the counter and hurried off.
"That's Forget-Me-Not," Jeremy butted in. "She's, uh…"
"Should've been forgotten?" Mike guessed and while Jeremy didn't look content, he didn't say anything further. Smirking to himself, the security guard stepped over the cereal and headed towards the Magician at the corner of the dining room. He had seen him when he first entered, but waited until now to approach. He knelt down beside him with a playful smile. "How's it going, Max? Any spontaneous flailing?"
The Magician's eyes slid over so that he could look at the human. "I saw your file. So, your gimmick is card play?" Mike offered with full amusement. He didn't expect much of a reaction. As the amusement returned to normality, he actually got a moment of reassurance. "If you ever need a night away from the dolls, we could go somewhere and compulsively gamble."
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Mike hadn't expected the response, especially not the cockiness that it held. "…What's that mean?" the human asked with his smile entirely diminished with his growing suspicion.
The Magician kept his voice low. Which was great for Mike, as he added in the next words, "I know what you've been doing." While Mike tried to keep his face flat, even though his panic was slowly starting to grow, the Magician seemed much too confident. "It's got to be nice having a plush toy to take to bed with you."
"Don't you even-," Mike began, growling out the warning mutter. He promptly caught himself and glanced over at the others. Jeremy and Fritz didn't notice, Natalie was currently moving to sweep the cereal into a dustpan, and none of the Minireenas cared. Assured that nobody heard him, he looked back to the Magician. "You don't know what you're talking about, and if you start spreading that then you'll just get Mari in trouble."
A light chuckle came from the Magician, quiet enough that nobody could hear it, and he slightly turned his head. "I think he's already in enough trouble as it is…" Something sounded a little too foreboding about that comment. At first, Mike thought he was talking about himself, but then realized that this wasn't the case. His gaze narrowed in confusion.
"What are you saying?" Mike murmured.
"Everyone's going to have their eyes on Baby," the Magician quipped. "That's probably for the best. Don't leave any of the kiddies alone." Then, suddenly, what started as a joking revelation about Mike's relationship turned into an ominous warning. The Magician seemed more reluctant to talk as Fritz and Jeremy stood, talking about looking for the contact lenses again.
As they passed into the hallway, Mike looked back to the Magician. "Let's not play around here, Max. What do you know about Baby?"
"That 'sweet' and 'innocent' performer was gone a long time ago," the Magician forewarned. "There's a lot of lies. Maybe a change; maybe all that time stuck down in that place brought out some true fear… She was never scared of anything-." He suddenly cut off as Natalie came a little too close. Suddenly, the conversation was cut short. "I can't talk."
"I could really use a little directness on this whole thing," Mike insisted with a growing determination. He demanded more, "Is Baby going to hurt someone?"
The Magician paused for a few more moments and then rushed out an answer right before Fritz and Jeremy reappeared. "I don't know." He was completely straight with this, which concerned Mike more. "Marionette should watch his back… You know, when you don't have your hands all over him." With that cheeky comment, the Magician finished by completely losing all credibility.
The next hour or so was devoted to helping Jeremy clean his house. There was a surprising amount of glass in the carpet, this was clearly how Jeremy originally injured his thumb, and finding the contact lens case involved moving a dresser out of the way. All in all, a brief visit became a project. While Jeremy was trying to get his contact lenses in, having not used them in some time, the three remaining humans coerced in the living room.
"I don't want to take one of them home, but I feel like I should offer," Fritz admitted to the other two. He certainly did look a little remorseful. "I mean, geez, I could've made them like this by belting them together."
"That didn't help, but if you had to go that far then there was already a problem," Natalie defended him. "I'd offer to take one, but I can't risk it with a full house… Maybe Daisy, if I could keep her hidden." Then she looked toward Mike. "What about you, Mike? You've got four bedrooms at your disposal."
"Afraid not. Those bedrooms are currently holding all the skeletons that wouldn't fit in the closets," Mike denied instantly. "One animatronic is enough for me. Mari'll get attached and I'll get stuck with them as a permanent fixture… Speaking of which, I probably need to head back. He'll be home soon." The security guard sent a lingering look in the Magician's direction. The animatronic wouldn't make eye contact. "I want to be home when he gets there." He checked his watch attentively.
It was now when Jeremy wandered out. "I think they're hiding in the back for now… I'm just going to leave them be. They need their space." His voice sounded so defeated as he sat down at the table and opened the to go container with the food that was brought. "Thanks for coming over."
"Don't mention it!" Natalie assured with a warm smile. "You just take care. If you need help, you can ask us."
"I know, I just- I didn't want you all thinking I couldn't handle this," Jeremy said as he looked to the food instead of them. "I-I really think that if I can get Rose and Forget-Me-Not to trust me, they'll be just as sweet as Daisy… But I don't know how to get there."
"How'd you get there the first time?" Fritz asked curiously. "I sort of thought that she and you got closer over time."
"It- Almost. She wasn't… It was when I started giving her the dresses and treating her like- well, my baby, that she started to relax around me. I can't do that with the other two; they'd never let me hold them or dress them," Jeremy pointed out.
"Maybe not, but if you give Daisy that treatment in front of them then maybe it'll interest them. That's what my mom does. Instead of punishing, she overly praises and rewards the good kids. It might be able to tempt them," Natalie suggested. Though even she wasn't that confident in the idea herself, it seemed like the best option if Jeremy wasn't capable of approaching the Minireenas. "Maybe try it out."
"…I can do that," Jeremy quietly answered. He then looked back over the living room, "Daisy?" The Minireena immediately sprinted over to the man and eagerly climbed his leg and into his arms. Thankfully, Daisy was more than happy to receive the extra affection.
Mike decided that now was the time to let himself out. "I need to head out, if you'll be okay," Mike suggested and Jeremy nodded.
"Don't worry about it. Thanks for coming at all. I really appreciate it." Jeremy finally managed to get a content smile. Finally, after all of this, he looked happy again.
Yet as Mike left the house, he found that he was now the one who was discontent. Once home, he was stuck with his thoughts, and they bothered him immensely. It didn't help when his mother proceeded to call again, though this time Mike didn't answer. Between her and Baby, Mike was losing all trust in reuniting with old family. There was always a catch; either it was extremely uncomfortable or they were trying to kill you. It also didn't help that nighttime set in and Marionette had still not returned. Thankfully, before he had the chance to drive over to the Pizzeria, Marionette abruptly appeared.
Marionette returned home in a bubbly mood. It wasn't really easy to teach Baby everything over again, but she was taking to it well. By the end, they were actually having fun. It was only a matter of time before they were exchanging ideas on face painting and venting to each other about Foxy; or, at least, Marionette hoped it would eventually get to that. He wanted a relationship with Baby. He wanted to have his sister come back to him. Noticing Mike on the couch, he called to him with a chirp of, "I'm home!"
Mike felt at least a little relief. At least he was home now. "Hey," he greeted, trying not to sound as solemn as he was feeling. "How'd it go?" He attempted to cover anything that the other could notice.
"Better than I could've imagined! Baby might even be ready for opening tomorrow," Marionette suggested as he looked over the back of the couch. Then he took one look at Mike, looking listless, and inquired, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Mike excused quickly. "Baby was fine? She didn't do or say anything weird?"
"No, she was fine. Something's wrong."
Mike thought that he sounded somewhat convincing, but he could tell the Puppet was suspicious. He got a slight tilt to the head and continued to stare without a word. He could tell on his own, and Mike inwardly grumbled at it. Funny, Fritz and Natalie had bought that he was fine, but yet again, Marionette spotted something that he couldn't cover. He decided just to go halfway and deal with his own problem, starting to consider that the Magician's warning was exaggerated. He leaned back on the couch, "Hey, do you think I drink too much?"
"Alcohol or fluids in general?" He folded his arms on the back of the couch and peered down at the human. His tone was gentle and he was attempting to keep the conversation light. It was obvious that he knew exactly what to say when Mike started bringing up certain topics. Normally, Mike understood it, as he did the same thing numerous times. Tonight, however, self-consciousness started to sneak in.
"He probably already knows what I'm getting at," Mike thought. "Just like Fritz- everybody knows about this thing with Mom. Years of keeping it together and now everyone thinks I've got problems." He hated it. He hated that everyone now knew about something that was supposed to be left in the past. Only when his life is pulling together does she appear again and, once again, it's already tearing it back apart. "You know."
"I don't notice it," Marionette remarked. "You seldom go out and I only remember one night in particular when you came back unable to walk straight… Though I know you don't." His teasing tone unintentionally made Mike feel a little more self-aware of how childish this all was. He wasn't supposed to still be worrying about the past; he didn't even have to answer his phone. "What brought this on?" The Puppet sent a brief, barely noticeable and accusatory glance towards the television. If only it was that easy.
"I went out earlier… It's nothing, don't worry about it," Mike back-peddled, wanting out of the conversation before any more pieces were clicked together. "Just something on my mind. It's no big deal…" He flicked through the channels, trying to look casual, before looking out of the corner of his eye. The Puppet was still watching him with concern, but didn't seem to have gotten what he was hinting at. Part of him wanted it out in the open and he reluctantly let it slip. "Mom called again."
He kept an eye on Marionette's expression. Almost instantly after the comment, Marionette slight look of concern changed to his almost default smile. It didn't take Mike more than a few seconds to realize that the Puppet's 'smile' was actually him covering up some sort of other reaction. "Clever," he inwardly was smirking, "he's almost as bad as I am." He pushed himself upwards from the couch. "I think I'm going to turn in early tonight." To be completely honest, he just didn't want to deal with it any longer, and hiding in sleep seemed like a good idea.
As he turned down the TV's volume with the remote, a warm hand slid onto his shoulder. "Are you sure?... You don't have to," Marionette coaxed, seeming rather clingy all of a sudden. "We could… Watch a movie? Or play a game. We don't even have to talk." Yeah, that last comment did it. Mike knew Marionette knew everything and had to flee before he somehow got into another 'mom' breakdown. He didn't need another one of those. He couldn't help but feel a little bad about abandoning Marionette though.
"Eh, I think I'm about ready to sleep," Mike assured and briefly laid his hand on the Puppet's before moving to stand. "You'll be fine without me?"
"…I will. Don't worry about me," Marionette assured. "I can keep myself busy. Just… Know that I will be awake if you need me." The worry was still there, but he decided not to pry more than he needed to. If Mike needed his space then so be it.
"Right," Mike agreed and headed into the hall. Then he hesitated a moment and added in, "Don't worry about waking me up when you come in."
That was definitely an invitation and Marionette recognized it immediately. There was still no sort of spoken rule about when they shared a bed or not, but he assumed when Mike decided to go through the effort of being alone that he would be spending the night in his box. It was an offer that he wouldn't turn down. "I won't be too long. I don't have too much I need to do tonight."
Then Mike continued down the hall to the master bedroom, partially noticing that the Puppet was following him from the shadow cast from the living room light into the dark hallway. He paused at the door and glanced back, wondering if he was going to say more.
"I love you," Marionette added in. His tone had grown considerably smaller and his worry was becoming more apparent. Again, Mike used humor to assure him.
"Try not to completely destroy the house before I get up… Worse than I already have," Mike quipped and sent the Puppet a smile. The animatronic seemed a little more honest in his own smile, but didn't immediately leave. Almost as though he was expecting him to say something more. For a split second, Mike wondered if he was waiting for him to return the previous words. "Good night," and then he headed into the bedroom, deciding that he would rather hide than deal with another emotional issue.
The bed was still cold regardless.
Between the heavy rain on the roof and the growing wind, Foxy had a feeling that the storm wouldn't be gone by morning. That couldn't be good for the pizzeria. With an exhale, the fox moved back in, away from the windows and into the protective blocking of the walls. "Looks like this isn't stopping anytime soon," he called over to Baby, who was currently looking inside the skill crane. They hadn't spoken much since Marionette left, but it was more of a content silence than any sort of disturbed one. "We'll be lucky if we don't flood."
"Does that happen a lot?" Baby curiously asked. "Doesn't it… Wash into those holes on the sidewalks? The drains?"
"Aye, but with a torrent like this it won't hold it all," Foxy assured with a nod. He crossed over and sat down on a chair, which creaked under his weight. "Might be cancelling school… Hmm… Might keep the kids at home." He didn't know where he was going, but it was better than silence. "Tell me a story, Lass."
"About what?" Baby inquired, turning to him.
"About you," Foxy encouraged. "Tell me somethin' about Afton's… Hell, tell me 'bout this Ennard." Foxy wasn't one to beat around the mulberry bush- pun almost intended- and took the blunt approach.
"Ennard…?" Baby got an uncomfortable twitch to her eyes. The blue orbs suddenly decided to dart around a bit faster. "Why do you want to know about him?"
"Just curious. You all were one being… What it be like?" In fact, Foxy was generally curious. He missed Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie, but he couldn't imagine them all being willingly stuck together. "Ya feel… Like one person? Ya ever get fooled on which arm be which?"
"Not- Well… Almost…" Baby approached the table. She decided not to risk sitting on a chair, knowing her weight wouldn't hold. "…They- the others- they fought a lot after our failed escape attempt. Over and over we tried… And every plan fell apart before we could make it back outside. Everyone started to fight over who was controlling the body and I mostly kept quiet." She anxious twitched her fingers. "I let them argue amongst themselves and just listened. It was better that way."
"I'm not surprised. Once friends start sharin' close quarters, they start goin' stir-crazy," Foxy sympathized.
"And they did. Everyone wanted their own body and nobody wanted to share. In-… In fact…" Baby paused, as though unsure whether she wanted to continue or not. Foxy's ears perked and her face plates briefly shifted and clicked together, thoughtfully moving and tapping on the metals inside. "Some of them stopped speaking entirely. It's almost as though being together, being in the body with everyone else, caused them to be… Absorbed- I swear, there was nothing I could do to stop it. When Funtime Freddy stopped talking, I thought it was me, but I couldn't stop it."
There returned the franticness from before. "And it's so scary, being able to hear others and then waking up to find someone gone. You never know who is next or why they're gone… You just deal with it."
Foxy lowered his head in agreement. It wasn't exactly the same, but he still remembered waking to find that the others had moved on. It had been a blurred confusion at first as he tried to learn how to reuse his body, which had been destroyed and repaired too many times to remember. Yet they were gone. There was no comfort from his friends. There wasn't anyone to whisper comforts and assurances. All at once, he had been alone. It had only been by sheer luck that Marionette had also not moved on, or it would've just been him… And other questionable beings.
"It gets better," Foxy assured. "… Still, it's gotta be good bein' on yer own again. Even if the rest are still runnin' 'bout."
"…It is, almost," Baby semi-agreed. "…Sometimes I miss their voices. I feel so lonely like this… But it's better now." She perked in voice and posture. "Because there's you and Mari, and even the humans. It's not just me on my own anymore… So, I'm happy with this." As weird as this whole exchange was, Baby sounded as honest as could be, so Foxy was pleased in her answer. "I just enjoyed today so much. The singing, the cake; it was wonderful." A few seconds passed. "…Can we taste?"
"What?" Foxy asked in confusion. He didn't understand the sudden change in questioning. "We can't eat, Baby."
"I know that, but can we taste?" Baby wondered aloud. "It would be so nice to be able to taste cake. It looked like it would taste good and smelled so nice."
While she continued to vocally wonder, Foxy found himself getting lost in his own thoughts. He hadn't ever tried to taste anything; he had just assumed that he wouldn't get any sort of response, except get him dirty. Though it wasn't as though he was dealing with questionable employees if he did need to get scrubbed down. "Come on," he suddenly alerted, standing from the chair. "To the kitchen! We'll try the cake."
"…Foxy, I'm pretty certain that we don't work like that," Baby quietly remarked with her own confusion. "I was just talking in theory. I didn't mean that we should eat the cake."
"We ain't eating the whole cake. Just trying a bite to see if we can taste something," Foxy corrected her. He couldn't believe that over the years he had never even considered trying this. Leading the way into the kitchen, Baby followed hesitantly, he headed over to the fridge and dragged out the cake that Marionette had prepared earlier. It was simple; a yellow cake with chocolate icing and party balloons drawn in colored vanilla icing on the top. Perfect for the party scheduled tomorrow; though with the storm, Foxy had doubts that anyone would appear for it.
He removed the covering and dragged his fingers along the side, catching some of chocolate icing. Then he tested it against the bottom of his mouth. He didn't have a tongue or any possible sensors to taste with-,
"Well, blow me down…"
-but he could faintly taste the chocolate.
He didn't even question it. The overwhelming familiarity hit him. Years of eating sweets, of delighting in chocolate and cake, and whatever goodies he could swipe at the diner, all returned in full force. He couldn't eat, but he could taste, and he tightened his hold on the cake plate. This cake was here and was fully capable of giving him pleasure. As were the cupcakes in the fridge, and the ice cream, and the frozen pizzas. All of those pizzas he had been able to smell, but couldn't taste…
"Lass… You remember how to turn the oven on?"
Mike awoke to a very strange noise coming from outside the house. Upon first rousing, he couldn't even really recall what the noise reminded him of, and instead looked to the empty half of the bed beside him. From the way that the blankets were halfheartedly fixed, it was obvious that Marionette had been in bed earlier. He slowly dragged himself out of bed and shuffled out to search for coffee, noticing that the alarm clock was wrong- it was flashing as though the power went off at some time- but knowing that he would be needing to leave for work soon.
It was only in the hallway that he caught a glimpse of outside. He did a double take and moved in, pushing the curtain aside, and watching as a 'for sale sign' blew through the partially flooded, side yard. The sound of heavy wind was clear even through the pane of glass. It was clear that he wasn't awake enough to deal with this. Tiredly rubbing his face, he continued into the kitchen and almost directly walked into Marionette.
"Good morning," the Puppet chirped. "We're on tornado watch."
"What…?" Mike sent a glance over to the television where the weather channel was displayed. After seeing exactly how much red was surrounding southern Utah, it finally clicked. "…Do we have a crawlspace or something?"
"No crawlspace can save us now," Marionette playfully quipped. "Besides, I made you breakfast, and coffee." He seemed to not be too concerned with the storm and instead returned to the stove. "You left so quickly last night, I didn't know if you actually ate or not." The concern returned right on schedule as Mike fumbled with an already poured mug of coffee on the table.
"I went with Fritz and Natalie to get dinner, so I had enough," Mike pointed out. He felt the need to do it, as he didn't want to give the other the impression that they went out solely for drinks. "You don't have to worry about me, Mari. I don't want you thinking that I'm going to fall apart the first day you're gone in weeks," he finished and followed with downing the coffee. He could hear the wind pick up outside. "Did they say if it was going to rain?"
"Oh, it rained enough last night. Now it's just extreme winds and the possibility of a house or two flying by," Marionette quipped as he nudged something on a frying pan.
"… You know we have a realistic chance of that house being ours, right?" Mike dryly pointed out before turning his attention to the pan. "Is that bacon? When did we get bacon?"
"I found it while going through the freezer last night. It didn't have a date, but I don't suppose it could be too old, and it was constantly kept frozen." As confident as he sounded, Mike was already having flashbacks to the questionable pizza he had gotten from Freddy's. Unfortunately, just like then, he was tempted enough to simply accept the situation and eat the questionable bacon.
Considering last night, he didn't want to refuse Marionette's gift. It only seemed to really sink in now, watching the Puppet again tend to him, that he realized that maybe his decision from the night before was short sighted. He had barely gotten any details on Baby before he had dismissed himself and he knew how well Marionette could cover. If something had happened, especially considering how oddly cling he had been last night, then Mike had walked out on it. The last thing he wanted was for him to come off as not caring, though it didn't help how lifeless he was still acting.
Marionette stared at the bacon and tried to guess if it was cooked or not. He was more going off what he could see than what he knew, as he knew virtually nothing about cooking meat. This, thankfully, seemed like the easiest thing he could've started with. His attention was immediately stolen when Mike came up beside him and put an arm around him.
"Thanks for this," Mike's voice was quieter and his motions were a bit more gentle than usual. "It's not every day that you get someone who would go through this much trouble. Especially when how I was acting last night."
"You were acting fine," Marionette responded. "Considering my history, there is no room for comparison." The man leaned in a bit more and the Puppet expected him to kiss his cheek. Instead, in the last moment, he reached forward to softly steer the younger to face him, then kissed him fully. For a moment, Marionette still believed that he could keep a hold on the cooking while this was happening. This though was dashed at whatever point his hands were off the pan and somewhere on Mike's back.
Of course, they had kissed plenty of times. Soft, quick, affectionate ones that lingered on Marionette's mind even when they didn't linger in practice. However, Mike must have really felt badly about the night before, because this lasted long enough that Marionette could hear his own insides humming with overheating. He didn't even realize that could happen; he never remembered getting worked up in such a way except, perhaps, during their first kiss. When Mike did pull back, Marionette was just lost enough to follow him, almost entirely intent on continuing the motion.
The food was going to burn. It already was sizzling a little too loudly, but Marionette could barely hear it under the warbling and humming that he could not control. He would've sworn it was programming, but there was no possible way that anyone would've programmed him with this. Marionette lightly tilted his head forward, trying to calm himself down, and Mike took the liberty to briefly kiss his forehead. Right where he had been- Goodness, it felt so strange to be touched with so much care. Even when Mike hadn't been holding back.
"I'm not really hungry yet and we're probably not opening today. Why don't we put breakfast aside and go back to bed for a while?" Mike suggested, looking a bit more comfortable and relaxed with his smile. "No worrying about Jeremy or Baby. Just you, me, and the tornado that will eventually kill us both."
The Puppet intended to give a vocally positive answer, so he was a little embarrassed when, instead of words, a blur of chiming and warbling filtered from him. At least it was some sort of answer, but the slight smirk of amusement that Mike gave was enough to make him feel fully flustered. Then Mike took the liberty of taking control of the stove, trying to get everything to a stopping point.
He should've just done this last night. He was feeling better already.
Mable: …Look, I don't want to bring this up, but I want to clarify this before someone gets the wrong idea. No, Mike was not suggesting anything inappropriate. XD None of that going on here. The most inappropriate thing in this chapter is Foxy's manhandling of that innocent cake.
The next chapter will be posted-… Let's be honest. There's a fifty-fifty chance that it'll be on Sunday instead of Saturday. Again, I will be aiming for Saturday, but I'm starting to suspect Sunday. Heh, sorry about this weird schedule change. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy!