"Sometimes, bad days are there to remind us that we have good ones to look forward to." – Unknown

The sky is turning dark fast. Randy abandons his bike on the grass and goes inside the Cunningham household. He stops when he sees that the door is locked, which only means that his Mom is still out.

Slowly, Randy stops staring at the door and begins fishing for the extra key he has in his satchel. Once he finds it, he unlocks the door and swings it open. Closing the door, he didn't have the energy to run all the way to his room, like he'd normally do.

Today is just one of those days.

Things start off like the usual. He gets ready for school, his parents already left so he locks the house, and mostly spoke to Howard all day in school. It was like any other day.

But, of course, Bash just had to do something to ruin it, hadn't he? During lunch time, when Howard left to go grab seconds, Randy overhears Bash talking with his goons about how rich he is and that no one can compare to that. Then, he starts saying crap about other people's lives, including his.

"And that shoobie's dad doesn't even exist, so Bash think that he don't do anything," the jock says in broken grammar. And that struck a nerve.

In truth, Randy really doesn't get to see his Dad most of the time. He's always out of the town, even the country on some occasions, so he can provide for him and his Ma. But they would call at times, and Randy would tell him about his day, and he would tell him about his work. And the call would go on for the next one or two hours.

So, who does Bash think he is to say that his Dad doesn't exist? What does he, a good-for-nothing jock who doesn't even consider McFist as his real Father, know about his family to say something so cruel?

It takes all of his willpower to not stand up, walk to Bash and his bros' table, which was Shangri-Lunch, and punch the guy in the face. He considers, for a brief moment, if Howard will cheer him on or just leave him to deal with the problem, but his thoughts stop short as a loud roar and a robot begins tearing up the entire cafeteria.

Using this as an advantage to be his new target to punch, he runs to a safer place with no one looking, and transforms into the Ninja.

He truly believed that it was going to be an easy fight. But of course, he gets it wrong again. Instead, he gets his ass kicked and thrown around several times before he finally defeats the robot. By accident.

He accidentally hits the chili dispenser, instead of his actual target, which was miraculously the thing that defeats the rampaging robot.

Exhausted, and already in a terrible mood, he grabs a ball and smoke bombs away.

Now, back to the present. Randy sloppily throws away his bag on the floor of his room, climbs up his upper bunk bed, and just… lies there face-first.

Lightning strikes, and it starts to rain heavily, and wow– doesn't that just explain his mood. It's kind of silly, when he thinks about it. What Bash said is just an offhanded comment, but it got him so angry already.

But when he thinks about it more, he realizes that that isn't the first time he has gotten angry or upset at something so trivial in the past few days. His emotions have been going haywire, and even he isn't sure when he'd explode angrily at something.

He thinks about his entire school year so far. On his second day of school, Randy was given the ninja mask and Nomicon. Back then, it felt so unbelievable. He, Randy Cunningham, was chosen as the Ninja. How honking bruce was that?

But then, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into 4 months. He's been the Ninja for only 4 months and he feels like it's the only thing that keeps him going. His assignments are all stacked and he's flunking in almost every subject (even more so than before). He can't stand being in one place without his paranoia skyrocketing because a monster or robot might attack. He isn't able to look at any of his peers the same without a flashback of him beating them up as a monster. He hasn't spent some family time with his Ma or even called his Dad without getting interrupted after 20 minutes.

He hasn't been acting like a normal teenager in 4 months.

Something wet slides down Randy's face and soaks up his blanket. His free hands pick up his pillow and hold on to it tightly as more tears start to fall. He inhales sharply, but it doesn't stop the worthless sobs that escape his throat. Getting up, he crawls his way to the corner of the bed, and sits there all hunched up. His knees close to his chest and his bangs cover his already puffy eyes, and all he can think about is how unfair everything is.

He didn't ask for any of this. He didn't want his Dad to leave him and his Ma just so he could give them better support. He didn't ask to be the Ninja of Norrisville. And, sure, he loves saving people and being a hero, but he didn't want to carry this huge responsibility on his shoulders. He didn't ask for the most beloved man in town to want to downright kill him.

But he doesn't have a choice, does he?

In the comforts of his bedroom, he sits in the corner of his room. And after almost a week of pent-up emotions, he all but falls apart.

Unbeknownst to Randy, Howard just came by a few seconds ago and is standing on the doorway of his room. He is speechless to have come across his biffer literally breaking down.

"Cunningham?" Howard says in a low voice, but Randy hears it anyway.

Randy winces and quickly looks down on his bunk bed to see his best friend, standing on his doorway with snacks in hand and a very concerned expression.

Oh no.

Howard sighs as he sits down on his beanbag chair. He just got back home from school, and it was another boring day as usual, if you ask him, but he's glad it is over already. He looks up to his window and notices that the sky is getting dark. He does remember hearing on the news, before he left for school earlier today, that there's gonna be a long storm coming.

Despite this, he gets up from his comfortable seat and grabs his phone from his bag. Scrolling for a bit, he finds the person he is looking for and quickly types out a message.

"Yo, Cunningham. 'Be there in 5. Get the snacks out." He sends the message and gets ready. Three minutes later, he already has a new pair of clothes inside his bag, and is ready to go. When he checks his phone to see if Randy's already seen the message, then groans when no, Randy has not.

"Whatever," he thinks to himself before opening his room's door. He says, "Hey, Mort. I'm going to sleep with the Cunningham's. I'll be back after school tomorrow."

"Okay, Howie! Have fun, tell them I said hi," is Mort, his Dad's, response, before Howard closes the door and grabs his bike. He sits on it for a while to gain balance and starts riding towards the Cunningham residence.

It doesn't take the boy that long to reach the house. Eventually, he twists the doorknob and the door opens. "Cunningham?" he says, but a loud thunder makes him jump and then grumble in annoyance.

The rain starts pouring heavily, and Howard makes his way towards the stairs. Before he climbs up, he notices that the shelves are closed and Howard scowls a bit. "Dang it. I told Cunningham to bring out the goods already," he thought bitterly. Making his way to the kitchen, he opens the cabinet and takes out some chips that are stored inside.

Soon after, he heads up to Randy's room, and Howard is already coming up with ways to say "You're welcome" since Randy can't get the snacks himself.

As he climbs the last step of the staircase, Howard quickly walks to Randy's room. The sarcastic comment he has in the tip of his tongue falls dead short when he hears sobbing inside, in spite of the loud raining from outside the house.

He stands there dumbly as he watches his best friend crying, though he can't see his face as it's being covered by his arms in the position he's hunched in, and doesn't know how to approach from here on out.

This isn't the first time he's seen and heard Randy cry, not at all. He's heard him cry over funny things, ridiculous things (like his idiotic fear of chickens), and even things that touched him emotionally.

But this? He thinks– no, he knows that he never wants to see this again.

After a few seconds, Howard says in a low voice, "Cunningham?"

Howard wonders if he didn't say it loud enough, but the way Randy looks at him with bloodshot eyes and a clogged, red nose says otherwise. Howard cringes at the way his best friend looks. He's still wearing his hood, and pants, but shoes and socks are off. His hair looks messier than normal, and his eyes are swollen and red.

"H-Howard," he hiccups, from either the surprise or from crying too much, Howard doesn't know. "What the juice are you doing here?"

As nonchalantly as he can, he replies, "I came to visit 'cause I decided to spend the night here, since I know how much you hate thunderstorms and all that..." Howard trails off, unable to hide the worry in his face as he watches his best friend try to clean himself up. "I even sent you a message," he says as offhandedly as he could.

"I–uh," Randy attempts to respond, but ultimately fails as he tries to get up and clumsily trips on his own two feet, sending him falling from the upper bed with a yelp.

Howard flinches at that. "Ouch, that's gotta hurt." He thinks before walking towards the fallen boy. "Hey, 'you okay?"

Randy just groans from where he lays as a response. Howard offers him a hand, which Randy takes momentarily. They take a seat in the lower part of Randy's bed in absolute silence.

That silence is the most awkward 20 seconds of their entire lives.

Howard rubs his arms together, unsure of how to go from here as he stares at Randy, who refuses to make eye-contact with him for the past seconds. He clears his throat, "So… mind telling me what the juice happened?" he doesn't mean for it to sound accusatory, but this whole situation is weirding him out, not in a good way.

Randy opens his mouth, then closes it, gears turning in his head as he tries to come up with an excuse. "It's… nothing," he finishes lamely, turning away from the red-head.

Howard furrows his eyebrows, "It isn't nothing if it even got you to break down, just now," he counters matter-of-factly, and it actually makes the taller of the two do a full-body flinch. Howard waits a few, agonizing, seconds for a response, before he sighs. "Look, I just want to know what happened to you. You don't think I didn't realize the way your entire mood just dropped right after the robot attack."

That one actually gives Howard a sharp inhale as a response. Another flash of lightning and a booming thunder echoed throughout the room, causing the lights to flicker for a moment. Howard scowls towards the window at the heavy rain, as if it is mocking them in their current situation.

A sniff drags him back to look at his biffer, who was wiping away at another runaway tear, "Sorry, um… you aren't supposed to see this," he says, as if he's embarrassed.

Howard can't stop the scoff that escapes his mouth, "Puh-lease. I've seen you do worse, before, Cunningham. This ain't special," he says brusquely.

Except, this is. For the past few days, weeks even, Howard has noticed a few differences in Randy's temper and the way he acts. He either gets angry or upset quicker, nowadays. When he makes an insensitive joke that they're used to saying by now, Randy would go quiet. And when he has to go out as the Ninja, he'd look like he doesn't really want to, but has no choice in the matter.

And finally, he can figure out why. He just has to insist Randy on telling him more until he finally gives in and–

Another sniff snaps him out of his thoughts as he finally sees his best friend starting to cry once more. The gears in his brain immediately shuts down.

Oh no.

"Uh, h-hey, hey. Um, what– why are you crying?" He wants to slap his face at how stupid the question sounds, but right now is not the time.

Randy doesn't– can't stop, now. The dam has finally broken, and there's not much damage control left to stop him. He kind of feels sorry for Howard, who is currently patting and rubbing circles on his back awkwardly, in an attempt to soothe him. If this is a different situation, he would've laughed at how worried the shorter teen is for him.

"I can't– I don't know if I want to do this anymore, Howard," Randy said quietly, finally saying the words out loud for the first time. But that's all he can say before everything else that comes out of his mouth is gibberish sobs.

"Wha–? What can't you do anymore?" Howard's voice turns several notes higher as he asks the question.

Randy hiccups and shakes his head, unsure of what as well, "This! Everything, all of it!" He yells angrily, despite the waterfalls his eyes are making.

Howard turns to the bag and notices the little book and mask peeking out of it, and he glares daggers at it.

Let it be known that Howard absolutely loathes the NinjaNomicon, not just because of how bossy it is and its stupid riddles, but because of how it's the reason why he and Randy barely have Bro time anymore. It's because of that book that Randy talks 'duty first, having fun later'. It's because of the book that he barely hangs out with Randy without something Ninja-related interrupting them. And it's because of that stupid book that he hasn't seen his best bud actually smile a real smile these past few days.

So, yeah. He hates the book with a burning passion, but he can't do anything about it. All he can do is be the anchor that he knows Randy needs, right now. You can't just fight monsters and robots everyday and not get at least a bit traumatized by it.

It takes Randy five minutes to calm down, and Howard stays there, holding his shoulders as an anchor and trying to reassure him as much as he can, though (even though he's just tumbling through his words).

They sit there in silence, with nothing but the rain making noises outside. The atmosphere isn't awkward nor comforting at all. It was just… silent. Howard does not dare say anything else, wanting Randy to be the one to say something, lest he says something stupid or sappy.

It doesn't take long before Randy does speak, "Sorry about that… outburst. I don't really know what came over me," he says, guilty of having his best friend have to comfort him during a breakdown.

Howard shakes his head, "It's cool, dude. Honestly," he adds, raising his hands up to prove it when he notices that Randy was going to turn away again, "Like, Bro, you don't need to put up a front all the time. It's starting to wonk up your head."

Randy chuckles at the lighthearted jab, and Howard smiles. The lightened mood is short-lived however, as Howard wanted to figure out something, "But what triggered it, anyway? You know… that."

Randy looks away and finds that the rain is the most interesting thing to gaze at the moment, "It's… pretty dumb, actually," he says, fiddling with the bedsheets nervously, "Well– uh… It was at lunch today–before the whole robot attack– I overheard Bash talking junk about… my Dad," he whispers that last part, but Howard hears it all the same.

Howard's eyes widen in understanding, and Randy glances at him for one second before continuing in rapid succession, "It wasn't really that– that bad! I was overreacting, and I know Bash doesn't know anything about my family, so it shouldn't matter that much, but–" Howard ultimately shuts him up with a hand covering his mouth.

"Save it, buddy," Howard says sternly, and Randy falls silent. The shorter teen sighs, "Look. I don't actually know what to say, I'm not an expert in the comforting process, and you know that I am the worst person to even vent to–"

"I know, that's why I didn't mean for you to see this."

"– But I want you to know that I'm always here for you, or whatever it is people say," he adds, not wanting to sound too sappy in front of his best friend. "... And if you want to prank Bash as revenge, then count me the honk in!"

Randy laughs genuinely at the comment, and Howard beams at that. He may not be the best therapist out, heck he'd be the worst, but at least he can make his best Bro smile again.

Randy wipes a tear from his eye, but a few more starts falling out, "Heh… Thanks, Howard. You're the best," he raises his fist, waiting.

Howard reciprocated the fist with a fist-bump, "Don't sweat it."

"And, hey, I'm still staying here for the night. Grave Punchers?" Howard questions, even though he already knows the answer to it.

Randy grins at that, "Heck yeah!"

The two teens stand up and are setting up the console. Then, they spent hours playing, laughing, and bantering as gaming sound effects can be heard.

And sure, not all of their problems are solved. There's still the matter of talking about the "Ninja duties" and how it's affecting not only their relationship, but also their physical and mental health. But they can always talk about it some other time, can't they? They've already had too much mushy stuff done already for the day.

For now, they can enjoy each other's company as the rain slowly dies down.