Chapter Text
Chris slowly walked back into the large cargo bay they had been in before, honestly wanting to take a long nap. At least Zach didn't seem as intent on keeping him locked up. It's not like he could anyways, he had no Zachbots and no working cell anymore. It was a complete disaster.
He moved over to the upturned desk and with a deep breath, shoved it out of the way. The power suit sat on the ground, a little scratched and dirty, but as he picked it up and looked over it, he found that there was nothing else wrong. Pulling it over his head, he paused momentarily as he could faintly smell Zach's cologne on the suit, then shook it off. Maybe it just needed a good wash.
Swiftly skimming through the small pile of destroyed computer pieces, he begged that the power disks weren't part of that. Luckily, he managed to find all four disks hidden underneath and he tucked them away in his pocket for safekeeping.
The plane jostled slightly and he had to crouch, holding onto the wall to make sure he wouldn't fall. In a few moments, the plane had landed on the ground and the large door began to open.
Zach limped into the room, going still the second he saw Chris wearing the creature power suit. Panic lay in his eyes and he took a cautious step back,
"You're not gonna…?"
"Relax Zach, I'm not going to hurt you. Not if you don't let me go anyways." He teased, but the inventor seemed to take it for real.
"Well I wasn't really planning on keeping you here for longer…" He mumbled, then quickly adding, "because I have nothing left to keep you in! Obviously." The man glanced over at his cells sadly. His poor plane was destroyed. At least they didn't crash.
Chris chuckled, slowly turning to look out of the open door. His expression fell as he spotted the wreckage of the robot, and the small, lifeless, brown lump that came with it.
Zach glumly joined his side, biting his lip to stop it from quivering. He was supposed to hate animals, there was no way he'd show the animal lover that he cared… Right?
He found his emotions taking over as he walked forward alongside the Kratt brother towards the poor little creature. Tears pricked his eyes as he slowly bent down to look at it.
"Poor Fluffy…" The inventor sniffed. "It never even got the chance to snuggle with me. If only I had put it back in its cage instead of letting it play with you." He spoke, hissing softly at Chris.
The brunet remained unwavering, a small smile appearing on his face.
"What? What's so funny, can't you see I'm mourning the loss of Fluffy?" He frowned, not understanding how the man could be so heartless.
"It's funny that you're trying to make it up to a rabbit, without even knowing what one looks like." He reached out towards the lifeless bunny and picked up… The towel?
Once he had lifted it up properly it uncrumpled and it was clear that the 'rabbit' was actually the brown towel that was used to blindfold the Zachbot.
Zach opened his mouth in disbelief, not quite understanding how he could have been so foolish and a small blush rose on his face. He cleared his throat in embarrassment and shoved his hand in Chris's face to stop him from speaking and seeing his face,
"Shut up. Not another word."
Chris smirked, holding back the urge to laugh and he carefully peeled the pale hand off his face,
"Why did you have a brown towel anyways?"
"I needed a towel and the store had run out of black ones, so I bought the next darkest thing until I could get new ones." Zach rolled his eyes as if it was obvious, snatching his hand out of Chris's warm hold. "But anyways, if that wasn't Fluffy, then where is that bunny?"
As if on cue, a small rustle from behind Zach made him scream and leap into Chris's arms. The adventurer seemed a little taken aback, but regained himself enough to make sure the thin man didn't fall. Speaking of which, he was kind of light, not really that much of a bother to hold up. It was only then he realised how much the man probably struggled lifting him up, but still managed to do it anyways. Amazing.
The two silently stared at the bush that was making noise, before a small rabbit's head popped out and they beamed, calling out the same time,
"Fluffy!" They knew that face right away.
The small brown rabbit eagerly hopped out towards them, except it had to slow down because of its limp. But it was still very happy.
Zach awkwardly slipped out of Chris's grip, moving up to it,
"What's wrong? How did it even survive?"
The brunet sat down beside him, looking over the small rabbit as Zach carefully petted its forehead, which it definitely liked.
After a small bit, Chris spoke up,
"I'm not sure how it survived. But let's just accept our blessings. Besides, Fluffy's got a broken leg which needs to be treated right away. Unfortunately, I don't have my medical kit on me, so we'll just have to wait for my crew. You two are like twins!" He smiled and Zach rolled his eyes.
"Hurray, we've both got broken legs now. Could this day get any better?"
The wind began to pick up, and Zach glanced in the sky to spot the Tortuga coming in for the landing in the clearing beside his plane. Great, confrontation. He'd probably be beaten to a pulp by Aviva.
" Zach !" Speak of the devil, her voice screeched through the air.
The inventor flinched, but didn't try to run away as the door to the Wild Kratt's ship opened up and the woman bolted right out, the other three slowly coming in behind.
Chris watched them joyously, before realising how devastated Zach looked. It made him stop for a moment, just staring at him, which he didn't seem to notice.
"Zach, I'm going to tear you to shreds after what you did!" She hissed, about to jab at him, but Chris held his hand out in front of the man to stop her.
This took them both by surprise, even Chris himself was a little shocked, but he wasn't going to back down now,
"I know what he did was bad, but could we maybe let him off the hook this time?"
"And why's that?" She crossed her arms, glaring at the inventor, who was too occupied with staring at the green clad man to notice. The others reached her side and they felt relieved to see Chris alright.
"Because he saved my life. Maybe he made a mistake before… Okay, a lot of mistakes, but if he tried to fix it doesn't that mean he should get a chance?"
Aviva stared at him in horror, wondering if he was hypnotized,
"No! He does these things on purpose without any remorse! He deserves what's coming to him!"
Chris frowned,
"Well then you'd have to go through me to get to him. If we keep on fighting each other, who are we to expect they'll change for the better if we hurt them? One side's gotta start."
Zach's eyes almost sparkled in awe, not believing what the man was doing. It was probably the worst idea to get in between Aviva, but he still did it regardless and he was not backing down.
A moment of tense silence led her to sighing and relaxing,
"Fine. I'll try. But if he does anything dumb again, we'll immediately go back to being enemies."
Zach rolled his eyes again,
"It's not like I want to be friends with you."
The look Chris gave him told him that he wasn't helping, so he gave a nervous chuckle,
"Nevermind…"
"Plus, we also have the creature power suit and the disks back. Every bit of information Zach had is now destroyed, so you don't have to worry about that." Chris added.
Aviva smiled slightly at the information, which was definitely pleasing to hear.
Martin walked up to his brother and quickly scooped him in a loving warm hug,
"Oh bro, I thought we'd lost you. I'm so glad you're alright."
The brunet chuckled, hugging him back,
"I missed you too. Hey, do you think you could help me with something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"This poor little rabbit broke its leg. Think you can help it?" He carefully picked up Fluffy with a smile.
"Aw, what a cute little guy. I think I'm going to name it…" The blond took hold of the brown rabbit.
"-Actually its name is Fluffy." Zach cut in with a frown. How dare he try to rename the little guy.
Everyone froze to stare at the inventor in utter disbelief that he would care for an animal at all. It led Aviva to wonder to herself if she really knew Zach.
"Fluffy. Suits it." Martin smiled, knowing there'd be plenty of other animals he could name. He then walked off towards the Tortuga where they kept medical equipment.
Koki began to help clean up the mess of the robot since it was scattered all around the wildlife, and Jimmy joined in a tiny bit.
Zach looked back over at Chris,
"What was that for?"
"Giving Fluffy to Martin? Well its leg is-"
"No! I mean defending me! Why?" His eyes pleaded for an honest answer.
The Kratt brother stared back at him, not even needing a second to think,
"Because you're not a bad person, Zach. You can do some silly things sometimes, but that's only because you're lonely. Everyone needs a friend."
"Uh, I am not lonely." The man crossed his arms.
"You create all these robots and shove everyone else aside because you feel like you don't need them. But you do, everyone needs someone in their life." Chris explained, reaching out and taking his hand again.
The black haired man looked down at his hand, feeling his stomach get all funny, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want to admit it was true. To both Chris and himself.
"Hey, you said before that you've just been consumed with work." Chris recalled the conversation. "How about you take the day off? No robots, no schemes. Just relaxing. You deserve it."
Laughing for a moment, the man snorted,
"I don't take days off. That's a waste of time."
"It's not a waste of time. It helps make sure you're alright. Look, I'll even stay with you if you'd like." The adventurer tried.
Pausing, Zach stared at him for a bit,
"That's… The dumbest thing I've heard. What if an animal needs you to save them? Like, someone kidnaps a dumb bird or whatever?"
The man chuckled,
"I'm exhausted myself, Zach. You're probably more tired, but to be fair I could use a day off too. The crew could handle one day without me."
A small bout of silence hit as Zach wondered what it was like to take a day off with this man,
"Are you sure?"
"Of course." The brunet smiled. That was all the confirmation Zach needed to reach out and gently hug him. Chris gently hugged back and the two smiled, sitting in peace.