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“Hey,” Frank patted Freddy's arm and pointed at something. “Ain’t that your roommate?”
When Freddy looked at where Frank was pointing, the unexpected sight of Gregory sent a burst of joy through his emotional circuit.
Gregory stood outside of the chain link fence. He waved at Freddy with a sheepish grin, his cheek dimpling.
“I couldn’t remember how to get in,” he called.
Freddy stood up. “Gregory! I will show you the way.”
They talked and walked toward the entrance together, separated by the chain link fence between them.
“Before you ask, I didn't walk all the way here. I took the bus," Gregory said.
“Why did you come? Not that I am ungrateful,” Freddy amended. “I am always happy to see my Superstar.”
Gregory shrugged, his hands shoved into hoodie pockets. It was a gray, chilly November day, and the boy’s breath puffed through his chapped lips.
“I was just missing you. How’s work going?”
“It has been nice,” Freddy said. “Since Monday, there have been no new shipments to unload, so Frank and I have had plenty of time to…ah, what is the expression? ‘Shoot the shit’.”
Gregory snorted. “That's cool.”
“Amanda did not need you to babysit?”
Their neighbor in the next apartment had her shift changed unexpectedly, so every Tuesday and Thursday, Gregory had been watching their four year old son for a few hours in the morning.
“Jakey’s with his dad this week,” Gregory said. “You didn’t notice?”
Freddy chuckled. “It has been quieter than usual.”
Normally Jakey’s shrill laughter and shrieks pierced through the paper-thin apartment walls. With Freddy not home, and Jakey at his father’s house, the apartment must have felt especially lonely to Gregory. Perhaps it was that silence that drove him to take a bus all the way to the shipping yard to see Freddy on his lunch break.
They reached the yard entrance, and Freddy punched in a code to open the gate, allowing Gregory to come through.
“I brought you lunch.” Gregory held up a paper bag.
“But I do not eat,” Freddy said.
“Just look inside.”
Handling the paper bag with care to avoid ripping it apart with his huge, powerful hands, Freddy unrolled the top and peered inside.
A pack of batteries.
“A joke.” Freddy emoted a smile. “That is funny.”
Gregory snorted. “Not really. But thank you for pretending.”
The sight of the beloved human was suddenly too much for the bear, and Freddy pulled Gregory into a hug. The boy’s body was warm in spite of the cold. Freddy nuzzled the top of his head.
“Thank you for visiting me,” Freddy said. “I am truly happy to see you.”
Gregory’s arms wrapped tighter around him, a sweet pressure against his sensors. “I’m glad. I was worried I’d be bugging you.”
“Never.”
They chatted for a few more minutes. When Gregory said he had to leave so he could catch the next bus home, Freddy tried not to show his disappointment. His lunch break would be over in a few minutes, anyway.
Gregory leaned up to kiss him on the chin stripe. While Freddy watched him walk away, he touched the spot his friend–boyfriend?--had kissed. His sensor tingled from the lingering warmth.
He trudged back to the stack of crates where he and Frank had been sitting down for lunch. Frank had taken a considerable chunk out of his sub sandwich in the time Freddy had been gone.
“So, you and that guy. Are you like...ya know.” Frank gestured vaguely. “Together?”
Freddy inferred that Frank was asking if he and Gregory were in a romantic relationship. He wasn’t sure how to answer that question.
Although he and Gregory had never put a label on it, Freddy assumed they were more than just friends. A few years ago, shortly after he got this job, their relationship had changed when Freddy had asked Gregory, innocently enough, about sex.
He had been worried. Having learned that Gregory had been having sex for money, he’d hoped those weren’t the boy’s only experiences. He hoped that sometimes Gregory had sex for pleasure, or for love, or whatever other reasons humans did such things.
‘Nope,’ Gregory had said. ‘Never.’
That had made Freddy sad, and he told Gregory so.
‘It’s not a big deal. I mean, sex isn’t some magical thing like it is in movies. Jerking off is enough for me.’ But he had added, with a sly sideways glance, that if Freddy wanted to find out for himself, they could always…
“Fred? You okay?” Frank prompted.
Freddy blinked, clearing his thought cache.
“Yes,” he decided. “We are together.”
Frank whistled. “Big age gap, huh?”
“I never considered that before, but you are correct,” Freddy said. “I am six years younger than Gregory.”
“Wha…? Oh. I always forget that you’re some kinda cyborg.”
“Animatronic,” Freddy corrected.
“Yeah, yeah,” Frank dismissed. “But how old are you in human years?”
“I am thirteen years old.”
" Mentally, I mean. Like, are you the equivalent of the thirty year old man, or-”
“I am not a man,” Freddy reminded him gently. “I am an animatronic. There is no direct equivalent between my mental age and any human’s.”
Frank blew out a slow breath and shook his head. “I don’t get this stuff. Sorry, Fred.”
Freddy patted him on the back. “That is okay. It is enough that you accept me in spite of our differences.”
“Maybe we’s can have a double date sometime. I don’t wanna jinx nothing, but things are getting pretty serious with Dario.”
“I am glad to hear that!” Freddy beamed. “A double date sounds wonderful. I would love to meet the man who has been making you so happy.”
“Mbrow?”
Freddy looked down at the tiny cat who had chirped at him.
She twined around his ankles, tickling his sensors.
“Hello, Tabitha,” Freddy said brightly.
He extended his hand down to the cat, who rubbed her cheek against his fingers. Freddy had read on the internet that felines released pheromones through their cheeks, and that by rubbing their cheeks against a person, they were marking that person as a friend.
Freddy had been pleased to learn that.
Frank made kissy sounds, luring the cat over with the rest of his sub sandwich. She devoured the meat in a few quick gulps.
Tabitha was a dockyard stray. Her long fur was gray with a faint mottling of orange and black–-or tortoiseshell, as the internet informed Freddy–-and she was thin. So thin that Frank, who was notoriously protective of his lunch, to the point of swearing at any seagull who dared hop near him while he was eating, saved a little bit of his sandwich everyday for her.
Usually Tabitha sashayed off as soon as she finished eating, but this time she sat and stared up at Freddy.
“Brr?” she asked politely.
“What is it?” he asked.
Tabitha got up. She started away, then stopped and glanced back at Freddy with an expectant look.
Freddy got the impression that she wanted him to follow.
The cat led him swiftly across the shipping yard to a large truck tire discarded near the fence. She looked back at him again, then leaped over the lip of the tire, disappearing into it.
When Freddy looked down, he saw what Tabitha had wanted to show him.
Three fat little bodies squirmed closer to Tabitha, nestling into her soft fur. The kittens were tiny. Based on Freddy’s cat research, they might have been just a few days old. Their needle-like claws splayed and groped blindly toward their mother.
“They are lovely,” Freddy told Tabitha.
She purred and curled up around her babies, eyes slitted with pleasure.
Frank came up alongside Freddy, breathing heavily.
“Whew. You can really book it, huh? What’s the- Ey! Would ya look at that.”
Freddy studied the kittens. Each was a different color; white, gray, and orange, as though Tabitha’s mottled markings had been divided among her children.
“Don’t get attached,” Frank warned. “This is a bad time for kittens. They won’t survive the winter.”
“You mean…they will die?”
“Yup.”
“But they are Tabitha’s babies!” Freddy said.
“Nature’s a bitch. There’s really nothing we can do.”
Freddy computed this. He ran the scenario through several different variables, assessing the outcomes, and came eventually to a conclusion.
“Do you have a blanket that I can borrow?”
“Yeah, I got one in the truck. But a blanket’s not gonna be enough when it starts snowing.”
“It is only to make my chest hatch more habitable while I transport them. I will wash the blanket and return it to you soon, of course.”
“You’re gonna take them to the shelter or somethin’? You’ll have to take Tabby, too. Kittens this young can’t survive without their mom.”
“No,” Freddy said. “I am going to adopt them.”
Frank whistled appraisingly.
“You and Gregory must have a real solid relationship if you’re pulling crap like that. My ex-wife would have killed me if I brought home a bunch of strays without talking to her first.”
“We do,” Freddy confirmed. “When I explain the urgency of the situation, he will understand.”
Frank clapped him on the back. “Good luck with that, buddy. Why don't you take the rest of the afternoon off? Ain't nothing around here that needs doing, anyway."
While Frank went to get the blanket from his truck, Freddy stared down at the kittens. Their faint mewls were barely audible over their mother’s purring.
Tabitha favored him with a slow, lazy blink.
Maybe Freddy should have consulted Gregory first, but with nature being a ‘bitch’, as Frank said, there was no telling how long the kittens would survive without proper shelter. Besides, Freddy was sure that Gregory would love Tabitha and her kittens just as much as he already did.