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Meeting new people is hard. Having to meet and befriend someone who you'll have to live with for the entire foreseeable future is even harder. Especially if one of them had decided to brainwash you and most of your family as their introduction. If that wasn't enough, having left two members of said family unconscious probably didn't help matters.
After such an experience, most people would respond with physical violence, screaming at the top of their lungs or settling with the silent treatment. Prozac, however, was not one to respond in such ways, or at the very least he tried to avoid them. He had preached to the other bears about peaceful resolutions to conflicts so it would be hypocritical to not take that step with the new arrivals. To his benefit, he had lived with Evil for years now, who had caused far more damage over time than anyone else could hope to achieve, so he was far more than experienced in doubting his own morals and still holding onto them.
With that he came up with a plan, he'd take advantage of the higher quality food accompanying the breeding program to get on Sara's and Cara's good side and hopefully get everyone to know each other better.
Prozac had just started to prepare the accommodations for their new roommates when he found out about an unforeseen issue with the plan. Of course something had to go wrong, this was a discount zoo after all, and if they cheaped out on feeding their animals on the regular, it was no shock that they had cheaped out on food delivery. As a result, for at least a few days, the bears would have to deal with the same "food" they were forced to eat every day.
Upon finding out, Pro was at a loss. Usually Gay would do the bears a favor and spice up the food to make it somewhat edible for them, but today would be the exception, as he was left to recover from the girls' sudden entrance by the Gimp's orders. Pro considered himself to be a relatively good cook but he still had to work on their new cavemates' accomodations and he didn't have the time to do both so he had to find someone else to take care of the food.
Tanked and Vanity were not mature enough to be allowed to touch the oven, Gimp still had to take care of Gay and Lech, the other recovering bear, Crack was too afraid to go near the kitchen, Nerd could only handle heating things up on the microwave, Death could heavily damage the kitchen appliances and Evil was not to be trusted with food. Much to his dismay, this left Prozac with only one option.
While Lech had been left unconscious by the girls, his injuries were far less severe than Gay and, as a result, was able to recover way quicker. Gimp had given him the needed treatment and he was now as good as always, aside from some spots of his body causing a bit of pain when touched. And as Prozac knocked on his door, he hoped none of those spots could interfere with his cooking. Lech responded not too long after, opening the door with an annoyed look on his face.
"What do you want, Pro?"
"Oh nothing much, just wanted to see how you were feeling."
"Me? I'm feeling great! Honestly Gimp was exaggerating with all that treatment. I barely felt anything at all. Do you really think that a pair of girls could really hurt a man like me" Lech changed his look to a more confident one, as he tried to convince Prozac and make him forget how Sara made him flee and scream like a child. All the while, Pro felt like rolling his eyes but he couldn't as he needed to try to appease the "alpha male" as much as he could. Absolutely dreading his situation and wanting to get it over with as soon as he could.
"That's nice… Look, I need to ask you a favor, the zoo's new food shipment won't be arriving for at least a day and I was hoping to use that to raise camaraderie with Sara and Cara. Since Gay is still resting, I need you to help with the food"
"Hell no! There's no way I would… Wait, Gay is still resting?"
"Yeah, he looked really bad. Gimp said that he would have to stay in bed for at least a full day befo"
Lech interrupted Prozac with a sigh before he started to speak.
"Fine. Guess I'll have to do it then…" Lech lets out a chuckles and adds with a grin on his face "It'll raise my chances with the ladies at least"
Once again, Prozac wanted to roll his eyes but he managed to pull through and offer a quick thank you and some instructions of what he wanted. After that, Lech went to the kitchen to get to work.
While Lech started to prepare the meal, his gaze started to wander over to the living room, where Tanked, Vanity, Nerd and Evil were watching a show on TV. Coincidently, the episode they were watching had something to do with mind control. The camera moved over to a group of characters that had broken free of the mind control which made a question pop into the mind of one of the bears.
"Wait" Vanity asked "Why wasn't T affected by the brainwashing"
No words came out of Tanked’s mouth, he just looked back at Vanity and smiled at him. After a few seconds, Nerd decided to interject.
"Maybe the alcohol drowned out Sara's pheromones. Although it still wouldn't explain why Gay wasn't affected"
Evil let off a chuckle in response.
"What!"
"You are joking, right?"
"About what?"
"Do you really not know why Gay wasn't affected?"
"Yeah, how would I?"
Evil raised an eyebrow and just stared at Nerd, completely dumbfounded for a short time before regaining his composure and firing back.
"Dumbass… he's gay"
Lech had heard the entire conversation up to this point. How could he not? The only other background noise at his disposal being the television, which had its volume lowered by Vanity as he started spectating the discussion between the other two, leaving it out of the spotlight. But when those last words left Evil´s mouth, he felt a knot start to tie tighter within his chest.
“What?! no way” Nerd responded “He was so excited when we found out that females were coming”
Why was Lech feeling this way? He had teased Gay about his sexuality for years now, how would this be any different? Was it because it was being spelled out right in front of him?
“Bullshit. That was the fakest excitement i´ve ever seen! How could you not know? It's in his name!”
Why did Lech tease him all this time? Did he think what he did was funny? No, his current state said exactly the opposite. Was it because it grossed him out? No, he didn't really mind seeing it when it came up either on tv or by the zoo's visitors. Ultimately, he reached the truth, he´d only done that to protect himself.
“I thought it was about being merry”
That was why he risked his life against the polars, wasn't it? To make sure those monkeys didn't talk. And he would definitely do it again. But that was just his own life he was risking, all the while he had tortured someone else. Oh god, what had he done?
"Why would it be about being merry? Everyone here is miserable!"
He had to make it up to him somehow. Maybe he could give him some sewing materials. A magazine, perhaps? No, that wasn't enough. While Lech further pondered his decision, his gaze left the living room and went to his immediate surroundings. It was then when he noticed it, the stove, and got an idea. Maybe he could bake him some muffins.
After some time, every bear in the habitat, except for Gay, got together to finally eat dinner. Prozac was the first to compliment Lech's cooking, although he did apologize to Sara and Cara immediately after for the subpar food. The former scoffed at the food, making fun of Lech in the process, while the latter was overjoyed by the fact that they had cared enough to prepare them food, to the point of bawling her eyes out. Lech appreciated Cara thankfulness, despite the fact that he was a bit weirded out by her over expressiveness. During one of the many conversations that went on at that table, the muffins were done and, when Lech went to pick them up, he was asked by Prozac why he had baked them to which Lech simply responded that, since he had cooked for everyone, he could reward himself by baking something only for himself. Evil then threw out a comment about Lech gaining weight but it was quickly ignored.
When everyone was done and a few hours had gone by, Lech grabbed the pile of muffins and went over to Gay's room but not before making sure he wouldn´t be seen by anyone. Lech knocked on Gay´s door, getting no response. He knocked again, once again, he got no response. Lech waited for a few seconds, let out a sigh, and opened the door.
The inside of Gay´s room was lit by just a small nightlight. Gay was hiding himself with his blanket with only his ears being visible. Despite how late it was, Gay was clearly still awake. From what little Lech was able to gather, he didn´t seem tired. Perhaps he didn´t want to fall asleep.
The first thing that entered the room was Lech´s voice calling out for the other.
“Gay?”
“What do you want?” Gay responded angrily. Despite all the outburst he had had in the past, this one felt different. There was no care or life like before, just pure coldness.
“I… brought you some food”
“I'm not hungry”
“Sure you aren´t. You haven't had anything since lunch” Upon finishing that sentence, Lech grabbed Gay´s blanket and uncovered him. To which Gay immediately responded by shouting at him.
“DON'T LOOK AT ME” Gay shouted at Lech, giving him a quick glance in the process. "I look hideous…" after realizing that Lech was holding something Gay added "Wait, are those?"
"Chocolate chip muffins? Yeah"
"Where did you get them?"
"I made them myself" Lech boasted a bit "I used the recipe you taught me the last time we made muffins"
That last sentence picked Gay's interest and improved his mood a bit before grabbing one "You… Remembered the recipe?"
"I baked them because I wanted to say that… I'm sorry that you were forced to come out like this. And I'm sorry for how I tried to force you out all this time." Lech let out another sigh before continuing, this time speaking a little lower "I've also not been very honest about myself around the others so I know what it's like. But I guess I should have know to not treat you like that"
Gay responded by giving lech a strong hug, having already eaten the muffin he was holding.
"Thank you Lech. This really means a lot."
Lech awkwardly tried to hug Gay back, as he tried to avoid touching any of his injuries. After the hug ended Gay tried to change the subject to something less depressing
"This muffins are really good by the way"
Lech took this opportunity to both boast his abilities and tease Gay "Of course they are. I'm probably the best cook in the room"
"Oh please. You don't even come close." Gay responded, also teasing. Although he did agree with his own statement wholeheartedly. "But seriously, you are a really good cook. We should bake something together sometime"
"Sure" Lech responded instinctively, not really thinking about Gay's proposition. But when he thought about it for a few more seconds, he added. "Yeah… Yeah! I'd love to"
The pair continued talking for a few hours but eventually, they grew tired. They said their goodbyes and went to bed. After all, they had to rest as tomorrow, as was the case with most days, they would need all the energy they could get. Especially with their new guests.