Chapter Text
“Anything else I can get ya before I head out?”
The bear was sat on the edge of the break room bed, where his assistant lay, blankets up to its chest and a fan blowing on it from the nightstand.
It weakly shook its head, “sighing”.
“Alright then. Don’t get up unless ya have to, ‘kay? ‘Don’t want’cha overworkin’ your system.”
“<OK…>”
Then he got up, leaned over to give it a.. sort of awkward kiss on the forehead, before leaving the office and the building.
It had a virus of some sort—not fatal, thankfully, but it was causing some issues within while its internal security system and by extent its firewall were trying to prevent the virus from getting further in. It was draining its energy like crazy, and had soon weakened it to the point of dizziness and fatigue.
Right now, Grizz had gone out to get it a snack, since they’d run out of yogurt and his reasoning being that the yogurt specifically would help cool its internals down a little, being refrigerated and whatnot—oh, and it was a fan of the stuff as well. Win-win.
The fan provided a refreshing break from its systems’ incessant heaving, its body moderately warm under the covers, as it stared at the ceiling.
It really wanted to sleep, but it didn’t like sleeping alone anymore. It had now been long used to sleeping with the other—accustomed to his warmth, his calm expression, his gentle breathing… It had never realized until that first night how much it missed being held. Embraced.
And now he had gone to the store to buy it some yogurt at its (second) most vulnerable moment… he was kind of silly like that, it thought.
It was vulnerable right now, wasn’t it? It knew if it got out of bed it would just collapse; it hoped he locked the bedroom and office door before he left. Well, he often if not always did the latter.. but paranoia was starting to creep into its mind.
It had to stay awake for its own safety, its own survival. Even if its system begged it to let go and rest, it would prevail…
The thought of someone ambushing it in here must’ve been freaking it out a good amount, because it could’ve sworn it’d just heard something creak the floor in the office. Or someone.
The door to the break room was closed, but it watched the knob anyway, waiting for someone to turn it.
It shuddered; the blinds rustling from the open window’s breeze.
Its system was starting to throb, threatening a headache, but it continued to stare at the doorknob.
The gas station down the road wasn’t as busy as he thought it’d be, which was a relief.
The refrigerated section had a few yogurts and mini ice creams, and he was currently looking through the selection for peach.
He knew its favorite flavor was peach, but so far he couldn’t find any…
He’d thought about asking the cashier, but… honestly, he wasn’t keen on talking to anybody in disguise. Never had been a fan. If anything, he preferred ordering everything online or having someone else go get it for him (like Tartar) but.. there was no clear cut way to get peach yogurt fresh.
While searching, he found some bread and cheese of some sort, and reasoned he could try and cook it something to eat—of course he wasn’t really good at cooking either, but he’d watched O.R.C.A. make stuff hundreds of times when he was in Alterna; it can’t be that hard, right?
He made a ‘hm’, putting the bread and cheese in the bag and grabbing some noodles from the shelf next to him.
By the time he got back to the office, it was no longer afternoon, and was instead a pink evening.
He looked behind himself, down the stairway, and pulled the keys out, rustling through them to find the one that unlocked the door.
However, he was thoroughly surprised when the office door’s knob jiggled and the door swung open—he almost dropped the groceries when his partner ran right into him. It wasn’t expecting him either, he deduced by its shocked movements as it quickly looked up and chirped, before wrapping its arms around him tightly… really tightly.
“H-hey, Tar..?-“
“<You left me. You le-eft me..>”
He tilted his head at its wobbly mumbling.
“I .. told you I was goin’ out? Why wou-“
“<You were- you …>”
“I wasn’t gone that long? It was only a few hours.”
It stared up at him, body trembling visibly, as he set the keys back in his coat pocket.
“Tar, you’re not feeling well. Go back inside, okay?” His tone softened and he guided it back in, locking the door.
“You’re shaking.”
“<I feel cold.>”
The bear tucked it back in, handing it a cup of vanilla yogurt.
“Sorry. They only had vanilla.”
“<.. That’s ok. I don’t- I like vanilla.>”
“I know ya do.” He smiled slightly.
As it tore the cover off and took the spoon from his extended paw, he sat on the bed again.
“Why were you trying to run outside?”
It paused, bells not facing him, but staring at the bed, as it slowly resumed scooping a bit of yogurt and inserting it into its card slot.
“<… I thought .. you left me.>”
“I mean, I did. But I’d never leave ya for a long time without warning.”
“<I… know. But.. I don’t know… I had a feeling.. you weren’t coming back.>”
“Hm.”
He knew it sometimes got … really paranoid. Especially when tired—he’d been awoken by it before, saying it was hearing things like footsteps and unintelligible voices. It couldn’t sleep by itself very well anymore or the sounds would become too vivid and keep it up all night… some kind of “auditory hallucinations”, O.R.C.A. called it (or, in its case, maybe a permanent issue somewhere deep in its system).
“In that case, I’m assuming you were trying to run outside to find me, right?”
“<….. Yes. … Sorry.>”
“No, it’s okay. You’re just tired.”
He maneuvered himself to lay beneath the covers beside it, sighing as he watched it look back at him.
“And I’m tired, too, so I’m gonna take a nap for a while… if ya wanna join.”
“<….. …. After I finish eating my yogurt.>”
“Of course, of course.”