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The night sky was a dark black. At most, there were a few speckles of light. The usual hum of traffic was replaced by deafening silence. In the city streets of Burbank, only two mice stood: Brain, which stood near a flickering street light, and Pinky, who trailed closely behind him. After their debacle with mind-control robots, they had began their nightly walk to ACME Labs. They had already said their usual lines and walked back to ACME Labs in silence.
Brain had always found Pinky to be attractive. It’s not something he’d admit to, or liked to admit to, but he knew it was there. It was something about his baby blue eyes, or his cockney accent that was so alluring. Pinky was incredibly loyal, too. There were many times Brain would push Pinky away, and he was still there for him. He was grateful for Pinky’s loyalty in a way, but it’d be hard to admit that, or his feelings as a matter of fact.
ACME Labs was now in plain sight; the building stood tall, and the name was spelled out in yellow lettering. Brain opened the door from below, letting his associate into the building. The inside was seemingly typical; science equipment was placed carefully around the lab. The only exception to this seemed to be a collection of Brain’s failed plans, which sat in a bin and collected dust.
Later that night, Brain was pondering, something he’d always had done, but this was different.
As a young mouse, Brain’s worldview had been shattered. He was constantly tormented and experimented on by heartless scientists. Brain couldn’t find any light in the world, but that changed when he met Pinky.
In the beginning, he had been an ordinary lab mouse. During his first year, he was subjected to many traumatizing experiments. This included gene splicing. Afterwards, much of his bones had to be completely restructured. This led to a painful and gruesome month-long recovery. During this time, he was trapped in his cage, unable to move, and his body was piled with bandages and bruises. Three days later, as the usual hum of traffic surrounded ACME LABS, the door swung open. A few scientists in white lab coats piled in. They congregated and conversed as normal, some moving away from the pile into their own rooms. Only two of them were left in the room, and they talked amongst themselves. Brain sulked in his cage, glaring at the scientists in his room as they discussed among themselves.
“Subject 4J seems to be still recovering,” said a scientist, adjusting her glasses.
Brain’s pink ears perked up. From what he could assume, “Subject 4J” was what the scientists picked as his “name”. Come to think of it, Brain is a much more fitting name than the vapid name the scientists gave me, he thought.
The other scientist seemed to think for a moment, looking at the clipboard then looking back towards them, “It says here that Subject 4J hasn’t had another cagemate before. Do you think he’s lonely?”
“Well, mice are social creatures, I suppose we could move him to Subject 10J’s cage. We’ll just have figure out if the boss is okay with it,” she responded.
“Alright, sounds good!” He smiled.
2 weeks later, he had been moved out of his cage. They had carelessly pinched him by the tail, and they put him in a white, nondescript plastic box for good measure. Brain sat defeatedly in the box. On the way, the box was bouncing. Brain could’ve almost been launched out of the box. His face turned into a sickly green, and his eyes were spirals. Whenever they had found Subject 10J’s cage, the scientists carefully took Brain out of the box with pliers. He was facedown on the cage floor. Using his arms to stabilize myself, he stood up. His ears were ringing, and his legs were wobbly, like spaghetti noodles. The room felt like it was spinning and he was the only one staying still.
“Are you alright?” A voice said.
Brain could see a distorted white blob in front of him. Brain blinked, trying to clear his vision. Most of the mouse’s features were muddled; he could only make out a few details: buck-teeth, blue eyes, and a big red nose.
Brain cleared his throat, “Uh… yes. I believe the constant motion must’ve shaken up my innards.”
Brain’s sickly green face began to change into a tomato red color. Looking at the mouse in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel like a cat and a ball of yarn. He was drawn to Pinky and he couldn’t look away.
“Okay… what’s your name?” They asked. The voice shut him out of his thoughts.
He said softly, “My name is the Brain.”
Brain couldn’t manage to speak anymore. His thoughts were being stewed together by love, and he couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes.
“Egad! My name is Pinky!” Pinky said.
Brain internally sighed. He thought to himself, What mouse could choose such an ignorant name? Yet Brain still couldn’t shake off the butterflies in his stomach. It appears even love is blind, such as justice herself. However, he isn’t even sure if Pinky likes him back.
Looking besides him, Brain saw Pinky sleeping soundly besides him. Even if there’s a chance Pinky may not like him back, he may as well confess. But what would that mean for the future? Would it be awkward? Would Pinky care? He didn’t want to ruin anything between their dynamic.
There might be a little silver of chance that Pinky likes him. Even if it all doesn’t go to plan, they can still be friends.
I’ve loved you from the start, Pinky. Brain thought, I’ll confess tomorrow.
And this time, he meant it.