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Seventy-eight years, three thousand failed gadgets and plans, twenty missing teeth, five bare patches where fur never grew back, a total of twenty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy chases, all for what?
All to find out the bird saw it as their game, their shared routine instead of the literal hunt that it was, and now the coyote didn't know what the heck to think. To do outside of just going back to the routine, only without explosive and dangerous gadgets because screw ACME for everything they did to him, to all the Toons and his human friends.
The trial had been a lot, not to mention when the rest of the Project Sisyphus victims had come forward, both bringing down that vile company and saving Kevin's lawfirm. Wile E stayed for those next two weeks in case said company tried to take them out again but also because…
Because he just wasn't ready to go back yet. He wanted to, it was why he gave a very small nod when the bird had asked, of all things, if he would come back, that sad pitiful look instead of the usual smile that had seemed to taunt him but now he wondered if it was meant to be something else.
Ugh. Feelings, they were the worst. He hated being fluent in roadrunner speak, only half paying attention to the testimony until the sad tone accompanied with 'I never realised until he was gone how much he had been hurt, but yes' grabbed his attention and kept it as the kind words continued on, the words around yes and no not recorded by the humans but he could hear it, and that seemed to be enough.
And with the question came these feelings, bringing him to this current predicament. Of course the chases started again, just no more gadgets that weren't solely his own and even if they did backfire, it was significantly less damage to his person than ACME products, plus Kevin and Paige had fixed some more permanent injuries (specifically the missing teeth and bald patches) which boosted his confidence quite a bit too.
So he felt good those first few days back in the desert, paws thumping against the dusty roads, chasing that same blue blur who he now considered a friend, not someone to eat but…play with, let's go with that.
It would be easier to say that if not for the changes that occured shortly after his return, how food was being left in front of his cave, small things of lizards and rats but enough to appease his empty stomach for the day until the next when the chase would begin again. That was most likely when those feelings came about, a similar emotion to the affection he felt for Kevin and Paige, who he would confidently say are now his friends.
Would he call the bird that? Yes. Did it feel right? He wasn't sure. Wile E knew that Roadie (the name was given with one of the aforementioned food offerings, sign sticking out just beside it ('I think it's only fair after all this time')) was making an effort in taking care of him, quite like how he had looked out for Kevin when ACME was chasing them through the streets of Albuquerque, the human getting mixed up in that nonsense and almost getting himself blown up. Even if the coyote was still mad about their fight, he still cared about these people, he knew they were much more fragile than Toons and saved him from the worst of potential injury.
Sure, he left him to crash on his own but it was better than being blown to bits by explosive eggs!
Anyway, where was he? Right, the weird feelings!
Because it wasn't just the food, it was when his own homemade gadgets would backfire and hurt him and then the roadrunner would be there with a first-aid box, patching up cuts and burns, whatever, but that wasn't bad. Wile E had spots he couldn't reach on his own so having someone else do it really helped, the part he was so bothered by was…
Was how Roadie would nuzzle him, beak pushing into his fur under his chin, meeping so quietly, the perfect opportunity to be grabbed and officially caught if the coyote wasn't so flustered by this sudden change, heartbeat speeding up, a blush creeping onto his face, thankfully hidden by the fur. What the heck was this bird doing to him!?
At least he didn't stay long, just half a minute before a small 'same time tomorrow' and the usual running off at lightning speed, leaving the still very flustered Wile E to wonder, once more, what that was for, it was the third time this week!
The coyote only had one thing he could try in order to figure this all out, even if he really didn't want to because he was quite embarassed, but research was needed and he would get a lot further with it back in the city. Plus, it would be nice to catch up with Paige anyway.
…
Nope, he was wrong, it was horrible. After she had noted all of his 'symptoms' as he called it along with Roadie's new and strange behaviours, she came back with words like 'courting', 'love', 'affection' and Wile E couldn't get out of there fast enough when Kevin got involved and was trying to ask if he felt the same way that the roadrunner apparently felt about him.
First of all, that bird did not love him in any sense, alright? He could swallow the affection, at least it was a word associated with friends, exactly how they felt about each other, something that finally came to be following the trial.
But second, the courting? No. Just no. Even if he wasn't hunting Roadie for sport anymore, it didn't change the seventy-eight years of it, of feeling like he was being mocked after every unsuccessful nabbing, of the countless injuries and mental breakdowns, and she told him that all this time, the damn bird was considering it a courting ritual!?
Third and final, it wouldn't matter. A predator and prey? Come on now, they might be looney but not THAT looney. Right? Well…
Okay, if he was thinking about it, like hypothetically, he did have a distant friend who used to live around here before his owners moved. Thomas still kept in touch every now and then, and last Wile E had heard, the cat's own chase had ended in a surprising way, not with a mouse stew but rather a mouse who was more than a friend. Fellow Toons as well, a fellow predator like him who caught his prey in a much different way, so…maybe not impossible?
Ugh. Why was he even considering this?
Kevin's words from that late-night drive came back to him, the question of "what is it about the roadrunner" and how he didn't have an answer. He still doesn't if he was being honest, he just knew it was along the lines of what his human friends had said.
If Tom could catch Jerry like that, be more than friends with someone he tried so many years to make his dinner, then surely Wile E could do the same.
Not yet, though, not until he had done some well overdue catching up and gotten some needed advice from his old friend.