The Bond

Ch 17

"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind

"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind

=o^o=

Michael put his palms on his waist and took a deep breath while looking around the clean looking room. He had just finished cleaning Mark's apartment while Mark was working as usual. Michael is quite satisfied with the results of his work, considering that he rarely cleans his own house.

"Wow, isn't it ironic that you want to be an unpaid maid in someone's house while leaving your own house like a broken ship?"

"You're right," Michael answered bluntly. "Ironic, yes. But at least this is all I can do to repay Mark's kindness for letting me stay here." Michael nodded to himself after continuing his words.

"Yeah, yeah. How ungrateful. What do you think of me in your house?"

"Auxiliary robots don't need to be paid for."

"Bastard."

Michael shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and immediately put the cleaning kit where he had taken it from. Now it's just waiting for Mark to come home and then lie again if he has eaten. Luckily Mark never questioned it further or asked him to dinner with him.

The eldest Afton then glanced at his watch. "He should be arriving from work in a minute," Michael muttered under his breath.

"Or maybe now."

Right after that Michael looked away at the sound of the door opening, then Mark entered in his uniform and realized Michael was looking directly at the front door, Mark gave a small smile as he untied his shoelaces.

"What are you doing, Mike?" Mark asked curiously, raising an eyebrow at Michael as he put the brown coat he was wearing on the hanger.

Michael blinked. "Nothing—just waiting for you to come home," he replied, shrugging his shoulders again.

The man in front of him rounded his mouth in understanding. "You cleaned my apartment? Last I saw, my apartment wasn't this tidy." Mark glanced around the flat, and Michael grinned.

"I have nothing else to do, so why not help out while I stay here for a few more days?"

"Very sweet. Thank you," Mark said, patting Michael on the shoulder before walking into the bathroom to get cleaned up.

Michael watched him until the bathroom door was completely closed, then whispered softly. "How did you know he would arrive sooner?" Michael was obviously asking Ennard.

"The hearing in animatronics is different from that of humans. I was built with the material remains of all the other CBPW animatronics when the place was still being reconstructed."

"Has the same hearing as Ballora, huh?" Michael said. "Interesting. Do you also have Funtime Freddy's anger issues?"

"Haha, so funny."

"Who knows you have." Michael stifled a laugh.

"You're not wrong."

Michael suddenly got goosebumps and shuddered, Ennard was scary enough and he didn't need a joke just to turn into reality.

Luckily Ennard snorted in amusement after that.

"And I thought you didn't have a sense of humor," said Michael sweatdrop.

"It's not my fault that your sense of humor is inferior to mine."

"You—"

"Hey, Mike, want me to buy you something?"

Michael looked at Mark coming out of the bathroom, then frowned—usually Mark would have worn more casual and comfortable clothes, but today he looked even tidier than when he went to work.

The Afton folded his arms across his chest. "You're leaving again?" he asked curiously.

Mark nodded, put the watch on his left wrist before smoothing his black hair while looking in the mirror hanging next to the bathroom door. "Actually I came back to check on you for a bit and get ready again because I have ... well," Mark hung up and smiled nervously.

"What?" Michael tilted his head, eyebrows raised. "You have a date?" he asked idly, brazing a mischievous smile.

However, his smile faded when he saw Mark's cheeks blushed faintly.

"Yes, yeah," Mark replied, rubbing the back of his neck gently. Either this will end awkwardly considering they were dating or end up being ridiculed considering they used to be close friends.

"Oh." Was the first word Michael uttered after a moment of silence. "Oh, well, good luck." Michael shrugged his shoulders and smirked at Mark. "Also, no need to worry about me, you can bring me a stock of ice cream."

Michael's joke at least lightened the mood between them.

Mark chuckled softly. "See you around, Mike," he said as he stepped past Michael and patted Michael's head briefly.

Michael watched Mark until Mark closed the apartment door, then exhaled and who knows how many times he shrugged his shoulders today. Knowing Mark had someone new left something inside Michael. It's not that he doesn't like the fact that Mark has found another lover, or that he's just upset that he hasn't found a new lover yet.

Well, Michael doesn't care about romance, for now.

"Are you jealous of your ex's new lover?"

Michael's brow furrowed at Ennard's question. "Really," he grumbled quietly. "Certainly not. Are you stupid? I have moved on from him even since nine or ten years ago. Meeting him again after all these years didn't make me like him again."

"I'm just asking."

"Your question is annoying." Michael puffed out his cheeks, then sat on the sofa and leaned his back against the headboard, then looked up at the apartment ceiling. "Besides ... I'm not that stupid to fall in love with someone who just left me after what we've been through together."

There was silence for five minutes after Michael said this. Ennard said nothing, and Michael knew the animatronic couldn't be turned off, he listened.

So Michael continued. "My brother. We teased him a lot, scared him to the point of making him cry—"

"Bad brother."

"There's no need to tell what I already know," Michael retorted in annoyance, but his brows knit together and the corners of his eyes twitched briefly. "Evan got everything I didn't have and I was ... annoyed. 'This isn't fair', I thought. So I," Michael gulped before continuing. "So I took my anger out on Evan ...."

Dizziness suddenly hit Michael's head, he gritted his teeth hard against the pain as the memories of the dark past came back. "My friends also scared him, including Mark. Then after the incident, they just left."

The room was quiet again, silence reigned and the atmosphere was ominous, dark.

"The past sometimes has to be thrown away."

Michael pursed his lips at Ennard's reply, he wanted to open his mouth and then answer the animatronic. However, Ennard had deactivated first before he had the chance to do so.