The Bond

Ch 44

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

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

=o^o=

"You don't have to take me home."

Michael looked at Lucy who was walking beside him with a doubtful look. At first he just wanted to wait for Lucy to finish because his work at the supermarket was done since Lucy said she wanted to say something, but then she insisted to take him home.

"Why?" Lucy asked confused. "I can't walking home with my own friend?" She tilted her head, looking at Michael in confusion.

The Afton's eldest pursed his lips for a moment. "You're a girl."

"So what if I'm a girl? You think I can't take care of myself? I'm good at karate, you know. A black belt!" Lucy draped her arms around her waist and puffed out her chest proudly saying that, Michael just smiled skeptically. "Mary is pretty annoying anyway because she keeps saying your house is creepy," Lucy sulked after that.

"Hm?" Michael's eyebrows shot up at Lucy's words. "I never really cared about it."

"That's why I walk you home to piss Mary off."

The grin from Lucy made Michael sweatdropped, so that was the reason Lucy walked home with him this time. "I thought it's because your house is in the same direction as where I live."

"That is, too."

Michael covered his face with his hands as soon as he heard Lucy's casual reply. Probably this was how Ennard felt whenever he was being casual or annoying. Michael let out a tired breath and finally decided not to think too much about Lucy's reasons, but so far the girl seemed fine and there was nothing suspicious at all.

Not long after they both arrived in front of the abandoned house, Michael was about to say goodbye but Lucy suddenly asked.

"So, when did you move here?"

Michael raised his eyebrows. "Almost two months ago."

Lucy looked impressed. "Wow, really? I just know that considering I've lived in here for a year, I thought you moved here recently." Lucy peeked at the house briefly over Michael's shoulder. "But the house really looks neglected. How did you sleep there?"

"I ... cleaned the inside of the house," Michael answered slowly, eventually ending up suspicious of Lucy.

"Is that true? May I see?"

Michael didn't have time to reply when Lucy darted into the house just like that, enough to surprise Michael. He immediately followed Lucy who had reached the front door, he tried to stop Lucy but the girl didn't pay any heed. Michael gasped when Lucy had seen the endoskeleton in the living room.

Lucy didn't say anything at all, Michael was getting concerned.

"Whoa what is that? Robot?"

As soon as Michael let out a stifled breath, it seemed that Lucy didn't know anything about it, meaning that Lucy was an ordinary person. "Something like that," he answered Lucy's question, then hurried to the front of the room where Ennard was off and shut the door tightly.

Lucy didn't think much of it, thinking that the room was indeed someone else's privacy that she shouldn't see. "You're right, you've cleaned the inside of the house," Lucy said in admiration as she looked around, Michael trailing behind her—still a little nervous. "Woah!" Lucy squealed a little when she saw a frame on the table. "She's so beautiful! Your mother?"

Michael looked at the frame, he didn't remove the photo of the woman with the blonde hair out of respect for the previous owner of the house. "No, I live alone here."

"Live alone?" Lucy turned to Michael with interest. "I live alone too! My mother and father live in another city because I moved away," Lucy said excitedly. "Do your parents also live in another city?"

The question made Michael rub the back of his neck slowly. "They, uh, died." Michael shrugged nonchalantly, he didn't know where his parents were.

The smile on Lucy's face faded. "Oh ... I'm sorry."

"It's okay, that was almost ten years ago anyway," Michael replied.

"By the way, Mike," Lucy said, trying to change the subject. They had arrived at the kitchen area. "Why is there no food at all here? There's only coffee and—milk I gave you four days ago." Lucy's brow furrowed.

Michael was nervous. "I—I haven't had time for my monthly shopping yet!" he answered trying not to sound panicked.

"Then I'll tell boss if you need extra money, maybe he will give you more money for helping us."

"You don't have to do that—but thank you." Michael didn't want to miss the opportunity. Then Michael stepped behind Lucy and pushed her into the living room. "I still need to clean up so I hope you don't mind getting home early," Michael said nervously, a little awkwardly, trying not to sound weird.

Lucy glanced at him. "Okay, okay, I'm going home. No need to push me, I can walk on my own."

Michael didn't listen to Lucy's words, still pushing Lucy towards the exit. He too was forced to wave when Lucy smiled broadly at him and said good-bye, and right after that Michael quickly locked the gate and went into the house again, shutting the door tightly.

He let out a small breath, then decided to go into Ennard's room—weird, since when was the door open?