The Bond

Ch 61

"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 seem to be down lately."

Michael shifted his gaze from the shelf filled with floor deodorizer to his left, he found Lucy looking at him worriedly. Michael didn't answer, he slowly just turned his gaze back to the shelf as before and placed the floor deodorizer from the cardboard near his feet onto the shelf.

Lucy frowned deeply. "Mike," she called, from the tone of her voice Lucy demanded an answer from the man. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

"You're not good at lying."

"But I'm good at attracting people."

The girl looked at Michael boredly before facepalm, where did Michael get that confidence from? "Did something happen?" Lucy chose to ask again and patiently waited for Michael to finish with his current job.

"Not really ...." Michael mumbled incoherently as he shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe a bit sad."

"Why?"

Michael pursed his lips, he didn't look at Lucy at all. After a while, Michael shrugged his shoulders again, either because he didn't know why he was sad or because he gave a hanging answer on purpose. This irritated Lucy, so Lucy pulled Michael's cheeks against Michael's protests.

"Answer properly!" Lucy said after releasing her pinch on the brown-haired's cheek, Michael grumbled. "Was it because of Ennard?"

As soon as Michael stopped rubbing his cheeks which were reddened by what Lucy did to him earlier, he immediately looked into Lucy's eyes with his eyebrows knit together, then looked away.

Lucy wasn't wrong, he was quite saddened by what Ennard had told him while he was hiding from Ennard. That was very upsetting to hear, and seemed to have disappointed him with Ennard's response. He meant what he said. They didn't talk much after that, Michael purposely always locked himself in the room with the endoskeleton and slept after Ennard was disabled so Ennard wouldn't steal the skeleton.

If possible he would take the endoskeleton to bathe as well.

"I like him," Michael said quietly as he puffed out both cheeks, Lucy glanced at him with interest. "Then he said I'm 'sick'. What's wrong with asking him to stay with me?" After that Michael continued to complain.

"What a jerk!"

Michael turned his head in confusion at Lucy's muffled exclamation. "What?"

The girl looked at him angrily. "He's so mean! He shouldn't have told you that, right? That's the wrong thing to say, what a jerk!" The corner of Lucy's eyes twitched in annoyance, she smacked on the spot.

"Well ... actually I didn't mean it like that." Michael rubbed the back of his neck nervously, his cheeks heating up—he didn't mean to make Lucy think he liked Ennard romantically ... maybe. "I like him, as a friend," Michael said, sounding doubtful and the bridge of his nose puckered. "Essentially he said so."

"Nonetheless!" Lucy insisted, then she patted Michael on the shoulder and smiled broadly. "Forget about him, Mike! We can find someone new for you who is better!"

Michael smiled awkwardly, gently removing Lucy's hand from his shoulder. "I told you I didn't mean it like that."

A groan could be heard from Lucy. "He's an asshole."

"Don't call him like that."

"It's true, isn't it?"

The eldest Afton sighed tiredly, he glanced at his watch to check the time—a few minutes until his work session would be over. Michael told Lucy that he wanted to change into a more casual outfit considering that his work session was over, and Lucy happened to have the same session as him. So he waited for Lucy to finish changing after herself.

Lucy again insisted on taking him home, Michael was a little reluctant but he couldn't refuse.

"By the way," Michael said to change their topic since Lucy used to talk a lot that she had some acquaintances who might be suitable as Ennard's replacement. "How is—Mary?" Michael's voice faltered a little.

"Mary?" Lucy was silent for a moment. "Oh right! She's allowed to come home in a few days, so tomorrow I want to see her. You want to come?"

Michael's smile tilted, he considered it for a moment. "Of course ...."

"Great!" Lucy said cheerfully.

"Maybe I'll take Ennard too for tomorrow."

Lucy's expression immediately changed, the girl puffed her cheeks. "He can't come."

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because he hurt you."

"He didn't—" Michael facepalm. If it was said that Ennard hurt him because of what he said back then, it really wasn't—they were throwing insults at each other a lot, though, that sort of thing probably didn't mean much to Michael except a little bit of disappointment. "It's not like I confessed to him either. He—he just doesn't understand! We didn't talk much after saying that anyway, I haven't got my point in saying that I want him to stay with me."

"But he called you 'sick'! That's annoying!"

Michael wanted to give up arguing with Lucy—well, Michael would no longer reply to Lucy's words and chose to just give in to the girl.

Even so, Michael appreciates Lucy's concern for him.

Michael held the wooden gate of the house he was currently living in, he looked at Lucy first before saying goodbye to each other. "So ... we're going to see Mary at the hospital tomorrow, aren't we?" he asked to be sure.

"Yep!" Lucy nodded firmly and smiled broadly. Her head poked a little to look into Michael's yard when Michael opened half of the gate, then Lucy knitted her brows and pursed her lips to find Ennard slowly standing up from his mowing activity. "Bastard." Was Lucy's last word before sauntering away.

Ennard looked at Lucy's departure strangely and didn't understand at all. He looked at Michael who then shrugged his shoulders. "What's with her?"

"Dunno," Michael replied curtly, then decided to leave Ennard alone in confusion.