The Bond

Ch 100

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

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

=o^o=

"Come on, why don't you just call me by my first name?" Michael tilted his head and smiled after saying that, looking at Ennard who stepped beside him. "Calling me Michael or Mike isn't that hard, Enn."

"It's not a matter of difficulty or not, Afton," replied Ennard, frowning, he pulled the hood of his jacket up to cover his red hair. "Six years I called you that, it all depended on my habits alone. Why should I call you by your first name anyway? It's useless."

Michael puffed out his cheeks in annoyance before stepping ahead of Ennard in walking and stopping directly in front of Ennard. "Come on! Mike is enough!" He insisted.

The corner of the man's eyes twitched in exasperation. "No," he said nonchalantly, walking ahead of Michael down the side street.

"There is nothing to lose calling me like that!"

"My words will be wasted, of course I have something to lose."

"Hey!" Michael protested, he caught up to Ennard quickly and matched their footsteps again. "Besides, I always call you Enn, so there's nothing wrong with calling me Mike." Michael still didn't want to give up, he threw a big smile at Ennard but Ennard pushed his face away with just the palm of his hand. "Enn!"

Ennard exhaled slowly, more and more he preferred to give up rather than get angry at this eldest Afton. Michael had always irritated him, but he was used to it now. "By the way," Ennard said, trying to divert attention—it worked, Michael seemed more interested now. "When we were at the convenience store to buy some things, did you hear the conversations of the employees?"

Michael raised his eyebrows. They both went to a different convenience store earlier, not the one where he used to work. The distance was farther, but better for avoiding risks. "No. Did you hear their gossip?"

"Not deliberate." Ennard shrugged, Michael had indeed remembered Ennard saying his hearing was obtained from Ballora's spare parts; he could hear like the ballerina. "You remember that annoying friend of Dawson's, don't you?" Ennard glanced at him briefly, then took a can of soda from the paper bag and opened it while he waited for Michael's response.

The brown-haired man slowed down, his eyes focused on Ennard who was sipping a soda, then he smiled faintly. "Mary, right? What's wrong with her?" he asked casually. "Maybe later I can call Lucy and tell her the Mary's condition ..."

"She's dead. You want to tell Dawson about that?"

"Dead?"

"The new's expanded quite a bit," Ennard said, his forehead furrowing again. "They said because of drug overdose, she killed herself." Ennard drank his soda again.

Michael raised his eyebrows and smiled, quicker than he thought. "Poor Mary," he responded slowly. "What do you think Lucy's response will be? She might be sad if she knows that one of her friends died by suicide. My condolences." Michael's voice grew lower as he spoke, Ennard didn't reply after that. "By the way!" Michael smiled brightly, leaning closer to Ennard again. "Say my first name!"

The bicolored eyes of the man beside him flickered at him for a moment. "You still haven't given up?" Ennard sounded incredulous. "Fine."

Michael's smile widened.

"Eggs."

His smile disappeared instantly.

"Don't call me that!" Michael hit Ennard's arm in exasperation, soon enough Ennard dodged the second punch while chuckling. He paused at the sound of Ennard's laughter.

"Why? It's one of your names too, isn't it, Michael?"

Ennard gave him a brief smile before continuing on his way nonchalantly while drinking his half-remaining soda, leaving him frozen in place with a violently flushed face—had Ennard really smiled at him just now? Had Ennard really just called him by his first name? His chest seemed to be pounding violently, he had never expected to get this kind of reaction in himself. But quickly Michael shook off all nervousness and caught up with Ennard.

"Like that!" Michael said happily. "Call me like that!"

"Like what, Afton?"

Michael groaned in annoyance. "You just called me by my first name!" He trotted in front of Ennard to block Ennard's path again a second time. "Keep calling me Michael!"

Ennard looked completely disinterested. "No, thank you. You heard it wrong." And for the second time Ennard through Michael using the road beside Michael. "There's no use calling your first name."

"Then just put my last name in your name."

Ennard choked on his soda.

"What do you mean!?" Ennard's face blushed perfectly, staring at Michael who was laughing loudly in disbelief. "You—that's not funny at all, you bastard!"

"You should have seen your face earlier!" Michael's laughter grew so loud that he had to bend over and hold his stomach.

Ennard gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Stop laughing!"

Of course, it wasn't that fast for Michael to stop laughing, it took at least a few minutes for him to actually stop chuckling before he giggled. Michael looked at Ennard with a big smile, while Ennard didn't look at him again after that. Michael grinned, then turned his gaze again forward to focus on walking—his arm was grabbed and Ennard pulled him aside, but half of his body still bumped into the man who was walking from the opposite direction.

Michael blinked in surprise, before looking at the man awkwardly. "Sorry, sir," Michael said guiltily before flashing a nervous smile.

The man smiled back at him as if to hint that it was no big deal, then he left. Michael glanced back to watch the stranger he had just bumped into leave, then he looked at Ennard who seemed to be holding himself back from chuckling quickly. "Why didn't you tell me there was someone in front of me!?"

"At least I helped you get out of the way," Ennard replied afterwards, finally snorting and back to walking, and then Michael caught up with him again while pouting.

The two of them no longer paid attention to the man earlier, who now took out a cell phone, typed in a number.

"Clark."

["Yes, Mr. Morgan?"]

A thin smile plastered on his face, his platinum eye glanced back. "I think I found your little rabbit."