Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

4 - Wilting Flowers and Shared Memories

"That's because it's made of Watcher magic," a German accented voice suddenly spoke from behind them.

Jimmy and Tango turned around to see this mystery voice.  He was a tall man, even for Tango, with skin almost the same green as the grass below him.  The left side of his face and the right side of his body were artificial, made completely out of metallic robot parts aside from the brown hair that went over the cyborg half, the ram horns that went around his ears, and his right leg, which looked more prosthetic and made for running.  His left eye was also different, being covered by a deep red glass, though the pitch black darkness of his organic eye wasn't exactly any less threatening.  He wore blue jeans and a slightly worn lab coat, the pure white being splotched with a bit of mud and dirt at the ends.

"Forgive me for butting in, but I see you've taken interest in the fountain, no?" He asked. 

"Oh, yeah actually um..." Tango said, "who are you?"

"The name's Doc, Doc M-77."

—

Ren awoke to the scent of something sweet and fluffy.  Immediately hearing the thumping of his own tail hitting the bed as it wagged out of his control, he got up and made his way downstairs to follow the smell.

His paws made a light clicking sound as he walked across the solid floor towards the kitchen.  He found BigB standing over the counter next to the stove, slicing a loaf of homemade bread for sandwiches.

"Mornin' B!" Ren greeted.  BigB turned around to face his bound as he shot him back a smile. 

"Good morning!" BigB said, picking up a plate with a sandwich in it and bringing it to Ren. "I made your favorite for ya,"

Ren's tail wagged a little faster as he took the plate.  "Ham and peanut butter?"

BigB nodded.  Ren happily took a huge bite of the food, but not before pulling an off-white pill out of the sandwich. As a dog hybrid, there was a certain medication he had to take to keep most of his dog-like instincts under control during the day, but also as a dog hybrid, he was not very keen on taking this medication easily.

"Ha! You're gonna have to try harder than that!" Ren said triumphantly. BigB rolled his eyes, already prepared to grab another pill and try again.

"Alright alright, you win this time. I'll just-"

As he cut himself off, B dropped a slice of ham on the floor.  Without so much as a thought, Ren snatched up the floor ham and ate it.  He looked at B with a confident smirk until he realized his bound was looking at him with the same face.

"...you put the pill in there, didn't you?"  Ren asked.

"Maybe," BigB answered, chuckling to himself.  Ren groaned in defeat.

"Well played friend, well played," he said, "remind me to resist floor food from now on.  Oh, and before I forget to ask, how was your walk last night?"

"It was great actually!"  BigB said.  "You remember Grian from yesterday at the waiting room?"

Ren nodded.

"Well, I met up with him down the road, and it turns out he's the same guy I used to be friends with when we were kids back on Evo!" 

"Aw, that's amazing dude!  Glad you guys caught up with each other," Ren said.

"Yeah, and I checked the mailbox this morning, there's gonna be a cruise around the island tonight for the activity," B explained.  "I was thinking about inviting Grian to come with us if that's okay with you,"

"Of course!  Any friend of yours is a friend of mine," Ren agreed.

"Great! So what are our plans for the rest of our day?"

—

"Etho!" Joel called from upstairs. He had woken up that morning to an empty bed on the side of his, and was now wondering where his soulbound went. Fortunately for him, one trip downstairs made him notice the fox-hybrid sleeping on the couch, an empty glass on the nightstand next to him. He sighed.

"Ethooooo, wake up!  It's almost noon, we slept in!"  Joel said, lightly shaking Etho by his shoulder.  The fox groaned as he opened his eyes.

"Five more minutes Joel..." he said, turning over to face the back cushions of the couch. 

"Did you stay up all night again?  Was it another nightmare?"  Joel asked.  Though Etho never went into detail with what they were about, he's told Joel before that he occasionally had bad night terrors, and the man never pressed him any further about it.

"Hm?  Oh, yeah, yeah it was..." Etho yawned. 

"Right, well," Joel said, "I'm still going to look around town for a bit like I said I would yesterday, so if you ever wake up later and wanna come with me, you can always text and I'll wait for you, ok?"

"Got it," Etho said.  Joel let out a sigh, quickly grabbing his phone from upstairs before heading out of the front door.  He noticed the flag on their mailbox was up, but he figured either he would check it out when he came back, or Etho would check it before then. Turns out it would be the latter.

Etho stretched his arms out as he walked down the driveway, about a half hour after Joel had left to explore. He stopped at the end and opened up the box, pulling the red flag on the post down as he grabbed an envelope- no, two envelopes, out of it.

This confused Etho. One of the letters was labelled as the map and activity invite they were told they'd be sent, but the other one had some sort of unknown language written on the front in bright purple ink. He took both letters inside, setting the map and invite down on the coffee table and sitting down on the couch to read the mysterious one.

Upon opening it, there was a single folded piece of paper inside, and written on it in the same purple ink as before were words he thought he would never hear again:

DON'T THINK WE FORGOT
ABOUT YOU "LADDERS"