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The signature whistle Mao Mao did to bring his Aerocycle to them so they didn't have to walk to it was... shakier... than normal. That was the first indication of newfangled behavior on his partner's part that Badgerclops took notice of.
Mao Mao's cape flapped in the wind as he walked along, shoulders squared and stride purposeful, a few paces ahead of them. Moonlight lapped at its edges and gave it a frosted-blue trim.
"Dude, you want me to take the wheel this time?" the cyborg bringing up the rear asked, encouraged by the warm smile Mao Mao sent Adorabat's way; she flew into his arm—hardly by way of accident. She not-so-subtly bumped him with her head and grazed his forearm with her wing, and then disbanded from him, letting the pine-scented mountain wind push her gently backwards. She knew they would never let it carry her too far away from them.
"No, Badgerclops." The friendly quirk to Mao Mao's lips lingered in spite of demurring, which was something Badgerclops couldn't quite place a feeling to.
Mao Mao hopped on his bike, gloved paws already wound into constricting fists around the handlebars until the material creaked. His black-and-green helmet wrapped around his head with its customary shine.
"Are you two coming?" he jokingly asked.
Usually it was Badgerclops telling the jokes, but that wasn't the reason for why Mao Mao's attempt was met with a single soulful gaze and silence. (Adorabat, for her part, still beamed at him like she always did, her earlier tears long since dried. Badgerclops was... still working on his.)
Mao Mao's teammates stared at him a moment, very far removed from receiving the kind of humor he was evidently feeling the need to dish out, before helmeting up and following suit, boarding the bike behind him. (He wouldn't have left without them. Not even if they made him wait for hours.)
And then, as the sheriff lifted the heavy piece of machinery into the air with a sputter and accompanying growl, Adorabat broke that silence, returning to herself the quickest:
"I'm hungry, y'all."
"Oh... yeeeaah," Badgerclops chimed, one discerning eye scanning the valley below as Mao Mao zoomed them through the air above it all; hills and grass and trees. So many trees. They were never too far from home so long as they had the Aerocycle with them. "We've really been out all day, huh?"
The night had been a pretty eventful one, indeed, if he'd forgotten about dinner. Their last bite to eat had been at Muffins' bakery a few hours before, but no way was that a full-fledged meal.
"Once we're in, get seated in the kitchen," Mao Mao said to the pup, leaning forward over the handlebars. "I'll heat something up for you," he offered, not looking back. Slightly hoarse from his earlier screaming, Badgerclops noted.
If Adorabat noticed, she said nothing of it.
"Leftover pizza!" Her exclamation was carried off on the whooshing wind, and would have probably woken up a fair few residents had they been flying over town.
But, of course, they weren't. They were flying over their homey woodland, shadowy though it was at this time. Mao Mao set their trajectory; heading straight for the waterfall cascading down the rocks behind their home. The Aerocycle burst through the blanket of concealing water. The vehicle slowed as they rode their way through the short, dank tunnel and into the cool, dark garage, finally putting to a stop.
Without saying a word, the three heroes dismounted and milled about. The air was still down here, but not stale. It was quiet, but the level whirring of the refrigerator against the wall, and the crashing water outside, made it so it wasn't completely soundless. It was peaceful to Badgerclops—which was, perhaps, why it didn't seem to put Mao Mao's mind much at ease at all; his place was upstairs in the dojo.
The badger turned on the lamp suspended above the Aerocycle's lifting platform. His eye immediately drifted to the dirtied cape of his comrade... the grass-stained leg protectors, the cloudy patches of once-sleek fur, the crumpled whiskers; Mao Mao's battered, bruised self walking, light on his feet as ever, to the staircase.
"Hey man, that was a sick fight," Badgerclops commended him. It made the rumpled, stalwart black cat pause in his movements, one hand freezing on the banister.
"Yeah, yeah! It was so cool, Sheriff!" Adorabat agreed.
"Oh." Mao Mao furrowed his brows; ran his index finger along the wood in the railing. "Thank you."
Badgerclops hesitated before asking, but asked all the same, "You look kind of spent, though, homie. I'm not gonna lie to ya. Are you feelin' all right?"
"I'm fine."
Amazingly, he couldn't tell if Mao Mao was stretching the truth for once. He didn't feel it in his gut this time.
That didn't mean Mao Mao didn't sound unsure.
"Thanks, for—" The samurai warrior gritted his sharp teeth in subtle dismay. In reaction to what, neither of his bright-eyed companions could say. "Thanks for asking."
A vaguely stormy look swept across his face as he proceeded to pull himself up the stairs. The look mellowed into something that was less dour and more tired as he took one painstaking step at a time. Molasses may just have been quicker.
Then, when he was just a few more bends of the knees to reach the landing away, Mao Mao stopped. Just, stopped. Altogether. A deep, gravelly sigh rolled out of him, and his proud form slouched ever so slightly.
"Y'all were great today."
"Huh?" The questioning sound came from Adorabat. The disgruntled look on her face would have been comical, maybe, if it wasn't being worn on this night of all nights. She alighted on Badgerclops' shoulder, wings thrown over it, as he walked to the base of the stairs to look straight up at the cat.
"Truly," the Sheriff of Pure Heart said with solemnity, turning to face them and leaning in with a sincere smile. His dominant left hand fell over his chest just above his sash to rest. "You're the best deputies I could—the best friends I could ask for on days like today, and I just..." He combed his ears back, visibly conflicted. "I appreciated the thoughtful gesture earlier; you showing my father around the kingdom."
"Well, it was less of a tour—" Adorabat began,
"—yeah, and more of a peruse through your dope accolades, bro," Badgerclops finished.
"I know." Mao Mao's combing hand migrated behind his neck, rubbing at the fur and cape collar there. Looking sheepish. "And... like I said, I appreciated it. I'm grateful, also; you didn't step in, either, when I was..."
"Dude, don't even mention it."
"What're friends for?" the bat fluttering above their heads asked.
The tension in Mao Mao's shoulders eased up, once and for all. (Until the following day, probably, when a new adventure would begin and he would need to raise his hackles again for one reason or another.)
"Thank you," he said again. Softer, but with a sense of finality about it. His voice got crackly in its hoarseness on the tail end of the first word, and Badgerclops thought back to the throwdown they just witnessed between the rage-fueled cat and the giant, wispy beast that had knocked the legendary Shin Mao out of his armor.
The fight that had seen Mao Mao getting dragged through the dirt by his cape, getting tossed up into the sky by it; flung into the clouds, out of sight—
"Did you think that was enough?! It's NEVER ENOUGH!"
—and come right back down again, no worse for the wear, practically. But still, to see him just disappear like that, even if it was for just a few seconds... He scaled his way back down, partway falling, a thousand times angrier...
"Okay," Mao Mao drawled, addressing Adorabat as he climbed the stairs with her on his head, hitching a ride to the ground floor. "Pizza, right? I can make that happen."
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"Then it's teeth, and straight to bed."
"But if I brush my teeth right after, I'll've barely tasted it!"
"Ughhh... halfanhour," the sheriff grumbled, bringing an easy smile to Badgerclops' face; listening to the man knuckle under her demands. "You have half an hour."
Never enough, Badgerclops repeated the words in his head, not quite following yet. He mulled over the loud assurance Mao Mao made as he began his walk upstairs.
He kicked back on the sofa, waiting for the microwave beeping to cease. The clamor in the kitchen didn't end there, because Adorabat was the noisiest eater in the house. Even noisier than him.
All the lights in the house were on, apart from the one in the attic and the ones that illuminated the dojo at night. It was almost as though they never left home. Key word there: almost.
The cybernetic hero took another idle glance over the right hand side armrest, inspecting the splintery, caved-in hole in the floor where Mao Mao's dad's colossal sword still lay... somewhere in the rubble.
It was also pretty hard to miss the massive hole in the wall where the front door used to be.
They'd get all that repaired in the morning.
(But seriously, the sword. Was Mao Mao's dad going to come back for that?)
"Badgerclops." The husky utterance of his name made his chin leap off where it had been resting on his chest. Mao Mao strolled through the archway, looking far too exhausted to give off an air of sternness like he normally had no trouble doing. "I'm gonna, behhh... go wash up," he said, indicating with a thumb slowly jabbing backwards over his shoulder. "You wanna keep an eye on her? I wouldn't ask, usually, but... usually we don't have a... huge, gaping..."
He motioned to the blatant damage done to the front of their house—shortly before pinching the bridge of his nose and cushioning his elbow with his other hand. He was noticeably drawn in on himself, now. A stark contrast to his... well, usual gallant, intense self—and then Badgerclops considered the idea that the only reason he was seeing Mao Mao like this was because Mao Mao was letting him see him like this.
"Any evildoers intruding on our biz'll be staring down the firing end of my laser cannon," he vowed. It earned him a nod of approval from the feline, but no shift in facial expression to give off the vibe that his words reassured any. "I'll keep her safe, dude," he more specifically promised. "You just... go do whatever you need to to feel better."
"Could do with another pirate fight right about now, actually; that'd be a start," Mao Mao said out of the corner of his mouth.
Badgerclops wondered for a few seconds if he actually heard the other man right. Knowing his partner, however... it was a safe bet to guess he'd heard him loud and clear.
Because battles, fightin', the kind of danger that got your adrenaline pumping; that was the stuff Mao Mao indulged in. It was his job, his duty, but he never did it just to get it over with. He took immense pleasure in it. It made him feel better.
Badgerclops shook his head in fond awe. He could think of nothing else to say in reply, except, "I can't with you, Mao."
"I've fought bigger monsters," Mao Mao put forth, weakly, as if that was any kind of argument. It was a more valid argument in an entirely different discussion, however:
"I was like... this close," Badgerclops held two claw tips a hair's breadth away from one another, "to telling him that. Your dad."
"I'm not sure he would have believed you."
"That's wack, man. We're all the same size in the eyes of a monster ravaging the village, or some dingdong on the deck of an airship. You stood head and shoulders above the rest tonight." His grin slipped; fell away as he screwed up his face in thought, leaning farther back. "You do anytime you're not being a goofball who needs to be bailed out of trouble, come to think. Basically you're correct, okay?" He took in the affected smile Mao Mao now wore. A more or less gentle look, slightly amused, with the faintest sheen over his eyes.
Badgerclops propped an elbow on the back of the sofa, nose scrunching briefly. "But that- what my point was was that even if you're good, and even if you've fought bigger, that doesn't mean you shouldn't rest now."
"Hm, will do," Mao Mao said, deeper than deep. He looked down, pulling up the sleeve of his glove until it couldn't be stretched any tauter. His eyes darted around. "And, you... you stand head and shoulders above the rest, too, by the way."
The words sank in and the badger was taken aback momentarily, his own smile returning. "Huh. Thanks, dude." He sighed after saying it. An absent look was directed at the blacked-out TV screen as he continued to talk levelly, "Really, this is all besides the point. Go hit the showers ... Maybe you'll get lucky and those pirates'll try to come take advantage of the security breach."
"Yeah, let's keep thinking positive thoughts," Mao Mao huffed. There was a genuineness about the humor. A pinch of sarcasm that hadn't been there before... "But hey, I'm serious, man; my... admittedly foolhardy aspirations tonight notwithstanding:," the brisk words ever-so-rudely pulled the badger from his thoughts yet again. He looked up, frowning mock irritably at the finger his best friend had pointed right at him as he finished, "make sure she stays where you can see her, all right?"
"Mao Mao Mao, if you don't retire for the night and go take care of yourself in the next ten seconds, I am going to completely lose it on you. Like no joke."
"All right, all right. I'm going, okay?" Mao Mao threw his hands up with a roll of his eyes and departed for the bedroom.
His partner watched him go with a smile. He listened to the bathroom door close behind the cape-donning hero and heard Adorabat's wings flap up and down many times in quick succession as she left her seat; presumably finishing up.
Badgerclops grabbed the remote off the coffee table and filled in the empty space with his feet. His eye skimmed the shelving unit beside the kitchen archway and all his console game cases stored at the bottom, their title-adorned spines neatly facing outward for easy decision-making.
"Yo, Adorabat, come play something before bed."
"Do I get to pick?" she asked, disembodied and tinny.
"Uhh, yeah you get to pick, man," he scoffed.