FIRED! – Siblings-a-Fixin'

Bowyetta was staring at Mr. Sir, her large square eyes sparkling.
“Oh, Mr. Sir! That was much wonderful being!” she declared. “Bowyetta
was not knowing that you could be singing!”

Beep nodded. “You were great, both of you!” she exclaimed. “Better than Starla herself, I’d say!”

Bowyetta was still looking at Mr. Sir, hope filling her eyes. “And now you are feeling much better, Mr. Sir?” she asked.

“…”

The inkblot was still a little embarrassed by his burst of singing. He really couldn’t help it; the song was just right for him to sing backup to.

Cat Slime hopped up into his hands, squeaking encouragingly.

Finally, the inkblot looked around, and realized that it wasn’t half bad. It had distracted from his current predicament, at the very least. After a moment or two, and another slight blush, he nodded, smiling more genuinely at the two girls.

Bowyetta looked over at Mr. Sir, frowning when she saw he was still
looking unhappy. Well, the song wasn’t quite over yet. She still had one
more idea…

Though the song was almost over, Bowyetta began
singing along with Starla’s words. And what was more, she began copying
Starla’s moves exactly as they were shown on screen.

Beep simple clapped for Bowyetta, but she kept looking at Mr. Sir. Was Bowyetta… Trying to make him smile?

“…”

Under his breath, the inkblot began to say the words the backup singers were. Soon, though, it picked up, and he began to sing along enthusiastically, even mimicking the characters popping in and out to sing the words.

When the song ended, however, he realized what he just did, covering where his mouth would be and blushing a greyish-pink.

Cat Slime, however, was applauding the performance the two gave, even giving a couple of high-pitched squeaks.

As the movie started, A smile crossed Bowyetta’s face. “You are
having seen Tippy The Gem Stars before, Mr. Sir?” she asked. “Is being
one of Bowyetta’s most favorite shows! The main character is being of a
Magicat named Tippy! She is being a cat, but she is having of wings and
magical powers! And the villain is being…” She continued all through the
opening credits, explaining each character in detail.

A few
minutes into the movie, Bowyetta began humming along as a song started
up. Seeing how sad Mr. Sir and Cat Slime still looked, she quickly
hopped up off the couch and began dancing as Starla sang on screen. “Oh!
Mr. Sir! Please to be dancing with Bowyetta!”

“I…think you showed me before…” the inkblot said, vaguely recalling a stressful, yet engaging marathon the two sat through a long time ago.

He listened patiently to her explanations, thankful for the reminder.

“…Dance? I mean, uh…”

Too late. Cat Slime was dragging him onto the floor. The inkblot stood up, watching his pet as the slime spun and flipped before looking at his master encouragingly.

The inkblot sighed, and started bobbing to the rhythm. His expression did not change as he did so, but his breath sounded less ragged, and he wasn’t looking at the floor anymore, instead looking at his friends and the screen.

Beep’s eyes widened at the small pink piece of paper. “Oh my god, Mr. Sir,” was all she could say. “How- When- Why-”

She
turned away for a moment, unsure of what else to say. “You… You lost
your home too, didn’t you…?” she asked. She was silent for a minute,
before turning back. “Mr. Sir? Why don’t you live with us then? If you
need a place to stay, we’ve certainly got plenty of room for you and Cat
Slime.”

She was about to continue, but quickly turned back to the
TV when she saw Bowyetta walking back into the room, carry three cans.
“Bowyetta is having brought some of her favorite drinks!” She handed one
can to Beep and one to Mr. Sir, keeping the third for herself. “The
movie is about to be starting!”

“…I don’t know,” the inkblot said, taking a deep breath. “All I know is if I wasn’t a nobody before, I am now.”

He sighed.

“I didn’t have a home to begin with,” he shrugged, “but yeah, my toolboxes…decades’ worth of stuff…that’s all gone…”

He sniffed, and Cat Slime looked up in shock. He loved those toolboxes!

“…I don’t know,” the inkblot finally replied, “I just…”

He looked up in surprise as Bowyetta came back, quickly hiding the pink slip again. Cat Slime could barely hide his worry, but for his aunt, he would try.

The inkblot smiled as she handed him another drink.

“Thank you,” he said, pretending to be cheerful. Maybe he did just need to watch a film to clear his head…

Beep narrowed her eyes slightly. “Yeah, I had a feeling…” she mumbled. “Well, it’s alright. Let’s just go watch the movie.”

Bowyetta
sat down on the couch, chatting to Mr. Sir excitedly. “You are having
seen Tippy The Gem Stars before, Mr. Sir? Is not being as good as Nise
Suta Heishi, but Bowyetta is still much loving of it!”

“…Hey Bowyetta?” Beep spoke up. “Why don’t you all get us some drinks or something for the movie?”

Bowyetta smiled. “Oh, well… Bowyetta is knowing the movie will be starting soon… But would much be nice to be having of snacks!”

As
Bowyetta got up off the couch, Beep turned to Mr Sir with a worried
expression. “Alright, Mr. Sir… Is anything going on with you lately? You
seem… Pretty distressed, and we’ve been worried about you…”

The inkblot shrunk back. Beep clearly wasn’t buying it. How could he tell her, though?

“I won’t need much, thanks,” he politely said, before Beep turned to him.

“I…er…uh…that is…” he tried, looking around desperately for ideas. He gave up, silently handing her the pink slip, eyes pointed downward. Might as well let the paper do the talking for him. Not like he mattered a whole lot, anyway.

Bowyetta nodded. “Is because Bowyetta is very much caring about you,
Mr. Sir,” she stated. “And Bowyetta is much glad you are liking of the
soup. Much apologies, but she was not having the time to be making the
noodles herself. Please to be understanding.”

She finished her
soup rather quickly, and sat watching Mr. Sir, waiting for him to
finish. As she went to lead him down the stairs, she continued talking.
“Actually, Mr. Sir, what you are saying we are watching of a movie
tonight? The Tippy The Gem Stars special Star Fake Revolution is coming on soon. Bowyetta is much wanting to be watching of it.”

But
once she made it to the bottom of the stairs, Bowyetta was stopped by
Beepsumu. “Bowyetta! Where’s Mr. Sir? What’s going on with you two?”

“Oh, of course, of course…” replied the Repairman, as he finished the soup off a few minutes after Bowyetta did.

“…A movie, huh?”

Well, not like he had much else to do.

“Sure! I think that’d be–”

He stopped behind Bowyetta, practically turning white as a ghost. He hastily put his hat on over his defunct siren light. He hoped he could hide the truth from Beepsumu, but doubted very much that it would happen.

“Oh…erm…everything’s fine! Just, uh…thought I’d stay here for a bit. Life’s been a little rough lately…Thank you both so, so much for taking care of Cat Slime…”

It didn’t take long for Bowyetta to scoop Mr. Sir into another hug. “Of
course Bowyetta is meaning, Mr. Sir,” she answered, her voice now taking
on a much softer tone. “Bowyetta would not tell you anything that was
not being true. You are much being more important than you are thinking,
Mr. Sir. You are very much important to Bowyetta, to Beepsumu, to
Bonkakira… Even Medical is liking of you very much.” Her voice was
starting to shake at this point. “Is not being much, Bowyetta is
knowing. But… You are meaning very much to someone, and that is being
all that matters.” She then looked right at him. She… Looked like she
was about to burst into tears herself. “Now Mr. Sir, please be finishing
of your soup? Be doing it for Bowyetta, so we can be going downstairs?”

“Hurk!”

His crying didn’t skip a beat as he moved from the blanket to Bowyetta’s arms, though it did become much softer as she spoke. He didn’t even notice how tightly he was holding on to her in return.

“…Okay…” the inkblot whispered after a moment. He was very much touched by all this, and after taking a moment to finish sobbing.

“…Your…your soup smells good,” he said, faintly smiling.

Cat Slime squeaked, the inkblot’s spoon in his mouth and worry in his eyes. He proffered the spoon to his caretaker.

“…Thank you both,” the inkblot said, settling back down and beginning to eat.

At that statement, Bowyetta became angry. “Who is having told you of
this, Mr. Sir?!“ she demanded. “Of course you are much deserving! You
are much being important, are you knowing? Bowyetta is knowing that she
is not having to be doing of all this. But after all you are having done
for Bowyetta? You are meaning of very much to her and her friends. Is
why Bowyetta is wanting to be caring for you, Mr. Sir. You are being of
much importance, and do not be letting anyone say that you are not.”

Cat Slime had hopped up onto the inkblot’s chest, calmly but intensely squeaking at him. It was in a similar vein to Bowyetta’s speech, but with a somewhat harsher, “tough love” edge.

“…I…I…”

If the inkblot was teary-eyed before, his eyes were just two big puddles of paint now.

“…I…you mean it…?”

He was still painfully unaware of his unemployment, but he still couldn’t bring himself to confess.

“A-are you sure…? I mean…I mean…”

The rest of what he said was lost in very loud and rapid sobbing as he buried his face in the blanket.

Secretly, Bowyetta was relieved that Mr. Sir hadn’t been attacked by
Yaridovich. She wasn’t afraid of him, of course, but she didn’t exactly
want to go back to the Factory…

It was strange though. If he hadn’t been hurt, then what was going on? Why was he acting so weird?

“…Is
not much mattering, Mr. Sir.” Bowyetta gave him an oddly tired-looking
smile. “You may be staying with Bowyetta for as long as you are wanting.
Let us be finished eating soon, and then we can go downstairs to be
watching of Nise Suta Heishi.”

“…Thank you,” the inkblot finally managed, after an awkwardly long silence. He seemed to be poking at his soup more than he was eating it.

“You know,” he said, after a while, “you really didn’t have to do any of this…I…I don’t really deserve it…”

Cat Slime looked at the inkblot in alarm, squeaking a sound like “What?!”

Bowyetta nodded. “Yes, he have. At least, Bowyetta is thinking he
have. She knows not what is happening, and she knows not how she can be
getting it back for you, but she will be doing her best to be helping
you recover.”

She held him for what seemed like a long time, until
she finally got an idea. “Please to be giving a moment to Bowyetta, Mr.
Sir,” she said before placing him back onto the carpet. She turned
around to face her dresser, and began doing… Something to it,
asking questions all the way. “Are you much liking of eggs, Mr. Sir? How
are you feeling about soup? What is being your favorite thing to drink?
Are you preferring of pink or blue?”Finally, Bowyetta turned around
once more. “Am hoping you are liking of it, Mr. Sir!”

As it
turned out, she had turned one of her drawers into a makeshift bed. It
was lined with a soft striped sheet, and complete with a small pillow
and one of her Heishi dolls. “Please to be getting in, Mr. Sir. Bowyetta
will be making you something very soon.” And with that, she took off
out the door.

The inkblot looked at Bowyetta, clearly touched by this gesture.

“Th-thank you,” he managed, smiling.

He tried to look over Bowyetta’s shoulder as she worked, but alas, she was far bigger than him. In any case, he needed to concentrate to answer all these rapid-fire questions.

“Oh, eggs sound ni– so does soup– I’m not really pick– blue, it was my background for the longest time…”

The inkblot’s siren light popped up. However, it could barely shine any red light before flickering out with a soft buzzing noise, leaving a grey, useless glass lump on the inkblot’s head.

He sighed. But realizing Bowyetta was almost done, he moved his hat over the light and smiled. Falsely at first, but then it melted into a warmer, more genuine grin when he saw what Bowyetta did for him. He suddenly realized just how tired he was.

“I love it!” he enthusiastically said, before clambering into it, Cat Slime nestling in his lap.

He took a few deep breaths, stroking his pet’s scalp gently. It felt good to be able to relax. He was starting to forget that he was fire–

His eyes widened as he saw the pink slip on the floor. He couldn’t let anyone else see that. Not even his half-asleep Cat Slime, who he slowly, carefully, quietly moved to the side before slowly, carefully, quietly moving to pick the paper up.

As he bent to take it, the inkblot’s hat fell off, revealing his defunct siren light.

What a time for Bowyetta to come back.