eX-0281 and eX-0704 slept for a long time in order to recover from yesterday's ordeal.

When one began to stir, so did the other. The little vul kits had already woken up, slipped away from them, and ventured into the house. eX-0281 groaned and tried grasping for the furry presence that he missed. In reaching out his arm, he also flicked out his tail and inadvertently thwacked eX-0704 in the face.

"Hey," he grumbled groggily. As eX-0704 stirred and woke up more, a tone of great awe encompassed his voice. "Hey…! My head feels all better!" He sat up with a lurch and banged his head against the nearby lamp. "Ow." Even though a lamp shade could not hurt his horns, he still said that as a reaction.

In contrast, the lamp was irreparably injured by his horns. It fell over with a clatter and some shattering glass.

"Uh oh," eX-0704 said. Both his claws were reached out, about five seconds too slow to avert the catastrophe.

"Good morning, boys!" a chipper voice called. Josie sashayed into the room and greeted them with a smile on her face. The broken lamp did not faze her for a second. "Or should I say good afternoon, you sleepy heads."

eX-0281 stretched and yawned. His narrow, serpentine tongue lolled out of his mouth and curled back inside.

"Would you guys like some breakfast?"

"Would I?" they both repeated. eX-0281 and eX-0704 chuckled and regarded each other with an excited flick of their tails.

In the kitchen, they sat at the table and watched Josie bustle about. "Would you like pancakes—?"

"Yes!" they said.

"Or waffles?" she finished.

"Yes!" eX-0281 and eX-0704 said again.

"Do you like orange juice or apple juice?"

"Yes," eX-0281 said.

"And yes," eX-0704 said.

"Are you boys going to say yes to everything I offer?"

"Yes!" they roared.

"I'm starving," eX-0281 said. Without meaning to be rude, he pounded on the table from sheer enthusiasm.

Home-cooked food was something that characters got from their happy families in TV shows. eX-0281 always ate the rations provided through the box in his room. The more he thought back to his living quarters at the company, the more his isolated room seemed like a cell in retrospect.

Dramatically, eX-0704 put a faint hand against the base of his horns. "I'm so hungry, I could eat the vuls."

Sheer terror fell over eX-0281. For the first time in this conversation of food, he had to howl, "No!"

An awkward laugh tittered from eX-0704. "Relax. I was only joking. I'd sooner make a soup out of my own scales."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Yuck." Such a concoction would be an abomination against soup.

Batter was mixed, and Josie hummed a pleasant tune while she started pancakes in a pan and the waffles in an iron. A few wrinkles entered her smiling face, just a touch around the eyes to make her look wise and beautiful—the perfect motherly image. It was obvious why Charlotte had put so much faith in her mom; she was perfect.

"How's Lottie doing?" eX-0281 said.

"She's still sleeping."

"How about the Disco Menace—er, I mean—Victoria?" eX-0704 asked.

"She's sleeping as well."

"What about her brother? Is Marcel going to be okay?"

A long, tenuous sigh left Josie's lips. "I could heal him everywhere, but not here." Two light fingers tapped at her temple. "It's really hard for children to go through traumatic experiences, especially because they're not equipped to understand it yet."

eX-0281 and eX-0704 looked at each other. To them, it sounded like a human problem. They both knew the horrors that they endured in their workplace—how they never fully acknowledged the insidious situation for what it was—yet it never bothered them. The two of them had just begun to realize how little they understood about the world.

For now, they were content to gobble down breakfast. Every dish of food that Josie set in front of them, they made it disappear.

"You guys should head outside before it gets dark," she suggested after they had finished stuffing themselves.

"Did we really sleep all day?" eX-0704 asked in panic.

"Charlotte said she'd give us a tour of the town!" eX-0281 said.

Josie patted each of their shoulders. "That can wait until tomorrow. I think you boys should enjoy the last few hours of daylight."

eX-0281 and eX-0704 searched the house for the vuls first. Then, they wandered outside and looked for a place where the trees did not block out the sun. They found some large rocks in the backyard, and one was the perfect sunning stone.

"Ah," eX-0281 bounded onto the rock and moaned happily. Right when he tried to settle in, eX-0704 charged forward and slammed him aside.

He tumbled around in the grass. When eX-0281 sat up, he snapped, "Hey. I was there first!"

"I deserve the big rock," eX-0704 said. "I was the one who got stuck going after the Disco Menace."

"Fair enough," eX-0281 grumbled. He perched on the small rock with his claws scratching to keep himself balanced. His body curled around it the best he could to sun himself.

eX-0704 sprawled out on the big rock and got to more thoroughly enjoy the last rays of daylight. Per their agreement yesterday, he even got to have two vuls. One was tucked under a wing each.

Though he might have wanted the big rock, eX-0281 had nothing to complain about. Both of them derived extreme pleasure from the simple landscape of a backyard on the surface.

"Do you remember…?" eX-0281 asked. "The lamps in Grandesia were like our sun."

eX-0704 made a humming sound and nodded along.

"We never would've met each other or tried escaping if the lights didn't go out like that." eX-0281 sighed, supposing they had the Disco Menace to thank for that. "We never would've seen the real sun."

"Mhm,"

"It always looked pretty in pictures and those old-timey movies."

"It's gorgeous," eX-0281 said with a delighted, gravelly sound running up his throat. "Better than a lamp."

More than just the Grandesia lights, if his heat lamp had not gone out, who knew how long it would have taken to motivate him to leave the company. Thankfully, his impulsive decision had been rewarded with the grandest lamp of all: the one, true sun.

"Ah," eX-0281 and eX-0704 sighed in unison.

They enjoyed the hot rocks beneath them, the sun above them, and the toasty bundles of vul fur in their arms. The day finally passed. The setting sun bid them goodnight in its golden, fiery hues.

"D-Do you remember how you said we're like brothers?" eX-0704 asked.

"Of course."

"Did you really mean that?"

"Of course!" eX-0281 repeated. "You're like another part of me. I wouldn't want to go anywhere without you."

Out of sheer happiness, eX-0704 squirmed a bit. "I feel the same way. On all counts. You're my brother."

As if on cue, eX-0281 and eX-0704 did their secret tail flick together which had started this all. They laughed because they were best friends and brothers.