4 hours later, after a nap and some breakfast, the trio headed out. The main goal was to buy groceries for their dwindling supplies. But Brook had also promised Ethan that she’d teach him and give him a tour of the city. So far, this lesson was being completely improv’d by them.

Eli was still wearing the dirty boiler suit they found him in. Ethan, just a plain t-shirt and slacks. Brook dressed a little less modest, with some small shorts and a tanktop.

Eli walked in the front, like a curious little bug, he looked up at the tall buildings and the people on the sidewalk, the cars passing by. There was even a buy with an arm made of metal, a woman with both of her legs replaced by metal. So cool!

The other two walked side by side, behind him, watching him meander about. Ethan had just gotten done telling Brook what he had learned while she was out buying the map.

“Right, so basically, he’s like a clean slate, she nodded, “Kinda sorta, don’t know if that makes things easier or harder. Sorta of reminds me of a movie that I watched recently.” She hummed, “Maybe he’s a robot?”

“A robot who breathes and eats? I gave him some toast earlier and he ate it.” Ethan raised a brow. “Not to mention, I don’t think we’ve reached the point where robots can look this identical to a Qestian.”

“I don’t know, I watched a movie like this. A guy woke up, with no memory, and at the end he turned out to be an android.”

“I don’t know if you’re joking or being serious.” Ethan let out a short laugh. “Want to ask him, ‘Hey are you a robot?’”

“No, no, I was joking.” She shook her head, giggling, “But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he is one.”

“Then, well, how about we ask Darnell? Would he know anything?”

“Why Darnell?” Brook asked, “I mean, I would love to say hi to him, we haven’t talked since he left for Yisk.”

“Didn’t he use to work as a trucker for a time? Plus he does a lot of backpacking as well. He has to have met a lot of weirdos on his travels. He’s got to have seen something like this before.

“And you don’t just think it’s amnesia?”

“Amnesia doesn’t work like this, I don’t think, that’s just a movie thing.” Ethan stopped, getting his eyes back on Eli, who was distracted by the pet of someone sitting on a nearby bench. “But, if worse comes to worse, we should go to a local clinic to check for brain damage… A missing persons report couldn’t hurt either.”

Eli was still making friends with the stranger’s pet. It was a large, black chitin covered creature possessing 8 legs. Its mouth, a large fanged maw. Six eyes dotted its head. To that, Eli grinned brightly, “Adorable!”

It was a gulfa! A popular pet, coming in several shapes and sizes, including a miniature breed that the upper class and eccentric loved showing around. The arthropod gave a grunt in Eli’s direction, blinking its six eyes several times, a sign of friendship.

“Go ahead, you can pet him, he’s friendly.” The owner, a thin black cat, said, “His name is Willy.” The man looked over to Ethan and Brook, realizing they were with him, giving them a wave. They gave him a silent wave back.

Eli went ahead and gave the gulfa some love, patting it on its head, giving it a scratch under the chin. It was indeed very friendly, cute too. But soon, Eli returned to the duo, bowing his head in apology, “Sorry about that!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Ethan nodded, “Not to keep bringing it up, but you know what gulfas are?”

“Nope,” Eli shook his head, “I just saw it and had some drive to pet it. I think I had a bit of kinship with it!”

“I’m with you on that,” Brook agreed. She too would’ve went over to the gulfa to pet it, but she didn’t want to make the situation anymore awkward for the owner. “They’re just pets and companions. Nothing is stronger than the bond between a Qestian and his loyal bug.”

If they had a big enough house, they would absolutely buy one of the smaller breeds. One of these days.

Walking down the street, they could see the ocean from where they were. With the consistent heat year round, it was popular. “Not much father now,” Ethan said, “The grocery store is just facing the beach.” A grocery store at the shore, if you will. “I made sure to make a shopping list this time around.” He said, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, smiling proudly.

“Good for you, Brook said, “Got any snacks on there, you know, for me?”

“Of course,” he said, but held up one finger, “But! We have to budget ourselves, alright. The beer and candy bar from yesterday was a treat for the two of us. But we have to stick to the essentials for this shopping trip.” Buy stuff on sale, don’t buy too many luxury items, make sure you buy stuff you need and be healthy. It wasn’t exactly exciting and required a lot of number crunching here and there, but it was a living. Hell, sometimes a dingy fast food place was like a 5 star restaurant for the two of them!

“What about me?” Eli joined in, grinning.

Ethan hummed, looking at him, confused, “Oh, right, well… I’ll take you into account as well.” He said, side-eyeing Brook, who nodded to Eli.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Finally, the three made it to the grocery store. A large chain, Bounty, it was focused on health food and selling smaller brands. All natural meats that didn’t come from crowded slaughterhouses and farm fresh produce. Plus they had good sales, especially good for Ethan, who was one of those weird, coupon clippers, only ever shopping when there was a sale he liked.

“Okay, let’s go!” Ethan lightly gripped the shopping list, his red eyes glimmering with determination. With this, things would be quick and easy.

First on the list, fruit. Brook was on that, getting some apples and some peaches. Something that could serve as a healthy snack, better for you than junk food like chips or candy.

Second on the list, bottled water, always remember to stay hydrated. Eli, wanting to help out, was sent on getting that.

Third, Ethan was up, getting vegetables. Lettuce and tomato, something that could be used to make a sandwich using the bread and meet currently waiting in their fridge.

Cereal, some stomach medicine, feminine hygiene products, and lastly, the most important thing on the list, tuna steak; it was also the most expensive thing on the list, but served as a little treat between the two of them. Well, it was three of them now.

Brook, having the task of getting the fish, was now having a conversation with the deli clerk,, leaning over the counter as she talked with him. She talked with him as if they were best friends, despite never meeting with them outside of this store.

Ethan and Eli were alone together, Ethan still deciding on which brand of cereal to get, choosing between health and taste or somewhere in between.

“So, you have to shop for three people now, I guess, huh?” Eli said, laughing, looking at a cereal box of his own.

Ethan looked up from the cereal box, confused, “Huh?”

“I mean, I’m with you guys now, right?”

“Oh, right, yeah…” Ethan nodded, putting the box on the shelf. He sighed, rubbing his arm, “Listen, about that, Eli…” He paused, closing his eyes, before cutting to the chase. “Listen, the apartment is barely big enough for two people. You’ve been there, you know. I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but… You have to have a home right?” He looked over to Brook, who was still having a conversation with the clerk.

“Oh… Right…” Eli nodded, looking down as well, this time he was the one avoiding eye contact instead of Ethan, “We’re finding my home, that’s right.” He smiled sadly, “But it was nice meeting you, I do hope that we can stay together a bit longer, right?”

Ethan, unsure of what to say, started to come up with a reply, reassuring the young man, but his ears picked up a loud argument; you didn’t have to have superior hearing to hear this one, people around the store were looking over to the source of it.

Someone was yelling at one of the workers.

The man yelling wasn’t just anyone though, Ethan recognized the voice before he saw the man. There, shouting at a young grocery clerk, just trying to do her job, was Augustus; the local, asshole Northist back at College Try.

“Hey! What the hell are you going on about,” He said, looking down at the poor young woman, who had tears in her eyes, holding her hands in front of her face. “Your coworker said yetserday, that you’d have my coke back in stock today, now where is it? Don’t tell me it’s gonna be in tomorrow! Don’t give me that shit!”

The rabbit worker, still shielding her face, stuttered out an answer, “I… I… Don’t know? I wasn’t here yesterday… Sir… H-help…” She said, looking at the onlookers. No one was stepping up to help her.

Ethan looked away from the argument, knowing that Augustus rarely ever used physical violence, even when he was capable of it. All you could do was ignore it, unless you wanted him to use physical violence.

Augustus gave the worker a small shove on the shoulder, “Hm? Hm?” He said, nodding his head, “Where is it?” He got ready to say something to her, whatever that could be, but then he spotted someone else to bother. He spotted Ethan. “Hey!” He moved over, “Ethan!”

Ethan said nothing, starting to walk away, but Augustus, with his long strides, caught up with him.

“Ethan, don’t ignore me, girl!”

Ethan gritted his teeth, his lip curling.

Brook, of course, took notice, and was ready to intervene herself. A look of pure anger on her face.

“I saw the way you were looking at me, yesterday,” Augustus said, towering over Ethan. The bat could smell the alcohol on him, of course he was intoxicated. “Were you flirting with me there? Huh? You were, weren’t you, girly?”

Ethan said nothing. As he could see from here, as he could see with the worker from earlier, the bystander effect was in full effect. People were either staring and not doing anything or rushing to the register to get out of here as soon as they could.

“Enough!” Brook screamed, raising her voice, enough to overpower any other noise in the store. She didn’t care if Augustus hit her again, as he did once before. She stepped forward, but someone stopped her with a hand held forward, Eli; the young man was instructing her to stop her charge. Brook looked at him in a mixture of genuine offense and confusion. Don’t tell her to stop!

“Well? Answer me?! You were flirting with me, weren’t you? He said, raising his voice more.

Ethan thought of saying something like “Just because your side lost the war, doesn’t mean that you have to take out your rage on others.” But it stayed a thought and a fantasy.

Before the argument could escalate even further, Eli looked away from Brook and over to Augustus, hands on his pockets. “Hey.” Eli said softly. A voice casual and not raised nor whispered. But it caught the mastiff’s attention. “I don’t think you should say that.”

“Huh?” Augustus said, looking down at him. There was at least a foot of difference between their heights.

“I said: I don’t think you should say things like that.”

Ethan, teary eyed, stared at Eli.

Augustus, scoffed, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“What am I gonna do?” Eli, scoffed right back. Brook felt it. Ethan felt it. Others in the store felt it. There was, at this moment, a strange aura that hung in the air between them. Something that wasn’t felt by smell, sight, or sound, nor could be touched or tasted. But simply something that could be felt in your very core. Such a feeling couldn’t even be described either, but Eli recalled such a feeling he felt about 2 decades ago, seeing soldiers going to war. Eli gave a simple answer, even now he treated the situation with a child-like innocence. “What I’m gonna do? I could fight you and make you stop, maybe?”

At this point, people had either crowded around the two or gotten the hell out of there. Staff of the store were already calling law enforcement to come defuse the situation.

The Northist crossed his arms, grinning. “Oh? Well… How old are you, kid? Shouldn’t you be with mommy and daddy?.” He shook his head. “Your funeral then. How about we go outside and settle this.”

“Outside?” Eli motioned around them, “Why outside? We have a good place to fight right here?”

Augustus raised a brow, still grinning. Then, he began to laugh. At first it was a small snicker, with Eli joining in as well with a youthful giggle of his own. Then the two began to laugh uproariously, as if this moment was the peak of comedy. Laughing and laughing, throwing their heads back, in a strange fervent.

“What the fuck?” Brook said, observing, Ethan back at her side.

Then, abruptly, the laughter stopped, and Augustus threw a punch, a right jab with plenty of wind up, striking the boy in the chest and sending him backwards, people gasped.

Eli skidded away, his paws making a squeaking sound on the plaster floor, until he finally stopped, catching his breath, down on one knee; that one hurt, and yet, all he had to say about the punch was: “…Beautiful…”

Augustus walked over, ready to continue, until Eli held up his hand.

“Give me a moment,” He said, standing back up, pulling the zipper down on his jumpsuit “I can keep going, but I can’t fight at my best in this.”

Strangely, Augustus complied. “Go ahead, strip for all these people. Die naked.”

The boiler suit Eli wore was easy to take off in one motion, as he pulled the zipper all the way down, he quickly threw it off his shoulders, revealing that he wore a pair of black and gold shorts underneath it; they looked like boxing shorts actually. But, what shocked people most of all, was how muscular he was. This the young man, who could be no older than 20, no younger than 18, looked stronger than some of the gym bros that Brook occasionally hung out with. No, actually, it wasn’t that he was muscular, but rather, he was well built. Toned. Not top heavy like a body builder whose only goal was to bulk up, but the body of someone who trained all parts of their body equally and efficiently. It was the body of a fighter.

Brook, especially Brook, was enthralled by the sight of it, looking to Ethan, who was just as transfixed, any prior concern was now fading away.

Eli stretched, unlocking a full range of movement outside of the constricting boiler suit, he smiled, gazing confidently at Augustus, who took a step back, a look of uncertainly on his face. Eli cracked his knuckles, grinning wide. “Well? Let’s go?”