Petro was concerned. In all the months that he and Buster had been friends, the panda had never been late to anything they agreed on. If he had run late or needed to reschedule, he would have let him know. It was 7:20 now, another ten minutes and he'd have to start the long slow process of getting out of bed and using the coffee maker himself.

He heard the key in the lock and was grateful to no longer have to worry about his friend. Felt and heard the familiar heavy footfalls of the panda entering the room. Saw that despite being freshly-showered, Buster looked disheveled and tired.

"Heya Petro, sorry I was late. I have to talk about something important. I'm sorry if you're tired but it can't wait." Buster greeted him.

Now Petro knew something was wrong. Buster had never talked to him like that before. Usually the panda was so demure that he had to outright tell him to leave at the end of the day, that he had everything he needed and really there was nothing else to be done.

"Of course. What's wrong?" Petro asked.

Since Petro used a wheelchair, there weren't any chairs in his room. As Buster explained what had happened underground and how Lance's death hadn't been an accident, he puttered around the room doing his usual menial tasks: sweeping the floor, emptying and replacing his handheld urinals with freshly sterilized ones, picking up the discarded wrappers from his snacks.

When he concluded with the message he received that morning, Petro shrugged. "Honestly, I don't think it's that big of a deal. I would have done the same thing in that situation."

"You don't get it, I was being really psycho. Even if people don't care about Lance (and I know for a fact that a lot of them are still mad about that), the fact that I lied to them is going to make a lot of people not trust me. Understandably so!" Buster said, he had been up all night thinking about this.

"Come on, man. You're a great guy, you have a lot of friends here. This is a time of war, people do psycho stuff all the time." Petro assured his friend with complete sincerity.

Buster's round ears perked up at his friend's words and he couldn't help but give a small smile. He wasn't used to being complimented, especially not sincerely. "Thank you. That's part of why I'm worried, though. I don't want to cause problems, regardless of what happens to me."

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"What do you think they're going to do?" Petro asked, "This is a hospital, military tribunals don't really happen here."

"Oh, I have a few ideas." began Buster, "They could just execute me. It's dramatic and messy but it's possible. More likely they would imprison me, I would lose all my privileges and spend my days under lock and key. That wouldn't be great for me, but I could survive. Another possibility is they don't formally punish me but people take it into their own hands. That would be a lot harder on me for a lot of reasons."

"Well, you've obviously thought about this more than I have. What are you going to do?" Petro asked.

Buster sighed, leaning against his friend's parked wheelchair, "I'll be honest, at first I thought about running. I could grab the Jerboa and hop back to Martenwol, I don't think I would be worth scrambling walkers over. After they have a chance to figure out what they're going to do with me then they could get in touch and we could figure things out from there."

"You're not going to do that, right?" asked Petro.

"Of course not. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here to make up for what I did, not run away from it. I messed up with Lance but that feels like a lifetime ago. It's only been six months, but I've grown so much since then and I'm getting help. I hope they can see that." said Buster.

Petro stroked his small pointed beard in thought. "You're not keeping any other secrets, are you?"

Buster gave a little chuckle. "How could I? That was the one time I didn't have the collar on. The past six months I've been constantly surveilled. If I did anything, someone would know."

"Then I think you should get in front of this by telling everyone yourself before your ex and this mercenary show up and do it for you. They sent you a copy of the video to try and intimidate you, use that. Show it to the board, then they'll know everything." Petro suggested, "They won't be happy but it will look better coming from you."

Buster reached over and rested an enormous paw on Petro's bare shoulder. Since the human spent most of his day in bed he didn't bother getting dressed unless they were heading out. The panda was getting used to humans and he had seen more of Petro than anyone else; he was enchanted by the curvature of his spine and the creases in his arms caused by a lifetime of fractures. Under his rough grey pawpads, the pale skin felt smooth and soft.

"Thank you. I might have done something really dumb if I didn't have you to talk me through this. You mean so much to me, Petro. I'm really lucky to have you as a friend." he said with love.

Petro reached up and let his hand rest on Buster's arm in turn. Running his fingers through the coarse black fur, feeling the soft fat and the powerful muscles hidden beneath. He had never met a Nakunan in person before he met Buster, and he was equally enchanted by his new furry friend.

"If you need someone to speak up for you, let me know. There aren't many people who know how to code in Zed Steadman and I'm the only one available to do it around the clock. I work with a lot of people across all the different departments, I have connections." Petro offered.

"Thanks, buddy. I'm gonna need all the help I can get."